Blogging the democratic revolution
Following is an article regarding the Elim Mission Massacre, one of the most infamous acts of bloodshed commited by Mugabe’s gang, but unknown to many of us in the west. Andrew sends this to me again, and I believe it helps put Mugabe’s current regime in context with the past in terms of his terror, and the west’s disillusionment with the actuality of the situation. On the night of June 23, 1978, Elim Mission in the Rhodesian Eastern Highlands was subjected to the worst massacre of missionaries yet experienced. Terry Blocksidge reported in the Sunday Mail (Salisbury): Eight British missionaries…
I just wanted to throw out an announcement that Nathan and the crew over at Registan.net are up for the Reports Without Borders Freedom Blog Award. If you are grateful at all for his coverage of Central Asia (and you know you’ve been there) then pop on by and vote for him!
I was just reading the joint statement by the two for the strategic goals both the U.S. and Ukraine want to work on. Among these were promoting democracy in Cuba and Belarus, among resolving separatist conflicts in Georgia and Moldova. We also commit to work together to back reform, democracy, tolerance and respect for all communities, and peaceful resolution of conflicts in Georgia and Moldova, and to support the advance of freedom in countries such as Belarus and Cuba. Citizens in our open societies value the freedom to practice their faiths, and we are committed to promoting religious tolerance globally.…
Last month, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams was campaigning in the U.S. for money as he does every year. Except this year, he wasn’t invited to the White House, and was even snubbed by Ted Kennedy. In his place were invited the sisters and fiance of Robert McCartney, who was killed by the IRA. Now Adams is calling on the IRA to lose its weapons. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams today called on the IRA to abandon armed struggle and embrace “purely political and democratic” activity. He admitted that “such truly historic” decisions would take time and a long process…
One more: A former Yukos bigwig says that Russia will have a revolution once Belarus gets its act together. Meanwhile, government elites a trumping up such a possibility so as to portay Putin as a strongman and the only person capable of holding the country together. Indeed, it does seem as if the Russian rudder has fallen off. Bush looks as if he will push his advantage while in Europe, visiting with presidents from various ex-Soviet client states. Putin’s not happy, but there isn’t much he can do about it.
Over at Bloggledygook, I have a post on the trouble the EU constitution is having getting past the new French Resistance. The most delicious part of the story is that it looks as if Chirac might be hoisted on his own pitard. The constitution must be unanimously approved by the member states. In a hilarious twist, it looks like France may ultimately kill the United States of Europe.
Thousands of Egyptian students have demonstrated against the government in what is being called the largest protest in Egypt to date. The students – mostly from the Muslim Brotherhood movement – marched at five campuses in Cairo and the Nile Delta. Hundreds of police prevented them from taking their protests outside university gates onto the streets. Islamists, liberals and nationalists want an end to Egypt’s 24-year-old state of emergency. They also called for an end to the presidency of Hosni Mubarak. Mr Mubarak has been the country’s leader since 1981. He is hoping to win a fifth term in office…
Over at IEDs I have a post reporting the Jalal Talabani has finally been chosen Iraq’s new interim president after weeks of negotitations. With all that has been going on around the world, it’s a good idea to stop and remember how all of this revolution got started. There may still be some who don’t buy the democratic domino theory, but if one actually listens to what people in the Middle East are saying, little doubt can be left that the free election in Iraq has proven more powerful that any bomb. The parliament now sets about installing Ibrahim al-Jaafai…
The Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat is reporting today that Syria’s ruling party, the Baath Party, is planning to amend its charter, ditch the socialist tenets, and perhaps even change its name. The article, The Syrian Baath Plans to Dissolve its National Leadership and Bring Down its Socialist Motto (it is the third article from the top, for Arabic readers): Informed Syrian sources have said that the national conference of the Arab Socialist Baath Party, which will be held most likely the seventh or the eighth of the coming month, with make a decision to dissolve the party’s national leadership. The…
I’ve been talking to a 37 year old man named Andrew (last name withheld) over email, who was born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and moved to the United States, joined the navy, and is now a citizen. He notes to me that while we in the blogosphere have talked a lot about the election there and what Mugabe does now, no historical context has been provided for his rule. With his permission, I’m posting Andrew’s email here about Mugabe coming to power. You know, Africa is a pretty simple place…really. But there is a great tendency for the West to…
The Sokwanele democracy blog in Zimbabwe has released its full report on how Mugabe’s Zanu-PF rigged the elections. Say it with me, “Fraud.”
Michael Totten and Jim Hake are on the ground in Lebanon, raising money for the Cedar Revolutionaries. I got this email from Jim just a while ago: I’m in Beirut, Lebanon to kick off a project to support the pro-democracy demonstrators at the "tent city" in Martyrs’ Square. Their goals are independence (i.e., Syria out of Lebanon) and free and fair elections. The tent city demonstrators are the center of gravity for Lebanon’s pro-democracy movement. They are leading the charge. They put together the massive demonstrations 3 weeks ago. As they go, so goes Lebanon’s independence. And so goes a…
The first edition of the Carnival of Revolutions is up. It’s basically a run down of everything going on revolution wise over the past week. Hopefully it can get a lot bigger, so save any links you go to and make sure to send them his way so that he can put together a huge, comprehensive carnival.
How’s we miss this? Here’s a tremendously good news source for Zimbabwewatchers called ZWNEWS.com, one of the best I’ve seen. Hat Tip: Dave
Daniel noted earlier the blatantly warped and somewhat arbitrary questions, but Mike Connor all the way out in Yushchenko’s Ukraine noticed it as well. They better watch out, or they might develop the same bad international reputation they’ve acquired at home!
Miguel Buitrago at MABB blog in Bolivia has gotten word of four new blogs about Bolivia. See his roundup here. Apparently, blogging has taken off in Bolivia, a superb development, given the hammerlock assorted leftists have always had on news coming out of Bolivia. Now, we don’t need them, we get our news from Bolivians direct. Good work, Bolivian bloggers!
Blogger Miguel Octavio warns that despite the difficulty for many of taking Hugo Chavez entirely seriously, we Americans would be wise to pay attention to the rising tide of anti-Americanism now appearing in Venezuela. Don’t dismiss these ravings, they mean something, he warns. Based on what he knows of the Chavistas and their inherent psychology and known pattern of behaviors, he believes things could get serious.
Even if you don’t speak Spanish you can probably figure out what this cartoon, posted by Mexican blogger Cosme Hace says. I laughed when the cartoon comparison was made between Lopez Obrador and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Lopez Obrador was described as not another Chavez because he wasn’t ‘frivolous and stupid’ enough. Obviously, Hugo Chavez’s acquired a certain image around Latin America we all might not be aware of. Check it out here.
You’d think Carlos Santana wouldn’t make a mistake about what’s hip and what’s out, but that’s just what he did at the Academy Awards last month, showing up in a big Che Guevara tee shirt. So old. So out. So out of it. And so damn despicable. Santana learned to play his instruments with Cuba’s famed Lion of the Bongos, Mongo Santamaria in the clubs of Tijuana after Mongo fled the horrors of the Castro regime. Santana knows very well what the Castro regime is all about. And he went and wore the disgusting tee shirt anyway. Val at Babalublog…
…and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez behind it. I wrote an analysis for American Thinker this morning. It’s here.
I wrote an essay on the political situation in Mexico for American Thinker this morning and I have never gotten a greater reaction to anything else I have ever written. I am stunned. This morning they put it on RealClearPolitics.com. It’s time to step up coverage of Mexico. Read it here or here. Reuters has quoted it here. And a California newspaper has it cited here. Oh my!
The mainstream media largely missed it, but here at Publius Pundit we recently noted a flickering of Ukraine-style protests for democratic reforms in Bahrain. But there is danger as well, for part of the opposition is aligned with Iran (the Sunni-ruled country is majority Shia, but of course only a faction among the Shia population identifies with Iran). This is according to Geostrategy-Direct (subscription required): ÄApril 5Å Bahrain has prepared for a major crackdown on the Shi’ite opposition aligned with Iran. The crackdown is being closely monitored by the United States, whose naval Fifth Fleet is based in Manama. The…
The Christian Science Monitor has an editorial instructing us in what we already know: Zimbabwe is not Ukraine: Viktor Yushchenko, who suffered near-fatal dioxin poisoning in his campaign to unseat Ukraine’s corrupt and authoritarian president, had the support of masses of protesters. But those were healthy, well-fed masses. In Zimbabwe, half the country is on the verge of acute hunger, and the official HIV infection rate is 27 percent. Mr. Yushchenko also had the backing of key institutions. The judiciary ruled in favor of a new election, and Ukraine’s security forces refused to turn their guns on fellow citizens. Zimbabwe’s…
April 4th is the day Moldova’s Parliament holds elections for President. Up for re-election is Communist Party leader Voronin, who won 56 of the 101 votes, of which he only needed 61 to win. In other words, his party needed to pursuade some of the opposition his way. If a president is not elected after two times, then parliament dissolves and a new election is held. Well, five votes isn’t much, so it was a pretty easy battle for Voronin to win. But before the election, the pro-Moscow Democratic Moldova bloc presented a list of 22 demands for its participation.…
Even though their leadership failed to mobilize and call for protests, there are some brave souls in Zimbabwe’s youth who realize that fighting and dying for freedom is a more worthy cause for their lives than complacent slavery. Despite threats of death, a few hundred have taken to the streets to defy Mugabe’s fraudulent victory. JOHANNESBURG, April 4 – Hundreds of supporters of Zimbabwe’s political opposition marched in Harare today to protest what they called the fraudulent victory of President Robert G. Mugabe’s ruling party in Thursday’s parliamentary elections. There were conflicting reports on whether the police broke up the…