Join the Club by Michael Elliot

 How Europe can help the revolutions in the Middle East succeed

　　As long as you grasp the revolutions in the Middle East within the framework of what has gone before, you will get nowhere. Instead, if you review history, you will get useful lessons.
　　First, when revolutions happen, tolerate messiness. Any revolutions were unstable at first. If you review the revolutions in the United States, France, and Russia, you will understand that these countries had to wait nearly 100 years before they became peaceful dispensations. Second, while leadership matters, institutions matter more. Institutions that support the revolution are necessary for successful revolutions. Thirdly, revolutionary states need to be welcomed into international clubs like EU. (103 words)

The Asian Experience by Hannah Beech

What the region can—and cannot—teach the Arab world about democracy through revolution.

　　Thailand and the Philippines cannot be the model for the Arab World: Tunisia, Yemen, and Egypt. In Thailand protesters overthrew a military regime in 1992, but they failed to nurture its newfound democracy. In the Philippines a sea of yellow-clad demonstrators peacefully overthrew Marcos, a corrupt, aging, U.S. backed dictator in 1986, but the country is still beset by poverty, cronyism and nepotism that provoked the 1986 revolution.
　　The countries the Arab countries should learn lessons from are South Korea, which carefully constructed a prosperous democracy, and Indonesia, which has changed not in one cataclysmic jolt but through years of brick-by-brick nation building.

IN THE ARENA Arms and the Unbalanced

by Joe Klein

Heated rhetoric doesn’t help, but the real need is to reassess policy on guns and the mentally ill.

A U.S. democrat Gabrielle Giffords was shot by Loughner, a mentally ill man. Two questions are involved here: one is that many U.S. citizens are victims of crazy people. In 1950s they were confined to mental hospitals, but 1960s major cities were teeming with the homeless or/and mentally ill. Romanticization of mental illness and the American Civil Liberties Union made it near impossible to put the schizophrenics to a secure facility. The second is the lenient gun control. The National Rifle Association’s campaign and a Supreme Court rule enhanced the right to bear arms. These two problems should be reassessed.

A Lady Called Hope

by Wang Dan

A Chinese dissident tells what Aung San Suu Kyi’s long fight against tyranny means for him.

Wang Dan was twice inspired by Suu Kyi. Once when he read her essay which said that perseverance is the most important asset for a protest movement. The other is when she was released from house detention. She is more than an individual and the junta is less than the guns of the soldiers. China has given an 11-year imprisonment sentence to Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Real progress in human rights cannot be achieved without active and constant pressure on China. To try to advance democratic reforms within a dictatorship through coordination and encouragement is too easygoing. (100 words)

Let the Games Not Begin

by Jyoti Thottam

Let the Games Not Begin. New Delhi’s residents are protesting, not celebrating, their city’s Commonwealth Games.

　　The Commonwealth Games are to open on October 3. A politician, Suresh Kalmadi says on September 15 that everything for the opening of the game is ready with minor finishing, but actually there are a lot of problems in construction, security, and diseases. Indian politicians also plead the New Delhi’s residents to put on a good show for the coming athletes.
　　But the residents are against Kalmadi’s wizard-of-Oz way of speaking and the pleading. The residents do not need the shallow words like Kalmadi. Instead, they will surely show their wit, compassion, and courage in the end as in Wizard of Oz. (102 words)

(The words, Wizard of Oz, are well reflected in the last paragraph: ...long and treacherous yellow brick road. ... find reserves of wit, compassion and courage. Who needs the Wixard?)

Sacred Spaces

By Nancy Gibbs

We all view them differently. So how can we best turn hallowed ground common ground?

How does a common place become hallowed? It is when people attach meaning to it. Gettysburg became hallowed because of Lincoln’s speech. Lourdes became sacred because of a miracle. So is Vietnam Veterans Memorial. How about Ground Zero? It is undergoing a test. Some oppose the construction of the mosque; others approve it. Either side contradicts its own case. To the opponents, I say the distance would not be the problem if “the center were intentional affront orchestrated by radical Islamic sleepers.” To the proponents, I ask why they build it “in so divisive a location. Politicians, who exploit the debates for their own purposes, deserve special scorn.

Africa’s Future

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

by Alex Perry

How staging soccer’s World Cup has allowed a continent to believe in itself.
　
　　When the writer moved to South Africa in 2006, the security was not guaranteed. There were many crimes, violence, and burglaries, but the situation has changed. The preconception that Africa is a continent of war, famine, genocide, and death has been replaced with the idea that it is a continent of vibrancy, affluence, diversity, and opportunities. Many excellent Africans have appeared: coffee moguls, entrepreneurs, bankers, musicians, and pilots. Africans today began to have confidence in themselves through experiencing the World Cup. They have become more tolerant, confident, and broadminded. Desmond Tutu said regarding the wonderful change Africa has made, “It’s unbelievable! I am in a dream.”(106)