Politics and politician failure (192)
It's difficult to think of a country where politicians are not the national failure. Why can't we have qualified people to vote for?
Medvedev quits Kremlin with a whimper
5 May 2012
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin review honour guards in Moscow.
AFP - When the Kremlin door slams shut on Dmitry Medvedev after Vladimir Putin returns to the presidency on May 7, the sound reverberating off the ancient red-brick walls may be one of bitter failure.
Post-Soviet Russia is set to remember its only one-term president as a man whose biggest achievement was keeping the Kremlin seat warm for Putin when he was barred by the constitution from running for a third consecutive term. Youthful, interested in technology and apparently open to the West, Medvedev's promises to make Russia a freer, more democratic country created unprecedented hopes when he took office in 2008.
Medvedev: The man who kept the seat of power warm for Putin
His four years as president are four days from an end. But why did Dmitry Medvedev fail to transcend his mentor and become a Russian figurehead in his own right?
by Shaun Walker Author Biography
Thursday 03 May 2012
Medvedev was carefully manoeuvred into the Kremlin by Vladimir Putin in 2008. AFP/Getty Images
Previous inhabitants of the Kremlin, whether it be Ivan the Terrible, Joseph Stalin or Vladimir Putin, have tended to inspire both awe and fear. Even with Boris Yeltsin in the late, vodka-infused years, there remained an aura of residual respect for someone who was essentially the most powerful person in the biggest country in the world. But with four days left of his four-year tenure as President, Dmitry Medvedev evokes rather different emotions in his citizens.
Medvedev mocked over 'I transmit to Vladimir' gaffe
27 March 2012
US President Barack Obama shakes hands with Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev (R) during a bilateral meeting in Seoul on March 26.
AFP - Kremlin critics and Russian bloggers on Tuesday mercilessly mocked President Dmitry Medvedev after microphones picked up him promising to "transmit" a message from Barack Obama to Vladimir Putin.
"I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir," Medvedev was heard telling Obama in English in a "hot-mike" exchange on the sidelines of a summit in South Korea that has already caused a storm in the United States.
Putin's fabled tiger encounter was PR stunt, say environmentalists
Putin allegedly came face to face with wild tiger four years ago, but bloggers now say it was set up using a zoo animal
by Miriam Elder
Thursday 15 March 2012
Vladimir Putin (L) fixing a GPS-Argos satellite transmitter onto a tiger during his visit to the Ussuriysky forest reserve in 2008. Photograph: Alexey Druzhinin/AFP/Getty Images
It was Vladimir Putin's much flaunted love of animals that brought him face to face with a tiger four years ago. Deep in the woods of Russia's far east, the powerful leader was on a mission to help save the endangered amur tiger, when one of the fierce beasts appeared out of nowhere and attacked. Putin saved the day – and at least one television crew – when he intercepted its approach with a swift shot from a tranquilliser gun.
Syrian paper claims gays are ‘infesting society’ through uprising
by Radwan Bassam
9 March 2012
A popular privately owned daily newspaper has published an article alleging gays and lesbians are ‘prospering’ due to the Syrian uprising and are held responsible for social problems.
‘A loose wrist, a noticeable way of using the fingers, sitting and crossing the legs together in a feminine manner and an interest in gossip and whispers are among homosexuals’ main distinctive features.’ This was the introduction to an article about gays in Syria published in local newspaper Baladna on 21 February.
Rebel hero who has 'betrayed' the last of Aceh's orang-utans
by Kathy Marks
Tuesday 31 January 2012
Governor has dismayed supporters by allowing the destruction of a Sumatran forest where the apes live
Global demand for palm oil is threatening the survival of the 6,600 orang-utans left in the rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo. EPA
When the former rebel leader Irwandi Yusuf became governor of Indonesia's Aceh province, he proclaimed a "green vision" for the war-torn region. Aceh's lush forests – still relatively pristine despite decades of civil conflict – would not be sacrificed for short-term profit, he promised. True to his word, he even chased down illegal loggers in his own jeep.
'Crony' of Mugabe to promote Thai national image
25 January 2012
By THANYARAT DOKSONE
Nalinee Taveesin
BANGKOK (AP) - A Thai Cabinet member under U.S. sanctions for alleged business deals with Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe is now in charge of promoting Thailand's national image.
Nalinee Taveesin, previously Thailand's trade representative, was named a Cabinet minister in the Prime Minister's Office during last week's reshuffle of Yingluck Shinawatra's government. The opposition has expressed dismay, questioning whether the appointment violates the Thai constitution's ethics code for lawmakers.
Mideast governments fail to see scale of change: Amnesty
8 January 2012
A protester gestures as he sits facing riot police during a protest in the village of Sitra south of Manama, January 4, 2012. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
(Reuters) - Most Middle Eastern governments are failing to recognize the significance of the Arab Spring and are responding with repression or merely cosmetic change, Amnesty International said Monday.
Reform movements showed no sign of flagging despite bloodshed on the streets and arrests last year, Amnesty said in its report "Year of Rebellion: State of Human Rights in the Middle East and North Africa."
Economic horizons darken for ANC-ruled South Africa
By Jon Herskovitz
6 January 2012
A picture of former South African President Nelson Mandela is seen on memorabilia sold in Bloemfontein January 6, 2012. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko
(Reuters) - Trevor Ghavala has grown up in post-apartheid South Africa, and like nearly half his young adult contemporaries he is unemployed and has little chance of escaping a social underclass in which millions are trapped.
"I don't have a job ... I've never had a job. I've been asking people, doing crime," said Ghavala, 24, chewing on a piece of bread as he squatted with his back to a wall in a central street in Johannesburg's Soweto township.
We have no famine, says Somalian prime minister
The world’s aid agencies have become “lords of poverty” and their claim that famine has struck Somalia’s capital is “absolutely” false, according to Abdiweli Mohammed Ali, the country’s prime minister.
Abdiweli Mohammed Ali, Somalia's prime minister Photo: CORBIS
By David Blair
13 December 2011
Mr Ali, who leads Somalia’s officially recognised government, chose the week when the United Nations has appealed for $1.5 billion to help his country’s people to deliver a stinging attack on relief workers. A Harvard-educated economist, he believes they have become an “entrenched interest group”, exaggerating the scale of suffering in order to drum up donations.
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