Britain remains blind to the reasons why threatened minorities and activists are forced to flee hostile regimes, treating those who seek asylum with hostility and disdain. We must recognise the bravery of those who want for their country the freedoms we take for granted.
It is a good time to reflect on how the City of Culture in Derry, the cradle of political creativity in the 1960’s, reckoned and grappled with, rather than skirted over or denied, the recent past - as there was much pressure to do.
As the Erdogan government in Turkey takes an increasingly authoritarian turn, trade unionists have been in the firing line. But a mass trial in Istanbul, little noticed by the international media, has not gone entirely the government’s way.
Mr. Kejriwal’s supporters now begin to question the legality of his conduct,his utterances about there being no real democracy in India, and about the futility of celebrating Republic Day.
The Kingdom of Thailand, and the wider region in which it stands, resembles a global political laboratory. It is a 21st-century testing ground, a place where the future of democracy is being decided, slowly but surely. So watch what happens there, carefully.
Faced with high unemployment and widespread social ills, South Africa’s youth are ambivalent towards the state, and emerging as increasingly independent of it. What does this tell us about the present climate and possible outcomes of South Africa’s fast approaching elections?
Surrounded by the pressure of Islamists and civil activists, Tunisia’s deputies have managed to achieve something unique in the Arab world: making the parliament the centrepiece of political discourse and power. The failure of Egypt – as perverse as it might sound – was another factor that strongl
The advocates of market fundamentalism have sought to close down totally the intellectual space for enquiry and discourse. But a more just and humane model of development, based on equitable distribution of the world’s resources, is a viable alternative whose time has come.
Which way should Cuba look for its future – north or south? Or might it, through trial and error, find a different path that could have lessons for all of us?
