The Jasmine revolution in Tunisia has offered much hope across the Arab world. We have seen young and hopeful demonstrators in Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, calling for much-needed reform and democracy in their own countries ( Change is coming , 31 January). We offer our support to those courageous young demonstrators. Their aspirations and hopes are legitimate and the Jasmine revolution has shown that it may be possible to achieve them. We condemn the violent repression of those demonstrations and ask western governments, especially EU members and the US, to respect the Arab world’s desire for change, and to halt their financial and military assistance to autocratic regimes in the region. David Held , Professor of Political Science at LSE Hamid Dabashi , Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, Inderjeet Parmar , Professor of Government at Manchester University Jameson W Doig , Professor Emeritus of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University John Esposito , Professor of Religion and International Affairs at Georgetown University John Sidel , Sir Patrick Gillam Professor of International and Comparative Politics at LSE Mary Kaldor , Professor of Global Governance at LSE Noam Chomsky , Professor (Emeritus) of Linguistics at MIT Rainer Baubock , Professor of Social and Political Theory, European University Institute Richard Caplan , Professor of International Relations, Oxford University Kevin Morgan , Professor of Politics and Contemporary History at University of Manchester Egypt Middle East Tunisia Jordan Saudi Arabia guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The cries of ‘bread and freedom’, heard across the Arab world the past two weeks, are not mere rhetoric The cries of “bread and freedom”, heard across the Arab world during the past two weeks, are not mere rhetoric. The price of bread has always been as powerful a driver of revolt as the denial of liberty. The latest reminder of this has come in Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan, where the lethal combination of joblessness and sharply rising prices for basic foodstuffs helped to set off the current protests. In Davos last week, the leaders of global capitalism could be heard musing about how far such unrest might spread. The revolts will cause sleepless nights in many presidential palaces. Their wider effect, though, is to focus political attention on the upward spiral in world energy and food prices. The revolts mean the warnings of a new food crisis are being taken more seriously. Food security is back on the agenda in ways that echo 2008, when it was estimated that rising food prices set off violence in 30 countries . It is to the last government’s credit that, at that time, it commissioned an important study on food sustainability. So the publication of that report – The Future of Food and Farming , written by Sir John Beddington , the former chief scientific adviser – could hardly be more timely. Working out how to feed a world population that may have grown to 9 billion (or even 11 billion) within the next 40 years, at a time when a sixth of the current population of 6.5 billion already goes hungry (and another billion is malnourished) is a mammoth task. But finding a way to do it that does not exacerbate climate change, nor otherwise do lasting damage to the environment, is arguably the single greatest collective challenge the world faces. The Beddington report is an admirably clear account of the difficulty of devising an affordable, equitable and sustainable solution. It rightly identifies the need to contain the demand for resource-intensive foods (also known as meat), the problem of avoidable waste, and the weaknesses of political and economic governance of the food industry. It cannot be faulted for its careful mapping of a complex problem. But the report lacks an answer to the enduring difficulty posed by the power politics of the globalised food industry: food security and free markets can be uneasy bedfellows in the absence of social safety nets provided by strong institutions. Higher prices for agricultural products are not necessarily bad: in cash crops like cocoa and cotton, they can transform the balance sheets of some of sub-Saharan Africa’s poorest countries. But most countries of sub-Saharan Africa are net importers of grain. They are now suffering the consequences of the new volatility of cereal-price speculation on the world’s commodity markets . This magnifies every change in price and distorts the relationship between production and prices. Nor is that the only area where the needs of poor countries conflict with the desires of the rich. Demand for biofuels is reducing the amount of land available for food and driving up the price. So is the strategic land grab mounted by fast-growing countries like China and South Korea, investing in political stability by ensuring food supplies. The report rightly highlights the weaknesses of infrastructure – poor roads, lack of storage – but can no more impose an answer to them than it can solve the problems of global distribution. It is right to argue that agriculture subsidies in rich countries distort food production; but it pays little attention to the question of national food security (and the environmental impacts of food imports). It notes the concentration of corporate power in the food supply chain, but argues that the market can be left to sort it out for itself. It puts its faith both in promoting agricultural research and best practice in poorer countries, and in the introduction of GM crops and cloned animals in the richer ones. In short, the Beddington report has analysed a failing system and then wanly concluded that what will work best is more of the same. Egypt Middle East guardian.co.uk
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enlarge Meet Rep. Darrell Issa. He promises to scrutinize and investigate every possible picayune aspect of the Obama administration , but this might be taking things a little too far. He’s now requesting information about everyone who requested FOIA information over the last four years . (behind NYT paywall) Representative Darrell Issa calls it a way to promote transparency: a request for the names of hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens, business executives, journalists and others who have requested copies of federal government documents in recent years. Mr. Issa, a California Republican and the new chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, says he wants to make sure agencies respond in a timely fashion to Freedom of Information Act requests and do not delay them out of political considerations. But his extraordinary request worries some civil libertarians. It “just seems sort of creepy that one person in the government could track who is looking into what and what kinds of questions they are asking,” said David Cuillier, a University of Arizona journalism professor and chairman of the Freedom of Information Committee at the Society of Professional Journalists. “It is an easy way to target people who he might think are up to no good.” Mr. Issa sent a letter on Tuesday asking 180 federal agencies, from the Department of Defense to the Social Security Administration, for electronic files containing the names of people who requested the documents, the date of their requests and a description of information they sought. For those still pending after more than 45 days, he also asked for any communication between the requestor and the federal agency. The request covers the final three years of Bush administration and the first two years of President Obama’s. “Our interest is not in the private citizens who make the requests,” said Kurt Bardella, a spokesman for Mr. Issa. “We are looking at government responses to these Freedom of Information requests and the only way to measure that is to tally all that information.” Can you say massive government overreach? I knew that you could. The very short Times article doesn’t get into the extent to which Issa and his allies are indebted to corporations that have a strong interest in finding out about inquiries that could affect their interests. Like reporters nosing around into the military-industrial complex, or trying to find out about stalled prosecutions of egregious polluters. If, indeed, Issa is just super concerned about openness in government, that’s fine. But it’s not clear that a member of Congress— and a highly politicized, partisan one at that—ought to be the one to receive such sensitive information. Can Issa be trusted? Well, consider this New York Magazine summary of a New Yorker dig into Issa: The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza has taken a long look into the often shady past of California congressman Darrell Issa, the House Oversight Committee chairman who intends to unleash a flurry of investigations on the Obama administration. Issa has, “among other things, been indicted for stealing a car, arrested for carrying a concealed weapon, and accused by former associates of burning down a building.” “Everyone has a past,” Issa tells Lizza. This is true. But not everyone has fired an employee by “plac[ing] a box on the table, and open[ing] it to reveal a gun.” Such personal behavior is bad enough, but often, as with Issa, it parallels shocking professional behavior. For example, on taking his committee chairmanship, Issa sent a letter out to big corporations inviting them to tell him which government regulations they do not like. I think it’s safe to say that there is nothing in either Issa’s personal history or stated agenda that would make him in the slightest trustworthy with such a massive amount of information about Americans, especially in such a way that could be formed into a database for other purposes with no accountability at all, something that Republicans were up in arms about not that long ago . I am constantly reminded of the Chinese blessing that is really a curse: May you live in interesting times . And we certainly are.
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Al Jazeera’s web journalists in Cairo visit the heart of Egypt’s ongoing protest movement the night before what organisers hope will be the biggest demonstration yet.
Continue reading …Fracking, or Fracing as the oil and gas industry ungrammatically spells it, is short for hydraulic fracturing , and the technology is now being used extensively to extract shale gas, by pumping liquids at high pressure into the rock, creating and expanding fissures. The liquid is a mix of chemicals designed to carry a proppant , perhaps sand or ceramics, designed to keep the cracks open after the injection stops. Controversially, it is exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act, unless diesel fuel is used. (we noted that diesel was used in our first post on the subject: Ja… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …The Era Of Cheap Food Is Coming To An End. Blame Wall Street Hedge Funds.
January 31, 2011 No CommentYet another stick in the spoke s of the geopolitical world wheel! And of course, climate change has nothing to do with the extreme weather affecting crops around the world — and neither does the fact that Wall Street hedge funds have allegedly been locking up the commodities marke t, driving up the costs of food. That’s because we live in America, where reporters never ask rude questions! U.S. grain prices should stay unrelentingly high this year, according to a Reuters poll, the latest sign that the era of cheap food has come to an end. U.S. corn, soybeans and wheat prices — which surged by as much has 50 percent last year and hit their highest levels since mid-2008 — will dip by at most 5 percent by the end of 2011, according to the poll of 16 analysts. The forecasts suggest no quick relief for nations bedeviled by record high food costs that have stoked civil unrest. It means any extreme weather event in a grains-producing part of the world could send prices soaring further. “Even if we have a good year, we are not going to have the inventories we’ve seen before. I really do think the time of cheap food prices is over, and that’s just it,” said analyst Chris Mann of Traders Group Inc in Chicago. “Everything is set to the point where supply equals demand right now. But if you pull one thing out of it, or if you disrupt the equation in some little way or tweak it, I think, with inventories as tight as they are, it will really have an impact on prices. A drought, a flood, anything,” said Mann. You’ll notice he doesn’t mention a thing about hedge funds pouring massive amounts of money into the commodities market after the housing market collapsed, and instead driving up food prices — which in turn, promote global economic and political unrest: When this process of “hedging” was tightly regulated, it worked well enough. The price of real food on the real world market was still set by the real forces of supply and demand. But all that changed in the mid-1990s. Then, following heavy lobbying by banks, hedge funds and free market politicians in the US and Britain, the regulations on commodity markets were steadily abolished. Contracts to buy and sell foods were turned into “derivatives” that could be bought and sold among traders who had nothing to do with agriculture. In effect a new, unreal market in “food speculation” was born. Cocoa, fruit juices, sugar, staples, meat and coffee are all now global commodities, along with oil, gold and metals. Then in 2006 came the US sub-prime disaster and banks and traders stampeded to move billions of dollars in pension funds and equities into safe commodities, and especially foods. “We first became aware of this [food speculation] in 2006. It didn’t seem like a big factor then. But in 2007/8 it really spiked up,” said Mike Masters, fund manager at Masters Capital Management, who testified to the US Senate in 2008 that speculation was driving up global food prices . “When you looked at the flows there was strong evidence. I know a lot of traders and they confirmed what was happening. Most of the business is now speculation – I would say 70-80%.” Masters says the markets are now heavily distorted by investment banks: “Let’s say news comes about bad crops and rain somewhere. Normally the price would rise about $1 [a bushel]. [But] when you have a 70-80% speculative market it goes up $2-3 to account for the extra costs. It adds to the volatility. It will end badly as all Wall Street fads do. It’s going to blow up.” The speculative food market is truly vast, agrees Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg, president of the Strategic Investment Group in New York. She estimates speculative demand for commodity futures has increased since 2008 by 40-80% in agricultural futures .
Continue reading …Chris Matthews Announces Fawning Special on Bill Clinton Titled ‘President of the World’
January 31, 2011 No Comment
The folks at MSNBC's “Hardball” announced a new hour-long special on Monday, slated to air in late February. Titled “President of the World”, the special will focus on “former U.S. President turned humanitarian and diplomat extraordinaire” Bill Clinton. But don't worry, like all “Hardball” episodes , this one will be “absolutely nonpartisan.” MSNBC released the following press release on Monday (via Inside Cable News ): NEW YORK—January 31, 2011—There’s not a single political figure today with the global reach and influence of Bill Clinton—a former U.S. President turned humanitarian and diplomat extraordinaire. No one else in today’s political arena has the ability to command the attention of world leaders and organizations everywhere quite like he does. This Presidents’ Day, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews will take viewers behind the scenes of Clinton’s life in the one-hour documentary “President of the World: The Bill Clinton Phenomenon.” The special will air Monday, February 21, at 10 pm ET/PT. Since President Clinton left office in January 2001, he’s taken on a new and very successful role as an international humanitarian—his Clinton Global Initiative, Clinton Health Access Initiative, the William J. Clinton Foundation and countless other worthy efforts have made him a hero to peoples across the globe. Clinton’s innate talent for diplomacy gained him international recognition in 2009 when he aided in the release of two imprisoned American journalists from North Korea. In the last year alone, he’s provided invaluable political support to President Obama, hitting the campaign trail for countless Democratic candidates leading up to the November 2010 midterm elections. In “President of the World: The Bill Clinton Phenomenon,” “Hardball” host Chris Matthews managed to spend a whirlwind week with Bill Clinton—hopping from the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City to Ireland, where Matthews sat down for a one-on-one interview with the former president. In addition, the hour includes intimate interviews with many of Clinton’s close friends and colleagues, including Tony Blair, Terry McAuliffe, John Podesta, Mary Steenburgen and Kevin Spacey. “President of the World: The Bill Clinton Phenomenon” is an MSNBC original production and was produced for MSNBC by Peacock Productions. For Peacock Productions, Keith McKay is Executive Producer and Kate Hampson is Producer. Benjamin Ringe and Knute Walker are Co-Executive Producers of Peacock Productions. Sharon Scott is Executive-in-Charge of Peacock Productions. For MSNBC, Mike Rubin is Vice President, Long Form Programming. Scott Hooker is Senior Executive Producer, MSNBC. Timothy Smith is Senior Producer, MSNBC.
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Turmoil in a state western counter-terrorism agencies have been able to rely on could have ‘far-reaching consequences’ Egypt has the potential to take Pakistan’s place as the country posing the greatest threat to Britain’s security, intelligence analysts said today. Political turmoil in a state western counter-terrorism agencies have been able to rely on would also have “far-reaching consequences for the Arab-Israel relationship and regional instability”, a former senior intelligence official said. There would also be serious implications for European security, yet neither Europe nor the US could influence events in Egypt now, analysts warned. EU countries, including Britain, have been promoting the cause of political and judicial reform as they have in other countries, including Afghanistan. But European governments, and their security and intelligence agencies in particular, have wanted stability above all. “They have to talk the talk, but don’t expect [reform] to happen,” is how one observer described their attitude. Now some more acute officials say reform is needed but not too quickly. John Sawers, head of MI6 and a former British ambassador to Egypt, in the first public speech of a serving head of Britain’s foreign intelligence service, referring to the “Islamic world”, said: “Over time moving to a more open system of government in these countries, one more responsive to people’s grievances, will help. “But if we demand an abrupt move to the pluralism that we in the west enjoy, we may undermine the controls that are now in place. Terrorists would end up with new opportunities.” Rosemary Hollis, professor of Middle East policy studies at City University, London, suggested the view of western intelligence officials or diplomats would be: “Senior military people should quietly tell him [Mubarak], ‘We need a more benign version of you.’” Egypt Middle East Pakistan Global terrorism Richard Norton-Taylor guardian.co.uk
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Egyptian actor Omar Sharif , urges president Mubarak to adhere to people’s demands in Egypt.
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• One million to march on critical day for rebellion • Vice-president says he will talk to opposition • White House hardens stance over transition Egypt’s army gave a powerful boost to the country’s opposition tonight by announcing it would not use force to silence “legitimate” demands for democratic reforms in the Arab world’s largest country. On the eve of a million-strong protest planned for tomorrow and amid multiplying signs that the US is moving steadily closer towards ditching its long-standing ally, Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak now has few options left. Tonight, the Egyptian vice-president, Omar Suleiman, said Mubarak had asked him to start a dialogue with all the country’s political parties. According to state TV, Suleiman said it would involve constitutional and legislative reforms. The White House warned in a statement that the crisis should be settled by “meaningful talks,” while the EU called for an “orderly transition” to democracy via “free and fair” elections. Mubarak has shown no sign of accepting either. The veteran Egyptian leader formed a new cabinet today, after appointing his intelligence chief as his vice-president, but there was no indication that popular pressure for him to quit was abating. The military’s statement, reported by the state-run Mena news agency, said: “The presence of the army in the streets is for your sake and to ensure your safety and wellbeing. The armed forces will not resort to use of force against our great people.” It referred to the “legitimate demands of honourable citizens”. It was not clear whether the pledge not to use force was intended to draw the sting from protests or signal a weakening of support for the president, who relies on the armed forces as the guarantor of the regime and its stability. On the seventh consecutive day of unrest tens of thousands of people again rallied in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square chanting “Get out … we want you out” and singing Egypt’s national anthem emphasising the patriotic motives of the unprecedented mass unrest. “We have spoken. When the citizens speak, we can not go back,” said Ahmed Mustafa. “I came here to fight the fear inside me. People have lost their fear”. Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said he feared Egypt could end up with a regime as radical as Iran. “Our real fear is of a situation that could develop … and which has already developed in several countries including Iran itself, repressive regimes of radical Islam,” he told reporters after meeting the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. In Washington Barack Obama met Middle East experts as his administration attempts to find a path to a post-Mubarak era that continues to serve its interests, including ensuring that Egypt maintains its 30-year peace treaty with Israel. Administration hopes are solidifying around the Egyptian dissident Mohamed ElBaradei, despite his difficult relationship with the US after he undermined Washington’s claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when he was head of the IAEA and his criticism of Obama’s failure to ask Mubarak to resign. But there remain concerns in Washington that ElBaradei may be used by the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s leading Islamist political party, to help topple Mubarak and then be pushed aside. ElBaradei has been mandated by opposition parties, including the Brotherhood, to talk to the army about forming a “national salvation government”. The US administration’s message to Mubarak was initially a call for reform but has hardened to the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, saying there has to be a transition of power. But Clinton still suggested that Mubarak could stay to oversee free elections, a view that is viewed with distrust by the Egyptian opposition. The Egyptian head of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, said there must be a peaceful transition “from one era to another”. Tony Blair, envoy of the Middle East Quartet, stopped short of calling for Mubarak to step down: “Change will happen,” he said. “You can’t put the genie back in the bottle now.” William Hague, the foreign secretary, said after meeting EU colleagues: “We are setting down what should happen [in Egypt] in terms of values, process and institutions, but not trying to dictate precise timetable of elections.” Analysts believe that a likely outcome of the crisis is that Mubarak will eventually be persuaded to stand down by his closest advisers, including the army top brass and Suleiman. The US has close links to the Egyptian military. Reuters news agency reported that 138 people have been killed in the protests, according to a tally of reports from medical sources, hospitals and witnesses. No official figure has been given. In Alexandria, Egypt’s second city, thousands of protesters gathered in the square outside the main railway station chanting “Come on, go away, show some shame”. Witnesses said they had brought blankets and food, intending to stay the night and take part in tomorrow’s million-strong march. Egypt Protest Middle East US foreign policy United States Ian Black Jack Shenker Chris McGreal guardian.co.uk
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