No. What we saw, instead, was a moral surge among the French an act of self defense by the body politic.

Indeed, Saudi Arabia seems trapped in a state of suspended animation, its body politic sick and infirm. The country is caught between two choices progressive reform or continuing paralysis and decay.

To promote the inclusive implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the new Sudanese leadership will have to promote its acceptance beyond its immediate constituencies to the wider body politic and civil society.

Equally startling, from my point of view, is the fact that no one was drawing any connections between what is happening to the body politic, and what is happening in our leading educational institutions.

Palestinians see their history as one of struggle against Zionism and Israel. But the reality is more complicated, and marked by repeated failures to create a coherent body politic, even when historical opportunities beckoned.

The Hamas victory is, first and foremost, an indication of the total failure of the traditional Palestinian leadership to create a body politic. Palestine is not yet a state, but it is already a failed one.

It would be politic to create a wide range of opportunities that used the potential, experiences and expertise of older persons so that they could remain connected to society and continue to make their mark in the world either through voluntary or remunerated work.

There is no power save a new violent dictatorship that can bring Shi a, Sunnis, and Kurds to live once again in one body politic. America s chimerical dream of democratizing overnight a deeply divided society accustomed only to violence and coercion has unleashed a terrifying array of political demons.

Time and again, regulators and policymakers to say nothing of political leaders have been asleep at the switch in condoning market excesses. In a globalized world where labor income is under constant pressure, the siren song of asset markets as a growth elixir is far too tempting for the body politic to resist.

Palestinians, for their part, will be expected to answer questions in deeds, not just in words about their ability to build a modern pluralistic state. How will the Palestinian body politic deal with the growing power of the Islamic movements that undoubtedly will expect a significant share of power in post withdrawal Gaza?

Iraq s draft constitution will probably be approved in the referendum to be held on October 15. But whether it is ratified or not ultimately does not matter, as the constitution and the whole constitution making process is totally out of touch with the realities of a country that no longer exists as a coherent body politic.

MUMBAI In most cities of South Asia, hidden beneath the grime and neglect of extreme poverty, there exists a little Somalia waiting to burst out and infect the body politic. This netherworld, patrolled and nourished by criminals who operate a vast black market economy, has bred, in Mumbai, a community that has utter contempt for the state, because it knows that its survival depends on corrupting the police. Like underground magma, that underworld has now burst into the streets of Mumbai.