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...usual pork-barrel stimulus and toward social services like education. As he puts it, "We will be spending not on concrete but on people." In March, the Diet, Japan's parliament, passed legislation promised by Hatoyama to provide a $140 monthly subsidy to parents for each child of junior high school age or younger. With such measures, "the new administration will be able to lead the economy to a new growth path," he says...
...however, Hatoyama has struggled to satisfy Japan's high hopes. The Prime Minister has often appeared a weak, ineffectual leader, unable to provide a clear direction on policy or control a three-party ruling coalition that is a grab bag of politicians with contradictory ideologies, from relative conservatives to outright socialists. Open disagreements have broken out between Cabinet members, especially over the controversial privatization of Japan's postal system - a free-market initiative begun, not incidentally, during Koizumi's term as Prime Minister. "Whenever you try to get down to reforms you're bound to face difficulties," Hatoyama says...
...seriously the possibility of southern separation. That was partly because the south's leader, John Garang, was a committed unionist. But six months after negotiating the deal, Garang died in a helicopter crash - and his vision for autonomy within Sudan died with him. With the West preoccupied with a high-volume campaign over Darfur, Khartoum was able to drag its feet on the implementation of a deal with the south that offered it only loss of territory and oil. That bad faith reinforced enthusiasm for separation in the south. "People felt they would remain second-class citizens inside Sudan forever...
...scandal over it not being used at all. In 2005, the world set up a $526 million Southern Sudan Multi-Donor Trust Fund, administered by the World Bank, to pay for roads, running water, agriculture, health and education for the south's 8-9 million people. In February a high-level World Bank delegation spent two weeks in the south investigating why its staff had spent only $217 million. The visitors concluded they were "not satisfied" with the Sudan team's performance. Others say the bank was simply out of its depth, unable to figure out how to engage with...
...confused-looking circle of men in sports t-shirts stared in perplexity at the stage, which overflowed with a massive dancing drag queen bedecked in a pink wig, Kermit the frog pajamas, and knee-high lace-up pleather platform boots...