Tuesday, 23 November 2011

1. John Bolton:

"New START is myopic in focusing only on parity with Russia, because Washington has far broader global responsibilities for friends and allies under our nuclear umbrella that Moscow does."


2. Aryn Baker and Abigail Hauslohner / Kafr Shibin

"The government justifies the ban on the Brotherhood by arguing that religion has no role in Egyptian politics"

"The Islamic Medical Association, a Brotherhood-linked charity, operates 29 hospitals throughout the country, providing inexpensive but comprehensive services for poor Egyptians. In one such hospital in Cairo, visitors pay about $2 for a checkup. The facilities are sparse, but doctors say the practice is clean and the staff doesn't solicit bribes, unlike in the government hospitals."

"Egyptian intellectuals credit the Bush Administration with pushing for the democratic reforms that allowed multiparty elections."

""We are not asking you to impose democracy," says newspaper publisher Hisham Kassem. "We are asking you to stop imposing dictatorship.""

"When al-Qaeda threatened Egyptian Christians in early November, the Brotherhood condemned the threat"

"Spokesman Mohammed Morsy insists that the Islamists' main goals are purely domestic: "We want to have a Muslim state in Egypt — not in Ireland.""


3. David R. Francis

"One in 10 South Americans – about 38 million people – escaped poverty during the past decade. That's remarkable progress by any measure."

"In 2009, the US had more poor people than in any of the 51 years since poverty levels have been estimated"

"US still has a much lower poverty rate than South America (14.2 percent versus around 70 percent)"

"credit goes to democratic leftist governments that have vastly boosted social spending to help the poor"

"Brazil pushed up the minimum wage a real 65 percent in eight years, helping to raise the wages of tens of millions of workers, including many receiving more than minimum wage...Real income per person is up some 24 percent since 2000. Poverty has been halved since 2002; extreme poverty is down by 70 percent. Unemployment dropped from more than 11 percent to 6.7 percent"


4.Martin Regg Cohn

"A growing concern for the UNHCR: human smuggling in reverse. The agency frets that impatient Tamil refugees are trying to jump the queue back to Sri Lanka by undertaking risky journeys by boat."


5. Brahma Chellaney

"a bicameral national Parliament, 14 regional parliaments, a president and a civilian federal government, the country has a new flag, a new national anthem, a new capital and a new official name, with the "Union of Myanmar" tag giving way to the "Republic of the Union of Myanmar."

"sanctions policy lessons:
1. economic sanctions, even if justified, have produced the wrong political results
2. expansion of sanctions has not only further isolated Burma, but also made that country overly dependent on China
3. sanctions have hurt not their intended target — the military. sanctions have lowered the living conditions of ordinary Burmese and shut out liberalizing influences"

"seeds of democracy will not take root in a stunted economy"