· June, 2007

Stories about Governance from June, 2007

Iran: Protestors Torch Gas Stations

Enraged Iranian protesters torched several gas stations in Tehran and other cities on Wednesday, after the Iranian government announced fuel rationing for private vehicles. There is news item in Ilna [Fa], Iranian Labour news agency, reporting that people were killed in Yasouj, in southwestern Iran, during the protest. Iran is...

Palestine: What's Going On in Gaza?

"In this day and age communications can turn the devil into angel and beat the angel to a pulp," says blogger Ramzi Khoury. This week, Jillian York attempts to dig beyond the news to find out what's really happening in the Palestinian blogosphere.

Bosnia & Herzegovina: Miroslav Lajcak

Balkanizer posts a lengthy and detailed post on the legacy of the outgoing High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina: “[…] an unrefined and unedited thinking about the departure of the old High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina (Christian Schwarz-Schilling) and the arrival of new HR – Slovakian diplomat Miroslav Lajcak.”

Japan should work with China to tackle photochemical smog problem

  29 June 2007

Some scientists have been arguing that air pollution in China is responsible for increased incidents of photochemical smog in Japan. Kaz points out Japan's responsibility as a nation which suffered its own pollution in the past and says that Japan should build a good working relation with China in order...

Japan: Distance between NHK and Government

  29 June 2007

The recent appointment of Komori Shigetaka, who is a close acquaintance of PM Abe Shinzo, as an NHK's management committee member has raised a controversy over the possibility of the government's intervention in public broadcast. Blogger Miepong draws on and analyzes discussions in the Japanese blogosphere as well as mainstream...

Benin: Is the press living up to its promise?

  28 June 2007

Babilown posts an article that asks whether the Beninese press is living up to its responsibility (Fr) to act as the “fourth branch” of government. “Whether the executive, the legislative, or the judicial branch…in all spheres of public life, too often we are content to wallow in mediocrity, in the...

Russia, Belarus: Blaming Putin and Lukashenko

Adam Goodman of Being Had admits that life is tough in Belarus and Russia, but disagrees with La Russophobe‘s perspective: “[…] I refuse to believe, just as I have since I started writing about Belarus, that it is appropriate to place the blame solely on Lukashenka or Putin.”

Moldova: Development Strategy

“Moldova's development concept lacks any connection to the external environment, perpetuating isolation and self-centeredness,” Public Policy Watch writes about Moldova's “Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (EGPRSP), developed with the support of the World Bank.”

Russia: PwC Withdraws Yukos Audits

PricewaterhouseCoopers “now believes that information and representations which was provided to PwC by Yukos’ former management may not have been accurate.” Siberian Light comments: “If some of the biggest, and supposedly best auditors in the world can be so easily deceived, then there is absolutely no reason why anyone should...

Serbia, Russia: “What About the Russians?”

Jasmina Tešanović guest-blogs at Boing Boing about what may appear as Serbia's misguided trust in Russia: “Back in 1999, Russians didn’t veto the bombing of Serbia. The Russians are using the Kosovo issue in order to reclaim ex-Soviet territories with Russian populations. Serbs know that the Russians have their own...