Ariel Rusila's Conflicts [Ex-BalkanPerspective]

In my previous article “ Iran-Twitter-Revolution ” I had some doubts that revolution is coming soon concluding however that something historic is afoot in Iran today. I order to understand events in today’s Iran I think they should be put in wider context of Iran’s history and ruling system. In this article I try to do so before jumping to analyze of recent elections which from my point of view are the key element while estimating the basic conditions for revolution, coup d’état, power swift or some – even historic – change in Iran’s political climate. History of democracy in Iran Iran is a country with one of the oldest democratic systems in the Middle East. In order to understand the background to the demands of the demonstrators it is necessary to look briefly at the major developments in Iran prior to and since the Islamic revolution. My source which I quote here is Dr. Farhang Jahanpour, Oxford and his article “ Iran’s Suppreme Leader silences the opposition ”. Over one hu...

“ Blogactiv.eu ” – article , posted by “ Challenge for Europe ” on 19 th June 2009 highlights the importance of EU’s Community Initiatives as most successful popular direct contacts between the EU institutions and the citizens in their local communities. “The EU mobilized European citizens in getting together, discovering sustainable practices elsewhere, while getting involved in decision-making at home. It opened doors to similar initiatives in Member states and accession countries and made Europe tangible.” The article also makes proposal that EU should again substantially invest into local initiatives and bottom-up support in order to bring Europe closer to its people. I full agree with initiative made by " Challenge for Europe ". I personally have been enjoying about the real progress on the ground while managing many international "bottom up" projects financed by EU. I also agree that real effect can best be achieved through participatory planning method...

A common utterance “money talks” is sometimes used also related to elections. One could suppose that if voting matters the parties or candidates are investing more to win elections. Normal marketing is sometimes not guaranteeing enough votes so in many societies more crude means are used such as election fraud/rigging, non-transparent and illegal political campaign and party financing. A simple vote buying maybe tells most about importance of elections. I wonder if there exists in any EU member state a barometer showing current price level of votes in EP elections, not only the official campaign costs but the unofficial price per vote. Buying a polling station or enough of them could be one possibility which from my opinion is complicated to implement in EP elections. I was quite surprised while reading from BNP pages that some party really thinks this to be possible. A quote : All British National Party members and supporters have been urged to be on the lookout for polling s...