Blogging the democratic revolution
This is cool. There’s a reason this is becoming more and more frequent. BAKU, July 10 (AFP) – Some 10,000 opposition members, many dressed in orange, demonstrated Sunday in the centre of Azerbaijan’s capital Baku to call for fair parliamentary elections in November. Participants at the rally, organised by the opposition Azadlyg (Freedom) Bloc, shouted: “freedom” and called on President Ilham Aliyev to ensure that the November 6 poll is free. Many wore orange clothing, a symbol inspired by last year’s “orange revolution” that brought pro-Western opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko to power in Ukraine. Isa Gambar, head of the opposition…
Domingo Cavallo, the man who made Argentina into a first-world country in the early 1990s and then turned it into a fourth-world hellhole by 2002, bringing starvation, crime, poverty, robbery, toilet-paper money and an end to property rights, all in the span of a few short years, is running for office again. Luis at El Opinador Compulsivo in Buenos Aires calls it pathetic. Somebody just tell him no. Like a crazy driver, this man must never have be allowed to have his hands on the steering wheel of power again. Not ever. Arggggggghhhhh! UPDATE – SEPT 24: The dummy came…
The peace process continues in the Sudan, at least with regard to the main North-South conflict which has claimed millions of lives over the past four decades. Under the coalition agreement, former rebel leader John Garang has become the new Vice President of the Sudan. There will be a six-year interim period in which the southern rebels will maintain troops to ensure compliance by Khartoum. At the end of the six years, the southerners can then vote on succession. This is an excerpt from the New York Times (registration required): NAIROBI, Kenya, July 9 – Sudan elevated a former rebel…
It is going on fully four months since March’s Tulip Revolution that put Kyrgyzstan on the map for much of the west. Today, the country votes in its first presidential election since the parliamentary election revolt that led to the ousting of President Akayev. Acting-president Bakiev is seen as the frontrunner by a wide margin. Felix Kulov, who handled security in the country immedialtey after the revolution, was set to run against him but decided instead to run together with Bakiev. Should Bakiev win, he will appoint Kulov to the position of prime minister. I think it’s a basically foregone…
Nosemonkey from Europhobia is doing something pretty cool. With the absence of need for donations to the Red Cross or likewise organizations in the 7/7 terrorist attacks, he will be accepting and dispersing donations in the form of free pints of beer for police and emergency personnel. I like this idea.
Kyrgyzstan will be holding its first post-revolutionary presidential elections on Sunday. I will be posting my thoughts later, but for now, here is a roundup of links to interesting reading material to prep for tomorrow’s events. – First ever televised debates held (transcript here). – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty asks, “Will the election be free and fair?“ – Bakiev out in front, and Akayev backs him. – Foreign observers and journalists allowed, except from the CIS! Bishkek, 30 June 2005 (RFE/RL) — Kyrgyzstan’s election officials have given permission to some 80 foreign groups to monitor the country’s 10 July presidential…
Big Pharaoh posts this. I think it’s extremely revealing and effective. It shows the progress of female status in Egyptian society over the years. 1900-1920 1920-1940 1940-1975 2005 2020? 2050?
… By Russia! Go figure. THE international organisation that criticised the conduct of elections in Georgia before the Velvet Revolution and in Ukraine before the Orange Revolution has been accused by the Russian Government of double standards. Criticism of electoral abuses in former Soviet states by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) could ???????sometimes trigger unrest and destroy stability and is used by the extremist forces in those countries???????, said Alexey Borodavkin, Russia????????s Ambassador to the organisation. He said that the OSCE needed to introduce reforms to its procedure for election monitoring and accused the organisation of…
You have got to be kidding me. Mugabe is getting more ridiculous by the day. People’s property is now being taken away and resold back to them at higher prices than they paid for it. HARARE City Council has rescinded all land sale agreements made between 1998 and this year and is now reselling the land at market rates to the same buyers, where necessary. The prices charged in many of the agreements were a small fraction of pertaining market rates and usually well below the then cost of servicing the land. The price reviews follow the cancellation and invalidation…
To protest the rigged elections in their home country. I have yet to see a story carried on CNN, or anywhere else for that matter. I would love to be corrected on this, however, if in fact they have published a story. Yesterday they marched on the Carter Center (for obvious reasons), also located in Atlanta. You can see more photos here from other protests occurring worldwide today.
Hillary Clinton would have you think she is a moderate Democrat, serious about free trade, reasonable on all issues. A look at her voting record, particularly her despicable ‘no’ vote on CAFTA, shutting Central America out of U.S. markets and U.S. prosperity, will tell a different story. Here is an item from American Thinker about Hillary and her extremist anti-CAFTA cohorts, freaks like CISPES and Witness for Peace. This is the fringe left, so happy togetherrrrrr. Read it here.
The election commission is delaying the results, again, in what can only be a further attempt to clean up the trail of fraud. ADDIS ABABA, 7 July (IRIN) – Final results of Ethiopia’s 15 May parliamentary election will once again be delayed until investigations into allegations of electoral fraud are completed, the National Electoral Board (NEB) chairman said on Wednesday. NEB officials had previously postponed declaring the final results of the poll from 8 June to 8 July, saying they needed time to investigate disputed results. “There was a delay and that delay is continuing and we expect it will…
Tammy Lynch from the Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology and Policy emailed me an article of hers entitled Time for Yushchenko to Step Up. It’s a very detailed, well-researched article that is incredibly relevant because of its critical look at the parliamentary battle over WTO legislation. Last week, Ukraine????s parliament (Verkhovna Rada) rejected a number of measures that would have brought the country????s trade regulations in line with international norms and that would have moved the country closer to meeting the requirements for World Trade Organization (WTO) entry. The bills included two ????make or break???? issues: the United…
Police officers raise a British flag in front of the State Department in Washington, D.C., Thursday, July 7, 2005, in remembrance of those killed in the London bombings. (AP Photo/Yuri Gripas) It was the first time a foreign flag has been raised at the State Department. MORE: Pejman Yousefzadeh notes that after September 11, Queen Elizabeth ordered her personal guards to play The Star Spangled Banner instead of God Save The Queen. As he says, “class engenders class.” If you haven’t already, you may want to fly the Union Jack on your blog today.
We don’t even know the number of casualties yet, but we know who caused them. Search deep down. You don’t want to say it because, after so many years, you think it’s too cliche. But keep digging. A lot of possible culprits are being floated, but only one name seems to make sense. Some say it was anti-G8 protestors, but get real; none of them have the capability nor even the will to organize a massive coordinated bomb attack. They break the occassional car window before going back to their tents, lighting up their bongs, and busting out their signed…
Radio news report that this morning a bus exploded near Tavistock Square in central London. Eye witnesses report that the roof of the bus was blown away and many people were left injured. The incident is cause for concern due to the fact that other explosions have also been reported to have occurred in the London underground, namely between Aldgate East and Liverpool Street Station, Edgware Road and King’s Cross stations. There is very little information available as I write this note, however London has been brought to stand still. Update: Tavistock Place near Russell Square was the location of…
This Investor’s Business Daily editorial, now available on Alek Boyd’s Web site, describes Sumate’s hard work of creating civil institutions in a democracy and explains how they function as a bulwark against tyranny. That’s what Sumate leader Maria Corina Machado has done, and that’s why Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez wants to put her in prison. There is nothing a tyrant fears more than a REAL revolution from below, which is what this brave woman, comparable to Martha Beatriz Roque in Cuba, is risking her freedom for. Read it here.
There’s nothing more satisfying than Alvaro Vargas Llosa taking on the Che juggernaut, overturning every stone and debunking every myth about the fake Cuban revolutionary poseur, Che Guevara, whose main talent was murder. A Yulia he was not. He lives on in assorted tee shirts, appropriately earmarking the world’s idiots for our easy identification. Alvaro, a Peruvian, is awesome. Don’t miss it. Read it here.
Vodkapundit posts an interview with a Kenyan economist talking about how development aid has stalled if not destroyed progress in Africa. SPIEGEL: Mr. Shikwati, the G8 summit at Gleneagles is about to beef up the development aid for Africa… Shikwati: … for God’s sake, please just stop. SPIEGEL: Stop? The industrialized nations of the West want to eliminate hunger and poverty. Shikwati: Such intentions have been damaging our continent for the past 40 years. If the industrial nations really want to help the Africans, they should finally terminate this awful aid. The countries that have collected the most development aid…
Earlier in the week, Prime Minister Abbas offered Hamas to take part in the government cabinet so that a stable situation can be built post-Israeli pullout. At least that’s the reason he gives. In any case, it didn’t take much brain power to know that they’d refuse this offer. Palestinian mujahid group Hamas rebuffed an invitation to join the Palestinian cabinet, snubbing President Mahmoud Abbas who wants a unity government to help him control Gaza after Israel’s planned pullout. Hamas spokesman Mushir al – Masri said that Forming a unity government at this late time will not be useful. But…
I want to highlight a couple of items that reflect how the Castro-Chavez alliance is squandering Venezuela’s oil revenue in order to to sow their ideological seed. I was really concerned when I first saw this article showing that Cuba is exporting its “doctors” to, of late, politically tumultuous Belize. I’m even more concerned reading that Belize will be signing on to PetroCaribe, the much hyped oil company formed by Hugo Chavez. While the attention was focused this week on the visit of Mexican President Vicente Fox and talk of a possible PEMEX gas station in Belize, the Minister Responsible…
Probably not a coincidence either: It’s becoming all too predictable. Whenever there is an important date for the pro-democracy forces inside of Iran, the student movement website is shut down. July 9th is the anniversary of the bloody crackdown on student demonstrators in Iran.
On July 1 I wrote about the summit between Russia and China, in which they agreed to cooperate to exert their economic and political influence in the region between them; that is, Central Asia. Here is what I said: Perhaps it isn????????t explicitly stated, but most of the concern for both countries in recent months has been in Central Asia, where we have seen an revolution in Kyrgyzstan and a massacre in Uzbekistan. This translates into increased interest by the United States in seeing liberal democracy take root, which in turn means less control by Moscow. As a huge regional…
A political corruption scandal over slush funds to supporters is deepening in Brazil, and could extend to the highest reaches of government. It’s a shame, because President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is a true revolutionary leader who means to do what’s best for Brazil. Left-leaning but fiscally responsible, he’s no Hugo Chavez. But Randy at Beautiful Horizons lists a growing litany of scandals and their knock-on effects. Could this topple the Lula government? It’s not known yet. Randy writes: …it certainly seems to me that none of this is good for Lula. While it would be catastrophic for it…
The very hott Boli-Nica has been trawling around in the Sandalista weeds choking the Bolivian political ecosystem and has discovered that they are a destructive alien species, which, like water-hyacinth, threatens to trash the political ecosystem. He’s reeled in a big one from something he sees as deceptively called the Democracy Center, and has at it as only a true Bolivian tired of all the carpetbaggers from Berkeley can be. He writes: This is no more than pimping some of the stupidest leftist ideology out there to a receptive audience. I have often said that Bolivians of all classes do…