There are some mixed signals emerging from China in regard to Google’s threat to pull out of the country – some of them quite startling. Below are three articles on the issue published in state-controlled newspapers over the past three days. The first article by Li Hongmei of the People’e Daily is what one would have expected. Li Hongmei charges that by threatening to leave China due to censorship...

Environmentalists who devote their time in a self-less manner towards making this earth more sustainable, have been in spotlight for quite a while now. This reflects their genuine concern, and also consideration for the coming generations. As Mahatma Gandhi put it succinctly: “There is enough for everyone’s need; but not enough for everyone’s greed.” However, there are also people who...

Scott Brown’s victory last night in the special election for Ted Kennedy’s old senate seat hasn’t gone unnoticed on the other side of the Atlantic. For France’s L’Express, correspondent Philippe Coste seems to share the conclusions of many American commentators: This isn’t the moment to demean the word catastrophe, but the quite overwhelming victory of Republican Scott...

To see an article in China’s state-sanctioned media like this one is rare indeed – and it may signal a real sea-change in U.S.-China relations. Indeed, given the amount of U.S. debt Beijing holds, one might call it downright chilling. For China’s state-controlled Geographic Times, columnist Long Tao, described as a ‘senior strategic commentator,’ writes in part: In 30 years of...

Yes, I would vote for her if I was eligible to vote in Massachusetts.  And yes, I do expect she will win. I could be wrong – wouldn’t be the first time (I wanted Joe Biden in the 2008 primary), but that’s my prediction. Regular readers can guess why: I’m a reliable left of center voter except on a few issues (I vote against casinos and am very independent when Israel is involved, rarely...

She’s 46 today… On Friday she celebrated with her staff (pictured). Last night the president took her to a surprise dinner bash at Restaurant Nora, an organic restaurant in Dupont Circle: [A] special lamb dish for her, and pan-seared Maine lobster and saffron risotto for him. They drank Spottswood sauvignon blanc. And after nearly four hours of partying in an upstairs private room at Nora, the president...

‘I KNOW, DARK COLORS MAKE ME LOOK THINNER!’ The apparent attempted attack on Delta/Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day is not an occurrence that easily lends itself to humor. Nevertheless, this tongue-in-cheek article by Jassim al-Mutair of Iraq’s Sotal Iraq newspaper takes the opportunity to make fun of, from his point of view, excessive Muslim sensitivity over new U.S. security...

As should be clear, the attempted Christmas Day terrorist attack by Umar Farouk Abdul Muttalab has further tarnished the image of Islam and all of those who believe in it. Some have criticized Islamic leaders for not being more vocal about disagreeing with al-Qaeda and those who share the group’s ghoulish credo. So stepping into the breach on behalf of his fellow Muslims is Moroccan columnist Mohammad...

The controversy surrounding the movie Avatar has taken on a bit of a Cold War tinge, only this time, Russian Communists and American right-wingers have joined forces against common enemies: James Cameron and the Obama White House! With Republican pundits and blogs attacking Cameron for appearing to criticize the American military, Russian communists are calling for an international arrest warrant against the...

The global commentary about the movie Avatar keeps on coming – and one might say, getting stranger. Along with reports that Russian communists want to have James Cameron arrested for pilfering the work of Russian science fiction writers, this article from Bolivia likens the film’s main character to Jesus Christ. For the BolPress of Bolivia, columnist Huascar Vega Ledo writes in part: The word “avatar”...

AIR INSPECTOR: ‘DO YOU HAVE ANY LIQUIDS IN HERE?’ TERRORIST: ‘NO’ For many people outside the United States, the following sentence summarizes America’s reaction to the attempted terrorist bombing on Christmas Day: “Fourteen countries have been penalized because of the failures of U.S. intelligence.” After fleshing out this conviction, Raul Sohr of Chile’s La...

Recruiment goes on at al-Qaeda … Two weeks after al-Qaeda’s Christmas day bombing attempt, the theme of terrorism continues to dominate global commentary about the United States. Today we posted two articles on the theme, one from France’s Liberation about the abysmal failure of Osama bin Laden, and another from Brazil’s Folha about the silarly devastating failure of political economist...

At a time when the airlines are struggling for survival in the wake of rising fuel prices, the rail revolution in China, and the rail renewal in Europe, is drawing worldwide attention. Experts believe that these developments would immensely benefit the USA which lags far behind in the rail travel sector at present. An earlier CNN report said: “By 2010, the continent’s (Europe’s) rail operators...

Why is it that Charlie Sheen has not been suspended from his job on a CBS sitcom? And why hasn’t he been required both to get help and to face whatever unconscionably-delayed judicial charges may be pending from his December 25 altercation with his wife? Hanes, the undewear people, have already dropped Sheen for fear that his inveterate abuse of women is bad for their company’s image. I realize that...

James Cameron’s film Avatar is proving to be a kind of global Rorschach test. Here are two articles that show the way people see a reflection of their own circumstances in the film, which is being lauded as a revolution in cinema. From Belgium, De Standaard columnist Oscar van den Boogaard writes about his extraordinary experience seeing Avatar, and why the film is a landmark in modern history: The world...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech yesterday to commemorate the 15th Anniversary of the first International Conference on Population and Development. That gathering included a total of thousands of delegates from 179 countries. You can watch the entire presentation here on CSPAN-2 (and it includes remarks by the first ever Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, Melanne Verveer...

I keep thinking about downloading Bob Dylan’s 1974 LP, Planet Waves from iTunes. With all the snow we’ve had lately, I’ve had the song, ‘On a Night Like This,’ from that collection, echoing in my brain. I remember buying and listening repeatedly to the vinyl release when it came out back then, about the same time I fell in love with my wife, snow and ice all around. Sigh. Our first...

Is it fair for Nigeria to have been be put on a list of 14 nations considered sponsors of terrorism or “countries of interest?” While complaining that the screw-up in the case of Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab rests primarily with U.S. intelligence agencies, this editorial from Nigeria’s Daily Independent lacks the reflexive defensiveness seen from the country in recent days. It contains plenty...

Who’s in charge?: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at a Russian ski resort near Sochi, Southern Russia, Jan. 3. How much influence does Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wield over foreign affairs almost two years from stepping down as Russian president? According to this article from Russia’s pro-opposition Yezhednevniy Zhurnal, Putin regularly steps on President...

An embarrassed President Obama turns down the Academy Award for best male lead, insisting that he’s not an actor, Mar. 7. Here’s a bit of cross-cultural New Year’s fun from columnist Patrik Etschmayer of Switzerland’s Nachrichten newspaper. According to Etschmayer, 2010 will be an embarrassing one for President Obama, but even more so for Republicans, after their plot to have President...

Silvana Bianchi, maternal grandmother of Sean Goldman, the nine-year-old boy at the center of an international custody battle, cries after Sean was handed over to his American father, David Goldman. What country – and what family – does Sean Goldman, a nine-year-old boy at the center of an international custody dispute, prefer? After a bruising four-year custody battle over him and if his Brazilian...

A month ago on December 7, 2009, I wrote a post about the professional Golfer extraordinaire that upset some TMV readers. Good. I like plenty of controversy and getting people mad – something that I learned to abuse to the benefit of my clients during my former law practice. I ranted against the overall meaningless ethical and moral code of the wealthiest people on the planet. I also ridiculed the many...

Beyond the question of what it means to the sport of golf, coverage of the Tiger Woods affair reflects that never-ending battle between the American Puritans and the European sophisticates. Continuing our coverage of this European-American cultural fissure, sports columnist Jean-Louis Aragon writes for France’s Le Monde: A few casual sexual encounters are exposed and, presto, the most beautiful kind...

Here’s a story that has gone under the radar screens of most Americans, but which almost uniformly angers and confuses Muslims around the world. Days ago, a U.S. federal court judge threw out charges against five former Blackwater security guards implicated in the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad’s Nisour Square in 2007. This article by K. Selim of Algeria’s Le Quotidien d’Oran...

‘THE TRAVELS OF THE MAGI’ A little over a week after the alleged terrorist attack aboard an American aircraft, a pattern is emerging. While European writers tend to think new U.S. rules for passengers are ineffective if not absurd, many Arab columnists believe that the suspicious aspects of the case suggest that some kind of plot to demonize Muslims and extend the war on terror is involved. For...