An interesting crossroads
The phrase ‘may you live in interesting times’ is a Chinese curse heaped on an enemy. Frederic Coudert quotes an unknown British diplomat in 1936: “No age has been fraught…
Individual vs the system
The emphasis a new generation of puritans is placing on the personal qualities of candidates for elective offices has revived the debate on what matters more in politics — the…
Everything’s almost free in Spain’s parallel barter economy
It can be argued that extra-judicial interventions first by Ghulam Mohammad as Governor General in 1951 and later by military regimes and disregard of the Constitution - facilitated by either…
Obama’s gun dilemma: ‘Too little, too late’
A young child in Alabama finds a gun and kills himself with a shot to the chest. A father accidentally kills his 10-year-old son as he cleans his gun in…
Suu Kyi’s halo fades as she learns the ropes of parliament
After two decades of international adoration as Myanmar's democracy heroine, Aung San Suu Kyi appears to be slipping off her high pedestal as she tackles the reality of parliamentary politics.…
Politics for profit
A Frenzy of activity marked the final moments of the Sindh government’s tenure with signs of frayed nerves visible in the Chief Minister’s House and elsewhere. What did it indicate?…
On tax amnesty
Amnesty is a one-time sovereign pardon of punitive legal proceedings offered to a specific class of lawbreakers. Unlike punishment, which is often retributive-cum-reformative, amnesty is reformative in nature, establishing the…
The insolence of office
One thing is certain: Hamlet’s soliloquy ‘To be or not be’ could not have been written by a committee. It would have taken hours of wrangling before any committee agreed…
Citizens for fair elections
The civil society, bolstered by its stellar performance in the movement for the restoration of the judiciary, is once again back in action. This time it is striving to ensure…
Sethi’s oath
Born with a controversial mandate, this nation has behaved like a horde of political gypsies – wandering from democracy to dictatorship to socialism to obscurantism to fake enlightenment to real…
