The passing of the health-care reform bill in the US last week seems to be heralding significant changes not just for the US but also for the rest of the world. Coming on the back of heated debate and partisanship, the bill legalized sweeping changes in the US insurance markets, expanding coverage while enforcing strict consumer protection regulations.
Most post-fact analysis have focused on the political impact of health care reform. And aside from debates on public spending, I have not seen much discussion on the impact of these reforms on the global healthcare market. In this context, I feel that [...]

Continue reading

Barrack Obama, Fortis, Global Health, Health Care Reform

Excellent photo-essay- Vanishing China- on Chinas Xinjiang province, previously known as China’s Turkestan, home to Uighur and Uzbek minorities, and the stage for extended anti-Beijing protests in 2008.

Continue reading

The Economist’s EU-Affairs columnist Charlemagne has a post up about the future of Europe in world affairs, which I would like to suggest to you. Charlemagne notes the concern of Brussels policy-makers over European states still not being able to ’speak in one voice’, but wonders if such unity would be enough to make Europe relevant in a fundamentally altered international landscape. Referring to recent ’snubs’ to US Diplomacy by China, Iran and Israel, Charlemagne writes :
But here is the question that I am starting to turn over in my mind. If our big bet in Europe is that speaking [...]

Continue reading

Maureen Dowd is not known for tact (she allegedly once wrote that Al Gore was “so feminized…he’s practically lactating”). Which is why her latest column in the NYTimes is such an interesting read. Dowd writes about her disappointment at not being allowed to visit Mecca, to ‘experience the religion’ and ‘understand the complexities of Islam’.
At the same time she seems to come across , as a commentator on the web-page put it, like a fairly large ignoramus: she asks a Saudi minister to let non-Muslims visit Mecca during the ‘off season’ and expresses surprise when she finds out that Abraham [...]

Continue reading

Maureen Dowd, Mecca, Tourism

On a trip to Brussels last week I came across two research papers on rebuilding Afghanistan from the East-West Institute, which point out interesting strategies for Afghan reconstruction and security. Both papers emphasize the need for international co-operation for a regional solution for Afghanistan. The first of these stresses the importance of co-operation on water sharing, already a big security issue in South Asia.
The almost total absence of bilateral or regional cooperation on water between Afghanistan and its neighbors is a serious threat to sustainable development and security in the region. The ever-increasing demand for water, the unpredictable availability of [...]

Continue reading

AfPak, South Asia

This is the question that an Indian chemical engineer asked of history to Barbara Metcalf, president of the American Historical Association. She discusses her views on this in her article “Historians and Chemical Engineers” from which I quote extensively:
I have recently had e-mail correspondence with an Indian chemical engineer who wrote me because of a comment I had made in a general introduction to the modern history of India.1 In the book’s first chapter, an overview of the centuries of Turko-Afghan and Mughal dynasties, I had noted that the rulers in this period, who were of Muslim background, had no [...]

Continue reading

Barbara Metcalf