The African Miracle: How the World's Charity Case Became its Best Investment Opportunity from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Africa has outgrown the gloom and doom. Far from the misery-stricken place so often portrayed, Africa today is alive with rising urban centers, a growing consumer class, and sizzling business deals. It's a land of opportunity."
Who knew?
A Surprising Success in Cancun from the Economist [of the UK]
"The Cancún conference has beaten expectations by producing new, if modest, agreements"
Reality Check (Thomas Friedman) from the New York Times
"The failed attempt by the U.S. to bribe Israel with a $3 billion security assistance package, diplomatic cover and advanced F-35 fighter aircraft … has been enormously clarifying. It demonstrates just how disconnected from reality both the Israeli and the Palestinian leaderships have become. Oil is to Saudi Arabia what unconditional American aid and affection are to Israel — and what unconditional Arab and European aid and affection are to the Palestinians: a hallucinogenic drug that enables them each to think they can defy the laws of history, geography and demography."
The Shadow War (Christopher Dickey) from Newsweek
"Someone is killing Iran’s nuclear scientists. But a computer worm may be the scarier threat."
Tirades Against Nobel Aim at Audiences in China from the New York Times
"A lone Chinese blogger posted the image of a chair on the country’s most popular microblogging site. Within minutes, it had been deleted by a censor’s unseen hand. That small gesture of solidarity with Mr. Liu, who is serving an 11-year prison sentence for “subversion of state power,” is largely emblematic of China’s sweeping effort to quash any expression of sympathy for a man whose plight has captivated the world."
The Empty Chair from the Economist [of the UK]
"They would have expected that their boycott of the award ceremony in Oslo on December 10th would invite comparisons in the West between China and the Soviet Union, which responded with similar fury to the award of the prize to Andrei Sakharov in 1975. It is unlikely they fully realised that their behaviour would be equated even more prominently with that of Nazi Germany."
Social Media Will Help Fuel Change in the Middle East (Arianna Huffington) from the Daily Star [of Lebanon in English]
"Al-Qaeda and its sympathizers were early adopters of the web and have made destructive use of its unparalleled ability to connect people. But a new, countervailing trend is emerging: more and more of the Middle East is getting wired. As a result, we can now change the conversation to the impact of technology and social media on peace, not just on terror."
In Tax Benefits to the Middle, Political Lift for Obama from the New York Times
"a hefty portion of the $858 billion tax package will benefit middle- and upper-middle-income Americans — precisely the demographic that felt neglected the last two years…"
Strike-out or Home Run for Obama? (Rami Khouri) from the Daily Star [of Lebanon in English]
"By dropping its insistence on an Israeli freeze in settlement construction as a prerequisite for moving ahead, confirms several important things. It proves, first, that the United States can be decisive, persistent, realistic, patient, pragmatic and humble – all admirable and important qualities in a mediator. The problem now, however, is that the US also has proven again that the most important attribute of a negotiating process, success, is also one that it has never mastered in recent years."
It seems to me that Daily Star of Lebanon is making a play for being the New York Times of the Middle East. Today's two postings from that source suggest that they are striving for a global, not just a local, readership.
What Progressives Don't Understand About Obama (Ishmael Reed) from the New York Times
"If President Obama behaved that way, he’d be dismissed as an angry black militant with a deep hatred of white people. His grade would go from a B- to a D. What the progressives forget is that black intellectuals have been called “paranoid,” “bitter,” “rowdy,” “angry,” “bullies,” and accused of tirades and diatribes for more than 100 years."
I SO agree with this author's argument about those who criticize Obama's cool, calm demeanor. I've never seen the politician who could combine being "black" and being "angry" in a way that somehow improved their standing with skeptical white voters.
Get Over It, Liberals: Principles Matter, but Not as Much as Progress (Robert Shrum) from The Week
"The progressive resistance to the Obama deal on tax cuts is both unreasoning and unreasonable. Unreasoning because the opponents, whose anger is congealing into adamantine ideology inside the Democratic Party, are pulling out a cascade of objections but offering up no practical alternative. Unreasonable because what the president achieved — which in reality should be called an economic recovery package — is a fundamentally progressive deal."
Independents Day (Charlie Cook) from the National Journal
"The tax deal is just the kind of compromise that independents wish Washington would do more often."
Centrist, Conservative Dems Up in Arms Over Liberals' Tax Deal Backlash from The Hill
"Although the resolution solidifying the revolt was approved by House Democrats Thursday "nearly unanimously," in the words of sponsor Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), a handful of centrist members are already up in arms."
Julian Assange's Lawyers 'Preparing for Possible US Charges' from the Guardian [of the UK]
"Legal team for WikiLeaks founder says Washington may be planning to invoke Espionage Act to indict their client."
Rep. King introduces anti-WikiLeaks Bill from The Hill
"Incoming House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Pete King (R-N.Y.) introduced a bill Thursday aimed at stopping WikiLeaks by making it illegal to publish the names of military or intelligence community informants. The bill is a companion to the Senate version unveiled last week."
Quite predictable. Here's what's also predictable: If some version of this law passes, look for someone like Assange to challenge it right away. Then look for it to ultimately go the Supreme Court. Then don't hold your breath waiting for a re-affirmation of the Pentagon Papers case. Never mind the Wikileaks stuff -- I can't imagine the Roberts Court affirming that precedent.
Despite Anger from Left, Dems Brush off 2012 Obama Challenge from The Hill
"Despite Democratic fury with President Obama, senior adviser David Axelrod said Sunday that he does not think Obama will face a serious primary challenge from the left. "I really don't," Axelrod said."
It would be the height of folly for any Dem to seriously challenge him in '12.
Tea'd Off (Christopher Hitchens) from Vanity Fair
"Forfeiting a both-houses Republican victory, rational conservatives ignored or excused the most hateful kind of populist claptrap (e.g., the fetid weirdness of Glenn Beck’s 9/12 Project). The poison they’ve helped disseminate will still be in the American bloodstream when the country needs it least."
HOLLYWOOD BOOK NUGGET!!
European Exotic: A Review of Biographies of Hedy Lamarr from the New York Times
"Stephen Michael Shearer and Ruth Barton argue that Hedy Lamarr was more interesting than her lackluster place in film history would suggest."
CHINA BOOK NUGGET!!
Staying Power: Mao and the Maoists from the New Yorker
"This persistence of Mao in official discourse and popular imagination may seem an instance of ideological pathology—the same kind that makes some Russian nationalists get misty-eyed about Stalin. … But then a non-ideological view of Mao has rarely been available in the West, even as he has gone from being a largely benign revolutionary and Third Worldist icon to, more recently, sadistic monster. This is largely due to China’s ever shifting place in the Western imagination. Three new books … attest to the difficulty of definitively fixing Mao’s image, a project that amounts to writing a history of China’s present."
SAUDI ARABIA NUGGET!!
Laying Out Cities, Saudis See Window to Modernity from the New York Times
"…an enormous arched gate capped by three domes rises out of the sand like the set for a 1920s silent film fantasy. It is, instead, a fantasy of contemporary urban planning, the site of what one day will be King Abdullah Economic City, a 65-square-mile development at the edge of the Red Sea."
LIBRARY NUGGET!!
Seven Amazing Libraries (PHOTOS) from the Huffington Post
"We've gathered together images of amazing libraries before and now we're back again. From Cornell University to a castle in France, here is a collection of 7 more outrageously beautiful libraries."
Check out the earlier post as well!
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