Harvard International Review

Hi all,

I've just posted my first post on the Harvard International Review's blog. I promised them to post an entry every week, so be sure to check over there regularly for updates. I'll also post links on here every time...

Obviously, also continue to look at Bits of News regularly, though I've recently been a bit lazy on that count...

Cheers!

Putin - Democracy's Man in Moscow

No, I obviously don't think Putin is a good democrat. But his recent manoeuvering might just help Russia return to a modicum of democracy. Why? Check out my post over at the Harvard International Review Blog:

Here's the first two paras:

It’s been a long while since good news for democracy has come out of Russia. Last week, however, brought two interesting developments. First, Garry Kasparov – a charismatic and popular former chess champion – decided to stand as the opposition candidate in the upcoming Presidential elections. Then, Vladimir Putin – Russia’s cold and stern, yet eerily even more popular President – implied that he may seek to become Prime Minister when he has to step down from his current post.

In my view, only one of these decisions has real potential to be good for civic freedoms in Russia. Which? Counterintuitively, it is Putin’s self-serving political calculation, not Kasparov’s well-meaning idealism, which gives me hope.

French Republic = United States of America (II): The Tazering Years

Just in case anyone thought that my last post on France and the US was frivolous - here's another tiny step towards French Americanisation. According to an announcement reported by today's Le Monde, the French municipal police will be equipped with - Tazers. It seems like all things American, good and bad, eventually cross the Pond. If the French aren't careful, Oreo-topped pizza might be next...

The French, however, will have to use Tazers more carefully than police in Flordia did during a recent John Kerry speech (see below): if every rambling audience member at French political rallies was to get tazered, the whole audience would be sent into paralysis sooner or later.

Better idea still: politicians on TV debates, when they exceed their allocated speaking time, could be tazered into silence. I knew America would find a way of silencing these self-righteous French politicos eventually... and a few years ago, when the "Freedom Fries Years" gave no indication that they might be succeeded by the "French Tazering Years", we all feared that the Whist House's weapon of choice might be rather less peaceful!

French Republic = United States of America (I)

I have a pet theory. Most people perceive it as silly, which is why I've been keeping quiet about it. But now - from a very unexpected direction - it is being publicly vindicated. I guess I gotta get moving with it to keep my intellectual property right...

Here it is:

The country with the political system and ideology closest to France is - the US.

My arguments for this will follow over the weeks.

So long, just have a look at Mr. Sarkozy's opinion on the matter:

Mr. Sarkozy, who has been accused of being too enamored of all things American, said he considered France and the United States to be on equal footing and somehow better than many others, because they believe that their values are universal and therefore destined to “radiate” throughout the world. The Germans, the Spaniards, the Italians, the Chinese, by contrast, do not think that way, he said.

Pleased though I am about this support, I am also struck by another, equally surprising, bit of praise for America:

He listed the things that appealed to him during his two-week vacation [in New England]: the countryside, the shopping malls, the restaurants...

The shopping malls?? Apparently Sarkozy really does want to turn France into another mini-America. But I'm not sure I, or the French, can stomach the idea of a "New-England-Come-New-France" minus the convenient Chinatown-bus connection to New York...

(For the full interview, see here)

If only the Dems had some courage... (Le Déserteur)

Whilst the Democrats are failing to oppose the Iraq War effectively on Capitol Hill, Boris Vian's moving song - written in the last stages of France's faultering imperial ambitions during the Indochina War - might serve to inspire them. They probably wouldn't like it, though.

(Here's a verbatim translation, for non-Francophiles:

The Deserter

Mr. President
I'm writing you a letter
that perhaps you will read
If you have the time.

I've just received
my call-up papers
to leave for the front
Before Wednesday night.

Mr. President
I do not want to go
I am not on this earth
to kill wretched people.

It's not to make you mad
I must tell you
my decision is made
I am going to desert.

Since I was born
I have seen my father die
I have seen my brothers leave
and my children cry.

My mother has suffered so,
that she is in her grave
and she laughs at the bombs
and she laughs at the worms.

When I was a prisoner
they stole my wife
they stole my soul
and all my dear past.

Early tomorrow morning
I will shut my door
on these dead years
I will take to the road.

I will beg my way along
on the roads of France
from Brittany to Provence
and I will cry out to the people:

Refuse to obey
refuse to do it
don't go to war
refuse to go.

If blood must be given
go give your own
you are a good apostle
Mr. President.

If you go after me
warn your police
that I'll be unarmed
and that they can shoot.)

Poland has nothing to hide - Or: "Waiting for the Log Cabin Republicans' Sequel..."

The Polish "Women's Party" bared all to show they have nothing to hide - a stab at the national-conservative policies of the Kaczynski government, which is hopefully headed for a hefty defeat in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

A naughty thought, though, may be forgiven. The US Republicans, from the bathroom-cubicled Senator of Idaho, to the prostitute-soliciting Senator of Louisiana, have a lot to hide. Why don't they bare all secrets, with a similar poster?

The Log Cabin Republicans, those rare and brave souls admitting to being homosexual in a deeply homophobic party, have laid the facts bare verbally. Those hypocrites from Idaho to Louisiana should follow suit physically. At least, for once, they'd be in charge of their own humiliation.

Another episode in "Tazering America"

Granted: ranting audience members can be annoying. But this instance of unprovoked police brutality is shocking.

Two things, though, are even more shocking.

a) Kerry's lacking response. On another video you can hear him trying softly to speak out to the police officers - without courage or decision.

b) The media reaction. CNN, for example - supposedly a "liberal" news outlet - in the main implied that it was the student's own fault for being "inappropriate". Inappropriate, by the way, is my favorite Americanism. I hope to write a blog entry on it soon. Suffice it to say, for now, that in a society where things being "inappropriate" is enough of a reason to ban them - or to tazer individuals behaving inappropriately - freedom of speech all too easily flies out of the window...