links for 2010-03-09

• Sovereign Wealth Funds: The Governance Challenge
  The striking correlation between a country’s democracy standards and the transparency, good governance, and accountability standards of its SWFs suggests that any meaningful progress on compliance in emerging economies, particularly in the Arab world, is likely to be closely associated with broader democratic reforms. [..] Absent a genuine strategic choice from SWF holders, implementation of the Santiago Principles may be slow.

  This state of affairs, in turn, will continue to confront Western economies with difficult trade-offs, forcing them to weigh the important contributions SWFs make to public and private balance sheets against the non-trivial economic and political challenges they pose. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton once pointedly remarked while reflecting on China’s simultaneous positions as one of the world’s most important creditors and one of the United States’ competitors for global influence, “How do you get tough on your banker?”

  (tags: swf finance economy economics politics democracy)
• A Gandhi in Egypt: Rediff.com India News
  (tags: egypt politics ElBaradie)
• Growing low-oxygen zones in oceans worry scientists – Yahoo! News
  (tags: environment climatechange pollution marine nature oceans)
• Egypt: From Semi-Authoritarianism to One-Dimensionality – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
  None of the steps envisaged here is going to make the elections in the forthcoming cycle into meaningful expressions of citizen choice. It is already too late to overcome the one-dimensionality of the Egyptian political scene. But if steps are not taken now, we will find ourselves facing a new cycle of meaningless elections five years from now.
  (tags: egypt democracy mubarak politics elections united-states policy obama)
• temperature-briefing-21-02-10-final-e.pdf (application/pdf Object)
  The aim of this paper is to sum up recent insights into these questions. To do so we divide the larger issue into three parts:
  Which emission pathways are consistent with the two degree limit? (A “pathway” is a curve depicting the temporal trend of global emissions into the future.) A related question is, what do these pathways imply for emission limits in 2020?
  What are the expected global emissions in 2020 if commitments/mitigation actions to the Copenhagen Accord are fulfilled?
  How do expected emissions compare to emission limits in 2020?
  (tags: pdf climatechange environment UN policy science)
• Obama Administration Establishes a National Climate Service and Portal | The Green Economy Post: Green Careers, Green Business, Sustainability
  Earlier this month, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced the decision to create a NOAA Climate Service line office dedicated to bringing together the agency’s climate science and service delivery capabilities as a way of addressing the growing demand for climate data vital to planning and operations. NOAA is also unveiling a new Web site – http://www.climate.gov – that serves as a single point-of-entry for NOAA’s extensive climate information, data, products and services.
  (tags: climatechange obama united-states resource government)
• International Crisis Group – Middle East Peace: Ground Truths, Challenges Ahead
  (tags: israel palestine gaza hamas united-states policy politics MiddleEast)
• Robert Fisk: Once again, a nation walks through fire to give the West its 'democracy' – Robert Fisk, Commentators – The Independent
  Yes, the Iraqis are a brave people. How many Brits would go to the polls under mortar fire? Or Americans, for that matter? It's not that Muslims don't want freedom or democracy. It's that "democracy" doesn't seem to work when their countries are occupied by Western troops. It didn't work in Afghanistan. The withdrawal of American "combat" troops from Iraq doesn't mean that US forces won't remain in great strength.

  And as long as the Mubaraks and the King Abdullahs (both of them) have our uncritical political support, their nations will make no real progress towards freedom.

  Thus yesterday's election day in Iraq does not represent further proof of the values of our Western democracies. It does mean that a courageous people still believes that the system under which it is voting will honour its wishes.

  As so often in the past, however, the election is more likely – under our benevolent eye – to enshrine the very sectarianism which Saddam once used so ruthlessly to enslave his people.

  (tags: RobertFisk iraq elections democracy religion)
• Is the Brotherhood Pushing the Self-Destruct Button?
  (tags: egypt muslim-brotherhood politics elections)
• Three Suggestions for Doctor ElBaradei
  (tags: egypt ElBaradie politics democracy)
• The war on baby girls: Gendercide | The Economist
  MAGINE you are one half of a young couple expecting your first child in a fast-growing, poor country. You are part of the new middle class; your income is rising; you want a small family. But traditional mores hold sway around you, most important in the preference for sons over daughters. Perhaps hard physical labour is still needed for the family to make its living. Perhaps only sons may inherit land. Perhaps a daughter is deemed to join another family on marriage and you want someone to care for you when you are old. Perhaps she needs a dowry.
  [..]
  For millions of couples, the answer is: abort the daughter, try for a son. In China and northern India more than 120 boys are being born for every 100 girls. Nature dictates that slightly more males are born than females to offset boys’ greater susceptibility to infant disease. But nothing on this scale.
  (tags: gender demographics population international china india)
• Briefing: Who will run Egypt after Hosni Mubarak? / The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com
  Gebty i-Tayha ya sarsoor.

  More shallow coverage from Sarah Topol, khawaga journalist mediocaire.

  At least this time there's nothing particularly wrong with it. But that's just because there is nothing to it. Talk about filling space with nothing.

  (tags: egypt mubarak politics)