Show me your friends…

25.FEB.11

Editor: Show me your friends, or should we say: “birds of same feathers flock together”? Dictators in deep trouble. While we write, events in presently existing dictatorships are unfolding and are very much unpredictable. Here some highlights:

LIBYA: ‘Private kingdom’ of the much hated, self-appointed dictator Gadhafi, a close friend of Messrs. Gonsalves and Berlusconi, the latter facing a sex charge trial in April.{{more}} As we write, this dictator of 42 years has ordered helicopters and artillery to fire on protesters. In spite of hundreds of casualties, the mostly young people have taken the second largest city and are marching on the capital Tripoli. Gadhafi’s son threatens civil war while to date there are rumours, that Gadhafi himself has fled and is on his way to Venezuela. Let’s hope it’s not St.Vincent.

VENEZUELA: ALBA founder and dictator friend Chavez under pressure. Demonstrations off and on. In spite of oil, the economy in shambles. Chavez’s response: Government opposed media houses and businesses are closed off or taken over by the Chavez regime, independent judges thrown in jail.

IRAN: Dictator puppet Ahmadinejad’s special forces’ (sounds familiar?) have replaced the police in Teheran. Brutal crackdowns all over. Mullahs scream for the blood of dissidents and protesters. Executions are taking place day and night. Tens of thousands are putting their lives at risk, demanding freedom while demostrating in the streets.

BOLIVIA: Another ALBA dictator friend, Morales, struggles to control the country. Several provinces openly rejecting his socialist-communist doctrine.

CUBA: Communist dictator friend Castro, under mounting international pressure, is forced to release more and more political prisoners. Even the ominous Vatican intervenes. After 50 years, privately owned small businesses are finally permitted to assist the failed state-run-economy.

LEBANON: recent meeting point of hardcore dictators, including some aspiring ones. On the agenda: A Socialist New World Order. This in spite of ongoing violent clashes among Christian and Muslims, the latter backed by Iran, aiming to take over the country. Civil war in the making.

Conclusion: Are we seeing the bowels of other dictators and for that matter, of aspiring ones going? Will in fact an ‘Online Revolution’, the true educational revolution, and obviously more effective than a limping ‘Educational Revolution’ (e.g. illiterate high school students, fewer qualified teachers, poor funding, overcrowded classrooms, outdated curricula) of young, educated people succeed in not only overthrowing dictator Mubarak, but all of these pathetic dictator guys? Consequently, are we seeing second thoughts in bringing in the long overdue election promise; the thousands of computers? Will they not trigger an ‘Internet revolution’ here as well? Are the young people, who had enough of these arrogant, self-appointed schizos all “Mercenaries and Anarchists” as a certain ‘stirrup-jack’ is proposing? Obviously he has forgotten that he and his master once were ‘juvenile’ activists, too.

Salut to the Young and Brave