Uganda has passed draconian anti-gay laws, including life imprisonment for the crime of “aggravated homosexuality” (it is unclear what that phrase means). The laws were passed to protect the “traditional heterosexual family” in Uganda. However, it seems clear that one stimulus for the new law was a clear sense of resentment toward Western groups who had been pushing for changes to Uganda’s current anti-homosexuality laws. The Ugandan law is similar to the anti-gay laws recently passed in Russia. The world is far away from agreement on a universal definition of human rights.
The world’s newest nation-state, South Sudan, is in danger of splitting apart. Control of the government is being contested by rival ethnic groups, the Nuer and the Dinka. South Sudan is potentially a very rich country since it has significant reserves of oil. Its primary difficulty is that it needs to transport its oil through the Sudan, the country from which it seceded. The two groups are essentially fighting over who controls the oil revenues. As is usually the case with civil strife, however, civilians are the ones who pay the highest price.
Turkey is going through a serious political crisis as Prime Minster Erdogan has fired a number of senior police officers after they had arrested business and political allies of Erdogan. The scandal has grown out of last summer’s political protests against what many in Turkey believe is a growing authoritarianism in Erdogan’s rule. The scandal has also roiled Turkey’s economy as investors begin to raise questions about the viability of Turkey’s government. Turkey has a central role in almost all aspects of Middle East politics, and its growing weakness is a worrisome development to an already fragile region.
It increasingly appears as if Syrian President Assad may stay in power, despite almost three years of constant fighting in Syria. Assad’s future was grim in the first year of the protests against his rule, but increased infighting among the Syrian rebels has definitely weakened the anti-Assad movement. Assad’s tactic of “divide and rule” is an old governing tactic, but in this case an effective one. The big losers, of course, are the people of Syria, almost a third of whom have become refugees or internally displaced.
The US Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, has gone to the Central African Republic to survey the damage suffered by the people there in the latest outbreak of violence between Christians and Muslims. It is difficult to interpret the trip: President Obama has shown little inclination or desire to contribute substantively to the peacekeeping operations there, but Ambassador Power is well known for her forceful advocacy of humanitarian intervention. When she returns to the US, we will have a better idea of whether the US is going to become more involved in averting this tragedy.
In a bid to score favorable points from the West prior to the Sochi Winter Olympics, Russian President Putin has declared an amnesty which frees the members of the rock group, Pussy Riot, and the 30 members of Greenpeace who were arrested in a protest against Arctic oil drilling. Putin also granted clemency to Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an oil baron who has spent more than 10 years in jail on essentially trumped up charges. The moves release only about 1,700 prisoners out of an estimated 700,000 in Russian jails. Apparently President Putin believes that the Russian image has suffered over the anti-gay legislation passed by the Russian Parliament and the Russian moves in Ukraine. Whether these moves are sufficient remains to be seen.
Europe is gearing up to commemorate the 100th anniversary of World War I next year. There are many things we have learned about the Great War, but Americans tend to ignore what was unquestionably the most important event of the 20th Century. History does not give “lessons”, but history can give us insights that may be useful to contemplate. The Economist has a short essay on the parallels between the great War and the geopolitical landscape of the 21st Century. The insight is indeed sobering.
It was not true for South Hadley, but, globally, November 2013 was the warmest November recorded since records began in 1880. Interestingly, one of the coolest places on Earth was New England, but if you lived in Siberia, it was incredibly warm. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its map of land and ocean temperatures for November:
The tense relationship between Russia and the US (or, perhaps, between Obama and Putin) is only going to become more problematic as Obama has decided not to send any high-ranking political figures to the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Instead, he has decided to send highly visible gay individuals to represent the US at the games. The move is in response to the draconian anti-gay laws recently passed by the Russian government, laws which have been backed up by thugs who have decided to enforce the laws with their fists. Caitlin Cahow, one of the athletes chosen, expressed the proper way to interpret the decision:
““Basically, the White House is highlighting Americans who know what it means to have freedoms and liberties under the Constitution. That’s really what we’re representing in Sochi and it’s not at all different from what’s espoused in the spirit of Olympism.”
Belgium and Poland have apparently agreed to send troops to the Central African Republic, joining French efforts to bring down the level of violence that is killing hundreds of innocents. The situation in the CAR has deteriorated rapidly since early December, and the UN has raised concerns over the variety of problems that are crippling the country. Several nations have sent in supplies to alleviate the starvation that has accompanied the violence, but the humanitarian intervention is necessary to provide the stability necessary to distribute those supplies.
It is difficult to interpret events in closed societies such as the former Soviet Union, Maoist China, and North Korea. Analysts often have to resort to combing through little tidbits of information to figure out who is actually calling the shots in opaque governments. The BBC has done a great job of interpreting two photographs of the leaders of North Korea in order to determine how extensive the recent personnel changes have been. This type of analysis requires an incredibly detailed understanding of the structure of government and all the cultural cues that a photograph conveys.
Over a year ago, the US Congress printed a 6,000 page report on the use of torture in the “war on terror.” It seems like many people have read the report, but the Obama Administration has thus far refused to release the document. The refusal is hard to justify: torture techniques are hardly national security secrets. It is more likely that the report is highly embarrassing to the US. Embarrassment is not a justification for secrecy, particularly to a country that should be figuring out how to conduct its national security business without the resort to inhumane techniques.
The Middle East experienced a snowstorm–even in Cairo! Over a foot of snow fell in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, the snow brought incredible misery to the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees who are living in desperate conditions. NASA has released satellite photographs of the storm which was a rare event in the region. The second photograph[h is of the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
The US District Court of the District of Columbia has ruled that the NSA data collection is unconstitutional. In an historic case, Klayman v. Obama, the court ruled that the meta-searches violated the 4th Amendment protections against unreasonable searches. The Obama Administration will likely appeal the decision, but I am cheered by the decision. It is hard now to prosecute Edward Snowden–the decision vindicates his stance as a whistle-blower.
The protests in Ukraine seem to be getting larger, contrary to the expectations of many. As the number of protesters continues to grow, it is difficult to see what the outcomes might be. The current President, Yanukovich, is slated to stay in power until 2015, so the only option would be his removal, whether legally (unlikely, as his party commands a majority in the Parliament) or illegally (as in a coup). A coup would be difficult to maintain since there is no clear opposition leader. Further, we have no idea of how Russian President Putin might react to the removal of Yanukovich. Ukraine is highly vulnerable to a cutoff of Russian natural gas.
Protests against new laws passed by the conservative Spanish government erupted in Madrid on Saturday. People were expressing their anger at laws that severely restrict protests: “demonstrating near parliament without permission could result in a fine as high as 600,000 euro (US$824,040), while insulting a police officer could cost a demonstrator up to 30,000 euro ($41,202)”. Such draconian laws are reminiscent of laws passed in the 1930s in many European states. Very few media outlets in the US are reporting this news–perhaps they do not regard such actions as “newsworthy”.
Michele Bachelet was elected President of Chile in a landslide victory–62% of the vote. This will be Bachelet’s third term as President. She is best described as a moderate socialist, but she also had a very pragmatic approach to politics. The Chilean economy has done well in recent years due to strong demand for its primary export, copper. Bachelet made educational reform her primary campaign promise, and her campaign was well-received by Chilean youth.
China landed a six-wheeled rover named Jade Rabbit on the moon. It is the first soft landing on the moon in about 37 years, and China is only the third country to accomplish that feat. The technological feat is extraordinary, especially given the state of the Chinese economy in 1969, the year that the US sent astronauts to the moon. Chinese space plans are quite ambitious and it is clearly in the front ranks of the world’s most technologically advanced countries.
Three months after the election, the Social Democrats in Germany have voted to join a coalition with Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party. The alliance means that Merkel has won a third term as German Chancellor. The vote by the center-left party to align with the center-right was overwhelming, suggesting that the coalition will be durable. The price for their support is a higher minimum wage that had been opposed by the Christian Democrats, and looser pension rules for some workers. These reforms are not consistent with the austerity policies that Germany has been insisting upon from economically troubled members of the European Union. The inconsistency is not lost upon the Greeks, the Italians, the Spanish, and the Portuguese.
The American Civil Liberties Union has opposed the surveillance techniques of the US National Security Agency. It has decided to use humor to make its case, and has done so quite effectively.
Want to see a satellite photograph of many of the military bases the US maintains throughout the world? You can now do so, due to the dedicated efforts of Josh Begley who has compiled them from published sources. The US has over 700 military bases all over the world. It is truly a stunning display.
Bucholz Army Airfield (Kwajalein), Marshall Island
The projective military power of the US is a fact not lost on other countries in the world. Today, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a dramatic increase in his country’s military spending, saying that “Let no one have illusions that he can achieve military superiority over Russia. We will never allow it.” The speech, which was delivered to a joint session of the Russian Parliament, was largely directed against the military ambitions of the US, but the rhetoric could hardly have been lost on other countries in the world. At a time when defense budgets in the US and Europe are going down, the dramatic increase in Russian spending cannot help but raise fears of Russian ambitions.
I try in my classes to note how the arts contribute to political understandings. Indeed, my personal belief is that the arts lead the way to new ways of social thought: I cannot, for example, imagine the Enlightenment without thinking about how Renaissance art changed the way humans viewed the world. It is, however, difficult to articulate the linkage between the arts and politics. Jacobin, a reliably lefty blog, has a great, thought-provoking essay on that linkage. A representative paragraph from the essay makes this point:
The Belgian philosopher and art historian Lieven De Cauter has distinguished between “good politics,” which needs to be decisive in its goals and practices, and “good art,” which is by its nature ambiguous about moral and political commitments. To describe a character in a novel as “good” does not necessarily refer to their morality or politics but may describe the success of the artist in capturing a truth, passing on insights, taking us into exciting or troubling uncharted territories. This seems especially relevant to the present moment. With left politics in limbo, and being at an early stage in building the hope, confidence, and capacities for moving beyond capitalism, the current counter to fatalism is not certitude but possibility and experimentation –terrain that would seem to give special weight to the contribution of “good art.” The weight of art within the political is likewise reinforced by the fact that understanding often begins with the emotional and only then moves on to a concern with the structural limits on our lives.
A new protest movement, labeled the “Pitchforks Movement”, has emerged in Italy. It is clearly a grass-roots movement, and its protests have been small but widespread. The movement is comprised of members of the hard-left and the hard-right, students, pensioners, truck drivers, and farmers. It started in Sicily in 2011 as a response to austerity measures imposed on Italy by the Eu, the IMF, and the European Central Bank, and its rise has been meteoric. A march on Rome is being planned and the already shaky Italian government is in danger of losing its ability to govern.
Location of the Pitchforks protests so far
Bangladesh executed Abdul Quader Mollah for crimes committed during its war for independence in 1971. The execution will deepen the conflict between the ruling Awami League and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP), a conflict which has rendered Bangladesh weaker in the face of difficult problems. An ally of the BNP is the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), of which Mollah was the assistant secretary general, and everyone fears that the terrorist group will strike back hard against the execution.
Kenya celebrated fifty years of independence. Just as his father did, Uhuru Kenyatta addressed crowds at midnight, and called upon the world to recognize, finally, African independence and equality. The drive for independence in the 1950s was a bloody struggle, and many Kenyans believe that Britain has not yet faced up to its crimes against the Kenyan people. The damage colonialism caused can never be undone or repaired; the honest recognition of the damage is, however, a necessary precondition for moving forward.
Suthep Thaugsuban, the leader of the opposition movement to oust Thailand’s current Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra. has issued a deadline of Thursday for her resignation and the dissolution of Parliament. Thaugsuban has called on the police to arrest Shinawatra for treason and to replace the current Parliament, now controlled by Shinawatra’s Puea Thai Party, to be replaced by an unelected “People’s Council.” The cleavages with the Thai polity are serious, but it seems as if the primary divide is between the rural population who support the Shinawatras and the Thai establishment. The ultimatum issued by Thaugsuban may push an already violent protest movement into a serious civil conflict.
Thaksin Shinawatrin
The Indian Supreme Court has overturned an earlier court ruling that ruled against laws against homosexual sex. The Supreme Court held that only the Parliament could rescind laws. The battle for equality thus returns to the political process, as it is no longer possible to think about sexual preference as a right. The reinstated law was a colonial-era law that held that homosexual sex is “against the law of nature.” The political battle to overturn the law will be a difficult one in India at this point in time.
There is nothing that could ever reduce the significance of Nelson Mandela to South Africa and to the world. But he does raise important questions about how best to confront tyranny and injustice, and the role of violence in a liberation movement has always been a divisive one within the ranks of those who wish to eliminate both of those scourges from human existence. Ta Nehisi Coates has written a very thoughtful essay about this very difficult question.
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