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THE ROVING EYE
Obama-Rouhani: lights, camera, action
Though a meeting with Barack Obama at the UN next Tuesday is by no means certain, it's well-established that the stage is set for President Hassan Rouhani's administration to talk directly to Washington about Tehran's nuclear program. The question is whether Obama will have the "heroic flexibility" to face 34 years of history and stare down the spoilers. - Pepe Escobar
(Sep 19, '13)
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Toxic agenda-setting in Washington
While the Obama administration beats the war drum and produces dubious proof that Bashar al-Assad gassed his own people, a potentially larger tragedy is brewing at the site of Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant. The 300 tonnes of radioactive water leaking every day from the destroyed plant into the Pacific could directly impact about a third of the world's population.
- Jonny Connor
(Sep 19, '13)
Post-election doldrums hit Malaysia
 Malaysia's long-ruling Barisan Nasional coalition is flexing its dominance over state institutions and plans to increase ethnic Malays' stake in the economy rather than tackle divisions that nearly saw it ousted. While half of those who voted against the BN in May elections bemoan an electoral loss, troubling economic signs worsened by Prime Minister Najib Razak's pre-election handouts face the whole country.
- Anil Netto
(Sep 19, '13)
US needs cultural weapons for North Korea
The United States' reliance on feeble sanctions and China to try to denuclearize North Korea have only seen Pyongyang accelerate profit-making enterprises from its nuclear weapons programs. A better chance of normalizing relations lies in encouraging educational and cultural exchanges; when North Korean elites start to see richer people in other countries, the jealousy spurred could lead a revolt with power behind it.
- Brian Min
(Sep 19, '13)
UN finds 'unspeakable atrocities'
 Michael Kirby, the head of a UN probe into human rights abuses has challenged the Kim Jong-eun regime to disprove "unspeakable atrocities" uncovered in North Korea after Pyongyang alleged stories of abductions, torture and prison camp punishments had been fabricated.
- Joshua Lipes
(Sep 19, '13) |
India's free lunches exact a high price
More than 24 million kilograms of food is cooked daily at Indian schools, mainly using wood fuel stoves that bring health and environmental costs. Yet the world's largest free-lunch program has no energy conservation or even a fuel policy in its workings. At least part of the answer to the problem is available, but slow to catch on.
- Keya Acharya
(Sep 19, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
Arab society fails to grasp its destiny
Oil wealth has blinded Arab populations to how Western nations have manipulated them into decades of subservience to authoritarian rule. As obsolete rulers are overthrown by their own people, the dismantling of social, economic and institutional infrastructure will open the path to a complete take-over by foreign masters.
- Mahboob A Khawaja
(Sep 18, '13)
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Israel, eying Iran, comes off Syria fence
A statement by Israel's ambassador  to the US, Michael Oran, makes clear Tel Aviv's preference for the "bad guys" fighting Bashar al-Assad (rather than the "bad guys" who now run Syria). The timing of the pronouncement of support for US-backed forces signals further twists in the Syrian civil war, and focuses minds on the possibility of a grand bargain between Washington and Tehran.
- Victor Kotsev
(Sep 18, '13)
Ma draws blood in KMT heavyweight bout
 Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou has denied that intra-party rivalries were behind his decision last week to revoke the party membership of popular legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng, insisting that Wang's abuse of power in a legal case - not a personality clash - was his motivation. This hasn't stopped his maneuver reawakening ethnic and geographic fault-lines in the ruling Kuomintang party.
- Jens Kastner
(Sep 18, '13)
'Fear of Taliban' stops executions
The execution of three Taliban men  has been kept on hold because the Pakistan government fears reprisals by the militant group, according to political leaders, including Awami National Party leader Mian Iftikhar Hussain. Hussain, whose party has been a target of attacks, says the Taliban kills innocent people, but now want to stop legal executions.
- Ashfaq Yusufzai
(Sep 18, '13)
Collaborators open door to the devil
The willingness of lackeys to pander to the West has undermined the global South from colonial until present times, with ministers from Iraq to Libya turning to "the winning side" only to usher in chaos and oppression. Syria is the latest stage for collaborationists who have such contempt for their own people that they cannot imagine local solutions to local problems.
- Hafsa Kara-Mustapha
(Sep 18, '13)
Uyghurs shot dead in 'munitions center' raid
Details are emerging of an incident in which up to 12 Uyghurs were shot dead near Kashgar, in China's western Xinjiang region, with local people saying it involved an attack by the authorities on an alleged training camp and munitions center. Days earlier, 22 were killed in another "anti-terrorism" operation in the Kashgar region.
- Shohret Hoshur and Qiao Long
(Sep 18, '13)
Armageddon looting machine
Five years on from the financial collapse precipitated by the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy the risk of another full-blown financial panic is looming large, thanks to the amount of risk being driven to unregulated lenders in the "shadow banking" sector.
- Ellen Brown
(Sep 18, '13)
Putin does Americans a Middle East favor
Many Americans were enraged when Vladimir Putin blamed US exceptionalism and interventionism for the US's long-term decline. Yet by helping to avert another costly strike in the Middle East that would only ensure Israel's military and political supremacy, the Russian president has likely done the American people a huge favor. - Ramzy Baroud
(Sep 17, '13)
SPENGLER
US plays Monopoly,
Russia plays chess
As Russia's president carefully gauges how each Syria maneuver impacts on Moscow's spheres of interest, the US administration continues to view geopolitical real estate in isolation. The big prize is a restoration of Russia's great power status, and as American popular revulsion over foreign intervention intensifies, Vladimir Putin can simply wait as the clock runs down. - Spengler
(Sep 16, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
China stitches up
the (SCO) Silk Rd
Oh, to eavesrop at the weekend meeting of presidents Xi, Putin, and Rouhani as they craft a new multipolar international order. Before the private meeting at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, China's Xi Jinping's lyrical praise has highlighted the strategic importance to the new order of Central Asian silk roads. Beneath the shine, Beijing is busy building a multifaceted network that is the stuff of threadbare American dreams.
- Pepe Escobar
(Sep 13, '13) |
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Maersk makes waves in Russian market
Global Ports Investments, 25% owned by Denmark's Maersk, is set to secure a monopoly position in Russia's container transportation business with its takeover of National Container Co - if the deal passes takeover hurdles and the keen eye of President Vladimir Putin. - John Helmer
New veg leaves bitter taste
The season of mellow fruitfulness is leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of Serbs and Croatians, as they eat the consequences of regulations that have brought in imported seeds for tomatoes, onions and other veg from the likes of Monsanto and reduced availability of local, more tasty products. - Vesna Peric Zimonjic
CREDIT BUBBLE BULLETIN
Myth-making at the Fed
Larry Summers' decision to withdraw from the race to head the Federal Reserve opens the door to a range of candidates, all primed to control inflation (and deflation) via the "money supply". That they believe they can do so is just one of the myths Ben Bernanke's successor will inherit.
Doug Noland looks at the previous week's events each Monday. |
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US, Iran on tiptoe,
seeking contact
The White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a carefully worded remark on Monday, “As of now, the president [Barack Obama] is not expected to meet his Iranian counterpart at the UN Assembly.” The Iranians also maintain there is no “plan” at the moment.
- M K Bhadrakumar
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