The BBC lovingly analyses Fidel Castro’s speech to the ‘National Assembly’ in Havana: … a hush descended … He smiled and waved to the crowd as he lapped up the warmth of their applause … a short but polished performance from the lively and healthy-looking Fidel Castro, his voice stronger […]
A curious article over at Foreign Affairs about the efficacy of democracies in doing better to protect citizens from earthquakes. Is it because democracies are simply richer and so build better buildings? No: In a democracy, leaders must maintain the confidence of large portions of the population in order to […]
Democratist replies to my earlier posting: I have a number of points to make about the following statements you made in "International Election Monitoring: Keeping Democracy Honest?" "The problem is that observers necessarily observe the observable, and only a tiny proportion of that." What about LTOs and the Core Team? They are […]
Now that Cuba has agreed to release – and exile – a goodly number of political prisoners, Spain expects the European Union to ‘respond’ and be more flexible. I have written here on various occasions about Cuba. Maybe the most astonishing thing about this run-down Cold War relic is not […]
In my eccentric Left phase as a student I got very depressed by a popular book by a young David Horowitz, a prominent American Leftist who railed at great length (460 pages) against the iniquities of Amerika and its unforgiving anti-communist foreign policy machinations. Not only was the USA surrounding the […]
It is wearying being peppered with facile media so-called analysis of the Russian spy story featuring this sort of line: Huh? What’s all the fuss about? What’s there to spy on in the places these amateur people were living in? Did the Kremlin really want to infiltrate the PTA? Typical […]
BBC Radio 5 Live has just been poring over poverty in South African townships and today’s UK Budget. They interviewed some township shack-dwellers in Port Elizabeth where, you will remember, veteran collectivist ANC/Communist Govan Mbeki was all against local self-help. With the dismal results now apparent today, albeit not for his […]
A Polish reader Ludwik Kowalski now long established in the USA has sent in a link to this unusual free online memoir, namely extracts from his diaries which he wrote while growing up in the USSR then Stalinist Poland: This is my “book of life.” It is based on what I […]
A neat little piece here, getting to the heart of Reality – and where Reality meets Politicians. Not a place politicians much like, as it shows too much about them: “Plug the damn hole,” Obama told them. That’s the politician’s answer to every intractable problem: give orders, issue threats, and […]
Some US Senators are asking some terse questions about Venezuela’s active anti-American policies: The State Department currently designates four nations — Syria, Cuba, Sudan, and Iran — as state sponsors of terrorism. These countries provide ideological support and material assistance to terrorist groups. Once you consider the evidence behind Venezuela’s substantial ties […]
