Archive for the ‘politics/law’ Category
Obama and democracy in Asia
If you go behind the headlines of President Obama’s current trip to Asia, you can see that much of the agenda has been devoted to engaging with other democratic nations and promoting shared values. Here is a snapshot of the trip from that perspective.
How geography can become destiny
How much influence does geography have on a nation’s culture? Quite a bit, actually, and not only for the reasons you might initially consider…While pivoting off the current Greek debt crisis, he suggests that Greece’s geography has, in many ways, determined its destiny.
How Twitter (and technology) can change a culture
There is no doubt that Twitter has its fans and its detractors. There is also no doubt that this social networking phenomenon is affecting the way that millions of people interact online, as well as the means by which information is distributed. But can Twitter also be having an impact on a culture’s communication styles? [...]
Twitter helps spur Iranian protesters
Wow. Just last Friday, I had a post about the role that the Internet and social media were playing in the Iranian election. Little did anyone know how this would truly explode in the days after the apparently fraudulent results of Iran’s voting were announced. Tens of thousands of Iranians have been protesting in the streets daily and [...]
The internet and social media have important role in Iranian election
It’s not news anymore that use of the Internet and social media was a key factor in propelling the U.S. presidential campaign of Barack Obama. In fact, Obama was so successful with these tactics, and social media is now so ingrained in the lives of millions of Americans, that it would be inconceivable for a future [...]
Do the Chinese need authoritarianism?
That was the sentiment of some recent comments by movie star Jackie Chan, who suggested that the Chinese people weren’t ready to deal with too much freedom or liberty. His statement, predictably, ignited a firestorm of protest. “I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled,” Mr. Chan said during the Boao [...]
Culture in the news
Culture is at the root of how we act and how we perceive the world. Whether we like it or not, we are all molded by the assumptions of the culture in which we are raised. So as I read through the news, I like to find examples of actions or statements that can best be understood [...]
Sufi Muslims and Islam
Could the West gain a foothold in the battle against Islamic terrorism by working to strengthen Islam? Yes, under certain conditions, suggests this intriguing essay in the Boston Globe. According to the author, Philip Jenkins, the West has a natural ally in the Sufi Muslim movement, which is a more mystical branch of Islam that has [...]
Link between your decorating habits and your politics?
Does the look of your workplace or your living space reveal anything about your political ideology? According to this story in Live Science, it just might. A person may hide their political ideology from others, including from pollsters, but the researchers were delighted to learn that a peek into subjects’ living quarters or even workspaces [...]
How the French see America
It’s no surprise that the French have a complicated relationship with the United States. One that is certainly reciprocated, as the Americans and the French seem to both love and detest what is most unique about the other’s country. This love-hate dynamic is uniquely examined through the prism of politics in a recent essayby Steven Erlanger in the [...]
Tribes and clans in Afghanistan
There is a short but thoughtful article in The Atlantic about the current U.S. engagement with Afghanistan and the story contains some useful pieces of information about Afghan culture. Specifically, it speaks about the tremendous importance of tribes and clans in the nation’s social structure, while suggesting that the U.S. strategy is on the wrong track [...]
“Innocent until proven guilty” comes to Mexico
In the U.S., the term “innocent until proven guilty” is so much a part of our legal culture and is so ingrained in our minds that it’s shocking to think that legal systems exist in which people are not, in fact, presumed innocent. A belief in individual rights is very much a product of Western culture, [...]
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Bob Riel is a writer and a traveler. Go here to read more about Bob, his work and the Travels in the Riel World blog.
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