EU - save Ukraine from Russia, The European Foreign Policy Council (ECFR) NGO says.

Philippa Runner, from Brussels for the EUobserver, August 25, 2008.

The European Union should formally recognise Ukraine’s right to join the EU and offer it a “solidarity clause” to help prevent Russia from undermining Kiev’s pro-democratic government in the wake of the Georgia conflict, a European foreign affairs think-tank has said.

“The next focal point for security tensions - although not for war - might be Ukraine,” the European Foreign Policy Council (ECFR) warned in a flash report on Monday (25 August), urging Brussels to make a strong show of friendship with Ukraine at an EU foreign ministers’ meeting on 5 September and the EU-Ukraine summit on 9 September.

Russian cruiser - the Black Sea fleet has been stationed in Crimea since 1783.

In the “mid-term,” the ECFR advised the EU to make a political declaration endorsing Ukraine’s EU perspective, draft a road-map for a visa-free travel deal, and help Ukraine to ready itself for NATO membership and the ejection of Russia’s Black Sea fleet from its old home in Crimea.

 www.SustainabiliTank.info thinks this is a very raw idea - not even half backed. We have seen Sevastopol and neighboring towns and waters. They are filled with old and newer Russian warships and the people in the towns are mainly Russian. Talking of the people - also in the Eastern part of Ukraine most people are Russian transplants, they speak Russian and feel they want to be part of Russia. We said this many times - to save Ukraine from Russia, the solution is an amicable divorce - so the best the EU could do is to advise the Ukraine to go for their own good to a marriage/divorce councillor and promise them the EU membership if they agree to severance from some of the heavily Russian territories. Surely, the EU can say to the Russian Prime-Minister that moving in with force will be dealt with in economic terms, but we all know that if ,and when, these statements are put to test, the EU will not go to war because of the Ukraine. Further, in the Ukraine case there is not even an argument like we had for Ossetia, where we said that if one opts for independence - this should lead to an Ossetia State that includes both - South and North Ossetia. There is no similar condition in the case of The Ukraine.}
A new bilateral EU-Ukraine treaty - currently under negotiation - should also legally oblige the EU to “consult and assist Ukraine in case of challenges to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.”

The ECFR study sees Russia’s assault on Georgia as part of a wider plan to rebuild the old Soviet sphere of influence, noting that some pro-Kremlin analysts such as Sergei Markov recently floated the idea of a Russia-led “East European Union,” which would mimic EU integration and include countries such as Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Turkey.

“What matters here is Russia’s drive to become the centre (and the sheriff) of a pole of influence in a multi-polar world and a bipolar Europe,” the ECFR said.

***

Tensions flare:

Russia-Ukraine tensions flared in recent weeks after Moscow accused Kiev of supplying arms to Georgia, and Kiev tried to limit Russia’s use of its Crimea-stationed warships against Georgia.

Inside Ukraine, pro-western President Viktor Yushchenko’s senior aide, Andriy Kyslynskiy, last week accused Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko of striking a secret deal with the Kremlin in return for Russia’s support when she runs in the next Ukrainian presidential elections in 2010.

Mr Kyslynskiy also said political “interference” by pro-Kremlin elements in the Ukrainian establishment has reached levels unseen since the run-up to the 2004 Orange Revolution, adding that Russian intelligence is funding and steering Crimean separatist groups.

Some 60 percent of the 2 million people who live in Crimea are ethnically Russian, hundreds of thousands of whom secretly hold Russian passports, the ECFR says.

Crimea was historically Russian and has been home to the Black Sea fleet since 1783. It became part of Ukraine when Ukraine won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, with the Russian fleet set to leave by 2017 under a bilateral deal.

In the wider Ukraine, about 25 percent of the 50 million-strong population are Russophone, most of whom live in the east of the country and many of whom oppose Ukraine’s integration with NATO and the EU.

***

Warning shots already fired:

On 22 August, some 2,500 people held an anti-Georgia rally in the eastern Ukrainian town of Donetsk. The same day, 50 people in Simferopol in Crimea called for the peninsula to rejoin Russia, with the crowd nonetheless gaining coverage in Russian state media.

In late July, anti-NATO protestors in Crimea threw stones at Ukrainian police, who fired warning shots in the air. A second group used small boats to try and block NATO warships leave the port of Odessa to take part in a naval drill.

“[Russia] is likely to play on deep rifts within Ukraine on the ‘Russia question’ to try and influence the country’s future,” the ECFR said. “[The EU] must demonstrate that an escalation of tensions in the post-Soviet space will be met with more, not less, engagement in the Eastern neighbourhood.”

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Georgian rebels in Abkhazia seek greater EU recognition.
LEIGH PHILLIPS, 25.08.2008, EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS.

Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia, on the Black Sea - is a once a popular holiday spot for Russian elite.

The Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia is keen to get EU recognition as an independent country, after the Russian parliament passed a resolution urging the Russian president to endorse Georgian rebels’ ambitions of statehood.

“We are not interested in only Russia recognising us,” Abkhaz deputy foreign minister, Maxim Gunjia, told EUobserver on Monday (25 August), adding that he expects Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to shortly back the pro-independence vote by Russian MPs.

“We want the European Union and all states to recognise our independence. This is a very positive moment for the EU - it could follow Russia’s example and also recognise Abkhazia. It is the only way to preserve stability and peace in the region.”

“We recognise that full recognition is a very big demand of Abkhazia for the EU at the moment,” Mr Gunja added, indicating that Abkhazia would also be interested in other ways of increasing its presence on the international stage.

“The EU could instead give a voice to Abkhazia in various European forums and institutions,” he said. “Only Georgia is invited to such forums while discussing the Caucasus, which is why the information the EU is receiving is biased, and why the conflict became possible.”

***

The lower house and the upper house of the Russian parliament on Monday both unanimously voted through a resolution urging Mr Medvedev to recognise Abkhazia and a second Georgian rebel territory, South Ossetia, as independent states.

The resolution has a largely symbolic value so far, as the legal decision resides solely with the Russian president, with some western experts doubting the Kremlin will follow through.

“The game is completely open, but it would be much more reasonable for Medvedev not to do so. If he doesn’t, he holds onto a very powerful bargaining chip with regards to the EU and US, and Georgia itself,” conflict prevention think-tank, the International Crisis Group (ICG), analyst, Alain Deletroz, said.

“If he wants to turn a military victory into a diplomatic victory, he will not recognise [the rebel enclaves], because it will then become extremely difficult for the EU to keep an open dialogue with Moscow,” Mr Deletroz explained. “What Russia wanted was a division within NATO. If they go too far, they will only achieve the opposite - a unification within the alliance.”

***

The China angle:

“Even for the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation [the China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan security alliance], recognition would create problems. For the same reasons that China was not happy with the West’s recognition of Kosovo, Beijing would also not be happy with Russian recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia,” the ICG expert added, pointing to China’s discomfort over its own separatist problems, such as Taiwan.

The European Commission was reluctant to issue any reaction to the Russian parliamentary vote ahead of next week’s extraordinary summit on EU-Russia relations, but the EU has repeatedly said it supports Georgia’s “territorial integrity.”

“The debate is ongoing in Russia, and we will not react as long as the debate is ongoing,” European Commission spokesperson, Ton Van Lierop, told reporters in Brussels.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from Tbilisi in civil wars in the 1990s, setting up de facto states with their own mini-parliaments and paramilitary forces within Georgia’s internationally-recognised borders during a tense, 15-year long ceasefire that erupted into open conflict on 7 August.

Tbilisi has accused Russia of giving the rebels financial and political backing, as well as arms, in order to keep NATO and EU-aspirant Georgia divided. It also accuses the separatist and Russian forces of “ethnic cleansing” in pushing out the last remaining ethnic Georgians from the two territories during the recent war.

———————-

UNDP Releases Information on a UN Angle:

Please see - http://www.innercitypress.com/undp1georg…

It seems that Inner City Press came up with information, acknowledged by UNDP, that together with the George Soros Open Society International, and the Swedish Government, there was a very modest supplemental funding of Georgian officials, including the President, to make it possible for them to run a rather non-corrupt government in the National interest of Georgia, and perhaps also in the interest of the oil buyers of the West.

Above link leads to an article that starts:

UN’s Engagement with Saakashvili Included $1500 a Month, Soros and Sweden Also Paid.

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, August 25 — Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was paid $1500 a month by the UN Development Program earlier this decade, on top of his official presidential salary, UNDP has told Inner City Press. UNDP says the goals of these payments, in which the Swedish government and financier George Soros joined, were to allow the Georgian “government to recruit the staff it needed and also to help remove incentives for corruption.”

  While receiving these $1500 monthly payment, Saakashvili committed to increase tax collection in Georgia. Deals were signed with , among others, British Petroleum, for the Baku - Tbilisi - Ceyhan oil pipeline. UNDP, and presumably its two co-funders, applauded this development.

——-

This last article mentions also the old UNDP problem with having helped with injecting hard currency to North Korea that, as the claim goes, has helped them finance the acquisition of nuclear know-how. So, UNDP is a tool for covert actions and not just a victim of side effects in what they consider to be development work? In the tape attached to the article, Matthew Russell Lee points out at the unevenness of the way, North Korea, Sudan, and Zimbabwe were dealt with, and surfaces the idea that the treatment is in relation to the interest of internal politics in the US. So back to our posting, how will the UN be used in the case of the Ukraine - which is rather more of an EU then a US problem?

From:  media at avaaz.org
Subject: Release: global Olympic handshake to reach Beijing
Date: August 22, 2008

The August 23, 2008 - PRESS RELEASE - Will Appear In the International Herald Tribune and China’s Ming Pao, on the Day of The Beijing Olympics’ Closing. It Willl Say - Love China / Love Tibet / Love Burma / Love Darfur - and Will Promote Human Rights For China - a Hanshake to the World.

175,000 STRONG GLOBAL HANDSHAKE TO LAND IN BEIJING AHEAD OF OLYMPIC CLOSING CEREMONY see avaaz.org

A virtual global handshake will land in Beijing tomorrow ahead of the Olympic Closing Ceremony.

Since the beginning of the Olympics, Avaaz.org has taken actions worldwide to promote a dual message of friendship with China and the need for renewed dialogue and action on human rights post Olympics. Aside from the handshake website, they have launched a sister website in China www.onevoicechina.org, and have run an ad campaign which has made a splash in London, New York, Hong Kong, San Francisco and Sydney using print media, adwalkers, and mobile billboards to carry the message Love China / Love Tibet / Love Burma / Love Darfur. You can see images of these ads at avaaz.org

To culminate the campaign, this weekend, Avaaz.org has taken out an advertisement in Saturday’s International Herald Tribune and China’s Ming Pao to deliver the handshake to the world.

“Some in China have slandered human rights activism as violent and anti-Chinese. Our handshake campaign is an attempt to reach out to Chinese people and show that our call is for peaceful and respectful dialogue”, said Avaaz Executive Director Ricken Patel.

However, Avaaz is concerned that the end of the Olympics may herald an era of further oppression.

“People around the world are concerned that the Olympics are coming to a close without any changes in Chinese policy on Tibet, Burma or Darfur — will things get better or worse?” said Patel.

***

The global handshake petition reads:

“With this handshake, we reach out to one another as citizens round the world in the Olympic spirit of friendship and excellence, committing to hold all our governments to a higher standard of peace, justice and respect for human dignity wherever they fall short – be it in Tibet, Iraq, Burma or beyond. Dialogue is the best way forward, for China, and the world.”
For more information, see www.avaaz.org

***

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW

Ricken Patel, Executive Director,  ricken at avaaz.org, +1 646 229 5416
Brett Solomon, Campaign Director,  brett at avaaz.org, +61 407 419 320

***
ABOUT AVAAZ:

Avaaz is a global web movement with over 3.3 million members worldwide, working to ensure that the views and values of people everywhere inform global decision-making. Avaaz means “voice” in many languages.

World Economic Forum: “Dire Situations Call for Bold Measures.”

The World Economic Forum on East Asia wrapped up this week with Ahn Ho-Young, South Korea’s Deput  Minister for Trade, saying it was dominated by “the three F’s”: food, fuel and finance.

A forum survey of the 55 business leaders who attended the two-day meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, showed that an overwhelming 81% voted for “addressing growing global concern over environmental challenges such as climate change and water” as the top issue facing Asia.

Also of concern were “preventing political and economic instability linked to rising food and energy prices” and “managing the social, environmental and infrastructural implications of rapid urbanization.”
The survey also revealed that the price of rice had more than tripled in Thailand since January. During the same time, diesel prices have risen over 26% in Vietnam.
Water is another issue rising to the fore, with Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Chairman of the Board, Nestle, Switzerland, repeating his dire warning: “We will be running out of water long before we run out of oil.”

He lamented that more of the world’s GDP was not being allocated to water: “One out of every five children is dying every 20 seconds because we haven’t been able to solve the problem of clean water today.”

Mr. Ho-Young (South Korea)  urged Asia to do three things: “First, it is important for Asian countries to maintain their open market policies which will enable us to maintain the momentum of economic growth,” he said. Second, he urged Asian countries to pay more attention to the economic and social impacts imposed by the global economic uncertainties. Third, “Asian countries should and must play a more active role in solving global issues,” he said (Xinhua).
In his opening remarks, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah bin Ahmad Badawi referred to fundamental questions, primary assumptions, and revered assumptions, that had to be reviewed and re-evaluated. “Unless we are prepared to address these questions sincerely and take necessary remedial measures,” he said, “our economies and the livelihood of hundreds of millions of people will continue to be vulnerable. Dire situations call for bold measures” (The Toronto Star).

East Asia (generally consisting of Japan, North and South Korea, China, Taiwan, with Vietnam and Singapore) has come to the realization that it is now in a position to react positively, with the best interests of the region in mind, to the world’s economic challenges.

Anson Chan joined Hong Kong civil service in 1962, and advanced within the system until nominated as Chief Secretary for Administration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative region from 1997 to 2001 - First as Deputy to the last British Governor, Chris Patten, and then to Beijing-appointed chief executive Tung Chee-hwa. I happened to be in Hong Kong in 1997, and am aware of the mixed feelings at the time, as people saw in her the China-plant in the British Administration. But now I think that it is agreed that Hon. Anson Chan was rather the person that managed to help smooth the transition of Hong Kong - from a British Colony to an affiliate of China.

She is seen now as the person that while dealing with the mechanics oof government, she also oversaw an orderly transition to a more democratic system - something that Hong Kong did not have under the British either! Hong Kong under China was given an agreed upon “Basic Law” that allows for sort of a mini-constitution; under this law she was pushing through the slow democratizing process. In 2006 she sat up a Core Group to promote democracy and universal suffrage. On that platform she was elected to the Hong Kong Legislative Council in December 2007, and looks forward to pursue that special goal which she keeps defining as UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE.

Friday, May 9, 2008, Hon. Anson Chan came for a breakfast meeting/discussion with the Asia Society President Dr. Vishaka N. Desai. The topic was: THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY IN HONG KONG.

She started out by telling us that until the 1980s there was no attempt under the British to establish a representative government in Hong Kong. The first election was held in 1985. By 1991 there were 10 members elected on the basis of one man - one vote. And there was also the corporate identity that created a Functional Constituency that takes part in the elections. She expressed the obvious that these Functional Constituencies can not be part of the universal suffrage idea.

We regard that time in China as Oppressive - she said, and by the time the British made some moves to have representative government it was already too late. The first real sign of progress was thus the election of December 2007 - and this is with Hong Kong as part of China.

Even Bhutan has now elections - so why does Hong Kong have to wait? - she asked. But still - Hong Kong will have complete personal elections only by 2020. There is an intermediary stage set for 2012, but she hopes that within 4 years, the Central Government (that is Beijing) may get the trust of the people - as the people in Hong Kong are loyal to China, and know that HK is part of China. So, there will be no reason not to have every person in have the right to vote and to stand for election. This second part is important in democracy and this is not yet the case in HK. A nominating Committee should not be a filtering sieve to eliminate those you do not want to stand for the election she explained.

Further she explained of a system of four sectors in the election comittee. She hoped that in stages there will be an increase in elected officials 2012 - 2016 - 2020. Having served for 39 years in HK government , her “passion” is now to get fair government for Hong Kong, she said.

Dr. Desai asked her - after 39 years in government, how is this that you decided now to move over to the elected branch? (or in her actual words - “to the other side”)

Anson explained that she created a group of like-minded people to put forward ideas that the government ignored. The situation was - “put-up or shut-up.” So she decided to run for elections. Quite a few people, even high-school students, went to Taiwan to observe elections. This is very good she said - specially for the young - it will be for them.

WE LOOK FORWARD TO ESTABLISH A RELATIONSHIP TO TAIWAN, a government-to-government relationship, she said.

Q. What role can the International Community play to help on this path? This because of the strong international presence - it is Asia’s International City?

A. there are ex-pats living in HK, so there is concern. At the moment it is air quality! Not just politics! It is important that HK remains GHG Green. This is not interference by the International Community.

Q. From someone who lived in Singapore and wanted to know if the elections could lead to a situation like in Singapore?

A. “I hope it will not be the model for HK - think there will be a genuine choice for Singapore. We have a number of social problems, health care, how to educate, how to teach skills..”

She further expressed her concern with what happens with the civil service as a whole. She was not able to back some of the appointments that were made without the necessary checks and balances. Her opponent was appointed from one of the “friendly parties.”

Now I had my chance, and asked Ms. Chang if she sees a possibility for China evolving into a Federal government situation that could then allow for diversity. I did add perhaps a possibility to have such entities like Macao, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Tibet among the units. I got in reply forthcoming information that was, honestly, even more then I hoped for.

Ms. Chan mentioned the Economic Zones that have their separate governing systems. She also mentioned the Autonomous Regions - so in principle the diversity is possible, and it is not set in stone because of existing present lines of demarcation that separate different administrative units. So, what I understand is that the whole Chinese central government is evolving - so that the state is ready to allow functional entities to evolve in different ways - as ingredients of a China that does figure to be a multi-system state - rather then a tightly centralized state. This gives us the justification that the system of buttons we introduced on www.SustainabiliTank.info, as part of our China button, is indeed the way of the future. We may thus enlarge our present selection by including buttons, as needed, for the Special Economic Zones.

China to meet Dalai Lama aide - writes Associated Press as per the official Xinhua News Agency from Beijing.
April 25, 2008.
The Chinese government plans to meet with a private representative of the Dalai Lama in the coming days, state-run media reported, after weeks of pressure from world leaders.

The official Xinhua News Agency said it had learned of the development “from official sources.” It quoted an unnamed official as saying there had been requests repeatedly made by “the Dalai side for resuming talks.”

China has faced repeated international calls, including from U.S. President George W. Bush and the European Union, to open a dialogue with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader since anti-government riots rocked the Tibetan capital of Lhasa in mid-March.

The official said “the relevant department of the central government will have contact and consultation with Dalai’s private representative in the coming days.” No date was given, and it was unclear exactly which representative was expected to take part in the meeting.

In the meantime - Tibetan monks attend birthday celebrations for Gedhun Choekyi Nyima in New Delhi on Friday. Thousands of Tibetans exiles in India marched on Friday, demanding the release of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who is recognized by Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama as the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama and who according to the exiles has been a prisoner in China since 1995.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Communist leadership’s international affairs office said they did not know about the Xinhua report.

“The policy of the central government toward Dalai has been consistent and the door of dialogue has remained open,” the official was quoted as saying.

China says 22 people died in the Lhasa violence, while overseas Tibet supporters say many times that number have been killed in protests and the ensuing security crackdown across Tibetan regions of western China. The riots and government reaction have cast a shadow over preparations for the Beijing Olympics.

Between 2002 and 2006, China held six rounds of contacts with representatives of the Dalai Lama, who is also head of the Tibetan government-in-exile, with no apparent result. China has demanded he meet numerous preconditions before it will talk to him directly.

One of the preconditions is that he not seek independence for Tibet. The Nobel winner has repeatedly said he wants autonomy, not independence, but Beijing has expressed suspicion.

“It is hoped that through contact and consultation, the Dalai side will take credible moves to stop activities aimed at splitting China, stop plotting and inciting violence and stop disrupting and sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games so as to create conditions for talks,” Xinhua quoted the official as saying.

Many Tibetans insist they were an independent nation before communist troops invaded in 1950, while China says Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries.

The Global Endorsement of Declarations for Human Rights of World Citizens and Peace consists of three very important declarations:

1. “Love of the World A Declaration of Peace” declared after the three massive earthquakes in 1999 ( Columbia , Turkey , and Taiwan ). Appeal to the world that we should respect life, we should protect nature, we should love ourselves and others, and we should love our own countries as well as other people’s countries.
2. “Peace Declaration” declared in the 2001 World Citizenship Assembly (WCA) by more than 600 delegates from over 50 countries.
3. “Declaration of Human Rights for World Citizens” declared in 2002. Peace originates from the harmonious coexistence between human and nature. Human rights originate from the mutual respect among people. We treat love as our momentums and culture exchanges as the power to unite people’s hearts. So we as world citizens can together enjoy freedoms, our human rights be protected, and peace be achieved.

These three declarations result in profound and tremendous influence on human history. In light of the importance, UN/NGO Association of World Citizens, the Federation of World Peace and Love, and the Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy have invited friends from all walks of life to endorse the declarations by signing their names and nationalities, and making a wish for love and peace. About two million people from 158 countries have endorsed the declarations in 2004.

During the 57th Annual DPI/NGO Conference in 2004 , in a presenting ceremony held at the Millennium UN Plaza Hotel, Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze, Honorary Vice President and member of Advisory Board of Association of World Citizens UN/NGO/DPI/ECOSOC, presented an endorsement CD of 2 million signatures to Joan Levy, Chair, NGO/DPI Executive Committee , and Joan Kirby, Chair, 57th Annual DPI/NGO Conference, to refer to Kofi Annan, General Secretary of the UN, to voice out people’s wish for love and peace.

The campaign of the Global Endorsement of Declarations for Human Rights of World Citizens and Peace is in full swing on March 29 th to further extend the achievements made in 2004 and motivate the idea of “How One Good Thought Can Improve the World.” A change starts from oneself and to practice love and peace in daily lives. If people can always have good thoughts, the destiny of this world will differ and move toward a brighter future.

Please log on to the Tai Ji Men website to watch the movie “How One Good Thought Can Improve the World.” To learn how world leaders, including President Wade of Senegal, President Fradique de Menezes of Sao Tome and Principe, and President Leonel Fernandez of the Dominican Republic, turn the symbolic key of the world and put their words into actions for world peace.

Welcome to visit Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy website at www.taijimen.org. Click for a look and to acquire immediately the wisdoms that will influence your whole life.
As we were inducted by FOWPAL to their campaign, and we had the honor to ring the organization’s Peace Bell, as Pope John Paul II, many Presidents and Nobel Prize Winners, and NGO leaders did. We signed onto their previous campaigns, and now I was invited to their 04.04.08 Manhattan launching of the 2008 campaign - this past Friday - at a hotel near the UN.

For Dr. Hong spoke Rick Ulfik from “We The World” that tries to move the world “from the path of capacity to the path of sustainability, peace and transformation.” Dr. Hong’s concept of INTERDEPENDENCE - “we or all of us are in it together - when the least of us is hurt - we are all diminished.” Speaking of FOWPAL, Rick said that - ” working with Oliver, Julie, and others in FOWPAL, we get that this transformation has to start with PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION  - INSPIRE, INFORM, and INVOLVE. That is what Rick’s organization does, and that is what FOWPAL does. People are inspired to get to a better level that leads to taking action.

Since my last visit with FOWPAL, the organization has developed an interesting symbolism that uses both hands to describe a heart, then people link in a chain using those same heart finger-touch, and eventually fluter away as  free spirits, but then the right hand returns with strength to declare ENERGY, ENERGY, ENERGY!

This is a depiction of spiritual energy - but to me this translated also as their basic concept of sustainability - which ends with the call ENERGY - which is to all of us the base for sustainability. Fowpal does not just preach appeasement, it rather includes the call to action embodied in these cries of energy.

From the FOWPAL Press release following the 04.04.08 evening:

The Libyan Permanent Ambassador to the UN is the second man from left, next to him is the Chairman of the Global Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the US.

Now one last word - the evening was specially interesting when I realized that I was there of a sudden in the company of the man who represented Libya in its leadership month - the Presidency of the UN Security Council - and you know what?   He was there to cut the ribbon for starting the campaign for human rights and sustainability embodied in that cry of ENERGY, ENERGY, ENERGY! Only at the outskirts of the UN, this becomes an actuality!

The First Event:

The volume was published by Blackwell  www.BlackwellPublishing.com, March 2008.

The Rule of Law is rhetoric. The legal idea is that law is pure (In the sense of being blind), without relation to society, and this leads to plunder. The facts are that the Chinese started to develop in recent years without what was considered in the west as rule of law. They are changing now. Law brought to the underdeveloped countries the privatization of water and land in order to get access to financial markets - the result is that villages that were left intact even in colonial times, were destroyed, using laws, and people left for urban slams. In the case of Mexico, they cross the border to the US.

Ugo Mattei, the lawyer, states that we refuse to see that underdevelopment is a direct result of our own development - and today we keep ahead because we keep down the underdeveloped world.
Laura Nader, the anthropologist says that in the 19th century we spoke of primitives, now it is underdevelopment. Then the US was an island, China was an island - then we started filling up and spread our laws. With NAFTA the autonomous villages in mexico and Canada started to disappear. When people cannot grow corn they come to the US. The enhanced agriculture had to get them out of the way.

That is a question of Foreign Policy and spreading our laws. In effect Iraq did not lack laws - they had plenty and a variety - National law, Islamic la, and Decentralized law. We said we wanted them to get one set of laws - like our laws that we do not implement here either. Here we heard something I found intriguing - THE EARTH BELONGS TO MANKIND - but we have the concept - “The Land Without People Belongs to The People Without Land.” So land was taken from the local people and given to mining companies as property rights. In Oaxaca the locals had plenty of computers and fought back the Canadian Companies that came to mine.

Ugo Mattei does not believe that anything good comes out from “universalism.” If you are an economist - all economists - wherever they are - think the same way. They think of how markets work - and indeed markets work the same way all over. But this has nothing to do with people reality. HUMAN RIGHTS ARE JUST ANOTHER INDUSTRY - universalizing human rights also does not lead to good results because humans are different.

“PLUNDER” DEALS IN INJUSTICE starting with justice. What the people want is water (that is when the water is given to a company and the people are deprived of the access to water that they used to have for millennia. In Bolivia they were made to pay for water to drink. Then PLUNDER SAYS THAT THERE IS NO RULE OF LAW THERE OR HERE - THIS BECAUSE WITH CASH YOU BUY THE VICTORY IN COURT.

The real issue is - WE HAVE TO WORK ON DISTRIBUTION RATHE THEN GROWTH!

Listening to the above - to the Q&A - I got more and more intrigued about the negation of universalism as in globalization, though I saw most of the arguments, but wondered what does that mean to a planetary look if this is substituted for the UN kind of internationalism which is at the basis not just of bilateralism, but also of the UN taunted multi-lateralism. So I dared to ask:

“I realize the concept of ‘Plunder’ and I understand that internationalism is at the basis of the universalism that you describe here - but what about the present situation of our need to tackle such issues as Global Warming/Climate Change? Here we have planetary problems that perhaps can indeed not be handled in our international way with National laws transposed and then arbitrated by the various States. Let us say that one owns a car that pollutes, this is a case of property rights, but also a case of his human rights or freedom to pollute. It is also a problem of International law because by our insisting on the application of our laws, we just forget the rights of someone in a different part of the planet being hit by our impact on the planet - this impact being outside the range of our laws, and Phelps of little interest to his judicial system, even though he is our victim. Do you not have to extend the scope of the work into the future from the evaluation of the past that is clearly riddled by all those problems that you so correctly described.  Professor Mattei said that he is not dealing just with the past but with the present - to which I commented that Present is Past - the problems are the Future. Professor Nader answered that the problems of the future will be solved with new technologies - but this sounded to me more Washington then Plunder.

At the end I congratulated Professor Mattei for a very interesting presentation but also asked if he is ready to think over the question I posed - this in order to shed some light in the direction of our readers interested in Sustainable Development.

Going to the second event -

Professor Andrew Nathan is  Chair of the Department of Political Science at Columbia and has co-edited The Tiananmen Papers, wrote many papers on China, and was chair of the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch, Asia, 1995-2000, and continues to serve on this committee and on the board of Human Rights in China. www.columbia.edu

Professor Murray Rubinstein is with the Department of History at Weissman School of Arts &Sciences, Baruch College, City University of New York (CUNY) -   a specialist in modern East Asia. He writes on the sociopolitical development of Taiwan/the Republic of China and Fujian/ The Peoples Republic of China. His monographs include The Protestant Community on Modern Taiwan, and The Origins of the Anglo-American Missionary Enterprise in China, 1807-1840. He has edited The Other Taiwan and Taiwan, 1600-1996. He has also written over thirty articles in books and scholarly journals.

Professor Rubinstein was the Taiwan specialist in the debate, and he analyzed how the Kuomintang Party (KMT - the National People’s Party - founded in 1913 by Sun Yat-sen, still honored by all Chinese).  Chiang Kai-check - the military leader that retreated from the mainland to the island of Taiwan organized there the hold-out against Mao’s China, was with the Kuomintang. The KMT got eventually to lose the elections of 2000, leading to 8 years of rule by the DPP (The Democratic Progressive Party). In effect, democracy aside, that party got voted out now returning the KMT which was favored by the Mainland China. In effect, the KMT can now bridge over some of the differences with China, that does not want the DPP. China wants the investments that reach China via Taiwan.

Taiwan has nuclear capability, and if it does not have it on the island, can get it in no time. Professor Rubinstein even named the partners from the nuclear world that worked with Taiwan. Now that foreign power still works with Taiwan on military issues, though working also with China on questions of Islamic Terrorism, of interest to those countries. He does not believe that there will be any power play between China and Taiwan - the economic situation is such that both sides benefit from the present arrangements.

I brought up the question if it would not make sense for