The World Today for April 20, 2023

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Wanted: A Government

BULGARIA

Bulgarians have voted in five general elections in the last two years.

Voters, meanwhile, are tired.

“We’ll probably have to vote again in the fall,” a local election worker told local television. “This has to end at some point …We’ve been waiting for two years.”

The problem is that leaders can’t assemble stable coalition governments because the second-largest party, We Continue the Change, refuses to work with the largest party, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB).

Led by technocrat Kiril Petkov, who was prime minister from late 2021 to August 2022, We Continue the Change maintains that the problems with the GERB are less political and more based on principle. Petkov casts the GERB as the “personification of state capture and corruption bedeviling the European Union member country,” wrote Dimitar Bechev, a lecturer at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, in Politico.

Bulgaria is the second-most corrupt country in the EU, noted watchdog Transparency International, having only recently been surpassed by Hungary. Part of the reason is the power struggles between former communists, crime bosses and their cronies, pro-democracy politicians, and pro-capitalist politicians have dominated Bulgaria’s politics for years, added Bechev.

Borissov, one of those politicians, is the former bodyguard of the late communist dictator Todor Zhivkov and Simeon Saxe-Coburg, the country’s former king for three years before the onset of communism, and who also served as prime minister from 2001 to 2005.

The third largest party, the pro-Russian, nationalist Revival Party, has refused to join coalition talks. The Financial Times described the party’s leader as a “puppet for Russian interests” while noting that Bulgarians are culturally close to Russia due to the historic links between their Orthodox Christian faiths and Russia’s role in liberating Bulgaria from the yoke of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Bulgaria is also a NATO member, however, meaning that it is an example of a country formerly in the Soviet orbit that has joined sides with the West. The country, argued Deutsche Welle, is torn between East and West. As a result, Russian observers have also been monitoring the political winds in Bulgaria closely, added Newsweek.

This internal tension is important. The lack of progress in coalition talks, for example, has meant that President Rumen Radev, a pro-Russian opponent of sending Western military aid to Ukraine, has appointed caretaker governments to run public services for the last two years, reported Euractiv. Radev, whose office has executive as well as ceremonial functions, has gained political power in the meantime, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network found.

The leaders of the GERB and We Continue the Change, in contrast, support sending weapons to Ukraine. Bulgarian officials, for instance, are exploring how they might give Ukraine Soviet-era jet fighters to beat back the Russian advance, reported the New Voice of Ukraine.

But recent caretaker governments have also failed to undertake anti-corruption reforms – many undoubtedly involving Russian influence – that EU officials have demanded they make if they want to receive more than $5 billion in new EU funding, according to Euronews.

The clash between pro-Western versus pro-Russian political forces and anti-corruption crusaders versus organized crime is making it impossible for Bulgaria to get it together.

THE WORLD, BRIEFLY

Here Comes the Boom

INDIA

India will overtake China as the world’s most populous country by the middle of 2023, according to a recent United Nations report, a development that will likely present opportunities and challenges for the South Asian nation, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The UN estimates that India will have 1.4286 billion people by July 1, surpassing China’s population of 1.4257 billion by nearly three million people.

The milestone further underscores India’s continuing population boom as the country is expected to grow in the next 40 years, peaking at almost 1.7 billion. Meanwhile, China’s population, which decreased for the first time in decades last year, is expected to fall significantly in that period.

India’s population boom has prompted discussions among economists over a “demographic dividend,” a one-time window spanning a few decades when a country has more working-age people than young or elderly dependents. That window closes when the population ages and the cost of caring for dependents rises.

The phenomenon initially helped China’s economic rise but is now closing following the nation’s controversial one-child policy that helped speed up the country’s aging process.

India’s pool of young people – 610 million are under the age of 25 – is growing just as many Western firms are looking to expand operations outside of China into countries with cheaper labor.

But others warn of caution, saying it could become difficult for the government to create enough jobs for a booming population.

Over the past decade, India has added zero net new jobs, owing in part to the coronavirus epidemic, despite the fact that over 100 million individuals have entered the labor force.

In March, the country’s total labor-force participation rate was about 40 percent, compared with more than 62 percent in the United States.

No, Sir

MEXICO

Mexico’s top court struck down part of a law that would put day-to-day public security forces under military control, a verdict that deals a blow to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador who pushed for the legislation, the Financial Times reported.

The case centers on Mexico’s National Guard, which the populist leader created in 2019 to replace the country’s Federal Police. While initially under civilian control, Mexico’s Congress passed legislation last year that would put the National Guard under the operational and financial control of the defense ministry.

But on Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled against the law’s implementation and said the National Guard must remain under civilian control.

The decision marks a major setback for López Obrador, who has come to rely on the military and has also expanded its responsibility, such as putting it in charge of customs as well as building and operating infrastructure.

The president has also hailed the army as being more trustworthy and efficient than existing authorities. But critics warned that the expanded powers allow him to bypass regulations on transparency and planning.

In October, Congress extended the military’s ability to continue performing domestic law enforcement duties until 2028. Previously, that role was set to expire in 2024. In polls, the Mexican population has shown more faith in the military than in the police, the Associated Press wrote.

Observers indicated that the court’s decision put a significant dampener on militarization in Mexico, an issue that had been simmering for more than a decade but has accelerated under López Obrador.

Closed Season

NEW ZEALAND

Organizers of a competition for children to hunt and kill feral cats in New Zealand called off the event this week following a backlash from animal rights groups, the Independent reported Wednesday.

The North Canterbury Hunting Competition had initially unveiled a category offering children under 14 the chance to win around $150 for shooting the most feral cats by the end of June.

The competition barred children from killing domesticated cats and those who did would be disqualified.

Even so, animal welfare groups swiftly condemned the competition, citing concerns that the children would not be able to tell the difference between domestic and feral felines.

Following the outrage, organizers quickly scrapped the category from the hunting competition, which is held annually to raise funds for the rural South Island community and village school.

The competition each year typically sees hundreds of people – including children – competing to kill wild pigs, deer, and hares, according to the BBC.

The organizers wrote on Facebook that the school had received “vile and inappropriate messages and emails” since the introduction of the new category, which was removed due to “safety” concerns.

The competition underscores the public debate about how to deal with feral cat populations in New Zealand.

The animals pose a threat to the biodiversity and native wildlife of the island nation: They are known to prey on native birds, lizards, and insects.

DISCOVERIES

Golden Hands

Egyptian texts and wall carvings depict warriors presenting the amputated hands of slain enemies to the pharaoh, who would then reward them with gold necklaces.

Known as “gold of honor,” this gruesome practice has long been the subject of debate among scholars, but archaeologists recently discovered the first physical evidence of the trophy-taking custom, Science Magazine reported.

In a new study, they analyzed 12 skeletal hands that were first found near a palace outside the northern Egyptian city of Tell el-Dab’a in 2011.

The remains date from between 1620 and 1550 BCE, when Tell el-Dab’a was known as Avaris and briefly served as the capital of ancient Egypt.

Researchers debated whether these hands were war trophies or just brutal punishment inflicted on criminals. But ancient texts and depictions did not show any evidence of such punishment.

Instead, the analysis showed the hands – always the right ones – were carefully cut from the arm with near-surgical precision. The meticulous amputation also hinted that the individuals had died before losing their hands.

The team also noticed that the hands were placed in a shallow pit that was visible from the throne room.

They explained that this ritual was introduced by the Hyksos, a group of foreign invaders that conquered Egypt around 1640 BCE and ruled for around a century.

These invaders also introduced chariots and new types of weapons, such as slings and distinctive battleaxes, before they were ousted by Pharaoh Ahmose I.

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