Nigeria just re-elected Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for his second four-year term. His opposition in the election, Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), lost in his fifth bid for president. In Nigerian history, the election of incumbents is common, as only one failed reelection bid has occurred since the […]
Author: Nathan Fillingim-Selk
Murder and Famine: Sand’s Story in 21st Century India
In 2004, Sumaira Abdulali, one of India’s foremost environmental activists, drove to an illegal sand mining site. Upon her arrival, four men, including the son of a local Indian National Congress politician, smashed her side window, dragged her out of the car and beat her in an effort to silence her efforts to stop the […]
Venezuela’s Unintentional Regional Influence
Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, much like his predecessor Hugo Chavez, often appears on national television to address the country on the problems facing the nation and to boost approval ratings. However, during a television appearance in November 2017, Maduro made a very public gaffe that highlighted the growing corruption and inequality in Venezuela. During the […]
Captain of the Team, But Is He the Captain of the Country?
Imran Khan is a cricket-star-turned-politician who used a mixture of religious zeal and anti-corruption anger to catapult himself from the cricket ground to the office of the Prime Minister in August 2018. He ran a bruising campaign that damaged his relationships with other political parties in Pakistan. However, upon deeper reflection, there were forces other […]
Canada as a “Bi”lingual State
Canada’s debate on the need to be bilingual predates the country’s independence. The last time that Canada’s bilingual duality was not a controversy was when English settlers were just crossing the Appalachian mountains and fur trapping was among the most lucrative businesses. When Europe colonized North America, the French occupied the area that is now […]
How Catalonia Can Help Itself and the Rest of Spain
In a Business Insider political piece, “Here’s why Catalonia should secede from Spain, and why it won’t” former Catalan MP Alfons López Tena argues in favor of Catalonia’s independence movement. In the article, he argues like many of his peers that the region deserves liberation from alleged Spanish tyranny. However, the claim that Catalonia should […]