Blogging the democratic revolution
First of all, I’ve to admit that I’m impressed by the courage and determination of the Cuban freedom fighters to keep fighting against the regime despite an increase in repression. Friends in Cuba tell me they’re convinced that the regime uses intimidation against dissidents because it knows its days are numbered. The more the regime harasses and persecutes the freedom fighters, the more determined they’re. Yesterday, several opposition groups in Banes, province of Holguin, held new peaceful activities to condemn the repression and Castro. The groups that participated are: the Cuban Liberal Movement; the Civic Resistance Movement “Pedro Luis Boitel”,…
Peru’s April election just keeps getting more interesting. It’s a real black and white choice for Peruvian voters, nothing complicated, quite simply a contest between the good dignified low-key free-market lady and the racist tinpot dictator wannabe. There’s also plenty of sideshows to keep it interesting. In fact, this Peruvian election is shaping up to be every bit as interesting as Mexico’s in July. Hugo Chavez has gotten involved of course, as he has in Mexico’s, hurling loud public insults at the distinguished Lourdes Flores, while cavorting for the cameras and flashing his checkbook with the bad guy, Ollanta Humala.…
It was 364 days ago that King Gyanendra suspended democracy by sacking parliament and began a new war against Nepal’s civil society in the face of a Maoist insurrection. Since then, thousands of people protesting against the government have been arrested, from major politicians and journalists to the everyday man and woman. Just today, on the eve of the anniversary of the king’s seizure of power, over 1000 people have been arrested for opposing him. Hundreds of opposition activists have been arrested across Nepal on the eve of the first anniversary of the royal coup, the opposition says. An opposition…
After being targeted with a violent ‘repudiation act’ , the Sigler Amaya family is once again attacked. But this time, one of the family’s members, Juan Francisco Sigler Amaya, suffered an attempt to his life while going to work. A woman????????s voice yelled ???????worm,??????? ???????worm,??????? and several male voices exclaimed, ???????we????????re going to squish you, worm.??????? Ä…Å ???????My life has become a living hell. Our situation ????????mine and my family????????s- is extremely dangerous. But, I will not leave the country, they know it, and for that reason I hold them responsible for anything that happens to me or my family.”…
The Washington Post published an editorial over the weekend entitled, “U.S. Policy Seen as Big Loser in Palestinian Vote” that is well worth a read for anyone who wants to know exactly what it’s like to be completely oblivious to what democracy actually is and the institutions that are needed to sustain it. Staff writer Glenn Kassler attempts to critique Bush administration policy toward the Palestinians, in which there are probably many. But it ultimately turns into a condemnation of America’s policy of trying to spread democracy in the Middle East and becomes a declaration that the Palestinians, Egyptians, Iranians,…
Last week, I got an email from Darsi Ferrer of the Center for Health and Human Rights,which is a dissident organization member of the Assembly to Promote the Civil Society. Darsi , who is living in Havana and has been victim of numerous ‘repudiation acts’ ( during one of which he was wounded to his right hand ) , sent the story of a Cuban doctor who worked at a hospital for 24 years and now is surviving thanks to his family’s help, because the regime had fired him and don’t let him return to work. He’s now forced to…
Tim Russo continues to post his manuscript about his work promoting democracy in Armenia back in the ’90s, and a particularly interesting post for Publius readers would be one of his latest on the “
Well, it’s the weekend, and you know what that means… See you Monday!
On January 25, twenty members of the Pro-Human Rights Party of Cuba, affiliated to the Andrej Sakharov International Foundation, were holding a meeting at a dissident’s house and suddenly a mob made up with plainclothes agents of the state security,the ‘committees for the defense of the revolution” and the “rapid response brigades” gathered in front of the house and started shouting all kinds of insults, offenses and threats at the freedom fighters. It’s to note that the mob shouted more offensive slogans after hearing the dissidents singing the Cuban national anthemn. At the end of the meeting, the freedom fighters…
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei’ and his cabinet (most of which are Fatah) announced their resignation following the January 25th elections. With a voter turnout of 77% preliminary results show Hamas with a substantial victory, taking 76 of the 132 seats, and proving that pollsters were clearly off in their predictions which favored a Fatah majority. According to the Israeli online news site Ynet, Hamas leader Mahmoud A-Zahhar continues to say that they will not change their call for the destruction of Israel. He also said, “The issue of weapons is related to the occupation. We will not receive dictations…
Charles at LGF points out a discrepancy between Google’s .cn and .com versions. At least they’re notifying the poor Chinese what they’re missing! From a Google translation of a google.cn search: According to the local law laws and regulations and the policy, partially searches the result does not demonstrate. I guess Chinese speakers who live outside communist China must prefer to use search engines that don’t work according to “local law laws and regulations and the policy.”
Traian Basescu, the President of Romania delivered yesterday a speech at the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg. He talked about several issues, like the importance of the Black Sea, Romania’s accession to EU, the current status quo and the future of the Moldavian Republic, the national minorities status, Transdniestria, etc. The Romanian Ziua daily writes about the exchange of retorts between the Romanian President and the Russian deputy Constantin Kosacev. Kosacev asked if the presence of the US military bases in Romania was in keeping with all conventional forces in Europe and the Russia-NATO Treaty, stipulating NATO might…
OK, so Hamas won the Palestinian election. Probably better to deal with straight-up terrorists than with terrorists who are widely considered to be peace-seeking politicians. Although, I suppose, certain members of the press corps will continue to endorse the AK-toting “activists.” We all know how bad the education system is — my theory is that most journalists just don’t know how to spell “atavists.”
Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez has been openly meddling in Peru’s April election. He’s hurled insults at centrist Lourdes Flores, a leading candidate, and cavorted on camera with Ollanta Humala, in a message implying to Peru’s voters that a vote for Humala was a vote for Chavez’s abundant open checkbook, something Flores would never get. This led to extremely bitter relations between the two states, plus a local magazine putting Chavez and Humala on its cover depicting them as an ape and its apelet. But something happened on the way to the polls – the SAME thing that happened on the…
Note: I have been posting articles from my friend Richard Chesnoff on Bloggledygook. His latest is on the Palestinian elections. It is reproduced here in total. Chesnoff is a former correspondent for Newsweek. He currently writes for the New York Daily News and US News & World Report. He lives in New York and France. THE HAMAS GAME by Richard Z. Chesnoff, NY Daily News, 1/25/05 Final results of yesterday????????s Palestinian legislative elections are still trickling in. But one thing is sure: Yasser Arafat????????s chickens have come home to roost. After decades of dictatorial and corrupt control by the late…
In democratizing countries emerging from tyranny, where tremendous injustice has occurred, there is usually some effort to call the past into account. South Africa is a good example, where truth commissions have forged national reconciliation, and Germany after World War II is another, where Naziism was totally repudiated and renounced, and large compensation payments were made to Israel in its infancy. Chile and Argentina since their Dirty Wars, making efforts to restitute victims, return orphans, and jail oppressors is of the same piece. Even the U.S., with its efforts to compensate Japanese victims of internment camps in the U.S. is…
Women living in the United Arab Emirates have staged a first-ever protest demanding equal citizenship rights in the country. Dubai: Twenty-three UAE national women protested outside the Labour Ministry building yesterday to demand the re-instatement of their social security payments. A top ministry official said the minister has issued directions to reconsider their cases. The women stood outside the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs yesterday from 9am until 11:30am in a silent protest. It was sparked after their social security payments of Dh1,095 a month were cut off, days before Eid Al Adha, because they are married to working…
Iranian activists responded positively to a call by the United American Committee to join a national march against Islamic fascism, scheduled for February 1st. Most Middle-Easterners and Iranians have been long among the first victims of Islamo-Fachism Ä…Å No one, except a few demagogues located mainly abroad, can claim anymore that the Islamic republic regime has any kind of popularity or legitimacyÄ…Å lobbyist groups and infamous apologists of the clerical regime Ä..Å are looking to legitimize the Islamic regime. It’s in reaction to such an immoral and illegitimate agenda that we must all mobilize Ä…Å We must use any possible…
Boli-Nica has come out from hibernation for this to state, in his richly colorful way, that he is not impressed! It’s a must-read here. More to follow – must get some other stuff done.
Dick Marty has presented his preliminary report on alleged CIA prisons and detainees in Europe, in today’s session of the Parliamentary Assembly in the Council of Europe. High on the list of suspects is Poland and Romania, but also Bulgaria, Ukraine, Macedonia and Kosovo. What we have found out is actually nothing new. So, there is evidence of 31 flights in and out of Europe conducted by the CIA. Human Rights Watch provided the list to the public and then to the investigation commission some weeks ago, and the Eurocontrol agency documents backed it. But, there is no hard evidence…
Val Prieto at Babalu blog reports that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro is raising a Great Wall of Havana to encircle the U.S. Mission there. Castro is enraged at a running lighted billboard which plays the UN declaration of human rights across its pixel-stream and the words of Martin Luther King. The former is actually an illegal document there, although Cuba has signed the declaration. So now a wall is going up. One of Val’s posters noted that this will provide a great group of souvenirs for people’s mantelpieces once the odious Castro regime is overthrown. Val’s post is here.
Glenn at Instapundit has an excellent roundup of this growing issue about Google’s problematic relations with Red China’s government and its implications for freedom of press. The link is here. Val at Babalu and Steve at Hog On Ice have additional thoughts – or well, deeds – here and here. UPDATE: This just ran across the stock ticker: Google (GOOG) lost 6.35 to 436.68 in high volume despite news it launched a search engine in China. The search engine censors topics that are sensitive to Beijing, creating some controversy. Google hit an intraday high of 454.23 before falling back. THE…
The first-ever participation of Hamas in the Palestinian elections on Wednesday poses significant policy challenges to the United States, Europe, Israel and the region. Hamas calls for the destruction of Israel and is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the E.U. A Hamas victory could lead to the creation of the first Sunni jihadist state in the modern Middle East, paralleling the Shiite theocracy in Tehran. Hamas is a local offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, a regional extremist network that threatens Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. While Hezbollah represents only one sect in Lebanon, Hamas threatens to overwhelm…
Veneuzela’s vast gold and diamond mines, no small thing in the era of soaring gold prices, have sold concessions to several foreign firms to mine the minerals. But they have witheld the permits, so the firms, which have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on infrastructure, are unable to mine them. Squatters are jumping in, though, people who would probably be given jobs in the mines if the chavista permits would ever come through. Today, Venezuela’s government has announced it will expropriate the mines – for idleness. The only reason they are idle is that the government refuses to issue…
While Canadians voted in a new Conservative leader today, the Palestinians are holding their first election since 1996 which many believe is key in the Palestinian push for statehood. Hamas candidates have entered the race and their popularity makes them running a close second to Fatah. While campaigning, Hamas says a truce could be on the table, yet in one ad which was rebroadcast by CNN, Hamas shows footage of militants and states: “We will not rest as long as one inch of our holy land is in the hands of the Jews. Our flags will fly over the minarets…