What a horribly fair world we live in. Castro is retiring, Pakistan is successfully holding democratic elections and China's top think tank demands a push towards freedom.
In a move that makes me think he may already actually be dead, Cubas revolutionary "hero", Fidel Castro has announced he will not "aspire to nor will I accept the position of president of the council of state and commander-in-chief". The man who had the world (maybe just America) by it's balls, who outlasted even the expectations of his supporters, has called it quits. By the time I reached consciousness, Castro had become a caricature of himself. A man in comical fatigues delivering 4 hour oratorys on the evils of the western world, while people spoke about how "great" he used to be. A man who was starving his country because he had been such a prick that the US refused to relax their trade embargos, many many years after he stopped being a threat. A charismatic man, who inspired a new generation of South American leaders with big mouths and a swagger in their step, like Hugo Chavez, early reports are that Castro will be spending his retirement tending to his flower bed and torturing political prisoners, claiming it's important to remain active in old age. Vive la revolución!
President Pervez Musharraf, formerly General Pervez Musharraf, has been dealt a serious political blow, with his allies in government being severely whipped in elections in Pakistan. With an outcome that will surely lead to impeachment, I bet he's regretting dropping the pretence that he is a fair and popular leader and actually trying to prove it.
Finally, China's top think tank has released a report calling for "systematic liberalisation, including greater media and religious freedom in the next 12 years" as part of a move towards becoming a "modern civil society. In what could be a canny piece of propaganda, the think tank; which is based at the academy for training all top officials of the communist party, has declared that the public is fed up with the corruption, human rights violations and unfair distribution of wealth. If they're so fed up with it, how come we never hear them complaining? Considering that this is happening in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics and with more international scrutiny on China as a world player than possibly ever before, this may all be a clever wind up from those evil commies.
A special mention to Angelita Pires, who tried to be Timor-Lestes "Bond girl" and got busted. It's not easy playing both sides of the fence.