Blogging the democratic revolution
In my recent post, Has Qadafi Caught the Spirit?, I wrote that there were mixed signs that Libya’s ruler, Mu’amar Qadafi, was committed to ending his country’s economic and political isolation. In today’s Al-Quds Al-Arabi, it was reported that Libya plans to cut 46,000 government jobs over the next year. As the article notes, Libya has 862,000 government workers, a huge figure when you consider that the country’s entire population is only a little over five million. Libya’s Prime Minister, Muhammad Mu’atuq, stated that some of the positions were to be eliminated through privatization, pushing them into “other productive work.”…
Bill from Dawn’s Early Light let me know about a conversation between himself and Simon from Simon World discussing the future of U.S.-Sino relations. Being that Simon is both a smart guy and lives in Hong Kong, he knows what he’s talking about. Check it out.
Don’t give up on Kyrgyzstan just yet! Gateway Pundit initially brought the story to our attention. “The authorities are losing control of the situation. Current developments in southern Kyrgyzstan, where a rally has been going on since March 4, suggest that not only the opposition, but also the people want change in the authorities,” said Otunbayeva. “The opposition has ample strength and opportunity to assume leadership of the popular movement. But we want to tackle these problems legally,” she said. … The Kyrgyz parliament is preparing to gather for an emergency session on March 10, Zeina Kurmanov, leader of the…
That’s what the banners are saying in the latest protest in Beirut: The crowd included a number of die-hard protesters who have been camping out at Martyrs’ Square, homemakers, men who took the day off from work, university students and others who traveled from other areas of the country. In a jab at Syrian President Bashar al-Asad, who in a speech on Saturday said television cameras were zooming in closely on the Lebanese protesters to make the numbers appear more, several held banners reading: “Zoom Out!” One legislator speaking to the crowd yelled out the same phrase during her speech.…
Up to 150,000 opposition activists rallied in Martyr’s Square chanting, “Syria Out!” and waving Lebanese flags: Monday’s demonstration marked three weeks since the Feb. 14 assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri that began a peaceful campaign against Syrian control. The massive crowd, chanting “Freedom, sovereignty, independence!” began marching through the streets to the site of the bomb blast that killed Hariri. Some in the crowd carried large photographs of Hariri. One group carried a banner that read, “Today we have one target: To liberate our land.” Others brandished photographs of the public prosecutor and six intelligence chiefs whose dismissal they…
Who knew? The exit polls were pretty accurate. The president of ex-Soviet Moldova, a former ally of Moscow now committed to European integration, looked well placed in a parliamentary election on Sunday with an exit poll giving his Communists a healthy lead. But the poll also showed two opposition parties doing well enough to deny the Communists under President Vladimir Voronin the outright majority they currently enjoy. Voronin, who campaigned on forging closer ties with the West, accuses Russia of interference by helping separatists in the Russian-speaking Dnestr region. The Communists’ rivals say they lack democratic credentials and intend to…
With the anti-Syrian protests underway in Lebanon right now grabbing the headlines, a reader asked for some background on the situation and an explanation of the various factions involved. The purpose of this post is to provide that background. THE OTTOMAN ERA (1517-1918) It might be said that modern Lebanon has its roots in the centuries of Ottoman rule. Historically, what is now Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan were all part of what might be called “Greater Syria.” (Although Palestine, and Jerusalem especially, was often occupied by whatever power dominated Egypt.) The coastal cities of Syria had a history of…
UPDATED, UPDATED: Bolivia’s President Carlos Mesa turned in his resignation to Congress this morning. (Link updated). Congress, which is led by opposition lawmakers, will vote on whether to accept it Tuesday in a special session. The gas-rich country’s been a tragic failed state for about a year and a half, but this could be a major turn for the worse, or else a bold bid by Pres. Mesa to rally support from the public. There is still uncertainty about what sort of government is to follow. There is considerable suspicion about the role of Venezuela in creating the crisis. Last…
Dan McMinn at Orange Ukraine has a great post comparing “normalcy” in Ukraine in 2004 to normalcy in 2005. From the end: I’ve been having a debate, of sorts, with one of those folks who still believe “Yushchenko has ushered in fascism”. His only major argument, so far, is that Yushchenko’s call for all public officials not to visit the sauna is a major limit on people’s freedom. If you really want to, you can read our exchange here. I’d just like to say that when the worst I have to bicker with him about is a slightly silly political…
Nobody is more on top of the municipal election than John Burgess. Check out his post on voting in the east, and the more recent in Najran.
Andy over at Siberian Light has the week’s worth of Russian news up at his blog.
Blogger Daniel Duquenal in Venezuela reports existing conditions and probable coming food shortages at Mercal, the regime’s subsidized food stores where Venezuelan locals are being conditioned to accept food rationing and to wait in long lines. Communism is much further along than we had previously thought in dictator Hugo Chavez’s regime. Be sure to read the valuable, and alarming, account right here.
In what can only be seen as terrifying, Hizb’allah has backed Syria against the opposition and “western inference.” Because of this, the situation has just become much more dangerous than it was previously. They are not only a powerful political party, but the only one with arms. BEIRUT (Reuters) – Hizbollah, Lebanon’s most powerful party, threw its weight against Syria’s opponents on Sunday, calling for a peaceful mass rally in central Beirut on Tuesday in support of Damascus and against Western meddling. The Shi’ite Muslim group, which has the largest following in the country and is the only one with…
Regime Change Iran has its week in review of Iran news. Lots of interesting, underreported news there.
With all that’s been going on in the Middle East lately, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s happening elsewhere. At Bloggledygook I have an update on the situation in Ukraine, including the latest on the supposed suicide of Yuri Kravchenko and the implications of his demise.
I was bothered by Indonesia’s Abu Bakar Bashir verdict and realized it was going to amount to a political struggle in Indonesia’s six-year-old democracy, because voters there had just elected a new president who ran for office on an anti-terror platform. That sham verdict is going to pose some problems for Indonesia’s new president as terrorists grow emboldened there.
Publius Pundit isn’t the only one thinking about democratic revolutions – it’s a idea that’s caught fire in the minds of people all over the world. Val Prieto at Babal???? reports that there’s a young man at Columbia University, Loren Crowe, who’s studied in Cuba and now made it his mission to get documentary word out, in a non-ideological way, about that closed society. He’s seen the place up close and he’s doing it to counter all the tired Che-tee-shirt romanticism he sees around campus. What Loren’s doing is a revolution, too. I had a look at his site and…
Like Fidel Castro before him, Hugo Chavez for a long time has insisted he was lots of things, but definitely not a communist. We see this a lot at the beginnings of communist regimes, and it’s done mostly for domestic reasons. However, another reason is that it’s easier for internationalistas to champion the dictator as he quietly consolidates power. Pol Pot, after all, for years was just an agrarian reformer. Ho Chi Minh was just an aggrieved nationalist and never mind what followed. Communism cannot be sold on its own merits but only through deception. Now that Chavez has fully…
And if anyone asks, that’s what the opposition has dubbed the revolution they are hoping for, due to Moldova’s vineyards. Elections are being held in Moldova today. In a nutshell, the parliament will be elected, and then the parliament will elect the president. Background But this election is much more complicated than meets the eye. The current president, Vladimir Voronin, is a communist. This is not so rare, except that he is leaning toward the EU and away from Moscow. Prague, 4 March 2005 (RFE/RL) — The Communist Party of president Vladimir Voronin is heavily favored to retain its strong…
Blogger Miguel Octavio, who’s an expert on markets, has come up with a startling new idea about how to make Venezuela’s pathetically money-losing state oil company profitable enough to benefit from current high oil prices. Sell shares of Citgo. An idea way too revolutionary for a leftist backwash like Hugo Chavez. This is an especially well written and informative read.
Three thousand protestors in Jalalabad have seized a government building and are demanding next week’s parliamentary election runoffs be free and transparent. More than half of the seats in parliament were forced into the runoffs, so this is big.
Venezuelan blogger Daniel reports that Miguel’s powerful exclusive on photoshopping is now having a big impact in Caracas through a Venezuelan newspaper pickup. This is a great victory for the blogosphere, and very sweet for Publius Pundit which was first to link Miguel’s scoop on the fake photos. After that, Miguel’s post was linked to huge effect on Little Green Footballs. And soon after that it made its way into the important Venezuelan Spanish-language blogosphere. Following Miguel’s high hit count, a local newspaper got wind of its impact, and ran with it as a news story. That’s no small thing.…
Cuban refugees risking it all to flee communism arrive at the gates of Guantanamo and are ordered by US troops back to communism – through a field of landmines. One of the troops who had to carry out these illegal orders tells the terrible story here and I blanch at the inhumanity. Where is the outrage? Update: The serviceman who describes the account says this happened ten years ago and from what he understands, US policy has changed. Who says Cuban-Americans’ raised eyebrows at Clinton were confined only to Elian? Clinton was capable of incredible inhumanity to the helpless.
Taef Accord and WMD — The Bekaa Valley? Quite a bit has happened since Thursday. The international pressure, for one, has certainly stepped up. President Bush is even talking about it during his social security runs in New Jersey! But now even Saudi Arabia is getting in on the game. Syrian troops have been fortifying their positions east of Beirut as pressure mounts on Damascus to pull out of Lebanon without delay. Syrian troops were digging in at Hammana, part of the mountain range 26km (16 miles) east of Beirut, and at three other positions along the ridge yesterday. “They’re…
Robin Koerner has informed me about a website that she has been working on called Watching America. Now, you all know how much I like to link out to interesting material, but I found this website in particular to be quite different from anything else. It is a news site that translates what the foreign press is saying about America. Make sure to check it out, I know it will probably make my job easier in many cases.