blueballs

isn’t it funny how in barbaric activites like armies bombing each other to death, they actually follow rules? like no firing in the no-fire zone, no killing of red cross personnel, no attacking without declaration etc.

attacking without a declaration is also called terrorism, amongst other things. as if sounding a warning makes it any less terrible.

as we go about celebrating christmas and boxing day and/or going about our days which are as plain-sailing and peaceful as they are boring, major upheaval is going on in a country far removed, geographically and in terms of living conditions.

captain moussa dadis camara, key mastermind in the military coup d’état that has gone on in the african state of guinea. after the death of lansana conte, who had served as president for 24 years (and himself from the military), the vacuum of power made the conditions for the coup d’état (starting 23rd december) rather more favourable.

i think back to all the usurpations of such kind that i am personally been familiar with, and they’ve all been rather ugly to say the least.

but here is this man, moussa camara, who holds a masters degree in economics. little violent force was use in the coup, and camara’s men went about taking over key institutions like the prime minister’s office without much fuss. large crowds gathered at a parade held in the city by camara and his gang, which pointed to a celebratory mood more than an atmosphere of fear. ahmed souare, prime minister from the previous regime, has pledged loyalty to camara, now officially the head of state of guinea.

camara has promised “credible and transparent presidential elections by the end of December 2010″, and any new government to be ethnically balanced. he also warned that he would “personally go after anyone that tries to corrupt us”, whilst declaring his party to be unsusceptible to bribes. he had, in a nice gesture, also lifted street curfews temporarily to ensure that christmas celebrations go ahead without problems, even though guinea is a predominantly islamic state and the christians constitute a religious minority. (85% muslim, 7-8% christian)

i have no idea about his future plans and have little access to knowledge of previous coups but hmm, sounds like a good man eh?

“TEHRAN — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran sent an unusual letter congratulating President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday for his victory in the American presidential race, even though the two nations have had no diplomatic ties for nearly 30 years.”
- New York Times

notwithstanding the fact that he’s the biggest celebrity president anywhere in the world i’ve ever seen in my lifetime, and that he generates support and plenty of buzz not only among americans but also usually politically-apathetic people from far-flung corners of the world (like a certain southeast asian island), i truly think this man represents genuine hope for whatever notions of world peace that have gone out of the window over the past few decades, post-war.

he looks different and feels different. for all the talk of war, american resolves of steel, axes of evil, and preemptive strikes that we’ve heard in the past 8 years, this man represents reconciliation, harmony and repairing fractured relations. and personally, not really caring about their economy, i like this part of him very much. he is, in many senses of the word, a new kind of candidate president.

and in the two days past he’s been all-action, showing he means business. soaring oratory got him the job, and now it’s time to do it. and i think he’ll make it. which means we’re potentially seeing a legend in the making.

sarahhhh palin spends US$150,000 of donor-contributed campaign funds on designer clothes! $75,062 at neiman marcus and $49,425 at saks fifth avenue, to be exact.

“i don’t think joe the plumber wears manolo blahniks”

obama had taken an unusual step for a democrat, praising the administration of george HW bush, one that is often seen as the most hardheaded or coldblooded, depending on your point of view, in recent memory.

obama rarely speaks in the moralistic tones of the current bush administration. he doesn’t divide the world into good and evil when speaking about terrorism. he sees countries and even extremist groups as complex, motivated by power, greed and fear as much as pure ideology. he never uses the soaring language of bush’s freedom agenda, preferring instead to talk about enhancing people’s economic prospect, civil society and – his key word – dignity.

as important as what obama says is what he passes up: a series of obvious cheap shots against bush.

obama sees a world that is in many ways going our way. as nations develop, they become more modern and enmeshed in the international economic and political system. to him, countries like iran and north korea are holdouts against the tide of history. it is america’s job to push these progressive forces forward, using soft power more than hard, and to try to get the world’s major powers to solve the world’s major problems. call him an optimistic realist, or a realistic optimist, but don’t call him naive.

“in explaining the goal of the 9/11 attacks, he (osama bin laden) pointed out that they inflicted about $500 billion worth of damage to the american economy yet cost only $500,000.”

“in response to a total of five deaths from anthrax, the u.s. government has spent $5 billion on new security procedures.”

i don’t follow pakistan’s politics much, but i know that musharraf (can i say ‘the bad guy’?) and his party have been convincingly defeated by the pakistan people’s party, once headed by the martyr benazir bhutto.

it’d be slightly interesting to see what happens next. it may not be all good news, for people were known to dislike musharraf for his closeness to bush and the US. hmm.