May 2, 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.

* * *

WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR MAY 2, 2005

1//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--NEW IRAQ COULD BECOME A NEST OF CORRUPTION (Over lunch of chicken and kebabs on a sultry Baghdad day, the Iraqi businessman Mohammed Jawad talks camels and corruption. "Iraq is like a sick camel," he says. "If it is healthy, no one can kill it. But when it is sick on the ground, the camel dies by a thousand knives." The knives are wielded by corrupt ministers and their cronies - tribal and family - who force local and foreign contractors to inflate tender bids for contracts worth billions of dollars so that they can gouge millions for themselves. … Like so many other Iraqis, businessmen invariably make then-and-now comparisons with the days of Saddam Hussein. The deposed leader ran his own massive corruption of the United Nations' oil-for-food program and he and his cronies regularly demanded a cut of any new business or contract. But Mr Jawad, a Shiite with no brief for his former leader, says: "I'd say that about 10 per cent of business was corrupt under Saddam." That's probably an underestimation, but Mr Jawad is making a point: "Now it's about 95 per cent - we used to have one Saddam, now we have 25 of them.")

2//Islam Online, Qatar--GROWING FRUSTRATION BEHIND CAIRO BLASTS: EXPERTS (Growing frustration, piecemeal reforms and the current political turmoil in the region are the main culprit behind the series of blasts that rocked Egypt recently, disturbing eight years of tranquility, Egyptian experts have said. “The suicidal nature of the two Cairo blasts yesterday is unprecedented and reflect the multiplying sense of desperation and frustration among many Arab youths,” Diaa Rashwan, an expert in Islamist groups, told IslamOnline.net Sunday, May 1. “It is almost the first time to hear about Egyptian suicide bombers, whether acting alone or along with umbrella organizations.” … Hassan agreed that the crackdown raids by Egyptian police will be part of the problem not the solution. “This (attacks) is the work of embryonic groups influenced by the Jihad group and a grim reminder of dozens of extremist groups that surfaced in 1980s. “They all lack a specific agenda but are focused on one goal, which is to carry out such bombings,” he told IOL. Rashwan, meanwhile, ruled out the possible involvement of the Islamic Jihad or Al-Jama Al-Islamiya, which both eschewed violence after a string of deadly attacks on tourists. “Such incidents are very much connected with the current chaos in the region, and growing hatred for foreigners in particular and the Americans in general following the US-led invasion of Iraq,” he said.)

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--JUNE SEEN AS NORTH KOREAN TRIGGER POINT (The United States and North Korea appear to be on a collision course and June could well be the month of impact. North Korea says it plans to remove and reprocess plutonium rods to produce weapons-grade material in three months unless the US shows flexibility. The US says it is fed up and wants nuclear disarmament of the North. North Korea's renewed nuclear threats and US comments that it would take the nuclear dispute to the United Nations Security Council will energize regional efforts for a last-ditch effort to save the moribund six-way talks. Chinese and South Korean diplomatic entreaties, however, are increasingly unlikely to achieve a fourth round of the multilateral negotiations, placing the participating nations on a path to confrontation. Pyongyang's shutdown of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor and threats to augment its nuclear arsenal will affirm regional perceptions that the US policy has failed.)

4//The Moscow Times, Russia--REPORT: KREMLIN FOLLOWING CHINA’S LEAD (The Kremlin is moving toward a Chinese-style model of "directed capitalism," where the state controls key sectors while letting the market run loose in the rest of the economy, HSBC said in a report presented Thursday. Yet the vastly different structures of the two economies, as well as Russia's failure to enforce its own laws, means that Moscow might be making a mistake by mimicking Beijing, the bank said. … Poole's thesis met mixed reviews. Yevgeny Nadorshin, an economist at Trust investment bank, said the scale of the control exercised by Beijing was incomparable to what Moscow was trying to finagle for itself. "The government in China occupies all the most important industries, keeps its eye on all the key corporations," Nadorshin said. The Kremlin, on the other hand, "would like to control only the best industries in terms of cash flows, and the only two sectors generating important cash flows are oil and gas." Even in those sectors, Moscow has a long way to go to reach the level of control in China. "So far the economic policy of the [Russian] government has been far more liberal" than in China, said Vladimir Mau, head of the state Academy of the National Economy.)

5//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy--INTERNATIONAL LABOUR DAY – ITALY: FORGET UNIONS, TRY THIS SAINT (… About half of all jobs offered in 2002 and 2003 were 'precarious,' the independent Italian social research agency Eurispes reports. This has huge social consequences, it says. "No mortgage, no family, no possibility to 'grow up.'" This "precarity" (precariousness), as the activists call it, is a European trend. On May Day 'precarious' workers will march in several cities all over Europe, including Helsinki, Barcelona, Hamburg, Liege, Ljubjana, Sevilla, Milan, Copenhagen, Maribor, Paris, Amsterdam, L'Aquila, Marseille, Wien, London, Stockholm, Napoli and Palermo. The 'Euro May Day parades' originated in Italy four years back, and have got bigger ever since. Temporary workers, part-timers, those doing shifts at McDonald's and other such stores will join the march to demand new social rights. … The protests take creative forms. In Italy, the precarious appointed a saint to look after them -- San Precario (St. Precarious). "San Precario, give us today our paid maternal leave, protect all employees of commercial chains, and the angels of the call centres," they pray.)

* * *

1//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia May 2, 2005
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/New-Iraq-could...

NEW IRAQ COULD BECOME A NEST OF CORRUPTION
By Paul McGeough in Baghdad

Over lunch of chicken and kebabs on a sultry Baghdad day, the Iraqi businessman Mohammed Jawad talks camels and corruption.

"Iraq is like a sick camel," he says. "If it is healthy, no one can kill it. But when it is sick on the ground, the camel dies by a thousand knives."

The knives are wielded by corrupt ministers and their cronies - tribal and family - who force local and foreign contractors to inflate tender bids for contracts worth billions of dollars so that they can gouge millions for themselves.

In a healthy, regulated economy, Mr Jawad might be dismissed as a whinger who cannot cut it in a competitive environment. But as the recipient of foreign aid worth close to $US100 billion ($128 billion), the corruption watchdog Transparency International is warning that the new Iraq could become "the biggest corruption scandal in history."

Mr Jawad taps into the economy at various levels. He is an engineer and builder, he supplies government departments and he represents foreign companies, like international airlines.

"After I went to the Transport Ministry with a proposal for flights to Iraq from Scandinavia, I had a call from the minister's cousin to say that there would be no deal unless I paid a bribe of $US500,000," he says.

He cited the case of the electricity ministry in which he said a young fellow tribesman been appointed as the ministerial bagman.

"If you don't pay 5 or 6 per cent of the contract price on the side, you just get told that the ministry wants to work with a different company," Mr Jawad said.

Fellow contractors had told him about the manipulation of a recent tender: "The work was worth about $US15 million. But the minister's staff wanted a rake-off of about $US40 million - so they advised the bidder to inflate the price to $US70 million, so that they could have their cut and the bidder would make a good profit too."

Like so many other Iraqis, businessmen invariably make then-and-now comparisons with the days of Saddam Hussein. The deposed leader ran his own massive corruption of the United Nations' oil-for-food program and he and his cronies regularly demanded a cut of any new business or contract.

But Mr Jawad, a Shiite with no brief for his former leader, says: "I'd say that about 10 per cent of business was corrupt under Saddam."

That's probably an underestimation, but Mr Jawad is making a point: "Now it's about 95 per cent - we used to have one Saddam, now we have 25 of them."

The corruption is not just local. A legal battle in the US over the performance of Custer Battles, a small American firm that previously had never won a Washington tender, has highlighted how contractors can avoid supervision and rort their books in post-war chaos.

(MORE)

2//Islam Online, Qatar May 1, 2005
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/...

GROWING FRUSTRATION BEHIND CAIRO BLASTS: EXPERTS
By Ibrahim Ghali, Ahmed Fathi, IOL Staff

CAIRO, May 1, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Growing frustration, piecemeal reforms and the current political turmoil in the region are the main culprit behind the series of blasts that rocked Egypt recently, disturbing eight years of tranquility, Egyptian experts have said.

“The suicidal nature of the two Cairo blasts yesterday is unprecedented and reflect the multiplying sense of desperation and frustration among many Arab youths,” Diaa Rashwan, an expert in Islamist groups, told IslamOnline.net Sunday, May 1.

“It is almost the first time to hear about Egyptian suicide bombers, whether acting alone or along with umbrella organizations.”

A suicide bomber struck Saturday, April 30, at foreign tourists near Egypt's most famous museum while his sister and his fiancée opened fire at a tourist bus in attacks that left all three dead and injured seven people including four foreigners.

Rashwan said reports that the bomber was aged 47 should really sound the alarm.

“It indicates an age shift from youths to frustrated older generations,” he underlined.

Ammar Hassan, another expert, also blamed increasing dissatisfactions with the social, political and economic situation in the country.

“Millions of Egyptians are feeling socially alienated and complain of social and political injustice which eventually lead to frustration,” he added.

The expert cited, as a case in point, the widely seen pre-election interview by President Hosni Mubarak to the Egyptian television last week which did not live up to the expectations of the Egyptians.

“The Egyptian people pinned high hopes on the president’s surprises in his seven-hour interview, which proved later a mirage,” he told IOL.

More to Come
Rashwan, meanwhile, expected more violence to follow.

“The Cairo blasts and the April 7 suicide bombing in Islamic Cairo usher in the return of terrorist operations,” he opined.

(SNIP)

Egypt has enjoyed tranquility for the past years after a series of a more deadly attacks, mainly targeting tourists, across the country in the 1990s.

Security Mindset
The two Egyptian experts agreed to a security handling of the issue would not bear fruit.

“They can’t predict or thwart such attacks,” Rashwan said, adding that the security mindset that obsess the Egyptian authorities will not do this time.

“The security agencies in Egypt now face a mammoth task as they are dealing with an unprecedented phenomenon.”

Hassan agreed that the crackdown raids by Egyptian police will be part of the problem not the solution.

“This (attacks) is the work of embryonic groups influenced by the Jihad group and a grim reminder of dozens of extremist groups that surfaced in 1980s.

“They all lack a specific agenda but are focused on one goal, which is to carry out such bombings,” he told IOL.

Rashwan, meanwhile, ruled out the possible involvement of the Islamic Jihad or Al-Jama Al-Islamiya, which both eschewed violence after a string of deadly attacks on tourists.

“Such incidents are very much connected with the current chaos in the region, and growing hatred for foreigners in particular and the Americans in general following the US-led invasion of Iraq,” he said.

Scaling Back Reforms
The two experts also feared that the attacks would give a pretext to Egyptian authorities to drag their feet on the reform process.

“Demands for the annulment of the emergency law, reforms and the right to demonstrate will now be put on the back burner,” Hassan said.

Street demonstrations are banned in Egypt under the emergency laws that have been in place since president Anwar al-Sadat's assassination in 1981.

However, protests against the extension of Mubarak’s rule hit several Egyptian cities and universities over the past few months.

The protests, spearheaded by the Kefaya (enough) Movement, have also broken down a fear of criticizing Mubarak, ruling Egypt uncontestedly since 1981.

Rashwan added that such attacks would throw a spanner in the reform wheel.

Hassan said the Egyptian government should enter into dialogue with moderate Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood if it really wants to rein in extremists.

“I think the regime has no option but to carry on with the much-needed political reforms, which picked up steam recently,” he added.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which has been banned since 1954, has 16 deputies in Egypt’s 454-member parliament, making it the main opposition force in Egypt.

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Apr 30, 2005
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/GD30Dg01.html

JUNE SEEN AS NORTH KOREAN TRIGGER POINT
By Bruce Klingner
(Bruce Klingner is the Korea analyst for Eurasia Group, an independent research and consulting firm that provides global political risk analysis.)

The United States and North Korea appear to be on a collision course and June could well be the month of impact. North Korea says it plans to remove and reprocess plutonium rods to produce weapons-grade material in three months unless the US shows flexibility. The US says it is fed up and wants nuclear disarmament of the North.

North Korea's renewed nuclear threats and US comments that it would take the nuclear dispute to the United Nations Security Council will energize regional efforts for a last-ditch effort to save the moribund six-way talks. Chinese and South Korean diplomatic entreaties, however, are increasingly unlikely to achieve a fourth round of the multilateral negotiations, placing the participating nations on a path to confrontation.

Pyongyang's shutdown of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor and threats to augment its nuclear arsenal will affirm regional perceptions that the US policy has failed. China and South Korea will conclude that the lack of response by the United States to the North's nuclear-weapons pronouncement in February likely led Pyongyang to calculate that it must take the additional escalatory step of shutting down the reactor in an attempt to force Washington back to the negotiating table. In this sense, the military benefits that North Korea gains from additional reprocessed plutonium is less strategically significant than the inflammatory effect it has on its neighbors to renew calls for increased US flexibility to preclude a dangerous downward spiral.

Beijing and Seoul will be privately dismissive of Washington's nebulous comments of potential North Korean nuclear-test preparations. They are skeptical of Washington's intelligence assertions, and US credibility was undermined further by media reports that the United States had deliberately misled Asian nations about North Korean export of uranium hexafluoride to Libya. The administration of US President George W Bush was accused of selectively using intelligence to highlight North Korea's involvement while downplaying the role of Pakistan and arms merchant Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Low potential for nuclear test
The likelihood of a North Korean nuclear test remains low, though slightly higher than six months ago. North Korea's decisions to announce its possession of nuclear weapons formally and cease operations at Yongbyon reflect a willingness to resume brinksmanship tactics and risk confrontation with the US. Although Kim Jong-il has carefully calibrated his escalatory policy to avoid reprisals, growing frustration with continued US inaction could lead to him to take increasingly provocative steps, such as military actions along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) or, less likely, a nuclear test. North Korean officials have stated they were willing to give a "physical" demonstration of its nuclear capabilities.

That said, Kim must realize the dangerous and irreversible consequences of conducting a test. Doing so would remove the last shred of strategic ambiguity that has allowed Beijing and Seoul to avoid acknowledging North Korea as a nuclear state. A test would enable the US to pressure the six-way talks participants into pursuing stronger measures, much as the international community responded to the India-Pakistan tests of 1998. South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon displayed uncharacteristic resolve by characterizing a Northern test as a "reckless step" that would lead the South to take "other, stronger diplomatic steps [and] move on to a path where [North Korea's] future is not guaranteed".

US unmoved by Pyongyang's threats
The Bush administration perceives North Korea's renewed nuclear blackmail as vindicating its view that Pyongyang has no intention to negotiate away its nuclear-weapons programs. Washington is therefore unlikely to alter its position that Pyongyang must first implement incremental steps to resume compliance with international nuclear obligations and return to multilateral negotiations prior to receiving diplomatic and economic incentives. Washington raised the bar for North Korean acceptable behavior with assistant secretary of state Christopher Hill's comment that "it is not enough to get [North Korea] going, we need to achieve progress" in the talks.

Washington will conclude it has little incentive to acquiesce to Pyongyang's growing demands and, as a result, is increasingly likely to eschew the six-way talks process and shift toward ratcheting up pressure on North Korea, including UN Security Council resolutions. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other officials continue to espouse US preference for negotiations, but are increasingly impatient with the lack of results.

The Bush administration has been criticized for "delegating" the nuclear crisis to China and has repeatedly pressed Beijing to adopt a firmer stance toward North Korea. As such, Washington's comments over the potential for "other measures" to resolve the nuclear impasse may be directed as much at Beijing as at Pyongyang.

(SNIP)

Increased regional skittishness
Secretary Rice implied that Washington is not reliant on UN resolutions to increase pressure on Pyongyang and could invoke the existing Proliferation Security Initiative to seize suspected North Korean shipments of WMD (weapons of mass destruction) components. Asian governments and international investors will be increasingly wary of developments that could increase tension in the region and degrade stability and economic confidence. The precariousness of the situation was reflected in Wall Street stock prices falling on April 22 on rumors of a nuclear test.

4//The Moscow Times, Russia Friday, April 29, 2005. Issue 3157. Page 5.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/04/29/041.html

REPORT: KREMLIN FOLLOWING CHINA’S LEAD
By Alex Fak, Staff Writer

The Kremlin is moving toward a Chinese-style model of "directed capitalism," where the state controls key sectors while letting the market run loose in the rest of the economy, HSBC said in a report presented Thursday.

Yet the vastly different structures of the two economies, as well as Russia's failure to enforce its own laws, means that Moscow might be making a mistake by mimicking Beijing, the bank said.

Recent attempts by the Kremlin to consolidate control over strategic sectors and to direct investor decisions are reminiscent of Beijing's policy of occupying the commanding heights of the Chinese economy, said Philip Poole, head of emerging markets research at HSBC in London and the author of the report. "The market [in China] is tasked to allocate resources lower down the food chain," he said at a presentation.

Recent evidence for HSBC's thesis includes the merger of Gazprom and Rosneft; Rosneft's acquisition of Yukos' key production unit; and the government's veto of Siemens' bid for Siloviye Mashiny, or Power Machines.

(SNIP)

In his state of the nation address Monday, President Vladimir Putin mentioned infrastructure, defense suppliers, and "strategic" natural resources as areas requiring government control.

But Poole warned that in China, growth relied on areas not controlled by the state -- especially light industry, which is dependent to a large extent on exports and foreign direct investment.

In Russia, however, the Kremlin is seeking to control profitable sectors, such as oil, which have accounted for most of FDI and have been doing well without state interference, said Poole.

Moreover, Beijing has been able to convince foreign investors that its commitments are credible because it keeps its promises and enforces property rights better than Russia, Poole said.

In other words, the Chinese government's control over some sectors tends to be less unpredictable and more efficient than it has been in Russia, he said.

Poole's thesis met mixed reviews.

Yevgeny Nadorshin, an economist at Trust investment bank, said the scale of the control exercised by Beijing was incomparable to what Moscow was trying to finagle for itself. "The government in China occupies all the most important industries, keeps its eye on all the key corporations," Nadorshin said. The Kremlin, on the other hand, "would like to control only the best industries in terms of cash flows, and the only two sectors generating important cash flows are oil and gas."

Even in those sectors, Moscow has a long way to go to reach the level of control in China. "So far the economic policy of the [Russian] government has been far more liberal" than in China, said Vladimir Mau, head of the state Academy of the National Economy.

(MORE)

5//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy April 30, 2005
http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=28521

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR DAY – ITALY: FORGET UNIONS, TRY THIS SAINT

Stefania Milan

MILAN, Apr 30 (IPS) - Marta, 26, could never find a proper job since she graduated in visual arts. She earns some money from video editing, working eight hours a day, with no paid holidays.

"We lost the rights workers have been fighting for over the last two centuries," she told IPS. "Traditional unions cannot do a lot for us. We do not even have the right to strike."

Marta is one of about three million 'precarious' workers in Italy. These, Marta says are "normally young people, with temporary contracts, no paid holidays, high turnover, no social security."

About half of all jobs offered in 2002 and 2003 were 'precarious,' the independent Italian social research agency Eurispes reports. This has huge social consequences, it says. "No mortgage, no family, no possibility to 'grow up.'"

This "precarity" (precariousness), as the activists call it, is a European trend. On May Day 'precarious' workers will march in several cities all over Europe, including Helsinki, Barcelona, Hamburg, Liege, Ljubjana, Sevilla, Milan, Copenhagen, Maribor, Paris, Amsterdam, L'Aquila, Marseille, Wien, London, Stockholm, Napoli and Palermo.

The 'Euro May Day parades' originated in Italy four years back, and have got bigger ever since. Temporary workers, part-timers, those doing shifts at McDonald's and other such stores will join the march to demand new social rights.

"We are calling for a universal social income," Francesca Bria, one of the organisers of the Milan march told IPS. "This mobilisation gives voice to the movements of the precarious workers searching for a new representation in the labour market but also in society, because their condition is first of all a social problem."

(SNIP)

The protests take creative forms. In Italy, the precarious appointed a saint to look after them -- San Precario (St. Precarious). "San Precario, give us today our paid maternal leave, protect all employees of commercial chains, and the angels of the call centres," they pray.

San Precario 'appeared' first in 2004 after an invocation by flex-workers. He rapidly began to inspire all kinds of protest actions like demands for free shopping in Rome, free transport to participate in May Day events, and distribution of pirate CDs.

A figure of the saint, dressed sometimes as a McDonald's employee, sometimes as a call centre worker, is carried around by devotees at their protests and at prayers for "income for all."

(SNIP)

In Spain, San Precario will become Nuestra Señora de la Precariedad (Our Lady of Precariousness) at May Day protests in Barcelona and Sevilla.

Inspired by Christian iconography, the figure of Nuestra Señora has the olive skin of migrant people: in fact she was 'born' in Sevilla, close to the Gibraltar Straits, where many North African migrants arrive in search of a better life, but end up exploited under illegal contracts.

In London, probably the most expensive city in Europe, precarious workers will be offered a coupon to travel free on public transport on May Day. According to national labour statistics, 31.9 percent of Britain's workforce survives on flexible and temporary contracts.

"The work imposed by capitalism has become more casualised, forcing us to adapt to the point where it's hard to tell when, where or even if we are working. This leaves us in a situation where our lives are always on hold, on call and at the mercy of the market," the London group organising the May Day protest said.

"In the age of precarity we are asking for 'flexicurity' -- flexibility but with a minimum of social security," Marta said.