The writer of this article from Uruguay mentions the need for a ‘visionary leader’ that will institute a modern - global ‘New Deal.’ Many will surmise that the author, Sebastián Da Silva, is talking about Barack Obama. But perhaps that’s too Democratic and U.S.-centric a view.
“So far, no one knows the depths of the disaster. What is clear is that in the past 30 days, the world has been losing 12 percent of its wealth every week, there is no mechanism for injecting confidence into the markets, and despite the billions that central banks have been pumping out every day, credit is nonexistent … When stock markets crumble, the riches of the world disappear in the blink of an eye … Because of all this, the world is poorer, and for the developing or Third World, the horizon has changed for the worse. The global population has to continue to eat and the stocks of food are nil. People depend on various sources of energy to live and reserves are scarce.”
“We hope then that after the tremor passes, the international technocratic system, comprised of the World Bank, the IMF, the U.N., etc., will find a visionary leader who can propose a balanced way out of this - not to address the Dow Jones or the NASDAQ, but the real flesh and bone human element and all that it entails.”
The negative turn taken by the McCain campaign over the past few weeks hasn’t escaped observers in other countries, and in fact has begun to elicit alarm.
“For Republicans, disarmed by the unpopularity of Mr. Bush and the financial doldrums, the color of Mr. Obama’s skin is becoming the only argument left for opposing the Democratic candidate. He is attacked not only because he’s Black, but because his father was a Kenyan, because he lived in Indonesia, and because his “middle name,” inherited from her paternal grandmother, is Hussein.
Republicans have little to say about Obama’s choices in the area of energy or his fiscal proposals. They tolerate and often encourage racist slander, xenophobic lies and venomous rumors prevalent amongst extreme right-wing bigots and “White supremacists.” If Mr. McCain wins under these conditions, violence will menace America. If Mr. Obama is elected against this resurgence of hate, hope will prevail, but fear will continue to loom.
October 12th, 2008 By JOE WINDISH, Technology Editor
In a long and serious article on food policy in today’s NYTimes Magazine, Michael Pollan writes that the era of cheap and abundant food is coming to a close. He says the next American president, no matter which man is elected, is going to find that the health of our nation’s food system is a critical issue of national security.
His argument is that, unless we address the industrial food system, we will not be able to make significant progress resolving the three main issues of our day — health care, energy independence and climate change:
Energy Independence:
After cars, the food system uses more fossil fuel than any other sector of the economy — 19 percent. And while the experts disagree about the exact amount, the way we feed ourselves contributes more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than anything else we do — as much as 37 percent, according to one study. Whenever farmers clear land for crops and till the soil, large quantities of carbon are released into the air. But the 20th-century industrialization of agriculture has increased the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the food system by an order of magnitude; chemical fertilizers (made from natural gas), pesticides (made from petroleum), farm machinery, modern food processing and packaging and transportation have together transformed a system that in 1940 produced 2.3 calories of food energy for every calorie of fossil-fuel energy it used into one that now takes 10 calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce a single calorie of modern supermarket food. Put another way, when we eat from the industrial-food system, we are eating oil and spewing greenhouse gases.
There is little question that the presidential race will tighten as Election Day approaches. It always does. But absent an apocalyptic event, Barack Obama will cruise across the finish line ahead of John McCain in the most important election since Franklin Roosevelt beat Herbert Hoover in the depths of the Great Depression.
I do not make that cross-generational comparison lightly because in 1932 things were sucky in a way that none of us — excepting a precious few long-lived grandmothers and great uncles — are able to recall.
And while I do not have the chops to predict whether we are on the verge of another depression, it is clear that no one in a position of responsibility — whether they work on Wall Street, in Washington, the City of London or Tokyo — has a clue as to how the global economic conflagration of the vanities can be extinguished since throwing trillions of dollars, euros and yen into the flames in the form of rescue packages has had little effect in restoring confidence in what obviously is a badly-broken economic system.
This brings me to the second presidential debate and the sit-up-in-bed realization (because I happened to be lying down at the time) that even if McCain had the chops and even if Obama had a resume longer than a page and change, the cold fact of the matter is that they have been battling for the privilege of sitting in the cockpit of an airplane that has become aerodynamically unstable, to paraphrase an astute antipodean blogger.
* * * * *
The title of this post is cribbed from “When the Hunter Gets Captured By the Game,” a song that Smokey Robinson wrote for the Marvelettes back when Barack Obama still had training wheels on his bicycle.
“Hunter” seems to be about love, but like many great songs its lyrics have a timeless universality that fit events years in the future that would seem to have nothing to do with it’s surface theme — a romancer who chases someone for the thrill of the hunt only to find that they have become the prey.
That is a pretty close approximation to what has happened to Obama, who is trying to stay on a bicycle of another kind as he pedals toward November 4 and Inauguration Day.
‘THE RETURN OF FAITH’
[Het Parool, The Netherlands]
With finger-pointing over the global financial crisis rapidly spreading, William Waack of Brazil’s O Globo warns that developing countries are in no way shielded from the effects - and that blaming others won’t do a thing to help Brazil or the world emerge from the hole they are in.
“‘Contagion’ suggests that it might be possible to prevent the “disease,” as long as the potential victim remains isolated from the source of infection (in this case, the American economy). That’s pure nonsense, and it’s dangerous, because it overshadows what must be done and delays the adoption of protective measures. … We can dispense with the notion of ‘decoupling.’”
“The more advanced and competitive a national economic system is, the more it will be affected by the crisis. Therefore, it’s Brazil the exporter and innovator which is connected with the global economy that will face the worst consequences. And it is that modern country - industry, agro-business, services and competitive exporters of mineral commodities - that have ensured our prosperity so far. … Schadenfreude, a German word that has been adopted by the Anglo-Saxon press, means to take pleasure in the misfortune of others. The New York Times this Thursday pointed out the fact that many Latin American leaders, among them Chávez [Venezuela], Morales[Bolivia], Correa [Ecuador], Kirchner [Argentina] and Lula [Brazil], allowed themselves be get carried away with schadenfreude in regard to the crisis in the United States. And now, they’re getting carried away with fear. ”
It probably won’t come as a surprise that along with the rest of the world, Iraqis who aren’t struggling every moment of the day and night to keep body and soul together are watching the American presidential race with great interest.
The writer, Sati’ Noureddine, doesn’t appear to favor Obama or McCain, says nothing of Palin’s fundamentalist Christian beliefs, and only mentions her daughter’s pregnancy in the context of how Obama allowed an electoral attack opportunity pass him by, for fear of Republican retribution.
Perhaps I’m overdrawing here, but it seems as though what interests this Iraqi author are the strategies and tactics of campaigning in a democracy. From an American point of view, perhaps that is cause for hope.
“She’s the seductress of the American election and her charms are new. Mrs. Sarah Palin retains much of the good looks she was blessed with when she was in her 20s. And she is showing off the rhetorical skills gained since she launched her plan in that state far away at the edge of the world, to move from beauty pageants and sporting contests into political affairs and oil. And now it’s on to the White House.”
“The Democratic Party has made the process of choosing leaders from outside traditional institutions a standard practice. This has been repeated in many presidential, legislative and executive election battles, culminating with Black Democratic candidate Barack Obama, a man whose origins, thinking and religion even today, remain unknown to many Americans. They don’t even know whether or not he drinks beer.”
“But the Republican Party and its leading figures have always emphasized a desire not to shock American public opinion, stressing caution when choosing candidates from outside a select political circle. It takes many years and even decades of public works before a member of the club reaches the top rank … But with the choice of Mrs. Palin, who has leaped with unbelievable speed to the head of the class - and perhaps to the top of the decision-making tree, it seems that it was time for this to change.”
It seems that both in and out of the United States, the things that concern people the most about Sarah Palin - John McCain’s running mate - is her age, his age, and Palin’s fundamentalist Christian upbringing.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh: By obtaining a waiver for India’s nuclear program which operates outside the rules of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty -with powerful American help - he has just won the greatest victory of his entire career. Some Indians are asking, ‘Why is Washington so good to us?’
What’s behind the Bush Administration’s overwhelming support for India? After this weekend’s watershed decision by the Nuclear Suppliers Group to approve a waiver that will permit India to obtain modern nuclear supplies and fuel for its reactor program, Sagarika Ghose writes for the Hindustan Times of of why these ‘once-estranged democracies’ have so rapidly become such avid partners.
“In the aftermath of the landmark waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group and efforts by the United States to have it passed, it seems clear that America, for reasons best known to itself, sees India as the “good guy.” Read the rest of this entry »
How representative of the Iraqi population are his views? It’s very hard to say. But we do know that he is regularly published in this Sunni-leaning daily published in Baghdad.
“Apart from the minds of those polluted by demagogic, despotic speeches and whose views are so set in stone that they chant absurd slogans against the United States of America - knowledgeable and realistic people unequivocally agree that America is the most important strategic ally of Iraq, which offers the Iraqi people the greatest of golden opportunities.
In the entire history of the Iraqi people, nothing compares to the opportunity now offered by America’s presence on our soil, with all of its scientific, industrial, administrative, political and military strength. What more could the Iraqi people ask than the opportunity afforded by the greatest nation on the face of the earth? The United States of America, with her outstretched hand, is offering to assist Iraq in many areas of development and construction.”
After eight years of obstinate stupidity in the White House, the change voters should want most is a combination of common sense and common decency.
“You can’t beat brains,” JFK used to say, but this year’s debate has somehow been shifted to a mistrust of intelligence–at first by Hillary Clinton’s attacks on Barack Obama as naïve, followed by John McCain’s claims of wisdom only through suffering and now by Sarah Palin’s salty assertion of hockey-mom shrewdness.
What will be at stake in the next two months is how Americans judge the qualities of mind they want in a president. The threat of terrorism, the woes of the economy, the endangered environment require more than a sound-bite mentality and a determination to, in the most frequently used word in McCain’s acceptance speech, “fight” and respond to mindless chants of “drill, baby, drill.”
In the campaign, Barack Obama’s open-mindedness is being distorted into irresolution, but what he would bring, as conservative David Brooks noted almost two years ago, is “a deliberative style to the White House [that] will multiply his knowledge, not divide it.”
September 8th, 2008 By DR. CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTÉS, Assistant Editor, TMV Columnist
CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait -(July 28, 2007) During her recent visit to Kuwait, Gov. Sarah Palin discussed Alaska issues with Staff Sgt. Duane Middleton at an Army dining facility. The governor was visiting Alaska Army National Guard Soldiers stationed in Kuwait. Middleton is a member of 3rd Battalion, 297th Infantry, and lives in Wasilla, Alaska.
(The legend of this photo reads a little like a year-book description, but it is from Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs)
Many of us have gotten used to viewing the Russian press as a kind of tamed animal, for the most part parroting the Kremlin line on all things political. So it was with some surprise that I came upon this article written by a Swiss journalist stationed in Moscow.
“If the Kremlin is comfortable in its [Army] boots, the Russian press is tormented the day after Moscow officially recognized the independence of the two separatist republics of Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. … A prime reason for concern: the economic consequences of deteriorating relations with Moscow’s Western partners.” Read the rest of this entry »
What some people call ‘victory in Iraq’ often looks alot more like a slap in the face.
According to this news item from Iraq’s Azzaman newspaper, the Iraqi government has decided - at Iran’s urging - to give the rights to one of Iraq’s largest oil fields to China’s state-owned oil firm, according to the article, making it ‘harder for American companies to exploit Iraqi oil.’
“A source in the Oil Ministry said that the deal is worth about $3 billion and would generate $6 billion over the next ten years. The source went on to say that the cost to retrieve each barrel [from the field] would be about $6. Well-informed Iraqi sources revealed that the decision to allow China to exploit the field comes in the context of Iranian government pressure and mediation, urging Iraq to grant oil exploitation rights to Chinese and Russian companies and to deny U.S. companies access to Iraqi oil and energy.”
As we Americans obsess about the presidential campaign, the Georgia crisis goes on -and is getting worse ‘hour by hour,’ according to French historian Alexandre Adler, aka/France’s foremost neo-con and fan of President George W. Bush.
“The general state of relations between Russia and the West is deteriorating by the hour. While, contrary to the agreement signed by Nicolas Sarkozy and Dmitri Medvedev, Russian troops continue to occupy portions of Georgian territory - outside of Abkhazia and Ossetia, rumors of a possible confrontation between Russia and Ukraine are gathering apace. … Yet it’s in the nature of extreme situations to produce effects that are excessively negative or excessively positive, according to the artfulness and ability that politicians bring to them.
“Here begins the careful surgery: the French and the other Europeans in their train must indicate clearly to the Russians that they will not alter their opposition on the presence of Ukraine and Georgia in NATO … at least in its current state. They must also make it known to Moscow that they will not pass a sanctions regime except as a last resort. But at the same time they must make clear to the Kremlin that the E.U. could quickly accept the candidacy of Ukraine or Georgia to the European Union. For reasons that are principled and not tactical, the enlargement of Europe can be carried out only with the consent of Russia; and only if Russia advances along a path as a partner with special status within the European Union, which would be at least on par with that of Ukraine. If Russia agrees to enter into such a mechanism of negotiations, Russians and Western Europeans could then build a continent-wide dialogue that would change the face of the world.”
Republicans may not like the type of questioning that the American media is subjecting McCain’s shock VP pick to, but it isn’t only American journalists asking ‘personal questions’ about Governor Sarah Palin, who could soon be a heartbeat away from the Presidency.
“Even if she tries to smile it away and to make it look pretty: The pregnancy of her daughter - in contrast to other pregnant U.S. teenagers in a financially comfortable situation - can be directly attributed to the twisted sex education policies of Sarah Palin and other conservative Christians, which still assert (despite clear statistics to the contrary) that vows of celibacy keep teenagers from having sex.”
September 3rd, 2008 By JAZZ SHAW, Assistant Editor
John McCain has swung away from the current media circus and hit some of the key notes which should be the focus of voters this year, particularly in Michigan where this ad is running.
Energy independence and relating it to security. This is the bread and butter of the McCain campaign and he needs to be doing more of this.
“John McCain’s choice for a young (by political standards) female governor as his running mate was an extraordinary political occurrence for Republicans. It genuinely relegated to the history books the speech given the night before by Barack Obama - of which much of the press instantly stopped talking about just twelve hours after it had been called ‘historic.’”
“At 72 years of age, John McCain isn’t exactly a triathlete. To answer this, the Republican candidate himself has always said that it’s just as important to know the Republican Vice Presidential candidate as it was to know him. And what a Vice! … It was a brilliant political play. The name that most people had been talking about for the vice presidential slot was entrepreneur-governor Mitt Romney - competent, successful, monotonous. Even McCain had a half-smile when he announced Sarah Palin - the smile of an old man when he receives praise from a much younger woman.”
“These U.S. elections are the most fascinating for at least three generations. The American electorate - and the world, we could say, given the consequences of the decisions that are taken by the United States, like them or not - is confronted with a real choice. And it’s not easy to decide between one and the other.”
