Blogging the democratic revolution
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…
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 HARARE City Council has rescinded all land sale agreements made between 1998 and this year and is now reselling the land at market rates to the same buyers, where necessary.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…
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.
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…
President Hu of China is in Russia for a four-day visit with Putin where the two will agree on an array of political and economic ties for their roles in the region and in the world. Chinese President Hu Jintao Friday called for greater efforts to strengthen the strategic partnership and economic and trade ties between China and Russia. Hu Jintao met Russia????????s top lawmakers, Boris Gryzlov, and Sergei Mironov. Later he and Putin signed a joint declaration on the new world order in the 21st century. In a meeting with Boris Gryzlov, chairman of Russia????????s State Duma, Hu said…
The Central American Free Trade Agreement, the treaty to bring our good and faithful friends from Central America into free trade with the U.S. has won – won! – a bruising battle in the Senate. We were terrified all was lost and it was not! This is the greatest victory of the year! Victory! The last step is to get CAFTA passed in the House. If it passes in the House, it will be a strike for freedom and a deadly blow to Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Communism won’t be the way out, but standing on one own two feet…
Those interested in development issues in the Arab world might find it worth while to read a back and forth discussion of the future of the Arab world taking place between my blog and that of an Egyptian architect-turned-political activist, Karim Elsahy (pronounced es-sahhi, with a hard “h”). Elsahy’s blog, One Arab World, contains a few posts explaining his political project followed by a series of comments by various (mostly) Arab bloggers (but in English). My post deals with two different things: the first part is a response to a request for comment by Elsahy regarding a statement in President…
There is no issue, none, more critical today than whether the U.S. Congress passes CAFTA. So much is at stake in the treaty that will show whether the U.S. includes Latin America in to its hopes and opportunity or coldly shuts it out. And don’t think Osama Bin Laden, Hugo Chavez and Robert Mugabe aren’t watching – they are. If CAFTA loses, every single one of them will be emboldened. This prospect is unbelievably horrible, and Bush must pay any price, battle any battle, to get this treaty passed. It is that important. If there is a political cost to…
Can you stand a story on the Venezuelan national budget? I promise you, it’s got gamy details of swindling, pocket-lining, waste, graft and lying. And given that it’s the main vehicle for the spread of the chavista ‘revolution’ it has relevance to the mission of this blog. It’s what Venezuela’s real revolution is up against. Venezuelan writer Francisco Toro has a short, nicely written essay here or if you prefer, here.
It’s jackass season in Washington and with it comes threats from Congress to harass China over its trade gap. Larry Kudlow outlines the incredible progress China has made since 1978 – 1978! – and warns that the U.S. has got to stop hectoring China for doing all the right things. China’s stable currency, its trade of goods with us, its lifting of its poor into the middle class are all things that need to be encouraged, not screamed at in U.S. Congress. Because trust me, China is capable of much worse than the ‘crime’ of trade. Larry Kudlow makes a…
They have started. Venezuela’s oil workers in the eastern part of the country have launched bitter protests against corruption and lost jobs. Their actions have shut down the refineries and the state oil company doesn’t sound as though it is in good shape. As oil hits $60 a barrel, there may be a revolution on. The angry oil workers did stop production. Read it here.
Hugo Chavez has threatened to cut off oil to Paraguay, just as the Austral winter begins. This is a new major incident of Paraguay abuse from the Venezuelan dictator. His gall and malice know no bounds. He made the threat as a parting shot against the small helpless South American nation at a Mercosur conference in Paraguay itself, always on his best-guest behavior, where he appeared in a bid to gain full Mercosur membership. This isn’t the first time Venezuela has kicked Paraguay around. A former Paraguayan president’s daughter was kidnapped and murdered by Paraguayan thugs who were being directed…
This item on Zimbabwe’s smoking ruins made my blood go cold. Read it here. Hat tip: Real Clear
Miguel at MABB on Bolivia has a very significant item utterly ignored in the U.S. media about how Bolivia’s protestors are being coerced. They are being shaken down by Marxist social movements like Evo Morales’ ally FEJUVE, which sends block committees into neighborhoods of El Alto, checking to see that at least one member of the household is out there protesting for Morales’ suicidal nationalization causes. I knew those Indians weren’t doing this on their own! There were too many of them at the pro-Mesa protests in March. They are being forced to protest! Or else. The Morales crew puts…
Victor Mallet of the Financial Times seizes on Rumsfeld’s recent comments on June 4, in which he said that China needs to open up its political system. Victor argues that economic growth and western influence — one in the same in China’s case — will bring with it inevitable internal democratic reform, even as the government resists it. He applauded the global spread of democracy, expressed satisfaction that dictatorships were losing power, and suggested that China needed ???????a growth in political freedom??????? and ???????a more open and representative government???????. The Chinese response was revealing. Cui Tiankai, the senior foreign ministry…
Two weeks ago, Robert Mugabe started his “Operation: Clean-up” which has destroyed the market stalls of thousands of Zimbabweans and now left up to two million homeless. On both the human rights and geopolitics scale, the role that China plays in Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular is especially important. They have been making inroads into the continent for years and the effects are starting to show. The opposition Sokwanele blog explains: Now let’s look at more recent developments. Riot police have just been sent into the flea markets in Harare, and been set upon street traders who ply…
Counting oil sands, Venezuela has more petroleum reserves than any country on earth. Even Russia. Even Canada. Even Iran. Even … Saudi Arabia. It’s unbelievable what the Texas-and-Oklahoma-sized country only 1350 miles away from us really has. Venezuela could probably supply the entire world with oil if it wanted. That road you are driving on, if it’s nice, is probably made of Venezuelan-oil-derived asphalt, the world’s finest. Which is why Venezuela’s declining oil production is such a scandal. Only Iran and Indonesia have comparable production declines in their state-dominated oil industries, but not nearly as intense. Globally, it forces the…
Is that a great headline or what? I wish I had thought of it myself. Read the whole thing here.
President Mesa declined to sign or veto the oil and gas tax bill on his desk Tuesday. As a result, the Senate leader ratified it this morning. Energy royalties will now be raised to 18%, on top of 32% taxes, both steep hikes. The move is expected to chase out $10 billion in foreign investment, delivering to Bolivia a great gas future under the ground. The news item is here. Bloomberg reports that huge projects have been shelved: Kieffer said projects such as a $1.5 billion petrochemical plant and a $400 million fertilizer project, both of which depended on tapping…
Miguel Octavio explains in a good piece the dynamics of oil production in Venezuela, all of which proves that Venezuela’s oil production is severely lower than anyone thought, and its earnings are crippled. That’s bad news for dictator Hugo Chavez who depends on oil earnings to buy the loyalty of his shantytown voters. It’s worth reading. Read the whole thing here. Blogger Daniel Duquenal also has a good essay on the oil company’s fake figures. Fine work. Read it here.
Our dear friends in Central America are fighting for their survival. Carlos Alberto Montaner has an important essay out about what he saw in the eyes of Central America’s presidents as they came to Miami to plead for the DR-CAFTA trade bill. He warns that is this bill does not pass, it will be to “invite the Devil to supper.” He’s right. I was in Los Angeles when the President of El Salvador came through on the same mission. The mass media, including the LA Times ignored it, but the room full of Salvadoran immigrants who fully shared his passion…
Profoundly good analysis by Gustavo Coronel. A must read. Read it here. UPDATE: My own take here. UPDATE: Another good take from El Universal. (Man that must have been a beach to translate!)
Some newspapers have dismissed Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez’s moving of his oil company’s headquarters to a Havana, Cuba, as just a small detail. Well, it is not a small detail, according to one respected Venezuelan journalist, it is a sign of a spreading shadow of tyranny over a huge region of many flags. Daniel Duquenal has a careful translation of the entire essay here. UPDATE: Venezuelan oilman Gustavo Coronel’s essay on the same topic is a must-read here.
Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has created another useless union this week, positively thrilling the Canadian press, but in Latin America, there is nothing new about it. So here is the deal: In Argentina during the 1990s, people used to joke about the extent of something known as ‘the corporate republic’ or ‘corporate state.’ The corporate state is not about companies but the expansion of medieval-guild-like organizations designed to keep individual people out of the system in the name of some exclusive collective. That’s what this new Chavez union is. But despite what Chavez claims, he’s hardly first to the party. In…
Bolivia’s passed its Hydrocarbons Law, on fairly miserable terms that will be sure to chase out foreign investment, dispirit President Carlos Mesa, rouse Evo Morales to block roads and starve cities, and drive separatist sentiment in pro-trade Santa Cruz province. And the result of all this? Bolivia’s natural gas will face a great future underground. Miguel Buitrago has the whole story, nicely analysed, here.