Freedom in the World 2008

As regular visitors to my blog would know, every year, I provide an updated version of "Freedom in the World", by Freedom House, an organization that tracks political and civil freedom in countries around the world and ranks them as: Free, Partly Free, or Not Free. This year, they took their own time posting the map on their website, as a result of which this post, which should have come about in January is more than half a year late. Nevertheless, as they say, better late than never. So here we go.

The state of freedom in the world in the year 2007 was as follows:


Here's the link to my blog post detailing freedom in the world in the year 2006 for comparison. So what's worth noting?

1) As a matter of pride, I always like to point out the bright green jewel that is India in southern Asia, contrasted as usual with crimson red China to the northeast.

Around India:

2) Thailand has once again moved to "Partly Free" status as the one-year old military regime once again ceded power to a civilian, popularly-elected government after its 2006 coup d'etat. Lingering concerns exist about the degree of manipulation of the electoral machinery undertaking by the military regime, the Council for National Security, in the run-up to the democratic elections, which nonetheless brought about a reinstatement of exiled former-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's followers to the government.

At the time of the 2006 coup, I spoke out strongly against the actions of the military regime, in multiple blog posts, arguing that however corrupt Thaksin was alleged to be by his urban elite detractors, the proper way to change the government is through the ballot box, not the tank. It seems that the people of Thailand, especially the rural poor who formed the backbone of Thaksin's vote-bank, were able to teach both the military and its urban elite supporters a strong lesson.

Elsewhere:

3) Tiny Togo, sandwiched between Benin and Ghana in West Africa, saw its status improve from Not Free to Partly Free, "due to the success of the 2007 legislative elections, including the ability of Togo’s opposition parties to demonstrate and campaign without interference." More power to the Togans!

Besides these two status changes, Freedom House generally recorded a poor year for freedom in the world in the year 2007, with substantial declines in freedom in numerous countries such as Russia (with its sham of a presidential election), Georgia (where the ruling party resorted to a state of emergency), Pakistan (where Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by Islamic extremists in the run-up to the elections - which were postponed as a result), and Kenya (with massive bloodletting and intertribal mayhem after elections where the ruling party was widely seen to have rigged the results in its favor).

Some encouraging signs:

1) Almost half of the people living in the world are free (3.0282 billion or 45.85%) and almost two-thirds of the world's citizens are either free or partly free (4.2135 billion or 63.79%).

• India and China are again worth noting here. India is home to more than a third of the world's free people (~1.2 billion out of the total ~3 billion free citizens). Meanwhile, China is ignominously home to more than half of the "Not Free" citizens of the world (~1.3 billion out of the total of ~2.4 billion "Not Free" people).

2) The global trend has been unmistakably positive. In 2007, there were 90 free countries in the countries, as opposed to 81 in 1997 and, prior to the fall of the iron curtain, 58 and 43 in 1987 and 1977 respectively.

Other points worth noting:

1) As in 2006, the freest continent in 2007 was undoubtedly Europe, where 33 of the 42 countries (78.57 %) were free. The exceptions were:

• Russia - Where a sham election saw the baton pass from Vladimir Putin to Dmitry Medvedev without a real alternative.
• Belarus - A dictatorship that has the open backing and support of the Kremlin.
• Moldova (Partly Free)
• Turkey (Partly Free) - Where the military, & its hard-line secularist elite backers, continue to hold much power, often overturning the measures of the duly-elected government.
• Macedonia (Partly Free)
• Albania (Partly Free)
• Montenegro (Partly Free)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina (Partly Free)
• Vatican City (Not Free) - A theocracy

Europe was closely followed by North America, where 18 of the 23 countries (78.26%) were free. The exceptions in North America were:

• Cuba
• Haiti (Partly Free)
• Guatemala (Partly Free)
• Honduras (Partly Free)
• Nicaragua (Partly Free)

2) The most dismal continents for freedom were once again Asia and Africa. In Asia, oppression stretched in an unbroken chain from Jeddah in the southwest to Pyongyang in the northeast and Baku in the northwest to Ho Chi Minh City in the southeast.

In Africa, oppression stretched in an unbroken chain from Luanda in the south to Cairo in the north and from Laâyoune in the west to Asmara in the east.