World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

In what can only be described as a provocative act, the US has flown aircraft through the maritime zone earlier claimed by China without registering a flight plan or registering the frequencies of the aircraft.  In short, the US flew through the territory as if it were genuinely international (as most of the world currently regards it).  To make matters worse, according to the Reuters report, the Pentagon spokesperson referred to the islands as the Senkakus, and not the Diaoyu as they are called by the Chinese.  This is a photograph of what the Chinese and Japanese are sparring over (and which might be the occasion for war).

Many media outlets, most of them non-US outlets, are commenting on the document released by the Vatican today.  It is an “Apostolic Exhortation” written by Pope Francis.  The media have focused on a certain part of the document which severely criticizes certain aspects of market capitalism.  I was intrigued by these excerpts, not for their religious significance, but rather for how the words resonate with many of the protests that we have witnessed in the world in recent years (Bulgaria, Greece, the Occupy Movement, and many of the protests associated with what is termed the “Arab Spring”).  The language of section 54 is particularly pertinent to the roots of these political protests:

“In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own. The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase; and in the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.”

The fourth Sahel Festival is taking place in the village of Lompoul in the north of Senegal.  The Festival is notable this year because it is taking place in the midst of extraordinary turmoil in the region.  Music triumphs over everything!  Here is a video from last year’s festival: