Sceenshot of Boston Globe / Guardian slideshows: Displaced children chasing a truck spraying insecticide through a UNHCR refugee camp in Pakistan / A child swimming in the polluted waters in Cilincing, Indonesia.
Two very different issues, two powerful slideshows.
Slideshows like this tend to remind you of the power of photography- the way a photograph can say so much, awaken so many senses, give rise to so many ideas, sadness, anger, joy, curiosity, and eventually action.
We wanted to share both with you:
The Guardian recently ran a slideshow titled ‘World’s poor overwhelmed by rubbish‘. From mountains of rubbish in Naples and New Orleans to desolate scenes of rivers of rubbish in the Philippines and Indonesia.
The Boston Globe’s Alan Taylor put together a slideshow titled ‘Children in Pakistan‘ depicting the plight of those caught in the middle of the Taliban-Pakistan battles in the Swat valley and in refugee camps.
Two Indian women waiting to vote / photo: Goutam Roy/ Al Jazeera English, flickr
In the wake of a surprisingly clear victory for the Congress party in India, the ISN focuses on the democratic process in India, the election results and the future of the incumbent government.
In the ISN Special Report India’s Status Quo Surprise Jayne Brady, a research fellow for UNESCO’s International Bureau of Education and Harsh V. Pant, a lecturer at the Defense Studies Department at King’s College London assess the challenges and opportunities the Congress Party faces in its second consecutive term in government. In A Silent Opportunity Jayne Brady examines the tasks ahead for Congress as it tries to match action with heightened expectations, while Harsh V. Pant questions whether Congress will be able to seize this unique opportunity or once again squander its political capital in Indian Electorate Seeks Stability.
In our Policy Briefs, Indian Elections 2009- A Return to the Centre analyzes the results of the 2009 elections with a particular focus on the rise of the centrist Congress alliance with a strong moderate political agenda.
The Indesec Expo 2009 is taking place in New Delhi in October 2009, concentrating on India’s homeland security and defense systems. Find out more in our Events section.
And for a bit of historical perspective, read Jawaharlal Nehru’s Inaugural Address from 1947 and Mahatma Gandhi’s famous Quit India Speech from 1942 in our Primary Resources section.
Screenshot of Jon Huntsman with daughter from China Daily site
The China Daily runs a brilliant website detailing the China-connections of US officials, particularly in the new Obama administration, titled “US Officials and Their China Connections”. The page opens up with a logo of hearts and delicate Japanese-inspired cherry blossom twigs superimposed on a picture of the new US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman and his adoptive Chinese daughter. How sweet.
And I don’t mean that sarcastically. It’s fascinating to see how an official Chinese media outlet maintains a page dedicated to seeing commonalities, finding links and promoting- on the surface at least- friendship between China and the US. It seems that in the more friendly atmosphere of the post-Bush world such connections are becoming assets on both sides of the Pacific and increasingly, as Timothy Geithner’s recent trip to China proved, are starting to inform the making of bilateral policy in a positive way.
Obama’s appointment of Huntsman as the Ambassador is the most obvious sign of bigger and better things to come. He has life-long ties to China through his family’s business, he speaks Mandarin and has adopted a Chinese girl with his wife. Huntsman has even gone on record to say that the US-China relationship is the most important one in the world. Obama, Huntsman assures us, feels the same way. And best of all, the website points out that Huntsman is indeed considered a potential front-runner for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. Obama nominating him for this job, of course, might put an end to those grand plans.
Moreover, as the website proudly points out, more and more Chinese Americans are serving in Obama’s multicolored, multiracial and multicultural administration. America, it seems, is finally living up to its multicultural dream and China is taking note. The important posts of Energy Secretary and Secretary of Commerce, most notably, are now held by Steven Chu and Gary Locke, prominent Chinese Americans. Given that environmental issues, finance and commercial ties will likely dominate the US-Chinese agenda in the coming years, the Geithner-Chu-Locke trio is a kind of dream team for the two countries.
Coincidence or shrewd strategic planning, I ask you?
First it was TV, then it was video games, now Twitter? Are these things really contributing to the decay of the human psyche, our morality and our ability to concentrate? Or is this just paranoid blame-seeking, intent on vilifying the entire spectrum of modern day tools part of our everyday life?
The ISN blog presents two viewpoints- mine and that of my co-worker Cristina Viehmann. Let the debate begin!
Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China / photo: McKay Savage, flickr
On the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in China, the ISN takes a closer look at the events and consequences of the pro-democracy protests.
In the ISN Podcast we interview Professor Arne Westad from the London School of Economics and address the causes and historical roots of the protests, as well as looking at the consequences and some of the deeper political contradictions that are rooted in those events.
In our Publications, Human Rights in China: Trends and Policy Implications analyzes China’s mixed human rights record, new human rights legislation and the development of civil society, legal awareness and social activism.
Also, in our Policy Briefs, Under Foreign Pressure, Chinese Support Their Government argues that most Chinese accept the CCP’s social contract: continued one-party rule and an emphasis on social harmony, including limited political freedoms, provided the authorities continue to expand opportunities for economic prosperity.
In our Events section, the China International Nuclear Power Industry Expo 2009 in Beijing in September will delve deeper into the causes and consequences of China’s rapid economic growth and demand for energy resources.
