Arcadia Foundation

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya will end his four-month refuge in the Brazilian embassy and leave the country next week, when his term would have ended, his closest adviser today told Reuters.

Zelaya, the poetic irony-loving leftist who was ousted on June 28, accepted an agreement backed by the government of the Dominican Republic to travel to the Caribbean country, close Zelaya aide Rasel Tome told Radio Globo radio.

Tome said Zelaya would remain politically active, but leaving the country effectively ends his career as a meaningful leader in Honduras.

“On January 27 there is a way out … The exit will not be a permanent exit, we will come back to the country to continue in these processes with the Honduran people,” Tome said.

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When your President tells you that ‘Playstation is poison‘, you know you’ve got a problem with the way things are being run. When hunger and power deficits are perpetual issues in your country yet those in the executive branch are more focussed on controlling industry for their own agenda, you know you have qualms with governance.

Indeed the statements and actions of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez are erratic to put it modestly, yet all flowing on the same perturbed course – socialist authoritarianism.

Chavez said yesterday that a nationalized retail chain previously controlled by France’s Casino Guichard-Perrachon S.A. will become part of a new group of ‘socialist supermarkets‘.

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Rabbi Steve Gutow, President and CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs has published a very insightful piece in the Huffington Post which I have decided to republish here on our Foundation’s website, and indeed was addressed at the Inter-American Dialogue yesterday in Washington.

Speaking towards the American citizenry, the article depicts the tragedy that was an unprepared Haitian government while the earthquake reached its zenith, and how from the rubble, an opportunity exists for strong government institutions to rise.

“We are all captivated by the photo of the damaged Presidential Palace in Haiti. It shows us that the Haitian earthquake was powerful and overwhelming. After all, the seat of power in that impoverished country is in ruins. What must that say about the remainder of Port au Prince? Imagine what it would have done to the people of this country had it been the White House. This photo captures the incomprehensible destruction in Haiti, but below the surface, perhaps the ruin of the Presidential Palace offers a pathway forward with quiet whispers of a redeemed nation.”

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As a reader, I’ve learnt that 20 million citizens reside in China’s western Xinjiang region. I can almost rest assured that as a blogger, I’m missing out on reaching that same 20 million, and not just because of the clear and present language barrier.

Those 20 million citizens are ‘internet refugees’; have been without uncensored links to the outside world since the government blocked nearly all online access, including text messages and international phone calls after ethnic riots in July.

China’s strategy is a winning one -to kill the voice of the people, you simply shut off the microphone, and turn down the speakers. They have done so in the largest and longest blackout in the world, observers say.

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Arcadia Foundation representatives will be taking part in an open discussion on the situation in Haiti following the devastating earthquake that struck the country on January 12 at the Inter-American Dialogue today in Washington DC. This discussion, jointly sponsored by the Inter-American Dialogue and the U.S. Institute of Peace, will examine the damage that has been done to Haiti and its people and the challenges the country now confronts. We will particularly aim to bring to light how Haiti’s political and economic prospects have been affected and what can be done by the international community to both deter political interference through corruption on the ground and help aid in recovery and reconstruction.

Confirmed participants include Ambassador Albert Ramdin, assistant secretary general of the Organization of American States; Dora Currea, Caribbean country manager of the Inter-American Development Bank; and Robert Maguire, chair of the Haiti Working Group at USIP and associate professor of international affairs at Trinity Washington University.

Much of the city of Port-au-Prince was reduced to rubble and news agencies report that tens of thousands have died and up to 3 million people have been displaced.  To help, visit the sites of the many aid agencies contributing to the relief effort, including the American Red Cross, Americares, Habitat for Humanity, Operation USA, Plan USA, UNICEF, WorldVision, and CARE.

Journalist Stanley Kwenda has fled to South Africa after alleging that he received a death threat by telephone  from a senior police officer, linked to a story he wrote in The Zimbabwean. The newspaper says that “‘impeccable sources” have supplied them with the name of a senior member of the police’s law and order section, a member who has been associated over the years with the arrest and torture of opposition politicians, journalists and human rights activists, but they cannot publish it for legal reasons.

Meanwhile, the Media Institute of Southern Africa has “cautiously welcomed” the appointment of commissioners to the Zimbabwe Media Commission, while recognising that the commission could still be used to enforce the repressive provisions of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.Kwenda, who is a member of MISA-Zimbabwe’s Harare Advocacy Committee, and is the director of the Artists for Democracy Zimbabwe Trust (ADZT).

The Arcadia Foundation wishes to join MISA-Zimbabwe in condemning this development as yet another serious threat to media freedom and the right of journalists to conduct their lawful professional duties without fear or hindrance from any quarters.

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Iran’s judiciary is deciding on prison sentences for seven leaders of the Bahai community, who are being put on trial behind closed doors in Tehran, the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency reported. Bahai is an outlawed faith in the Shiite Muslim republic.

The Washington Post has reported that the five men and two women, who in 2008 acted as an unofficial leadership council for the faith’s Iranian community and were later arrested are now in the process of moving toward sentencing, accused of espionage and collaboration with Israel, Iran’s archenemy. Bahai representatives have denied the charges.

“Iran’s own law says that you can’t be in jail without charges for over two months,” said Shastri Purushotma, human rights officer for the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahais of the United States. “Iran has violated their own law by keeping them in jail for so long.”

Purushotma, in Washington, dismissed the idea that the Bahais on trial had acted against the Iranian government and said they were scapegoats. “This is purely a case of religious persecution.”

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And so it is on this day that we found it appropriate to publish some words of a great man’s wisdom. May they inspire you.

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.

A right delayed is a right denied.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

- Martin Luther King Jr.

Regional powerhouse South Africa is urging Zimbabwean leaders to resolve political tensions in time for elections expected next year in the troubled country, a spokesman for President Jacob Zuma said earlier today.

In an interview, spokesman Vincent Magwenya said Zuma made that point to Zimbabwe’s delegation at a mini-summit earlier in the week. It was a sign of growing impatience with the slow pace of reform since a coalition was formed nearly a year ago between President Robert Mugabe and his longtime rival Morgan Tsvangirai, who is prime minister in the unity government.

The coalition government — grappling with a tight financial squeeze — most recently called a crisis meeting with representatives of the country’s civil servants yesterday after union leaders rejected its offer and proceeded to issue a 14-day ultimatum to press for better pay and improved working conditions.

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Today, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle urged China to show more respect for human rights but said differences of opinion on this issue should not hinder trade ties between the world’s two biggest exporters.

This is a bold step for Germany, one which clearly differentiates it from that of the United States, Britain or Canada. Although stressing the importance of trade policies, a must when dealing with an up and coming superpower, Westerwelle, on his first trip to China since taking office last October, said he had addressed Germany’s concerns about China’s position on freedom of opinion, human rights and the protection of minorities in a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi.

“The German government’s engagement for human rights and civil rights is not abstract but very concrete,” he said. “Tibet and the protection of cultural minorities were also topics we discussed, and over which we had differences of opinion.”

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