Peaceful baby
His face is so calm
Full of love and tranquility
How blessed we are
to have warm shelter and peace for him.
How hard and how painful
for the millions upon millions
who lack peace, or water or heat,
who may not have bread or milk to give their children.
How hard and how painful
for the parents who’d lose a baby to a missile
or the babies who’d lose a parent to a bomb
and the nations who’d lose their innocence along the way.
That juxtaposition gives me anxiety:
the peaceful nap of our little baby
against the horrors and hatred brewing around our world,
whether a few blocks up, or 7,000 miles away.
For my baby’s peace cannot be guaranteed
his Spring cannot be counted upon
so long as babies anywhere else in our globe
are suffering, being targeted or killed.
It is for our baby here
that peace must be waged there.
Hezbollah Drug Ring Broken Up in South America
As reported earlier in The Real Axis, a major threat that is not sufficiently explored or countered is the alliance between drug gangs, terrorists, and the authoritarian regime of Hugo Chavez. Now Colombia has uncovered a Hezbollah-linked drug ring that was trafficking drugs and laundering cash.
Hezbollah-led drug stashes seized in Colombia
Ideology and Oil
A silver lining to the recession may be that oil prices are going down, though still at far higher levels than they were just a couple years ago. The bravado of Ahmadinejad, Chavez, and Putin may be at least slightly tamed. Authorized Authoritarianism has gone hand in hand with oil wealth in Iran, Venezuela and Russia. Its license may now start to expire.
The Real Axis
Worthy of real concern is the relationship between Venezuela’s dictator-in-development Hugo Chavez, Iran’s Ahmadinejad and the Hezbollah terrorist network, which has been reported to be basing itself in Venezuela to target anti-US operations.
The $1.8 TRILLION Transfer to Oil-Producing States
Goldman Sachs reckons consumers are handing over $1.8 trillion a year to oil producers.
These states include Iran, Venezuela, Russia… No wonder "authoritarian-driven economies" have looked so good over the last few years. No wonder Iran and Venezuela can afford divisive hegemonic policies.
Quote of the Week: Free Speech, Democracy, and Authoritarianism
It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own.
-Herbert Clark HOOVER
31st President of the United States (1874-1964)
This, indeed, is one of the paramount challenges faced by democratic systems. Democracy cannot exist without freedom of expression. And yet how can it safeguard from demagogic populists who once in power may seek to dismantle democratic systems? Nowadays it is fashionable to criticize democratization efforts in the Middle East - after all, look at what Hamas is doing in Gaza, and what is going on in Lebanon with Hezbollah, and the rise of salafis and fatalists wherever any openness is shown.
There are three keys to a successful democratic system:
- Security By A State Accountable to the People - so people can act on their beliefs without intimidation or coercion, and so militias cannot enforce their will and bully others - think of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine;
- Freedom of Expression and Thought - so all arguments can be truly exposed to scrutiny and thought
- Repeat Election Cycles - so if people make mistakes as they are apt to do, they can undo those who governed badly in the next election cycle - as they did to Hamas the sole time that the people saw them govern and had a chance to vote again; this is the big achilles heel to democracy in the Middle East, as Bernard Lewis commented that fundamentalists had used democracy as "one man, one vote, one time" - and once in power done away with future free elections; this is the problem in Iran, but also in places like Chavez’s Venezuela, and of course Gaza and Lebanon.
- and to be fair in the analysis, a variation of the problem also exists in the West Bank; on one side those in control of the PA
Chavez and the FARC
Most of the world’s attention is zoned in on the US elections or on the Middle East.
But very worthy of concern is the increasingly destabilizing behavior of Hugo Chavez from Venezuela.
He praised FARC commander Raul Reyes as a "good revolutionary" hero. The FARC is the terrorist guerrilla group that has killed thousands of ordinary Colombian citizens. Every Venezuelan and Colombian I’ve spoken to over the last couple months has been warning that Chavez is aiming to start a war against Colombia, partly to prop him up after the electoral defeat when he tried to amend the constitution in order to stay in power.
The Mission, of Those Who Know
One of my favorite movies ever, which I just saw recently after many years, is The Mission. Like all great movies, its power to entertain and its message stand the test of time…
Credit Intoxication
My friend Martin Varsavsky wrote an insightful note on the dangers of credit abuse, on America’s over-reliance on credit to shore up the global economy, and the lessons that we can draw from Argentina’s experience.
For years I have been anxious about the excesses of consumerism in America, for both their economic and social implications. Credit abuse has created phantom prosperity which is now just beginning to catch up with us.
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