Posts Tagged ‘government’
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.
The spread of Gross National Happiness
You’ve likely heard of the book “The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World,” by Eric Weiner. And you may have heard about the Himalayan country of Bhutan and its goal of measuring and improving something called Gross National Happiness. What do these things have in common? Well, apart from [...]
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 [...]
United States of Africa?
It may be a bit far-fetched, but it’s a real goal for at least some African leaders, most notably the new chairman of the African Union, one Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya. The obstacles to such a union are daunting, but an article in the International Herald Tribune lays out the pan-African dream that Qaddafi and others would [...]
Out of the box thinking in government
I’m a fan of out of the box thinking. Too often, when we go off in search of a solution to some challenge, we find ourselves hamstrung by old presumptions and structures. We and the world would be better off if, instead, we were able to look at issues and problems with fresh eyes. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a [...]
Not countries or cities, but mega-regions
Richard Florida wrote an interesting article a while back in which he suggested that government policy makers would be wise to forge new ideas based on the economic and innovation potential of so-called mega-regions around the world. Much more so than countries or cities, he contends, mega-regions are actually the prime drivers of the global economy. While [...]
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 [...]
Clan-based government in Somalia?
The best designed governments are those that build upon the culture of a country, rather than those that try to impose foreign ideas and systems on a people. So I read with interest this recent story in the International Herald Tribune about a movement to re-design the government of Somalia in a way that would emphasize the traditional [...]
Flemish, French and Belgian
The country of Belgium is a remarkable success story considering the simmering tensions that have persisted for decades between the country’s Flemish-speaking north and its French-speaking south. The International Herald Tribune has a fascinating article today that discusses the links between culture and country, while contemplating the difficulties of keeping two cultures happy within a single nation. The [...]
Democracy and vodka in Mongolia
Mongolia is not the first place one thinks of when pondering the fate of budding democracies around the world. Heck, how many people could locate Mongolia on a map? Now, though, the country may become known as a poster child for the risks of mixing democracy with vodka. The charred shells of two Soviet-style buildings [...]
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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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