Berlin Wall, Jailed for Blogging, Netanyahu Goes to Washington

Paul Krugman

Lech Walesa



Today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, major party time. Usually the politicians co-opt any celebrations by making it one big photo op for themselves. I understand that the current Prime Minister of Germany was in a hpt tub during the momentous occasion, which really isn't a bad place to party, either.

Myopic conservatives in America are using the time to celebrate Ronald Reagan, as if he had anything to do with it other than being President. what I haven't seen are any tributes to the hundreds of people who streamed across the borders as soon as the gates were opened, or testimony from the ones in their 20's and 30's who climbed atop the wall and attacked it with hammers. It's always the unsung heroes that make up a movement, and they are the ones who are probably raising a stein or two, toasting having been a part of momentous history.

free Tunisian bloggers...
I don't think of myself as a brave individual, risking my computers and liberty by writing my blog. If I were in a more repressive regime, like Iran or Tunisia, I probably wouldn't have the courage to publish a blog at all. And it's amazing to think that anything I could say would anger a government enough to arrest me and put me in jail for being a grumpy, sarcastic old man.

But that is what is taking place in Tunisia, who must have an incredibly paranoid and thin-skinned government, as they have arrested the woman who blogs as Aribicca: "Fatma Riahi, known online as Arabicca, has been arrested by the country's police. Police confiscated her computer as evidence, and gained access to her online social-network accounts.


Riahi has neither been released from custody in Gorjani police station, nor granted access to her lawyer. The uthorities are investigating whether Riahi is hiding behind the pen-name of Blog de Z, a controversial Tunisian cartoonist blogger whose political satire has enraged the government." In a tactic that sounds all too familiar, she is being held without any charges, and may go before a magistrate before it's decided what they may charge her with; or they could just give her a prison sentence, the price of joining Facebook...

Blogging is taken seriously as a threat, a previous blogger was arrested, beaten while in prison, and died from his beatings. All for asking: "readers to vote on whether Tunisia was a "republic, a kingdom, a zoo or a prison". Guess I won't be traveling to North Africa anytime soon...

And in Cuba, blogger Yoani Sanchez was beaten up on the street, then arrested: "Sánchez described one of her attackers saying: "This is as far as you're going, Yoani, I've had enough of your antics." Sánchez' blog, Generation Y, which has earned her the Spanish Ortega y Gasset Prize and Columbia University's Maria Moors Cabot Prize and receives an estimated 1 million hits per month, is highly critical of the Cuban government." Interesting how voicing your opinion is threatening to some countries while here in Colorado I am not viewed as a dangerous individual, just an eccentric who doesn't get outside that much.
I didn't even know there were prestigious prizes for blogs...

whatever bibi wants...

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington today to meet with President Obama this evening. I'd love to be the fly on the wall, hopefully transcripts of their meeting will be released. Netanyahu nicely set himself up for nothing but praise by calling for immediate talks with the Palestinian Authority: "declared that he wanted to immediately resume negotiations with the Palestinians Monday and rejected the charge that he wasn't interested in reaching an agreement. "We need to move toward peace with a sense of urgency and a sense of purpose," Netanyahu told the Jewish Federations of North America's General Assembly during a trip to Washington. "My goal is not negotiations for the sake of negotiations; My goal is to achieve a permanent peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians, and soon. I cannot be more emphatic on this point." The Jewish Federation of North America is where Mr Netanyahu was heckled during his speech, I guess there are even some in America that would like to see a solution undertaken. Maybe if we get Sarah Palin to back the meetings we can have it all done on Facebook, no need to meet face to face...

I guess everyone perked up an noticed when Abbas said he was tired of the bs and was going to retire. Every Muslim organization asked him please, please, don't resign, perhaps fearing who might replace him. Better to deal with someone you know than the gonif on the street. Thirty years is a long time to negotiate something so simple...

"Let us begin talks immediately ... let us seize the opportunity to reach a historic agreement."

Let us hope that the talks actually will begin again, because hope is eternal. Of course, Netanyahu negotiating a solution is like Nixon in China or Reagan and the Berlin Wall; it may be that it finally is history's turn at solving the Palestinian peace, and Benjamin is merely along for the ride. Happy surfing, dude...