April 19, 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 APRIL 19, 2006

1//Azzaman in English, Iraq--KURDS APPOINT OWN OIL MINISTER (The Kurdish regional government, cementing its semi-independent status, has created a new cabinet post to handle the region’s oil affairs. Kurdish Prime Minister Nejervan Barzani has already nominated Seperyas Hurani to the oil portfolio. Hurani’s nomination comes amid preparations to announce a new unified cabinet that will bring together the region’s two separate governments, one in Arbil and the other in Sulaimaniya. Barzani, who will head the new joint government, is expected to present his cabinet to the unified Kurdish parliament this week. The creation of an oil ministry in the region has angered the central government which has so far stopped the Kurds short from spreading their full control over the oil-rich region of Kirkuk.)

2//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy--WOLFOWITZ’S LATEST WAR (When Paul Wolfowitz's name was first floated for the World Bank presidency in early 2005, his nomination was met with scepticism from wary Bank staff and incredulity from development campaigners, a start that threatened to put him on a rocky path during his tenure. But a little more than a year after he was approved by the Bank's board of directors on Mar. 31, 2005, Wolfowitz, former U.S. deputy defence secretary and a lead architect of the ill-fated U.S. invasion of Iraq, appears to have found a life raft for his image. He is on a drive to fight corruption that has so far succeeded in deflecting attention away from his neo-conservative ideology but, many critics say, fails to grapple with the real corruption issues plaguing Bank projects. … Since taking over as World Bank president, Wolfowitz has avoided scrutinising Bank projects in Iraq, despite numerous reports of widespread fraud in the occupied nation and within the ranks of its U.S.-backed government. A World Bank loan of 100 million dollars to build 82 new schools in November last year was made without anti-corruption due diligence, and the same applies to water, sanitation, urban development and emergency health projects, along with technical assistance, worth 500 million dollars in total, that the Bank is involved in, critics say. Wolfowitz is now reportedly contemplating expanding World Bank operations in the U.S.-occupied nation. "For him to be in a position to preach what good governance should be in Iraq seems highly hypocritical," said Antonia Juhasz, author of the forthcoming book, "The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time". … Moreover, Wolfowitz has so far set his sights on mostly small, poor nations and shied away from probing the role played by more powerful Northern governments and corporations in developing nations.)

3//The Independent, UK--MILLIONS OF REFUGEES ARE HIDDEN VICTIMS OF THE WEST’S WAR ON TERROR, WARNS UN (Refugees fleeing persecution or civil war are becoming the hidden victims of the West's obsession with combating terrorism, the United Nations will warn in a report published today. Only a fraction of the world's 9.2 million refugees have the means to reach the industrialised world to seek asylum. Those who do are increasingly likely to be treated like criminals as rich countries put up the barriers to keep out terrorists and economic migrants. "More and more, asylum-seekers are portrayed not as refugees fleeing persecution and entitled to sanctuary, but rather as illegal migrants, potential terrorists and criminals - or at a minimum, as 'bogus'," the report by the office of the High Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR], warns. The UNHCR singles out a Europe-wide initiative launched by Tony Blair in 2003 as an example of how the industrialised north is trying to make the developing world cope with more than its share of refugees. "Are affluent states about to outsource refugee protection to low-cost, no-frills countries? Some observers would affirm that this is already happening, with the deflection policies of the north leaving the south with a disproportionate share of the protection burden," the report says.)

4//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--CHINA-INDIA TRADE GROWS AMID FRICTION (Trade between China and India is growing so quickly that China is expected to supplant the US as India's single largest trading partner within just a few years, analysts say. But areas of conflict within the growing relationship remain, including a demand from China that India grant it "market economy" status, and recently failed negotiations between the two states over a new long-term contract for iron ore.) … Saroj Kumar Poddar, president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry [FICCI], said on Monday in Beijing that "tremendous potential" exists with regard to trade between the world's two fastest-growing economies. Trade between China and India last year hit a record of $18.7 billion, jumping 38% year-on-year. If the growth is sustained, the bilateral trade could soon overtake Indo-US trade, which is hovering around $30 billion, said Poddar, who is leading a FICCI delegation of Indian executives in China this week. … Poddar said India and China, dubbed the "double engines" of economic development in Asia, would further benefit if they had a closer relationship with each other.)

5//Middle East Times, Egypt--VIEWPOINT: AL ARABIYA AS NEW FAVORITE SATELLITE TV (The latest monthly television ratings in Saudi Arabia by the independent pollster IPSOS-STAT show Al Arabiya dramatically widening its lead over Al Jazeera as the number one satellite television news outlet for the Middle East. The United States government's choice to give Al Arabiya an exclusive interview with US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld could be an effect of the lead increase. At one time, Al Jazeera was the go-to news outlet for Middle Eastern viewers and the US used the popular network as a public diplomacy tool. However, it looks as if both viewers and US officials have found a new favorite. … The competitive ranking for Al Jazeera, especially in Saudi Arabia, is important to its planned English all-news channel that may debut this summer, after several delays. The channel is currently seeking commercial sponsorship and distribution from American cable channels. There is a scarcity of available cable channel space in the United States, and only those who can demonstrate that they will attract cable subscribers and increased revenue for distributors will succeed in getting carriage.)

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1//Azzaman in English, Iraq April 17, 2006

KURDS APPOINT OWN OIL MINISTER
By Sherzad Abdulrahman

The Kurdish regional government, cementing its semi-independent status, has created a new cabinet post to handle the region’s oil affairs.

Kurdish Prime Minister Nejervan Barzani has already nominated Seperyas Hurani to the oil portfolio.

Hurani’s nomination comes amid preparations to announce a new unified cabinet that will bring together the region’s two separate governments, one in Arbil and the other in Sulaimaniya.

Barzani, who will head the new joint government, is expected to present his cabinet to the unified Kurdish parliament this week.

The creation of an oil ministry in the region has angered the central government which has so far stopped the Kurds short from spreading their full control over the oil-rich region of Kirkuk.

Oil Ministry officials refused to comment on the announcement, saying the appointed was “a political and not technical issue.”

However, they conceded the ministry had little say in oil affairs related to the region’s three provinces – Arbil, Sulaimaniya and Dahouk.

(SNIP)

Oil Ministry experts doubt whether any substantial reserves of oil could be found in the three provinces currently under Kurdish control.

But the Kurds are said to have struck deals with international firms to explore for oil in their areas.

Unconfirmed reports say the companies have struck commercial reserves in Zakho, close to the Turkish border.

2//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy April 18, 2006

WOLFOWITZ’S LATEST WAR
Analysis by Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON, Apr 18 (IPS) - When Paul Wolfowitz's name was first floated for the World Bank presidency in early 2005, his nomination was met with scepticism from wary Bank staff and incredulity from development campaigners, a start that threatened to put him on a rocky path during his tenure.

But a little more than a year after he was approved by the Bank's board of directors on Mar. 31, 2005, Wolfowitz, former U.S. deputy defence secretary and a lead architect of the ill-fated U.S. invasion of Iraq, appears to have found a life raft for his image.

He is on a drive to fight corruption that has so far succeeded in deflecting attention away from his neo-conservative ideology but, many critics say, fails to grapple with the real corruption issues plaguing Bank projects.

So far, Wolfowitz has suspended loan disbursements to Chad in response to the government's recent unilateral modification of a law governing the country's oil revenues, which was negotiated with the World Bank.

In India, he held up consideration of a family planning initiative, the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) Project II, due to concerns about procurement irregularities, and froze loans of about 400 million dollars for transportation projects because of safeguard violations.

He insisted on the significant strengthening of conditions for debt relief to the Republic of Congo, after allegations of corruption in the state-owned oil company.

In Uzbekistan, the Country Assistance Strategy has also been delayed due to "good governance" concerns.

Internally, Wolfowitz has said he is restructuring the Bank's Department of Institutional Integrity, a watchdog, to make its authority clearer and its operations more effective.

In February, he led efforts to get the heads of other multilateral lenders like the Inter-American Bank and the African Development Bank to commit verbally to fighting corruption.

The moves, promoted in a barrage of press releases from the well-paid staff of the Bank's public relations office, won him applause from conservatives in the U.S. Congress, most recently in the form of Senate hearings, and from the U.S Treasury, the real mover and shaker in the Washington-based Bank.

The result also has been the recent association in development circles between Wolfowitz and the global fight against corruption, along with a number of favourable stories in the U.S. mainstream media.

The Bank staff, which has had a tense relationship with Wolfowitz because of his record as one of the main architects of the bloody Iraq war, which has cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars, was quickly put on the defensive with more talk in the media, rightly so perhaps, about corruption among Bank officials, as well as constant threats of staff reshuffles.

Yet despite his relative success, Wolfowitz's campaign, by many measures, is still lacking in scope and appears to have more to do with image-building than real substance.

For one, Wolfowitz, a hard-core neo-conservative figure, didn't pass the Iraq test.

Prior to moving into his new office on Washington's H Street in June 2005, Wolfowitz's sole shot at development was the teetering reconstruction of Iraq, which was already deeply mired in, ironically, corruption and futility. Water, electricity, education, safety and poverty in the U.S.-occupied Iraq are all much worse than even during the 12-year stifling economic sanctions.

It was also Wolfowitz who made the decision to allow only U.S. companies to carry out the main reconstruction contracts in Iraq, a decision that was later modified.

Since taking over as World Bank president, Wolfowitz has avoided scrutinising Bank projects in Iraq, despite numerous reports of widespread fraud in the occupied nation and within the ranks of its U.S.-backed government.

A World Bank loan of 100 million dollars to build 82 new schools in November last year was made without anti-corruption due diligence, and the same applies to water, sanitation, urban development and emergency health projects, along with technical assistance, worth 500 million dollars in total, that the Bank is involved in, critics say.

Wolfowitz is now reportedly contemplating expanding World Bank operations in the U.S.-occupied nation.

"For him to be in a position to preach what good governance should be in Iraq seems highly hypocritical," said Antonia Juhasz, author of the forthcoming book, "The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time".

"Maybe he is aware of the fact that the public would question the World Bank's entire endeavour if he made too much of a focus on Iraq because of his role in the creation of this very corrupt government," she said.

Others note that Wolfowitz would have an easier time winning believers in his anti-graft crusade if he went after larger targets. The India health project, for example, comes nowhere near the much bigger sums involved in massive -- and corruption-prone -- infrastructure projects.

(SNIP)

In fact, the Bank has gone in the other direction. It reportedly raised its involvement in infrastructure projects from 5.4 billion dollars in 2003 to seven billion last year, with a target of 10 billion dollars in two years, or about 40 percent of the Bank's new annual lending.

Moreover, Wolfowitz has so far set his sights on mostly small, poor nations and shied away from probing the role played by more powerful Northern governments and corporations in developing nations.

(MORE)

3//The Independent, UK Published: 19 April 2006

MILLIONS OF REFUGEES ARE HIDDEN VICTIMS OF THE WEST’S WAR ON TERROR, WARNS UN
By Andy McSmith and Anne Penketh

Refugees fleeing persecution or civil war are becoming the hidden victims of the West's obsession with combating terrorism, the United Nations will warn in a report published today.
Only a fraction of the world's 9.2 million refugees have the means to reach the industrialised world to seek asylum. Those who do are increasingly likely to be treated like criminals as rich countries put up the barriers to keep out terrorists and economic migrants.

"More and more, asylum-seekers are portrayed not as refugees fleeing persecution and entitled to sanctuary, but rather as illegal migrants, potential terrorists and criminals - or at a minimum, as 'bogus'," the report by the office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), warns.

The UNHCR singles out a Europe-wide initiative launched by Tony Blair in 2003 as an example of how the industrialised north is trying to make the developing world cope with more than its share of refugees. "Are affluent states about to outsource refugee protection to low-cost, no-frills countries? Some observers would affirm that this is already happening, with the deflection policies of the north leaving the south with a disproportionate share of the protection burden," the report says.

As an example, it cites an attempt by Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands to introduce a new policy under which some classes of asylum-seekers would be removed to centres outside Europe while their cases are processed. The move, backed by Tony Blair, was defeated by Germany, France and Sweden.

Antonio Guterres, the High Commissioner, is to launch the report, The State of the World's Refugees, with Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary. It is the first major survey of its kind since 2000.

The good news is that the total number of refugees in the world is at its lowest level for 25 years. The number of asylum-seekers is also at its lowest for many years - in Britain, it has fallen to a 13-year low. The total number of migrants of all kinds around the world is about 175 million, barely one in 20 of whom is a refugee.

(MORE)

4//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Apr 19, 2006

CHINA-INDIA TRADE GROWS AMID FRICTION

BEIJING - Trade between China and India is growing so quickly that China is expected to supplant the US as India's single largest trading partner within just a few years, analysts say. But areas of conflict within the growing relationship remain, including a demand from China that India grant it "market economy" status, and recently failed negotiations between the two states over a new long-term contract for iron ore.

China to overtake US as top Indian trade partner
China will likely emerge as India's largest trading partner, overtaking the United States within a few years, with two-way trade hitting US$100 billion in the near future, predicts a senior Indian businessman.

Saroj Kumar Poddar, president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), said on Monday in Beijing that "tremendous potential" exists with regard to trade between the world's two fastest-growing economies. Trade between China and India last year hit a record of $18.7 billion, jumping 38% year-on-year.

If the growth is sustained, the bilateral trade could soon overtake Indo-US trade, which is hovering around $30 billion, said Poddar, who is leading a FICCI delegation of Indian executives in China this week.

But Poddar said that to carry on the robust growth, it is crucial to diversify the Indian export basket from primary products to manufactured items and processed products. India's exports to China now are largely restricted to primary and resource-based products, such as iron-ore exports, which constitute more than half of India's total exports to China.

"One of my tasks this time in China is trying to find ways to diversify the export basket, especially [by] increasing the proportion of high-value-added products," Poddar told China Daily.

This week's visit by the FICCI delegation, which is composed of a dozen representatives from modern Indian industries, is regarded as a crucial step for the sustainable long-term growth of Sino-Indian trade. Poddar said the delegation members come from a wide range of industries, including fertilizer, energy, food-processing, petrochemicals, textile and tobacco sectors.

"We have diversified interests and are looking for opportunities in different fields," Poddar said, adding that the delegation would visit Xian, capital of northwestern China's Shaanxi province, and Shanghai, exchanging views with local business people on the Chinese economy.

Poddar said India and China, dubbed the "double engines" of economic development in Asia, would further benefit if they had a closer relationship with each other.

"The two countries have many complementary aspects and we can learn from each other," he said. "China's development depends highly on foreign trade and investment, while India mainly lies on the growth of domestic enterprises. Each of us can draw experience from the other."

Poddar called it "very natural" for the two populous countries to be rivals in the world's economic arena. "Even Indian companies themselves are competing [against] one another. Competition makes us have the best Chinese enterprises and the best Indian enterprises."

When talking about the feasibility of reaching a free-trade agreement (FTA) between India and China, Poddar said it would happen in the future, but the idea is still premature for now. "We need to understand each other better before such an agreement is reached. It takes time."

China demands 'market economy' status from India
China's leading trade body on Monday demanded early Indian action to grant "market economy" status to the communist giant, the world's third-largest trading nation, and additionally called for the opening up of India's retail sector, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency.

"India should [seriously consider recognizing] the market-economy status of China to further the business relationship between the two countries," said Wang Jinzhen, the assistant chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT).

(MORE)

5//Middle East Times, Egypt April 18, 2006

VIEWPOINT: AL ARABIYA AS NEW FAVORITE SATELLITE TV
Alvin Snyder
(CPD Fellow Alvin Snyder reports on issues in international broadcasting for the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. He contributed this article to the Middle East Times.)

The latest monthly television ratings in Saudi Arabia by the independent pollster IPSOS-STAT show Al Arabiya dramatically widening its lead over Al Jazeera as the number one satellite television news outlet for the Middle East.

The United States government's choice to give Al Arabiya an exclusive interview with US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld could be an effect of the lead increase. At one time, Al Jazeera was the go-to news outlet for Middle Eastern viewers and the US used the popular network as a public diplomacy tool. However, it looks as if both viewers and US officials have found a new favorite.

Audience figures for March 2006 for Saudi Arabia, the Middle East's largest commercial market where approximately 70 percent of its advertising dollars are spent, show Al Arabiya with a 27.3 rating, opening a gap almost double the audience for Al Jazeera, which has a 16.7 rating. Only a year ago, in March 2005, Al Jazeera held an almost 10 point audience rating lead over Al Arabiya (29.5 percent to 20 percent), which went on the air only three years ago.

The audience shift began in November 2005, when Al Arabiya bested Al Jazeera by only a fraction of a percentage point in the ratings for the first time ever. But by January this year, Al Arabiya had widened the gap to a more than four-point lead over Al Jazeera, and last month, it more than doubled that lead.

Jihad Ali Ballout, Al Arabiya's director of corporate communications, said that the channel's increased popularity has been enhanced by its morning family-oriented show, a run of exclusive interviews and controversial interview topics, such as the role of women.

(SNIP)

The competitive ranking for Al Jazeera, especially in Saudi Arabia, is important to its planned English all-news channel that may debut this summer, after several delays. The channel is currently seeking commercial sponsorship and distribution from American cable channels. There is a scarcity of available cable channel space in the United States, and only those who can demonstrate that they will attract cable subscribers and increased revenue for distributors will succeed in getting carriage.

In the Middle East, some believe that the novelty of Al Jazeera, which was the first to challenge state-run television channel monopolies in the Middle East, is wearing thin. Others believe that the channel is at a competitive disadvantage because its news correspondents have been banned from reporting in Saudi Arabia by its government, and cannot fairly compete for local viewers with Al Arabiya's news correspondents who have free reign. Al Arabiya also has freer access to viewers, who can pick up its signal free-of-charge with existing roof antennas, whereas Al Jazeera's signal comes in via satellite dishes and related equipment, which must be purchased.

But the reality is that the competing channels in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East are but a fraction of the competitive forces that Al Jazeera International would be subject to in the United States, with its American idols, well-entrenched broadcast news networks, cable channels, and more than 1,000-strong, local television news broadcasts on stations throughout the country.

All this may be why Al Jazeera International continues to delay its American debut month after month.