Blogging the democratic revolution
The great political thinker, Alvaro Vargas Llosa, has written a beautiful essay on the trouble with France and its unsustainable economic model. He touches on the French sense of fear and insecurity as one reason why the protests were so sudden and virulent. He also notes the irony of French students saying they want jobs and security defending the very system that denies it to them. 25% unemployment is not job security. In fact, it’s not even a job. Read the whole brilliant thing here.
There have been numerous Italian regions that, although had elected left-leaning administrations, have voted for Berlusconi this time. In Italy, the right is still very popular. And yet, with its usual dictatorial method rooted in its DNA, the Left claims victory only because of the votes of the Italian expatriates! In Italy, the Italians voted a half for the right and another half for the left, with a slim majority for the right. The right has won the Senate and almost won the Upper House. The Left won the Upper House only by 0,7 votes of difference! The reality on…
The largest outcry for democracy since Nepal’s king seized power last February continues for the fifth straight day. A four-day nationwide strike and general protest was called to start on Thursday and end on Sunday jointly by the Seven Party Alliance and the Maoists, but because of its success and unheard of amount of support, they have called for it to last indefinitely. That is, when they achieve victory or when they are crushed by the King’s security forces. KATMANDU, Nepal — Protests continued for a fourth day across Nepal on Sunday as crowds demanding the restoration of democracy took…
France has scrapped its proposed youth jobs laws that allows workers in their first two years of employment to be fired at will. The idea behind the bill, backed by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, was to give employers more incentive to hire the young by alleviating their fears of getting a slacker they wouldn’t be able to get rid of. Things had been so bad in France that no one wanted to hire anyone. Consequently, young people had the highest rates of unemployment, by far, in the nation – something like 20%, with at least 40% unemployment rates among…
Last month Mikhail Gorbachev celebrated his 75th birthday. Gorbachev, the final leader of the brutal Soviet Union, was treated to a media love fest that proclaimed him the architect of the democratization of the former captive republics of his regime. ABC News called him, ???????The man who ended the Cold War and launched democratic reforms that broke the repressive Soviet regime..??????? Katrina vanden Heuvel attended a party for Gorbachev and proclaimed, ???????He liberated Eastern Europe to find its own political path.??????? The party also had video tributes from former President George Bush, Bill Moyers, Leonardo di Caprio, former President Bill…
Yes, it will be. The Interior Ministry informs that Berlusconi’s CDL (House of Freedom) leads 49,8-49,1% at the Chamber of Deputies and leads at the Senate too! And the votes of the Italian expatriates have yet to be added, although sources say that Italians in Chile voted for CDL ! It will be a long and tense night and I am far more optimistic than I was , say, 2 hours ago. P.S. Some Italian regions that have leftist rulers seem to have voted CDL now!
Today, Mercer released its annual list of the world’s most liveable cities, based on quality of living. I Googled around and finally found a whole list of the study here. I stripped out all the non-Americas cities and just left in the cities that are in Latin America, in the Caribbean, or in U.S. cities with more than half their populations from Latin America and speaking Spanish. Here’s how it all adds up – note how low Caracas ranks, a disgusting thing, given the amount of oil wealth this country has: 55 56 LOS ANGELES, CA United States 98.3 98.3…
You can call it a peculiar kind of poll, but today’s markets are betting that Lourdes Flores may well be able to win the presidential election in Peru. This candidate’s got to fight hard but apparently she can do it. That’s why markets in Peru are up today. The dynamics are curious in Peru. Roughly, they go like this: early polls have always shown that Flores comes in second place in a three-way race with the two leftists, Alan Garcia and Ollanta Humala. But in a two-way race, Flores can defeat Humala. Logic would suggest that the two leftists would…
Polls will close today at 3 pm, but the outcome won????????t be announced almost certainly until tomorrow morning (Italian local time). Acording to many analysts, a high turnout might mean the victory of Berlusconi. The analysts are saying that if turnout reaches at least 82%, Berlusconi has a big chance to be the winner. Yesterday at 10 pm the turnout was 66.7%. So, today it is possible to have a turnout at 17% and the total (66.7 + 17 ) will be more than 80 %. Polls bet in such a chance. Let????????s keep fingers crossed! I voted Berlusconi even…
It doesn’t look good for Peru. Source: Noticiero Digital Today is the first round of the presidential election, and Ollanta Humala, the pro-Hugo-Chavez leftist with a verified personal record as a human-rights violator, is leading in the polls in Peru with 29.6% of the vote. The result is based on an exit poll by Apoyo, a good polling firm. It gets worse. Alan Garcia, the lunatic leftist who ruled Peru during the 1980s and gave Peru 7000% inflation and a near-death experience with the Shining Path, as well as loads of trouble for President Ronald Reagan, is unexpectedly in second…
I’ve voted. Honestly, I haven’t waited so long before casting my vote. At 2:15 p.m. (local time) there were very few people that you could count them on your hand’s fingers. The Interior Ministry – which updates the percentage of voters on a hourly base – informs that at 12 p.m. the percentage of people who went to the polls is: 17,7% . On 2001, it was 21,6% . What does this mean? It might be that people will go to the polls later or tomorrow. Of course, what is quite clear is that there’s a strong feeling of disillusion…
The Italian general election will be held from tomorrow to Monday afternoon, when the polls will close and – later in the night – results (some say partial ) will be announced. This is a very important election which will mean a lot for the future of international alliance: a Berlusconi’s win would guarantee continuity with the strong U.S.-Italy alliance above all in the face of the war on terror. A Prodi’s win would mean a re-alignment of Italy with the Old Europe, with Spain and France as their worst representatives. And that means – in case Prodi is elected…
As I previously reported, the Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran (SMCCDI) needs urgent help in order to continue to exist and strenghten the fight against the Mullahs. You can make a donation of any amount or simply help spread the word asking to help. To know more on how to help, click here. I had also posted about the financial problems faced by the Los Angeles-based National Iranian Television (NITV), which is the most prominent opposition network broadcasting to Iran and helping Iranian freedom fighters by coordinating demonstrations and helping spread the opposition groups’ messages to the…
A new poll shows that Peru’s free-market, free-trade, pro-property-rights, anti-poverty, anti-Hugo Chavez candidate is BACK IN FIRST PLACE ahead of Peru’s polls this Sunday! If it’s accurate, this is great news! Lourdes Flores is once again topping Ollanta Humala in Peru’s presidential race, not a moment too soon. It immediately follows Flores’ willingness to confront and speak the truth about Hugo Chavez, the continent’s worst tyrant (see my post below), and stand up for democracy! Flores at her campaign rally in Lima yesterday. Source: Reuters, via Yahoo! EFE has the breaking story here: Poll: Flores takes lead in Peruvian presidential…
Peru’s free-market candidate for president, Lourdes Flores, is sliding in the polls ahead of Peru’s first-round presidential election on Sunday, but apparently has taken a strong cue from Felipe Calderon’s successful Hugo Chavez ads against Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico. Aggressively, she’s lashed out against the dictator in Caracas. She’s hammering him as “a danger in the shadows to all Latin America.” Will this win her back votes? We don’t know. But suddenly, Peru’s election is exciting again and it’s only got a couple more days until April 9’s first round. El Universal has the new item, so far…
Conservative PAN party candidate Felipe Calderon, who’s leading or nearly leading the polls in Mexico’s July 2 presidential election, is determined to drive home that his opponent, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, is a second Hugo Chavez. I wasn’t sure if he was going to do this – both Chavez and AMLO himself said that he shouldn’t do it, something that I read as signs of panic on both their parts, but I wasn’t sure if PAN saw it the same way I did. After all, PAN had pulled a television ad they ran for a week that had compared…
The four-day nationwide strike called by the country’s seven main political parties and backed by the Maoist rebels began today, with the entire country practically shutting down. Hundreds of security personnel in riot gear stood guard in the near-empty streets of Kathmandu Thursday, to thwart mass protests planned by an alliance of seven opposition parties. But small groups of pro-democracy demonstrators emerged on the streets during the day, prompting a second wave of arrests. Many opposition leaders and activists had been detained a day ahead of the strike. The government has vowed to crush the anti-monarchy protests, citing threats of…
Can a civilized nation tolerate a crowd of people who let themselves be led by the nose by sheikhs, dervishes and the like . . . and who entrust their faith and their lives to fortunetellers, magicians, witch-doctors, and writers of amulets? *** Countries may vary, but civilization is one and for a nation to progress, it must take part in this one civilization. The decline of the Ottomans began when, proud of their triumphs over the West, they cut their ties with the European nations. This was a mistake which we will not repeat. I have previously provided to…
Source: AFP, Reuters, via El Universal Protests have exploded across Venezuela against the murder of the three young Faddoul brothers, and against all crime, much of which is committed by the Venezuelan police. The three Faddoul brothers, John Bryan, 17; Kevin 13, and Jason, 12. The anger is cutting across class lines, because kidnapping, robbery and murder affect rich and poor alike. This is the first event ever that’s united rich and poor in Venezuela. The shantytowns of Caracas are some of the most dangerous places on earth. The wealthy and middle class, meanwhile, are regular targets of opportunity for…
Dictatorships are commonly thought of as authoritarian affairs, where crime is low and the trains run on time. Hugo Chavez’s dictatorship is exactly the opposite. A modern dictator, he has no need for archaic devices like secret police to come knocking on doors of dissidents to terrify them, as happened in the Stalinistic and Castroite days of old. It may come later, but right now, he’s got a more efficient means of controlling the population through terror by allowing for runaway crime across the country. Due to virtually absent law enforcement (except for “political” crimes), people area all terrified of…
Fausta has an excellent French news roundup on all the riots that have engulfed the key European state this week, with links to tons of news sources. Many of her items are taken from the French press, adding a better dimension to the picture than ordinary media usually do. Check it out here.
Source: AP, via Yahoo! Kuwaiti election volunteers in Salwa, Kuwait, during yesterday’s first-ever municipal election that allowed women’s participation. Draw your own conclusions.
Hi friends, as many of you maybe know, Italy will be holding national election on Sunday, April 9. These are very important elections, given that from it will depend the future of the Coalition of the Willing in the war on terror. If Berlusconi is re-elected, Italy will continue to be a strong U.S. ally. On the other hand, if former chief of the EU Commission, Romano Prodi wins, Italy will join the Spain-France-Germany axis. So far, all we know is that the outcome risks to be too close to call and there might be a run-off. It’s quite hard…
Alvicho at Off Topic has some interesting thoughts about the symbiotic relationship between resource-hungry China and resource-rich Latin America, a topic that too frequently gets drowned in the paranoia of anti-Chinese sentiment. The relationship doesn’t bother me, as a matter of fact, I think Latin American states, especially those run by demogogues and populists, could learn the facts of life about how the world works, from places like China if they can’t bring themselves to pay attention to sensible, successful places in their own neighborhood like Chile. Alvicho’s thoughts are here.
The U.S. trade embargo against communist Cuba is frequently criticized, and with some good arguments, as an ineffective instrument against the Cuban dictator. But there’s more than one reason for this embargo, and Castro’s attitude toward paying his bills has a lot to do with why it’s in place too. Naturally, you ask yourself, why should anyone care whether Castro pays his bills? After all, if someone is going to be dumb enough to extend him credit and he doesn’t pay, why should it concern the rest of us? The reason is this: international trade is almost all insured by…