Blogging the democratic revolution
Of course, that’s rather predictable given that Lukashenko owns the parliament. Due to the spread of “velvet revolutions” in his near vicinity, and the upfront declarations of his neighbors, the EU, and the United States to promote democracy in Belarus, Lukashenko has passed a state security law which will allow the secret police practically absolute access to people and their property without any approval. New law “On Organs of State Security” has taken effect. This is the information provided by Radio Liberty. The human rights activists and the opposition have already referred to this law as “another stepping stone” to…
Glenn posted a link earlier to a report that an EU confidential document says that the elections in Ethiopia were rigged. ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Ethiopia’s electoral board appears to have lost control of the vote counting for the May 15 legislative polls, European Union election observers said in a report obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday. The confidential report went on to say the EU might have to make a public denunciation of developments to distance itself from “the lack of transparency, and assumed rigging” of the vote “Ten days after the polling day, the situation is…
Stefania Lapenna writes a dazzling essay today on The American Thinker, outlining the meaning of Cuba’s democracy conference held in Havana, including many aspects of it that might not be so obvious. Stefania is a brilliant young thinker whose original work will be read for years to come for its insight. Think I’m exaggerating? You won’t after you read it here.
If you want to read something that’s a real treat and explains out well the nature of Hugo Chavez in light of his bizarre claims about becoming a nuclear power, you can’t do better than read Alek Boyd’s excellent – and highly entertaining – essay today debunking the dictator’s nuclear pretentions, which also giving a good skewering to those who take them too seriously. A good Chavez antidote, read it here!
The words of Mexican communist novelist Carlos Fuentes. Coming from him, it’s pretty damning. Obviously, he can’t stand the guy, and among other leftists, he’s influential. Hugo Chavez, beware. Not even the communists are sticking up for you now. Read it here.
Counting oil sands, Venezuela has more petroleum reserves than any country on earth. Even Russia. Even Canada. Even Iran. Even … Saudi Arabia. It’s unbelievable what the Texas-and-Oklahoma-sized country only 1350 miles away from us really has. Venezuela could probably supply the entire world with oil if it wanted. That road you are driving on, if it’s nice, is probably made of Venezuelan-oil-derived asphalt, the world’s finest. Which is why Venezuela’s declining oil production is such a scandal. Only Iran and Indonesia have comparable production declines in their state-dominated oil industries, but not nearly as intense. Globally, it forces the…
While the French are doing their level best to scuttle the EU constitution, Egyptian voters go to the polls today to vote on a referendum to clear the way to multi party presidential elections: CAIRO, Egypt (AP) – President Hosni Mubarak urged Egyptians to vote in Wednesday’s referendum on constitutional changes that would clear the way for the nation’s first multi-candidate presidential elections. Opponents of the referendum were hard to find in the early hours of polling, but it wasn’t clear whether their absence was due to opposition calls to boycott the referendum because of the proposed strict rules on…
Of all the disgusting prosecutions, this one, against the great Oriana Fallaci, probably the finest journalist alive, is the most despicable. No one can compare to Oriana, no one has written with more powerful, penetrating insight and determination than she has. You don’t even need to agree with her to appreciate her. I tend to defend Islam, but she is far harsher. Doesn’t matter. No one writes more compellingly than Oriana, a true journalist’s journalist. Which is why the Italian prosecution’s charges against her are so shameful. My own feeling about how nations want to tailor free speech is that…
The Luis Posada Carriles terrorism case has drawn a consensus in the mainstream media about the guy’s guilt and the need to throw him in jail even if it is, or especially if it is, in Castro’s Cuba or Chavez’s Venezuela. Cuban Americans have a different view, though, and a prominent Cuban-American, Humberto Fontova, writes an essay that Val at Babalu has linked, exploring some of the complicating factors. It all looks very different to Cuban Americans who are united in their struggle against the monstrous Fidel Castro. The fact that the mainstream media is in glee about having a…
Have you ever wanted to read the past six years’ of history in Venezuela? What really happened? What the role of people power is? And why it failed? (Hint: Jimmah Cotta). Have you ever wanted to read it in ace writing form? Then click here, it’s the best summary of Venezuela’s revolution I’ve ever read. A truly superb read you’ll zip right through without any tripping over vagueness or irrelevant detail. It cuts to the quick of what’s really at stake.
Evo Morales is at it again in Bolivia. Now that the president has been weakened by the fleeing of foreign investors, Morales and his dynamite-hurling coca-growers have grown emboldened. The whole city of La Paz seems to be under seige. ééThe protests have grown today,” Morales said in a phone interview from La Paz. ééWe have no other option. The capital is paralyzed.” Bloomberg has the best initial news account. AP reports that the city of La Paz is pretty much sealed off and isolated by the roadblockers. UPDATE: Bolivia’s FEJUVE group from El Alto, a group apparently more radical…
As ‘The World’ —- otherwise known to us as self-centered eurotrash — solemnly intones about the depredations of the U.S. over the Saddam underwear photos and the importance of eradicating the US from the earth — by UN vote of course, or better still, EU bureaucratic fiat from Brussels —- Tim Blair advises us that there’s a very different reaction on the ‘Arab Street’ which ‘The World’ fully informs us it speaks for since it understands it so much better than us unsophisticated cowboys do. LMAO! Hat Tip: Instapundit.
It’s Cuba and it’s loaded with babes. Just as the Cuban revolution is launched, we start seeing the babes all right, and the Cuban girls are dazzling. Val’s got a choice girl from the Cuban nostalgia festival, his window on the world to Cubanismo which blogged away in conjunction with the Cuban democracy struggle in Havana. Here she is, one more babe of politics and we’ll see more.
The people of the Americas have the right to democracy and the governments have a duty to generate conditions for governance and also to carry out their mandate in a democratic fashion. The guarantee of respect for the fundamental rights of the citizens, the Rule of Law, civil liberties, the respect for minorities and the institutions of the democratic system are crucial. Only then can the social, political, economic and cultural development that our nations deserve be effectively promoted. It is imperative that the commitments adopted under the Inter-American Democratic Charter be wholly fulfilled. Verbattim of acceptance speech of new…
Relations between the United States and Syria are sliding even further of late, though it seems that they may be the only party minding this. All of this revolves around intense pressure on Damascus about the insurgency in Iraq. Many of the terrorists have set up arms and drug smuggling routes along the Syrian border, and the U.S. was recently forced to launch an all out attacked called “Operation: Matador” against their positions. With it being painfully obvious where these people come from, pressure against Damascus has soared over the past few weeks. Looks like Syria can’t take the heat.…
Ordinarily we don’t cover events in the already-democratic world, but with many Canadians questioning to what degree their nation still holds on to that distinction, I direct you to this week’s two-part Red Ensign Standard, via an introduction at The London Fog. A few days ago I posted on the state of democracy in Canada.
Now that I’ve lured you in with a misleading, typical MSM headline, read on. In Iran, motives are never so genuine and kind. TEHRAN, Iran May 23, 2005 ???????? Iran’s supreme leader ordered the hard-line constitutional watchdog council to reconsider its decision to bar senior reformist candidates from running in next month’s presidential elections, state-run television reported Monday. The Guardian Council, which vets the election candidates, on Sunday rejected all the reformists registered to run in next month’s presidential elections. The council rejected all but six of the 1,000 hopeful candidates. Among those rejected were all the female candidates. “It’s…
Georgia experienced the Rose Revolution in 2003, serving as an antecedent for Ukraine’s Orange Revolution (as well as democratic revolutions elsewhere). Georgia has since made nice progress, with U.S. President Bush visiting two weeks ago. Now a commission of the Georgian government, led by President Saakashvili, has prepared a draft document outlining the nation’s national security requirements and fundamental national values. Civil Georgia has the story: The draft concept of the national security sets sovereignty, security, peace, democracy, rule of law, human rights and welfare as Georgia????????s fundamental national values. These values are a ???????vital necessity for the existence and…
Will Franklin is hosting this week’s carnival of revolutions, where you can catch up on the democracy movement over the past week. Next week it will be hosted by your favorite playboy, er, not me, I mean Nathan at Registan.net. I’ll be the week after.
The candidate of the ex-communist MPR has won Mongolia’s presidency, garnering over 50% of the vote and thus avoiding a runoff election. A former Communist prime minister of Mongolia has won Sunday’s presidential election, state media say. Nambaryn Enkhbayar beat three other contenders by polling more than 50% of the vote and thus avoiding the need for a run-off, Mongol Radio reported. The official results are expected later on Monday, but Mr Enkhbayar said his main rival had already conceded defeat. Before the poll, there were rallies for a more transparent electoral system in the capital, Ulan Bator. Protesters also…
Don’t miss Gary Metz’s week in review over at Regime Change Iran, the essential blog on developments you know where.
The New York Times reports: In a stark reversal from earlier this year, when Sunni Arabs boycotted national elections here, a broad gathering of Sunni sheiks, clerics and political leaders formed a political alliance on Saturday, seeking to win back the political ground they had lost to Shiites. The meeting was the first wide-scale effort by Iraq’s embittered and increasingly isolated Sunnis to band together politically, and was broadly attended by what organizers said was about 2,000 Sunni Arabs from Baghdad and nearby cities. The gathering was an implicit acknowledgment that it had been a mistake to turn away from…
Last night I watched an episode of “Writers,” a program on Al-Jazeera. They were actually in London, speaking to two Arab writers, one an Egyptian novelist who lives in London, Ahdaf Soueif (see this article for an interview with her), and an editor with the London-based Arab newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi (whose full name I can’t remember, Amjad something I think, not Abd al-Bari Atwan, their managing editor). They talked about a number of things, but the guy made a comment on which I want to focus to the effect that when we speak of democracy in the Middle East, “the…
With Lebanon’s elections near, sources at GeoStrategy Direct are saying that the recent flare up in violence, both the bombings in Beruit and the attacks on Israel in the south, have been a deliberate attempt by Iran and Hizbullah to derail the entire process. I have a rather longish post on my own blog focusing on Hizbullah and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah. It mostly deals with national security issues and provides links for those who want more background on Hizbullah; check out Spotlight on Hassan Nasrallah to read the whole thing. These are the two paragraphs from my GeoStrategy Direct…