Global News Journal
Beyond the World news headlines
from Africa News blog:
Gordon Brown resurfaces. In Africa
It’s odd to see a once powerful man walk slowly. And odder still to see him sit in the corner of a restaurant nursing a glass of water for more than an hour. But that’s exactly what delegates to an African Union summit in Ugandan capital Kampala saw former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown do on Saturday.
Brown has been treated as something of a fugitive by the British media since his May election defeat with a slew of “Have you seen this man? type articles published in the country’s newspapers. Speculation on what he was up to ranged from bashing out a book on economics to Alastair Darling’s “he’s reflecting”.
But nobody guessed that when he reappeared it would be in Uganda with a speech about Africa being the potential engine for global economic growth.
The decision will fuel rumours that Brown has his eye on a top job at the International Monetary Fund or the United Nations or a role as a special envoy, but it’s also true that Africa's development and its economic progress are subjects that fascinate him.
And his track record is rightly respected by African leaders.
He perhaps alluded to the inevitable “Why are you here?” questions with a joke.
from The Great Debate UK:
Brown must create Afghanistan war cabinet
- Col. Richard Kemp is a former commander of British Forces in Afghanistan and the author of Attack State Red, an account of British military operations in Afghanistan published by Penguin. The opinions expressed are his own. -
Disillusionment with the inability of the Kabul administration to govern fairly or to significantly reduce violence played a role in the reportedly low turnout at the polls in Helmand.
It is critical that this changes if we are to avoid another Vietnam. The South Vietnamese Army, well trained and equipped, lost heart once the U.S. withdrew, collapsing at the first push, partly because their corrupt and ineffective administration was not worth fighting for.
That an election was held at all in Afghanistan’s most violent province is an achievement. But despite a major operation to drive out the Taliban, the insurgents deterred large numbers of voters. This illustrates just how steep a mountain NATO has to climb. But it does not mean we cannot prevail against them in Helmand.
As President Obama says: "This isn’t a war of choice; it’s a war of necessity." Home grown British terrorists have only demonstrated an ability to kill our people when they have attended serious training and had face-to-face direction from war-hardened jihadists.
The Al Qaida leadership and their camps were driven into Pakistan in 2001. U.S. pursuit across the border using unmanned aerial vehicle strikes has been remarkably effective, resulting directly in the recent reduction of the UK terrorist threat level.
Al Qaida is not just a “global franchise” but also a solid organization that needs places to meet, to plan and to train terrorists. It cannot all be done on the internet. Substantially unable to function now in Pakistan, the leadership is actively seeking a new base – perhaps in Yemen, Somalia or North Africa. In any of these they would be much more exposed. Their real desire is to return to Afghanistan. NATO forces are preventing that.
Hopefully Mr Brown has the energy and ability to make such decisions. He does a very good impersonation of the “invisible man” and seems to leave Peter Mandleson to do all the talking. It’d be nice to see him taking some kind of leadership role not just in regard to the Afghan war (along with other NATO “leaders”), but the economy as well. The way things seem to be going there won’t be much need for the British born terrorists to destroy anything in the UK, it’ll slowly shrivel up and die all by itself and the winners will be India, China and the other Asian nations.
from UK News:
Labour MPs reprieve humble Brown – for now
Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) meetings are usually drab affairs. The leader turns up, listens to a few grumbles from backbench MPs, a few reporters hang around outside hoping to grab a half-decent quote and in the end a Labour apparatchik puts a rose-tinted spin on proceedings.
Not so on Monday night, one of those rare "crunch time" events for a party leader that creates such a frenzy inside and outside the venue. Parliament's committee room 14 was so full one MP of robust stature tried to force not one, but two doors in an attempt to get in, and ended up with a sore shoulder. Veteran party member Greville (now Lord) Janner, a member of the Magic Circle, gave up trying to get in and instead entertained reporters with a couple of magic tricks. His skills may have been of more use on the other side of the door.
Gordon Brown, we were led to believe, faced being sawn in half by his own party after a disastrous showing in local and European elections. However, as so often is the case, the reality did not live up to the hype and the prime minister slipped away via a trap door, but not before making a speech telling everyone how humble he was and how he promised to listen in future. This is a classic leader's smoke and mirrors trick, show them you're listening, come out with a few "reform" initiatives in the ensuing days and when the air has cleared go back to whatever it was you were doing that upset them in the first place.
Leaders are not unseated at PLP meetings, despite how many times you read that these events are a firing squad. In fact, Brown strolled down the long, dark committee corridor, beamed at reporters and threw them a cheery "hi guys". His predecessor Tony Blair used to do the same thing ahead of a tricky PLP, the final time with his suit jacket casually thrown over one shoulder like a model from a menswear catalogue.
Brown knew what he had to do, and for now he has bought himself some time. He also knows that the odds of a full blown rebellion are slim. It's easy to go on television and say "Gordon must go", it's another matter to get that anger and dissent distilled into something more potent and then pour it down the throat of a potential challenger. The point is not lost on Labour members. They know they are on the rack, but any change of leadership now will only hasten electoral defeat. The public won't tolerate another unelected prime minister installed at Number 10 and nor should they. Brown may still be in one piece, but it will take more than magic tricks and humility to save him if he doesn't make sure his party is in the same state fairly soon.
Expenses: They order this matter differently in Sweden
A scandal about expenses claimed by British members of parliament has damaged the already low standing of British politicians and helped Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour Party to its worst opinion poll showing since polling began.
The MPs argue that what they are doing is within the rules – correct, but missing the point that it is out of line with public sentiment especially at a time of national belt-tightening.
While some of the claims run into thousands of pounds for mortgage interest or home decoration, others are for trivial sums for items like dogfood or, bizarrely, a tampon claimed by a male MP. Hardly the stuff of kleptocracy.
But in some countries elected officials face savage retribution if their expense claims do not meet public standards.
Take Sweden. A prosperous, egalitarian country ranked joint 1st (with Denmark and New Zealand) out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s annual survey of corruption. Under constitutionally protected freedom of information rules, even everyone’s tax returns are in the public domain.
Elected in 1982 to Sweden’s parliament for the Social Democrats as the country’s youngest MP, Mona Sahlin rose quickly through the ministerial ranks. When in 1995 Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson announced his intention to resign, she was the sole candidate to replace him.
Now talk about following the rule of the law. Frankly I am very disappointed with Gordon Brown’s governing skills. Scandal after scandals. The problem is the alternative is no more palatable than the current government. Sad decline of British Politics.
from UK News:
Ghost of past failure haunts G20
Stopping off in New York during a marathon, 18,000-mile diplomatic offensive before next week’s G20 summit in London next week, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown recalled a conference held in eerily similar circumstances in London 76 years ago.
Sixty-six nations gathered for the June 1933 London Monetary and Economic Conference which was aimed at lifting the world’s economy out of the Depression.
But amid American opposition to European plans to return to a system of fixed exchange rates, the conference collapsed and the world put up trade barriers, jobless ranks swelled and the rise of Fascism took the world into war.
“There was no further progress other than a resort to protectionism for the rest of that decade,” Brown told a business audience during a five-day pre-summit tour that has taken him to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, New York, Brazil and Chile.
Brown must be hoping desperately that history will not repeat itself when he hosts a meeting of leading industrial and developing economies in London on April 2 to try to chart a way out of the worst global financial crisis since the 1930s.
Again there have been signs of transatlantic division in advance of the summit, with many Europeans resisting U.S. pressure for more fiscal stimulus to boost the economy, while the Europeans put the emphasis on tightening regulation of the financial sector.
Mirek Topolanek, prime minister of the Czech Republic which holds the current European Union presidency, was quoted this week as saying U.S. President Barack Obama’s huge economic stimulus plan was “the road to hell”.
It is often said that desperate diseases must have desperate remedies. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, because the desperate remedy recommended by every country contains a high percentage of self-interest, it takes on an emotional charge which, if thwarted, leads to crises and damaging international rifts. Ultimately, in the 30s it led to war.
Politicians always want to posture and seem bravely full of activity. They should actually scarcely be allowed near an economic crisis. First, middle and last they want their own personal importance to be augmented. They can never be seen to make sacrifice for the good of all; always they must pursue the narrowest, most selfish interests of their consituents. True statesmen are revealed by history to be incredibly rare.
During the cold war it was often said that summit meetings only rubber-stamped what the technocrats had achieved. Failure of a summit had occurred long before the apparent protagonists [premiers, presidents] had boarded their ‘planes.
There has been too little time for the technocrats to have achieved much prior to the upcoming G20 meeting. So, bland platitudes will probably be the best possible result. Overwhelmingly the most beneficial real outcome will be that that an environment is created for technocrats to keep talking. A thousand small compromises and adjustments between nations are required for disaster to be avoided.
Politicians should be required to take an oath before summits along the lines recommended for physicians by Hippocrates: First, Do No Harm.
from Global Investing:
Wish I hadn’t said that…
As sterling sinks to a 7-1/2 year low against the dollar, traders and investors are wondering who was the established political figure that made the following comments when Britain was kicked out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992.
"A weak currency arises from a weak economy which in turn is the result of a weak government."
Answer: Gordon Brown, then Shadow Chancellor, in an article in London's Evening Standard newspaper.
I don’t think many of us were taken in. We knew that none of them has a clue. I think it should be illegal for people with political ambition to be politicians. People should be selected at random like jurors, serve for a few years and then never be eligible again as long as they live. Talking of currencies, I wonder how many countries are now kicking themselves for joining the euro? Suckers.
Should G8 leaders tighten their belts?
G8 leaders are debating the interconnected themes of climate change, food and fuel. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for less food waste in the rich world. The World Bank has said rising food prices threaten 30 million Africans with poverty. VIP menus at the G8 summit in Japan have been lavish – hairy crab, asparagus, lamb, all manner of vegetables and wild leaves. And of course regional sake rice wine. Newspapers printed the menu in full. Britain’s The Guardian heaped scorn: “the most powerful bellies in the world were last night compelled to stave off the Hokkaido Hunger by fortifying themselves with an eight-course, 19-dish dinner prepared by 25 chefs.” Is it fair criticism?
Sarkozy cannot tighten his pants anymore without looking as if he has a machine gun in his pocket! 
But seriously, a party food buffet is hardly befitting a gang of glamourous leaders – is it?
I think best to go for the healthy food option: that means serving Greek fare, which is officially the world’s most healthy cuisine.
Moussaka and Greek salad anyone?
Has U.S. slipped nuclear bombs out of Britain?
U.S. nuclear weapons in Britain – out with a whimper, not with a bang?
It was once one of the most contentious issues in Europe, inspiring mass demonstrations, “peace camps” and a movement that shaped the politics of a generation. After more than half a century, there are no more U.S. nukes in Britain.
On Thursday, the Federation of American Scientists, a group set up by former Manhattan Project scientists alarmed by the legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, reported that the United States had removed the last of its nuclear bombs from the Royal Air Force base at Lakenheath in eastern England.
The move had more to do with changing U.S. strategic imperatives and military technology than with a sudden outbreak of global harmony. Dropping nuclear bombs out of airplanes is an old-fashioned way to deliver them in an era of accurate ballistic missiles. Washington now considers its main threat to come from the area south of the former Soviet Union, and is still keeping nuclear bombs in bases in Italy and Turkey and other parts of Europe. Britain has its own nuclear weapons and has decided to replace the submarines that carry them with a more modern fleet.
If the removal of American nukes from Britain really happened, it happened on the sly. A spokewoman for the U.S. forces in Lakenheath said Washington never talks about the location of its nuclear bombs. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s spokesman had not read reports on the subject and had nothing to say about it, and the Ministry of Defence had no comment.
But the event, if confirmed, marks the end of an era for thousands of British protesters who defined themselves by their opposition to U.S. nukes, camping outside bases like Lakenheath throughout the 1980s.
The head of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the biggest single-issue campaign group in Europe, welcomed the news that the bombs were gone and said it would be good if the government would announce it publicly. She also said the fight would continue against U.S. plans to set up an anti-missile defence, perhaps with base stations at the same location in Lakenheath.
Sorry to read that the English cartoons of hippies and grannies chained to fences in the rain will probably end with the removal of the nukes. Maybe they can turn their attention from a tactic that kept them safe and allowed them to protest to the demise of democracy in Rhodesia.
No question the sights of elite interests would be on Africa, they are buying up land for protection in the futute world of radical climate change and there is lots of agricutltural lands in Africa that may be critically important..for the mega corporations…