June 14, 2004

World Media Watch

by Gloria R. Lalumia

BUZZFLASH NOTE: WMW provides BuzzFlash readers foreign views and perspectives that are not usually available from the media here in the U.S. The presentation of these articles from these international publications is not an endorsement of their viewpoints.

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WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR JUNE 14, 2004

1//The Jordan Times, Jordan--SADR PLANS POLITICAL PARTY (Shiite firebrand Moqtada Sadr, whose militia has battled the US-led coalition since April, plans to form a political party to contest Iraq's January elections, a top lieutenant to the radical preacher told AFP Sunday. The aide said the party would build on support for Sadr's fierce rebellion against the foreign occupation, which has put up some of the strongest resistance to the coalition since the US-led invasion in March 2003…Khazaali said the Sadr movement and the outlawed militia of the radical cleric, whose popularity has skyrocketed since he launched his uprising, would continue to exist to establish a "connection between the religious movement and the popular base." He also warned that Sadr's forces would return to violence if necessary.)

2//The Daily Star, Lebanon--IRAQI GRADUATES FACE HARSH CHALLENGES, PRECARIOUS JOB MARKET (Saad Kadhem, a spokesman for the Education Ministry, says the Finance Ministry will try to place about 1,800 of this year's 70,000 nationwide graduates into poor-paying but reliable state jobs. Many of those getting degrees fear for their prospects. "I'm not optimistic about my future," said Amir Hossein, 23, about to receive a degree in management. "There's not anything. All the students are jobless.")

3//The Independent, UK--WAR SPENDING ‘HAS MADE COUNTRY MORE VULNERABLE’ (America is "massively vulnerable" to another big terrorist attack because of President George Bush's insistence on diverting resources from internal security to the war in Iraq, Richard Clarke, the former White House counter-terrorism chief has said. He told The Independent the war in Iraq had taken focus and financing not only from the hunt for Osama bin Laden and his al-Qa'ida supporters but from homeland security programmes in the US. "America is massively vulnerable," Mr Clarke said. "Its chemical plants are vulnerable; its train systems are all vulnerable. We are a target-rich environment. There are lots of targets that could be made harder to attack but we are not doing that.")

4//The Toronto Star, Canada--KYOTO TOP OF MIND – THANKS TO HARPER (Stephen Harper has left no doubt where he stands on the Kyoto Protocol and climate change. At a campaign stop in Barrie last week, Harper said a Conservative government would scrap the protocol — aimed at reducing global emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases…Harper has previously said he doubts the scientific evidence that the build-up of greenhouse gases caused by our addiction to gasoline, oil and other fossil fuels is leading to potentially cataclysmic change in Earth's atmosphere. "I think the science is still evolving," he said in Barrie. Environmentalists say the Conservative policy is frightening. But they couldn't be happier that the issue has finally emerged from the dark recesses of the platform's fine print into the cold light of media and voter scrutiny.)

5//Xinhuanet/China View, China--SEVERE ENERGY SHORTAGE WARNED (Accelerating development of power-intensive machinery, auto, steel and manufacturing sectors, the growing pace of urbanization and low energy efficiency are blamed for China's extensive shortage of energy, which may worsen before 2020. An industrial report of the State Information Center with the National Bureau of Statistics forecasts China will face a more severe power shortage this year than it did in 2003. A total of 24 provincial areas imposed power brownouts in the past few months…Xu said China's energy sector has to face two major challenges as growing energy supply will pose pressure on the environment and low energy efficiency has become a major constraint on the expansion of the energy sector and sustainable social and economic problems. Coal accounts for 80 percent of the country's energy consumption.)

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1//The Jordan Times, Jordan Monday, June 14, 2004
http://www.jordantimes.com/mon/news/news7.htm

SADR PLANS POLITICAL PARTY

NAJAF (AFP) — Shiite firebrand Moqtada Sadr, whose militia has battled the US-led coalition since April, plans to form a political party to contest Iraq's January elections, a top lieutenant to the radical preacher told AFP Sunday.

The aide said the party would build on support for Sadr's fierce rebellion against the foreign occupation, which has put up some of the strongest resistance to the coalition since the US-led invasion in March 2003.

"We are planning on founding a party to express the views of the people because they have placed their confidence in us," said Qais Khazaali.

"We have this idea and we are discussing it. If we found this party, it will participate in elections and it will be built on our popular base."

An uneasy truce between Sadr's forces and US troops is holding in the holy city of Najaf, where bitter clashes with coalition troops have claimed hundreds of lives.

Khazaali said the Sadr movement and the outlawed militia of the radical cleric, whose popularity has skyrocketed since he launched his uprising, would continue to exist to establish a "connection between the religious movement and the popular base."

He also warned that Sadr's forces would return to violence if necessary.

"We were forced into armed resistance... and we will go back to it if we have to. If not, we will return to political resistance."

It was not clear how an anti-militia law adopted last week by the new Iraqi caretaker government would affect Sadr and his thousands-strong Mehdi Army. Iraq's new Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has called the Mehdi Army an illegal militia, but also indicated he was open to dialogue with Sadr. The anti-militia law technically bans any militia member from politics for three years, but Khazaali said his boss has no interest in politics.

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2//The Daily Star, Lebanon Monday, June 14, 2004
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=5262

IRAQI GRADUATES FACE HARSH CHALLENGES, PRECARIOUS JOB MARKET

60 percent unemployment has many vying for poor-paying but reliable state jobs

By Borzou Daragahi

Special to The Daily Star

BAGHDAD: Racing to get to the fourth-year final exams she had diligently studied for, Hent Khaled Alwan hopped onto a bus and looked forward to acing her test. But the 15-minute bus ride turned into a one-hour ordeal due to one of the city's many impromptu military check-points. She nearly flunked.

" It's a disaster," said Alwan, 21, a history major at Baghdad University. "Words can't explain how upset I am." Outgoing and energetic, Iraq's class of 2004 is finishing up the semester, receiving degrees and about to enter adulthood after a tough year, which saw campus life change dramatically as their country lurched from one violent cataclysm to another.

Once closely monitored by former President Saddam Hussein's security forces, college campuses became political and religious free-for-alls, with radical Islamic groups posting tracts and holding meetings. Once sheltered enclaves, campuses became occasional scenes of violence where a mysterious rash of murders saw a number of professors killed. Once cut off from the world, college students have been widely exposed to the internet and international media.

" Conditions for students were very abnormal this year," said Donya Barazalji, a professor of psychology at Baghdad University. "It was very difficult for students to concentrate on their class work."

The country's economic woes weigh heavily on the students. Over the summer, students will attend a few parties, where they traditionally sing songs and feast. But there will be no summer break for Iraq's recent college grads; they will quickly have to forage out into Iraq's precarious world of work.

For many, the pressures of adulthood have already begun.

" My responsibilities will be bigger and bigger in the future," said Ali Qazem, 22, an English major among the 9,000 graduates from Mustansiriyah University this year. "I'm expected to be a man.

Someone who graduates should bring money to his family. I really hope to find a job in the future."

Qazem and his fellow students' hopes will be tempered by the harsh reality of contemporary Iraq; a politically and economically unstable country with an estimated 60 percent unemployment rate and an epidemic of violence.

(SNIP)

Iraqi universities have no psychologists or social workers to counsel students coping with the stresses of campus life. And once they graduate, the students are on their own. Few if any of Iraq's 20 universities have anything akin to a career placement office or even a jobs bulletin board.

Saad Kadhem, a spokesman for the Education Ministry, says the Finance Ministry will try to place about 1,800 of this year's 70,000 nationwide graduates into poor-paying but reliable state jobs. Many of those getting degrees fear for their prospects.

" I'm not optimistic about my future," said Amir Hossein, 23, about to receive a degree in management. "There's not anything. All the students are jobless."

(MORE)

3//The Independent, UK 14 June 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=531338

WAR SPENDING ‘HAS MADE COUNTRY MORE VULNERABLE’

By Andrew Buncombe in Washington

America is "massively vulnerable" to another big terrorist attack because of President George Bush's insistence on diverting resources from internal security to the war in Iraq, Richard Clarke, the former White House counter-terrorism chief has said.

He told The Independent the war in Iraq had taken focus and financing not only from the hunt for Osama bin Laden and his al-Qa'ida supporters but from homeland security programmes in the US. "America is massively vulnerable," Mr Clarke said. "Its chemical plants are vulnerable; its train systems are all vulnerable. We are a target-rich environment. There are lots of targets that could be made harder to attack but we are not doing that."

The invasion of Iraq, which Mr Clarke believes presented no threat to the US, had created three serious security problems, he said. Insufficient aid was being given to countries such as Yemen and Pakistan, where there were known to be terrorists, to help them strengthen security measures. Second, troops and resources such as satellite imaging, special forces and unmanned Predator drones, had been moved from the hunt for bin Laden in Afghanistan to help the troops in Iraq. Third, the billions of dollars that had been spent in Iraq had used money that could have been spent on security within the US.

" The department has a long list of things they want to do - to secure trains for example, to prevent another Madrid [bombing] happening ... to secure chemical plants, to train first-responders. They are massively under-funded."

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4//The Toronto Star, Canada Jun. 13, 2004. 08:07 AM
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServ...

KYOTO TOP OF MIND – THANKS TO HARPER

Plan to scrap treaty an issue; Canadians have supported accord

Peter Gorrie, Feature Writer

Stephen Harper has left no doubt where he stands on the Kyoto Protocol and climate change.

At a campaign stop in Barrie last week, Harper said a Conservative government would scrap the protocol — aimed at reducing global emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases.

As a supportive audience baked in muggy heat, he said he'd focus, instead, on urban smog and other forms of toxic pollution.

" Kyoto is never going to be passed and I think we'd be better to spend our time on realistic pollution control measures.

"Carbon dioxide, while linked to global warming, is not a threat to air quality. Carbon dioxide does not cause or contribute to smog, and the Kyoto treaty would do nothing to reduce or prevent smog."

The policy isn't new to anyone who has perused the Conservatives' brief environmental platform. That document promises to: "redirect federal spending aimed at fulfilling the terms of the increasingly irrelevant Kyoto Protocol to concrete programs to ensure clean air, water and land and to promote energy conservation."

Harper has previously said he doubts the scientific evidence that the build-up of greenhouse gases caused by our addiction to gasoline, oil and other fossil fuels is leading to potentially cataclysmic change in Earth's atmosphere.

"I think the science is still evolving," he said in Barrie.

Environmentalists say the Conservative policy is frightening. But they couldn't be happier that the issue has finally emerged from the dark recesses of the platform's fine print into the cold light of media and voter scrutiny.

"Thank goodness people are going to notice," says Elizabeth May, executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada. "Anything that makes this an election issue is good."

The policy puts the Conservatives starkly at odds with the other major parties on a policy that's important for symbolic and practical reasons.

(SNIP)

The protocol has been endorsed by almost 100 countries, representing about 40 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. It won't come into legal effect until 55 per cent of emissions are accounted for.

The United States, by far the biggest polluter, won't ratify the treaty. Russia remains the major holdout: Its support would vault the agreement over the 55 per cent threshold.

The protocol is riddled with flaws and loopholes.

Only 40 developed countries were assigned targets. A few, including Australia and Iceland, are allowed increases. Many, like Canada, are far behind their targets.

The remaining countries, including giant China and India, aren't yet covered because they're still "developing."

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5//Xinhuanet/China View, China 2004-06-13 15:11:35
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-06/13/content_1523028.htm

SEVERE ENERGY SHORTAGE WARNED

Growing demand, inefficiency blamed for China’s shortage of energy supply

by Jiang Guocheng

BEIJING, June 13 (Xinhuanet) -- Accelerating development of power-intensive machinery, auto, steel and manufacturing sectors, the growing pace of urbanization and low energy efficiency are blamed for China's extensive shortage of energy, which may worsen before 2020.

An industrial report of the State Information Center with the National Bureau of Statistics forecasts China will face a more severe power shortage this year than it did in 2003. A total of 24 provincial areas imposed power brownouts in the past few months.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua earlier this week, Xu Dingming, a leading official with the Energy Bureau of the State Development and Reform Commission, said China's output of primary energy was equal to 1.603 billion tons of standard coal last year, up 11 percent over the previous year.

But demand outpaced supply as shortages of coal, power and oil were reported in many areas of China, whose economy grew by 9.1 percent last year, and over 7 percent in the two years before 2003.

Energy inefficiency

Low energy efficiency remains a problem for China as its comprehensive energy efficiency stands at 33 percent, 10 percentage points lower than that of developed countries, and

China's energy consumption for per-unit output value is twice as much as that of developed countries, said Xu.

A survey conducted by China's power sector shows its coal-fired power plants and power transmission companies would save an equivalent of 120 million tons of standard coal if their energy efficiency was raised to the advanced level of developed countries.

(SNIP)

Worsening pollution from burning coal

Xu said China's energy sector has to face two major challenges as growing energy supply will pose pressure on the environment and low energy efficiency has become a major constraint on the expansion of the energy sector and sustainable social and economic problems. Coal accounts for 80 percent of the country's energy consumption.

China discharged 19.27 million tons of sulfur dioxide in 2002, 90 percent of which came from burning coal, and 200 million tons of ash and solid waste.

The country's environmental watchdog said the amount of sulphur dioxide resulted in acid rain pollution in one third of the country, causing billions of dollars in economic losses.

But China's energy demand in 2020 is projected at 3 billion tons of standard coal, almost double that of its output for 2003, which means pollution arising from coal-burning would worsen accordingly, putting further pressure on the country's water resources and transporting system.

(SNIP)

Efforts to increase supply, save energy

In order to ease the current energy shortage, the Chinese government decided earlier this month on a package of measures to deal with the issue, such as curbing blind investment and wasteful duplications in some industries and cutting irrational demand, improving coal supply for areas suffering from power shortage, accelerating construction of energy and transport projects to expand supply and improving efficiency of energy consumption.

Officials and experts said China's power shortage would ease in 2005 and disappear in 2006 due to increased energy supply, but the balance between the supply and demand would not last long if China failed to boost supplies.

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