Dirk Vandewalle on Gadhafi's World

Dirk Vandewalle, an associate professor of government at Dartmouth College, gives an inside look at Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and his 42-year rule. Vandewalle has studied and written about Libya since the 1980s. In 1986 he lived in Libya for 14 months, the only Western scholar there at the time.

Note: sorry about the 10 minute discussion of Gadaffi’s wardrobe. But it is kind of interesting insofar as his attire is symbolic of his self perception and eccentricity.

Guided questions are here.

Third of Russians think sun spins round Earth?

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Does the sun revolve around the Earth? One in every three Russians thinks so, a spokeswoman for state pollster VsTIOM said on Friday.

In a survey released this week, 32 percent of Russians believed the Earth was the center of the Solar system; 55 percent that all radioactivity is man-made; and 29 percent that the first humans lived when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth.

“It’s really quite amazing,” spokeswoman Olga Kamenchuk said of the survey that polled 1,600 people across Russia’s regions in January, with a 3.4-percent margin of error.

However, people tend to forget what they have been taught at school if it is not part of daily use, she added: “I wonder whether our colleagues in other countries would find any different.”

Now do you believe in the “transition to democracy”?

BBC & CNN on Iran

 
A note on checks and balances in Iran (Aug 2009)

Zakaria & Guests discuss how Iran will weather the Arab Uprisings of 2011

Zakaria & Soros discuss Iran 2011

Vicente Fox: More a Caricature of an Effective Presidency than the Real Thing

Methinks COHA underplays Mexican history when they conclude that, “Fox will go down in Mexican history as little more than a “lame duck” throughout his entire presidency, who failed to accomplish anything approaching a string of concrete improvements for his country, even though he held on as the symbol of Mexico’s turn to democracy.” But you should really explore the COHA argument and judge for yourself.

Rafsanjani loses post as chair of Experts

Mr Rafsanjani had chaired the Assembly of Experts, which selects the supreme leader and supervises his activities, for the past four years. But he was criticised by hardliners for being close to the opposition.

Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani was selected to replace him, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
Mr Rafsanjani said that for the sake of keeping the country united, he would not stand against Mr Kani.

“If he was ready and accepted responsibility, I would certainly not nominate myself, so that we could eliminate the differences and this sacred institution would not be damaged by my side,” he said.
He warned that divisiveness was becoming “very serious” and said the country should be “vigilant to keep people united”.
Mr Rafsanjani had chaired the Assembly – an elected body of clerics which has the theoretical power to dismiss the supreme leader – since 2007.

But he was stripped of his role as a leader of Friday prayers after criticising a crackdown on opposition protests after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed 2009 re-election.

Mr Rafsanjani remains the chairman of the Expediency Council, a committee which arbitrates disputes over legislation among state bodies.