COUNTRIES DISCUSS POSSIBLE UN-BACKED INTERGOVERNMENTAL BODY TO TACKLE BIODIVERSITY.

The possibility of establishing a United Nations-supported scientific intergovernmental body to address biodiversity loss and protect ecosystems is being discussed at a global conference which kicked off in Putraya,Malaysia, today.

Representatives from governments worldwide are in Putrajaya, near the capital Kuala Lumpur, for three days to discuss creating a body similar to the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was set up in 1988 by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The IPCC has validated the science of climate change and has impelled an international response to global warming, UNEP notes in a press release.  A similar impetus may help to reverse the decline of the Earth’s natural assets and spur political action.

The proposed Intergovernmental Platform or Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)  - could trigger debate, encourage the formation of appropriate policies and elevate the issue in the global consciousness.

“Global GDP has more than doubled in the past quarter century. In contrast, 60 per cent of the world’s ecosystems have been degraded or are being used in an unsustainable manner,” said Achim Steiner, UNEP’s Executive Director.

Treaties including the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on Migratory Species have tried to address these challenges, but have not been able to match the pace of degradation and decline.

“There is clearly a mismatch between the reality in terms of the science and the economics and the actual global international response, which is plainly failing to make a sustained and transformational difference,” Mr. Steiner said.

At the ASEM in Beijing (Asia -Euope Meeting) the Asian States the 13 Asian States committed to establish an $80 billion crisis fund.
BEIJING (AP), Saturday, October 24, 2008.  Asian nations recommitted themselves Friday to establishing an $80 billion emergency fund, as leaders from across Asia and Europe gathered in Beijing to discuss the global financial meltdown.

The pledge by South Korea, China, Japan and the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations was reached at a breakfast meeting, according to the office of South Korean President Lee Myung Bak, who attended the meeting.

Few details were given, although a preliminary agreement reached in May stated that Japan, South Korea and China would contribute 80 percent of the fund, to be set up by next June, with ASEAN countries covering the remainder. ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The deal would enable countries to borrow from the fund when facing a liquidity crunch.

It builds on the so-called Chiang Mai Initiative, in which the 13 nations set up bilateral contracts to supply funds through currency swap lines.

The summit later Friday of 43 Asian and European nations hopes to establish a consensus on a common approach to the global crisis.

The meltdown has injected a new sense of urgency into the normally plodding biennial Asia-Europe Meeting, known as ASEM, with EU Commission President Jose Barroso saying “unprecedented levels of global coordination” are needed to deal with the current crisis.

“It’s very simple: We swim together, or we sink together,” Barroso said at a news conference Thursday in Beijing ahead of meetings with top Chinese leaders.

ASEM has no mandate to issue decisions, but participants hope it will build momentum toward a common stance ahead of a Nov. 15 meeting of the world’s top economies in Washington to discuss the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.

U.S. agrees to debt-for-nature swap to preserve Peru rainforests.

In a bid to preserve some of Peru’s biologically diverse rainforests, the United States agreed this week to a $25 million debt-for-nature swap with the country, Peru’s second since 2002. Over the next seven years, in exchange for erasing millions of their debt, Peru will fund local non-governmental organizations dedicated to protecting tropical rain forests of the southwestern Amazon Basin and dry forests of the central Andes.

“This agreement will build on the success of previous U.S. government debt swaps with Peru and will further the cause of environmental conservation in a country with one of the highest levels of biodiversity on the planet,” said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

Other debt-for-nature agreements have already been brokered with Bangladesh, Belize, Botswana, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay, and the Philippines.

This week’s swap makes Peru the largest beneficiary of such deals with the U.S., with more than $35 million dedicated to environmental conservation in the country.

THEN ESCAP URGES the SPECA CENTRAL ASIA TO STRENGTHEN TIES WITH REST OF CONTINENT FOR GREATER SECURITY. The above has clearly political implications by bundling non-Arab Islamic States.

Greater cooperation between Central Asia and the rest of Asia is essential to achieve sustainable development for the whole continent, given the current climate of global financial instability and food and energy insecurity, a senior United Nations official, ESCAP’s Executive Director  stressed today of all places - right in Moscow.

The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) stands ready to facilitate technical and regional cooperation and provide a neutral forum for engaging in policy dialogue, Executive-Secretary of ESCAP Noeleen Heyzer told a gathering of senior Central Asian policymakers in Moscow.

“We are gathering here against the backdrop of a gloomy economic environment with pressing challenges in food and energy security, as well as the need for greater financial stability,” Under-Secretary-General Heyzer warned participants at the UN Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA) meeting.

“By adopting the South-South cooperation modality, SPECA can provide home-grown solutions and policy options to achieve inclusive and sustainable development,” she told officials from the seven SPECA member states – Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

SPECA aims to strengthen sub-regional cooperation, mainly in the areas of energy and water, transport, trade, technology, gender and the economy, in Central Asia, as well as its integration into the world economy with support from the UN Economic Commission for Europe (ECE).

 The following is in some sense a continuation of the US-India nuclear deal, and we ask if it is not the prelude to a US-Iran deal? This, because of what seems, according to the Japanese, an approach that takes the other side on its word - good for nuclear industry interests, but totally devote answers to the enrichment/proliferation issues - as these are left outside the scope of the agreement. Above would thus seem ideal for the Iranians, who could thus send feelers now to ask for similar agreements. Can these agreements avoid the dreaded Asian nuclear arms race? Is this a legacy the Bush Administration wants  to be remembered for?

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North Korea cuts deal to exit blacklist: Enrichment now not factor; Japan to snub food aid.
Kyodo News, Friday, Oct. 10, 2008.

The United States has told Japan it will remove North Korea from its list of terrorism-sponsoring nations by the end of the month because Washington has reached a certain degree of understanding with Pyongyang about verifying the North’s nuclear programs, Tokyo sources said Thursday.

Japan has demanded that the U.S. keep North Korea on the list until the hermit state makes progress on reinvestigating the fate of the Japanese nationals it abducted in the 1970s and ’80s.

According to the sources, the top nuclear negotiators from the U.S. and North Korea have broadly agreed on verification of the plutonium program declared by North Korea while setting aside scrutiny of its uranium enrichment program and nuclear proliferation activities as conditions for removing Pyongyang from the list.

The deal was struck during a meeting Oct. 1 in Pyongyang between Christopher Hill, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and Kim Kye Gwan, his North Korean counterpart.

The U.S. also told Japan it plans to continue providing food aid to North Korea, a humanitarian assistance program it started in June, and asked Japan to consider joining the program, the sources said, adding Japan plans to reject the U.S. request for food assistance because it hasn’t seen any progress on the abduction issue.

The U.S. plans have already been reported to Prime Minister Taro Aso, the sources said.

It is also believed that Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy for the six-party talks on denuclearizing North Korea, presented the plans during a meeting Wednesday in Tokyo with Akitaka Saiki, director general of the Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, the sources said.

The Japanese government will accept the U.S. plan to take North Korea off the terror-sponsor list on condition that Pyongyang carry out the deal with Washington.

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Kyodo News, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2008

North Korea sanctions extended again: Ban on imports, port calls to last six more months due to inaction on nuclear, abduction issues.

Japan on Friday extended its ban on port calls by North Korean-registered vessels and all imports of goods from the country for another six months, citing the lack of progress in denuclearization and its failure to come clean on its past abductions of Japanese nationals.

In addition to these two sanctions, which were to expire next Monday, Japan also continues to maintain other measures, including barring entry to all North Korean nationals, except for those who are residents of Japan, and prohibiting the export of luxury goods to North Korea.

Approved by the Cabinet on Friday morning, it is the fourth six-month extension since the sanctions were imposed on Oct. 14, 2006, following North Korea’s nuclear test and earlier ballistic missile tests over the Sea of Japan the same year.

“After considering comprehensively the current circumstances concerning North Korea, including the six-party talks, U.N. Security Council resolutions and the moves of the international community, and given that the abduction issue has yet to be resolved, we decided to extend these measures,” Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone told a news conference.

Nakasone said the extension was made because North Korea has yet to agree to the specifics of a verification regime under the six-party denuclearization framework, yet to begin the agreed-on reinvestigations of its abductions and is moving toward reactivating a nuclear facility after suspending the disablement process.

But he added that Japan has no immediate plans to further expand the sanctions’ scope.

North Korea had agreed to launch a committee by autumn to reinvestigate the abductions and Japan had promised to lift its sanctions on chartered flights and entry of North Korean nationals in return once the probes began.

However, following the abrupt Sept. 1 resignation announcement by then Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, North Korea told Japan the panel will not be set up until Pyongyang confirms the policy of the new Japanese administration.

Since the launch of Prime Minister Taro Aso’s new government last month, Japan has continued to urge North Korean authorities on multiple occasions through diplomatic channels in Beijing to move ahead swiftly with the reinvestigations, a Foreign Ministry official said.

Aso, who was foreign minister in 2006 when Japan began the sanctions, pledged last week to relatives of the missing abductees that he will make an all-out effort to resolve the abduction issue and noted it is “a fight against time.”

Japan imposed unilateral sanctions after North Korea fired ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan in July 2006, banning the entry of the North Korean cargo-passenger ferry Mangyongbong-92 into Japanese ports and barring North Korean officials, ship crews and chartered flights from entering Japan.

It also took measures in September that year to practically freeze remittances to the North in line with a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the missile launches.

After North Korea conducted a nuclear test in October 2006, Japan expanded the scope of the sanctions to include banning entry for all North Korea-registered ships.

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Kyodo News, Monday, Oct. 13, 2008

Aso downplays removal of N. Korea from U.S. blacklist.

The U.S. move to strike North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism won’t prevent finding a resolution to Pyongyang’s abductions of Japanese nationals, Prime Minister Taro Aso said Sunday.

“We will be able to hold sufficient discussions on the abductions in the process of negotiations to come. It does not mean a loss of leverage,” Aso told reporters in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture.

He showed some acceptance of the U.S. move, saying, “I understand that they took the step considering it would be better to do something about (the nuclear issue) than not doing anything.” The decision is “one way” to move the nuclear disablement forward, he added.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura, also the minister in charge of the abduction issue, said: “Japan has no reluctance to cooperate in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. At the same time, we have a strong feeling that the abduction issue should not be left out. We will take up the issue without fail in the six-party talks.”

Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone issued a statement saying Japan will continue to work closely with the U.S. and others to seek progress in resolving the abduction issue.

“Japan will do its utmost, in close cooperation with the United States and other countries concerned, to push forward Japan-North Korea relations, including the abduction issue, alongside the nuclear issue,” the statement said.

Nakasone noted in the statement that President George W. Bush expressed to Aso in a phone call prior to the announcement his understanding of the strong concerns among the Japanese public and his sympathy with the families of the missing abductees.

Nakasone also expressed hope of cooperating with other members of the six-party talks to adopt an agreement on the specifics of a protocol for verifying North Korea’s nuclear programs and facilities based on a deal reached between Washington and Pyongyang.

“Japan believes that in order to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, which is the goal of the six-party talks, it is extremely important to build a concrete framework for effective verification,” Nakasone said.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said in Washington on Saturday that the U.S. decision was “extremely regrettable.”

“I believe abductions amount to terrorist acts,” Nakagawa said. He was in Washington to take part in Group of Seven meetings on the global financial crisis.

Nakagawa, who headed a nonpartisan parliamentarians’ group to seek a resolution to the abductions, met with Bush prior to the delisting announcement. He said he referred to Shigeru and Sakie Yokota, the parents of abductee Megumi Yokota, who North Korea says is dead.

Sakie Yokota, 72, met Bush in 2006 at the White House in seeking U.S. help on the abduction issue.

“I talked with the Yokotas over the phone a while ago and they were very shocked” by the U.S. decision, Nakagawa told reporters.

 Pham Gia Khiemhas, 64,  a PhD from Czechslovakia in Metallurgy, taught Mechanical Engineering and “electrics” at University level, before entering public life.

He made significant contributions in developing science and technology in Vietnam and eventually became head of the Department of Science, Education and Environment. October 1997, Member of the Party Central Committee and Minister in charge of Science and Technology till July 2006, when he became Deputy Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, eventually taking over also the Foreign Ministry. His foreign languages are Czech and English.

The event at the Asia Society came about because of Vietnam moving on to become an important US trading partner and Asia Society intends to have a large conference in Hanoi, in 2009.

Today, Vietnam’s growth is 6% and they are applying for WTO membership. This year they are a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council and they would like to emulate the China model of economic development. Nevertheless, while in the US the Vietnamese met also Allan Greenspan. Their intent is to build a capitalistic economy with a socialist distribution.

Inflation was 7% in 2007, increased to 16% in 2008 and is expected to reach 20% by the end of the year - this is the price they pay for rapid development. They want to work on reducing inflation by tightening expenditures and asking the people to join the government in tightening expenditures - this tu curb the deficit. It was 3% in the first quarter - increased to 5% and now they expect to bring it back to 3% per month. This while foreign investments increase “exponentially.”

Labor strikes? - Yes. The reasons demand for larger pay, decreasing working hours, “equal pay - for equal hours.”

To the question if they want to be a new China and what they want to do differently? He Answered that China was very good with liberal investment policies but do not delegate to lower levels. Vietnam learned to decentralize by delegating authority to lower levels in economic issues. This so they have even freer relations with investors. There are environmental problems and we take measures in this respect.

Asked about the US elections he said that he hopes work will continue with developing nations and that more technological assistance will be forthcoming.Relations on the base of mutual respect. McCain was shot down in Vietnam - but we forget the past and look to the future.

He spoke of freedom of religion in Vietnam, the X5 increase of tourism, with 5-6 million tourists in the near future - from the present 4 million/year. On the relation with the US, he was reminded by a question that Budha says - “If you do not fight among yourselves you will not get to know each others.

On the nuclear issue - he said Vietnam is against nuclear weapons but wants nuclear power.

He is very much interested in ASEAN and sees in it a turning point for his region - he wants to see it strengthened by 2015, rather te 2020, and he wants to see Vietnam become a more active member. He wants to stabilize the Vietnamese population by a two children family. Vietnam is the only country in Asia that got the World Population Gold designation for its policies.

Asked to describe the Vietnam of 2050, he said this is not easy as they move from a planned economy to a fully market economy as per a 1986 decision.

 The Columbia University World Leaders Forum, September 26, 2008, Became The Podium For Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark To Make Known A  Roadmap To The December 2009 Climate Change Meeting in Copenhagen. The Prime Minister Is Keenly Interested That The Copenhagen Event Becomes The Turnaround Point From Our Present Descent Towards Global Environmental Disaster, and He Negotiated This Week A Roadmap With The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and The Two Candidates For The US Presidency.  We Wished Him All The Luck He Needs; Nevertheless We Expressed Some Skepticism.

The Columbia Forum brings to campus, during all months of the academic year, leaders involved with all sorts of ongoing problems, and at the time of the September High Level meetings of the UN General Assembly, it picks up special speed, and manages to pick up speakers that may have fallen in between the cracks when organizations like the Asia Society and the Americas Society, or the Foreign Policy Association, or the Council on Foreign Affairs, set up their schedules. This time it was really not the case. Prime Minister Rasmussen came to Columbia University because he has high esteem for the work done at the Earth Institute that is the home for a large number of scientists that were involved in the readying of the IPCC reports. Having said that, we must also note that rather then having the people from The Earth Institute involved in the Forum, the University chose to go all out with Columbia University President, Lee C. Bollinger, and University Professor of Economics and Law, Jagdish Bhagwati, a specialist on globalization and development, being the official hosts.

The above august Columbia University reception caused Mr. Rasmussen to start by saying: “I congratulate you on your work. I am impressed by the contribution of The Earth Institute to both the development agenda and the Millennium Development Goal. Issues I had the opportunity to discuss yesterday with other world leaders. Today, I will be speaking about another major topic for The Earth Institute and for many leaders including myself: CLIMATE CHANGE. I will focus on three key elements: THE CHALLENGE, THE VISION, and THE DEAL.”

 The introduction said to us clearly - the Prime Minister does not want to see the reality of climate change being submerged under tons of other global problems. The task of his leadership towards a Copenhagen 2009 agreement is to lead to an agreed timetable for the decrease of CO2 emissions from human made causes - it is this, rather then the maze of other linked problems, that he intends to tackle. He laid bare the problem in his first two segments - but his aim is the third segment - THE DEAL.

We intend to post his whole presentation - but for this fast posting we want to go directly to the DEAL, point out questions that came up in follow up discussions, and the full information that was then provided to the very few members of the media present at a follow up press conference.

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The Prime Minister wants to see in the December 2009 declaration a deal based on four key elements:

FIRSTLY: A Long Term Vision for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by 50% from 1990 baseline by 2050.                    This in order to set out targets for businesses in planning their investments.

SECONDLY: An Ambitious Medium Term Goal for the industrialized countries modeled after the European commitment to 30% reduction by 2020. “A tall order, I know, but it meets the challenge and creates opportunities.”

But that is not enough. The Major Emerging Economies will also have to join this endeavour by taking actions. They must stabilise, and subsequently reduce, their emissions. This obviously taking in consideration the different levels of development of the individual countries. IN THIS PRESERVATION OF FORESTS WILL PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE.

Without clear 10 to 15-year reduction commitments from the industrialized countries it will not be possible to develop cost effective measures.

THIRDLY: The Technology aspect requires the development and dissemination of low carbon technologies and INNOVATION within a global collaborative effort that promotes programs and policies that sustain economic development while ensuring decreased emissions. We must encourage investment and financing of low-carbon technologies.

FOURTHLY: Dealing with the special needs of the most vulnerable developing countries that contributed least to global warming and suffer the hardest consequences, they must be given a safety net which includes financial support for their efforts including adaptation.

The Prime Minister wants to see cost-effective, market-based instruments - efficiency standards and national, regional, and global carbon markets. He looked further at places that such moves were started already - the EU, China,  in many countries in Asia, other emerging economies.

“I believe the Chinese business sector and government have understood the prospects for low carbon technology. They can see a double benefit. Firstly their economy and, secondly, their participation in the global economy. They are already out there seeking to be part of the next generation of smart, low-carbon technologies” - he said.

Mr. Rasmussen did not mince words: “Following the last oil crisis Toyota started to build smaller and more fuel-efficient cars. General Motors did not. Today Toyota is the most sold car in America.”

“In China, cars are produced according to strict fuel efficiency standards. At the same time, US manufacturers are struggling with old fashioned fuel intensive models” - he said. “DO I NEED TO SAY MORE?”

From here Mr. Rasmussen pointed out that much did actually happen in many US individual States that have also established regional carbon markets and energy efficiency standards - so - he wants to see America lead again by example, by entrepreneurship - politically as well as economically.

“I know,” he said, “that many people fear competition from China, especially in energy intensive sectors. And Yes, no deal can address climate change without both China and the United States being part of it. But do not deceive yourself: with emissions at 24 tons per capita the USA has a long way to go and cannot afford to wait for others. There are huge gains to be won by moving rapidly and with determination.”

The choices that will be made in 2009 are not short of shaping actually the future of planet earth for the next century - but Mr. Rasmussen does not think that his goals are unattainable - they are not impossible and they are not unaffordable - they are actually absolutely vital for our survival - he said - and he offered also that they are vital for our economic recovery and growth.

“We could continue to wring our hands, watching helplessly as the oil price rises and falls. Watch weather systems spreading havoc. Continue to transfer huge amounts of wealth to autocratic regimes and rely on unstable supplies of oil and gas. Watch our planet grow more unlivable every day. But that is not an option. We are not going to do that.”

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Professor Bhagawati, in his remarks mentioned, in reference to the present calamity of the US financial sector, also with application to the issues here at hand, that we were once used to the image of a ship captain standing in a position of salute when his ship was going down, this after putting his passengers into the lifeboats. Now we see the captains leaving in the lifeboats and leaving the passengers behind to go down instead.

He also suggested that from Kyoto I we will probably not go to Kyoto II, but rather to Copenhagen I. He wants to have in Poznan, Poland, in December 2008, already the agreement to go to 50% reduction of emissions, and during 2009 the negotiations for the intermediary steps with the consideration of different responsibilities for different stages of development, taken in full account.

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We brought up the question about the timetable from now to December 2009, with the intermediary stop at Poznan in December 2008.

We explained that the US elections in November 2008 will have produced a new President-elect, but no practical change in the US representation -  what-so-ever - at the Poznan meeting. Simply - the US has only one President at one time. This will make it impossible to deal with the US in order to come up with the Poznan  decision, that is needed in order to reach an agreement that Mr.Rasmussen expects at the Copenhagen meeting in 2009.

Mr. Rasmussen answered that he is already in contact with both US Presidential campaigns, and both said that they will be ready with their plans when they take over on January 20, 2009. But this is also no solution - this because of the fact that a US negotiator will have to be approved by Congress - and it is hardly possible of having such an approval before March to the earliest. Really, as cabinet positions will have to be approved first - let me say that this will not happen before April.

With Poznan having become a dud, negotiations April - November 2009, can hardly be expected at turning Copenhagen of being more then a Poznan II, rather then a Kyoto II or Copenhagen I.

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The Prime Minister is optimistic nevertheless and expects the EU to push for renewable energy and energy savings, and lead by example. He also puts his hope for Europe’s energy in the construction of pipelines from Central Asia that bypass Russia.

Furthermore, as it is true that climate change is with us for a long time - and it only got worse in the last two century because of the man-caused emissions, nevertheless, it is the confluence of that reason, with the present political reason, the fact that huge amounts of money are transferred to unstable regimes in payment for the energy, is strengthening our resolve to take action now. We must now brake our addiction to oil.

The Prime Minister also told us of a “Troica meeting” with the UN Secretary-General: Indonesia, Poland, Denmark - or the organizers of the Bali (2007), Poznan (2008) , and Copenhagen (2009) meetings, which just happened, a day earlier, at this reunion at the UN.

So, there was already a promise of 50% by 2050 / as per 1990, that was put on the table in Bali, and then backed by the G8 meeting in Japan.These answers to questions from the floor got then further amplified in the meeting with the four members of the Press that participated at the follow up session. And this is what I call now the Roadmap:

The year 2009 will involve Heads of State.

(a) In February - March 2009, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will hold a Heads-of-State Meeting at the UN in order to start the process rolling.

(b) In July 2009, probably in Rome, there will be a meeting of the G8 ++ - that is the major evolving countries - probably 5 of them if not more. This to reach an agreement that can then be brought to all Heads-of-State in a September Session of the UN.

(c) thus an energy/climate change UN High-Level September meeting at the UN headquarters in New York City.

(d) The December 2009 Copenhagen meeting.

Further, we wanted to know what the Prime Minister thinks about a US that will be spending now $1.5 trillion on the Wall Street Bailout - so where will the money come for doing the right things needed in regard to climate change? But the fighting optimist believes that really this is not a question of money, but political will.

Again, I felt compelled to wish good luck and to mention that we are all with him and hope he can pull it through.

Last comment for this first report is that I watched in amazement how the Prime Minister was accosted at the Columbia Forum reception by an Iranian young lady student, who for perhaps 15 minutes was trying him out on those famous cartoons, and how he tried to explain to her the workings of a democracy and the fact that freedom of speech, the press, religion, mean that one religion cannot be imposed on others, and that the government has no right to intervene in a  democracy, even though this student seemed not to want to accept this reality. Columbia University must really have succeeded in bringing on board all sorts of students - and we wish the school luck also, in the attempt to forge well behaved citizens even with hard to reach individuals that surely must come from the leading families of political strata of some of the most repulsive regimes. Finally, another student, waiting in line to talk to the Prime Minister, felt compelled to say - “let’s go back to energy questions.”  A different student, without offering a question,  thanked the Prime Minister for his strong stands.

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