Blogging the democratic revolution
From the cycle: ???????This can happen only in Romania???????? (and I????????m sure in the third world countries, but in theory Romania is not a part of that lot). I have wanted to share with you the story of Ion Dumitru, father of 7 children who has been kept in jail for 866 days, by mistake….
…that doesn’t read like satire. Miguel got human nature and the Chavista mentality down on the effect of tax cuts, business incentives and housing shortages so precisely that he fooled me into thinking he had posted a perfectly straight news story! It wasn’t! Ohmygosh! You have to see this thing here!
In a move to confuse news agencies, the Syrian government has released five activists who took part in the Damascus Spring, all the while meeting with Iran’s messianic president. Syrian authorities have released five pro-democracy activists, including two prominent former legislators, after they had served nearly four years of their five-year prison sentences. Those released…
It has been nearly a year since the King suspended democracy in the country and began his crackdown on the political opposition; which, at this point, is every political party in the country. Earlier this month, the King of Nepal reinstituted a ban on political rallies that had been lifted late last year. In response,…
Here’s one more reason to hope for Condi-in-’08, as well as a reflection of the Bush administration’s emphasis on the democratic changes currently taking place around the world. The US is moving a hundred diplomatic posts from staid Western locations to Africa and the booming East. Clearly the administration recognizes the importance of the sorts…
Index recently ran a condensed political analysis from financial analysts at Erste Bank, entitled The Market doesn’t care for Grand Coalitions. The upshot of the article is that across Central Europe, the political scene is characterized by weak parliamentary majorities. The writers give a general overview of East-Central Europe, which is unfortunately so severely condensed…
‘Lo everybody. I am back after a long, long hiatus from this fine blog (incidentally, I was present at the birth) and wanted to point to a subject that is near to my heart. My daughter spent this past Summer in Morocco, studying Arabic and sociology. I have to admit that I was unprepared for…
Ramon Saul Sanchez just announced that he ended the 12-day hunger strike. The decision follows major developments in Washington. The White House agreed to meet with Cuban exile leaders on ”wet foot,dry foot” policy. However, Val of Babal???? agrees with Songuacassal, who says that it’s not yet over and won’t be until the wet/dry foot…
I almost forgot that it’s been exactly one year since Human Rights Watch released it’s year 2005 report on global human rights abuses in which its highlight focus, despite everything else going on in the world, was the abuses at Abu Ghraib. Well, fire up the grill and pop open a beer, because their year…
No one, not even north Americans or Mexicans, waves the national flag quite as intensely as Venezuelans do. The three bright primary colors and the halo of seven white stars, en masse, on a bright blue day, is a spectacular sight vividly illustrative of the anti-Chavez opposition. The photo at the side of Daniel’s blog…
Young Iranians defy the Islamic Republic by having fun (boys and girls mixed) skiing and chatting among each other. Many of the girls also ignore the mandatory veil! See the photos here
I know that I’m not the first to write about the wet-foot/dry-foot policy with respect to Cubans fleeing Castro’s Gulag. But I’d like to let my opinion be known to Publius readers. I’m totally in favor of the abolition of this absurd and inhumane policy. For those who don’t know what this policy is about:…
President Basescu’s administration believes that Romania should continue to promote its special relationship with the Arab world. In its 50 long and dark years of communism, Romania has developed friendly relations with the Arab and Muslim leaders, mainly with Yasser Arafat and Gadhafi. Nicolae Ceausescu????????s private ambition was to act as a mediator between Arafat…
In an interview with Newsweek, IAEA director-general Mohamed ElBaradei has gotten out of touch with his soft side and unleashed some fightin’ words. What if the Iranians are just buying time for their bomb building? That’s why I said we are coming to the litmus test in the next few weeks. Diplomacy is not just…
Today is the 300th anniversary of the birthday of Benjamin Franklin. He was anything but a Babe of Politics, but he was a magnificent revolutionary at a very old age – showing you don’t have to be! Franklin’s inspiring revolutionary history as well as his many revolutionary inventive and institutional accomplishments are recounted in this…
A representative of the electoral commission in Iraq has said that it has had to throw out less than 1% of the ballot boxes due to fraud, so if the unverified preliminary results are indeed correct, this won’t affect the outcome of the election. BAGHDAD ???????? Iraqi officials Monday concluded an inquiry into allegations of…
Gustavo Coronel has written powerful, readable, interesting essay about all the new problems besetting Hugo Chavez – against all expectations. Chavez should have the wind at his back now that he’s consolidated power, but precisely the opposite has happened. It’s all falling apart on him, the center is not holding, which is exactly what happens…
There’s some great thinking and analysis out there on Chile’s election. Here are some of the best items I’ve found so far: First stop, check out Boz at Bloggings by Boz‘s Five Points on Chile, describing the implications of the election. I in particular agree with Point One, and think his Point Five is excellent,…
Katy at Caracas Chronicles stayed up late to watch Chilean elections, because she’s got family in Chile but also because she sees Chile’s polar opposite, nightmarish Venezuela, up close. Her contrast of the two systems, and her good common sense on what next for Latin America’s brightest democracy is well worth reading here. Daniel in…
Even the headline is hilariously tragic: Venezuela to Eradicate Poverty. Venezuela began an offensive against poverty, starting the “Negra Hipolita” Mission, which is financially supported by the high profits of oil, like other official social programs there. The initiative made official on Saturday by President Hugo Chavez is part of a long-term plan to end…
The results are in! After a nail-biting month, Concertaci????n candidate Michelle Bachelet has won the Chilean presidential run-off election with 53.5% of the vote. It’s the fourth straight victory for the center-left coalition, and they have won a slight majority of seats in both houses of Congress as well. The opposition has conceded gracefully, people…
As we all read, the European Union declared that negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) failed big time. Well, we heard this before and yet the Europeans returned to the negotiations. But I’ve to say that, personally, I’m more confident that the EU has finally realized that the Mullahs have been taking it…
As you all know, blogging resumes Monday… except for this weekend. On Sunday I’ll be blogging the Chilean presidential election.
Via Daniel’s Venezuela News & Views I learned that all is not well in Guyana and its western neighbor, Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela. Like Jim Jones before him, Chavez has designs on the country and much grander than that Marxist Jesus Socialist before him, he intends to one day take over half the country. He is…
Pack up your bags and go home everyone, the seemingly impossible has happened. The West has officially ended negotiations with Iran — or is it the other way around? — after Iran began the process of enriching uranium. The EU3 has referred Iran to the IAEA with the express intent of taking the issue to…