Suddenly Haiti

Haiti is in the news due to a large scale earthquake hitting the country, killing perhaps more than a hundred thousand and leaving a very large chunk of the population homeless. This one can easily verify by checking the newspapers and watching the evening news. However, they don't tell you that the country was in shambles BEFORE the earthquake, and honestly I can only think that the earthquake will be of long-term benefit to the island for drawing attention to a situation that has been regarded by many international observers as nearly hopeless since the '60's.

This former pirate colony, wracked by the successive plundering dictatorships of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, and the initially promising but ultimately criminal Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is the poorest country in the Americas and one of the poorest in the world. Scores of people live in the shanty towns strewn with garbage and lacking basic utilities and sanitation that constitute most of Port-au-Prince's urban sprawl. Nearly half the causes of death in the country have been attributed to HIV/AIDS, respiratory infections, meningitis and other diseases according to the World Health Organization. The country has been occupied by U.N. peacekeepers since the 2004 rebellion that toppled Aristide. All this is before the earthquake.

Really, it's a shame that it took an earthquake for normal people to respond to the constant misfortunes of this small and vibrant nation with a rich cultural heritage.

The White House's web site has set up a link to the relief effort spearheaded by Bill Clinton and W. Not that that really inspires confidence, but here's the link anyway. Do offer help. It's entirely possible that these new channels for aid are secure enough to not be siphoned off by the likes of Duvalier or Aristide.

Madagascar

One has to wonder if the arrogant energetic insane idiot lemur king, Julian XIII, of the movie Madagascar, was based on real politics of the island of Madagascar. Recent events there could make for an epic dark comedy, with larger-than-life characters and ridiculous situations tinged with violence, and probably deserve a little more analysis than why the lemur king doesn't have a more Malagasy name. The cast of characters is as follows:

President Marc Ravalomanana is a former peddler of yogurt from the back of a bicycle, a business that he built from distribution to dairies to farms and is now a megaconglomerate, TIKO. TIKO owns a monopoly of all dairy and oil production on the island as well as several media outlets. A fervent Christian, he has before mentioned dreaming of a Christian nation in Madagascar, and has managed to remove limits of religion in government by constitutional referendum. He was elected mayor of Antananarivo (Madagascar's capital) in 1999, and won the presidency in a contentious election in 2001. Since then he has been a very popular leader, and won re-election to a second term by a comfortable margin. Unfortunately, this comfort has led to what many of his people to consider corrupt mixing of national interests and TIKO's business interests.

Mayor Andry Rajoelina of Antananarivo used to spin popular tunes in the city's nightclubs. From that he built up an event organization business that eventually branched into the advertising and printing powerhouse Injet. He also owns the radio and TV broadcaster Viva. Since his election he has had to deal with the fallout of massive debts racked up by his government-appointed predecessor, including the water and power to the city being shut off.

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I didn't get to finish this post due to various interruptions, but the gist of it was going to be about the comic rallies that Rajolina was having to the tune of Vangelis' soundtrack to the film 1492: Conquest of Paradise and the goofy one-upping that each of the candidates was doing in the form of media manipulation. The conflict then unfortunately turned bloody, with each side blaming the other for confrontations that killed over 170 people. Rajolina declared himself president, formed a cabinet, and won the military to his side, effectively forming a seperate government. President Ravalomanana resigned a month later (in March), and formed a military council to wield executive power. After the presidential palace was stormed, and Rajolina ordered the military to arrest him, Ravalomanana fled the country. The African Union, European Union, and many other international bodies refuse to recognize Rajolina's government, as it was installed unconstitutionally by force. Since then Rajolina has signed and then scrapped two power sharing agreements with Ravalomanana's supporters. So the situation is tense. In many ways, though, it continues to be ridiculous. Such as Rajolina's attempt to explain the many changes he's made to the constitution through cartoons and the fact that government ministries ignored his order to shut down when he seized power.

Meanwhile, Rajolina's popularity seems to be slipping as the economic situation in the country degrades.

One almost wishes for a popular benevolent idiot autocrat like Julian to restore stability.

Back From Hiatus

I took a year off from frothing about politics and things in general in celebration of the election of Barack Obama, whom I still think is doing decently in a position that is notoriously hard for someone trying to do things the right way. All good things must come to an end, however.

Actually I've just been busy and/or lazy.

Which means that I have a backlog of things to bitch about and new ones are occurring every day.

So here we go! Hello, 2010!