It is sad to hear despondency being voiced in certain parts of the west in the face of the changes in Egypt. Of course we are left with a feeling of great uncertainty as to what the future will bring. But this should not stop us welcoming the changes wholeheartedly and offering energetic support to those who are striving to build a constitutional, democratic and socially just nation.

by Gerhard Wahlers

Over the last few weeks the world has been watching the Arab nations with great interest and a certain degree of admiration, closely following media coverage as the sensational events have unfolded. For political observers who thought they knew these countries from past experience, these events have been both surprising and worrying.

by Michael A. Lange

After the people of Southern Sudan voted overwhelmingly in favour of an independent state in the recent referendum, the new state is expected to be established on July 9, 2011. 55 years after independence, Sudan is now to be split in two, and the regional balance of power must be established all over again.

by Martin Pabst

Following a tortuous path of some two decades, Kenya finally obtained a new constitution when on August 4, 2010 two-thirds of Kenyans who participated in the national referendum voted to adopt it, and President Mwai Kibaki promulgated it at a festive ceremony in Nairobi three weeks later.

by Tom Wolf

In 2010 South Africa impressed the world with an almost perfectly organised Football World Cup. Major infrastructure projects and new world-class stadiums impressively demonstrated the investment and mobilisation capacity of the country. South Africa has weathered even the economic and financial crisis relatively well. Negative growth was 1.8 per cent in 2009 and unemployment grew by about one million. In 2010 however, another good three per cent growth is expected, the inflation at four per cent is within the three to six per cent region set by the Central Bank.

by Werner Böhler

Six months after the biggest flood disaster in Pakistan’s history, approximately seven of 13 million people who lost their houses and possessions to the floods around the Indus and its tributaries are still without adequate protection or food in the face of the cold winter weather which has been prevailing since December.

by Karl Fischer

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, Europe has rarely seen elections as disastrous as the Presidential elections held in Belarus on December 19, 2010. This is not because of President Alexander Lukashenko’s landslide victory in the so-called elections. After his 16 years in office, no-one seriously believed that the votes would actually be counted or that the authorities would not rig the elections to suit Lukashenko.

by Stephan Malerius

Basic Data, Structure, Political Representation and Two Excursuses, About the Polish Diaspora in Germany and About the Silesian Autonomy Movement.

by Stephan Georg Raabe