The UN should drive a hard bargain in exchange for bailing out the US

Simon Tisdall
The Guardian

When George Bush addressed the UN general assembly in September last year, his message was blunt. The UN must either support his campaign against Iraq or be doomed to irrelevance. In the event, most countries refused to back him and, ignoring the UN, Bush plunged into war. Tomorrow, when Bush returns to the general assembly, his tone is expected to be somewhat less brusque.
Although Bush is loath to admit it, the US badly needs international assistance, troops and money to prevent its Iraq occupation becoming an inescapable quagmire. In other words, the UN has turned out to be anything but “irrelevant". And through officials like Colin Powell, Bush the heedless unilateralist is now emphasising consultation and an agreed, multilateral approach. (more…)

By Julio Godoy

PARIS, Sep (IPS) - The return of the United States to UNESCO as a full
member is both good and bad news, diplomats and commentators say.

The U.S. return was led by Laura Bush, wife of President George Bush at the
opening session of the 32nd general assembly of UNESCO (United Nations
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation) Monday. (more…)

Seumas Milne
The Guardian

Is this what they mean by freedom ?” asked Zaidan Khalaf Mohammed on Tuesday after the US 82nd Airborne Division had killed his brother and two other family members in Sichir, central Iraq, in an air and ground assault on their one-storey home. The Americans had come, he said, “like terrorists", while US forces claimed they had only attacked when they came under fire. No evidence was offered and none found.
These killings are after all merely the latest in a string of bloody “mistakes” by US occupation forces, including the repeated shooting of demonstrators, murderous attacks on carloads of civilians at roadblocks and this month’s massacre of members of the US-controlled Iraqi police force. In most countries, any of these incidents would have provoked a national or even an international outcry. But in occupied Iraq, US officials feel under no pressure to offer more than the most desultory explanation for the destruction of expendable Iraqi lives. (more…)

By Tim Shorrock

WASHINGTON, Sep (IPS) - The furore in Washington over the rapid
expansion of Chinese exports and allegations that China’s yuan is
undervalued masks a growing convergence between the United States and China
in diplomatic affairs, scholars and Asian experts say.

Last week, two Washington interest groups usually at polar opposites on
political issues - the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the
American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organisations
(AFL-CIO) - tentatively agreed to join forces on a complaint that China has
manipulated its currency to gain an unfair advantage in its trade with the
United States. (more…)

Days of judgment

Leader
Friday September 26, 2003
The Guardian

Every so often comes an inquiry or an account that shapes what a whole society knows about an entire subject: examples range from Edwin Chadwick’s research on Victorian factory conditions to Alfred Kinsey’s work on human sexuality and the BBC’s fly-on-the-wall documentary series on the Royal Opera - each a definitive reference point in its way and time. In a very different field, the Hutton inquiry has sometimes offered that level of revelation. It lasted 24 days and laid bare the highest reaches of our government as never before. Lord Hutton opened the door on processes from which the public has always been excluded. We met individuals and heard from office holders whose voices are rarely - and in some cases never before - heard. The hearings have brought us closer to the realities of Whitehall decision making, and to the relations between the great individuals and institutions of state than we shall come again.
The end of the inquiry yesterday - there will be one more session of evidence next week due to the earlier unavailability of a witness - nevertheless raises the question of whether it has done the job that needed to be done. Our view is that it has not. The Iraq war was an event which should have been reviewed as a whole in the public interest - as the Liberal Democrats have continued to insist. The Falklands war, a conflict which largely united the nation, was reviewed by a committee of privy councillors in that way. How much more important that the Iraq war, which divided us, should have been dispassionately assessed too. We still need an ad hoc judicial inquiry into the decision to go to war. (more…)

By Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS, Sep (IPS) - When the World Trade Organisation (WTO) met in Mexico recently, a group of developing countries refused to be taken for granted by the rich industrialised nations that control the body, sending a message to the elite that they must change their way of doing business.

The same message was heard this week in the United Nations General Assembly, where speaker after speaker from the developing world pressed for speedy reforms of the world body, especially its most powerful organ – the Security Council. (more…)

By Jimmy Carter

Last week we observed the 25th anniversary of the Camp David Accords, which spelled out the basic relationships between Israel and its neighbors and led within a few months to a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. Participants in the recent event included nine of the 11 members of the U.S. negotiating team and key advisers to Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

It was intriguing to review the issues we faced then, after four major wars in the previous 25 years, and to assess how current problems have evolved. All of us have retained a deep interest in the peace process and hopes of success. (more…)

Commentary - By Praful Bidwai

NEW DELHI, Sep (IPS) - South Asian nuclear rivals India and Pakistan
have again crossed swords and revived their barely-suppressed mutual
hostility through verbal duels between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
and President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

The only difference is that, this time around, the duelling venue is the
United Nations in New York and events on the sidelines of the General
Assembly session, which both leaders have addressed in recent days. (more…)

3rd Prepcom for UN Summit on Information Society: Human rights concerns at the forefront
Sally Burch

ALAI, Geneva, September 17, 2003.

Stronger recognition and guarantees for Human Rights, and particularly communication rights, are one of the central concerns of civil society organizations at the 3rd Preparatory Committee (Prepcom) for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), taking place in Geneva from September 15 to 26.

“We are asking states to clearly reaffirm their commitment to building a society based on human rights and human dignity", stated a civil society representative to the government delegates who are discussing the Declaration and Action Plan to be adopted at the first phase of the Summit, planned for December in Geneva. They are asking governments to affirm in the very first paragraph of the Declaration that they are determined to meet the challenge “to harness the potential of the information and communication society to ensure that human needs are met and that all human rights are realized.” (more…)

By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Sep 25 (IPS) - The barring of two major Arab satellite TV stations from Iraqi government ministries and press events held by the country’s governing council is an ominous sign for the future of the media in the nation, warn global press freedom groups.

New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) this week said it was “deeply troubled” by the decision of the council, which makes recommendations to the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). (more…)

By Kate Kelland

LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Forget Latin lovers – horny Hungarians are now the most active between the sheets, leading a charge of eastern Europeans in the global sex charts.
Condom maker Durex’s annual global sex survey published on Tuesday showed that Hungarian lovers enjoy sex 152 times a year. The French – fiercely proud of their sexual prowess – only manage 144 performances a year.
The Italians and Spanish lag even further with scores of 119 and 123 times a year, while Americans make love an average of 118 times a year, Germans 120 and Australians 125.
“Bedtime in Budapest is the most passionate of all,” Durex said in its survey.
Eastern Europe performed well, with Bulgaria, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro all showing above average annual ratings. (more…)

Analysis - By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Sep (IPS) - Growing calls by prominent members of Washington’s handpicked Governing Council in Iraq for the United States to more quickly transfer real power from U.S. occupation authorities are adding to the embarrassment of the Bush administration.

But they also reflect real fears by pro-U.S. Iraqis that Washington’s occupation of their country represents not only a serious liability to their own political futures in Iraq, but is also the focus of a mounting anger among ordinary Iraqi civilians that apparently is feeding resistance to the occupation. (more…)

By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Sep (IPS) - Spurred by the wars on drugs and terrorism, U.S. military aid to Latin America has more than tripled over the last five years, according to a report released here Monday by three foreign policy groups.

And even as Washington intensified its training of military and security forces in Central and Southeast Asia and the Middle East as part of its ‘’war on terrorism'’, Latin America soldiers and police still received the lion’s share of U.S. training – 13,000 of the 34,000 personnel instructed worldwide came from that region.

Colombia accounted for one-half of the Latin American total in 2002. (more…)

Devinder Sharma

Amidst a lot of drama, the WTO Cancun Ministerial has failed. The underdogs of economic development - the African block - have bailed out the developing world from being economically robbed. And, once again, the countries which have continuously been painted to be in the ‘Dark Age’ have stood up as a solid block to brighten the future of billions of toiling masses in the majority world.

The walkout by the smaller African countries, led by Kenya, and followed by some Caribbean nations on the contentious Singapore issues - the four new issues of investment, competition policy, government procurement and facilitation - which the United States, European Union and Japan were pushing in aggressively, has actually failed the Cancun Ministerial. The Singapore issues were aimed at simplifying cross-border traffic and increase competition and market access for multinationals. The walkout by the Africans, the second time in the history of the WTO, clearly demonstrates that there is more to the WTO than merely playing to media gallery. (more…)

Atilio Boron

Brazil is facing a critical situation in its history: a party from the left has come to government with a widespread popular legitimacy, crystallising the hopes of the large national majority which yearns for a radical change to the policies implemented in recent years. These policies have resulted in deep economic depression, the escalation of foreign dependency and the impoverishment and social exclusion of large sectors of Brazilian society. In spite of the enormous expectations Lula raised, not only in Brazil but also in the whole of Latin America, these changes have still not been produced. On the contrary, what has been seen is an increasing implementation of the orientation imposed by previous governments, even exaggerating some of the most characteristic features, such as the policy of high interest rates. The old policies are continuing with renewed gusto, while the new ones, like “zero hunger", still have not been introduced. In his electoral campaign Lula insisted that hope must conquer fear. Unfortunately, until now at least, the absurd fear of possible reprisals in the market has conquered hope, incarnated in the figure of the working-class President. (more…)

By Peyman Pejman

DUBAI, Sep (IPS) - Afghan officials say they need three times as much as
previously estimated to rebuild their country in the coming years, but
experts and analysts here point out that the world is unlikely to commit
more funds unless the worsening security situation there improves.

The officials, attending the joint session of the board of governors of
the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) here, said new
estimates for the reconstruction of Afghanistan call for 30 billion U.S.
dollars – three times the amount estimated at the donors’ conference in
Tokyo last year. (more…)

by Rodolfo F. Acuña

As war drags on, overzealous military recruiters are turning to
Latinos for long-term solutions to the Pentagon’s problems.

A recent Pew study shows that Latinos are underrepresented in the
military when compared with their numbers in the civilian workforce,
yet they are overrepresented in combat units, composing 9.49 percent
of the enlisted personnel but 17.74 percent of those directly
handling guns. (more…)

By Julio Godoy

PARIS, Sep (IPS) - The world will not meet the Millennium Development
Goals by 2015 without a dramatic improvement to services, a senior World Bank
official says.

“The world as a unit will probably halve the proportion of people living on less
than one dollar per day due to the remarkable economic growth of India and the
People’s Republic of China,” Shantayanan Devarajan, chief economist behind
the World Bank’s Human Development Report released Sunday told IPS in an
interview in Paris. “But in other large parts of the world, as in Africa, and in
several Latin American and Asian countries, this goal will hardly be reached.” (more…)

By James Hall

SOUTHERN AFRICA, Sept 20 (IPS) - Seeking to create home-grown business
people, but lacking in the millions of dollars and years of experience
needed to create large companies, African countries have sought to empower
small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as a way to achieve an indigenous
commercial class that can “take back the African economy.”

But the ambition depends on capitalisation, which has proved a challenge
to obtain. (more…)

John Bunzl, Director of the International Simultaneous Policy Organisation
(ISPO), comments on Naomi Klein’s article, Bush to NGOs: Watch Your Mouths,
appearing in the Global and Mail, June 20th 2003
(http://www.globeandmail.com).

Bush to NGOs: Watch your mouths
by Naomi Klein

The Bush administration has found its next target for pre-emptive war, but
it’s not Iran, Syria or North Korea – not yet, anyway.

Before launching any new foreign adventures, the Bush gang has some
homeland housekeeping to take care of: It is going to sweep up those pesky
non-governmental organizations that are helping to turn world opinion
against U.S. bombs and brands. (more…)

Analysis - By Ferry Biedermann

JERUSALEM, Sep (IPS) - Once again Israeli and international media are
reporting that the U.S. army is looking at the example of the West Bank and the
Gaza strip to learn from the Israelis how to run its occupation of Iraq.

Now it is a software programme that supposedly teaches soldiers what to
expect. Several months ago there was talk of U.S. officers attending courses in
Israel.

The first thing that comes to mind is that the United States is pretty desperate if
it wants to take a leaf out of Israel’s occupation techniques. Ethical or moral
implications aside, since the mid-80’s the Israeli occupation has not been
terribly successful either by military or political standards. (more…)

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Sep (IPS) - The international community is so obsessed with its fight against global terrorism that it continues to neglect ongoing humanitarian crises in Africa and Asia, a leading aid organisation complained Tuesday.

In the first three months of the U.N.’s 2003 Iraq appeal, donors mobilised nearly two billion dollars, or 74 dollars per person in need, said Oxfam America in a report relapsed Tuesday.

In comparison, the Democratic Republic of Congo has received only 17 dollars, and the appeal for Indonesia is funded to less than seven dollars per person, added the report. (more…)

Roger Burbach

On the morning of September 11 I watched aircraft flying overhead. Minutes later I heard explosive sounds and saw fireballs of smoke fill the sky. As a result of these attacks thousands died, including two good friends of mine.

I am not writing about September 11 2001 in New York City. On that date I was thousands of miles away in Berkeley, California. I am writing about another September 11, equally horrible, that occurred in 1973 when I was living in Santiago, Chile. On that date I indeed saw planes flying overhead. They were warplanes and their target was the presidential palace in Santiago. Remarkably, these two September 11’s are related in a number of ways, and both dates help us understand why George W. Bush has lead the United States into a quagmire in Iraq. (more…)

After Two Years

Stephen Shalom

Kenneth Adelman, a former Reagan administration official and close associate of the ruling neoconservatives, has offered his advice to the Bush administration for securing its re-election. “We should not try to convince people that things are getting better,” he said. “Rather, we should convince people that ours is the age of terrorism."[1]

The fact that upgradings of the color-coded terror alert frequently seem to coincide with some scandal or bad news that the Bush administration would like to keep off the front page, makes us all cynical about the terrorism threat. But manipulation of terror warnings should not obscure the very real dangers that terrorism poses. (more…)

By Nabil Sultan

SANA’A, Sep (IPS) û A leading Muslim scholar in Yemen has issued a
controversial fatwa to create “married friendship” among Muslims living in the
West.

The fatwa in effect gives young Muslims living in Europe and the United States
the option of a status between boyfriend and girlfriend, and living under the
same roof as a married couple. (more…)

Dafne Sabanes Plou

They looked old, some had difficultly in walking, others still with the demeanour recognisable from the hard years, although the expression was distinct, one of worry, of tiredness, maybe even shame. This is how several of the 45 military officers accused of serious violations of human rights during the dictatorship that stained Argentina with blood between 1976 and 1983 passed before the television cameras which recorded their arrest. When Federal Judge Canicoba Corral decided to grant Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón’s request to extradite 45 military officers accused of being implicated in the disappearance of Spanish citizens in Argentina, past controversy was revived and wounds that have never healed were re-opened. (more…)

By Miriam Kagan

WASHINGTON, Sep (IPS) - More than one-tenth of the world’s potential economic production is lost because of violence, said a public health expert at the release Monday of a United Nations report on violence and health.

Violence is going to be a leading health problem in the 21st century,” added Dr. Mirta Roses Periago, director of the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO), who told a media briefing that 10-14 percent of world GDP is consumed by destruction caused by violence and protecting people and goods from violence.

Information sharing and prevention will be key components in reducing violence around the world, Periago added at a panel discussion that accompanied the U.S. launch of the World Health Organisation’s ‘World Report on Violence and Health’. (more…)

By Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 15 (IPS) - The weight of Brazil’s economic recession and
high unemployment during the first eight months of the Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva administration has not hurt the president’s popularity.

Nor has it diminished the hopes that the leftist candidate’s electoral
victory awakened among the Brazilian people in October 2002.

Lula’s charismatic leadership style to a great extent explains the continued
confidence he enjoys, in an economic context that would be disastrous for
just about anyone else in his place, say experts. (more…)

Commentary - Mushahid Hussain

ULAN BATOR, Sep (IPS) - History is testimony to the fact that like the
mortality of individuals, the power of empires and nations is fleeting. A
reading of history is replete with the rise and fall of powers, with
yesterday’s powerful becoming today’s weak.

At the beginning of the 20the century, the British Empire was
all-powerful while China was a weak, divided and occupied country whose
biggest city - Shanghai - was under the control of European ’sectors’,
often with the sign ‘Chinese and dogs not allowed’. (more…)

NAT J. COLLETTA

Abstract:

The paper first analyzes the emerging global human security paradigm and key development variables that impact on human security, poverty, and conflict, e.g., economic growth, income, asset and service distribution, governance, institutional capacity, ethnicity, and social cohesion. It then assesses development as practiced by the International Finance Institutions (IFIs) and the impact on global human security. The analysis represent a clarion call to the IFIs to shift the balance from first generation state-centric economic and financial policy reforms to second-generation global policies addressing governance (including security), environmental resource management, and social issues. Implicit is the need to shift from a limited rights perspective focusing on economic and social-cultural rights to one that includes civil and political rights. The paper argues that the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), collectively known as the Bretton Woods institutions, must give increased priority to issues of social inclusion, human rights and human security as means of reducing poverty, preventing conflict, and achieving sustainable development. The paper makes specific policy and operational recommendations, including a reassessment of the Bretton Woods Articles of Agreement, the treatment of security as a public good, the expansion of human security analysis as a standard part of the IFIs’ economic and poverty work, and the a strong emphasis on justice and human rights as integral parts of sustainable development. (more…)

Analysis - By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Sep 12 (IPS) - Faced with the rising costs and complications of occupying Iraq, the hard-line coalition around U.S. President George W. Bush that led the drive to war with Iraq appears to be suffering serious internal strains.

On the one hand, neo-conservatives, who were the most optimistic about post-war Iraq before the U.S.-led invasion, are insisting that Washington cannot afford either to pull out or to surrender the slightest control over the occupation to the United Nations or anyone else.

To a rising chorus of calls by Democrats for Washington to invite the world body to at least take over political control of the transition to Iraqi rule in exchange for a commitment of money and peacekeepers, the neo-cons are urging the administration to send more U.S. troops instead. (more…)

Economic policies are not neutral, but ideological - and populist resistance to them is a rational response

Joseph Stiglitz
The Guardian

Developing countries are often advised (or instructed) to undertake reforms recommended by “experts” who are called “technocrats” and are often backed by the IMF. Opposition to the reforms is usually dismissed as “populist". Countries that fail to undertake these reforms are dismissed as lacking political will, and soon suffer the consequences: higher interest rates when borrowing abroad.

But many of these “technocratic proposals” are more often based on ideology than economic science. Technocrats can, of course, make an electricity plant work better - to produce electricity at as low a price as possible. This is mostly a matter of engineering, not politics. Economic policies are usually not technocratic in this sense. They involve trade-offs: some may lead to higher inflation but lower unemployment; some help investors, others workers. (more…)

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 12 (IPS) - George Soros, most often described as a billionaire philanthropist, once shared some of the political values of U.S. President George W. Bush. For example, they both wanted ‘’regime change'’ in Iraq.

But Soros went further: he has also been gunning for Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, Libya’s Muammar el-Qaddafi, Burma’s Gen Than Shwe and Turkmenistan’s president-for-life Saparmurat Niyazov.

And now Soros has made a full political circle: he wants to see a ‘’regime change'’ in the United States. (more…)

By Ana Agostino, GEO

“If a culture is so weak that it cannot stand up to the modern world it doesn’t deserve to continue for very longâ€?. These words belong to the Assistant Director General of UNESCO, Sir John Daniel, who participated in the launching of UNESCO Literacy Decade at regional level in Asia, Bangkok, on September 8. The ceremony coincided with the official opening of the Mid-Term Review of CONFINTEA V (Conference on Adult Education) that came to an end on September 11th. There were 300 participants from 100 countries, including official delegations as well as NGOs. (more…)

Analysis - By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Sep 11 (IPS) - Two years after President George W. Bush vowed to take the war to the terrorists who carried out the Sep. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the fight between the two main antagonists seems to be a draw.

Both the Bush administration and al-Qaeda – most recently through the public release Wednesday of a video and audiotape allegedly of Osama bin Laden himself – are claiming that each has the other right where he wants him (including in Iraq) and exhorting their friends and allies to fight harder for final victory.

And while few contest the notion that Washington has made substantial progress in dismantling al-Qaeda itself, its broader aim of defeating radical Islam and the ‘’jihadists'’ who draw their inspiration from bin Laden seems as elusive as the Saudi renegade himself. (more…)

Tom Bentley

While Geoff Mulgan makes a strong case that learning has become central to effective governance, Tom Bentley registers a missing dimension in his argument: democracy itself. Learning is not just openness to international experience among policy-makers, or a better chain of command. It is a process that entails deep accountability, transparency, network-based cultures of information at every level ­ one that recasts relationships between governments and people.

Read Anthony Barnett’s introduction to the Mulgan /Bentley exchange, charting the shift in governance under New Labour’s Third Way from ‘we know best’ to ‘we learn best’ (more…)

By the IPS North American Team

MONTREAL, Sep (IPS) - Some were arrested without charge and held in jail despite their rights to freedom. Others were sneered at, spat upon or even attacked.

Various reports have detailed how Arabic and Muslim citizens and residents of the United States and Canada – or people who simply looked like they could be from those groups – were denied their dignity and due process following the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon on Sep. 11, 2001. (more…)

The Iraq debacle is providing a historic opportunity to implement long sought, widely supported reforms needed for the UN - to assure its independence and its vital role in this new century.

The breakdown in the Security Council over the US war on Iraq illustrated its obsolete aspects. An anachronism of the post-World War II era, its permanent five members: the USA, Britain, France, China and Russia with their veto power, finally demonstrated all its dysfunctional aspects.

Most reformers agree on the indispensability of the Security Council - and the shape and direction of needed reforms. The Council needs to dispense finally with the veto - a relic nod to the winners of World War II. Then the permanent seats can be rearranged to accommodate important new world players, including India, Brasil, Japan, South Africa and newly democratic Indonesia with the world’s largest Muslim population. To keep the Council’s size manageable, the seats of Britain and France could be combined into one rotating seat representing the European Union. (more…)

By Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Sep 10 (IPS) - War-weary Afghanistan continues to suffer from
stereotypical images about its political problems, but its biggest woes
have to do with livelihood and economic issues that remain ignored, says a
Japanese doctor who is a winner of the Ramon Magsaysay award, Asia’s
equivalent of the Nobel prize, this year.

Testu Nakamura accepted the award for peace and humanitarian work from
the Manila-based Ramon Magsaysay Foundation this month, the same month that
marks the anniversary of the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that led to
U.S. military campaign that ousted the Taliban in November that year. (more…)

Laura Carlsen | September 3, 2003

Americas Program, Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC) www.americaspolicy.org

“Americas This Week� is a weekly column written by Americas Program analysts. Reader responses and comments to this column and other Americas analysis should be sent to: americas@irc-online.org.

The Bush administration has launched renewed efforts to reach out to Central and South American countries over the past month. The recent visits of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers signal that Latin America is back on the U.S. government’s geopolitical map–but the map is being significantly redrawn. (more…)

Analysis - By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Aug (IPS) - An ad hoc office under U.S. Undersecretary of
Defence for Policy Douglas Feith appears to have acted as the key base for
an informal network of mostly neo-conservative political appointees that
circumvented normal inter-agency channels to lead the push for war against
Iraq.

The Office of Special Plans (OSP), which worked alongside the Near East
and South Asia (NESA) bureau in Feith’s domain, was originally created by
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to
review raw information collected by the official U.S. intelligence agencies
for connections between Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. (more…)

JOHN C. POLANYI

In a letter to his colleagues this summer regarding “possible Canadian participation in the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defence program,” Defence Minister John McCallum sounded a cautious note.

“As you are aware,” he wrote, “the government of Canada is entering discussion with the government of the United States on Canada’s participation in a missile defence system for North America. Although a decision has yet to be taken, Canada is approaching this issue with an open and objective mind.”

If this is the case, as many in this country devoutly hope, there are some questions we should be asking. Top of the list is why the U.S. is in such a hurry to deploy BMD. The answer is known, though perhaps not to the Canadian public. (more…)

Commentary - By Mushahid Hussain

ISLAMABAD, Sep 8 (IPS) - An unintended and probably unexpected consequence
of the U.S. ‘war on terror’, particularly the invasion of Iraq, has been
its role in forcing countries in the Muslim world to reassess their
relationships and review their foreign policy priorities.

As the U.S. juggernaut casts its ominous political and military shadow
over both allies and adversaries, these countries are taking small but
deliberate steps, seeking comfort from each other by burying the hatchet
over an embittered past. (more…)

By Mark Ritchie, President of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, www.tradeobservatory.org

No single issue in preparations for the upcoming WTO meeting in Cancun has generated more heated debate than agriculture. Some farm groups are calling for agricultural trade policy to be removed completely from the WTO, Others are demanding that new trade rules stabilize world prices of major commodities at levels that can sustain family farm operations and enable nations heavily dependent on food imports to guarantee their own food security. (more…)

Analysis - By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Sep (IPS) - Now that U.S. President George W. Bush has decided to ask the United Nations Security Council to rescue Washington’s occupation of Iraq, the question here is, ‘what will be the price’?

Will the administration have to give up significant control over the political and rebuilding process in Iraq in order to get what it wants: a major infusion of foreign troops and international economic aid?

Or will it be able to continue running the show, as implicitly suggested by the draft resolution that Washington began circulating to Council members this week? (more…)

By Mark Bourrie

OTTAWA, Sep (IPS) - As Internet use takes hold in the Canadian Arctic, the new media is being seen both as a saviour and a threat.

The technology is being used to sell Inuit art, to carry e-mail, local news, distance education courses, and government services. In the high Arctic, its use is somewhat limited because of the lack of broadband capability.

In the near-north – isolated parts of Canada that are accessible only by airplane but are within range of satellites – broadband Internet is letting communities hook up to medical services in the south and to host mirror sites for Inuit commercial ventures. (more…)

by Joseph E. Stiglitz *

Developing countries are often advised (or instructed) to undertake reforms recommended by “experts” who are called “technocrats” and are often backed by the IMF. Opposition to the reforms they propose is usually dismissed as “populist.” Countries that fail to undertake these reforms are dismissed as craven or lacking political will, and soon suffer the consequences: higher interest rates when borrowing abroad.

But look closely at some of these “technocratic” proposals: many are more often based on ideology than economic science. Technocrats can of course reliably make an electricity plant work better. The goal is simple: to produce electricity at as low a price as possible. This is mostly a matter of engineering, not politics. Economic policies are usually not technocratic in this sense. They involve tradeoffs: some may lead to higher inflation but lower unemployment; some help investors, others workers. (more…)

By Abraham Lama* - Tierramérica*

LIMA, Sep 3 (IPS) - Plans to build two highways crossing the Amazon jungles,
to connect Peru and Brazil, have environmentalists worried. They say the
routes would sharply increase the already numerous threats to this fragile
ecosystem.

The most ambitious of the eight agreements signed last week in Lima by
presidents Alejandro Toledo, of Peru, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, of
Brazil, is a project for physical and economic integration based on three
transport routes, two of which would connect the Brazilian Amazon to Peru’s
Pacific coast. (more…)

International Conference from Friday to Sunday, October 3 to 5, 2003
in co-operation with InWEnt and UNEP Finance Initiatives

- invitation to participate / beg for informal support -

Dear ladies and gentlemen
committed to the Environment & Security field of action,

- How can private capital be drawn to situations where it is most needed, in vulnerable regions where ecological and social challenges create openings for conflict?

- Can corporate environmental investment enhance social stability and protect a company’s ‘license-to-operate’? (more…)

Eduardo Galeano

“Five centuries are a drop in the immense ocean of our history…”

Richard Nixon, prestigious historian, had it clear. In 1972, when he was President of the United States, gave to his closest collaborators a short lecture on the decadence of Greece and Rome:

-"You know what happened with the Greeks? Homosexuality destroyed them! Sure. Aristotle was a homo. We all know that. And also Socrates. You know what happened with the Romans? Their last six emperors were gay.” (more…)

By Peter Hirschberg

JERUSALEM, Sep 2 (IPS) - An army jeep meanders along a dirt road next to a fence that scythes through the olive groves in the wadi down below, forming a brown snake-like scar on the landscape. This is the controversial separation fence being built by Israel between itself and the West Bank.

Standing at Kibbutz Metzer inside Israel, and looking down into the wadi at the West Bank village of Kafin on the other side of the fence, the arguments Palestinians make against the separation fence, and those offered by Israelis in favour, both seem compelling. (more…)

Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques
PO Box 1424 Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765
Tel. 787 741-0716 Fax 741-0358 E mail: bieke@prorescatevieques.org
http://soros.c.tclk.net/maabo8Paa0cU8b36p4Yb/ http://soros.c.tclk.net/maabo8Paa0cU9b36p4Yb/

Special Report from the Peace and Justice Camp
30 August, 2003

NO TO THE SPECULATORS

Since May first, we have received many messages expressing concern about speculators and foreign economic interests that seek control our lands. Articles published recently in the US press decribe the situation and warn of this serious threat. We respond here to two articles in particular published in the New York Times. On July 26, the NYT published a piece by John Todd, ‘’ecologist'’ from Vermont, titled: “A Golden Opportunity for Vieques to be Green". Todd criticizes two Puerto Rican Government projects - one touristic the other for fishermen - both in the area of Esperanza. He claims both projects threaten the bioluminescent bay, sea turtles and other elements of nature. He argues the government should support the “… several eco-tourism projects under way or planned for Vieques … whose builders are trying to be sensitive to their surroundings …” (more…)

U.S.Quagmire in Iraq Complicates Ties with Muslim World
Commentary - By Mushahid Hussain

ISLAMABAD, Sep 1 (IPS) - Addressing the American Legion, a U.S. military
veterans group, a defiant U.S. President George W Bush vowed in late August
that ‘’there will be no U.S. retreat from Iraq'’.

The same day on Aug. 26, as he was speaking to the U.S. war veterans and
ruling out retreat from Iraq, the United States was retreating from Saudi
Arabia, militarily that is. It wound up a 13-year-old military presence
that became a source of instability for Saudi Arabia and abiding tensions
in bilateral ties. (more…)