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The Renaissance of GM (from the Star)
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

The new General Motors arose on Friday as lawyers finished an all-night paperwork session transferring the automaker's good assets to a brand-new company controlled by the U.S. government.

The massive transfer of factories, money and intellectual property was completed about 6:30 a.m., according to a person briefed on the situation, clearing the way for a smaller and faster company better equipped to compete in the brutally tough global automotive market.

The person, who asked to remain anonymous because the deal wasn't announced officially, said the signing meant the new GM had emerged from bankruptcy.

One bankruptcy expert called GM's 40-day case the fastest ever for a company of its size.

GM's warp-speed emergence from bankruptcy is expected to be announced by CEO Fritz Henderson and new Chairman Edward Whitacre Jr. at a 9 a.m. news conference at the company's Detroit headquarters.

Henderson is expected to announce details of the plan to make new GM profitable again. The troubled automaker has lost more than $80 billion in the past four years.

Once the world's largest and most powerful automaker, new GM is now cleansed of massive debt and burdensome contracts that would have sunk it without federal loans. Spurred on by the Obama administration's support, the bankruptcy process was two day's faster than crosstown rival Chrysler Group LLC's 42-day timeframe.

July 10, 2009 | 3:42 PM Comments  0 comments

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Honduran Coup D’état Timeline (keep updating)
Related to country: Honduras

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Honduran Coup D’état Timeline

June 28, 2009: The coup d’état started. Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was ousted by the military. He was exiled to Costa Rica, was accused of ignoring the court’s ruling and holding a referendum to change the Constitution

June 29, 2009: Zelaya met the Bolivia President Evo Morales, ousted Honduras President Manuel Zelaya, Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez and Ecuador President Rafael Correa in Managua, Nicaragua. They hugged each other as if they were brothers.

June. 30, 2009: Manuel Zelaya gained a lot of international supports. The UN voted to demand Zelaya’s immediate restoration.

July 1, 2009: The US President Barack Obama, along with OAS, backed up ousted President Zelaya. Obama said that the removal of the democratic president in Honduras was unconstitutional. The OAS was called in session in Washington; it threatened to suspend Honduras’s membership unless restoring Zelaya.

July 2, 2009: The supporters of President Manuel Zelaya protested in front of the National Congress in Tegucigalpa. Soon violence was erupted. The police threw tear gas at the throng.

July 3, 2009: The Supreme Court of Honduras rejected the ultimatum for Zelaya’s restoration. The interim government of Honduras had announced that the country has decided to quit the OAS (Organization of American States) on Friday.

July 4, 2009: President Zelaya decided to return tomorrow despite the danger and warning that he could be arrested.

July 5, 2009: Despite Zelaya’s plan to return Honduras today, the police blocked him from entering Tegucigalpa. The plane hovered over the country, and then flew back to El Salvador

July 6, 2009: Zelaya was very unhappy. He condemned the military that blocked him from entering the country.

July 7, 2009: President Zelaya was scheduled to meet Clinton, the Secretary of States of the US. Obama again boosted him and backed him up, saying that the US would “respect the universal principle that people should choose their own leaders, whether they are leaders we agree with or not.”

July 8, 2009: The Honduran interim government gave the sign of flexibility about the possible return of Manuel Zelaya.

July 10, 2009: The Costa Rican President Oscar Arias held a clsed-door meetings with both Manueal Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti. Ousted Zelaya appeared first, and left Arias' home in Cota Rica's capital shortly before Roberto Micheletti showed up

July 23, 2009: Manuel Zelaya announced that he is going back to Honduras on Saturday. The interim government that sent Manuel Zelaya into exile vows to arrest the president if he sets foot in Honduras

July 25, 2009: Manuel Zelaya set up a camp along the border of Honduras. He said he is going to settle there until the coup ended.

July 7, 2009 | 2:21 PM Comments  0 comments



Honduran coup--an immoral protest
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

June 28, 2009 was the day that sent Honduras into turmoil; it was the day that the Honduran military broke its own established democracy and overthrew its democratic leader, Manuel Zelaya, who was exiled into Costa Rica. The pretext that his opponents hold is that Zelaya tried to ignore the court’s ruling and change the constitution through a referendum.
What Micheletti tries to say here is that Zelaya is against the ruling of the Supreme Court by trying to hold a referendum to change the constitution about the presidency, and therefore he is against law. However, what a country mostly needs is not only law, but also democracy. Without democracy, law can only be a set of restrictions placed on the people. Manuel Zelaya, a democratically elected leader, represents people’s will in Honduras. Someone may say that that Manuel Zelaya wanting to change the Constitution is because of his despicable desire to stay longer on his office. In other words, he only cares about his own political power despite the court’s ruling. However, Zelaya was holding a referendum, which means people’s will. It doesn’t matter what his intention is, as long as the people support him. If Zelaya wants to hold onto his power longer than one term and most importantly, his people want him to stay longer, then why not? Laws are made by people, and so they can be and should be changed according to the will of the majority of people. That’s what majority rule means. That’s what democracy means. That’s what popular sovereignty means—the idea that governments serve for the people and only act out according to the people’s will.
Micheletti and his allies also blamed Zelaya’s socialist policies in which Zelaya gained popularity by giving handouts to the poor. It is incontrovertible that his polices to redistribute the wealth are socialistic or leftist. But so what? There is nothing wrong with being socialist. What do you want to say about being socialist? It may end up in Communist dictatorship like Czechoslovakia and Poland used to be? It may cause violence and result in another “Tiananmen Square Massacre”? Come on, don’t be so stereotypical. Socialism doesn’t always equal Communism or dictatorship. Countries like Czechoslovakia, Poland, and China were using wrong socialistic policies at wrong time. Nevertheless, when a country has a widening gap between rich and poor, socialism is needed and should be used.
“Honduras is one of the poorest and least developed countries in Latin America. Industrial development has been limited, and historically the economy has been dependent on exports of coffee and bananas. The currency has been undergoing a steady and controlled devaluation of roughly 6% per year for the last several years.” In this situation, wealth needs to be redistributed among people, the poor has to get their voice heard, and the country should be led by a leader who can stand on the side of the poor since there are more poor than rich. And Manuel Zelaya is the one who can bring them hope and democracy.
After all, coup d’états are detrimental and should be by all means avoided because it can cause turmoil, uprising, and even violence. A democratic country should try to solve problems democratically. And if the government is still republic, they should let Manuel Zelaya return to his office, or at least back to his own country.


July 6, 2009 | 3:16 PM Comments  0 comments





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