The Mountain Roza Otunbaeva Has to Climb BISHKEK — Roza Otunbaeva may be the head of Kyrgyzstan’s interim government, but she’s the country’s chief mourner as well. The 59-year-old former diplomat — known to everyone here as “Roza” — has emerged this week as the calm, motherly face to a chaotic domestic political situation. On April 7, violent protests initially sparked by...
Lebanon on Tenterhooks “They are the martyrs. You are the witnesses.” Thus proclaims one of Beirut’s ubiquitous political billboards overlooking the vast plaza now known as “Martyr’s Square.” Lebanon is filled with political signage that would give civics teachers mixed feelings, since much of it praises notorious terrorists. This poster, though, is sponsored by the country’s anti-Syrian “March...
Parliament's Peanut Gallery The Wit and Wisdom of Britain’s Sketch Writers Whenever Simon Hoggart writes about Michael Fabricant, he always makes note of the Honorable Gentleman from Lichfield’s hair. “How many My Little Ponies, we asked, had died to make such a creation?” reads one of Hoggart’s countless dispatches. That 2003 piece, in fact, was devoted entirely to...
In Whitest Africa Nearly twenty years ago, deep in the heart of South Africa, a group of hardy Afrikaners constructed Orania, a whites-only town that they hope to make the capital of a future country. Is Orania a place meant to preserve the culture of the “white tribe of Africa” or a haven for supremacists bent on restoring...
Killing Them Softly The other African genocide Less than ten miles from Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s mansion in Harare–the largest private residence on the African continent–Cleophus Masxigora digs for mice. On a good day, he told me, he can find 100 to 200. To capture the vermin, he burns brush to immobilize them, then kills them with several thumps of...
Meet Mugabe's Victims Thousands have been killed or tortured by the Zimbabwean dictator. Here are the stories of three. For 17 years, Holly Moyo was one of the many loyal foot soldiers who helped keep the government of Robert Mugabe running. Like his father before him, he served in the Zimbabwean Republic Police, in the southern city of...