Gollum has succeeded where politicians have failed, in replacing a colonial narrative with a myth that changes the ethno-symbolic basis of New Zealand’s imagination
The traces of optimism that had surrounded Burma’s first notionally democratic experience for two decades vanish on closer inspection of the outcome, says David Scott Mathieson in Chiang Mai.
A Labor leadership coup, a knife-edge election, a hung parliament, a cliffhanger aftermath - Australian politics have been through a three-month whirlwind. Peter Browne maps an extraordinary period and assesses the prospects of the new Labor-led coalition government.
A tide of protest in Indonesia’s easternmost provinces of Papua and West Papua is a challenge to Jakarta, says Charles Reading: find a new security paradigm, or face increasing radicalism in the country’s poorest region.
New rumours of xenophobic reprisals after the World Cup send foreign migrants fleeing in South Africa. A new Amnesty International report slams endemic sexual violence in Kenyan slums. A Sri Lankan government minister begins hunger strike to protest UN inquiry into war crimes. Fresh bombings kill
Thailand's proposed course of reconciliation is contaminated by the dysfunctional socio-political system that caused the crisis.
The Burmese junta’s sophisticated and ruthless project of reinvention - “SPDC 2.0” - is preparing the way for an extension of its rule in civilian guise, says David Scott Mathieson.
A rumble of popular discontent in Vietnam over territorial and environmental issues signals a new phase in the old relationship between Hanoi and Beijing, says Sophie Quinn-Judge.
An initiative to address the complex conflicts in the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua seeks to learn from past failure by extending the understanding of dialogue, says Charles Reading.
The founder of openDemocracy on a mind-changing trip to India.
Tehran’s rulers have pushed back the protest-wave that followed the fraudulent election of June 2009. But the achievement of Iran’s opposition movement is already immense - and it now faces the regime with a fundamental choice, says Farhang Jahanpour.
Spanish government agrees to house former terrorist suspects. Sydney bomb plotters sentenced. Tymoshenko accuses Yanukovych of vote-rigging. British journalist arrested in Gaza. UN sends envoy to Burma. All this and more in today's briefing.
