Jaime Bayly rails against Obama in Miami

Miami based Peruvian talk show host Jaime Bayly has begun an attack campaign against American presidential hopeful Barak Obama. The popular Spanish language talk show host has turned increasingly to the political right upon his arrival in Miami on the local television station Mega TV. 

Once known for his cutting edge talk show “que hay de nuevo,” (what’s new) Bayly has since been pandering to a more ideological audience after his arrival in Miami. Mega TV’s viewing public consists of a large number of hardline anti-Castro Cuban exiles.  His shows now nearly always feature Cuba and Castro.

On Wednesday night’s broadcast he juxtaposed the Cuba policy views of Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee with that of Obama.  Bayly made it clear that Obama was ready to reward the oppressive Castro regime if his brother Raul Castro, who seems set to resume his brother’s role as dictator in chief, made only slight changes to the political economy of the island nation. Huckabee and McCain on the other hand would remain hostile in its relations with the government in Havana unless there was a full multi-party democracy in place, implying that only a Raul epiphany or an outright coup would trigger a positive from Washington.

Mr. Bayly went on to rip Obama’s wife Michelle for comments she made which seemed to question her patriotism. God forbid!

The Maori and New Zealand

New Zealand has seen a drop in Maori unemployment from 16.6 per cent in 1999 to 7.7 per cent in 2007.  However, the national average for all New Zealanders stands at 3.4 per cent.

Such economic disparity from New Zealand’s largest minority group has prompted Maori Affairs spokesman Pita Paraone to call on lawmakers to do more in order to improve the Maori lot.

 “The figures are unacceptably high when compared with the national average of just 3.4 per cent. That means Maori are two and a half times more likely to be unemployed than the national average,” said Mr. Paraone.

Indeed, the average age of Maori in New Zealand is 22 years, with a substantial increase in Maori aged 15 to 64, therefore lower unemployment rates were expected but there has been only moderate improvement.

 “New Zealand First has always believed that education is the key to upward mobility and we have fought endlessly to see that this ethic is embedded in every New Zealander regardless of race and background. In 2006, 2 out of 5 Maori aged 15 years and over left school with no formal qualifications and we would like to see a dramatic improvement in that figure,” said Mr. Paraone.

Should Ayaan Hirsi Ali get EU protection?

Somali-born author/activist and former Dutch parlimentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali is asking for political asylum in France and a fund to be created for public figures who speak out against Islamist violence.

Hirsi Ali has been living in the United States in the employ of the Amercian Enterprise Institute, a Washington D.C. based political think tank.  In October of 2007 the Dutch government decided to cut security funding for Hirsi Ali since she was living abroad and it was merely deemed unfeasable.

On Sunday the former parlimentarian was seeking asylum in France with the help of several French public intellectuals such as Bernard Henry Levy among others.  Appeals were made to French President Nicolas Sarkozy who was asked to make good on his campaign promise to help oppressed women and children throughout the world.

But the idea of a fund for public figures under threat of violence or death from religious radicals will be debated in Brussels when Hirsi Ali travels there with several French intellectuals lobbying for the fund’s creation.

Hirsi Ali’s asylum request in France will most likely be granted but the creation of a fund for the aforementioned reasons brings up several interesting questions.

As citizens of western democracies should we be compelled to provide tax money for such a fund?  The argument runs two ways.  Some argue that public figures making political statements know the risks involved and take them whereas not all citizens of any one state are willing to bear the burden that such risks entail.  Police protection, a cornerstone of any western democracy is there to be enjoyed by all but what about police protection amounting to a wittness protection program for public figures who make controversial statements that may even run contrary to the pervailing public sentiment? 

Others argue that funding the protection of such public figures is absolutely essential to the protection and preservation of western democracy itself.  Indeed, in the current state of world affairs balking on protection measures for such individuals may be seen as a capitulation to radicalism.

What is a liberal democracy after all if the conditions of the possibility for an open dialogue are not allowed to exist? 

Seems like we have not heard the last of Miss Hirsi Ali by a long stretch.

Geert Wilders’ forthcoming documentary on Islam

Oh what to make of Geert Wilders’ forthcoming cinematic attack on Islam.  The Dutch lawmaker has become quite infamous within the Muslim community of the Netherlands.  Indeed, many death threats have been intercepted by Dutch authorities in the wake of the Theo Van Gogh murder in Amsterdam, many directed at the outspoken Wilders.

But what should we make of this type of conservative demagogue?  Noted Dutch scholar Ian Buruma has called Wilders and those of his ilk “modern conservatives,” which acquire a strong following from communities normally associated with the working class and those living outside of the major metropolitan areas.

Furthermore, Buruma argues that this same group feels alienated from what they view as an out of touch elite class of beaureucrats who are percieved to demonstrate stronger loyalties to Brussels and the EU than to their own nation-states.

The argument can also be applied to the social reality of the United States where most conservative politicians and conservative talk show hosts may appeal more to the working class heartland of middle America than to the professional classes and those holding advanced university degrees.

Thus, the tricky dichotomy lies in the fact that although most sane people agree that dangerous fanatical ideology must be contained and ultimately defeated the most strident voices supporting the cause may not be the best representatives of that cause.  Indeed, Geert Wilders and others have suggested banning Islam from Europe altogether whilst stating that the fate of Western democracy is at stake. 

North Africans and the African Cup of Nations

As I was watching the thrilling match between Morocco and Guinea in the African nations Cup in Ghana a couple of weeks ago I could not help but reflect on the place of the north Africans in the dynamic African diaspora.  My interest was piqued when I found a few supporters’ websites with opposing fans spewing grotesque vituperations back and forth at each other. 

I was particularly interested by certain blogs that expressed overt xenophobia and sometimes outright racism against the north African sides in the competion.  Comments like “Arabs go home” and “Moroccans are not Africans” were there to be read by all.

So my question is, in a competition among African nations what determines who can participate?  There is no doubt that the Arab-Berber, Muslim culture north of the Sahara is viewed more in the context of the near east/Mediterranean.  Indeed, Egypt is probably viewed as the least African of all the nations involved. 

The racial make-up of the north may help to explain some of the reservations expressed.  However, north Africans have an extremely varied racial heritage and ironically enough it was Morocco’s Abdesalem Ouaddou, the most phenotypically African player on the squad to remark, “it is very hard for us northerners to catch a break in the African cup, very hard indeed.” 

McCain and the Latino vote: Is Florida really an indicator?

The Florida primary has come and gone and it  seems the biggest benefactor of the Latino vote was indeed John McCain.  The Arizona senator won the Republican vote on tuesday aided mainly by Hispanic and senior votes. 

 Many in the media have taken this to mean that Mr. McCain’s views are not seen as conservative as he portrays and that his views on immigration have attracted many Latino voters.  However, the rhetoric is not borne out by the facts.

Indeed, Mr. McCain took 51% of the Hispanic vote compared to his closest rival, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who registered a paltry 15% from the same constituency.  But once again our sagacious national media has failed to grasp the important subtelties and crucial distinctions of the diverse American Hispanic minority. 

 Much has been said about the majority of Hispanic Republicans in Florida being of Cuban-American heritage, however this group is not entirely monolithic as many in the media would have us think.  Older Cuban-Americans for example, cast most of the ballots and tend to display more radical, hard-line tendencies at the ballot box, whilst the younger members of this demographic display at bit more diversity in their political ideology and also tend to vote in lower numbers.  Furthermore, older Cuban-Americans tend to view national security and foreign policy issues as central motivators to participation in the political process, whereas the younger members, derived mostly from the middle classes, tend to express their political concerns in terms of domestic issues which attests to the reality of their social status. 

Another fact that has recieved mere cursory mention is the effect of the structure of the Florida primary itself, the state being a closed primary which means one can only vote for the party to which one is a registered member.  Thus, a Latino voter who happens to belong to the democratic party cannot switch alliances on election day if she desired to cast her vote for Mr. McCain.

Therefore, the claim that the Latino vote in Florida reflects a broader national sentiment regarding the Arizona senator and his moderate stance on immigration, seems a rather dubious one.  I suppose we simply must wait for an open primary with a large Hispanic constituency to head to the polls in order to get a better idea of how Mr. McCain will fare nationally among this most important minority.