(Untitled)

Feb 19, 2008 08:49

Castro's resigned, Kosovo's declared independence, and no one around me seems to be aware of any of it.

Come on, people! The world is changing in front of us!

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Comments 9

agent_moody February 19 2008, 16:24:00 UTC
First one: not necessarily a bad thing. Question is will Castro resign from his parliamentary seat as well, or will he keep that until the next election or until he dies. Also kind of wondering how eager Little Havana is to invade Cuba now...

Second one: again, not necessarily a bad thing, but in many ways it sounds like a way to give the US more power in the region (Kosova seems fairly pro-US, while Serbia gravitates towards Russia.) National self-determination is a very tricky concept to navigate.

But what about Vojvodina?

Might also want to add the elections in Pakistan, and seemingly severe defeat of the PML(Q).

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elladarcy February 19 2008, 18:21:49 UTC
This is why I miss you. You make me seem ill-informed, whereas the mere fact that I know shit is going on makes me super-informed here.

The Castro question is interesting-- will there be a true shift of power, or will a sort of... Castro 2.0 take over? Just because he's no longer in his dictatorial capacity doesn't mean he doesn't have de facto power. I don't know enough about the situation to make any guesses, but this could go almost any direction.

I'm interested to see how the Kosovo situation is going to play out, especially how the US involves itself. Depending on how things go, this could bring foreign policy back into focus for the election. Again, I can't make any predictions, but I'll be following developments in the region as best as I can.

I actually just saw the news about Pakistan after I posted this. Stuff Is Happening, alright, and you bet your ass I'm going to be researching it all.

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agent_moody February 20 2008, 03:09:18 UTC
Something else interesting I heard was that in "retaliation" for the US and W. Europe recognising the independence of Kosovo, Russia might recognise the sovereignty of South Ossetia and Abkhazia out of the Republic of Georgia. Since Russia feels like the independence of Kosovo from Albania is to the detriment of them and the benefit of the US, recognising South Ossetia and Abkhazia will hopefully balance the situation from their perspective.

Personally, I think the next step is the independence of Scotland, (Northern) Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and Brittany into the formation of the "Celtic League" to rival the EU or the British Commonwealth. Maybe Nova Scotia would join them as well :P

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elladarcy February 20 2008, 03:14:05 UTC
But if that happens, you'll get the Basques all riled up.

And don't even get me started about the Québéquois!

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blue_crow February 20 2008, 01:39:25 UTC
Yeah, I would say we seem to be very inwards-facing right now. Like the primaries are everything in the whole world.

But I would like to say that people do seem to be much more news oriented now than they were a few months ago, at least in terms of the election buzz. I know that's hardly the whole world, but it makes me hopeful.

I should listen to more NPR. But I've been trying harder to read the Times, which I suppose counts for something.

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agent_moody February 20 2008, 03:04:03 UTC
You actually learn a decent amount from listening Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! alone, but a decent amount of that is less "important" news.

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elladarcy February 20 2008, 03:08:11 UTC
I miss that show so much... is it online? If it is, and you tell me where, I will carry your child, should you so desire.

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agent_moody February 20 2008, 03:11:12 UTC
http://www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/

You can also get it streaming through wnyc.org; I know it's on on Saturdays at 1pm on AM 820.

We'll see about the child thing.

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