Blogging the democratic revolution
With the new advent of new “revolutionary tourists” tramping through the shantytowns of Caracas on guided dog-and-pony “reality tours,” Venezuelans, the latest zoo animals for these gringos, are aghast. Here these unkempt, arrogant, Che t-shirt-wearing Sandalistas are, well-fed and staying in Caracas’ five-star hotels, getting out to get down and dirty among the ‘real people’ and imagining that they know what’s going on. The problem is, being tourists, they see a tourist-eye view of things regardless of how many Che t-shirts they own, and refuse see what’s really going on. At all. They see what they and their tour guides…
I guess many of you knew Nickie Goomba. He was an Italian-American blogger who had helped create the logos of my blog as well as the blog of other well-known bloggers, such as Big Pharaoh and Sandmonkey. I was shocked today for learning that he has passed away just 3 days ago. It seems he was suffering from cancer. He suffered so much. Now he lives with God and is watching us from a much better place than this world he loved anyway. Please, send your condolances to Nickie’s wife Maria here. I have no words. Nickie wanted to live,…
Well folks it seems that since Hugo Chavez’s officials can’t get to me, given that I live in a full fledged democracy where freedom of expression truly exists, Ken Livingstone, his ‘social democrat’ comrade in London, has taken issue directly with me stating “Aleksander Boyd is a supporter of terrorism against Venezuelan democracy” (sic) Äremarks start around minute 16Å. Mayor Livingstone went further yesterday and read to London’s assemblymen from some articles written and posted by me in this website, where I argued that once all democratic tools had been sequestered by a criminal State the only recourse left to…
In a war, the first casualty is truth. So, show trials for ideological deviation have begun in Venezuela. This is characteristic of all communist regimes as they consolidate power. Eventually, the truth is the target. Now in the seventh year of Chavez’s regime, there are new orthodoxies Chavez wants people to accept, ones that ring contrary to their own experience and understanding. And there are signs he’s not going to trust them on their own to accept it. These new truths will be enforced. With the destruction and rubble and crime and deterioration Venezuelans see all around them, the regime…
The New York Times is reporting that the Bush administration is considering holding negotiations for a peace treaty with North Korea. To many, this will be a shock. After years of six-way talks to try to convince them to abandon their nukes, it comes to this. However, if you read Publius, this may not be so surprising. It is part of a new, huge diplomatic effort underway by the Bush administration in collaboration with other regional powers to show certain rogue regimes (i.e. North Korea & Iran) that they do not have to fear invasion. This is actually the next…
The Financial Times describes the gang riots that have taken Sao Paolo by storm: Life in S????o Paulo returned to something like normal by the middle of this week after prison riots and attacks on police and property orchestrated by organised crime left 132 people dead and 53 injured between Friday night and Tuesday morning. But many wondered what kind of normality it was. The handling of events by authorities, and especially the way they were brought to an end, suggested a lack of control amounting to a crisis of governability. Although for the families of the victims the impact…
We are getting a lot of keywords today looking for news of Ecuador. I will have a roundup ahead, I do think the conditions are there for democratic revolution because that government has just jumped the shark. Here is one news editorial to start and after I get back, I’ll have a proper roundup. Big stuff happening there.
I have previously remarked on Algeria????????s growing ties to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and President Bouteflika????????s fiery rhetoric towards France on the issue of colonial apologetics. Both of these issues is contrary to Algeria????????s national interest, though on different scales. The first is an issue of independence in foreign policy, which has been a hallmark of Algerian foreign policy since independence. That is, how to balance relationships with international heavy hitters, be they First, Second, or Third World nations, while still maintaining flexibility on the world stage. Today this issue is similar to Algeria????????s domestic politics; will Algeria side…
…that Hugo Chavez says he wants to sell to Iran. Miguel has the funniest take ever on this topic, with ‘ewwww, gross!’ photos! You got to see it here.
As you might have heard, the United States resumed diplomatic relations with Libya, one of the most totalitarian countries in the world. To even begin trying to account for how this matches up to the stated “Bush Doctrine” of promoting democracy, and how it will benefit the people of Libya, boggles the mind. It does go to show, however, that the world is a complex place and the administration isn’t single-mindedly ideological when it comes to foreign policy. The reasons for this move therefore have little consideration for democracy, and everything to do with how the attainment of nuclear weapons…
The Peruvians, in the midst of their heated presidential campaign, are having a grand old time lampooning Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, who has continuously meddled in their election – promising $3 billion in sewer upgrades for instance if Peruvians elect his promised candidate, Ollanta Humala. As you might imagine, it’s sunk Humala’s candidacy beyond repair. Nobody likes that kind of open voter bribery. It’s patronizing, for one thing. And it’s boosting the campaign of Humala’s opponent, Alan Garcia. It all comes down to Hugo Chavez fundamentally not understanding anything at all about Peru. Peruvians are people who have authentic pride…
He’s done it! Hugo Chavez has finally joined the club! He’s a made man! He has status. A leader of a pariah state! It’s an elite club but considerably cooler than that Hated Country Club of Caracas that he’s trying to turn into a shantytown, and dammit, he finally made it. Chavez got the U.S. to yank all weapons sales to him, amounting to $34 million in mostly cargo parts with the prestige of being recognized at long last as dangerous. For Chavez, this is a big promotion. He’s not just a clown anymore. He’s dangerous. Now he thinks he…
For many of us, we are just bloggers. We blog, taking alter-egos, saying all the things we’d like to say in the regular world but don’t, and then return to our normal lives, happily anonymous. For some bloggers, it can get to be quite a contrast indeed. Proto-blogger Matt Drudge, a humdrum Hollywood gift shop clerk, quietly lived a second life no one knew about – as the biggest voice on the Internet, with the capacity to shape news, all because of his grasp of technology and ability to connect to others. But some people are stepping out beyond even…
Red Anti-semitism at work in Italy. From YNet News: Holocaust cartoon stirs row. An anti-Semitic caricature published by an Italian Communist Party’s newspaper depicted Israel’s security fence with welcome sign paraphrasing Auschwitz’s ‘Work Liberates’ . Yasha Reibman, spokesman of Milan’s Jewish community, told Yedioth Ahronoth that the cartoon publication was a very severe act and demanded that the newspaper editor be dismissed immediately in a bid to prove that the stances presented by the journal do not represent the stances of the party it represents. The problem is that it represents the stances of the party. Indeed: Italian Lower Chamber…
The United Nations was not intended to prevent genocide in Darfur. It was not to swap oil-for-food, depose of rogue regimes seeking weapons of mass destruction, or fight avian flu. It has never had the means or accountability mechanisms available to do so. It was created by the victor powers of World War II ???????? Russia, China, France, Britain, and the United States ???????? with the sole purpose of maintaining stability and collective security. Global order was at the top of the agenda. Human rights may have received its rhetorical due, but ???????never again??????? proved to be empty in substance.…
The Nepal of March, the one of April, and the one of May are unrecognizable parallels of a place trying to make incremental transformations in three months that took the Western world centuries. It is hard to forget that just over a year ago, the country’s King seized absolute power by disbanding the government and ordering the military to put down all opposition to his rule. In April. however, this absolute power proved not so, as people power shook the streets of Kathmandu for three weeks, forcing the King to reinstate parliament and resign to the margins. The political leaders…
President Bouteflika’s recent comments regarding the French colonization of Algeria have caused quite a stir. His fuss holds the potential to accomplish a great deed; placing such a burden on the world community’s conscience that they feel moved to take meaningful action in Darfur, or at least to make them seriously contemplate it. But it does not seem to be the case that Mr. Bouteflika, or any one else, is going to use this tremendous opportunity to do good. His comments have been a source of reflection for me over the past week or so. Firstly, I am inclined to…
It’s with great sorrow that I learn that the U.S. gov’t caved in to the Mullahs. SMCCDI, a secular , democratic and anti-islamist movement committed to regime change in Iran reports some worrying news. Many Iranian oppositionists had used to support President Bush and now the U.S. gov’t sells its soul to the Islamic regime and announces it won’t grant funds to the Iranian oppositions. If Bush’s popularity has reached a new low, it is not because of being a “warmongering” administration, as some naive pundits claim. No. It’s because it seems very weak in front of terrorists and the…
Defying Mubarak’s goons on May 11 Source: AP via Yahoo! News Hundreds more were arrested in Egypt Friday as a result of the massive pro-democracy protests in this pharaonic tyranny that is proving itself a petri dish for Islamofascists. The intent of the democracy protestors is to stop that from happening by stopping tyranny. These fearless unarmed Egyptians are not only fighting for democratic revolution, they are also fighting binladenite Islamofascism. Not with clubs, as the Mubarakites do, but with the inner fire of democracy, something that dries up Islamofascism like a desert wind. Sadly, the U.S. supports this wretched…
I was somewhere outside Yogyakarta on this day eight years ago, within sight of Mount Merapi volcano. One of the greatest democratic revolutions in history was about to erupt but I didn’t know it then. I was at a mysterious Javanese graveyard of tombs outside Yogyakarta, where old and young many of them in traditional Javanese dress of batiks in ancient cinnamon and indigo dyes, alongside boulevards of tombs and walls, a lot of dark palms shading it all, mysteriously gloomy, even as amid the equatorial sun its shade made it all refreshingly cool. The old women, like the men,…
Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez is nothing more than a brutal leftist thug with aspirations of being the next Simon Bolivar, the next Fidel Castro. He seeks to unite all the nations of Latin America under his wing, so that together, they may challenge the United States. He would lure them into his axis with the promise of U.S.-financed cheap oil, yet punish and intimidate any who don’t go along with his direction by cutting off that same oil. He’s telling all nations that it’s either him or the U.S., and the U.S. has nothing to offer them. Every last nation…
Egypt exploded into riots after police moved in and cracked down on peaceful protestors seeking to defend judges who were trying to defend rule of law. The targets of repression were treated barbarically by police, as the photos in the links below show. Egyptian bloggers who are seeing all of this firsthand suggest that this is a real fight for democracy in this country. Source: Sandmonkey Unrest in Egypt was based on the government’s thuggish sweep and crackdown on all sorts of democracy activists, often under the pretext of hunting terrorists. Since there really are terrorists in Egypt, it’s a…
A dozen of supporters of the Italy Cuba friendship (with Castro) association display a welcome banner as Venezuelan Dictator Hugo Chavez heads to the Vatican for talks with Pope Benedict XVI, in Rome, Thursday May 11, 2006 Why didn’t the Venezuelan freedom fighters in Italy demonstrate against Chavez? It was a good occasion to show Chavez and the Italian communists that most Venezuelans don’t buy the Chavista propaganda
Evo Morales’ nationalization of Bolivia’s energy resources seemed to be the act of a retrograde madman intent on repeating the mistakes of the 1960s. And largely, that’s what he is. He’s taking Bolivia right down the road to ruin, as if this poor country can afford any more of that. Nationalization has got to be the stupidest, insanest, most guaranteed-to-fail thing he can possibly do for, or rather, to, Bolivia. Yet there are many people … for now … who support him. It defies belief that in this day and age, anyone could possibly support the messes of the idiotic…
…reality to Evo Morales and Hugo Chavez. “If you do not have clear rules for the game, capital is not going to come. If there is no capital, there is no growth. If there is no growth, there is no employment. If there is no employment, there is no income. If there is no income, there is nothing to invest more in nutrition, health and education, which are the most powerful weapons for reducing poverty,” the Peruvian president said. What a beautiful grasp on how the world works! Why don’t honorable, intelligent, and yes, indigenous, Latin American leaders get more…