Blogging the democratic revolution
RIA Novosti reported on August 30th that “Russia’s GDP growth of 5.5% in the first quarter of 2006 was the highest among the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations for the period.” Relying on data from the IMF, Russia’s Federal State Statistics Service “said real year-on-year GDP growth in Russia during the first quarter reached 5.5%, compared to 3.7%, 3.4% and 3.3% in the United States, Japan and Canada, respectively. The rate was 2.3% in Great Britain, 1.7% in Germany, and 1.5% in France and Italy.” To its credit, RIA also reported that “Russia’s GDP still falls well behind other…
In Caracas, there are very few green spaces, other than the Avila mountain range, which ruffles the northern side of the vast Venezuelan capital city. The rest is pure urban concrete. Of those few green spaces, even fewer are safe enough to go to without needing a bodyguard or a bullet-proof automobile. But there is one important exception – it’s in the municipality of Chacao, and it’s called the Country Club. I was there – and it’s not quite as elite as you might think. The Country Club is a private recreation club where any resident in the area can…
Remember Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador? The Obragore of Mexico? Today Mexico’s election arbitrators told him to get lost. Mexico’s electoral tribunal making its ruling on July 2’s election Source: AFP, via Yahoo! News Today the Mexican electoral tribunal ruled that there was no cheating in Mexico’s July 2 presidential election, and all of his 300-plus claims of irregularities were baseless. And that means free-market Felipe Calderon has won the presidential election and will take office in December. Felipe Calderon speaks at a press conference after his victory is certified Source: AFP, via Yahoo! News So much for the AMLO tent…
For a long long time, Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez polled high numbers in opinion polls. Often it was as high as 70% approval. When I was in Caracas, a prominent think tank analyst pointed out to me that about 7% of the population was and always would be hardcore communist. Another 30% to 40% after that were happy to take handouts in exchange for political support. Another 20% were middle class and detested the Thug who was ruining their country. And there was a remainder in the middle known as ‘ni-ni’s – people who couldn’t stand any politicians no matter…
One of the first things I did when I arrived in Kiev was take the subway to Maidan, the setting of Ukraine????????s Orange Revolution in which over one million people camped out and protested against phony elections. It is now a scene of perpetual nostalgia for those cold days and nights when the one thing keeping them warm was the feeling that, for once, good things were going to happen. There would be free and fair elections, the criminals in government would get their due, and the corruption that plagues everything from multi-billion dollar deals to traffic tickets would be…
How is this for a new idea? States that have more squiggly borders, on the whole, have more stability and cohesion. States that have harsh, arbitrary ruler-drawn line borders have a terrible tendency toward internecine warfare. Any student of African politics knows something about this, but perhaps for the first time, economists have tried to quantify this. Via RealClearPolitics, I found the intriguing new essay by Bloomberg’s Amity Schlaes describing the findings for this new idea that’s well worth a click.
One of the most ominous questions hovering over democratic politics in the world today is how harsh an anti-democratic crackdown Russian dictator Vladimir Putin would be prepared to support in order to maintain control over the Russian population in the event of an economic downturn. Recently, Putin has been recording 70+% approval in public opinion surveys, owing largely to the perception that under his stewardship the Russian economy has become much more vibrant. Leave aside the fact that this perception is wholly inaccurate, since virtually all of Russia’s economic growth is attributable to rising world energy prices that Putin had…
In April two prominent observers of politics died. The first, John Kenneth Galbraith was an influential Canadian-American economist of the 20th century. He was a Keynesian and a leading proponent of 20th-century American liberalism and progressivism, died on the 29th. The second, Jean-Fran????ois Revel was a French politician, journalist, author, prolific philosopher and member of the Acad????mie fran????aise since June 1998. Unfortunately, Galbraith????????s death overshadowed Revel????????s: the later did not receive the attention he deserved. Galbraith had been a charming, immodest, outspoken fellow whose every word was taken seriously: he also was almost always wrong. Revel, not dashing, stable, firm,…
I????????ve just found some month-old photos showing Iranians (in Iran) celebrating the banned pre-Islamic Chahar Shanbe Souri festival. As you know, every woman is forced to wear the mandatory veil when in Iran (this goes for non-Iranian women,too). But, look at how the Iranian women below defied the regime by not fully covering their hairs and someone even took it out!! Source: Roozi.com
Look, I haven’t even gotten used to the idea of San Francisco raves! Ten years ago, they used to be this thing people I knew did at old warehouses in the South of Market in San Francisco. I think I went to see an indy flick at the Angelica Theatre in New York about these things, I recall it was pretty good, but cripes, it was about taking drugs! I never went to a rave itself on my own. But I had a roomate, Melinda, who always did. She was one of the cool people, and I adored her. She…
There’s a new U.S. development on the horizon that’s coming on us like a Singapore sunrise – which is to say, fast. Small towns in America are rebelling against unchecked immigration, which has spread well past the big cities like Los Angeles and deep into the small towns of America. Tiny Hazleton, Pennsylvania got itself a slew of lawsuits from leftwing lawyers like the American Civil Liberties Union for passing some of the toughest anti-illegal immigration muncipal laws in the country. The small city, population 31,000, made English its official language, vowed to fine anyone who rents flophouses to illlegals,…
I am not talking about Guantanamo Bay, where prisoners are fed and allowed to read the Koran. This is the real deal. This is what they did and in many places still do to you if you are a political dissident in the backward societies of the Middle East. The blog “… Or Does it Explode?” posts a link to an article in the groundbreaking Moroccan publication Tel Quel. The article is an impassioned interview with a former torturer, who confesses to the things that he and others did on orders from higher-ups, and how those actions haunt him to…
Just over three years ago, the United States and Chile signed a free trade agreement, opening up markets and allowing for greater prosperity in both countries. Now, Chile has signed a free trade agreement with China, the first between the Asian giant and a Latin American country, bilaterally opening up markets on both sides. It will lead, just as it has in the past, to greater prosperity for both. China and Chile have signed a free-trade agreement, Beijing’s first in South America. The deal will give China better access to Chile’s extensive natural resources, such as copper, while Chile will…
The results of the a July 30 election in the “Democratic Republic” of the Congo were announced on Monday. Nobody won an outright majority, but I will give you one guess as to what happened given that it has taken over two millions deaths to lead up to this point. That’s right, people started killing each other, as militias loyal to the top two presidential candidates attacking each others’ supporters. There is an inherent flaw to the way this election has been carried out. They are bidding for the presidency, a position that in African skeleton democracies means protection for…
I have returned from my trips to Ukraine and Belarus. As I sit here editing audio and writing stories, a question has crossed my mind that is hard for me to answer because it requires knowledge of the mass perception of what I am asking. So if you have the time, drop off a comment, and answer this for me: “When you hear the word tyranny, what do you think of?”
Do my eyes deceive me? The most leftwing alternative-media newspaper, SFWeekly, in the U.S.’ most leftwing alternative city, San Francisco, has given one heck of a thrashing to the world’s most leftwing alternative Sandalista nuisance group, Global Exchange. The leftwing newspaper’s charge? Rampant Sandalista meddling! SFWeekly is laying it on thick against the leftwing “revolutionary” tourism group, led by Medea Benjamin, whose other group, Code Pink, famously photoshopped one of the Iranian freedom babes seen on this site here into a war protestor, which she was not. The alt-media newspaper warns that Global Exchange is spreading LIES about the Mexican…
Ruins of a Russian jet crash which killed 170, Aug. 22, 2006 Source: Associated Press, via Yahoo! News On Tuesday morning (August 22) it was reported by the Associated Press and Reuters that a Russian passenger jet, a Pulkova Airlines TU-154 airliner bound from the Black Sea resort of Anapa to St. Petersburg, crashed in Ukraine with 171 people on board. This comes after a July crash in the Russian city of Irkutsk of a Russian A-310, operated by the Russian carrier S7, killing 124 passengers and crew, and it is the third crash the region this year. In May,…
Val Prieto, the estimable and amazing Cuban-American blogger at Babalu blog has been asked for advice about creating a post-Castro Cuba, along with Alvaro Vargas Llosa, Carlos Eire and others luminaries, by none other than the White House and its top policy makers. He’s obviously been watched and read for a long time by the White House and the leading policy makers in the U.S. for a post-Castro Cuba. I am not surprised. Val projects a warmth, a soul, an unerring sense of timing, a social intelligence, and a referent power. He’s someone everyone in the Cuban-American community (and well…
Venezuela has a peculiar economy. For many decades, it’s been known as Saudi Venezuela, in reference to its vast oil reserves, reserves so high, and so profitable, that it brings in huge dollar reserves. Those dollar reserves strengthen the currency to such an extent that it’s very difficult for exporters in other industries to get their businesses off the ground, because compared to say, their neighbors on Colombia, they cannot compete, given what they must be paid in. This is known as ‘Dutch disease’ or, the curse of oil. But it’s also switching to a tried-and-failed Marxist model on top…
Next week will mark 15 years since the August Putsch. On August 19, 1991 a group of Soviet politicians calling themselves the State Executive Committee (Gosudarstvennyi Komitet po Chezvychainomu polozheniiu, GKChP) attempted to seize power in Moscow. The ???????putsch??????? took a very Soviet form. The Committee announced that Gorbachev was ill and was relieved of his position while he was on vacation in Sochi. Soviet Vice-President Gennady Yanayev was named in his place. The precedent for removing GenSeks while on vacation was set with Khrushchev????????s sacking in 1964. The real reason for the move was that Gorbachev and his counterparts…
Curious about the political temperature in this hemisphere? Wondering what the average Mexican thinks of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s nonstop protests? Want to hear how the Panamanian public feels about the canal expansion or what the Ecuadorean public thinks about its current plate of candidates for its election, come October? Check out Boz’s poll roundup for the past week to see what’s going on around our regional neighborhood here.
Phil Gunson from The Miami Herald recently reported on a memo that Venezuelan Ambassador to the UK Alfredo Toro Hardy had sent to Rafael Ramirez, Minister of Energy and Director of Petroleos de Venezuela. Toro Hardy’s purpose was to keep Ramirez up to speed with regards to developing conversations between his office and Greater London Authority staff, geared at implementing an oil-for-propaganda programme, similar to the one broke with Bill Delahunt and Joe Kennedy’s Citizens Energy Corporation, as announced by Hugo Chavez in his last visit to this city. Interestingly, the memo reveals the names of those involved, on behalf…
The British are rebelling. Their target is their own idiot authorities, the lunatic leftists who’ve managed to get into power on the coattails of the estimable Tony Blair, who’s from the Labour Party, which attracts all kinds. They’ve gotten control of the BBC, of the city of London government, of the regulatory agencies. They are the ones who are putting out all these politically correct rulings, rulings designed to appease local Islamofascists and far-leftist lunatics eager to meddle with and remodel British life, while British voters suffer. That’s why they are rebelling. The Dihly Mail, a newspaper that I had…
Campaign kickoff rally for Manuel Rosales in Caracas Saturday Source: The Devil’s Excrement, which has a lot more here Is there any greater losing proposition than trying to win an election as a non-Chavista in Venezuela? The courts are stacked, the electronic fingerprint machines ensure that HOW you voted is recorded and delivered to the authorities, the vote-tallying machines by Smartmatic can report any result they like regardless of how you voted, the whole election apparatus can be rigged to ensure that if you live in a middle class neighborhood, you’ll stand all day in the sun to discourage your…
According to an article in today’s Guardian Unlimited, United Russia, the largest Russian political party by far, is losing its appeal with the electorate. It seems that the party’s narrow platform, to support the President in every way, is something of a turn-off. So, what is to be done? ‘Create another…ÄpartyÅ…that pretends to be an opponent.’ Yes, Putin is going to manufacture an ‘opposition’ party…controlled by the Kremlin of course. This is another wonderful example of managed democracy in Russia. As Andrew Wilson wrote in his book Virtual Politics, the Russian words often translated managed democracy are better translated directed…