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The U.S. takes in 70,000 refugees a year, but only 1500 Syrian refugees have been taken in by the U.S. by Sept. 2015, as a huge migrant refugee crisis unfolds in Europe. Germany has to make the same background checks and is moving quickly, the U.S. takes 18-24 months. The withdrawal of the U.S. from the Middle East under the Obama administration led to the collapse of the fragile situation in Libya, Iraq and Syria, and the unraveling of these countries, a direct cause of the massive refugee crisis in the region with about half the Syrian population and large parts of Iraqi, Kurdish, and Libyan population dislocated. The result is a massive humanitarian crisis, turning the hopes of the Arab Spring into something no one could have imagined across North Africa. In a small Lutheran church in Frankfurt, Paulskirche, is the German story of a popular movement that spread throughout Europe in 1848, for a transition from autocratic governments to parliamentary democracy. Aspirations similiar to that expressed in the Middle East and North Africa in 2013-2014 in the Arab Spring were expressed in Germany and many parts of Europe in 1848. In the centre of Berlin on the Kurfstendamm lie the bombed but preserved ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, telling the story of the intervening years 1848-1949. It took many years before the same aspirations for liberty found shape in Germany's Public Law of 1949, finally finding a safe resting place after years of failing to unify a people around the ideas of liberty and justice for all, and not nationalism. Germans who had the hardest time waging that fight, by embracing the refugees in a spirit of openness carry on that fight into this century. Paul asks the question- who will lead? A Lutheran pastor's daughter takes up the fight without the slightest hesitation, and full measure of confidence with the words- "Europe will have failed on the question of refugees, if the close connection between it and universal civil rights is destroyed." ...

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Sacramento is the first city going through an amazing transformation from a city with urban sprawl to a city with its own plan that is trying to bring residents closer without sprawl, and planning the layout from scratch so that residents can live without the long commutes and can bike to work or use other transportation. It has a socalled Blueprint which was developed by a coalition of ordinary citizens, politicians, developers and environmentalists. Behind this Blueprint is the dedication, the insight, ability at effective persuasion of Mr. McKeever Sacramento leading advocate for the Blueprint, using a model which showed what Sacramento would look like un the future and the impact on traffic, job growth and pollution depending on which way the houses were built, nearer jobs or distant from jobs. McKeever took this database, software and computer to townhall type get togethers in which people tweaked the models to see what impact it would have on pollution and traffic, even letting them play with it all day in a kind of display of grassroots democracy at work. He also showed how this would help developers by providing additional business of a different type than their typical lots and typical urban sprawl type construction of individual homes. By spreading their business they would do better if one type of housing suffered. This is what has happened in the current downturn and the housing demand and values of housing have done much better where they followed the Blueprint as this took account of higher gasoline prices and the bad effects of urban sprawl. Now neighbors can talk to each other walk down to where the community places like restaurants, library etc are. It has a feeling of community. Between 2003 and 2007 the number of projects with apartments condominiums and townhouses for sale in the region increased by 533%, while the number of subdivisions with homes on lots bigger than 5500 square feet fell by 21%, according to housing-research firm Hanley Wood Market Intelligence....

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A poll done by the International Republican Institute, a nonprofit affiliated with the Republican party, of 3500 people across Pakistan found a couple of important things. The Republican Institute's goal is to promote democracy in the developing world. 1. Popularity of President Zardari at 9% and Nawas Sharif's at 55%. The US resumed contacts with Sharif, and Sharif is seen as able to bring the Islamic moderates to the American side. 2. Economic issues are what concerns Pakistanis most. Refugees are approaching the 1 million number according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. 3. 81% said the country was going in the wrong direction, Zardari was never elected and is incompetent and this could be the reason. But military is still unpopular, 77% want democratic rule, possibly with Sharif or some sort of combination of Sharif, lawyers movement, and Islamic moderates in charge. 4. From alow of 9% in January 2008, now 37% are willing to work with the USA against extremism. Could Obama's election and US support of Pakistan's effort to heal itself be apart of this change of heart? 5. 45% support fighting extremists in the tribal areas and the Northwest Frontier Province. And 69% say having the Taliban and Al Quaeda operate in Pakistan is a serious problem. If these poll results accurately reflect shifting feeling in Pakistan, American help to help Pakistan pull itself up by its bootstraps economically and unify the country under a democratic administration of Islamic moderates and people from other areas like the lawyers movement, could work. It also improves the prospects of pulling out of Afghanistan after the situation improves, and setting up an administration that comprises Islamic moderates and tribal representatives that keeps out Al Quaeda, and works to rebuild Afghanistan after seemingly endless years of war. These efforts would require cooperation of Iran, India, Pakistan and the US, and assistance of countries like Turkey, in creating an atmosphere that promotes peaceful development in the entire region. ...

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The last thing we want to do is to bring back the images of the 1953 American sponsored coup, which ousted Prime Minister Mohamed Mossadegh and returned Shah Pahlavi to power, says Senator John Kerry in an op-ed article in the NYT. He cautions America getting involved in Iran, letting Iranians decide on their own, as the CIA supported coup that overthrew Mossadegh's elected government and put a king in his place because he would be more friendly to American oil and other interests in the region, may arouse bitter memories of America's influence in avery negative way in an earlier period. Most Americans may not remember the American sponsored coup. Mossadegh was a socialist during the Cold War and wnated to nationalize the oil industry run by foreign companies in the country. During those days the interests of American oil companies, the Cold War with the Soviet Union, and British-French colonial era interests in the Middle and Africa and Asia, were all intertwined. The Korean war had just ended, Suez crisis of 1956 with the nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egypt, was a few years away, the French were fighting to keep their colonial empire in Vietnam, and America was supporting Pakistan with Sabre fighter jets bringing a version of the cold war to the Indian subcontinent even though India was the largest democracy in Asia. Partly because its leader Jawaharlal Nehru, was an independent minded socialist, who avoided joining the cold war with his non-alignment policies. Adlai Stevenson, Democratic candidate for President against Eisenhower was very enthusiastic about Nehru in his speeches, but Republican Secretary of State Dulles saw things differently, just as today there are huge differences between the way a Rumsfeld and an Obama see the world. Many of the problems today in places like Pakistan Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq had their beginning during this period....

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Kenyan politics is conducted along tribal lines since the country's independence in 1963. The Mau Mau rebellion under Jomo Kenyatta involved the Kikuyu tribe. Kikuyus at over 6 million are the largest tribe followed by the Kalenjins at about 5 million and the Luo tibe at about 4 million population. The Kenya African National Union Party of Jomo Kenyatta has run thecountry since independence. Kenyatta till 1978, followed by his vice president Daniel Arap Moi till 2002. Multi party politics since 1992 led to elections conducted purely on tribal lines, with the KANU appealing to Kikuyus, and Kenya Arican Democratic Union under Odinga appealing to Kalenjins. In this election Uhuru Kenyatta the son of the former president is running against Odinga of the KADU, son of the former Opposition leader. The government is also run on patronage with positions handed out to loyalists and tribe supporters. Former U.S. president Obama's Kenyan father could not find a position in Jomo Kenyatta's government because of tribal differences. After the clashes in 2007 with disputed elections the situation has led to further ethnic tensions.   ...

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Actions taken by protestors in Hong Kong on Sept 30, 2014 include bringing the different student groups together. The protestors demand the resignation of Chief Executive Leung. Leung is told by the government in Beijing that no force should be used and to let the protests continue till public opinion swings away from protestors. Leung'se order to use tear gas only increased the protests and had received unfavorable international publicity.

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The Center for Strategic Studies in Moscow was prescient in predicting problems of declining support for Mr. Putin before the December 2011 parliamentary elections. Work with 32 focus groups by the Center in May 2012 shows a continuing erosion of support for Putin as efforts to open the political system have faded. The discontent focusses on the delivery of basic services such as healthcare, education, law enforcement, infrastructure.

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Bill Keller of the New York Times, reflects on his experience in Moscow during the fall of communism, and the Russian youth then and their children in the protest marches in Moscow today. He sees a new generation with different expectations, not limited by the past in what they think is possible, should be and is normal.