New Year Sunday Readings: 4 January 2009

No democracy please, we’re British

Mercopress (Montevideo, Uruguay):

In anticipation of the annual 3 January anniversary of the 1833 British occupation of the Malvinas, the occupying power announced “limited self-determination” for the islands.  The 2500 mostly elderly residents will be able to elect some kind of advisory council, which can be over-ridden by Royal Governor, “in the interests of good governance”, or in relation to external affairs, defence, internal security, the administration of justice, audit, and management of the public service.

But (I hasten to add for my British friends who might take offense), apparently that’s the way those 79% of the inhabitants who claim British nationality want it.  Still, the Falklands are a bit of an anomoly in the Americas.

March of the Penguins

(Adrienne Appel, IPS):

Most Falklanders under 55 live off the island.  The people there have always been outnumbered by penguins, though they seem to be leaving, too (

…This year, about 2,500 disoriented juvenile penguins traveled more than 2,500 kilometres beyond the normal point, coming ashore in Salvador, in Bahia state, 1,400 kilometres north of Sao Paulo, to the amazement of beachgoers. The penguins were rescued by IFAW and the Centre for Marine Animal Recovery, with help from other organisations and Brazilian environmental authorities.

After months of care and feeding, the 372 surviving penguins were banded and loaded onto a C-130 Hercules military plane and transported to Cassino Beach, in Pelotas, in southern Brazil.

After an overnight rest, they were released into the South Atlantic ocean, along with a few other rescued adult penguins, with the hope that they would guide the younger ones safely home to Patagonia.

About 200 people cheered them on as they waded into the surf. It was the largest penguin rescue on record, a success for animal welfare experts — but a terrible omen for the penguin population. …

March of the anti-democrats…

I shouldn’t make fun of the limited rights of the Falklanders. In the United States, fully 2/3rds of U.S. citizens only enjoy limited rights, too:

Do You Live In A Constitution-Free Zone (BS Alert):

Using data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, the ACLU has determined that nearly 2/3 of the entire US population (197.4 million people) live within 100 miles of the US land and coastal borders.

The government is assuming extraordinary powers to stop and search individuals within this zone. This is not just about the border: This ” Constitution-Free Zone” includes most of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas.

…and anti-democracy goes marching on…

… in El Salvador, Erica Thomas writes in the NACLA Magazine:

… Since November 2007, El Salvador’s leftist party, the FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front), has been consistently polling at a 12-14 point advantage for upcoming legislative, municipal, and presidential elections—ahead of the right-wing ARENA (National Republican Alliance) party’s presidential candidate and former national civilian police director, Rodrigo Avila, who has peaked at around 38 percent by conservative estimates. Because an FMLN victory could deal a profound loss to Washington and Wall Street by countering attempts to increase the corporate privatization of land and public services, business media and government officials have stepped up attempts to defeat them in the press and behind the scenes.

In a recent address to the American Enterprise Institute, Salvadoran Foreign Minister Marisol Argueta implored the U.S. government to intervene in the elections on ARENA’s behalf. In addition, international press reports have propagated ridiculous claims of a mounting “terrorist conspiracy” between the FMLN, the FARC in Colombia, and Hugo Chavez. Wall Street Journal editor Mary Anastasía O’Grady has complained that if the FMLN wins, foreign investors will suffer….

Speaking of the Salvadorian elections, a new addition to my Resources Page is Tim’s El Salvador Blog. I’ve been impressed especially with Tim’s coverage of the role religion plays in that country’s politics (something most English-speaking Latin American writers overlook, or oversimplify at best) and — given the out of proportion tragedy that engulfed that small nation not so long ago (and made so many of us painfully aware that the U.S. role in Latin America is anything but benign), it would be a good idea to check in on El Salvador in this election year.