March 20, 2006

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 20, 2006

1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--AMERICA’S OPTIONS FOR IRAN (As the nuclear standoff between the US and Iran escalates, American leaders would do well to look at the range of options that exist for them. The options consist of sanctions, military strikes, and a change in policy. Sanctions and military strikes would be counterproductive, but US support for an Iranian civilian nuclear capability could produce positive results for both the United States and Iran. … Iran has far more power to cause harm and pain to the US and its allies than they can inflict on it. Iran has the ability to destabilize Afghanistan and Iraq decisively before it even nudges the valve on its huge energy supplies. US officials have acknowledged a heavy degree of Iranian infiltration in Iraq and independent analysts tend to think it is even greater than that. The Iranian presence in Iraq is not nefarious, but it is a major fact on the ground that the US and its allies cannot ignore.)

2//RIA Novosti, Russia--CHINA BACKS RUSSIAN PROPOSAL ON NUCLEAR FUEL CENTERS (China supports a Russian proposal to set up international nuclear fuel centers under the control of the UN's nuclear watchdog, a senior official said Friday. Sun Qin, chairman of the China Atomic Energy Authority [CAEA], speaking in Beijing at a meeting with the head of the Russian Federal Agency for Nuclear Power, Sergei Kiriyenko, said, "Every country has the right to develop nuclear energy." … "We consider the initiative to establish international centers to provide nuclear fuel cycle services to be very significant," Sun Qin said. He also called Russia and China "countries with a major responsibility".)

3//The News International, Pakistan--WATER CRISIS LOOMS IN INDIA AS DRILLING DEPLETES RESOURCES (Each year under the beating summer sun, Indian farmers scan the skies with mounting desperation, waiting for the monsoon clouds to release their deluge and soak the parched land. Even though India is increasingly known for its high-tech prowess, its billion-plus people and economy are still at the mercy of the fickle rains. … The bitter irony is that large swathes of the east and northeast are flooded annually, killings hundreds and displacing millions, but grandiose river linking schemes that would relocate the water to where it is needed the most touted by a succession of Indian leaders have yet to reach the drawing board. The situation has been exacerbated by what seemed like a great idea at the time to meet India’s burgeoning water needs-drilling deep into the earth to get to supplies far below the ground. … In a report late last year, the Bank said that India has no proper water management system, its groundwater is disappearing and river bodies are turning into sewers. "Estimates reveal that by 2020, India’s demand for water will exceed supply," it said.)

4//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy--ACTIVISTS, GLOBAL FORUM DO NOT SEE EYE TO EYE (Mutual distrust and even suspicions of a "conspiracy" separate the organisers of the Fourth World Water Forum, taking place in the Mexican capital, and the activists holding their own simultaneous alternative gathering. "It's true, there is a lack of connection and communication between the two forums," said José Ángel Gurría, secretary-general-elect of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD], who is participating in the Mar. 16-22 World Water Forum. "It's funny that in the alternative meeting, these groups are speaking out against privatisation, when none of the 12,000 to 13,000 delegates here are talking about that," Gurría, a former Mexican foreign minister who will assume the post of secretary-general in June, told IPS. But the activists taking part in the Mar. 17-19 International Forum in Defence of Water do not put much credence in such statements. The World Water Forum is "conspiring" against progressive positions, they allege.)

5//The Manila Times, Philippines--WORK ON IMPEACH COMPLAINT BEGINS (Opposition congressmen are cobbling together the second impeachment complaint against President Arroyo, confident they have a stronger case this time. The month of March will be crucial for the opposition bloc, according to the House assistant deputy minority leader, Allan Peter Cayetano. Cayetano, the Taguig-Pateros representative, said the opposition has reactivated their impeachment team to begin work on the new complaint to ensure it will have a much stronger case against the President. “The House opposition will go full blast with a powerhouse impeachment complaint,” Cayetano said. … “We have information that administration will harass, withhold projects from congressmen supporting impeachment. In fact, the ‘Administration Witness Academy is already conducting a summer class and will target the legitimate opposition, the media and journalists whom Malacañang cannot buy or scare,” Cayetano said.)

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1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Mar 18, 2006

Speaking Freely
AMERICA’S OPTIONS FOR IRAN
By Scott Bohlinger
(Scott Bohlinger is a Washington, DC-based analyst specializing in the Middle East, most specifically Iran. He also currently works at Jane's Intelligence Group.)

As the nuclear standoff between the US and Iran escalates, American leaders would do well to look at the range of options that exist for them. The options consist of sanctions, military strikes, and a change in policy. Sanctions and military strikes would be counterproductive, but US support for an Iranian civilian nuclear capability could produce positive results for both the United States and Iran.

Sanctions have proved ineffective time and again and are not likely to obtain a different outcome in the case of Iran. Faced with shortages and economic privations, the Iranian populace will blame the West and cluster more closely around the current regime.

Sanctions are also unlikely because they would cut off Iranian oil. China would never tolerate this because of its dependency on Iranian oil, and the US economy could not bear the increase in the cost of oil. Iraq also taught us that sanctions could also serve as a fertile breeding ground for corruption and allow the government further leverage in exercising its power. Also, the US cannot leverage Iranian access to America's vast economy because it has already been closed to Iran for 27 years.

Military strikes would be a godsend for the regime in Iran, especially the hardliners that the United States most fears. Targeted strikes on several key installations might indeed disrupt the nuclear program, but again these would generate immense consequences for the US and its allies. Military strikes would create ill-will from ordinary Iranians and extend indefinitely the lifetime of the regime. Such strikes also would not be enough to topple the regime and no government now has the manpower or will for such an occupation.

To the degree that military strikes would be successful and would manage to destabilize the regime, US foreign policy would be faced with a vortex of anarchy stretching from Islamabad to Damascus. The internal chaos in Iran in the early 1980s showed how deep and virulent Iran's ideological divisions can be. All of these divisions could be strengthened or influenced by elements outside of Iran were the regime to collapse. This, coupled with the potential for ethnic unrest from the almost 50% of Iran that is not Persian, could lead the country into a long civil war. Furthermore, even if a stable regime were to emerge, there is no guarantee that it would be a more responsible international citizen.

Iran has far more power to cause harm and pain to the US and its allies than they can inflict on it. Iran has the ability to destabilize Afghanistan and Iraq decisively before it even nudges the valve on its huge energy supplies. US officials have acknowledged a heavy degree of Iranian infiltration in Iraq and independent analysts tend to think it is even greater than that. The Iranian presence in Iraq is not nefarious, but it is a major fact on the ground that the US and its allies cannot ignore.

(MORE)

2//RIA Novosti, Russia 17/03/2006 18:25

CHINA BACKS RUSSIAN PROPOSAL ON NUCLEAR FUEL CENTERS

MOSCOW, March 17 (RIA Novosti) - China supports a Russian proposal to set up international nuclear fuel centers under the control of the UN's nuclear watchdog, a senior official said Friday.
Sun Qin, chairman of the China Atomic Energy Authority (CAEA), speaking in Beijing at a meeting with the head of the Russian Federal Agency for Nuclear Power, Sergei Kiriyenko, said, "Every country has the right to develop nuclear energy."

President Vladimir Putin said in late January that Russia was ready to build an international center "to offer nuclear fuel cycle services, including [uranium] enrichment" under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Russia has offered to enrich Iranian uranium on its soil as a compromise solution to the current standoff over the Islamic Republic's controversial nuclear programs.

Putin said that enrichment centers could also be set up in other "nuclear club" countries, providing access on a non-discriminatory basis to nations seeking nuclear fuel.

"We consider the initiative to establish international centers to provide nuclear fuel cycle services to be very significant," Sun Qin said.

He also called Russia and China "countries with a major responsibility".

"Our countries complement each other in cooperation on the non-proliferation regime, and in the peaceful use of nuclear energy," he said.

(MORE)

3//The News International, Pakistan Monday March 20, 2006-- Safar 19, 1427 A.H.

WATER CRISIS LOOMS IN INDIA AS DRILLING DEPLETES RESOURCES

NEW DELHI: Each year under the beating summer sun, Indian farmers scan the skies with mounting desperation, waiting for the monsoon clouds to release their deluge and soak the parched land.

Even though India is increasingly known for its high-tech prowess, its billion-plus people and economy are still at the mercy of the fickle rains.

Nowhere is the need for water more acute than in rural India where 60 per cent of its population lives and where water shortages mean shrivelled crops and dried-up wells, endangering lives and livestock. "Water in rural areas is linked to livelihood. It’s as simple as that," says Sumita Dasgupta, a water expert from New Delhi’s Centre for Science and Environment.

With 20 per cent of the world’s population, India must meet its water needs with just five per cent of the globe’s available supply that is dwindling each year, says Maggie Black, a British water expert and co-author of "Water, a Matter of Life and Health".

"The strain is felt throughout India’s towns and cities," says Black. But in those parts of rural India prone to drought "if streams and wells dry up, life itself is threatened".

The bitter irony is that large swathes of the east and northeast are flooded annually, killings hundreds and displacing millions, but grandiose river linking schemes that would relocate the water to where it is needed the most touted by a succession of Indian leaders have yet to reach the drawing board.

The situation has been exacerbated by what seemed like a great idea at the time to meet India’s burgeoning water needs-drilling deep into the earth to get to supplies far below the ground.

The programme, begun in the 1960s, was at first a great success and revolutionised access to water in the hard rock areas which make up four-fifths of India’s landmass, bringing supplies to millions of households.

But the success also bred abuse as high-speed drilling technology, spurred by free power to farmers given by vote-hungry politicians, was used for irrigation for crops needed to feed India’s ever-growing population and a focus on water-thirsty cash crops.

"The emphasis on mass irrigation set India on the path of unsustainable water resources management," says Black.

Now some 70 per cent of India’s irrigation water and 80 per cent of its domestic water supplies come from groundwater rather than from surface water, according to the World Bank.

In a report late last year, the Bank said that India has no proper water management system, its groundwater is disappearing and river bodies are turning into sewers.

"Estimates reveal that by 2020, India’s demand for water will exceed supply," it said.

The Centre for Science and Environment said in parts of New Delhi the groundwater level was dropping by 10 metres each year. "The monsoon not only fills rivers and streams but as rainfall seeps into the soil it recharges the underground aquifers," says Black. But "the exploitation of the resource has taken place at a speed which does not allow time for the water table to recoup its losses".

(MORE)

4//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy Mar 17, 2006

ACTIVISTS, GLOBAL FORUM DO NOT SEE EYE TO EYE
Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Mar 17 (IPS) - Mutual distrust and even suspicions of a "conspiracy" separate the organisers of the Fourth World Water Forum, taking place in the Mexican capital, and the activists holding their own simultaneous alternative gathering.

"It's true, there is a lack of connection and communication between the two forums," said José Ángel Gurría, secretary-general-elect of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), who is participating in the Mar. 16-22 World Water Forum.

"It's funny that in the alternative meeting, these groups are speaking out against privatisation, when none of the 12,000 to 13,000 delegates here are talking about that," Gurría, a former Mexican foreign minister who will assume the post of secretary-general in June, told IPS.

But the activists taking part in the Mar. 17-19 International Forum in Defence of Water do not put much credence in such statements. The World Water Forum is "conspiring" against progressive positions, they allege.

On Thursday, some 4,000 people, including the participants in the alternative forum, marched through the streets of the Mexican capital chanting slogans like "water belongs to all, the land gave it to us, let's stand together to block privatisation", and carrying signs lashing out at the World Water Forum.

Maude Barlow, one of the world's leading water activists, told an enthusiastic audience Friday in the alternative forum that the World Water Forum only represents corporations pushing for the privatisation of water resources.

According to the Canadian activist, the alternative forum, held in an auditorium belonging to a trade union, "is the true international water forum." In the official forum, "they think they're speaking in our name, but that's not true."

"I'm with Barlow, who is one of our biggest inspirations," said Alberto Muñoz of the Provincial Assembly for the Right to Water (APDA), based in Rosario, Argentina. "The World Water Forum has demonstrated so far that it is pro-privatisation, and it does not want to listen to consumers, the poor, those who need water," he commented to IPS.

Barlow, who was awarded the "Right Livelihood Award" or "Alternative Nobel Prize" in 2005, is the author of "Blue Gold: The Global Water Crisis and the Commodification of the World's Water Supply", a 2002 international best-seller that talks about the privatisation of water supplies and advocates universal public access to the resource.

Gurría, who heads a working group in the World Water Forum on the financing of water supplies, said that in the official gathering, the delegates are engaged in an intense dialogue on how to guarantee, by means of concrete measures, universal access to water.

Investments in water must be paid for, said Gurría. "Whether it's the World Bank, the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) or whoever, it has to be financed, and that's done by the users, taxpayers or the state coffers," he said.

He added that a consensus is emerging among the participants in the World Water Forum that the best way to "finance water services is through a mixture of user rates and subsidies" for those who cannot afford to pay.

The question of financing is not being directly addressed in the alternative forum. But the participants argue that water resources belong to the state, as a public good, and that no private company should derive profits from this essential resource.

(MORE)

5//The Manila Times, Philippines Monday, March 20, 2006

WORK ON IMPEACH COMPLAINT BEGINS
By Maricel V. Cruz, Reporter

Opposition congressmen are cobbling together the second impeachment complaint against President Arroyo, confident they have a stronger case this time.

The month of March will be crucial for the opposition bloc, according to the House assistant deputy minority leader, Allan Peter Cayetano.

Cayetano, the Taguig-Pateros representative, said the opposition has reactivated their impeachment team to begin work on the new complaint to ensure it will have a much stronger case against the President.

“The House opposition will go full blast with a powerhouse impeachment complaint,” Cayetano said.

Last year the Committee on Justice threw out all three impeachment cases against Mrs. Arroyo, saying they lacked substance.

The House opposition is confident it can gather the required 79 signatures for the case to be transmitted directly to the Senate even before it submits the complaint in July, when the Thirteenth Congress opens its second regular session.

Cayetano and House Minority Leader Francis Escudero, the united opposition’s secretary-general, are in charge of putting all evidence together. Senior opposition Rep. Ronaldo Zamora, the designated impeachment prosecutor, is “preparing legal strategy in convincing witnesses that this time they’ll be heard,” Cayetano said.

“The opposition is preparing to prosecute President Arroyo while being persecuted by Arroyo administration,” he said, adding that the opposition anticipates the worst-case scenario in which Malacañang will resort to all forms of harassments against those who will support impeachment.

Forms of harassment

“We have information that administration will harass, withhold projects from congressmen supporting impeachment. In fact, the ‘Administration Witness Academy is already conducting a summer class and will target the legitimate opposition, the media and journalists whom Malacañang cannot buy or scare,” Cayetano said.

(MORE)