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John MacFarlane is a writer, producer and editor from Montreal, Canada. He has an MA in media studies, a grad diploma in journalism and a B.Eng in electrical engineering. His MA thesis was about the Daily Show. He's interested in civic engagement and communications theory, the digital divide and alternative economic theories, and saving nature.

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The Overview: 28.01.08

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posted by John MacFarlane at 2h10 GMT on Jan 29

Africa: Hopes that Kofi Annan's arrival in Nairobi might help resolve the post-election crisis gripping Kenya have thus far proven empty. Fresh violence has left dozens dead and the country effectively paralyzed. Kenyan Pundit pointed recently to a good blog with first-person accounts, none of them cheerful. The East Standard's plaintive editorial is a good indicator of how close Kenya is to the edge.

Europe: Russia decides to cut the number of election monitors for its March presidential polls to half the number who were present for the 2004 vote. The Kremlin also officially barred Mikhail Kasyanov from running, eliminating the only candidate with even a vague hope of challenging Vladimir Putin's hand-picked successor, Dimitriy Medvedev. Mark MacKinnon has a list of Russia's recent invocations of the old disqualified-candidate trick. In Turkey, a court gave a 15-month suspended sentence to a professor found guilty of insulting the founder of the country.

Asia: Dan Casey at Maisonneuve has a nice look at Canadian media following the global lead in polishing the turd that was Indonesian dictator Suharto. Seems you can slaughter a few million people and limit freedoms as long as you also improve the economy. UK PM Gordon Brown tells visiting Pakistan leader Pervez Musharraf that "credible elections" are probably a good idea. A TV cooking-show host and ally of exiled ex-PM Thaksin wins the Thai election.

Further Reading: Foreign Policy magazine on the best ways to steal an election. A great NYT magazine piece -- actually an excerpt from the new book by policy researcher Parag Khanna -- on the decline of US hegemony. And two pieces from Scientific American on Brazil's plans to prioritize science and education -- the first an overview, the second by three authors, including Brazilian President Lula da Silva.

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