Stories about Politics from August, 2006
Cuba: Raúl Castro's first appointment
Raúl Castro appears to have made his first official appointment, writes Luis M. Garcia: “analysts and Cuban watchers will have a field day over the next few hours with these latest news from Havana. Does it mean Raul is really in charge?“
Serbia: Collective Guilt
Srdjan Cvijic of The TransAtlantic Assembly a translates an article by a renowned Serbian political analyst on Kosovo, the West and the feeling of collective guilt.
Syria: Peaceful Change Forum
Ammar is calling to hold a closed forum of well-known intellectuals and dissidents with the purpose of coming up with a draft for a Syrian national pact or charter where all issues related to peaceful change in the country. Then, he will demand that Syrian opposition groups sign on to...
Sri Lanka: A National Government
A Land like no Other on the possibilities of National Government in Sri Lanka. “Party politics has spoiled this country to a level where after your race and religion, supported political party is the next most common factor of distinguishing people into groups.”
Nepal: Politics and Beauty Queens
United We Blog! on a conversation with contestants for Miss Teen Nepal 2006. “The beauties looked confused and Arpana came up with the answer once again. “If you ask me I can easily say what should have been done but can’t say what exactly needs to be done.” An answer...
Nepal: Get rid of Democracy
Blogdai scans the political horizon and suggets we get rid of democracy.
Venezuela, Syria: Chavez's New Friends
Steven Taylor astounded by Chavez's newly declared solidarity with Syria. Erwin Cifuentes does the media roundup.
Guyana: Face of the nation
By analysing the facial expressions of Guyana's incumbent president Bharrat Jagdeo, Andy is “100% confident that he is the new president-elect of Guyana“.
Guyana: Ministerial reconstruction
Guyana's “ministries [of government] and their portfolios are outmoded, irrelevant and obscure,” says MediaCritic three days after the country's general election, as he reconstructs government and puts forward his own ministerial wish list.
Ethiopia: Ethiopian Politician hospitalised
Tale of corruption and official high-handedness is re-echoed by Ethio-Zagol, who seems rather pleased that Bereket Simon, “one of the most detested EPRDF politicians” in Ethiopia, is defraying the cost, via divine punishment, having been rushed to hospital in Israel. Even in a close shave with death their kleptomaniac fingers...
Iran: Jahanbegloo free on bail
Shahram Kholdi, UK based blogger & academic reports that Ramin Jahanbegloo, researcher & philosopher, was released on bail. According to the blogger, Ramin Jahanbegloo visited ISNA's (Iranian Students National Agency) office immediately after he was released. The source said he looked much thinner than the last time he had seen...
Kurdistance…
The most horrible of things has just happened to me….my RSS feed for the Kurdish blogs, well for lack of a better term..hiccupped…and all of my feeds are gone. So in dealing with this crisis, today's post probably will leave a few people out. Thankfully all of my work is...
Trinidad & Tobago: Appetite for self-destruction
Is Trinidad and Tobago's opposition party trying to self-destruct? Jeremy Taylor thinks so.
Bahamas: The future in health
Sidney flashes forward to 2012, after the Bahamas’ government has implemented the National Health Plan towards which they are “proceeding with undue haste.”
Iranian Women's campaign demands changes to discriminatory laws
Iranian women continue their struggle for equal rights beyond all governmental obstacles. A few days ago, a group of tireless Iranian women activists launched another campaign against discrimination entitled “One Million Signatures Demanding Changes to Discriminatory Laws.” This demonstration was backed by personalities such as Nasser Zaarafshan, writer and human...
Mexico: “From tent city to shadow government”
Boz's analysis of what he calls Lopez Obrador's “shadow government”.
Serbia: Criticism of the Flag and Anthem
Dictionary of the Serbian Mess explains the coat of arms that appears on the Serbian flag and compares Serbian anthem to that of Slovenia.
Russia, Ukraine: “Managed Oligarchy,” Lazarenko Case
Moscow has more billionaires than NYC, but in Putin's era, they are no longer “oligarchs” but “mere tycoons,” writes Vilhelm Konnander. In another post, he discusses the trial and the verdict of Ukraine's Pavlo Lazarenko.
Poland: A Competition in Populism
Poland is having local elections soon, and the populists are becoming more audible, reports Warsaw Station.
Poland: On Migrant Labor, Again
The beatroot writes about “free movement of labour” and responds to a “deranged” commenter who, among other things, is “favorably comparing the Nazi invasion and the Holocaust to the influx of a few hundred thousand Poles and others to the UK.”
Poland: Suing the Homophobes
The beatroot writes that Polish gay rights activists are taking the wrong cases to court: “But going to courts over the two pieces of infantile nonsense […] is not the right way to go about challenging officially sponsored homophobia in Poland.”