Bangladesh the financial report/Solve Kashmir First and ...

Solve Kashmir First
New Thinking on South Asia's Longest Conflict


Though other regional conflicts may capture more headlines, none reaches as deeply into the past nor haunts the present as ominously as Kashmir. The region, divided between India and Pakistan in 1947, is today perhaps the most militarized place in the world.
At this Open Society Institute event, four panelists discuss the remote origins of the Kashmir conflict, as well as its longterm consequences, including its incalculable human costs, its effects on Indian and Pakistan polities, the American role in the dispute, and the prospects for a resolution. In addition, they will trace the tentacles from Kashmir that have extended to other regional conflicts, from the mountains of Afghanistan to the streets of Mumbai.
Panelists
• Basharat Peer, Kashmiri journalist and Open Society Fellow
• Steve Coll, president of New America Foundation and staff writer at The New Yorker magazine (moderator)
• Mridu Rai, associate professor of history at Yale University
• Pankaj Mishra, author and journalist

The Road from Ayodhya: Muslim Inclusion in a New India


Open Society Fellow Basharat Peer discusses his visit to the city of Ayodhya, site of the destruction of a historic medieval mosque by a Hindu mob in 1992. Through a series of interviews he conducted in Muslim neighborhoods in New Delhi and several other cities, Peer looks at the ways India's Muslim population—the world's largest religious minority—have been trying to find their place at a time of rapid economic growth and lingering sectarian tensions.
Peer is introduced by Amrit Singh, senior legal officer of the National Security and Counterterrorism Project of the Open Society Justice Initiative.
Peer's new book, Curfewed Night, has just been published by Scribner.
(Curtesey http://www.soros.org/initiatives/fellowship/events/muslim-inclusion-india-20100216)

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Bangladesh the financial report:

David Roodman, a microfinance expert from the Center for Global Development, reported that loan recovery indicators are recovering for the Grameen Bank. The non-recovery rate, the share of unpaid monthly payments, decreased from 3.45 percent in February to 2.89 percent in May. The “Portfolio at Risk, 30 days” or PAR 30 – characterized by the share of outstanding amounts borrowed at least 30 days late on payments – dropped by more than one percent in the last two months.

(Dev Ex)

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Oil Spill on Capitol Hill: Free briefing on June 25th
Underwritten by: The Kiplinger Foundation
As the black cloud of spilled crude oil continues to spread, President Obama and many in Congress are using the moment to push for comprehensive energy and climate legislation. Our panel of experts will help journalists and others understand what may be coming. A regulatory remake? A price on carbon? Senate gridlock? Hear the opposing perspectives and ask your questions, during this important on-the-record issues briefing and continental breakfast. The panel: David Goldston, Natural Resources Defense Council; David Bernhardt of Brownstein/Hyatt/Farber/Schreck; Energy reporter Mike Soraghan, Greenwire; Moderator: Martin Kady , Congressional Bureau Chief, POLITICO. Presented by the National Press Foundation, POLITICO and the Center on Congress at Indiana University. Free to attend; advance registration is required.
(NPF)

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Julie Hirschfeld Davis of AP & Brianna Keilar of CNN Win Dirksen Awards
Julie Hirschfeld Davis of AP, Brianna Keilar of CNN Win Dirksen Awards

WASHINGTON, November 10: The National Press Foundation has announced the winners of the 2009 Everett McKinley Dirksen Awards for Distinguished Coverage of Congress, perhaps the nation’s leading award for Capitol Hill reporters. Both winners provided detailed looks at the economic bailout packages as they were considered by lawmakers.
The winner of the print Dirksen award is Julie Hirschfeld Davis, of the Associated Press. The winner of the broadcast Dirksen award is Brianna Keilar of CNN.
Davis and Keilar will receive $5,000 each. The awards will be presented at the Foundation’s 27th annual awards dinner, on Tuesday night, February 16th, 2010, at the Hilton Washington Hotel. Awards in six other categories will also be presented. More than 1,000 people will attend.
The National Press Foundation is a 501-c-3 which provides no-cost, all-expenses paid educational opportunities to journalists in the U.S. and internationally. It does not take U.S. government money. The dinner is its largest source of unrestricted revenue.
For information about the dinner, contact Kerry@nationalpress.org or call 202-663-7282. For information about NPF, contact NPF’s president, Bob Meyers, bob@nationalpress.org.


Other Everett McKinley Dirksen Awards for Distinguished Reporting of Congress Reading

(Source: NPF)

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The Celebration begins in South Africa - Photos: Andrew Esiebo

The Celebration begins in South Africa - Photos: Andrew Esiebo
South Africa is preparing for the start of the biggest football tournament on earth, the World Cup, which gets under way in a matter of hours in Johannesburg. It is the 19th staging of the showpiece event and will be the first time it has taken place in the continent of Africa. Johannesburg's 94,000-capacity Soccer City hosts the opening ceremony, with South Africa face Mexico at 1500 BST.

Plans for ex-president Nelson Mandela to attend were thrown into doubt by his great-granddaughter's death on Friday.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation said Zenani Mandela, 13, died in a car crash when travelling home from the pre-World Cup concert in Johannesburg.

She was one of the anti-apartheid icon's nine great-grandchildren.

"The family has asked for privacy as they mourn this tragedy," the Foundation said in a statement.

Mandela, 91, was due to be present at Soccer City, but not for the entire opening game as his family are worried about the state of his health.

The World Cup kicks off with a 40-minute opening ceremony at Soccer City starting at 1300 BST.

In Pictures: Bafana Bafana Awaits the Mexicans - Photos: Andrew Esiebo



American R'n'B star R Kelly is one of 1,581 performers ahead of the game between the hosts and Mexico at 1500 BST.

The global TV audience for the tournament will be made up of viewers in more than 215 countries and will run into hundreds of millions.

South Africa president Jacob Zuma and Archbishop Desmond Tutu are also expected to be at Soccer City, the newly refurbished stadium designed to look like a calabash, an African cooking pot.

"South Africa has come alive, and will never be the same after this World Cup," said Zuma, who hailed Mandela's role in securing the right to host the finals back in May 2004.

"Nelson Mandela worked hard so that we could win the right to host this tournament. We dedicate the World Cup to him.

"There are a few moments that define a nation's history. We stand on the threshold of one as we draw closer and closer to Friday, 11 June, when the World Cup officially begins."

The festivities began in earnest on Thursday, with Shakira among the artists at a vast pre-tournament concert in Soweto.

Mandela's World Cup message

The Colombian pop star performed the official World Cup song Waka Waka and was joined by a cast of international stars, including the Black Eyed Peas and Alicia Keys, along with African stars Amadou & Mariam and Hugh Masekela.

Since it was chosen as the first African host of the World Cup in 2004, South Africa has spent about 40bn rand (£3.55bn) on stadiums, transport infrastructure and upgrading airports.

The tournament, which is made up of 32 nations, could add as much as 0.5% to the country's GDP in 2010 and will bring in an estimated 370,000 foreign visitors.

Danny Jordaan, chief executive of the local organising committee, said: "For me it will be a dream come true. It's a great moment in the World Cup's 80-year history.

In Pictures: 14.06.10 Cameroon versus Japan - Photos: Raphael Happi



"People said no African country could ever deliver this event. But we are showing that we can't just match what others have done but that we can do even better. Now the doubters are the believers."

As well as the iconic Soccer City - the biggest stadium in Africa - nine other venues will stage World Cup matches across the country, including Ellis Park, which is also in Johannesburg.

Cape Town, Pretoria, Polokwane, Rustenburg, Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth, Durban and Nelspruit will host matches, too.

There are 64 games in total, with the final taking place at Soccer City on Sunday, 11 July.

There have been concerns about ticketing policy and security in the run-up to the tournament.

In Pictures: 12.06.10 Nigeria versus Argentina - Photos: Michael Nsubuga



Fifa has come under fire for the way tickets have been distributed, with critics claiming its preferred method of making tickets available online excluded many locals who did not have an internet connection.

However, football's world governing body has made a number of tickets exclusively available to South Africans and announced on Wednesday that 97% of the 3.1m tickets had been sold, allaying fears of empty stadiums.

s for security, there have been concerns about the safety of fans, media and players travelling to South Africa.

Sixteen people - including two police officers - were injured at a stampede ahead of a World Cup warm-up match on Sunday between Nigeria and North Korea outside Makhulong Stadium in the township of Tembisa near Johannesburg.

And journalists from China, Spain and Portugal were targeted in two separate armed robberies in and around Johannesburg on Monday and Wednesday.

However, Fifa president Sepp Blatter insists the World Cup will be a success.

In Pictures: 13.06.10 Ghana versus Serbia - Photos: Adolphus Opara



"Everywhere, one can feel, I hope, that this World Cup is very special, the first on African soil," he said. "We find ourselves in a position of indescribable anticipation.

"More importantly, this competition will prove that South Africa, and the African continent in general, is capable of organising an event of this magnitude."

England are among the favourites in South Africa and Fabio Capello's men get their Group C campaign under way against the United States in Rustenburg on Saturday.

Defending champions Italy start on Monday with a match against Paraguay, Brazil face North Korea in their first game on Tuesday and Euro 2008 winners Spain start their bid for a first World Cup win by taking on Switzerland on Wednesday.

South Africa have never progressed beyond the group stage at the World Cup, though they have only taken part in two previous tournaments, in 1998 and 2002.

In Pictures: 15.06.10 Ivory Coast versus Portugal - Photos: Arnaud Thierry



They are managed by Brazilian Carlos Alberto Parreira, who led his home nation to victory at the 1994 World Cup in the United States and will be coaching at a record sixth tournament.

Some of the world's best players will be on display in South Africa, among them Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney.

But some big names will be missing because of injury, such as England duo Rio Ferdinand and David Beckham, Germany skipper Michael Ballack and Ghana midfielder Michael Essien.

Didier Drogba - an icon in African sport - fractured his elbow in a recent friendly against Japan, but is hopeful of playing a part in the Ivory Coast's campaign.
-BBC

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OVERPOWERED:SURVEY FROM US

Overpowered?
Questioning the Wisdom of American Restraint
Michael Mandelbaum
May/June 2010


For the authors of three new books about power and U.S. foreign policy, the essence of "the power problem" is that the United States has too much of it. But the era in which U.S. foreign policy could be driven in counterproductive directions by an excess of power is in the process of ending.

MICHAEL MANDELBAUM is Christian A. Herter Professor of American Foreign Policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the author of the forthcoming book The Frugal Superpower: America's Global Leadership in a Cash-Strapped Era. For an annotated guide to this topic, see "What to Read on American Primacy" at www.foreignaffairs.com/readinglists/american-primacy.

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Author Jack F. Matlock Jr.
Publisher Yale University Press
Year 2010
Pages 368 pp.
ISBN 9780300137613
Price $30.00

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Author Giulio M. Gallarotti
Publisher Lynne Rienner
Year 2010
Pages 2007 pp.
ISBN 1588266699
Price $22.00

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Author Christopher A. Preble
Publisher Cornell University Press
Year 2009
Pages 232 pp.
ISBN 0801447658
Price $25.00

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"Money can't buy happiness," the old saying goes, and anyone who doubts that this is sometimes true should conduct a Google search for "lottery winners horror stories." He or she will find accounts of people for whom a great financial windfall led to misery, bankruptcy, and even suicide. In international relations, power is the equivalent of money -- highly desired, actively sought, and eagerly used. The theme of three new books about power and U.S. foreign policy is that as with money, so with power: a great deal of it does not necessarily bring success.

It can even have the opposite effect. Powerful countries can and do carry out foreign policies that fail, making them less prosperous, less respected, and, ultimately, less powerful. In each of the books, the prime example of the dangers of power, the equivalent of the lottery winners destroyed by riches, is the United States during the George W. Bush administration. For all three authors, the essence of what Christopher Preble calls "the power problem" is that the United States has too much of it.

Each author advocates a foreign policy different from the one Bush conducted. Each calls for more modest aims and wider international cooperation. And although each severely criticizes the Bush administration, all find evidence of the drawbacks of power in the policies of other administrations and in the histories of other countries as well. The three books have another important feature in common: each is backward-looking. Although they do not seem to recognize it, the era in which U.S. foreign policy could be driven in counterproductive directions by an excess of power is in the process of ending.

DEBATING DOMINANCE

Jack Matlock is one of the most accomplished U.S. diplomats of the last half century. His specialty in the Foreign Service was the Soviet Union, where he served four tours of duty -- the last of them, from 1987 to 1991, as U.S. ambassador. Prior to his final posting in Moscow, he advised President Ronald Reagan on Soviet affairs.

Matlock's assessment of the Bush administration is harshly negative. He says, for example, that the 9/11 attacks "could have been prevented if the Bush administration had shown minimal competence in using the information the CIA had provided." Matlock, a trusted aide to Reagan, contends that in temperament and outlook, if not always in policy preferences, Barack Obama more closely resembles the president with whom he worked than did President George W. Bush -- a judgment likely to occasion both surprise and dismay among the partisans of all three chief executives.

The most important feature of Superpower Illusions is Matlock's explanation of the wayward course of U.S. foreign policy after the Cold War. It has stemmed, he believes, from a mistaken understanding of how and why the great conflict with the Soviet Union ended. Americans have wrongly seen this end as a kind of military victory. In fact, it was "a negotiated outcome that benefitted both sides." The four-decade-long policy of containment certainly helped create the conditions in which the conflict could end as it did, but military power alone could never have produced that ending. Matlock denounces "the idea . . . that it was U.S. force and threats, rather than negotiation, that ended the Cold War, and also that Reagan's rhetoric 'conquered' communism, and that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the equivalent of a military victory." Such claims, he goes on, "are all distortions, all incorrect, all misleading, and all dangerous to the safety and future prosperity of the American people."

The triumphalist interpretation has had pernicious consequences. It has reinforced Russian leader Vladimir Putin's narrative of his country's recent history, which asserts that the end of the Soviet Union was an unmitigated disaster, foisted on the Russians by the West in order to weaken the Russian nation. That narrative supports Putin's autocratic domestic policies and Russia's reflexive hostility to the United States.

The incorrect reading of the Cold War's end has also contributed, by fostering an exaggerated sense of American power, to harmful foreign policies on the part of the United States. Matlock is particularly eloquent and convincing on one of them: the decision to expand NATO to former communist countries and former republics of the Soviet Union while excluding Russia. NATO expansion was not necessary to assure the security of the newly independent countries of eastern Europe, he says, and it has had devastating consequences for U.S. interests. In his view, it "increased America's exposure to risk by adding countries to its security guarantee, . . . weakened NATO (because the more members it had the more its unity was challenged by competing national interests), and . . . alarmed Russia and made it less willing to cooperate fully with the United States."

NATO expansion proved all the more offensive to Russia because Western leaders had given assurances to their Soviet counterparts that the alliance would not move eastward. Matlock was present when U.S. Secretary of State James Baker conveyed such an assurance to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in February 1990. In light of his account, the argument made by the apologists for NATO expansion -- that the United States was entitled to carry it out because Soviet leaders never received a written promise that it would not take place -- can be seen as the travesty of basic American principles that it is. Neither the founders of the United States nor those who led it through the trials of the next two centuries ever intended their country to behave like a dishonest businessman whose word cannot be trusted unless it is formally embedded in an ironclad legal contract.

(Source: the Council on Foreign Relations, Inc.)