EDITORIAL : THE AUSTRALIAN, AUSTRALIA

Endorsing tough-love reforms

An illustration by Jon Kudelka. Source: The Australian

SOME disability pensioners are more disabled than others.

Tony Abbott is right. Allowing many of Australia's 800,000 disability pensioners to stay on welfare at a cost of $13 billion a year when there is work they can reasonably do is misguided compassion that eventually breaks down the social fabric. Every 14 workers are supporting one disability benefit recipient, a situation that is not only unfair to taxpayers but which short-changes productivity and the national interest. Mr Abbott is to be commended for drafting policy alternatives for reform, but the challenge of implementing a new, temporary benefit for people whose disabilities are treatable will be politically difficult in some marginal seats.

As Mr Abbott wrote in these pages yesterday, almost 60 per cent of disability pension recipients suffer from conditions that do not necessarily preclude them from returning to work after treatment. There is no reason that many people with mental health conditions, including stress, or muscular-skeletal conditions, or those suffering the after-effects of drug abuse should remain on welfare indefinitely. Like Britain, Australia needs to distinguish those who are too frail or ill to support themselves from people needing temporary support.

Most taxpayers will welcome Mr Abbott's proposals, which would extend a bipartisan tradition that began under the Hawke-Keating governments, which introduced the assets test for pensions and extended job searches for the unemployed. The social democratic Blair and Clinton governments emulated such measures and went further, with the former US president campaigning in 1992 "to end welfare as we know it". Tony Blair's "third way", John Howard's "mutual obligation" and former Labor leader Mark Latham's "reciprocal responsibility" concepts were endorsed across all sides of politics, although implementation has been frustratingly slow.

A big spender on family welfare, the Howard government did well with its work-for-the-dole scheme and welfare-to-work reforms for single parents whose children had reached school age. The number of families dependent on benefits fell by 120,000, or 20 per cent, after job-search requirements were imposed in 2006. But as analysis by former Labor senator John Black showed, the move cost the Howard government dearly at the 2007 election in marginal seats in NSW and Queensland with high percentages of single mothers.

This should not deter Mr Abbott or the Gillard government from pursuing further reforms. In 2011 there is no longer any political kudos to be gained in disguising the real unemployment figure by classifying many of the long-term unemployed as disability pensioners. An ageing workforce, the need for productivity improvements, skills shortages and the recognition that the best form of welfare is a job make it imperative for governments to redress under-employment.

"Tough love" not only has economic benefits but social benefits for welfare recipients themselves and their children, helping to break inter-generational cycles of disadvantage. The Greens and the Australian Council of Social Services are wrong to claim Mr Abbott is "demonising" and "denigrating" the unemployed. Nobody is suggesting that the sick, the frail and the disabled who are unable to support themselves should lose support. To the contrary, a better targeted system would enable governments to do more for disabled people in need.

The master coach returns north

THE Brisbane Broncos have missed Wayne Bennett.

In a big week in sport with the appointment of Michael Clarke as Australian cricket captain, Broncos supporters are cheering the fact that St George Illawarra coach Wayne Bennett appears set to return to Brisbane next year. Bennett's no-nonsense coaching took the Dragons to last year's NRL Premiership -- their first in 31 years -- a feat the Broncos achieved six times under his 21-year stewardship. As Queensland State of Origin coach, Bennett won five series out of seven and as Australian coach notched up 11 wins and a draw from 15 Tests. In NSW, his inspirational leadership made a strong impact both within and outside league.

Unlike many in professional sport, the poker-faced Bennett, who is reticent about personal publicity, is motivated by more than money or ego. He reportedly refused $1.1 million to stay with the Dragons for another season. Returning north would also mean passing up a lucrative chance to coach Newcastle and possibly become the first NRL coach to win premierships with three different clubs. Family has always been a priority for Bennett, who entitled his autobiography The Man in the Mirror, in reference to one of his favourite poems about being king for a day then going to the mirror to "see what that man has to say". His move will help keep interest in league strong.

Fair-dinkum tax summit would give WA a fair go

WESTERN Australia deserves a hearing on its taxation gripes.

Historically, Western Australia was reticent about the Australian federation project and has harboured secessionist murmurings ever since. West Australians, to use a topical term, are our federation sceptics. Yet now they are being asked to pay a high price for their membership of the aptly named commonwealth. With the resources boom in the north of the state delivering prosperity for the whole nation it is only natural that Premier Colin Barnett would question whether the proceeds are being shared fairly. We welcome Julia Gillard's willingness to examine the issue through a review.

The improbably named concept of horizontal fiscal equalisation has often been described as the glue that holds the federation together. In reality it is a national governance version of the Australian idea of a fair go. It ensures that, to some degree, our common wealth is distributed fairly, so that all states have the opportunity to deliver similar levels of services.

Since the advent of the GST, the states have been locked in to the full proceeds of a growth tax but they still must await the annual considerations of the Commonwealth Grants Commission to see how the total take will be divided between them. Mr Barnett is concerned about projections showing that within a few years WA could receive less than half the GST dollars raised within its borders.

The Australian recognises that this debate is as old as the federation itself but it requires constant attention and regular reform. The rapid growth in the WA economy imposes heavy demands on the state's infrastructure spending, so it must be allowed to keep some of the spoils of its success in order to cope with the strains and build for continued growth. Perhaps just as importantly, the Prime Minister has recognised that the so-called mendicant states of South Australia and Tasmania must be given an incentive for economic development and reform. Part of the genius of the federation rests in its inbuilt competitive tension, so living from the tax windfall of other states should not be an easy option.

Politics, no doubt, is playing its part in all of this, with the government desperate to recover some standing in the west. But the cold, hard reality is that every dollar returned to one state is a dollar less doled out in another.

Over 110 years our federal/state tensions have generally led to a reasonable financial balance. The extraordinary circumstances of a resources boom largely concentrated in WA and Queensland justify another examination, so long as the national interest is always paramount.

The most obvious flaw in Ms Gillard's posturing is that her own economic reform agenda is so thin. Labor's compromised mining tax is an undisguised attempt to share the proceeds of the mining boom more widely, yet it has been considered in isolation. A tax summit is planned for later this year, after the mining tax is legislated, and with the GST specifically excluded from consideration. And now we will have the troika of John Brumby, Nick Greiner and Bruce Carter carrying out a separate examination of state funding issues.

The government of a mature federation, intent on pushing economic reform, would consider all these matters together in a substantial national taxation summit.

 

EDITORIAL : THE PEOPLE'S DAILY, CHINA

What's behind the Libya intervention?

Many in China and throughout the world are questioning the motives of U.N. coalition forces as they continue their military action in Libya under the banner of humanitarian intervention and with the blessing of a U.N. Resolution despite mounting civilian casualties and the great risk of the nation sinking into civil war.
As a matter of fact, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, Libya's leader, has been offering goodwill gestures to Western countries in the past decade. Qaddafi announced Libya voluntarily gave up the development of weapons of mass destruction in 2003. Libya accepted its responsibilities for the Lockerbie bombing and paid 2.7 billion U.S. dollars to compensate those victims' families.
The Libyan domestic oil industry absorbed a large amount of capital from Western countries, and oil companies in France, Italy and Spain have an important market share in Libya. In addition, Qaddafi voiced his opposition with al-Qaeda to cooperate with Western countries in anti-terrorism.
After all this, Qaddafi still cannot be accepted by Western countries and has become the target of military attacks this time. Why?
From Qaddafi's personal perspective, shifts in foreign policy are among the most important reasons that caused him to be targeted. In the early stages of the Qaddafi regime, he used violent methods to fight against Western countries and made many enemies. Although he tried to get close to them, it seems like they do not buy it. Even worse, Qaddafi had already been labeled as a textbook example of repression against civilians, so he was rebuffed with accusations and assault.
On a strategic level, Qaddafi's choice of words in his political rhetoric has also displeased Western countries, such as when he said he opposes the "New Crusade." Although Qaddafi was not necessarily aiming those words at Western countries, analysts believe that these political words actually have great power to encourage political mobilization and might even foster anti-Western sentiment.
Apart from above reasons, the thing that Western countries can least accept about Qaddafi is the political road on which he has been stepping. For years, Qaddafi has been advocating unifying country and regions, building powerful army and political organizations, oil nationalization, mobilizing middle and lower class public, carrying on land reforms and fighting against Western intervention. Although these goals are hard to realize, they are clearly in the direction of a revival of the Arab world.
The middle of the last century was the greatest period for the Arab world both in terms of international reputation and global influence. But the good times did not last long. The international position of the Arab world and the national security of Arab nations have been challenged often since the middle 1970s.
In recent years, the United States launched two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Israel also launched large-scale military attacks over Lebanon and Palestine. However, the Arab world could do nothing about that.
For Western countries, the status quo or even a new Arab world changed due to Western will is the best thing. But once a united Arab world is formed, the Western interests in this piece of land, with its large population and rich resources, will be affected badly.
The reason Libya is being "punished" by the Western coalition is mainly because the country has a big affect on Western interests. However, with the development of war and the overall global situation, the political goals of the intervention will be vaguer and vaguer.

 

 

 

 

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY STAR, BANGLADESH

Tax evasion culture

Procedure and approach need reform 

THE very low Tax-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio at around 9 per cent coupled with the people's tendency to evade paying tax has been a major hurdle before the revenue administration's effort to fulfil the government's revenue collection target every year. As a result, the amount of revenue collected annually is too low compared to the population's actual potential to pay taxes. Small wonder the government has to meet the budgetary gap through borrowing from banks and foreign aid.

A recently conducted study by the Transparency International, Bangladesh (TI, B) reveals that the government has been deprived of Tk 210 billion in terms of revenue due to a number of factors that include corruption among tax officials, high rate of indirect taxes, people's tax evasion habit arising from complicated procedures, flaws in the tax collection system and so on.

But of no less importance is the collusion between the corrupt tax officials and taxpayers. While shortage of manpower exacerbates the problem further.

It cannot be gainsaid that structural flaws combined with manmade factors militate against effective spreading of tax network as well as revenue targets. . Such a state of affairs calls reform in the tax administration that should include overhauling tax laws, procedure of tax collection and submission of tax returns. And of equal importance is effecting a change in the public's attitude towards paying taxes. But the public's apathy to pay tax is rooted in their psyche--the fear of being harassed and unjustly fleeced by tax officials. And to a large measure, that fear is also not without its basis. Still worse is that a section of corrupt tax officials that resorts to underhand dealings with clients at the expense of the state

exchequer.

A cleaner and efficient tax administration is a big boost to the public's confidence in the system. A simplified but electronic tax collection and submission of returns will further ease, expedite as well as improve quantity and quality of the revenue collection system. It is hoped

that the government would take serious note of these suggestions.

Inculcating sense of history

Book distribution plan welcome

A sense of history is the foundation upon which a society finds a niche for itself in the global scheme of things. In Bangladesh, given the various distortions which have crept into our history, inculcating a sense of history in the young is of seminal significance. That is why the government move to provide a fifteen-volume work on War of Liberation free of cost to nearly 17,000 school and colleges is welcome. The initiative toward this laudable exercise was of course taken by the last caretaker government, for which it deserves credit. It is our expectation that the present elected government will eventually fulfill this onerous responsibility of bringing our young population level with the history of the country, particularly in relation to the War of Liberation and the events that preceded it.

The authorities plan to distribute the volumes to 17,000 additional educational institutions next year. Last year, altogether 898 institutions were given the work. We can safely predict, therefore, that in the near future the volumes will eventually reach those institutions which are yet to come by them. We do think, though, that a caveat is necessary here. It is that the teaching of history through these fifteen volumes must avoid the controversies and misinterpretations which have for years left the young confused about the background to the momentous happenings of 1971. We trust that the contributions of all individuals and sections of people involved in the making of Bangladesh's history will have been taken account of in these works and that in future there will be no scope for anyone to point to any loopholes in the narrative.

Finally, it remains for teachers in schools and colleges to make it a point to have their students go through the volumes on a regular and concerted basis. Indeed, no matter what subjects pupils take up for study, the teaching of history should be made part of the curricula. Nothing can be worthier than knowing about one's cultural and political roots.

 

 

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY MIRROR, SRILANKA

SOME WISDOM FOR APRIL FOOLS DAY

While we crack jokes and laugh about fools and fool’s paradises on this April Fools’ Day or tell the April Fool to go to school and call his teacher a damn fool, it might also be wise to do some serious reflection today on the root causes of foolishness. First and foremost, we need to remember that doctorates and degrees, diplomas and distinctions alone are not enough because there is a big gap between knowledge and wisdom. Mahatma Gandhi, widely respected as one of the wisest men in history, summed it up when he said that people have learned to fly like birds and swim like fish but tragically had forgotten how to walk like human beings. Whatever the world or its systems like the globalised market economists say, the leaders of all religions have told us that ultimately our care for others is the measure of our greatness. In this spirit of enlightenment we need to search our heart and nature and honestly acknowledge that most of what we do and say is driven by self-centeredness, selfishness and self-interest. The awareness of the need for gradual liberation from our enslavement to self-centeredness is the first and vital step towards wisdom and away from foolishness. We need to be aware and acknowledge that it is self-centeredness and selfishness that make us insincere or hypocrites in what we do and say.

Often there is a huge difference between our inner nature and our external behaviour. Inside there is selfishness, jealousy, pride, un-forgiveness and a desire to dominate, use or abuse other people. But we put on an act and pretend to be helpful and caring towards them. That is why Shakespeare said that the world is a stage and most of us are actors. He was not referring to Julius Caesar or Romeo and Juliet but the great drama of real life.  Most of the time we are acting, others are acting, we know they are acting; they know we are acting and it goes on -- the big bluff of foolishness.  Shakespeare and religious leaders have spotlighted not only the problem but the solution also. The bard put it beautifully – to thine own self be true and then as day follows night, you cannot be false to any person.

Through whatever spiritual power we believe in and practise, we need to experience a gradual liberation from self-centerdness so that we could work for the common good of all instead of just seeking personal gain or glory, power, popularity or prestige, wealth or possessions.

It is in this spirit of liberation from the ego and the (I) factor that our spiritual eyes are open to see the everlasting values of sincere, sacrificial and feet washing service to others so that instead of just trying to fulfil ourselves, our vision will be for all beings to be happy and at peace. If this wisdom is practised, then April Fools’ Day could be transformed from a joke to a blessing for all.

EDITORIAL : THE DAWN, PAKISTAN

JUI-F chief targeted

THE assassination attempts on Maulana Fazlur Rahman, on two successive days, should not come as a surprise: he is not the first `moderate` religious leader whom extremists have tried to eliminate. He is lucky to have survived; others were not. On June 12, 2009, Mufti Dr Sarfaraz Ahmad Naeemi, imam of Jamia Naeemia and a respected scholar, fell victim to a suicide attack. He was a vocal opponent of religious extremism and of the theory and practice of Taliban philosophy. His assassination in a Lahore mosque and the recent attempts on the life of the JUI-F chief conform to doctrinaire strategies which all ideologically motivated movements follow. A `soft-liner` in the fraternity — whatever the term might mean at a given time — is a greater enemy and threat than the `real` enemy. Whether it was the FLN in Algeria or the liberation movement in Kashmir, those who assumed the role of mainstream fighters have always considered `deviants` from the `right path` as heretics meant to be done away with.

The Taliban have no shame in declaring that they are at war with the state of Pakistan. For that reason they target all state institutions and those who run them. They have denounced the electoral process and allege that democracy is western in nature. Maulana Fazl and his party do not appear to share this philosophy and, believing in parliamentary democracy, take part in elections, thus incurring the TTP`s and Al Qaeda`s wrath. The JUI-F has been a fierce opponent of Islamabad`s perceived pro-America policies, but that did not stop it from contesting the 2002 and 2008 elections. The JUI-F has also been part of coalition governments in Islamabad and two provinces and has exhibited common sense by believing that democracy is the best way of solving political differences and resolving ideological schisms. This, in the eyes of the extremists, is a crime punishable by death.

After the first deadly attack, which killed several party workers, the JUI chief managed to reach the venue of his Swabi meeting, where in an angry speech he denounced America and the war on terror. Speaking to the media after Thursday`s attack, the maulana spoke in the same vein, saying that he had been targeted because of his opposition to the drone attacks and his support for Dr Aafia Siddiqui — there was obvious reluctance to openly condemn religious extremism although he is aware that such violent tactics are linked mostly to the TTP. We urge the government to hold an inquiry to determine who planned to assassinate Maulana Fazl, a veteran politician of national stature.

After the setback

IT should have been a great show but it wasn’t, primarily because we faltered when it mattered most. No team should expect to win a vital game if it drops a player like Tendulkar no less than four times and then, chasing a reasonable target, goes about its batting with remarkable ordinariness. Seasoned players who should know better on any given day, let alone a milestone occasion, played with a run-chase strategy that defied logic. The batting left a lot to be desired but in the final analysis it was our woeful fielding that cost us the game. Pakistan lost by 29 runs. How many of those runs could have been saved if the fielders had done the job expected of extravagantly paid professionals? They failed, miserably, and the batsmen weren’t far behind in an all-round show of incompetence. South Africa have for long been branded as chokers, a team that stutters when the pressure is on. Well, on Wednesday in Mohali, it was Pakistan that choked in a fashion that devastated the nation.

That said, it ought to be kept in mind that this was always going to be a contest. One team was going to win and in this instance it was Pakistan that lost. What the nation, and by extrapolation the country’s cricketing structure, has gone through in recent years would have stymied many a team right at the outset. Yet Pakistan fought it out and deserves to be commended for making it to the semi-finals of one-day cricket’s showcase event. As early as Thursday morning there were murmurings about corruption and an effort to deliberately throw the game. People who subscribe to conspiracy theories right off the bat — and there has been plenty of reason for that going back to the mid-1990s — should watch more cricket with a level head. The team isn’t always looking to do Pakistanis down, especially this one under Shahid Khan Afridi. The side couldn’t perform and that should be pretty much it if one isn’t a magnet for rumour-mongering. Let’s give the Pakistan team a rousing reception when it comes home.

Doctors on strike

THE loss of several precious lives in Lahore in a single day allegedly because of a protest strike by doctors brings the latter into disrepute. The young doctors working at public hospitals had been agitating for better job packages for some time. They reportedly took their extremely painful campaign to another level on Wednesday by refusing to see even ‘critical patients’ — if this distinction can be made in the case of the desperate souls who turn up at any health facility, let alone a government-run one. It is appalling to listen to accounts in which the trained hands are blamed for not performing their duty of saving a fellow human being’s life. This paper listed seven deaths resulting from the callous attitude of the doctors on Wednesday. Later investigations revealed many more such cases, completing a truly tragic picture.

The strikers should have done everything to avoid this, both as healers beholden to their oath and as professionals who must shun negative publicity as they fight for their rights. In fact, the disrepute the protesting doctors have so earned weakens their case. However, the government cannot be totally absolved of its responsibility in creating this ugly situation in public hospitals. Ultimately, the doctors’ struggle
highlights the system’s skewed priorities. Both the health sector and those who work for it are desperately short of resources and in need of quick remedies. After a long standoff, on Wednesday an adviser to the chief minister assured the protesting doctors that their service packages would be reviewed when experts prepare the next budget. For this promise to come true, he asked the doctors to return to work which is what they did on Thursday evening. If only the two sides had realised this a few days and a few deaths earlier.

 

 

 

EDITORIAL : THE HINDU, INDIA

Don't ban Great Soul

Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily's announcement that the central government would ban the book Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and his Struggle with India had no justification in fact, law, or common sense. The threatened ban on the book — the contents of which Mr. Moily dramatically described as “heresy” — was based, at best, on a total misreading of it and, at worst, on no-reading but relying on grossly misleading reviews in a section of the western media. The biography, written by Joseph Lelyveld, a former editor of the New York Times, does not claim that Mahatma Gandhi was bi-sexual; neither does it portray him as a racist. In the course of a serious exploration that traces the links between the beginning of Gandhi's political life in South Africa and its development in India, the book refers to his close relationship with East Prussian architect Hermann Kallenbach. The strong emotional bond between the two, who lived together for a while on Tolstoy Farm near Johannesburg, is more than borne out by the letters Gandhiji wrote to Kallenbach. Mr. Lelyveld quotes a Gandhi scholar in the book as characterising their relationship as “homoerotic” rather than “homosexual,” an interpretation one is free to dispute. But surely, that cannot be a basis for banning a book as the Gujarat government has done with great alacrity and the Government of India was seriously considering until Mr. Moily did an about-turn on the issue.

“I am of the earth, earthy … I am prone to as many weaknesses as you are,” the Mahatma famously declared. He explored a number of these weaknesses with extraordinary honesty in My Experiments with Truth. Most publishers love, and some even stage-manage, the kind of controversy that has broken out over what is a small section of a chapter in Mr. Lelyveld's biography. Not so long ago, in grandson Rajmohan Gandhi's Mohandas, a small episode in the Mahatma's life — his relationship with Rabindranath Tagore's niece Saraladevi Chaudharani (“around which Eros too might have lurked”) — became the frenzied focus of the media. Section 95 of the Code of Criminal Procedure empowers authorities to proscribe books if they contain material that breaches the peace or causes communal tension. Surely, it is no one's case that Great Soul does that. The Supreme Court, which has consistently opposed crude attempts at censorship, has severely limited the use of Section 95 to proscribe books. From a quick reading of the controversial references in the Kindle edition, it seems that Mr. Lelyveld has made too much of what is essentially thin source material on the subject. The answer to that is reasoned, informed criticism. The Mahatma would have been the first to protest against any suggestion of an obscurantist ban.

Germany's Green spring

In a historic development, Winfried Kretschmann is set to become the first Green Minister-President of a German state. The German Green Party has emerged as the senior partner in a coalition with the Social Democratic Party that has captured the state assembly or Landtag in Baden-Württemberg. The coalition defeated the conservative incumbent, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which had led the government of the very wealthy province for almost 58 years. On a turnout of 66 per cent, the Greens more than doubled their 2006 vote-share to 24 per cent, which gave them 36 seats. The CDU remains the biggest single party with 60 seats, but the new alliance will have a majority of four over the bloc formed by the CDU and its ally, the Free Democrat Party (FDP), which lost eight of its 15 seats. Further, the CDU-FDP share of seats in the powerful federal upper chamber, the Bundesrat, will fall in proportion to their regional losses — and Mr. Kretschmann will also have a Bundesrat vote. One consequence is that the CDU national leader and federal Chancellor Angela Merkel will find it even harder to get legislation passed.

Ms Merkel has blamed her party's losses on the stream of bad news from the wrecked Japanese nuclear plant at Fukushima. The Chancellor lost a lot of credibility by announcing a 12-year extension to the life of all 17 German nuclear plants and then doing a U-turn post-Fukushima to state that seven plants built before 1980 would be closed down for three months. But German public opposition to nuclear power, although strong and of long standing, forms only a part of the Greens' strength. Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg, has been the focus of controversy over a multi-billion-euro plan to redevelop the central station as part of a high-speed rail link across Europe. The plan, called Stuttgart 21, catalysed a feeling among ordinary people that they were being subordinated to big business; after the election, the national rail company Deutsche Bahn suspended the project. But the news for the Chancellor is even worse. Voters across Germany are deserting the pro-market conservative and Right parties. The rising political stock of the Greens was reflected in a tripled vote-share of 15.4 per cent in Rhineland-Palatinate, which also elected a new assembly on March 27. In this contest, the FDP did not even get the 5 per cent needed for one seat. The most significant implication seems to be that ordinary German voters now want to address concerns and issues very different from those of the mainstream parties. The Greens have an unprecedented chance to initiate significant changes in the style and substance of German politics.

 

 

EDITORIAL : THE GUARDIAN, UK

The magic of the monarchy: The royal moment has come

Prince William has shown he can be a new kind of king. It is time to put away the cynicism and pledge our full-throated support

 

A few short weeks from now, with the world looking on, William Arthur Philip Louis Windsor will exchange rings with Catherine Elizabeth Middleton, and much of Britain will rejoice. Yet, at such moments, certain voices – this newspaper's included – have long expressed dissent. All this mawkish celebration, they maintain, merely bolsters an anti-democratic institution based on privilege and patronage, a costly anachronism that ought to be abolished. That view is understandable. But it is time for them – for us – to reconsider. A decade ago, the Guardian prominently announced its commitment to republicanism. But Prince William has shown that he can be a new kind of king. That is why, in a significant change of course, we today pledge our full-throated support for the British monarchy.
Let's face it: the current crop of world leaders is far from inspiring. Across the Arab world, dictators battle their own people; at home, attitudes towards Cameron and Clegg alternate between apathy and outrage. In America, the hope that greeted Barack Obama has long since faded. As The King's Speech so vividly reminded us, there are times when only the calming leadership of a hereditary monarch will do; and as the MPs' expenses scandal illustrates, it can be dangerous to trust power-hungry elected officials, who lack the security provided by land ownership and immense wealth. Amid all this, William in particular stands out as something unique: a bastion of tradition with a deeply modern sensibility – not to mention a helicopter pilot's licence. When the time comes, we urge Prince Charles to redouble his focus on his important work in the field of alternative medicine, and to pass the mantle of head of state to his son.
For too long, a hair-shirt tendency on the left has insisted that a commitment to progressive values is incompatible with an appreciation for the magic and wonder of royalty. But in this era of austerity, couldn't we all do with being a bit more "happy and glorious"? Few things, after all, are as likely to lift the spirits of Britain's embattled public sector workers or benefit claimants than the sight of Kate Middleton's sure-to-be-spectacular wedding dress.
The couple themselves, meanwhile, reflect values close to this paper's own. William encapsulates our spirit of internationalism, thanks to his Greek and German heritage on his father's side, and his gap year in Chile. Kate embodies our commitment to gender equality in the way in which she has faced work-life challenges common to many women today, juggling such roles as accessories buyer for Jigsaw and being one of Tatler magazine's top 10 fashion icons. Other royals, too, are surely deserving of recognition: belatedly, for example, we have come to appreciate the crucial work done by Prince Andrew, using his personal connections to plant the seeds of democracy in repressive regimes worldwide.
Beginning today, the Guardian announces a raft of changes designed to ensure that our royal coverage is unrivalled by any other media organisation. We begin an unprecedented month-long, 24-hour royal wedding live blog, offering minute-by-minute coverage of the preparations. We will be recalling correspondents from some less newsworthy parts of the globe, such as north Africa and south-east Asia, so they can focus on palace matters instead. And we will shortly be making available to readers a range of attractive commemorative crockery.
The marriage of a prince to a commoner – a true bridging of class divides, if ever there was one – represents the perfect moment for progressives to commit again to the promise of hereditary monarchy. Great philosophers, from Burke to Andrew Morton, have argued powerfully for the institution's value. In any case, it would be churlish to fight the tide of excitement and optimism currently flooding the nation. It is time to put away the cynicism, and get out the union jacks.

Opposition policy: cut to the chase

Making the case for growth over cuts won't win Labour the next election – but failing to set out a viable alternative could lose it

The consequences of political choices take time to unfurl. What seemed dangerous at the start of a process can come to seem peripheral, while what once appeared merely maladroit rises up to become a damaging indication of a deeper malaise. Last week's TUC march will in political terms be remembered less for the appalling violence of a minority, or the policing tactics, but for what it said about Labour's uncertain message on cuts. As we wrote on Monday, it was right to join the march for the alternative – but, nearly a week on, it is all the more essential to be able to answer questions about what that alternative is. So it was disappointing yesterday that both at the launch of Labour's local election campaign and on the Radio 4 Today programme, Ed Miliband lacked an authoritative case, while his sometimes defensive manner seemed to betray uncertainty. Opposition is a tough game, hardest of all in the early years, when the government can still throw its predecessor's legacy in its face. Labour has a good case to make against economic policy that is a matter of political choice rather than financial necessity. But it is not yet underpinned by a clear and persuasive description of why, and of how it could be different.
Labour can expect handsome rewards in May's local elections, which are in seats last contested four years ago. The dismal results then precipitated Tony Blair's departure from Downing Street. But local election results, along with good opinion poll figures for the party, disguise more fundamental areas of concern. Not only is there substantial backing still for the Tory economic programme (although that may wane as the real cuts begin to bite) but Ed Miliband's personal support is, in some polls, worse than Iain Duncan Smith's at the same point in his leadership. It's not all gloom. Rebuilding Labour's economic credibility rests on two preconditions. Constructing an alternative is one. Acknowledging past mistakes is the second. It is true that though few made it at the time, there is a case against Gordon Brown's management of the Treasury. In an interview in this week's New Statesman, the shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, goes a long way to accepting that there was, at least in hindsight, a structural deficit before 2008. He admits that he was wrong about light-touch City regulation; he accepts that, with employment more buoyant than he had anticipated, his anxiety about Alistair Darling's cuts in 2009 (and, more opaquely, his no-cuts leadership election position last year) were wrong. And he is clear that those who think clamping down hard on tax avoidance is a sufficient alternative to making cuts are misguided. This is an interview that jettisons some difficult baggage.
But at the moment, in campaigning terms, it remains the stuff of the small print. The message at the local election launch yesterday, like the message at last Saturday's march, is all about solidarity, being the voters' voice "in tough times". There are too many people who will treat this as political sleight of hand – people who remember all too vividly who was in power when the meltdown happened, people who want their political leaders to be straight with them. Their views might not shape the way they vote on 5 May, but voting Labour to protest at cuts forced on their local council by the coalition is not the same as being prepared to vote Labour at the next election.
This is the real challenge for Labour: no one wants their library closed or their Sure Start cut back. No one wants to see the fall in crime rates reversed. Yet most people believe, as Labour does, that some cuts are unavoidable. Between now and the next election, few will be left untouched by the impact of the coalition's deficit reduction strategy. Mr Miliband is right to warn that it might soon feel like the divisive 1980s all over again. He will not need reminding how the economic trauma of the 1980s, and Labour's struggle to develop a cogent alternative, contributed to the party's catastrophic marginalisation. He knows he has to have more to say about the economy than that what the government is doing is wrong. And he will recognise the fallacy of the argument that Labour cannot win on the economy – that if the coalition strategy works then the party's criticisms of it will harm Labour itself, and that if it fails then they are unnecessary. On the contrary, although making the economic case for prioritising growth over cuts won't win the next election, failing to set out a viable alternative could lose it.
Behind the Treasury bombast, this is beginning to look like a worried government. Reports yesterday that David Cameron is intervening to slow the pace of NHS reforms – the bill has just started on what will be a bruising passage through the Lords – follow an unusually abrasive performance at prime minister's questions. There is no time to lose.
 

EDITORIAL : THE NEW YORK TIMES, USA

Mr. Obama’s Energy Vision

It was instructive and depressing this week to watch President Obama and Congressional Republicans marching in completely different directions on energy policy. Mr. Obama reminded us that charting a clean energy future is not a pipe dream and that America can reduce its dependence on foreign oil. The Republicans reminded us how hard it will be to get there.

The outcome depends in no small measure on how hard Mr. Obama is willing to battle for his policies. As he showed again in a speech on Wednesday, he has no trouble articulating energy-related issues. What remains in doubt has been his willingness to see the fight through. This time must be different.

Beset by rising gas prices and Middle Eastern turmoil, Mr. Obama, like other presidents, decried the nation’s dependence on foreign oil. He also said there were no quick fixes and that a nation with only 2 percent of the world’s reserves cannot drill its way to self-sufficiency.

He then offered a strategy aimed at, among other things, reducing oil imports by one-third by 2025, partly by increasing domestic production but largely by producing more efficient vehicles and by moving advanced biofuels from the laboratory to commercial production.

These are achievable goals. Reducing oil imports by one-third means using 3.7 million fewer barrels a day. The fuel economy standards set last year by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation will yield 1.7 million of those barrels; the next round of standards, now on the drawing boards at the E.P.A., will yield another 1.7 million barrels. Advanced biofuels and improved mass transit could get us the rest of the way.

None of these goals will be reached if the Republicans who dominate their party have their way. One particularly destructive amendment to the House’s irresponsible budget bill would strip the E.P.A. of its authority to regulate greenhouse gases from vehicles and stationary sources. This authority, conferred by the Supreme Court, made possible the current fuel economy rules — which would be cast into doubt if the bill became law. It is obviously essential to any new round of rule-making. The bill also gave short shrift to most other clean energy programs.

Then there are three bills offered by Doc Hastings, the Washington Republican who leads the House Natural Resources Committee. The bills would effectively rewrite the rules governing offshore drilling imposed after the gulf oil spill, opening vast areas of the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic to exploration and greatly accelerating the measured pace at which the administration has been issuing drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico.

The chances for responsible progress seem greater in the Senate, despite mischievous efforts to undermine the E.P.A. by Republicans and some coal-country Democrats. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, is demanding a vote on a bill that would mimic the House budget measure by stripping the agency of its authority to regulate greenhouse gases. John D. Rockefeller IV, a West Virginia Democrat, has reintroduced a bill that would delay any such regulation for two years, which is almost as bad because such delays have a way of becoming permanent.

A more positive note was sounded Thursday by a bipartisan group of senators assembled by Kent Conrad, the North Dakota Democrat, and Saxby Chambliss, a Republican of Georgia. The group is the remnants of the so-called Gang of 10 that tried to work out a sensible energy strategy during the “drill, baby, drill” hysteria of the 2008 presidential campaign. The group failed then, but Mr. Obama’s speech appears to have inspired a reunion — a tender shoot Mr. Obama should move quickly to encourage.

Failure of Empathy and Justice

When President Obama listed empathy as a valuable trait for a justice during his 2009 search to replace David Souter, the idea drew scorn from some conservatives who saw it as an excuse for being soft. But a Supreme Court ruling this week provides evidence of how useful empathy is, and of how not using it can lead to glaring injustice.

Connick v. Thompson is about the wrongful conviction of John Thompson for robbery and murder after prosecutors in New Orleans withheld evidence from Mr. Thompson that would have cast serious doubt on his guilt. He spent 18 years in prison and came close to being executed. He was exonerated after a prosecutor fessed up.
After Mr. Thompson sued, a federal trial court found the office liable for failing to train its prosecutors about their constitutional duty to turn over evidence favorable to the defense and awarded Mr. Thompson $14 million in damages. Now, by a 5-to-4 vote, the conservative majority of the Roberts court has overturned that ruling, saying the office can’t be held liable for a sole incident of wrongdoing.
The important thing about empathy that gets overlooked is that it bolsters legal analysis. That is clear in the dissent by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Her empathy for Mr. Thompson as a defendant without means or power is affecting. But it is her understanding of the prosecutors’ brazen ambition to win the case, at all costs, that is key.
After detailing the “flagrant indifference” of the prosecutors to Mr. Thompson’s rights, she makes clear how critically they needed training in their duty to turn over evidence and why “the failure to train amounts to deliberate indifference to the rights” of defendants.
The district attorney, Harry Connick Sr., acknowledged the need for this training but said he had long since “stopped reading law books” so he didn’t understand the duty he was supposed to impart. The result, Justice Ginsburg writes, was an office with “one of the worst” records in America for failing to turn over evidence that “never disciplined or fired a single prosecutor” for a violation.
For the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas asserts that Mr. Thompson failed to prove that the office “disregarded a known or obvious consequence” of its inaction. That doesn’t reckon with the “culture of inattention,” as Justice Ginsburg calls it, which made deplorable breaches far too predictable. Justice Ginsburg’s dissent is the more persuasive, focused on the problem at the heart of the case and at the heart of a legal system that too often fails to see defendants, guilty or not, as human beings.

Chancellor Merkel’s Shellacking

Even after pandering to voters’ fears about nuclear power, the euro and NATO operations in Libya, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany got a shellacking in her Christian Democratic party’s traditional bastion of Baden-Württemberg. We hope Mrs. Merkel, whose term runs until 2013, draws the right lessons and hews more closely to her own principles and Germany’s larger interests.

Sunday’s election took place in the shadow of Japan’s unfolding nuclear power-plant disaster. The future of Germany’s 17 nuclear reactors (four of which are in Baden-Württemberg) was the biggest issue, and the antinuclear Green Party was the biggest winner.
Mrs. Merkel was vulnerable after she pushed through a law extending the legal life of Germany’s reactors from 30 years to more than 40. Then, just ahead of the election, she ordered an immediate 90-day shutdown of the seven reactors built before 1980. It was the right thing to do, but it cast doubt on the earlier extension and left voters wondering what she would do when the 90 days ran out.
Mrs. Merkel’s flailing efforts to have it both ways on Europe’s endangered currency also left voters wondering where she really stood. She portrayed her decision to stretch out Germany’s contributions and her demands for growth-killing austerity as shielding German taxpayers from the extravagance of slothful European neighbors. Voters punished her for pledging any bailout money at all. Prolonging the crisis and impeding growth in the euro-zone will hurt German banks and exporters.
Mrs. Merkel has also been disappointing on Libya. Although NATO has long been the linchpin of Germany’s defense plans, she ostentatiously removed German ships in the Mediterranean from NATO command to keep them clear of operations in Libya. Germany also abstained in the United Nations Security Council’s vote authorizing action, joining Russia, China, Brazil and India.
Most of Mrs. Merkel’s postwar predecessors rightly believed that Germany’s economic prosperity was firmly tied to the European Union and its military security tied to NATO. It is becoming increasingly hard to figure out what Mrs. Merkel believes.

A Fresh Season for Managing Regret

It’s never easy getting back into the baseball season, what with the sport’s self-generated scandals and star-crossed narcissists. Fans yearning for the plain nine-inning deal — bat, ball, glove and hopes under open skies — lately had to wince at testimony about the monstrous side effects of illicit hormones taken by batters obsessed with hitting even more home runs. All Babe Ruth ever was reported abusing were hot dogs and beer.

In the New York game, money is inevitably in the lineup. Yankee players sound ecstatic at finally being rated underdogs to the Red Sox, who spent with Yankee abandon in hiring new Boston players. The Mets, in contrast, have hit such grim times that a piece of the team is being offered for sale to keep the club operating.

The team, as everyone knows, was hard hit in the Ponzi scheme concocted by Bernard Madoff, who is in prison as this season opens. Mets fans desperate for the crack of the bat still reel from the auction of Madoff property that saw his satin personalized Mets jacket fetch $14,500. They’d consider it just if he can’t get the Mets on cable.

Nine innings of distraction are a cure for life’s setbacks, and Mets loyalists can comfort themselves with that universal mantra of wait ’til this year. Hope is the thing with flutters, as last season’s comeback Met, R. A. Dickey, demonstrated with his looping knuckleballs and postgame philosophical riffs. “This game is about how to handle regret. It really is,” Dickey advised, a worthy theme for the brand-new season.

 

 

 

 

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY YOMIURI, JAPAN

TEPCO needs solid leadership to handle nuclear crisis

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Masataka Shimizu has temporarily relinquish his office, just as it has become apparent that work to cope with the accident at the company's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant will take a long time.

TEPCO's remaining management officials must do their best to bring the nuclear disaster under control as soon as possible--among other things, they must smoothly implement planned power outages and deal with compensation issues in the future.

Shimizu's health reportedly failed due to the strain of dealing with the ongoing accident. He was absent from work from March 16 to 22.

He seemed to have recovered but felt ill again Tuesday evening and was admitted to the hospital. As a result, TEPCO Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata will lead the company for the time being.

It is not desirable for the top management official to be replaced, even temporarily, while serious problems are occurring.

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Heavy responsibility

A former TEPCO president forced back onto the front lines of management, Katsumata bears a heavy responsibility. At his Wednesday press conference, Katsumata expressed his view that the troubled Nos. 1 to 4 reactors at the Fukushima plant would have to be decommissioned.

Experts had already said abandoning the Nos. 1 to 4 reactors was inevitable, after seawater was used to cool spent nuclear fuel rods and other parts of the reactors. Katsumata's statement made this a definite reality.

It is now uncertain whether TEPCO can restart the remaining two reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, four reactors at the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power station, and three suspended reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture.

TEPCO's management must seriously study how to handle nuclear power generation in the future.

Also at the Wednesday news conference, Katsumata said top priority should be given to recovering the cooling functions of the Nos. 1 to 4 reactors.

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Disposal of contaminated water

However, a very serious problem is hampering the work--water contaminated with high concentrations of radioactive substances has been found in the facility. TEPCO has been pumping the contaminated water into tanks within the plant, but they can only hold so much. If the situation continues, the contaminated water will probably overflow into the ground and the sea.

Various proposals have emerged to deal with this possibility, including digging reservoirs, storing contaminated water aboard large tankers and constructing facilities to purify the water.

The government and TEPCO need to decide on concrete measures to deal with the contaminated water as soon as possible and implement them. For that purpose, it is indispensable for the two parties to rebuild a relationship of trust.

Many in the government now distrust TEPCO, due to such things as delays in providing information on the accident. A joint task force headquarters was established within TEPCO at the government's initiative, because the government had become impatient with TEPCO's handling of the nuclear disaster.

TEPCO officials also are dissatisfied with the government, feeling it gave instructions that seemed to ignore the circumstances at the plant. Katsumata must foster closer communication with the government to ensure both sides do their best to get the nuclear crisis under control.

Give appropriate guidance to enhance desire to learn

The Yomiuri Shimbun

How can teachers fully utilize the new, thicker textbooks? This is where they must show their skill. We hope the new texts will arouse in children a desire to learn and raise their academic abilities.

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry has unveiled the results of its screening of textbooks that will be used in middle schools next spring. The results are in line with a new curriculum that will significantly increase the contents of what children are taught, changes that were made after reviewing the more lenient education policy.

The textbooks that were screened have 36 percent more pages on average than those screened for fiscal 2000, and 25 percent more than those for fiscal 2004, when "advanced materials" that went beyond the regular course of study were introduced in the textbooks.

Teachers must tap their ingenuity to put these textbooks to use fully and to prevent students from having an imperfect understanding of the subjects.

The science textbooks, for instance, have expanded descriptions of experiments and observations, and also encourage students to make reports on their studies and present their results. To arouse students' interest, the new texts have examples to illustrate how science is actually used in real life.

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Painstaking effort evident

It is evident the authors worked hard to keep students from stumbling in their learning process.

For instance, before moving on to the next unit, there are pages reviewing what has been learned earlier in the book. There are also pages where students are given a chance to practice calculations that were taught in primary school. Some textbooks allocate more than 10 percent of their pages to these kind of drills. The textbooks also carry more difficult practical exercises for more proficient students.

"We tried to make a textbook that both low-level and top-level students can use to improve their academic abilities," said an official of a textbook publisher.

When teaching the materials in the new texts, teachers must grasp each student's level of understanding and use this to give appropriate guidance. To do this well, they should take multiple training courses to brush up on their teaching methods.

Under the new curriculum, course hours for the main subjects will increase by more than 10 percent. At-home studies must also be fully utilized to help students learn properly. Many of the new texts carry practice exercises students can do on their own, and parents are also asked to cooperate.

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Territorial issues addressed

The new social studies textbooks carry expanded descriptions of Japan's territory, including details on the Takeshima islets and the Senkaku Islands.

The government's position is that there is a dispute over the sovereignty of the Takeshima islets, which are occupied by South Korea, but that there is no territorial dispute with China over the Senkaku Islands, which are controlled by Japan.

Government textbook examiners required textbook descriptions that do not reflect this policy difference be modified.

Last year, a Chinese trawler rammed into two Japan Coast Guard patrol vessels off the Senkaku Islands, an incident that sent shock waves through the Japanese public.

Correct information concerning our territory should be taught to our children so they can properly assert Japan's position in the international community.