May 2010

It was an unprecedented turnout. No party won an outright majority, leading to a frantic period of negotiation in which both Labour and Conservative vied for Liberal Democrat support in order to form a new government.
The UK election campaign now seems ever stranger. There was a poster that showed a smiling Gordon Brown exhorting electors: “I increased the gap between rich and poor. Vote for me.” Its facts were true – 17% of UK national income was in the hands of the richest 1% of the (...)

One zone of Guangzhou, China’s workshop-of-the-world province, is home to perhaps 100,000 Africans, here to buy for the export market. Some of them are already considering moving on to India

The current South African government can barely cope internally with its social and financial problems, and such foreign policy as it can spare attention to pursue is chiefly self-serving

The UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty hasn’t prevented India, Pakistan, Israel – and potentially Iran and North Korea – from acquiring nuclear capability. But imagine a world where it hadn’t been adopted by so many other states

A small but violent rebellion last month ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev from the power he had won in an earlier revolt, and then abused. Real democratisation will, however, be hard

Venezuela’s economic collapse did not quite follow the downturn in oil profits that was the immediate result of the global recession. But Hugo Chavez’s government could have handled the situation far better

The province of Alberta, Canada, is being spoiled and despoiled for the sake of the oil that can be extracted from its tar sands. The First Nations challenge the oil and gas companies where and when they can, but the government, both state and local, backs the extractors

In the South Pacific region, Australia is supreme, yet it is only a minor power compared with China. Canberra is still dependent on its US-inspired traditional defence and trade policies

Many Israelis and Palestinians would like peaceful coexistence, but myths, propaganda and denial have a habit of getting in the way

The 2010 UN World Urban Campaign wants to tackle the problems of overcrowding and slums. But as more and more people move to ever-larger cities, how are we to create liveable urban spaces?

The city authorities of Antwerp assumed that its citizens would support a plan to complete the ring road around the city through two huge prestige projects. They were wrong

Since the creation of the railways, the desirable lifestyle has been in constant motion, always expanding and demanding that everything – goods and people – move and be moved. It may only have been a phase in human history

Assassination and political change motivated black musicians to transform jazz, and other music forms, to explore their own world

Christie’s Dubai has surprised itself since it opened in 2005 by selling many works by regional artists, and for unexpectedly high prices. What does the global market expect from the region?