“Un groupe de professeurs d’université chinois a décerné à Vladimir Poutine un «prix de la paix» copié sur le prestigieux Nobel, en saluant les «remarquables» talents pacifiques du premier ministre russe, notamment son opposition au «bombardement de la Libye par l’OTAN». Le nom du lauréat du «prix de la paix Confucius» a été annoncé mardi à l’AFP par l’un des organisateurs, Qiao Damo. M. Poutine était notamment en lice avec la chancelière allemande, Angela Merkel, ou Yuan Longping, le père du riz hybride chinois……………”
Interesting that the Chinese decided to give Russia’s Putin a peace prize. I suppose because his country has not been engaged in any foreign war for decades. The Russians have had no Iraq, no Afghanistan, no Yemen, no Pakistan, no possible Iran, no nothing: I wonder how the Russian budget deficit is faring. In our region of the Middle East the potentates give each other prizes all the time. Prince X bin Y awards Prince Z bin W the award for the most wedded. Prince S bin OB awards shaikh B bin S the award for humanitarian thinking (not doing). Prince Yin bin Yang awards Prince Yang bin Yin the Prince Yin bin Yang bin Ying award for just “showing up”. You can call them Woody Allen awards: remember what he said about “showing up is 80% of life”?. After the ceremony they all leave by driving up the Prince Yang bin Yin bin Yang Al Yong Avenue. In the new township named after Prince Polygamous bin Greed bin Bribe bin Nepotism. Mutual incestuous awarding of prizes. Now about that hybrid rice………… Cheers
mhg
“The real story at hand is about the revival of Arab sovereignty — expressed obliquely in the slow steps the Arab League is taking ………. The Arab League has long been a cross between the forces of fiction and futility, a largely meaningless organization that has enjoyed neither impact nor respect in the Arab arena it is supposed to represent. ………… By engaging with Syrian opposition groups to plan a transition from the current conditions, it firmed up that which the Libya decision had only touched on gingerly: It is permissible now for Arab countries to meddle in the internal affairs of other Arab states, when there is a clear moral or political reason to do so that reflects the sentiments of a majority of Arab public opinion………. The other fascinating new development we see before our eyes is the continued rebirth and reassertion of Arab sovereignty, will and influence within the Arab world, after decades during which the incompetent and politically derelict Arab states largely surrendered their regional security and ideological functions to foreign powers, especially Israel, Turkey, Iran and the United States. The Arab League is now making decisions whose consequences are ricocheting around the region and the world …………….”
This piece above is giving too much credit to the still decrepit Arab League and to the potentates controlling it. Here is my take on how things happened and are happening:
Mohamed Bouazizi, a desperate young Tunisian, sets himself and our region aflame (December 17, 2010 and died January 4, 2011). Hundreds of thousands march in Tunisia, millions march in Egypt, thousands are killed from Egypt to Libya to Syria and Yemen and Bahrain.
This piece is giving credit to the very same people who tried desperately to crush the Arab Spring (and still are). He is writing as if the Arab League was responsible for the Arab uprisings. He is writing as if the Arab despots, absolute tribal kings, princes, and dictators, were behind the Arab uprisings. Remember when the Saudi king claimed last February that Egyptian protesters at Tahrir were “foreign infiltrators”?(Thank God Egypt doesn’t have many Shi’as).
Yet the Arab uprisings are not done, and not only in Yemen and Syria and Bahrain. They are not done in Egypt and Libya (and even in their birthplace of Tunisia). They are not done in other places, they have not even started in the most repressive Arab state: Saudi Arabia.
The Arab League has not really changed: it is still dominated by the same despots who have dominated it for a quarter of a century. The uprising in Libya was aided by NATO with an air campaign and a covert ground campaign (so much for more Arab independence). The uprising in Yemen is being ”controlled” by the same Arab despots with the help of a Western air campaign, at least. The uprising in Bahrain is being “controlled” by the same Arab despots with their tanks. The uprising in Syria is being aided (gradually) in part for reasons of regional power politics. Hardly for the Syrian people. Absolute royal princes would probably kill as many people, nay more, to remain in power if they faced the same uprising as Bashar al-Assad and the Ba’ath Party (just look at Bahrain). The Arab League , since it could not stop the uprisings, is working to contain and control them.
So much forindependence from foreign powers like the West and Turkey and Iran and Israel: the region is far from that. Turkey is looked to for a Syrian solution (and a Palestinian role). Iran is crucial for a Lebanese (and possibly Palestinian) solution. The West (USA, France, Britain), well the West owns most of the region and more than ever before, like it or not. The Western powers are being gradually invited back by the Arab regimes to “reclaim” Syria for the first time since 1946, just as they were invited to “reclaim” Libya for the first time since 1969. As for Israel: some of the same Arab leaders who now run he Arab League are no doubt still praying for an effective Israeli strike against Iran. Just as they did in 2006.
The Arab League represents the lowest common denominator of its members, its ruling potentates. It will not change until these Arab regimes are changed.
BFF “An Iranian lawmaker says the Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is endangering global peace through his biased approach towards Iran’s nuclear program. “It appears that [Yukiya] Amano has become an anti-peace element who is dangerous to global peace,” Member of the Majlis (parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Javad Jahangirzadeh said. The lawmaker advised the IAEA to reconsider its communiques and statements and to speak based on accurate information, Mehr News Agency reported on Monday. “Naturally, if the Agency continues on the current path, [if it still] releases political reports which do not conform to realities and [if] the agency [continues to] act as a [US] State Department think tank, we will definitely see new decisions with regards to [our] relationship with the IAEA,” ……………”
No chemistry (no pun here), no love lost, no more comment. Cheers
mhg
BFF Breaking News: the government of Bahrain has not announced the discovery of any new Iranian or Hezbollah terrorist plots today. They have not identified any installations or individuals who may have been targets of today’s uncovered plot. This is an unusual development for Bahrain.The regime and its imported mercenarise are slowing down On the other hand, the Kuwaiti-Saudi daily rag alseyassah is taking up the slack. (I find alseyassah entertaining, although not as humorous as, say, The Onion). It reports that Hezbollah has put its sources on alert around the region, and that there was in fact a terror plot in Bahrain and added an extra-credit bonus: that the latest Bahrain plotters got financing from some Kuwaitis, meaning Shi’as in Kuwait (apparently the Iranians and Hezbollah ran out of money!).
Alseyassah, like a couple of other rags in my hometown, fits well into its Saudi patrons’ propaganda drive to divide the Gulf region along sectarian lines. It also dropped a bombshell that only our overfed “faithful” would believe: it reported that Iranian and Syrian agents were plotting to assassinate three Gulf GCC foreign ministers, no less! Alseyassah has not yet report that Hezbollah and Iran are planning an invasion of Mecca to take over the Kaaba, after blowing up the Vatican. Not yet, but stay tuned. Saudi media are not as dumb as their Gulf surrogates. They have become smarter, more subtle, with the exception of Alarabiya which is openly sectarian on its Arabic website. Cheers
mhg
“The European Union agreed Monday to negotiate a partnership pact with Afghanistan including counter-terrorism, development and fighting drugs, ahead of the departure of NATO combat troops in 2014. EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels gave the European Commission and EU chief diplomat Catherine Ashton a mandate to negotiate a “Cooperation Agreement on Partnership and Development” with the Afghan government. “There is a need to plan for what happens after transition to Afghan security control in 2014 and the continued involvement and support of the European Union for Afghanistan,” said British Foreign Secretary William Hague. NATO-led combat troops are gradually withdrawing from Afghanistan with the aim of handing Afghan security forces full control of the battle against the Taliban in three years. “The international engagement in Afghanistan is evolving from its focus on security and stabilization towards political and economic cooperation,” EU foreign ministers said in a statement. The EU and its 27 member states provide around one billion euros a year in assistance to Afghanistan…………”
Europe and Afghanistan have an even tighter trade relation: that of drugs. Afghanistan is the major source of drugs to Europe. It is smuggled from Pakistan and Afghanistan and through Iran and Turkey, among other routes. Maybe Catherine Ashton and the Taliban Salafi mullahs will get together and smoke the “peace pipe” from the local poppy, singing Kumbaya as they drift toward loftier heights of Euro-Afghan cooperation. Cheers
mhg
“BreakingNews Breaking News: Arab League offers to send 500 human rights and military observers to Syria, says Egypt TV -@BBCWorld…………….”
This is what I read Monday. The Arab League will send “human rights” observers to Syria! No doubt it will include Saudis, Bahrainis, Emiratis, and maybe Yemenis. Or maybe they will be supervised by these countries. All regimes that have shown great respect for human rights, allow free speech, do not kill protesters, do not arrest people without warrants and do not hold them for months either without charges (Saudi Arabia) or on trumped up charges (Bahrain). I think the word “chutzpah” should be incorporated into the Arabic language. Cheers
mhg
Arab media are increasingly mentioning the N-F word, for No-Fly zone in terms of Syria. Apparently some factions of the Syrian opposition want Western no-fly zone established over Syria. Hoping it will be a prelude to the arrival of Western Special Forces of the kind that helped defeat Qaddafi in Libya. Some Arab regimes have already established their own No-Freedom zones. The Saudis had long established an absolute No-Freedom zone in their own part of the Arabian Peninsula and they have recently extended it to neighboring Bahrain. They would also like a No-Freedom zone in neighboring Yemen where the people are in rebellion. Actually, if they had their way, they’d like No-Freedom zones all over the Arab worlds, from the Persian-American Gulf to the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. Cheers
mhg
“A few days ago, ESPN looked at calls for political change in Bahrain through the lens of sport, and it’s not a pretty picture (I’ve embedded the video below). The story of Alaa and Mohammed Hubail, former stars of Bahrain’s national football team now living in exile, reminded me of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, where athletes lived in constant fear of Saddam and his sons. Iraq, like Bahrain, has a Shiite majority. And, like Bahrain, Saddam’s Iraq was ruled by a Sunni leader who blithely ignored the wishes of the majority of his population. Such situations corrupt everything. In Iraq, national players were tortured and jailed for poor performances. Many promising Shiite players never got a chance at the national team because of their fate. Now, in a smaller way, Bahrain is emulating Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Alaa and Mohammed Hubail, brothers and national-team stars, are now living in the shadows, kicked off the national team and humiliated. After being arrested and, according to them, beaten in a Bahraini government detention center, they were also fired from the professional clubs. Why? They joined a democracy protest last February. Like most Bahrainis, they are Shiites, and were angry at the monarchy. Alaa is probably the country’s greatest-ever player, with 21 goals for his country. Of his detention, he told ESPN: “We were living in a nightmare of fear and horror.“………”
No comment this time, but I reserve the right for a rain check. Meanwhile, here is the ESPN video link. Cheers
mhg
“The debt crisis sweeping southern Europe and lapping France is cause for alarm in Washington and Beijing, but not it seems for the rank and file of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party. On the contrary, at a meeting of Merkel’s Christian Democrats the mood among delegates ranged from triumphalism over Germany’s economic strength to complacency about the crisis and blind faith in Berlin’s ability to shield Germany from it. Merkel warned on the first day of the congress Monday that Europe faced what could be its “toughest hour since World War Two.” But her message didn’t register with many of those in the hall or with the German media. Much press coverage focused on domestic issues – the minimum wage, childcare and education………… Unemployment has fallen to its lowest levels since German reunification in 1990 and the smaller “Mittelstand” firms that form the backbone of Europe’s largest economy have strong order backlogs.…….”
That “alles” also includes the United States, speaking of economics. While U.S. corporations have rushed during the past two decades to export more jobs than products, German firms have focused on keeping jobs inside Germany. German government policies have helped. The American corporatist right-wing has been making a lot of noise about patriotism, while facilitating the opposite: the weakening of the Middle Class in favor of corporations. Even Dick Cheney’s beloved Halliburton, beneficial of so many American government contracts moved its headquarters to the Persian-American Gulf, to be near the potentates so beloved by the Cheneys, and for patriotic tax purposes. Remember all the swooning over the “Japanese model”? I was in graduate school in those days and I remember that it immediately preceded the long stagnation of the Japanese economy. Forget the Japanese model, forget the crazy Tea Party model. Go the German model, but that may require some sort of mass lobotomy for the corporate and political leaders. And who is going to perform that? Will Obamacare cover that (Germany, like all other industrial countries except the United States, has a robust public health system)? Cheers
mhg
““I believe, if I were in his shoes, I would step down,” King Abdullah told the BBC. “If Bashar has the interest of his country, he would step down, but he would also create an ability to reach out and start a new phase of Syrian political life.”…….” (King Abdul of Jordan)
This is the closest that the Jordanian king has ever come to humor, as far as I recall (unless you consider his Star Trek scene). No Arab leader has ever shown any inclination to leave office unless forced to. No Arab bureaucrat has ever shown any inclination to leave office unless forced to. That includes kings, dictators, and their flunkies and minions. It includes Jordanian kings (his father King Hussein killed a lot of people, mostly fellow-humorless Palestinians, in order to stay in power). Maybe I have been wrong about Jordanians; maybe there is a glimmer of some humor somewhere over there. But I need more evidence. (Of course, the Syrians use their own interrogators and torturers, they don’t import any from Jordan, Unlike the regime in Bahrain and UAE) Cheers
mhg
Rattlesnake Ridge 
BFF