by Gloria R. Lalumia
World
Media Watch
by Gloria R. Lalumia
BUZZFLASH NOTE: Once again, these are the views and perspectives of the individual papers, not of BuzzFlash or Gloria. They offer BuzzFlash readers a way of reading what other nations are saying about the crisis, whether we like it or not. We repeat: This is not an endorsement of their viewpoints.
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1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--NEW CHAMPIONS OF THE WAR CAUSE (A small group of influential right-wingers with close ties to the offices of Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney will this week launch a new political campaign to rally public support for the invasion of Iraq...The Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, which is setting up its office on Capitol Hill this week, plans to announce its formal launch next week...Former Democratic Senator Bob Kerrey and retired General Wayne Downing, a former INC lobbyist who worked on Bush's National Security Council as its top counter-terrorism official until abruptly resigning last summer, have also agreed to serve as advisers.
2//The
Moscow Times, Russia--MILITARY GETS OK TO STRIKE ABROAD ("Russia
is not discovering America," he said, but rather is following the
U.S. lead by planning to "legitimize" strikes against terrorists
abroad.)
3//Arabia.com, Saudi Arabia--IRAN REFORMERS, CONSERVATIVES DRAW CLOSER
TO MAJOR SHOWDOWN (Iran's reformers and conservatives drew closer to a
political showdown, as deputies allied to President Mohammad Khatami opened
debate on reducing their hardline rivals' stranglehold on power... Analysts
say the reformist president is increasingly concerned about a mounting
slide in his personal popularity over his failure to deliver. Saeed Hajarian,
a leading figure in the main reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation
Front (IIPF), explained last week that Khatami "has burnt all the
bridges behind him".)
4//Far Eastern Economic Review, Hong Kong--URBAN POVERTY: NOTHING MORE TO LOSE (The root of the problem lies actually in the move to reform. China may be the workshop to the world, but in the process of turning out cheaper goods, it is purging state workers from sunset industries... Workers with grievances--late wages, pension payments or redundancy--are no longer just getting mad; they are organizing. For the first time in recent history, workers in the first half of this year launched a series of apparently coordinated strikes and demonstrations in several old industrial centres ranging from the northeast to the southwest. Analysts say that the protests petered out only because authorities were told to settle them quietly before they could mar the party congress. [starts November 8])
5//Gulf News Online, United Arab Emirates-- MUSLIMS URGED TO AVOID HEAVY FOOD IN RAMADAN (With Ramadan expected to start tomorrow , Muslims have been urged to eat nutritious food at Iftar and Suhoor while strictly refraining from the 'sin' of wasting food.)
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1//Asia
Times Online November 6, 2002
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/DK06Ak02.html
NEW
CHAMPIONS OF THE WAR CAUSE
By Jim Lobe (Inter Press Service)
WASHINGTON - A small group of influential right-wingers with close ties to the offices of Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney will this week launch a new political campaign to rally public support for the invasion of Iraq.
The task may not be easy: according to a recent survey, public support for invading Iraq has fallen from highs of close to 80 percent earlier this year to between 52 percent and 60 percent, and less than one half of the respondents opposed taking unilateral action if US allies were not on board.
The Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, which is setting up its office on Capitol Hill this week, plans to announce its formal launch next week, according to its president, Randy Scheunemann, a veteran Republican Senate foreign policy staffer who until recently worked as a consultant to Rumsfeld on Iraq policy.
The committee appears to be a spin-off of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), a front group consisting mainly of neo-conservative Jews and heavy-hitters from the Christian right, whose public recommendations on fighting the war against terrorism and US backing for Israel in the conflict in the occupied territories have anticipated to a remarkable degree the administration's own policy course.
Scheunemann, who is best known for drafting the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act that authorized US$98 million for the Iraqi National Congress (INC), a loose coalition of Iraqi dissidents that is widely distrusted by the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency, said that he was still putting together the group's board of advisers.
So far, Bruce P Jackson, a vice president at arms maker Lockheed Martin, who chaired the Republican Party's subcommittee for national security and foreign policy when George W Bush ran for president in 2000, has signed on as chairman.
Other officers include Gary Schmitt, PNAC's executive director, and Julie Finley, a prominent Republican fundraiser who worked with Jackson when he served as president of the US Committee to Expand NATO, as well as former secretary of state George Shultz, who strongly supports ousting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein through US unilateral action, if necessary.
Former Democratic Senator Bob Kerrey and retired General Wayne Downing, a former INC lobbyist who worked on Bush's National Security Council as its top counter-terrorism official until abruptly resigning last summer, have also agreed to serve as advisers
(MORE)
2//The Moscow Times Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2002. Page 1
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2002/11/06/001.html
MILITARY
GETS OK TO STRIKE ABROAD
By Simon Saradzhyan
Staff Writer
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who last week was charged with reshaping the armed forces to better combat terrorism, said the military will be given the power to carry out strikes abroad, including on terrorist bases and other locations where individuals suspected of sponsoring terrorism could be hiding.
The armed forces will commission the development of high-precision weaponry capable of "extensive destruction," he said in an interview published Tuesday in Izvestia.
"All this may be stunning," Ivanov said. "But a war has been virtually declared on us. It has neither fronts nor borders nor a visible enemy. But this is a war."
Ivanov said the development of this new weaponry comes as part of the changes in the operational plans of the armed forces that he intends to introduce in response to President Vladimir Putin's directive of Oct. 28.
Ivan Safranchuk, head of the Moscow office of the independent, Washington-based Center for Defense Information, said Russia is not breaking new ground.
"Russia is not discovering America," he said, but rather is following the U.S. lead by planning to "legitimize" strikes against terrorists abroad. Safranchuk referred to the case when a missile fired by an unmanned CIA drone aircraft hit a car believed to be carrying suspected al-Qaida members in Yemen on Sunday and killed several occupants.
(MORE)
3//Arabia.com November 05, 2002, 11:02 AM
http://www.arabia.com/afp/news/mideast/article/english/0,10846,325970,00.html
IRAN REFORMERS, CONSERVATIVES DRAW CLOSER TO MAJOR SHOWDOWN
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's reformers and conservatives drew closer to a political showdown, as deputies allied to President Mohammad Khatami opened debate on reducing their hardline rivals' stranglehold on power.
Allies of the embattled pro-reform president discussed whether to strip the Guardians Council, a conservative constitutional watchdog, a power that has been used to weed out scores of reformist election candidates.
The reform camp, which controls the parliament, is eager to push through the electoral code bill ahead of successive municipal, legislative and presidential elections in the next three years.
MPs are expected to vote on the broad outlines of the bill on Wednesday. A parliamentary commission will then examine the details, paving the way for its anticipated final approval.
But even though the bill's passage by MPs is regarded as a virtual certainty, Iranian law requires that the bill then be endorsed by the very body whose powers it seeks to reduce.
As well as vetting candidates for public office, the Guardians' Council is charged with ensuring that parliamentary legislation complies with the constitution and Islamic law.
The Guardians have repeatedly used that power to block the reformers' legislative programme and the new electoral code is one of a pair of bills which are seen as a last-ditch attempt to end the deadlock.
Reformers have also proposed another bill which would boost Khatami's powers by giving him the right to suspend judicial rulings viewed as unconstitutional and punish offenders.
The courts have muzzled scores of reformist newspapers and jailed a number of the president's allies.
(SNIP)
Analysts say the reformist president is increasingly concerned about a mounting slide in his personal popularity over his failure to deliver.
Saeed Hajarian, a leading figure in the main reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), explained last week that Khatami "has burnt all the bridges behind him".
"Khatami has his own red lines which if crossed will put an end to the president's presence in the ruling establishment."
(MORE)
4//Far Eastern Economic Review Issue cover-dated November 07, 2002
http://www.feer.com/articles/2002/0211_07/p030china.html
URBAN
POVERTY: NOTHING MORE TO LOSE
Laid off by state-owned enterprises, tens of millions of jobless are excluded
from China's economic miracle. They are part of a new, growing phalanx
of the dispossessed, and they're getting angry
By
David Murphy/SHENYANG
"HAPPY HAPPY go to work. Safe, safe, return home," exhort the
Mao Zedong-era cast-iron slogans above the shuttered factory gates. Most
men and women who worked in the smelter, the cardboard factory and the
other plants in Shenyang city's Tiexi district for decades have lost their
jobs. Rundown buildings lend weight to estimates by local residents that
70% of the district's workers are idle. They are a small part of a huge
groundswell of unemployed urban poor that has appeared in the past five
years.
(SNIP)
The root of the problem lies actually in the move to reform. China may be the workshop to the world, but in the process of turning out cheaper goods, it is purging state workers from sunset industries.
(SNIP)
In the early days of dismissals, it was relatively easy to find new jobs. No longer. The Development Research Centre, which is linked to the State Council, China's cabinet, puts urban unemployment at 10% and warns it could rise to 15% in the next few years. The DRC and Asian Development Bank estimate there are 37 million urban poor--12% of the urban population. World Trade Organization membership and growing competition have brought new pressures. The employment situation is "very grim," admitted Minister Zhang in an address to lawmakers, adding that with population growth the number of new entrants to the workforce in China will hit a peak sometime between now and 2005.
The result could be more frequent strikes and increasing social disorder. Workers with grievances--late wages, pension payments or redundancy--are no longer just getting mad; they are organizing. For the first time in recent history, workers in the first half of this year launched a series of apparently coordinated strikes and demonstrations in several old industrial centres ranging from the northeast to the southwest. Analysts say that the protests petered out only because authorities were told to settle them quietly before they could mar the party congress.
It isn't surprising that the urban masses in the ruined industrial heartland are angry with the health service in tatters and education in decline. They see little left apart from its massive security organization to define the party as a communist party. The leadership knows it needs to promote private-sector growth and foreign investment to generate new jobs as a key to maintaining social stability and staying in power. But most of these new jobs go to migrant workers in new factories sprouting up in the cities of the south and east. Job creation is therefore a key priority for the planners at the key 16th party congress, which starts on November 8.
(MORE)
5//Gulf News Online Dubai:Tuesday, November 05, 2002
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=67598
MUSLIMS
URGED TO AVOID HEAVY FOOD IN RAMADAN
Al Ain |By A Staff
With Ramadan expected to start tomorrow , Muslims have been urged to eat nutritious food at Iftar and Suhoor while strictly refraining from the 'sin' of wasting food.
Wasting food is a sin in Islam and a violation of the very concept of Ramadan, said Ali Ateeq Sultan Al Dhaheri, in-charge of the Cultural Department at Zayed Centre for New Muslims.
People, during Ramadan, cook huge quantities of food regardless of its nutritious qualities. There is also a lot of waste. "This is not permissible in Islam and people should follow the spirit of Ramadan."
(SNIP)
For many people, he said, who have lost the real concept of this month, Ramadan is a festive season. "They should not waste their time in small talk, watching television, and getting involved in activities which are part of non-Muslim traditions and celebrations.
(SNIP)
Salma Al Ameri, a Nutrition Specialist at the Nutrition Education and Training Program-me of Tawam Hospital, said fasting Muslims should follow the Sunnah of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) for Iftar and Suhoor.
She said Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) has taught Muslims to break their fast with just water and dates as they contain all ingredients a human body needs at Iftar.
"This has been put in oblivion by a majority of people who eat heavy and oil rich food," she said, adding that heavy food takes a long time to digest and restore the required level of energy in the human body.
It has been proved scientifically that dates have sugar that immediately dissolves and restores body energy. A sufficient quantity of water is also the basic requirement of the body, she explained.
Salma said people normally eat heavy meals soon after breaking the fast. This leads to drowsiness and weakness as the body continues to starve for an extended period until the food reaches the blood.
(MORE)
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©
2002, Gloria R. Lalumia
insight@zianet.com
Updated listings of Radio for Progressives on the internet at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
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