Search Results for: Czech

(By guest blogger Andy Jackson) (This is just a boring documentation post. I’ll try to have something juicier in my next piece.) I did not get an invitation to the closed sessions at the Seoul Summit tomorrow, but I was able to get an invitation to the evening welcoming reception tomorrow night. I was able to get that much because I’m Executive Director of Republicans Abroad-Korea, one of many organizations supporting the summit. We and the Democrats cosponsored a reception...

Updated 10/12; scroll down. Never accuse the North of not fighting above its weight or thinking big. In the process, it has cemented the most recent credible evidence of its cooperation with international terrorists, which might prove troublesome for that pesky terrorism list. Via the Times of London (also reported in Yonhap): ONE of Ireland’s most famous revolutionaries could face 20 years in an American jail for his alleged role in a communist plot to wreck the dollar. Sean Garland,...

There may be dozens of reasons why Koreans and Americans view North Korea so differently, but if you leave the “root causes” argument to another day, the more immediate cause is how the South Korean press covers the issue. Having had a disillusioning view of how the media boloed their coverage of the ADVANCE Democracy Act, I didn’t have terribly high expectations for how the South Korean media would approach a press conference with Natan Sharansky. To some in the...

I sometimes have moments when I feel that this site is a stimulating conversation among friends that will never really amount to much. In fact, I’m having one of them now. When the intelligentsia that claims to speak for world opinion can’t distinguish between a gas chamber and fart in a crowded elevator, I tend to stare through the screen of my monitor, like Sisyphus looking past the stone, up an insurmountably steep grade of illogic. My latest such moment...

I sometimes have moments when I feel that this site is a stimulating conversation among friends that will never really amount to much. In fact, I’m having one of them now. When the intelligentsia that claims to speak for world opinion can’t distinguish between a gas chamber and fart in a crowded elevator, I tend to stare through the screen of my monitor, like Sisyphus looking past the stone, up an insurmountably steep grade of illogic. My latest such moment...

Dissident Demonstration in Cuba: A great post, with pictures. I’d be disappointed if a USG representative was not there, but I have to say that the presence of the Czech diplomat is uniquely inspiring to me. I’ll say it again: Vaclav Havel would make an outstanding replacement for Kofi Annan.

Dissident Demonstration in Cuba: A great post, with pictures. I’d be disappointed if a USG representative was not there, but I have to say that the presence of the Czech diplomat is uniquely inspiring to me. I’ll say it again: Vaclav Havel would make an outstanding replacement for Kofi Annan.

North Korea has asked the Czech Republic to ban “Team America,” a movie I have yet to see because of my little screamy ones. The Marmot has the goods. It’s actually quite funny to anyone who has been to Czech recently. The Czechs are about the happiest, friendliest, most free-spirited people in Europe–a happy island kingdom in a dour, grey, relativist sea. They seem to have democracy in their DNA. Czech dissidents once protested Communist rule by sneaking into a...

North Korea has asked the Czech Republic to ban “Team America,” a movie I have yet to see because of my little screamy ones. The Marmot has the goods. It’s actually quite funny to anyone who has been to Czech recently. The Czechs are about the happiest, friendliest, most free-spirited people in Europe–a happy island kingdom in a dour, grey, relativist sea. They seem to have democracy in their DNA. Czech dissidents once protested Communist rule by sneaking into a...

I missed this Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal when it was new, but it’s still worth discussion. It argues persuasively that some form of engagement with North Korea modeled on the Helsinki framework could be effective at improving conditions there. The fact that the signatories include people like Michael Horowitz (major force behind the NKHRA) and Max Kampelman (veteran of negotiating with Gorbachev and Schevardnadze) makes me pause to consider it. Many of the ideas are well-reasoned and show...

I missed this Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal when it was new, but it’s still worth discussion. It argues persuasively that some form of engagement with North Korea modeled on the Helsinki framework could be effective at improving conditions there. The fact that the signatories include people like Michael Horowitz (major force behind the NKHRA) and Max Kampelman (veteran of negotiating with Gorbachev and Schevardnadze) makes me pause to consider it. Many of the ideas are well-reasoned and show...

Argue all you want about the presence of al-Qaeda thug Abu Musab al-Zarkawi in Baghdad back when Saddam’s people were listening in on every living room in town. Insist, if you will, that neither this, nor the multiple con-fabs between the henchmen of Saddam and Osama, justified our being alarmed. There�s no doubt that Zarkawi�s there now, and that he�s spearheading those who are killing our troops�and increasingly, a lot of Iraqi civilians. The simple truth is that today in...

Argue all you want about the presence of al-Qaeda thug Abu Musab al-Zarkawi in Baghdad back when Saddam’s people were listening in on every living room in town. Insist, if you will, that neither this, nor the multiple con-fabs between the henchmen of Saddam and Osama, justified our being alarmed. There�s no doubt that Zarkawi�s there now, and that he�s spearheading those who are killing our troops�and increasingly, a lot of Iraqi civilians. The simple truth is that today in...

Vaclav Havel has been one of my two favorite Europeans of my lifetime (along with Margaret Thatcher) since I was a high school kid in who foresaw that the discontent of the oppressed would bring down the Iron Curtain. In 1990, with the few dollars I had earned working in a mine in South Africa (another land that was then enjoying its liberation) I went to Prague to see the aftermath of the revolution. The country had been free for...

Vaclav Havel has been one of my two favorite Europeans of my lifetime (along with Margaret Thatcher) since I was a high school kid in who foresaw that the discontent of the oppressed would bring down the Iron Curtain. In 1990, with the few dollars I had earned working in a mine in South Africa (another land that was then enjoying its liberation) I went to Prague to see the aftermath of the revolution. The country had been free for...

Presented at Institute for Corean-American Studies (ICAS) 2005 Spring Symposium 2255 Rayburn House Office Build by Dennis P. Halpin Professional Staff East Asian Affairs International Relations Committee U.S. House of Representatives Presented at Institute for Corean-American Studies (ICAS) 2005 Spring Symposium 2255 Rayburn House Office Building May 19, 2005 ________________ This statement reflects my own views and not necessarily those of the International Relations Committee nor its Chairman Henry J. Hyde. _______________ Sang Joo, Members of ICAS, Distinguished Ladies and...

Presented at Institute for Corean-American Studies (ICAS) 2005 Spring Symposium 2255 Rayburn House Office Build by Dennis P. Halpin Professional Staff East Asian Affairs International Relations Committee U.S. House of Representatives Presented at Institute for Corean-American Studies (ICAS) 2005 Spring Symposium 2255 Rayburn House Office Building May 19, 2005 ________________ This statement reflects my own views and not necessarily those of the International Relations Committee nor its Chairman Henry J. Hyde. _______________ Sang Joo, Members of ICAS, Distinguished Ladies and...

Presented at Institute for Corean-American Studies (ICAS) 2005 Spring Symposium 2255 Rayburn House Office Build by Dennis P. Halpin Professional Staff East Asian Affairs International Relations Committee U.S. House of Representatives Presented at Institute for Corean-American Studies (ICAS) 2005 Spring Symposium 2255 Rayburn House Office Building May 19, 2005 ________________ This statement reflects my own views and not necessarily those of the International Relations Committee nor its Chairman Henry J. Hyde. _______________ Sang Joo, Members of ICAS, Distinguished Ladies and...