Courtesy: Bob Dowling
The Occupy Wall Street movement in the U.S. is gathering strength, with new groups of the aggrieved adding to the numbers of protestors. Gateway House’s editorial advisor Bob Dowling plunges into the crowd to gauge the depth of the movement, and the seriousness of the protestors’ intent.
Courtesy: Nirzardp/WikimediaCommons
The anti-corruption protests have offered some suggestions for the media and the cognoscenti to take forward. Now what is required is deeper discussion, which can create an example of a healthy democratic process of citizen participation in governance and policy making.
Courtesy: PMO
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s speech at the UN General Assembly has put Indian perceptions on the record and clearly outlined India’s independent foreign policy. India came out unequivocally in support of the Palestinian struggle & reiterated its traditional stance of respecting countries’ sovereignty.
Courtesy: www.whitehouse.gov/WikimediaCommons
Repeated applause greeted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' speech to the UN General Assembly, asking for support for the “establishment of Palestine.” But with the U.S. backing Israel, under almost all circumstances, will Abbas' proposal be able to bring about any change?
Courtesy: MissionAgainstCorruption/WikimediaCommons
While India's anti-corruption upsurge lends further intensity to a global restlessness about the future of democracy, it also raises a significant question: What are the values that will foster a truly democratic culture? The answer will determine whether the on-going agitation will succeed in combating corruption
Corruption has become a galling global phenomenon: structured, vertically-integrated networks, whose objective is the extraction of resources, are forming in countries around the globe. And strikingly, these structures are masquerading as democratically-elected, seemingly-open governments.
Although the U.S. has not faced another terrorist attack since 9/11, much has changed in its democratic framework. Gripped by fear, 3,984 federal, state and local organizations work on domestic counter-terrorism, spending an estimated $1 trillion.
Kyrgyzstan has remained politically unstable for the past few decades and many of its leaders have been ousted, President Kurmanbek Bakiyev being the most recent. What makes Kyrgyzstan this unusual place, with an ability to chase out its leaders when so many others in the world cannot succeed in doing so?
Courtesy: WTCTributeinLight/WikimediaCommons
A change has come about after 9/11: the ideologies grouped as “Al Qaeda” has morphed, from a group directed by a few individuals, it is now disaggregated. Due to this change, NATO is empowering it's future foes in the Arab world by its continued belief in the camouflaged jihadis.
Former Indian Ambassador to Syria, Rajendra Abhyankar, speaks to Gateway House’s Samyukta Lakshman about the developments in Syria, the impact on India-Syria relations and the future of the region.
