Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Friday 2 May 2014

2 May 2014
Le Monde diplomatique

May 2014

...India elections special report; Crimea, Putin's big mistake; Syrian crisis, Israel watches and waits; Saudi Arabia, strangely insecure; Egypt's vicious internal divisions; Nile water wrangles; US media makes capital from politics; financial crisis, in need of a bubble? postcolonial thought's blind alley; fansubbing, the words of love...

  • Europe's brutal discipline - Serge Halimi

    The European utopia is turning into a system for delivering punishment. As Europe's regime gets tougher, there is a growing sense that interchangeable elites are taking advantage of each crisis to tighten their austerity policies and impose their federal fantasy . This twin objective has the support of boardrooms and newsrooms. But even if you boost their ranks with German rentiers, a few Luxembourgers specialising in tax evasion and most of France's Socialist leaders, popular backing for the (...)
    Translated by Barbara Wilson
  • India goes to the polls

    New party of the poor - Naïké Desquesnes

    Five weeks of voting, with 814 million voters, end on 12 May. While Narendra Modi's BJP looks set to displace Sonia Gandhi's Congress Party, a third runner, the Aam Aadmi Party, is winning support from both poor and middle classes.
    Translated by George Miller

  • Gujarat: a not-so-model state* - Clea Chakraverty

    Narendra Modi's reputation rests on what he claims to have made of Gujarat, where he is chief minister. He doesn't much mention the state's worsening inequality, poverty, environmental degradation, caste exploitation and religious segregation.
    Translated by George Miller

  • India's profitable media* - Benjamin Fernandez

    Indian newspapers are sold at cheaper than cost, subsidised by ad revenue, and have enormous circulations; the most successful titles and the newer media are mostly owned by a few mega-groups as an instrument of policy. And journalism is open only to a tiny, mostly English-speaking elite.
    Translated by Charles Goulden
  • Why the annexation of Crimea was a big mistake

    Russia: the bear blunders* - Jean Radvanyi

    Russia's future is always fragile - its vast eastern territories are bleeding people, it can't move economically beyond selling raw materials, and its use of soft power is clumsy.
    Translated by Stephanie Irvine
  • 'We are unable to resolve the crises'

    Saudi Arabia feels insecure - Alain Gresh

    Saudi Arabia feels that its position in the Gulf and the world is being threatened by changing regional aims and alliances, in particular in Iran and Egypt. Its rulers, being old, are not coping well with radical change.
    Translated by Charles Goulden
  • Syrian crisis poses dilemmas for Israel

    Choosing not to choose* - Nir Boms and Asaf Hazani

    As the Syrian conflict continues - a third of the population are now refugees - concern is growing in Israel, which is torn between hostility to the Assad regime and fear of jihadist groups taking over close to its borders.
    Original text in English
  • Unstable power structure, regional disagreement

    Could Egypt fall apart?* - Pierre Henri and Stéphane Lacroix

    Since Mubarak's overthrow in 2011, further protests and military intervention have removed an elected government and brought chaos. Egypt urgently needs a pact between its divided political players and reform of its institutions.
    Translated by Charles Goulden

  • Water politics along the Nile - Nizar Manek

    The only equitable way to manage the Nile Basin and its water resources is for all countries along its banks to make fair share agreements. But it isn't likely to happen.
    LMD English Edition exclusive
  • Marxist theory, universalism and the left

    Postcolonial thought's blind alley* - Vivek Chibber

    Postcolonial theory presents itself not just as a criticism of the radical Enlightenment tradition, but its replacement. But some key concepts its theorists reject are legitimate, and essential for progressive politics; they have recently re-emerged in global organisation against austerity.
    Original text in English

  • Schools of thought*

  • Are bubbles the only way out of financial crisis?

    Capitalism is going nowhere* - Kostas Vergopoulos

    Larry Summers has committed financial heresy, telling the IMF the whole system may be trapped in long-term, low economic growth, with bubbles the sole, temporary, remedy for unemployment. And President Obama has made inequality a major theme in his latest state of the union address.
    Translated by George Miller
  • Listening for the news you want to hear

    Partisan media* - Rodney Benson

    Partisan media were made possible - and profitable - by the rise of cable television and the net. They're one of the few areas of media making a profit - and that, not promotion of (especially rightwing) party politics, is their primary purpose.
    Original text in English
  • Words brought to you courtesy of the fans

    Reading the subtitles* - Mélanie Bourdaa and Mona Chollet

    Almost as soon as a television programme is premiered somewhere in the world, everybody can download - illegally - a version with subtitles in their own language. All done for love.
    Translated by Stephanie Irvine


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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 19:37