This Time Rockets Will DEFINITELY Work

Yesterday Israel opened the crossings to Gaza which had previously been blockaded by the Israeli Defence Force, and for the first time in months allowed aid through to the beleaguered Hamas stronghold-town. This was an unusual move, since the six-month truce that both parties were following ended a few days prior when some Gazans decided it would totally hilarious to fire rockets into Israeli settlements. 

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli PM, warned on Thursday that Gazans should stop all rocket attacks. On Friday, Gazan authorities assured Israel that they were investigating the truce-breaking rocket attacks. 

Today, dissatisfied that Gaza was not completely pacified in the period between Thursday and Saturday, the Israeli military launched a series of air-strikes and missile attacks which have killed 155 people, including the Gaza police chief, who was presiding over the graduation ceremony at the Gazan Police Academy. It is their hope that this will encourage Gazans take control over their own territory and stop attacking Israelis.

A military spokesman for Israel today said that "this is only the beginning". 

MSF Releases Top Ten Humanitarian Crises List

Medecins Sans Frontieres has released their annual list of the ten most underreported humanitarian crises in the world. In the spirit of giving these crises a bit more exposure, I'll reprint the list here with a few comments. What's good about this list is that it specifically avoids the temptation of numbering them on an ascending scale of importance. It's difficult enough to draw attention to unsexy and unexciting humanitarian issues, but it would be equally unhelpful to start a "countdown" to the "number one most underreported humanitarian crisis". 

Somalia

Somalia's humanitarian catastrophe has been chronic and pervasive. The entire country essentially disintegrated years ago in 1991, and for a long time the only semblance of order the country found was in the fundamentalist, milita-enforced rule of the Islamic Courts of Justice, until they were ousted by Ethiopian troops. The country is basically off limits to international aid agencies because no one can guarantee them even a provisionally safe environment in which to deliver aid.

Ethiopia

Neighbouring Somalia, Ethiopia is not doing  much better. The population is largely nomadic, and combined with tensions between rebel and government groups and an incipient civil conflict, delivering aid to this incredibly poor country has become very difficult. This is one of those examples where there has been no catalyst, no major newsworthy event that can be used as a lens through which to see the poverty of the country. Instead a series of boring and complex structural factors contribute to the suffering of Ethiopia's people, relegated to anonymity with the occasional exception of a "special report" in the news.

Myanmar

In May this year, the typhoon that wrecked much of Myanmar dominated the news very briefly. What was equally important at that time was how the military government was completely blocking off a lot of foreign aid that the news coverage of the crisis spurred. Several months on, the situation has returned to a semblance of normalcy, and so Myanmar has once again been forgotten. Normalcy, though, in the case of Myanmar, means destitution and crushing military rule. There is a full blown AIDS epidemic in the country, with over 75 000 people needing anti-retro viral treatment, yet the country has the lowest amount of foreign aid per capita in the world.

Zimbabwe

See previous articles on the topic. But just to add to the chorus, because of the appalling health situation there (especially the prevalence of AIDS), the UN found that the country now has a life expectancy of 34 years.

Democratic Republic of Congo

This again is a crisis that has been fairly well reported, but consistently remains second- or third-tier news. The renewed fighting in the eastern portion of the country, spurred by a dickhead warlord Laurent Nkunda, has caused massive displacement and dislocation of thousands of villagers. Without even mentioning the deaths, the child soldiers, the cholera and malaria outbreaks due to nonexistent sanitation and healthcare, this situation pushes hopes for any sort of progress for the country far into the future. 

Pakistan

The federally administered tribal areas in Northwest Pakistan, bordering on Afghanistan, have long been problematic for the country's security situation, as their goals are sharply opposed to the modernising government of the country. The resulting clashes, combined with the proximity to Afghanistan, brings conflict, poverty, the Taliban, and US explosives onto the scene. The whole area is basically the USA's battleground, so MSF and other NGOs have understandably found it difficult to provide aid and services.

Sudan

The situation in Sudan has been fairly well depicted in the media, despite excessive obsessing over the possibility of "genocide" in the region. What is more pressing than the questionable assertion that concerted ethnic cleansing is going on is the complete lack of infrastructure, stability, or security in Darfur, and the constant spasms of violence that wrack the region. The world's largest humanitarian operation is in place there, but the needs of Darfuris far outweight the services provided. 

Iraq

Iraq has truly become a third world country since 2003, subject to a systematic dismantling of first its government (with the US-led disintegration of the Baathist state following the war), then the economy (with the massive internal displacement and complete lack of security which makes planning and investment impossible), and finally, society (with the USA playing Shia, Sunni and Kurd factions against each other). 

Childhood Malnutrition

This is really a deceptively vital problem, and I didn't really consider it before I read the report. 178,000,000 children worldwide suffer from severe malnutrition problems. The tragic thing about this in particular is that malnutrition as a child stunts your prospects as an adult. It causes mental and physical problems which go on to replicate themselves in following generations. A starved child will grow up into a weak and dull-minded adult, who will be less likely to provide food for his or her children. Ensuring that children get enough food is such an incredibly basic thing, and it definitely requires more attention.

HIV/TB Co-Infection

The AIDS pandemic has been widely reported on and recognised. An important link that MSF emphasises is that between Tuberculosis and AIDS. TB is the most frequent killer of people with AIDS, and it is especially prevalent in countries which happen to have high incidences of AIDS, which is the reason countries like Botswana and Zimbabwe have life expectancies of 37 and 34, respectively. AIDS does more damage than the sum of its parts, as well, since the deaths fall disproportionately on the sexually active, which happen to also be the productive adults in society, leaving societies populated entirely by children and the elderly. 

It's easy to be overwhlemed by all this suffering and seemingly ingrained conflict crisis. But as a starkly editorial comment, I want to exhort both my readers to seriously, seriously not give up. Good work is being done, and the mere recognition of these problems is a step forward, not an admission of defeat. 

To view the excellent MSF feature on this, which has a lot more facts and a lot less opinionated rhetoric, go here.

Taking All Comers

Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe (pictured above indicating the size of his turds as a public reassurance to his supporters of his health) has upped the ante in his latest invective-suffused public address, turning his ire and paranoia from his traditional enemies, the Western powers and the UK in particular, to other African countries. Al-Jazeera English reported on two self-referential gems of his:

"How could African leaders ever topple Robert Mugabe - organise an army to come? It is not easy."

"I do not know of any African country that is brave enough to do that."

Mr. Mugabe is still trying to broker a power-"sharing" deal with his chief rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, who ostensibly won the incredibly broken elections that ran recently. Mr. Tsvangirai is understandably pissed off since Mr. Mugabe has been brazenly abducting dozens of MDC party members and harassing civilian supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change. 

Amid the intense international opprobrium of Mr. Mugabe's regime, his comments are presumably an open challenge to all comers, and an especial reminder that African countries are more than welcome to have a crack at it as well. 

The interesting thing about the Al-Jazeera English article that reported on these comments is that they had absolutely nothing to do with the body of the story, which was about the collapsing Zimbabwean economy and the cholera epidemic that has killed over a thousand so far. The quotes from Mr. Mugabe were a perfunctory indication of the well-known fact that Mr. Mugabe is batshit crazy. 

For some reason it's bad form to imply that the reason Zimbabwe has completely fallen down is Mr. Mugabe's demented rule, so Al-Jazeera English felt it was more appropriate to simply juxtapose the two pieces of information and let the readers connect the dots. Good job, Al-Jazeera English!

In other news, I will do my very best to write more about people, ideas, and countries from Latin America that I don't like, as I have been harping on about Zimbabwe and Thailand enough. Fingers? Crossed.

Bush vs. Shoe

Totally worth publishing the worst quality picture of Bush in motion this blog has ever seen (left), the by now ubiquitous story of how Iraqi reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi threw a shoe at lame-duck president Bush prima facie very funny. The story is even funnier if you take a look at the wider shot. The fact that Mr. al-Zaidi threw both shoes, the first while running and the second without pause is very, very funny. Also funny are the juxtaposed responses from the Iraqi government, which called it a "barbaric and ignominious act" that "insults the Iraqi state"; and from Mr. al-Zaidi's brother, Usain, who said "Thanks be to God, Muntazer's act fills Iraqi hearts with pride."

Less funny are the jokes everyone else is making about "bringing a whole new meaning to duck and cover!" and "shoe-do!". But that's no big surprise.

HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY, POLITIC BLUNDER!

Yes, this is Politic Blunder's 50th post, and celebrates approximately four months of giving it to you straight (platonically). No one said we'd make it this far, and now that we have, no one is commenting on the fact, so I'm officially declaring all the critics SILENCED. 

This issue we're bringing you four stories and a birthday present. The birthday present is this fantastic video, which you should all definitely watch (link here). It's about the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, how much sense it makes, and how little that sense is actually listened to. It's also got some flashy Flash effects and a bit at the end about Aung San Suu Kyi that nearly ruins it. But that bit's only a few seconds long, so seriously, watch the video.

Everyone in Britain will remember this picture of Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian civilian who was shot seven times in the head by the police while sitting on the tube, suspected of being a July 21 bomber. The picture was revolutionary because Menezes looked like a nice guy, a guy possibly contemplating a shoulder or bicep-tattoo, but a nice guy nonetheless. The inquest which was launched following his killing revealed a disastrous failure of intelligence, a tragic incompetence on the part of the police, and as it just emerged today, an open verdict.

The open verdict means that the jury was not allowed to reach a verdict of "unlawful killing" because of the coroner's report on the shooting, and thus had a choice between "lawful killing" and "open verdict". By choosing "open verdict", the jury is affirming that a shooting did take place, but is abstaining from passing judgment on anything else, officially making this a cock-up from beginning to end. 

Following in the theme of "people the police were not supposed to kill but killed anyway" is the

 issue of the Greek 15 year-old who was shot by policemen after pelting a police car with stones with his friends. The killing, which has not yet been confirmed as intentional (There's a persuasive ricochet theory floating around) has nonetheless sparked a week of intense rioting and destruction across the country. Athens has been ground to a standstill on more than on

e occasion. This doesn't look nearly as bad as the de Menezes shooting, as even if it was intentional, the killing looks to have been a matter of imprudence and unprofessionalism, rather than seven bullets fired into the head. Still, the anger of the Greek mobs is thought to be relating to more than just the shooting, as Greece isn't doing so well economically. Let's hope the situation cools down.

Rome, meanwhile, is seeing the beginning of the apocalypse. Torrential downpours amounting in one night to the entire average rainfall of December, one of Rome's rainiest months, have completely flooded parts of the city, with officials predicting that the banks of the river Tiber will overflow by the end of the week (the picture of Castel Sant'Angelo to the left should have a lot more land and people in it.). The fascist mayor, Alemanno, unnecessarily characterised

 the flooding as "like an earthquake", when in fact it was a lot more like flooding. As far as intelligence reports show, former-SBR headquarters on Via Stresa have been undamaged, with no comment from the six Jamaican women living there. 

Also in Italy is president-elect Barack Obama... in plastic form! Yes, Barack Obama plastic figurines are now adorning the nativity scenes of Italians in the South. The tradition of the nativity scene is important to Italians, being somewhat of a surrogate for the pagan ritual of Christmas trees. Barack Obama's meteoric rise to celebrity must have had enough parallels with Jesus to warrant his place in the manger. Let's just hope he's not pictured cleaning the place up and serving drinks. 

And that concludes Politic Blunder's 50th birthday. Remember to check out the blogs linked to on the right of the page, they're most excellent, especially the Osu! Tatakae! Nippon!, which recently reached the lofty heights of fifty posts itself. 

Also, a shout out to my lovely girlfriend, who had her wisdom teeth carved out of her jaw a few days ago. I know you can't eat solid foods yet, but hopefully this blog has given you something to digest. Eh?

New Blog Feature Discreetly Sweeps Dead Blog Feature Under The Rug

In the spirit of neverending innovation Politic Blunder has brought both its readers a brand new Blog Feature to feast their four eyes upon. A prize of scorn and sexual rejection will be awarded to the author of the insipid or "puntastic" headline featured in the "Name and Shame" box on the right of the blog, which will be updated with quivering restraint. 

Entrants will have to be writing for broadsheet or otherwise reputable newspapers, in order to cut down the number of applicants and add a frisson of betrayal and disillusionment to the proceedings. Readers can nominate headlines they find and have their fifteen minutes of dizzying celebrity by sending them to my email or posting them as a comment. Any good ones will be put up, along with the submitter's name, in a separate box, "Name and Fame", which will be extremely close to the "Name and Shame" box.

A Misplaced Criticism of American Justice

The New York Times ran an article a few days ago concerning the ongoing trial of five mercenaries belonging to Blackwater company who shot 17 civilians dead in Nisour Square, Baghdad. The article is called "Blackwater? So Many Others", and it argues that the Blackwater prosecution is just a photo-op, a show to prove the USA is taking care of business, but that it obfuscates the hundreds of other similar killings that are perpetrated by lawless gangs and terrorists in the country.

But there is a difference between Blackwater killing 17 civilians and one of Sadr's lackeys blowing him (or her) self up to kill as many. And the USA is justified for treating this case much more seriously, and at a much higher profile. 

Iraq's army and police force are nowhere near being able to secure the country of their own accord, and thus the US Army, along with all the UN troops, all international troops, and all mercenaries such as Blackwater contracted by them, are acting as provisional law enforcement for Iraq. As such, it is a much, much bigger deal when these people, invested with the trust of civilians, instead end up massacring the people they are supposed to protect. In addition to the obvious question of justice this raises, it is symptomatic of a failing state agency, which is a much more serious problem than sporadic, if vicious, terrorist attacks. The dozens that die in terrorist attacks in Iraq undoubtedly need to be covered more. 55 died just today in one blast in Kirkuk. But this trial, and the persecution of justice with regards to these murderers, needs to be even more closely watched.

What's that, Lassie? Zimbabwe's in trouble?

780 dead is the latest count from most news sources concerning the amount of lives Zimbabwe's burgeoning cholera epidemic has taken. The World Health Organisation estimates that 16 000 people are infected with the disease, and up to 6 million people, half the country's population, may be at risk due to the almost ubiquitous raw sewage in the streets. This should be utterly unsurprising, coming from a country with a non-existent political system, a vicious, incompetent and insane autocrat, and an inflation rate of 8,000,000,000,000,000,000% (eight quintillion). 

So now is yet another good time for the world community to remember what an incredible shit-hole Zimbabwe is. There have been the usual shows of shock and horror for how such abject poverty can exist in the world, the clucking of historians who remind us that Zimbabwe used to be "Africa's breadbasket", and the wistful hope that the octogenarian Mugabe will die soon. But this is not how the story should end.

The UN has 17 000 troops attempting to secure the chaos in the Congo, and many are pressing for more. Foreign troops need to enter Zimbabwe as well. The assumption that Zimbabwe is somehow less of a completely dire crisis zone is untenable. A man in a suit shouting angrily from a podium draped in a flag does not a state make. Mugabe's Zimbabwe should be recognised for what it is: 12 million scared, starving sick people hemmed in by a madman's ailing military cadres. There is no state, there is no sovereignty or right to non-intervention, only an overwhelming obligation to act. 

The New Original Politic Blunder!

You might be thinking, what has your Politic Blunder correspondant been doing for the past 6 hours? Why was he not covering such juicy headlines as "Abandoned Tower sows dismay in Riverdale, NY", or "Belgian car dealer offers 2-for-1 offer on cars" before they were snapped up by young pretenders New York Times and Reuters? What price idleness?!

My time was well spent. A Politic Blunder now has a slightly modified look! Among the more prominent changes are different (hopefully more readable) fonts and colours and a new sidebar widget so that I can keep track of the names and nationalities of people visiting my blog. Also, the now-famous Politic Blunder banner photo of me has now been justified to the right considerably. My position on the banner will denote, in real time, my current political stance on the left-right axis. I ask you to note that although I appear to be on the right at the moment, I am in fact on my left. The opposite rule applies when I appear on the left, making the banner a questionable gauge of my particular politics. 

Forthcoming: A fuller feature on the Mumbai terrorist attacks and their implications, and a gallery of aborted blog templates that I could have inflicted on you.

Kim Jong-CHILL!

This week we're revisiting the absurdity of North Korea's military regime with a surreal story of petulance and some behind the scenes pictures of the side of North Korea they don't want you to see! (pictured left) 

The ritual illusion that is the six-party nuclear talks in Beijing is being held again next week, and North Korea is kicking it off in style by stating that it will be ignoring Japanese delegates at the meetings. A foreign ministry spokesman said:

"We will neither treat Japan as a party to the talks nor deal with it even if it impudently appears in the conference room, lost to shame"  

The reason for this childishness is Japan's intimation that the problem of the dozens of Japanese citizens the North Korean government has abducted over the years would need to be solved if aid was going to be given to the military dictatorship.

North Korea clearly feels that its national dignity is being impugned by this request, and has instead repeated its demands for exorbitant amounts of money in reparations for 

the Japanese occupation of Korea that ended in 1945. These funds, Kim Jong-Il hopes, will be the silver bullet that will allow North Korean scientists to crack the problem of complete 180 degree splits in North Korean female officers' goose

-step (insufficiently pictured right).

African Democracy Shames Italians

Slightly more heartening news this week comes from Ghana. A continent that's usually written off as an aggregation of helpless peasants led by unhelpful kleptocrats, a lot of people's eyes glaze over whenever African politics are mentioned. Understandably, too. What's the point of taking the time and mental effort to remember an unreasonably complicated name when the politician in question will probably be thrown to the dogs by the end of the month?

Today, though, Ghana is seeing its fifth consecutive general election, with the outgoing president, John Kufuor, willingly relinquishing power because he has reached his maximum service of two presidential terms. He has groomed a potential successor, Nana Akufo-Addo, who will be standing against seven other candidates. A domestic organisation of election observers, CODEO, have noted some irregularities with the voter register, but are otherwise satisfied.

It's not the kind of news that really excites and delights, especially where it concerns Africa. But for the continent to be seeing this kind of stable power transition is incredibly impo-

rtant. Ghana is very much part of the African experience and progression. North African countries like Algeria and Egypt are ruled by different political cultures and norms. They are affected by Arabism and their proximity to oil and the Mediterranean Sea. Likewise, South Africa had its experience with Apartheid, and its flirtation with wealth. 

Ghana's experience was mirrored by half a dozen other sub-Saharan African countries. Initially socialist after independence, Ghana suffered greatly when it mistakenly tried to starve its blooming cocoa industry in pursuit of "true industrialisation". Since then it has had a tough time with its structural adjustment plan, and has been enjoying the relatively steady, if uneven, growth that marks all liberalised developing countries.

That Ghana has managed to maintain such a healthy democracy for so long is cause for great hope, and a harsh rejoinder to all the dickheads who say that Africa is a "lost continent", beyond hope.

The Triumph of The Loud Over the Voiceless. Again.

Today a nine-member panel of judges in Thailand decided that Somchai Wongsawat's ruling party will be disbanded, and Somchai himself banned from politics for five years, due to ambiguous charges of electoral fraud. Also disbanded are two other parties from Somchai's six-party ruling coalition. This will mean more chaos and instability in Thai politics for the foreseeable future, with the end result probably being another general election. 

The head judge of the panel that decided this stated that ''the court has decided to dissolve the party to set a political standard and an example''. This would be an acceptable statement were it not for the thousands of yellow shirted jackals quite literally at the door of the government buildings when this ruling was made. It is not setting any sort of example when a bunch of armed protesters get to decide who stays and who does not stay in power completely aside from any sort of institutionalised political process. What about the millions and millions of rural poor who didn't have the resources to mobilise, wear snazzy yellow shirts, and blockade the airport? The example that has been set is a profoundly undemocratic one, where those with the power, resources and influence to attack the state and its functions get to decide who remains in power. Make no mistake, this was a coup.

An open letter to the PAD, the bourgeois funded and elite-led organisation which took up arms to unseat the popularly elected government through extra-legal means: Fuck you.

More on this turn of events later. Maybe.

The World Is Still Round

To finish up catching up on the week's news, Politic Blunder will do one better and look at people predicting the future. It is a tradition at The Economist  to print an issue at the end of the year with lots of well-informed predictions about the coming year. This £5.50 issue is worth a place in your toilet, as it has a lot of useful and nifty financial information and some interesting articles written by world leaders, CEOs, and Third World presidents.

The real reason to get it, though, is the predictive articles themselves. Some snippets from The Economist's perfected the art of self-evident prophecy:

-In Iraq: 'Arguments over the pace of American withdrawal will persist'

-In Australia: 'The world's second-dryest continent is running out of water'

-In Africa: 'A better future for sub-Saharan Africa depends on better policies'

-In the USA: 'Obama will have to learn how to say no'

In 2009, women across the world will have to learn to say no to me, but will be inexplicably unable to. 

Quite Simply Crossing the Line

In Thailand, the stupidly named Popular Alliance for Democracy (PAD) has been occupying the Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport for the past few days. This has paralysed flights, stranded hundreds of passengers, and looks to be on the way to crippling Thailand's credibility as a stable country to visit as a tourist or as an investor. The PAD has been causing problems for Thailand's politics for months now, as either of my Politic Blunder readers can attest to. After their general protests, and their continuing occupation of government buildings in Bangkok, the middle and upper-class movement of the disgruntled rich in a mostly poor country has upped the stakes by taking up arms, occupying an airport and explicitly stating that if they are shot at by riot police 'they will shoot back' . 

The presence of two thousand protesters, many of which are armed, occupying a capital city's airport is cause for a forcible breakup of the protest. They have repeatedly refused offers of dialogue, insisting that all their demands must be met without precondition or negotiation. This is not a social movement, or a 'popular alliance'. An armed group that refuses to engage in peaceful politics? I believe most of the world already has a term for this kind of organisation. People are scared in Bangkok. There have been smatterings of gunfire throughout the city, and even the ostensibly tough-as-nails brick shithouse muay thai tourists are being advised to stay home.  

The PAD has probably managed to evade forcible dispersion so far for two main reasons. Firstly, Somchai Wongsawat, the embattled PM, wants desperately to avoid violence, as he knows this would both reflect badly on him, and the country as a whole. Thailand is relatively prone to coups, but it has still managed to retain a reputation as a peaceful and stable country, which is why it's become such a hub of tourism and investment in the area. Wongsawat doesn't want to damage this. The second reason is that elements in the army and police may well be sympathetic to the PAD. After all, the PAD has been calling on the army to violently depose Wongsawat for months now, and as in most developing countries, the army has more political ambitions than it really should. 

Let's just hope that the Thai riot police grows a pair and realises that its hand is being forced. No one in England or the USA would complain that the government is being oppressive by forcibly dispersing an armed occupation of the airport. It is well within the remit of Wongsawat to do so, and it is increasingly looking like his duty.

Settling Dust

There is as of yet very little information on the details of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, so I won't really comment on the implications or the causes of them yet. The first funerals of the 195 dead have started.

This doesn't look to be the seismic event that 9/11 was, despite the fact that a fair number of people from the First World died, too. What is especially tragic is how this many people would never have died were it a hotel in Belgium or London that was besieged, just as an earthquake that is a minor inconvenience in Tokyo or Beijing will kill thousands in Pakistan or rural China. Ten youths with a few hundred rounds and some grenades should never have been able to kill hundreds and stall the military might of one sixth of the world's population.

Through NATO's Glass, Very, Very Darkly

You may remember the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, in 2001, was conducted for two main reasons. The first, ostensibly, was to capture Osama bin-Laden and take vengeance on a foreign country for the deaths of thousands of innocent Americans. The perception was largely that 'someone has to pay', and in their blindly hateful haste, the US government was compelled to choose Afghanistan. 

The second reason, enunciated more loudly once the 9/11 bloodlust had faded somewhat, was that Afghanistan was under the grip of a powerfully oppressive and undemocratic regime, the Taliban. We were flooded with pictures of Afghan women wearing intimidatingly complete veils, and stories of them being beaten for trying to go to school, or even going outside unescorted by a family member. The war, we are now told, was always a war of liberation and salvation, a generous attempt to bring liberal democracy to the most disposessed reaches of Central Asia.

Today three NATO officials revealed that its public affairs office in Afghanistan, which deals with press releases and official documentation, will be merged with its information warfare and 'psy ops' office. This office has two categories. There is the Information Operations office, which publishes and distributes information designed to demoralise the opposition (examples of this include the leafleting back in WWII up until today, whereby millions of leaflets were dropped from the sky indicating that enemy combatants would surely lose if they did not give themselves up immediately.) Then there is the tres cool abbreviated 'psy ops' which deals with 'black operations', or outright deception and propaganda. These are the offices that will be merged with the organ of NATO that gives press releases and informs its constituents of what is going on.

This blog has talked a lot about building healthy democratic institutions and working at them even when it may seem counterintuitive or unproductive. Transparency is one of the most important building blocks of any democracy. Accountability is impossible without transparency, and true representative democracy is impossible without accountability. What NATO is doing now in Afghanistan may be expedient, but it is damaging the foundations of what they are trying to build in the country. Creating a liberal democracy ex nihilo in a country that until recently had no conception of either the State or democracy is a big enough job without frustrated military officials fucking it up for the politicians.

Anti-Social Socialist Socialites

On Sunday state elections were held in Venezuela, one of the most oil-rich countries in Latin America. Hugo Chavez, the loudly socialist leader of that country, suffered heavy losses for the first time in his 10 year rule, losing 5 out of 22 states to the opposition, including the capital city, Caracas. This may be the turning point that the Venezuelan opposition to Chavez has been waiting for.

Chavez (shown here belittling George Bush's manhood: 'Even with binoculars I cannot see it!') is famous for his populist demagoguery, notable even by Latin American standards. What's remarkable about this latest challenge to his power is that it looks like Chavez will be defeated through the mobilisation of voters and through electoral mechanisms, rather than a messy coup.  The Venezuelan opposition has been steadily garnering support through its efficient administration of urban slums, allowing it to cut through much of the ideological nonsense put forth by Chavez's party. The latest financial crisis and the now decreasing price of oil have also put strain on Chavez's populist policies of direct transfers to the poor, revealing the fragility of oil states which systematically placate the disenfranchised by handing out oil cash. This is not a stable or desirable state of affairs, and this is becoming increasingly obvious.

The situation in Venezuela has some parallels to the situation in Thailand that both my Politic Blunder readers will be intimately familiar with by now. Both involve a populist leader with strong support among the rural poor, and both are being opposed by the dissatisfaction of the urban bourgeoisie. The difference between the two situations is that in Thailand the opposition has chosen to make dangerous and undemocratic demands, calling for a 70% unelected parliament and begging the military to stage a coup. In Venezuela, the opposition is now trying to oust Chavez by mobilising voters, providing real administrative alternatives to his rule, and calling for a constructive dialogue, 'from being an 'anti-Chavez' movement to being a 'pro-' movement', in the words of Leopoldo Lopez, one of the opposition leaders. 

Chavez is a deeply dangerous, undemocratic leader whose policies to help the poor have been little more than shallow salves. He continually campaigns to amend the constitution to allow himself to serve for more terms than he should, and has a long history of hostility towards democratic opposition, including shutting down critical television stations and vowing to arrest the opposition's main leader, Manuel Rosales. It seems increasingly likely that he will be toppled, but one can only hope that the killing blow will come from the ballot box rather than the barracks.

 

On the 'Lighter' Side of the News...

I'm sure you've heard the Canadian Supreme Court has upheld the 'one-person-one-fare' ruling for its airlines, meaning that obese people have the right to commandeer as many seats as their grossly distended gut will occupy. While it's great fun imagining this sort of vast amoeba-like diffusion, and it's even more fun looking up pictures of the morbidly yet gleefully obese people on google, this law is pretty stupid, in essence.

Next time you're on any sort of Canadian bus, claim that your hand is an integral part of your body that nonetheless requires the seat adjacent to you. They won't be able to touch you. 

Your brave Politic Blunder correspondent will be testing this out in his upcoming visit to Canada by demanding that every seat on the plane be reserved for him and his gargantuan ego.

Congo Warlord gets New York Times Stooge

The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations has just approved another 3000 troops for MONUC, the contingent that is desperately trying to restore some semblance of order to the blood-slicked provinces of North and East Congo. This will bring the contingent up to about 20 000 soldiers, the largest in the world, although there are concerns that the reinforcements will not be deployed quickly enough. 

For those for whom African crises seem to blend into one another (most of us), this particular crisis springs from the sudden desire General Laurent Nkunda had to seize power in the country. He therefore started a rebellion that has to date killed thousands and forced a quarter of a million people to pack up their nonexistent shit and leave after their houses have been burned down or requisitioned by armed men ('displaced').

The news is, though, that the New York Times has printed an article by Jeffrey Gettleman about Nkunda and his rebels. This article asks if the rebels will be able to effictively administer the country, and remarks worriedly that they seem more comfortable 'in boots than in suits'. The whole article has a mildly comical spin to it, painting out the Congolese rapist-murderer-cum-rebels as bumbling ineffectual administrators, 'breathing a sigh of relief' after delivering their first uncertain speech to a crowd of 'displaced' civilians. You can't blame them, poor things, they're more used to forcing children to rape their sisters before forcing them to join their armed forces than they are giving high-falutin' political speeches.

Jeffrey Gettleman needs to remember, before writing an article about the comedy potential of a soldiers trying to do politics, that the crisis in the Congo is the most urgent and tragic one in the world, at present. If Laurent Nkunda had any legitimate political or democratic claim to the power-sharing talks he's demanding (which he doesn't), it would have been obviated by his blatant and consistent use of extortion, mass murder, gang rape, and gross violations of children's noncombatant status. Writing an article like Jeffrey Gettleman's article accomplishes two things. It gives Nkunda's rebellion an undue air of legitimacy by prompting speculation as to how they will rule (and the article itself inexplicably implies that Nkunda's rebels might be better for the people than the incumbent government), and it trivialises the entire affair. 

There is no reason to even consider legitimising Nkunda or his rebellion. Africa, and especially the DRC, desperately needs some sort of institutional stability, a solid framework in which political goals can be obtained. No one, especially no one at the NY Times, should be normalising this situation. A BBC report today told of a 17 year-old mother whose 3 year-old daughter had been gang raped. Maybe Jeffrey Gettleman would like to tell us the punch line in this story.

Petulance at the Highest Levels

  One hour after losing his presidential immunity, the authorities were upon Chen Shui Bian, former president of Taiwan, on allegations of massive corruption and abuse of power. It turns out he had wired millions of dollars to Swiss bank accounts under the guise of 'special expenses', and after fighting hard to stop his successor, Ma Ying-Jeou, from declassifying the relevant documents, in August he admitted to everything, saying:

'My conscience has told me that I cannot continue to lie to myself or to others, so I wil choose to be bluntly honest:I have in the past committed deeds that are against the rule of the law, and I am willing, for all campaign finance dishonesty from my four elections for mayor and my election for president, to apologise.'

Clearly, though, he expected that an apology is all that is expected from an ex-president guilty of massive corruption and abuse of power. He said sorry! So it evidently came as a huge surprise when instead of the public weepily telling him that they understand his motives and don't blame him at all, the Taiwanese authorities arrested him on charges of massive corruption and abuse of power. An outraged Chen Shui Bian today announced that he would go on a hunger strike to protest 'being put in jail as a sacrifice to appease China'. 

This story is only remarkable in that Chen Shui Bian is clearly genuinely offended and baffled as to why he is being arrested and charged, and that he clearly thinks that his apology was punishment enough for stealing and laundering over $31 million. This kind of culture among ruling elites obtains elsewhere, too. In June this year the Italian pig-farm that makes our laws passed a legislation that gave the top four positions in Italian government immunity from prosecution. This dovetails nicely with PM Berlusconi's keen interest in evading prosecution for massive corruption, abuse of power, mafia connections, and accessory to murder. It's good to see that in Taiwan at least, the people are still green enough to the concept of democracy that they are willing to 'besiege the president's office' and demand their money back.

In tomorrow's news: Chen Shui Bian announces that he will 'hold his breath really hard until you drop the charges.'

A Mythic Hope and a Brightening Dawn - A Politic Blunder Feature

I can think of few people who last night were not nailed to the front of their televisions, or nervously clicking the refresh button over and over, or drinking to excess. I was doing all three. Obama's election means a lot to black Americans, and it means a lot to the soldiers in Iraq, on either side. The internet has been awash with testimonies and open letters to this effect. But it bears a special and separate significance to the rest of the world. Obama gave us a short few lines at the closing end of his speech, affirming that we had a shared destiny, with the caveat that it would be under a 'dawn of American leadership'. 

So what fate the billions of non-Americans who hope for not just a change within America, but a change between America and the rest of the world? I am but one small Italian student in London, ostensibly with no stake or power in the events that shape the so-called 'Leader of the Free World'. Obama's presidency means first and foremost the end of the Bush era. Neoconservatism, John Bolton's psychotic proclamations of the primacy of US interests 'above all else', two destructive and unsuccessful wars, and an unhealthy redolence of the Cold War with China and Russia. These were all hallmarks of the Bush doctrine, and we can hope to see these things disappear from American discourse under a successful Obama presidency. America has long been aware that the world despises it, but it is now becoming aware of the fact that this matters. 

Obama is a thoughtful man, and one who clearly prides himself on his intelligence, which is more than can be said for either Bush or the Republican candidate. This, along with his rhetoric of change and his policy promise of negotiations without preconditions mean that we can look forward to a USA that engages with the world more as a participant in the world community, rather than regarding us as either accomplices to their interests or terrorists. Obama's affirmation that this new dawn was one of American leadership was politically inevitable, but it remains disappointing. America should not have to rely on its sense of entitlement and exceptionalism for its identity. I believe we may see change in this direction in the next four years.

Almost as intense as the optimism and hope that swelled following news of Obama's victory was a hard knuckle of cynicism and doubt. You can always count on some pundits to try to take a negative spin on any overwhelmingly hopeful and positive turn of events just to appear more nuanced and sophisticated than those poor naive who truly believe things are worth being happy about sometimes. These commentators point to the huge problems the world still faces. The continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the continuing shitstorm in Sub-Saharan Africa, and a big fuckoff financial crisis that has everyone not only scared for their lives and livelihoods, but collectively embarassed by how little we understand about the forces that control our homes and our markets. 

The pundits are idiots to be cynical about Obama. If anything, we should be more hopeful and optimistic that this kind of starkly positive change happened right when the world truly needed it. Of course no one expects Obama to actually be a messianic figure that will solve world poverty and beat Osama Bin-Laden at Street Fighter Alpha 3. But everyone who is genuinely happy that Obama won and thinks that things will get better from now on is far better an analyst of political opinion than either the grim naysayers of the high-minded broadsheets, or Gore Vidal.

An Obituary and then some Pie

The Red Ring of Death has finally struck my Xbox 360, putting it out of commission for the last time. It's had a good run, seeing as I bought it over three years ago when it first came out, and since then it's given me many a 10-hour session of good times. After keeping it in overheating conditions with dust in the air for far too long, it started fucking up with increasing alacrity. For the last six months of its life, we all pretty much knew it was fading. We had to keep the windows open and artificially keep the room cold for the console to work. It was sad when the Red Ring of Death finally showed up, indicating catastrophic hardware failure, but in a way, it was time to move on. 

To a new Xbox! I went through all my old games and cleansed the ones that I could sell and part with. I ended up getting over £70 for my efforts, £28 of which came from Santez's Guitar Hero

 controller. Santez, if you're one of my two readers, know that your sacrifice was not in vain. (and I will definitely, definitely get you another controller if you come back from New York and need to play Guitar Hero.) This means that I ended up paying only £60 for a brand new console! Fantastic, I'm sure you'll agree.

In other, equally significant news, The Election is happening tonight. For 21 months it has pretty much hijac-

ked the second-tier spot in the news which stories about 10-50 non-nationals dying usually occupies. In recent times it has completely overwhelmed all newspapers with vast swathes of red, white and blue, and it's fair to say that in the rest of the 

world, it is Obama's rhetoric of Change, Hope, and most importantly, Pie which has captured the people's imagination far more than McCain's increasingly simpering petulance and Palin's out-of-this-world psycho-mom folksiness. Americans are making an important decision tonight with their ballots. None of the rest of us can vote, but that doesn't mean that we are condemned to be passive spectators of the process. The world's will is firmly behind Obama, and this has resonated strongly in America. Being the Most Hated Country On The Planet is not a badge of honour for most Americans, and knowing that 200 000 people turned out to watch Obama speak in Berlin truly affects them. 

I will be watching the election coverage tonight with a hand-picked retinue of intrepid friends, and we will be equipped with celebration alchohol and commiseration alchohol. All are invited to attend. Whoever wins the election tonight, Politic Blunder will be featuring its second Special on the new president. Tune in or be left with the paltry exclusives and shallow analysis of all the other syndicated broadsheets around. 

The Noble Institution of Political Violence

The Democratic Republic of Congo has had a worse time of democracy than most. Subject to the crushing dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko until 1997, it was nonetheless unable to use this experience to build a strong commitment to peaceful democratic institutions, like Chile has. This is due to a variety of reasons, from ethnic and tribal divisions to the constant incursions and raids perpetrated by Ugandan and Rwandan paramilitaries. The most saddening thing is that one institution that DR Congo has developed, in common with much of Sub-Saharan Africa, is that of political violence. It is an expected and mostly accepted fact that new political rivals will introduce themselves largely through the medium of large-scale guerrilla warfare, terrorising innocent civilians, and generally fucking up the tiny and fragile government's ability to rule. When this happens, a process we are seeing now occurs, whereby the murderous warlord announces his love of peace, and wearied government officials and foreign ministers turn up and try to arrange a cease-fire and inclusive power-sharing talks. 

But this is completely the wrong way to go. If warlords are told instititutionally that they can achieve legitimate, self-sustaining power through this process, then of course they will do it more. It's blatantly a short-term salve. Share power is exactly what warlords should not be able to do. No government can survive if it's formed by ex-militants and warlords, all of whom see violence as a perfectly viable political tool. Forget technocracy and the rule of the educated elite, let's start with a government that's not bent on draining blood and money from its constituents until they're forced to scamper to Switzerland to avoid half-hearted international opprobrium.

Weber's famous definition of the state is that party that manages to establish a monopoly on the use of violence within a given territory. This may sound cold, but it's very true that this is one of the bases of actually building a state. Unless the new warlord, Laurent Nkunda, and his ridiculously named National Congress for the Defence of the People, want to challenge the government for power peacefully and institutionally, they need to shut the fuck up, or die. Literally.

AIRE

The AIRE, Anagrafe Italiani Residenti All'Estero, is a register of all Italians currently residing abroad. Previous to today, I'd been living in a semi-legal limbo (is there any other kind of    limbo?), officially residing in a small Italian town called Mirandola, whose greatest hero is Pico Della Mirandola, a philosopher who issued one of the first 'against all comers' challenges, loudly bragging that he could defend almost a thousand theses against any man. These theses, the wikipedia article asserts, 'he believed to provide a complete and sufficient basis for the discovery of all knowledge, and hence a model for mankind's ascent of the chain of being', making him irrevocably an hero. The article doesn't mention whether he was ever challenged, and if so, what happened, but since in contemporary Mirandola only 23 000 inhabitants remain, we can only assume it was such an epic clash that the decimating repercussions are still keenly felt today. 

In any case, being a resident of Mirandola meant that I could not access any consular services here in London, such as renewing my passport or more importantly, voting. Since being a resident of Mirandola actually doesn't benefit me in any way now that I am no longer officially my father's dependent, I decided to subscribe to the AIRE in a belated attempt at teenage rebellion. Imagine my surprise when, in response to a hastily compiled and sloppily signed form slotted under the doorway of the Italian consulate 2 months ago, I received back notification that I had been removed from the registry in Mirandola and placed on the AIRE! My surprise was great. 

So now I am officially a citizen of the world, and shall be signing all my cheques that way, which won't make them any more valid, but it certainly, certainly won't make them any less valid. I am also allowed to vote, which is nice, as Italy is possessed of one of the more peculiar voting systems that includes a constituency specifically for Italians living abroad. Stay tuned for the inevitable waves you'll see in the parliamentary system. This also represents the second of my life goals I have achieved since I started this blog, making this officially the most self-realised period of my life.

It's Just Vapour Lock, Honey!

Sandwiched in between news of the Congolese rebel army that's currently storming towns and sending UN peacekeeping forces packing, and a story on the increasing tensions between Iraq's newly (semi) independent government and the USA was this new low in journalistic tedium. The headline reads 'Smoke from car in Afghan capital spreads blast fear'. And that's exactly what the story says, in more or less as many lines. There was a car that broke down or something, and it started making a lot of smoke, so some people came to look, thinking it could have been a suicide bombing. But it wasn't. It was just a car, with a bit of smoke. They probably thought it was really stupid to think it was a suicide bombing when they hadn't heard any explosions, or seen any blood, or by virtue of the fact that the car was intact, with just a bit of smoke coming out from under the hood. 

You'd think Afghanistan's present situation would give the prospective reporter something more to work with than a broken down car. The article itself mentions that suicide bombings often happen in Afghanistan. Why not start there? 

My Unending Wrath and Bile

A man tried to defraud me by stealing my debit card information and with- drawing 100 pounds from my account in Malaysia. 

EDIT: It turns out that the person who defrauded me was not called Mr. A. Ryngit, as I previously assumed from looking over the shoulder of the fraud assistant at the HSBC. Ryngit, as everyone cleverer than me will know, is the Malaysian currency, not the name of the person who defrauded me. My apologies to an actual Mr. Ryngit, if he exists. My frustration and impotent rage now need new directions. Suggestions are welcome.

West Reassures Itself: At Least It's Not China

The New York Times has just published an article concerning the way the Communist Party in China mistreats its Uighur minority, especially with regards to their Islamic faith. The article is to be commended for the fact that it brought to light issues ailing this often under-reported region of the world.  Central Asia, with its labyrinthine country names and impressively hellish urban landscapes has been easily ignored by the media, so it's good that the article was written, even if it was the latest in a vein of implicit Sinophobe sentiment sweeping through America. 

The article points to several repressive measures China has taken against its Uighur population in order to stem the spread of Islam in the country. These include harsh regulations regarding the Hajj pilgrimage, a ban on government officials praying at mosques, and a ban on students taking part in fasting during Ramadan. These measures are undeniably harsh, but you can feel the self-righteous paranoia of the American press seeping through, pointing to the Chinese regime's discrimination against Islam with tremulous fingers and bleating 'Lookit, they're worse than us!'. Well, obviously. This doesn't make the disgusting and dangerous anti-Arab and anti-Muslim undertones sweeping through the USA and in a different way, through Europe, any less execrable.  

What China is realising is what the rest of the developed world has already realised, but is too cowardly to admit beyond far-right blogs and Domestic Security committees. Extremist radical religion is blatantly dangerous, and religion turns extremist and radical in areas which are suffering from either political dissatisfaction or economic suffering. The Uighur region of China is suffering from both of those, and is very clearly a powder keg for the Chinese regime, which have already had to deal with attacks from radical muslims that left 22 people dead in the region. Clearly there is a problem here beyond the Chinese Communist Party furiously getting their rocks off at the prospect of intimidating and oppressing yet another ethnic minority.  The way they are dealing with it is characteristically heavy-handed and unhelpful. Radical Islam burgeons in the region because the Chinese government is squeezing tight, and it won't get better if China squeezes even tighter. The Chinese authorities need to see all the red flags they're putting up (as it were), and instead turn their hand to initiatives designed to coopt and assimilate Islamic culture into their society, rather than compartmentalising and problematising it. 

(Correction: due to the strong protestations of one of my beloved readers, A Politic Blunder would like to make clear that it does not believe that the USA is more islamophobic than Europe.)

Retarded Begets Retarded

I've decided to go ahead and give you a Double-Dip of Political Palsy today. Two events, related only by the sheer amount of stupidity required in both cases, hit the news today: 

An ambiguous shootout on the Thai-Cambodian border which resulted in the deaths of two Cambodian soldiers is being hailed as the prelude to an all-out war between the two countries. Although neither side claims belligerence, and both governments have made appeals for calm, Reuters is 

doing the media equivalent of jeering 'Fight! Fight! Fight!' by going to the most impoverished, disgruntled and ill-educated members of each of the respective societies and asking them how they feel about the prospect of war. Unsurprisingly, a 65 year-old Thai farmer thinks 'the Khmers are laughing at us', and a 48 year-old Cambodian motorbike taxi driver says the Thais are 'trying to steal our house'. This is blatantly military bluster on both sides, serving Thailand's Somchai by diverting attention from the recent democratic crisis, and serving Cambodia's Hun Sen by diverting attention from how shit his regime is in general. Nonetheless: 'Fight! Fight, you pussies!' 

Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, today announced his plan to end genocide in Darfur in perhaps the most

 disastrously retarded language he possibly could have thought of: 'Despite the difficulties and obstacles... we declare our determination to reach a final solution this time.' In the most toothless illusion of an announcement to have come out of Africa in the past 10 years (and that's saying a whole lot. Like, several books' worth.), he announced his plan to bring peace to Darfur mainly involved ending the violence. The intransigent and unhelpful rebels have been all skeptical about his desire for peace, too. The international community isn't holding it's breath, either. Official Sudanese estimates put the death toll at 10,000,  about one twentieth the figure the International Criminal Court is disseminating. Bashir claims the Western neo-colonial imperialistic media has grossly inflated the figure, ostensibly because ignoring the deaths of 200,000 people makes us feel more self-satisfied than ignoring 10,000 deaths.

The ICC has an outstanding warrant for the arrest of Bashir, shown above in his favourite peace-building outfit.

Tomorrow: FORBIDDEN LOVE! Exclusive pics of John McCain and Joseph Stiglitz's illicit affair in the sun-drenched Carribbean!

This Also Happened...

The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), finds its library making its most politically insightful comment yet (pictured left). 

SOAS is generally a very good school, with a friendly community and a genuinely impressive library. The administrative failures it is famous for are present, and are embarrassing, but it's easy to be sympathetic with the professors, who are truly passionate about their subject.  SOAS is also famous for possessing the highest concentration of trustafarians in the world. To be frank, I have yet to actually encounter that many of them around the campus. You see baggy hemp and dreadlocks, you smell stale weed, and you occasionally hear the hue and cry of orientalist indignation (''S'all about deh people, cha blud! Brap!''), but it's more of a sticky residue clinging to the corners of the stairwells than a pretentious wall of postcolonial elitism. If you want to be loud, idealistic, and drunk, there is certainly space for you. But at the postgraduate level especially, those who want to quietly work their way through to practical if unambitious degree aren't crowded out.

That said, the SOAS refectory had the following scrawled personal ad posted in two separate places: 'Looking for asexual cuddle-buddy. Must be at least 6 ft. tall and not too well hung. Call for hugs.' So maybe I was utterly, utterly wrong. 

Gentlemen Pirates of the High Seas

Somalia has always been a region wracked by conflict and poor economic performance. However, on September 25th the eyes of the world turned to the seas outside Somalia for a reason other than laughing and pointing at starving children. A group of approximately 20 Somali pirates have hijacked a Ukrainian freighter carrying an enormous amount of badass military hardware, including grenades, ammunition, and 33 tanks. The pirates have since been embroiled in a tense standoff, with 5 US warships surrounding it, a Russian frigate on its way, and NATO promising to send reinforcements. With literally the united military might of the world arrayed against them, the group of ill-armed pirates demanded to enter into negotiations, and nominated a spokesman for their 'organisation', Sugule Ali, who in a 45-minute phone interview discussed the pirates' demands ($20 million in ransom for the ship), and their political motivations (protecting the seas from illegal fishers and dumping). Sugule has a point, since following the obliteration of anything resembling a juridical or political structure in Somalia, its tuna-rich waters have been repeatedly overfished by commercial liners eager to cash in on the country's crisis.

However, the relentlessly awesome idea of a group of Somali fishermen turned pirates holding a massive freighter full of weapons up for ransom will no doubt be making Jerry Bruckheimer and Ridley Scott cum out of their eyes(Pirates of Somaliland!). They were unavailable for comment. The pirates themselves don't seem like too bad a lot. Somali pirates are infamous for brutal acts of wanton destruction, and this does happen to an unacceptable degree, but in fact the area has established a dangerous balance whereby most ships attacked are simply held for ransom. These particular pirates are demanding a huge sum of money, and are threatening to 'blow up the ship and its cargo - us included', if their demands are not met. Of course, once they get the money (if they aren't slaughtered by the military commando strike Lieutenant Nate Christensen of the 5th US fleet is proposing), they will face the interesting problem of actually getting far away enough from the arrayed forces of the world's military powers to actually use their booty(Pirates of Somaliland 2: Japes in Japan!, Pirates of Somaliland 3: Last Stand in Tajikistan!). 

The Vice Presidential Debate and the Undying Lies of the Right: A Politic Blunder Feature

Today in the Evening Standard, on Governor Palin, Vice-Presidential candidate. Drawn from the first paragraph:

'Onto the gladiatorial set of the vice presidential debate she strode, firmly upholstered in a black suit exuding sexy sobriety without being anywhere near fashionable. The trademark beehive had softened into a copper-highlighted style girlishly tumbling around her shoulders, like the shiny-shiny women in the hair colour ads. Homely current (sic) bun eyes were outlined in warrior black kohl.' -Anne McElvoy

Well done, Anne. Within the first paragraph, you have simultaneously lowered the tone of political debate, alerting the reader to the smug and vacuous style that obtains throughout the rest of your piece, and setting back the cause of women seeking to participate in politics as human beings, rather than mannequins. That's a lot of cunting to get done in a few dozen-odd words, and I'm frankly impressed, Anne. You must have gone to a real school.  

As for the actual debate, pundits and commentators are calling it very close, with some saying that they 'both won'. This is nonsense. The surprise here is that Joe Biden, who is known for cluttering his words and saying unfortunate things, did not, and that Sarah Palin did not speak politics like a petulant child. Sarah Palin still embarrassed herself thoroughly from beginning to end. Her assertions on foreign policy, economics and social policy were all firmly refuted by Biden, her several factual inaccuracies, lies, and citations out of context were quashed by Biden throughout, and her smug folksy demeanour seems to be finding less purchase nowadays. 

Biden, on the other hand, performed admirably. Most impressive was the discipline he showed in avoiding personal attacks or tonal insinuations, and sticking to his arguments concerning policy. Of particular note was where Biden specifically held himself back from stating that McCain has been opposed to every major attempt to extend the world's arms control regimes, saying 'I shouldn't say every...'. This is an exaggeration Palin would have been only too happy to make, but the fact that Biden compromised the rhythm and forcefulness of his comment for accuracy is admirable. The entire debate is on Youtube, and both my readers should watch it.

Top Quote:

'John McCain, knows how to win a war, he's been there, he's done it'   - Sarah Palin

If 'he's been there' refers to Vietnam, then John McCain knows how to lose an ill-executed war of aggression against a much smaller power, make an undignified withdrawal, then loudly claim for the following 40 years that 'it was a draw'.

(This is the end of my comments on the debate. The rest of the post consists of my general observations on the political techniques of the Right. Read at your own peril.)

This is by no means surprising though. Neither is it the especial fault of Sarah Palin. The Republican party, as with the vast majority of right-wing parties, have to contend with the peculiar phenomenon whereby democracy requires the majority vote, and the majority of any country is usually the worse off. Yet the Republican party is mind, body and soul a pro-business, anti-redistribution party, with a strong dollop of foreign aggression and domestic social control thrown in. The three main tools that all right-wing parties across the world use to win elections are ever the same: Jingoism and fearmongering, populism, and the Holy Grail of Efficiency.

Everyone is familiar with the first: the Right's incessant notion that the people are under constant siege. In the UK it is from hoodies, from 13-year old black boys with knives, from jihadis living in Whitechapel. In the USA it is from Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan. It becomes a matter of utmost priority to ensure that these elements are eradicated with extreme prejudice. This, the Right will tell you, is far more important than economic reform, diplomacy, or any kind of progressive social reform. This is because of the tried and true political credo that, if a nation feels itself at war, or in mortal danger, it will ignore all other issues. This is the first way the right-wing gets the poorer majority to forget that they are voting for a government that will transparently harm their interests. 

The second main way they do this is through populist lies. The Right, in the USA especially but everywhere else as well, loves spinning stories about the 'honest, hardworking family': usually lower middle-class, devoutly religious, no-nonsense, awash with dignity and sobriety. The implication here is that decency, religion and honesty are all characteristics of the right, not the depraved, 'progressive', vicissitude-ridden left. This is a powerful narrative, especially in countries with huge swathes of fanatically religious ill-educated voters, like most of Latin America, most of Africa, and of course, the USA. This is the key behind Palin's effectiveness. This is how the Right convinces the poor majority, especially those in rural or backwater areas, that it is a government run for people like them, because it is a government formed of people like them. 

The third way the Right deceives the poor it is about to fuck over is through the ubiquitous spectre of efficiency. The right loves to talk about cutting taxes, it is in every election all over the world one of its main talking points. This is because no one likes paying taxes, and it is politically attractive to tell people that you're not going to take as much money from them. But when the Left inevitably brings up the very attractive government projects of redistribution and welfare it has planned, the voters begin to doubt that the Right is really on their side. This is when the Right, in every single election, will say that it can execute just as many government projects as the Left, and levy less taxes. The Right says that it can do this through 'streamlining', 'reform', 'oversight', 'greater efficiency', or a dozen other empty words. There is no reason to believe that the Right is somehow magically better at cutting costs and streamlining operations than the Left. And yet voters consistently see the Right as more down-to-earth, more realistic and ultimately more efficient than the Left.

Of course, all these lies are terribly effective. The rural poor are often the strongest voting base for the Right, and it has been shown to a depressing extent that the lower the education level of the working class, the more likely it is to vote for the Right. It's a basic political truth that Left-wing policies are aimed at ameliorating the lot of the poor and the struggling, and Right-wing policies are not. I'm not saying that you have to be stupid to vote for the Right. I'm saying you have to be stupid to be poor and vote for the Right.  

Thus concludes the first Politic Blunder Feature length post.

P.S. Thanks to Stephen for the source.