March 28, 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 MARCH 28, 2005

1//The Telegraph, UK--ELECTION TACTICS AT A NEW LOW, SAY TORIES (Liam Fox, the co-chairman of the Tory party, accused Tony Blair yesterday of undermining democracy by putting lies and dirty tricks at the centre of his election campaign. … Dr Fox told The Telegraph: "It is clear that Labour are willing to tell straightforward lies if they think it will help keep them in office. They are damaging the whole political culture of this country. They are corrupting and corruptible. We will continue to focus on the issues that matter while Labour want to talk about anything but their record.")

2//The Times of India, India—‘AMERICA LOST INDIA ON MARCH 25’ (The Bush administration's decision to sell F-16 jets to Pakistan amounts to "rejecting India at the altar" of a new relationship and was "strategically a bad move," former Senator Larry Pressler has said. "Yesterday (March 25 when President George W Bush called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to convey the F-16 decision) was a sad day, the day we lost India," Pressler said in an interview. "I am bewildered by this decision. It is strategically such a bad move," he said. He was the Republican author of the Pressler Amendment that banned military assistance to Pakistan because of its nuclear programme. Drawing on an Indian marriage metaphor, he said: "India and the US were in the sixth round (out of the ritual seven rounds) of their relationship and this decision would force India to think otherwise. … "Pakistan has been rewarded enough. And in any case what have F-16s got to do with fighting terror? "I am not saying this because I want a good press in India but I think we are dancing with the devil," he said. Pressler said it was "outrageous" that neither the US media nor the Indian government and nor, for that matter, the Indian American community had raised a strong protest against the decision. Pressler said he was among the first US lawmakers in 1980 to raise the issue of Pakistan's role as a nuclear proliferator and all that had come to be true as is now being discovered in the unravelling nuclear black market created by AQ Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb.)

3//Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK--NORTHERN ECONOMIC UPTURN A MIXED BLESSING (Aziz, owner of the International Company for Public Projects, is one of about 70 firms in Iraqi Kurdistan that have gone out of business in recent months - ironically, as a result of the relatively stable security situation and a rise in living standards. Companies have been struggling to keep up with demands for increased wages, the rising cost of raw materials and competition from the influx of foreign firms who deem the region safe enough to invest in. “If the government doesn’t help us out, we won’t have the strength [to keep our firms going],” said Aziz, whose business recently lost 230,000 US dollars. The seriousness of the situation prompted the Kurdistan Contractors Union to call on the Kurdish authorities to suspend certain projects because of the rising costs. … The increasing wage demands have been caused by insufficient numbers of workers and now there are moves to encourage Arabs to make up the shortfall. To date, the latter haven’t found it easy to find employment here because of fears that they might bring the violence of central Iraq in their wake. Indeed, at the end of last year they were asked to leave the region because of security concerns.)

4//Deutsche-Welle/dw-World.de, Germany--FRENCH CORRUPTION ERODES TRUST IN POLITICS (The latest corruption trial of the French president's cronies leaves the public shaking their heads, yet again. It is a case of déjà vu for millions of French people: forty-seven politicians and other officials are on trial this week over a vast kickback scheme. For several years in the early 1990s, construction companies are said to have paid 90 million euros ($116 million) in bribes, swelling the coffers of political parties. Their reward: contracts to build and maintain secondary schools in the Paris area. And yet again, the trials involve President Chirac when he served as mayor of Paris and his allies, politicians from the entire spectrum. Mr Chirac invoked presidential immunity to escape investigation over other affairs, but his allies didn't have that option.)

5//The Independent, UK--UK BANKS BOW TO MUSLIM POUND (Faith, it is said, can move mountains, and the UK's high-street banks are feeling its power. Britain's burgeoning Muslim population is now nearly two million strong but has largely been sidelined by mainstream banks as lenders struggle to create financial products that conform to Islamic Sharia law. This forbids followers from paying or receiving interest, for the earning of interest on money for no effort is against the principles of Islamic banking. This impasse is about to be broken, however. As a wealthy Muslim middle-class grows in size, with plenty of money to save and invest, banks are slowly waking up to the possibilities of Islamic finance and preparing to offer new products that fit with its beliefs.)

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1//The Telegraph, UK (Filed: 28/03/2005)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...

ELECTION TACTICS AT A NEW LOW, SAY TORIES
By Andrew Sparrow, Political Correspondent

Liam Fox, the co-chairman of the Tory party, accused Tony Blair yesterday of undermining democracy by putting lies and dirty tricks at the centre of his election campaign.

He hit out after Labour followed up its attack on Howard Flight with the launch of an election poster accusing the Tories of wanting to charge patients for health service operations.

The Tories say the NHS poster, and a similar one about their public spending plans unveiled just over a week ago, grotesquely misrepresent their policies.

They also believe they have discovered the identity of the Labour "mole" who recorded Mr Flight suggesting at a meeting of Thatcherite activists that Michael Howard's spending cuts would be much tougher than has been publicly acknowledged.

Dr Fox told The Telegraph: "It is clear that Labour are willing to tell straightforward lies if they think it will help keep them in office.

"They are damaging the whole political culture of this country. They are corrupting and corruptible. We will continue to focus on the issues that matter while Labour want to talk about anything but their record."

Allegations of dirty campaigning are common at election time but some Tories believe that the events of the past few days have shown Labour acting with an unprecedented degree of unscrupulousness and malice.

(SNIP)

The Tories disclosed that they had had their campaign headquarters swept for bugs because they are worried about their opponents planting a listening device.

(SNIP)

Labour was accused of dirty tricks when it circulated an idea for a poster showing Mr Howard, who is Jewish, in a pose reminiscent of one of the film depictions of Fagin, the villain in Oliver Twist. Labour withdrew the image, while insisting that there was no intention of anti-Semitism.

(MORE)

2//The Times of India, India IANS [ Sunday, March 27, 2005 11:46:40 AM ]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1063092.cms

‘AMERICA LOST INDIA ON MARCH 25’

NEW YORK: The Bush administration's decision to sell F-16 jets to Pakistan amounts to "rejecting India at the altar" of a new relationship and was "strategically a bad move," former Senator Larry Pressler has said.

"Yesterday (March 25 when President George W Bush called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to convey the F-16 decision) was a sad day, the day we lost India," Pressler said in an interview.

"I am bewildered by this decision. It is strategically such a bad move," he said.

He was the Republican author of the Pressler Amendment that banned military assistance to Pakistan because of its nuclear programme.

Drawing on an Indian marriage metaphor, he said: "India and the US were in the sixth round (out of the ritual seven rounds) of their relationship and this decision would force India to think otherwise.

"By selling the F-16s to Pakistan the US is affirming that Pakistan is a military equal of India.

"India will have two equals in military terms, Pakistan on one side and China on the other," Pressler said.

"I don't think India can accept that."

Asked what the Bush administration's motivation could be other than the popularly argued case that it was to reward Pakistan for supporting its war on terror, Pressler said: "The concept of rewarding a country for what any country should do is wrong.

"Pakistan has been rewarded enough. And in any case what have F-16s got to do with fighting terror?

"I am not saying this because I want a good press in India but I think we are dancing with the devil," he said.

Pressler said it was "outrageous" that neither the US media nor the Indian government and nor, for that matter, the Indian American community had raised a strong protest against the decision.

Pressler said he was among the first US lawmakers in 1980 to raise the issue of Pakistan's role as a nuclear proliferator and all that had come to be true as is now being discovered in the unravelling nuclear black market created by AQ Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb.

The former senator has long been a proponent of the US taking a "robust pro-India stance" because it is a functioning democracy with the rule of law, a free press and healthy parliamentary system.

Pakistan, on the other hand, has struck him as a "corrupt, absolute dictatorship."

Pressler said he recognised the important role played by Pakistan in the US war on terror and was appreciative of it but selling F-16s to the country was outrageous.

Pressler said more than many other countries, the foreign policy of the US was dominated by "Pentagon's military-industrial complex."

"It is easy to deal with Pakistan for these Pentagon types because they just have to deal with one person.

"It is all very neat. In India on the other hand you have the prime minister, Parliament, a free press and aware people," he said.

"But in the long-term it is always better to deal with a democracy."

(MORE)

3//Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK (ICR No. 118, 25-Mar-05)
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/irq/irq_118_2_eng.txt

NORTHERN ECONOMIC UPTURN A MIXED BLESSING
Kurdistan experiences rise in living standards, but companies are going bust.

By Talar Nadir in Sulaimaniyah

Aziz, owner of the International Company for Public Projects, is one of about 70 firms in Iraqi Kurdistan that have gone out of business in recent months - ironically, as a result of the relatively stable security situation and a rise in living standards.

Companies have been struggling to keep up with demands for increased wages, the rising cost of raw materials and competition from the influx of foreign firms who deem the region safe enough to invest in.

“If the government doesn’t help us out, we won’t have the strength [to keep our firms going],” said Aziz, whose business recently lost 230,000 US dollars.

The seriousness of the situation prompted the Kurdistan Contractors Union to call on the Kurdish authorities to suspend certain projects because of the rising costs.

Twana Hama Salih, of the Sagram General Contracting and Transportation Company, said wages and the price of materials have increased threefold since the summer of 2003, causing difficulties project implementation.

The union also requested that local companies should be exempted from fines imposed because of delays in work.

"Kurdish contractors have reached the stage of bankruptcy," said Nawroz Jamal Khafaf, head of the union. “The authorities issued projects one after the other without taking into consideration the situation."

The state-controlled Reconstruction Projects Institution has issued 750 tenders for construction and road building projects in the eastern part of Iraqi Kurdistan, which is governed by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Foreign companies have won more than 30 per cent of these contracts.

(SNIP)

Ali Izaddin Muhammed, owner of the Balambo Company, said it would be better if the projects were implemented jointly between local and foreign companies, as that would benefit the former in terms of skills and experience.

“We are to able to do most of the projects that were given to the foreign companies except for tunnel work, which exceeds our capacity," said Muhammed.

Even overseas firms have faced difficulties because of the cost of materials and labour.
The increasing wage demands have been caused by insufficient numbers of workers and now there are moves to encourage Arabs to make up the shortfall.

To date, the latter haven’t found it easy to find employment here because of fears that they might bring the violence of central Iraq in their wake. Indeed, at the end of last year they were asked to leave the region because of security concerns.

(MORE)

4//Deutsche-Welle/dw-World.de, Germany 26.03.2005
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1529624,00.html

FRENCH CORRUPTION ERODES TRUST IN POLITICS

The latest corruption trial of the French president's cronies leaves the public shaking their heads, yet again.

It is a case of déjà vu for millions of French people: forty-seven politicians and other officials are on trial this week over a vast kickback scheme. For several years in the early 1990s, construction companies are said to have paid 90 million euros ($116 million) in bribes, swelling the coffers of political parties. Their reward: contracts to build and maintain secondary schools in the Paris area.

And yet again, the trials involve President Chirac when he served as mayor of Paris and his allies, politicians from the entire spectrum. Mr Chirac invoked presidential immunity to escape investigation over other affairs, but his allies didn't have that option.

"It was very organized," said Nicolas Lecaussin of the IFRAP in Paris – a private think tank that aims to hold France’s public administration to account.

Prosecutions on the rise

Prosecutions for corruption have been on the rise in France since the 1980s, particularly involving the prominent. It’s thought to be one reason why French people hold their politicians in such low esteem.

"What I think will come out of this, is the coming out into the open of a whole system of behaviour that should no longer have a place in a democracy," said attorney Jean-Yves Dupeux, who is helping the prosecution.

Lecaussin says that his organization is unique in Europe and the US and that this explains much.

"Nobody knows where the money goes, and even the politicians recognize this," he said. "You can ask a deputy at the National Assembly and he will say that he votes for the budget but doesn't know where the money goes. It is incredible and it is why there is corruption in France."

(MORE)

5//The Independent, UK Published : 27 March 2005
http://money.independent.co.uk/personal_finance/invest...

UK BANKS BOW TO MUSLIM POUND
At last, savings accounts, loans and mortgages are being offered that comply with Islamic law. Esther Shaw reports

Faith, it is said, can move mountains, and the UK's high-street banks are feeling its power.
Britain's burgeoning Muslim population is now nearly two million strong but has largely been sidelined by mainstream banks as lenders struggle to create financial products that conform to Islamic Sharia law. This forbids followers from paying or receiving interest, for the earning of interest on money for no effort is against the principles of Islamic banking.

This impasse is about to be broken, however. As a wealthy Muslim middle-class grows in size, with plenty of money to save and invest, banks are slowly waking up to the possibilities of Islamic finance and preparing to offer new products that fit with its beliefs.

Over the past four weeks, Lloyds TSB has launched both a current account and mortgage that comply with Sharia law.

The account pays no interest and charges no interest because there is no overdraft on offer. With the mortgage - a five-month pilot project in five branches in London, Birmingham and Luton - the bank buys the home for the customer, who in turn pays for it with a fixed monthly sum plus rent.

Other deals include a Bristol & West mortgage in a tie-up with the Arab Banking Corporation, launched last May, and a pension fund available from HSBC's Amanah finance division. This tracks an index of the top 100 companies engaged in Sharia-compliant activities - avoiding shares in areas such as conventional finance (including Western banks), tobacco, pornography and gambling.

And the Islamic Bank of Britain opened its first branch in London last year and now offers a current and savings account as well as a personal loan that makes an arrangement charge instead of piling up interest.

The Chancellor, Gordon Brown, has been busy too. His recent Budget brought tax on Islamic financial products into line with their conventional Western counterparts by scaling down the number of different tax charges.

(SNIP)

Muslims have not just sat on their money up until now, of course. Many have compromised, using Western products to buy property and to save money. Nearly three-quarters of Muslim-owned homes in the UK two years ago were financed by a conventional mortgage.

Trying to operate Islamic banking in the UK is a difficult task for providers, which have to comply with both Sharia law and the UK's regulatory requirements for the financial services industry.

One of the problems has been the complexity and extra cost of specialist products that require UK banks to take steps to avoid earning interest.

(MORE)