Friday, Nov. 7, 2008

Europe’s mania for a black U.S. president.

By IAN BURUMA
NEW YORK — Why do Europeans adore America’s president-elect, Barack Obama? Stupid question, you might say. He is young, handsome, smart, inspiring, educated, cosmopolitan, and above all, he promises a radical change from the most unpopular American administration in history. Compare that to his rival John McCain, who talked about change, but to most Europeans represented the opposite.

And yet, there is something odd about the European mania for a black American politician, even as we all know that a black president or prime minister (let alone one whose middle name is Hussein) is still unthinkable in Europe. Or perhaps that is precisely the point.


Europeans have long been hospitable to black American stars. Think of Josephine Baker, who wowed Parisians and Berliners at a time when blacks could not vote — or even use the same bathrooms as whites — in many parts of the United States. Cities like Paris, Copenhagen and Amsterdam offered refuge to black American jazz musicians, who needed a break from institutionalized racism. The same was true for other artists. James Baldwin, for example, found a home in France.

Since there were very few black people in Europe, the adoration of black American stars came easily. It made Europeans feel superior to Americans. They could pat themselves on the back for their lack of racial prejudice. When large numbers of people from non-Western countries started to come to Europe after the 1960s, this proved to be something of an illusion. Still, the illusion was nice while it lasted, and Obamamania may contain an element of nostalgia, as well as hope.

The other reason for the European love affair with Obama is that he is seen as something more than an American. Unlike McCain, the all-American war hero, Obama looks like a citizen of the world. With his Kenyan father, he carries the glamour once associated with Third World liberation movements. Nelson Mandela inherited that glamour; indeed, he personified it. Some of that has rubbed off on Obama, too.

***

This did not help him much at home. Indeed, it could easily have hurt him. Republican populists have long tried to depict their Democratic opponents, often with great success, as “un-American” elitists, intellectuals and the kind of guys who speak French — in short, “Europeans.”

When Obama made his rousing speech at the Berlin Tiergarten in July, in front of 200,000 cheering Germans, his popularity ratings at home actually fell, especially in the old industrial “Rust Belt” of Ohio and Pennsylvania. He came dangerously close to looking too “European.” But the real Europeans loved him for it.

But the main reason for Obamamania may be more complex. It has become popular of late for European pundits and commentators to write the U.S. off as a great power, let alone an inspirational one. In this, they have more or less followed public opinion.

Many liberal-minded people expressed, often sorrowfully, their deep disillusion with America during the dark Bush years. The nation they had grown up looking up to, as a beacon of hope — a place that, while flawed, still inspired dreams of a better future and produced great movies, soaring buildings, rock ‘n’ roll, John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. — had been hopelessly tainted by reckless wars, officially sanctioned torture, coarse chauvinism, and extraordinary political arrogance.

Others expressed the same disillusion with a gloating air of schadenfreude. At last, that big, arrogant, fatally seductive nation, which left the Old World in its shade for so long, had been brought to its knees. Watching the economic rise of China, Russia and India, and the American debacles in the Middle East, it was tempting to believe that U.S. power really did not count for very much anymore. A multipolar world, many thought, would be vastly preferable to more Pax Americana.

Yet such projections could never entirely disguise a nagging anxiety. How many Europeans (or Asians, for that matter) would really be happier being subjected to the superior power of China or Russia? Under all the confident-sounding dismissals of U.S. power, there is still some yearning to return to a more reassuring time, when the democratic world could lay its collective head on Uncle Sam’s broad shoulders. This, too, is probably an illusion. Too much has changed since the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. But I do not believe that the American dream has died in Europe quite yet. Obamamania seems to have revived it.

Obama’s election has demonstrated that things are still achievable in the U.S. that remain unthinkable elsewhere. As long as this is so, the U.S., as primus inter pares, can still be looked up to as the defender of our freedoms.

***

Europeans — and others — may regard China’s rise with awe, and hope to find a modus vivendi with Russia, but without the hopes inspired by that extraordinary republic that represents the worst and the best of our battered Western world, we would all be much worse off. In their hearts, most Europeans know this. That is why they are going crazy over Barack Obama’s election.

Ian Buruma is professor of human rights at Bard College. His most recent book is “Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance.”

Friday, Nov. 7, 2008

Japan asked to join new Arctic shipping regime.

By KEISUKE OKADA, Staff writer, The Japan Times online.
Japan should join hands with the United States and other Arctic states in ongoing multilateral efforts to create a new shipping regime in the Arctic Ocean, a U.S. official said Thursday in Tokyo.

International cooperation is vital to ensure that shipping in the Arctic is “safe, secure and reliable,” according to Mead Treadwell, chairman of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, an advisory body to the president and Congress.

As a result of receding sea ice, caused by global warming, the Arctic is expected to open up for global shipping in the future. This will present strategic options for Japan’s industry in light of shorter shipping routes from Japan to Europe via the Arctic Ocean, Treadwell said at a media conference in Tokyo.

The eight-nation Arctic Council, established in 1996 as a high-level intergovernmental forum to promote cooperation among Arctic states, is currently working on an Arctic marine shipping assessment, due to be completed in 2009, according to Treadwell.

Aware of the strategic importance, China and South Korea have already joined the Arctic Council as observers and Treadwell recommended that Japan do likewise.

Aside from its potential for shipping, the Arctic is surfacing as a new battleground for energy resources. In August 2007, Russia stunned the world by planting its national flag in a titanium capsule on the seabed beneath the North Pole, causing other Arctic states — the U.S., Canada, Denmark and Norway — to scramble for a share of a potential new oil bonanza.

Life near a city park can be as healthy as out in the country: Green space can cut health problems linked to poverty.

By Steve Connor, Science Editor, The Independent.
Friday, 7 November 2008

The links between serious illnesses and poverty are well established, but this is the first time scientists have systematically shown that the health gap between rich and poor can be halved with the help of green spaces.

Proof at last: living near parks and woodland boosts health, regardless of social class. Access to green spaces, whether they be rolling chalk downs or simple playing fields, has an independently beneficial impact on health and health-related behaviour which counteracts the effects of poverty and inner-city deprivation, the research by scientists found.

The links between serious illnesses and poverty are well established, but this is the first time scientists have systematically shown that the health gap between rich and poor can be halved with the help of green spaces.

When all deaths were analysed, the gulf in health between the rich and the poor in the greenest areas of Britain was roughly half of that observed in the least green parts of the country, according to the findings published in the medical journal The Lancet.

The difference between those living in the greenest and least green areas was largest when looking at deaths from circulatory diseases.

However, the scientists found that living near green space had little effect for death from lung cancer, which is only weakly linked with exercise; or for death by self-harming.

The authors of the study, Richard Mitchell, of Glasgow University, and Frank Popham, of the University of St Andrews, believe that the findings are strong enough for planning authorities to consider making green spaces available on grounds of health and wellbeing.

The two scientists assessed the entire population of England under the retirement age – a total of 41 million people – and obtained the cause of death for 366,348 people who died between 2001 and 2005 to analyse the links between fatal illnesses and access to green spaces.

“Populations that are exposed to the greenest environments have the lowest levels of health inequality related to income deprivation,” they said.

“Evidence suggests that contact with such environments has independent salutogenic effects, for example, green spaces independently promote physical activity.

“However, the effect of green space is not solely based on promotion or enhancement of physical activity. Several studies have shown that contact (either by presence or visual) with green spaces can by psychologically and physiologically restorative, reducing blood pressure and stress levels and possibly promoting faster healing in patients after surgical intervention.”

They conclude: “The implications of this study are clear: environments that promote good health might be crucial in the fight to reduce health inequalities.”

In an accompanying commentary article in The Lancet, Terry Hartig of the Institute for Housing and Urban Research at Sweden’s Uppsala University, writes: “This study offers valuable evidence that green space does more than pretty up the neighbourhood; it appears to have real effects on health inequality, of a kind that politicians and health authorities should take seriously.”

Dr Mitchell, who is based at the university’s department of public health and health policy, said: “We would encourage the Government to consider carefully what their policy on green spaces is and to bear this research in mind when planning urban areas for the future.”

EU leaders to debate new model for world finance - 07.11.2008 - 09:15
—————————————————————————-
EU leaders are meeting in Brussels on Friday to have lunch, with an
overhaul of the international finance system the sole item on the menu.
France has tabled five key priorities that should be translated into
concrete proposals within 100 days from a G20 summit in mid-November, which
will see global economic players discuss the same topic.

 http://euobserver.com/9/27060/?rk=1
Obama and EU to reinvent global politics, pundit says - 06.11.2008 - 09:55
—————————————————————————-
The Obama Administration will play a big role in “reinventing” the
international system, especially on the financial side,  in strong
partnership with the EU, US foreign policy expert David J. Rothkopf said on
Wednesday.

 http://euobserver.com/9/27054/?rk=1
——————–

EU leaders to debate new model for world finance
RENATA GOLDIROVA

November 7, 2008, EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU leaders are meeting in Brussels on Friday (7 November) to have lunch, with an overhaul of the international finance system the sole item on the menu.

France - currently sitting at the EU’s helm - has tabled a three-page document consisting of five key priorities that “should be agreed no later than on 15 November,” when global economic players meet to discuss the same topic in Washington.

The French priorities seek regulation of all aspects of financial markets.  

The priority list, seen by EUobserver, suggests that no market segment, territory and financial institution, including hedge funds, should escape regulation or supervision.

It urges obligatory registration of the rating agencies; the convergence of accounting rules; and a review of the way in which the fair‑value rule in financial institutions is applied.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) should also be given primary responsibility to recommend the necessary measures to restore confidence and stability as well as the necessary funds and the appropriate instruments to support countries in difficulty, Paris says.

The French EU presidency wants to see all five priorities translated into “concrete, operational proposals” within 100 days from a G20 summit in mid-November.

The summit, hosted by the US, will bring together the G7, the EU and 12 other major economies: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, and Turkey.

The three-page paper to be discussed by EU heads of state and governments is a shorter version of a document - labelled International Financial Architecture - that was discussed by EU finance ministers earlier this week (4 November).

At the time, French finance minister Christiane Lagarde said the French initiative enjoyed “massive support” among member states, except for a suggestion to “encourage an internationally co-ordinated response to the macroeconomic challenges to come.”

This point was objected to by countries such as Germany, one EU diplomat told EUobserver, as it could imply a possibility to shape economic policies above the national level.

According to another diplomat, some ministers expressed concerns about potential over-regulation, with Sweden reportedly objecting tight regulation of hedge funds. “We should not turn financial markets into steady waters,” the diplomat said.

———————-

Obama and EU to reinvent global politics, pundit says
VALENTINA POP, 06.11.2008, The EUobserver from Washington DC.

The Obama administration will play a big role in “reinventing” the international system, especially on the financial side, in strong partnership with the EU, US foreign policy expert David J. Rothkopf said on Wednesday.

A former trade offical in the Clinton administration and a consultant on foreign affairs and emerging markets, Mr Rothkopf was talking from Washington during a video-conference organized by the Brussels branch of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an international think-tank associated with the US State Department.

President Barack Obama is likely to visit Europe in the first months of his mandate.
“President Obama will play a bigger role in re-inventing the international system than any other president before in past decades,” Mr Rothkopf argued, with a number of organisations and treaties badly needing an “update” or to be replaced altogether – ranging from the stalled Doha round of trade talks known to the non-proliferation treaty, as well as outdated bodies such as the G7 or the International Monetary Fund that don’t include the emerging economies such as China.

US-EU relations will “clearly” improve, with a second trip to Europe probably taking place in the first months of his mandate, Mr Rothkopf said.

The tendency of the Democratic Party to be “more comfortable” with multi-lateralism and listening to its European partners will also contribute to improving relations, he said.

But there was also a “necessity” for this partnership to improve, Mr Rothkopf argued.

“We can’t do things alone, we need partnerships and burden sharing. I would expect a debate within NATO about a broader role and sense of burden sharing,” he said, mentioning Afghanistan as an example where European help is needed.

“Problems within Europe are going to have an impact on this as much as US obligations are, to the extent that the EU is divided on some of the big issues of the time and on the nature of the common foreign policy and common defence policy,” Mr Rothkopf added.

New global financial regulator and IMF reform

Mr Rothkopf emphasised the need for a global financial regulator – something the G20 meeting in Washington on 15 November is still unlikely to agree upon, with the outgoing Bush administration opposing this idea and the Obama team yet not in charge.

But G20 leaders would probably agree to meet again in the first months of 2009, when both the creation of such a body, as well as the reform of the IMF could take a more concrete shape.

He spoke of a “regulatory renaissance” and of of “fusion capitalism”, by which he means seeing European and Asian visions of capitalism and how markets are to be regulated take greater prominance on the international stage, and not just the so-called Washington Consensus. Yet on the down side, Mr Rothkopf warned against “blazing new trails on protectionism” that would isolate economies and only aggravate problems.

In terms of what a global financial regulator would look like, Mr Rothkopf mentioned the EU as an example of “creating super-national structures,” while also noting the problem of enforcement. “Getting everybody in a room and agreeing on principles is easy – this is what we are probably going to get on 15 November – but next year we’ll see whether we’ll get institutions that have the ability to enforce new global standards on the international financial markets. That’s going to be the challenge,” he said.

Any financial agreement would also foresee a leadership role for the US, in coalition with the EU and other countries, Mr Rothkopf projected.

From:        info at csmworld.org
Subject:     Invitation: CSM events on climate, trade, business in Nov 2008
Date:     November 6, 2008

Dear Colleagues,

As we gear up to the climate talks in Poznan (Poland) in December 2008, CSM is delighted to announce the following upcoming events in London and Delhi in November.
Please refer to our website for further information and registration details.

Kind regards,
Sumana Das

WEDNESDAY 12TH  NOVEMBER

‘Climate Change, Trade and Innovation: Chinese and Indian Perspectives’

Venue: Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs), London. Time: 5:00pm - 7:30pm

In partnership with Chatham House, Tomorrow’s Company and Chinadialogue.net

Description: China and India and the world’s rising economic giants. What role can they play in building a positive agenda on trade and climate issues? Come and hear from two experts from the region: Professor C.S. Kiang, Peking University Environment Fund and Mr Rajeev Dubey, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.

Further information & registration details: Programme Agenda - http://www.csmworld.org/public/pdf/Chath…, Invitation - http://www.csmworld.org/public/pdf/CH-In…

MONDAY 17TH NOVEMBER

‘Indian Business & the ’Global Deal’ on Climate Change – An information session’

Venue: Hotel InterContinental, The Grand, New Delhi. Time: 2:00pm – 4:00pm

In partnership with Businessworld

Description: ‘In 2009 world governments will agree a Global Deal on climate change in Copenhagen. A successor to the Kyoto Protocol, this will mean changes to the CDM and the context for carbon markets. Come and hear what it will mean and how to build a progressive Indian business agenda for the process.’

Further information & registration details: Invitation - http://www.csmworld.org/public/pdf/csm_b…,

Registration Form - http://www.csmworld.org/public/171108pro…

FRIDAY 21ST NOVEMBER

‘The Tata Group - An Indian icon’s response to the sustainability and climate change challenge’

Venue – London, RSA (tbc)  Time: 2:00pm – 4:00pm

An event under the ‘UK-India Leadership Platform on Climate Change’

Description: The Tata Group is one of India’s legendary industrial houses. A household name in India, the Group is now known internationally through its acquisition of brands such as Corus and Tetley Tea and for its launch of the Nano car. Come and hear how the Group is addressing the joint challenge of sustainability and climate change.

Further information & registration details: Registration Form - http://www.csmworld.org/public/211108pro…

——————————————-

 sumana at csmworld.org

CSM - Kolkata Office :

39 Hindusthan Park

Kolkata 700 029, India
*  info at csmworld.org
( +91 33 2465 5898/5711/2/3
, +91 33 2465 5650
Delhi : +91 11 2352 6000

Bangalore : +91 98451 89383 London : +44 7866 600607

 From:    mfriedman at dupontcirclecommunications….
Subject:    24-Foot Wall of Messages from Thousands Worldwide Congratulating Obama
Date:         November 5, 2008 11:43:28 AM EST

 Avaaz.org, the largest online activist community worldwide.  “The spirit of this moment from Paris to Beijing to Rio de Janeiro is a global ‘yes we can.’”

The Message Board contains a letter, on display with thousands of colorful personalized messages, family photos, candles, and flowers, that reads:

As citizens across the world, we congratulate you on your election, and celebrate your campaign commitments to sign a strong new global treaty on climate change, withdraw carefully from Iraq, double aid to fight poverty, close Guantanamo prison and end torture.  No one country or leader can meet the world’s most pressing challenges alone, but working together as one world in a spirit of dialogue and cooperation, yes we can bring real and lasting change.

 http://www.avaaz.org/blog/en/, which shows people from around the world expressing their eagerness for the United States to rejoin the world community.

###

  Permalink | Printer Friendly |  Email This Article
Posted in Reporting from Washington DC, Real World's News, United Kingdom, Futurism

del.icio.us Digg Reddit Google Technorati Windows Live Yahoo! | what's this?

Discuss this article

All National Results
90% Reporting
Updated 03:24:08 AM EST

Popular Votes                              Electoral Votes    270         to win
Barack Obama, Dem     52%           59,538,468    349         WINNER
John McCain,    GOP     47%           53,582,587    147
Ralph Nader,     EPF        1%                605,546         0
Bob Barr,            Ind           0%               457,412         0

*****

(This article does not have the latest information - Comedian Democrat Al Franklyn will indeed be next Senator from Minnesota the line-up in the Senate will indeed be 60-40 with the help of the two Independents.)

Related Articles

• The upstart with a dream
• Leading article: The pendulum has swung - and America has changed




• Farewell Dubya. Now to undo the damage done …
• Rupert Cornwell: How Bush’s toxic legacy did for his party
• Tom Sutcliffe: They all called it: this was definitely historic
• States that delivered for Obama
• The world stops to watch as drama unfolds in America
• The campaign in cartoons
• Mark Steel: It’s not about great men, but those who put them there
• Elections that changed America




• Madelyn Dunham: Grandmother of Barack Obama

Richard Schiff: I’ve waited my whole life for change.

‘West Wing’ star and Democratic activist, explains what the 2008 election means to him

Wednesday, 5 November 2008

‘I wonder is this the Big One, the epiphany that leads us to brilliance in real time, or is this an aftershock’

We are on the verge of a historical, seismic shift here in America. I write this as we begin our day as citizens lining up to affect outcomes of world events not yet ready to unfold. People stop me on the street and ask me what it looks like. They ask me what will be. There is little debate left in our lungs – we are out of breath, exhausted and exhilarated and wondering what will be.

I remember the day Richard Nixon won in 1968. That was a time that seemed certain to bring about long-awaited seismic change in America. But events of tragic proportion took us on a turn. Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jnr were suddenly dead. The Vietnam War was in full throttle. Thousands of American casualties every year and no end in sight. Riots threatened the sanity of our cities. I rode the subway to school that morning. I looked at people. They read the newspaper, cracked gum, ate muffins, nodded off to catch a few more minutes of sleep before work – no different than the day before. I thought the world would surely be different. I was sure I would see a darker place; a colder Earth; an ugly city or at least a dirty look or sneer or some sign on my subway ride to school that morning that the world was in trouble.

Things happen to us and reaction is sometimes tough to measure. A cop told me once that when he pulled his weapon and shot a man for the first time the thing that struck him most was that the man seemed unbothered by the bullets that had entered his body. The man kept running for blocks – kept running and running.

I fell in love with my wife 20 years ago. I am only now, it seems, getting it through my very thick skull how lucky I am. I’ve been running and running.

If you are like me, our most powerful epiphanies find us after their effect could have been put to good use. We are often too late with our brilliance. We are on time delay. The only instant gratification comes in the form of potato chips. The rest will find us by surprise somewhere down the road, maybe as we sleep and dream of other things.

So I wonder about tomorrow. Is this a monumental moment in our lives? Is this the instance of epiphany or are we awakening from slumber and recognising the effects of cosmic shifts in paradigms that have happened long ago, from which we are too tired to keep running away? I wonder what would have been had Al Gore been allowed to accept his victory as our President. We would not be in Iraq – I know this. We would have invested heavily in green and alternative technology and we would be leading the world in an economic boon for the next generation.

There are seminal moments in our lives where our brilliance is given the chance to unfold and show itself. In the collective American consciousness we had such a moment. On election night 2000, the networks had all given Al Gore a victory in Florida after a tough and close battle all evening. The exit polls were showing a growing Gore lead that was insurmountable and so Florida was called for Gore, which would also give him the electoral numbers to claim victory. A press conference was announced in Crawford, Texas, where George W Bush and his team had holed up for the big night. Newsmen and pundits anticipated a concession speech that would declare the night officially over. But there was no concession speech and no George Bush. Instead out came Howard Baker, a Bush senior campaign adviser, Karen Hughes, the Bush communications director, and Mr Bush’s brother Jeb, the Florida Governor. Huh?

They announced, in no uncertain terms, that they did not concede Florida on this night nor did they concede the general election and they were, and this is a quote: “Getting on the phones and getting to work. We are going to win Florida!” The newsmen and women seemed stunned. I was screaming at the television asking the question: “Getting on the phone to do WHAT?” The polls had closed. There was no work to do. Everybody had already voted. Magically, the numbers changed and showed an unlikely, to say the least, turn in the count that begat the infamous recount that begat the infamous hanging chads that begat the criminal Supreme Court decision that handed the reins of power in a virtual coup d’état to the governor of Florida’s brother, George Bush.

Had we been a fighter pilot we would have been blown out of the sky. If we were Luke Skywalker, we forgot to use the force. If we were a goalie on a soccer field, we went right and the ball went left, or worse, we didn’t move at all and the ball rolled through our legs. Had we had our senses with us that day, our antennas up and our muscles taut, we could have been brilliant. We could have stormed the ranch at Crawford and taken our country before it was stolen from us. Instead we rolled over in our sleep.

So, as we stand on the verge of a shifting Earth, I wonder is this the Big One, the epiphany that leads us to brilliance in real time, or is this an aftershock. Was the Big One Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery in 1955? The Civil Rights Act of 1964? Richard Nixon’s Watergate? Crawford, Texas? 9/11?

Maybe it is the slow moving forward of lives toward death that allows evolution to do what it can by killing away ancient paradigms of supremacy of people and nation. That has allowed for a younger generation to be blind to issues of race and gender and to recognise climate change as science and not God. We lay asleep, we Americans, dreaming of making millions in mortgage madness, unbothered by battles fought and blood spilled by contractors and volunteers a million miles away. Though we did begin to worry about the cost. Has evolution caught us napping? Has this new generation moved forward and with the kindness of their spirit brought us along for the ride?

I am in my home, New York, as it happens. Today I will ride the subway. There will be gum and muffins and newspapers and some will be dozing. Will the city be beautiful this day? Time will only tell.