Borat and Chechnya

Remember in the movie Borat when after traveling across the country to meet his dreamgirl, model/actress Pamela Anderson, he decides to propose marriage in the “traditional Kazak manner” by tossing her into a giant sack and hauling her off over his shoulder? It was a pretty funny scene. What's not funny (and frankly almost not believable) is that this tradition of bride-napping is actually practiced, and as the BBC reports with growing frequency, in Chechnya; what's even less funny is the official response to this problem from the Chechen government.

It seems that in Chechnya if you're a man who sees an attractive woman walking on the street, it's culturally permissible for you (or for goons hired on your behalf) to grab her, toss her in the back of a car and drive off – in effect kidnapping her. British filmmaker Lucy Ash, who recently made a film on the bride-stealing tradition, said she has footage of such bride-nappings occurring in broad daylight on the streets of the capital, Grozny. What typically happens next is stranger still – usually the abducted girls' family contacts the abductors, typically using a local mullah as an intermediary, not to demand the return of the girl, but to negotiate a settlement for her. Abducted brides can find themselves married off to their kidnapper within a few days.

Bride-napping was supposedly part of Chechnya's rough-and-tumble past, but Ash reports for the BBC that most indications in Grozny are that the trend is increasing. And Chechen officials seem to not be too concerned about the problem. Punishment for bride-napping had been a fine of about $1,000. Recently the punishment was increased to a fine of about $40,000 – a sharp increase to be sure, but as one Chechen businessman told the BBC, it is an amount a rich man would likely be willing to pay if the girl he fancied was pretty enough.

It is yet another in a long list of human rights violations in this little corner of Russia, and it's unlikely the officials in Moscow will do anything to stop it. As I discussed in this post from last year; Moscow struck a deal with Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov – so long as he kept terrorism quiet in Chechnya (by whatever means necessary), Moscow would generally stay out of his hair. So far, they've kept up the bargain and looked the other way over numerous human rights violations, many of which have nothing to do with fighting terrorism. Before the two Chechen-Russian conflicts, which began in the mid-1990s and “officially” ended last year, Chechnya practiced a fairly moderate brand of Islam. The Chechen opposition though became radicalized during the second conflict, which saw their leaders change their demands from independence for Chechnya to a desire to carve a fundamentalist Islamic caliphate out of southern Russia. Since brutally suppressing the insurgency, Kadyrov himself has introduced a more fundamentalist strain of Islam into Chechnya, partially to try to win over the now-radical militants and partially to solidify his own grip on the republic. Under his rule things like polygamy and honor killings have become acceptable in Chechnya, even though they are direct violations of Russian law.

The BBC piece ends with a story that since the summer unknown assailants have been shooting paintball guns at women who go around the streets of Grozny with their heads uncovered, a “warning” the gunmen say. Kadyrov took to Chechen television, not to condemn the attacks but rather to “express [his] gratitude” towards the attackers.

Kabul's Too-Big-To-Fail Bank

Given the current global recession, bank failures are not particularly newsworthy events.  But the Kabul Bank in Afghanistan is on the brink of being done in not by the economy, but rather by good, old-fashioned corporate mismanagement.  In the past few days, depositors have made a run on the Kabul Bank after infighting between the privately-held institution's two largest shareholders exposed a series of dubious real estate deals made with the Bank's holdings; so far $160 million has been sucked out of the Bank, with estimates of potential losses topping $300 to $400 million – a sum that exceeds the total worth of the Kabul Bank.

The situation is made worse by the fact that the Kabul Bank manages the payroll for Afghanistan's police and military, which puts the institution in that “can't be allowed to fail” category, meaning money to cover Kabul Bank's shortfalls will have to be found somewhere.  Mahmoud Karzai, the Kabul Bank's third-largest shareholder and brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai (though not to be confused with Hamid's drug-baron brother Wali) has an idea of where that money should come from – the United States.  Mahmoud Karzai thinks a US-bailout of the mismanaged Kabul Bank is just fine, though he, and other Afghan officials, bristle at the idea that the Kabul Bank then be made to adopt basic international management standards for financial institutions – like installing an independent board of directors or allowing audits of the Bank's accounts – or even that anyone be punished for bungling the Kabul Bank to the brink of insolvency.

Afghan officials apparently are worried that any independent look at the Kabul Bank will show that its top stockholders used the rank-and-file deposits to fund lavish lifestyles for themselves, which included some seriously bad real estate deals in Dubai; and as a slush fund for Hamid Karzai's presidential campaign.  The US-bailout deal apparently was being considered by the State Department before thankfully being dropped, on Wednesday, Afghanistan's Central Bank announced that they would step in to provide capital to the Kabul Bank, a good thing since riot troops also had to be called out on Wednesday to manage angry crowds that had gathered outside the Bank's main branch as depositors continue to try to salvage their life savings.

Lost in the shuffle of the Kabul Bank story is the fact that in ten days Afghanistan will be holding national parliamentary elections, elections that international observers fear will be riddled with fraud.  Thanks to the deteriorating security situation across much of the country, there will be fewer polling stations and fewer election monitors than during the country's troubled presidential elections in August 2009  That election saw nearly a million ballots – mostly cast for Karzai – tossed out over suspicion that they were fraudulent, a move that infuriated Karzai.  Speculation is that this upcoming election could see even more fraud committed than in March.

Shady elections, one brother of the country's President allegedly one of the nation's biggest druglords and now another brother a major shareholder in a bank used to fund lavish lifestyles for its top investors; it's the sort of mind-boggling corruption to make you question why after nine years the United States insists on remaining in Afghanistan propping up the same typr of government we condemn in other parts of the world?  Time magazine tried to offer a graphic explanation this summer: since apparently if US forces leave then the Taliban will be free to cut the noses off of young women around the country, just as was tragically done to poor Aisha as her punishment for running away from her abusive husband.

In 2009, when United States forces were already occupying large parts of her country...

Moscow Bombing Follow-Up

A week ago today two female suicide bombers struck the Moscow subway system during the morning rush, killing 40 people. Here are a few news items of note from the past week of coverage:

The BBC posted a collection of eyewitness accounts from Moscow of the immediate aftermath of the bombings. Among the personal reactions to the attacks were criticisms of the Russian media, which didn’t go on the air with news reports about the bombings until several hours after the attacks. In fact many Muscovites first learned about the attacks from foreign rather than domestic media sources. The story is that the Russian channels held off on their coverage until they received word from the Kremlin on how to “properly” discuss the attacks.

And part of that discussion centers on what to call the bombers themselves. The term in common usage in the Russian media is шахидка (shakhidka), a Russianization and feminization of the Arabic word “shahid”, which is commonly translated into English as “martyr”, and that has Russia’s often outspoken ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, upset. Rogozin chafes at the use of the term “martyr” since it is a word that implies sacrifice in the service of a just cause. Rogozin said that the bombers were nothing more than terrorists and were certainly not serving a noble cause. “It’s wrong to assume that that a suicide terrorist, who sent dozens of innocent people to their deaths, can call themselves martyrs for their faith. They’re not martyrs, they’re murderers,” Rogozin said via Twitter as reported by Wired.com. Rogozin seems to prefer the term смертницы (smertnitsy), which is also sometimes used by the Russian media and can be roughly translated as “she-bombers”. While I can see Rogozin’s point, this line of thought reminds me of Fox News Channel’s decision a few years ago (following the lead of the Bush Administration) to refer to “suicide bombers” as “homicide bombers” instead – it’s worth nothing that the Bush Administration later dropped the whole “homicide bombers” thing, though Fox does still sometimes use the term.

Finally, one unexpected casualty of the dual suicide bombings may be Moscow’s gypsy taxicab industry. Since Soviet times, many Muscovites have earned a little extra money by using their private cars as unofficial (and unregulated) taxicabs. But following the subway bombings, some Moscow gypsy cabs started charging ten times the “normal” fare for a trip across the city as the subway system ground to a halt (and who says that Russia hasn’t taken to capitalism?) This has Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov outraged; he’s calling for strict regulation of the city’s taxicab industry. But that could be easier said than done, some transportation analysts say that Moscow does not have enough licensed cabs to efficiently move people around the city and that losing the gypsy cabs could cause even more transportation problems in Moscow, along with depriving thousands of people of a needed source of income.

Happy International Women’s Day

You may or may not know it, but March 8 is International Women’s Day. The day was first observed in 1909 to advocate for women’s rights and equality, especially in the rapidly industrializing workplace of the time. It has remained a day to promote equal rights and access for women around the world, though in the Soviet Union and its allied nations the day also became a sort of surrogate Valentine’s Day as well (as indicated by this Soviet-era International Women’s Day card below).

To commemorate International Women’s Day this year, lawmakers in India tried to pass an ambitious bill that would have required that one-third of legislative seats in the country be reserved for women. The bill was held up at the last minute by lawmakers from two of India’s regional political parties, but the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is strongly behind the bill and is determined to get it passed into law within the next few weeks. A spokesman for the prime minister chided the opposition politicians for keeping the bill from symbolically being passed on International Women’s Day. Women currently make up less than 10% of the legislature, even though they account for 44% of the voting population in India, the world’s largest democracy.

And since Iraq just held their parliamentary elections this past weekend, it is worth noting that by law 25% of the members of their new parliament will be women. That threshold was written into the new Iraqi constitution at the insistence of the United States. According to international monitoring groups, the women in Iraq’s parliament have better attendance and voting records than do their male counterparts. And the 25% representation in the Iraqi parliament is better than the rate of women representation in the United States own Congress, where only 17% of the members are women (17 in the Senate, 74 in the House) – an all-time high level for the United States.

Why Isn’t There Women’s Ski Jumping At The Winter Olympics?

The Winter Olympics are underway, and so to are the articles by sports columnists picking apart the Winter Games, like this one from Jeff Neuman of RealClearSports that asks: “Who Killed the Winter Olympics?” Neuman argues that the Winter Games have become a bloated, and ultimately not terribly interesting mess of events.

I can’t say that I totally agree with Neuman, but his column made me think about this report I saw this past weekend on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” about women’s ski jumping, or rather the lack of women’s ski jumping at the Olympics. Even though men’s ski jumping has been included in all 21 Winter Games, the women’s side of the sport is excluded. In fact, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has actively fought to keep the sport out of the Games, a group of women jumpers even tried, and failed, to sue the Vancouver Games organizing committee to force them to include their sport in this year’s Games.

According to IOC chief Jacques Rogge, the reason that women’s ski jumping isn’t included within the Olympic canon is because the relatively small number of women competing at the elite level of the sport – around 170 – would “dilute” the significance of the Olympic gold medal if it was awarded in this discipline. But ESPN notes that an even smaller number of women (about 125) are currently competing at the elite level in the relatively new sport of ski cross, yet their sport was included in the 2010 Games. Ski cross is the ski version of another fairly new sport, board cross – a seeming combination of downhill racing and roller derby, whose only Olympic moment of note so far has been the United States’ Lindsey Jacobellis hot-dogging her way out of a gold medal in the 2006 Games.

And that gets back to Neuman’s point. Traditionally the Winter Olympics were a collection of Alpine and ice sports largely dominated by a collection of northern European countries. In recent years though the Games have expanded to take in a whole collection of new winter sports (like ski/board cross), mostly created in the United States and not surprisingly dominated by American athletes. This may be good business for the IOC since massive US television contracts provide a large chunk of the their revenues, but it hasn’t necessarily improved the quality of the Games.

Of course adding in women’s ski jumping would be a simple matter of scheduling additional elements at facilities that would otherwise sit unused, it doesn’t require building entire new venues like has been the case for the snowboarding events. But it would also likely not bring any additional medals for the United States, and that’s why you probably won’t see women ski jumping at the Games anytime soon.

The Latest Horror Story From Zimbabwe

Just when you think the news from Zimbabwe can't get any worse, it does.

In March of last year, Robert Mugabe, the only president Zimbabwe has ever had since winning its independence from the British, apparently forgot to rig the latest election, putting him in the uncomfortable position of facing a runoff against his challenger, Morgan Tsvangirai. For Round Two, Mugabe's ZANU-PF party didn't bother to rig the election itself, they instead engaged in a terror campaign against members of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, until Tsvangirai finally dropped out of the race in an effort to protect his supporters.

At the time we knew about the arbitrary arrests, beatings and even murders of some MDC supporters at the hands of Mugabe's ZANU-PF. What we didn't know about until this week though was the ZANU-PF's systematic use of rape as a weapon. According to a study by the charity Aids-Free World, published by the London Telegraph, the ZANU-PF committed at least 380 rapes of MDC supporters. The ZANU-PF even had centers set up so that the rapes of women, and in some cases children, could be carried out more efficiently.

But wait, it gets worse. At least nine women interviewed said that they believed they were also infected with HIV during the attacks. One woman said her attacker told her she'd been given HIV and asked if she thought that Tsvangirai would take care of her family.

Eventually Mugabe's ZANU-PF was forced into a power-sharing government with Tsvangirai and the MDC, though the ZANU-PF has consistently failed to live up to the terms of the agreement during the past year and a half. It begs the question why any governments in the region still support the wretched Robert Mugabe? (We're looking at you South Africa.)

A New Look At An Old War

A new book is prompting a re-examination of a controversial figure from South American history and is dredging up some hard feelings between two neighboring countries.

Eliza Lynch has been painted as a former Irish prostitute who became the unofficial "Queen of Paraguay" that led her country into a disastrous war with Brazil. Now a new book, The Lives of Eliza Lynch: Scandal and Courage, by Michael Lillis, a former diplomat, and Ronan Fanning, a historian is taking a new view of Lynch. Rather than a bloodthirsty wanna-be Queen, they say Lynch was a loyal wife to dictator Francisco Solano López, and the authors say that that López, not Lynch, was the one who pushed for the ill-fated war against the "Triple Alliance" of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay in 1864.

The war was an utter disaster for Paraguay - Brazilian forces would rampage throughout the country, leaving 90% of Paraguay's men dead. In addition to trying to rehabilitate the image of Lynch, the authors also say that the Brazilians bear responsibility for what they call a "near genocide" during the final two years of the six year war as Brazil's Emperor Dom Pedro II tried to wipe out every last remnant of Paraguay's military.

With their portrayal of Francisco Solano López and Emperor Dom Pedro II, authors Lillis and Fanning have managed to anger people in both Paraguay and Brazil - they have received death threats from Paraguayan nationalists upset at their treatment of López, while the Brazilians have bristled at charges of genocide, who note that it was Paraguay who started the war in the first place.

Meanwhile in modern-day South America, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez told his military on Sunday to "prepare" for war with Colombia. Chavez has accused Colombia of being a puppet of the United States and has said that the US is negotiating a ten-year lease for a Colombian military base to use it as a stepping stone for an eventual US-led invasion of Venezuela. Relations between Venezuela and Colombia have been getting steadily worse, on Thursday Venezuela sent 15,000 soldiers to the Colombian border, supposedly to fight drug trafficking.

Saudis Take One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Last month Saudi Arabia opened up a brand new school - the King Abdullah Science and Technology University (or KAUST). The Saudi royal family spent $7 billion to build an ultra-modern center for the sciences, which includes state-of-the-art labs and one of the world's fastest super-computers. But what makes KAUST truly remarkable, for Saudi Arabia anyway, is that within its campus men and women can mix freely, and women can do wild things like go outside without veils and even drive cars - both big taboos in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia.

The whole point of KAUST is to help diversify Saudi Arabia away from its petro-driven economy by establishing a base for science and technological research. It is also being used as a place to start to breakdown long-standing cultural taboos against the mixing of the genders. Of course as soon as it opened, KAUST became a target for religious conservatives. Sheikh Saad Bin Naser al-Shethri, a member of Saudi's Supreme Committee of (Islamic) Scholars, demanded that women be barred from the university. In a rare blow for women's rights, King Abdullah turned around and sacked Shiekh al-Shethri from his position on the Supreme Committee.

So are conditions for women actually changing in Saudi Arabia? Not really. Just a couple of weeks after this tacit endorsement of women's rights in Saudi, a court in the city of Jeddah ordered that a female journalist receive 60 lashes for having been involved in a talk show that talked about, you know, s-e-x.

Journalist Rozana al-Yami received the sentence after LBC, a Saudi-owned Lebanese television network aired an episode of their popular talk show "Bold Red Line" where a Saudi man named Mazen Abdul Jawad talked about meeting Saudi women and having sex with them. For publicly bragging about "picking up chicks" Jawad was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and five years in jail.

What makes Rozana al-Yami's sentence more disturbing though is that there is no proof she was directly involved in the Jawad episode of "Bold Red Line", only that she worked part-time for the network, which according to the judge made her guilty enough to face the lash. Needless to say al-Yami's verdict is being seen as an attack on both women and journalists, and may also be a message to LBC's owner Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who is perhaps the most liberal and reform-minded member of the Saudi royals.

No matter how many progressive steps like the opening of KAUST Saudi Arabia takes it means nothing so long as sentences like the one against Rozana al-Yami continue to be handed out.

Woman Spared Lash For 'Indecent' Pants, For Now

For Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein a pair of pants has become a political statement. In July she and four dozen other women were arrested for wearing pants that Sudan's authorities declared were 'indecent'. The women were all part of a public protest against the law, which they say is enforced arbitrarily - women often wear trousers in Sudan, yet they can be punished if some official decides the pants show too much of the woman's 'shape', and the punishment can be up to 40 lashes from a whip.

Hussein works as a press officer for the United Nations in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, so technically she is regarded as a diplomat by the Sudanese government. But as part of her challenge against the lash law, Hussein waived her diplomatic immunity.

Her case rather quickly became an international rights embarrassment for Sudan. The government thought it had found a face-saving way out of the legal mess they'd created - the court in Khartoum on Monday decided instead to fine Hussein 500 Sudanese pounds (about $200) and spare the lash. But Hussein isn't letting this rest, now she's refusing to pay the fine, saying that she would prefer to go to prison - of face the 10 lashes that was her original sentence - in order to keep the world's attention focused on Sudan's discriminatory dress code. About 100 supporters - mostly women - gathered outside the courthouse on Monday, chanting "no to whipping!"

Wrapping Up Hillary's Trip To Africa

You would think that the Secretary of State’s arguably most important trip to date - Hillary Clinton’s seven-nation tour of Africa - would have gotten a little better news coverage given Africa’s growing role in US foreign policy. Keep in mind that the US now gets about as much oil from Western Africa as we do from the Persian Gulf, and that by the middle of the next decade, Africa should be our biggest supplier; and there’s always the threat of terrorism, recent intelligence indicates that al-Qaeda is hoping to make the Horn of Africa their new base of operations.

But Clinton had a hard time breaking through the wall-to-wall coverage of the health care debate (there’s some irony there, given that as First Lady Hillary tried to lead the Clinton Administration’s attempt at reforming that beast), so here’s a brief recap of her trip.

The big theme from her tour was one that echoed President Obama’s speech in Ghana back in July: that African governments need to be more responsible and transparent in their operations, and that Africans need to hold their elected leaders accountable, not just accept corruption and incompetence as the normal way of doing business. It was a theme she hit on a number of stops – in Kenya, where a power-sharing agreement has led to a year and a half of political stagnation; Nigeria, regarded as one of Africa’s most-corrupt states; and Angola, where there haven’t been presidential elections since 1992. She capped off her trip, like Obama did, by granting a state visit to one of Africa’s smaller, but best run states, the tiny island nation of Cape Verde – the clear message being that well-run places in Africa will get the benefit of America’s friendship.

Clinton also made a couple of other important stops – in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Hillary made a point of visiting women who were the victims of brutal crimes against them as part of the decade of warfare that has engulfed one of Africa’s largest countries (in the Congo rape is often used as a tool of war). Millions have been killed amid fighting between several neighboring countries, insurgents, tribal militias and the Congolese army in what’s sometimes called ‘Africa’s world war’. She also stopped off in Liberia, where another brutal civil war ended only a few years ago and where Africa’s first female president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, is facing calls to step down over support years ago for a Liberian warlord, despite her leading her country to several years of growth and peace.

It was good to see Sec. Clinton throw US support behind bringing people to justice for the horrible crimes being committed in the Congo and in backing Pres. Sirleaf in Liberia. The stopover in Cape Verde was a nice touch, to visit an often-overlooked part of Africa, promoting it as a model other countries will hopefully follow. It’s also nice to see Clinton continue the Obama message of good governance to Africa – lecturing not only those in power, but also telling African citizens they need to demand better of their leaders. What remains to be seen is how well those leaders listen. Kenya’s Raila Odinga and South Africa’s Jacob Zuma both seemed a little put off by her call to do a better job leading. And then there’s the China factor in Africa – while the US is calling for good government reforms, the message being that the US could withhold aid or trade agreements with faltering states, China doesn’t particularly care about how African leaders run their countries and has been throwing a lot of money in aid and trade around the continent.

Should Women Be Allowed To Vote In Afghanistan?

Got your attention with that headline, didn't I? The reality of the situation though is that Afghanistan is holding a presidential election next week, one that is all but certain to be a fraud, and the role of women is a big part of the reason.

Election officials are reporting "suspiciously high" numbers of women registering to vote in Paktia, Khost and Logar, some of Afghanistan's most rural, most conservative provinces. Actually in many cases it's the male head of the household coming in to register his 10 or 15 wives to vote, saying that they can't come in themselves of course since it's inappropriate for them to talk with men outside their families...You have to wonder then if they'll be allowed to vote, or if hubby will just show up on election day expecting to vote 10 or 15 times 'for his wives'. And even if they do show up, will the women be allowed to vote for the candidate of their choice, or will they have to vote as their told by their husband? Or will the women who show up even be the women who are registered (or even be women for that matter)? Anyone could be beneath a burka, including a man's underage sons.

Paktia, Khost and Logar happen to be predominantly Pashtun areas - the same tribe as the current Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, and thanks to recent Taliban attacks, they're also places that are expected to have the fewest vote monitors, all in all a situation ripe for voter fraud.

And that's ok with the US and international monitors, at least up to a point. If there's anything more disturbing about the Afghani election than the likely wholesale disenfranchisement of women, it's how accepting the international community is about the prospect of wide-spread voter fraud. Yes, Afghanistan is a mess and holding an election will be difficult, but that shouldn't mean its alright to have a sham election. Jandad Spinghar, the executive director of the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan, the country's top independent election monitoring group said "if the level of corruption or violation is under 10 percent, it will be acceptable for me." Really? In a nation where 17 million people are registered to vote, that works out to a whopping 1.7 million bogus votes being "okay" in the minds of the election monitors.

Right now President Karzai is deeply unpopular and is facing a surprisingly strong challenge from his former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. The worst outcome for Afghanistan is one where Karzai wins, but no one believes the validity of the vote - but that looks just like the scenario we're heading for.

Afghan Pro-Rape Law Returns

Remember back in April when Afghan President Hamid Karzai signed a law that critics around the world said made it legal for men to rape their wives (not to mention legalizing child marriage as well)? In the face of international outrage, Karzai pulled the law for 'review'.

Well, it's back, and the clause legalizing spousal rape is gone. Now all husbands can do if their wives won't sleep with them, is deny them food until they do. Seriously. And according to the UK's Independent, the law still gives tacit approval to fathers marrying off their child daughters and has another clause that would absolve men of rape charges if they agree to marry their victim (I'm sure the victims of the crime would love that...).

Meanwhile on Friday, CNN's social networking maven, Rick Sanchez, was positively having the vapors over a report that the US might consider negotiating with elements of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Rick couldn't understand why the United States would even think about talking with the Taliban (missing the point, again, that we went into Afghanistan to fight al-Qaeda, not the Taliban).

C'mon Rick, is the Karzai government really that much of an improvement? Meanwhile, our top ally in the Afghan mission, the British are starting to question their involvement in Afghanistan now that their military death toll there has passed the number of British soldiers lost in Iraq. A recent poll found that 60% of Brits weren’t convinced that keeping troops in Afghanistan was in their national interest. I’m sure the revelations over the new rape law won’t help the UK government to make its case to stay.

The End For Africa's Iron Lady?

Liberia's President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf may be may be tossed out of office, thanks to the recommendation of the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Johnson-Sirleaf was elected president in 2005, becoming the first woman ever to be elected head-of-state in Africa, and was given the enormous task of trying to rebuild a country wracked by two decades of bloody civil war. The conflicts in Liberia were especially brutal - rape and mutilation were used as weapons of war, so too were child soldiers - the conflict was fueled by illegally mined diamonds (often referred to as "conflict diamonds" or "blood diamonds"). Johnson-Sirleaf's election came at the end of the war, and was hailed as the start of a new day for Liberia. Since taking office she's started to rebuild the country's shattered economy and Liberia has enjoyed a few peaceful years. In 2007, President Bush awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her efforts.

Ironically, Johnson-Sirleaf helped to set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2005, modeled after a similar one set up in South Africa to deal with the aftermath of the Apartheid regime, to address crimes committed during the civil wars. The Commission though is now recommending 30-year bans from office for a host of politicians who backed former warlord Charles Taylor, whose rise to power kicked off Liberia's second civil war, Johnson-Sirleaf included.

Johnson-Sirleaf admits to being "fooled" by Taylor, who led an uprising against Liberia's military dictator Samuel Doe in 1990, igniting more than a decade of additional fighting. The decision on whether to adopt the Commission's recommendations now is up to the Liberian Parliament, which is controlled by Johnson-Sirleaf's political opponents.

Greenlanders Gain Home-Rule

Time to check in now on the fine folks of Greenland. You might remember this post from last November about the Greenlanders voting for increased home-rule of their island - the world's largest that's not also considered a continent.

On Monday the new Greenlandic government took power and the territory took another big step towards independence from Denmark. Greenland's government will now control the island's police, courts and other domestic programs, with Denmark only keeping control over defense and foreign-policy issues. Greenlandic (also known as Kalaallisut) will replace Danish as the island's official language.

Despite the island's huge size, its population is tiny, numbering only about 57,000, with nearly a third of that number living in the capital city, (and maybe here 'city' is an overstatement) Nuuk. But, Greenland could have a bright future, thanks to global warming. The island is incredibly rich in natural resources - oil, natural gas, coal, diamonds, uranium and other rare minerals. But the fearsome cold and dense ice that covers most of the land has made getting at those natural resources if not impossible, then financially impractical - a situation which is likely to change as the Arctic ice continues to retreat.

But according to the BBC, Greenland's new government will be more focused on domestic issues - especially in reducing high rates of domestic violence and suicide - than they will be about trying to exploit their natural resources.

Happy Blondes Day!

Apparently May 31st is Blondes Day - or at least it will be Blondes Day if officials in Latvia have anything to say about it.

Actually Blondes Day was a bid by some folks in Latvia to cheer their country up. Latvia has been crushed by the global recession - it's the worst hit member of all the 27 nations in the European Union and Latvians can expect to see their economy shrink by one-sixth this year alone.

So what better way to lift the nation's spirits than to strike up the band and have a few hundred young blonde-haired women parade through the streets of Riga? (AFP was kind enough to take some pictures) In addition to the parade there was also a fashion show, evening ball and blonde golf tournament - all held for a good cause, proceeds of the events were donated to programs serving children across Latvia.

Organizers hope that May 31st will officially become Blondes Day.

Women fight for worker's rights in Russia

I came across two articles on Thursday about women taking some very different approaches in their fight for worker's rights in Russia.

First is the story of Anna Klevets who applied for the job of driving trains in the St. Petersburg subway system only to be told that the job was too ‘dangerous’ for a woman. In fact a law passed in 2000 in Russia lists more than 400 jobs government officials deemed unfit for women. Klevets lost on an appeal against the 2000 law at Russia’s Supreme Court, but is now taking a new case to a court in St. Petersburg looking to change the working conditions in the city’s metro, to make them safer and thus, according to the 2000 law, women-friendly.

One job that women can hold in Russia is that of stewardess, though that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get paid for your labor. That’s the problem facing a group of 11 women formerly employed by the now-bankrupt Siberian airline KrasAir.

KrasAir went bankrupt last October, owing its employees 340 million rubles (or $10 million) in back wages. The stewardesses in question say they're each owed eight months’ worth of back wages. There have been conflicting stories over whether or not KrasAir has put money into an account to pay their former employees, so the women launched a hunger strike in protest. So far the hunger strike has been going on for a week, with the women vowing not to eat until their paid the money they’re owed.

Couple tries to push gay marriage in Russia

A lesbian couple tried to strike a blow for gay rights in Russia by applying for a marriage license in Moscow on Tuesday. Russia hasn’t suddenly legalized gay marriage, but that didn’t stop Irina Fedotova and Irina Shipitko from applying for a marriage license anyway. A rather stunned city official turned down their application.

The Irinas were actually expecting that. They hoped that the city’s denial would focus attention on gay rights in Russia, which local activists say are lacking, despite Russia’s officially decriminalizing homosexuality in 1993. Russia, and other countries in Eastern Europe tend to be far less accepting of homosexuals than their counterparts in Western Europe. As for the two Irinas, their plan now is to travel to Canada where gay couples can marry. Since Russia recognizes marriages of their citizens performed abroad, the couple hopes it will be a backdoor way for them to be legally married in Russia.

Meanwhile the woman at the center of the gay marriage debate in the US, Carrie Prejean, found out today that she’d be able to keep her Miss California crown. And she has a new explanation for the flap caused by the now infamous ‘gay marriage’ question she faced at the Miss USA pageant - it was all Satan’s fault. Apparently Satan tried to tempt Ms. Prejean into betraying her values for the sake of the sparkly Miss USA crown, at least that’s the explanation she gave in an interview with conservative leader Dr. James Dobson this weekend.

‘The devil made me do it’ - haven't heard that one in awhile...

Kenyan sex strike lawsuit

You knew this had to happen...You might remember the story from last week about women's rights groups in Kenya urging Kenyan women to participate in a sex strike as a way to 'persuade' their squabbling politicians to set aside their personal feuds that have paralyzed Kenyan politics for the past few months.

Now a Kenyan man, James Kimondo, has sued these same women's groups in Nairobi's High Court for unspecified damages saying that his wife's observance of the sex ban caused him "anxiety and sleepless nights." Mr. Kimondo added that he had been "suffering mental anguish, stress, backaches, lack of concentration," due to the absence of amorous activities.

This guy needs a hobby, well, another hobby.

Afghan politics makes Karzai America's new BFF

After a rocky start where the Obama Administration slammed Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai for widespread corruption in his government and reacted with (justified) outrage over his signing into law a measure that basically legalized spousal rape and child marriage, Team Obama is now warming up to the Afghani president.

That's the analysis offered today by Reuters, which goes into detail about the improving relations between the Obama and Karzai camps. Reuters suggests that the reasons for the improvement could be that the United States now sees the growing influence of the Taliban in Pakistan as a bigger regional problem, and that there's nothing to be gained in running down the reputation of the Afghani president.

It could also be that, suddenly, there's really no alternative to Karzai in Afghanistan. The Obama Administration had been actively cultivating a relationship with Gul Agha Sherzai, a popular regional governor who was one of the first Afghani officials to join forces with the United States against the Taliban in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Team Obama thought so much of Sherzai that he was one of only four Afghani officials to be invited to the inauguration in January.

But just a day after picking his vice-presidential candidate, Sherzai shocked everyone by abruptly dropping out of the presidential race following a face-to-face meeting with Karzai. "I visited the president, and hugged his little son and decided to withdraw my candidacy for the presidential elections," Sherzai said. He also apparently offered to step down as the governor of Nangarhar Province, but Karzai refused.

In the notoriously corrupt world of Afghani politics, you have to wonder what motivation is behind Sherzai's sudden decision, but whatever his reason, Sherzai's leaving the race means there is really no viable challenger to Karzai in the August 20 election, which probably goes a long way in explaining Washington's change in tune.

And while we're speaking of Afghanistan and corruption, a new report out today exposes just how little foreign aid is actually making it to the people of Afghanistan. According to the Independent, the World Bank calculates that 35-40% of all foreign aid is "badly spent" (their words), though the Independent's article makes this figure seem low.

The culprits are not only corrupt local officials, but incredibly wasteful Western aid agencies as well. In a country where three-quarters of all citizens don't have indoor plumbing, foreign contractors insist on bedrooms with private baths. Foreign aid consultants in Kabul can earn as much as $500,000 per year, by comparison the average salary for an Afghani civil servant is only $1,000 and a policeman's monthly salary is just $70.

The average stay for a foreign worker in Afghanistan is only a few months, and security concerns put severe restrictions on their travel, meaning that few foreigners either gain a full understanding of problems on the ground or build meaningful partnerships with local Afghanis, which in turn has a negative impact on the quality of development-assistance programs.

In Kenya, a sex strike for change

Women in Kenya, fed up with the country's lack of political progress, have organized a sex boycott - hoping to get Kenya's men fed up enough to break the nation’s political impasse.

Kenya's government has basically ground to a halt over Prime Minister Raila Odinga's demands that he have a leading role in government affairs. Odinga, who in early 2008 entered into a power-sharing agreement with President Mwai Kibaki after a bitterly contested election that sparked widespread riots, now says that his rival has basically sidelined him. The political feud between the two camps has essentially shut the government down.

So last week women's groups in Kenya proposed withholding sex until the men in their country start working together. And if this all sounds like the plot of the Greek play Lysistrata - then you were paying attention during Literature class.

The boycott has gotten the support of at least one of Kenya's most powerful women, Ida Odinga, the prime minister's wife. In addition to possibly ending the political impasse, Mrs. Odinga also hoped the boycott would bring attention to issues of gender-based violence. "There are many women who are suffering rape, there are many women who are suffering hunger. And yet the leadership is not thinking about the common person," Mrs. Odinga was quoted as saying by the BBC.