So the new President of the Maldives seems like a cool guy to me. Maybe a little bit TOO much "for the people/anti-establishment" then I'm used to seeing in heads of state, but you have to hand it to the man, he really knows how to keep a budget! The BBC has the full article here, but here's the bare facts for those of you on the go:
* The new President Mohamed Nasheed used to be a political activist, and was actually sentenced to prison 20 years ago by the very man he beat out in the election. (Yes, his predecessor was in power for 30 years.)
* The private yacht of the president is going to be auctioned off, possibly on Ebay.
* As for the President's private island: But the new administration wants to open everything up. There's already talk of turning Arah into a marine research facility or even a writer's retreat.
* He isn't staying in the Presidential palace as he finds it "too big", so there are suggestions of turning it into a museum or the country's first university!
* And best of all: "When we started this administration, the presidency was costing more than $150m (£105m) a year," he said. "This is something we simply can't afford. We've brought it down to $4m." "
Now there's some inspiration for Obama on running to help out the US economy!
Yeah I know, it's wishful thinking, but a girl can dream right? Oh yeah, did I mention that they're thinking of turning the president's private island into a writer's retreat? Sweet...
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
So much for "transparency"
This just in from Politico:
Obama's promise of openness and transpency from the White House is already being called into question as Obama did all this:
*shut down his predecessor’s system for reviewing regulations
*realigned and expanded two key White House policymaking bodies
*extended economic sanctions against parties to the conflict in the African nation of Cote D’Ivoire.
without the White House Press Corps ever mentioning it. Politico explains that this was because
When Politico inquired about some documents that were missing from the White House website, spokesman Ben LaBolt apparently said that “It was a simple oversight,”.
I'm not saying that the things Obama did that were never released to the Press were bad, or shady, I just feel that a man who ran his campaign on a promise of openness needs to be extremely careful about keeping that promise. I don't think people would really make a big deal out of this if he hadn't made so many promises. He set himself up for this criticism, though I'm glad there is this criticism, as it should keep the administration in check and constantly on their toes.
Obama's promise of openness and transpency from the White House is already being called into question as Obama did all this:
*shut down his predecessor’s system for reviewing regulations
*realigned and expanded two key White House policymaking bodies
*extended economic sanctions against parties to the conflict in the African nation of Cote D’Ivoire.
without the White House Press Corps ever mentioning it. Politico explains that this was because
...they were never announced by the White House Press Office and were never placed on the White House web site.
When Politico inquired about some documents that were missing from the White House website, spokesman Ben LaBolt apparently said that “It was a simple oversight,”.
I'm not saying that the things Obama did that were never released to the Press were bad, or shady, I just feel that a man who ran his campaign on a promise of openness needs to be extremely careful about keeping that promise. I don't think people would really make a big deal out of this if he hadn't made so many promises. He set himself up for this criticism, though I'm glad there is this criticism, as it should keep the administration in check and constantly on their toes.
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