Blogging the democratic revolution
I knew of the hunger strike of two Cuban ’75’ dissidents in Fidel Castro’s prisons but had very little information about Castro’s actual GULag at Guantanamo, and the conditions of which that led to the drastic hunger strike. Today, Wall Street Journal‘s Mary Anastasia O’Grady has done a great public service by publicizing this terrifying communist dungeon that stands alongside what she calls, in comparison, the ‘tropical resort’ of the U.S. Guantanamo terrorist prison that has been subject to such international reproach. On the human rights violations that are occurring at Castro’s Guantanamo, the media and international left are utterly…
Andy Young has a good post on Russia’s closed cities, in which over 2 million people are sealed off from the world.
Miguel Buitrago of the excellent MABB blog has a fascinating post on the different political party programs of the candidates for Bolivia’s elections. He lines them all up side by side, helpfully laid out in bullet points. Read the whole thing here. My own analysis on one detail: Take a good look at the hard-left plan of action for the Evo Morales MAS program – and then notice the packaging – it bears all the earmarks of U.S.-based Sandalista organizations for its otherwise communistic program. Twenty years ago, did leftists package their collective farms and forced indoctrinations as ‘microenterprise’? Try…
Why does Chavez remain popular? Here’s a frank and intelligent discussion of the matter in terms even I can relate to here.
It seems that some other countries are worried about American imperialist hegemony with regards to the internet. So, morally speaking, other countries should be able to have joint control over it to make sure that nothing bad happens. It sounds all so wonderful. Well, until you look at who wants it, and when you realize that they just might get it. The issue of who should control the net had proved an extremely divisive issue, and for 11 days the world’s governments traded blows. For the vast majority of people who use the internet, the only real concern is getting…
So much for George Bush being intimidated by the bitter union- and leftist-bankrolled struggle this past summer to ratify CAFTA. In less than four weeks, negotiators say a free trade pact with Panama could be signed. Negotiators are rushing to polish up the accord in the last weeks before President George Bush visits the wonderful country in early November. If they can get it done, it send a spectacular message to the rest of the Americas that free trade is alive and well and nobody, but nobody, will be shut out of the growing potential for U.S.-style prosperity up and…
Besides the end of property rights, Venezuela also is turning into a financial madhouse. Almost every blogger I can find on Venezuela is commenting about it how Venezuela’s central bank, the guardian of its very currency, is under attack by the Chavista dictatorship. The Financial Times reported here that Venezuela’s central bank shifted up to $20 billion of its $30 billion in reserves from U.S.-Treasury assets to the Bank of International Settlements over in Switzerland, something that may be a move to annoy the U.S. but which could cause Venezuela to lose its own money, too. Any central bank can…
I was going nuts, there was no Boli-Nica for weeks, and the whole world seemed … gray. At long last he is BACK and he’s got a funny new post up on Hugo Chavez’s latest scheme to build a ‘national computer.’ Boli, we want more! Boli describes Hugo Chavez’s latest schemes with state-financed computers, how it’s likely to be done and why it won’t work. By coincidence, a day or two ago, I put up a post on ‘rent-seeking,’ citing the estimable Tyler Cowen, describing the same dynamic. But in hilarity, Boli was matched by Boz, who wrote an even…
Via our friend Harry Hutton, we learn that Colombia has a young policewoman who singlehandedly has destroyed vast money-counterfeiting networks in Colombia, knocking Colombia down from the rank of number one in U.S.-dollar counterfeiting to number three. Just one person’s individual work and initiative in a country long believed to have insurmountable problems. Not any more. I read the story in Semana and my jaw dropped. Who says one person can’t make a difference? This revolutionary has truly made a difference, not only in the preservation of the value of the U.S. currency, which is marvellous, but in enabling poor…
Tuesday’s essay on property rights by the great Carlos Alberto Montaner, has awesome intellectual firepower. He is the best writer I know of anywhere in the world, and this is his most luminous essay. Montaner writes about how the destruction of property rights, as is happening in Venezuela, makes democratic revolution nearly impossible. He carefully cites examples from Eastern Europe and Cuba, showing how stripping people of these property rights leaves not only no freedom, but no possibility of freedom. His original ideas are so powerful you will never quite look at the world in the same way again. It’s…
Both Venezuela and Bolivia will hold watershed elections this December 4. Political pictures, and the outlook for democracy, could change as a result. Venezuela will elect National Assembly members ahead of dictator Hugo Chavez’s planned “changes” to the constitution. Bolivia will hold long-anticipated presidential elections after the leftist street-mob toppling of their second president in two years, the work of activists linked to Castro ally Evo Morales. Both elections are showing signs of crisis ahead of the vote. Here is a brief roundup: In Venezuela: Francisco Toro at Caracas Chronicles writes that the opposition, which has now united, must deal…
France is desperately in need of a democratic revolution. Socialism has failed, as it has failed everywhere else, and the French people face a bleak future. Instead, they’re getting a non-democratic revolt. Unions desperate to preserve their privileges are protesting in the streets, trying to shut the country down. Incubating revolution is complicated. The French cannot make themselves repudiate socialism. They’re not like Eastern Europeans. So, there’s all kinds of strife, blaming the wrong things, fighting productivity gains, screaming at the reality of capitalism, and refusing to change and grow – the same mirror of confusion that characterized the May…
Obviously fearing defeat and a loss of power in the upcoming elections, the religious Shiite parties in collaboration with the Kurds made a really dumb move by reinterpreting the electoral law for the October referendum. It has raised a fury with the Sunnis, prompting the UN and U.S. to step up and ask the parties to undo the changes. BAGHDAD — The United Nations has criticized last-minute changes Iraq’s Shiite-led government made to its electoral laws before the Oct. 15 constitutional referendum, and was trying yesterday to persuade legislators to reverse the amendments. UN officials warned the Iraqis that the…
The democratic opposition to the government of Belarus has formally united, with the selection a single candidate to represent its broad interests in the 2006 presidential election. The choice is Alyaksandr Milinkevich, a civil society advocate who is relatively unknown and untarnished by regime propaganda. They also chose as their symbol a red tree on a white field, which takes from the original red and white Belarussion flag that was discontinued under Lukashenko. A 1-2 October congress of pro-democratic forces in Minsk selected Alyaksandr Milinkevich as its candidate to challenge President Alyaksandr Lukashenka in next year’s presidential election. More than…
I have just posted my Middle East Week in Review news bulletin to my blog.
It doesn’t get much better than this. I’m translating an excerpt from an article in the Iraqi newspaper Al Bawaba, “Parliament Reviews the Constitution Issue and Jabar Renews His Attacks on Saudi Arabia“: The Iraqi interior minister renewed his attacks on Saudi Arabia during an interview broadcast on Tuesday focusing on how Saudi Arabia treats women and Shia Muslims two days after he described a member of the Saudi royal family as “one of those Bedouin riding a camal.” Interior Minister Bayyan Jabar told the satellite channel Al-Jazeera that it is upon the Saudis first to establish a democratic system……
Hm, something’s wrong — it’s not quite Yulia. (From Ukraine, Russia, Europe, the US, Oh My!)
Our dearest Stefania is hosting this week’s comprehensive carnival of revolution! Go check it out for a recap of all the latest developments in democracy.
Amid the heaviest fighting since the intifada, the Palestinian government of PM Qureia is coming under ÄfigurativeÅ fire for its inability to deal with parallel military authorities like Hamas. Policeman stormed the parliament building to protest the government’s inability to equip and train them properly to deal with the problem, while legislators themselves voted that Qureia should be replaced within two weeks if this doesn’t happen soon. About 40 Palestinian policemen broke into the Palestinian parliament building in Gaza City on Monday, firing in the air to protest what they said was the humiliation police are facing because of attacks…
Francisco Toro, after a (too-)long hiatus, is back to blogging thoughtfully about Venezuela. His new blog has a beautiful new design (although truthfully, the last two were extraordinary, too) and a new format of short posts with pithy original ideas. I don’t always agree with him on everything but I would say I do like Francisco best when he has genuinely original ideas, and fortunately, that is often. It’s a real treat to see him back, so go read the whole thing (yeah) here.
This past Sunday, 60 Minutes ran an “interview” with Elian Gonzalez, who is now 11 years old. Elian, you recall, was the 6-year old boy who was picked up at sea by two fisherman and taken ashore, where an international custody battle between Fidel Castro and the Miami exile community ensued, leaving bitter and unforgotten feelings among the freedom-loving Cubans now in the U.S. The 60-Minutes interview had a staged appearance, with CBS itself admitting it got “help” from Fidel Castro’s own camera-man, making the film communist-approved propaganda to shed the most favorable possible light on the Castro regime. The…
The weekend’s terror attack on the Indonesian island of Bali was a monstrous atrocity. Does it have revolutionary implications? I think it does, because it’s closely aligned with Indonesia’s brave self-transformation into an authentic democracy in 1999. The terrorists who struck Bali were trying to destroy Indonesia’s fragile democracy – at a sensitive time. With fuel costs soaring and the rupiah battered, these evil people were going after an economic power center, and they intended their attack as economic warfare. It’s something they are betting can topple democracy. Do I think they can do it? No. Indonesians treasure their democracy…
One of the biggest triggers to revolution in any country is the concept of ‘rent-seeking.’ It’s a concept that’s largely foreign to us Americans, but perfectly understood by many people in other cultures. It’s the concept of someone exacting unfair payments over others because of some fundamental and resented privilege. If you were in the mafia, you would call it ‘skimming.’ Tommy Soeharto and all the Soeharto kids were perfect living embodiments of rent-seeking – what those guys did during Indonesia’s longest-running dictatorship was to either own or exact “protection money” from the airplane you flew in to Jakarta on,…
I know… bad excuse for not blogging, but I suddenly came down with fever. It’s killing me, and not so softly. Blogging resumes tomorrow, with plenty on Palestine, Belarus, and political developments elsewhere. Stay tuned!
It’s the weekend, and you know what that means. No posting until Monday! I’ll be using the time to work on the Walk For Democracy here in Boston (and let me know if you want to join in), as well as getting other work done. Have a nice weekend!