Arcadia Foundation

Last week may have been the most important one of the year for troubled Honduras. It brought a number of important decisions both in and outside of the country, each of which will have implications for years to come.

The first decision was that of the majority of Hondurans in Sunday’s presidential vote to elect Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo as the country’s president for the next four years. The second was last Wednesday’s vote in congress which overwhelmingly declared that ousted President Manuel Zelaya shall not be allowed to return to complete the final weeks of his mandate. This followed a near-unanimous, non-binding supreme court decision with the same outcome. The third – and perhaps the most important to a country as trade- and aid-dependent as Honduras – is that a critical mass of international actors, including the US, Panama, Costa Rica and Colombia, have agreed to recognise the incoming Lobo government.

The below article from the Guardian’s Michael C. Lisman documents the stage being set for a slow and steady road to normalisation for Honduras, a Honduras in containing a citizenry that we at the Arcadia Foundation wish to congratulate for their adamancy in once-troubled waters.

Read Full Paper

The Sudanese government blasted the justification provided yesterday by the office of the United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon for calling president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir over the weekend.

This is believed to be the first contact between the two men since Bashir was indicted last march by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his alleged role in the Darfur war crimes.

Sudan official news agency (SUNA) said Bashir discussed with Ban the general situation in Darfur and the nomination of the Nigerian diplomat Ibrahim Gambari as head of the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID).

Read Full Paper

The following is written from Blas Padrino for the Orlando Examiner:

When the ex-president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya was removed from office six months ago, he thought his reinstatement would be a sure thing.

Led by a coalition of left wing Latin American regimes that hold sway in the Organization of American States, the international community quickly characterized his ejection as a military coup d’état.

Although the Honduran armed forces took Zelaya into custody to enforce an order of the civilian Supreme Court and the civilian, elected National Congress exercised its constitutional power when it deposed him and replaced him with his constitutionally-designated successor, the OAS and the United Nations General Assembly ignored all that.

Read Full Paper

Many ZANU-PF delegates say they want to decide who will succeed President Robert Mugabe, who will be 86 in February. President Robert Mugabe received fewer votes in the presidential election last year than MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Wednesday, Zimbabwe’s ZANU-PF begins one of its most important party congresses since coming to power at the country’s independence in 1980. Many ZANU-PF delegates say they want to decide who will succeed President Robert Mugabe, who will be 86 in February.

Read Full Paper

As a gay man in Uganda, Frank Mugisha is used to the taunts, the slurs and the daily harassment of neighbors and friends. But if a new bill proposed in the east African country becomes law, Mugisha could be put away for life, or worse, put to death for having sex with another man.

“Right now, you can’t go to places that are crowded, because the mob can attack us or even burn us. We can’t walk alone. We are ostracized by relatives. But if this bill passes, it will become impossible for me to live here at all. And that part hurts the most,” Mugisha said.

Read Full Paper

Iranian police clashed in Tehran today with opposition demonstrators seeking to renew their challenge to the government six months after a disputed presidential election, witnesses said.

Police fired teargas at supporters of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi when a state rally marking the killing of three students under the former Shah turned violent.

“I saw at least 10 people being arrested and taken to minibuses,” said one witness.

Read Full Paper

El Nuevo Herald

El presidente electo de Honduras, Porfirio Lobo, consideró el lunes que las elecciones que le dieron el triunfo legitiman a las instituciones políticas de su país y afirmó que el caso del depuesto mandatario Manuel Zelaya “ya es historia”.

Read Full Paper

Foreign investment to Africa is more than a recent trend; smart investors are capitalizing on up-and-coming businesses in many African nations like Angola, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, where Chinese investment in infrastructure has helped pave the way for massive expansion in transport, telecommunication, agriculture, among others.

One nation missing the bandwagon is the former ‘breadbasket of Africa’, where famine, corruption, disease still hinder progression, even amidst a controversial unity government between the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the Zanu-PF. Recently, the German ambassador to Zimbabwe stated that Western countries and major international financial institutions have changed their engagement with the country’s inclusive government during the past few months. The countries, who have aligned themselves with a group they call ‘Friends of Zimbabwe’ (interesting, as the following blog entitled ‘Friends of Zimbabwe‘ clearly has a different agenda), have established ways to begin financing the rebuilding of the country’s shattered infrastructure.

Read Full Paper

In an electric four-hour solo performance on live television, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he will think about whether to reclaim the presidency — one of the strongest signals yet that he may run again for Russia’s top office in 2012.

Putin, who also vowed that Russia would step up its efforts against terrorism, spoke during a question-and-answer show on television and radio that highlighted his dominance of Russia’s political scene.

“I will think about it, there is still enough time,” Putin said when asked whether he will run in the next election.

“Don’t hold your breath,” Putin told another person who asked whether he was planning to leave politics.

Read Full Paper

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said Venezuela has put up an illegal trade embargo that is becoming a “Berlin Wall,” cutting off the South American neighbors.

Uribe, in Portugal to attend a Heads of State Ibero-american Summit , criticized Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for not attending the meeting and spoke out against Venezuela’s suspension of trade with Colombia.

“People have complained so much about the embargo against Cuba, and now Venezuela has an embargo against Colombia,” Uribe said, according to the transcript of a radio interview posted today on the presidential Web site. “And what worries me, because it generates distrust, is that other countries have taken the opportunity to go to the Venezuelan market and substitute Colombian products.”

Read Full Paper