Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

Archives for May 2016

May 31, 2016 By Fausta

Venezuela: OAS calls meeting on democratic charter

OAS Chief Calls for Meeting to Discuss Maduro’s Rule in Venezuela. Organization of American States’ Almagro criticizes threat to democratic principles

Luis Almagro, Uruguay’s former foreign minister, made the request Monday night for the meeting after submitting to the council a 133-page report on alleged human rights violations and the conflict of powers in Venezuela. The emergency meeting in mid-June, if approved, could eventually lead to Venezuela’s suspension from the hemisphere’s oldest and most important body.

Here’s the text of the Democratic Charter.

Roundup:
A must-read: Et tu, Macri? Why on earth is Argentina trying to block application of the Inter-American Democratic Charter in Venezuela? The tawdry story follows.

OAS Chief Calls for Emergency Meeting to Evaluate Venezuela

OAS head calls for vote on Venezuela’s ‘grave alterations’ to democracy

Venezuela: OAS head calls emergency meeting over crisis

OAS Calls Emergency Meeting on Venezuela’s Undemocratic Rule

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Filed Under: Communism, Venezuela Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Luis Almagro, Mauricio Macri, OAS

May 31, 2016 By Fausta

Books: The Bonjour Effect, Conspiracies of the Ruling Class, David’s Sling, Reformations

It’s time for book reviews. Here are three books I recommend, and one I’ll be buying,

I frequently get publicists’ emails asking if I’d like to review or comment on a new book, and, if I agree, they send me the book. Two of those came recently, The Bonjour Effect: The Secret Codes of French Conversation Revealed, and Conspiracies of the Ruling Class: How to Break Their Grip Forever.

Conspiracies of the Ruling Class: How to Break Their Grip Forever, by Lawrence B. Lindsey, posits,

A Ruling Class have emerged in America against the hopes and designs of our Founding Fathers. Over the last hundred years, they have rejected the Constitution and expanded their own power, slowly at first and now rapidly. These people believe their actions are justified because they think they are smarter than the rest of us—so smart they can run our lives better than we can.

The book is divided in three parts:

  1. The Greatest Threat to Liberty
  2. Mismanagement of Government by a Self-interested Ruling Class
  3. Securing Our Liberty Once Again.

The third part is especially interesting:  Mr. Lindsey explains his goal of being philosophically populist and operationally libertarian, while stressing the importance of Congressional control over rule making, Congressional term limits, budget reform and reforming the Federal Reserve Bank. As he explains regarding the latter, “we need a better understanding of what calls for change.”

He specifically calls for “a constitutional amendment that protects people’s right to use something other than Federal Reserve notes (Fed-printed dollars ) both as a store of wealth and as a medium of exchange.” (page 231)

While I was hesitant to read the book because of the title (I’m not one for conspiracy theories), Mr. Lindsey’s vast experience in business, government, and academia convinced me to read it. It’s a must-read.

The Bonjour Effect: The Secret Codes of French Conversation Revealed, by the married couple Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoit Nadeau is an in-depth account of their experiences living in France for a year while raising twin daughters. 

If you are considering an extended stay in France, you may think of The Bonjour Effect as your survival kit. If you are only a casual visitor (as I have been), you will find it fun to read.

I can’t think of a country I have visited where the phrase “Language is culture” is more defining than in France. Conversation is France’s highest art, and Julie and Jean-Benoit (yes, you are on a first-name basis) lived through every type, from registering their girls at City Hall so they could attend school across the street from their apartment, through five solid hours eating lunch while conversing. to observations on race relations.

Their paragraph on political demonstrations also applies to other countries (page 93),

“Demonstrations and protests are political forums in France. After the slaughters at Charlie Hebdo and the Hyper Cache grocery, 5 percent of France’s total population took to the street. North Americans, who don’t protest in the street nearly as much as the French do, interpret it as a sign of unrest, if not political chaos. In fact, it’s the opposite: if the French couldn’t protest, that would lead to political chaos.”

The Bonjour Effect is intelligent and deeply insightful, while at the same time being a fun read, and even funny.

I purchased David’s Sling: A History of Democracy in Ten Works of Art because Victoria Coates wrote it and Roger Kimball edited it.

David’s Sling is a beautiful book, lavishly illustrated with not only the ten works of art mentioned in the title, but with other artwork of the periods it describes.

It’s a book to savor: I did a really slow read, since I decided to study the book’s chapters side-by-side with a corresponding chapter of Janson’s History of Art. It was also fun to realize that I had seen in person eight of the ten works of art (added the Parthenon and Florence to the bucket list).

Included in the ten is Rembrandt’s Night Watch, and the Dutch Golden Age, which I particularly enjoy. While I am not as enthusiastic about Jaques-Louis David, even that chapter lays out her thesis, as Victor Davis Hanson explains,

Coates advances a familiar argument: that constitutional government and its companion culture of freedom foster singular art of many kinds — publicly funded temples, private sculpture and painting, religious architecture, and subsidized private commemoration.

David’s Sling is the perfect house gift if you’re visiting friends this summer.

Carlos Eire has announced that his new book, Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450-1650 just came out. At 920 pages, it promises to be a tour de force on Dr. Eire’s speciality, history of religion. He says,

About the image on the cover: 15th century statue of St. Margaret, partially decapitated by Protestant iconoclasts in the 16th century, and buried outside a church in Essex, England. It lay hidden from view, forgotten, until the 20th century, when it was found by accident, as repairs were being made to that church.

Of the thousands of images I considered for the cover, this one “speaks” most eloquently about the contents of the book, which is — at bottom — a book about the toll taken by all revolutions.

Carlos Eire and I had talked about this book a while ago. I can’t wait to get it.

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Filed Under: books, Carlos Eire, Fausta's blog Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoit Nadeau, Lawrence B. Lindsey, Victoria Coates

May 31, 2016 By Fausta

Cuba: The fight over Havana Club

Bacardi, Pernod Ricard Spar Over Rights to Rum Name. Big-money clash arises over who gets Havana Club brand in U.S.

A multimillion-dollar expansion of warehouses and bottling lines anticipates a reopening of the American market to the Cuban brand, said Asbel Morales, rum master at Havana Club International, a joint venture between the Cuban government and Paris-based distillerPernod Ricard SA. “We just need to know when we can enter.”

But that very prospect has inflamed a decades-old battle between Pernod Ricard, the world’s second-largest spirits producer behind Diageo PLC, and Bacardi Ltd. over ownership of the Havana Club name.

Pernod says a 1993 deal with the Cuban government gives it rights to sell the Cuban-made rum around the world, including the U.S., where sales of the brand currently are blocked by the 1962 trade embargo.

Bacardi, started in 1862 by one of Cuba’s oldest families, says it owns rights to the brand after buying it from Havana Club’s founding family, the Arechabalas, who, like the Bacardis, fled Cuba when Fidel Castro’s government nationalized the island’s distilleries in 1960. The distiller has sold rum under the brand name and made it in Puerto Rico off and on since 1995.

Expect a lot more of these in the future.

We talked about it in last week’s podcast.

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Filed Under: business, Communism, Cuba, Fausta's blog Tagged With: Bacardi, Fausta's blog, Havana Club, Pernod Ricard

May 30, 2016 By Fausta

The Memorial Day Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Big news in Colombia: the ELN released Salud Hernández, Diego D’Pablos and Carlos Melo after holding them for a week. Details below.

ARGENTINA
Argentina’s Last Dictator Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison For Cross-Border Conspiracy

An Argentine court has sentenced Reynaldo Bignone, the country’s last dictator, to 20 years in prison for his part in Operation Condor.

It’s the “first time a court has ruled that Operation Condor was a criminal conspiracy to kidnap and forcibly disappear people across international borders,” The Associated Press reports.

Under this plan, the military dictatorships in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay and Brazil agreed to share information with each other to help track down political opponents and leftists starting in 1975. 376 people were killed as a result of Operation Condor, the BBC reports. As The Guardian describes, “after their arrest, the victims were made to ‘disappear’, usually by being cremated, or thrown drugged but still alive from military planes into the Atlantic Ocean.”

Argentina Plans Amnesty Over Funds Stashed Abroad. President Mauricio Macri tries to encourage Argentines to repatriate billions of dollars hidden in overseas vaults and accounts. If he succeeds, it’ll be very good news.

BAHAMAS
STRIKING NEW SNAKE SPECIES FOUND IN THE BAHAMAS

BOLIVIA
The Worst Boyfriend in Bolivia

BRAZIL
Dilma Rousseff claims her downfall in Brazil is ‘clearly’ a ‘coup’ after leaked tape ensnares her critics

Petrobras scandal highlights need for deep reform in Brazil. Political changes required to try remove the carrots that incentivise corruption

Brazil police launch manhunt after sickening gang rape

CHILE
Chile President Bachelet testifies in tax probe into daughter-in-law

COLOMBIA
Colombian rebels free Spanish journalist, 2 others

CUBA
Reports That Castro is Legalizing ‘Private Business’ Are False

JAMAICA
Jamaica, Venezuela, OAS and Caricom

MEXICO
Attorneys for Mexico’s Chapo Seek to Block Extradition to U.S.

Sinaloa Cartel’s Takeover of US Heroin Market Questionable

Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel has taken control of the US heroin market by elbowing out traffickers of the Asian product, according to a DEA official, but the dynamics of the drug trade on both sides of the border are somewhat more complex.

Mexico Has a New US Ambassador after 10-Month Blockade – Roberta Jacobson.

NICARAGUA
ICYMI: There is Nothing New Under the Nicaraguan Sun

PANAMA
Panama Papers May Inspire More Big Leaks, if Not Reform

PARAGUAY

Refuge in Paraguay gives street kids their lives back

PERU
Poll gives Peru’s Fujimori 5.8 point lead a week before election

PUERTO RICO

Puerto Rico’s born-again farmers dig for victory in island’s debt battle. They have a long way to go: agriculture accounts for less than 1% of the island’s GDP.

VENEZUELA
Oposición se reúne en secreto con régimen de Maduro para bloquear a la OEA

Chávez’s little blue book. Outsiders should push Nicolás Maduro to hold a recall referendum this year

In graphics: A political and economic guide to Venezuela

Venezuela Goes from Bad to Catastrophe. Until the country has a government that can build a sustainable economic system, its misery will only deepen



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Filed Under: Argentina, Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Fausta's blog, Jamaica, Latin America, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela Tagged With: Carlos Melo, Diego D’Pablos, Fausta's blog, Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, Michelle Bachelet, Roberta Jacobson, Salud Hernández, Sinaloa Cartel

May 30, 2016 By Fausta

Memorial Day: Proud to be an American

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Filed Under: entertainment, music Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Memorial Day

May 29, 2016 By Fausta

Sunday palate cleanser: Plácido in Zeffirelli’s Pagliacci

Zeffirelli does the most lush stagings, so here we go,

Pagliacci, by Leoncavallo. Full movie. Canio: Placido Domingo. Nedda: Teresa Stratas. Tonio: Juan Pons. Peppe: Florindo Andreolli. Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Alla Scala. Conductor: Georges Pretre. Directed by: Franco Zeffirelli.

Libretto.

From the Amazon blurb:
Elena Obraztsova, Placido Domingo, and Renato Bruson star in this Mascagni opera production. Teresa Stratas, Placido Domingo, and Juan Pons star in this Leoncavallo opera production. Both are performed at La Scala with George Pretre conducting.

Special thanks to the readers who purchase through my Amazon links!

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Filed Under: entertainment, music, opera Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Sunday palate cleansers

May 27, 2016 By Fausta

Venezuela: The road to hell

Caracas Chronicles‘ Francisco Toro has an excellent article at Vox,
How Venezuela’s socialist dream collapsed into a nightmare. For those of you thinking that it would have worked well if Chávez was still alive, Toro spells it out,

Chavismo’s disastrous policies created this nightmare

He goes on,

A wave of expropriations beginning in 2005 left most medium and large companies in state hands, to be run by bureaucrats who proved often venal and almost always incompetent. Even businesses left in private hands faced an unmanageable thicket of regulation over every imaginable aspect of their operations, hemming them in on all sides.

To take one example out of a million possibilities, it is now illegal for a dairy company to move raw milk from a collection center it owns to a processing facility it also owns 2 kilometers away without an explicit permit signed and stamped by a slew of government officials.

It is also illegal to fire a worker for basically any reason, including making threats of physical violence against a manager. And, needless to say, it is illegal to set your own prices: The state does that, often setting them below the cost of production, especially for basic goods. Under such circumstances, even “private” firms are in essence state run.

Read the whole thing.

Sarah Stanley writes on how Authoritarianism ruined Venezuela

Luis Ferreira Alvarez looks at VENEZUELA’S HEMISPHERIC ISOLATION

Whatever the end result, it is clear that Venezuela has lost ground in the region. Having remained aloof as the country descended into chaos, regional actors are finally reacting as new governments take power and Venezuela’s oil diplomacy collapses due to the drop in oil prices. But while regional attention on the Venezuelan crisis is welcomed, Venezuela’s problems can only be solved by Venezuelans. The international community, however, should prepare forwhen the Maduro government ends as the country seems more likely to implode given Caracas’ reaction to the recall referendum and protests against scarcity.

Last, but not least, Michael Totten compares Venezuela Collapses, Colombia Rises. Colombia has much to lose if it agrees to place FARC masterminds in positions of leadership.

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Filed Under: Communism, Venezuela Tagged With: Fausta's blog

May 27, 2016 By Fausta

Colombia: Santos as Dukakis

Dukakis:

Santos:

President Juan Manuel Santos’s unfortunate choice of helmet size distracted from his message during a press conference, where he stated that the government had incomplete information, but that Salud Hernåndez may have simply been held up while working on a story in the jungle, in an area controlled by the ELN, the FARC and other crime groups (video in Spanish):

Later on, the government confirmed that Hernández and two others were kidnapped:
Colombia confirms Spanish reporter is being held by guerrilla group. Two Colombian journalists are also in the hands of the ELN, says defense minister.

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Filed Under: Colombia Tagged With: Juan Manuel Santos, Salud Hernández

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