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Newest Blog Entries:
NYT (3): International News
A day after Morales dismisses the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, Chavez does the same in Venezuela; China fails to live up to its promise of open protests during the Olympics; and Jenin (West Bank) as a template for peace and a two-state solution.Posted by Ian Alterman, Friday, September 12, 2008
NYT (2): International News
Protests in Thailand continue to heat up; and despite China's promises of allowing protests during the Olympics, "thousands of relentless protestors [are] in jail or under close surveillance."Posted by Ian Alterman, Saturday, August 30, 2008
NYT Op-Eds (4)
In observing China's build-up to the Olympics, Thomas Friedman gets it right that we need to focus on rebuilding America's infrastructure ("As snapshots go, the one China presented through the Olympics was enormously powerful — and it’s one that Americans need to reflect upon this election season"); a former aid to Joe Biden offers an apologia on his behalf ("Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s efforts to protect Judge Robert Bork’s and Judge Clarence Thomas’s privacy demonstrate that, although he was present at the creation of the post-Bork era, he did not cause it"); Maureen Dowd suggests that all is not cozily unified in Denver ("I’ve never actually seen a convention where the energy was so absorbed by people who had lost the nomination, rather than the one who had won"); and a guest op-ed explains why India is going the wrong route re Kashmir ("A new generation of politicized Kashmiris has now risen; the world is again likely to ignore them — until some of them turn into terrorists with Qaeda links).Posted by Ian Alterman, Wednesday, August 27, 2008
China returns American activists to NYC
Posted by Barbara DiSalvia, Tuesday, August 26, 2008NYT Op-Eds (7)
Frank Rich joins NYT columnists Bob Herbert and Charles Blow in warning Obama that he must re-think his campaign ("As the presidential race finally gains the country’s full attention, the strategy Barack Obama used to vanquish Hillary Clinton must be rebooted to take out John McCain"); Thomas Friedman and Nicholas Kristof both offer quasi-apologias re China ("China and America can look at their Olympic successes as reaffirmations of their distinctly different political systems. But they could also learn from each other"; "For all the continuing repression, Chinese live far freer lives now than they did in the 1980s and ’90s. The openness even continues to expand on the Internet"); Maureen Dowd tells McCain to "check out of the Hanoi Hilton" ("John McCain’s campaign is cheapening his greatest strength by flashing the P.O.W. card to rebut any criticism, no matter how unrelated"); two guest op-eds on the Russian situation ("The real mastermind behind Russia’s invasion of Georgia is Stalin"; "The conflict in Georgia showed that Washington had better start treating Russia like the great power it still is"); and a third guest op-ed looks back at the Prague Spring ("Why do Czechs and Slovaks discount the Prague Spring, a period of political liberalization in 1968?").Posted by Ian Alterman, Sunday, August 24, 2008
NYT Op-Eds (4)
"Senator Barack Obama needs a first-rate, crackling-with-excitement populist message, which means a laser-like focus on the economy and jobs" (Herbert); "Earth to Barack: to Main Street America, nuance equals confusion. You don’t have to dumb it down, but you do have to sum it up" (Blow); "Officials should right a wrong that grows larger with each passing Olympics and reconcile with Tommie Smith and John Carlos, the athletes who made the supposed black-power salute in the 1968 Olympics" (Guest Op-Ed); "There is nothing we enjoy more than sealing our own doom in the most creative ways possible" (Collins; must-read for perfect combination of humor and concern)Posted by Ian Alterman, Saturday, August 23, 2008
NYT (2): International News
Russia expands its "sphere of influence"; and 6 American protestors are given rare 10-day detentions in China, while four protestors remain missing.Posted by Ian Alterman, Saturday, August 23, 2008
3 Americans 1 German Tibetan sentenced to 10 days in jail in China
Posted by Barbara DiSalvia, Saturday, August 23, 2008NYT (2): International News
Follow-up on the issue of two elderly women in China sentenced to one year of labor for simply requesting to protest; and the bizarre (and dangerous?) two-headed monster in Russia.Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, August 21, 2008
NYT (4): International News
China arrests five Americans for protesting, and sentences two elderly women to a year of "re-education through labor" for simply WANTING to protest; a resurgent Taliban ups the ante; and the Pakistani situation worsens.Posted by Ian Alterman, Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Album reaches #4 on Billboard in first week
Over 40 Olympic athletes in Beijing download Tibet solidarity album 'Songs for Tibet'Posted by Barbara DiSalvia, Wednesday, August 20, 2008
NYT (2): International News
The Kurds take Kirkuk, creating a "powder keg" in Iraq; and despite promises to the IOC, China continues to simply arrest potential demonstrators despite the creation of "protest zones."Posted by Ian Alterman, Tuesday, August 19, 2008
American demonstrator tells of 9 hour interrogation
Tibet activist detained, ousted from Beijing By Matt Collette, Boston Globe CorrespondentPosted by Barbara DiSalvia, Monday, August 18, 2008
NYT (2): International News
Will Musharraf's resignation create further instability?; and after Olympic "scandals" involving a lip-synching performance and underage gymnastic competitors, the Chinese soccer team engages in illegal and harmful tactics.Posted by Ian Alterman, Friday, August 15, 2008
NYT Op-Eds (3)
"The invasion of Afghanistan was the correct strategic move. Yet since then it seems as if the United States has been trying to turn the conflict into the Vietnam War of the early 21st century" (Guest Op-Ed); "It is now up to China to accept the Dalai Lama’s visit this fall and engineer a deal to resolve Tibet’s future" (Kristof); "The idea that appearance is valued more than performance is one of those painful facts of life that people always hate to be reminded of" (Collins)Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, August 14, 2008
NYT (3): International News
The U.S.-based economic slowdown "seems to be spreading out" globally; the Russia-Georgia conflict could adversely affect "oil options" for the West; and the Chinese government (no surprise here) reneges on its promise to allow protestors, even in designated "protest zones."Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, August 14, 2008
The Drums of Change
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Wednesday, August 13, 2008NYT (2): Other International News
As Olympics begin, so do protests; and Morales faces a possible military coup in Bolivia.Posted by Ian Alterman, Saturday, August 9, 2008
Democracy Now: Dave Zirin on US Corporations Entering China, Athletes Speaking Out and the Games from ’68 to Today
go to interviewWhere (maybe) once the Olympics was an opportunity for political differences to be fought peacefully in sports competition, now its just a huge corporate feeding frenzy, human rights be damned - mab
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Saturday, August 9, 2008
NYT (2): International News
As all totalitarian regimes do when guests show up, China hides those it does not want the guests to see; and Britain faces its first recession in almost two decades.Posted by Ian Alterman, Friday, August 8, 2008
NYT Op-Eds (2)
"While John McCain was never violently opposed to offshore drilling, he has now embraced it as if it is not only the solution to our energy problems, but also the key to eternal salvation" (Collins); "With the Tibet question casting a shadow over the Olympics, the Dalai Lama has expressed an unprecedented willingness to compromise and accept Communist Party rule in Tibet" (Kristof)Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, August 7, 2008
NYT (4): International News
The coalition govenrment calls for Musharraf's impeachment; a "deadly milestone" in the Afghan war; China's political "resilience"; and an indigenous and endangered South American tribe is being devastated by a type of rabies.Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, August 7, 2008
NYT: Ambush in China Raises Concerns as Olympics Near
The deadliest terrorist attack in China since the early 90s, just three days prior to the opening of the Olympics.Posted by Ian Alterman, Tuesday, August 5, 2008
NYT Op-Eds (5)
"Even a slow-mo economic crisis can do a lot of damage if it goes on for a year and counting" (Krugman); "Even as China rolls out the welcome mat for Olympics visitors the government is cracking down on citizens" (Guest Op-Ed); "A columnist-cartoonist’s comment about President Nicolas Sarkozy’s son and his Jewish fiancée has stirred a French intellectual storm" (Cohen on anti-Semitism rearing its ugly head in France); "The Beijing Catering Trade Association has ordered all 112 designated Olympic restaurants to take dog off the menu" (Guest Op-Ed); "There are at least four competing theories in the John McCain camp pointing in different vice-presidential directions" (Kristol)Posted by Ian Alterman, Monday, August 4, 2008
NYT (3): China/Olympics
"Over the next three weeks, the competitions will go on as usual. But these Olympics carry significance beyond the fields of play. They are being heralded as a referendum on a nation"; new violence just days before the games start; and the air is still unhealthy.Posted by Ian Alterman, Monday, August 4, 2008
