August 18th, 2008 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
A blog in Wall Street Journal has interesting subheadings: “Take your gun to school” and “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition!”
It reports that the trustees of the Harrold Independent School District, a tiny Texas school district, may be the first in the US to allow teachers and staff to pack guns for protection. More here…
Some inspiring lessons and trainings for the students and the congregation!!!
August 18th, 2008 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
The Australian describes Pervez Musharraf as “West’s most disappointing ally in the war on terror. Let’s be clear about this: Musharraf was a catastrophic failure for Pakistan.
“He claimed to have turned the country around and to have turned it against the Taliban terrorists it had created and succoured in Afghanistan. In fact, he did nothing of the kind. Or rather, at the same time as he did a bit of that, his military continued to co-operate with the Taliban, which is being battled by, among others, Australian troops in Afghanistan.
“But the endless cycle of Pakistani politics contains only a couple of variations. One is for a civilian government to fail amid corruption and incompetence and be replaced by a military dictator, who is at first welcomed for his effectiveness.
“But then the military dictator in turn fails and is replaced by a democratically elected government, which is at first welcomed for its democratic credentials and its promise of economic reform. It, too, then fails and is replaced by a new military dictator.
“But all the while that this cycle endlessly repeats, Pakistan sinks slowly into state failure and social chaos.” More here…
The AFP reports: “With Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf gone, Washington must work with Islamabad’s democratically elected government to wage the ‘war on terror’ — a task US experts say may be more challenging but could reap better results.
However, the challenges to the democratically-elected government in Pakistan are many. “Some US experts said that Musharraf, who ruled with almost unfettered power during most of his tenure, played a double game and was not a genuine US war-on-terror partner despite more than 10 billion dollars in US aid to his country. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, Al-Qaeda’s safe haven in Pakistan grew rapidly under Musharraf’s watch, they said.” More here…
“Selig Harrison, head of the Asia program at the Center for International Policy, says Musharraf’s departure presents an opportunity for the U.S. to undo some of the damage caused by its relationship with the former general.
“Harrison says Musharraf’s resignation should allow the U.S. to let that anti-Americanism die down and to ’shut up and do absolutely nothing but respond to initiatives from the new government’.” More here…
The Telegraph says: “Musharraf’s departure is certainly a watershed…However, the mess he has left behind is one that will haunt Pakistan and the world in the months ahead. ” More here…
Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd is worried about his country’s troops in Afghanistan. More here…
As you might imagine, trying to cover what the rest of the world thinks and says about the United States is a pretty ambitious undertaking. At times, when there is a major story like the war in Georgia or the U.S. presidential election, many other issues get shunted aside for a time.
One such issue is the ‘war on drugs’ now taking place in Mexico, in good measure funded by the United States.
Unbeknownst to most people in our country, many Mexicans feel that the drug ‘war’ we are waging along with the Mexican government is not only illegal, it is part of a Bush administration plan to permanently undermine the Mexican state and turn it into a U.S. vassal.
“Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, under the guise of an effective but undeclared state of emergency, the administration of George W. Bush has proceeded with the systemic demolition of the Constitutional order of the United States. … The White House chief has instituted illegal espionage operations at home and has become embroiled in pre-emptive war abroad, has resorted to ‘legalized’ torture and the abduction-disappearance of suspected terrorists, and has kept thousands of ‘enemy non-combatants’ under indefinite arrest, detaining them in an archipelago of clandestine and ‘floating’ prisons under the control of the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency … In a permanent state of emergency, the exception becomes the rule. In the case of the United States, the war became the ontological foundation of the State. All these years Bush has governed through fear, encouraging nationalism and exploiting the racial and ethno-religious prejudice of his fellow countrymen.”
“Here, as in Colombia, the pattern of U.S. intervention took the form of a war on narco-terrorism, by de facto including Mexico as part of the ’security perimeter’ of the United States, via the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, from which is derived the Merida Initiative, which is similar to Plan Colombia. … Bush’s model for Mexico is that of the “Colombianization” of the country. As part of a system that protects corruption and the impunity of entrenched criminal networks within the institutions of State, banks and large corporations, the prescription is more narco-politics, heavy-handedness, torture, detentions and disappearances, dirty war, mercenaries, the criminalization of social protest, and the militarization of society. The goal of the United States is to plunge the country into chaos and destabilization, in order to penetrate [Mexico’s] States security institutions, further weaken national sovereignty and accelerate dependency.”
As regular readers know, I’ve been watching the COPM states (Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan) to get a feel for who will be moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. next January. Whichever candidate can carry at least three of those four will make the path to victory for their opponent a virtual impossibility. The first of those, Colorado, has been generating a lot of news this weekend. Early reports, from both The Rocky Mountain News and 538.com, showed Obama’s previous slim but steady lead in the Centennial State evaporating in the latest polls to a virtual tie. (A couple of polls now show McCain with a slight lead, while 538’s cumulative analysis has Obama up by less than 1%.) Bob Barr is polling 2% and Ralph Nader gets 1%, so third party candidates are thus far not having a large impact.
However, if those polls are run again next week, there might be an unpleasant surprise in the offing for John McCain. It seems he gave an interview with The Pueblo Chieftain and broke one of the sacred laws of the mountain folk: you don’t mess with their water rights. (Hat tip to mcjoan at KOS.) The unofficial motto of Colorado is “whiskey’s for drinking, water’s for fighting.”
“I don’t think there’s any doubt the major, major issue is water and can be as important as oil. So the compact that is in effect, obviously, needs to be renegotiated over time amongst the interested parties,” McCain said while on his way to the Aspen Institute. “I think that there’s a movement amongst the governors to try, if not, quote, renegotiate, certainly adjust to the new realities of high growth, of greater demands on a scarcer resource.”
In a situation reminiscent of late night comics discussing George W. Bush, McCain immediately managed to prove to be a uniter rather than a divider. Democratic Senator Ken Salazar responded immediately.
“Senator McCain’s position on opening up the Colorado River Compact is absolutely wrong and would only happen over my dead body,” Salazar said. “It’s an anathema to the fundamental principles of Colorado’s water rights and our compacts.”
“Over my cold, dead, political carcass,” Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer said.
“The compact is the only protection Colorado has from several more politically powerful downstream states,” Schaffer added. “Opening it for renegotiation would be the equivalent of a lamb discussing with a pack of wolves what should be on the dinner menu.”
The next step isn’t hard to predict. Team Obama - assuming they have two functioning brain cells left to rub together - will already be in production on a new ad to run all over Colorado quoting McCain on this and they’ll keep running it until November 5th. And the Illinois Senator won’t have any trouble finding allies in the press out there. The Denver Post already weighed in on it.
Forget about winning our nine electoral votes next November. We don’t vote for water rustlers in this state; we tar and feather them!
Attention: Damage Control Team. Please report to Colorado. There’s a major spill to be cleaned up.
August 16th, 2008 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
The woes of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf seem to be unending. While the Parliament has begun formulating the impeachment proceedings against Musharraf, Al-Qaida’s number two Ayman al-Zawahiri slammed “Pakistan’s embattled President Pervez Musharraf as an enemy of Islam in a first audio message in English posted online on Saturday,” reports NDTV, India’s influential TV channel.
“In the message Zawahiri also dismissed the Pakistani army as a ‘band of mercenaries’ controlled by the US administration.
He chided Musharraf for offering ‘all support to topple the Muslim emirate in Afghanistan,’ referring to the US-led war which defeated the Taliban regime in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
“Is the Pakistan army an army defending Muslims, or merely a security service agency or a band of mercenaries which kills Muslims to please its masters, the neo-crusaders in the White House’, he said, in an apparent attempt to incite Muslim Pakistanis against the army.” More here…
The Al-Qaeda message at this juncture appears to be an attempt to queer the pitch for, or throw a challenge to, those who wish to give sanctuary to the embattled President Musharraf.
Meanwhile Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that Musharraf is ‘short of time’ and if he does not quit by Sunday, the impeachment proceedings will start. More here…
A Pakistani columnist guesses about the possible safe sanctuaries for Musharraf…Please click here…
After Barack Obama or John McCain leaves the White House, where will future generations go to tour the boyhood home that shaped a president? Hawaii? Indonesia? The Panama Canal Zone?
For a long time, I lived near Hyde Park, where FDR was born and spent his years before moving into the White House. “All that is within me cries out to go back to my home on the Hudson River,” he said as he was making history, and American generations can still visit, see and touch the reality that formed him and told him who he was and could be.
For the candidates in this election there is, as Gertrude Stein said, no there there. “Obama and McCain,” Peggy Noonan writes, “are not from a place, but from an experience” and the “lack of placeness with both candidates contributes to a sense of their disjointedness, their floatingness.”
This 21st century identity gap started with George W. Bush, who was born in Connecticut, grew up in Texas and spent most of his life before politics trying to figure out who he was and where he belonged. No matter how often we see him cutting brush, our sense of who he is and where he came from remains hazy.
Public confession makes a half-century leap from John Edwards’ mea-not-so-culpa to a sudden exercise in self-revelation by Charles Van Doren, who was caught in the quiz show scandals of the 1950s.
But perhaps the most telling truth about public soul-searching comes, not from Edwards on Nightline or Van Doren in the New Yorker, but in a New York Timesblog by the scholar Stanley Fish about “autobiographical writing that tells and hides all at the same time.”
In a sympathetic rumination, Professor Fish points out that Van Doren, now 80, proffers the title, “All the Answers”: “But there are no answers, at least to the questions most readers would want to ask: Why did you do it? What was going on in your mind? What about the moral issues? The moment of decision…seems not to have occurred, or to have occurred off-stage when no one, even the person most concerned, was watching.”
It is likely that even now Van Doren doesn’t know, but Fish credits him with an honest attempt at self-discovery: “He does not cast himself as a victim, or as a reformed villain or a misunderstood hero, three narratives that are quite popular in these days of compulsive self-discovery.”
August 14th, 2008 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
Reports from Pakistan indicate that Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf is losing ground fast. The Guardian states that British and American diplomats are attempting to find an exit for Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf, a staunch western ally, before he is dragged through a humiliating impeachment process.
“Musharraf has been one of the Bush administration’s closest allies. While Washington would prefer not to host his exile, as it would look bad politically, it would if he has nowhere else to go. His son lives in the US.
“Rumours that Musharraf is set to quit have been circulating in Pakistan for several days. He has suffered a collapse in support as three of Pakistan’s four provincial parliaments have passed resolutions, with overwhelming backing, declaring him unfit for office. The fourth province is expected to follow soon.
“The provincial votes were symbolic, but the formal process will begin early next week with an impeachment motion in the national parliament. It is clear that the ruling coalition now has the two-thirds majority needed to impeach him. Government insiders said that if Musharraf wants to quit, he must do so before the impeachment proceedings begin, leaving him with only a few days. His spokesman has rebutted any suggestion that he will step down.”
Economists know that the total cost of a decision can only be truly measured when its “opportunity cost” is considered: this “opportunity cost” is the loss of ability to make other choices given the resources consumed in implementing the original decision.
Simply, if I buy guns, I can’t buy butter because I’ve already spent my money.
Political decisions also can only be properly evaluated in terms of their opportunity cost. Whatever one may think about the USA’s war in the middle east, it has huge opportunity cost. Russia’s action in Georgia shows that this cost includes the inability of the United States to stand up for its principles where it once sought to apply those principles with much fervor.
Yes, Russia’s action was provoked and did not happen in a vacuum, as this piece in a British Paper by Nobel Peace Prize Winner and the last President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, indicated, but Russia has acted now crossed a rather simple red line drawn by America - which with treasure spent and lives elsewhere - has done nothing in defense of its ideals of democracy and sovereignty.
As is evident to readers of Watching America.com, the site that translates foreign news about the U.S., the global media sees in the current events in Georgia reveals much that is important about the U.S.
In a different vein, but speaking directly to the opportunity cost of American political, and specifically, military, choices, came this cutting analysis of American society and values today from the Italians, For America, War is Like Breathing
August 13th, 2008 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
Six months ago I wrote about a brave Pakistani woman who has been relentlessly fighting the two arbiters of her country’s destiny, Pakistan’s army and the US administration. (See here…) When she was virtually hounded out of Pakistan, Dr Ayesha Siddiqa sought refuge in the world of US academia.
Here is Ayesha Siddiqua’s fresh salvo from the Stanford University as reported in the Chowk. “Ayesha Siddiqa said that behind the US support for certain elements of the Pakistani society was its specious perception of modernity. She noted that whenever the western media speaks of Pakistani politicians it inevitably looks for that person’s western educational credentials, for education from Harvard or Oxford. Similarly, the West considers army generals ‘modern.’
“She accused the US of strengthening the Pakistan military. ‘Military today is a giant which has strong political control, economic control, and a very dominant social presence; a military that has over 7% share of the GDP, which controls one-third of heavy manufacturing in the country, which controls 6-7% private sector assets. It has a huge economic presence. It is a constant story of uneven development, between different organizations and institutions.’
“Ayesha Siddiqa debunked the argument that Pakistan economy has always been in better health under military dictators. She explained how Pakistan had to pay a heavy price at the end of every military rule.
“That the ‘sham stability’ under General Ayub Khan in 1960s ended with the breaking up of Pakistan, Zia’s period of ‘stability’ gave Pakistan the Jihadi culture, and now the high economic performance era of Musharraf’s rule has given Pakistan gaping fault line in the society, between its secular and conservative elements.
“Ayesha Siddiqa rebuked ‘educated’ Pakistanis who look down upon the masses, call them illiterate and accuse them of being subservient to authority. She asserted that the real stability in Pakistan would come from its ordinary people and the latest elections had shown that these ‘illiterate’ people were quite capable of making intelligent decisions.
“Ayesha Siddiqa was still excited by the election results because ‘I as an ordinary Pakistani can say that we are not a failed state. The civil society is alive. These elections tell us that we are as ordinary or extraordinary as anybody else’.
“She impressed upon the audience that Pakistan was far from being a failed state—it had an active civil society. Analyzing the recent elections she said people did not just vote against Musharraf (through voting against PML-Q), Pakistanis also rejected other symbols of authoritarianism.
“She said the army can be kept out of politics if the civil governments negotiate with the army on military’s economic interests. Ayesha Siddiqa’s expectation from the Pakistan army was that of a professional force which would not interfere in politics. Just sit back, relax, play golf and not get into politics, was her advice to the Pakistan military.” More here…
August 13th, 2008 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
Among the joys of living in a laid-back and quaint place like Adelaide in South Australia, with its well-stocked council libraries, is the pleasure of reading books. In the past three months, apart from delivering guest lectures at the two universities here, I have been able to go through six books…accompanied with good beer and wine!!!
Here I wish to write about two fascinating biographies. First: American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. Second: My grandfather’s secret by Jemima Khan (photo above). Both the books are about distinguished and brilliant Jews — who were part of the American and British establishment — but suffered, like many other ordinary Jews, from a seeming lack of identity. The past that continued to haunt them, and their sufferings.
First, the summing up about the Oppenheimer’s biography in The New Yorker: “J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who oversaw the creation of the atomic bomb, was lauded as a patriot after the United States dropped the bomb on Japan, but nine years later he was disgraced, accused of Communist sympathies and ’substantial defects of character.’
“This commanding biography, the result of twenty-five years of research, reevaluates that character, and delivers the most complex portrait of Oppenheimer to date: a brilliant but insecure child prodigy who became a charismatic leader; a polymath who learned Sanskrit just so he could read the Bhagavad Gita; an aesthete who mixed infamously strong Martinis…
“A one-time fellow-traveller who was almost willfully naïve about politics. Drawing on thousands of pages of F.B.I. surveillance records, the authors contend that the scientist was never a member of the Communist Party.” (More here…)
Second, in the biography about her grandfather Frank Goldsmith, Jemima Khan (the former British wife of the celebrated Pakistani cricket star-turned-politician Imran Khan), vividly describes about the “English Jew and a Gentleman” who was born in 1878. She writes: “He was from Germany, where he lived until the age of 16. I knew that 500 years of Jewish ancestors could be traced back to the Frankfurt ghetto, but I had not realized my father was just one generation from Germany.
“He (Frank) told a biographer: ‘I think motivation comes from… disequilibrium in the personality. Perhaps my disequilibrium comes from the very fact that I’m a foreigner. I’m a Jew to Catholics and a Catholic to Jews, an Englishman to the French and a Frenchman to the English. I’ve never been neither one thing nor the other – which can be a very unsettling thing to be.’
“Jews are used to being treated as foreigners everywhere, and to an extent every Goldsmith had felt like an outsider right back to the early 1500s when Moses Goldschmidt of Frankfurt was compelled to wear a red peaked cap and a yellow ring on his coat to identify him as a Jew.
August 12th, 2008 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
The Times of London makes an interesting study of 10 political personalities who were involved in sex scandals. Of these 10 leaders, five got away with it and five couldn’t. Beginning with the Profumo Affair in Britain in 1963 to the latest one concerning John Edwards in the US, the affairs have attracted a lot of public attention. More here…
And for the history: Cullen Jones is the first African-American to hold or share a world record in swimming. It’s a pretty well-known fact that we black folks just don’t get involve in swimming. I remember seeing efforts to teach black folks to swim in my old neighborhood where I grew up. So seeing Cullen Jones swim his butt off (along with the rest of the American team) made me extra proud.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Isaac Hayes, the baldheaded, baritone-voiced soul crooner who laid the groundwork for disco and whose “Theme From Shaft” won both Academy and Grammy awards, died Sunday afternoon after he collapsed near a treadmill, authorities said. He was 65.
Hayes was pronounced dead at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis an hour after he was found by a family member, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office said. The cause of death was not immediately known.
With his muscular build, shiny head and sunglasses, Hayes cut a striking figure at a time when most of his contemporaries were sporting Afros. His music, which came to be known as urban-contemporary, paved the way for disco as well as romantic crooners like Barry White.
And in his spoken-word introductions and interludes, Hayes was essentially rapping before there was rap. His career hit another high in 1997 when he became the voice of Chef, the sensible school cook and devoted ladies man on the animated TV show “South Park.”
“Isaac Hayes embodies everything that’s soul music,” Collin Stanback, an A&R executive at Stax, told The Associated Press on Sunday. “When you think of soul music you think of Isaac Hayes — the expression … the sound and the creativity that goes along with it.”
Isaac Hayes greatly influenced music during the 1960s and 70s. He was a true American icon. His album “Hot Buttered Soul” (1969) was played numerous times in my household as boy. His deep, confident voice along with spoken word and wonderful orchestration just moved me. As a musician, I also lament the loss of a musical pioneer. His 18 minute, 42 second song “By The Time I Get The Phoenix” was like a short play. Full of emotion and wonderful musicianship.
And what more can be said about the ultra-confident, ultra-cool “Theme From Shaft” song. I wanted to be Shaft when I heard that song!
There are some people in this world who think President Bush has been a great president - even in France. One such person is French historian Alexandre Adler - also known as France’s foremost neocon. In this article, Adler makes a very convincing case for President Bush’s legacy and his ‘unparalleled service to Europe.’
“At a time when “Obamania” is in full swing, why not say all the good things we can about George W. Bush, if not about the eight years he spent battling terrorism? Indeed, a certain amount of false evidence has been laid at the doorstep of the current U.S. president. … The first such item is in the process of crumbling before our eyes: not only was the destruction of the Baathist regime in Iraq not a failure for the United States, but it’s now turning into a genuine success. First of all, because indeed, Saddam Hussein did a good job organizing what was left of Iraq’s state apparatus into an unwavering support system for terrorist operations that America found intolerable. Then, because the current transformation of Iraq has had a considerable medium-term impact: Iraqis have voted freely three times since 2003, although to be sure, these free elections are not yet entirely pluralist. Nevertheless, they have played a role in helping assess the actual size of the three major communities in the country [Sunni, Shiite and Kurd] and have also allowed the real political majority to emerge in Iraq [Shiites rather than Sunnis].”
“We now see that by maintaining strong growth, and even at this moment, by keeping America from entering a recession that the bursting of the subprime bubble clearly provoked, George Bush, helped mightily by [FED Chairman] Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson, his remarkable treasury secretary, has done unparalleled service to the whole of Europe.
Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, the already-mentioned Hank Paulson, and General Petraeus in Baghdad, as well as Zalmay Khalilzad, ambassador and a veritable patron of Afghanistan, will in time come to be seen as true statesmen whose achievements are simply impressive.”
Adler also looks at the situation in the wider Middle East, Latin America, China and North Korea - and although significant blunders are mentioned, he gives President Bush high marks.
(Inspired by a Turner Classic Movie showing of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”)
Minneapolis, Sept 4, 2008–In a Capraesque moment for the 21st century, John Sidney McCain III told a stunned Republican Convention tonight:
“I accept your nomination for president of the United States but, in all good conscience, must reject the tactics that are being used to win that office for myself and my party.”
To the bewildered, buzzing audience, McCain declared, “I take my text tonight from a source familiar to us all but too easily forgotten in the heat of political battle: ‘For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?’
“My friends, I have tried to serve my country all my life with honor, and I will not trade that accomplishment for any office, no matter how exalted.
“In the past months, I have given in to the temptation to allow people who speak for me to paint my opponent as dishonest, deceitful and untrustworthy. From my own experience as his Senate colleague, I know that is simply not true.
“From this moment, all that will stop. In my heart, I believe I am better qualified to lead this country, and I will make my case to anyone who will listen. But I will not be part of a process that demeans others for my own advantage and damages the civilized American dialogue that has been the glory of our democracy for more than two centuries.”
Sources close to McCain reveal that, prior to delivering his acceptance speech, the text of which was not made available in advance, the Republican candidate had dismissed all members of his staff associated with Karl Rove and the Bush campaigns of 2000 and 2004.
Texas is set to defy the World Court and anger Mexico on Tuesday by executing a Mexican national who was not informed of his right to consular services after his arrest.
Texas, by far America’s most active death penalty state, condemned Jose Medellin for the 1993 rape and murder of 16-year-old Elizabeth Pena in Houston. Another girl was killed in the vicious gang-related assault but Medellin was convicted only of Pena’s murder.
The World Court last month ordered the U.S. government to “take all measures necessary” to halt the upcoming execution of five Mexicans until it makes a final judgment in a dispute over suspects’ rights.
So what if they do?
“The impact of ignoring this endangers Americans traveling abroad,” said Victoria Palacios, a professor at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law in Dallas. “If the world sees us ignoring the rights of foreign nationals arrested here, there is very little reason for them to recognize the rights of U.S. citizens.”
The case has drawn international legal attention and underscores the deep gulf between U.S. views of the death penalty and those elsewhere. Texas has executed far more people than any other state in the United States—more than 400 prisoners since the Supreme Court lifted a ban on the practice in 1976.
John Maynard Keynes, the influential British economist whose ideas are known as Keynesian Economics, sums up how I feel about the overused American political term “flip-flop”:
When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?
Well sir, I change my mind as well. But I don’t count. I’m a regular guy dealing with an ever-changing situation at work were I have to constantly flip-flop due to layoffs, company strategy, and overall business strangeness due to my supervisory position. Guess we regular folks have leeway in our lives where politicians don’t.
As you can tell, I’m no fan of the term “flip-flop”. And during this election season, I’m giving both Senators (Obama and McCain) leeway simply because we are in a transitory period in America. There are high levels of uncertainty in the electorate that haven’t been seen in a long time. High fuel prices, the vanishing of big manufacturing, more and more globalization, two mostly-unpopular wars, increasing food prices, increasing higher education, etc. This transition period in America is causing the facts to change “on the ground” faster than what Obama and McCain probably expected. So I’m treating them like regular guys. I’m giving them leeway.
I want to see the overall package at the end of the campaigning. Then I will cast my vote on that November day. We’ll see whose “flip-flops” makes their overall package more appealing.
August 4th, 2008 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
All nations face challenges that, at times, defy easy solutions. What to do? Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, soon after his victory, invited in April this year 1,000 “brightest” among his countrymen for an “ideas summit” to look at the challenges and develop key goals for Australia.
In May a comprehensive report was released. Cynics may view it as a routine popular gesture, but the report is worth a read.
More than 1,000 Australians responded to an invitation from the Prime Minister and came to Parliament House in Canberra for the ‘2020 Summit’, a gathering with the purpose of discussing the agenda for the nation. “To help shape a long-term strategy for the nation’s future, and tackle challenges confronting Australia.
“The people who attended came from diverse backgrounds—some eminent in a specialized field; others ordinary Australians. Among them were farmers, scientists, health professionals, artists and actors, community leaders and lawyers.
“Common to all of them was a genuine interest in and commitment to shaping the future of the nation. They came together to talk about 10 major policy challenges facing the country.”
Kevin Rudd has introduced a novel idea in participatory democracy (especially when the established democratic institutions are not responding that well), and the idea is worth emulating by world leaders, including the US presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain.
The Summit report says: “By 2020 Australia would have developed into an effective middle power democracy that values and upholds human rights, strong communities and a sustainable environment, strongly supports the United Nations, and draws on the expertise in civil society.
“Australia will need to cultivate a model of middle power diplomacy that encourages a multilateral framework…Australia is a model international good citizen committed to the rule of law, peaceful resolution of differences and sustainable global economic and social systems based on democratic principles and, importantly, practice.”
What’s new? Maybe not. But do we have to keep looking for something new all the time? We also need to remind ourselves regularly of the basic time-honored tenets of democracy and international law, which in recent times have been rarely visible. Leaders do not have all the solutions to the tricky problems…they need to reach out to diverse set of people.
And that’s what Kevin Rudd has done. For the full Summit 2020 report please click here…
July 31st, 2008 by SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
Let us compare two New York Times reports. First, October 2001 report: “Pakistan’s intelligence service has had a longstanding relationship with Al Qaeda, turning a blind eye to growing ties between Osama bin Laden and the Taliban.” Second, August 2008: “American intelligence agencies have concluded that members of Pakistan’s powerful spy service (ISI) helped plan the deadly July 7 bombing of India’s embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, according to United States government officials.”
Two senior Indian diplomats were among 58 people killed in the July 7 attacks.
India has been pointing out the subversive role of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI, for the past three decades and its active encouragement of terrorism. Periodically the US administration agrees about the nefarious role of the ISI. But then again goes off to sleep. And imagine that all this relates to America’s “closest ally in it’s fight against terrorism”!!! This is a theatre of the absurd, what else!!!
Interestingly, the NYT’s latest report about revelations regarding ISI came at a time when Pakistan prime minister was in Washington shaking hands with President George W. Bush. As a diplomatic move, Pakistan had announced on the eve of the prime minister’s visit to the US that the wings of the ISI have been clipped (see here…).
So while knowing all along that the ISI has played a tricky role with the blessings of the Pakistan presidents, why is it the US not prepared to call a spade a spade? Is it because the ISI knows too much about sensitive matters and the US administration is not ready to dismount the tiger? It seems that it is easier to remove a particular president or a leader in Pakistan but not tamper with the functioning of the ISI.
Let me quote two paras from the latest NYT report: “The conclusion (about ISI’s involvement) was based on intercepted communications between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants who carried out the attack (on Indian embassy in Kabul), the officials said, providing the clearest evidence to date that Pakistani intelligence officers are actively undermining American efforts to combat militants in the region.
“The American officials also said there was new information showing that members of the Pakistani intelligence service were increasingly providing militants with details about the American campaign against them, in some cases allowing militants to avoid American missile strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas.” More here…
(Meanwhile Pakistan denies the NYT report.)
As regular readers know, I’ve been watching the COPM states (Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan) to get a feel for who will be moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. next January. Whichever candidate can carry at least three of those four will make the path to victory for their opponent a virtual impossibility. The first of those, Colorado, has been generating a lot of news this weekend. Early reports, from both 
