Blogging the democratic revolution
Miguel Octavio has some utterly repulsive photos of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe in the throes of love. Look at those two embrace! What’s hard to believe is that Mugabe, one of the world’s foremost creators of famine and hunger today, was so much as allowed in at this United Nations conference in Rome. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had assured earlier that these kinds of obscenities at the UN – which do hurt its credibility – will stop. Well, they are not stopping. They are going on at full blast. Investor’s Business Daily has an excellent news…
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…
UPDATED: While President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia was ringing the opening bell of the New York stock exchange today, his ministers back home were announcing that interest rates would be slashed 50 basis points and nearly a billion more dollars in debt was being repaid. Meanwhile, Colombia’s trade surplus was expanding, tourism was up 19.5%, foreign investment was soaring, banks were lending and remittances were up. Goldman Sachs noted admiringly that Colombia retained a tight fiscal policy despite an election year ahead. The only worry Colombia seemed to have on that day – probably unique in Latin America – was…
The delegation of the United States, along with those of many other countries, were not present as Iran’s terrorist president was delivering a speech at the United Nations summit. Meanwhile, over 2000 people outside protested his visit to America. Ouch. In other mainstream news, Iranian president blasts US in first United Nations speech.
Kofi Annan is mad. That’s right, Robert Mugabe is still plundering the entire country of Zimbabwe, and Kofi has to take time away from shredding Oil-for-Food documents to read a 100 page report about it. Hey, if I were the head of an ineffective international institution and I had to read about something I couldn’t do anything about, I’d be mad too. UNITED NATIONS, July 22 – The United Nations today condemned the mass destruction of urban slums and shantytowns in Zimbabwe by the government of Robert G. Mugabe as a “disastrous venture,” saying it had left 700,000 people homeless…
Chris Borgen over at Opinio Juris has a couple of engaging posts on international institutions and the building of a global liberal order. He argues that Clinton was more successful at promoting a desirable world order because of his support for international institutions, and his greater preference than the White House’s current occupant for treaty-making. I think Clinton does deserve a fair amount of credit for promoting global freedom, but I disagree with Borgen over his use of the term “liberal order” to the extent that he identifies it with international institutions which do little to nothing to promote democratization…
Music to my ears. When Syria withdraw its troops from Lebanon back in April, it was pretty obvious to the world that it left behind a thick residue of intelligence agents. The several bombs that have gone off, and the targetted assassination of an anti-Syria journalist, are part of a general pattern of political intimidation. Earlier in the week, the U.S. government reported that it had received a intelligence of a Syrian hit list made up of Lebanese opposition politicians. The assassination of anti-Syria journalist Samir Kassir has relaunched the campaign to drive Syria away. Because of the great public…
Looks like ol’ Shirin’s figured out how the world works much better than the rest of us. American Revolution? Orange Revolution? Tulip Revolution? That’s just wrong! The best means to help create democracies in societies ruled by tyrannies is through negotiations, and if that fails, by resorting to the United Nations,” she pontificated. “This is the only way, this is the only means. Hear that, Babes of Beirut? You’re doing it wrong! Kindly send a copy of her memo in triplicate to Cuba’s civil society democrats, Venezuela’s angry oil workers, Ecuador’s furious street demonstrators, Bolivia’s pro-trade Santa Crucenos and Venezuela’s…
Who will lead the Organization of American States? A Chilean democratic socialist so determined he is known as ‘El Panzer’ in his native country. Oppenheimer interviews him for the first time and notices that he seems to be proactive. He counters a Venezuelan party hack’s declaration that the Chilean will honor ‘commitments’ to dictator Hugo Chavez with a wonderful smackdown, saying he owes the Thug of Caracas nothing. Also, the Chilean rebuffs Jimmy Carter’s insistence that the OAS appoint an ‘independent’ commission to evaluate democracies. Oppenheimer disagrees with that but I sure don’t. The disaster in Ecuador hangs heavy on…
UN diplomats, on a fun-packed junket to Haiti, say that the Caribbean nation is not getting the job done: April 20 (Bloomberg) — Haiti’s political leaders aren’t taking steps toward reconciliation needed for successful elections this year and the interim government hasn’t begun reconstruction projects to stabilize the Caribbean nation, U.S. and Brazilian diplomats said. Anne Patterson, the acting U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who joined Security Council envoys on a mission to Haiti last week, said the government needs to resolve the case of former prime minister Yvon Neptune, an opposition member detained without charges since June 2004.…
More than usual, anyway. The UN Commission on Human Rights just passed a resolution condemning Belarus for abuses. Following the adoption on 14 April of a resolution by the UN Human Rights Commission alleging human rights abuses by Belarusian officials, Syarhey Aleynik, Belarus’s permanent representative to the UN, criticized the document as “another attempt to create a distorted picture of the country’s situation in order to justify the intention of its co-sponsors to interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign state,” Belapan and Interfax-Belarus reported. Aleynik said that the resolution has passed under “unprecedented pressure from the United States,”…
Freedom House does an annual list of the world’s most oppressive regimes. To some of us, it doesn’t come as a surprise that six of the 18 nations on the list are members of the UN Commission on Human Rights. Significantly, six of the eighteen most repressive governments–those of China, Cuba, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Zimbabwe–are members of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), representing nearly 11 percent of the 53-member body. “Repressive governments enjoying CHR membership work in concert and have successfully subverted the Commission’s mandate,” said Freedom House Executive Director Jennifer Windsor. “Rather than serving as the…
Having been so involved with the events in Lebanon, I was hoping to do my own analysis of the UN findings on the Hariri assassination. But due to real life work and school starting back up next week (not to mention I’m preparing to cover the big protests in Taiwan all night…) it’s going to be a bit tough. However, rest assured! USMC_Vet has a complete, thorough analysis of the document and the reactions to it. In fact, let me give you some Cliff Notes: 1. Document released detailing Syrian and Lebanese government coverup. 2. They deny it. 3. Call…
Continuing protests in southern Kyrgyzstan are giving rise to speculation that Russia might intervene militarily. Democracy Guy and Registan.net both correctly say, however, that the Russian military isn’t capable of an unwanted intervention (read: invasion), and the geo-political ramifications would be immense – certainly far more than the Kremlin wants to deal with right now. A peacekeeping mission, probably at the invitation of President Akayev, seems to be the only remaining option open to Russia if it wants to find some way of directly intervening in Kyrgyzstan, but that too is an option fraught with problems. Problems which I believe…
Via John Hawkins, I come across a list of proposed slogans for the United Nations. Here are my favorites: – Ignoring the irony of cronies of pissant dictatorships voting in a democratic fashion for 60 years. – Genocidal dictators, beware our harshly worded letters. – Having discussed at length almost every major crisis in the past 60 years. Read the rest!
I have been going around all the Iraq blogs and big bloggers and I’ve noticed something… the United Nations Foundation has bought a lot of ads promoting itself in Iraq. Check out, for instance, Tim Blair or Instapundit and they have these UN ads that say “Ensuring Credible and Fair Elections,” followed by a graphic, and then a quote from Kofi Annan that states: “The United Nations is committed to the birth of a new Iraq. I have long made clear that the international community must put the deep divisions over the war behind us. We must unite to build…