Populations against Populists

The South American leaders described as “political soulmates” by BBC NEWS both have faced protests this week against their respective proposals to make constitutional changes.

Bolivian opposition members went on strike Wednesday, closing down banks, schools and public transport, according to BBC NEWS. The protests took place in six of nine provinces, but they had the strongest support in Santa Cruz, an oil-rich area toward the east.

President Evo Morales has pushed constitutional changes that he says will help the indigenous majority in the country. The changes would further nationalize natural resources, a process some say will scare off foreign investors.

In Venezuela, thousands of students led a protest in Caracas rejecting plans by President Hugo Chavez to change much of the constitution, according to BBC NEWS. The country will hold a referendum on the changes Dec. 2.

The changes include a presidency without term limits, presidential control over the central bank and a removal of controls over the president during a state of emergency.

Chavez says the changes will work against government corruption and the oligarchy. Opposition leaders argue the proposed changes will penalize any Chavez opposition in the future.

The two socialist, leaders have made many similar plans to expand government and distribute wealth in the countries. Both have had high popular support and opposition.

USAToday.com

While I don’t like reading USA Today as a print publication. The Web site does a good job addressing things that consumers want. It offers a lot of service–more importantly, personalized service.

The Marketplace bar offers the practical areas that Internet users are interested in, including jobs, cars and shopping. I thought it was creative that the marketplace also offers connections to online degrees as online schools have grown in popularity. These sorts of links are sure to generate page views and make USAToday.com a portal for Internet users. It would be good if the marketplace bar included real estate.

The site has also embraced the idea of creating an online community. Users can personalize the forecast, become a member of the USAToday.com community and see different comments made by other users right at the top of the page.

I like the news blog, although I think the link should be more prominent. The blog is perfect for people with a few minutes to get the news highlights. Though it is not as personalized as a news feed can be, it gives a good overview for people who don’t have RSS feeds.

I like that the site only lists three of its blogs high on the homepage. Many times newspaper sites get it wrong by listing too many blogs in small type, making the user experience overwhelming and creating a paradox of choice. If a user is interested in seeing more blogs, there is a link to the full list. And even that list splits the blogs into workable categories such as tech and money.

Choque

Spanish and Latin American media have honed in on the argument between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the Spanish leadership.

Spanish newspaper El Pais has called the disagreement “El Choque Del Rey y Chavez,” literally the crash between the King and Chavez.

The coverage follows outbursts made by Chavez at the Ibero-American Summitin Santiago, Chile this weekend that caused Spanish King Juan Carlos to leave the meeting.

The Venezuelan president called former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar a “fascist,” a sensitive term in the country that still remembers the 36-year military rule of General Francisco Franco.

The Spanish Minister of the Interior, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, has said that if Chavez wants a good relationship with Spain, he most show respect to King Juan Carlos, the current president Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and former leaders, such as Aznar.

The Spanish monarch at the summit asked Chavez why he would not “shut up” as Zapatero spoke.

According to BBC NEWS, Chavez now has responded by telling the king to shut up and by questioning his involvement in a coup that overthrew the Venezuelan president for two days in 2002.

Most of Chavez’s Latin American supporters, including Bolivian President Evo Morales, did not back up his comments at the summit.

However, Cuban leader Fidel Castro defended Chavez in a commentary published Sunday, according to The International Herald Tribune.

Castro, who has placed his brother Raul in control of the country during his illness, also criticized a speech made by the president of El Salvador defending a fair trade agreement.

“Capitalism is a system governed by blind, destructive and tyrannical laws that have been imposed on the human species,” Castro wrote.

Wonkette.com

Wonkette: The D.C. Gossip makes me wonder about the future of online journalism.

The blog, which offers one part politics, one part gossip and three parts profanity, has a similar format to its parent blog Gawker.com, which covers Manhattan media gossip.

On one hand, The Wonkette seems like a way to get people talking about politics, a plus in any democracy. On the other hand, I’m not sure how to take the information on the site seriously when it creates crass terms for Washington figures and institutions.

Much of the site plugs other D.C. blogs, such as DCist and Below the Beltway, as well as the blogs belonging to Gawker media, such as Jezebel.com, a blog devoted to celebrity, sex and fashion.

Wonkette is also unabashedly biased, slamming Dick Cheney and sundry Republicans. However, it doesn’t miss out on making fun of Democrats like Clinton and Gore.

And don’t miss the labeling of Ron Paul supporters as “Paultards.”

To be honest, I don’t know what to think about Wonkette.

As a politics junkie, who finds a guilty pleasure in gossip, the blog seems just right for Generation Y (or is it the MTV generation?).

But what are the consequences for democracy and discourse?

I’ve seen elements of The Wonkette in the Triangle’s most recent political blog, The Soup, which claims to cover North Carolina politics as well as gossip and hearsay. The blog, written by anonymous contributors, has been rumored to have connections to a particular campaign.

While blogs like these can be informative and entertaining, how can they be trusted?

Disaster for the poor

The flooding that has left two-thirds of Mexico’s Tabasco state swathed in water has drawn comparisons to another so-called “biblical” disaster of recent years, Hurricane Katrina.

Some applaud a rapid response from the Mexican government, which sent thousands of soldiers and federal police two days before the worst flooding hit, according to TIME magazine.

Helena Ranchal, regional head of the European Commission’s emergency relief fund, said the human cost of the disaster would have reached higher had the government not responded as it did.

Three people in Villahermosa, the capital of Tabasco, have been confirmed dead, as opposed to the close to 2,000 left dead by Hurricane Katrina.

However, some source remain skeptical of the government response. And once again, some point to a lack of flood prevention before the storms hit.

About 20,000 people remained on their rooftops Monday with 1 million residents displaced, according to the Los Angeles Times.

A supervisor of a shelter that received 900 residents said that government sent only enough food for 300 people.

Proceso, a Mexican magazine, accused the government of Tabasco of “criminal negligence,” saying that it did not provide infrastructure to prevent such flooding and allowed developers to construct buildings in delicate areas.

Authorities sent more medical workers and police officers into the region Tuesday in an effort to address health concerns and prevent looting, according to The New York Times.

Conservative President Felipe Calderon has faced criticism for not paying enough attention to the poor residents of the south, especially from his defeated opponent in last year’s election, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a Tabasco native.

WRAL.com

The 5 on Your Side section of the WRAL.com site had its positive and negative aspects. While the opportunity to submit consumer complaints and the Restaurant Ratings by Request promoted interactivity of users, the format of the Web site seemed lazy.

It is obvious that WRAL has not achieved any autonomy on its Web site or promoted creativity in the presentation of its content. Most of the video is directly from the original broadcast.

While the information regarding restaurant ratings was enlightening, the format made me cringe. If I weren’t forcing myself to look at content on the side, I would have quickly exited the video. There was no text story to accompany the video, only the original package.

It would make it a lot easier for Internet users to quickly get this information through a text block listing the ratings of the restaurants, rather than forcing them to sit through sound effects and graphics on a video.

The content about the consumer recall on frozen pizzas was equally disappointing, with the video again taken directly from the broadcast. In fact, the video provided no additional value to the story because it was just a graphic listing the recalled brands and the possible contamination. This information was already in the story.

Step to the left

Another Latin American country shifted to the left Sunday with the electoral victory of a center-leftist over a former general, according to Reuters.

Alvaro Colom, a textile businessman, won the Guatemalan presidential election against the conservative Gen. Otto Perez Molina, once the head of army intelligence in the country, which borders Mexico. Colom will succeed conservative Oscar Berger on Jan. 14.

Molina had based his campaign on the use of troops to fight crime. Guatemala has one of the highest murder rates in the world, with more than 5,000 people killed in 2006.

But his connection to the military was seen by many in the country as a connection to the violent military rule and civil war that persisted for more than 30 years until 1986.

Colom focused much of his campaign on fighting poverty in the country with the highest child malnutrition rate in the hemisphere, while his National Unity for Hope party has been unable to distance itself from a connection with drug gangs and organized crime (Reuters).

Colom  nonetheless took a cue from the Molina campaign Monday, announcing that he would use the army to fight the drug cartels that control large rural areas close to the Mexican border. Guatemala has long been a stop on the cocaine route from Colombia.

He said the struggle against drug trafficking must be seen as a “war operation,” similar to how Mexico has addressed the control of drug gangs in the country.

Colom also pledged to address poverty with attention on the indigenous Mayan population, according to the Agence France-Presse. The social-democrat said he plans to negotiate price cuts and freezes on certain products and higher wages for workers.