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Elephant symbols of empowerment are too powerful for India’s Election Commission

These giant stone elephants sitting on their pedestals in a huge park outside Delhi are a symbol of India’s political development. Built here and in Uttar Pradesh’s capital city of Lucknow, along with other massive stone and bronze monuments, stupas, and domes at a reported cost of Rs4,500 crore ($1bn), they are designed to glorify [...]

By John Elliott from Riding the Elephant blog | The Foreign Desk - International dispatches from Independent correspondents - | Tuesday, 17 January 2012 at 8:19 am

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Honduran charter cities trample on democracy

A worrying development in Honduras echoes anti-democratic trends in Italy and Greece, whereby technocracy is usurping popular rule.
Honduras has long been one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere. A year ago, the National Party, with support from the opposition Liberal Party, decided to form the Región Especial de Desarrollo (RED), or Special Development [...]

By Suzy Dean | The Foreign Desk - International dispatches from Independent correspondents - | Monday, 16 January 2012 at 4:32 pm

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For Romney, it’s not over until the fat lady sings

Mitt Romney had to win big last night in the New Hampshire primary, to solidify his status as the putative frontrunner in the Republican presidential race.
He did, coming in with 40 percent of the vote, after scraping through in the Iowa caucuses with only eight votes more than his nearest rival. The result may [...]

By Anne Penketh | The Foreign Desk - International dispatches from Independent correspondents - | Wednesday, 11 January 2012 at 1:38 pm

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Why Ron Paul is dangerous – and why he’s not

For followers of US politics, Ron Paul, a 71-year-old congressman from Texas, is a strange figure. He’s running for president, a member of the Republican Party of long standing, yet he’s a man apart from the rest of the field, a near-pariah in much of the media, considered a non-entity by many and a kook by others. And despite all this, he has finished second in both of the Republican presidential primaries so far, rising quietly to crush establishment favourites like Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry.

By Tom Mendelsohn | The Foreign Desk - International dispatches from Independent correspondents - | Wednesday, 11 January 2012 at 1:21 pm

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Haiti 2012: Why are half a million people still in camps?

Two years on from the catastrophic earthquake which struck Haiti, killing more than 200,000 people and making millions more homeless, work to recover continues. Nearly a million people have now left the camps which sprang up after the disaster, a new Haitian Government has been sworn into power, and almosthalf of the 10 million cubic meters of debris has been cleared – the equivalent of 200 Olympic sized swimming pools so far.

By Mike Adamson | The Foreign Desk - International dispatches from Independent correspondents - | Wednesday, 11 January 2012 at 11:28 am

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The lessons to be learned from India’s unsung protests

The obligatory 2012 predictions have been made and the commentariat are unanimously forecasting doom and gloom. Pessimism, when rife, becomes contagious but these lamentations should be reserved in the case of India, where the greatest political movement since its independence is underway.

By Ram Mashru | The Foreign Desk - International dispatches from Independent correspondents - | Wednesday, 11 January 2012 at 12:00 am

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Sex selective abortions in Taiwan

Last year, Taiwan’s fertility rate became the world’s lowest, dropping from 1.03 in 2010 to a record low of just 0.9 in 2011. The government blamed the decreasing birth rate on people’s superstitions about which zodiac years were best for bearing children. It seems many people were waiting for the year of the dragon, which starts next week and is considered a particularly auspicious period to be born in.

By Simon Cotterill | The Foreign Desk - International dispatches from Independent correspondents - | Tuesday, 10 January 2012 at 10:40 am

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Reckless talk of war with Iran makes confrontation a probability

The temperature between the West and Iran has increased dramatically. Escalation by both sides coupled with a reckless discourse that has normalised the idea of war have created an environment where military confrontation is a rising probability. The next escalatory step pondered by Europe – in the midst of its own economic crisis – is a total embargo on Iranian oil. An idea that a few months ago was considered a non-starter now has an air of inevitability.

By Trita Parsi | The Foreign Desk - International dispatches from Independent correspondents - | Monday, 9 January 2012 at 11:22 am

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These Republican primaries are a sideshow – and so is the presidential election

While we’re all going doolally over which malignant Republican replicant is the least tragically flawed – a process which will be stretched over the course of six glorious months – the culture wars are still being fought just under the radar.

By Tom Mendelsohn | The Foreign Desk - International dispatches from Independent correspondents - | Thursday, 5 January 2012 at 11:39 am

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Ambani and Bajaj show what Indian industry can do, despite the government

Last year may have been disastrous for Indian politics, as I suggested in my blog last week, but top businessmen weren’t wasting time while the politicians failed to govern effectively. This was shown yesterday when two of the country’s top industrialists, Mukesh Ambani and Rajiv Bajaj, made announcements that could be game-changers. Both demonstrate the [...]

By John Elliott from Riding the Elephant blog | The Foreign Desk - International dispatches from Independent correspondents - | Wednesday, 4 January 2012 at 6:44 pm

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