It’s hardly been eight years since the United States invaded Iraq, toppled Saddam Hussein and installed a democratic regime in a region where authoritarian rule is the norm. And now the entire Middle East, from Algeria to Yemen, is being rocked by anti-government protesters demanding that their leaders step aside and make way for democracy.…
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Booming Chinese economy passes Japan’s as world’s second largest
Five years can change a lot as the Japanese economy has recently found out. Just half a decade ago, China’s gross domestic product was around $2.3 trillion, about half of Japan’s.
This week China’s economy officially overtook Japan’s to be the second largest in the world behind the United States. This interchange is attributed to…
Egypt prepares for democracy
After several days of unrest, Hosni Mubarak finally stepped down from his 30-year reign last Friday and a transition of power to the armed forces took place.
More than two weeks of nonstop protest have passed and the Egyptian people are on their way towards a new government. Despite this situation, the transition isn’t going…
World Wide Web: Has social media revolutionized revolutions?
Both the Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions may not have been possible without Mark Zuckerberg.
Anti-government protestors used Facebook to organize huge demonstrations in the streets of Tunis and Cairo. Then when Ben Ali and Mubarak began cracking down on media outlets, protestors used hashtags on Twitter to let the world know what was going on.…
World Wide Web: Jimmy Carter’s revolution
How important is the promotion of democracy to U.S. foreign policy?
To many Americans, this nation’s main mission is to promote freedom and democracy throughout the world. And as revolution takes hold in Egypt, and protests continue to plague Jordan, Americans have been annoyingly reminded that the United States is thoroughly enmeshed in the business…
The Reiser's Edge: ObamaCare: selling hope and headaches
When you ask people what the purpose of government is, you’re going to get a lot of different answers. “Government exists to protect its citizens,” or “government exists to serve the people,” or something along either of those lines.
What President Barack Obama plans to do with his health care plan is to do exactly…
Islamic world ready for change
In December 2010, protests broke out in Tunisia, eventually paving the way for the ousting of longtime President Ben Ali by the end of January 2011.
His ousting then sparked a revolution in Egypt against the 30-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak, as well as anti-government demonstrations in Algeria, Yemen and Jordan.
Cases of self-immolation…
Bush cancels Swiss trip after human rights groups threaten action
It’s no secret that former President George W. Bush has received his fair share of criticism over the years for his stance on waterboarding and torture. Last week, however, Bush tasted a new flavor of criticism. He was forced to cancel a trip to Geneva, where he was to speak at a Jewish charity dinner,…
Southern Sudan chooses independence
Ours is a lucky generation. One-hundred ninety-two countries have gained independence and are recognized as sovereign states. But for most of us, these countries’ births and their struggles during infancy is but a fascinating read about distant history.
The struggles of the Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence, the composition of a national anthem, the…
Egypt following in Tunisia’s footsteps
Egypt President Hosni Mubarak is a man with an incredible knack for survival. In his 30-year rule of the country, Mubarak has faced five assassination attempts and lived through all of them. But this time, it is not an ambush of his motorcade or a sniper’s bullets that are coming at him. It is the…
The Reiser's Edge: We’re not the only “Land of Opportunity”
Along with 12 of my fellow students, I partook in one of the school’s immersion trips over winter break to the Dominican Republic and had a wonderful experience. After witnessing the lack of opportunity for the people that we met in one of the nation’s many small villages (called bateys) made up of poor sugar…
World Wide Web: Egypt & the glory days
For decades, Egypt was the juggernaut of the Arab world. As the most populous and powerful Arabic country, it was Israel’s primary military foe. And its leader, the legendary Gamal Abdul Nasser, united Arabs and gave hope to the people of Palestine.
But in a peace treaty brokered by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, Egypt…
2010 economic output regains pre-recession levels
Economic output in the United State finally regained pre-recession levels as consumer spending and exports grew in the final quarter of 2010. U.S. gross domestic product (GDP0, a measure of the country’s economic output, jumped 0.6 percent in the fourth quarter, moving from a 2.6 percent annual rate to a 3.2 percent pace.
Many economists…
Rwanda immersion group meets president
John Carroll University’s mission statement was proven true this past January when students and faculty and staff members from the University traveled to Rwanda for a 12-day immersion experience in the small African country known as the “Land of a Thousand Hills.”
Well-Known for the tragic 1994 genocide that took the lives of over 500,000…
World Wide Web: The Middle East is burning
It was embarrassment that drove Mohamed Bouzazi to douse himself in paint thinner and light himself on fire. After the apples that he sold to support his family were confiscated by government workers; after he was slapped in the face and publicly beaten by them – twice; after one of them insulted his dead father;…
Revolution in Tunisia ‘rocks the Casbah’
Tunisians took to the streets in late December to protest against high food prices, limited political and social freedom, unemployment and government corruption. That quartet of factors had been as much a part of their lives as the 23-year rule of former President Zain Al Abidine Ben Ali.
Initially, their aim was to see their…
Sudan: It’s more than a game
Thousands of miles separate us from Sudan. In fact, I recently encountered an interesting flight schedule on Expedia. Fly from Cleveland to Toronto, Toronto to Montreal, Montreal to Brussels, Brussels to Entebbe, Entebbe to Nairobi and finally, Nairobi to Khartoum, Sudan. So why should we care about it?
The truth is that in an increasingly…
Historic vote draws near in Sudan
A month from today, on Jan. 9, the world may witness either the birth of a new nation or the beginning of a bloody genocide in southern Sudan.
On that day, the south is scheduled to go to the polls to decide whether or not to secede from the rest of the country. The vote…
Talks on Iranian nuclear program get nowhere, but future talks planned
A session of talks concluded Tuesday between six major powers and Iran over its nuclear program, with scarce signs of advancement. The meeting was the first in 14 months among Iran and the five United Nations Security Council permanent members (the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia) plus Germany.
A further meeting was scheduled…
WikiLeaks exposes secret U.S. foreign policy
Thanks to independent Australian journalist and hacker Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, the curtain has been pulled back on hundreds of thousands of American diplomatic documents and cables, otherwise kept secret from the public.
Published via WikiLeaks, top-secret information dealing with the international relations of the United States has been put on the Internet for…
