Eggs Laid by Tigers: December 2009

Joy on the Left

Now, here's a bit of news, seldom seen, that those of us with left-leaning views can take delight in:

Evo Morales has won a resounding electoral victory against the Capitalist Secessionists who opposed him, giving him even more authority to provide for the millions -- mostly members of the Quechua or Aymara tribes -- who have historically ben left out of Bolivia's wealth.

Morales' party, MAS, garnered more votes in the capitalist provinces than it previously had. John Crabtree of Oxford University attributes the increase to a lessening of fear by the immigrant population, and poor organization by them.

Here are some of the people whose victory we celebrate:

Note, please, that "immigrant" is used by Crabtree to denote persons whose families have lived in Bolivia merely for generations, to distinguish them from persons, formerly known as "indigenous" or "Indian", whose families have always lived there. That may be merely a British quirk,but I like it.

"Immigrants" and Che Guevara

Labels: Aymara, Bolivia, capitalism, Che Guevara, Leftists, Quechua

posted by durell douthit # 5:03 PM 0 Comments

Success in Afghanistan

Ah, I wax nostalgic.

Dorothy, remember that we used to dance to this piece, in our little stone house in Austin in the 60s:

War...huh...What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Uh ha haa ha
War...huh...yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutley nothing...say it again y'all
War..huh...look out...
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing...listen to me ohhhhh

WAR! It ain't nothing but a heartbreaker,
War. Friend only to the undertaker.

Meanwhile, Richard Holbrooke, President Obama's Special Envoy to the "Region", with accent stern and visage grim, in an interview with Fareed Zakaria, describes "success" in Afghanistan as whether Pakistani soldiers will kill our enemies as well as their own in North Waziristan and in some place I never heard of: http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/fareed.zakaria.gps/

Zakaria is veery bright and so is Holbrooke. The interview is enlightening. I like Holbrooke and agree that he describes a reasonable and reasonably achievable "metric", as thy say, for the success of the surge.

and, meanwhile,

Labels: "success in Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Pashtun, Tajikistan, war

posted by durell douthit # 1:05 PM 0 Comments

Eggs Laid by Tigers

Monday, December 07, 2009

Joy on the Left

Success in Afghanistan

Archives