February 7, 2005

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 FEBRUARY 7, 2005

1//KurdishMedia.com, UK--INDEPENDENCE LANDSLIDE IN IRAQ KURD POLL: ORGANIZERS (An informal referendum on Kurdish independence conducted alongside last month’s historic Iraqi election drew nearly 99 percent support on a turnout of more than 80 percent, organizers said. A total of 1,973,412 people, or 98.7 percent of respondents, backed secession in the poll, which has no legal weight, said Asso Kassem of the pro-independence Movement for a Referendum in Kurdistan, the group that organized the exercise… Fellow organiser Shamal Huaizi said the two mainstream Kurdish factions had allowed the informal poll to go ahead in the three provinces of northern Iraq which they still administer, despite their opposition to independence for the forseeable future. "The Kurdish security services authorised us to carry out this exercise on condition that we not do it inside polling stations," he said. But he stressed that the poll had been conducted across Kurdish-inhabited districts, including the ethnically divided oil city of Kirkuk and parts of Diyala and Nineveh provinces to which the Kurds also lay claim.)

2//IslamOnline.net, Qatar--YEMEN TO CLOSE 4,000 RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS (The Yemeni government is set to close 4,000 religious schools allegedly run by “suspicious” organizations, an official has said. According to a government school survey, some of the private schools are affiliated to scholars and political parties, said Yahia Al-Najjar, the undersecretary of the Ministry of Religious Endowments (Waqfs)… Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been cooperating closely with Washington’s [sic] in its so-called global war on terror. During a 2001 visit to the White House, he inked a security cooperation pact on tracking down Yemenis allegedly linked to Al-Qaeda. Parliament Speaker Sheikh Abdullah Al-Ahmer has accused the US of using the “fighting terror” slogan as a thorn in the side of Arab and Islamic peoples.)

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--KOIZUMI THE ‘LIONHEART’ FALTERS IN THE POLLS ("The Koizumi government is not dead yet," said an Asahi Shimbun editorial writer after a poll showed Prime Minister Koizumi's cabinet at its lowest ebb so far, with 33% in popular support. But will the once wildly popular leader's most crucial policy initiatives - including dealing with North Korea - suffer from a perception of weakness in coming months as he adjusts to "lame duck" status in his last two years in office? …The worry is that Koizumi's weakness in the polls will make it harder to prevent key policies from being undermined by the "right wing" of his own party. According to one former senior government official, this includes the success of Japan's participation in the so-called six-party talks, which were launched two years ago to deal with an escalation of the nuclear threat posed by North Korea soon after Japan's first initiative to normalize relations with its hostile neighbor across the Sea of Japan (called the East Sea by Koreans). These on-again, off-again talks involve North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.)

4//The Toronto Star, Canada--U.S. SECURITY FEARS A BOON TO CANADIAN AIRLINES (An airline analyst believes the Canadian economy could be enriched by $1 billion a year if Air Canada can take full advantage of new U.S. visa requirements for transient passengers. The anti-terrorism measure introduced last summer discourages international travellers from going through U.S. airports en route to somewhere else, because they have to apply for a U.S. visa even if they don't leave the airport, said Rick Erickson, an airline consultant in Calgary. Air Canada has started to take advantage of this by beefing up its flights to Latin America and to Asia, partly due to the growing economies in those regions but also to attract travellers going between Latin America, Asia and Europe, who normally would transfer at a U.S. port like Los Angeles or New York… "The Americans are being extremely short-sighted with their current in-transit legislation," Erickson said, noting that Canada's rules are much less stringent.)

5//The Independent, UK--FRENCH FRIES MAY BE BACK ON DC’s MENU (Zut alors! What can this be? Is America finally ready to make up with those cheese-eating surrender monkeys? On one level, at least, that appears to be the case. In a festival starting next week called "Paris on the Potomac," the US capital is celebrating the French influence of its origins. The entente may not be entirely cordiale, but at least it is a start… The French accused the US of warmongering and arrogance; the US accused the French of cowardice and treachery. In one ludicrous episode, a diner in Beaufort, North Carolina, renamed its french fries "freedom fries." The renaming then caught on in restaurants, cafes and bars all over the country. Even the three cafeterias on Capitol Hill followed suit… A spokeswoman for the French embassy said: "As far as French and American relations are concerned, we are all moving forward. We clearly disagreed over whether it was necessary to invade Iraq. It is important to move in that direction.)

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1//KurdishMedia.com, UK 06/02/2005
http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=6212

INDEPENDENCE LANDSLIDE IN IRAQ KURD POLL: ORGANIZERS

ARBIL, Iraq, Feb 6 (AFP) - 11h57 - An informal referendum on Kurdish independence conducted alongside last month’s historic Iraqi election drew nearly 99 percent support on a turnout of more than 80 percent, organizers said.

A total of 1,973,412 people, or 98.7 percent of respondents, backed secession in the poll, which has no legal weight, said Asso Kassem of the pro-independence Movement for a Referendum in Kurdistan, the group that organized the exercise.

Just 19,850 people, or 0.9 percent of respondents, voted against and 4,799 spoiled their questionnaires, he added.

Fellow organiser Shamal Huaizi said the two mainstream Kurdish factions had allowed the informal poll to go ahead in the three provinces of northern Iraq which they still administer, despite their opposition to independence for the forseeable future.

"The Kurdish security services authorised us to carry out this exercise on condition that we not do it inside polling stations," he said.

But he stressed that the poll had been conducted across Kurdish-inhabited districts, including the ethnically divided oil city of Kirkuk and parts of Diyala and Nineveh provinces to which the Kurds also lay claim.

Huaizi dismissed the concerns of the two mainstream factions that any precipitate independence move would spark intervention by Iraq’s neighbours, fearful of the impact on their own restive Kurdish minorities.

"We are acting in the interests of the Kurdish people and we will not take into account the views of those who reject its right to self-determination," he said.

secured US promises that there will be no redrawing of Iraq’s boundaries.

(MORE)

2//IslamOnline.net, Qatar Last Update: Sun., Feb. 06, 2005- Dhul-Hijjah 27 - 18:00 GMT
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2005-02/06/article01.shtml

YEMEN TO CLOSE 4,000 RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS

SANAA, February 6 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The Yemeni government is set to close 4,000 religious schools allegedly run by “suspicious” organizations, an official has said.

According to a government school survey, some of the private schools are affiliated to scholars and political parties, said Yahia Al-Najjar, the undersecretary of the Ministry of Religious Endowments (Waqfs).

“It showed that many others were being supervised by foreign and local charities on suspicion of being funded by outsiders under the guise of beneficence,” Reuters quoted the official as having said.

The Yemeni government decided in 2004 to shut down non-governmental schools against a backdrop of bloody clashes between security forces and followers of rebel leader Hussein Badrudin Al-Houthi, who was killed along with dozens of his supporters in September.

Curricula

Najjar said a close scrutiny of curricula taught in these schools showed they preached violence and ran the risk of destabilizing society.

“The curricula include books written by hardliners and extremists – including Hussein Al-Houthi -- who don’t tolerate the other,” he said.

The official further said a large number of foreign teachers did unpaid work for these schools.

“This, in fact, raises many question marks and the government decided to take it into consideration.”

The would-be closure seems part of a broader government’s policy aimed at cracking down on private religious education.

(SNIP)

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been cooperating closely with Washington’s in its so-called global war on terror.

During a 2001 visit to the White House, he inked a security cooperation pact on tracking down Yemenis allegedly linked to Al-Qaeda.

Parliament Speaker Sheikh Abdullah Al-Ahmer has accused the US of using the “fighting terror” slogan as a thorn in the side of Arab and Islamic peoples.

Several Arab and Muslim countries have come under intense pressures from the Bush administration to change religious curricula viewed by Washington as stirring anti-American sentiments.

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Feb 5, 2005
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/GB05Dh01.html

KOIZUMI THE ‘LIONHEART’ FALTERS IN THE POLLS
By Richard Hanson

TOKYO - "The Koizumi government is not dead yet," said an Asahi Shimbun editorial writer after a poll showed Prime Minister Koizumi's cabinet at its lowest ebb so far, with 33% in popular support. But will the once wildly popular leader's most crucial policy initiatives - including dealing with North Korea - suffer from a perception of weakness in coming months as he adjusts to "lame duck" status in his last two years in office?

"Prime Minister Koizumi does not pay attention to popularity polls," is how one veteran political pundit, Minoru Morita, described the attitude of Japan's reformist leader. That was true when he was riding high in the polls more than three years ago.

True to form, Koizumi appeared to shrug off the news this week that his support had hit a record-low 33%, down from 37% in December and well below the 40% (and falling) seen in other recent surveys, according to a survey by Asahi Shimbun, a liberal newspaper at times at odds with the prime minister's policies. The survey was taken last weekend and released this week.

The question is whether the prime minister will find a way to bounce back and breathe new life into an administration that is long in the tooth as it approaches its fourth anniversary in April. In recent Japanese history, four years is a long time. Moreover, Koizumi's long list of "structural reforms" to reinvigorate Japan's public and private sectors has shrunk to a short-list of significant projects - such as finishing the job of privatizing the sprawling postal system - while settling for partial reforms in the area of public works. This is especially true in the case of his battle to curb powerful lobbies.

On the immediate political agenda, the ruling Liberal Democrats are still aiming for "trophy" projects to mark the 50th anniversary of the merger of democratic and conservative factions that formed the party in 1955, since when the LDP has been out of power for only eight months. The anniversary is November 15. For the past five years, the party has been researching a plan to amend the constitution, a centerpiece product of the Allied occupation (1945-51) of Japan after World War II.

Koizumi's ambition is to serve out his current term as LDP president, which expires in September 2006. Barring a surprise - such as a "snap" election, which only he can call - he will have carved himself out a place as one of the longest-serving Japanese prime ministers in history. At the moment, there are no major elections scheduled for the powerful Lower House of the Diet (parliament) until 2007.

But the polls this week do give grave pause for the prime minister, who is about to move into a brand-new official residence in Nagata-cho, the heart of the central-government area.

What worries the prime minister is that the slippage in his polls (which peaked at around 84% after April 2001 when Koizumi was named ruler of the Liberal Democratic Party) may reflect a serious threat to a number of his critical policy initiatives, upon which he is counting to build a legacy. The worry is that Koizumi's weakness in the polls will make it harder to prevent key policies from being undermined by the "right wing" of his own party.

According to one former senior government official, this includes the success of Japan's participation in the so-called six-party talks, which were launched two years ago to deal with an escalation of the nuclear threat posed by North Korea soon after Japan's first initiative to normalize relations with its hostile neighbor across the Sea of Japan (called the East Sea by Koreans). These on-again, off-again talks involve North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

(MORE)

4//The Toronto Star, Canada Feb. 6, 2005. 01:52 PM
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?...

U.S. SECURITY FEARS A BOON TO CANADIAN AIRLINES
Allan Swift, Canadian Press

MONTREAL - An airline analyst believes the Canadian economy could be enriched by $1 billion a year if Air Canada can take full advantage of new U.S. visa requirements for transient passengers.

The anti-terrorism measure introduced last summer discourages international travellers from going through U.S. airports en route to somewhere else, because they have to apply for a U.S. visa even if they don't leave the airport, said Rick Erickson, an airline consultant in Calgary.

Air Canada has started to take advantage of this by beefing up its flights to Latin America and to Asia, partly due to the growing economies in those regions but also to attract travellers going between Latin America, Asia and Europe, who normally would transfer at a U.S. port like Los Angeles or New York.

Only a handful of countries including Canada are exempt from having to get visas. Since Sept. 30, even Canadians and people from other countries that don't require U.S. visas are being fingerprinted and photographed when they enter the U.S.

"The Americans are being extremely short-sighted with their current in-transit legislation," Erickson said, noting that Canada's rules are much less stringent.

"My U.S. colleagues estimate anywhere from $300 million (U.S.) to $350 million of business is on the table which Air Canada is very nicely positioned to attract," he said, noting that Air Canada ``has responded to that fairly aggressively."

Coupled with this extra business for Air Canada is the opportunity for in-transit passengers to stop and stay in Vancouver or Toronto for a few days, adding additional value to the economy.

"That number could well approach $1 billion of additional growth in the Canadian economy from the international passenger market," Erickson said.

Duncan Dee, senior vice-president of corporate affairs at Air Canada, alluded to the new visa-induced business in November, when the airline began direct flights to Lima, Peru.

"Demand for both leisure and business travel is bolstered by the convenience of Air Canada's service for travellers impacted by U.S. government visa requirements when transiting via the United States," Dee said.

Since December 2003 Air Canada has added new destinations to Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica, Cuba, Venezuela and Colombia, in addition to Peru. It has also added more capacity to Asian destinations.

(MORE)

5//The Independent, UK 06 February 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas...

FRENCH FRIES MAY BE BACK ON DC’s MENU
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington

Zut alors! What can this be? Is America finally ready to make up with those cheese-eating surrender monkeys? On one level, at least, that appears to be the case. In a festival starting next week called "Paris on the Potomac," the US capital is celebrating the French influence of its origins. The entente may not be entirely cordiale, but at least it is a start.

"Obviously this is a city of diplomacy," Rebecca Pawlowski, a spokeswoman for the Washington DC Convention and Tourism Corporation, said diplomatically. "The French have always had an important relationship with this country and in the development and layout of this city. We don't have any ill will."

How quickly feelings can change. Just 18 months ago, in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq, which France had strongly opposed, feelings between the US and France were at their lowest level for probably a generation. Not since President Charles de Gaulle withdrew France from Nato's command structure and ordered US troops off French soil in 1966 had there been such animosity.

The French accused the US of warmongering and arrogance; the US accused the French of cowardice and treachery. In one ludicrous episode, a diner in Beaufort, North Carolina, renamed its french fries "freedom fries." The renaming then caught on in restaurants, cafes and bars all over the country. Even the three cafeterias on Capitol Hill followed suit.

(SNIP)

In the summer of 2003, the French embassy felt so under attack that ambassador Jean-David Levitte wrote an open letter complaining that a misinformation campaign had been started by elements within the Bush administration. Now the embassy is sponsoring French jazz and cabaret performances at venues throughout the city. It is also backing a French film festival.

(SNIP)

A spokeswoman for the French embassy said: "As far as French and American relations are concerned, we are all moving forward. We clearly disagreed over whether it was necessary to invade Iraq. It is important to move in that direction."