LATIN AMERICA -- DEMOCRACY'S ROCKY ROAD: A new United Nations report suggests a rocky future for democracy in Latin America. The NYT reports, "A majority of Latin Americans say they would support the replacement of a democratic government with an 'authoritarian' one if it could produce economic benefits." The report reflects a "popular disenchantment" with elected officials and suggests "while unhappiness with political leadership has a long history in Latin America, the people now complaining are faulting democracy itself." Clearly, the inability of elected leaders to alleviate poverty has disillusioned many in the region: 56% of Latin Americans surveyed thought "economic development was more important than maintaining democracy."
I find that result very interesting. It is not limited to Latin Americans, either. Our own citizens consistently prefer both a high standard of living and the illusion of safety over the reality of true democracy and freedom.
Of course, the contradiction to that, which the people don't seem to notice, is that they use the term "dictator" to cast fear and loathing on any leader they want to demonize. Our newest "dictator" is Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. And one of the accusations used to confirm that label is that he does business with other dictators and evil leaders (like Saddam Hussein).
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Chavez has any connection to Helliburton.....
HALLIBURTON – TRADING WITH LE ENEMY: According to U.N. documents, Halliburton was one of several US companies which did substantial business with Iraq through French go-betweens in the 1990s. The WSJ reports the company "won more than $30 million worth of deals with Mr. Hussein's Iraq in the 1990s," the largest part of which occurred "when Mr. Cheney led the company from 1996 to 2000." This would seem to contradict the vice president's claims "during the 2000 election campaign that Halliburton had a policy against trading with Iraq. The Halliburton contracts mentioned in the U.N. documents involved units and joint ventures that came with the purchase of Dresser Inc. in 1998. Those units were sold from December 1999 to April 2001."
Did I mention they don't like Bush in Caracas?
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