No time or energy at the moment to work through them all and analyze the choices, so mostly I note this for the handful of readers who are both interested and read Spanish.
I will note, however, that Juan Manuel Santos, candidate of la U and the preferred candidate of President Uribe, selected Angelino Garzón, a fomer governor and Minister of Labor (amongst other things). This selection is fascinating, as Garzón hails from the leftward part of the Colombian political spectrum. Clearly Santos is seeking to attract voters on the left away from the Polo and Partido Verde. It is a noteworthy move.
And when I use the phrase “left” I mean left. He was affiliated with the Communist Party as a youth, and was part of the Patriotic Union (a political party of the left) in the 1980s. He was also president of one of Colombia’s largest unions, the CUT (Central Unitaria de Trabajadores). He has moderated his politics over the years, it would seem. My initial reaction to his bio is similar to that of Lula (the president of Brazil).
At any rate, there is much to digest here. At a minimum, the move demonstrates how difficult it is to fit political party systems in other countries into the the categories that dominate US politics.
We likely all recall the minor kerfuffle that emerged at the SOTU when President Obama criticized the Court’s recent campaign finance ruling and Justice Alito mouthed “not true” in response.
The whole issue gained some new (if mini-) life when the topic emerged at a Q&A Justice Roberts was attended.
He noted:
"So I have no problems with that [criticism of court cases]. On the other hand, there is the issue of the setting, the circumstances and the decorum. The image of having the members of one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering while the court — according the requirements of protocol — has to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling."
“Troubling” may be a bit much, but it does border on the silly.
And then said:
"To the extent the State of the Union has degenerated into a political pep rally, I’m not sure why we’re there," said the chief justice, who has attended the event since he joined the court in 2005.
Indeed, this strikes me as correct. The events are, quite frankly, pep rallies (and have been for some time), and really there is little point to the Justices attending.
Ok, nothing, in general, of great interest about a McDonald’s. This one is in the downtown area of Bogotá a few blocks from the capitol, et al.
I was struck by it because when we left Colombia in 1995 there was a big deal being made about the first McDonald’s coming to town (apparently there are now numerous one across the country).
At that time there were no major US franchises in the city and, in fact, Burger King had sold there restaurants a few years earlier because of the violence. As such, visible evidence of foreign investment, like this McDonald’s, is of interest as they are visible reminders of how some things have changed.
It also struck me that this is (to the left on the photo) right by where Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was gunned down in front of his law offices in 1948, setting off a major riot that helped launch the civil war known simply as La Violencia.
I didn’t realize how reasonable it is to fly there from the US until I did a Kayak search. At less than $500 r/t, I am putting it on my near-term travel agenda!
Comment by Ratoe — Wednesday, March 10, 2010 @ 8:34 am
So after a morning appointment I decided to take a walk around the centro (i.e., downtown) and the adjacent Candelaria area (the colonial era part of the city). I was in the middle of downtown and I see a woman handing out campaign literature. I recognize the flyer as belonging to a candidate for the Chamber of Representatives for the district that represents Bogotá with whom I had had contact (via Facebook,1 oddly enough.) and with whom I was scheduled to have an interview next week. However, we had never firmed up the details and I had not heard back from her. Indeed, I was beginning to be concerned that perhaps in the busyness of the campaign season that the interview might not happen. Because of Facebook I knew what the candidate in question looked like and it struck me that the woman handing out the flyers looked kind of like the candidate and then it struck me that it was the candidate and I was able to introduce myself.
It was just amusing to me that in a city of 8 million+ that I would not only run into someone that I know, but that it would be someone I needed to talk to.
The encounter also reminded me of the degree to which social media have been very evident in the campaigning here. Numerous candidates and parties are using Facebook and Twitter to send out campaign information and to alert interested parties of their campaign events. Indeed, I may have secured an interview with a presidential candidate via Twitter (not an interview using Twitter, but using a direct message in Twitter as a means of contact after other routes had failed). Its a small world in more than one way these days.
On a side note, Facebook has been an amazingly useful way of keeping track of folks at home.
The new rules are not expected to be released in any detail until next week, and even the date of the elections has yet to be announced. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and others said this leaves political challengers little opportunity to mount an opposition.
"In a normal society, you would be allowed to launch a campaign by now," said Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a researcher at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. "But everything is done in secrecy. There’s no way to know what these Burmese military men have in their heads."
It does make it rather difficult to settle on an electoral strategy and choose candidates if the rules under which competition will take place is a mystery.
Granted, some elections are usually better than none, as once political mobilization starts it is difficult to stop. However, it is not impossible. It is worth noting the following: “The most recent elections, held 20 years ago, were nullified by the military in a violent crackdown after the opposition won.”
We have devised the election laws to ensure that we will win the election and to this purpose have also banned Aung San Suu Kyi from contesting the elections, as she would surely beat us. What is wrong with that? We are in power so we can do as we choose, seems obvious to me.
365.68 (3/9/10). The Colombian capitol building has been invaded by giants ants. It is an art project that has something to do with internal displacements.
According to the BBC, turnout in the Iraqi parliamentary elections was 62%. While down from the 75% in the previous contests, it is impressive when compared to US elections, which do not feature multiple bombings.
These “live from Bogota” posts are great!
I didn’t realize how reasonable it is to fly there from the US until I did a Kayak search. At less than $500 r/t, I am putting it on my near-term travel agenda!
Comment by Ratoe — Wednesday, March 10, 2010 @ 8:34 am