IDN InDepthNews

Zimbabwe witnessed a fierce psychological battle at the beginning of March 2011. Inspired by their new models in the Arab world, political activists and civic society organizations tried to mobilize people for mass protests to demand change in government. But not a single demonstrator turned up on March 1 for the much-billed 1 million-man march against President Mugabe.

The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), an eminent non-governmental organization, has expressed disappointment at the proposed amendments to Egypt’s Constitution and asked the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to review these so that the objectives of the “January 25 revolution” are not consigned to oblivion.

Living in Germany one tends to view the world from a European perspective, and focus only on the lessons Europe has learned from the Second World War in the last sixty-five years. Visits to East Asia, however, not only help to adjust one’s lenses but also provide new insights. Japan is a distinguished example of a country that has been undergoing a bottom-up process of change.

Amidst rising concern about a seriously deteriorating human rights and humanitarian situation in Cote d’Ivoire that a UN expert body perceives as a threat to international peace and security and an international think-tank says is dragging the strife-torn country to the verge of a civil war, a former Ghana president has faulted the international community’s behaviour.

The Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation is a new feather in the cap for Austria, which served as a bridge between East and West under the leadership of Chancellor Bruno Kreisky in the 1970s, and was the venue of some early rounds of the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) between the United States and the now defunct Soviet Union.

The success of popular movements in the Middle East has raised the apprehensions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which has been reminded of its own weakness and soft underbelly.
President Hu Jintao has issued orders to party officials to “solve prominent problems which might harm the harmony and stability of the society.”
By Gunjan Singh*

Strange as this may sound, there is a mainstream in the unsanctioned confederacy of dictators. Whether of the present times or from the distant past, the mainstream dictator is usually decidedly understated, more often than not a loner, eccentric in private habits, and almost as a trademark, lives in a complex world of paranoia.
By Eskinder Nega

Zubin Mehta, renowned Indian conductor of western classical music — who commutes between the major music centers in Europe, the United States and Israel — remains emotionally attached to the country of his birth, particularly the diversity of its nature.
He conducted Europe’s first charity concert in Berlin to promote nature conservation in north-eastern Himalayan region.

Akwaaba, which means “welcome,” was the first word I came across upon my arrival in Ghana. Many people identify Africa with words that have negative connotations, such as poverty, conflict or disease. However, there is much more to this vast continent than such associations. This is what I learn during my one-year visit to Ghana. I found so much hope and potential there.

As the Middle East Quartet prepares to meet on February 5 in the southern German city of Munich to end the agonizing deadlock in Israeli-Palestine peace talks, a high-ranking United Nations official has expressed “an extreme concern” about the precarious situation in the tension-ridden and war-torn Middle East region.