Making things look better
The government in Nigeria seems convinced that we just don't understand. So they've hired some help to teach us. Oh, and maybe it will help teach the Nigerians who are also confused.
Nicholas Ibekwe, writing in
The Premium Times, seems convinced that the purpose of the PR campaign is a substitute for effective governance. Do you agree? How do other media present this story?
Nigeria hires U.S. lobby firm for N195 million to launder image over handling of Chibok abduction
The Nigerian government has come under local and international condemnation over its far-from-impressive handling of the Chibok abduction.
In order to whitewash its inept handling of the kidnap of over 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by the terrorist group, Boko Haram, the Goodluck Jonathan administration has awarded a N195 million ($1.2 million) contract to U.S. Public Relations and lobby firm, Levick, to help change “international and local media narrative” surrounding its efforts to rescue the girls, Washington DC based newspaper, The Hill, is reporting…
The Federal Government has come under severe criticism from local and international media for its lethargic handling of the abduction, prompting the ruling party, The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to accuse the opposition of sponsoring a media campaign to discredit the government…
Details contained in the contract document obtained by The Hill show that the firm will also be “assisting the government’s efforts to mobilize international support in fighting Boko Haram as part of the greater war on terror”.
The firm also promised to assist the government in effecting “real change” in the country…
Levick will also be working with Jared Genser, a human rights attorney, who has worked for notable personalities such as South African Nobel Peace Prize winner, Desmond Tutu and Burmese pro-democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi in the past to publicise “President Goodluck Jonathan Administration’s past, present and future priority to foster transparency, democracy and the rule of law throughout Nigeria.”…
The contract shows that Levick will be paid N11,625,000.00 ($75,000.00) by month for its effort plus extra cost for advertisements, video production and website development. This will be done through an unnamed state-owned media agency…
I've used my quota for free articles from
The Washington Post so I have to rely on
The BBC for this bit of news.
Goodluck Jonathan: Silence isn't inaction
More than 200 school girls remain missing after they were kidnapped by the Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram... leading some critics to question Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan's relative silence.
In Friday's Washington Post, Mr Jonathan offers his response.
"I have had to remain quiet about the continuing efforts by Nigeria's military, police and investigators to find the girls," he writes. "I am deeply concerned, however, that my silence as we work to accomplish the task at hand is being misused by partisan critics to suggest inaction or even weakness."...
This connects with the news above in this way, according to Hayes Brown: The liberal website ThinkProgress notes that Mr Jonathan's opinion piece appeared in the Washington Post thanks to a new, $1.2m [£0.7m] deal the Nigerian president recently signed with the US public relations firm Levick.
"The use of PR firms to place op-eds and other commentary from world leaders is not a rarity," writes Hayes Brown. "As for the effect that the new PR blitz will actually have on changing the narrative, Africa hands are sceptical."
He quotes an Africa expert, Laura Seay, who says that "people on the ground" in Nigeria are going to read Mr Jonathan's column "and laugh, they're going to not believe it, because it's not reflective of the reality."
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
What You Need to Know SIXTH edition is COMING SOON.
Labels: Nigeria, politics, terrorism
Lessons from the past
This topic is more complex and layered than most. It probably deserves research and discussion.
Everyone learns from the past. Some of the learning is very personal. Other learning is political and cultural. School curricula are shaped by authorities so people learn specific political and cultural lessons.
China may be the most obvious example, but it happens everywhere. (Heard of
"sundown towns" in the USA? (See the works of
James Lowen for more examples from the USA.)
In China, some bits of the past are officially revived (see
Confucius Institutes and
Lei Feng).
Here's another example from contemporary China that suggests what problems can arise.
Remember what Orwell said. "
Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past." Does that work well?
Graduates’ Red Guard Photos Cast Doubt on What They Learned
 |
| During the Cultural Revolution, no one would have smiled. |
The photographs show a young man, held down in a bowing position by what appear to be five Red Guards, the youthful fanatics who terrorized China in the name of Chairman Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution. A conical hat sits on his head, a leather belt chokes his throat, and a sign denouncing him as a traitor hangs from his neck with a nylon cord. But the young man is barely suppressing a grin, and the tableau was staged as part of a university graduation celebration.
The photos, taken last week at Northeast Agricultural University in the northeastern city of Harbin, have gone viral on Chinese websites and drawn considerable comment — about the decade-long political convulsions of the Cultural Revolution, about the ruling Communist Party’s suppression of public discussion of the less savory episodes in its history, and about the consequences for a younger generation that has grown up with little knowledge of its elders’ sufferings…
The historian Zhang Lifan said in an interview: “This is a result of covering up the history of the Cultural Revolution, which has left the public unable to tell right from wrong.”…
Another Weibo commenter, a lawyer named Yang Genfei, said: “Maybe these college kids think it’s funny, but these photos expose so many serious issues. Could German students pose for graduation photos in Nazi uniforms? The Japanese should apologize” to the Chinese people for war crimes, “but what about ourselves?”
Although the Communist Party officially repudiated the Cultural Revolution in 1981, and agreed that Mao Zedong made some mistakes, the party rarely discusses that period in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when millions were imprisoned, tortured or sent to their deaths.
In the absence of a thorough examination of that decade’s excesses, a certain nostalgia has emerged for a more socialist era of plain ways and supposedly greater equality. The purged politician Bo Xilai had tapped into this in campaigns in the southwestern city Chongqing that included singing songs in praise of Mao Zedong and sending cadres to work in rural villages.
Though Mr. Bo was sentenced to life in prison in October 2013 for corruption and abuse of power, others have continued to speak up for Maoist principles…
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
What You Need to Know SIXTH edition is COMING SOON.
Labels: China, history, political culture, politics
People or territory?
In Iraq, the rebels are capturing territory. In Nigeria, other rebels are capturing people. And the governments? What do the government responses tell us about capacity, legitimacy, politics, and leadership?
Boko Haram Suspected of New Kidnappings in Nigeria
Militants are suspected of having abducted dozens more girls and women in northeastern Nigeria, news reports said on Tuesday, reviving concerns about hundreds of schoolgirls who were kidnapped in the same region in April and have yet to be rescued.
Quoting witnesses and officials in the area, the reports said that 60 girls and women, and possibly more than 30 boys, had been seized in the village of Kummabza, about 100 miles from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State…
On Monday, at least eight people were killed and 20 others wounded by an explosion on a college campus in Kano, northern Nigeria. It was not immediately known whether the attack was part of Boko Haram’s campaign to promote an Islamic state…
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
What You Need to Know SIXTH edition is COMING SOON.
Labels: capacity, Nigeria, terrorism
Defending soft power
Soft power is a concept that easily gets lost in the study of comparative politics. When the Chinese government first established Confucius Institutes, observers appropriately pointed to them as the use of soft power to extend the influence of the nation state. When critics appeared recently, the government-run media defended the institutes.
Fear or Ignorance Drives Confucius Institutes’ Critics, Xinhua Says
Chinese state media on Tuesday defended the spread of Confucius Institutes worldwide, lashing back at a recent call for North American universities to rethink their links with the cultural and language programs, which are backed by the Chinese government.
The American Association of University Professors recently argued that universities that form partnerships with Confucius Institutes sacrifice their integrity and that of their academic staff. The criticism of one of China’s most visible soft-power initiatives struck a sour note with Xinhua, the state news agency, which dismissed the group’s concerns as stemming from “either fear of other cultures or ignorance — or both.”…
The professors’ association, whose focus is promoting academic freedom, had warned that the institutes “function as an arm of the Chinese state and are allowed to ignore academic freedom.” The organization called for universities to end their partnerships with Confucius Institutes or renegotiate their contracts…
The discussion has heated up as the number of institutes has grown rapidly in recent years. Just 10 years after the first Confucius Institute was opened in South Korea, there are now 440 of them, around a quarter of which are based in North America…
Confucius, once the target of attacks in the Cultural Revolution along with other remnants of “old China,” has since been rehabilitated in the eyes of official China. (Xinhua’s editorial refers to him as the “great Chinese sage.”)
Last November, President Xi Jinping visited the sage’s hometown and noted the success of Confucius Institutes abroad, even among “some countries that have ideological prejudices against” China…
See also:
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
What You Need to Know SIXTH edition is COMING SOON.
Labels: China, concepts, SoftPower
Language according to Slavophiles
The French have been outlawing words for many years. Now the Russians may be about to. (But, is Slavophile an imported word?)
Without Foreign Words, Here's What Russians Can't Talk About Anymore
You could call it cultural imperialism. You could call it nationalism. You could even call it absurd.
Except, under a new plan supported by the State Duma's Culture Committee, you really couldn't. Because the plan proposes to ban foreign words from public speech in Russia — including terms like the ones used above.
Aimed at protecting the Russian language, the new bill would see citizens face a fine for using words that have roots in another language.
It would also deprive the language of some of its most interesting, complex and evocative terms — as well as making some subject matters virtually impossible to talk about.
Small talk has just gotten that much harder now that these five topics could become taboo…
The story of how Peter the Great worked undercover at a Dutch shipyard during his Grand Embassy is famous… But Russians would have a hard time even talking about shipbuilding and seafaring without the Dutch language.
Upon his return to Russia, the Tsar brought with him not only Dutch shipbuilding expertise to strengthen the Russian navy, but also a myriad of Dutch terms. Without каюта (cabin), шкипер (skipper), киль (keel) and флагшток (flagstaff), there wouldn't be much of a boat to begin with…
Don't get us started on Latin. For the starting letter "a" alone, there are hundreds of words in Russian whose roots trace back to ancient Rome…
Many professions take their Russian names from German terms. Without them, there's no… секретарь (secretary) to take dictation, no коммандир (commander) leading his troops. You'd also have to grow your hair long without the парикмахер (literally, the "wig-maker") to cut them for you…
When St.Petersburg was Russia's capital, everyone looked to France as the example to follow. Needless to say, this has left Russia with beaucoup de French words. And it is telling that without French, you couldn't come home to find someone waiting on the шезлонг (chaise longue) wearing a неглиже (negligée)…
Without English, working in Russia would be nigh impossible to talk about. No бизнес-ланч (business lunch) for the hungry бизнесме́н (businessmen) and his colleagues, whether they work in маркетинг (marketing) or пиар (pr).
Back at the office, they'd be hard pressed to get their work done - what with no компьютер (computer), no Интернет (Internet), no бра́узер (browser) and no Принтер (printer). And if they do manage to send a mail, they can't even sign off with a Смайлик (smiley)…
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
What You Need to Know SIXTH edition is COMING SOON.
Labels: nationalism, politics, Russia
Political bargaining
What can PAN get for its support of PRI policies that it advocated for 12 years while its candidates occupied the presidency?
Mexican political parties at impasse over key reforms
The conservative National Action Party (PAN) said this week it would only support an energy overhaul bill if Peña Nieto agrees to electoral changes that could weaken the ruling party's hold on power.
The president's Institutional Revolutionary Party, the PRI, is resisting the electoral reform package despite agreeing to it earlier…
Although much of this back-and-forth may be political brinkmanship, the PAN’s actions have the potential of threatening the energy measures, which amount to a far-reaching program to open Mexico’s struggling oil-and-gas industry to foreign investment for the first time in nearly 70 years.
Without these new laws, proponents argue, Mexico could become an oil-importing country within a decade or so…
Improved oil and gas production is also considered key to spurring Mexico's sluggish economic growth.
 |
| Pemex oil platform |
The left is adamantly opposed to opening up the industry, saying it will allow foreign companies to take the lion’s share at the expense of Mexican patrimony…
The election reforms that the PAN wants, and that it says the PRI agreed to, include allowing re-election of most posts, such as mayors and legislators (banned in the constitution), and candidacies by independent contenders…
The electoral reform would in effect end that system, and also take the appointing of regional election officials out of the hands of the president and give it to the federal Senate…
The PAN finished a poor third in 2012 presidential and statehouse elections and has been struggling to overcome internal battles and rebuild itself…
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
What You Need to Know SIXTH edition is COMING SOON.
Labels: economics, Mexico, politics
Politics as usual in the south; missing girls in the north
It's a gubernatorial election. To me the significant factor is that the incumbent governor has joined the APC and President Jonathan has a big stake in the outcome.
Crowds Turn Out for Nigerian Vote Seen as Test Case for 2015
Large crowds of voters gathered in Nigeria's southwest Ekiti state on Saturday for a hotly contested local election that will be scrutinized for fairness and signs of violence ahead of next year's national poll.
 |
| Ekiti |
The election for state governor - a powerful position in Africa's biggest economy - will also be a barometer for President Goodluck Jonathan's ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), which in 2015 is likely to see its sternest test since sweeping to power after the end of military rule in 1998…
Governors are among the most powerful figures in Africa's largest oil producer. Some control budgets bigger than those of many African countries and their influence carries a great deal of weight in selecting presidential candidates…
The election pits the incumbent Kayode Fayemi, a member of the APC, against former governor Ayo Fayose of the PDP. Opeyemi Bamidele, a Labour Party lawmaker, is also running…
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
What You Need to Know SIXTH edition is COMING SOON.
Labels: elections, Nigeria, political parties, politics
Anti-corruption beginning at the top
It appears that Chinese President Xi Jinping is trying to demonstrate that cleaning up corruption can begin with his own family.
As China’s Leader Fights Graft, His Relatives Shed Assets
 |
| President Xi |
As President Xi Jinping of China prepares to tackle what may be the biggest cases of official corruption in more than six decades of Communist Party rule, new evidence suggests that he has been pushing his own family to sell hundreds of millions of dollars in investments, reducing his own political vulnerability.
In January of last year, just after Mr. Xi took power, his older sister and brother-in-law finalized the sale of their 50 percent stake in a Beijing investment company they had set up in partnership with a state-owned bank…
From 2012 until this year, Mr. Xi’s sister… and brother-in-law… sold investments in at least 10 companies, mostly focused on mining and real estate. In all, the companies the couple sold, liquidated or, in one case, transferred to a close business associate, are worth hundreds of millions of dollars…
No investment stakes have been tied directly to Mr. Xi or his wife and daughter. But the extensive business activities of his sister and brother-in-law are part of a widespread pattern among relatives of the Politburo elite, who have built up considerable fortunes by trading on their family’s political standing…
The elite ruling families of China have accumulated billions of dollars in assets, including company shares and real estate, in the past decade as China’s economy has boomed. Many of the investments are in areas such as mining, infrastructure and property that involve the privatization of formerly state-owned assets…
That accumulation of wealth has led to calls for officials to disclose their assets amid surging income inequality that is among the highest in the world and far greater than in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan: neighbors that, unlike China, do not have Communist roots…
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
What You Need to Know SIXTH edition is COMING SOON.
Labels: China, corruption, leadership, politics
Religious politics in the north of Nigeria
Traditional leaders in Nigeria have a great deal of authority even though they're not mentioned in the constitution. In the north, the traditional leaders are religious authorities and usually stay out of politics, but the newest emir is already enmeshed in politics. What affects will this have?
Modern mind in a seat of tradition
RESPLENDENT in sweeping robes and twirled turbans, Nigeria’s emirs, scions of the northern sultans of yore, are still among the most influential leaders of the country. The most recent addition to their ranks, Lamido Sanusi, is already one of Nigeria’s foremost figures—and has one of its best minds. His recent election as emir of Kano makes him the country’s second-highest authority in the Muslim north… His appointment may also create tension with President Goodluck Jonathan, who sacked him in February as governor of the central bank after Mr Sanusi spoke out against corruption in high places.
 |
| Kano in north central Nigeria |
For centuries before the British imperialists arrived in what is now northern Nigeria, the emirs ruled as kings. Today they hold little constitutional power, but their influence is still huge. They act as peacemakers, rally public opinion, preserve religious tradition, and endorse political candidates. On paper, they are neutral. But Mr Sanusi’s election is politically charged.
 |
| Sanusi as emir |
When Kano’s respected former emir, Ado Abdallahi Bayero, died on June 6th, many expected his son to succeed him. A committee of kingmakers usually presents a list of candidates for the position, but Kano’s state governor, a member of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) party, took the final decision. By picking Mr Sanusi, he has entrenched a vocal critic of the government in the emirate…
Mr Sanusi has a history of speaking out against government corruption and presidential ineptitude. He was sacked by Mr Jonathan as the bank’s governor for alleging that oil revenue worth $20 billion had gone missing from the national coffers.
As emir he will be expected to be less controversial…
But he is bound to rub up against the country’s floundering establishment. He is sure to influence the views of the northern electorate and its political classes as next year’s presidential election approaches. And he may bolster the APC’s current dominance in the Muslim north. Some predict that the 2015 vote could be the closest since Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999.
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
What You Need to Know SIXTH edition is COMING SOON.
Labels: cleavages, leadeship, Nigeria, politics
A nation without a state? A state without a nation?
Once again, case studies from beyond the AP6. Excerpts from this bit of journalism (which is more careful about labels than most) could help introduce students to important concepts.
Iraq is a state but not a nation; Kurdistan is the opposite
It’s pretty hard to keep one’s mind straight about the artificial concept of “nation-state.” The world is organized according to this construct. The inhabited world is divided into states, each of which has boundaries and a government. If someone tries to change the boundaries from the outside, it’s a war. From the inside, it’s a civil war. When all the boundaries are being respected and everyone within each state accepts the legitimacy of the government, at least until the next election, it’s peace.
These “nation-states” seem to work best when what the world calls a country coincides with the other meaning of the word “nation,” a population bound together by a shared identity of some kind, including elements of history, ethnicity, language, religion and a dose or two of secret sauce. It also helps if the population has coexisted within boundaries that are accepted as legitimate, by the nation and by its neighbors, for a long time. Nation-states that have all of these attributes are actually fairly rare, but they do have significant advantages in avoiding wars and civil wars.
Iraq… is comprised of three major groups that have plenty of grudges against one another and little history of peaceful coexistence except during periods of foreign domination or brutal tyranny. Iraq is a fairly recent construct. A nation-state in the size, shape and borders of what we call “Iraq” had absolutely no history before World War I…
Iraq is a state but not a nation. Kurdistan is the opposite.
Kurds are a distinct ethnic group, with their own language and culture. They are actually probably the fourth biggest ethnicity in the Middle East… The Kurds are the largest Mideast “nation” that has no state they control or in which they are the majority.
 |
| Iraqi "Kurdistan" |
But… that’s not because the Kurds are too scattered to constitute a state of their own. In fact, most… Kurds… live in a concentrated contiguous territory that is separated by the boundaries of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and a tiny bit of Armenia.
If the world drew a boundary around the territory of “Kurdistan,” it would be an overwhelmingly Kurdish nation with a population in the range of 30 million or so, a mountainous territory roughly the size of Nebraska…
The state of “Kurdistan” might be quite a prosperous nation if it ever existed. The Kurdish region of Turkey is rich in water resources… The Iraqi region has oil…
In the chaos of the ISIS takeover of Mosul and the humiliating, chaotic retreat of Iraqi troops, the well-trained and disciplined Kurdish paramilitary (known as the “Peshmerga,” which translates as “those who face death”) moved quickly into Kirkuk and control it as of this writing.
BBC reporter Jim Muir was in the Kurdish region as this was happening and wrote:
With the rest of Iraq apparently disintegrating along sectarian lines, and the central government in Baghdad in disarray, it will clearly be a long time before an Iraqi authority can challenge the Kurds' absorption of what they have long seen as the rightful jewel in their crown.
There’s no telling where the story will go next…
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
What You Need to Know SIXTH edition is COMING SOON.
Labels: concepts, nation, state
Is France a democracy?
Don't panic! France is NOT being added back into the comparative curriculum. But Jennifer Biddy, who teaches at North Cobb HS in Kennesaw, GA, offers this little case study from the BBC Magazine, written by the chief economist of
The Economist Intelligence Unit.
So, ask away and then answer: Is France a democracy? Is the UK? Is the USA? What qualities are necessary for a country to be labeled a democracy?
The 'flaws' of French democracy
Is France a democracy? Most people would assume there is a straightforward answer - "Yes". After all, France has free and fair elections. However, there is more to a truly democratic society than elections alone, writes Simon Baptist of The Economist Intelligence Unit.
France is a democracy, but not a full democracy, according to the newly published sixth edition of The Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index. More accurately, it is a "flawed democracy".
They give it a score of 7.92 out of 10, below the 25 countries that scored 8.00 or above - all full democracies…
So, what is it that lets France down?
France is up there with the top democracies in regard to its electoral process, civil liberties, and political participation - which refers to such things as voter turnout, the number of women MPs and preparedness to participate in lawful demonstrations. It is let down by its relatively poor showing in terms of functioning of government and political culture…
Consider the power of the French parliament… France's legislature… is one of the weakest in Europe. Because the president wields huge power, it is difficult for the legislature to shape legislation and hold the government to account…
French citizens, by their own admission, have very low trust in government or political parties - surveys show them to be some of the most disaffected in Europe. The autumn 2013 Eurobarometer survey, for example, revealed that only 7% of French people trust their political parties, while only 14% trust the national government…
So, which countries do they rate as the most democratic in the world? This group includes the five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) along with New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland, Canada and tiny Luxembourg. (The US comes in at 19th.)…
Top 10 Full Democracies
- Norway: 9.93
- Sweden: 9.73
- Iceland: 9.65
- Denmark: 9.38
- New Zealand: 9.26
- Australia: 9.13
- Switzerland: 9.09
- Canada: 9.08
- Finland: 9.03
- Luxembourg: 8.88
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
What You Need to Know SIXTH edition is COMING SOON.
Labels: concepts, democracy
Party membership in China
Let's see if I got this right: If you restrict the supply, membership should become more valuable. If it's more valuable, members should become more responsive to the direction by Party leaders.
CPC requires "prudent" recruitment of new members
Revamped rules on recruitment of Communist Party of China (CPC) members will apply more stringent standards to management of Party members, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee vowed on Wednesday…
Under the new version, all localities and organizations are required to enlist new Party members in a "prudent" and "balanced" manner…
The rules stipulate that efforts should be made to limit the size of the Party and to improve its structure and quality…
Furthermore, stringent discipline should also be applied in the daily management of Party members, who should be enterprising and play exemplary roles, according to the new regulations.
Xie Chuntao, a professor with the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC, said that recent years have seen unqualified members infiltrate the Party, while both corrupt officials and those who are inactive should be weeded out…
The new rules also highlighted the ideological credentials of Party members, providing that grass-roots Party organizations should absorb those who believe in Marxism, communism and socialism with Chinese characteristics, and those who practice socialist core values…
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
What You Need to Know SIXTH edition is COMING SOON.
Labels: China, Communist Party, political culture, politics
Changing a political culture
Changing a political culture is difficult. It's a slow process even when the desire for change is powerful. In Mexico, one influence comes from the north, but perhaps not in the most obvious way.
Mexico's vigilante movement has a strong U.S. connection
Sporting a semiautomatic assault rifle and a "213" area code tattoo, Cuauhtemoc Espejo boarded the passenger bus and checked riders' IDs.
Espejo, who returned to Mexico's Tierra Caliente from California's Central Valley a few years ago, is a member of one of the vigilante bands that in recent months took over large parts of Michoacan state dominated for nearly a decade by drug and extortion cartels.
"There is a lot of fear, uncertainty now," Espejo said as he made sure nobody from the notorious Knights Templar gang was on the bus.
Many of the vigilantes, like Espejo, are returnees from California, where they worked in farm fields and factories before being deported or coming back voluntarily to protect their long-suffering families here.
Some say a key lesson they learned in the U.S. was that rampant extortion and the kind of brutality that the Knights Templar were spawning should not be permitted — and can be stopped…
The U.S. connection has helped inspire fundraising events from Southern California to Chicago. But the strength — and actions — of some of the vigilante groups has worried the Mexican government enough that President Enrique Peña Nieto recently ordered them disbanded and re-formed into a rural police force.
Individual members, some of whom learned to handle weapons as teens in California street gangs, have been required by Mexican authorities to register their firearms in order to serve on the force…
At this point, many questions remain about how the new system will work. And some who have moved back here have become disillusioned by the level of infighting among vigilante leaders, and by arrangements made with the government and, in some cases, the cartels…
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
What You Need to Know SIXTH edition is COMING SOON.
Labels: Mexico, political culture
A step closer to a military coup?
Did President Jonathan know? And when did he know? And how did he get the news? Well, if the army can't find kidnapped girls at least it can find newspapers.
Day 2: Nigerian Soldiers Seize Newspaper Delivery Vehicles, Invade Newsstands In Abuja
A contigent of Nigerian soldiers this morning stormed the newspapers distribution center Garki Area 1 in Abuja confiscated and destroyed most of Nigeria's leading national dailies meant for distribution.
 |
| Nigerian soldiers protecting the country |
The armed soldiers who stormed the center at about 7.00am arrived with ten Hilux patrol vans painted in Nigerian Army colors asked all vendors and distributors to lie face down and descended on them. One of the vendors who tried to take a picture with his phone was arrested, brutally assaulted and had his phone seized and destroyed by the rampaging soldiers.
A source who spoke to Saharareporters from the scene said that the soldiers were specifically looking for some newspapers namely; Leadership, The Nation, Punch, Vanguard and DailyTrust. The soldiers claimed the newspapers targeted published a report on Monday that portrayed the Nigerian military in a bad light.
It has also been reported that several newspaper delivery vans were impounded and prevented from carrying out scheduled delivery of the affected newspapers across the country. Also, the soldiers also prevented journalists from covering the siege.
It would be recalled that a similar incident happened in Lagos on Thursday where soldiers destroyed all the newspapers being taken to the airport and also papers taken to the Northern and Southern parts of Nigeria.
The attack on newspapers has attracted public umbrage as press freedom advocates have described them as Draconian and a return to military era repression.
Yesterday the military authorities described the raid as "normal security routine check" according to the Defense spokesperson, Chris Olukolade.
Teaching Comparative blog
entries are indexed.
Just The Facts! is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
What You Need to Know: Teaching Tools, the original version and v2.0 are available to help curriculum planning.
What You Need to Know SIXTH edition is COMING SOON.
Labels: military, Nigeria, politics, rule of law
