| The U.S. Media’s Admiration of Chancellor Merkel is Suddenly Over
After her election as chancellor of Germany in November 2005, Angela Merkel received a lot of positive press coverage in the US. Her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder was blamed for the bitter transatlantic disagreements over the Iraq war. Merkel was supposed to be a pro-American and a strong reformer, who heals German-American relations and makes Germany more supportive of US policies around the world. I expected some honeymoon for Chancellor Merkel, but was very surprised how long it lasted and how strong the admiration of Merkel was in the US mainstream media and on blogs. Three examples from December 2006/January 2007: (1) David Rothkopf praised her in Foreign Policy Passport: The most powerful female political figure in Europe since Queen Victoria has turned the methodical scientific training from her upbringing in Communist East Germany into a formula for gaining admirers worldwide.
Snow Day in the Sands of Baghdad
An Iraqi who works for The Associated Press said he woke his wife and children shortly after 7 a.m. to "have a look at this strange thing." He then called his brother and sister and found them awake, also watching the "cotton-like snow drops covering the trees." For a couple of hours anyway, a city where mortar shells routinely zoom across the Tigris River to the Green Zone became united as one big White Zone. There were no reports of bloodshed during the snowstorm. The snow showed no favoritism as it dusted neighborhoods Shiite and Sunni alike, faintly falling (with apologies to James Joyce) upon all the living and the dead. .
Stop Chasing High-Tech Cheaters
Opening up The New York Times last week, I stumbled across an article that outraged me. "Colleges Chase as Cheats Shift to Higher Tech" detailed the struggle of some academics against new, high-tech forms of "cheating" that are based in Internet use, iPods, cellphones, and PocketPCs. The tone of the article was one of dismay at the collapse of morality in education. As I watched the article climb the "most e-mailed list" on the Times Web site through the day, my outrage increased. .
Caste System - A Historical and Analytical Overview
In India various racial groups have found refuge and shelter. The sakas, Hunas, Kushans and Mongols even the Christians led by Saint Thomas and Jews and Parses found a refuge in India and made it their homeland. India thus became a melting pot of various groups, which merged in the main stream of Hindu philosophy. Hindus adopted a very safe and liberal course of assimilating these people without any loss to their originality. Each group was to develop the best in it but not at the cost of the other and then assimilate all the best in the larger community life of Hinduism. This brought forth a number of idols, deities, rituals and also certain distortions in the Varna system of the society. The Hindu Varna system is not at all caste -equivalent. It indicates a division. There exists all over the world one sort of division or the other in every society, as it is inevitable for social growth.
Noli asked to intervene in death of Pinoy hairdresser in Dubai
However, no reports were provided to Sally's kin or to the Philippine Embassy in Dubai. Emy deplored the way an employee, whom she later identified as Alex Emam, gave them the run-around when they went to the DFA last Nov. 22 to verify the report on Sally's death. She said Emam instructed them to fill up a form and advised them to wait for feedback on their inquiry. Emy said they informed Emam that they were checking on her brother after receiving information that he was found dead. She said Emam asked them, "Ito ba ‘yong napukpok sa ulo? (Is this the one who's head was bashed?)," much to their surprise. When they tried to clarify his reply, Emam, according to Emy, brushed them aside, raising suspicion that there was foul play in her brother's death.
Robertson and Giuliani: A Not-So-Odd Couple
In a two-week span that saw several conservative Christian evangelical leaders finally climb down off the fence and begin spreading their endorsements across the field of Republican Party presidential candidates, it was the unexpected endorsement by one of Christian conservatism's longtime leaders that garnered the most media attention. When Pat Robertson, the founder and chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network and the man who created and helped make the Christian Coalition a political powerhouse in the Republican Party of the 1990s, recently endorsed former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, he accomplished at least two things: He enhanced Giuliani's standing amongst those evangelicals still paying attention to Robertson -- his CBN "700 Club" draws millions of nightly viewers -- and he injected himself back into the political spotlight.
Supporters of Brotherhood-backed candidates
We have Christians that are members of liberal-leftist groups, Communist groups, conservative groups and the NDP. It's only a display of the diversity of their political beliefs." Finding the right balanceJust as moderate Islamist movements have been successful in earning government recognition in several Arab countries including Jordan, Yemen, Morocco and Tunisia, Madi says he believes in his chances of not only gaining government approval, but effecting change in the political arena. He need look no further afield than Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina for inspiration, but change will come only if he can attract a base of real support —something even stalwart parties such as Al-Wafd seem unable to do today. “We're the unrepresented section of Egyptian society," says Madi. “Our segment makes up a large part of this society.
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