It is run under a one-party rule, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). No real challenge to the LDP was able to sustain itself despite the decrease in its popularity since the economic inactivity in l990s and corruption scandals.

For decades, Japan has not experience a change in political administration. Japan is a democracy without a competition. One may wonder how this could be possible when democracy is founded on competition. A Tokyo-based political analyst, Minoru Morita said that for a long period of time, the major media have been serving at the LDP’s discretion. And that is one of the secrets of its long-term rule.

The condition of the Japanese press seems to be, at first sight, analog to that established in the West. There are major daily newspapers with huge bulk of people reading at least one newspaper every day. The degree of reporting is adept. Dissemination of news is vigorous not only through newspapers but also the television and the internet.

There are only five national newspaper which accounts for half of the country’s total circulation, Asahi Shim bun, the Mainichi Shimbun, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Sankei Shimbun and the Yomiuri Shimbun.

A scrutiny of the contents, however, reveals a uniformity of editorial style among these newspapers. It is hard if not impossible to characterize one or another as representing a specific political attitude as one can find in New York Times’ liberal standpoint and in conservative editorial page of Wall Street Journal.

When compared with the press in other leading industrial countries in the world, Japan is so remarkably different in media. This is primarily due to the deluging control of the Liberal Democratic Party over the mainstream media with the Kisha clubs system as its mouthpiece.

The first three decades of the 20th century, the press was controlled through self-censorship. Obnoxious events, no matter how significant received no attention if they could adversely affect the interest of the ruling party. The development of communist party was also a forbidden subject.

Access to information of Japan’s mainstream media is under the monopoly of the ill-refute Kisha (reporters) club systems. These clubs are attached to the government’s major institutions including the police. Foreign press, freelance journalists and magazines find it difficult to get access to important information. However, there were significant scandals uncovered by journalists working outside the system despite difficulties.

There was a sharp contrast between the reports of the outside press and those of the major newspapers. The major newspapers reported differently from those covered and reported by Japanese magazines. The major papers allowed themselves to be manipulated by the ruling LDP.

Japanese press does not lead but follow. This is one of the most serious issues in Japanese journalism – failure to keep those in power accountable. They cover the scandal only after it has already been uncovered.

Japan’s press system lacks independence. Its manipulation of the press does not only weaken democracy but also subverts press freedom globally.

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1959-1960: Following Fidel Castro’s overthrow of the dictatorial Batista administration, a host of people, including children and women, welcomed the arrival of guerrillas, but they turned the Island — about the size of Tennessee– into a place of repression. On the other side, Raúl Castro had been hand-picked by his brother, Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, as the second leader of the Cuban Revolution. In the meantime, in the early years of the new regime, up to 3,200 Cubans had been slaughtered by Fidel Castro and his family. On the economic side, Castro nationalized all U.S. businesses (without compensation). In fact, these events marked the beginning of one the world’s worst undemocratic governments. Toward the end of 1960, Washington imposed an embargo on Cuba.

1960-1980: As a consequence of the totalitarian policies, over one million Cubans had fled to America (chiefly Florida), Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Spain and Italy.

1960-1982: Inspired by the People’s Republic of China, Albania and other Communist tyrannies, Cuba’s undemocratic state had decimated the country’s tourism industry.

1960-2007: In one of Fidel Castro’s many dictatorial reforms, hemade his sister-in-law, Vilma Espín, President of the Federation of Cuban Women –a key organization on Cuba. Espín, Raúl Castro’s wife, was leader of the feminist organization until her abrupt death on June 18, 2007.However in time, she, a former Marxist guerrilla, was known as the “First Lady of the Cuban Revolution”. Over the decades of the Soviet Empire, she had strong links with radical feminist movements from Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa.

1960-2010: World-famous dancer and choreographer Alicia Alonso Martínez became one of the key women, alongside Haydée Santamaria Cuadrado, Vilma Espín Guillois, Celia Sánchez Manduley and Mireya Luis Hernández, in the Cuban Revolution. Since then, she used her fame and prestige to clean up the Island’s bad image. By the early 60s, Fidel Castro gave Alonso $200,000 to set up the Cuban National Ballet. From then on, the Ballet Nationalbecame an open door for Cuban influence in the Third World and Europe.

1961: The Island’s history took sudden turn in this year as the provisional rule declared the country a Marxist stateand began a close relationship with the Kremlin -the USSR was one of the first states to recognize Cuba’s tyranny–and their allies, including the German Democratic Republic (GDR), North Korea and Czechoslovakia. From then on, Moscow played a key role in the Cuban Revolution. Nonetheless, after Cuba became a pro-Soviet dictatorship,the political relationship between the States and the Island worsened. On January 3, 1961, the tensions between both governments came to a head as America severed diplomatic ties with the rule of Cuba.

1962: The Republic of Cuba was suspended from the Organization of American States (OAS), which was founded on April 30 1948 in Bogotá (Colombia), over its dictatorial rule.

1962- 1990: Unlike many Marxist states in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, including Ethiopia (the world’s poorest nation), Guinea, Laos and Cambodia (Asia’s poorest country), the Island’s human development, from employment and energy to education, culture and public health, was subsidized by the Kremlin (which was supplanted by Venezuela since 2000). For example,most of Cuba’s young people –chiefly members of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC)– attend schools, universities and institutions in Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine, Poland and the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Moreover, a number of cultural delegations went to Asia, Latin America and Europe. In 1984, the Caribbean team, led by Alicia Alonso, visited five former Soviet republics (Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan). On the other side, around 90% of the military budget was financed from the USSR and other Communist states. These were some of the reasons why Cuba did not have financial problems -different from several Latin societies. During the Cold War, the massive Soviet aid gave Cuba a political influence in the Third World disproportionate to its size and economy.

1964-1990: Castro’s dictatorial rule, headed by its diplomat Isidoro Malmierca (the Cuban ambassador to the United Nations), allowed the USSR to direct its foreign policy.The Kremlin used Fidel Castro to expand its geopolitical influence in the Third World, chiefly in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa.

1967: Soviet Union’s Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin went to Cuba.

1970s Fidel Castro & Mengistu Haile Mariam

1970-1975: The totalitarian Communist state had cooperative ties with Peru’s dictator Juan Velasco Alvarado. Over that time, Raúl Castro, the Island’s second most powerful leader, trip to Lima.

1971-1973: After Salvador Allende’s win in the Presidential elections, the Cuban administration had shown a deep interest in cooperation with Chile. Upon the winning the Chilean election, Allende became the world’s only freely elected Marxist Head of State. Later on, in 1971, surprisingly, Fidel Castro embarked on a three-week tour of Chile.

1972-1990: The Republic Socialist of Cuba was home to the largest Soviet community outside Europe and the USSR.

1975-1991: With the help of 50,000 Cuban troops, the African country of Angola, led by José Eduardo dos Santos, moved into the Soviet orbit.

1977: The Cuban dictatorship sent a delegation, led by Sergio del Valle, to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

1978-1989: Under its pro-Soviet policy, Castro’s dictatorial rule sent over 20,000 troops to the Republic Marxist of Ethiopia – an African nation with 90% of the population living under the abject poverty– to support the dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam, who led Ethiopia to one of the worst genocides in history. Over that time, Cuba’s troops carried out repressive measures against the Eritreans and Ethiopians.

1979: With the support of the Soviet bloc (from Bulgaria to East Germany), as well as anti-American states, Havana – the nation’s capital city– hosted the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit. Cuba’s satrap Fidel Castro was elected President. This international event was part of the Communist dictatorship’s strategy to win new allies in the Third World, including terrorist states.

1980s The pro-Castro Lobby

1980: To improve dictatorship’s image abroad, damaged by human rights abusesand pro-Soviet military projects in sub-Saharan Africa, the undemocratic rule sent a person -a Russian-trained astronaut– to space. Along with Alberto Juantorena ( 1976 Olympic champion), Alicia Alonso and Alejo Carpentier (author), Cuba’s cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo was one of the “special ambassadors” of the Cuban tyranny.

1981: On the world stage, the Castro regime established strong links with roguegovernments such as Libya, Iran and the DPR of Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or North Korea). By contrast, Cuba’s ties with many Latin American democracies worsened, including Colombia, Costa Rica, Jamaica and Peru.

1982-2008: Under the influence of the “pro- Castro lobby” in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), nine natural and cultural sites on the Island were declared wonders of the world- the Old Havana and its Fortifications (1982), the Trinidad and the Valley de los Ingenios (1988), San Pedro de la Roca Castle (1997), the Desembarco del Granma National Park (1999), the Viñales Valley (1999), the Archaeological Landscape of the First Coffee Plantations in the South East of Cuba (2000), the Alejandro de Humbolt National Park (2001), the Urban Historic Centre of Cienfuegos (2005) and the Historic Centre of Camaguey (2008). Curiously Cuba holds more world heritage sites than Argentina, Egypt, Indonesia, Kenya and South Africa.

1984: Due to its political and financial dependency with the rule of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR), the totalitarian Communist state refused to send over 200 Cuban champs and officials to the 23rd Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, CA. Therefore, many champs lost the chance to compete in the Games, which included Javier Sotomayor (track & field) and Mireya Luis (volleyball) as well as Olympic gold medal winners Maria Caridad Colón (athletics) and Teófilo Stevenson (boxing).

1985: In its efforts to improve the country’s economy, tourism became one of government’s top priorities. Nonetheless, poor international image -among the world’s oldest tyrannies, together with the Stalinist state of North Korea-have caused great harm to the Island’s tourism industry.

1986-1992: Although many Socialist governments, from Czechoslovakia and Mongolia to the People’s Republic of China recognized to Seoul,the Cuban tyranny continued to reject South Korea’s sovereignty.

1988: After a year of speculations, the Cuban contingent did not participate in the Summer Games in Seoul, South Korea.

1990s Cuba — The World’s Worst Olympic Country

1991: Upon the ending of the Soviet Empire, the Caribbean Island, with few natural resources, had transformed itself from a middle-income country to one of the poorest countries on the American mainland.

1992: Cuba’s exile Eduardo Díaz Betancourt was executed by tyranny, despite worldwide appeals for clemency.

1992: Jorge Esquivel, the most outstanding dancer and choreographer in the Cuban Revolution, sought political asylum in Italy. This defection was a serious setback to the Cuban National Ballet. At the 1982 International Ballet Competition in Havana, Esquivel, one of the world’s six best dancers, made his choreographer debut. In the 70s and 80s, he was partner of Alicia Alonso.

1993: Despite Cubaannually budgeted over $ 100 million for the promotion of Olympic sport, which represents 3% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) -one of the highest in the developing world, sport had a big problem: there were massive defections. During the 17th Central American and Caribbean Games in Puerto Rico, the Island boasted the infamous distinction of being “one of the world’s worst Olympic nations”, alongside Burma and Libya, as a host of Olympian athletes and coaches, including softball players and swimmers, refused to return to their impoverished country.

1993 Against all odds, Alina Fernández Revuelta, Fidel Castro’s daughter, fled to Europe.

1994-2010: The Cuban regime lost four important allies in sub-Saharan Africa: Angola (resource-rich nation), Benin, Equatorial Guinea (oil-rich country) and Namibia (uranium-rich country).

1995: The Island boasted one of the highest suicide rates on the planet.

1995-2010: Unlike the Republic Socialist of Vietnam, the Island, with an economy heavily dependent on tourism, has had one of the worst-performing economies in the developing world. The nation’s economy had long been handicapped by its primitive political system. Since the breakup of the Soviet Empire in the early 1990s, a lot of workers, from nurses to teachers, have been forced by the lack of job opportunities to work in Latin America and Spain. With the exception of Haiti, Cuba’s citizens are the poorest on the Caribbean region. On the other hand, important sporting and economical agreements between Havana and Latin America republics have strengthened ties between the Cuban dictatorship and Latin democracies.

1998: In an attempt to mollify its critics, the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II was allowed to visit the Island for the first time.

1999: At the Pan American Games in Winnipeg (Canada), the country’s Olympic delegation picked up several medals, but unwelcomed publicity came when Cuba’s athlete Javier Sotomayor Sanabria, one of the Island’s most respected icons since 1959, lost his Pan American gold medal in the men’s high jump after testing positive for a drug. Meanwhile, Fidel Castro did not accept the results.

2000s The Hereditary Dictatorship of the Castros

2000: Castro’s regime established close ties with the government of Hugo Chavez, Head of State of Venezuela.Due to his admiration for Fidel Castro, Chavez provided heavy economic aid and became a supplier of oil to Cuba. Meanwhile, Aleksandr Lukashenko, dictator of Belarus, went to Havana.

2003: While Cuba’s tyrant Fidel Castro -perhaps inspired by Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Jean-Bedel Bokassa, Idi Amin Dada and other satraps of the Third World– expressed his desire to become Presidentfor life,the State Security Departament’s increased activity against the opposition groups as itarrested 75 prominent human rights activists, who participated in the Project Varela. They were named “Prisoners of Conscience” by Amnesty International. In response to the rule of Cuba’s human rights abuses, European Union (EU) imposed restrictive measures on Cuba.

2005-2010: In tribute to the “Ladies in White”, the European Union bestowed upon them the 2005 Sakharov Prize for Freedom. This award was hailed as a victory for the Island ’s pro-democratic groups. The pro-democratic organization “Ladies in White” became a world symbol of the struggle against tyranny and repression. They are one the greatest signs of hope for the new Cuba. In beginning 2008, they were threatened and attacked by paramilitaries forces.

2008: Because of its poor health, amid many speculations, Fidel Castro stepped down as Head of State and leader of the Cuban Revolution. Subsequently he was replaced by his younger brother Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz, becoming the seventh Marxist leader of a Latin American country, after Fidel Castro (1960-2008), Allende (Chile, 1971-1973), Forbes Burnham (Guyana,1970-1980), Michael Manley (Jamaica, 1972-1980), Maurice Bishop (Grenada, 1979-1983) and Daniel Ortega Saavedra (Nicaragua, 1985-1990). Raul’s succession was long-anticipated. Nonetheless, the new President, Prime Minister between 1976 and 2008,did not make major changes to the Island’s political system.

2009-2010: Under the tutelage of the hereditary dictatorship of the Castro family, there were up to 225 prisoners of conscience. Nonetheless, not much was known about the total number of political prisoners.

2010: Aware that several Cuban athletes want to escape from the Island, the country’s new dictator Raúl Castro, through the Cuban Olympic Committee (COC), declined to send Olympian athletes, coaches and officials to the Central American and Caribbean Games in Mayaguez (Puerto Rico). The Island’s sport during the past 20 years has been hit by a host of defections.

Alejandro Guevara Onofre: Freelance writer. Alejandro is author of a host of articles/essays about over 220 countries and dependencies (and American States as well), from ecology, history, tourism and national heroes to Olympic sports, foreign relations, and wildlife. In addition, he has published some books on women’s rights, among them “History of the Women in America” and “Famous Americans”

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1) The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) is responsible for overseeing the integrity of the accounting processes and accuracy of public companies’ financials. They were obviously asleep at the wheel when many of Wall Street’s largest financial firms, rapidly and without warning, either went bankrupt or dove into deep financial stress at the onset of the greatest financial collapse in this country since the Great Depression. How did this economic and financial fiasco occur with almost no advance warning by the SEC? A possible answer was published in an April 23, 2010 Associated Press article which reported on the findings of an SEC Inspector General analysis. The analysis found that more than two and half dozen SEC employees were found to have used their government issued computers to search the Internet for pornography during the time they should have been hard at work protecting the interests of Americans who invest in public companies. As examples of their findings, one SEC attorney spent up to eight hours a day downloading pornography, burning his findings to CDs and DVD discs once his hard drive filled up with the pornographic material. An SEC accountant was blocked over 16,000 times in one month (or about 800 times a day, 10 times an hour) from visiting pornographic websites yet he was able to eventually collect a collection of pornographic material on his government computer by using a method to bypass the SEC filters. Seventeen of the pornography seekers at the SEC were considered “senior level” employees, earning salaries up to $222,000 a year. These government employees were obviously too busy to help protect the interests of the American investors, people who lost untold billions of dollars as a result of the financial crisis that the SEC staff never saw coming.

2) In January of this year, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a report that concluded the $150 billion that the Federal government had spent on the Head Start program since 1965 has no long lasting benefits to the children that had been enrolled in the program. Another analysis, this one conducted by the Heritage Foundation found similar results: “Head Start has little to no effect on cognitive, socio-emotional, health, and parenting outcomes of children participating in the program.” Thus, rather than delivering the benefits that Head Start is supposed to deliver, we are left with an annual multi billion set of early education government programs that are little more than a government subsidized baby sitting service.

3) In the April 26, 2010 issue of Newweek magazine, an article by Dan Stockman exposed the fact that the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) is not doing a lot of protecting, at least relative to the Clean Air Act. According to research done by Mr. Stockman, his analysis of the EPA’s public database of enforcement records showed that on a national basis, more than 750 companies have been in continuous violation of clean air laws since 2007. Included in these 750 companies were over two hundred companies defined as high priority because of the severity of their offenses. What good is having a law and identifying offenders if there are no consequences or changes in behavior? Not very helpful.

4) In the April 9, 2010 issue of The Week magazine, there was a short article about how shoddy the work at the Energy Department is relative to classifying products as deserving of a high energy saving appliance rating within the EnergyStar program. A company who gets an EnergyStar rating can market the energy efficiency of their product, as approved by the government, and theoretically sell more products and/or sell them at a higher price. Consumers look for the EnergyStar designation with the assumption being that these are good deals from a cost of energy perspective. One problem though. The article reported on a sting operation by Federal regulators that sent bogus designs to the people running the EnergyStar testing program. These bogus products included a gasoline powered alarm clock (certainly not a very efficient way to tell time) and a feather duster attached to a space heater that had been called an “air filter” by the regulators. Unfortunately, both of these bogus products and most of the others were awarded the EnergyStar status by the Energy Department. Obviously, the Energy Department is not here to help you distinguish energy efficient products from those that are not if these somewhat outrageous fake products can pass the current energy efficiency standards in the inspection process.

5) Most people probably know that Toyota has been having a spate of safety problems with it’s cars over the past few months, with accusations that these safety problems have resulted in traffic fatalities. What most people do not know, as reported in the March 1, 2010 issue of Businessweek, the government had opened, and shortly thereafter closed, eight inquiries into the problem with Toyota products, starting back in 2003. In all eight cases they found no significant problems and closed all probes with no action taken. It was not until the past year or so that the government finally recognized that maybe there is a problem and Toyota was finally forced to take remedial action on its vehicles. The article points out the fact that the two government interface executives at Toyota used to work for the very government agency responsible for automobile safety, implying that the government might have gone easy on their former co-workers. Given that upwards of a hundred Americans may have died as a result of faulty Toyota products, it does not look like the government is helping anyone here either.

6) Several years ago the government belatedly pulled a series of imported toy products from China off of the shelf because the products were made using lead based materials that could seriously hurt a child if the the child put a toy in their mouths and the lead entered their systems. While the good news is the government safety organization finally got the products off of the shelves, it would have been much better if they had never entered the country in the first place, Even worse, according to a May 20, 2010 Associated Press article, the overseas producers simply replaced their lead laced products with cadmium laced products which are just as dangerous. One would have thought the government would have been a little more alert to these types of products since they had just gone through the lead based experience. Alas, they were no better the second time around as the cadmium products came ashore.

7) A May 17, 2010 Associated Press article reported on the many oversights and incompetence of Federal employees of the Minerals Management Service (MMS) Federal agency, the agency responsible for overseeing the safety of oil rigs in the Gulf Of Mexico. According to the article and an internal report, not as many inspections were done as required, many MMS employees received hunting and fishing vacations along with other gifts from the same companies they were supposed to keep in line from a safety perspective, some MMS employees were inspecting oil rigs of companies at the same time they were in negotiations for employment by those companies, and some MMS employees admitted being addicted to illegal drugs while being responsible for safety inspections and compliance. These Federal employees were obviously little help in preventing the devastating Gulf oil spill.

The Department Of Homeland Security has certainly not been helpful. This past December, a would be terrorist traveled from Somalia to the skies over Detroit and would have blown up the airliner he was in if his underwear bomb had not malfunctioned. In the spring, another would be terrorist almost blew up a car bomb on the streets of Time Square which failed to explode only because of a defective bomb. Unknown numbers of illegal aliens and drugs, and who knows what else, continue to flood over our southern border with Mexico. Are we feeling secure yet?

9) In a related non-helpful effort, an article in the June 11, 2010 issue of The Week magazine recalled a resolution from the House of Representatives in 1986. At that time, the House demanded that the Pentagon seal our borders within 45 days against illegal drugs. Looks like they missed that deadline.

10) The No Children Left Behind legislation from the Bush administration has proven to be unsuccessful in raising the lower than expected learning levels of American children relative to the education of children in many other countries. Thus, nothing has changed since the Reagan administration issued its scathing report on American public schools in 1982, “A Nation At Risk.” Thus, the American political class and its government processes have been unhelpful for at least twenty eight years in raising education standards and output of the country.

11) On the foreign affairs front, government and the political class have not been very helpful either. Two renegade countries, North Korea and Iran, with economies and populations that are just a small fraction the size of the United States, will both soon have the ability and intention of creating and stockpiling nuclear weapons. Unstable leadership in these countries is not a long term formula for safety and security.

12) In the face of all of these failures, what have the politicians been working on during the past year that might eventually help all of us live a better life? A California Congresswoman and her staff worked on legislation that would establish Federal regulations for the sound volume of television commercials, another Congressman was working on legislation that would prevent male dysfunction commercials from airing on television, another Congressman and his staff worked on legislation to give pet owners a tax deduction in these hard economic times, and many Washington politicians were involved in the debate on how to get a national college football playoff system in place. How many of these items would fall in the top 20 issues facing most Americans today? Probably not many. Politicians spend time on these small, insignificant issues while the big issues of public education, energy policy, leaky borders, high health care costs, skyrocketing national debt levels, and high unemployment continue to grow unabated.

13) Finally, the biggest and most widespread non-help in the past sixty years was obviously related to the financial crash and economic downturn of the past few years. Numerous government agencies were absolutely no help in foreseeing and managing the housing and banking crisis that caused the so-called “Great Recession.” These Federal government entities include Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, SEC, Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, House of Representatives housing and banking committees, Senate housing and banking committees, the FDIC, the FHA, the Bush administration, the Obama administration, and any number of other unhelpful government organizations. If these agencies and politicians could not see this great, historic economic crisis coming until it was way too late to do anything, what makes us think they have any chance in successfully managing the smaller, more subtle aspects of the economy?

Did we leave anyone out? We need to get over the myth that government is somehow an efficient and effective ally in our lives. The above examples should be proof of that. Many Americans still think that once a law is passed or a program established that the battle is over and everything will be great: government workers and agencies taking care of things in a super efficient manner at a reasonable cost. Given the above list of incompetencies and the record, sky high national debt levels we have, we are getting the worst of all possible combinations – high cost, low quality.

We need to start a long term, systematic downsizing of government in order to reduce our national debt and get government smaller and more focused on just the important, major issues of our times, which does not include the sound volume of television commercials. The logic is if the political class and government agencies have less to worry about, they may actually get good at a few things rather than being incompetent in a wide range of things. It makes no sense to continue to support a government bureaucracy when all we get is the low performance or non-performance described above. Drastically downsize and focus, that is what must be done to get us out of the high cost/low quality zone into the low cost/high quality zone. Then, and only then, might the myth “I’m from the government and I am here to help you” actually become a reality again.

Our new book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government – Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom and Destroying The American Political Class” is now available at http://www.loathemygovernment.com and online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Visit our blog at http://www.loathemygovernment.blogspot.com for our nealry daily dialog on American freedom.

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I actually stopped writing about politics in Nigeria for an internet blog and publications recently, when I discovered that the people in question refuse to turn a new leaf. But the recent happenings in the country for over two months now have woken my pen in this regard. The question is what is the constitution? Why do we have it? Is it that we don’t have competent hands to handle it anymore? Or we are simply playing politics? The worst of the scenario is that the national assembly is like a paper tiger. I may not really place the blame on them because they are more or less extractions of the “business as usual mentalities” that would preferred to trade the sanctity of our constitution for paltry crap! Most of them I believe are only opportunist, they do not really understand the essence of the mandate they enjoy even those that can still be vouched for have long sacrificed their integrity on the altar of greed. There is really no difference between these so called lawmakers and drunken brats.

The situation of Nigeria has complicated into a hydra headed issue in which one may not know how to approach it. For over two months now, the nation that boasts of over 150 million people has been without a substantial head. This was due to the fact that the ailing president went under the knife with no regards for constitution and the fate of over 150 million people. This illegal act on behalf of the president has since been condemned by all and sundry. The question that is making wave is why did it take so long for the needed change to be effected as regards a substantial president? Some group of people condemned the resolution of the national assembly that recently empowered the vice president as the acting president that it was illegal and unconstitutional in the sense that two wrongs cannot make a right that the infringement on the constitution still exists.

I still do not understand why our leaders cannot get things right in the proper manner it should be done. Imagine the attorney general of the federation, the number one law person that is supposed to protect the integrity of the constitution even desecrating it in his own show of shame! Thanks to the new government for dealing with that in a timely fashion. It is high time we made a change in our leadership, even if it is going to be a revolution as it happened in neighboring African countries.

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It has been now about two months that, to my shocking surprise, we have been bombarded with news about Greece. Every single day, there is one or more stories in the front page of the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers, all analyzing the importance of Greece in the European Union in particular, and the world’s financial health in general. I have spent the last few days in Denmark and Germany and a day does not go by without seeing Greece in the front, middle and back pages of the Financial Times and other newspapers written in languages beyond the four I can personally speak. So the question is, what makes little-tiny Greece, all of a sudden the center of the universe again? Don’t get me wrong, I am thrilled that Greece is in the news daily, but the question is why does Greece matter?

Greece is a minor euro zone economy, perhaps 2-3% of GDP, but what matters is the fact that Greece uses the Euro as its currency and the threat alone that Greece may go under sends shockwaves to the financial community, for the fear of one country going down may take other countries with similar problems with it as well.

The issue became critical when Greece announced that its budget deficit as percent of GDP, was way above what was reported by the previous administration, 12 or 13% to be exact, way above the required by the Union 3%. One only had to look at similar countries like Portugal and Spain to see they too had very high budget deficits. The PIGS, as they call them, i.e., Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain make for a very unstable economic group, which, if can not meet its financial obligations to the community, puts unsustainable pressure on the Euro with the now known consequences. In fact, the Euro has gone on a free fall almost overnight, from being the dominant currency with dollar exchange rates around $1.5, to losing more than 5% of its value against the dollar, to an eight month low of $1.3529 as recently as two months ago and some analysts predict it may go down to $1.3, or even less.

So what can the mighty US learn from tiny Greece? Is it possible that the US, by running, or even threatening to run huge deficits, as the proposed social plans by the Obama administration indicate, would face similar disastrous economic situation that would severely and adversively impact the dollar, vis-à-vis the major currencies? Some people argue that this is not possible because unlike the EU where countries are not really legally bound by a single government, the US can legally mobilize financial resources and assist states that are in dire straits, something that the EU is currently challenged with. However, it is not the state budgets that create global havoc, but rather the budget deficits at the US federal level which are currently huge by historical standards that create serious risks and in turn scare away investors – like China, who are looking to expand their recently acquired wealth into more productive capital markets. One can already see that current US deficits, even before Mr. Obama’s proposals are approved, have scared away investors who are already looking for safer havens. China for one thing is building its gold stockpiles rather than investing in US real estate capital.

A country’s budget deficits, its liabilities to its people and foreign investors, put pressure on its ability to borrow in the open markets and eventually run the risk of seeing its bonds down rated. This is exactly what has happened to Greece and what can happen to America, if it doesn’t get its (White) house in order.
America has recently used extreme financial behavior by spending immense internal capital to bail out the auto industry and Wall Street on the premise they were too big to fail. This was the wrong long term strategy which bound to have two effects: 1) these industries have no incentive to put their house in order and, 2) the US citizens at large will be financing this error for ever.

It is interesting to see that Germany, the country that all other economies are compared to in Europe, decided that under no circumstances will it bail out Greece for the above two reasons. In the long run, Greece will have to find its way out of this financial Greek tragedy and be a better EU partner. There is no such thing as “too big” or “too small” for that matter, to fail!

For the US, tough times are ahead. It would be a shame if Greece, where democracy started, could not teach the world a lesson, and America is where democracy ended. For the shake of our children, I need to be proven wrong.

Did you find this article informative, thought provoking or interesting? If so, you may also enjoy visiting my blog: http://www.askDrNick-anything.blogspot.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Poulios

In the southern part of the Philippines a political war has been waging on between two families for decades it’s not just your simple he said she said propaganda, the fighting between the two families having left many innocent bystanders dead. With the gubernatorial race starting to heat up one candidate in the race Ismael Mangudadatu has not only had his lives threaten from political rival the Amputuan clan during the course of the current election but he has also lost close family members in the process.

Earlier this weak whiles candidate Mangudadatu family members and supporters were traveling through rival Amputuan Township to file paperwork in the provincial capital for the elections in May 2010 they were high jacked and massacred. In all 46 people were killed in two separate attacks. The first attacks left a total of 24 people dead bodies riddled with bullets; between the victims were Mangudadatu’s wife and his two sisters. The second attack not that far away claimed 22 more supporters of Mangudadatu’s that were left piled up in hillside grave including a very visual pregnant woman. Out of the 46 victims 20 were journalist just doing their jobs covering the political campaign.

Because of the latest incidents that have taking place in the southern region of the Philippines, president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has placed the region under emergency rule to find those guilty of the heinous crimes described as the worst massacre in recent Philippines history. Under emergency rule army forces will conduct random searches and checkpoints to try to locate the gunmen responsible for the crimes.

While investigators try to find witnesses to come foreword to help find the perpetrators, no one really wants to come foreword fearing retaliation from the warlords or militia that is most likely responsible. One witness who would not give his name said, “There were about 12-militia gunman accompanied with local police”. So far National police chief Jesus Versosa has placed the police chief responsible for controlling the area and three other officers one being a person considered to be a suspect into a camp until the investigation is over.

One thing is clear whoever is responsible for the attacks planned it out ahead of time gave the fact that the graves that some of the bodies were placed in was carefully dug up ahead of time. As the investigators look farther into the details of the case, they are starting to discover not only do the Ampatuan family who are considered partners with warlords and deadly militia’s control the people in the towns but also many of the police officers around the area.

While the recent killings have shocked the Philippines nation, given the fact that the southern region is the poorest area in the country, violence similar to the recent massacre have taken place before. Since the 1970’s over 120,000 people have lost their lives to political wars in the southern region. Until the Philippines government officially steps in and take over the area from certain powerful families that run the region with an iron fist, murders and kidnappings will continue throughout every election leaving more innocent people to die.

You can watch all the latest news and event in crystal clear high-definition on Dish Network.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shamont_Mazyck

A European Union quiz will show that there are twenty seven countries that are members of the organization. They are in alphabetical order, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

The EU has grown to its impressive twenty seven country size after starting with only six. France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg are shown in European Union trivia to comprise the original members of the Union. The majority of the continent has since joined after meeting the criteria set out in 1993 to join. Most of the non members are in the Eastern part of the continent. The Western European countries which have not joined are Norway, Switzerland, and Iceland.

A European Union quiz will show that the goals of the organization were never military in nature, and that the economy and trade were always the far stronger goals. It was decided early on that existing military policies which were in place were more than sufficient to govern that part of policy. Most of the countries are already members of NATO, while those who are not have neutrality policies.

There are a number of reasons why the Euro has only been adopted by sixteen of the countries in the Union. Two have had their membership include the fact that they will not have to accept the Euro as their sole currency. These are the United Kingdom, and Denmark. Sweden on the other hand, has carefully avoided having to adopt the Euro by not meeting the targets required for them to meet before adoption.

Although most matters of internal policy are still left to individual governments, the EU has attempted to have an impact in other areas. The Environment, agriculture, and energy are other key areas in which the EU attempts to set common policy and goals.

Masters of Trivia is a website dedicated to trivia games and quizzes that cover several different areas of interest. The various trivia questions available on the site can be easily accessed and played by going to http://www.mastersoftrivia.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shawna_S._Ruppert

If all these countries are calling on the United States to quickly put together and maintain a new world order that will be the merging of many countries into a single governed body over which there will be a single leader to call the shots, maybe the people should be told why and to whom they will have to answer to. People of the countries who are a part of this ‘new world order’ seem to be mostly uneducated as to the transparency of this entire plot by these hosting countries. The seemingly opaque walls around the possible emergence of a new world government that will eliminate the sovereignty of the individual countries and form a single governed body, are high and not being given the exposure needed to keep the average citizen informed.

When government acts secretly the people are left to follow the acts of their governments without question and without say. Is this the loss of democracy or the actions of a rouge state that the people are afraid to question? When people are silenced by the actions of their governments, such as the loss of the American right to speak freely and assemble peacefully by the enactment of the permit; requiring all Americans to ask ‘permission’ by obtaining a purchased permit, that is when the people are intimidated into not saying much under the assumption that there is a large watchdog in place.

While these covert government actions are eroding the rights of their citizens in the individual countries the larger picture is coming into focus. The people are being lured into a huge cage where their opinions and their worth have no value. “A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.” (Edward R Murrow quote). “I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman’s club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave.” (H.L. Mencken quote).

People should start to discuss the current events that are unfolding before their eyes. People are in need of a collective untouched media outlet giving only facts and those reporters points of view. A human point of view is a sharply written and well-researched idea where opposing views could only promote discussion and debate on the true issues of the current global crisis all global citizens are faced with. Talk to your friends even if they don’t want to hear it, demand an opinion.

I, Derek Nelson born 1970, have spent the past eight years studying global economics and global politics. I believe that the current global community needs truth and a media outlet that is not built on politics or owned by large corporations. Truth in news can only create a larger and more advanced society built on the reality of what is, rather than built on what corporations what you to buy.

About the Author

Derek Nelson