EDITORIAL : THE KOREA HERALD, SOUTH KOREA

No let up on politicians

Prosecutors investigating the irregularities at Busan Savings Bank abruptly suspended their probe Friday. They sent testifiers home and walked out of their offices. They did not come to work on Saturday or Sunday either.

It was a protest against a decision by lawmakers to abolish the prosecution’s most powerful investigation unit ― the Central Investigation Department of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.

It was not just the CID prosecutors investigating the savings bank scandal who were shocked and infuriated. The entire prosecution sizzled with anger. Prosecutor General Kim Joon-gyu is to meet with senior prosecutors today to discuss how they will respond to the parliamentary assault on their organization.

The lawmakers who rattled the prosecution are members of the prosecution reform subcommittee of the Parliamentary Committee on Judicial Reform. They have grappled with their task since February last year. In March this year, they concluded that the CID should to be dismantled because its immense investigative power has often been politically abused.

On Friday, the subcommittee agreed to revise the Public Prosecutors’ Office Act to set its conclusion in stone. Since the agreement was reached between lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties, there is little possibility of it being overturned in the legislative process.

The backlash from the prosecutors is understandable, given the central role the CID has thus far played in investigating high-profile corruption cases involving presidential aides and relatives, top government officials, powerful politicians and business big shots.

What made the prosecutors particularly furious was the timing of the lawmakers’ move. It came right after investigators identified the first two politicians suspected of having taken bribes from the insolvent savings banks. They were Rep. Gong Sung-jin of the ruling Grand National Party and Im Jong-seok, a former lawmaker of the Uri Party, the governing party of the Roh Moo-hyun government.

Prosecutors said Shin Sam-gil, honorary chairman of Samhwa Mutual Savings Bank who was indicted in April on charges of extending some 70 billion won worth of illegal loans, has testified to giving 3 to 5 million won a month to each of the two politicians starting in 2005.

Against this backdrop, prosecutors denounced the lawmakers’ move as a thinly veiled attempt to interrupt their probe as the cozy relationship between politicians and the insolvent savings banks was beginning to come to light.

They said media reports of the lawmakers’ plan would deal a blow to their investigation, since suspects involved in the scandal might choose to keep their mouths shut thinking the investigation would soon come to an end with the dissolution of the CID.

Prosecutors also argued that the parliamentary intervention in the prosecution’s affairs was ultimately intended to set up a protective wall that would make prosecution of lawmakers involved in corruption more difficult.

Without doubt, prosecutors have a valid case. But this does not justify their suspension of investigation into Busan Savings Bank or defiance of the parliamentary decision to disband the CID. They simply have no right to challenge the National Assembly’s legislative authority.

Prosecutors need to reflect on what motivated lawmakers to pursue prosecution reform in the first place. It was their failure to maintain political neutrality and independence and prevent the abuse of their prosecutorial power. Had they used their discretionary power of indictment more independently and fairly, they would have been spared the humiliation of being forced to dissolve the CID, one of their sources of pride.

In this respect, what prosecutors ought to do now is not suspending but stepping up investigation into politicians suspected of being involved in the savings bank scandal. They should investigate suspects thoroughly without any political considerations.

Up to now, their probe has been decisive. The long list of arrested officials demonstrates their determination to get to the bottom of the scandal. They need to maintain the current resolve throughout the investigation to regain the public’s confidence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

EDITORIAL : THE RFI english, FRANCE

 

 

French weekly magazines review

 

France continues to be gripped by debate over its tolerance of the sexual adventures of the political elite. The French papers have been eager to answer charges that they ignored or tacitly approved the predatory instincts of some male politicians.

Since ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was paraded in handcuffs on television screens for alleged rape, several more scandals have surfaced. A junior minister with a penchant for erotic foot massage on women has resigned and police are investigating allegations of a hushed-up paedophilia scandal in Morocco linked to an unidentified former minister.

Dossier: Strauss-Kahn

Weekly Le Canard Enchaîné makes spicy revelations about how the Elysée handled the sexual assault allegations facing junior minister Georges Tron.

Le Canard explains that the outbreak of the scandal hit the president’s office like thunder, sparking a flurry of damage-control phone calls between the Elysée and the prime minister’s office. According to the paper, strategists at the Elysée had been banking on a facelift for president Nicholas Sarkozy, after the humiliating exit from the 2012 elections of the Socialist presidential front runner Dominique Straus-Kahn.

Le Canard Enchaîné runs remarks allegedly uttered by President Nicolas Sarkozy saying he would have preferred to learn about George Tron massaging the feet of his arch rival Dominique de Villepin than those of women. The paper claims that the president has ordered tighter screening of people vying for ministerial portfolios, following the outbreak of the Tron affair. In its typical style, it jokes that Tron qualifies under the new rules to become “junior minister in charge of human foot affair".

In its cover story , L’Express wonders why politicians are so crazy about sex?

The "post-DSK" malaise has struck at the heart of France's image as a haven for flirtatious gallantry. The magazine investigates the pathology and found out that the virus is known as sexus politicus. It’s got strains of “Don Juanism, machismo, womanising, heavy-handed chat-up techniques and abuse of power".

L’Express also found out that, while France appears to be the epicentre, the disease has also ravaged careers even in puritan "Anglo-Saxon" countries.

The right-wing magazine picked out five scandals caused by abuse of authority: the sentencing of ex-Israeli president Moshe Katsav to seven years in prison for rape, the Monica Lewinski affair that soiled Bill Clinton’s presidency, the "bunga bunga" sex parties of Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi, the extra-marital life of former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the rape case which haunts the career of South Africa’s polygamous leader Jacob Zuma.

L'Express says the macho attitude of male figures is a tradition inherited from absolute power.

That opinion is culled from a long interview granted to the journal by renowned historian Dmitri Casali who specialises in the Napoleonic era. Casali speaks of modern political history now being divided into two periods: using Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s initials: "The pre-DSK, and the dawning post-DSK" era .

Another right-wing magazine Le Point, samples the views of German philosopher Peter Sloterdijh on sex and the French state of mind. He tells the weekly  that “subconscious monarchical minds sacralising royal sperms” persist in France, adding that the much-touted American notion about the  equality of all before the law is a farce.

Le Nouvel Observateur agrees that France is a country of machos. The left-leaning weekly, runs a 12-page dossier to prove its point, stating that the blokes in power are behaving like cavemen. The weekly says the macho culture has proven to be subtle mechanism for self-censorship by the few women who have managed to join the political elite.

A recent government study quoted by the magazine says women make up just 30 per cent of the cabinet, 18 per cent of parliament and 21 per cent of the Senate. That’s a long way from the 40 per cent quota set by a parity law passed in 2007.

Up to 75,000 women are raped in France every year, according to Le Nouvel Observateur which points out that only 10 per cent of them take their cases to the courts.

While campaigners have welcomed the opportunity to draw back the veil over unreported crimes against women, Le Nouvel Observateur warns that the constant discussion of the topic in the media has stirred deep-seated traumas in many victims.

EDITORIAL : THE AZZAMAN, IRAQ

Iraq installs electronic meters to measure oil output and oil exports

Iraq has installed 67 new electronic meters to gauge oil output and exports.

The move comes after years of complaints that the country lacked modern means to measure its oil output and exports, making it easy and possible to doctor the numbers.

Dhiya al-Mawsawi, Director-General of Southern Oil Company, said the meters were the first batch and more should be in place to cover all the country’s oil wells and export terminals.

“These meters meet all prevalent international standards and are supervised by a third party,” Mawsawi said.

The meters will also be monitored by SOMO, Iraq’s oil export arm, and the Oil Ministry at the same time.

Without such meters it is almost impossible to measure the exact volume of oil produced and the amount that goes for exports.

It is not clear why Iraq waited so long before having such advanced meters in place, leading to reports of smuggling and fraud of both oil output and revenues.

Mawsawi said some of the meters were to be placed at the country’s refineries.

“We have contracts which we are going to sign so that we will have these meters (at oil wells, export terminals and production points) across the country,” he said.

EDITORIAL : THE TEHRAN TIMES, IRAN

Persian Press Review

Tehran Times Political Desk

This column features excerpts from news articles, editorials, commentaries, and interviews of the leading Iranian newspapers and websites.

Wednesday’s headlines

KAYHAN: Leader says Islamic Revolution has brought U.S. to its knees

HAMSHAHRI: President ordered a halt to increasing blood money payment to $90,000

TEHRAN-E EMROOZ: Forgetting ideals is unforgivable, Supreme Leader says

JAME JAM: Smoking will be banned in 123 parks in Tehran

KHORASAN: Velayat-e faqih (rule of the supreme jurisprudent) is the essence of the Islamic system, Hassan Khomeini (the grandson of Imam Khomeini) says

JAVAN: Technical failure delayed Merkel’s flight over Iran, Foreign Minister spokesman

IRAN: Slandering the president runs contrary to the recommendations of the Leader

QODS: Medvedev or Putin may attend Bushehr nuclear power plant inauguration ceremony

FARHIKHTEGAN: The daily gasoline consumption decreased to 57 million liters

Leading articles

In an interview with SHARQ newspaper, Masoumeh Ebtekar, the director of the Environment Committee of Tehran City Council, has criticized the government’s laxity on the issue of air pollution in Tehran. Following are excerpts of Ebtekar’s statements: It has been five or six years that the government has stopped dealing with the issue of air pollution in Tehran. Ebtekar said that the administration holds meetings at Tehran Province Governor General’s Office over this issue, but the meetings have not yield any result. Decreasing working hours have also not improved the situation. Unfortunately a number of 34 air pollution stations in Tehran are either closed or their air pollution monitoring detectors are out of work. The people deserve a better situation than this and if the situation continues, 8.5 million citizens will face a very difficult time

EDITORIAL : THE BANGKOK POST, THAILAND

 

Solar power has left the dream stage

Many people must have gotten a laugh out of the comments reported by Bloomberg on May 26 by some wild-eyed dreamer who thinks solar power-generated electricity can be cheaper to produce than fossil fuel-produced electricity in just five years' time.

But wait, this was no joke. These words were coming from Mark Little, global research director for General Electric Co, the company which since its formation in the early 1890s by Thomas Edison has been at the forefront of innovations in harnessing the natural phenomenon that is now indispensable to modern civilisation.

Today, the company is the world's biggest maker of jet engines, power-generation equipment, locomotives and medical imaging machines, and is ranked by Forbes magazine as the world's third largest company, with 287,000 employees globally.

The company announced in April that it had improved the efficiency of thin-film solar panels to 12.8%, a record, but other companies, particularly in China, are hot on their heels in the race to extract more energy from the sun's rays. At the same time, Bloomberg reported, the cost of solar cells has fallen 21% this year, and the cost of solar power is now about the same as the rate utilities charge for conventional power in the sunniest parts of California, Italy and Turkey.

These developments mean that the people who say renewable and truly clean energies can't yet compete with fossil fuels and nuclear power are wrong. This is especially true when the ''hidden'' environmental costs associated with these traditional energy generators are taken into account. BP has tried its best to limit its liability for last year's Gulf of Mexico oil spill, but it's still costing the company an estimated US$40 billion (1.21 trillion baht) in compensation and clean-up costs. There is no word yet on how much it will ultimately cost Tokyo Electric Power Co, which runs the ruined Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, to ''safely'' dispose of radioactive materials which include more than 100,000 tonnes of highly contaminated water in several of its reactors. Whatever price these companies must pay to try to mitigate the damages from these accidents, the costs to the planet are far greater, and we can be sure that such accidents will happen again.

The encouraging developments from GE and many other forward-looking companies do not mean that solar power could possibly replace fossil fuels as an energy source in five years. There are still formidable obstacles to overcome, particularly with private vehicles. Electric cars have a limited range and there are environmental hazards associated with the batteries needed to power them. We can expect that both of these areas will also see rapid improvement, although an electric engine in a commercial jet airliner is probably a long way off.

While GE and other alternative energy innovators are surely motivated in part by a desire to help the planet, their main concern is to make money. This will undoubtedly be a growth industry in the future, and Thailand should be positioning itself to take advantage of it. The same sort of tax breaks and other incentives that are given to foreign car makers to move to Thailand should be given to interested and viable alternative energy companies.

Sadly, we haven't heard much about this important issue from either major party in their campaign rhetoric. There is some good news on the home front, however. Thailand is considered the regional leader in solar energy and has the largest photovoltaic power plant in Southeast Asia, albeit a modest 44MW. The National Energy Policy has the stated goal of increasing the role of renewables in energy generation to 20% by 2022, and the government has given incentives to bring alternative energy industries to the Kingdom.

Andrew Beebe, chief commercial officer for China-based Suntech Power Holdings, the world's largest manufacturer of crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules, said recently: ''Countries in Southeast Asia, such as Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, may look to Thailand as they begin to craft legislation meant to encourage renewable energy generation.'' He added that Thailand is a promising location for solar energy, as the ''solar resources are some of the best in the world'', meaning that solar installations can more quickly make a solid return on their investments.

It is important to remember that solar energy need not be generated only at large solar installations, but can also be generated in the communities where it is used, provided the energy grid is made to accommodate small energy providers.

EDITORIAL : THE INDENDENT, IRELAND

           

 

Wise fools have had a busy week

Only an ignoramus could suggest that an intellectual dissertation about pederasty in Greek society should disqualify someone from running for the Presidency. There may be quite a few reasons why David Norris should not be the next Irish President, but the senator's 'foolish' decision to engage in an academic discourse with an eccentric restaurant critic about the sleeping arrangements in Plato's Symposium is not one of them.
The invidious whispers by media ignoramuses about how it is dangerous for a gay man to talk too much about Greek philosophers suggests the only thing that has changed from that time where Yeats would tell the mob "you have disgraced yourselves again" is the replacement of the Abbey theatre by Mr Joe Duffy. It would not, though, be correct to use the famous line about the evils of 'breaking a butterfly on the wheel' to describe last week's events.
In spite of his blithe gaiety, Mr Norris is a far tougher class of animal who fought against closeted clerical paedophiles and cowardly homophobe politicians long before it was popular or profitable. Like the very different Garret Fitzgerald, Norris held the line when it came to the tough battle to create a humane civilised society. And those dithering councillors who are sniffing the wind would be wise to realise a public who love their gay sons, daughters, friends and relatives hold Mr Norris in somewhat higher esteem than some superannuated restaurant critic.
In the world of serious, as distinct to Presidential, politics, the ignoramuses also came out to play over the Leo Varadkar controversy. As is so often the case, the views of our wise idiots was summarised by the Irish Times' use of the old war motif about how careless talk costs lives. The claim, however, that Mr Varadkar was guilty of undermining the government's attempts to convince the bond markets that Ireland is a fine old place was risible.
The markets do not need Mr Varadkar, mixed metaphors by Mr Noonan, or Mr Kenny's emotional entanglement with Riverdance to tell them what to think. They instead are wondering how deflation, reparations, austerity, unemployment, deposit flight, a credit famine and the destruction of the retail economy will stimulate the sort of growth we need to balance our national books.
The embrace by so august an institution as the Times of the 'two legs bad, four legs good' school of economics raises the question as to whether we have learnt anything from the Nyberg Report's analysis of the disastrous consequences of herd mentalities and 'group think'. Of course, it can be hard to secure the correct balance between the neo-colonial politics of 'Uno Duce Una Voce' and too much independent thought. It has in the past been the practice that cabinets had their debates before they made their decision. Now, however, the pattern appears to be for isolated ministers to indulge in personal demarches and then the debate really starts.
The uncertainty this has created over the government's intentions means that, after a bright start, suddenly Mr Kenny's 'summer report card' is starting to acquire a few smudges. Good governance requires more than the ability to wave at the people. In Mr Kenny's case it is time for him to apply his talents to the creation of a school of politics that can marry straight talking with the formulation of a coherent message.

EDITORIAL : THE NEW STRAITS TIMES, MALAYSIA

 

 

Towards maidless living

AT its 100th International Labour Conference which began on Wednesday and that will go on until Friday the 17th, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) will be considering a grave labour matter that has been in discussion for 63 years. And that is, whether or not to adopt and establish a Convention for Decent Work for Domestic Workers. The convention will ensure that international labour standards are applied to domestic workers, and that domestic workers get the same basic rights and protection that are given to workers under national labour legislation. However, passing the resolution to adopt this convention will not be easy, as different countries have different perspectives on the domestic worker issue.

In this supposedly enlightened world, it is hard to believe that some people do not look upon domestic workers in the same way as they look upon other workers. But just as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) has had 63 years to form, but still faces difficulty in getting parties to recognise certain rights and enforce the protection of these rights through their own national laws, so it is with the labour and human rights issues of domestic workers.

Here on the homefront, Malaysia and Indonesia have been discussing the Indonesian migrant domestic labour issue for at least two years. And even though a memorandum of understanding (MoU) has reportedly been signed, much of its contents have yet to be revealed, and much seems to still need to be discussed. Whether what has been agreed upon will be applied retroactively to existing employers of Indonesian maids, and whether the MoU will satisfy the Indonesian government enough for it to retract its two-year-old moratorium banning the export of Indonesian maids to Malaysia, remains to be seen. If an agreement can be reached in which the rights of both the worker and the employer will be respected, protected, and fulfilled, then, we might just come out slightly ahead of the ILO.

But in trying to break this deadlock on the sluice gates that have reduced to a trickle the supply of Indonesian maids to Malaysia, we are missing the opportunity to redirect ourselves to a self-sufficient life. Instead of running around trying to get an Indonesian maid or an alternative from another country, it is time that Malaysians adjusted their lives to a life without maids altogether. At a time when the cost of living is speedily going up, learning the almost-lost skill of domestic survival will save families the need to outsource help, give greater urgency to the need for a work-life balance, and a lived meaning to "domestic life". Many families in developed countries survive very well without maids; we should direct ourselves towards that end, too.

 

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY TRIBUNE, THE PHILIPPINES

 

 

Noy’s real boss

Noynoy seems to be running out of options for his double Mar Roxas, in having to give him a Cabinet post to fulfill a promise he made during the campaign period when Mar supposedly gave way for his presidential run.

Trouble seems to erupt whereever Mar is rumored to be pursuing his incessant goal to be at the right hand of Noynoy, the latest of which was at the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) where the top post appeared to have been reserved for Mar if plans to make him Chief of Staff becomes too hot to handle.

The bigger problem is that of Noynoy not acknowledging or not knowing that a crisis already exists. But what else can one expect of the unthinking Noynoy?

The Palace initially floated a plan to issue an administrative order for Noynoy to conjure up the position for Mar but the response from whatever side of the fence indicated that the plan would not fly and ramming it through would be a recipe for self-destruction.

Mar as Chief of Staff will run roughshod over the positions of both Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa and Vice President Jejomar Binay and Noynoy was probably advised that it would deepen the valley among the different factions within his circle.

The other day, the Palace was already singing a different tune saying that Roxas would likely be an adviser to Noynoy with a Cabinet position but he will not necessarily assume the title of Chief of Staff.

The DoTC is a line agency, and Mar would have had the run of DoTC, but obviously, since reports say that he turned it down, it is clear that which he really wants is to work in Malacañang, side by side with Noynoy, and dictating to him what to do, as Noynoy seems to be too clueless about anything and besides, Noynoy probably relies on Mar to take on 80 percent of the presidential workload.

But that still would hardly matter as the mere presence of Mar in the Palace invites conflict.

The signs of danger are already evident in the strings of resignations at the DoTC touched off by Ping de Jesus throwing in the towel.

The scuttlebutt was that De Jesus was ticked off by Noynoy’s clear lack or absence of leadership in reining in the people around him for De Jesus’ decision to hand in his resignation.

Then too, there is always Noynoy who overrules his Cabinet secretaries when it comes to his penchant for protecting his buddies, such as coddling another shooting buddy, the Land Transportation Office chief whom Noynoy refused to have fired by Ping.

Also, projects that belong to the province of Ping’s DoTC had been farmed out to the Balay Group, with Finance Chief Cesar Purisima’s department taking over the projects.

Noynoy even heeded the voice of Mar over Ping, in the case of settling amicably the International Air Terminal 3 with Piatco, the consortium that built the latest terminal.

A not so different speculation was that De Jesus did not look favorably at the ways Noynoy is being swayed by the different vested interests that are trying to squeeze political payback after giving strong financial support for his presidential campaign.

Noynoy seems content in riding on the pockets of conflicts that springs from his indecisions and accommodations.

Even Noynoy’s allies are now acknowledging that a crisis is brewing with the deepening demoralization and frustration within his fractious administration.

For somebody who started his tenure with a promise that the people are his boss, Noynoy’s callousness to public perception in his giving in to the every whim of Mar is a big letdown.

It is becoming clear to many that when he said “Kayo ang boss ko” during his inaugural, he was only referring to a select circle of allies.

He could have just said Si Mar ang boss ko with the way he pampers his adhesive mate.

 

EDITORIAL : THE GUARDIAN, ENGLAND

        

 

Globalisation: Spinning into reverse

Putting the brakes on international integration is no longer as far-fetched as propelling away from the planet

The self-proclaimed grown-ups of New Labour parodied anyone airing anxiety about globalisation as making a childish demand: "Stop the world, I want to get off!" Putting the brakes on international integration is no longer as far-fetched as propelling away from the planet. For better or – quite possibly – for worse, it is happening. A few days before Russia responded to the E coli scare with a heavy-handed bar on all sorts of European vegetable imports, the cheeriest thing America's top trade official could find to say about the Doha round was that he was not ready to read the last rites over its corpse. Meanwhile, the collapsing global carbon market is a reminder that – outside Europe, at least – no multilateral solution has been found to the most multilateral problem of the lot.

The European Union remains the single outstanding example of integration across borders, and yet here too the centrifugal force of national sovereignty is pulling afresh. Across its north the establishment is being battered at the ballot box by populists who resent bailing out the south. Meanwhile, those southerners imagined to be benefiting from northern largesse take to the streets of Athens and Lisbon to rage against the strangulatory strings attached to the money. The victors of Versailles once ordered Germany to starve itself into surplus, but today it is Germany that safeguards repayment of every last euro of bank debt by pushing pain on to Mediterranean taxpayers. Within the single currency, a cash-strapped periphery cannot devalue to boost exports and rebalance the accounts. Serious commentators line up to explain that swallowing this noxious medicine will not work, and yet the continent's fractured politics determine that swallowed it must be. Further fracturing is the foreseeable result.

If the paper notes in their pockets are the most regular reminder of the fact of the union to most of its citizens, the freedom to cross borders at will is their most tangible right. This is not so for Britons, who live outside not just the eurozone but also the Schengen agreement, which axed the checkpoints between 22 EU states. But recently the agreement has been creaking as never before. While the French and the Italians have bickered over the free flow of Libyan refugees between them, the Danes have moved to reinstall controls and met only minimal resistance from their partners. Perhaps others are planning to go the same way. A continental comeback for passports, the defining documentary expression of national separateness, could reduce Jean Monnet's vision – of a Europe that would not merely "coalesce states" but also "unite men" – into a passing dream.

Even before the slump, growing discomfort with diversity – both across an expanding union and between its communities – was making Europeans newly prone to hunker down into their nations. A sweeping new assessment of the continent's drift, David Marquand's The End of the West, concludes that after federalists sought to take the politics out of their project, politics is now having its revenge. Without truly cross-border parties, there is no connection between the discourse of the election campaigns that voters experience and what happens in Brussels. Whatever their misgivings about their own politicians, publics prefer to trust leaders whom they know how to sack if they have to. Marquand proposes a shot of democracy for the centre, through the direct election of the European council's president.

Like federalism in general, that suggestion is unfashionable. But officials and capitalists who had hoped to create a new international order by stealth are discovering that they can't. The only way to continue the mission is to secure legitimacy from the people, messy as that may be. Otherwise, the present age of globalisation could go the way of the previous one, which ended in 1914. Pro-trade technocrats would then find themselves pleading: "Stop the world, I want to get back on."

 

Sale of the Tote: High stakes

For all its familiarity, this year's Derby day marks the end of a long, beneficial partnership

Upwards of a hundred thousand people will gather on Epsom Downs today for the Investec Derby, one of the world's great horse races. Even for those who cannot make it, the 232nd Derby remains a splendid national excursion, a day of picnics and punters and the Queen cheering on her horse in (another) attempt to become the first reigning monarch since 1909 to own the winner.

But for all its familiarity, this year's Derby day marks the end of a long, beneficial partnership. The Tote was founded in 1928 by chancellor (and ex-cavalry officer) Winston Churchill to generate money for the racing industry, a move justified in a world where traditionalists still thought the horse had a role in warfare. Although its contribution to racing was overshadowed later by the levy introduced on all betting, the Tote still invests millions each year in racecourses and what has become the multimillion-pound racing industry. Now it is to be sold, in an operation that – while it might matter less – looks as ill-thought-through as many of the coalition's other essays in privatisation.

The government could have learned from Labour's decade of frustrated attempts to shed this accidental anomaly. The Tote has always existed in its own corporate limbo, so in order to sell it off, first it had to be nationalised. By the time that had been achieved, the financial crisis had erupted and the idea of raising money from a sale was abandoned, only to be eagerly seized upon last year by incoming ministers in their search for cuts. But they have found it no easier to handle than Labour did. It has had to promise that racing will receive half the estimated £200m proceeds of the sale, and last month it was still working on a model that would generate as much cash for the industry while retaining an appeal to commercial investors. Yesterday, after a series of missed deadlines, it finally emerged that its preferred bidder is to be Fred Done's Betfred, a fast-growing betting-shop chain that had pledged £120m of income to racecourses. But the racing industry, which preferred the rival Sporting Investment Partnership chaired by Sir Martin Broughton, the former boss of the British Horseracing Board, will look askance at a company whose motive, they believe, is the Tote's chain of 500-plus betting shops rather than the industry itself, while workers at the Tote's Wigan HQ will wonder what it means for their jobs.

Most of the Epsom racegoers will be unaware of the long, muddled saga of Tote privatisation. But it has been another example of the Whitehall tendency to decide on an end without considering the means. And, as so often, it will only be after the gamble fails to pay off that voters will ask what has been done in their names.

 

Unthinkable? Horrible heroes

Most people's villains can be unconditional heroes to others: Gaddafi, for instance, and Mladic

Controversy lurks where you least expect it: in, for instance, 11 across in Tuesday's Guardian quick crossword. The clue was: "Hero of Wuthering Wuthering Heights"; the solution, "Heathcliff". "Since when," our reader Marilyn Chorley Clegg of Carshalton objected, "is a wife-beater, kidnapper and property thief a 'hero'?" The answer to that, perhaps regrettably, is: since the beginning of time. In some contexts, certainly, a hero or heroine is a person of moral character whom we should all wish to emulate. But in others the hero is more an epic protagonist, a prime mover in great events. Thomas Carlyle, in his lectures on heroes and hero-worship, assembled a team whose members might also have set off dismay in Carshalton. First up was Odin, an addict of war, able to start them simply by throwing his spear, and a scandalously promiscuous progenitor – quite apart from the fact that (like Heathcliff) he never existed. Nor are Oliver Cromwell and Napoleon Bonaparte, Carlyle's choices in the category "hero as king", figures on whom most parents would want their children to model themselves. One of England's most lauded heroes is Robin Hood; yet he too was a blatant property thief. Most people's villains can be unconditional heroes to others: Gaddafi, for instance, and Mladic. Even Florence Nightingale had her detractors, while Joan of Arc was possibly mad. If the wild, the wilful and even the downright wicked were barred from admission, the pantheon of heroes would be a poor, shrivelled place.

EDITORIAL : THE NEW YORK TIMES, USA

Sticker Shock

Lots of happy talk accompanied the Obama administration’s unveiling of new fuel economy stickers for cars and light trucks that will include annual fuel costs and information about emissions. The new stickers, mandatory starting with the 2013 models, are a big improvement on the simple miles-per-gallon estimates on the present label. If they were there right now, we suspect many car buyers would be experiencing a new sort of sticker shock.
Consider a new midsize Ford Fusion S model. At $4-a-gallon gas, annual fuel costs would be about $2,200 for 15,000 miles driven. The car emits about 250 grams of greenhouse gases per mile; the new sticker would give it a 6 greenhouse gas rating on a scale of 1 to 10. And that’s for a car with a rated mileage of 34.9 m.p.g. (actual highway mileage, as with all vehicles, is lower, in this case about 27 m.p.g.). Industry clearly needs to do better.
Labels can help consumers make better choices. But Detroit and other manufacturers make big changes only when regulators force them to.
President Obama now has a chance to press for those changes. His advisers are in the final stages of drawing up new fuel economy and emissions standards for vehicles produced between 2017 and 2025. One advocate of tougher standards, Brendan Bell of the Union of Concerned Scientists, calls it “the biggest decision the president is making this summer that no one knows about.”
Mr. Obama has said he will recommend strong standards, but industry and many in Congress are furiously lobbying for the weakest they can get away with.
Last year, the administration put four proposals on the table. The most conservative, which industry prefers, calls for an average annual fuel efficiency increase of 3 percent, which works out to a fleetwide average of 47 m.p.g. by 2025. The most ambitious scenario, favored by environmental and consumer groups, calls for average annual gains of 6 percent, which works out to 62 m.p.g. in the same time frame.
Mr. Obama should hang tough. Given the vanishingly small prospects for serious energy legislation on Capitol Hill, the new standards represent his and the country’s most promising opportunity to make significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and America’s dependence on foreign oil.
The president has a strong track record. The fuel economy agreement he negotiated in 2009 raised fleetwide fuel economy standards to 34.1 m.p.g. by 2016 — a 40 percent improvement on standards that had not changed much in 30 years. In addition to significant reductions in pollution, that agreement is expected to save 1.6 million barrels of oil a day, roughly the amount produced in the Gulf of Mexico.
Mr. Obama now needs to push automakers to do even better. Technological improvements will be necessary to reach any credible new standards — more gas-electric hybrids, more all-electric vehicles, better batteries, lighter body materials. But the basic technology is there.
Industry says cars will cost more. Federal studies say the most aggressive plan — 62 m.p.g. — would add $2,800 to $3,500 to the price of a car. They also show that the improved technology could deliver as much as $9,700 in reduced gasoline bills over the life of the car. That sounds like a good deal for consumers, and the environment.


John Edwards, A Cautionary Tale

Self-destruction in politics is painful to watch for voters whose hopes are stirred time and again by the high promises of a compelling candidate. The case of former Senator John Edwards is especially tawdry and disturbing. He was criminally indicted on Friday on charges of misusing hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations to keep his mistress and their baby a secret while he pursued the White House in 2008 and protected “his public image as a devoted family man.”

Mr. Edwards insists he is innocent: “I did not break the law,” he said on Friday. His lawyers say the $925,000 at issue was an entirely legal gift from two supporters designed to keep the truth not from voters, but from Mr. Edwards’s wife, Elizabeth, who died of cancer in December.

Either way, it is a sad truth being contested in federal court in Raleigh, N.C. Mr. Edwards could be acquitted, especially considering the fragile state of campaign laws in the frenzied world of big-money American politics. But the woeful courtroom coda to his once flourishing political career can only invite a further slide toward wariness and cynicism for American voters.

Until he became his own nemesis, Mr. Edwards had a storybook career. In 2004, as a freshman senator, he was chosen by John Kerry as his vice presidential running mate on the Democratic ticket. His campaign tales of hardscrabble roots and his populist idealizing were compelling, as were his wife’s political smarts, charm and personal struggle.

All of that made his fall in 2008 all the steeper as he was caught in a cascade of denials and lies and forced to confirm the scandal. Whatever happens with his case, Mr. Edwards has provided American politics and voters with the last thing the nation needs: another cautionary tale of hubris when honesty is the only acceptable option.

Overlooking Oversight

In late May, Congress extended three enhanced surveillance powers that were granted to the government after the 9/11 attacks — two in the Patriot Act and one from a related intelligence law. In doing so, lawmakers neatly managed to avoid any lapse in those powers. They failed miserably in their duty to carefully re-examine the provisions, trim back excesses, and add safeguards to protect civil liberties. In other words, they ignored the whole point of requiring that the provisions be periodically reviewed.

One of the renewed provisions permits a roving wiretap on terrorism suspects who switch phone numbers or providers. While this is a useful tool, the lax rules for specifying who is the subject of the wiretap could invite abuse. Another provision permits the government to examine library, bookstore and business records without having to show that the material is related to a terrorism investigation.

The third overly broad provision allows surveillance of “lone wolf” suspects with no known ties to a foreign power or recognized terror groups. It has never been used, but the low threshold for doing so is concerning.

These powers were extended for four more years, with no changes, under a deal struck between the Democratic Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, and Republican leaders headed by the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, and the House speaker, John Boehner. They brushed aside objections from an unusual coalition of Tea Party activists, liberals and centrists from both parties.

Four years is better than the permanent extension preferred by some Republicans. But it is still too long until the next renewal, given the succession of missed opportunities over almost a decade now to consider whether the goal of making America safer could be achieved with less sweeping surveillance powers.

Senator Patrick Leahy, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, tried and failed to get a vote on a sensible amendment that would add several safeguards, most notably enhanced auditing and oversight of how the powers are being used. He also proposed an early sunsetting of “national security letters,” which the F.B.I. has used to obtain evidence without a court order, and which have been widely abused.

Mr. Leahy has resubmitted his amendment, which had strong bipartisan support in his committee, as a freestanding bill. Both chambers should vote on it promptly.

During the too-brief debate on the Patriot Act, two Democratic members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, claimed that the Justice Department had secretly interpreted the Patriot Act to allow domestic surveillance activities that many members of Congress do not understand. Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee, needs to make good on a pledge of a prompt, serious review.

Drinking In the Draught of June

If we could bottle a few days to uncork later in the year — when the wind has got us by the neck and the curbs are full of taxi-slush — these would be the ones: early June, the days of peony and iris. Conifers still wear the green tips of new growth, and a few of the hardwoods, hickories especially, still show a last vestige of May. Otherwise, the trees have cast their pollen and fledged completely. Now come the deep, dark shadows of late summer.

In the city, the pigeons have passed the stage of courtship and settled into a beak-to-beak domesticity full of gratified cooing. The subway platforms are still temperate. In the country, the cool, dry nights are completely silent, none of August’s night-rasp. At twilight, the swallows go off watch, and on come the bats. In the dimness you can still make out bumblebees flying bottom-heavy from blossom to blossom. The fireflies have not yet lit up.

Best of all, the day is still growing in length, the solstice still a couple of weeks away. This is the particular poignancy of June. So much has gone by already — fruit blossoms, daffodils, tulips and lilacs — and yet everything feels so young, even as we come to the turning point in the calendar of light, the moment when the year starts waning again. It feels absurdly unsynchronized, and yet it is synchronicity itself.

It would be nice to decant some early June whenever you needed to, when the sun hasn’t shone in days, when the temperature reaches triple digits, whenever the weather or anything else gets you down. But all we can do is drink in June while the month is upon us, while the peonies are coming into bloom.

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY YOMIURI, JAPAN

     

 

Use IAEA report to boost nuclear power plant safety

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A group of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency that visited Japan has submitted to the government a summary of its report on the causes of the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

The preliminary report said "the risks of tsunami were underestimated" at not only the Fukushima plant but also at several other nuclear plants struck by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The summary said safety measures at nuclear power facilities should be designed to handle even the most extreme natural disaster. The report's contents are profound.

The Japanese archipelago is often battered by natural disasters. The government should ensure that the suggestions of the IAEA fact-finding team are used effectively to enhance the safety of nuclear power plants.

The IAEA team inspected several disaster-hit nuclear power facilities, including the Fukushima plant, during their weeklong stay from late May. They talked with technicians during their inspections.

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Meltdown a taboo topic

As a result, the IAEA team concluded there were a number of problems with measures designed to prevent reactor core meltdowns--the worst of all nuclear power plant accidents--and with the response to the meltdowns at the Fukushima plant.

Tsunami destroyed the plant's emergency backup generators intended to provide power to cool the reactors, and no alternative source of electricity could be found in time.

Although an operation manual stipulated steam should be released through vents in the reactor to reduce internal pressure and prevent a core meltdown, the process took plant workers some time. In addition, the possibility that a building surrounding a reactor could be blown off in a hydrogen explosion had never been imagined before the crisis.

The IAEA report urged Japan to make preparations for dealing with such a grave situation. We think this is an obvious request.

The nation's nuclear power industry had for years insisted there was no way a nuclear core could melt down. It seems they regarded this issue almost as a taboo, and feared that even referring to this danger would heighten public anxiety about nuclear power.

State-run antidisaster drills at the nuclear plants also failed to take into account the possibility of a reactor core meltdown.

This taboo stymied public discussions about preparing for a worst-case scenario and beefing up countermeasures against a possible meltdown. The danger now needs to be faced up to squarely and discussed.

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Reform of regulatory system

The IAEA team noted Japan's nuclear regulatory authorities should be made independent and their roles clarified. This is in light of the fact that the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, which is in charge of nuclear regulations, is under the wing of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry--a proponent of nuclear power.

Nuclear regulatory authorities in other countries have, in principle, been independent. Even in this country, some skeptics have questioned the wisdom of having an entity in charge of promoting nuclear power and another charged with regulating it under the same body. The government must swiftly discuss reforming this organization.

The IAEA team will present its full report at a ministerial meeting on nuclear safety in Vienna from June 20 to 24, at which creation of international safety standards for nuclear power plants will be high on the agenda.

One nuclear power plant after another in Japan has been unable to resume operations after regular safety checkups due to mounting public distrust about the safety of nuclear power.

Active government involvement in forging international nuclear safety standards, and improving the safety of domestic nuclear plants, are essential if these mothballed facilities are to resume operations.

 

Overhaul of nation's politics needed to eliminate distrust

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Nothing can be said about the current political situation except how shameful it is. People's distrust in politics will only deepen further.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan expressed his intention to resign shortly before a no-confidence motion against his Cabinet was voted on, but after the motion was rejected he showed a desire to remain in power for the long term.

This left former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama furious, as he had met with Kan to urge him to step down. Hatoyama, claiming a promise had been broken, criticized Kan, even going so far as to call him a "swindler."

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Disappointing situation

Words and deeds such as these are far from what one would expect from a nation's prime minister and his predecessor.

In the first place, the written memorandum Hatoyama exchanged with Kan did not include a specific reference to the timing of Kan's resignation. The agreement only referred to ensuring early prospects for the compilation of a second supplementary budget--an incredibly elusive document.

What is more problematic, however, has been Kan's insincere attitude.

When asked about when he would step down at a House of Councillors Budget Committee session Friday, the prime minister made remarks that could be interpreted as a denial of his earlier expressed intention to quit. He also said he "made no promise whatsoever" concerning his resignation during the meeting with Hatoyama.

Given these developments, it is only natural to consider Kan's hinting at resigning a mere expedient to stay in power.

When the prime minister asked lawmakers of his ruling Democratic Party of Japan to vote against the no-confidence motion, he argued that it was necessary to do so to avoid destroying the party. But intraparty confrontations have only rekindled in the wake of his ambiguous remarks.

The opposition bloc also has hardened its stance. Sadakazu Tanigaki, head of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party, said his party would cooperate to pass a basic disaster reconstruction bill, but warned, "We can't extend any more cooperation than that to a lame-duck administration."

So, Kan's presence as prime minister is still a stumbling block in the way of the ruling and opposition parties working together. If he remains in power without clarifying when he will resign, the nation's politics will stall further, which is harmful to national interests.

We believe a good time for him to step down could be after the basic reconstruction bill passes the Diet, which is expected to happen as early as before the end of the month.

In addition to the earthquake response, the nation faces a mountain of issues such as social security, and foreign and security policy.

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Clear leadership needed

We cannot entrust the reins of the government to an irresponsible prime minister who lacks a sense of urgency in implementing what needs be done. Instead, Kan only keeps repeating an ambiguous mantra that his resignation would come once the disaster response was "settled to some degree."

Business circles are also deeply concerned about the political situation.

Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) Chairman Hiromasa Yonekura has said that to tackle disaster reconstruction, there is no other option than a grand coalition between the ruling and opposition parties.

Without a thorough overhaul of current politics, the nation will never break through the sense of stagnation blanketing society or eliminate people's distrust in their leaders.

EDITORIAL : THE INDIAN EXPRESS, INDIA

 

 

In the present tense

The government’s decision to move to a new index of industrial production (IIP) is welcome. Macroeconomic policy-making requires information about the behaviour of the economy. This requires good data. This is particularly true for monetary policy which is often expected to be used to finetune the economy. When there are signs of the economy growing too fast, or overheating, monetary policy is expected to address the issue. Good data is also essential for businesses making plans whichinvolve estimates of growth of demand and production in the economy.

The current index is based on the industrial production basket of the Indian economy in 1993-94. It includes goods no longer in production such as typewriters, black and white televisions, loud speakers and VCRs. It excludes items like mobile phones and laptops. The weights given to items in the basket of goods produced, based on the 1993-94 GDP production data, are outdated. The coverage of the current index is also inadequate. These problems have made the series highly volatile. Month-to-month variations are sometimes impossibly large. A recent example has been a 100 per cent increase in the production of capital goods, which is almost impossible to achieve by many of the factories which were already seen to be operating at full capacity. The reason was found to be insulated rubber tubes whose production was reported to have jumped sharply. Such behaviour posed a dilemma for policy-

makers. Should they have responded to sharp increases or declines in industrial output? Or, should they have ignored them as merely data problems?

Stretching that logic

What were they thinking? St Agnes school in Kottayam, Kerala, recently made the prize blunder of tagging its students by caste — their identity cards listed this information along with the usual categories of name, class, parent’s name, etc. While angry groups picketed the school and the state government ordered an inquiry, this episode only points to the increasing currency of caste, as something that can be acknowledged and instrumentally wielded, after generations of ambivalence about the category. Of deep concern is the lack of nuance so that affirmative action can be better targeted without reinforcing the hierarchies or identities of caste.

Even as caste was declining as a social force, it was reinstated as a political force. Post-Mandal Commission, electoral mobilisation and social policy have been channelled through caste. Kerala has seen the worst forms of untouchability, as well as some of the most intense, sustained social movements against caste. Despite the strong Marxist impress on the state, even the recent assembly election testified to the way the state is segmented along community and caste lines, and how these factors play into the choosing of candidates and constituencies, and voting decisions (it has been persuasively argued that the LDF did especially well this time among upper-caste Hindus because the UDF was seen as minority-pandering). We will now have a caste census that further entrenches the category, and give it further legal-administrative sanction. Caste is what is called a “polysemic category” — it changes through marriage and migration, and people respond differently depending on whether they are being socially placed or making a bid for affirmative action. However, it is being increasingly treated as a fixed fact. So in that sense, St Agnes school is only a clear example of that creeping caste-consciousness.

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY STAR, BANGLADESH

         

 

Random parking menace

Stop sitting on recommendations

Mindless parking of vehicles on city roads has become a civic menace to say the least. The problem has come to such a pass that even pedestrian movement along commercial buildings or shopping complexes has become extremely difficult, at times even risky. We watch with trepidation the vehicle owners pulling up into an empty space readily available and keeping the vehicle parked for hours together. Hundreds of cars and other private and commercial vehicles are illegally parked all over the city, occupying at least two-thirds of the road space, creating unbearable traffic blockage.

Most traffic personnel remain occupied controlling traffic movements at busy intersections, they are thus unable to act against illegal parking. Moreover, extremely inadequate number of wreckers, four at the moment, out of which two are functional at anytime is a hindrance to law enforcement, but is it all down to wreckers? For, one can see visible manifestation of poor law enforcement featured by random parking and stopovers at will. Sometimes the traffic policemen are seen stopping transports with scant regard for the flow of traffic.

A penalty of meagre Taka 200 for illegal parking or towing a car away once in a while can only touch the fringe of the problem.

Admittedly, the manpower strength of the DMP (traffic) is far too inadequate for the magnitude of public mobility and the huge number of vehicles of different descriptions plying the streets. Furthermore, there are logistical constraints. Resultantly, there is not only poor law enforcement but also allows scope for corruption. Therefore, the manpower and logistical deficits will have to be addressed.

The predicament is mainly due to lack of authorized parking lots. In most cases, the owners have let out spaces meant for parking to variegated businesses. Even the basement spaces have been rented out for other purposes. So there is an issue of recovering designated spaces lost to other trades. Coupled with that, new parking lots, both underground and multi-storied need to be built up though bank financing.

Letting out parking lots can itself become good business, along with smoothening traffic all around.

 

PM's call to opposition

Let the BNP reciprocate gesture

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's statement that her party does not hold a rigid position on the caretaker issue is a welcome attitude on the part of the ruling party to a matter of urgent national concern. Following her recent expression of view that future elections cannot be held under a caretaker system in light of a recent Supreme Court decision on it, she has now invited the opposition BNP to come forward with its formula on a resolution of the problem. As for the BNP, which has called a hartal today over the issue, its position is clear: it wants the caretaker system to stay and considers any move to scrap it as a 'conspiracy' on the part of the ruling Awami League.

We take this opportunity to reiterate the need for a thorough, purposeful discussion in Parliament of the crisis the nation now faces over the caretaker issue, particularly since in slightly over two years the country will be going to the polls again to choose a government. Since the prime minister has signalled a flexible approach to the matter at hand it is for the BNP to reciprocate the gesture. They should give the fullest chance to a process of dialogue. Political agitation on the streets was necessary at certain points of time, especially in popular struggles against dictatorship and autocracy. But when a democratically elected parliament is at work, there is absolutely no reason for political parties, who have their own lawmakers in the legislature, to ignore Parliament in favour of settling scores on the street. Such an attitude can only worsen an already confrontational situation.

Both the ruling party and the opposition must realise that their animosity toward each other is having a negative effect on citizens' lives. Let the BNP go back to the JS and present its case before the nation. And let the government and the opposition together (and government functionaries should avoid speaking out on the issue in discordant or contrary voices) settle on a formula that will revive popular confidence in democratic politics.