Liberum Arbitrium: January 2007

Sunday, January 28, 2007

the year in geopolitics

I write alot about American politics, but its not like I don't spend time reading about the politics of other countries. In fact, there have been several great political stories from across the world in the past year, some of which I have even blogged about. So without further ado, here is what I think have been the most underreported stories from the past year in geopolitics:

The military coup in Thailand: Like many Americans, my first exposure to Thai culture was their fabulous cuisine. One thing I noticed at just about every Thai restaurant was a picture of the king, Bhumibol Adulyadej aka Rama IX. The Thai people are said to hold him in the highest regard: Thailand was the only country in southeast Asia to never be colonized by a foreign power. Thus rather than a military junta (Burma) or Communist government (Vietnam/Laos), it is a constitutional monarchy where the prime minister leads the country's government.

That was, until this past fall: on September 19, less than a month before the scheduled national parliamentary elections, military leaders lead a coup against the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The junta abrogated and dissolved the 1997 Constitution, suspended Parliament, banned all demonstrations and rallies, censored the media, and ruled by decree.

Shinawatra came to power in 2001, as the country was still reeling from the 1997 economic crisis. Shinawatra was a telecommunications tycoon who promised a CEO-style management of Thailand's shaky economy and greater aid to the rural poor. Even after winning a landslide reelection, discontent among middle-class taxpayers lead to massive protests in the streets of Bangkok against Thaksin. At best, Shinawatra has not run the company like any modern CEO but like a telco owner used to monopolistic government concessions, cutting off dissent to his policies in the media and with a contempt towards constitutional checks and balances. Reporters Without Borders world-wide Press Freedom Index 2005 ranked Thailand 107th out of 167 countries, dropping from 59th in 2004

So the king's silence on the coup was notable, and influential given his quasi-divine status and his material status as one of the wealthiest people in the world. An unintended consequence of the coup has been the cancellation of Thailand's participation in the One Laptop Per Child project which seeks to provided low-cost computers to elementary school children in developing nations.

Loktantra Andolan, or the Nepalese democracy movement which is pushing the country towards parliamentary democracy from the absolute rule of King Gyanendra. The King had declared martial law, blaming Maoist insurgents for his pressing need to dissolve parliament. Political parties formed an alliance with the Maoists and held a general strike, which forced the King to capitulate to the restoration to multiparty democracy. The most dramatic move of the post-Loktantra Andolan government came on 18 May 2006 when the Parliament unanimously voted to strip the King of many of his powers.

The bill included:

* Putting 90,000 troops in the hands of the parliament
* Placing a tax on the royal family and its assets
* Ending the Raj Parishad, a royal advisory council
* Eliminating royal references from army and government titles
* Declaring Nepal a secular country, not a Hindu Kingdom

The act overrides the 1990 Constitution, written up following the Jana Andolan (People's Movement) and has been described as a Nepalese Magna Carta. Elections for a constituent assembly will be held in Nepal in June 2007. This assembly also will draft a new constitution, deciding the fate of the Nepalese monarchy.

The political crisis in Fiji:
The military played a pivotal role in another unstable democracy, this time on the Pacific island nation of Fiji. Commander of the Republic of FIji Military Forces, Commodore Josaia Vorege 'Frank' Bainimarama, had been growing increasingly and publicly discontent with the civilian government. Bainimarama accused te government of dealng too leniently with convicted perpetrators of two army mutinies and civilian coup that devastated the country in 2000.

On the occasion of his 65th birthday on 4 February 2006, Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase stated that if re-elected in the election that was duly held on 6-13 May, it would very likely be his last term in office. He won reelection, but continuing disagreements between his government and the powerful Republic of Fiji Military Forces culminated in a military coup on 5 December. Fiji Village reported the next day that he had been flown to his home island of Vanuabalavu by the Military, while Radio New Zealand claimed that he had fled there. He told Radio New Zealand that he was "down but not out"; he intended to fight on, and called for a peaceful popular uprising. The BBC reports that after being warned by Commodore Bainimarama not to "incite violence", Prime Minister Qarase plans to return to Suva, from which he is banished, but has been warned that he faces arrest if he returns. From Vanuabalavu, he has remained outspoken in condemning the military takeover, comparing the new regime to those of Saddam Hussein, Adolf Hitler, and Idi Amin, in an interview quoted in the Fiji Times and Fiji Village on 13 and 14 December 2006.

Acting President Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi was removed from office on December 5th of last year by Bainimarama, who forcibly evicted with from his official residence the next day. An underlying reason for the unrest which has lead to four coups in the past twenty years of Fijian politics, was the cultural and religious differences between mostly Methodist ethnic Fijians and mostly Hindu Indian Fijians. On January 4, 2007, Bainimarama restored Ratu Josefa Iloilo to the Presidency. The President made a broadcast endorsing the actions of the military. The next day, Iloilo formally appointed Bainimarama as the interim Prime Minister, indicating that the military was still effectively in control.

The death of Niyazov in Turkmenistan:
Turkmenistan is a where the President is the head of state and head of government within a single-party system.

Of course, this means a Stalinist autocracy run by President-for-Life Saparmurat Niyazov from 1985 through independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 with monomaniacal zeal right up until his death last month. His face can be seen on everyday objects from bank notes to vodka bottles to the dials of all watches and clocks, as his cult of personality has proclaimed Niyazov to be Türkmenbaşy, the leader of all Turkmen. He named the days of the week after members of his family and erected a 50-ft gold-plated statue of himself.

Linguistic irony: the ruling former Communist Party is the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, while the current opposition party in is the Republican Party of Turkmenistan.
The current acting President of Turkmenistan is Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow, a former dentist, Health Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. Berdimuhammedow is perceived as a pawn of the ruling elite centered around the State Security Council by the still-exiled opposition.

"Democracy on the March" is a Bush slogan which sounds like the title of a hokey newsreel, but many countries had real pivotal elections in the past yearwhich either put new faces into power or gave a boost to incumbents. By far, the most pivotal was the Palestinian Authority elections, which put the militant Hamas party in charge in a stunning upset over the Fatah movement of Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. Other notable newly elected heads of states include Michelle Bachelet of Chile, Alan Garcia of Peru, Ehud Olmert of Israel, and Romano Prodi of Italy. Survivors include Ignacio Lula of Brazil, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Alvaro Uribe of Colombia. Landslides for the tyrants of Belarus(Lukashenko) and Uganda(Musevani). Narrow victories were pulled out (along with some violence) by Joseph Karbila of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Felipe Calderon of Mexico. And in typical fashion, no one won the Dutch election, with the parliament becoming so evenly split amongst the multitude of parties that neither the left or right sides can easily form a majority coalition, leaving the government in deadlock.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

a hidden connection

From an abstract in the Fall/Winter 2006 CNS Drug Review:

Tylenol/Paracetamol (acetaminophen) is one of the most popular and widely used drugs for the treatment of pain and fever. It occupies a unique position among analgesic drugs. Unlike NSAIDs it is almost unanimously considered to have no antiinflammatory activity and does not produce gastrointestinal damage or untoward cardiorenal effects. Unlike opiates it is almost ineffective in intense pain and has no depressant effect on respiration. Although paracetamol has been used clinically for more than a century, its mode of action has been a mystery until about one year ago, when two independent groups (Zygmunt and colleagues and Bertolini and colleagues) produced experimental data unequivocally demonstrating that the analgesic effect of paracetamol is due to the indirect activation of cannabinoid CB(1) receptors. In brain and spinal cord, paracetamol, following deacetylation to its primary amine (p-aminophenol), is conjugated with arachidonic acid to form N-arachidonoylphenolamine, a compound already known (AM404) as an endogenous cannabinoid. The involved enzyme is fatty acid amide hydrolase. N-arachidonoylphenolamine is an agonist at TRPV1 receptors and an inhibitor of cellular anandamide uptake, which leads to increased levels of endogenous cannabinoids; moreover, it inhibits cyclooxygenases in the brain, albeit at concentrations that are probably not attainable with analgesic doses of paracetamol. CB(1) receptor antagonist, at a dose level that completely prevents the analgesic activity of a selective CB(1) receptor agonist, completely prevents the analgesic activity of paracetamol. Thus, paracetamol acts as a pro-drug, the active one being a cannabinoid. These findings finally explain the mechanism of action of paracetamol and the peculiarity of its effects, including the behavioral ones. Curiously, just when the first CB(1) agonists are being introduced for pain treatment, it comes out that an indirect cannabino-mimetic had been extensively used (and sometimes overused) for more than a century.

- Bertolini et al., University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy

Monday, January 15, 2007

thoughts needed now more than ever

"Don't let anybody make you think God chose America as his divine messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with justice and it seems I can hear God saying to America "you are too arrogant, and if you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I will place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name. Be still and know that I'm God. Men will beat their swords into plowshafts and their spears into pruning hooks, and nations shall not rise up against nations, neither shall they study war anymore." I don't know about you, I ain't going to study war anymore."

- Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go From Here?, 1967

Thursday, January 11, 2007

meanwhile, in oppositeland

Everybody is probably writing about the President's big speech tonight, probably the most horrible of a career short on verbal brilliance. Rather than talking about this old strategy, how about something new in the political world: a transnational caucus. Due to the development of a transnational parliament in the European Union, political parties in different nations have formed an alliance. Of course, the views of this group are as far into the right as possible: anti-immigrant, anti-EU constitution, and barring the door against Turkey joining the club. Prior attempts at forming a far-right bloc in the European Parliament were stymied by restrictions requiring a minimum number of members representing more than 20% of all member states. The group chartered on January 9th of 2007, calls itself Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty (ITS) and was made possible largely due to the admission on the 1st of this year of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU. ITS is comprised largely of the Holocaust deniers of France's National Front, but also members of Austria's Freedom Party, Belgium's Vlaams Belang (who are barred from the Belgian government by agreement of all the other parties), Bulgaria's National Union Attack (who even sound like they should be a skinhead band), Italy's Alternativa Sociale(specifically Il Duce's granddaughter Alessandra Mussolini), and Romania's anti-Roma Greater Romania Party. the threat of a Muslim Turkey joining the EU got the previously fractious nationalists to put aside their personal animosities to better bash gays and immigrants. By making a formal transnational caucus they get funding by the EU so that they can carry out the business of obstructing any attempts at a European Constitution. Its like some bizarro version of the GOP. Other, more inspiring coalitions of MEPs hopefully will be seen.