Blogging the democratic revolution
One hundred thousand people gathered in Rome to remember the first anniversary of the death of John Paul II, the Polish pope who helped liberate Eastern Europe from communism. Thousands of others gathered in Krakow and around Poland. John Paul was a democratic revolutionary in the purest sense of the idea. Many of us know about how he undermined the communist regimes of Poland and elsewhere by working with the Israelis to provide intelligence and material aid to the Solidarity leaders imprisoned inside the communist regime. You can read about it in Peter Schweitzer’s splendid book, Victory, about what Reagan,…
Thailand’s got snap elections today for prime minister, a manuever by the prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, to take advantage of a disorganized opposition that wants him out but doesn’t have much of an alternative to present. Vast protests have been taking place in Bangkok over the past six weeks. Prominent leaders of the 1992 democracy-now revolts have been seen at them, and the King has voiced a veiled displeasure with both sides in this. Today’s the snap poll, which amounts to a referendum on Thaksin. Most of the opposition saw through the maneuver and word now is that they aren’t…
I found a must-see video-documentary about the Cuban Ladies in White, plus a short interview with my friend Claudia Marquez, former political prisoner now exiled in the United States and currently living in Puerto Rico. Watch the video here
Writing a sophisticated analysis on Babalu blog, Robert M explains a new movie from Cuba about dumpster divers in Havana. Like any such movie under the control of the Cuban censor, it doesn’t directly criticize the 46-year communist regime, but the point is clear enough: Cuba under supposedly egalitarianism is now producing dumpster divers. My own comment to that is this: As dumpster divers clearly can make more money digging through Western tourists’ trash than they can by working for the monopolistic state, there’s something wrong with the system that undervalues their wages that badly and makes dumpster diving more…
Rich Karlgaard makes an original and forceful argument in favor of global free trade by insisting it promotes human creativity and development. He cites the marvel of human achievement in different areas and the great human good of developing one’s talents fully, something that doesn’t always happen because it’s a huge threat to oppressors. In this regard, free trade is always supremely revolutionary and subversive to tyrants. When I spent time in martial law Poland under its communist oppressors in 1982, I was a teenager, and the one thing that struck me, a college student on the edge of starting…
If you ever needed more proof that Russian state-controlled natural gas monopoly is a political weapon of Putin, look no further. I will explain why in a second. For now, read the following article March 30, 2006 — Russia’s Gazprom said today it would raise natural gas prices for Belarus to European levels by 2007. Gazprom head Aleksei Miller told Belarusian Energy Minister Alyaksandr Ageyev about the planned change at a meeting in Moscow today. Gazprom said Minsk would respond by the end of April. Belarus, a close Russian ally, currently receives gas at a subsidized price of $47 per…
Here’s a news item that I found particularly interesting. The first women ever to be accepted into training for front-line combat positions have just graduated from their training and become full-fledged pilots in the Pakistan Air Force. PAKISTAN welcomed its first female pilots into the country’s air force yesterday, breaking into the all-male front-line bastion of its armed forces. Saba Khan, Nadia Gul, Mariam Khalil and Saira Batool were among 36 cadets who received their wings after three and a half years of intensive training. “I want to fly fighter jets and prove that girls can equally serve our country…
The Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran (SMCCDI) , which most of you probably know by reading its reports I use to post both here and on my blog, is desperately looking for help in order to survive and keep on fighting for a just cause : total regime change in Iran and the establishment of a true secular democracy. Please, read SMCCDI’s Urgent Action, and spread the word as much as you can!
The Wall Street Journal has a must-read op/ed about Darsi Ferrer, the Cuban independent doctor and prominent dissident in Havana and a very good friend of mine. I told him about this article, given that he hadn’t yet seen it. He’s very very happy and thanks the WSJ for mentioning his story.
The Maldives — tourist paradise on the shores and repressive regime on the inside. Last August thousands of people protested against the criminal nature of President Gayoom’s government. It’s schooled in the way of the Egyptians, putting down basic human liberties and those of women most of all. No democratic opposition is allowed to exist. It is a quagmire of mob-like financial schemes and regional powers like India that don’t care to see change come to the country. When those people went out to protest initially, they went out even harder after opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed was taped being arrested…
Liberian ex-dictator and accused mass murderer Charles G. Taylor Source: AFP, via Yahoo! One of the continent’s grisliest mass murderers, Liberia’s ex-dictator Charles G. Taylor, was apprehended in northeastern Nigeria yesterday and shipped back to face justice in a Sierra Leone court run by United Nations prosecutors. He’s charged with 17 counts of crimes against humanity. The UN had made a resolution that Liberia put the thug on trial a couple years ago, and President Bush, meeting with his Nigerian counterpart this week, put a lot of diplomatic muscle into making sure that happened. That’s to his credit because this…
Thousands of Mexican campesinos in the impoverished southern state of Chiapas have taken to the streets to protest the government’s neglect of their poor state. This isn’t the Subcommandante Marcos blond-haired, blue-eyed internal Sandalista crowd at work, but a spontaneous protest by the poor to seek concrete action from the government to improve their lives. The protestors don’t seem to want a new socialist collective, they just want the darn bridge, devastated after Hurricane Stan, fixed. The other reason for the protest is land. The Chiapas protestors are saying they’ve lost land due to the diversion of a river, making…
I just came through reports, in Spanish, about the likely death of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The news, strangely, has been given by several news sites, among which the far-leftist Indymedia in Argentina, which quoted some Latin American media as having reported the news. The Cuban regime has immediately dismissed the claims. I assume that the regime won’t let know about the dictator’s death as soon as he dies. While we shouldn’t yet celebrate, let me say that I prepared a bottle of champaigne, as Castro’s days of life are very, very numbered. UPDATE: Given that this report is now…
Daniel Duquenal is a French Venezuelan with strong ties — and insights — to both countries. He is also a fervent believer in democracy as a man of the left. Daniel has written a spectacular essay describing the similarities between France’s angry antirevolution and Venezuela’s under the emerging Hugo Chavez dictatorship. Daniel sees similarities between the French thugs intent on burning Paris down in a bid to preserve their privileges, and the money grabbing and privilege-preserving maneuvers of Hugo Chavez’s vanguard party elite, who also are intent on forcing an unsustainable economic system on Venezuela, explicitly to impoverish it –…
The Dutch are deeply concerned about Venezuela’s renewed threats to take over the nearby island of Curacao as its dictator, Hugo Chavez, flexes his military muscles with an unprecedented arms buildup and condemns the Dutch for their colonialism on the island. Seeking to add more territory of his own, his stated aim is “regional integration,” which is an emerging term that bears more watching. One Chavista foreign ministry official explained it this week as the growing federation between Cuba and Venezuela, which he euphemized as “alternative models.” But his description of that “alternative” was very specific: the Cubanization of the…
Over 40 bloggers have mulled and mused about German-American relations in a new carnival feature put together by the secret diplomats who once ran Daily Demarche, that late lamented cool blog that exposed the seamy underbelly of pinstripe diplomacy. German-U.S. relations are currently seen in a tattered state over the Iraq War, but Germany is one of the U.S.’s largest trading partners, and the two nations have much in common as overachievers in many fields on the world stage. (How ’bout that German medal count at the 2006 Olympics!) Not only that, Germans are the largest U.S. ethnic group –…
Racial and ethnic violence is becoming more visible in Russia as some high profile cases have entered the news. There have been many explanations given for this rise of racial extremism. What tends to be missing however is the view that this is all connected to the general reconfiguration of Russian national identity. The first high profile case was this weeks sentencing of Alexander Koptsev, 21 years old, to 13 years in prison for attacking worshipers at a Moscow synagogue. On January 11, Koptsev broke into the synagogue with a knife. According to witnesses he began shouting ???????I will kill…
Abdul Rahman, the Afghan convert who risked death for ‘apostasy’, has been granted political asylum in Italy, where he arrived overnight. It would be great if he might be able to get in touch with us Italian activists once he’ll be living over here with the due protection. In the meantime, and totally off topic, I’d like you to read my op-ed at Tech Central Station, regarding the Italian election, which is just less than two-weeks away.
As many of you know, in the former communist countries have been created institutes to study the files of the communist intelligence services. In Romania, we have the National Council for the Study of the Former Communist Secret Service Archive (CNSAS). After 16 years from the Revolution against Ceausescu????????s regime, and the atrocious Securitate, we have today people who worked within the Securitate or closely cooperated with it, in key positions, in Parliament, Government, and the Presidential Institution. Ticu Dumitrescu, the man who has initiated the law which established the CNSAS should have finally been elected as President of the…
I don’t have an awful lot that I can add to this, but it needs to be noted. If I’d set out for the library a half-hour earlier one day, I’d have wound up either in or walking right past where the Aranykez bomb went off — it is a REALLY central location in downtown Budapest. We’ll have to keep our fingers crossed, but unless there’s some corruption issue going on, it’s hard to see what these yahoos would have to gain by threatening election violence.
Mass protests against a labor law making it easier to fire young workers have ignited throughout France. The law will allow employers to fire workers under 26 years old without cause. Over 700,000 people filled the streets of Paris alone, while estimates around the country top 3 million. Transportation, businesses, universities and other services have been paralyzed in a general strike. Pictures can be seen here. These mostly peaceful protests follow more violent actions by youths that began weeks ago. While the some may focus on the minor incidents of vandalism in hopes to disparage them, but the fact of…
Democratic opposition protestors who were arrested over the past week following historic demonstrations have gone on a hunger strike. They are rotting in prison cells after having their bodies battered and bruised by riot police for absolutely no reason; being denied even the most basic human rights. Twenty political prisoners in Belarus are on hunger strike, rights advocates have said, drawing attention to conditions at a jail where about 400 opposition supporters are being held. The rights defenders said on Tuesday that the prisoners are being held in crowded conditions, and are being denied water and the right to receive…
Starting with 2007, Mihail Kogalniceanu military base will serve as the general headquarters of the newly formed Eastern European Task Force. In this context, Romania and the Black Sea area will become one of the most important outposts for the American Army in Europe. The Romanian Ziua daily made two assumptions on this topic, 1) that US will invest in its bases from Romania around $60,000,000, 2) the American anti-missile shield might be located in Romania. The next project of the United States, as detailed by General James Jones will be the Caspian Guard. Its aim is to improve the…
Parliamentary elections held in Ukraine yesterday ushered in the resurgence of the Regions of Ukraine bloc, led by former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich. Pundits are mockingly calling it the ???????Blue Revolution,??????? and after seeing over half the results counted, one would be hard-pressed to deny that Yanukovich has adapted to the new environment and has become an adept politician on his own ???????? with the help of a few American PR firms and a campaign style similar to the old Orange one of 2004. He has changed positions, calling for Ukraine to join the EU and serve as a bridge…