Carnival of the Revolutions, July 18th 2005

Welcome to the Carnival of the Revolutions

Africa:
From Wonkette at Weichegud ET Politics: It's starting to look worse and worse in Ethiopia. Basically, Ethiopia is the Ukraine of Africa, except the world has been slow to come to Ethiopia’s defense. But slowly, Mr. Meles’ true nature is being unmasked—what do you call a government that signs a peace treaty on Friday, and then arrests its opposition on Saturday? No, it’s not a riddle.

Commentary:
A Live-8 concert to help Africa? What about when the famine is cold-bloodedly intentional? From Satire, ruminations on what's really needed in Zimbabwe: the guitar-machinegun, (Not Safe for Work!!) and some material regarding the US Second Amendment. (If humor never entered the scene, we'd never have realized just how potent a weapon in the arsenal of freedom is the "protest babe.")

Laura Bush and her daughters go to Africa. The First Lady pledged American assistance on a broad array of fronts, from Darfur to HIV.

South Africa's Mbeki a Mugabe protege: The evictions have begun.

Ethiopundit pulls up a ton of background information for the reader trying to get a sense of what's going on.

Mugabe's urban political evictions going rural.

Americas:
Bush terror strategy Central Asia Human Rights and Democracy Act. Aid would come with strings attached -- long overdue strings.

->Cuba protests over indifference to hurricane damage and general widespread misery.
->Castro refuses hurricane aid, Cubans go out in rare protests.

Chavez setting up death squads: (link requires registration)http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/andres_oppenheimer/12131504.htm

EurAsia:
From Blogrel : a current Central Asian geopolitical analysis up. The Great Game continues. Or put another way, why is the US interested in Central Asia?

Also, Commentary on Christopher Walker (now with freedom house, link provided)... expect the differences between Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan/Georgia/Ukraine to count.

Deal on disputed Karabakh region between Azerbaijan and Armenia close(again).

Kyrgyzstan voting a great success! After Akeyev's ouster, Kurmanbek Bakiyev has won decisively -- and cleanly.

Europe:
Iran plays cheerleader for the London bombings. Guess who the Chechens suspect was behind it? Has six letters, starts with "R....."

Proof that Al Qaeda sought to influence the Spanish elections and bring about the downfall of "Aznar the Ignoble."

Transdniester positive on reintegration with Moldova: apparently the latest round of discussions would allow for Moldovan suzerainty, and leave the degree of autonomy in Transdinester to be hammered out politically.

Georgia unveils innovative approach to reintegration with breakway South Ossetia: clearly distinguish what Georgia has to offer from S. Ossetia's northern neighbors by offering significant ... concessions isn't the right word. In effect, Georgia is simply trying to make it overwhelmingly in South Ossetia's interest to take them up on the offer.


Iran:
Regime Change in Iran has the week in review. There's a lot going on, from election updates, student clashes, and news from multiple sources regarding Akbar Ganji.

Middle East:
Syria sowing discord in Lebanon after elections. The "corpse in armor" insists on fighting it out all the way to the end.

Arabs wary of Iran election results: more Sunni/Shia divide, after Zarqawi's earlier threats this week against the Shia? (Outright speculation by the host.)

March held to protest violence in Northern Iraq.

Muslims rejecting terrorism and embracing democracy: the numbers aren't where they could be yet, and the data holds some bad news... but the progress is clear.

Egypt opposition holds rare, joint protests. PubliusPundit thinks it's tactical and decidedly temporary. However, the ramifications of two groups as ideologically juxtaposed as Kifaya and the Muslim Brotherhood getting together even temporarily is large, and good. Should it hold to even the medium-term, it would be serious progress for peaceful politics.

Northeast Asia:
This is good.... Bush doctrine focuses on North Korea. Word on the Korean Gulags beginning to really get out. (great links)

Tangentially-relevant, but great pics: South Koreans protest against relocation of US troops (into area).

Russia:
Russia fears the collapse of Dagestan: http://hcs.harvard.edu/hid/archives/2005/07/another_chechni.php "

Information Block Sickness." One always expects differences in translation... but with the authorities in Russia regularly censoring the English-language media , David McDuff notes that those differences are stark.

Siberian Light has a different take on the same phenomena... commenting on McDuff's work, he wonders, "why censor the English-language material, but leave the Russian intact?" (Worrying trend, or intentional clumsiness? -BA)

McDuff continues to provide provocative reading:
-> André Glucksmann: "Russia is digging itself a grave in Chechnya." Chechen Society newspaper, # 14(52), July 19, 2005

-> Man to watch: Vladislav Surkov, who is making waves... A possible successor to Putin?

SouthEast Asia:
Massive anti-Arroyo rally in Philippines: 30,000+ involved.

Up to 200,000 march in pro-Arroyo counter-rally in Philippines in ongoing election fraud scandal. Shades of Lebanon? This wouldn't be the first government mass counter-rally this year.

UPDATE: A post got bobbled somewhere in the submissions phase, from TomPain at CommonerSense. Interesting Things afoot in Angola.... now, if you think the US Presidential elections dragged out in 2000....

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My thanks to Willisms for allowing me to host this Carnival: it is a deep honor. Thanks to all the submitters, particularly PubliusPundit and GatewayPundit, who dredged wide and deep. I haven't been much of a submitter thus far, mostly because of feeling inadequate compared to these two... but the more, the better. I will see what can be done with Glenn Reynolds' "process not event" dictum for next week's Carnival, which will be held at SoapGun Blog on July 25th. General carnival information can be found over at Willisms here.

See you next week at Soap Gun.