Blogging the democratic revolution
SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS — The shuttle arrived at 5 o????????clock in the morning. Waiting for half an hour outside in Boston????????s extended winter only made me ready to get on the plane faster. Destination: Honduras. The heavy jacket would have to be lost somewhere between Atlanta and the rain forest. There were nine of us in the group, almost all of us from different regions of the world. I was one of three Americans. A Chilean, a Thai, an Englishman, a Lebanese, a Bolivian, and a guy from Dubai were the others. A veritable bonanza of cosmopolitanism. Only a…
Lots of cars here in Cagliari. Lots of people in the streets and at the beach. The situation is the same in many Italian cities, where people is going out to celebrate a well-deserved victory against Ukraine. Everyone can admit now that Italy today deserved to win. A vindication for the insults against the Italian players, from Der Spiegel. Insults that, I am sure, are not shared by the majority of the German people. Next time will be very hard. Italy will play against Germany. A very difficoult game, for both the teams. Toni I’ve just seen a photo showing…
Boz at Bloggings by Boz did something a little different this week and focused on the biggest election in the hemisphere, Mexico’s, which will be held this Sunday. He’s got the final polls and lots of bullet-point analysis on the how that race is going. Want to know who is most likely to win in Mexico this weekend – a commie caudillo, or a free marketer? Go see what Boz has here. Meanwhile, Jonathan at the excellent Business & Politics in Bolivia has the final polls and analysis of the autonomy referendum which will be a turning point for Bolivia,…
Joining its close ally, El Salvador, as well as Nicaragua and Honduras, Guatemala has today fully entered the Central American Free Trade Agreement. Two more countries are yet to ratify their entry, but Guatemala has gotten it together and today is a happy day. Trade, in and of itself, is why the U.S.’ economy has grown so strongly, despite high oil prices and big layoffs and other economic plagues. Trade is simply a much stronger factor. It’s also something that scares the hell out of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. There is nothing he fights the U.S. harder on or bullies…
Shamil Basayev, the radical field commander who ordered the hostage-taking of Beslan schoolchildren, has been appointed vice president of the Chechen seperatist government by the new president. Which means, should President Dolu Umarov be killed, he will become the new leader of the separatist movement. In so few words, that is not good. PRAGUE, June 28, 2006 (RFE/RL) — The man who claimed responsibility for the 2004 Beslan school siege, rebel field commander Shamil Basayev, has been appointed vice president of the breakaway republic’s separatist government, putting Russia’s most-wanted man next in line to become separatist president. Basayev’s appointment, first…
Bolivia’s industrious, anti-communist Santa Cruz citizens rally for autonomy Source: Reuters, via Yahoo! News Not every Bolivian likes to be under the thumb of Hugo Chavez’s Marxist mini-me, Evo Morales. Residents of the eastern province, Santa Cruz, which is full of industrious immigrants and enterprising native-indigenous Bolivians who’ve moved there, want instead to have autonomy. They hate communism and want freedom. This weekend’s coming vote is seen by some as a first step toward secession, but that is probably going too far at this stage. The vote, for now, is just on autonomy, to decentralize an all too powerful and…
Terrific news! Peru’s Congress passed the Free Trade pact with the U.S., after months of contentious debate. They took one look (well, probably several) at the $11 trillion economy they have the opportunity to freely trade with and decided it was worth it. They passed the measure, despite fears that they wouldn’t. They ignored the protests. They considered their nation’s interests. They’re right! Now we can buy Made In Peru products as easily as Made In China ones. Better yet, they probably will not cost as much. Better still, we can sell our own fancy capital equipment or whatever to…
Have you seen the Venezuelan movie, Secuestro Express? It’s my favorite current movie. It’s also the most popular Venezuelan movie in history. The only other Venezuelan movie I have seen is Manuela Saenz, and that was weakly done. Secuestro Express is in a league with the best Mexican and Colombian movies, a real chair-gripping suspense and drama. I was screaming by the end of it. It documents a quick and dirty kidnapping of two rich young people – one callow, one not – by a gang of at least four thugs from the slums, one of whom has a glint…
Malaysia’s Former Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim Source: The Sydney Morning Herald Democratic revolutionary Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia is being approached by … well, someone … to apply for the top United Nations post, to succeed UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. I think it’s a great idea! Anwar is a terrific leader whose appeal extends borders and who can talk to all kinds of people. Young men in Indonesia, who might otherwise move over to follow the Islamofascists, drop those stupid ideas when asked about Anwar, whom they really admire. He’s an authentic globalist and a very reasonable Muslim. I remember…
Earlier this week, Mexico’s election board nixed some campaign ads from the conservative PAN party as too fear-mongering, for their warnings about the danger of electing leftist PRD candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador president of Mexico. Election day is July 2 in Mexico. The ads compared Lopez Obrador to Hugo Chavez, with big pictures of Chavez, Fidel Castro and Evo Morales, warning of the danger of populism. The ads were nixed from government-regulated television, but they’ve since gotten out onto the Internet, via YouTubes, and now everyone can look at them, and see for themselves. Miguel has found the links…
Babes of Beirut cheer Brazil Source: AP, Reuters, AFP, via Yahoo! News What’s up with the Babes of Beirut? They’re busy cheering Brazil, which beat Ghana today, moving on to the semifinals in the World Cup! One day it’s a democracy struggle, and as democracy wins, next up, it’s soccer. It’s the same babes, and either way, you know what that means – they’re on the cutting edge of revolution. Today, they’re out in full force cheering Brazil, and according to this excellent post by Ya Libnan, they’re the team of choice. As Nouri has noted in this excellent post…
French fans cheering their team’s victory Source: AP, Reuters and AFP, via Yahoo! News Here’s why soccer is fun – France unexpectedly beat powerhouse Spain in the quarter finals of the match, 3-1, in a very good game. Nobody expected France to do it, not even me, but sure enough, they did. Spain’s a very strong, very impressive team, and they looked hard to beat. But the French team beat Korea earlier, which is not an easy soccer team, and perhaps the effort that went into that was underestimated. Anyway, most everyone wrote off France after their dismal performance in…
Isn’t it funny that while Algerians are debating whether or not to abolish term limits for their presidents, Mauritanians have just approved a constitution that provides for term limits on presidents (and compels the president to pledge before God that he will not attempt to modify these limits), and other checks on the executive? 77% Mauritanians turned out for the referendum, with 97% of them voting “yes” to the Constitution. According to Al Jazeera, Colonel Vall, the main ring leader of last summer’s coup that deposed former president Ouled Taya, has also proposed the prohibition of coup members from running…
Carlos The Jackal, in his yeayyy-babeeee days Source: 24-Hour Party People Just as Venezuelan Hugo Chavez plays the role of clown-dictator in the world Axis Of Evil, so does Venezuelan terrorist Carlos The Jackal play the bozo in the world War On Terror. It’s like a bad parody that keeps repeating itself. Not that his crimes aren’t real. The fat balding terrorist, who had his heyday in the 1970s as an International Man Of Mystery, shooting up OPEC meetings and taking diplomats hostage, in the end ended up in Sudan down there with bin Laden, and eventually was scooped up…
Washington Post has an extraordinary good essay on the parlous and deteriorating state of Egypt’s democrats as the Mubarak dictatorship grows stronger and the U.S. loses interest in democratic revolution. The author is writing a book on Middle Eastern democratic revoltutionaries. It’s a sad but important story. It is a must-read here.
In Venezuela, the ruling Chavistas are starting to implode as an organization. The reason for this is Chavez has gotten rid of all institutions of government and left only the political-party and campaign apparatus as its substitute. Imagine Karl Rove running the Supreme Court, the Congress, the White House, the election apparatuses, the district attorneys, all by his lonesome. You can’t run a government like that. That’s contributed to an idea that’s been around for about two years, somethng called ‘Chavismo without Chavez,’ a face-saving way to say one doesn’t support dictatorship, but loves all the byproducts of dictatorship, like…
Now that all the media glory for France’s masked shop-trashing thugs is over, something sad and quiet has happened in the wake of their violent “victory.” France’s best and brightest are leaving France. One by one, they are leaving their homeland, in search of work, and a better life. They are heading to the savage lands, the lands of capitalism, the places denounced as inhuman, darwinian, American. Places that no French person supposedly would ever want to live. France’s angry young men who actually believe this, taught well by their Marxist intellectual schoolmasters, rioted late last year to condemn that…
It feels good to be right sometimes. Really good. When Mauritania’s military staged a bloodless coup against the president last year, I thought it might be wrong — especially given the focus of this blog — to support such a move. Every government in the world was condemning it; the United States more than anyone, with the official statement being, “We oppose any attempts by rogue elements to change governments through extra-constitutional or violent means.” But when preaching democracy, this statement struck me as highly hypocritical. President Taya himself had come to power in an unconstitutional coup over two decades…
After much suffering and a red card for one of the Italian players, Italy won 1 – 0 against Australia. Yes, it was due to a penalty kick, but our Francesco Totti scored just a couple of seconds before the end of the match! Below some photos of this much-suffered match! Before scoring: Getting ready to score: The girlfriend of Italy’s goal-keeper ( clapping) and the wife of Francesco Totti right below (with the sunglasses ) Totti scored! Note: the writer is an Italian. If you want to see photos of Australian fans, I’m sorry but I cannot post them…:)
It is not surprising that Sherif Hamdy can write in the Daily Star that China is getting close to beating out the United States in the arena of public relations in the Arab World. I have seen maybe one or two American officials speak Arabic on Al Jazeera or Al Arabiyya regularly, and, according to the Government accountability office (via Foreign Policy Magazine’s blog and Kirk H. Sowell), only about 30% of American diplomatic personel in the Muslim world have proficancy in their host country’s language. At the US embassies in almost every Arabic speaking country I have visited (Algeria,…
Oh man, this is disgusting. You know how Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez likes to break into all the television channels on occasion, with long Castro-style speeches, just to hear his own voice? Well, as All Venezuela has stood by, mesmerized at the World Cup on TV, he’s decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to break into the soccer games to issue his multi-hour political diatribes, called ‘cadenas.’ When a cadena is on, you can’t flip the channel. All you get is him, no matter what channel you flip to. Chavez is known to be jealous of attention the…
The national conscious of the Nazi atrocities in German memory has led to cautiousness towards conflict in the German public and government. While this position is a natural reaction and in many respects noble, it has unfortunately decreased Germany’s ability and consequent role to be an international peacekeeper and decision maker. Indeed, Germany’s relations with traditional powers such as the United States and Great Britain have undoubtedly been affected by the apprehension associated with German worldwide involvement. In order to sufficiently repair important diplomatic relationships and raise its role as a purveyor of social democracy, Germany must engage in a…
What do you do if you are a Venezuelan? Your country is ruled by a madman, a communist, a tyrant. You are steadily watching as all of your freedoms erode. Your country’s institutions are being rapidly politicized, the gears of your own power are being stripped and you are powerless to stop it. The U.S. is not going to invade to save you. What do you do? You fight. You fight for democracy even though you are deeply discouraged, knowing that not only is your opponent much bigger than you, he’s paid the ref to rule against you. You fight…
U.S.-Japan anti-ballistic missile test in the Pacific Source: Honolulu Star Bulletin OK so the U.S. and Japan don’t have such great soccer teams this year. The trans-Pacific allies seem to do other things better. Like blast incoming nuclear missiles out of the sky. In news that just feels good to wake up to, a U.S.-Japan team near San Diego shot down an incoming medium-range test missile off Kauai in six minutes, 100 miles high, demonstrating to the madman ruling North Korea that his technology and his nuclear threats are obsolete. And that we mean victory. Source: Navy Times We are…
Nogales is a city on the border, split right down the center, with a wall running down the middle of it. The line separates more than the city itself, though. The two sides are worlds apart. In American Nogales, tourists cruise across the border within minutes into a mile-wide arena of discount pharmacies and craft shops. There’s a McDonald’s right there; it’s tall, golden arch visible to the south, a constant reminder of American prosperity. Coming from the other direction, swarms of beat up cars scramble for the chance to cross into the land of opportunity, where they can transport…