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Coups threaten Thailand’s controversial leaders

Government and politics are in such turmoil in Thailand that some citizens are even re-thinking its one-person-one vote democratic structure. International affairs columnist Jonathan Manthorpe looks at the history and recent reasons for clashes between the protesting “elites” and the rural voters who are behind its leadership. An excerpt of Manthorpe’s new column: Not only Thailand’s generals, but also its judges, are manoeuvring to oust beleaguered Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from government. The Constitutional Court today provided a legal opening to postpone an election set for February 2, which Yingluck called to reaffirm her mandate after months of anti-government demonstrations, and

On corporations and democratizing prosperity: McNiven

The word “corporation” has lately been vilified in polarized political discourse — but not so long ago, it was the political “left” that championed corporations, writes Thoughtlines columnist Jim McNiven. “Democratizing prosperity would have been virtually impossible without ‘freeing’ the corporation, he argues in his new column, The Logic of Incorporation. Excerpt: The great French historian, Fernand Braudel, saw capitalism in its basic form as the injection of capital between the actions of buyer and seller. This is both simple and profound. It explains the difference between a farmers’ market and a supermarket. In the former, the producer/seller and the

Roe V. Wade: a selction of American reporting on abortion

  On the 41st anniversary of the United States’ Roe v. Wade court case, legal battles over abortion in the country still rage. ProPublica compiled some of the more interesting takes on the topic and the broader issue of women’s rights. Go to the ProPublica page to leave comments or suggest contributions. by Blair Hickman, Christie Thompson and Kara Brandeisky, ProPublica Thirteen Charts That Explain How Roe v. Wade Changed Abortion Rights, The Washington Post/WonkBlog, January 2014 If you’re pressed for time, this WonkBlog piece traces the last 41-plus years in the US abortion wars in an easily digestible format. Especially eye-opening

On faith and humanity in a Kenyan slum

I first heard Sheldon Fernandez talk about volunteering in Kenya in 2008, when we were both attending a Creative Writing course at the University of Oxford. I especially never forgot his story about his young student in Kangemi. Now, I’m glad that F&O is able to publish his essay about the experience, My Last Day in Kenya. The piece concerns his time spent working in Kangemi, a large slum on the outskirts of Nairobi. He was there under the auspices of the African Jesuits Aids Network (AJAN), assisting with infrastructure projects and HIV/AIDS education, but he also had the opportunity

Energy: riches and shackles

The Law of Conservation in physics says energy can be neither created nor destroyed, only transformed. But lawless politics have no such constraints — and here the role of energy  has ceaselessly expanded, and come to dominate economics and polarize politics. F&O introduces our first theme: Energy. Throughout 2014 our journalists will, in words and images, examine how we harness energy to run our material world – to feed, clothe, transport and shelter ourselves — and consider the ways in which our energy choices both enrich and shackle our lives and prospects. The first line-up of our Energy reporting, commentary

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