A Shift in China News Coverage

May 28, 2011

This entry was slotted to run the week of Monday May 16th and it started like this:

A scroll down The New York Times.com’s world page on Saturday (May 14) produced one China story, and it was about a bank being firebombed by a former employee. Al Jazeera’s Asia Pacific page contained two China stories: one on the bombing, the other on the US lecturing China on its human rights record. The latter came at a meeting between the two nations themed “Strategic and Economic Dialogue.” That the dialogue itself received scant coverage is noteworthy, considering that until recently nearly any high-level Chinese meeting with major global entities, from the US to Africa, made headlines.

Uganda’s Opposition Steals the Moment but Misses a Chance

May 13, 2011

It was one of the stranger twists I’ve reported on. On the day that President Yoweri Museveni was sworn in – after winning a fourth term in a landslide in February – tens of thousands of Ugandans flooded Kampala’s streets to cheer on lame duck opposition leader Kizza Besigye.

Dancing, chanting, waving tree branches, taunting the shiny motorcades of corrupt politicians who had attended Museveni’s inauguration yesterday, a tsunami of youth surged down Entebbe Road, threatening to take over the whole city. It was a momentous coup for the opposition and for third-time presidential candidate Besigye, who was being pressured just a couple months ago to make way for new blood in an opposition in crisis.

Bin Laden’s Death: Hope for Muslim World’s Image Crisis *

May 2, 2011

Your initial reaction to news of Osama bin Laden’s death is telling. If you were disappointed, you no doubt harbour terrorist sympathies.

Of course, many non-Muslims have come to suspect many Muslims have been doing just that. The stereotype may be inaccurate. But with repeated silence among moderate Muslims in the face of countless acts of terror committed in the name of Islam since 9/11, it’s easy to see why the suspicion arises.