REGULAR FRANCE PRESS REVIEW

French press review

La Nouvelle République du Centre Ouest calls the decision a smart move by a well-prepared man. The paper however warns that a re-invigorated Centrist party could be damaging to the ruling UMP come 2012. The paper also predicts hard days ahead for the Centrists and wonders what the future holds for presidential hopefuls  such as ex-defence minister Hervé Morin, ex-prime minister Dominique de Villepin and the rest of the pack after Borloo’s outing

Paris Normandie perceives Borloo as the ruling party’s main problem. “He is President Sarkozy’s nightmare”, comments the regional paper. It also warns that by seeking to become the flag-bearer of the center-right in the polls, Borloo could siphon hundreds of thousands of votes which presidential Sarkozy desperately needs to qualify for the second round run-off.

The situation of the French and European economies and the problem of immigration are also given front-page coverage by Friday’s French papers. Le Figaro sees clear signs of economic recovery in France and Germany, after the European Central Bank raised interest rates. The Catholic daily La Croix disagrees and denies that Europe is off the hook citing Portugal’s appeal for financial aide from its European partners and the IMF. La Croix warns that the bankruptcy of a European country cannot yet be ruled out.

That opinion is also being upheld by Le Monde. The respected paper headlines Portugal’s distress call for urgent financial assistance, explaining that the country could miss its debt obligations by June. Le Monde’s projections of funds likely to be provided by the EU and the IMF stand at an estimated 75 billion euros.

The economic tabloids are less upbeat about the French economic outlook. Les Echos, explains that while there are positive signals of growth, purchasing power continues to stagnate. La Tribune expresses concern over rising prices in the housing sector and the fact that it could spark a stockmarket crash. But the paper notes that real-estate professionals are ruling out hikes in housing prices.

Friday’s issue of the Communist party daily L'Humanité, launches a fervent appeal for a strong rejection of austerity throughout Europe, urging Europeans from East to West to denounce the Euro Pact, and to participate in a huge Euro demonstration scheduled in Budapest, Hungary on Saturday.

Libération chides Interior minister Claude Guéant for the far-right positions he has taken since taking office. “Guéant is right in his boots”, headlines the paper. Libération also points out that his repeated slip-ups on immigration confirm him as President Sarkozy’s bulldog for 2012.

Aujourd’hui en France /Le Parisien publishes what it says are ”the real immigration figures”. The tabloid holds that legal immigration to France has remained stable during the past five years, contrary to claims made by far-right politicians.

France Soir accuses Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of provoking France, by issuing temporal European residency permits to Lampedusa immigrants. The newspaper argues that the passes into Europe open the way for some 25 thousand Tunisians currently in the Italian Island to continue their journey to their preferred destination France.
  

L’Est Republicain considers the influx of refugees as a taste of the pudding for Europe which saw the plight and misery of the boat people as exclusively Italy’s problem. The tabloid calls the Schengen permits an astute move by Rome to wake up the Europeans and warns them that diplomatic fights over immigration policy can only kill the free movement treaty and undermine action in dealing with migrants from Africa, projected to grow to 1 billion inhabitants by 2050.

EDITORIAL : THE NATIONAL POST, CANADA

 

Don't dismiss the so-cons

Social conservatives "have become a spent political force in [Canadian] national politics," according to Queen's University political-science scholar James Farney. "We're now just seen as eccentric," suggested Link Byfield, a prominent Canadian "so-con" himself. On the front page of the April 5 National Post, a story by reporter Charles Lewis was headlined "Social conservatives watch campaign from sidelines."
Wikipedia tells us that social conservatives "believe that government has a role in encouraging or enforcing what they consider traditional values or behaviours." But Wikipedia also offers this important caveat: "the accepted meaning of traditional morality often differs from group to group." Not all social conservatives are the same. It's worth emphasizing that the term "social conservative" is spelled with a lower case "c," not the upper case "C" of the Conservative Party. Social conservatism is much broader than any one political party.
If social conservatives were interested only in an active debate about abortion or gay marriage, then it is true, as noted by Lewis, that we would be disappointed by the current campaign: No major party has distinguished itself on these issues. But that doesn't mean these issues are not in play.
In the last Parliament, there were more MPs in the non-partisan Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus than in either the Bloc Québécois or the NDP. Yet, neither the death of the Bloc nor the NDP has been proclaimed irrelevant.
Moreover, social conservatives are interested in a wider variety of public-policy issues than abortion and gay marriage.
Take a good look at the activists and politicians who are involved in policy concerning the protection of children. Read over the list of witnesses before Commons and Senate committees in regard to raising the age of consent to sexual activity with an adult from age 14 to 16 in 2008 and you'll see so-cons. Consider those advocating for the law that now requires internet service providers to report child porn being transmitted or hosted on their platforms and you'll see so-cons.
While these initiatives took place under the Conservative government of the last five years, so-con influence extends back further. The 1993 introduction of child-pornography crimes into the Criminal Code and the 2004 introduction of laws against human trafficking crimes both were sparked by so-cons.
Cut across party lines and examine the faces standing with Senators and MPs in support of all-party reports about poverty in Canada, issued in 2009 and 2010 respectively, and you'll see the presence of so-cons again. Poverty and homelessness aren't typically identified as socially conservative issues in the media. But we don't let the media define us.
For some commentators, the term so-cons isn't adequately marginalizing. So instead, they call us "theo-cons" -theological conservatives -who are guided in our policy and political efforts by our religious beliefs. Theo-cons have been presented by some as strange and scary. Yet Statistics Canada informs that in 2001 (the last long-form census) 84% of Canadians self-identified as having a personal religious affiliation, with 77% self-identifying as Christian and 12% as Evangelical. And it would be foolish to think that the views of these people aren't, in some way, guided by their religious convictions. Check your neighbour to your left and your right, because we "theo-cons" walk among you.
Along with Rick Hiemstra, director of research and media relations at the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, I recently wrote a report on evangelical voting trends in Canada between 1996 and 2008. The paper drew a lot of attention on Parliament Hill because it revealed the fluidity of the evangelical vote as it shifted from predominately Liberal support in 1996 to the Conservative Party in 2008. What many found particularly surprising was the increase in the vote that went to the NDP during that 12year period. The supposedly theo-coniest of the theo-cons appear to exhibit voting patterns not too different from the rest of Canadians.
As the evangelist John Wesley lay on his deathbed in 1791, he sent a note to British MP William Wilberforce, who was then leading the political battle to end the slave trade. Wesley, with an Evangelical eye to the long game (the Slave Trade Act didn't pass until 1807 and the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act passed in 1833 as Wilberforce lay in his own deathbed) wrote simply, and inspirationally, about the significance of standing contra mundum, "against the world." Sometimes it is necessary for the benefit of those around you to stand seemingly against everyone else, for the world's sake. What is good is not always immediately obvious or popular.
By the way, William Wilberforce, the abolitionist, was a theo-con. And, like Wilberforce, contemporary theo-cons are committed, not eccentric. And we're not a spent force yet.
? Don Hutchinson is vice-president of The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and director of the Centre for Faith and Public Life located in Ottawa.

Megaprojects for all?

Once Ottawa opens its wallet, it's hard to keep it shut. Case in point: After pledging federal support for $4.2-billion in loans to finance the Lower Churchill River hydroelectric development project in Newfoundland, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has promised to finance other megaprojects across the nation.
"The Lower Churchill project, we believe, is an essential opportunity for an entire region of the country -Atlantic Canada -to get off of fossil fuel electricity generation [and] move to a clean energy source," he told reporters. "We will make sure we offer, and are open to, similar projects in other regions of the country, equitably, including in Quebec." Ontario's Dalton McGuinty and Quebec's Jean Charest, who had made loud noises about the Lower Churchill announcement, can be expected to be first in line.
In fact, the federal government has been in the energysubsidy game for decades. Ontario, in particular, has benefitted from the billions of dollars that consecutive federal governments have plowed into Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, which provided the technology for Ontario's reactors. A 2006 report by Energy Probe confirms that if the money spent on AECL over 50 years had been invested at an inflation-adjusted rate of return of 7.5%, the total value of the investment to the Canadian economy today would be almost $200-billion. The oil industry also has received generous subsidies (though Mr. Harper is taking steps to curtail that).
Meanwhile, Quebec has been reaping a bonanza from its monopoly deal on power generated by the Upper Churchill since 1969. According to the government of Newfoundland, over the last four decades, Quebec has earned more than $19billion in profit as compared to only about $1-billion for Newfoundland.
Rather than toss taxpayer cash around the entire country, Mr. Harper should have made it clear that the Lower Churchill decision was a one-off designed to remedy this lopsided contractual arrangement between Newfoundland and Quebec. Instead, he's opened the door for yet another dreary -and expensive -round of regional me-too-ism.

Undermining the oil patch

On Tuesday, the Alberta government announced it would set aside two million hectares of land in and around the oil sands as an environmental preserve, about 20% of the total site. The declaration came out of the blue, catching many in the oil patch entirely off guard and immediately driving down oil-company stock prices. The plan is a lose-lose scheme. It will do little, if anything, to placate the oil sands' various environmental critics, but it will do much to trample property rights and drive away investment.
The real shock is that, to establish its eco-preserve, the Alberta government plans to break the mineral leases of as many as 14 energy and 10 mining companies that have bought rights to the vast deposits in northeastern Alberta.
Quite correctly, Mel Knight, the province's Sustainable Development Minister, promised compensation to rights holders in the form of refunds for the sums they have paid for Crown leases and the amount they have already spent on development and reclamation costs, plus interest. That means this move will be a huge loss for Alberta taxpayers, too. Compensation for the affected companies could run into the billions of dollars, not to mention the revenue the provincial treasury will lose as this land goes underdeveloped and no royalties on it are paid.
This is not the first time that Tory Premier Ed Stelmach and his Cabinet have attacked property rights in this manner. Over the past nine months, the Tories have forced through a pair of bills on right-of-ways for power transmission lines that effectively take away private landowners' rights to block a line crossing their property. The legislation also limits compensation and denies property owners recourse to the courts if they dislike how they have been treated.
Nor is this the Stelmach government's first attack on the oil industry, either. A 2008 proposal to change the province's royalty structure -to make "Big Oil" pay its "fair share," as Mr. Stelmach explained it -drove scores of drilling rigs out of the province and into neighbouring Saskatchewan. For nearly two years, until Mr. Stelmach's Tories relented, the tax grab depressed conventional oil activity in the province.
You would think the Alberta government would learn from its previous mistakes. Instead, it seems intent on repeating its errors. Mr. Stelmach already has announced he is stepping down, but hasn't set a date. The sooner the better, we'd say.

EDITORIAL : THE NEW STRAITS TIMES, MALAYSIA

MACC under scrutiny

LIGHTNING appears to have struck twice at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, and this time the damage will be lasting, unless swiftly repaired. A person in an extensive probe into the Customs Department, appearing at MACC, apparently on his own volition, was found dead from head injuries, having allegedly fallen three floors at its building in Kuala Lumpur. It would be wrong to speculate at this point on what actually happened, and the jumping to conclusions by some political parties and interest groups of MACC's guilt is uncalled for. The right thing to do is to insist on an exhaustive inquiry, as the prime minister has vowed. Indeed, Datuk Seri Najib Razak acknowledged that faith in MACC could be severely dented by the appearance of yet another body of a person who it had questioned.

It is now more than past time to reform critical aspects of MACC's operations, as MACC itself well knows. It had formed a review panel immediately after the death of political aide Teoh Beng Hock in July 2009, which recommended, among others, that interrogations should be conducted only on the ground floor. These safety measures are essential if MACC is to take a tougher line in its campaign against corruption. Case officers can be under pressure to produce results, and their subjects can be placed under similar duress. For a start, persons involved in MACC investigations must never be left alone while in custody. Everyone is agreed that corrupt practices are serious crimes that if unchecked would debilitate the country, and, thus, MACC must be equal to the task of interdicting them.
 

Malaysians cannot be lulled into believing that corruption is somehow necessary or subject to political calculation or to be pursued selectively. It should be prosecuted across the board, to include opposition politicians as much as government departments such as the Customs or Immigration. Given the deleterious impact of graft on society, an anti-corruption agency is an essential policing institution. It is where complaints are taken seriously, to be assiduously looked into. So crucial is its role that Transparency International, the global anti-corruption watchdog, has urged MACC not to lose heart while it undertakes urgent reforms. MACC's performance is key to both government and public support in its role of dragging the nation to the straight and narrow. Acting without fear or favour, the agency must inflict retribution on the corrupt and provide deterrence on terms that are beyond reproach. Coupled with appropriate sentences for offenders, such crimes can be quickly eliminated.

 

EDITORIAL : THE AUSTRALIAN, AUSTRALIA

 

Defence and the indefensible 

WOMEN in our defence forces are entitled to proper respect.

The Australian Defence Force Academy proudly espouses four institutional values: Do your best; Be honest; Respect others; Give everyone a fair go. It seems clear the final three values have been shredded in the so-called Skype-sex scandal. And as for the first, if this is ADFA's best handling of such a matter, then doing its best is clearly not good enough.

Putting aside all the institutional rules and legal technicalities of the matter, the incident as reported involved a reprehensible breach of faith between a young woman and a man. The male cadet who secretly turned a camera on his lover and broadcast their intimate moments to his mates has shown a flawed character that surely precludes him from aspiring to be an officer or a gentleman. If the facts are confirmed, he must be dismissed.

Likewise, any others who willingly joined in this betrayal of the young woman -- their fellow cadet -- have no place in our armed forces. Any other breaches of rules involving fraternising on campus, drinking or absence, pale into insignificance compared with this insensitive, disrespectful and intimidatory behaviour.

For the authorities at ADFA to force the victim to explain herself on other disciplinary matters while this terrible episode played out displayed amazing insensitivity and lack of awareness about the gravity of the transgression against her. Defence Minister Stephen Smith was right to make that clear, promptly and forcefully, and demand the defence forces improve their processes. This is no way to treat any young woman, let alone one who is in training to serve as a military officer for her country.

Sadly, young men and women will always find ways to put themselves in perilous situations. Those with character will find a way out and avoid trouble. Others will do the wrong thing, harm other people and damage their own prospects in life. Our defence forces, no matter their lofty aims and strict selection processes, cannot be quarantined from these vagaries. They must, however, learn to deal correctly with inappropriate behaviour.

If there are wider problems relating to entrenched cultures of abuse or intimidation, the answer is simple. Disrespectful behaviour should never be tolerated and the punishment should fit the crime. The Australian would hope that the first place we could expect that sort of discipline would be in our armed forces.

Smokescreen or deterrent? 

MS Roxon should deliver plain talking, not plain packaging.

Smoking rates in Australia have been falling for decades, without Health Minister Nicola Roxon's latest proposal for even more hideous cigarette packaging. In 1945, almost three-quarters of Australian men smoked. At the last count, the proportion of Australians aged 14 and over who smoked had fallen from 30.5 per cent in 1988 to 16.6 per cent.

The links between smoking, cancer, heart disease and other serious health problems are beyond dispute. Four out of five smokers say they would like to stop and the images on cigarette packets are already gruesome. So it is debatable, to say the least, whether ugly, olive-green packaging, uniform typeface for brand names, larger health warnings and more graphic photographs will deter hardcore nicotine addicts, most of whom spend more than $150 a week on their habit and put up with the inconvenience of not being allowed to smoke in most public and many private places. After all, the absence of attractive packaging has sadly done nothing to reduce consumer demand for heroin, marijuana, amphetamines and other illegal drugs.

The responsibility for personal behaviour, be it drug taking, snacking on junk food, couch-warming, drinking into a stupor or driving like a maniac rests with individuals.

Ms Roxon, who seems to enjoy the role of Nanny McPhee, should recognise the limits of self-righteous moral posturing. After the 70 per cent tax hike on alcopops in 2009, a cynical revenue-grab dressed up as a measure to deter binge drinking, sales of vodka, bourbon and other spirits soared as young women sought cheaper and stronger alternatives.

If government policy on smoking is driven purely by the need for Australians to give up a harmful habit, why aren't cigarettes, like many other drugs, made illegal or priced out of reach? Paying even more than $15 for a standard packet of 30 might deter more smokers than different packaging, although further hikes in excise would disproportionately hurt poorer families among whom smoking is more prevalent. Australia's 3.5 million regular cigarette smokers would be wise to seek help to kick the habit. But in a free society, if the people's representatives deem cigarettes should be legal, producers should be allowed to package and market them.

EDITORIAL : THE GUARDIAN, UK

 

Martin Rees: Prize war

Accepting a £1m prize for spiritual works does not make the astronomer royal a fraud or a hypocrite

There are evolutionary theorists who describe scorpion flies as rapists, and Nobel laureate economists who insist that affairs of the human heart are best grasped through cost-benefit analysis. Clever people are, if anything, especially prone to intellectual tunnel vision – recasting every discussion in terms of the one discipline they have mastered, with no regard for how ideas that enlighten in one context often make no sense elsewhere.
The proselytising atheists rounding on the astronomer royal, Sir Martin Rees, for accepting a £1m award from an idiosyncratic foundation fall into a similar trap. The stated aim of the Templeton prize is to reward "insight, discovery or practical works" that affirm "life's spiritual dimension", terms which will leave nonbelievers scratching their heads but will seem self-explanatory from many a religious point of view. The biologist and celebrity atheist Richard Dawkins damns Templeton for blurring the line between science and faith in the hope of leeching the esteem of the former. He has made quite a career of treating religious doctrines as scientific hypotheses and then demonstrating that they are wanting in this regard.
Of course they are. Words can be used to joke or emote as well as inform, and neither scripture nor indeed poetry can be understood by mistaking it for something else. Metaphors ought not be metamorphosed into literal claims, while the test for moral edicts is reflective introspection and not the weight of the evidence that defines the scientific domain. Faith is a professional problem for scientists only where it demands that they close their minds to the facts. Neither Newton's religion nor Einstein's God of sorts (who refused to play dice) got in the way of their work. Conversely, the occasional book-promoting blathering of Stephen Hawking, about how with physics we can variously know the mind of God or prove he is fiction, is utterly wide of the mark.
The question with Templeton is not whether it funds some wacky endeavours, but whether it does anything to undermine the core requirement of good science, namely falsification through the experimental method. Its 2006 study into the healing power of prayer on heart disease was bizarre, but the conscientiously reported results – that prayer made no difference to survival, and by raising false hope may actually have increased the risk of complications – do not suggest intellectual corruption.
As a declared atheist who attends church for the sake of tradition, and a non-believer who nonetheless believes good can come of belief, Sir Martin's mind is one that can cope with nuance, as well as work with laser-like precision. He is perfectly entitled to enjoy his prize.

New Europe: Old problems

Bailouts will not drive the eurozone or the EU through the floor – but both will need running repairs

Yesterday, Dublin. Today, Lisbon. Portugal's caretaker government now has to choose between going for a bridging loan, for which no fund or mechanism yet exists, or negotiating a bailout of anywhere between €70bn (£61bn) and €80bn. Whoever Portuguese voters choose in June's election, their true boss will be a German, Angela Merkel, whose government will be writing the terms of the loan. If the examples of Greece and Ireland are anything to go by, it will not make pleasant reading.
One of the features of the post-crisis world is that the "surplus countries" – those who export more to other nations than they import – call the shots. China is a surplus country; so is exporting powerhouse Germany, and in the eurozone, that makes Mrs Merkel the one who has to be obeyed. The German chancellor may argue that she should have such influence over the bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal, since it is her electorate who will end up having to shoulder most of the burden. Ja sicher. But the politics of these bailouts is what makes their economics so absurd. When dealing with a nation struggling to pay its loans, it would make more sense to restructure its debts – so they are paid back over a long period, say. In Ireland's case, that process should have gone hand in hand with an overhaul of the banking sector. Instead of which, euro bailouts have saddled supplicant countries with even more debt at high interest rates. This enables Mrs Merkel (and Nicolas Sarkozy) to show domestic taxpayers that their money is not being frittered away on feckless southern Europeans. It is indeed difficult to persuade Germans, who got their labour costs down, to pay for countries such as Portugal, who did not.
The European project was not supposed to be run this way. When Jacques Delors called the EU an unidentified political object, the economy was doing so well the union did not need to be defined. Gloriously, it seemed free to set its own rules. Since then, the EU has erred in both directions: two of the entry criteria for the eurozone – that deficits should be no higher than 3% of the GDP, and total debt 60% – turned out to be narrow and restrictive, and yet there were no contingency plans for undefined threats like a banking crisis. So each bailout has been ad hoc and panicky. Little wonder that Europeans are losing faith in the ability of their politicians to sort these continental contagions out, and are turning instead to "patriotic" alternatives, homespun attempts to erect national firewalls.
Our month-long New Europe series started with an ICM poll which revealed that only 20% of surveyed Europeans trusted their government to deal with their country's problems. Only 9% thought they would act honestly. Our neighbours and their political elites turned out to be in as much flux as we were, from the meltdown of Germany's CDU to the aspirations of France's Marine Le Pen, who has a real chance of repeating her father's 2002 performance by going through to a second presidential round. Europe's far right is on the rise. In Finland, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, it has populist messages which bundle immigration, crime, Islam and bailouts in one portable package, gift-wrapped for those who think that their identity, as well as their jobs and way of life, are being threatened.
Neither the union nor the eurozone will fall through the floor, but both will need running repairs. Yesterday's decision by the European Central Bank to raise interest rates shows it has some way to go before common sense triumphs over dogma. But the mood is far from being pre-revolutionary, as Marine Le Pen would have us believe, because the underlying principle of regional co-operation is more relevant today than it has been ever before. Unloved and inflexible, it is going to be some time before the union finds politicians capable of leading it, but find them it must.

In praise of… music to make you cry

So what if Nick Clegg cries to classical music? At least he's not a Robbie Williams fan

It's his party and he can cry if he wants to: Nick Clegg, according to this week's New Statesman, listens to classical music in the evening and sometimes cries. Good for him. As a hinterland for a Liberal leader that is healthier than Gladstone's search for fallen women, or Asquith's perpetual games of bridge. There's nothing weak about letting music enter the soul. Mr Clegg didn't name a particular piece and his choices on Desert Island Discs included only two classical items, neither particularly lachrymose, but at least that is one more than David Cameron, who chose a schmaltzy piece of Mendelssohn. It's hard to imagine the prime minister crying to anything much, though he admits to being a fan of the Smiths, whose dreary dirges ought to provoke tears of rage. What might bring a nostalgic glisten to Ed Miliband's eye? Disturbingly, he was reported to have picked Robbie Williams's Angels as a favourite during the Labour leadership election, which if true ought to have disqualified him from running. Gordon Brown would surely be stirred by something Scottish and emotional: Rod Stewart's Rhythm of My Heart, perhaps, "no never will I roam, for I know my place is home", which might account for his absence from the Commons. But for politicians, there is really only one appropriate English classical tearjerker: Purcell's When I Am Laid in Earth. Its lyrical warning about the perils of ambition ought to set them all sobbing: "Remember me, remember me, but ah! forget my fate."

EDITORIAL : THE NEW YORK TIMES, USA

 

It’s Not Really About Spending

If the federal government shuts down at midnight on Friday — which seems likely unless negotiations take a sudden turn toward rationality — it will not be because of disagreements over spending. It will be because Republicans are refusing to budge on these ideological demands:

• No federal financing for Planned Parenthood because it performs abortions. Instead, state administration of federal family planning funds, which means that Republican governors and legislatures will not spend them.
• No local financing for abortion services in the District of Columbia.
• No foreign aid to countries that might use the money for abortion or family planning. And no aid to the United Nations Population Fund, which supports family-planning services.
• No regulation of greenhouse gases by the Environmental Protection Agency.
• No funds for health care reform or the new consumer protection bureau established in the wake of the financial collapse.
Abortion. Environmental protection. Health care. Nothing to do with jobs or the economy; instead, all the hoary greatest hits of the Republican Party, only this time it has the power to wreak national havoc: furloughing 800,000 federal workers, suspending paychecks for soldiers and punishing millions of Americans who will have to wait for tax refunds, Social Security applications, small-business loans, and even most city services in Washington. The damage to a brittle economy will be substantial.
Democrats have already gone much too far in giving in to the House demands for spending cuts. The $33 billion that they have agreed to cut will pull an enormous amount of money from the economy at exactly the wrong time, and will damage dozens of vital programs.
But it turns out that all those excessive cuts they volunteered were worth far less to the Republicans than the policy riders that are the real holdup to a deal. After President Obama appeared on television late Wednesday night to urge the two sides to keep talking, negotiators say, the issue of the spending cuts barely even came up. All the talk was about the abortion demands and the other issues.
Democrats in the White House and the Senate say they will not give in to this policy extortion, and we hope they do not weaken. These issues have no place in a stopgap spending bill a few minutes from midnight.
A measure to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions came up for a Senate vote on Wednesday and failed. If Republicans want to have yet another legislative debate about abortion and family planning, let them try to pass a separate bill containing their restrictions. But that bill would fail, too, and they know it, so they have chosen extortion.
The lack of seriousness in the House is reflected in the taunting bill it passed on Thursday to keep the government open for another week at an absurdly high cost of $12 billion in cuts and the ban on District of Columbia abortion financing. The Senate and the White House said it was a nonstarter. Many of the same House members who earlier had said they would refuse to approve another short-term spending bill voted for this one, clearly hoping they could use its inevitable failure in the Senate to blame the Democrats for the shutdown. What could be more cynical?
The public is not going to be fooled once it sees what the Republicans, pushed by Tea Party members, were really holding out for. There are a few hours left to stop this dangerous game, and for the Republicans to start doing their job, which, if they’ve forgotten, is to serve the American people.

Keeping Ahead of Qaddafi

Wars are messy business, and the international effort to keep Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces from slaughtering Libyan rebels and civilians is proving no exception. In recent days, the colonel has thwarted NATO airstrikes by regrouping his forces into densely populated areas. That has left NATO with a seemingly impossible choice: leave some of the regime’s most deadly weapons unmolested, or target them and risk possibly heavy civilian casualties.

There is a much better option: the American A-10 and AC-130 aircraft used earlier in the Libya fighting and still on standby status. President Obama should authorize these planes to fly again under NATO command. Unlike the highflying supersonic French and British jets now carrying the main burden of the air war, these American planes can fly slow enough and low enough to let them see and target Colonel Qaddafi’s weapons without unduly endangering nearby populations.

Mr. Obama was right to insist that other participating nations should step up and that the operation be quickly transferred to non-American NATO command. United States forces are already overstretched — and bearing much of the burden in Iraq and Afghanistan — and Libya’s uprising is unfolding on Europe’s doorstep.

European commanders are fully capable of running the show, and European jet fighters can certainly destroy military targets on desert roads and sparsely populated areas. But no other country has aircraft comparable to America’s A-10, which is known as the Warthog, designed to attack tanks and other armored vehicles, or to the AC-130 ground-attack gunship, which is ideally suited for carefully sorting out targets in populated areas.

In a war where rebel ground forces are struggling to train and organize themselves, and foreign ground forces are out of the question, these specialized American planes provide a unique and needed asset. Mr. Obama should make them available to NATO commanders now.

A Horror at Every Turn

Cleve Foster, a former Army recruiter convicted of murder, was scheduled to be executed earlier this week in Huntsville, Tex., when the Supreme Court rightly granted a stay pending a review of his case.

There are so many reasons why the death penalty should be repealed everywhere. It is barbaric, and a terrifyingly high number of innocent defendants have been placed on death row or executed. Mr. Foster’s petition makes a strong case that, but for his ineffective state-appointed trial lawyer, he would not have been sentenced to death and that the evidence against him leaves conspicuous room for doubt about his guilt. It also makes a strong case that, but for the weakness of a second state-appointed lawyer who filed a writ of habeas corpus, he would have been granted a new trial.

The Supreme Court must decide whether Texas violated Mr. Foster’s rights by providing an ineffective habeas lawyer. The answer must be, “Of course.” Otherwise, the state will be allowed to pretend to satisfy his right to be heard while callously denying it. “This is my Life,” Mr. Foster wrote the lawyer when he fired him. “I feel you treated me Like a Dog.”

The means for Mr. Foster’s planned execution are also tainted. Last month, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said it would use pentobarbital as the sedative in place of sodium thiopental in the state’s three-drug lethal injection protocol. (Spookily, in apparent violation of federal law, it was sent using a federal license number registered to the Huntsville Unit Hospital, which was shut down in 1983 because of its abysmal treatment of prisoners.)

Rick Thaler, director of the Correctional Institutions Division, made the switch to the new, unproven protocol without consulting any doctors or other medical professionals. Also in apparent violation of federal law, the prison system is not following prescribed steps to safeguard the drug to ensure there is no tampering.

The suffering of any inmate during execution is inexcusable. The execution of an innocent person is an even greater horror. The Supreme Court should give Mr. Foster the chance to prove his innocence.

The Mess at the Top of New York’s Schools

The New York City schools chancellor, Cathleen Black, acted in the best interest of the city’s schoolchildren on Thursday when she stepped down after 95 days on the job.

Ms. Black’s tenure was far too short to judge her ability to do one of the hardest jobs in the city, but she had been in political trouble from the day she started, partly because she had no professional experience in education. Facing suspicious parents and community groups, she had a tendency to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Once, she joked at a public meeting that birth control was the solution to classroom overcrowding.

Missteps like that one, combined with growing discontent within the Education Department itself, made her position untenable. And Mayor Michael Bloomberg had himself to blame for this mess. He chose her through a process that was far too secretive and sudden and then overrode every objection to push her into the job.

On Thursday, Mayor Bloomberg made a sensible, solid choice by nominating Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott to succeed her. Mr. Walcott will need approval from the state education commissioner, David Steiner, but that should not be a problem since he has been extensively involved in education and has master’s degrees in education and social work.

He has overseen the city Education Department for the Bloomberg administration for nearly a decade. He began his career as a kindergarten teacher in the 1970s, served on the New York City Board of Education during the 1990s and worked extensively on schooling issues for at-risk children as chief executive officer of the New York Urban League. He knows his way around the City Council and the State Legislature.

He also faces enormous challenges. He must quickly rebuild the Education Department’s leadership, which has been devastated by high-profile resignations. He faces a huge budget shortfall that will almost certainly require layoffs. At the same time, he must prepare the school system for the higher standards and curriculum revisions that were recently embraced by the state Board of Regents.

EDITORIAL : THE GLOBAL TIMES, CHINA

Political activism cannot be a legal shield

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is being investigated over "suspected economic crimes," according to authorities Thursday. Some Western media outlets immediately questioned the charge as a "catch-all crime," and insisted on interpreting the case in their own way.

Western media claimed that Ai was "missing" or had "disappeared" in previous reports, despite their acknowledgement of Ai's detainment. They used such words to paint the Chinese government as a "kidnapper."

Now they describe the police's charge as "laughable" and flout the spirit of the law. They depict anyone conducting anti-government activities in China as being innocent, and as being exempt unconditionally from legal pursuit.

Diplomats and officials from countries such as the US and Germany on Wednesday rebuked China once again over human rights. A mayor from South Korea also issued a statement pressuring China to release Ai soon. Such intensive intervention has barely been seen in China of late.

Ai's detention is one of the many judicial cases handled in China every day. It is pure fantasy to conclude that Ai's case will be handled specially and unfairly. The era of judicial cases involving severely unjust, false or wrong charges has gone.

Nowadays, corrupt officials and the occasional dissident may view their own cases as being handled unfairly: The former believe their merits offset faults, and the latter see China's legal system as maintaining an "illegal" existence. Ai once said China was living a "crazy, black" era. This is not the mainstream perception among Chinese society.

China's legal system ensures the basic order of this large-scale country. It guarantees the balanced development of civil livelihood and social establishment. Besides, it maintains an economic order that not only propels domestic growth but also generates foreign exchange powerful enough to purchase US treasury bonds.

The integrated legal system is the framework of China. The West wants to bring changes to this framework, shaping it as they please, and transforming the nation into a compliant puppet. They have succeeded in creating many such puppets around the world.

China is not the dangerous place of Western description. Otherwise, Ai would not have returned to China from the US, and Western diplomats and businessmen would not view China as the best place for doing business. But like other safe places in the world, China is only safe for law-abiding citizens, and nobody is allowed to see illegal acts go unpunished.

The charge of "suspected economic crimes" does not mean Ai will be found guilty. The case should be handled properly through legal procedures, and Western pressure should not weigh upon the court's decision. 

If Ai's "suspected economic crimes" are justified, the conviction should not consider his "pro-democracy" activities. The only relation between the two is probably the lesson that anyone who engages in political activities needs to keep "clean hands."

If Ai is found not guilty, his acquittal should transcend politics too. However the authorities should learn to be more cautious and find sufficient evidence before detaining public figures next time.

 

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY YOMIURI, JAPAN

 

Excessive self-restraint may hinder recovery

The Yomiuri Shimbun

It will soon be one month since the Great East Japan Earthquake struck the nation on March 11. The prevailing atmosphere in Japan is one of serious and somber jishuku (self-restraint).
Various artistic activities, sports events and even traditional festivals have been canceled or postponed.
A great many people died in the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. An even larger number are still missing, and many people are being forced to endure difficult living conditions at evacuation facilities.
In the Tokyo metropolitan area, there is a serious power shortage due to the accidents at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co.
We understand how, given these circumstances, people tend to think everything should be conducted in a subdued manner.
However, too much self-restraint will strip away peace of mind and plenitude from everyday life, and destroy the nation's vitality. This will drag down economic activity, which will hinder recovery efforts in areas hit by the disaster.
For the entire nation to recover its energy, it is important to return to the normal rhythms of everyday life.
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Blossom viewing discouraged
While taking care to save power, we must cast off this atmosphere of excessive self-restraint and proceed with scheduled events. That is the quickest way to facilitate Japan's recovery from the disaster, despite the great damage we have suffered.
The cherry blossom season is now advancing from south to north, but moves to refrain from cherry blossom viewing have been spreading throughout the country. The Tokyo metropolitan government has been asking people to refrain from holding cherry blossom-viewing parties in parks under its administration, including Ueno Park, one of the most famous cherry blossom-viewing spots in the nation.
It would of course be out of the question for people to sing loudly and display shameful behavior at such parties, under unnecessary bright lights at night.
However, what is wrong with families and friends gathering in daytime to view the flowers?
Throughout the country, traditional festivals have been canceled or reduced in scale, including the Sanja Matsuri festival in the Asakusa district of Taito Ward, Tokyo, and the grand spring festival at Toshogu shrine in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture. Events planned during the festivals have mostly been canceled.
However, some festivals are being held as scheduled, so prayers can be said for the recovery of disaster-hit areas and the repose of victims' souls. One example is the Inuyama Matsuri festival held in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, on Saturday and Sunday. Donations to help survivors were collected at the event.
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Events would cheer survivors
We believe holding festivals in such a manner will boost the significance of the events.
The Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra, based in Sendai, temporarily suspended its regular concerts after the quake. Since late last month, however, it has been giving small ensemble performances of music on street corners and other places in Sendai. It plans to perform in the worst-hit areas as well.
The start of this year's professional baseball season has been delayed, and Tokyo Dome is studying how to save electricity by adjusting lighting and air-conditioning.
Even in adverse situations, culture, art and sporting activity enrich people's minds. They will certainly provide great encouragement to those who have suffered as a result of the quake and tsunami.
Nevertheless, the cases of the Inuyama festival and the Sendai Philharmonic are exceptional. The mood of self-restraint remains strong, hindering people from buying things or traveling.
Even though the spring sightseeing season has arrived, many individuals and groups have reportedly called off trips and canceled their bookings at hotels.
In the Tohoku region, in particular, even tourist spots and business sectors not directly hit by the quake and tsunami are being affected seriously. Some are calling these developments secondary damage following the direct impact of the massive quake.
How should we support these regions and industries?
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Kan must appeal to people
Yoshiyasu Ono, an economist and adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, has said excessive restraint will hinder post-quake reconstruction efforts. He advocates what he calls a "Buy Tohoku" campaign to actively purchase goods produced in the Tohoku region.
Abundant in both marine and agricultural products, the Tohoku region is also known for its rice production. It produces many traditional crafts with rich local color. If people actively buy these products, it will provide a marked boost to the economy.
Kan should take the lead in sweeping away the mood of self-restraint. He must call on the people to stop being overly sensitive to the situation in the wake of the disaster and resume their normal lives.

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY MIRROR, SRILANKA

WORLD CUP: FROM GLORY TO GORY

When former sports minister C.B. Ratnayake branded the current Interim Committee running Sri Lanka Cricket as the most corrupt public institution in the country, he put himself on a shaky wicket and became an umpire whose verdicts were ignored when the powers that be virtually forced him to retain the same committee.

Like most people, we have little respect for politicians in terms of integrity, high principales and sincere sacrificial service to the people.  So Mr. Ratnayake was forced to overrule himself but today somewhere far away from the boundary lines, he must be knowing he has been vindicated because cricket, the pride and joy of our country and Sri Lanka Cricket are at sixes and sevens.

Not that celebrating the downfall of someone or some organization is an accepted norm of decency, but what else can right-thinking people do other than cheer when the rot is exposed in a country where hypocrisy, double games and bluff blaze high on the scoreboard.

With captain Kumar Sangakkara and vice captain Mahela Jayewardena stepping down from their posts in the Sri Lanka team, the selectors resigning for reasons best known to them and a report highlighting that the game’s administration has gone bankrupt, Mr. Ratnayake must be on a good wicket  realising he is no longer the head of a so-called sports ministry that is supposed to ensure not winning or losing but how we play the game.

Most cricket fans believe that little or nothing will change in cricket administration. For when one set of questionable characters leave, another set of the same breed, or may be others even worse, enter the fray for their turn. Many believe that the government itself must take a large part of the responsibility for the recent debacles and setbacks. This started some 10 years ago when the government stepped in with interim committees and their stooges being brought in to run if not ruin cricket.

It seems now that some people are shedding cricket tears for the thousands of people who were cheated without tickets to witness the World Cup at their doorstep. When millions of rupees were ripped off in the name of the World Cup, these opportunists were  asleep and should ask themselves what wisdom is there left in crying foul after the match is over.

At least the lilywhites or purists will have just one man in the whole world to thank for the string of resignations. For if not for Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s innings of 91, Sri Lanka would have won the World Cup and the maggots and leeches would have been swept under the turf.

The question must now be asked whether the selectors headed by Aravinda de Silva resigned for the reasons they have stated or to save face over a historic selection blunder at the final. Will their resignations be seen as hoodwinking the public to stave off any impending inquiry, the outcome of which will never be made public.

Kumar Sangakkara may have had his reasons to resign, but we take off our caps to him for he had the wisdom to speak out honestly and openly in an establishment where the score books are filled with deception and double talk.

EDITORIAL : THE HINDU, INDIA

 

End to a misguided saga at the UN

Good sense has finally registered a victory at the United Nations. The countries of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) have given up a 12-year long drive to have the U.N. accept the idea of “defamation of religions” and incorporate it in international human rights law. From 1999, the U.N. General Assembly, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, and its successor body since 2006, the U.N. Human Rights Council, annually passed OIC-sponsored resolutions that sought to protect religions, particularly Islam, from “defamation.” Muslim countries saw these resolutions as necessary to defend the religion from the post-9/11 Islamophobia in the West. Incidents such as the Danish cartoons strengthened the campaign, and the OIC pushed to bring the issue on a par with racism. But human rights law protects individual freedoms rather than groups of people. The idea that a religion can be defamed places it in conflict with the freedom of expression, thought, and opinion, blurring the lines between criticism of, and critical thinking about, religion on the one hand, and incitement to hatred. The resolution also raised concerns about opening the doors to an “international blasphemy law” and providing a justification for the suppression of religious minorities, non-believers, and political dissidents. Every year, the resolution was hard-fought and divisive. Support for it dropped in the last two years as the OIC pushed for adoption of an internationally binding standard on this issue, with more countries voting against or abstaining (India in the latter group) than supporting. The recent assassinations in Pakistan of two brave opponents of the country's blasphemy law — Punjab Governor Salman Taseer and Federal Minister Shahbaz Bhatti — appear to have finally sunk the effort. On March 24, the HRC unanimously adopted a resolution on “Combating Intolerance and Violence against Persons Based on Religion or Belief” that contained no reference to “defamation.”

The Koran-burning episode in Florida reminded the world that concern among Muslims that their religion is being targeted is not baseless. A fierce backlash in Afghanistan has claimed the lives of 24 people, including seven U.N. employees. Worldwide, there are innumerable instances of prejudice and bias against Muslims. But as Asma Jahangir, the eminent Pakistani human rights lawyer, pointed out to a U.N. committee deliberating the defamation resolution back in 2009, education and dialogue among religions would be more effective than legislation at promoting tolerance. Moreover, existing human rights laws provide a strong framework through which countries, and the international community, can fight discrimination without endangering other freedoms. 

Obama's betrayal

The announcement by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-professed mastermind behind 9/11, will be tried by a military commission at Guantánamo Bay, and not by a U.S. federal court, is a serious betrayal of a human rights and political promise Barack Obama made as he began his presidential term. The promise was to shut down the notorious detention and torture centre within a year. Now President Obama has decided not to veto a Republican-inserted budget clause that bars the use of Department of Defense funds to transfer Guantánamo detainees to the U.S. His excuse might be the pragmatic need to back away from a showdown with the Congress, which would mean confronting an intensely partisan Republican majority in the House of Representatives. Another influential opponent of terrorism trials on U.S. territory is New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He originally favoured trying Mr. Mohammed in New York but then changed his mind, saying the security arrangements alone would cost over $400 million. The opponents of trying the jihadist in the U.S. have exploited widespread public apprehension that such trials would again make the country a target for terrorists.

Trial by a military commission at Guantánamo Bay is a travesty, by any rule of law and human rights standard. The commissions can admit some evidence obtained under coercion; they apply criminal law retroactively; they have applied rules of evidence inconsistently; and they cannot try U.S. citizens. As the international NGO Human Rights Watch points out, these tribunals are “highly vulnerable to appellate challenge” and could be ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. As for the costs and risks entailed by a proper trial in the U.S., these are exaggerated. After all, in 2010 Guantánamo detainee Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was tried without incident in New York for plotting al-Qaida attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa; he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Some of the hostility to federal trials may stem from the fact that Ghailani was convicted on only one of the 286 charges against him. But the commissions themselves have succeeded in convicting only six of more than 770 defendants. U.S. civilian courts, by contrast, have convicted hundreds of people on terrorism charges since 9/11. The advocates of military commissions at Guantánamo just don't seem to get it: these trials offend every canon of human rights, national sovereignty, and the rule of law, and the convictions are asking to be overturned on appeal.

 

EDITORIAL : THE DAWN, PAKISTAN

 

US report

DO we really need the US to inform us about the deficiencies of our government? Its frailties and alleged wrongdoings are well known to the citizens of Pakistan, thanks primarily to a largely free media as well as an inbuilt cynicism fuelled by a series of dubious dispensations in Islamabad. The latest biannual report submitted to Congress by the White House paints a bleak picture of governance in Pakistan and points to the shortcomings of an administration that is apparently so involved in political wrangling that it cannot address core issues such as the economy. Again, this is not news for the people. At the same time it should be noted that such reports are mandatory, a routine affair, and need not be construed as a terminal indictment of Islamabad. The US needs Pakistan in the fight against militancy, and what the White House says in public may not be reflective of negotiations taking place behind the scenes.

And that`s a key point here. The US may have concerns about the viability of the Pakistan government but such matters are best discussed in private. Airing its displeasure in public helps neither Islamabad nor Washington. A government that is not short of critics at home only comes under increased pressure when an ostensible ally such as the US chooses to point out its shortcomings, be they real or not. Washington would also do well to remember that there is no shortage of anti-American sentiment in Pakistan and there are plenty of conservative and right-wing politicians here who will jump at the chance to exploit any perceived slight. As it is, there are deep suspicions among the public about America`s role in Pakistan and many are convinced that we are fighting someone else`s war. That is not entirely true, for this is our own battle as well, but inflammatory statements do not help either side`s cause.

Questioning the Pakistan Army`s commitment to the fight against militancy, such as its reluctance to begin a full-fledged operation against the Taliban in North Waziristan, is another sore point. While our military`s services in countering the Taliban have often been acknowledged by US commanders and some top officials in Washington, such praise is routinely followed by criticism that can only strain the relationship between the two countries. Consider this: Pakistan`s armed forces have deployed close to 150,000 troops in the tribal areas and a significant number of servicemen have died in the battlefield. What more can this country do? The US-led alliance, which is now mulling over its Afghan exit strategy, must respect the resilience shown on this side of the Durand Line.

Tax on agriculture

THE State Bank of Pakistan has estimated the rupee value (at current prices) of agricultural goods — including crops and livestock — produced during the last fiscal to be Rs3tr, or a little less than the industrial output of Rs3.2tr. This reflects what SBP Governor Shahid Kardar recently described as a “structural shift” of incomes towards the untaxed sectors. There is no denying that rising rural incomes have sustained industrial growth during the last couple of years in the face of one of Pakistan`s worst economic slumps. However, agricultural incomes remain out of the tax net. Mr Kardar worries rightly that this shift will defeat efforts to increase the country`s tax-to-GDP ratio of less than nine per cent — one of the lowest in the world. Thus, the shift of incomes away from taxpaying sectors demands that non-taxpaying sectors like agriculture be immediately brought into the tax net. Big growers hold that the implementation of agricultural income tax is not feasible because of fractured landholdings, especially in central and lower Punjab. What about the incomes of big landholders in south Punjab and Sindh? Why should they be exempted from paying tax? This is against the principle of an equitable tax system.

They also argue that the agriculture sector is already burdened by indirect taxes. The unwillingness of the provinces to levy income tax on big landholders has led to the imposition of various indirect federal levies on farm inputs. This is unfair to smaller farmers. The rising commodity prices make a good case for taxing rural incomes directly to protect smaller growers from indirect taxation and raising revenue for development. While the escalation of agricultural incomes is good for the country`s vast population living in villages, this must not shift the focus from the dire need to boost productivity. The current rural prosperity is driven by the escalation in global commodity prices rather than increased productivity. Our agriculture yields per acre remain one of the lowest in the region. The revenues generated from agricultural income tax could be invested in improving technology, water management and research for raising crop yields.

Bid to exonerate Israel

THE UN has done well to pre-empt any move to modify, much less nullify, the Goldstone report that accused Israel of war crimes in Gaza in 2008-09. More than a year and a half after the report that bore his name was published, Richard Goldstone wrote in a newspaper article recently he regretted certain aspects of the findings because it did not contain the Israeli version. A spokesman for the UN Human Rights Council said the world body would not review the report on the basis of a newspaper article. While the two other members of the four-person commission have not yet reacted, Hina Jilani, Pakistan`s HR activist who was on the panel, said nothing could invalidate the report. “If it does happen”, she said “it would be seen as a suspect move”.

As remarked by Dawn in its editorial of Sept 17, 2009, the Goldstone report did not break any new ground because even while the war was going on, Human Rights Watch reported that Israeli artillery was using a white phosphorus incendiary agent which burns the human skin, and its firing was indiscriminate, hitting civilian targets, including a mosque. That a revision of the findings would be “a suspect move” became crystal clear when an Israeli spokesman remarked that Mr Goldstone understood well “the Jewish people`s suffering” and said the South African judge, a Jew himself, wanted the report to be nullified. The issue here is not the Jewish people`s suffering, which should not be made an excuse for inflicting suffering on the Palestinian people; the issue is whether the Israeli forces committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip. The HRW observations and the Goldstone report agree that they did indeed. What is needed is not the revision of the UN report but to mete out justice to war criminals.

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY STAR, BANGLADESH

 

Rivers unprotected as ever

Enforcement of law pressing urgency

To all appearances, the rivers and other water bodies surrounding the capital city see doomed, as the law prohibiting their illegal occupation has never been respected. Even a government agency like the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) itself has been found to violate court order by erecting business establishments in the filled parts of Buriganga river at Sadarghat in the city. It has even built a jetty by filling up Shitalakhya River at Kanchpur in violation of High Court Order of June 25, 2009 to demolish all such structures. Do these instances not open the door for the vested quarters to go ahead with illegal grabbing with impunity? And what worries us further is that even if in certain cases where the Wetland and Open Spaces Conservation Act, 2000, has been enforced to bring the violators to justice, they evaded punishment through legal loopholes. That leaves one wondering, if the violators of the river protection law are more powerful than the government and the court?

There is no instance so far of any one breaking the provisions of the Wetland and Open Space Conservation Act 2000, which saw an amendment in 2009, getting duly punished. In one recent case, a river grabber at Kamrangirchar of the city was detained. But that could hardly discourage others committing the same offence. Ironically, recently the DoE stopped a member of the River Saving Task Force', also a lawmaker, from filling up a canal without due permission. Stranger still, the lawmaker later again sought DoE's permission to continue the illegal work.

Against this disappointing background, the rivers and other water bodies, wetlands and open spaces will continue to be an easy prey to the illegal occupiers. The government, if it is serious about protecting those should put its foot down on the errant. In a similar vein, the media, the pro-environment groups, the civil society and all others concerned must carry out a stronger and more forceful campaign to save our rivers, various water bodies and wetlands from the unrelenting violators of the law.

Destroying a teenager's future

Time for firm action against perpetrators

What the Rapid Action Battalion has done to the young Limon Hossain of Jhalakati district is a clear outrage. The young man, aged sixteen, has had one of his legs amputated because some trigger-happy member of the force shot him at close range on the unsubstantiated charge that he is a member of a terrorist gang. The truth, as has since become known, is that the RAB personnel accosted Limon as he stepped out of his home to collect his family cattle, asked him about an individual they were looking for and then shot him the moment he answered in the negative. The young man, who was looking forward to taking part at the HSC examinations the next day, then bled for three hours before being taken all the way to Dhaka. By then, his leg had become useless.

This atrocity raises once more the question of the impunity with which RAB has been operating for years. Its allegation that Limon is a terrorist is rendered meaningless considering all the positive reports which have come from Limon's teachers, family and neighbours about his background. Like millions of others in rural Bangladesh, he struggles with poverty, works in a brick kiln for paltry wages and even borrows clothes from others in order to make a decent appearance in class. When RAB now charges him with criminality (it has filed two cases against him), one is impelled to ask if such insensitivity and impunity on its part can any more be ignored.

It is clear that the future of the young man has been damaged beyond repair. We demand swift action against those who shot Limon. It is indeed shocking that, even as we write this editorial, no one in the government has promised action against the RAB men behind this outrage. Are the authorities yet in denial mode about RAB excesses? It is the collective conscience of a nation that has now been aroused. It becomes everyone's duty to demand justice. It is for the government to go after the perpetrators of this grisly deed.