Author: old_wp_importer

“In 1989, the [Chinese] government didn’t know why Tiananmen happened. Now, by reading the Internet, they know what’s going to happen. They know about movements in their infancy and they’re able to kill them when they’re still young”

…according to Chinese blogger Michael Anti. Ethan Zuckerman’s summary of a Berkman talk he gave has lots of other fascinating comments.

Livejournal has just been taken over by SUP, the russian company that was already managing Russian-language livejournals. Compared to when SUP first started managing the Russian service, the reactions among Russian users seem surprisingly positive. i.e. more people are pleased to have LJ under Russian control than are frightened that they’ll be more vulnerable to government pressure.

Still, I’m not thrilled by their decision to announce this just after the Russian elections. It looks a lot like trying to bury the news while Russian lj users are distracted, even if it wasn’t intended that way.

A phrase I never expected to read:

seat-of-the-pants jurisprudence

ReutersL

The Islamic Republic [of Iran] has repeatedly blamed the violence in Iraq on the U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2003.

Um…and this is a controversial position how, exactly. Is anybody suggesting militias would be killing thousands if Saddam were still in power


OK, OK, I admit secret police disappearances, torture, etc. count as violence. Still, a strange way of phrasing things…

In Georgia, the opposition umbrella group managed to choose a single candidate for January’s election. But…they picked a relative nobody. [Levan Gachechiladze](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levan_Gachechiladze), their candidate, is an a MP and has been active in politics for almost a decade, but until yesterday he was probably best known in Georgia as a successful wine merchant. Why on earth did they choose him?

Gachchiladze may not be the most impressive candidate ever fielded, but he’s possibly the best option in the circumstances.

The opposition don’t have any real heavyweights available – which is probably why Saakashvili allowed the election in the first place. Two major figures are ineligible to stand. One, [Irakli Okruashvili](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7022474.stm), the popular former defence minister who kicked off the protests by [accusing Saakashvili of murder](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7022474.stm), is below the minimum age of 35. The other, [Salome Zourabishvili](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salome_Zurabishvili), has not been living in Georgia the required 15 years: born in Paris, she was serving a s a French diplomat until Saakashvili made her Foreign minister in a surprise move in 2004.

But beyond that, the opposition are doing what coalitions always do – compromising on the lowest common denominator. No coalition member wants to see their rival become President, so they nominate somebody insignificant, and hope that they’ll later be able to manipulate him. Zurabishvili, in particular, is making an early bid to become Prime Minister if Gachchiladze wins.

Entertainingly, there’s a nice symmetry between this and what Putin is doing in Russia. Putin, like Okruashvili and Zurabishvili in Georgia, is disqualified from running for President in 2008 – in his case because of term limits. His response is [apparently](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7022474.stm) to become Prime Minister, and run the country from that position. For all his flaws, Putin is an undisputed master of political scheming – so why not learn from him?