Beauty and the East- January 29, 2008 There was a particular historical moment, round about 1995 or so, when anyone entering a well-appointed drawing room, dining room or restaurant in London was sure to encounter a beautiful Russian woman. Though the word "beautiful" doesn't really capture the phenomenon: The women I'm remembering were extraordinarily, unbelievably stunning.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/28/AR2008012802327.html?nav=r... The Rot In Kenya's Politics- January 22, 2008 Blurry video of a policeman beating a demonstrator; a photograph of angry slum-dwellers storming a food depot; headlines featuring the word "violence." That, more or less, sums up the news from Kenya, or at least the news that has filtered into the general consciousness over the past few weeks. Unless you were paying very close attention, you were probably tempted, as I was at first, to dismiss these events as yet more evidence of Africa's ungovernability. Uganda, Rwanda, Liberia, Somalia,...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/21/AR2008012101741.html?nav=r... Tiny Car, Tough Questions- January 15, 2008 If you haven't done so already, meet the Nano, possibly the most significant new car of the decade: Small, cute and snub-nosed, it fits four people and a duffel bag, has a single windshield wiper, travels at 65 mph -- and it's all yours for the princely sum of $2,500, roughly the same price as the DVD system in your neighbor's Lexus and about half the price of the cheapest cars on the market.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/14/AR2008011402080.html?nav=r... The Color of an Advantage- January 8, 2008 WARSAW -- "Will Americans vote for a black man for president"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/07/AR2008010702260.html?nav=r... Two Benazir Bhuttos- January 1, 2008 What with the president of France jetting off to Luxor to spend Christmas with a supermodel and things looking up in Iraq, 2008 seemed set to be more cheerful than 2007. But the assassination of Benazir Bhutto-- possibly marking the beginning of an Islamic nuclear power's descent into chaos -- has already put a sober cast on the normally frivolous end-of-the-year news. It would have been hard to invent a better reminder of how events in faraway countries, of which we once knew little, now...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/31/AR2007123101663.html?nav=r... |