J. R. Machado

 

The biggest surprise on Sunday was the election of Jose Ramon Machado as the first vice president. His promotion, over the dynamic, reform-minded Carlos Lage, is a signal that the elders of the communist leadership in Cuba are not ready to give the helm to the younger generation just yet. The decision solely Raul’s, since Mr. Machado was not known to be close to Fidel. This means that Raul is now operating outside the shadow of his brother.

The position Mr. Machado occupies is one of utmost importance. He is now number two in the council of state, the most powerful political body in Cuba. This means that he will lead the country if and when Raul dies—although at 77, one year older than Raul, the possibility of outlasting the new president is slim.

For nearly 50 years, politicians have been fighting bitterly to be third in line behind the Castros. Even in Cuba, little is known about Mr. Machado, a shadowy figure a member of the old guard of the communist party. He  is seen as Raul’ s right hand man, and known as a “historico,” or a member of the original Cuban Revolution.

After the National Assembly meeting on Sunday, many Cubans expressed regret over the results. Mr. Machado will be yet another obstacle to substantial economic change.

Kosovo: the 3rd new country of this milleneum

Yesterday Kosovo officially declared independence from Serbia. This monumental move by the ethnic Albanian majority (90%) marks the culmination of a 17 years process to break away from the rule in Belgrade.

A special Security Council meeting at the UN on Sunday produced no results. Churkin, Russia’s ambassador, reiterated his country’s opinion that the unilateral declaration of independence is a illegal move and should be considered “null and void” by the international community. On the other side–EU members and US–argued that Kosovo is a unique case and its breakaway is legally justifyable per the stipulations of Security Council resolution 1244.

Russia warned Kosovo’s move has created a dangerous precedence that could influence similar separatist movement in former Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Examples are Pais Basco in Spain, Cyprus, and in the former Soviet Union, Moldova and Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia. The NY Times reported that these last two former Soviet states have announced their intention to eventually become independent. Some EU member states — including Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Slovakia and Romania — oppose recognizing Kosovo for this reason. The FT reports that “most alarmed of all is the Greek Cypriot government of Cyprus, which fears recognition of Kosovo may bolster the cause of Turkish Cypriot separatists who proclaimed a breakaway state in the northern part of the island 25 years ago.”

Houses returned to Serbians in Kosovo

On the eve of Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence, the NY Times has a great story about Albanians being evicted from property originally owned by Serbians. The houses were up for grabs in the aftermath of the 1999 NATO bombing campaign to halt Slobodan Milosevic’s repression of Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians.

The UN set up the process in 2006, and has Toncho Zourlev, a k a the Enforcer, a no-nonsense Bulgarian leading the eviction squads. The officials say the property settlement “is fair and swift.” Most times resettlement is taken up by the local courts, a lengthy process which takes years.

This story is incredibly timely, as the declaration of independence, which is set to take place sometime Sunday, could have vast repercussions for Kosovo’s small, albeit politically significant Serbian population.

Kenyans flee back to their ancestral homes

The ethnically motivated unrest in Kenya has caused a mass exodus back to the ethnically homogeneous “homelands” of the various tribes. While the government in Nairobi argues over the specifics of a power share solution, Luos and Kikuyus and other tribes are being uprooted from their homes, with tacit cooperation from the police, to safer regions. As the NY Times reports, “Luos have gone back to Luo land, Kikuyus to Kikuyu land, Kambas to Kamba land and Kisiis to Kisii land.” The ethnic segregation is, ostensibly, permanent, or at least will be hard to reverse.

The UN estimates that at least 600,000 people have been uprooted, most to camps in churches, police stations, stables and prisons. The living conditions are often horrible.

This article feature a nice analysis of the difference between Kenya and Tanzania when it comes to politics and ethnicity. In Tanzania, the government encouraged learning of the national language and set up a transcultural schooling system. And, parties there are not allowed to campaign on an ethnically-based platform. All these were implemented to prevent the foundation of ethnic politics. Kenya should have taken notice…

Photography from Chad and Darfur

To put a face on the recent attempted coup in Chad, and the related, ongoing “genocide in slow motion” in Darfur, see these cinematic photos.  Jan Grarup has been photographing the conflict in Africa for several years.

Hezbollah commander killed in Damascus

Tuesday night, one of the Shiite militant group’s top commanders, Imad Mughieh, was killed in a bomb blast in Damascus. The exact cause of his death has not been released. Witnesses in the Syrian capital said at the time that a passerby was killed as security forces sealed off the area and removed the body, but authorities there would not give details.

This will be a blow to Hezbollah, which fought Israel in the summer 2006 war in Lebanon, and its Iranian and Syrian backers. Mr. Mughieh, one of the group’ most wanted, had been accused of kidnapping westerners in Lebanon in the 1980s. The US offered a $25m reward for information on his arrest.

Mughniyeh, 45, who had been in hiding for years, was among the fugitives indicted in the United States for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner in which a U.S. Navy diver was killed. He was also suspected of masterminding attacks on the U.S. Embassy and the Marine base in Lebanon that killed more than 260 Americans in the 1980s when he was then the Iranian-backed Hezbollah’s security chief.

Hezbollah pointed to Israel for possible culpability in the attack. Who else could it have been?

Tongues in Kenya

We know that the conflict erupting in Kenya was instigated by differences along tribal lines, between the politically dominant Kikuyus and the Luos, one of number of lesser tribes. But how, we asked, do the two tribes identify each other? I’m sure there are discernible physical differences, in facial structure and style of dress, as Philip Gourevich detailed in his book on the Rwandan genocide, We Wish to Inform You… And, as reported, there are neighborhoods and districts that are  known to be heavily populated by a particular tribe. But, there is one more, not so subtle, distinguishing method. In this column from a Kenya movie director, he outlines the importance of spoken language in drawing lines in the conflict. He recalls a friend who was stopped and questioned by a blood-thirsty gang:

“They asked her to speak in Luhya to prove she wasn’t a Kikuyu.” ‘I really       can’t speak it because my mother is a Taita!’ she pleaded, explaining that our     father had never taught us his language. In desperation, staring at the freshly chopped corpses around her, she showed them a photocopy of my mother’s national identity card, which she had had the foresight to put in her purse. This apparently convinced them, and she was let go.

In the war zone that Kenya has become, the people there must adjust instantly, and “like a chameleon, speak the “correct” tongue.”

2 ideologically opposed Pakistani journalists share a wall

I loved this story in the NY Times about two Pakistani newspaper editors in Queens. The two have diametrically oppositional views on Pakistani politics, yet they share a building and are best friends. Mr. Farooqi, the editor and publisher of The Pakistan Post, is a Bhutto fan who was devastated when she died. He’s sure Pres. Musharraf had a hand in the assassination. On the other side of the fence, Mr. Khalil, the editor of The Urdu Times, the city’s other top Pakistani weekly, is a staunchly secular conservative who tried to convince his friend that the assasination will be good for Pakistan. They have to hand write the articles and fax them to Pakistan because the keyboards here aren’t fast enough.

A pork factory from hell, and unrelatedly, Chinese dumplings

Frighteningly similar to a tale from Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, this article in NY Times about a pork processing plant in Minnesota is probing, concise, and incredibly relevant and timely journalism. A group of workers at this Hormel pig processing plant came down with the same mysterious symptoms. The ensuing investigation uncovered that all the workers had worked with the pig head. Specifically, they used a high pressure air hose to squirt the pig brain matter into a vat to ship to China.

Once in China, the brain matter could be being used to make those scrumptious dumplings.  Given the recent dumpling sickness outbreak in Japan, the connection might not be as tenuous as we’d presume. After 10 people in Japan came down with horrible stomach problems, the sickness was traced back to Chinese dumplings. And the incident added fuel the anti-China fire in Japan. Then, as it turns out, the dumpling company may appear to have been exonerated, as it was reported that the dumplings were tampered with upon arrival in Japan. Investigators in Japan found insecticide on the bags of dumplings in Japan. Seems that someone was trying to exacerbate the China-Japan acrimony via those lovable, pork-filled dumplings.

Columbian drug gangs are using submarines

In the latest sign that the costly war on drugs is ineffectual, the Washington Post reports that drug smuggling groups operating the Columbian cocaine trade are using submerssable ships to transport the drugs. In the past year, 13 of such vessels have been intercepted, a number higher than the previous 14 years. In the sparsely populated jungle near the rocky Pacific coast, drugs gangs are assembling these $2m vessels with homemade parts and ingenuity. If the boat makes it to the U.S., a typical 10-ton load will fetch $200m. Because the structure is fiberglass it is virtually impossible to detect via sonar.

How does is this related to FARC? The Columbian navy says there is evidence that FARC is collaborating with trafficking groups to find ways to transport cocaine, including commissioning construction of submersibles.

In the navy yard that houses the captured vessels, a navy spokesperson admitted they didn’t know what to do with the junked, decommissioned ships. They should keep them, he said, so that “when we put an end to drug trafficking, our sons and grandsons should know what these criminals did.”  Good luck with that part about end to drug trafficking.