Dear Minutus, thanks for checking out my blog and ...

2009-11-28T07:27:50.911+04:00

Dear Minutus, thanks for checking out my blog and for your best wishes!

Coming to your point about "hate" - I really don't want to go into details as it is completely off-topic to this post, but please tell me, how can I call beck's references to Hitler and calling Obama racist and Palin's infamous death panels? It is surely not love-mongering.

Besides, I watched that Beck show about Rockefeller center - though I don't favor Reds, after all, I was born in Soviet Union! Beck was so disgusting at that point!

What specifically is the hate that Beck and Palin ...

2009-11-26T08:08:29.885+04:00

What specifically is the hate that Beck and Palin are mongering? That seems to be a pretty absolute statement that leaves little room for nuanced understanding. American democracy has generated vehement and forceful disagreements since the very beginning and to quash that with the smarmy and overused to the point of meaninglessness "hate" label was probably an innocent linguistic miscalculation on your part. At least I hope so. Saw you in "How We Used Facebook To Try To Free Azerbaijan's 'Donkey Bloggers'" and thought I'd check out the blog. Best wishes for you and your lovely nation.

Here is a blog post I wrote about it. I'm stil...

2009-11-12T14:07:37.622+04:00

Here is a blog post I wrote about it. I'm still figuring out how to set it up so it's not open to view yet. But your blog and others like Flying Carpets inspired me to create it.

Recently an American NGO, the International Republican Institute, announced it was leaving Azerbaijan due to lack of funding. After an initial covering up by the Embassy (claiming IRI didn’t even submit a proposal to stay) more information came out in the press. It seems the US (more specifically USAID, a branch of the State Department that oversees development projects) is not cutting its budget for democracy programs, rather they are devoting all of them to the National Democratic Institute. It seems it is not a change in US foreign policy, but it has major foreign policy consequences, it seems they are not unhappy with IRI’s work, but they are destroying the very projects they have spent millions on to build.

So how do we understand the decision? Years ago, Britain had a fabulous TV show called Yes, Minister. It was about a bumbling Minister who was trying to bring change to his office, but was blocked at every way by the civil service, whose concern was preventing change, increasing their portfolio, and increasing their budget. In this too-close-to-reality comedy, bureaucrats change policy to protect their hierarchy, fund programs to confound other departments, mislead the media to build their own careers, and prevent progressive change because its ‘just not the way it is done’. The show is worth watching just to learn how to decode bureaucrat-speak.
An updated version of the same idea was put into The Thick of It, a brilliant, though foul mouthed, look at how much policy in a Minister’s office depends on PR.

When IRI announced it was closing, political actors from all sides condemned the decision and told the US to reverse it. A Facebook group was created which now has almost 800 members, including MPs, journalists, human rights defenders, Peace Corps volunteers, analysts, editors, and youth and Internet activists. It was the biggest political news story for almost a week, especially given that they were being closed in the middle of projects, right before an election.

I don’t think the American civil servants, looking at their pensions and ensuring they don’t need to do anything outside of their job descriptions, expected this reaction. I don’t think they meant to change US foreign policy. And I’m sure they didn’t mean to give us this large of a glimpse into how decisions are really made – based on PR, career moves, budget grabs, and internal power plays.

Yesterday, during the court case of Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade, they called for greater work and unity among youth movements as well as a call to action for Internet activism. They were then sentenced to years in prison. Now the organization working on both those issues is leaving.

Ah, the life of a bureaucrat.

Wow! He must be an extremely kind person! All the ...

2009-11-10T02:26:17.018+04:00

Wow! He must be an extremely kind person! All the love and respect to Jake!

Comments on In Mutatione Fortitudo: A Republican in the Caucasus

Dear Minutus, thanks for checking out my blog and ...

What specifically is the hate that Beck and Palin ...

Here is a blog post I wrote about it. I'm stil...

Wow! He must be an extremely kind person! All the ...