South Asia

"If elected, you will either preside over the economic collapse of the United States or lead our nation up the path to its salvation. Make a choice – now – before it’s too late!"

"In assessing both candidates, one observer noted that McCain's position could be seen as being "in line with the moral clarity and American exceptionalism projected by President George W. Bush's first term" - i.e., hard-line neo-conservative and confrontational. Obama, on the other hand, has taken a position, on this crisis, more in line with the current occupant of the White House (the "kinder, gentler" George W. Bush) with his newfound appreciation for diplomacy."

"...the U.S. no longer has its former industrial base. The people and their government are heavily in debt. The dollar is weak and stands the prospect of losing its status as the world's reserve currency."

"The dispute over Kashmir derives from the defective geopolitical process of Partition in 1947, which saw the old British Empire split up into India and Pakistan. It is symbolic of the type of legacy of Britain’s imperial achievements in India as indeed in other conflicts such as Israel/Palestine, to bequeath perpetual strife."

"The Poets are the marshals of the struggle between the memories, between the myths, between the traumas. We shall need them on the road to peace between the two peoples, between the two states, for building a common future."

"As Yugoslavia disintegrated after the death of Tito in 1980 and the collapse of communism in 1989, many Muslims were surprised to discover a Muslim community and country emerging from the wreckage. In March 1991, however, Slobodan Milosevic and Franjo Tudjman, presidents of Serbia and Croatia and supposedly implaccable foes, met at a hunting lodge in Karadjordjevo and agreed a pact that led to massive bloodshed over the next few years: a pact for the extermination of Bosnian Muslims and the partition of Bosnia-Herzegovina between their two countries."

"Napoleon's celebrated remark, "Let China sleep, for if it awakes it will shake the world," gives us all much food for thought. China is clearly wide awake today and the world must come to better understand it – for China’s sake and for ours."

"More than 60 percent land of the country is occupied by tribal leaders, choudhrys, waderays and sardars (feudal). And more than 60 percent wealth of the country is consumed by Pakistani army."