EDITORIAL : DAILY NATION, KENYA

 

 

Operations not enough

A massive security operation is presently underway in northern Kenya following the Sunday attack when a remote security camp was overrun by armed raiders who killed two officers.

The area has been the theatre of serious clashes between the Turkana and Pokot communities, who also have to contend with raids from rival pastoralist groups from across the border in Sudan and Ethiopia.

Security forces have come up against large numbers of defiant and heavily-armed warriors, and there have been sizeable casualties.

The security operation is long overdue. For far too long, the outer reaches of northern and eastern Kenya have been abandoned at the mercy of marauding warriors, cattle-rustlers and bandits.

But government in many of those remote reaches hardly exists, and the people are left with no choice but to arm themselves heavily because there is no police to protect them from hostile neighbours.

Therefore, the present security operation must go beyond retaliation and pacification.

It must extend beyond merely enforcing security to establish a solid government presence together with all the services and development that all Kenyans should have as a right.

Consensus needed in interpreting new law

When Kenyans voted for the new Constitution last August, they were convinced that it offered the single most critical element in the realisation of a just and fair society.

Years of political oppression and economic disempowerment convinced Kenyans of the need for a new order.

But in passing the Constitution, Kenyans were under no illusion its implementation would be easy. It is the nature of human beings to resist change.

After 10 months, it is essential that its impact be assessed. That is what informed the conference convened in Nairobi this week by the Constitution of Implementation of Committee.

An examination of the presentations at the conference illustrates that people have dramatically divergent views of the new laws.
Two examples illustrate this. First, opinion is divided over Article 77 (2) that deals with the management of political parties.

Since the article prohibits appointed State officers from holding positions in parties, the question is whether elected MPs are State officers.

Second, whereas Article 210 stipulates that all those who earn an income must pay tax, MPs who have not been doing so except on their basic salaries, argue that the provision should only come into force with the next Parliament.

But more critical is the fact that the implementation of the Constitution has tight deadlines.

By the end of August, Parliament should have enacted at least 16 laws to give life to various provisions. So far, only four have been passed.

In this light, it would be useful if the conference helped to clarify some of the grey areas, and more importantly, provided the necessary impetus to actualise the Constitution.

EDITORIAL : DIARIO FINANCIERO, CHILE

Educación y manifestaciones

Ayer se realizó una nueva marcha convocada por los estudiantes secundarios -a los que se sumaron profesores y representantes de trabajadores-, la que se inserta en su objetivo de pedir mejoras en la calidad de la educación superior.
Desgraciadamente, la actividad nuevamente se vio ensombrecida por algunos actos de violencia que nada tienen que ver con las demandas que están en juego. Si bien la ciudadanía tiene todo el derecho de manifestarse públicamente, la duda que aflora es qué tan efectivas se vuelven aquellas manifestaciones que se ven desnaturalizadas por hechos vandálicos. Y allí se plantea otra interrogante, la que tiene que ver con la responsabilidad que pudieran tener los organizadores cuando esos actos se salen de control. Las imágenes de televisión con personas saqueando locales comerciales opacan cualquier manifestación, por más bien intencionadas que sean las demandas de convocantes y asistentes.

Pero en lo que respecto a la educación y más allá de que se sigan realizando manifestaciones públicas, es importante no perder de vista que en los últimos años se han hecho esfuerzos para mejorar la enseñanza, ya sea a través de comisiones de expertos que han realizado propuesta o a través de reformas legales.

Todos queremos una educación de calidad. Pero ello, no sólo pasa por implementar políticas adecuadas, sino también por profesores con las capacidades necesarias para esa tarea. Exigir mejoras a la autoridad, dejando de lado los esfuerzos que cada uno de los involucrados puede hacer para perfeccionar el sistema, es no entender que de esa manera no se logrará dicho objetivo.

Confianza de los consumidores

Una nueva señal de la cierta disociación que se está observando en el país entre el sentir de la población y el buen pasar de la economía arrojó ayer el Indice de Percepción del Consumidor (Ipeco).
Este indicador, que elabora mensualmente el Centro de Estudios de Economía y Negocios de la Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD) en conjunto con Mall Plaza, retomó lo ocurrido en marzo y volvió a marcar una baja en mayo comparado con abril. 
Este resultado, según explicó el comunicado de la UDD, estuvo muy influido por el retroceso en el segmento “Índice Coyuntural”, que refleja la percepción sobre variables como desempleo y situación económica actual. En cuanto al primero, y en relación al panorama de hace un año, por ejemplo disminuyeron las personas que creen que la desocupación es menor y, como contraparte, aumentan los que creen que es mayor.
En el área de las expectativas, adicionalmente, también se constataron descensos no sólo en lo relativo al cuadro económico sino que también en lo referente al ingreso familiar.
A la luz de lo anterior, vuelve a quedar en la mesa la duda sobre lo que podría estar demorando la consolidación en la mejora de la confianza de los consumidores.

EDITORIAL : TAIPEI TIMES, TAIWAN

 

 

Getting off to a slow start

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) finally announced the makeup of her presidential campaign team on Wednesday, after a month of drawn-out consultations and speculation. The team sees the return of many familiar faces from former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) era, a risky move given Tsai’s promise to cultivate new talent and the well-documented past rivalries between several of the DPP heavyweights she named to her team, and one that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is already trying to exploit to its own advantage.
Three former premiers — Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃) — all of whom jockeyed for position during the waning years of the Chen administration and have sought power ever since, make up the bulwark of Tsai’s team. They have been given a variety of impressive-sounding titles — campaign chairman, chief campaign commander, chief supervisor and fundraising chairman — making it difficult to distinguish who will be leading whom.
Chen alluded in one of his many posts from behind bars that the 2008 DPP campaign was doomed from the start because Hsieh and Su could never get along. However, they have now decided to work together to put Tsai in the Presidential Office, putting aside their issues for the greater goal of returning the DPP to power next year.
On the surface, it looks as though Su and Hsieh, who had a falling out after they were trounced by then-KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in the 2008 election, have put aside their differences to support Tsai in her bid for the presidency.
Tsai’s aides Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁), who once served as DPP secretary-general and who represents the former New Wave faction, and DPP Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) were also given top spots — chief director and executive director. Although the confusing array of titles leave one to wonder who is in charge of what, Wu is likely to be the most influential person behind the scenes, given his proximity to Tsai, while the others give a show of face to Su Tseng-chang, their boss and the proverbial queen-maker.
However, the makeup of Tsai’s campaign team suggests that the DPP has made a deliberate effort to highlight party unity ahead of everything else, even though that runs counter to a promise Tsai made to cultivate new talent.
KMT spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) jumped on this fact as soon as the team was announced, saying the lineup reflected the older generation of the DPP. If Tsai’s campaign is successful and the party regains the Presidential Office, she would be expected to reward her team with Cabinet positions. However, to do so would risk sending the message that the government is returning to the configuration of the Chen years.
Perhaps the biggest unanswered question is who Tsai’s running mate will be? Until recently, many had speculated that it would be Su Jia-chyuan, but his new appointment makes that less likely. Who, then? Is Tsai going to surprise us with somebody fresh or call on another face from the past?
Ma has already announced Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) as his running mate, which was no surprise. However, the choice of a running mate is just one of the campaign decisions Tsai needs to make, and make quickly. She is already more than a week behind, with her first campaign office still shuttered while Ma’s is up and running.

EDITORIAL : NINE O'CLOCK, ROMANIA

Hazardous dilettantism

For a few weeks now, the Romanian society has been virtually paralysed again around themes that have nothing to do with today’s stringent concerns of the public: the re-organisation of the territory and a constitutional review. But Romania is not an exception, as it just follows the dangerous trend set by many Western countries that impose themes, policies and armed conflicts which are driving farther and farther away from the needs and aspirations of the majority of their populations. The world leaders have become much too powerful and much too arrogant to be able to understand and act by feeling the pulse of the society.

The big fiasco of global economic, financial, commercial and agricultural policies have demonstrated to the general public everywhere that governments do not always know how to make the best decisions.  It has become apparent with the beginning of the 2008 financial crisis, followed by the economic recession, which shook the capitalist system from its foundation, with the oil crisis and, not least, the food crisis. All these extremely serious problems facing mankind are founded on the speculative nature of markets and rating agencies who did not hesitate to award triple-A ratings to Wall Street banks all throughout 2008. In fact, the world is not confronted by a food crisis or oil crisis (not yet), but by a price crisis, determined by the stock markets’ panic. The sad truth is that the world no longer lives in the present, daily ‘reality’ becoming the projection of a future imagined by neurotic traders many of whom addicted to doping substances. But this ‘reality’ has dramatic consequences on the poorest populations. We should not forget that the spark of Arab revolutions was lit by poverty and unemployment and not by some unstoppable democratic urge, irrespective how legitimate this is.

While three years ago, the leaders of the world’s biggest powers were claiming the urgency of overhauling the international financial system, making activities more transparent and better regulation of derivatives markets to prevent a future large-scale crash similar to the one set in motion by Lehman Brothers, everything was contained to a purely declarative level. The world continues to be full of virtual money finding no correspondence in hard assets, hence the gold and silver rush of the last year. The European Union and the Unites States have pumped trillions of euros and dollars into non-repayable financial incentives and into banks – the same that caused the financial crisis – without them changing their business models to the slightest extent.

Great Britain has recently decided to separate vulnerable banks’ retail activities from investment operations in order to help customers hedge against a possible new financial crisis similar to the one in 2008 which has had devastating effects on the real economy and public finances.

The decision is a first step in the direction governments should have taken after 2008 and is part of a broader plan of reforms in the British banking system which the Independent Commission on Banking, set up on June 16, is set to present to the Cameron Cabinet in the autumn. While the UK is taking concrete steps to avoid the new financial crisis lurking down on Europe and the US, the Romanian president and Government’s number one priority is the administrative re-charting of the territory or, in the presidential language, ‘the continuation of reforming the state’. The reason I referred to the preparations being made in Great Britain against a possible new crisis is that the Romanian opposition has had a similar initiative. During the Cotroceni talks, USL proposed to the president the setting up of an anti-crisis committee with a broad political participation including the power, opposition and the central bank.

Unfortunately, the initiative will never see the day, as in the president’s opinion, the top priority is administrative and constitutional reform that – he claims – has to be carried out ‘one way or another’ before the end of the year.

A first survey on the territorial reform suggests an overwhelming majority (72 per cent) oppose the abrogation of the current counties. This demonstrates again, if it was still necessary, the immense cleavage separating the preoccupations of the public and of the authorities. Romanians may be interested, at an intellectual level, in an administrative reform when the real, serious and stringent shortcomings of the society are solved. The lack of hope coming from generalised poverty, unemployment, short life expectancy, precarious state of health of the population, alarming rise in the mortality rate and steep demographic decline, increase of suicidal rate (ranked 5th most often death cause nationwide), school dropouts and rise in illiteracy, healthcare collapse, endemic corruption, excessive red tape and fiscality suffocating entrepreneurship, administrative hyper-politicisation, precarious state of the army – these are all subjects worthy of the Government’s fullest attention before moving to turn a whole country upside down. If the president and the prime-minister want to re-draw the administrative map of the country, they can do it with the pencil on paper, because it’s better to be a dilettante draughtsman than imposing on a population of 22 M amateur decisions with serious consequences.

Although President Basescu had been declaring  himself until recently in favour of asking for the opinion of ‘the sovereign people’ on all matters, now he prefers to have the administrative re-organisation bill adopted by the Boc-patented method – by requesting a confidence vote in Parliament, that is. Avoiding the public and parliamentary debate on an act which, if adopted, will definitely cause havoc in the entire society, affecting each and every individual, again transgresses the democratic boundaries of the rule of law. But, most certainly, Romanians still don’t know what’s good for them, therefore the decision has to be made in spite of the general opinion.

The correct thing to do before proposing this territorial ‘reform’ which now risks blowing up also the current ruling coalition, with UDMR threatening to defect from Government, would have been for the president to present a feasibility study accompanying an actual draft law. Anyone in their right mind would find it absurd that politicians fight over an idea, having no written document or a financial projection of the impact the proposed measures will have. But this is Romania, a country where the power is used to leading in a very original manner…

Speaking about ‘reforming the state’, President Basescu claims the purpose of dividing the country into eight regions is the attraction of European funds for development directly by such regions, as well as the reduction of corruption and bureaucracy. On the other hand, answering the concerns of the public, Emil Boc says the citizens will not have to travel hundreds of kilometres for an ID paper or other administrative formality, because the civil registry offices and other public institutions will not be closed down…In other words, we reform things, yet we are changing nothing. It would be interesting to see where the source of all those savings is, as long as all the existing local administration structures are staying untouched… The obvious gain will be the electoral one, and guess who will be the main beneficiaries.

Seeing how things have unfolded locally ever since 1989, the first effect of this new law will most probably be the transformation of the current barons (county council presidents and mayors) into genuine pharaohs. Fewer, indeed, but so much more powerful. Unfortunately for the president’s plans, the European Union seems no longer willing to wait for the state to be reformed and is contemplating the idea of managing Romania’s funds directly from Brussels.

EDITORIAL : KYIV POST, UKRAINE

 

 

A true champion

Yelena Bonner died on June 18 at the age of 88. The human rights activist and wife of nuclear physicist-turned-dissident Andrei Sakharov, who preceded her in death in 1989, was a true champion.
She tirelessly fought for human rights both in the Soviet Union and, after its collapse, in Russia.
Her powerful voice will be sorely missed in a part of the world that is still fighting to break free from the shackles of authoritarianism.
Bonner was a founding member of the Moscow Helsinki Group in 1976.
She shot to public attention when, after Sakharov was exiled to the town of Gorky, she became his lifeline to the outside world, ferrying out his writings.
Foreign reporters recall how she provided a way for dissidents to communicate with the outside world, passing messages to correspondents and diplomats, despite constant attention from the KGB.
She, too, was arrested and exiled in 1984. She traveled to the U.S. in 1985 for heart surgery, but was only given permission to travel after hunger strikes by her husband.

When then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan met Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986, he handed over a list of political prisoners he wanted released.
When Sakharov was allowed to return to Moscow, he refused unless a further 23 political prisoners were also released, including Mustafa Dzhemilev, the leading Crimean Tatar dissident.
The couple finally made it back to Moscow in December 1986 as Gorbachev launched perestroika and glasnost.
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, two years after Sakharov’s death, did not end Bonner’s activism.
She railed against the bloody Russian assault in Chechnya in 1994, and criticized the rise of KGB clans under Vladimir Putin, the prime minister and former president, himself a former spy.
The need for heroes such as Bonner is as acute as ever.
Russia is an authoritarian, one-party state. Ukraine is heading down the same path. Belarus is Europe’s last dictatorship.
Bonner’s achievements were impressive.
The countries of the former Soviet Union are crying out for others with her courage, conviction and devotion to freedom and human rights.

EDITORIAL : THE CITIZEN, TANZANIA

WHY POWER RATIONING IS NEEDLESS SUFFERING

Just when will the electricity crisis end? This is a question that Tanzanians should be asking themselves after Tanesco announced on Wednesday yet another round of power rationing which will see electricity being switched off for 12 hours daily.

Actually, the rationing began in mid-May, and Tanesco’s announcement hardly caught anyone by surprise.
It is worth noting that Tanesco last month announced that power would be rationed from May 19 to 26 as a result of a deficit in the national grid caused by the switching off of the Songas gas generators for routine maintenance.

However, May 26 came and went, but the rationing continued, and it was only on Wednesday that Tanesco announced a “new” load shedding schedule, this time blaming the cuts on a low water level at Tanzania’s biggest hydro power station in Iringa Region.

What is particularly worrying is the fact that a permanent solution to recurrent power shortages that date back from the early 1990s seems to be nowhere in sight. No lesser an authority has admitted this hopelessness than Tanesco itself.

A lot has been said about the power woes, but it is the chairman of Parliament’s Energy and Minerals Committee, Mr January Makamba, who was on the mark after stating that the crisis is the result of Tanzania having not invested enough in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity.  It is as simple as that.

It has been the norm for the government and Tanesco to take emergency measures to address power crises such as the one Tanzanians are currently enduring.  These short-term solutions explain why electricity has been a rare commodity in Tanzania for two decades now.

It is laughable that we expect to develop as a nation without electricity.  Our dream of having an export-driven economy and become a middle-income nation in a few decades is bound to remain just that – a dream.  We are going out of our way to promote Tanzania as a desirable investment destination, but it is unlikely that these efforts will bear the desired results if we cannot assure prospective investors of reliable electricity.

BAE CASH NOT A REFUND

The tug-of-war between the government and Britain’s BAE Systems is still going on six months after a UK court ordered the firm to pay Tanzania £29.5 million (Sh73.8 billion) reparations for fraudulently selling the country an overpriced air traffic control system a decade ago.

BAE has decided to grant the cash directly to charities in Tanzania, but the government insists that the money be paid directly to it. The government may seem to have a point, but its position is undermined by the plea bargain reached last December by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and BAE.

What the court ordered BAE to pay is not a refund, as some mistakenly believe, but reparations to “the people of Tanzania.”  This means that it is BAE which has the final say on how the money should be disbursed.

BAE had three choices. Firstly that the money is handed over to the government of Tanzania, a route thought to have been preferred by the SFO; secondly that BAE grants the money directly to charities in Tanzania; thirdly that an independent party, possibly the World Bank, is used as an intermediary to distribute the money.

The firm settled for the second option, and it is not difficult to see why it chose not to hand over the money to Treasury.  The government was party to the shady deal in which a staggering $12.4 million (Sh19.8 billion) in kickbacks was paid to middlemen, and the sensible thing is to hold talks with BAE on how best the reparations can benefit Tanzania.

EDITORIAL : EL UNIVERSAL, COLOMBIA

 

 

¿Solución para El Dique?

El presidente Santos dijo ayer que “Somos el primer país en tener un plan de adaptación al cambio climático” en América Latina. El plan es también el de reconstrucción de las zonas devastadas por el invierno de 2010 y tiene un presupuesto de 26 billones de pesos, con los que la nueva infraestructura de transporte de Colombia debería soportar inviernos iguales o peores.

La previsión ambiental del Gobierno es esperanzadora, pero los cartageneros no podemos dejar de pensar que parte de esos 26 billones tienen que ser destinados para las obras del Canal del Dique, que no dan espera.

En el Internet circula una foto satelital de Google Earth de la desembocadura del Canal del Dique en la bahía de Cartagena, convertida en una mazamorra espesa de lodos en suspensión, mientras que el casco de un barco que se aproxima a un puerto de Mamonal rasga momentáneamente esa nata marrón y deja ver a lo largo de su estela un hilo de la poca agua azul que aún queda. Es una imagen deprimente, sobrecogedora.

También circulan fotos del crecimiento del delta del Canal del Dique dentro de la bahía, en su marcha inexorable hacia Tierrabomba. Aunque impresiona la velocidad con que este delta se consolida, aún está lejos de esa isla, lo que podría dar una sensación falsa de tranquilidad porque parecería indicar que queda mucho tiempo antes de que la entrada al puerto por Bocachica quede inutilizada.

Desafortunadamente, el proceso de sedimentación no funciona así, y aunque es cierto que el choque del agua salada con los sedimentos finos en suspensión (floculación) los hace caer al fondo más rápidamente en la desembocadura del Canal, también es verdad que muchos van a caer más lejos, por lo que el parte falso de tranquilidad visual que podría dar la lejanía del delta no corresponde a la magnitud del daño submarino.

El fondeadero que había designado la Armada próximo a la desembocadura del Dique fue corrido varias millas hacia el noreste porque ya el agua se había allanado con los lodos nacionales de todo el río Magdalena, quizá desde el propio Páramo de las Papas, y la operación de fondeo comenzó a ser insegura allí.

Hay que admitir que el talante de este Gobierno y de su ministro de Transporte con respecto a los destrozos del Dique en la Bahía dan cierta tranquilidad de que las obras necesarias se identifiquen y ejecuten lo más pronto posible, por lo que seguramente no habrá que recurrir a los paros, quema de llantas y bloqueos que algunos proponen por la Internet.

Urge aprovechar que los funcionarios principales del Gobierno para este caso vendrán pronto a Cartagena, a establecer pasos concretos e inmediatos, y comenzar a olvidar la pesadilla gubernamental de los últimos 8 años, perdidos para el Canal del Dique.  Para lograrlo, es indispensable recopilar información concreta y evitar que vuelvan a surgir propuestas inanes, como en el pasado muy reciente.

Cartagena debería lograr que las obras del Canal del Dique sean las primeras en Colombia de ese “plan de adaptación al cambio climático” del que habló el presidente Santos.

EDITORIAL : THE BUSINESS DAY, SOUTH AFRICA

 

 

US faces dreadful choices ahead

THE US Federal Reserve’s decision not to embark on a third round of quantitative easing (QE) — a means of boosting money supply by buying bonds rather than cutting interest rates — has been hailed by some economists as a turning point in the global financial crisis.

Indeed, it can be argued that QE2, a $600bn purchase programme that draws to a close at the end of this month, has done its job. The US economy has been prevented from slipping back into recession, averaging 2,8% annualised growth since the recovery began in 2009, and fears of deflation have all but disappeared. The injection of cash into the economy — more than $2-trillion in two rounds of QE — has encouraged investors to buy shares and other more risky assets and kept the dollar from appreciating, boosting US exports.

Seen from this perspective, there is little justification for further stimulus, especially since interest rates are close to zero and seem set to remain at this level for some time to come. However, economic growth of close to the long-term average is hardly the bounce-back the Fed’s monetary policy chiefs were hoping for.

The US economy could grow at a far quicker rate and under normal circumstances would be doing so, given the injection of cash and availability of cheap credit. And — most worrying from a political perspective — the anaemic recovery does nothing to boost job creation.

By some measures, the US economy is no bigger now than it was in 2006 and employment is worse than it was at the lowest point of the recession. Under the circumstances, the Fed’s decision not to embark on a QE3 could well be a milestone in the global economy’s recovery, but not in a good way. It may indicate that US policy makers have all but run out of options. Further stimulus is tempting, but more monetary easing would bring with it significant economic and political risk.

The thinking behind QE was that it could be used to jump-start the US economy while inflation was low and the banking system was repairing its collective balance sheet. Once the economy was back on track and unemployment on its way down, attention could be turned to tackling the federal debt, which has been rising unsustainably for years.

However, now that the first part of the plan hasn’t worked out, it is difficult to implement the second part without plunging the economy back into recession. The US is not yet on the verge of defaulting on its debt a la Greece, but it has to act soon to cut the budget deficit, at least. This can be achieved either by spending less or raising revenue through higher taxes, both of which are negative for growth and highly unpopular among voters.

In other words, the US is caught between a rock and a hard place. This situation could lead to policy paralysis in much the same way that Japan experienced a "lost decade" when it failed to tackle its debt problems in a decisive manner and the economy stagnated.

The US is not quite without options, though, especially if global economic growth picks up as Japan recovers from its earthquake and tsunami. In this case the US might be able to muddle through with a combination of short-term tax cuts and longer-term spending reduction , assuming political consensus can be reached. Trouble is, there is no certainty that the rest of the world will play ball. Europe’s sovereign debt woes are far from over, and China’s economy has structural flaws that threaten a hard landing as growth slows.

The neutral monetary policy now adopted by the Fed should be positive for the dollar and bearish for commodity prices, which have been boosted by an outflow of dollars seeking yield. But it is unlikely to prompt an exodus from emerging markets as long as US interest rates remain at historic lows. The ending of QE in the US is a significant event in the economic cycle, but it would be a mistake to expect fireworks. The recovery is going to be a drawn- out affair. There is no quick fix.

A most special singular malt

THERE are genuinely few people who could live up to the oft -cited tribute "he will be missed", but Kader Asmal is surely one of them. Like many anti-apartheid stalwarts, he shared a life-long dedication to human rights, freedom and compassion. In his various government portfolios, most notably as education minister, he served the country with distinction.

But in addition, he brought to political life in SA a real distinctive quality. He was thoroughly outspoken, speaking up in a totally forthright and fearless way on the occasions when he disagreed with his colleagues or with government policy. He could do so because he responded instinctively, with humility and with total honesty.

The list of his disagreements with the African National Congress (ANC) touch on some of the most gratuitous errors of governance and policy, including on Zimbabwe, the disbandment of the Scorpions, and the recent press censorship bills .

By doing so, he provided a genuine internal reality check, a much- needed honest broker, importantly from within the movement. He earned his right to criticise partly from a rigorous academic background, which included a 27-year period as law professor at Trinity College in Dublin.

Apart from starting the British and the Irish anti-apartheid movements, his legal training and knowledge of international law and human rights law provided him and the ANC with invaluable intellectual heft during the constitutional negotiations. Our constitution owes a debt to his intellectual rigour and his assertive resolve to craft a modern document informed by human rights values, rooted essentially in the grand liberal tradition. His particular contribution was an insistence that gender equality be included as a human right.

The deaths of Asmal and Albertina Sisulu represent the gradual demise of a generation whose contributions and guidance will be sorely missed. Unlike the tendentiousness of the younger generation, they saw themselves as striving for the implementation of ideas premised on principle, rather than notions derived from hedonistic populism.

Asmal’s great good humour, his conviviality and his candour mean he will be remembered not only with respect but also with affection.

EDITORIAL : THE ASHARQ ALAWSAT, SAUDI ARABIA, published in LONDON

Curbing Iranian influence without conflict

Seven days after the assassination of the late [Lebanese Prime Minister] Rafik Hariri in 2005, George W. Bush met with his French counterpart Jacques Chirac, who had a close personal relationship with Rafik Hariri. The two former leaders met for dinner in the Belgian capital, Brussels.
Bush told Chirac: "I want to immediately punish Syria for the assassination of Rafik Hariri and for Damascus allowing terrorists to cross into Iraq via the Syrian border". Chirac, who was a friend of the late Lebanese prime minister, responded to Bush saying "Let's help Lebanon, and by doing so we will have punished Syria!" He explained that Syria exercises its power in Beirut, and if Syrian influence was removed from the country this would strengthen Lebanon and weaken the Syrian regime. Indeed, the two leaders agreed and helped Lebanon. Subsequently, Bashar al-Assad came out and publicly announced in a speech before the Syrian People's Assembly that "mistakes were made in Lebanon" and that Syrian troops were withdrawing from the country. And today, several years later, the Syrian people are revolting against the al-Assad regime!
This shows that war is indeed a tool of politics, but not the only tool. Here Chirac's wisdom surpassed Bush's zeal, and a far better result was achieved through politics than that which would have been achieved through force of arms. It is enough to consider the deteriorating situation in Iraq today in this regard. The US [military] intervention to overthrow Saddam Hussein was not sufficiently calculated, especially the so-called "day after" [the invasion], or the phase after the collapse of the regime. Therefore, we now find that Iraq's problems are chronic, most notably Iranian interference.
Returning the al-Assad regime to its own borders forced it to confront Syria's real problems, which led to a confrontation with the Syrian people. Therefore, the best chance of eliminating the Iranian threat today would be to send Iran back to within its normal borders, as I said during an interview on the al-Arabiya satellite channel, five days ago. I said that the collapse of the al-Assad's regime would mean the collapse of Iran's foreign policy. Since the time of the Khomeini revolution, and even before it succeeded in taking over Iran, it has sought to establish an alliance that fundamentally aims to create a Tehran – Damascus – Beirut axis, and today Baghdad can also be added to this.
Thus we could assume today, with the political earthquake which has struck the region, and specifically Syria, that the international community will seek to send Iran back to within its normal borders, and this is in order to reform the dysfunctional political situation and destruction in Iraq, so that Iraq is for the Iraqis, from all walks of life, and not for Iran. Tehran's influence would then be curbed from there, just as it was from Bahrain by the Peninsula Shield Force, and today we see that the Syrian revolutionaries are vowing to curb Iran's influence from their country as well.
When Iran is curbed back to within its borders, it will have to face its own people who are suffering from high unemployment, not to mention that the broadest section the Iranian population is the youth, who are convinced that the Khomeinist revolutionary regime has ultimately failed, especially in light of deteriorating economic conditions and the clear political conflicts taking place between the ruling elite in Tehran.
By reforming the situation in Iraq and supporting the Syrian people, we can return Iran to its border and clip the wings of the Tehran regime that is seeking to export its revolution abroad. This would eliminate the Iranian threat without firing a single shot, and it would protect Iraq whilst now necessitating US forces remaining deployed there. Will Obama, and the major regional powers, exploit this opportunity?
That is the question!

EDITORIAL : KHALEEJ TIMES, UAE

                     

Till divorce do us part

Unlike more western societies where divorce is projected as a sacrifice to modernity and carries with it very little indictment in more conservative countries the shame and scandal effect is much higher. Both words are archaic in that they seem tilted towards slaking the prying bloodlust of the neighbours rather than addressing the fragile texture of togetherness in the 21st century but they wriggle into the equation.
A pending divorce in the family is, therefore, seen as a mix between delicious agony and vicarious pleasure in that ‘now what’s next’ fashion so peculiar to the global middle class. One can neither deny the excitement that comes along with the utterances of deep regret nor the soaring flights of imagination engaged in by friends, relatives and outsiders on what must really have happened to cause the marriage to flounder upon the rocks and splinter so dramatically. Theories ricochet like billiard balls and few of them are bed-rocked in fact. For a society wedded until one generation ago to the larger family concept and still hypocritically languishing between female independence and surrender to the husband’s whims and those of his parents, his brothers, his sisters, their wives and husbands and other sundry relatives who might have a voice, the option of divorce is still anathema and is seen and unfolded as a major Greek tragedy.
Even if the estranged husband and wife have come to terms with their parting they will not be allowed to avoid the gauntlet. As such the third label of ‘stigma’ will attach itself with the tenacity of a ‘post it’ notepaper. It becomes mandatory to analyse and dissect the issue to its marrow.
For expat wives cheerfully away from the mother country the luxury of being sanguine about divorce or giving it a sort of genial ‘can’t be helped’ shrug is more indicative of their good fortune in not being within the harsh and unforgiving loop of social conduct, social hierarchy or social taxation (it has to be paid) at home. As the years pass in undemanding climes they forget where they came from and have this blasé ‘intellectual’ approach to traditional roles. So much so that the frailty of their marriages may not survive a premature return to the home country and the invasive, almost suffocating intrusions of the hordes of relatives that would manifest themselves sans permission into their lives.

It is a fact that women have gone a lot more on the offensive in recent years. They won’t tolerate being pushed around but Society per se doesn’t care. It comes down upon them with tremendous harshness and demands its pound of flesh. Only the toughest can take the heat.
After all, why do marriages fall apart?
·Unfaithfulness.
·The advent of technology and the exposure to TV and the blurring of the fact and fiction of cinematic plots.
·The husband’s double standards.
· The whole ‘clan’ barging in and running your life.
·The contempt of familiarity…the feeling of being cheated.
· The appearance of someone who ‘appreciates’ you more.
· Money.
·Parental interference.
· The scales falling off one partner’s eyes.
· Resentment at so much time invested in a sham, the rage, the fury, is this the first prize, no prince, no white steed.
·The horrible realisation that you no longer like the person you are married to but worse, you can’t find the energy to like him or her.
 

A mix of all these. In any number of combinations.
And the cruel, irrevocable fact that divorce, however prettily or sanely you dress it up, is a synonym for failure.
You can’t get away from that. Whatever the surface reasons and however logical they sound when you get to the bottom line it is just another failure...you couldn’t hack it, make it work, loser, loser, loser. LOSER, in all caps.
For the man, major trauma, a forever doubt against his credibility, a certain presumption that he can’t be all good.
For the woman, the hurt, the loneliness, the vulnerability, the fear, always the fear, of a damnation engineered by those who she once loved...friends, neighbours, relatives, a conspiracy so vast, so powerful, ostensibly because they resent her newly fought for ‘freedom’...it underscores their imprisonment.
Which is why only the very rich and the very poor can do want they want. The rest pay the price.
And if children are in that firing line they pay the largest fine for innocence.

EDITORIAL : TODAY'S ZAMAN, TURKEY

Pulling the plug on Lukashenko WASHINGTON, DC –- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is a master of political survival. But, following a recent 64 percent devaluation of the currency, the clock appears to be running out on his prolonged misrule.

Lukashenko was forced by the removal of Russian oil-price subsidies in 2009 to beg, borrow, or steal enough funds to keep Belarus’s economy from collapsing. He tricked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) into extending a $3.4 billion loan, promising freer elections in December 2010 -- only to burn that bridge with a brutal crackdown when faced with an adverse election result and the largest protests his regime had ever seen. Now Russia has taken a harder line, demanding a high price for loans that are, in any case, insufficient to save the regime. As a result, the Belarusian economy is in free-fall, and Lukashenko’s days appear to be numbered. Lukashenko used the IMF money to keep his state-dominated, inefficient and subsidy-dependent economy afloat through the 2010 elections. But, shortly after the vote, signs of trouble became visible. During a visit I made to Belarus in January, officials refused to forecast gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2011, except to say that it would be lower. At a time when most of Europe was starting to recover from the 2008-09 recession, Belarus was going in the opposite direction. Then, crisis erupted in May, when the country ran low on foreign-currency reserves and traders could not purchase the dollars they needed. The currency, which traded at 3,000 rubles to the dollar in January, collapsed to 8,000-9,000 in mid-May, and the government was forced to devalue the official rate from 3,010 to 4,950, while continuing to restrict banks’ ability to buy foreign currency. As inflation skyrocketed, Belarusians bought anything of value that they could, from food to used cars. Belarus, which had been known (and praised by some) as a socialist haven in Europe, with a relatively generous welfare state and decent, if low, wages, suddenly has become an economic basket case. The public is reaching a breaking point. On June 7, 100 cars blocked roads in central Minsk to protest a 30 percent increase in fuel prices -- a daring act in Europe’s most formidable police state. The swiftness of Belarus’s economic meltdown reflects the directness of its cause: Russia had been financing Lukashenko’s shabby paradise and then it decided to stop paying. Without enough dollars flowing in from transit fees for Russia’s oil and gas exports to Western Europe, the country was bankrupt. Russia had simply seized the opportunity presented to it by Lukashenko’s bizarre post-election crackdown, in which he used disproportionate force to clear the streets and imprisoned hundreds of activists, including seven of the presidential candidates who had run against him. Presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov was recently sentenced to five years in prison for taking part in election-night protests. The outcry from a betrayed West was loud and visceral. Lukashenko had lured the IMF and the European Union into providing support for his economy during the global financial crisis. The presidents of Italy and Lithuania had made high-profile visits prior to the elections as part of a policy of “engagement.” The foreign ministers of Poland, Germany and Sweden traveled to Minsk during the fall of 2010 to meet with Lukashenko, civil-society groups and opposition leaders. At the end of this trip, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski announced the possibility of a $4 billion EU aid package should Belarus hold a free and fair election. When these hopes were dashed, the West reacted with stunned disbelief and anger, reinstating sanctions on 156 top Belarusian officials and members of Lukashenko’s family. The EU has since imposed additional sanctions on judges and other officials involved in punishing protestors, bringing the number of sanctioned individuals to 190. More importantly, Lukashenko’s break with the West left him at the mercy of Russia -- and the Russians, sensing his weakness, decided to bargain hard. They threatened to renege on their own generous pre-election promises of aid unless Belarus surrendered stakes in the country’s most lucrative companies, including Beltransgaz, the gas-pipeline network, and Belaruskali, the potash miner, among others. This has put Lukashenko squarely on the horns of a dilemma. He needs Russia’s money, but his domestic support is based on defending Belarus’s fragile sovereignty. Some would regard the sale of the economy’s “crown jewels” as tantamount to national betrayal, possibly a capital crime. A bombing in the Minsk metro in April that killed 14 and injured hundreds may have been a grim foretaste of the political risks involved. Negotiations with Russia dragged on, and the country ran out of money. Now Russia says that it will provide money in the form of loans, promising annual tranches of around $1 billion -- but only if Belarus makes sufficient concessions. And, in early June, Lukashenko signed a deal: Belaruskali is the first enterprise on the table, in exchange for an $800 million loan. Lukashenko’s only alternative to losing sovereignty to Russia, and thus risking the wrath of his nationalist base, is to go begging to the IMF. In that case, he would face “shock globalization” and political death through free and fair elections -- that is, unless the IMF goes soft and shovels more money at him (a deal worth $3.5-8 billion is being sought), possibly in exchange for the release of political prisoners. The IMF should not be in the ransom business. The West should send the same message to Lukasenko that it has sent to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad: No IMF money to prolong the life of the regime. No loans for prisoners. It is time for Lukashenko to go.

EDITORIAL : THE NEW ZELAND HERALD, NEW ZELAND

 

 Quake buy-up huge lift for weary victims

The people of Christchurch have been in desperate need of something to boost their morale. Their character has been tested to the full by the earthquakes that have pummelled their city since September.

The devastation wrought by these tremors has also been a test for the country's resolve. How firm would its commitment be to those worst affected by the earthquakes? Yesterday, the Government supplied a substantial part of the answer. In the process, it surely delivered a shot of confidence to Cantabrians.

The Government's announcement divided Christchurch into four zones. In the worst-affected red zone - mainly land east of the city centre along the Avon and related waterways where liquefaction has been widespread - the owners of 5000 houses have been told they can choose to sell either their whole property or just the land to the Government, whichever works best for them.

The offer of purchase will be at the current rating value. If that is generous in itself, a quirk of the rating cycle means the value dates back to 2007, near the peak of the property boom. This is surely an offer too good to refuse.

Indeed, the Government has provided plenty of reasons for red-zone homeowners to accept its offer to buy their entire property and shift to greener pastures.

It says that it will not be feasible to rebuild on this land for three to five years, and that there is a high risk of more damage from further aftershocks. For good measure, those who do not sell will not have services such as sewerage and reticulated water.

Their properties will have little value for the foreseeable future. All but the obdurate will surely cash up and move as quickly as possible, leaving the Government to recoup the payout on their property from insurers.

Before yesterday's announcement, the Government had been accused of not informing people quickly and in detail of which land could and could not be used for rebuilding.

Now, there will be some dissatisfaction that the fate of 10,000 homes in the so-called orange zone is still not known. Some of this land was damaged by the June 13 aftershocks and has yet to be fully assessed.

The Earthquake Recovery Minister, Gerry Brownlee, has promised information on homes in this zone "over the coming weeks and months". He must stick to that timetable if he wishes to avoid another bout of understandable frustration.

The Government has also stayed mum on one especially ticklish issue, that of people whose homes were not insured. Mr Brownlee said the number in the red zone was small. Nonetheless, at some stage it will have to decide how much help will be given.

In the process, the Government must balance the natural inclination to be helpful with the realisation that throwing open the chequebook would create a moral hazard. People would see no reason to insure their homes if they witnessed a wholesale bailout by the Government. In large part, the extent of help should depend on the reason a house was not insured.

After the first earthquake, the Prime Minister pledged to stand behind Christchurch and ensure nobody was left worse off by an event beyond their control. New Zealanders left no doubt that they endorsed his sentiments, partly from a natural sense of goodwill but partly also because many lived in regions also susceptible to natural catastrophe.

If the worst happened, they, too, would want to have the country's enduring support. The net cost of yesterday's announcement - up to $635 million after payments from insurers have been received - represents a substantial commitment. But it is nothing less than the people of Christchurch deserve and New Zealanders would accept.