Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Turkey: Paradise or Perdition?

Turkey in recent times has often been held up as the model standard of how an Islamic democracy should function. President Abdullah Gul enjoys very high approval ratings and the country's economy is amongst the strongest in the Islamic world.

Why then the attacks perpetrated tonight in the southeastern portion of the country, which the government claims to be the doing of a Kurdish terrorist group? Could it be that this country, so long acting as a stable military partner for the United States, has ethnic and religious tension of its own?

Turkey has been repeatedly denied membership into the European Union. Symbolically, these attacks, deemed Islamic extremist related, come during the holy month of Ramadan. Turkey obviously has some internal resolution ahead of it before it can be fully embraced by Western society.




Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Debt, Downgrade and Democracy

The stock market plunge of the last week belays the supposed compromise reached on the US debt ceiling but also highlights the instability of trust in US political and economic institutions. While a AA+ rating does not equate the the complete junking of US bonds, the real hit is in the value of confidence in American leadership.

Stark differences in government leadership were proven in the handling of two crises that occurred on opposite ends of the globe. The derailing of a high speed train in eastern China in late July was met head on by the government with a complete blackout of negative media coverage and swift retribution of lower level government transportation officers. The party itself, however, lost very little face; engaging in a relentlessly executed propaganda campaign to silence all dissent before it even had a chance to occur.

Enter the US Congress, where the media circled the party leaders like vultures to a carcass. The drama over the debt ceiling was played out like a family dinner with the parents on the brink of divorce. Several times, Boehner and Obama actually got up and left the discussion in attempts to up the ante in a dangerous poker game where the stakes were the American economy.

At the end of the game, who won the pot? The general consensus is that the American people were not the winners of this contest of political brinkmanship, and the consensus is right if unemployment figures and market values are any indicator. The compromise reached by Congress has nearly nothing to say about unemployment rates or entitlement spending, and the general lack of transparency in the deal will make it hard to scrutinize.

China and the US, the two lions in a room full of hyenas; the question is: which one gets the gazelle? Is China's system of authoritarianism, focus on manufacturing, and artificial manipulation of its currency the way to go? Or will America's freedom of press, democratic tradition, and capitalist leanings keep it at the top? Both systems are working the way they were intended, one with rigorous public debate, one with central planning and control of information. Only time will tell whether the American or Chinese dream will become the reality of the future.