Politics and Press

The interaction of the press and politics; public diplomacy, and daily absurdities.

Archives for November 2006

“China Seduces Africa While West Watches”

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The above is the title of a piece from Reuters that follows up very nicely on Kiwi’s earlier blog here on China buying Africa for its oil. The price is cheap – $1.9billion and the use of its veto in the UN – when needed. The fact that the deal is in China’s current national interest and not in the national interest of the U.S. or other Western countries points out the fundamental weakness of current Western policies and diplomacies in Africa.

And, in a not-so-funny way we in the West end up complicit by demanding cheap goods from China which contributes to China’s increased demand for oil which leads to a new Chinese colonialism in Africa which will in all probability lead to increased human rights problems in Africa.

Canada Leaves Green for Brown

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Canada is making it into the German papers more than it used to, but it’s not always for flattering reasons. It used to be that the only Canadian stories worth carrying had to do with grizzly bear attacks, Quebec separatism (almost always misportrayed) and sports; Steve Nash is Dirk Nowitzky’s best friend or Canadian thugs won another match against European skilled squads. The latter has however disappeared of late as Sweden showed it could beat anybody in any number of ways, including thuggery.
Bur now Prime Minister Harper actually gets his photo in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, just like the fantastic twins now ruling Poland. And that’s a bad sign, because the twins never get in unless they’ve done something extremely silly. So there was Harper making a speech in which he attempted to announce that Canada was getting out of its Kyoto commitments. This did not go over well, to put it mildly, and now this decision will have to be reconsidered. A Canadian prime minister should know he’s in big trouble when the foreign press begins to compare him very unfavourably to Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Genocide and the Myth of ‘Never Again’

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The Atlantic Monthly online edition has a short piece that accurately and depressingly describes the world’s response to genocides since the Holocaust and the development of the “never again” hypocrisy. It provides some possible insight into the lack of effective response to the Darfur genocide while increasing our discomfort with the world’s inaction.

China’s “Public Diplomacy” in China

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Chinese – Sudanese oil, arms, and political protection deals are sustaining the 2nd African genocide of our generation. But that is just the starting point. China has been using the Sudan as a test bed, proving and improving the beta version of mass market neo-colonialism.

It is a terrific success. No real detractors. The UN rolled over and played as dead as a Darfur baby trampled under janjaweed hooves. Oh, the US muttered a bit but then decided best not to piss off their Chinese bankers. All is going as the Chinese had hoped and now its time to go into production with a continent-wide roll out. If you liked Darfur get ready Angola. Heads up DR Congo. The good times they are just startin’ ta roll.

Click here for the story as reported in today’s NY TIMES:

More than 80% of African heads of state are lining up in Beijing to cut their own deals on the Sudanese pattern. They will get the small arms they need to oppress their domestic populations and they’ll get the buy off cash to pass around amongst themselves and argue over in civil gang fights. China will get the oil iron and cotton it needs and— as a bonus– a market for the cheaper trinkets of Chinese low paid labour. But wait, there’s more. If the Africans sign up now there is a premium to be had in the UN market place. It is a fantastic market–the UN. A place where- to quote Catch 22’s Milo Minderbinder,–everybody has a share. Well, every government has a share. Well a vote, then. What those governments do to their populations is up to them. China will see to that.

Mutual UN backscratching under the ultimate protection of China’s Security Counsel seat/veto. What a deal. Easy money for corrupt governments in exchange for rights to rape environments and plunder raw materials. It is a sweet one.

Nobody gonna mess with this.

Hey,where the fuck’s Bob Geldolf?

The Irony of Arab Public Diplomacy

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The United States has reduced its public diplomacy effort to a shadow of its former self – major reductions in surrogate radio broadcasting into Iran, Iraq and Russia matched with increased broadcasts of Western pop music and a tilt towards programs that trumpet the glories of U.S foreign policy.

While this has been going on the Arab TV network Al Jazeera has been preparing to initiate an English language TV network that would present the news of the Arab world with an Arab point of view. This should not be confused with a blind propaganda effort – given the quality of some of its Western hires it would appear to be designed to be less so than the Fox network which presents the news through the prism of personalities like Bill O’Reilly. What we have then is Arab public diplomacy directed to the West, particularly the United States, at a time when the U.S. continues to reduce its public diplomacy efforts to a defense of policies which are not even an easy sell to its own citizens let alone the rest of the world.

Whither democracy?

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The German media is obsessed with two items these days. One involves the metaphysical dimensions of “Borat”, the film in which a British Jewish comic has the nerve to make fun of almost everything, insulting almost everyone on his journey across the US in the role of a Kazakh reporter out to discover the wonders of “the greatest country in the world”. But nothing comes off worse than US society itself. The other topic involves the dirty tricks that are slashing through the supposedly civilized veneer of the electoral process in the the US in its final days. The chaotic absurdity of the two scenarios are related, and to the Germans add up to a serious questioing of the democratic process itself in the US. Is this the process for which German soldiers should go to war? Never mind Iraq, considered an illegal lost cause from the start, what about all those other places where help is requested to set up democracies? Suppose they don’t work any better than this miserable election? Democracy isn’t doing very well as a concept of a political concept in Europe these days. Germany struggles along with a coalition government that has little leadership. but it works fine compared to its neighbours. Austria has had no government at all in the month since its election and seems unable to make any progress in finding one. Sweden couldn’t get through one week of a newly-elected government without firing several new cabinet ministers because they had failed to fulfill the fundamental duties of a democratic society. Several hadn’t paid obligatory broadcasting fees for ten years, including the new minister of culture, others avoided taxes by hamstering money in off-shore accounts, several employed illegal cheap workers. Worst of all, none of the East European states under Soviet control has come up with a stable working democracy after fifteen years iof trying, and several, like the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, are getting worse. Only Slovenia from the former Yugoslavia really seems to have joined the west. Could it be that German ex-chancellor Gerhard Schroeder got it right when he recently wrote that Vladimir Putin, a loyal friend of Germany, and a “pure democrat”, was the only kind of leader that could bring order to Eastern Europe. Maybe Borat knows.