Mark Steyn on Africa

Africa is all the rage these days and feel-good guys and gals are oh so very concerned about the plight of those poor people over there.

Mark Steyn has a few words for those paternalist hypocrites.

Western liberals, Steyn argues, feel

that paternalism and condescension are the only ways to deal with Africa, they're just quibbling over the particular form of condescension....

[W]e all know Africa can produce wild, vibrant, exciting jungle rhythms. What's unclear is whether it can produce anything boring, humdrum and routine. Accountancy firms, for example.
....

According to the World Bank's Doing Business report, in Canada it takes two days to incorporate a company; in Mozambique, it takes 153 days. And Mozambique's company law has been unchanged since 1888. In the midst of the unending demands that Bush do this, Blair do that, do more, do it now, would it be unreasonable to suggest that, after 117 years, the government of Mozambique might also be obligated to do something about its regulatory regime?

Meanwhile, next door in Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe's government is being given hundreds of thousands of tons of emergency supplies from the UN's World Food Programme. At the press conference, James Morris, head of the WFP, was at pains to emphasise that the famine was all due to drought and Aids, and certainly nothing to do with Mr Mugabe's stewardship of the economy. Some of us remember that during the 2002 G8 summit, also devoted to Africa, Zimbabwe's government ordered commercial farmers to cease all operations.

But still neither the UN nor his fellow African leaders will hear a word against Mr Mugabe....

The issue in Africa in every one of its crises - from economic liberty to Aids - is government. Until the do-gooders get serious about that, their efforts will remain a silly distraction.

Read the whole thing here.

This summarizes the difference between the approach now being advocated by George Bush and Paul Wolfowitz, both of whom insist that aid to Africa be targeted toward promoting business development, international trade, and political freedom, and that of Blair and the EU who are willing to simply dispense money to corrupt dictatorial kleptocracies, trusting them to spend it wisely.

Good News Out of Iraq -- Maybe

BBC reports:

A prominent Iraqi Sunni politician has said that two insurgent groups are ready to disarm and begin talks with the Iraqi government.

Former minister Ayham al-Samarie said the Islamic Army in Iraq and the Mujahideen Army represented more than 50% of the resistance.

He said he began contacting the groups' political leaders five months ago.
....
The disclosure follows reports last week that Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari had opened indirect channels of communication with some militant groups, urging them to lay down their weapons.

Of course, like anything coming out of Iraq, this report is suspect. But if it is true, it's a very big step toward stabilizing that unfortunate land.

Read it here.

Maryland Politics -- WaPo assists in trashing Governor Ehrlich

I'm Shocked! Shocked!

Stephen Spruiell over at NRO details how Maryland Democrat operatives manipulated Washington Post reporters to create a phoney scandal that undermined the Ehrlich administration.

And is the Post interested in clearing things up? Well, not really.

Read it here.

Mugabe going for a record?

Amartya Sen has famously stated that no democracy has ever had a famine. Well, as Toby over at BYF points out, Mad Bobby Mugabe may make Zimbabwe the first [here]. Of course Zimbabwe, though it does hold periodic elections, is far from being a democracy. Toby is quite right to lable Mugabe's reign one of the few remaining communist dictatorships. Mad Bobby is a confirmed Maoist who is bent upon replicating the successes of Mao's Cultural Revolution and Pol Pot's killing fields.

The opposition has been so enfeebled that they are reduced to hoping Mugabe dies. That may account for rumors that he is in ill health.

Newzimbabwe reports:

ZIMBABWEAN ruler Robert Mugabe is "as fit as a teenager", if you believe his press secretary George Charamba.

The denial came amid swelling rumours about Mugabe's ill health, or possible death on the streets of Harare.

With mass protests planned for Thursday and Friday in Zimbabwe, the authorities in Harare are rather sensitive when it comes to Mugabe's health and such was the concern that his two deputies called on him to check if he was DEAD.

Read it here.

It will be interesting to see if the opposition actually gets some protests going this time. Previous attempts have fizzled in the face of ZANU-PF's thuggery.

On the rapidly deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe see my previous posts here, and here, and here, and here, oh hell -- just scroll through my archives for the past few months.

Gateway Pundit has a nice posting on Mad Bobby's demolition derby. Read it here.

If At First You Don't Succeed... Jack Straw tries an end run

There's been a lot of talk on the blogosphere to the effect that the EU Constitution is dead. But don't jump to conclusions.

The Scotsman reports:

PARTS of the European Union constitution could still be implemented, even though there will be no British referendum on the treaty, the government conceded yesterday.

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, made the revelation as he confirmed to MPs that the government believes the rejection by French and Dutch voters last week effectively renders the treaty defunct, although he stopped short of saying so explicitly.

So here's the deal. In the wake of the French and Dutch votes it is going to be impossible for the Europhiles to impose the EU Constitution on Britain through a referendum process. So they're going to try to sneak much of it in by other means.

[A]t the same time as insisting that there was now "no point" in proceeding with the promised British referendum, Mr Straw risked fresh controversy by arguing that some elements of the constitution could - and should - be implemented anyway.

The way it would work is this:

Some EU leaders have called for selected aspects of the constitution to be implemented through simple modifications to existing European rules. That would avoid the legal need for referendums or parliamentary votes to ratify a new treaty, but would expose the European establishment to accusations of ignoring the will of the electorate.

See, that's how it works. You just change the rules a bit -- no need for any of that messy democracy stuff.

Of course, they're not going to get away with it. Both Labour and Conservative MP's immediately challenged Straw and charged that he was trying to subvert democratic principles.

In the face of strong opposition Straw retreated and equivocated.

As well as declining to give an unequivocal answer on the "backdoor" option, Mr Straw also steered well clear of openly declaring the constitution is now dead.

This, of course, opened him to ridicule from all sides. Straw's in a difficult place. If he agrees that the treaty is dead, it causes problems for British diplomats dealing with France and Germany. If he tries to push for acceptance of the constitution he opens himself and the government to ridicule. So, he's acting like a weasel.

Right now it doesn't look as though the Constitution can be revived, but don't be too sure. There are lots of under the table machinations being considered, and the fight is far from over.

Read it here and here.

Taiwanese Constitutional Reform

(Reuters) Tension fills the air as the Taiwanese National Assembly votes on fundamental constitutional change. Well..., maybe not.

Reuters reports:

Taiwan enacted major constitutional reforms on Tuesday that will redraw the political landscape in favor of the two main parties and should assuage China's worries over the island moving toward independence.

The National Assembly, a once-powerful electoral college that once appointed presidents in China and Taiwan, ratified the constitutional amendments that were approved last year by the Legislative Yuan, or parliament.

The assembly abolished itself as part of the reforms.

The national assembly actually is an archaic remnant of the past. It was a holdover from Chaing Kai Chek's old government, delegates to which still claimed to represent mainland constituencies. It's power over time had been eroded and it hasn't met in more than a decade. It was called into session one last time to endorse constitutional reforms that would end its existence.

I guess committing legislative suicide isn't much fun.

Future constitutional amendments must first be approved by the Legislative Yuan and then endorsed by 50 percent of eligible voters in a referendum, a near impossible threshold that analysts say should reassure Beijing that the island will not move toward independence.

See what a massive campaign of military intimidation can accomplish.

The current Taiwanese President, Chen Shui-bian, has campaigned promising eventual independence from the mainland, but that would require a constitutional amendment that now seems impossible to achieve.

One beneficial outcome of the reform cited by analysts is the elimination of splinter parties. The new electoral setup virtually guarantees that Taiwan's two major parties, Chen's independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the main opposition Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT), will have the electoral fields all to themselves. Smaller parties will not be able to compete effectively under the new rules.

The institutionalization of a two party system is widely seen as a way to establish some stability to the Taiwanese legislative process which in the past was plagued by bitter floor fights that sometimes broke out into fisticuffs.

The parliamentary reforms were widely endorsed by Taiwan's 23 million people, who have grown weary of the bitter inter-party disputes that made Taiwan's parliament notorious for fistfights and deadlocked bills since Chen took office in 2000.

The idea was to weed out the more radical troublemakers, so parliament can work more efficiently. But some analysts say ideological differences bar the DPP and anti-Taiwan independence KMT from cooperating, no matter the size of parliament.

Oh yes, the two party system guarantees a genteel atmosphere will prevail -- just as in the U.S. Senate.

Read the whole thing here.

Protests in Ethiopia

Ethopian Students Protesting -- Note the US Flag.

BBC reports:

Hundreds of Ethiopian students have been arrested in the capital, Addis Ababa, after staging protests over last month's elections.

Baton-wielding police stormed the two university campuses which the students had occupied. They had accused the ruling EPRDF party of fraud.

The EPRDF has won a majority of the seats declared so far.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi banned demonstrations for a month following the poll.

"Where are they taking my son?" cried the mother of one student as he and others were herded by police onto one of eight trucks, each carrying about 80 people, reports the AP news agency.

"We are demonstrating because EPRDF is making a fraud, misleading the whole international community saying they have won," one student yelled through the gates of the social science school before the police took action.

Read the whole thing here.

Gateway Pundit is all over this thing. Check him out here, and particularly note the role Jimmy Carter played in this mess.

Also check out the comments at Ethiopundit here.

A Major Win for Karzai, but it comes at a price

The Telegraph reports:

A crowd of 600 Afghan clerics gathered in front of an historic mosque yesterday to strip the fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar of his claim to religious authority, in a ceremony that provided a significant boost to the presidency of Hamid Karzai.

The declaration, signed by 1,000 clerics from across the country, is an endorsement of the US-backed programme of reconciliation with more moderate elements of the Taliban movement that Karzai has been pursuing ahead of the country's first parliamentary elections, due in September.

This is the same body that in 1996 had invested Muhammed Omar with clerical authority. Now they have taken it away from him. What is more:

With the assembled clerics seated on the marble floor before him, the head of shura, Maulvi Abdullah Fayaz, said: "Karzai is elected through free and fair election and religiously we have to obey his orders. None of the orders of the previous Emirs, including Mullah Omar, is accepted."

He said that following the Taliban, "accepting their orders and through their orders killing people and destabilising the country", was "against sharia law".

This is huge. The shura has given Karzai the legitimacy he needs to rule Afghanistan effectively. Once again, as in Iraq, we see religious leaders coming to the fore in times of crisis to provide moderate leadership.

But at the same time the clerics took a strong stand against liberalism.

The clerics demanded the construction of hundreds of religious schools, a prohibition of drugs, alcohol and "sexual films" and a call for women's rights to remain within the limits of sharia law.


This has to trouble some here in the West, expecially the limits on women's rights. And there were some bizarre aspects to the whole thing.

The shura also called for the arrest of Newsweek staff responsible for an article claiming that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay flushed a copy of the Koran down a lavatory, if it proved to be untrue.

This raises the question, especially pertinent now at a time when even justices of the Supreme Court are looking to other countries for legal guidance, should we, in the interests of international peace and justice, and as an expression of our sympathy for Islamic values, turn Michael Isikoff over to Afghan authorities for trial in Islamic courts?

Hmmmm.... gotta think about that one.

Read the story here.

A Major Victory for Karzai -- The Ulema Shura [Council of Clerics] Acts

The Telegraph reports:

A crowd of 600 Afghan clerics gathered in front of an historic mosque yesterday to strip the fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar of his claim to religious authority, in a ceremony that provided a significant boost to the presidency of Hamid Karzai.

The declaration, signed by 1,000 clerics from across the country, is an endorsement of the US-backed programme of reconciliation with more moderate elements of the Taliban movement that Karzai has been pursuing ahead of the country's first parliamentary elections, due in September.

This is the same body that in 1996 had invested Muhammed Omar with clerical authority. Now they have taken it away from him. What is more:

With the assembled clerics seated on the marble floor before him, the head of shura, Maulvi Abdullah Fayaz, said: "Karzai is elected through free and fair election and religiously we have to obey his orders. None of the orders of the previous Emirs, including Mullah Omar, is accepted."

He said that following the Taliban, "accepting their orders and through their orders killing people and destabilising the country", was "against sharia law".

This is huge. The shura has given Karzai the legitimacy he needs to rule Afghanistan effectively. Once again, as in Iraq, we see religious leaders coming to the fore in times of crisis to provide moderate leadership.

But at the same time the clerics took a strong stand against liberalism.

The clerics demanded the construction of hundreds of religious schools, a prohibition of drugs, alcohol and "sexual films" and a call for women's rights to remain within the limits of sharia law.

This has to trouble some here in the West, expecially the limits on women's rights. And there were some bizarre aspects to the whole thing.

The shura also called for the arrest of Newsweek staff responsible for an article claiming that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay flushed a copy of the Koran down a lavatory, if it proved to be untrue.

This raises the question, especially pertinent now at a time when even justices of the Supreme Court are looking to other countries for legal guidance, should we, in the interests of international peace and justice, and as an expression of our sympathy for Islamic values, turn Michael Isikoff over to Afghan authorities for trial in Islamic courts?

Hmmmm.... gotta think about that one.

Read the story here.

Lebanon Elections Update

As expected, Hizbullah and the pro-Syrian Amal have swept elections in the south of Lebanon. This will probably make it harder to convince the Shiite militia to disarm. Hizbullah's campaign featured a lot of anti-American and anti-Israel rhetoric and that clearly resonated with the voters. Hizbullah is seen there as liberators who drove out the Israeli occupiers.

Meanwhile the anti-Syrian opposition plans mass protests near Beirut occasioned by last week's assassination of journalist, Samir Kassir.

Read about it here.

A European Commonwealth? Nah!

The Telegraph has come up with a suggestion for an amended EU constitution -- one that would create a European Commonwealth of sovereign states. Read the specifics here.

The proposal is getting favorable commentary on the blogosphere, but it reminds me a lot of America's old Articles of Confederation, and we all know how those worked out.

Clearly the untrammeled statism of the current EU proposal is unworkable, but something as toothless as what the Telegraph proposes would be meaningless.

Back to the drawing boards again guys.

Lileks Announces the Screedblog

James Lileks is one of the best bloggers out there. He's a professional newsguy -- works for the Star Tribune -- and author of some of the wittiest commentary on mid-twentieth century American consumer culture you will find anywhere. More than anything else he is father to the Gnat. And..., he is an incredibly prolific blogger. His books, columns and daily "bleat" are a continuing source of delight.

Well, now, make that "blogs." Regular readers of Lilek's "Bleat" have been charmed by the daily adventures of a house husband and his progeny, the trials and tribulations of a guy who has to churn out prose for a living, enlightened by occasional forays into American cultural history, and stimulated by occasional rants and screeds on whatever aggravation is currently afflicting the American polity. Now comes the "ScreedBlog" where Lileks unleashes his wit and venom on whatever hulking monstrosity is currently annoying him and us. Today's subject is the current flap over alleged mistreatment of the Koran. He writes:

The latest example of the US Army’s Koran Humiliation Initiative has that headline-grabbing word: URINE. You’d think Private Anderson swaggered over, unholstered Private Johnson and let loose a pounding stream of tangy intentional desecration on the book as it was clutched to the sobbing breast of the terrorist. (Sorry, detainee.) Of course, what really happened was slightly less horrible; someone took a leak outside the cells, and the gentle Caribbean breeze carried a jot of pee through a ventilation grill, where it lit upon the Koran.

As the WaPo story notes: “The Sergeant of the guard . . . ensure the detainee received a fresh uniform and a new Qu’ran.”

Life in the Gulag of our times. Bastards probably didn’t take all the pins out of the uniform. As for the allegation of flushing, the Pentagon inquiry “determined that no such incident took place. The probe did find, however –

“And here we get to the pith of the gist: Newsweek’s allegations were fake but accurate. “The probe did find, however that rumors of such an event swirled around the facility in the summer of 2002 after a detainee dropped his Qu’ran on the floor and other detainees blamed that on U.S. guards.”

Well, then. They made him drop it! Special Jew Mind Beams at work, no doubt. Say no more. No, let’s: “The story changed as detainees passed it along, escalating to rumors that U.S. troops ripped pages out of the book and then flushed it.”

Read the rest here. Go ahead..., do it! You'll be glad you did. And bookmark the site because you'll probably be going back to it regularly. I know I will.

Zimbabwe Update -- There goes the neighborhood

Mad Bobby Mugabe's thugs bulldoze an opposition neighborhood as he tries to replicate the crimes of Mao and Pol Pot.

The Telegraph reports:

President Robert Mugabe's onslaught against Zimbabwe's cities has escalated to claim new targets, with white-owned factories and family homes being demolished in a campaign that has left 200,000 people homeless.

Across the country, Mr Mugabe is destroying large areas of heaving townships and prosperous industrial areas alike.

The aim of this brutal campaign is, says the official media, to depopulate urban areas and force people back to the "rural home".
....

Across Zimbabwe, the United Nations estimates that 200,000 people have lost their homes, with the poorest townships bearing the brunt of Mr Mugabe's onslaught. "The vast majority are homeless in the streets," said Miloon Kothari, the UN's housing representative. He added that "mass evictions" were creating a "new kind of apartheid where the rich and the poor are being segregated".

Virtually all the areas singled out for demolition voted for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in the last elections. The MDC says that Mr Mugabe ordered the destruction as a deliberate reprisal. But the regime is also seeking to depopulate the cities, driving people into the countryside where the MDC is virtually non-existent and the ruling Zanu-PF Party dominates.

The Herald, the official daily newspaper, urged "urbanites" to go "back to the rural home, to reconnect with one's roots and earn an honest living from the soil our government repossessed under the land reform programme".

Read it here.

Such is the order of things in Zimbabwe. Rampant racism, crackpot anticolonialism, utter ruthlessness in the pursuit of absolute power, an utter disregard for human life, and worst of all, the legacy of Mao.

American History in a Post-9/11 World -- Forgetting the Founders?

Barry Gewen has a pretty standard, if highly selective [he seems never to have heard of Gipson and Beer], piece in the NYT on American historiography. It's worth a look, even if it's highly prejudiced. He denigates the idea of American exceptionalism and the recent trend toward writing books that people might actually want to read, and plumps instead for the latest fad, transnational history (and especially "Atlantic" history), arguing that it is the only form appropriate to a post-9/11 world.

For me the most interesting part of the article was the admission, on the pages of the NYT, that FDR's economic policies were only "modestly" successful. That's quite a turnaround for a bastion of Galbraithian liberalism and probably as much honesty as we can expect from it.

Oh, and by the way..., transnational history is so 90s!

Read it here.

UPDATE: Gotta love the bloggers. They've already organized a symposium on Gewen's article over at Cliopatria. If you want to see how history pros react to this sort of thing check it out here.

More on the Oxyrhynchus Papyri -- Don't Believe Everything you Read

Sarah Lyell has a nice piece in the NYT/IHT debunking recent claims in the press that new scanning techniques have lead to a "breakthrough" in translating the documents and has revealed important new information about the ancient world. From her account it is clear, as I suspected [and posted about] that the story was incredibly hyped.

She writes:

As is so often the case with British newspapers, the [announcement of a "breakthrough"] turned out to be both true and not true. It was right to say that new technology was indeed making it easier, in some cases, to read the Oxyrhynchus material and that new discoveries were being made. But it was not right to say that the technology had just been discovered, or that it was functioning as a sort of Rosetta Stone, or that so many new revelations were emerging as to herald "a second Renaissance."

So it's just the same old, same old.... A scholar laboring in obscurity hooks up with a sensationalist journalist to create an attention-grabbing story. These things happen on an almost weekly basis. The article is a bit misleading, though. This problem is not peculiar to British newspapers. American scholars and semi-literate journalists engage in the same practices. And, I might point out, the hallowed NYT is not above hyping questionable stories, especially when they support its ideological agenda.

Read the article here. For my previous posts on the subject go here and follow the links.

Last Ward Churchill Post -- This Time I Mean It

The Rocky Mountain News publishes a long, and to my mind fair, piece on Ward Churchill and the controversies surrounding him. After months of investigation here are the conclusions:

University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill fabricated historical facts, published the work of others as his own and repeatedly made false claims about two federal Indian laws, a Rocky Mountain News investigation has found.

The two-month News investigation, carried out at the same time Churchill and his work are being carefully examined by the university, also unearthed fresh genealogical information that casts new doubts on the professor's long-held assertion that he is of American Indian ancestry.

This is the introduction to a series of articles on specific charges against Churchill that will be published in the coming week. A sidebar to the linked article details the subjects of the coming articles, for those who care to read them. I don't.

Read the whole miserable thing here.

It's time to cut the cord on this guy. He is a careerist creep and a fraud and a disgrace to the profession. By defending him we only bring shame on ourselves, indeed the entire academic enterprise.

If historians are to hold themselves up as authorities who, because of their professional training and standards, have a superior perspective from which to comment on American history, society, and culture, and to educate our children, they must, in order to maintain that authority, be absolutely scrupulous in their professional activities and publications. Anything less casts a cloud over the entire field. Claiming professional status requires acceptance of professional responsibilities. Unfortunately few in the profession are willing to make that commitment.

Nuf sed.

More from Zimbabwe -- A Personal Account.

The Waterford News and Star prints a long account of the tribulations of one of the white farmers who were driven from their homes by Mugabe's minions. It's a fascinating story -- of a young family trying to make a go of it in Africa, of intense racial hatred, of a vengeful black majority taking back land they felt they deserved, and of the personal costs of racial "justice."

Take some time and read it here.

The Return of Indiana Jones?

It looks like there will be a fourth Indiana Jones movie. Spielberg is interested in directing and both he and Lucas have approved a script. The only hangup is Harrison Ford who has not yet seen the script. If he approves production will start in 2006. The only thing I have to say is..., "it's about time!" Much longer and Indy would be too old to do anything but gum his oatmeal.

Read about it here.

Lebanon Update -- Saad Hariri Speaks

The WaPo runs an interesting interview with Saad Hariri. Check it out here.

Publius is posting on this week's elections here.

Shannon Love on Western Exceptionalism

Over at Chicago Boyz, Shannon Love makes an excellent point with regard to human history that is often overlooked in discussions of development.

She writes:

Whether one looked at ancient Rome, China, Japan, the Caliphate, medieval Europe, meso-America, etc., one would see societies where the vast majority of the population lived in dire material poverty and where political power rested in the hands of a narrow and usually hereditary elite. Staggering human rights abuses like slavery and execution by torture were common practices everywhere. Justice was largely dependent on patronage and class. Mass education did not exist. Work was physically demanding, tedious and continous. Wars, plagues and famine were common, and every generation could expect to experience at least one of the three if not all three in concert. Uncivilized peoples faired even worse.

Medieval Europe was every bit as poor and cruel as the worst areas of the present day world. It was no better than, and in some ways worse, than the civilizations of its contemporaries. However, starting with the Renaissance something in Europe changed. Europe began to diverge from the "normal" human experience. Political power began to devolve to the masses. Commerce grew and with it rising material standards of living. Knowledge of the material world exploded. In the span of three-hundred years (a time span of one Chinese dynasty or a third of a Pharaohic one) European civilization became something never seen
before.

It is easy to see that poverty and oppression in the nations of the developing world occur in direct proportion to the degree in which those nations' social, political and economic systems diverge from the Western model. The Japanese succeeded by the widespread adoption of Western ideas. Their greatest disaster befell them when they tried to resurrect pre-industrial Japanese ideals in the modern context. The degree to which former colonies of the West maintained the political and legal institutions left by colonizers largely predicts their current level of prosperity and freedom. Places that were never colonized and which have no legacy of western institutions at all are even worse off.

Had the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution never occurred in Europe, the non-western world be even worse off than it is today. They would have all the material poverty and political oppression they have always had without any of the amelioration (such as vaccines and other medicines) offered by the existence of the West. People who think otherwise are engaged in childish romanticism.

Unfortunately, childish romanticism seems to be the default position in the historical profession these days. It is fashionable to minimize or denounce the western achievement, to assert the long term superiority of other traditions, to blame the existence of widespread poverty on colonialism, capitalist exploitation, or western imperialism. These fantasies are dangerous as we have seen in the spread of Islamist radicalism that seeks to restore the imagined glories of the Caliphate. There is nothing childish about al Qaeda.

Read Shannon's piece here and follow her links to other commentary on the subject.

Rummy Speaks Out and Pulls No Punches

At the Asian Security Conference Donald Rumsfeld cut loose at both China and al-Jazeera.

AP reports:

Pentagon chief Donald H. Rumsfeld said Saturday that U.S. pressure for political and economic change in China is not intended to undermine the Beijing government.

He criticized China for increasing military spending despite the absence of a threat from another country and said the Asian power risks diminishing its global influence unless it opens up its political system.

Political and economic freedom are in China's best interests, the U.S. defense secretary said.

....

Conveying a hard line from the Bush administration, Rumsfeld used his keynote speech to challenge China's military buildup and urge political change.

"Economic success depends on increasingly freer economic systems. That will put pressure on a political system that is less free," Rumsfeld said. "The task for China is to resolve that issue."

In later discussions he expanded on the point.

Rumsfeld said he does not think any country threatens China and that the U.S. does not view China as a threat. But he did question why China has stationed hundreds of missiles within range of Taiwan.

"I just look at the significant rollout of ballistic missiles opposite Taiwan and I have to ask the question: If everyone agrees the question of Taiwan is going to be settled in a peaceful way, why this increase in ballistic missiles opposite Taiwan?" Rumsfeld said.

Rummy's right. China's military buildup is a matter for concern not just on Taiwan, but throughout East Asia. The US cannot afford to look with equanimity upon the aggressive implications of Chinese military development.

Of course, China responded negatively to Rumsfeld's remarks.

Cui Tiankai, the director of the Asia bureau of China's foreign ministry, said:

Since the U.S. is spending a lot more money than China is doing on defense, the U.S. should understand that every country has its own security concerns and every country is entitled to spend money necessary for its own defense.

Rumsfeld also criticized China's performance with regard to North Korea.

Turning his attention to North Korea, Rumsfeld said China is in the best position to persuade the North Koreans to return to six-nation talks about its nuclear weapons program. Nearly a year has passed since North Korea, which has said its possesses nuclear weapons, last participated in the talks.

Not content with aggravating China, Rummy also turned his guns on al Jazeera

Rumsfeld said Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based pan-Arab television network, promoted terrorism by airing beheadings and other attacks. He said the station provides a platform for Muslim extremists and that the U.S. has a hard time combating terrorists' claims. "Governments have to be accurate. Extremists don't," he said.

Rummy elaborated:

"If anyone here lived in the Middle East and watched a network like Al-Jazeera day after day after day, even if you were an American you would begin to believe that America was bad," Rumsfeld told an Asian defense conference.

"Quite honestly, I do not get up in the morning and think that America is what's wrong with the world. The people that are going on television, chopping off people's heads is what's wrong with the world.

"And television networks that carry it and promote it and are Johnny-on-the-spot every time there's a terrorist act are promoting it," he said.

Not very diplomatic, but some things have to be said, and who better to say them than Rummy?

Read about it here and here.

Africa Moves to the Front

Expect to see a lot of news regarding Africa in the runup to next month's G-8 conference. Already President Bush has declared his determination to focus on the continent [here] and newly-installed World Bank President, Paul Wolfowitz has promised to make Africa a Bank priority [here]. Meanwhile, Tony Blair has launched an important initiative, the International Financial Facility [IFF], that would channel approximately 25 billion dollars into African poverty and health programs over the next five years. And, of course, he has declared that Africa, unlike Europe, is "worth fighting for."

So there is a general agreement on the part of the UK and American leadership that something major must be done to address the staggering problems of Africa. What is more, the EU leadership has signed on to the idea. But the general initiative faces major probems.

The first is public support. Africa hardly registers on the American radar screen -- witness the contemptible responses to Rwanda and Darfur in recent years. In Britain, the Telegaph reports,

A huge majority of Britons believes that pumping billions of pounds into Africa would be a waste of money, a verdict that is a major blow to Tony Blair's crusade to rescue the continent.
....
[The poll] also shows that 79 per cent of voters believe that corruption and incompetence were to blame for Africa's problems.

Read it here.

Then there is the problem of how to fund such a venture. Blair wants to borrow against future pledges and is soliciting money from EU countries. Gordon Brown [Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer] has asked all the oil producting countries to contribute to the effort. Jacques Chirac has suggested an international tax on jet fuel. This is all up in the air.

Meanwhile Bush and Blair seem to have come to an understanding on part of the aid package -- debt relief [mainly owed by poor African countries to the World Bank]. The two men will meet today in Washington to hammer out the details.

There is also the problem of accountability. African aid programs have been plagued by massive corruption and inefficiency. Blair and the EU are willing to trust the African States to police themselves. They want to institute a peer review system implemented by the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), an association of African states. Bush is unlikely to sign on to that, and Wolfowitz at the World Bank has already stated that his organization will in the future enforce strict accountability both on aid recipients and on the programs themselves.

There has been a lot of negotiation going on in recent months on this idea of a "Marshall Plan" for Africa. Tomorrow's Blair/Bush meeting will mark the beginning of a major effort aimed at securing public approval of the still to be finalized plans. Blair clearly sees this as a legacy project. Bush dosn't give a damn about legacies [good for him] but has from the beginning of his first administration had a continuing interest in Africa. Remember, the US has already instituted a 15 billion dollar program aimed at eradicating malaria, AIDS, and other diseases that plague the dark continent. [For a critical view of this effort see Slate's commentary here.]

Stay tuned..., things are starting to get interesting.

More Bad News for the Eurocrats -- The Peasant Revolt is Spreading

The Times reports on recent polls taken in Germany and Britain.

[A] poll by Bild, a leading tabloid, showed overwhelming hostility in Germany to the constitution. Of the 390,694 readers who responded, 96.9% said they would vote no if a referendum were held there.

An ICM poll for the no campaign in Britain today finds that 81% of voters say it would be unacceptable to bring in any of the proposals in the constitution without a referendum first.

Now all they need is pitchforks and torches....

Read it here.

The Zimbabwean Tsunami -- Mad Bobby Mugabe Strikes Again

The Times reports:

Robert Mugabe’s authoritarian regime has chosen to consolidate its recent election victory by bulldozing homes and demolishing markets, leaving vast swathes of the capital and other cities in ruins and creating hundreds of thousands of refugees with neither shelter nor livelihood. Locals are calling it the Zimbabwean tsunami.

“This is Pol Pot style depopulation of cities,” said David Coltart, legal affairs spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). “It’s a sinister pre- emptive strike designed to remove the maximum possible number of people from urban areas to rural areas where they are easier to control.”

In an earlier post I compared Mugabe's actions to those of Pol Pot, Mao Tse Tung, and Stalin, architects of some of the past century's greatest horrors. Now the comparison is too blatant to be ignored.

The overt purpose is to destroy all possibility of political opposition to the mad tyrant's increasingly disastrous race and economic policies.

The opposition believe it is no coincidence that the targets have been the cities which voted overwhelmingly against Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party in the March 31 elections.

“It’s retribution against those who voted MDC,” said Nelson Chamisa, National Youth Chairman for the MDC and an MP whose own constituency in Harare is one of the most affected areas.

But there are deeper games being played -- ones with international significance.

Another suggestion was that the vendors had been cleared out to make way for Chinese traders. China has become Mugabe’s new best friend, supplying commercial and military planes and sending in advisers.

Read the whole thing here. Go ahead and read it. The vignettes are heart rending. Such is the legacy of the anti-colonialist left.

EU Disintegration Continues -- Tony Blair Gives Up

Tony Blair has lost faith in the European Project. The Telegraph reports:

Tony Blair has given up on Europe as an issue worth fighting for, senior allies of the Prime Minister have told The Sunday Telegraph.

A leading Blairite cabinet minister made the admission last night as the European Union descended into deeper turmoil, with doubts surfacing over the future of the single currency.

Mr Blair, who will seek to shift the focus of his administration on to poverty in the Third World this week during talks with President Bush, has told his closest allies: "Africa is worth fighting for. Europe, in its present form, is not."

Blair's defection is of particular significance because next month he takes over the EU presidency.

Westminster sources said Blair, who takes over the EU presidency next month, is determined to bury the constitution, despite insistence by France and Germany to continue the ratification process.

“The constitution is dead,” one source said.

Blair will pay a price for his defection, though. Schroeder and Chirac are livid.

Fearing that Britain will use its presidency to wreck the constitution, France issued a warning last night: “When Britain assumes the presidency it will take on the grave responsibility of making sure that it drives the spirit of integration forward,” said Chirac’s spokesman, Jérôme Bonnafont.

Blair’s determination to bury the constitution is matched by Schröder’s determination to save it. Schröder’s spokesman insisted Berlin wanted to press ahead with ratification.

“The chancellor and the president agreed that the constitutional process must continue,” Anda said. “We cannot leave Europe in the lurch.”

They will exact their pound of flesh at next week's meeting of EU finance ministers.

TONY BLAIR is facing a Franco-German ambush this week over Britain’s £3 billion annual European Union budget rebate after signalling his determination to kill off the European constitution.

At a meeting in Berlin last night, Gerhard Schröder, the German chancellor, and French President Jacques Chirac were insistent Britain should give up the deal won by Margaret Thatcher two decades ago.

Asked about Britain’s rebate, Bela Anda, Schröder’s official spokesman, said: “Without calling any country by name, the chancellor made it clear that everyone must be prepared to shift their position in order to get a deal.”

German government sources said both countries were demanding the change as a pre-condition for agreeing a deal on the EU’s budget for 2007-13. Although Germany, the EU’s largest paymaster, has indicated its readiness to pay more
into the Brussels coffers, it is demanding Britain give up what it sees as its “special treatment”.

Other EU members are certain to side with France and Germany when the issue is discussed at a meeting of finance ministers on Tuesday ahead of the June 16-17 EU summit.

So here's the deal. The EU had bribed Britain into compliance in the hope that eventually the Brits could be brought fully into the union. Now that Blair has refused to stay bought, they want the bribe money back and are willing to sink the EU budget to get it.

Madness..., madness!

Read about it here and here.

The Problem with Brussels

Simon Jenkins in a wonderfully witty take on Europe's constitutional crisis in which he nails precisely what is wrong there. He writes:

Only in Brussels is the word democracy synonymous with disease.

Read the article here.

That's it. That's all you really need to know. The Euro-elite's disdain for the common people is blatantly on display everywhere throughout the continent and it is the fatal flaw in all the machinations of those who would create a European "superstate." Their aversion to democracy compromises beyond repair the legitimacy of their enterprise.

Stories Not Told

John Leo has a nice piece over at US News about important stories that have been virtually ignored by the MSM. They include:

[A] May 18 report in the Afghan newspaper Kabul Weekly said the riots that killed 17 people were not about disrespect for the Koran in American detainment camps--they were a show of force by the Taliban and another fundamentalist group, Hezb-e Eslami. "These demonstrations were organized by the Taliban and their supporters, and only some naive people joined the protesters," the newspaper said.
....
On a May 13 panel at the National Conference for Media Reform in St. Louis, Linda Foley, the national president of the Newspaper Guild, said that the U.S. military deliberately targets journalists, "not just U.S. journalists either, by the way. They target and kill journalists from other countries, particularly Arab countries, at news services like al Jazeera, for example.
....
A different omission marred the reporting of Amnesty International's report charging torture in U.S. detainment camps. The group didn't just call Guantanamo a "gulag," an over-the-top remark that was universally reported. In a press release that most reporters ignored, the group also invited foreign governments to snatch certain visiting American officials off the streets and bring them to trial for crimes against humanity. The suggested snatchees, should they travel abroad, were President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA Director George Tenet, and other unnamed civilian and military officials.

The first one is understandable. The MSM is always looking for an "American angle" on any story and ignores it if it cannot be tied to US actions or interests. And, of course, they tend to feature criticisms of the US, especially the military. That, of course, is an inexcusable bias, but it's SOP at the major media. Still, the counter story has to be told somewhere and where better than in the blogosphere?

The second story is just a coverup of a story that is embarrassing to the MSM. Not important in and of itself, but it should get more coverage than it has.

The third is genuinely offensive, and should be blazoned on every front page in America. Amnesty International advocating the kidnapping of US Government officials is inexcusable. There have to be consequences -- but probably won't, given all the good press AI has gotten over the years.

Read Leo's piece here -- and remember it next time you watch or read a MSM report.

Immigrants and Identities in Europe and America

Navid Kermani has an article in Sign and Sight on being European that contains this revealing passage. He writes:

My parents came to Germany 50 years ago from Iran to study. They are well integrated, interested in toleration and understanding, socially active and speak good German – pious Muslims in a European model. They are happy to live in Germany. They are thankful. But even after 50 years, they would never say that they are German.

I don't think that just has to do with my parents. It might also have to do with Germany. I would never say that I am German. I was born here, I have both an Iranian and a German passport, the language in which and from which I live is German. And yet I can't imagine uttering the sentence: I am German. At best, I'd say it double-barrelled, almost apologetically: German-Iranian.

My cousin who has been living in the United States for six years already says that he's an American. One doesn't become German. As a migrant, one remains an Iranian, Turk or Arab, even in the second and third generation. [emphases in the original]

Read the whole thing here.

What he is talking about is a fundamental distinction between the ethnic states of Europe and the pluralism of America. America is as much a dream and an idea and an expression of common will as it is a nation. The same cannot be said of the European states that are based on a shared heritage. The ethnic component is paramount there.

To be German means something more than a legal status, or even a personal history. It means being part of the great German tribe whose ancestors inhabited the North European Plain for millenia. That deep heritage, much of it manufactured to be sure, lies at the heart of European nationalism. America is something quite different. To say you are American is not to assert an ancestral connection, or a deep cultural identification with the past. It is simply to say that you share the common ideals and aspirations of the American people, whatever their origins.

America already is, what EU enthusiasts hoped to create; a "community based on will" and nothing more -- and that, I fear, is something that European states never will be.

Robert McCartney -- Stabbed to death by IRA goons in Belfast, 30 January 2005. His killing may eventually bring about the demise of the IRA. 

McCartney Update

Just a brief update on the McCartney case.

Back in January Robert McCartney, a resident of Belfast, was brutally slashed to death outside a pub. Accounts of what transpired before the killing vary, but they seem to agree that he failed to show respect to a woman friend of an IRA thug. As is often the case when dealing with organized crime figures, nobody saw anything, for fear of IRA retribution. But it didn't stop with that. McCartney's sisters and girlfriend wanted his killers apprehended and took their case to the public.

Their campaign was hugely successful, enlisting the support of political figures on both sides of the Atlantic. They were even invited to the White House to meet President Bush. As a result, support for the IRA among diaspora Irish has declined precipitously and pressure on their public figures has increased.

Responding to the pressure the IRA assured authorities that they would take care of things themselves and punish the murderers. This inspired a huge outrage in the public and led Gerry Adams, President of Sinn Fein, to give a speech urging the militants to disarm and to join the mainstream political process. We are still waiting for their promised response to his speech, and there were death threats made against the troublesome McCartney women.

Now things seem to be moving.

Three weeks ago Adams made a second speech in which he condemned the threats against the McCartneys and further distanced himself from the militants [read about it here]. Then omerta collapsed and witnesses to the assault began to come forward [here]. The IRA announced that it had expelled three men associated with the killing. Then suspects were identified and questioned, and this week two men were finally arrested [here].

The Belfast Telegraph reports:

A 49-year-old man, who was arrested in Belfast earlier this week, will appear before a Magistrate later today charged with murder.

A 36-year-old man, arrested in Birmingham, will also appear in court charged with attempting to murder Brendan Devine, who was with Mr McCartney in the bar on the night he was killed.

The McCartney family last night welcomed the police breakthrough but have said they are hopeful there will be more arrests.

Catherine McCartney, Robert's sister said: "We hope it will lead to further arrests because there were more than two people involved. We still have a long way to go in terms of a trial and convictions.

"We are happy this has happened, but we know it is by no means over."

Read it here.

I agree. This is by no means over. The IRA's days are numbered.

EU Disintegration -- Support for the Euro is Collapsing in Italy

The Scotsman reports:

EUROPE'S political crisis spread to the euro yesterday after Italy publicly discussed abandoning the single currency and reverting to the lira.

The Italian suggestion, once unthinkable to the European establishment, comes as a poll showed a majority of Germans want to pull out of the euro and revive the Deutschmark.

The threats to the future of the euro have disturbed currency markets already nervous about the growing crisis over the European Constitution.

In his remarks yesterday, Roberto Maroni, the Italian welfare minister, said it was no longer unthinkable that the country would abandon the euro and revert to the lire.
....

Even in Germany, the driving force behind the euro's creation in 1999, there are signs of doubt about the project.

German authorities were forced this week to deny a report that the finance ministry and the central bank have an emergency plan for the break-up of the euro, but the German people are certainly discussing that outcome. A survey for Stern magazine this week showed 56 per cent of Germans want to return to the Deutschmark.

Bert Ruerup, the head of chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Council of Economic Advisers, admitted this week that the predicted economic gains from the euro are "dreams that have never come true".

While few government officials or economists believe the dramatic break-up of the euro is likely in the short term, there are genuine concerns that the currency could die a lingering death as it loses international credibility.

Read it here.

The revolt against European integration is spreading like wildfire, and not just in the political arena. Unless something dramatic takes place soon, the whole enterprise will collapse. From Charlemagne to Hitler, the dream of a United Europe was always an unnatural thing -- a concept to be forced upon a voiceless people. Now, at least in parts of Europe, the people have a voice and are speaking loud and clear; and they are saying "NO!"

Why the EU is failing -- take two

In an earlier post I noted that the Euro-elites were offering two basic explanations for the rising tide of resistance to the proposed EU constitution.

1) Lefties saw the constitution as a vote against globalization and economic liberalism.

2) others attributed it to a fear of Muslim immigration and an attempt to preserve national cultures.

Gareth Harding, a strong supporter of EU integration, offers a third explanation. He writes:

The EU is a rule-based body or it is nothing and its legitimacy is based on mutual trust among member states. This is why the decision by France and Germany to rip up the growth and stability pact -- the eurozone's fiscal rulebook -- has had such a devastating impact on smaller countries.

In other words it was the refusal of Germany and France to agree to be bound by mutually agreed economic and fiscal policies that undermined the whole thing.

Read it here.

OK, but I'm sticking with my original assessment. All of these things and more undermined the constitution, but even more important was the fact that the EU Constitution would establish throughout the continent a profoundly undemocratic political order. I, following Lexington Green, argue that in an age of democratic revolution the profoundly un-democratic nature of the Constitution made it a hard selling point. In essence it asked people to trust their destinies to an unelected Euro-elite. But that argument depends on the willingness of people to trust the elites, and that is asking a lot.

Support for the EU Constitution is Collapsing in Denmark

Britain is not the only place that is thinking about calling off its ratification referendum.

The Copenhagen Post reports:

Support for the new EU treaty is waning in Denmark after Dutch and French voters rejected the treaty earlier this week. 40 percent of voters are against the treaty, compared with 31 percent who plan to say yes.

Denmark has turned against the new European Union constitutional treaty. Three opinion polls reveal Danish attitudes toward the new EU treaty shifting dramatically since Dutch and French voters rejected the treaty earlier this week.

....

The Danish People's Party, which opposes the treaty... has called upon the government to call off Denmark's referendum....

Not at all surprising. The attempt to ramrod this abominable mess through depended entirely on momentum and a sense of inevitability. Now that is gone, and the future for the Constitution in its present form looks bleak.

It looks like it's back to the drawing boards guys.

Read about it here.

Bush is Setting His Sights on Africa

Yesterday I blogged about Paul Wolfowitz' assuming the Presidency of the World Bank [here]. My basic point was that despite heavy criticism, Wolfowitz [and by extension the Bush administration that selected him] was conceding nothing to his critics. In other words, there was no backing away from the Bush agenda.

Wolfowitz further indicated that under him the Bank would be directing much of its attention toward Africa and that its emphasis would be on development, not simply on alleviating poverty [a trend that had begun under his predecessor, James Wolfensohn].

Now comes news that President Bush has agreed to a massive aid package for Africa -- something comparable to the "Marshall Plan" for post-WWII Europe. We remember that Bush had early in his first term pledged 15 billion dollars in aid for combating malaria, AIDS, and other health threats in Africa. Now he seems to be expanding that project.

Reuters reports:

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - The United States is willing to look for ways to fund a "Marshall Plan" for Africa even if it opposes Britain's plan for a new lending facility, South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday.

Mbeki, fresh from meeting President Bush in Washington this week, told the World Economic Forum (WEF) Africa summit in Cape Town the U.S. leader was willing to help Africa, and Bush hoped commitments would be made at the G8 summit.

What seems to be happening here is that the World Bank and IMF, in the past, have been so poorly managed that developed nations have been looking for alternatives. One such proposal has been floated by Tony Blair, who is pushing an International Financial Facility [IFF]that would channel approximately 25 billion dollars into African poverty and health programs over the next five years. The US has opposed this initiative because it is to be funded by borrowing against future aid pledges, and also (I suspect) because its focus is on distributing aid, rather than on promoting economic development. I should point out that other G-8 countries have also questioned Blair's initiative and the manner in which it would be funded. France, for instance, wants to fund it with an international tax on jet fuel.

There is also the question of who controls the funds. Previous attempts to channel aid to Africa that have allowed recipient nations to control distribution have been plagued by rampant corruption and inefficiency. The British proposal would address this problem by allowing the "New Partnership for Africa's Development" (NEPAD), an association of African states, to institute peer review of the programs. The Bush administration, and the World Bank under Wolfowitz, insist that the donors, not the recipients, must institute strict accountability, both on
the programs and on the nations who receive the aid. The basic question is whether African kleptocracies can be trusted to police themselves or not. Bush says "No"; Britain and Europe say "Yes." Not surprisingly, African representatives say, "trust us."

All of this will be up for discussion at the G-8 meetings next month in Scotland. There seems to be a genuine desire on the part of developed countries to promote African development, but how that will be operationalized remains up in the air. How will the substantial differences be resolved? Stay tuned....

Read about Bush's proposal here.

Wolf at the World Bank

Paul Wolfowitz, one of the architects of Dubya's foreign policy and number two man at the Pentagon, has now become President of the World Bank.

WASHINGTON, June 1 (Reuters) - Paul Wolfowitz became World Bank president on Wednesday and said his agenda would focus on Africa, tackling corruption and making poor countries feel less sidelined in the bank's decisions.

There was an enormous cacophony of criticism when Bush nominated him several months ago, and for a while European nations were threatening to block him, but he was appointed unanimously. I worried that to get the post he would have to make significant concessions to his critics that would limit his freedom of action as President, but that seems not to have been the case.

The World Bank under previous president James Wolfensohn was far from careful in how its money was spent. The result was a lot of waste and corruption, both in Bank programs and in recipient nations, so much of it that Congress was threatening to take action against the Bank.

[L]awmakers led by Indiana Republican Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, are fighting to stamp out corruption in multilateral development bank projects.

Lugar has presented legislation that would encourage independent auditing and transparency and would set up a trust fund to help poor countries combat corruption on their own.

Wolfowitz has made it clear that the party is over and that strict accountability will be enforced, both within the Bank and in recipients of its funds.

To quiet his critics, Wofowitz has promised to be open to input from underdeveloped countries themselves in crafting Bank policies.

He said he wanted to ensure that developing countries that had complained to him about feeling alienated were brought into the decision-making of the bank.

Without saying outright he would give them a bigger role through management changes, Wolfowitz said, "I would like to work very hard at changing that feeling so that at the very least their views are brought in a serious way."

The key point here is that Wolfowitz has not specified any management changes, so it is unlikely that recipient nations will have any larger role in constructing policy than they had under Wolfensohn.

Wolfowitz also refused to issue any guarantees that World Bank policy would not be coordinated with US interests, and he specifically stated that the Bank had a role to play in reconstructing countries devastated by war [a clear reference to Iraq, although he included Congo and Liberia].
Wolfowitz indicated that Africa would be a major focus of his efforts. Under his predecessor Wolfensohn, the emphasis had been on aid to alleviate poverty, but now the Bank will focus on development.

To help Africa develop, Wolfowitz said, requires a plan that combines developmen assistance, foreign private investment, the development of the private sector and progress in trade talks so Africans can sell what they produce on world markets.

"New energy, new commitment and new realism is required and I, as president of the World Bank, am ready to help that great institution make a contribution and a keen effort" to eradicate poverty, promote growth and eliminate corruption.

Basically, Wolfowitz is conceding nothing of substance to his critics. The World Bank is in for a spate of reform efforts. It will be interesting to see just how successful Wolfowitz will be in reforming the organization and its practices; NGO bureaucracies are notoriously resistant to change. I wish him well.

Stay tuned....

Read about it here and here.

North Korea's Cultural Revolution

The malignant legacy of Mao Tse Tung lingers on in odd corners of the world. I have already described the horrific actions taken by Mad Bobby Mugabe in Zimbabwe. Now comes this news from North Korea.

The Australian reports:

MILLIONS of people have taken to the city streets in North Korea, not in protest at the country's isolated dictatorship but to march to the countryside to help with the spring planting and stave off summer starvation.

In a mass mobilisation reminiscent of the dark days of China's 1960s Cultural
Revolution, when Mao Zedong banished the middle classes from the cities so they could learn from peasants on farms, squads of North Korean office workers are heading out of the cities armed with shovels and hoes.

Even workers with the UN's World Food Program, who would normally be helping to distribute rations to the country's poorest and hungriest, left their posts in Pyongyang on Sunday to dig the dirt.

Richard Ragan, director of WFP operations in Pyongyang, said yesterday he was seeing "children, busloads of people from urban areas, soldiers, you name it -- people from all stripes of life are working in the fields".

Beijing-based WFP spokesman Gerald Bourke said that on a recent visit he saw "tens of thousands" of people walking out of Wonsan, a port city in the country's southeast, with picks and shovels.

"I saw them a couple of hours later, a huge mass of people in an agricultural area adjacent to the city, digging out irrigation channels in preparation for the rice planting season," Mr Bourke said.

Mass mobilisation for farm work is usual in North Korea's command economy, but this year it appears to be happening on a much larger scale.

Oh yes, we've seen this before. Whether it was Stalinist collectivization, Mao's Cultural Revolution, Pol Pot's killing fields, or Mugabe's racist redistribution, the results of agrarian socialism have time and again been tragic and horrific beyond belief. But we never learn, and left-wing ideologues continue to inflict horrendous suffering upon the people who are unfortunate enough to come under their control. This is just the latest chapter in a long legacy of leftist terror.

Read the report here.

The Dutch Vote -- A Tulip Revolution?

I suppose I should blog a bit about the recent rejection of the EU Constitution by the French and Dutch electorates. There's been so much commentary that there's not much, if anything, left to say. Still, I should talk a bit about how it breaks down to me.

The general contours of discussion are pretty simple. Opponents of the EU superstate are rejoicing and are quick to declare the entire process dead in the water. A good example is Richard Whitman, an expert at the British Royal Institute of International affairs commenting in the Times, who stated:

"To have such a very, very large [Dutch] turnout after the French vote but
also to have such an overwhelming 'no' is really crushing for the constitutional
treaty. I think there's absoluely no way this document in its current form can
go forward."

Read it here.Some precincts of the blogosphere are less restrained. Lexington Green, over at Chicago Boyz writes:

Oh man, this is so great: ...bully for them for rejecting the 66,000 word abomination. ...I think I am going to go out and buy some Dutch beer this weekend....It just occurred to me that this is one more instance of the people of a country rising up and peacefully defying their unelected masters. So, the Tulip Revolution belongs in the same category as the Orange Revolution, the Rose Revolution, etc. Not sure what to call what happened in France a few days ago ... . Has Bush's policy of spreading democracy started a global wave of democratization so big it is now even sloshing into Europe?

Read it here.

Jonah Goldberg over at NRO's Corner writes:

Now is the time for unreasonable giddiness, schadenfreude, and rank geopolitical opportunism. Maybe not items one and two, if we're talking about what the offcial US response should be, but for the rest of us, I can't see how this is anything but fantastic news.

Read it here.

Actually, I think that Lexington Green makes a pretty good point, one I'll come back to later.But for now, I'll confine myself to the other side of the discussion -- the one, advanced by Euro-elites that the ratification process will go forward regardless of who votes against it.

After the French referendum we were told by our "betters" in the international press that this was not really a vote against the US Constitution. It was actually a vote against Jacques Chirac and his inept regime. Or, alternatively, the media picked up and amplified the French left's argument that it was a vote against "globalization" and "Anglo-Saxon" economic liberalism, which the constitution supposedly would enshrine.

But neither of these arguments pertain to the Dutch. Chirac doesn't govern there and they already have a liberal trade regime. So, we are fed alternative dismissive explanations. "It's just anti-Muslim bigotry" we are told. Or, the Dutch are simply afraid that their free-wheeling lifestyles will be cramped under the EU regime. As AP put it:

Dutch liberals feared the country would lose its independence over such socially liberal policies as euthanasia and Marijuana. Conservatives fretted about immigration policies being decided at EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

Read it here.

Of course, these arguments imply that there is nothing wrong with the basic concept, or form for that matter, of the EU Constitution -- simply a few adjustments that have to be made. They will have to write in a provision protecting pot cafes, and promise never to allow Turkey, with its teeming hordes of Muslim workers, to enter the union, and to implement socialist economic policies. There! That'll take care of that.

They'll have an opportunity to do so soon. The EU leaders will be meeting in Brussels on June 16-17 where they will enter into a "period of reflection" urged on them by Tony Blair. But the tenor of their "reflections" is already apparent.

Mr. Chirac has made clear he blames the No result on the brand of
[Anglo-Saxon] economic reform which Gordon, the [British] Chancellor, has
prescribed for Europe with his calls for it to open its markets.

Read it here.

We are also informed:

The votes could cast doubt on the EU's plans to expand further. Romania and Bulgaria are likely to join in 2007 as their accession treaties have already been signed but membership bids by Turkey, Ukraine and Balkan hopefuls might be disrupted.

Read it here.

So that's the take. Keep Turkey and other East European countries out of the union. That will keep workers happy, and reject economic liberalism. No hay problema! A little tinkering and the constitution will sail on through.

Or will it?

I tend to agree with Anatole Kaletsky, who wrote in the Times yesterday:

Whatever you think of European integration, there is something inspiring about 20 million pple who, having been told what to do by their most respected politicians, and after listening attentively, then do the exact opposite.

He has a point. The promises made by Euro-elites in support of the new constitution have been outrageous. Kaletsky notes:

Europe is more dependent on foreign trade, investment and capital flows than America. Europe's businesses and banks are more vulnerable than America's to currency movements and global capital flows. There is no alternative to the capitalist system of economic management which could secure the survuval of Europe's laboour-intensive industries against Chinese competition or make its state pensions, welfare benefits and short working hours affordable in an era when pensioner numbers are soaring, while working populations are in decline.

This means that the EU Constitution is not ever going to be a cure for these cultural and structural deficits, nor will it make Europe as economically prosperous as America.

The idea that closer political integration could somehow turn these self-indulgent dreams into a new European "economic model" has been the dirty little secret of the EU project. Of course the citizens of Europe would like ever-rising incomes and ever more job security, in exchange for doing less and less work and retiring earlier and earlier -- and they might be tempted to vote for a constitution which guaranteed these fantasies as fundamental human rights. On closer inspection, however, the citizens have begun to realize that their politicians have been selling Europe on a false prospectus.

Read it here.

This, of course, is true, but even so is not an adequate explanation for the “Nee” vote. One can hardly expect that most citizens were closely analyzing competing economic models. What came across in interview after interview with ordinary voters in TV reports was that they were “fed up” with insensitive governments, fed up with a lack of democracy, and fed up with being bossed around. Time and again they pointed out that the EU Constitution was undemocratic. And this brings us back to Lexington Green’s point.

We are living in an age of democratic revolution. In Georgia, in Ukraine, in Lebanon, and all around the world demands for citizen participation in government decision-making are being heard. The EU Constitution, which everyone agrees is profoundly undemocratic, runs counter to this powerful current. A few years ago it might have passed with little comment. But today, in the welter of democratic reform, it doesn’t stand a chance. Maybe, just maybe, what went on in the Netherlands this week was a “Tulip Revolution.”

A Major Protest Babe -- Maria Corina Machado

I've been criticized for neglecting to post pictures of Latin American protest babes. Well, all I have to say is "Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa." Feast your eyes on a major protest babe, perhaps "the" major protest babe -- Maria Corina Machado, Vice President of Sumate, a Venezuelan human rights organization that has led the recall fight against strongman Hugo Chavez. She was recently a guest at the White House. Read about her recent exploits here.

Welcome to Beautiful Downtown Harare -- Zimbabwe in Turmoil

Reuters photo. This is what happens when Mad Bobby Mugabe's ZANU thugs decide to "clean up" an opposition neighborhood. In the latest wave of terror more than 22,000 people have been arrested and two million made homeless.

Zimbabwe Update -- The Opposiiton Speaks

Publius links to the website of the Sokwanele blog -- opponents of Mad Bobby Mugabe's despotic reign. In the linked post they highlight the developing connection between Mad Bobby and China.
They write:

Mugabe has now shown his true colours. This traitor is so intent on remaining in power that he is prepared to sell his country and his people into slavery to the Chinese.

Read the whole thing. It is certainly true that China has been aggressively expanding its presence in Africa, and that Mad Bobby, reaching back to his Maoist roots, has been particularly receptive. And, Mugabe's recent crackdown is coming to resemble in small-scale, Mao's despicable Cultural Revolution. But the opposition's language is a bit overblown. The most important reasons to oppose Mugabe are humanitarian, not geopolitical.

As an example. Reuters yesterday reported:

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe police have arrested more than 22,000 people as a blitz on illegal stores and shantytowns gathers pace, sending homeless people fleeing to the countryside, the state Herald newspaper said Wednesday.

The United States warned Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's government the crackdown could lead to a violent backlash.

Zimbabwe's official Herald newspaper said police had arrested 22,735 people in a campaign the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has called a political vendetta against residents of its urban strongholds.

This, not geopolitical concerns, is why Mad Bobby and his ZANU thugs must be opposed.

Read about it here.

Women in the Middle East -- A Resource Site

Here's a good one-stop shopping site for information about the plight of women in the Middle East. It's the website of the Committee to Defend Women's Rights in the Middle East.

Among the subjects covered recently:

The stoning to death of a women in Afghanistan for sex out of wedlock.

A gang-rape in Iran.

Acid attacks on women in Bangladesh.

Some of this is stomach-churning stuff, but it's important -- and it's an important part of why reform must come to the region.

Check it out.

More on McCartney -- Twliight of the IRA?

Well, it’s about time! The Scotsman reports:

Two men have been arrested in connection with the murder of Belfast father-of- two Robert McCartney, police said today.

The men, aged 36 and 49, were arrested following police operations in Belfast and Birmingham.

This is obviously good news, but it's still too soon to tell just what consequences, if any, will flow from the arrests.

Catherine McCartney, the victim’s sister, puts this in perspective:

She said: "We obviously welcome these arrests but remain cautious. People
have been arrested before and let out. Others have walked into police stations,
stared at walls and said nothing."

That could very well happen again. Meanwhile, the IRA has tried unsuccessfully to distance itself from the thuggery. It officially expelled three men involved in the McCartney murder. But that hasn’t quieted international criticism. And, of course, they have reverted to their trademark – terrorist threats and violence.

Last month police visited the sisters - and Mr McCartney's partner Bridgeen Hagans - at their Short Strand home to tell them "criminal elements" were threatening to burn down their homes and the business that one of them runs.

The women believe they are being targeted by republicans for their high-profile campaign to bring their brother's killers to justice.

That campaign has been largely successful in hitting the IRA where it hurts most. The sisters’ appeal has graphically illustrated the fact that what was once a patriotic organization has degenerated into a common criminal gang and that fact has seriously undermined American Irish support upon which the IRA depends heavily.

More and more it seems that the IRA is on its last legs. Let us sincerely hope so.

Read about it here.