The dictionary defines xenophobia as “fear or hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign.” It seems to be an endemic plague everywhere in the world. But it infects larger numbers of people only sometimes. This is one of those times.
But who is a stranger? In the modern world, it [...]
Latin America has been the success story of the world left in the first decade of the twenty-first century. This is true in two senses. The first and most widely-noticed way is that left or left-of-center parties have won a remarkable series of elections during the decade. And collectively, Latin American governments have taken for [...]
Reading newspapers can be a startling experience. On July 26 this year, U.S. papers ran two quite contradictory stories. In the first news article, USA Today reported on its quarterly forecast of economists. The headline read: “Economists’ optimism wanes.” It seems that the combination of “turmoil in Europe, lackluster job growth, a weak housing market [...]
Everyone knows the old saying that there is nothing inevitable except death and taxes. But most of us spend a lot of energy trying to postpone both of them. Taxes are a very unpopular idea, everywhere. Few people complain that they are not being taxed enough. The problem is that almost everyone wants many of [...]
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, gave an interview to Rolling Stone magazine in which he and his staff insulted the civilian leaders of his country. He was fired for insubordination by Pres. Obama. Even his defenders said that McChrystal’s remarks were impolitic and a mistake. Given the fact that McChrystal is an [...]
As the world’s leaders and pundits continue to deny the reality of the world depression – they won’t even use the word – the impossible choices that are faced by government after government become more and more obvious every day. Consider what has happened in just the last month.
The United States had its worst unemployment [...]
Commentary No. 282, June 1, 2010
The United States has been clamoring for almost two decades that it is determined to prevent Iran and North Korea from becoming nuclear powers. In-between more urgent issues, the U.S. government regularly reasserts the importance of this objective. Since both Iran and North Korea are clearly unwilling to cede to [...]
Commentary No. 281, May 15, 2010
Fear is the most pervasive public emotion in most of the world today. This fear is not irrational, but it doesn’t necessarily lead to wise ways of handling the presumed dangers. The way it operates can be clearly perceived in two notable events of the recent past. The first was [...]
Commentary No. 280, May 1, 2010
Europe has had its nay-sayers since it started on the long road to unification. There were many who believed it impossible. And there were many who thought it undesirable. Still one has to say that, in the long and sinuous path it has taken since 1945, the project of European [...]
Commentary No. 279, April 15, 2010
Relations between Iran and the United States have been turbulent for almost 60 years now. Before the Second World War, the Shah of Iran, Reza Shah Pahlavi, sought to maneuver between the outside demands and pressures of Great Britain, the U.S.S.R. and Germany. When the war broke out, he proclaimed [...]