First Tunisia, now Egypt and Jordan. The Arab world seems to be going through a really tumultuous moment as a wave of public protests have broken out in those countries against the respective rulers. Egypt has taken the protests, in which 26 have died so far, so seriously that it actually "shut down" the Internet, something that has never been done before.

Egypt's PM Hosni Mubarak, the very person who the protesters want to see step down, also dismissed his Cabinet and defended his security forces' heavyhanded reaction. Mubarak is an elected ruler but under his 30-year rule, he has clamped down on media and opposition parties, tortured dissidents, and generally engineered Egypt's supposed democratic system to ensure his continual reign. Yet he has also overseen a tenuous kind of peace with Israel and has steered Egypt into the US geopolitical camp, so it's not surprising that the US leadership, specifically Vice-President Joe Biden came out and backed him.

No surprise happened with the South Sudan secession vote. The South is poised to break away from Sudan as most of the votes counted overwhelmingly indicate a desire for independence. There will be a lot of challenges and while euphoria might be felt now, one wonders how most people in that region will feel later on down the line, after formal independence begins in July.

In a first, an Arab strongman was toppled by his people. Tunisia's longtime leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali hightailed it out of his country earlier this week after thousands of Tunisians marched demanding his ouster. He had earlier said he would continue his term but promised to step down in 2014. It is surprising because Tunisia is a rather stable country and Ben Ali's reign was kind of benign compared to other Arab and Middle East dictators, but he was still a dictator, jailing and torturing human rights activists and limiting free speech. However it wasn't these issues but anger over unemployment and rising prices that directly sparked these protests. Still, there must have been a strong amount of frustration at the seemingly permanent reign of their dictatorial leader among much of society that fueled their dissatisfaction over economic problems.

The Southern Sudan referendum has gotten underway and it is highly likely that the world will see a new nation this year. There may have been a few hiccups but that doesn't seem to be hindering many people in this war-weary and undeveloped, not even underdeveloped, region.

Shocking news today from the US as a congresswoman was shot in plain sight in an Arizona supermarket while 6 others were killed. She was shot in the head while she was holding a public meet at the supermarket. This is really crazy stuff, shocking and sad. That it happened in Arizona is striking, given the tense and controversial recent politics in that state concerning immigration laws. It also reminded me of the shooting of a politician in Taiwan last November.

Another revealing look into how microlending got out of hand in India. Still, the idea itself still seems sound, it looks more that some lenders got too greedy and their intentions were mainly self-enrichment and profit rather than helping the poor.
An interesting excerpt:

Overlending in Andhra Pradesh calls to mind the U.S. subprime crisis, says Lakshmi Shyam-Sunder, director of corporate risk at International Finance Corp. in Washington, which invests in microlenders. “Subprime lending was initially seen as extending homeownership to poorer people, doing good,” Shyam-Sunder says. As the industry expanded, making a profit became more important to some lenders, she says.

China's recently announced first-ever stealth fighter has stirred up some alarm in the West. However, the opinions are mixed on how truly effective or worrying this development is supposed to be. It's a good development for China, as long as it's not for any offensive means. Why should only the US and Russia have stealth fighters?

A new nation may be born soon in Africa. The Southern part of Sudan will vote in a referendum between Jan 9 and 15 whether to split from Sudan and form a new nation or stay with Sudan. CNN has an extensive article that details the current situation, the historical background, and challenges.
If the area chooses independence, it will be a precarious state of affairs.

Microlending is going through some tough times as it's been the subject of harsh criticism from politicians and activists. Grameen Bank, the institution that won its founder Mohammed Yunus a Nobel Prize, is even under investigation for alleged tax evasion regarding US$100 million. In other areas like India, microlending institutions have been said to be trapping borrowers into a cycle of debt as instead of "lifting themselves" out of poverty, they just keep borrowing constantly. This is really unfortunate as it seemed like a good concept. Yet, I feel that the problems described in this article about microlending aren't problems with microlending itself but problems with human faults such as greed and over-ambitiousness. In effect, these faults are also those that have plagued regular banking or financial institutions elsewhere- trapping borrowers into a cycle of poverty seems familiar.