In The News

A New Age of Protests

Frida Ghitis July 5, 2013
Turkey and Brazil are pointed to as economic models for developing nations. However, massive protests – and two contrasting responses – may tarnish their image. In Istanbul, a police crackdown contributed to a small protest over plans to destroy a park exploding in size and intensity, prompting questions if the Erdogan goals are security or authoritarian control. In Brazil, the largest protests...

World Cup Benefits Outsiders, Say Brazil Protesters

James Montague July 4, 2013
Brazil has many soccer fans, but protesters are questioning the conventional wisdom that massive sporting events deliver widespread benefits for host nations. Instead, the ongoing Confederations Cup has set the stage for protests on Brazil’s cost of living, the poor quality of education and high transport costs. “The initial spark for the protests was a rise in bus fares in Sao Paulo,” reports...

Turkey’s Economic Miracle Under Fire

Dilip Hiro June 13, 2013
Stability, democracy and integration with the global economy have transformed Turkey into a major regional power with a strong economy. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attracted admiration throughout the Arab world for his diplomatic stances – supporting Arab Spring protesters in Egypt and Libya in 2011 as well as the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in 2010 and, more recently, the Syrian rebels. Yet...

Turkish Stock Market Falls 10.5% as Demonstrations Escalate

June 12, 2013
Following several days of intense protests in Turkey, the country’s largest stock index, fell 10.47 percent and the lira dropped to a 16-month low. The protests were originally sparked by plans to transform an Istanbul park into a shopping center, but have since expanded into concerns over government policies with a religious bent. Foreign investment in the country had received a needed boost...

Rescuing the European Model

Joergen Oerstroem Moeller May 2, 2013
Europe has suffered through a debt crisis, but governments are trimming, not abandoning, social welfare programs. Such modifications could become a model for economic globalization around the globe, suggests Joergen Oerstroem Moeller, a senior research fellow with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. Europe is reducing budgets while preserving social protections for the future...

World Markets Roiled as Cyprus Bailout Deal Stalls

Eric Reguly March 18, 2013
Cyprus, with a population just over 1 million, is posing big challenges to global financial markets. The government failed to pass a €10-billion package that would have taxed bank deposits to pay for the rescue – 6.75 percent for deposits less than €100,000, 9.9 percent for those with more. “None of the euro zone’s sovereign and bank bailouts, from Ireland to Greece, has insisted that bank...

In Egypt, The Kids Are Not All Right

David Ignatius February 19, 2013
Protests for representative government and human rights in Egypt have given way to thuggery and lawlessness, suggests David Ignatius in an opinion essay for the Washington Post. He compares “soccer thugs” roaming Egypt’s streets, defying authority, to the aggressive youth gangs in the 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. “They seem to disrespect their fathers’ generation for having...