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2012
Some of the more popular pages
| Venezuela
After Venezuela’s elections: defeat for the right, challenges for the leftAt the beginning of October, much of the world’s media descended on Caracas hoping to report on the end of an authoritarian regime. “Too close to call” was the refrain on almost every network. Market analysts at places like Barclay’s Capital urged investors to pile into Venezuelan debt on the assumption of an opposition victory. Months earlier Robert Zoellick, then still head of the World Bank, revelled in the certainty that Chavez’ days were numbered. Better still, Chavez’ defeat would put a stop to Venezuela’s subsidies to Cuba and Nicaragua and spell the end for those ’regimes’ too, bringing “an opportunity to make the Western Hemisphere the first democratic hemisphere”. When those pictures came out a week before the poll, of tens of thousands at the final opposition rally, it seemed they might be right. Many of us had forgotten that the Venezuelan opposition turned out dozens of equally massive rallies and marches back in 2002 to 2004. Even among left activists there were more and more of us mumbling about whether there was really much to save in the Bolivarian revolution. -> read article... |
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| Debt crisis
Citizen debt audits: how and why? ,
The question of the repayment of public debt is undeniably a taboo subject. The heads of State and governments, the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the mainstream media present it as inevitable, indisputable and obligatory. The people have no other choice than to knuckle under and pay. The only possible discussion pertains to how the burden of the sacrifices will be spread around so as to find sufficient budget to meet the nation’s obligations. The borrowing governments were democratically elected, thus the debts are legitimate; they must be paid. |
| Taiwan:
Presidential elections in the shadow of the EmpireOn January 14, 2012, the Taiwanese people voted for a new national assembly and president. Ma Ying-jeou, the outgoing president and chair of the Kuomintang (KMT) party, was re-elected with 51.60% of the votes, against 45.63% for the candidate of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The KMT also gained an absolute majority in the National Assembly (60 seats out of 113). This was the fifth direct election since the democratic transition in 1994. The rate of participation in the election was the lowest since 1994, at around 75%. If the result held few surprises, the course of the electoral campaign showed to what point the political development of the country is under the influence of the economic interests of foreign powers, notably China and the United States. -> read article... |