The first round of the French national election begins this weekend and Vox has an article that outlines all the candidates running and what the issues are. While there are eleven candidates, the analysts believe that only four have a real shot at emerging as the two candidates for the second round of elections later on. The terrorist attack in Paris yesterday has given the election a jolt and it remains to be seen whether the attack favors the right wing candidate, Le Pen, or the left wing candidate, Mélenchon. The Pew Research Center has some very interesting information about where the support for the right-wing National Front comes from. This election is critically important for the future of Europe and should be watched carefully.
The world is facing catastrophes in three countries because of food shortages: South Sudan, Somalia, and Nigeria. We could also add Yemen to the list as well as several others who are just hovering at the brink of collapse. The world, however, is not doing very much to help the millions in these countries–indeed, the international organizations and non-governmental organizations which respond to these crises are critically short of money and resources at this point in time. Our colleague at Hampshire College, Michael Klare, makes the argument that these disasters are linked to climate change and should therefore be considered a form of genocide because of the lack of action.
At least 12 people were killed in Venezuela as protests turned to rioting and looting. The situation continues to deteriorate as it becomes clearer that there is no likelihood of political concessions by the Maduro government. The desperation of the people is obvious and political violence is probably the only alternative left for the people to achieve a change. Venezuela is potentially the richest country in Latin America and its descent into chaos is a clear example of the singular importance of good governance. One should never underestimate the significance of a responsive government.
A new book on the Holocaust has been published, Human Rights After Hitler, by Dan Plesch. The book adds more evidence that the Allied Powers were well aware of the German plans to exterminate Jews as early as December 1942. This assertion has been made before, but Plesch provides documents that have been secret to make the case. According to The Independent:
“Newly accessed material from the United Nations – not seen for around 70 years – shows that as early as December 1942, the US, UK and Soviet governments were aware that at least two million Jews had been murdered and a further five million were at risk of being killed, and were preparing charges. Despite this, the Allied Powers did very little to try and rescue or provide sanctuary to those in mortal danger.”
The clear lesson is that when human rights are being threatened on such a massive scale, states should act on that information as quickly as possible and not wait for overwhelming evidence.
There are reports that China has placed bombers on high alert in anticipation of actions in North Korea. It is not at all clear what this higher stage implies, but it suggests that China is concerned about the possible influx of refugees from North Korea in case of instability. Russia has also rushed more equipment and soldiers to its border with North korea. In the mean time, we have learned that the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group would take at least 30 days to get into position near North Korea. The confusion over the whereabouts of the aircraft carrier has led to much derision in Asia, and this comment from China’s China Times:
“The truth seems to be that the US military and president jointly created fake news and it is without doubt a rare scandal in US history, which will be bound to cripple Trump’s and US dignity.”
Let’s hope that the Chinese high alert is not due to an expectation that the US is going to attack North Korea. I have no doubts that that is exactly what the Chinese would do if they thought an attack was imminent. But let’s pretend that it’s not on their mind right now.
BBC published an article with the intriguing title, “How Western Civilisation Could Collapse“. The article analyzes several scholarly approaches to answering the question of why civilizations often degrade and comes up with two variables that seem to play an important role: growing inequality within the civilization and environmental stress caused by the resource demands of the civilization. The article is not particularly uplifting, but it does provoke a great deal of thought.
“The Trump administration is currently conducting across the entire government a review of our Iran policy … an unchecked Iran has the potential to follow the same path as North Korea and take the world along with it. The United States is keen to avoid a second piece of evidence that strategic patience is a failed approach”.
In other words, even though Iran has honored the nuclear agreement, the US is thinking about implementing policies to isolate Iran once again. If such policies are adopted, it is critically important that they be justified on grounds that are completely separate from the nuclear issue. The US needs to stick to the agreement it signed.
Protests in Venezuela against President Maduro have continued and two protesters were killed in the most recent demonstrations. The political process has completely collapsed in the country as Maduro continues to have many passionate supporters. Eleven Latin American countries has signed statements urging the Venezuelan government to schedule new elections to restore the legitimacy of the state, but all indications are that Maduro has no intention of relaxing his grip on the country.
The Guardian is reporting that the US military is considering shooting down any North Korean missile tests as a way of preventing North Korea from testing an intercontinental ballistic missile. A successful test of such a missile would mean that North Korea had the theoretical possibility of hitting the US homeland with a nuclear attack. A Pentagon spokesperson was quoted as saying
“North Korea’s unlawful weapons programs represent a clear, grave threat to US national security. North Korea openly states that its ballistic missiles are intended to deliver nuclear weapons to strike cities in the United States, the Republic of Korea, and Japan.”
Actually, South Korea and Japan are already under threat of a North Korean attack since the country has tested missiles with sufficient range to hit those countries. So the only issue that really concerns the US is an ICBM. It is unlikely that those two countries would be willing to serve as a battleground between the US and North Korea simply in order to prevent the US homeland from being at risk. In the meantime, even though it was announced (and this blog reported) that the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group was heading toward North Korea on 8 April, it turns out that the Vinson was actually heading in the opposite direction toward the Indian Ocean. Indeed, President Trump told Fox News on 12 April:
“We are sending an armada, very powerful. We have submarines, very powerful, far more powerful than the aircraft carrier….We have the best military people on Earth. And I will say this: he is doing the wrong thing.”
I am not sure how to interpret this information–perhaps it is a psychological ploy by the US. More likely, it is simple incompetence.
The French first-round election is five days away and the top 4 candidates are clustered at the top of the opinion polls. It still seems as if Marine Le Pen of the National Front Party and centrist Emmanuel Macron will be the top two vote-getters, but the race is becoming too close to call. Le Figaro conducted an interview with Le Pen and she articulates her positions with great conviction. Her rhetoric about France resonates strongly with that of US President Trump and his America First position:
“This presidential race is virtually a referendum for or against unbridled globalization. Our values, codes, customs and lifestyle are being dissolved. When a country loses its identity, it no longer knows what it is or where it comes from, and what its real worth is. So it dissolves. I want to write into the constitution the idea of defending and promoting France’s historical and cultural heritage, and give back to our country the status of a political power. That will be the launching pad for us to conquer the world anew! Yes, I for one want to set off to conquer the world! Relaunch ties with Africa, defend the French language abroad.”
The election merits close attention.
Basuki Tjahaja Purnama is the current governor of Jakarta in Indonesia. He came into office when the former governor, Joko Widodo, became President of Indonesia. He is running for re-election and the campaign is incredibly ugly. Mr. Purnama is currently under indictment for blasphemy for a comment he made about the Quran. He is a Christian and his opponent, Anies Rasyid Baswedan, is a Muslim. Indonesia’s population is 85% Muslim, but it has a reputation for being very tolerant and secular. This election, however, has been marked by rising intolerance with many arguing that Muslims cannot vote for a non-Muslim.
The International Monetary Fund is about to release its World Economic Outlook, April 2017 and some chapters to the study are already available. Chapter 3, “Understanding the Downward Trend in Labor Income Shares,” has been published and its findings confirm what other studies have found. One of the more telling statistics confirms the growing discrepancy between low- and high-skilled wages:
“The decline in the global labor share has been borne by low- and middle-skilled labor. During 1995–2009 their combined labor income share was reduced by more than 7 percentage points, while the global high-skilled labor share increased by more than 5 percentage points.”
The study also indicates that it is hard to assess the income inequality trends across countries:
“A less well-known fact about the fall in labor shares at the global level is that it reflects declining shares in both advanced and, to a lesser extent, emerging market and developing economies. Indeed, the labor share of the chosen period also serves to maximize data coverage of emerging market and developing economies. This finding corroborates that of Karabarbounis and Neiman (2014). Relative to that paper, the chapter’s data cover a larger number of countries and extend their time period by up to four years. Importantly, the data used in this chapter include significant revisions to the official labor share data for systemically large countries such as Brazil, China, Germany, and the United Kingdom. income has declined in four of the world’s five largest economies, led by the steepest decline in China, while the labor share of income in the United Kingdom has trended up.”
The study is quite important and should become part of the mainstream conversation about the global economy.
“Just in the past two weeks, the world witnessed the strength and resolve of our new president in actions taken in Syria and Afghanistan.
“North Korea would do well not to test his resolve or the strength of the armed forces of the United States in this region.”
The truth of the matter is that the US can do very little about the situation in North Korea. A pre-emptive strike would likely not be wholly successful in the short-run and would undoubtedly trigger off a conventional war which would kill thousands. According to The Hill, a senior North Korean official stated that the US had created “a dangerous situation in which a thermonuclear war may break out at any minute.” Meanwhile, there are reports that the US is sending two more aircraft carrier groups to join the USS Carl Vinson off the coast of North Korea: the USS Ronald Reagan and the USS Nimitz.
The Pew Research Center has released a very detailed analysis of American views of the US government, particularly on President Trump’s ability to lead the country. The results are consistent with common views: Republicans support Mr. Trump strongly, while Democrats are very skeptical. But on the some of the questions, there are clear doubts about Mr. Trump. Virtually, no one thinks that Mr. Trump is “too cautious”. Another insight is that many Americans do not believe that they can trust what Mr. Trump says:
“When asked to compare Trump with previous presidents, 51% say they trust what Trump says less than they trusted what previous presidents said while in office, compared with 30% who say they trust him more and 16% who say they trust what he says about the same as what previous presidents said.”
Turkish voters have apparently approved a referendum to give the President vast new powers under the constitution. According to reports, 51.5% of voters approved the measure which give the president the right to “appoint the cabinet and an undefined number of vice-presidents, and be able to select and remove senior civil servants without parliamentary approval.” The changes will not become effective until 2019, but opponents fear that the changes will create a highly authoritarian regime. Erdogan has become increasingly authoritarian over the years and single-party rule is not out of the question. The changes will also make it more difficult for the European Union to allow Turkey to join the union.
Dr. Mohamed Chtatou has written a very good essay on the challenges of globalization to education. The topic is often mentioned, but rarely analyzed closely. Chtatou frames the issues in terms of tradeoffs, an approach that is often misleading, since there are usually a variety of ways to think about things. But the tradeoffs pose the issues in a debate framework which is a good approach for a discussion . His tradeoffs are as follows:
“The tension between the global and the local: people need gradually to become world citizens without losing their roots and while continuing to play an active part in the life of their nation and their local community”;
“The tension between the universal and the individual: culture is steadily being globalized, but as yet only partially. We cannot ignore the promises of globalization nor its risks, not the least of which is the risk of forgetting the unique character of human beings, it is for them to choose their own future and achieve their full potential within the carefully tended wealth of their traditions and their own cultures which unless we are careful, can be endangered by contemporary developments”;
The tension between tradition and modernity: how is it to adapt to change without turning one’s back on the past, how can autonomy be acquired in a complementary fashion with the free development of others and how can scientific progress be assimilated? This is the spirit in which the challenges of the new information technologies must be met”.
The need to preserve culture in the face of the homogenizing influences of globalization is one of the most serious challenges we face. Without cultural identity, we all become rootless.
The world was expecting some sort of North Korean challenge to US President Trump’s rhetoric about “solving” the North Korean nuclear program. There was a missile test, but it failed. Missile tests are not unusual since the technology is complex. But there are also suspicions that the missile failure may have been caused by US hacking into the North Korean program. We do know that former President Obama had ordered a significant boost to such activities during his terms, but it is impossible to know how effective it may have been (and the US will never admit that it had any role at all). But the mere fact that North Korea attempted the launch indicates that it intends to test Mr. Trump. So it is highly likely that other tests, of missiles or bombs, will be forthcoming.
It now seems as if the US has decided to show its military power as a means of asserting its foreign policy. The Syrian attack, the use of the MAOB bomb in Afghanistan, and the deployment of the USS Carl Vinson carrier group just off the coast of North Korea are all examples of the US demonstrating its military might. Such demonstrations are important at some points, but one should remember that military power only makes sense in the context of a clearly articulated and understood foreign policy. That underlying logic is not yet apparent and, in its absence, the demonstrations of military power are not likely to influence the other major powers, notably Russia and China, very much.
The Pew Research Center has found that government restrictions on religious practices increased in 2015. The study identified non-governmental restrictions, defined as “increases in mob violence related to religion, individuals being assaulted or displaced due to their faith, and incidents where violence was used to enforce religious norms,” as well. The study found that
“Of the 198 countries in the study, 105 (53%) experienced widespread government harassment of religious groups, up from 85 (43%) in 2014 and 96 (48%) in 2013. Limited harassment – cases that were isolated or affected a small number of groups – also rose, taking place in 52 countries (26%) in 2015 (up from 44, or 22% of countries, in 2014).
“Government use of force against religious groups increased as well, with 23 countries (12%) experiencing more than 200 cases of government force in 2015, up from 21 (11%) in 2014. There was an even bigger increase in the number of countries with at least one, but no more than 200 incidents of government use of force against religious groups: 83 nations (42%) fell into this category in 2015, an increase from 60 countries (30%) in 2014.”
The rise in intolerance is small but troubling. Religion is a dynamic component of nationalism and the passions of nationalism often lead to conflict.
John Tasioulas teaches law at King’s College in London and he has written a worthwhile essay on human rights, raising questions about how one can justify them. He does not believe that human rights are adequately protected simply as laws or as agreements in democratic societies. He asserts that
“human rights are rooted in the universal interests of human beings, each and every one of whom possesses an equal moral status arising from their common humanity. In other words, in defending human rights, we will need to appeal to the inherent value of being a member of the human species and, in addition, the interests shared by all human beings in things like friendship, knowledge, achievement, play, and so on. And we will need to ask whether these considerations generate duties that are owed to each and every human being.”
I am not sure why this argument offers greater integrity to the idea of human rights. Unfortunately, there are far too many examples of human rights atrocities committed when some people are considered “sub-human” by the dominant powers.
The USA National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has released a stunning composite video of the earth at night. It is visually mesmerizing, but it also reveals how humans have distributed themselves along waterways and oceans. The site also has some fascinating photos comparing space shots of certain areas in 2012 and 2016, showing how the process of electrification has accelerated in certain areas of the world.
China has sent two messages to the world on the North Korean issue through its semi-official news outlet, China Times. The first was on 12 April whenthe paper warned North Korea that there would be “a response of ‘unprecedented ferocity‘ if the government of Kim Jong Un goes ahead with a test of either an intercontinental ballistic missile or a nuclear device.” The second was in an article that was entitled “China warns against use of force on NK nuclear issue”. According to the article:
“Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said at a daily press briefing Thursday that it has always been the stance of the Chinese government that dialogue and consultations are the only ways to achieve denuclearization and safeguard peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.
“‘We have taken note of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s remarks that Russia and the US agree that the only solution to the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue is political,'” Lu said.
“‘We hope that all related parties will forge consensus on this general direction and fundamental principle and make concrete efforts accordingly,'” Lu said.
The two articles are somewhat confusing and it is difficult to determine what the official Chinese response to a nuclear test may be. We will likely find out on Saturday.
On 16 April, Turks will vote on a referendum that would give the office of the president expanded powers. The current president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has campaigned on behalf of the referendum but current polls suggest that the “no” camp may have more votes. Support for Erdogan was very strong in the face of an attempted coup in 2016, but there seems to be a growing sentiment that he is going to far in consolidating so much power. If the referendum does fail to pass, then it will be interesting and revealing to see Erdogan’s next move.
The Guardian an active slave market is developing in Libyais reporting that as migrants from West Africa become hostages to an almost complete governmental breakdown. The slave trade has never been eradicated and it is particularly active for sexual slavery. But the situation in Libya has deteriorated to the point where slaves are being bought and sold in public. The deterioration of the political system in Libya can be traced to the overthrow of former dictator Gaddaffi in 2011, an outcome that US President Obama called the “worst mistake” of his presidency.
Income inequality has deepened in the US over the last forty years. We unfortunately rationalize the income disparities by believing that the only victims of low incomes are the poor themselves. But the truth is that everyone subsidizes low wages. The example of Wal-Mart employees is instructive. Wal-Mart wages are quite low and, in order to survive, many Wal-Mart employees need to receive public subsidies. But by funding those subsidies, we are also subsidizing Wal-Mart. According to USA Today:
“According to a 2014 report by Americans for Tax Fairness, Walmart receives an estimated $6.2 billion in subsidies every year, primarily from the Federal Government.
“The reason? The world’s largest retailer, infamous for its poor working conditions and unfair treatment of employees, pays its workers so little that thousands of Walmart employees are forced to rely on public assistance programs like food stamps, Medicaid and subsidized housing. Programs funded by American taxpayers.
“No matter the town or city, if you have a Walmart in your community, you are paying a Walmart Tax. In fact, a single Walmart Supercenter is estimated to cost taxpayers between $904,542 and $1.74 million per year in public assistance money.”
Poverty is a problem for everyone and it is a mistake to think that any one of us is insulated from the costs of poverty.
Journalists in North Korea have been told to prepare for an historic event on Sunday, 15 April. Sunday is the annual “Day of the Sun” event which commemorates the 105th anniversary of the regime’s founder, Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of the current leader, Kim Jung-un. No one knows what to expect, but the fear is that North Korea will test its sixth nuclear weapon or an intercontinental ballistic missile. Since US President Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi, all eyes are on China’s response to such a move. In the absence of a Chinese move, then everyone will look to the US response as Trump indicated that if the Chinese don’t act, then the US will be willing to go it alone.
Fortunately there are non-governmental organizations that do incredible research on issues that receive very little public attention. One such organization is Airwars. It keeps close tabs on civilian casualties in conflict areas. It recently shifted its attention to focus on civilian casualties caused by US operations in Syria. The information is quite disturbing: there has been a significant spike in civilian casualties caused by US air strikes in Iraq and Syria. According to the most recent report:
“The intensity of strikes in 2017 – notably around Raqqa and Mosul – has no precedent. To March 15th, a record 245 alleged Coalition civilian casualty events have been monitored by Airwars – roughly three events a day. At this pace, the number of alleged Coalition incidents this year could surpass 800.”
Needless to say, civilian casualties undermine the US effort to degrade Daesh (the Islamic State).
The French presidential campaign started today with 11 candidates running. In two weeks, the first round of voting will occur and pare down the number of candidates to two. At this point, the two leading candidates are Marine Le Pen of the National Front Party and a center-right candidates, Emmanuel Macron, who is running as an independent. Unexpectedly, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, running on a hard-left platform, is now in fourth place. The French election will be a significant marker of French dissatisfaction with globalization and the European Union.
India has been engaged with a complex and troubling strategic debate over its nuclear weapons. Traditionally, India has considered those weapons to be principally a deterrent to aggressive action. But over the last few months, a number of Indian policy makers and strategic analysts have been thinking out loud about changing the strategy to a “first-strike”. That change would seek to disarm an opponent (likely Pakistan) before an attack occurs. The change suggests a growing confidence in the nuclear arsenal as well as in India’s ability to gather and assess intelligence. Needless to say, such a change would also make strategic decisions significantly more complex and time-urgent. We would also have to wait and see what Pakistan’s response to the change would be. Relations between India and Pakistan have recently been very testy over the issue of control in Kashmir.
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