world
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Will the Carrots Run out in Russia?
Dmitri Medvedev, a 42-year-old former first deputy prime minister, was overwhelmingly elected to succeed Vladimir Putin as president of the Russian Federation on Sunday, March 2. The election result was no surprise. Sunday’s contest was just a formality. Months ago, Medvedev secured the one vote that most mattered most, that of President Putin himself. The…
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Mugabeflation and the $2.5 Million Loaf of Bread
Usually when I get an sms (text message) from a young journalist needing to see me, it’s about career advice. But when I get one from a young journalist from Zimbabwe, I know it’s because that young journalist needs bread—and not of the cash kind. Robert Mugabe’s government has clamped down on the independent media…
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Kosovo — What's at Stake?
The early returns are discouraging for a harmonious transition to independence for Kosovo. The week following Kosovo’s dramatic declaration of independence saw sporadic violence in both Serbia and Kosovo, and the international community dividing itself into supporters and opponents of the declaration. While it’s unclear how the situation will unfold in the weeks and months…
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A Culture Warrior's Impact on AIDS in Africa
Jesse Helms, former six-term Republican senator from North Carolina and de-facto leader of his party’s “culture wars,” found a way to make HIV-AIDS the communism of the 1990s. As chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Helms did not simply use his power to cut U.S. government assistance to international HIV-AIDS programs, he leveraged his…
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The Ban on Head Scarves Had to Go
Turkey’s parliament voted overwhelmingly this month to end a ban on women wearing head scarves at universities. While this move was decried by Turkey’s secular elite, it was the proper thing to do. The ban was originally intended to limit the role of Islam in the public sphere, but it wound up inflaming the passions…
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The American Military Moves Into Africa
Donald Rumsfeld, the Bush Administration’s Defense Secretary forced to resign for his failed policies in Iraq, left a parting gift to the people of Africa, a unified U.S. military command in Africa, also known as AFRICOM. AFRICOM, which is being run from an outpost in Stuttgart, Germany, is the embodiment of the militarized U.S. foreign…
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Did the Pan-African Dream Die With Apartheid?
Not long ago, I wrote an article for the Paris-based magazine, Africa Report, about the broken ties between African Americans and Africans. I described how the two groups had worked in harmony to end apartheid in South Africa some two decades ago, which raised hopes for a pan-African future. But, I wrote, “The momentum was…
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Bush's Liberian Lovefest
President George W. Bush is off on a visit to Africa. He’ll be zipping through Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia in less than a week. Some may wonder why, after visiting Africa only once before during his long (interminable) presidency, in 2003, Bush has decided at this late date to return his attention, albeit…
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Depends on What You Mean by 'Black'
For many months, the media has saturated American audiences with analysis of the impact of race on the 2008 presidential campaign. There has also been much discussion about how closely the world is tracking the election. However, there has been remarkably little discussion about whether some of our basic assumptions about race and ethnicity actually…
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Seeing Green In Africa
Last week, much of the world was focused on Microsoft’s attempt to shape the Internet with its $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo. But just a week earlier, without nearly as much fanfare, Microsoft founder Bill Gates announced his new retirement project that could alter the lives of millions throughout Africa and other parts of the…