Blogging the democratic revolution
‘Lo everybody. I am back after a long, long hiatus from this fine blog (incidentally, I was present at the birth) and wanted to point to a subject that is near to my heart. My daughter spent this past Summer in Morocco, studying Arabic and sociology. I have to admit that I was unprepared for her return and the impressions that she brought back. In the general scheme of MENA countries, Morocco, although economically hobbled in many ways, is moving forward in the areas of political freedom, human rights (including women’s rights) and engaging in the world. I linked to…
Ramon Saul Sanchez just announced that he ended the 12-day hunger strike. The decision follows major developments in Washington. The White House agreed to meet with Cuban exile leaders on ”wet foot,dry foot” policy. However, Val of Babal???? agrees with Songuacassal, who says that it’s not yet over and won’t be until the wet/dry foot insanity has been abolished. I second that, but I also think this is only the first step toward the total abolition of the current policy. At least, I hope so.
I almost forgot that it’s been exactly one year since Human Rights Watch released it’s year 2005 report on global human rights abuses in which its highlight focus, despite everything else going on in the world, was the abuses at Abu Ghraib. Well, fire up the grill and pop open a beer, because their year 2006 report is out and there’s something very unsurprising about it. The introduction by Kenneth Roth, while paying some attention to Russia, China, and Sudan toward the end, spends a good 2/3 of the essay focusing on Guantanamo Bay prison and complicity by Western nations…
No one, not even north Americans or Mexicans, waves the national flag quite as intensely as Venezuelans do. The three bright primary colors and the halo of seven white stars, en masse, on a bright blue day, is a spectacular sight vividly illustrative of the anti-Chavez opposition. The photo at the side of Daniel’s blog shows perfectly the intensity of color at mass demonstrations here. Today, Venezuela’s rubber-stamp Chavista parliament decreed that no one can wave the Venezuelan flag at any public assemblies, putting a draconian limit on freedom of expression for Venezuelans, in one of the very few ways…
Young Iranians defy the Islamic Republic by having fun (boys and girls mixed) skiing and chatting among each other. Many of the girls also ignore the mandatory veil! See the photos here
I know that I’m not the first to write about the wet-foot/dry-foot policy with respect to Cubans fleeing Castro’s Gulag. But I’d like to let my opinion be known to Publius readers. I’m totally in favor of the abolition of this absurd and inhumane policy. For those who don’t know what this policy is about: Cubans who reach dry land in the United States are usually allowed to remain in the country, while those caught at sea are sent back. Why is it absurd? First and foremost, because it’s enforced only with respect to Cubans. Second, because sending freedom-seeking people…
President Basescu’s administration believes that Romania should continue to promote its special relationship with the Arab world. In its 50 long and dark years of communism, Romania has developed friendly relations with the Arab and Muslim leaders, mainly with Yasser Arafat and Gadhafi. Nicolae Ceausescu????????s private ambition was to act as a mediator between Arafat and Israel, hoping to receive the Noble Prize and the West’s friendship. Back then, thousands of young Arabs (mainly Palestinians and Syrians, but not only) have either studied in Romania, or were militarily trained here. Nowadays, Romania has an active role as an ally of…
In an interview with Newsweek, IAEA director-general Mohamed ElBaradei has gotten out of touch with his soft side and unleashed some fightin’ words. What if the Iranians are just buying time for their bomb building? That’s why I said we are coming to the litmus test in the next few weeks. Diplomacy is not just talking. Diplomacy has to be backed by pressure and, in extreme cases, by force. We have rules. We have to do everything possible to uphold the rules through conviction. If not, then you impose them. Of course, this has to be the last resort, but…
Today is the 300th anniversary of the birthday of Benjamin Franklin. He was anything but a Babe of Politics, but he was a magnificent revolutionary at a very old age – showing you don’t have to be! Franklin’s inspiring revolutionary history as well as his many revolutionary inventive and institutional accomplishments are recounted in this splendid American Thinker essay by Phil Gallagher here.
A representative of the electoral commission in Iraq has said that it has had to throw out less than 1% of the ballot boxes due to fraud, so if the unverified preliminary results are indeed correct, this won’t affect the outcome of the election. BAGHDAD ???????? Iraqi officials Monday concluded an inquiry into allegations of widespread fraud in the Dec. 15 elections by annulling returns from fewer than 1% of the ballot boxes, and said the action was unlikely to alter the overall result. The ruling by the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq failed to placate secular and Sunni Arab…
Gustavo Coronel has written powerful, readable, interesting essay about all the new problems besetting Hugo Chavez – against all expectations. Chavez should have the wind at his back now that he’s consolidated power, but precisely the opposite has happened. It’s all falling apart on him, the center is not holding, which is exactly what happens when you declare war on the laws of human nature and economics, as Chavez has done. This may well be why Washington is being so quiet now – they’re going to let him do himself in, without their involvement. As Venezuela’s people are quietly regrouping…
There’s some great thinking and analysis out there on Chile’s election. Here are some of the best items I’ve found so far: First stop, check out Boz at Bloggings by Boz‘s Five Points on Chile, describing the implications of the election. I in particular agree with Point One, and think his Point Five is excellent, too. But go see all of them and see what you think. It’s a don’t miss here. Randy Paul at Beautiful Horizons has some interesting – and rarely noted – facts about the issues Bachelet is likely to face regarding privatization, labor, and the social…
Katy at Caracas Chronicles stayed up late to watch Chilean elections, because she’s got family in Chile but also because she sees Chile’s polar opposite, nightmarish Venezuela, up close. Her contrast of the two systems, and her good common sense on what next for Latin America’s brightest democracy is well worth reading here. Daniel in Yaracuy also has a excellent sober analysis of Chile’s election, and its contrast to Venezuela. He writes: It seems that the changes in Chile are deeper than one would have thought, perhaps the first country getting into a right/social-democrat European pattern for the good fortune…
Even the headline is hilariously tragic: Venezuela to Eradicate Poverty. Venezuela began an offensive against poverty, starting the “Negra Hipolita” Mission, which is financially supported by the high profits of oil, like other official social programs there. The initiative made official on Saturday by President Hugo Chavez is part of a long-term plan to end the paradox of a nation that in spite of being the fifth world oil exporter, has 37 percent of its population living in poverty… The purpose now, as the first stage of poverty eradication, is to declare the country free of abject poverty by July…
The results are in! After a nail-biting month, Concertaci????n candidate Michelle Bachelet has won the Chilean presidential run-off election with 53.5% of the vote. It’s the fourth straight victory for the center-left coalition, and they have won a slight majority of seats in both houses of Congress as well. The opposition has conceded gracefully, people are celebrating, and no bombs are going off. All in all, a model democratic election. It is a reward for sixteen years of reform. President Lagos is retiring with a popularity rating near 75%, and there is no reason to believe that there are any…
As we all read, the European Union declared that negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) failed big time. Well, we heard this before and yet the Europeans returned to the negotiations. But I’ve to say that, personally, I’m more confident that the EU has finally realized that the Mullahs have been taking it into a ride for years. Too bad that it took Mr. Ahmadinejad’s Nazi statements for the Euros to realize what was and is a policy of the totality of the regime. First of all, let me make something clear: all the members of the Islamic…
As you all know, blogging resumes Monday… except for this weekend. On Sunday I’ll be blogging the Chilean presidential election.
Via Daniel’s Venezuela News & Views I learned that all is not well in Guyana and its western neighbor, Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela. Like Jim Jones before him, Chavez has designs on the country and much grander than that Marxist Jesus Socialist before him, he intends to one day take over half the country. He is even talking put putting an extra star on Venezuela’s flag, just to represent that coming intention. It turns out the Guyanese are not happy about this and one of Daniel’s posters has provided a fascinating link to a recent Guyana newspaper editorial addressing the growing…
Pack up your bags and go home everyone, the seemingly impossible has happened. The West has officially ended negotiations with Iran — or is it the other way around? — after Iran began the process of enriching uranium. The EU3 has referred Iran to the IAEA with the express intent of taking the issue to the Security Council. Britain, France and Germany tonight took the first step towards seeking international sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear fuel programme. Following crisis talks with his counterparts in Berlin, Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said that they had agreed to request an…
Do it! You can almost hear Gilbert and Whitey egging on The Beav to do something stupid. And so it seems with this new spectacle of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez announcing he intends to replace the IMF with his own self-financed IMF, to be called ‘Bank of the South.’ This bank wouldn’t really be a bank however, but more like a candy store. Chavez says he’ll make loans on no terms whatsoever, and I suppose, not expect to be paid back, which is the Argentine way. In return, he’ll expect political loyalty, which, as the Caribbean states at the OAS…
This Sunday, Chile will undertake a great expression of democracy in its relatively new republic through its presidential elections. Gone are the days of dictators and caudillos and tinpots. Having totally renounced them and their lack of democracy, what’s left are two good candidates, one leaning left and one leaning right, heading down to the wire on Sunday’s elections. This whole election will serve as a benchmark to the rest of Latin America of what a good election should be. All countries should try to measure up to this excellent Chilean standard. Agencia EFE has a great profile of one…
Boz has all kinds of interesting and different kinds of political, social and economic polls from around the hemisphere this week, from norte to sur, check it out here.
Ten thousand angry middle class Thais rallied to demand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s resignation. They are accusing him of corruption and abuse of power. They’ve had it up to here with Thaksin, a billionaire businessman and once-enormously popular prime minister who has amassed power in the wake of the 1997 Asia Crisis, which began in Thailand, and has since eroded civic freedoms. The Thais are rallying around around Songla Limthongkul, a former business partner and former political ally of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Songla is a media mogul who’s appalled at the his former partner’s business deals (a rumored $2…
You have to have real guts to scrap your country’s currency and just start using the U.S. dollar. It’s hard. You might not be a gringo but every time you buy or sell something, you have to look at U.S. heroes on the face of the money you are using. But the benefits of doing it — to you — are absolutely amazing. Never again can your government confiscate your savings account by devaluing the money in it. You will never again wake up and find your life savings worth nothing because the government wanted to please some inefficient banana…
Nathan Hamm is noting some interesting political developments in the most democratic country of Central Asia, which has culminated in several thousand people protesting.