Russia has recently returned to the headlines in the wake of the Edward Snowden odyssey, but otherwise the nation’s domestic politics have remained off the radar since the brief flurry of post-election protests in March. Since then, the general notion has been that Putin has rebuffed the political threat and continued to consolidate control over … Read more
It’s very hard to tell where the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge actually begins. A sign indicating the entrance is followed by over five miles of elevated road snaking through the partially-completed skyscrapers of downtown Qingdao, a burgeoning coastal city of eight million in China’s Northeast, before finally hitting a line of tollbooths at water’s edge. Though … Read more
On June 23, Albania held its fourth regular parliamentary elections since the country’s fragile democracy was established in 1990 — elections that were of utmost importance for this small, eastern European country, as they would not only make or break its economic and political future, but also indicate how ready the nation was to become a … Read more
Last Saturday, the day after the uprising, I left home to go to Besiktas around 1 p.m. My plan was to go help the people who were cleaning up in Besiktas, walk to Taksim to join the protestors in the square, and then move on to Gezi Park. In my backpack I had two bottles of … Read more
Turkey has woken up from its sleep during the AKP’s fascist regime. Founded in 1923, Turkey is a secular republic. Since 1946, it has maintained a multi-party democracy. The AKP (A.K.A. the Justice and Development Party) is an Islamist party elected in 2002 following the economic crisis the previous year. At first, its movements against … Read more
As Elba Esther Gordillo, the 68-year-old leader of the largest teachers’ union in Mexico, stepped out of her private jet in Mexico City, she was apprehended by federal police and arrested on charges of embezzlement and corruption. It was Feb. 26, one day after President Enrique Peña Nieto signed his extensive education reforms into law, … Read more
After years of expansion and growth, the Eurozone finds itself in crisis. Austerity measures following a sovereign debt crisis have spurred anti-European sentiment and a wave of nationalism, recently illustrated by the outcome of the Italian elections. The European project is at risk of being undermined by economic forces, while the region is in dire … Read more
With a booming economy in the 2000s, it seemed like India was on the fast track to becoming a developed nation. However, recent slow growth has not only reigned in this optimism, but it has also revealed just how rampant government corruption is throughout the country. Major scandals in the telecommunications industry and the coal … Read more
As soon as the nationality of Dzhokhar and Tamarlan Tsarnaev was announced in the aftermath of the Boston bombings, misinformed statements stereotyping the Chechen people spread through Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. Not only did such updates and tweets draw a connection between the suspects and Islamic extremism that has not been confirmed, but … Read more
Media coverage of the Italian elections on Feb. 24 and 25 occasionally slipped into a complacent reaffirmation of old clichés. As the new parliament convened for the first time in early March, much of the political analysis offered superficial explanations for the outcome, accusing the Italians of being irrational voters and of avoiding reality. Yet … Read more