Stories International Relations from June, 2008
Facebook's Canadians for Obama
Living within such close proximity to the United States, Canadians are more affected by the U.S. elections than many. Canadians for Obama, a Facebook group featured on Voices without Votes in April, has been having a lively discussion of Obama's merits, with many participants lobbying from the other side of...
If Venezuela could vote…
What if Venezuela could vote in the U.S. elections? Link TV's Dear American Voter series allows citizens of other countries to share their opinions on the upcoming elections. Francisco Toro of Caracas Chronicles does just that, giving viewers a sense of how the U.S. elections could affect Venezuela.
China: Is the West afraid of our patriotism?
Are there factors informing your perception of China circa 2008? Novelist-blogger and researcher of worldly affairs Yang Hengjun moves on from "How did America cover up the truth of the bombing of our embassy in Yugoslavia?" to his post last week, "Are Western countries afraid of the Chinese people's patriotic fervor?"
Lebanon: Condoleezza Rice's Surprise Visit
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced, five-hour visit to Lebanon on Monday, June 16. She declared her government’s support for the newly elected Lebanese president, as well as for the Lebanese government, the parliament’s speaker and the democratic system in the country. Rice last visited Lebanon during...
Morocco: Dreaming of a Muslim President?
Despite what the U.S. (and some foreign) media might say, it seems that, rather than call Obama an apostate from Islam, some Muslims would prefer to call Obama a fellow Muslim. Such is the case in Morocco, where American expat North Africa Notes says that “most Moroccans know more about...
Brazil: The Black President Before Obama
The sweeping Obama phenomenon has caught Brazil, and it comes as no surprise in the country with the world's largest population of African descendants. An especially notable thread is the one reporting on the resurgence of a weirdly interesting 1928 Brazilian sci-fi novel — ‘The Black President' — that predicted a US election matching a black, a feminist, and a conservative candidate in the then remote year of 2228.
Palestine: Obama on Jerusalem as Undivided
Barack Obama's pledge on June 11th to AIPAC that Jerusalem should be Israel's undivided capital has angered Palestinian officials. President Mahmoud Abbas made a statement that Obama's pledge is “totally rejected,” while Saeb Erekat, an Abbas aide, said that Palestinian negotiators would continue to insist upon East Jerusalem as the...
What About Obama's Race? The Turkish (and Other) Perception of Obama
On June 6, 2008, Michael Rubin, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal in which he referred to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as “Turkey's Putin” and a dictator. The piece, re-posted on the Middle East Forum, refers to the...
India: Obama in Black and White
Indian bloggers are joining the rest of the world to decipher Barack Obama and reflect on what his election to the White House would mean for their country and its civilian nuclear development programme and Indo-US relations. In a post entitled Obama in Black and White, Delhi-based blog Chanakya's World discusses what Obama's nomination could mean to India and its neighbours, the War on Terror and the delicate balance of power in a volatile part of the world.
Turkey, anti-Americanism and Obama
Michael Rubin’s WSJ op-ed on why the US should support the removal of Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan is bothersome. Having followed Turkey for the last two years somewhat closely (I make a conscious effort to listen to Turks in Boston and to look at Turkish newspapers and websites in my...
