December 1, 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 DECEMBER 1, 2004

1//The Daily Star, Lebanon--DAMASCUS ASKS U.S. TO END SANCTIONS ON SYRIAN BANK (Finance Minister Mohammed al-Hussein has asked Washington to scrap its threat of sanctions against Commercial Bank of Syria over charges of financing terrorism, the ruling Baath Party's daily reported Tuesday. Al-Baath said the request was made in a meeting with a U.S. Treasury department delegation on the sidelines of a meeting in Bahrain on starting a Middle East agency to fight money-laundering and terror financing. "We asked the U.S. delegation for official guarantees on the annulment, not just a suspension, of the sanctions that were planned" against the state-owned bank, the finance minister told the newspaper. Syrian and U.S. officials opened talks in September to try to resolve the sanctions threat… The Syrian delegation in Bahrain also called for U.S. assistance in developing Syria's banking and customs systems, and equipment to supervise the border with Iraq, Hussein said. Syria itself has been under U.S. economic sanctions since May on charges of supporting terrorism and working to destabilize Iraq. But U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said in September that Damascus had been showing a "positive" attitude in addressing U.S. concerns on securing the border with its eastern neighbor to keep out anti-U.S. fighters.)

2//Khaleej Times Online, United Arab Emirates--SAUDI BUSINESS WOMEN MAKE ‘HISTORY’ BY VOTING IN A BOARD ELECTION (DPA) (Saudi businesswomen have made "history" by casting their votes for the first time in the board election of the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI), reported Saudi newspapers on Tuesday. It is the first time in Islamic kingdom that women have been allowed to vote in a significant election. Women are not eligible to take part in nationwide municipal elections to be held February 10.)

3//Arab News, Saudi Arabia--WHY WOMEN’S VOTING IS COMPLICATED (Those who have been following the Arab News will know that the council of ministers had called for more rights for women and had asked ministries to employ women by creating separate female departments. Other businessmen have suggested we create "female industrial cities" exclusively for women. It has been almost seven months since the council passed this law, but we are yet to hear what actions have been taken. The reason? It’s not an easy process that can be done overnight. I think Saudi women have more important things to concentrate on for the present. One of them is to insist their names be heard in public. Currently, the social norm is that uttering a female’s name in public is taboo. That is why all Saudi wedding cards that are distributed to male guests say, "We would like to invite you to the marriage of the young man so and so to the daughter of so and so." Her name is never mentioned. Her name being mentioned to men is a taboo. Saudi women know that. Yet that custom exists. Wouldn’t fighting for her own name to be heard be better at this stage?)

4//The Japan Times, Japan--TOKYO, BEIJING, SEOUL VOW SECURITY BOOST (Japan, China and South Korea vowed Monday to boost security and economic ties and promised to work closely on the North Korean nuclear threat. After their meeting in the Laotian capital, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun released an action strategy on trilateral cooperation… On North Korea's nuclear ambitions, it says they "will promote close consultations and cooperation for the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through the six-party talks." …China, Japan, North and South Korea, Russia and the United States had agreed in June to reconvene the talks by the end of September. But the talks have been on hold mainly due to differences between Pyongyang and Washington…. On the economic front, the leaders vowed to "facilitate the current joint study on the economic effects of possible free-trade area among China, Japan and (South) Korea by the three countries' think tanks.")

5//The Independent, UK--‘LE MONDE’ IN CRISIS AS SENIOR EDITOR QUITS (A period of extreme turbulence in the French press deepened yesterday when a leading figure on the national newspaper, Le Monde, resigned…. The departure of M. Plenel, 52, comes at a time when Le Monde is losing money and readers and has been strongly criticised, from within and without, for becoming too populist and abusing its influence as one of the pillars of the French political-media establishment…. Yesterday also brought the bizarre news that the centre-left daily newspaper Libération, founded by Jean-Paul Sartre and others after the leftist student revolt in 1968, may be the subject of a partial takeover bid by the banker Edouard de Rothschild, an emblematic figure of French capitalism.)

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1//The Daily Star, Lebanon Wednesday, December 01, 2004
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition...

DAMASCUS ASKS U.S. TO END SANCTIONS ON SYRIAN BANK
Arabs finalize crackdown on terror financing
Syria asks for American help to develop banking, customs systems

Compiled by Daily Star staff

Finance Minister Mohammed al-Hussein has asked Washington to scrap its threat of sanctions against Commercial Bank of Syria over charges of financing terrorism, the ruling Baath Party's daily reported Tuesday.

Al-Baath said the request was made in a meeting with a U.S. Treasury department delegation on the sidelines of a meeting in Bahrain on starting a Middle East agency to fight money-laundering and terror financing.

"We asked the U.S. delegation for official guarantees on the annulment, not just a suspension, of the sanctions that were planned" against the state-owned bank, the finance minister told the newspaper.

Syrian and U.S. officials opened talks in September to try to resolve the sanctions threat.
Washington has raised concerns over the alleged involvement of the Syrian bank in money-laundering operations and the financing of terrorism, threatening sanctions under the Patriot Act passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The Syrian delegation in Bahrain also called for U.S. assistance in developing Syria's banking and customs systems, and equipment to supervise the border with Iraq, Hussein said.

Syria itself has been under U.S. economic sanctions since May on charges of supporting terrorism and working to destabilize Iraq. But U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said in September that Damascus had been showing a "positive" attitude in addressing U.S. concerns on securing the border with its eastern neighbor to keep out anti-U.S. fighters. The announcement came as Arab states agreed Tuesday to work to try to keep money out of the hands of terrorists.

The creation of the 14-member Middle East-North Africa Financial Action Task Force was hailed by the U.S. Treasury Department official responsible for fighting terrorist financing, Juan Carlos Zarate, who attended the inaugural meeting in Bahrain.

(SNIP)

The United Arab Emirates, which joined the new task force and is known for its freewheeling financial sector, has been identified by U.S. investigators as a major money transfer center for Al-Qaeda, the terror network responsible for Sept. 11.

The Emirates has tightened reporting and other regulations since Sept. 11. Bahrain earlier this year signed the 1999 U.N. International Convention for the Suppression of Financing of Terrorism. Saudi Arabia has cracked down on charities that are suspected of funneling money to terrorists.

(SNIP)

The watchdog bringing together Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Qatar, Kuwait, Tunisia, Jordan, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen will be a regional version of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force. The 33-member FATF was set up in 1987 to monitor and fight money laundering, and in 2001 expanded its role to combating the financing of terror.

(MORE)

2//Khaleej Times Online, United Arab Emirates 30 November 2004
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle...

SAUDI BUSINESS WOMEN MAKE 'HISTORY' BY VOTING IN A BOARD ELECTION (DPA)
DUBAI - Saudi businesswomen have made "history" by casting their votes for the first time in the board election of the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI), reported Saudi newspapers on Tuesday.

It is the first time in Islamic kingdom that women have been allowed to vote in a significant election.

Women are not eligible to take part in nationwide municipal elections to be held February 10.

Newspapers reported that a large number of women turned out fervently Monday to vote at the chamber’s women’s section.

About 40,000 RCCI members including 2,750 women are taking part in the two-day election to pick 12 board members. No female candidates were contesting the elections.

(SNIP)

"This is the first time Saudi businesswomen have been allowed to vote directly in a chamber election," she said, adding that the 2,750 businesswomen registered with the chamber would be allowed to vote.

In the past, legal male agents voted on behalf of the women.

The RCCI is a non-governmental organization that provides crucial services at nominal fees to 40,000 members of which more than 20,000 have permanent status.

3//Arab News, Saudi Arabia Wednesday, 1, December, 2004 (19, Shawwal, 1425)
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section...

WHY WOMEN'S VOTING IS COMPLICATED
Raid Qusti

Many Saudi females were not happy with my last article regarding the reasons I believed why it was difficult for Saudi women to vote.

To begin with, we need to look at our country as a whole and weigh the reality of things. We should look at it rationally and not emotionally.

One of the comments made by a Saudi female, responding to my last article, is that we do not need separate ballot centers for men or women so that sinful mixing could not occur. Instead we could have different voting hours for men and women. Women could come, for example, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. And men could come from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. That way there would be no mixing. Good suggestion.

But employing Saudi women to answer queries from Saudi women is not easy, especially in remote areas. Then of course the problem still exists of finding women who are willing to work in village or small towns. If the women are willing then they would need male escorts to stay with them there, in addition of course to finding male drivers since women are not allowed to drive here.

Hypothetically, let's say all these were resolved. That is, the municipality had given itself enough time to set up everything, even employed women to assigned areas, and everything was set to go. Continuing the hypothesis further, let's say that some Saudi women who registered their names and later nominated themselves as candidates actually won and had become official members of the municipality council. In other words, these women are now officials.

The hypothetical scenario ends here. One big problem remains. Fact: Saudi Arabia is a male dominated society. Fact two: Saudi Arabia is a segregated society in every aspect.

If a single woman won and became a member of the municipality council that would mean the government would have to construct a separate building for her. Whether she is one female, two, or ten, Saudi law forbids men and women to work in the same establishment.

(SNIP)

We are not the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, or even Egypt. Our society is entirely different. Complete segregation of male and females in all aspects of our life is part of our culture, whether we like it or not.

The other factor we have to bear in mind is the conservative nature of Saudi Arabia. Saudi women do not appear in public, be it in the media or in public life. And when they participate in events it is segregated with women only allowed to attend. No cameras allowed.

Open all of our 11 Saudi dailies from cover to cover and you will not find a single photo of a Saudi woman. I believe that most Saudi females would not run for office, and restrictions from their families and social taboos would stop her from appearing before a camera and present her agenda. Getting a Saudi female to actually appear on television for a short interview and state her full name — even if she has her face covered — is an endless endeavor. Most would reject it.

Both for personal reasons, because she does not want to appear in public, or for cultural reasons; that her husband or family would prevent her from doing so.

Social restrictions forbid women to appear in public. We, Saudi men, are not the ones who have come up with this culture. In fact, the majority of Saudi women want that. Whoever thinks that the majority of Saudi women want mixing and want to appear in the media or in the public eye is naïve or a fool, or both.

Those who have been following the Arab News will know that the council of ministers had called for more rights for women and had asked ministries to employ women by creating separate female departments. Other businessmen have suggested we create "female industrial cities" exclusively for women.

It has been almost seven months since the council passed this law, but we are yet to hear what actions have been taken. The reason? It’s not an easy process that can be done overnight.

I think Saudi women have more important things to concentrate on for the present. One of them is to insist their names be heard in public. Currently, the social norm is that uttering a female’s name in public is taboo. That is why all Saudi wedding cards that are distributed to male guests say, "We would like to invite you to the marriage of the young man so and so to the daughter of so and so." Her name is never mentioned. Her name being mentioned to men is a taboo.

Saudi women know that. Yet that custom exists. Wouldn’t fighting for her own name to be heard be better at this stage?

4/The Japan Times, Japan Tuesday, November 30, 2004
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/get...

TOKYO, BEIJING, SEOUL VOW SECURITY BOOST
‘Mutual Confidence-Building' Strategy

VIENTIANE (Kyodo) Japan, China and South Korea vowed Monday to boost security and economic ties and promised to work closely on the North Korean nuclear threat.

After their meeting in the Laotian capital, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun released an action strategy on trilateral cooperation.

It is aimed at following up on the first-ever joint statement that Japan, China and South Korea adopted in October 2003 to strengthen the trilateral alliance in the security and economic sectors.

On security, the new plan says the three countries "will strive to have more frequent contacts among the heads of the defense authorities" and promote exchanges on various levels "for mutual confidence building."

On North Korea's nuclear ambitions, it says they "will promote close consultations and cooperation for the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through the six-party talks."

The countries "will further strengthen close coordination to expeditiously achieve substantive progress at the six-party talks," it adds.

China, Japan, North and South Korea, Russia and the United States had agreed in June to reconvene the talks by the end of September. But the talks have been on hold mainly due to differences between Pyongyang and Washington.

(SNIP)

The strategy also covers the three countries' commitment to cooperate on a global nonproliferation mechanism to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

On the economic front, the leaders vowed to "facilitate the current joint study on the economic effects of possible free-trade area among China, Japan and (South) Korea by the three countries' think tanks."

(MORE)

5//The Independent, UK 30 November 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story...

'LE MONDE' IN CRISIS AS SENIOR EDITOR QUITS
By John Lichfield in Paris

A period of extreme turbulence in the French press deepened yesterday when a leading figure on the national newspaper, Le Monde, resigned.

Edwy Plenel, the much-loved and much-detested, executive editor, said he was quitting to go back to "the simple pleasures of journalism and writing."

The departure of M. Plenel, 52, comes at a time when Le Monde is losing money and readers and has been strongly criticised, from within and without, for becoming too populist and abusing its influence as one of the pillars of the French political-media establishment.

M. Plenel, a Trotskyist turned investigative reporter and then editor, known for his Groucho Marx moustache, has been de facto number two of the newspaper but the day-to-day editorial decision-maker since 1996. His boss, friend and partner, Jean-Marie Colombani, Le Monde's "director of publication," said last night that his departure was a "traumatism."

(SNIP)

His departure comes at a time when all French daily newspapers - never strong - are struggling to cope with a sharp fall in sales, partly caused by the launch of daily free-sheets in Paris and other large cities.

Yesterday also brought the bizarre news that the centre-left daily newspaper Libération, founded by Jean-Paul Sartre and others after the leftist student revolt in 1968, may be the subject of a partial takeover bid by the banker Edouard de Rothschild, an emblematic figure of French capitalism.

M. Plenel made his name as an investigative reporter at Le Monde in the 1980s. He was so successful in digging out the secrets of the ruling classes that he was the object of an illegal phone tap by the staff of President François Mitterrand which - 20 years later - is the subject of a criminal case. With M. Colombani he transformed the austere Le Monde, introducing such unheard of innovations as photographs and sport, and stories about celebrities.