Stories about Politics from February, 2007
Eastern Europe: Anti-Missile Defense
Alaskan Abroad looks at the anti-missile defense program from a dual perspective: as an Alaskan and “as a sometime-resident of the Czech Republic.”
Senegal: Voting Process Report Card
Semett ‘s voting process report card (Fr): “The Presidential election took place peacefully and with a participation rate estimated at 70% by the vote's organizers. The electoral body went from 2 to 5 million. More than 2,000 observers were deployed. Generally, the voting process has been positively evaluated and Senegalese...
India: Quattrocchi in Argentina
Varnam on the politics played to avoid extraditing a man who could end up ruining the reputation of some very important people. “Remember Ottavio Quattrocchi? The middle man for Bofors who represented Snamprogetti and big pal of ex-dead-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi? He was arrested in Argentina on Feb 6th and...
Sri Lanka: What is the LTTE trying to do?
Indi.ca on LTTE's antics. “The LTTE is well on their way to pissing off everyone on Earth. After their strategically brilliant ploy of assasinating the Indian PM, Rajiv Gandhi, they’ve followed up in the last few years with a failed attack on the Pakistani envoy, and today by injuring the...
Nepal: One more strike
United We Blog! on one strike too many in the country. “Protest, protest everywhere, how can we get out of this mess? Janajatis or indigenous people have called for a general strike in Nepal tomorrow. Economically that would be yet another blow to already depressing situation. That will be yet...
Tunisia, France: How To Wash the Dirty Laundry At Home
Mouwaten Tounsi deplores (Fr) that ex-Tunisian diplomat Khaled Ben Saïd is being judged in France for torture. He would have liked Ben Saïd judged in Tunisia. He proposes a reconciliation-based justice. The process would focus on indemnification of torture victims by the government rather than on prosecution of officials who...
Saudi Arabia: Government Cracking Down on Bloggers, New Saudi Ambassador to US, and More
A Press frenzy over Saudi school curriculums, a govermental campaign targeting a number of male Saudi bloggers, Anna Nicole Smith, Kareem Amer, forced divorces, a new government program to fight corruption, and much more are keeping the Saudi blogosphere lively. Khloud did a great job at summarizing a recent BBC...
Tunisphere: How to blog about politics without being censored?
Tunisian bloggers seem to have found ways to talk about Tunisian politics while avoiding getting caught by the ATI (Tunisian agency of Internet) watchdogs in charge of denying access and filtering out any site or blog that is critical of the Tunisian government and its members. After its last campaign...
Uganda: a preventable tragedy
Head Heeb analyzes the state of peace talks between the government of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army, “Given the volatility of the situation in the north, however, a state of “no war, no peace” is inherently unstable, and unless talks resume, it will only be a matter of time...
Guinea: general strike suspended
Friends of Guinea blog has a post about the latest turn of events in Guinea, “Guinean unions will again suspend the general strike after the head of state Gen. Lansana Conté agreed to name a prime minister from a list of names proposed by the labor organizations. His previous choice,...
Lesotho: stolen election
Idland blogs about election results in Lesotho: It is disturbingly impressive to read how Lesotho's two major political parties have exploited the electoral rules to earn themselves about a third more seats in parliament than they were due.
Cuba: “Vamos a Selma”
Babalú Blog‘s Val Prieto posits an imaginary book entitled “Vamos a Selma” (“Let's go to Selma”) which offers a false and revisionist history of the American south and the civil rights movement, and asks: “How many of the same people that have lobbied for the “Vamos a Cuba” book to...
Bermuda: Blogger picketed
Bermudian blogger Christian S. Dunleavy has been the victim of a picketing as a result of views expressed in his newspaper column: “Evidently I was a little too close to the subject matter because a number of people have emailed me with the observation that this guy is so clueless...
Poland: “Tree Huggers Versus Cross Huggers”
The beatroot writes: “Protests turn weird as the religious in Poland turn up to demonstrate against environmentalists. It’s almost enough to make me turn into a tree hugger!”
Latvia: Alexei Ledyaev
Marginalia writes about a Russophone Latvian “self-described ‘apostle'” who “has suggested replacing Latvia's constitution, the Satversme, with the Ten Commandments, introducing Christian totalitarianism, and ‘humbling all liberals and homosexuals’.”
The Balkans: Reactions to the ICJ's Verdict
The massacre in Srebrenica was an act of genocide, declares the International Court of Justice. East Ethnia blogged while waiting for the verdict – and then provided an initial reaction as well as a guest-blogger's opposing point of view.
Russia: Feb. 23; Hatred for Bush
How do young men of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk celebrate the Army Day? Why do Russians hate George W. Bush? Tim Newman of White Sun of the Desert answers these questions – here and here.
Russia: Nashi “Hunt the Dollar” in Kaliningrad
“…the strong rouble message is obviously good for Russian’s self-esteem,” writes Copydude (and the weak dollar news is probably even better): more on the “Hunt The Dollar” spectacle by the Kaliningrad's Nashi branch is here.
Russia: Post-Putin Future Discussed
Scraps of Moscow, Sean's Russia Blog, and Robert Amsterdam discuss this New York Times Magazine piece on Russia's post-Putin future.
Ukraine: Dubbing
Ukraine List writes about the Ukrainian dubbing debate.
Senegal Elections: Towards Another Wade Term?
“Senegal Wants Its Freedom Back” headline. By R-Nesto. Yesterday was election day in Senegal. A campaign marked by some violent clashes started about a month ago and most of the Senegalese bloggers were hoping to see the incumbent, PDS [Social Democratic Party] leader Abdoulaye Wade, defeated. Wade has been in...