Colombia: New Barracks Construction Awarded

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The State Department had just awarded a new contact for the construction of barracks in Colombia to Carlos Gaviria Y Asociados S.A., a company based in Bogotá.

The project under U.S. Embassy Bogotá’s Narcotics Affairs Section (NAS) consists of the construction of a barracks/housing unit with kitchen, laundry, dining room and living room area, 1110 square meter unit constructed in masonry and concrete. The structure will be one story capable of lodging 120 people (maximum) on bunk beds distributed in 20 separate rooms with restrooms. The project includes, site works, reinforced concrete structure, masonry, plaster and paint, metallic roofing, water and sewer installations, electrical and gas networks.

Place of performance is at Joaquin Paris Military Base, located in San Jose del Guaviare, Guaviare, Colombia. It is located at the southwest part of the country in the Amazonia jungle region. It is located 340 Km from Bogota, the capital city of Colombia, and can be accessed through domestic airlines, river and an under construction road. The average temperature range is between 21 and 32 C and 55 percent humidity. It is considered to be a high risk and hostile region.

The estimated construction cost for this project is between $400 and $700 thousand dollars. The actual contract awarded in dollar amount according to FedBiz is $727,142.92. See the solicitation statement: SWHARC09R0008.doc (741.50 Kb)

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• US-Colombia bases pact signed (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Quickie: Senator LeMieux, Brazil is Waiting

Today’s editorial of The Miami Herald calls on the state’s newbie Senator LeMieux to release his hold on the nomination of Thomas Shannon to be US Ambassador to Brazil. Excerpts below:

Unblock ambassador nominationOUR OPINION: Sen. LeMieux should allow Senate vote on nominee for Brazil postWhen George LeMieux was appointed three months ago to replace retiring U.S. Senator Mel Martinez, the 40-year-old former chief of staff to Gov. Charlie Crist vowed to focus on making government more efficient and effective. He has a strange way of going about it.

In his first foray into foreign affairs, Sen. LeMieux has placed a ``hold'' on the nomination of President Obama's choice to become ambassador to Brazil, putting a freeze on the Senate confirmation process. This ensures that U.S. relations with the largest country in Latin America are neither efficient nor effective.[…]``I feel like I have a role and a responsibility far greater than other senators do in terms of anything that deals with Latin America,'' he said.

If that's the case, he would not stand in the way of this nomination. Brazil, the fifth most populous country in the world, is the most influential nation in our region, an economic powerhouse and Florida's No. 1 trading partner overseas -- by far.[…]Sen. LeMieux has an obligation to either raise specific, serious questions about Mr. Shannon or allow the nomination to go forward. The U.S. relationship with Brazil is too important to be undermined by domestic political squabbles.

Read the whole thing here.

Gem of the Day – Morales Charges U.S. Conspiracy to Force Bolivia onto DST

Check out this photo from The Democracy Center

Here is a blog post today from The Democracy Center on some new developments with Evo Knievel in Bolivia:

President Evo Morales, equipped with a wall clock as a prop, charged Tuesday that the U.S. Embassy in La Paz is engaged in clandestine effort to coerce Bolivia to adopt Daylight Savings Time, moving the nation's clocks forward and backward an hour in coordination with the U.S.

To back his claim Morales released a set of intercepted e-mail messages between the Embassy and State Department officials in Washington.

Continue reading Morales Charges U.S. Conspiracy to Force Bolivia onto Daylight Savings Time. Read the full details on Morales' charge before you read the copies of the intercepted e-mails, then come back here ...

Update 4/2/09:

I hope your April Fools' Day wasn't too rough! I have to say that the blog post linked to above was really good, although there is also that good fortune of having a surplus of materials on this one. But two things that might tip you off on this -- 1) government agencies have traditionally been behind the technological curve, so to speak, and State is no exception; it is not running on Windows Vista, thank goodness! 2) "Cousin Luis with a flash drive" is easier said than done. Really. Flash drives are ETDs, and can get you booted out as quickly as tiddledy winks!

Still - the joke does bring a couple of reminders. That quip about not writing anything that could end up on the front page of the Washington Post (add blogs) still holds true. And, Cousin Luis, well, he/she could be a Manchurian candidate for any local job for the conspiracy theorists out there. That would bring us back to cold war footing, won't it?

Remember This? A Year Ago Today

I have a knack for remembering things like this one:

“This kind of survey is imprecise and misleading.”

“It is a snapshot of a self-selecting group, and should not be understood to reflect the views of the nearly 12,000 members of the Foreign Service.”

“She stands in the great tradition of George Marshall, George Shultz and Colin Powell as a Secretary committed to the State Department as an institution, the Foreign Service as an organization, and Foreign Service Officers as individuals.”

“Finally, she has made the State Department the center of our foreign policy process. For those who care about the Foreign Service, nothing could be more important. None of us joined the Foreign Service because of salary, benefits, or locality pay. We joined because we want to serve our country and make a difference in the world. Under Secretary Rice's leadership, we are again at the helm. In the Western Hemisphere, the results are palpable and positive. I am proud to serve under such a fine person and a great Secretary of State.”

Thomas Shannon
Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs
January 9, 2008 DipNote post on the AFSA Survey
(Read his full blog entry here)

map from cdc.gov

My heart is broken every time I read this, really - what helm was he looking at? DOD IS AT THE REAL HELM, how do you copy over? Sigh! … Brooking's Partnership for the America's Commission has recently released a report noting the need for a new hemispheric partnership to address key transnational challenges:

Today, several changes in the region have made a hemispheric partnership both possible and necessary. The key challenges faced by the United States and the hemisphere’s other countries—such as securing sustainable energy supplies, combating and adapting to climate change, and combating organized crime and drug trafficking—have become so complex and deeply transnational that they cannot be managed or overcome by any single country. At the same time, the LAC countries are diversifying their international economic and political relations, making them less reliant on the United States. Finally, the LAC countries are better positioned than before to act as reliable partners.

These guys at Brookings are real funny! Sounds like they did not know who's been doing "palpable and positive" over at the Western Hemisphere these last four years.

U.S. Embassy La Paz on Authorized Departure Now

The Department of State has recently authorized the departure of non-emergency personnel and all family members of U.S. Embassy personnel in Bolivia and suggests all U.S. citizens defer non-essential travel to Bolivia. U.S. citizens currently in Bolivia were encouraged to depart and those who chose to remain in country were advised to be vigilant, to monitor local media, and review their security situation on a regular basis.

With two U.S. missions on authorized departure in a span of a week, a quick explanation on an in-house term here: "authorized departure" merely allows the Ambassador greater flexibility in determining which employees or groups of employees may depart, and avoids any negative connotation that might be attached to the use of the term “evacuation.” Once the Under Secretary of State for Management (“M”) approves the evacuation status for post—either authorized or ordered—the 180-day clock “begins ticking” (by law, an evacuation cannot last longer than 180 days).

Peace Corps has now temporarily suspended its program in Bolivia and Peace Corps volunteers have left the country.

The State Department reports: "Over the course of the past weeks, opposition to the Central government’s policies by five of the nine departments (Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando, Chuquisaca and Tarija) has turned increasingly violent. Hunger strikes, marches and road blocks that were initially peaceful have become violent as pro-government and opposition forces attempt to consolidate or impede control of government buildings and strategic facilities, such as the gas and oil pipelines. To date, more than a dozen persons have died and over 100 persons have been seriously injured. Police and military police have lost control of the situation in some areas and cities of those departments, and the road blocks and other measures taken by the opposition are making gas, diesel and other essential items unavailable. No one can, with any degree of confidence, predict what may happen in the near future."

Read more about the U.S. Embassy La Paz here, and the current Travel Warning here. The Bolivian melt-down continues.

The Embassy did resume full consular operation yesterday including visa services but pointed out that the potential for last minute changes is there.

Our safe travel wishes to friends returning home from Bolivia and Yemen. To all our friends left in La Paz and Sana'a, take care and stay safe.

Diplomatic Snub Over

It looks like Honduras' diplomatic snub concluded last week. After a one-week delay to show its support for Bolivia, Deputy Foreign Minister Eduardo Rosales said Honduras would formally receive the credentials of the career diplomat Hugo Llorens on Friday (September 16). AP reports that Ambassador Llorens told reporters after meeting with Rosales on Tuesday that "relations between the U.S. and Honduras are excellent." He said he looks forward to a face-to-face meeting with President Zelaya.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Philip Goldberg, most recently the President's personal representative to Bolivia is now back in Washington and has recently given an interview to Mac Margolis of Newsweek. Below is a brief excerpt of the interview. You can read the entire piece here.

Newsweek: There's been a lot of media on your expulsion from Bolivia. What was the official reason and how did it happen?
Ambassador Goldberg: I was in a meeting [on Sept. 10] with the Bolivian foreign minister. I had gone to see him after receiving a call from the Bolivian government informing me that our D.E.A [drug enforcement agency] personnel had to leave immediately from the Chapare region, where president Evo Morales is also the president of the coca growers federation. During that conversation, Morales called the minister's cell phone to say that he had just announced—at a public event, not through the normal diplomatic channels—that he was declaring me persona non grata. The official notification arrived the following day.

Newsweek: The State Department talks about pursuing a positive agenda in the region. Has that agenda been damaged?
Ambassador Goldberg: In Bolivia, certainly. Our main activities in the country are assistance programs, which have been demonized in many ways. They've targeted our alternative development programs in the Chapare region, where coca (the raw material of cocaine] is grown. They decided to virtually expel DEA without any kind of explanation. These are not cooperative gestures.

Newsweek: I see you have been described as the former ambassador to Bolivia. Is this final or do you hope to go back to La Paz?
Ambassador Goldberg: I'm not going back. I am the former ambassador to Bolivia.

Honduras' Zelaya "Skirting" the Fray

This is breaking news from Prensa Latina. A few minutes ago the Latin American News Agency reports that Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has “adjourned the ceremony to present Hugo Llorens' credentials as US ambassador to Honduras, expressing his solidarity with Bolivia and Venezuela.” It further reports that the ceremony was scheduled for Friday afternoon but Zelaya tasked his Foreign Minister Edmundo Orellana to notify the US Embassy that he would not receive Llorens' credentials until further notice.

The US Embassy Tegucigalpa’s website indicates that Ambassador Llorens was scheduled to arrive in Tegucigalpa today, September 12 but did not indicate when he was scheduled to present his credentials. The “until further notice” part of the report does not mean the new ambassador is being kick out too, it just means that he’s being left to stew in his office, unable to meet anyone because he has not been accredited officially by the host government. He won’t be able to do his job until that formality is done.

I wonder how long this postponement is going to last. Perhaps just long enough to satisfy regional camaraderie without disrupting bilateral relations with the U.S? Hmmn. It’s a snub and a half poke for sure, perhaps also as “soft” payback for our banning of Honduran melons earlier this year? I believe that ban went on for almost six months affecting the largest melon farmer who has reportedly 5,000 employees. Or it could last longer depending on how this trilateral diplomatic row is looking up tomorrow. But it certainly can’t go on indefinitely.

Ambassador Hugo Llorens who came to the United States as a 7 year old Cuban refugee 46 years ago is a career member of the Foreign Service with 27 years experience, primarily in the Latin American region. He most recently served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Spain. Prior to that, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Argentina. Earlier in his career, he also served as the National Security Director for Andean Affairs at the National Security Council. Ambassador Llorens received his bachelor's degree from Georgetown University and his master's degrees from the University of Kent at Canterbury and the National War College.

In talking about his background during the Senate confirmation hearing (PDF file), he said: “We arrived with a suitcase in hand and a buffalo nickel in our pocket, but knew we were richly blessed by America’s freedoms. We worked hard and had an unquenchable faith in America as the land where dreams come true.”

Also at this hearing, he promised to “support Honduran efforts to take full advantage of the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s compact signed in 2005 that provides $215 million for building roads, as well as promoting rural development.” He also indicated that he will “seek to deepen the two-way trade and investment flows derived from the CAFTA-DR.”

I must add that we have a large USAID and Peace Corps presence in Honduras, a large overseas American community and over 50,000 American citizens visiting the country each year.

Can't these guys space this up a bit? I got to get some sleep. I won't be shocked if there's another surprise when I get up in the morning.

Hugo the Gladiator Also Wants Attention

The first thing that caught my eyes this morning was news of Hugo Chávez of Venezuela ordering the US ambassador Patrick Duddy to leave Caracas within 72 hours. It would be interesting to know if the the foreign ministry's official notice would be as colorful as their president's public rhetoric.

The darn thing is - he's kicking Ambassador Duddy out of Venezuela and the guy is not even in country! I just hate it that folks don't know how to properly expel diplomats anymore. Excuse me, I have to say something loud to his ears here :: Hugo, dear, the next time you expel somebody, make sure the guy is in town so you can publicly drive him out of town. Because that's what gives flavor to this exercise, you twit! And please - listen to your professional diplomats in the ministry, they know how these things are done:: Ok, done with the loud part.

* * *

Chávez is alleging an American-sponsored coup plot by his military officers but elsewhere has explained his action as taken in solidarity with Evo Knievel's moves in Bolivia. And oh yes, he never did like Ambassador Duddy's ties. I'm sure other reasons will be announced later based on polling numbers, stay tune.

What Hugo the Gladiator really wants is attention, big attention in the international arena. He waded into the puddle earlier this year with Ecuador and Colombia, and got miles of press. If Georgia and South Ossetia were not in the other side of the world, he would have jumped up and down on that too (he's hosting the Russians; he's catching up). I don't think he does his antics because his whole ambition in life is to be a pesky fly. I think the real reason has more to do with political self-preservation and expediency.

By taking away his people's attention from the real ball, he could be entertaining in the "man of the people" kind of way. His fiery rhetoric provides entertainment in the great Venezuelan coliseum of political theater. And who can blame him? Hugo the Gladiator is a great practitioner of the politics of detraction.

With municipal and regional elections coming soon in November, who wants to talk about the country's violent crimes and 30% inflation (the highest in Latin America). Or how about that suitcase with $800,000 discovered in Buenos Aires, allegedly a clandestine payment from Caracas to help Argentina's president, Cristina Kirchner, win an election last year? So, instead he talks about American sponsored coups, paper-kicks the American Ambassador out, delivers some fiery speeches against the "empire," and hope that he has provided enough fodder to get him by until after the next election.

What I have yet to figure out is whether he exported his Detraction Doctrine to our shores this year (moose, lipstick, pigs, stinky fish, blah, blah, blah) or if we are simply looking at a copycat.

Bolivian Melt-down

U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia, Philip Goldberg, had just been declared persona non grata by the Bolivian Government under Evo Morales. The ambassador, a career member of the Foreign Service has been in Bolivia since 2006. Being PNG'ed means he will be expelled out of the country probably within the next 48-72 hours but I won't be surprised if Evo Knievel will order him out of there by sundown tomorrow.

While the mainstream media has been pre-occupied with lipstick and pigs and stinky fish, and as Russia thumbs its nose on us with its military exercise with Venezuela in our neighborhood, another melt-down is threatening to happen, this time in the western hemisphere.

Apparently armed clashes and protests against the Morales Government has been steadily escalating. Some people have reportedly died. So on Wednesday, Evo Knievel blamed it all on who else but Ambassador Goldberg. "The ambassador of the United States is conspiring against democracy and wants Bolivia to break apart," said Morales, who took power in 2006. Huh?

It seems to me that Old Bob in Zimbabwe had used an excuse along that line when things got really hot there earlier this year. Must be part of the playbook they all learned somewhere. Scare folks with the big, bad wolf. What good is a super power if you can't blame it for everything that ails you, hmmn? I'd like to know who wrote that playbook because frankly, it's getting old.

Bloomberg reports: "A deterioration of ties with South America's poorest country may weaken U.S. support for renewing trade preferences for Bolivian imports. It could also undermine U.S. efforts to reduce cultivation of coca, the main ingredient in cocaine. Bolivia is the world's third-biggest producer of coca, after Colombia and Peru." Now, that last part is not good.

The ball is in Foggy Bottom's court now. There should be some fireworks, remember Belarus? My sympathy to Ambassador Goldberg. Do doubt it's a bummer - not just getting yanked out of work but being unable to say proper goodbyes to friends in La Paz (not to mention 7200 lbs of household stuff that must be packed). But this is part of diplomatic life; things will go on at the embassy and his number 2 person will quickly assume chief of mission responsibilities.

His official bio indicates that he served from January-June 2001 as acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs. He came to that position after having been a senior member of the State Department team handling the transition from the Clinton to Bush Administrations.

Mr. Goldberg also served as Special Assistant (1996-1998) and then Executive Assistant (1998-2000) to the Deputy Secretary of State. From 1994-1996 Mr. Goldberg was the Department’s Bosnia Desk Officer and a Special Assistant to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. In the latter capacity, he was a member of the American negotiating team in the lead-up to the Dayton Peace Conference and Chief of Staff for the American Delegation at Dayton.

Mr. Goldberg has served overseas as a consular and political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, and political-economic officer in Pretoria, South Africa.

Before joining the Foreign Service, Mr. Goldberg worked for several years as a liaison officer between the City of New York and the United Nations and consular community. Mr. Goldberg is a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and a graduate of Boston University.

Augusto Pinochet died

The former controversial military leader of Chile died in Santiago.



Some people only want to see bad things about him but I am convinced that the future historians will assign him a mixed sign in which the plus sign could dominate. (I am pretty sure that the Newsweek article about his death has been written and okayed long time before he actually died.) He took over when Chile was heading towards a real disaster, and not only because of the 500% inflation and supply problems. Let's look at the economy because it is a pretty well-defined thing, after all.

If you open Gapminder, you can see many interesting numbers: go directly to Chile. Around 1975, Chile's GDP per capita was in the lower half of Latin America: less than 1/3 of Argentina's, about 1/2 of Mexico's i.e. 1/2 of Venezuela's. It was less than in Colombia, Panama, Jamaica, Peru, and many others.

Around 2005, Chile's GDP per capita leads Latin America together with Argentina and Trinidad-and-Tobago, ahead of Mexico. It's around 3 times more than in Jamaica, 2 times more than Venezuela, 50% above Colombia. Note that the Chile/Venezuela ratio of their GDP per capita has quadrupled in the last 30 years. It's a result of their Friedmanite reforms and privatization that started during Pinochet's years and continued after him.



Figure 1: Pinochet (sitting) shortly after removing Allende. It is a coincidence that this picture comes from the Czech Press Agency.

Every nation should of course avoid state-organized murders or torture but at least the Chile's economic model is certainly an example for others to follow. Those who follow must hope that the bloody removal of the communist dissent is not actually a necessary assumption for sharing Chile's success.

And I feel that the former dictator deserved a standard funeral with their state honors, even though it was decided that he will only enjoy the military honors. If he were one of the guys who want to be dictators forever, like Stalin, he would almost surely get one. Is the fact that he actively allowed the fully standard democracy under the civilian rule to return - and he may have intended that from the beginning - a reason to treat him like an animal?

Any state-organized murder is bad. But if one views some of them as a necessary evil to create a better future, I would guess that those 2 or 3 thousand people who died under Pinochet allowed a better future than the 50 million people who died under Stalin.

And that's the memo.

Hugo Chávez: six more years

Hugo Chávez, a key member of the rogues' gallery of the current world and a charismatic communist, has won six more years to transform Venezuela into a communist totalitarian country (61 vs 38 percent). The victory is a result of his oral skills and recent high oil prices that oil-rich countries such as Venezuela enjoy. Here he is with some of his friends. What kind of hovada they are. ;-)



Venezuela has become The Bolívarian Republic of Venezuela in 1999 when he took over. In practice, this means that the country is a soon-to-be Stalinist and anti-American dictatorship that follows the ideology of Noam Chomsky, among others.

Linguistically, it is named after Simón Bolívar. This important Latin American politician and the author of the first important 19th century Latin America constitution was a huge supporter of the free market and an admirer of the American revolution. He was reading books by Adam Smith, one of the main intellectual pioneers of capitalism, whenever he could. Moreover, Bolívar was viscerally hated by Karl Marx. 175 years after his death, his name has been hijacked by the communists. Poor Simón Bolívar.



Meanwhile, Auguste Pinochet who saved Chile from the development towards communism under Salvador Allende, a Marxist president who brought a 500% inflation and supply shortage to the country, and who had to introduce a highly problematic yet temporary rule of a military board responsible for many wrongdoings - a board which, however, made Chile thrive - has suffered a massive heart attack. The Reference Frame wishes him a speedy recovery.

Fidel Castro has a doctorate from Charles University

While I only have a magister (Mgr, MSc equivalent) degree from the Charles University in Prague, Fidel Castro has a doctorate. He received an honorary degree during his 1972 visit of Prague. Although the current leadership of the university would like to cancel the honor, the existing laws make such a cancellation rather difficult. ;-)

At any rate, I wish a good health to Dr. Castro and a lot of democracy and freedom to Cuba.

Soccer: Czech Republic vs. United States 3:0

Off-topic: the doubling of the traffic is not permanent. It is caused by thousands of people looking for Mary Winkler's motive again.

Figure 1: Czech president during the Czechia:America match

98 percent of the Czech betters believe that Czechia will beat America. America returned to the World Cup in 1990 after 40 years. In their opener, they lost to Czechoslovakia 5:1. But times have changed a bit. Not much.

• CNN

For U.S. readers: soccer is a strange game that is more popular than baseball abroad in which legs kick a round ball. :-) After five minutes, America was losing 0:1 because of Jan Koller's goal. In the 36th minute, Rosický improved the score to 0:2 and in the 76th minute the same player made it 0:3 which is the final score. However, Koller had an injury. Nevertheless, as other fans say,

• Who's not jumping is not (a) Czech :-)

As many of you know very well, my support for both teams was comparable, with a slight bias for the Czech team ;-). But such matches are fun anyway and I admit that I have had an extremely good time while reading the colorful reports in the U.S. media. :-) It could be good for America to start to like soccer - that could really introduce the U.S. to the family of other nations. :-)

The Czechs were also leading the off-side score: 9:0 but I don't know what the final off-side score was. According to a controversial computer formula by FIFA, Czechia is the 2nd soccer superpower in the world after Brazil.

Colombia: Uribe will be re-elected

A Harvard alumnus is going to win the second term as the president of Colombia. He will score 62% of the vote, The Reference Frame predicts, and be sure that we're right.

Alvaro Uribe who started in the Colombian Liberal Party (moderate social democrats) is very popular especially because he has been successful on the security front. For example, the number of murders dropped from 36,000 per year 2002 - when he was elected - to 15,000 in 2005.

Recall that Colombia used to be paralyzed by the Marxist guerillas, a rather weak government, and right-wing paramilitias that tried to do the job that the government was not able to do: to establish the order. The armed left-wingers are not only exterminating villages but also support drug trafficking: one half of cocaine sold on the streets of the U.S. and EU comes from the guerillas.

Indeed, things are black and white in this country.

What was Uribe's strategy? Well, his strategy to bring peace and order to Colombia was obvious: to shoot every armed communist that can be found but cannot be arrested, and to do it so efficiently that the paramilitias will accept that they are no longer necessary and can be disarmed. Sorry to say but the armed communists who simultaneously work as labor leaders undermining the Coca-Cola company should be no exception.

Shooting the Marxists was probably never too difficult for Uribe because the communist thugs from FARC have killed his father in 1983 - and of course they have also tried to assassinate Uribe himself many times. Uribe claims that the country must choose between him and a catastrophe, and he is probably close to the truth. What is the name of the catastrophe?

The first name of a rival is Carlos Gaviria who is a commie himself. Instead of praising Uribe for the clearly right approach, the communist rival criticizes Uribe for being a friend of the U.S. Fortunately, Uribe is 35 percent points ahead of Gaviria. Among other things, Uribe has signed a free trade treaty with the U.S. The GDP growth in 2005 was 5.3%, exactly like the 1st quarter of 2006 growth in the U.S.

I wish them the best, and I hope that once they completely defeat FARC, they may also be able to deal with the supporters of terrorism in neighboring countries - such as the bastard named Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.

Happy Easter

Something analogous to annihilating letters, jumping frog, shooting frog, and stained glass. Click here for Easter eggs in full screen.

Cuba vs. Czechia 1:1

Meanwhile, Cuba has expelled the Czech diplomat, Mr. Stanislav Kázecký, for spying on behalf of the U.S. - which is most likely not true. The Czech Republic has followed all the decent traditions and refused to extend the visa for a Cuban diplomat, too. :-) While the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was one of Cuba's closest friends, the Czech Republic is its #2 foe. A large portion of the U.N. resolutions that criticize the situation in Cuba as well as the trade restrictions for the European Union members have been proposed by the Czech Republic.



There have been many recent incidents between the two countries. For example, the countrymate of mine above is a psychologist called Helena Houdová. (In fact, she is my citymate, from Pilsen.) She was former Miss Czech Republic 1999 and the Dean's world hero of the week.

In January 2006, she decided to take pictures of the Cuban slums, something that Fidel Castro pretends not to exist. She was immediately arrested (together with her friend, Mariana Kroftová, who is also a model) - for taking the pictures - and the commies have confiscated her film. As you can imagine, those communist morons can't really compete with a modern capitalist young woman from the Czech Republic and her state-of-the-art technologies. She stored a memory card from her digital camera in her bra. Today, she is showing the alarming pictures of the "island of freedom" all around the world.

Cuba has canceled various celebrations of the Czech national holidays and expelled or temporarily arrested many Czech citizens - the aristocrat Schwarzenberg and the politician Ivan Pilip (with his friend Filip Bubeník) are two most well-known examples. You can try to liberate Pilip by shooting 50 Cuban agents here.

Nathan Berkovits becomes the first Brazilian astronaut

Congratulations, Nathan.

• CNN on Nathan Berkovits

CNN has this annoying habit that it opens popup windows if you link their pages about the space research from outside. My backup of their page that suppresses most popup windows is here.




Six hundred other news articles about the first Brazil's astronaut can be found here.

A search for the new Pope

Update: An hour after this message was posted, very sadly, Pope John Paul II returned to his home which is unfortunately much further than Australia.

Karol Wojtyla (1920-2005) has been a visible Pope, and I think that he has been a clearly positive figure. He's been loved by the catholics and others. He considered abortions on par with holocaust, which is an example of his clear conservative approach, and he has rehabilitated some of our old colleagues who have been terrorized by the Church half a millenium ago, which is an example of his progressive thinking (I don't mean the U.S. English meaning of the word "progressive" where it means a "far left-wing nutcase"). His Church has not died in this modern world. In fact, it has expanded in many regions of the world and it helped to tear down Communism. And he has personally been a source of peace and a moral authority.

Millions of people including pagans like me wished him good health. But because his condition did not look too optimistic on Saturday - in fact, it made us saddened - and because 85 years of age was not such an unexpected time of the last day of one's life, the College of Cardinals was already undoubtedly thinking about a new Pope.



The papacy of John Paul II has been a pretty impressive era, and it will be hard for a new pope to match Wojtyla.

Because I am Czech, it is natural for me to mention Miloslav Vlk (*1932), the head of the Czech Catholic Church and the Archbishop of Prague. (Christoph von Schonborn was also born in Czechoslovakia, in 1945, but I have no idea who he is except that he is a very strong candidate from Austria.) For a discussion of candidates as seen in 1999, click here. For an update from 2001, click here. For a recent discussion about this topic, click here. (Incidentally, the latter article suggests that John Paul II was partly elected because of his nice lecture at Harvard University in 1976.)



Because I am not a Catholic and my experience with Christianity has had both signs, my comments may be viewed as impartial or ignorant, depending on your viewpoint. Miloslav Vlk (*1932) has many virtues:

• he's pretty bright
• he has a good record for having struggled with the socialist regime in Czechoslovakia to become a priest - and he has worked as a window-washer in one period
• he's been awarded many awards, and he holds many important functions in the European Catholic Church
• he is a theologist and he is popular among his colleagues in Western Europe as well as Eastern Europe
• he is a Slav, and after 500 years of Italian Popes, the very recent experience with the Slavic Popes has been very good, I think
• he speaks many languages
• his focus is on movements - John Paul II liked them, too - especially the Focolare movement, whatever it is - and this implies a certain feeling of continuity
• more generally, according to The Washington Times, Vlk would most likely be Wojtyla's choice; see also a February message from the Pope to Vlk

Vlk as a candidate has several disadvantages, too:

• he is a Slav from Central and Eastern Europe (possibly the only serious candidate from that region), and it may seem unlikely or even awkward to elect a second Pope from this group in a row
• the Church may want to choose a younger person (Vlk is 72+)
• his focus on the movements may be viewed as too narrow by some
• the Church may want to extend its diversity and choose a non-European candidate (perhaps even an African); this would be a disadvantage for all European candidates; I think that a non-European pope is unlikely, but it is not impossible to imagine
• his last name (Vlk=Wolf) contains no vowels (although "r" and "l" are treated as vowels in similar Czech words) which may be a problem for the stupid people in the Church

Despite the candidates from Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Central Europe, the experts on Vaticanology estimate that the next Pope will be Italian once again because the "Italian nationality does not irritate anyone and an Italian candidate is a smooth sailing which would not be the case for French, German, or American candidates," the experts say. More precisely, no one is offended by the nation with the highest corruption in the Western world -and the nation that has invented mafia. In my viewpoint, this argument is actually another argument for candidates like Vlk.

It's time for the cardinals to isolate themselves from the real world in the Sistine Chapel. They will have to chat until special smoke signals prove that the choice has been made. If they're unable to choose Wojtyla's successor for three days, they can only eat bread and wine. After five days, they can only fill their plate once. These rules of starvations have been tested for many centuries and they guarantee that someone is eventually chosen. They must write their choice on a 5-centimeter-wide paper ballots because Jesus Christ has not approved the use of computers yet; consequently, the cardinals are instructed to change their handwriting for the sake of secrecy. A fascinating procedure.

Other candidates

Let me list a couple of candidates according to their country:

• Africa: Nigeria - Francis Arinze (72) - he is experienced with the Christian-Muslim relations, and could be able either to push the religions closer together, or - if it does not work out - to upgrade the war on terrorism to a universal war against the Muslims. Because some evil commentators deliberately misinterpret what I wrote, let me clarify that this description of Arinze is a reason why I personally think that it is inappropriate to choose him. Islam can't be brought closer to Christianity and the attempts to do so are dangerous.
• Europe: Italy - Angelo Scola (63) - a leading and young priest from Venice - the Popes in 1958 and 1978 were from Venice
• Europe: Italy - Carlo Maria Martini (78) - a guy from Milan who has been always against the conservatives, but he's been a candidate for too long
• Europe: Italy - Giovanni Battista (71) - a moderate guy "from the establishment" which is a disadvantage
• Europe: Italy - Dionigo Tettamanzi (71) - once a leading Italian candidate - "one saved African HIV kid is more valuable than the Universe"
• Europe: Italy - Angelo Sodano (77) - the man #2 in Vatican, a conservative diplomat who may have been too close to Pinochet while he was in Chile
• Europe: Austria - Christoph Schönborn (60) - worked to reconcile with the Orthodox Catholic Church, too young; born in Skalsko, Czechoslovakia
• Europe: Germany - Joseph Ratzinger (77) - hard conservative who has been discussed a candidate every time the blocs could not agree. He will celebrate the 78th birthday, and then he will probably be elected as Pope Benedict XVI. The first German Pope since 1055-1057. An accomplished pianist who speaks ten languages, dislikes relativism, communism, homosexuality, and prefers the fundamental truth. He prefers a smaller but purer Church.
  
• Europe: Belgium - Godfried Danneels (71) - a frontrunner of the reform forces supporting the role of women, rights of divorced people; questionable health after a heart attack
• Europe: France - Jean-Marie Lustiger (78) - too old; pro-Israeli (risky); born Jewish; archbishop of Paris; anti-racist
• Europe: Czechia - Miloslav Vlk (72) - a popular theologist and window-washer described in this article
• Asia: India - Ivan Dias (68) - Church diplomat who traveled everywhere, defender of conservative Vatican viewpoints, 5 languages
• Latin America: Argentina - Jorge Mario Bergoglio (68) - successfully managed the 2001 synod in Rome; lives in an apartment, cook his own food, travels by bus
• Latin America: Honduras - Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiagia (62) - he may be too young (after a long papacy, they prefer a shorter one i.e. older candidates) - but he is a star of the Church in Latin America who knows languages etc.
• Latin America: Mexico - Noberto Rivera Carrera (62) - also young - fights for egalitarianism, however religiously conservative
• Latin America: Colombia - Darío Castrillon Hoyos (74) - against drug-trafficking, against poverty, against free theology
• Latin America: Dominican Republic - Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez (68) - a critic of his local government and military, socially left-wing, religiously conservative (against abortions, sterilization etc.)
• Latin America: Brazil - Cláudio Hummes (70) - a German Brazilian - an interesting anti-war, anti-condom candidate