Blogging the democratic revolution
In the email: One of the most positive recent developments in Morocco has been the rise of TelQuel Magazine, a French-language weekly publication that regularly push the envelope in shocking ways. Most prominent was a massive cover story a few months ago detailing King Muhammad VI’s salary. Other taboo-breaking cover stories have included pieces on…
Mad Minerva posts a little bit of Asia democracy news regarding the creation of a 26 member Democratic Pacific Union. Taiwan’s President Chen said that the DPU should be used to bring the last 15 and the 39 Pacific rim countries into its democratic arc. Especially China. President Chen Shui-bian (????????????????????) yesterday called upon the…
PREVIOUS POSTS, BACKGROUND: HERE. LATEST PHOTOS: HERE. The democratic revolution in Maldives continues, with the situation turning downward by the second. Following the arrest of opposition MDC chairperson Nasheed at a peaceful sit-in on the anniversary of Black Friday, and the subsequent protests and mass detentions, violence is escalating on both sides. Opposition supporters, including…
For anyone else watching the riveting countdown to the constitution, Iraq the Model is the place to be. Omar has been giving up-to-the-minute updates on the National Assembly session, which was required to approve a draft constitution for referendum by midnight. They convened at just past 11, which really means that they were cutting things…
The first time most people on this side of the world had ever heard of Aceh was late last year on Dec. 26, when an enormous tsunami swept over the land and killed over 130,000 people. It’s part of Sumatra, an island of 4.1 million in Indonesia, and home to three decades of a rebel…
YESTERDAY’S REPORT, MORE BACKGROUND: HERE! LATEST PHOTOS: HERE! The democratic revolution in Maldives continues, with the government continuously arresting protestors and opposition leaders. All major news affiliates are completely ignoring this story. There is absolutely nothing. A total blackout. The only news is coming from from local sources, thouse being Minivan News and the Dhivehi…
With Monday looming as the deadline to submit the Iraqi constitution to the National Assembly for a vote, we’re all sitting here wondering, “Will it be done on time?” President Talabani thinks so. In fact, he’s saying that it will be done early. BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – Iraqi leaders rushing to finish a constitution Saturday…
It’s the anniversary of “Black Friday,” when exactly a year ago riots broke out across the country of Maldives. The protestors were challenging President Gayoom and his 25 year presidency over the arrest of reformists. They demanded free, fair, and transparent multi-party elections. Real reforms. Real democracy. What began as an unprecedented and unplanned rally,…
I ran across this piece as I was scrawling through the Washington Times. It’s very interesting, detailing how money given by USAID for development projects in Bolivia is being used by a local leftist as leverage over the population. Read it all here. YAPACANI, Bolivia — A peasant leader associated with a left-wing politics and…
President Saakashvili and President Yushchenko met for a summit in Georgia to discuss and make the announcement of a new grouping of nations whose sole purpose is to secure the principles of democracy for their people. It will be called the Commonwealth of Democratic Choice. 12 August 2005 — The Ukrainian and Georgian presidents today…
With the government of Israel maintaining staunch in its position, and opponents to the plan becoming desperate as the day of reckoning comes ever the more closer, an enormous rally was held in the capital of Tel Aviv in protest of the Gaza pullout plan. Youth activists set up a little tent village as their…
NOT. Hey, that was a pretty funny joke right? Just about as funny as the racial justice jokers in the South African government. In a previous post entitled “South Africa Speeding Up Land Reform,” I talked about how President Mbeki is ideologically sympathetic with Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, and how the country is planning to…
Poor President Putin. According to Russia’s constitution, he won’t be able to run for the presidency again when his second term ends in 2008. Speculation is always rampant about whether or not he will run again, and just a week ago he was lamenting the fact that he cannot run again because the constitution does…
Even though the King imposed a state of emergency in February that was constitutionally lifted three months later, he still retains his powers and Nepal’s democratic process is still suspended. Protests are still broken up, hundreds of political prisoners are still being held, and the media still isn’t allowed to operate freely. Why? The King…
As the deadline for drawing up the new constitution for Iraq is approaching, women and civil society groups are becoming more and more vocal of their opposition to groups who wants sharia to be the civil law of the land. However, whenever they take to the streets to protest, their stalkers arise out of the…
Several days after high-brass military men ousted President Taya from power in Mauritania, diplomats are finally taking my line on this: cautious optimism. I’ve been arguing consistently that this may just be what Mauritania needs to order to secure real democracy in the face of a dictator who cracked down on all political opposition —…
It has almost been three months since Ethiopia held its parliamentary elections, and the results have been delayed over and over and over. And the results aren’t all that surprising, especially after all the lack of transparency in the counting process, the putting opposition leaders under house arrest, the banning of protests, and the beating…
RFE/RL has an interview with Ukraine’s leading lady who we all laud over, Yulia Tymoshenko. It covers a range of topics marking the 6th month anniversary of the new government coming to power. UPDATE: Meanwhile, Russian nationalists are filming a porn movie about Yulia and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. Is anyone else anticipating this as…
As Lukashenko’s regime continues to move in on Belarus’ largest civil organization, the Union of Poles, and Europe now promising funds for opposition groups, tensions between the country and the rest of Europe are escalating dramatically. The EU sent a delegation to investigate human rights and democracy in Belarus, and they actually had the cojones…
There has been much debate over whether Abdullah’s formal succession to the throne will allow reform to begin its progression in Saudi Arabia; a task that no doubt has odds generated by entrenched totalitarianism stacked against it. A move that looks promising, and is hopefully an indication of things to come, is that Abdullah just…
After the government of Azerbaijan accused the opposition of being funded by Armenian intelligence and NDI for a coup, the political progress in the country seems to be degrading quickly. In my analysis of what happened, I wrote that, “using Armenia is probably the best way for the Azeri government to discredit the opposition in…
Click here, trust me. TechCentralStation.com published my article about it. Hope you like! PS: Carnival of revolutions.
Developments after the military coup continue to be interesting. Since the disbanded the parliament, they have adopted a new transitional charter in order to oversee the process of democratization Here are the details. DAKAR, Aug. 6 (Xinhuanet) — The Mauritanian junta Saturday adopted a charter on the organization and power allocation in the transitional period,…
We’ve discussed Belarus quite a bit over the past few days, including an item showing that Congress approved $24 million of funding for opposition parties in the countries. Now, it seems as if the EU has finally moved beyond “stern condemnations” to real action, by getting ready to set aside funds for similar measures that…
With news of the draft constitution circling the streets, women aren’t all that happy knowing that legislation will be based on sharia and certain rights won’t be given. So what do they do about it? Make their views known by exercising their right to assembly! This was the first civil rights protest held by women’s…