Right wing commentary on world politics from a man on a mission to prove that Conservatism transcends national boundaries. Thoughtful comments from people of all political persuasions are welcome and encouraged. Contact the blogger at elephantman.conservaglobe@gmail.com.

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

More East Timor Coverage

I found a blog by a UN volunteer who just evacuated from Dili and still has contact with people in East Timor. It's really sobering to read and I highly suggest that you go there.

Click here to link to "Tumbleweed in Timor Lorosae".

Note: the above link takes you directly to a post that I really think that you ought to read. To link to the whole blog, click here.

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Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Chaos in East Timor, President Assumes Emergency Powers


After all of the jubilation in Montenegro last week, one might forget that starting a new country from scratch can be risky business. This week, the breakdown of order in the world's second youngest nation showed us just how hard it can be. After years of Portuguese colonization and then a brutal takeover by Indonesia in 1975, East Timor finally took it's destiny into it's own hands in 2002. It entered the world as the poorest nation on the planet (based on GDP per capita), and it remains so today.

The chaos started in April, when 40% of the East Timorese army (600 soldiers) went AWOL because the government seemed to be granting promotions only to soldiers from the eastern part of the country. The government responded by officially kicking the deseters out of the army, causing riots to erupt in the capital city of Dili. Local gangs took advantage of the riots and Dili disintegrated into a giant gang war.

Today, President Xanana Gusmao (who normally plays a largely ceremonial role) declared a state of emergency and took direct control of security forces and the Interior Ministry. This is a drastic move and would be seen as the first step toward dictatorship in many countries. Luckily, Gusmao doesn't seem like the power-hungry type. He usually does his best to stay out of day-to-day politics and has refused cave in to demands that he fire the democratically elected Prime Minister (who is very unpopular). However, this incident does go to show just how fragile democracy can be, especially in an infant nation like East Timor.

Sunday, May 28, 2006

PERSON OF THE WEEK - May 21-27, 2006

This week's choice was an absolute no-brainer. After all, new nations do not appear on the map every day. As this is one of the rare weeks that this does happen, it is hard to make the case that anyone made a bigger contribution this week than the man who led Montenegro to independence.

I could spend time rambling on about how I disagree with many of Milo Đukanović's political tactics, but that seems rather irrelevant at the moment. The plain fact is that, as Prime Minister of Montenegro, he was THE preeminent champion of Montegrin independence and as such must be considered the father of a sovereign Montenegro. Hopefully, he will have helped found a new democracy on the ashes of decades of Yugoslavian dictatorship. For that, Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Đukanović is ConservaGlobe's person of the week.

Honorable Mention: American Idol Taylor Hicks
Dishonorable Mention: British MP George Galloway

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Monday, May 22, 2006

Independence for Montenegro!

Yugoslavia is officially dead. The last remaining vestige of that artificial nation, a loose confederation known as Serbia and Montenegro, was shattered in Sunday's referendum on independence for the tiny republic of Montenegro. 55.4% of Montenegrins (yes, that is the correct spelling) voted to finally unhitch themselves from their much larger partner, Serbia.

Yugoslavia was a noble experiment, seeking to unite the Slavic peoples of the Balkans. However, it was doomed from the beginning by the fact that the people of the region already had very defined national identities and it disintegrated in a bloody conflagration over which ethnic group should have control (Slobodan Milosevic's wars over Croatia and Bosnia in the 1990s). I have always argued that arbitrarily drawn borders that disregard deeply-rooted ethnic divisions are a recipe for disaster, and Yugoslavia. Hopefully, the region known as the powder keg of Europe will finally have peace now that all of the people groups of the Balkans have their own nation-states.

Yugoslavia was (in my opinion) a horrible mistake. Hopefully things will go better for Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Montenegro now that they can all control their own destinies.

Congratulations to the people of the newly independent nation of Montenegro!

Best wishes to Park Geun-Hye

An assailant slashed the cheek of Park Geun-Hye, the chairwoman of South Korea's conservative Grand National Party, with a box cutter on Saturday. The wound required 17 stiches and Park may not be able to speak properly for months. At the moment, she can barely move her mouth at all. Luckily, she seems to be making a relatively quick recovery.

ConservaGlobe sends its best regards to Park Guen-Hye and wishes her a speedy recovery.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

PERSON OF THE WEEK - May 14-20, 2006


Since the inception of the Person of the Week award, I have had an unwritten policy of avoiding giving the title to the President of the United States. It's nothing personal, I just figured that Bush makes so much news that he would win the title every other week if I gave it to him whenever he earned it. However, this week I just couldn't ignore him. Whether you liked last Monday's speech or not (I didn't see it, so I'm undecided), you have to concede the fact he seems to have broken the logjam on the illegal immigration issue. The Senate finally got together and passed a bill that they could all agree on, possibly taking the first baby step toward deciding what to do about the border. Sure, there are BAD parts to the immigration bill, but it's a start.

Whether you agree with the President or not, you have to admit that he had a big impact on the world last week. So, for better or for worse, George W. Bush's push to resolve the issue of illegal immigration has earned him the title of Person of the Week.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

PERSON OF THE WEEK - May 7-13, 2006


Hands down, the best quote I have heard from anyone all year came out of Shimon Peres' mouth last week. During an interview with Israel's armed forces radio network, the Isreali Vice Premeir responded to Iran's saber-rattling by saying that the Iranian president "needs to remember that Iran can also be wiped off the map". To me, that one gutsy remark made Peres last week's most memorable newsmaker.

So, for putting the Iranians in their place, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres is ConservaGlobe's Person of the Week.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Ahmadenjad's Letter to Bush

Regime Change Iran has published the full text of the letter which was sent to President Bush by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad yesterday (CLICK HERE TO READ IT).

While I found the letter rather interesting, it doesn't really offer any hope of renewed diplomatic contact. Ahmadinejad simply lists a litany of grievances (some of which coud be better classified as "wild accusations"), pontificates about religion (I think he was trying to convicince Bush to convert to Islam), and then concludes by predicting the fall of Western democracy and basically saying that people around the world are flocking to his point of view (although he presents in as his god's point of view). Ahmadenijad's diatribe may be a lot of things, but it is NOT an attempt at recnciliation.

Monday, May 08, 2006

Peres: "Iran can also be wiped off the map."

I am not a big fan of Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres' center-leftist politics, but today he said something truly brilliant. In a radio interview, he addressed all of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad's recent bluff and bluster by saying, "The president of Iran should remember that Iran can also be wiped off the map." He also responded to the letter that Ahmadenijad supposedly sent to George Bush suggesting "new solutions" to the current crisis, "Teheran is making a mockery of the international community's efforts to solve the crisis surrounding Iran's nuclear program,"

Finally, someone with enough guts to spit in Ahmadenjad's face instead of handling him with kid gloves! You won't hear me say this very often (in fact, you probably will not hear me say it ever again), but at least for today - SHIMON PERES ROCKS!

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PERSON OF THE WEEK - April 30-May 6, 2005

To be perfectly honest, I really don't think that this was a terribly important news story. It really had no political implications other than the fact that it gives the conservative punditry yet another far-left Kennedy to make fun of. That said, it was about the most interesting thing that happened this week and it does illustrate that there are some BIG problems in out country's leading Democratic political dynasty. While I vehemently disagree with everything the modern Kennedy family stands for and am not sure that they are suited for public office, I do have to say that I feel terribly sorry for them as a family. As conservatives, I think that we should probably be praying for them rather than laughing at them. So, for forcing me to stop and think about all the times that conservatives like me have used Ted Kennedy and the rest of his family as the butt of jokes, Patrick Kennedy is ConservaGlobe's Person of the Week.

Note: This in no way means that I have any intention of lightening my criticism of Ted Kennedy and others on the left when it comes to their policy or other political matters. This blog will continue to call a spade a spade and will not sugarcoat the facts.

Secondly, if any leftist on a high horse thinks that this blog entry implies that conservatives are more mean-spirited than liberals, then I will be more than happy to detail a litany of situations in which the left has given the same (and often worse) treatment to George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Tom DeLay, Rush Limbaugh, and other conservatives.

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Monday, May 01, 2006

PERSON OF THE WEEK - April 23-29, 2006

As a massive boycott of the U.S. economy by Hispanic immigrants nears, I find it appropriate to award Person of the Week to a British producer who thought that it would be cool to salute immigrants to the United States by recording a Spanish-language version of the Star Spangled Banner. I personally beleive this to be inappropriate for several reasons. I haven't personally heard the song, but I think that any version of our anthem that does not include the prodominant language of this country and the language the song was penned in, English, is not acceptable. The reason is simple - most Americans (meaning citizens of the United States) will not be able to understand it! Second, I think that saying that this recording is a tribute to all immigrants is a slap in the face to all of those immigrants whose first language is not Spanish. This song is NOT a tribute to immigration, it is a tribute only to Hispanic immigrants (more specifically, it is probably intended to salute only those people who entered illegally from Mexico). Lastly, I think that it is a slap in the face to this great nation for anyone (especially a foreigner) to use our anthem as a method to salute those who break our laws!

So, for messing with the national anthem and causing a royal ruckus, music producer Adam Kidron is ConservaGlobes Person of the Week.

Note: I am not opposed to the translation of our anthem into other languages (as long as it is accompanied by an English rendition). I think that an approprite response by those of us who support LEGAL immigration would be to record a TRUE salute to the American melting pot by recording our own translation of our anthem - a trnaslation that includes the languges of all (or at least many) of the ethnic groups that make our nation great: English, Spanish, Native American languges, French, Italian, Yiddish, Dutch, Korean, Arabic, Russian, Tagalog, Hindi, Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese, and Vietnamese just to name a few.

GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!