Blogging the democratic revolution
Thousands of Iranians are rushing into the streets of the main Iranian cities in order to celebrate their ancient pre-islamic festivity known by the name of “Tchahar-Shanbe Soori” (Fire Fiest). The event has been banned by the regime and labeled as “pagan”, “haram” and “un-islamic”, but millions are increasingly defying the ban by celebrating what is the symbol of Iranism while rejecting Islamism and the Shiite religion itself. Tchahar Shanbe Soori is an ancient persian festivity that derives from the Zoroastrian religion. The SMCCDI Movement is reporting that : Noise of fire crackers and hand made explosive devises are echoing…
Source: The Nation It’s morning in Thailand, land of the free, and the biggest rally of the year is engulfing the mighty angel city of Bangkok. Hundreds of thousands of protestors are marching in a bid to force the resignation of Thaksin Shinawatra. Things are getting very tense and the King is starting to stir. In one particularly dramatic development over the weekend, the government TV station interrupted its normally scheduled program to run footage of the King’s peacemaking role in the 1992 riots, which was the last time there was major unrest in Thailand. That was taken as a…
This past weekend, Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez altered the national flag to add an eighth star, in honor of the Guayana territory, a territory which once included what’s now part of GUYANA, and which is still claimed by Venezuela, based on a 19th-century dispute. Chavez also shifted the national seal, which has a horse on it, to what he says is a leftward direction. Although there were violent protests over the weekend about this change, with many in the Venezuelan opposition protesting it, and Chavista goons shooting from their motorcycles into the crowds (see the pictures here), the reaction from…
The popular Los Angeles-based Iranian satellite network, National Iranian TV (NITV) has been forced to cut off the broadcasts to Iran due to serious financial problems. The SMCCDI Secularist Movement has details: One of the main bridges of communication with Iran, which is the Los Angeles based “National Iranian TV” (NITV), has been forced to cut off its satellite broadcasting due to financial problems. Such a bad timing couldn’t have come at a worst time, as; the well trusted and popular NITV has prepared, since months, the ground for massive demonstrations at the occasion of the banned “Tchahar-Shanbe Soori” (Fire…
Hey everyone, I’m in Honduras for the next week so posting may be a little sparse from me. Luckily I do have access to satellite internet so I’ll be able to pop on occassionally. I will certainly be posting my thoughts on the place tomorrow or Tuesday. Central America is much, much different than South America, in case anyone couldn’t tell.
Tens of Iranian women who were celebrating the International Women’s Day in Laleh Park, Tehran, were savegely beaten up by plainclothes Islamist thugs. The SMCCDI Movement reports that many women were joined by male supporters in shouting anti-regime and pro-equality-between-men-and-women slogans. Several female demonstrators and a well known poet, Simin Behbahani, were injured due to the brutality used by Islamist Militiamen using clubs and chains. Several demonstrators were seen laying on the ground with broken noses, hands or legs while other were screaming and/or shouting slogans against the theocratic regime. Several maverick female protesters took off their mandatory veils in…
Venezuela’s bloggers are now under an explicit threat of prosecution from known Chavista agents. It started with Alek Boyd’s effort to expose the Chavista regime and the post directly below this one provides the background. Miguel, however, adds a post of much further clarity here. The short story is: Venezuela’s dictator has issued his first threat against bloggers. The threat his supporters ran in Ultimas Noticias today identifies them as ‘The Anglo-Venezuelan Connection’, presumably because they write in English. Miguel’s blog has been named in this threat. He says they should probably have a tough time shutting him down, given…
Alek Boyd at VCrisis recently exposed the bizarre structure of one North American Opinion Research organization, a Florida-based group that shares office space with something called ‘Petrotulsa‘ and purports to take polls in Venezuela which repeatedly claim that Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez is “popular.” It’s nothing but a front for false propaganda extolling Chavez, which can come in quite convenient as a backstop at ballot-box stuffing time, as Venezuelans well know. Alek’s expose has struck a nerve with the chavistas, who realize that their scam is up. Never again will they be able to release a false poll to news…
The province of Transdniester is one of the most screwed up places in Europe. Arms, drugs, and sex trafficking run rampant, and are even used to fund the government. Elections are for show. And the leaders pay their respects not to the people, but to Russia, whose military is propping up the government. It broke away from Moldova over a decade ago and established an authoritarian separatist government that, without Russia, would be completely unfeasible. Negotiations have been under way for years, especially in recent months, trying to bring the province back into Moldova while retaining some of its own…
A bomb went off in central Bangkok near the home of Prem Tinsulanonda, an adviser to Thailand’s King Bhumibol and a former prime minister. Three cars were trashed and a British tourist was slightly injured. The bomb had been positioned under a bench near a security guard booth but by ‘coincidence’ all three security guards were inside the house. Some are blaming ‘terrorists,’ and unpopular Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is blaming his opposition for the attack. As the first reports come out, it’s extremely hard to say, it could be any of this, or other things. It does have the…
Howdy everybody, Hope you are all enjoying the coming of spring (or fall, depending on your hemisphere), wherever it may find you. I’ve been in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, for almost two weeks now. Though the temperature is around 10F when I walk to school, Mongolians think the daily high of around 16F (-8C) is perfect spring weather – not too hot and not too cold. The 12 American and 2 Japanese students I’m living with disagree. Today is International Women’s Day, so there is no school. Yesterday our language instructors gave us roses and cake in honor of…
A political storm had been heading over Iraq with the bombing of the al-Askariya shrine and the sectarian tensions that rose out of it. The Shia United Iraq Alliance used the occassion to push forward with it’s plan to nominate current Prime Minister Ibraham al-Jaafari for the position again, despite the wishes of every other political bloc in the new parliament. In essense, they said that they are the only group fit to rule the country right now and their choice for prime minister is constitutional and must be respected by the other parties. Well, a few people disagreed. The…
Venezuela was fighting like a lone jaguar in OPEC meetings today to urge the cartel to cut oil production so that prices would stay high. Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez needs those high prices to bankroll his fake ‘revolution’ and finance his external meddlings abroad. His so-called revolution is an increasingly ravenous one, and an expensive beast that must be fed. But nothing was going Venezuela’s way. U.S. crude stocks soared higher than anyone expected. U.S. refining capacity use dropped to 70%, down from about 98%, signalling slackening of demand. And every single nation on earth was pumping as hard as…
A newspaper office in Los Teques, a small city south of Caracas, was bombed in a multiple molotov cocktail attack that was politically motivated. There were no injuries. The paper, La Region, had done too much reporting on the state of Venezuela’s abysmal health care, led by Cuban agents. Angry fliers were left at the scene of the crime, calling the reporters, in explicitly Castroite language, “miserable,” and declaring that they deserved the death penalty by ‘people’s tribunals.’ (Recall that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro likes to use the word ‘miserable’ – an odd word, really – on his enemies.) Venezuela…
Take that, Hugo Chavez! Bright Singapore and lovely Thailand have already negotiated pacts to drop tariffs, challenge China’s export juggernaut, and make lots of money for themselves through trade with the U.S. Now splendid Malaysia is planning to do the same. Malaysia in particular is an important partner because it’s a good democracy and a Muslim-majority country that’s full of smart people who know the advantages of free trade. They’re Asians and don’t do stupid counterproductive things in the name of nationalism, socialism, fundamentalism, or anything else that fails. Malaysia in particular will be a beacon to other Muslim states…
Venezuelans are fleeing their country. When we last looked at the matter, about 300 Venezuelans sought asylum in the U.S. Now, that figure has since grown fourfold, and over 1000 Venezuelans are seeking asylum in the U.S. a year later. The figure is only for 2004, so god knows what it will be for 2005, but real estate agents in Miami and Houston and Calgary probably have a pretty good idea. The U.S. immigration chief in Miami says that Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez is forcing them out, due to his tightening grip on power. People can’t live in conditions like…
Tens of Iranian women protested again outside the “Azadi” (Freedom) stadium in Tehran. From SMCCDI: The protest took place following the brutality used by Islamic militiamen and plainclothes agents who were sent to remove the female spectators that were attending the 2006 Gymnastics World Cup tournament. Iranian women are banned from attending games involving males while the Islamic regime grants access to females of other countries in order to back its international relations. And today, a group of frustrated citizens gunned down a regime’s intelligence officer.
Boz has the past week’s poll numbers (sorry I didn’t see it earlier!) showing the state of the presidential Horse Races in Mexico and Peru, along with an item showing that Ecuador’s reverting true to its political form. The whole thing, with these and other polls, is here.
Simultaneous bombs exploded in a crowded temple in one of the country’s holiest cities. One of the entire religion’s holiest cities, no less. In a country where rival ethnic and religious groups have frequently clashed for years, the bombing raises the prospect of reprisal sectarian violence. It is holding together for the most part, but nobody knows what could happen next. Hey, wait a second, this isn’t Iraq? And it isn’t the al-Askariya shrine in Samarra? I’ll give you one guess, but only if you don’t look at the post’s category tags. That’s right. India. Known as the largest democracy…
Last Thursday, an elite squad of government commandos known as Black Mambas stormed The Standard Group, the second largest media organization in Kenya. They disabled transmission equipment at the Kenyan Television Network and burned thousands of copies of the next day’s issue of The Standard newspaperl; both deemed to favor the political opposition. Completely disregarding the law. That’s what happens when there is nothing to check the government’s power. And this is Kenya, one of the better African countries when compared relatively to many of its neighbors. Now, everyday Kenyans and civil society advocates are protesting against these actions in…
You gotta see this hilarious post from Mark in Mexico about Hugo Chavez’s 100,000-strong quasi army of reservists from the shantytowns that he’s assembling to fend off a U.S. “invasion.” With his great sense of detachment, Mark shows how illogical it is, how unlikely it will be to incentivize anyone to join it, and just what the Venezuela they are “defending” from evil gringos really looks like. Read the whole thing here.
A Serbian rebel leader convicted of crimes against humanity was found dead in his jail cell, having apparently committed suicide. It was not revealed how Milan Babib did it, just that he did. Milan Babic, the Serb leader of a rebel republic in Croatia and one of the key figures in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, committed suicide in prison, the U.N. war crimes tribunal said Monday. Babic, who was serving 13 years for crimes against humanity, was found dead Sunday evening in his cell at the U.N. detention center in Scheveningen, a suburb of The Hague, said a…
Oil-rich Zulia state in western Venezuela, right under the radar, is seeking autonomy or possibly independence from Venezuela. There are now growing calls for it, from an independence group called ‘Our Course.’ Situated near Lake Maracaibo, the rightwing stronghold on the Colombian border is the only state that’s never been mowed down by the forces of Chavismo. Its governor is anti-Hugo Chavez, and its people hate the Thug more than almost anyone in the country. Its autonomy move resembles that of natgas-rich and very rightwing, market-oriented Santa Cruz province in Bolivia. But the desire to break away from an unbearable…
Worker unions at major state electricity and water companies are preparing to hold an informal strike against the government to force Prime Minister Thaksin to resign. They threaten that, should Thaksin resist, unions from other major state companies will go on strike as well. BANGKOK (Reuters) – The heads of government electricity and water unions backing a campaign to oust Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra threatened on Monday to call informal strike action this week unless he quits. Union chiefs at three state power and two water firms would be urging members to take holidays from Tuesday to join the…
Glamorous Pamela over at Atlas Shrugs scored an amazing interview for her blog – an interview with UN horsewhipper John Bolton. She’s got the first two parts up and will get a third part up later. This goes to show the changing nature of blogging and how blogging is now beginning to supercede the news. Who wouldn’t want to read an interview with John Bolton? What newspaper ever tried this? It took Pamela to do it! What’s more, from Bolton’s point of view, why wouldn’t he like to talk to her as a friend – he reads her blog and…