Brickyard Profile: Baby's First Coup

I've had an epiphany of sort about my writing...I really, really like to profile people who I find intriguing. Hence, I think it's time to formalize this process, start using trademark graphics (see below) and make the "Brickyard Profile" a regular feature of this site. Please give me some feedback on the comments in the comments section (good, bad, ugly), and maybe even suggest individuals (foreign or domestic) who you think could be highlighted. So, without further ado, here's our first "official" Brickyard profile - meet Andry Rajoelina.

To put it lightly, Andry Rajoelina doesn't look old enough to lead a revolution. Heck, he doesn't look old enough to shave. He is a little older than he appears, but at 34, the baby-faced former DJ still has six years until he can constitutionally become President of Madagascar. However, if one thing has become clear over the last few weeks, it's that Andry Rajoelina need not be troubled by petty laws and regulations - so it probably shouldn't surprise anyone that he did in fact become Madagascar's President yesterday. Unfortunately, he didn't exactly achieve his impressive feat legally.

Instead, Rajoelina's rise to power resulted from what could arguably be described as the biggest temper tantrum in recent memory. The mess started last month, when now-former president Marc Ravalomanana abruptly fired Rajoelina from his elected office as Mayor of Antannanarivo (the nation's capital). He had every right to be upset, and even to fight his dismissal, but few people would have envisioned what he did next. Instead of merely protesting his dismissal, Rajoelina launched a revolution. He told his followers that President Ravolomanana was a dictator, and that he was misspending public funds - and then on Monday he declared himself president of a new government.

With Rajoelina's people in the streets, and the military siding with the opposition, President Ravalomanana holed up in one of the presidential palaces. His supporters gathered outside and prepared for a confrontation, but Ravalomanana saw the writing on the wall (and the fact that the army had taken control of the main presidential palace) and offered hold a referendum on national leadership. Rajoelina did not think that an election was needed to determine the will of the people, so he refused the offer. Left with no options, the president resigned yesterday and handed power to the military, who immediately handed the presidency to Rajoelina. The takeover was complete

Some might call this a revolution, but I think it's a run-of-the-mill military coup. Rajoelina did not take power through his massive street protests (though they helped); he took power because the military decided to turn on President Ravalomanana. Andry Rajoelina may have rode a wave of popularity, but that does not change the fact that he is not only unelected, but constitutionally disqualified from the office he now holds. Far from exhibiting the traits of a democratic hero, he is showing the trademarks of a a budding egomaniac dictator. Luckily, he has promised elections in two years, but something tells me he will win easily (and probably unfairly) and go on to become the unchallenged leader of an undemocratic Madagascar.

Considering his age, charisma, and organizational ability, this man has the potential to lead his country for a very long time. Combine that with his excessive ego, his inexperience, and the fact Madagascar is already an extremely poor country - and it becomes clear that Andry Rajoelina has the potential to become the next Robert Mugabe if he wants to. However, before we get into any doomsday scenarios for Madagascar, we have to see if the boy king even stays in power. After all, the military turned on Ravalomanana, and they can just as easily turn on his successor.

Will Rajoelina become a major force, or will the world's youngest coup leader become the youngest person to be ousted in a coup? Only time will tell, but regardless of what happens Andry Rajoelina is definitely a man to watch.

Another Domino Falls...

First, there was Hugo Chavez - who we all know and loathe - but the thing that a lot of people don't pick up on is that "Chavismo" is not limited to Venezuela. Instead, Chavez launched a domino effect that has reverberated around Latin America. Radical Leftist/Socialist presidents have suddenly shot to power all over Latin America, dramatically re-shaping the region's political culture and making life very difficult for the U.S. Some have become moderate, accepted left-wing leaders, like Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Uruguay's Tabare Vazquez. However, many of them have lived up to their radical reputations. This brand of leader, who I would call the "Chavitos" (little Chavezs) have become one of the scariest trends in world politics. They include Ecuador's Rafael Correa, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, and - most importantly- Bolivia's Evo Morales (who actually scares me MORE than Chavez himself).

Today, another country has fallen, and the latest Leftist to come to power could be the most important yet - because he is unlike the others and, in my mind, could represent the first incarnation of the second generation of Chavitos. The country is El Salvador in Central America- and the man is former TV journalist Mauricio Funes. On one hand, I'm surprised that it took Salvadoreans so long to lurch leftward, as Mr. Funes' party is one of the most established radical movements in Latin America. While it operates as a political party today, the Faribundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) got its start as a communist guerrilla army and fought a bloody civil war in 1980s and early 90s. However, since going "mainstream", the FMLN has failed to gain the presidency - but that was before they found Mauricio Funes, who was unlike anyone they had put up before.

Until now, the FMLN has run former guerrillas for president, but apparently Salvadoreans were not in the mood to elect bloodied rebel commanders to lead their country - this has allowed the conservative ARENA Party to hold the presidency in a vice-grip since 1989. Funes, however, is not only the first FMLN who did not fight in the war, but seemingly bears no resemblance to the grizzled fighters who founded his party. With his clean-shaven look and his chic modern spectacles, he clearly doesn't come from the bloody jungle battlefields of the 80s. Instead, he is a modern communicator who honed his skills as a TV presenter on "CNN en Espanol". This is not just a change of pace for the FMLN, but for the entire Latin American left, as most of the "Chavitos" got their start as proletarian labor union bosses.

So, we've established that Funes is a different kind of Lefty, but why is that so darn important? Well, it's because he could be a weathervane for the entire region - telling the world how the Chavez movement will age. It seems now that he could easily become a moderate leftist like Lula da Silva in Brazil. If that is the case, he will fit nicely into the international community and won't be terribly noteworthy in the grand scheme of things. However, considering that he did come out of the very radical FMLN, he could instead be the first example of a new Leftist generation of of leaders - "Chavito 2.0" if you will. In other words, his policies could be every bit as radical as Crazy Hugo, but more threatening because of their sleek, non-militant, 21st century look. Everybody KNEW that the first generation of Chavitos were stark raving loons, they might as well have "nut job" tattooed across their foreheads. But if the Funes example holds, that will no longer be the case, and more countries will become vulnerable. Conservative holdouts like Peru and Colombia could fall for the siren-song of the new left, and the takeover of Latin America will become complete.

Which way President Funes will go is anybody's guess. We can pray that he turns out as a moderate - but we need to watch him closely to ensure that he doesn't morph into something far more sinister.

D.S. Simon Interview

I had the privilege of participating in a panel discussion at PRNews' Media Relations Forum here in DC on Tuesday, and along the way I had the added opportunity to be interviewed for the "D.S. Simon Vlog" - a video blog serving the communication community. I wanted to share this interview with all of you, as I thought Mr. Simon had some great questions and I really like his vlog concept. Thanks to PRNews for the invitation, and thanks to Mr. Simon for the interview.

"Defenders of Wild Food"

This is great! A friend in AK gave me a link to this new group, and I'm excited to see that someone is finally taking on "Defenders of Wildlife" and the other extremist greenies going after Sarah Palin on the issue of Alaska's predator control programs. Finally, someone has put a human face on our side of the issue! And I think it's great that they parodied the enemy by parodying their name. Be sure to visit DefendersOfWildFood.org for more info. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that somebody is finally taking a shot at the "wolf people" - their disingenuous ads (the ones with the stock footage of airplanes and wolves getting tranquilized) have been an unneeded distraction for far too long, and can't wait to see how they react to be labeled enemies of Native Alaskan culture.

This Sent Chills Up My Spine...

I was reading today that Britain's last surviving WWI veteran was made a member of the French Legion of Honor today. I found some video of his acceptance speech from the BBC, and I almost cried. I love to put up inspirational stories, and 110 year-old Harry Patch definitely qualifies.

Click here to watch.

In case you didn't understand him, I'm putting the full text of his remarks at the end of this post, but I have a few things to say first. With all of the focus historians put on WWII, the First World War tends to be forgotten...which is a real shame, considering that the last veterans are currently dying out (I think there are two left in the world) These men deserve every bit as much respect as those who fought thirty years later, and I'm glad to see that the few remaining survivors are getting some publicity. But what are we going to do when they're gone? I can't speak for Europe, but I do know that there is, in fact, a WWI memorial next to the Washington Mall - I stop by it every time I visit the memorials. It's tucked off to the side in a stand of trees; it's not well taken care of; and hardly anybody knows what it is. Technically, it's a local memorial to DC residents who died in WWI, but it's the closest thing we've got...so let's at least take care of it. Maybe we could even take a few of those stimulus dollars and clean it up - maybe we could even install a sign to let people know it exists. Wikipedia says that there was a bill introduced last year to expand it and make it a national WWI memorial...I don't know how far that went, but kudos to Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) for the idea. And, lastly, to whoever left that single red rose there on Veterans Day, you're my hero.

Text of Harry Patch's remarks after being made a member of the French Legion of Honor:

"Now, but two of us remain at our post and the people of France, through their president, have honoured us once more by appointing us as Officers of the Legion of Honour."

"Ambassador, I greatly appreciate the way your people respect the memory of those who fell, irrespective of the uniform they wore.

"I will wear this medal with great pride and when I eventually rejoin my mates it will be displayed in my regimental museum as a permanent reminder of the kindness of the people of France."

The Red Button

It's official, Hillary Clinton has absolutely no business being a diplomat. She would have been a half-decent fit for other departments, like Health and Human Services, but her gaffe yesterday was almost totally inexcusable. If the Obama Administration wants to put more focus on diplomacy as a method of solving our problems, then he should never have put such an amateur in the nation's top diplomatic post.

Now, I actually though that the idea of giving a "reset" button to the Russian Foreign Minister was a good diplomatic gesture, but I am positively steamed at how badly it was bungled. First, Clinton told her Russian counterpart that a lot of work had been put into making sure that that they used the correct Russian word for "reset" (perezagruzka), but gave him a button that actually said "overload" (peregruzka). Not only was there a typo, but it wasn't even written in Russian! The button should have read "ПЕРЕЗАГРУЗКА" (I took some Russian in college), but instead it was written out using the Latin Alphabet!

Apparently, Secretary Clinton's people didn't work as hard as she thought to find the right word, let alone the right alphabet. If the U.S. state department can't figure out how to properly translate one word into Russian, then we have some serious problems to deal with.

This is a minor faux pas in the grand scheme of things, but there is still absolutely no excuse for it. I'm not surprised that Foreign Minister Lavrov said he would keep the button on his desk despite the typo...as it will be a constant reminder that his American counterpart is in over her head.

Troopergate Ringleader Gets Cushy Federal Job

If you haven't heard yet, Alaska State Senator Kim Elton (D-Juneau) has resigned to accept an appointment as the Department of the Interior's Director of Alaska Affairs. Of course, WE all remember Elton as the leader of the council that investigated the Troopergate fiasco, and one of the top guys responsible for blowing those trumped up charges onto the national political scene. So, I guess the moral of the story is that the politics of personal destruction are not only alive and well, but can get you promoted.

Unfortunately, this also shows that President Obama has little intention of working with Gov. Palin on anything, as Elton and Palin are not exactly on good terms. This was evidenced by the tersely worded statement released by Gov. Palin - which included the following:

"Senator Elton pledged his allegiance to President Obama last summer."

There was one thing that came out of this appointment that really interested me...because it may reveal the missing link between the Obama campaign and the prosecution of Troopergate:

"Elton is close to Pete Rouse, who was Obama's chief of staff in the U.S. Senate and is now a special adviser to the president. Rouse and Elton worked together in Juneau in the late 1970s on the staff of Alaska Republican Lt. Gov. Terry Miller."

Hmm....wonder why the McCain campaign's "Palin Truth Squad" never dug up that juicy little nugget.