Their economic philosophies may differ, but Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa and Colombia’s arch-conservative former president Alvaro Uribe, share a taste for the perpetuation of power.
Author: Bertrand Hauger
Bertrand Hauger is a graduate of La Sorbonne Nouvelle school of bilingual journalism, and joined Worldcrunch after working briefly as a reporter in a local newspaper in his native eastern France. He now serves as Worldcrunch’s deputy editor-in-chief and director of content.
Recent behavioral and developmental studies of animals such as rabbits and rats show striking similarities to patterns we see in how childhood relationships and experiences shape humans.
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Back To School
I had only been retired for three years when we visited this school in eastern Nepal. As far as teaching goes, this felt very far indeed from my career as a high school philosophy teacher in France.
The Russian President is again one step ahead of the U.S. and Europe, and many have begun to wonder if sanctions are even worth it. And then there is the question: where to after Ukraine?
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In Emperors’ Footsteps
Not far from Beijing lie the Ming tombs — a collection of imperial mausoleums built during the Chinese Ming dynasty. To visit them, you must first walk down the Spirit Way, or Avenue of the Animals, where imposing animals carved out of single pieces of stone watch tourists come and go, as they did with […]
CAIRO — Since the group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) declared a caliphate, much has been written about the movement — but still more remains unclear. How seriously should we take their rise? How does ISIS define Islamic law, and how would it be implemented? There are also more basic […]
Not the same imminent threat as Vladimir Putin, but the Hungarian prime minister is posing a bold challenge to the West, with a troubling speech in Romania that flew below the radar.
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Funchal’s Flowery Floats
The Madeira Flower Festival takes place every spring. For the main parade through the streets of Funchal, 30 or so floats are decorated with thousands of flowers by associations, schools — and even hospitals and the local police take part.
BERLIN — For many in Ukraine the city of Enerhodar is known simply as “Atomic City.” It was founded a couple of decades ago to accommodate a power station, and the city with its 50,000 inhabitants in southeastern Ukraine is known today as one of the country’s main energy suppliers. The six reactor blocks of […]
MOSCOW — It’s a typical summer night at Gorky Park on the bank of the Moskva River. The day has been heavy and humid, nearly 30° C (86° F), and then out of nowhere the clouds rolled in. The lightning started 30 minutes ago. It’s been like this for weeks in Moscow — scorching sun […]
-Analysis- PARIS — What can Europe do after Kiev’s desperate call for help in dealing with the invasion of Russian troops in eastern Ukraine, where separatists are gaining control? Let’s leave aside for the moment the hypothesis of military aid. European defense doesn’t exist. What’s more, we run the risk of escalation — an imbalance […]
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Once Upon A Time, In A Peaceful Middle East
Though Petra is awe-inspiring, I’m not sure I’d go back today. A trip to Jordan must be very different now than it was 18 years ago. The colors on this shot of the Ad Deir monastery shows well why the archeological site is nicknamed “the Rose city.”
His name is Axel Kicillof, but they call him “Kicilove.”
Just how should the West deal with terrorists as ruthless as ISIS? Hunt them down, ally with their enemies, mess with their minds? Some concrete options, but there’s no time to waste.
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Apollo On Fire
Who’s this good-looking fellow dressed as Apollo and followed by his court of Muses, you ask? I told you before I used to take Carnival costumes pretty seriously.
While Erdogan rises to the presidency, his ally and foreign minister Davutoglu is set to be the new Turkish prime minister. His intellectual gifts are matched only by his political failures.
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Mummy Guards
The Toraja people in Southern Sulawesi, Indonesia, are famous for their elaborate funeral rites. Not only do they tend to mummify the deceased — they also store coffins in caves carved up on rocky cliffs and place a wooden effigy of the departed, called Tau tau, to guard the burial site. Spooky.
Egypt’s President al-Sisi shares with Israel a common enemy in Hamas, but Egyptians are outraged at the recent attacks in Gaza. Chronicle of a high-stakes diplomatic balancing act.
The electoral horizon looks unsympathetic for disaffected Brazilian voters after the death of a charismatic presidential aspirant. Will Rousseff win again, despite politics-as-usual fatigue?
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Saving Money
We visited Rome often, and almost always made sure to pass by to admire the majestic Fontana di Trevi. We never took part in the tourist tradition of tossing a coin over your left shoulder and making a wish to return some day to the eternal city. Our many Roman returns confirmed my doubts about […]
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A Day’s Catch
The port city of Sfax was a mix of coastal ease and urban grit. Here, 10 local fishermen split the land/seascape in two.
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Ferguson As ‘America’s Spring’
The death of teenager Michael Brown at the hands of a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., has been getting plenty of attention beyond U.S. borders, and Arabic-language media is no exception. It has made Ferguson front-page news, while Twitter users have transliterated “Ferguson” into an Arabic hashtag. A recent Al Jazeera article, filed under […]
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Texas Cousins
When people hear the word “cajun,” they automatically think about Louisiana. But a small community of these descendants of French-speaking Acadian exiles also lives in Texas. The association “Les Acadiens du Texas” was founded in Beaumont in the late 1970s to preserve their history, which included traditional dances in not-so-traditional outfits.
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I Pictured You Taller
From a distance, mountains look more or less the same height. But in this picture, I’m pretty sure the summit on the right is none other than Mount Everest.
After 15 years of living and working in the United States, a Die Welt correspondent says good-bye, not only to his adopted country but also to the pre-9/11 grandeur the U.S. once enjoyed.
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Traditional Warrior From 9 To 5
In the traditional homestead of Vula Zulu, near the South African border with Swaziland, we got to witness Zulu impi perform age-old war dancing rites. As in many other places, we were told that the warriors did not actually live in the village, but returned to their homes once the show is over.
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That’s It, I’m Leaving
This Galapagos marine iguana looks like he was just fed up with living on a volcanic archipelago.
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C’est Ca La France!
Can you spot the Citroën deux chevaux parked next to that boat in the port of la Rochelle? Built from 1948 to 1990, the iconic “deuche,” as it is known here, leaves no room for doubt: It really is “la France.”
Hamas methods for getting information to and from its fighters can pose intelligence challenges for the Israeli army, preventing it from deploying its full technological capabilities.
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Checkered Mosque
Perched on the summit of Cairo’s Saladin Citadel is the Great Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha, also known as the Alabaster Mosque because of its white courtyard. It’s one of the first features of Cairo visitors see when they travel into the city.
The news in quotes, and quotes making news…
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The Nun And The News
This nun walking under St. Peter’s Square’s colossal colonnades was looking at copies of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s official newspaper founded in 1861. Zooming in, I was able to see that the front page was about Pope John XXIII’s encyclical Mater et Magistra on the topic of Christianity and social progress — written four years […]
The U.S. has a poor record on Iraq, but it’s optimistic that cooperation with the country’s new prime minister can help him win the war against terrorists and restore regional stability.
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Mayan Market
“Chichi,” as it is affectionately called by visitors and Guatemalans alike, has become one of the most-visited destinations in the country. The colorful blouses these K’iche” women were selling at the city’s market contrasted nicely with the dark hair they inherited from their Mayan ancestors.
Despite a seven-year blockade, Israel’s control of movement and goods in the Gaza Strip has only strengthened the enemy Hamas and exposed Israel to global criticism. Time for a new policy.
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Watch Your Step
I’m not a big sports fan, but I do watch the Tour de France every year. These guys were about a whole other kind of cycling, racing like madmen down the stairs of Dalt Vita, Ibiza’s old town.
ISTANBUL — What does voter turnout in Sunday’s Turkish presidential election tell us about the popularity and ambitions of President-Elect Recep Tayyip Erdogan? So far, we know the number of Turks who went to the polls for the country’s first direct presidential election in history was about 13% lower than the number who turned out […]
President Barack Obama’s decision on the limited U.S. intervention in Iraq seems to have no long-term strategy behind it. Even Obama seems to know that.
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Change Of (Marine) Life
The owners of SeaWorld San Diego bought Los Angeles’ Marineland of the Pacific in early 1987 before suddenly closing it. That meant all the animals had to be transferred to San Diego. A year later, when we went to see them, Corky the killer whale had been renamed “Shamu.”
Russian travel agencies are going bankrupt as the Ukraine crisis clips the wings of tourism and keeps Russians at home. Many who have ventured abroad have found themselves stranded.