This Thomas Friedman article delineates the ways in which CITIGROUP has functioned immorally. Of greater concern, this example is representative of a larger problem of expanding of injustice and corruption in the inseparable financial and political arenas.
Spotted by Daniel Lubetzky, by Adeena Schlussel
Below is Tzippy Livni’s code of democratic values, based off of recent events in the Middle East, and decades of history:
Current events in the Middle East highlight the urgency of adopting at the global level what true democracies apply at the national level – a universal code for participation in democratic elections. This would include requiring every party running for office to embrace, in word and deed, a set of core democratic principles: the renunciation of violence and the acceptance of state monopoly over the use of force, the pursuit of aims by peaceful means, commitment to the rule of law and to equality before the law, and adherence to international agreements to which their country is bound.
This weekend, President Obama addressed the AIPAC community at their annual Policy Conference. The President reaffirmed America and Israel’s valuable friendship and discussed the pressing need for striking peace in the region. Read the full remarks below.
The most fundamental causes of the popular uprisings across the Arab world are of course peoples’ desire for freedom and rule of law, and their disgust at corruption and oppression. Few times in history do totalitarian or authoritarian regimes successfully repress their people for more than two generations, and zero times in history do these regimes last much longer than that, relatively speaking.
And yet, what were the triggers to the Jasmine revolution? Was it Obama’s historic election and his speech in Cairo in 2009? Was it President Bush’s exhortation of democracy? Was it the Wikileaks? We know that the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi was the immediate trigger in Tunisia. But what made the population so ready to react with enormous support to kindle the historic street demonstrations and revolutions to spread across the Arab world?
Among the greatest contributors was the rise of food prices, which surged 40% in the preceding year. More acutely, staples like rice and other core grains rose exponentially. The surge in prices of essential commodities actually displaced a staggering number of people from middle class to poverty. By some estimates, 40 million Arabs descended below poverty levels over the last two years because they could not afford food to put on the table.
The biggest factor contributing to the rise in commodities and food prices is of course the growth of China. As hundreds of millions of Chinese have improved their standard of living, this has put enormous pressure on natural resources, raw materials, and food basics, among others.
It is thus ironic that the greatest trigger to demand freedom in the Arab world was not the work of great democracies like the United States or France, but, unwittingly, the growth of a China, a country under the leadership of another totalitarian one-party regime. The irony will close the cycle when the movement for openness boomerangs and catches up with Chinese repression.
Russia and China have maintained that people prize stability over freedom and that as long as the central State creates conditions for economic growth, people will be complacent and will be willing to literally sell away their rights. In fact, this very economic growth will eventually catch up with these regimes.
“The taste of freedom is very delicious"
- protester in Eastern province freed from Qaddafi’s megalomaniacal 40-year rule over Libya.
This article in the New York Times illustrates a picture of protesters in Tahrir Square and has great information about how non-violent movements organize themselves.
The statement from President Obama below is masterful given all the challenges from the current circumstances. It really is right on track!
It is something everyone in the corridors of Arab power tends to acknowledge: that the current Iranian regime is a destabilizing apocalyptic messianic cult whose acquisition of nuclear weapons would be an overwhelming threat to the region. But it is never publicly discussed or shared with the masses. Till now. The leaks of diplomatic memos between the US and its foreign allies is a stark affirmation of the danger that Arab – and Israeli – leaders perceive from Iran.
Here is just one summary:
Graphic: Fears of a Nuclear Iran
Middle East leaders speak about their powerful neighbor with a directness seldom, if ever, heard in public.
The National Post recently featured a great article by Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada. PM Harper stressed the importance not only of never forgetting the evils of the Holocaust, but of proactively speaking out against intolerance and persecution that exists today. PM Harper’s words are in response to a wave of anti-Semitism that has swept Canadian campuses, and on a larger scale, worldwide. According to the article, the fact that Israel’s right to exist is questioned by other recognized nations is a blatant display of “new” anti-Semitism and that he, and others, must take the “solemn duty to defend the vulnerable, to challenge the aggressor, to protect and promote human dignity, at home and abroad,” very seriously.
Spotted by Daniel Lubetzky, redacted by Adeena Schlussel
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I just read a New York Times article that reminded me think that it is astonishing how deep is the cult of ‘resistance’ in the Arab world that thugs like Nassrallah are seen as heroes. He is among the most popular figures in Egypt and Palestine (and all across the Mideast) and seen as an upright honest leader. It is fascinating how human beings can rationalize facts away when they interfere with their romantic notions. The way Hezbollah has been bullying Saad Hariri and the Lebanese people to stop seeking answers for who was behind the assassination of the former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri should disgust any human being who cares about justice. Nassrallah is to Lebanon what an organized Mafia family head would be to a jury investigating their crimes if he publicly threatened the jury in court.
Too bad the Saudis, the Sunnis and the Americans among many others who should compose civil society and the police have done so little to protect them.