joshhansen.net

Category: the world

“[T]hings both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms—” Doctrine and Covenants 88:79

  • Ukraine and Yuschenko Stand Firm on Gas

    Forbes reports that Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko has rejected a Russian loan as a means of coping with impending hikes in prices by Russia’s state-controlled Gazprom. According to the article, Gazprom is forcing a 4-fold increase in prices upon the Ukraine. Others have speculated that this action comes as retribution for the defeat of the Kremlin’s candidate in Ukraine’s elections last year, in which Viktor Yuschenko overcame poisoning and election fraud to stymie the Kremlin’s undue influence in that nation.

    Congratulations to Ukraine for refusing to become entangled with Russia by accepting the Gazprom loan.

  • The Return of Russian Despotism

    This Washington Post article sums up the state of affairs in Russia. Key points include:

    • Supression of free media outlets

    • Forced nationalization of key economic sectors, such as the oil industry

    • Punishment of neighboring countries using oil prices as a weapon

    • Manipulation of the national legislature to make it subservient to the Kremlin

    The net effect is a removal of most of the checks that originally existed to contain the power of the executive. All of this prompted resigning Kremlin economic adviser Andrei Illarionov to say that “[Russia] is no longer a democratic country. It is no longer a free country.”

    Please also see this Freedom House press release concerning recently approved legislation to restrict the activities of Non-Government Organizations in Russia. Note that Freedom House has recently lowered Russia’s rating from “partly free” to “not free.”

  • Shanwei/Dongzhou Massacre

    Please read and compare the Chinese state news agency’€™s report on the massacre to this one in the Epoch Times. As you can see, the official version of events is a bit watered down!

    Additionally, there is a very good photo gallery by the Epoch Times. I’m surprised they were able to get these sorts of pictures of the villagers facing lines of soldiers.

    Should we really be trading with this nation? We at least have reason to hesitate continuing our cozy trade relationship with the world’s largest totalitarian government.