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| December 3, 2003 |
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World Media Watch by Gloria R. Lalumia BUZZFLASH NOTE: Once again, these are the views and perspectives of the individual papers, not of BuzzFlash or Gloria. They offer BuzzFlash readers a way of reading what other nations are saying about the crisis, whether we like it or not. We repeat: This is not an endorsement of their viewpoints. * * * WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR DECEMBER 3, 2003 1//World Press Review, USA--IRAQI GRAFFITI (...The statues of Saddam Hussein have now been pulled down, but Baghdad is still littered with murals where only his face has been effaced, leaving bare white stone underneath. Nothing has replaced either the man or his face, but with more than 100 political parties there are plenty of pretenders. Baghdad has become a city of graffiti as political parties take advantage of the power vacuum in a country with no elected government, parliament, or constitution...The press is as free as it is anywhere. It is, in fact, absolutely unregulated. There is no censor. The banishing of Dubai's Al-Arabiya satellite network aside, there have been few incidences of friction with the Americans...U.S. reprisals seem to have made Iraqi journalists more careful about their facts. Speaking to many Iraqi editors and journalists, one senses that they are cautious but determined to write what they see as the truth.) 2//The Straits Times, Malaysia--TOO LITTLE DONE TO STOP AL-QAEDA: UN (A United Nations panel has warned that UN member nations are not doing enough to curb terrorism. As a result, Al-Qaeda's power and reach are rising, particularly in Asia... They expressed concern that 108 out of 191 member nations have failed to report their actions in freezing the assets and reporting the names of suspected terrorists. Panel members are so frustrated that they say they may call for a Security Council resolution with 'more teeth' to force compliance from member states.) 3//The Globe and Mail, Canada--CANADIAN FORCES CIRCLING THE DRAIN: STUDY (Years of penny-pinching have left the Canadian Forces on the brink of collapse and it could take an entire generation to recover, a bleak Queen's University study warns. The document tells the incoming Paul Martin government that it is about to walk into a disaster, with a military that can't be used because of shortages of people and equipment.) 4//The Independent, UK--DEATH KNELL FOR THE KYOTO TREATY (Fifteen years of international effort to combat climate change appeared doomed last night after Russia said it would not ratify the Kyoto protocol, the world treaty on global warming. Russian ratification is necessary for the treaty to take effect. Andrei Illarionov, a senior economic adviser to President Vladimir Putin, said in a surprise announcement in Moscow that Russia was refusing to sign the agreement, because to do so would threaten the country's economic growth...United Nations scientists now predict that global average temperatures may rise by up to 6C by the end of the century in a profound climatic destabilisation that will result in fiercer storms and rising sea levels.) 5//The Moscow Times, Russia--PUTIN SLAMS BRUSSELS ON WTO BID (A day after his top economists slammed European Union pressure that Russia raise domestic gas and electricity prices as part of its WTO entry bid, Putin drove home the message that the demands were hindering the country from meeting a tentative 2004 accession date...Natural gas monopoly Gazprom currently sells its gas at a loss to Russian consumers for $20 per 1,000 cubic meters, as little as one-fifth of what it charges abroad.) * * * 1//World
Press Review December 2, 2003 IRAQI GRAFFITI There are more than 100 newspapers, but state television is steadfastly apolitical, and the press, no matter how impressive its efforts, reaches only a limited portion of the population. The security situation inhibits public demonstrations. So peddlers in the souk of political ideas take to the walls. The only public slogans Iraqis knew before April were the pan-Arab mantras of the ruling Baath Party, such as "One Arab nation with an eternal message." Now competing slogans vie for attention. "Yes to the leader Saddam Hussein" on the side of one building is matched on another by "No to the pro-Saddam Al-Jazeera channel in Iraq: Media distortion is a stab in the back." "Islam is the solution," a common message in many Baghdad neighborhoods, is met with "Democracy is the solution" in other neighborhoods. The slogans of the Islamist Daawa Party are common, as are those of the communists, a lone secular voice in the jungle of Iraq's Islamic politics. "Glory to both the Sunni and Shiite martyrs of Islam," Daawa Party slogans read. The communists add, optimistically: "Free nation, happy people." There are also the odd messages from the Hashemite monarchists led by Sherif bin Hussein: "Royal rule in Iraq is the choice that guarantees moving to a better tomorrow." Surprisingly, Ahmed Chalabi, Washington's prewar favorite dissident, is barely featured at all. "Chalabi is the symbol of freedom," reads one lone line of praise, to which a passer-by has responded, "Chalabi is the symbol of mendacity." Smaller parties are almost invisible. There are so many of them, with so many similar-sounding names (SNIP) "The New Iraq" Everything in Iraq is about diffusion and variation. This is "the new Iraq." Yet that phrase, so commonly bandied by Western politicians and pundits, is almost nowhere to be found in the country itself. After the U.S.-led invasion last spring, the United States set up the new Iraqi state TV and radio stations, known as the Iraqi Media Network (IMN). The first words heard on the network were, "This is the voice of the new Iraq." The slogan was used for a while. But now-with the constant bombings, the crime, the painful pace of rehabilitating Iraq's water and electrical systems, and the difficulty of installing electoral democracy-it rings hollow. "We don't like this phrase. To describe what we have now as 'the new Iraq' doesn't make sense," Al-Saadi, of the communist Tariq al-Shaab, says. "We talk about this transitional period. We want democratic elections and the government to negotiate an end to the occupation. We hope for a new Iraq, but it's not here yet." The press is as free as it is anywhere. It is, in fact, absolutely unregulated. There is no censor. The banishing of Dubai's Al-Arabiya satellite network aside, there have been few incidences of friction with the Americans. In one case, some papers wrote that U.S. soldiers could see under women's clothes with their binoculars and that a girl had been raped by a U.S. soldier. In another, a paper urged Iraqis to kill U.S. soldiers and anyone cooperating with them. U.S. reprisals seem to have made Iraqi journalists more careful about their facts. Speaking to many Iraqi editors and journalists, one senses that they are cautious but determined to write what they see as the truth. Many papers use the word "resistance" to describe attacks against coalition forces and international aid agencies, but there is no sense of their being papers of the strident opposition. "The only thing that guides us is the facts," says Ishtar al-Yasiri, editor of the satirical weekly Habazbooz. The new state TV station is surprisingly bad, though it has improved in recent weeks under new management. A recent U.S. State Department poll found that of the one-third of the Iraqi population with access to satellite dishes, only 12 percent got their news from IMN. Instead, pan-Arab channels Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya are gaining ground. The Arab channels regularly host Iraqi commentators, intellectuals, and religious figures who are largely absent from IMN's broadcasts. The fare during Ramadan-when Arab television stations usually air a light entertainment extravaganza for the captive evening audiences-was poor, a mixture of old Egyptian films, year-old talk shows, a nightly soap opera from Japan. It was not, in fact, much different from the fare during the dictatorship. (MORE)
TOO LITTLE DONE TO STOP AL-QAEDA: UN By Betsy Pisik NEW YORK - A United Nations panel has warned that UN member nations are not doing enough to curb terrorism. As a result, Al-Qaeda's power and reach are rising, particularly in Asia. All that is stopping Al-Qaeda terrorists from carrying out a chemical or biological attack is a lack of technical expertise, said a report released on Monday by the UN's monitoring committee of experts. They expressed concern that 108 out of 191 member nations have failed to report their actions in freezing the assets and reporting the names of suspected terrorists. Panel members are so frustrated that they say they may call for a Security Council resolution with 'more teeth' to force compliance from member states. 'The Al-Qaeda ideology has continued to spread, raising the spectre of further terrorist attacks and further threats to international peace and security,' they said in the report. Recent attacks, foiled attempts and high-profile arrests have put Asia at the centre of concern, say the experts. Secessionist or terrorist groups thought to have Al-Qaeda connections include the Jemaah Islamiah and the Abu Sayyaf. Al-Qaeda's influence 'has now become more diffuse, more widespread', said Mr Michael Chandler, the British chairman of the five-member monitoring group, on Monday. (MORE)
CANADIAN FORCES CIRCLING THE DRAIN: STUDY Ottawa - Years of penny-pinching have left the Canadian Forces on the brink of collapse and it could take an entire generation to recover, a bleak Queen's University study warns. The document tells the incoming Paul Martin government that it is about to walk into a disaster, with a military that can't be used because of shortages of people and equipment. "The problem will rapidly disarm foreign policy as Canada repeatedly backs away from international commitments because it lacks adequate military forces," said the report, entitled Canada Without Armed Forces?, released Wednesday. It says the problems can't be solved overnight, because it takes years to purchase major weapons systems and years to train combat-ready soldiers, sailors and flyers. "There is not much Canadians can do to save this situation, at least not in the term of the next government or even the government after that," the report says. "The descending slope is too steep and it will take too long to turn it upwards for tomorrow's government to benefit from altered policies." The new government can only start the recovery, but the report says the recovery has to start now if there is to be any hope of restoring the military. (MORE)
DEATH KNELL FOR THE KYOTO TREATY Fifteen years of international effort to combat climate change appeared doomed last night after Russia said it would not ratify the Kyoto protocol, the world treaty on global warming. Russian ratification is necessary for the treaty to take effect. Andrei Illarionov, a senior economic adviser to President Vladimir Putin, said in a surprise announcement in Moscow that Russia was refusing to sign the agreement, because to do so would threaten the country's economic growth. The decision means the collapse of the mechanism, agonisingly constructed by thous- ands of officials from more than 150 countries over a decade and a half, for the world to try to deal with its greatest threat. United Nations scientists now predict that global average temperatures may rise by up to 6C by the end of the century in a profound climatic destabilisation that will result in fiercer storms and rising sea levels. (MORE)
PUTIN SLAMS BRUSSELS ON WTO BID Russia will not throw away its "natural advantages" to join the World Trade Organization, President Vladimir Putin told a group of visiting European business leaders in the Kremlin on Tuesday. A day after his top economists slammed European Union pressure that Russia raise domestic gas and electricity prices as part of its WTO entry bid, Putin drove home the message that the demands were hindering the country from meeting a tentative 2004 accession date. "We're constantly hearing announcements from the EU about their support for this process. But we often meet with absolutely unfounded and rigid demands, which are actually blocking the entrance of Russia to the WTO," Putin said in remarks carried by news agencies. Natural gas monopoly Gazprom currently sells its gas at
a loss to Russian consumers for $20 per 1,000 cubic meters,
as little as one-fifth of what it charges abroad. (SNIP) On the subject of gas, Gref acknowledged that prices on the domestic market were far lower than in Europe, but explained that Russia's GDP required three to four times more energy. Khristenko was quick to back him up saying that the low gas prices were Russia's natural advantage. "Russia isn't proposing that Europe lower the average earth temperature," Kommersant reported him as saying. |
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