Rio de Impeachment! It has happened! The current President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff is going to be impeached! The Professor made this impeachment podcast for you before the final vote was even tallied, but it has since come to pass, and what was passed was the start of the full-on impeachment of Brazil’s first female President, which will leave the country in political turmoil just before they host the summer Olympics this year! This political turmoil adds to the economic turmoil, the corruption turmoil, and the overall angst turmoil that is seeing South America’s largest country and economy falling apart! The Professor explains why, and looks at the broader meaning of this for Latin America!
Happy New Year’s Eve! The Professor takes some time on the brink of 2012 to look back at what happened to world leaders from around the globe in 2011. It was a tough year to be in charge this year, as evidenced by the demise of dictators, the overthrow of or attacks on authoritarian regimes, plagues of personal health, and even the decline in support of significant democratic leaders all over the planet. Sometimes “it’s good to be da’ king!”....but not in 2011 it wasn’t!!!!
The Professor gives his take on a few international stories he thinks are of much greater significance this week than the droll domestic drivel that is forced upon the American public on a daily basis. This week:
...Mexican billionaire loses $8 billion
...major drought in Eastern Africa
...Ukrainian politician Yulia Tymoshenko arrested
...Hugo Chavez back in Cuba for chemo…which may mark the end of his significance in Latin American affairs?
Keywords: Carlos Slim. Mexico, Latin America, stock market, Vegas, drought, eastern Africa, Somalia, Ukraine, Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil
?Ay, caramba! Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa was just given an in-public full-on smack-down by some pissed off policemen?and it was feared the entire country would collapse into chaos! Who is heck is this Correa, what happened to him, and what in the living hell would have caused Ecuador?s police force to go postal on their own President? The Avenger did a quick trip to Quito to unravel this mess, and even found some positive repercussions to this presidential pummeling?.namely: democracy triumphed!
Synopsis: On April 12th and 13th, US President Barack Obama hosted the first-ever ‘Nuclear Security Summit’ which was attended by leaders from 47 states plus a handful of international organizations. This summit mostly focused on getting a handle on loose nuclear material around the world in order to eliminate the threat of possible ‘nuclear terrorism.’ However, in the bigger picture this move is just a warm-up to a revamping of the all important NPT, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which is coming up soon. In Part 2 of this plaidcast, the Avenger does a roll call of important cats at the convention (as well as those not invited), and what the hell they actually agreed on to limit those loose nukes.
Keywords: US, Obama, Russia, Medvedev, Sarkozy, Hu, Gordon Brown, P5, P5 +1, Merkel, Germany, Singh, India, Netanyahu, Israel, Calderon, Lula, Harper, Kirchner, Zuma, Erdogan, Yakunovich, Hatoyama, Lee Myung-Bak, Ban Ki Moon, UN, Yukio Amano, IAEA, Iran, North Korea
Are you a college professor teaching World Regions or Global Political classes? Pick up the cutting edge, most entertainly educating textbook currently on the market.
