BY AMYWULFF
Cardinal Staff
November is an historic month as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989, and the end of the Iron Curtain. According to CNN.com, “thousands of people joined world leaders in the German capital Monday to remember the night 20 years ago when a euphoric wave of people power swept away the Berlin Wall and consigned the Cold War to history.”
German President Angela Merkel, along with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and former Polish President Lech Walesa led the commemoration, including a symbolic “falling” of the wall. Walesa pushed over the first of 1,000 giant dominoes, which stood in a strip where the wall used to be. According to The New York Times, this reflected “Poland’s leading role in Eastern Europe’s campaign against communism.” The spectators also listened to Merkel speak about the changes that have occurred and are still progressing today. Yet, “their loudest cheers came when she thanked Mikhail Gorbachev for the reforming attitude he brought to the Soviet leadership” (NYTimes.com).
Just as Eastern Europe is celebrating its transition from communism to democracy, so Iraq is preparing to host its parliamentary elections in January. Efforts to pass legislation on how to conduct the votes were stalled by problems in the city of Kirkuk. Kirkuk is considered by the Kurdish nation to be their ancient capital, and Iraqi officials are worried the group has increased population in that city to sway votes, according to Aljazeera.com.
However, lawmakers have come to an agreement in a reform bill stating they will look carefully at the numbers of votes and investigate if things seem amiss. The UN had said that it couldn’t endorse national polls if this reform bill wasn’t passed, according to BBC.com. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is optimistic about the upcoming elections (now set for Jan. 21, 2010) saying, “These elections will be a crucial opportunity to advance national reconciliation and contribute to Iraq’s political process” (Aljazeera.com).
Contrary to all this “democratic” news, my favorite slightly totalitarian leader, Mr. Hugo Chavez, is making headlines again in his recent action to prepare for war against neighboring Colombia, according to FoxNews.com. A deal between the U.S. and Colombia, in a proclaimed effort to clean up the South American nation’s narco-terrorism, has sparked Chavez to claim that “Colombia handed over their country and is now another state of the union. Don’t make the mistake of attacking: Venezuela is willing to do anything” on state television during his weekly “Alo Presidente” show, according to Bloomberg.com. Cuban dictator Fidel Castro expressed similar fears and was quoted saying, “If the Yankee empire tries to use Colombia to attack Venezuela, the war of 100 years would begin” (Bloomberg.com).
Stay tuned!
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