June 2010

If Latin America disappeared into thin air tomorrow what would it be remembered for? Historically for the decimation by the Spanish Conquistadors of the great civilizations of the Incas and Aztecs, for the twentieth century plunder of the Amazon, for the worst income inequalities in the world, for the highest crime levels of contemporary society anywhere and for giving house room to the drug mafias.   And the pluses? – the near absence of major interstate wars and the concomitant achievement of relatively low expenditures on arms, its nuclear weapons free zone, the first of its kind (not including the one for Antarctica), its lack of institutionalised racism (although there is plenty of discrimination) and the non-existence in any period of  its history of Jim Crow laws, its outlawing of capital punishment long before the rest of the world got round to it, and now home to some of the...

June 28, 2010 Gunnar Westberg In his famous speech in Prague in April 2009 President Barak Obama presented us with his vision of a world free of nuclear weapons. He emphasized that the U.S. would lead the world towards this goal. He foresaw, however, that this goal would maybe not be reached in his lifetime. Considering that the 48 years old President statistically has a 50% chance of living for 30 more year, adding a few years if he does not relapse into smoking, this was not an optimistic prediction. Can the world survive another three decades with nuclear weapons? Even more ominous was his statement that ”as long as these weapons exist, we will maintain a safe, secure and effective arsenal to deter any adversary, and guarantee that defense to our allies”. Does that mean that the US will be the last to abolish nuclear weapons? During the year since this...

June 25, 2010 The World Cup, now being played out in South Africa, is not a mirage. It is succeeding beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. Not only has the game thrilled its adherents all over the world, the new infrastructure has not failed to impress visitors – from the amazing stadiums, to the new roads and the high speed rail link to the airport. All was completed on schedule, testimony to the country’s growing expertise in management and sophisticated technology. The “crime wave” foreseen by many has not occurred. But for those who can take their eye off the ball, think not of football but of the African continent as a whole. It is beginning to roar. As the tigers have growled in South East Asia the last three decades, with an almost stratospheric rise in economic growth and living standards, the roaring African lions seem intent on emulating their Asian...

June 16, 2010 Jonathan Power Memories are short when it comes to realpolitik. President Barack Obama says he was only a boy when the Vietnam War was going on so it is not imprinted on his consciousness. I wonder if he, or indeed any of the current youngish Western leadership, recalls that the US helped the deposed dictator of Iran, Shah Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi, get Iran’s nuclear research underway, with no caveats about enriching uranium? Does Obama know that after the Shah’s overthrow and the mullahs took over that initially Iran was allowed to buy uranium fuel from the US but that soon after the US stopped the deal, but didn’t give Iran its money back? Does Obama know how it came to be that the US turned a blind eye to Israel’s creation of the atomic bomb? Has President Nicolas Sarkozy fully absorbed the implications of the French nuclear aid...

June 9, 2010 The International Criminal Court is coming out of its first review conference with its head held high. Over a hundred nations attended its meeting, which will end on Friday, in Kampala, Uganda. No country – at least publically – wants to see the back of it, apart from Sudan, whose prime minister is under indictment. Those African countries – DR Congo, Uganda, the Central African Republic and Kenya – which have asked for the ICC to intervene, help arrest and try alleged war criminals from their countries (in Kenya the ICC is still at the investigation stage) have set an example to show how this new world judicial system can bite with teeth. We should not be surprised. Africa has been the scene of too many of the world’s recent wars and produced leaders whose cruelty has been in the same league as Hitler, Stalin and Pol...

The unprovoked and murderous Israeli commando attack on the peace flotilla is the Selma of the Arab/Jewish struggle for the land of Palestine. Selma, a small town in Alabama, was where Martin Luther King based his campaign to win the voting rights for disenfranchised blacks. Attempting to march to the state capital, Montgomery, the marchers were set upon by baton-wielding police as they tried to cross Pettus Bridge. It provoked a nationwide outpouring of disgust and anger. The march continued, joined by tens of thousands of people from all over the United States, until it reached Montgomery. When King spoke it resonated around the world. Shortly after, President Lyndon Johnson rammed through Congress legislation ensuring there would be no longer impediments to blacks voting. The election of Barck Obama as president can be directly traced to that legislation. Will the creation of a two state solution to the Palestinian conflict...