July 2003

By Walden Bello* July 27, 2003 NoteTFF advocates nonviolent struggle before anything else. We disagree with Bello’s view that “For a people under occupation, armed struggle is not one option. It is the only option.”We hope, however, that by bringing this to our readers, it will contribute to a much needed debate about the ways in which the Iraqis can liberate themselves from the occupation. In addition, many other perspectives in this article certainly merits our attention and reflection. Almost daily, we hear reports of American soldiers being picked off one by one by underground forces in Iraq. Since George W. Bush declared victory on May 1, over 30 US soldiers have died in combat. Soon, the number of Americans killed after victory will outstrip the number who died in the invasion.This speech was delivered at the UP Foundation Day Assembly on June 19, 2003) ” I would like, first...

Vad slags utbildning kommer Iraks barn att få under ockupationen? Vi har hört det gång på gång och vi känner det som en gammal sanning: våra barn är vår framtid. Under dessa veckor inriktar sig medierna nästan helt på kriget, på militären som “återuppbygger” Irak (efter att ha förstört Irak) och inriktningen är på politik. Men förutom säkerheten är det ingen sida av återuppbyggnaden, försoningen och utvecklingen efter kriget som är viktigare än utbildningsystemet i bred mening. Det förtjänar verkligen mer uppmärksamhet från mediernas sida än vad det får. Det USA:s administration gör just dessa veckor är avsett att få långvarig inverkan på det irakiska samhället – det vill säga om de lyckas. Jag blir därför givetvis mycket nyfiken när en vän för ett par dagar skickar mig en epost och frågar om jag har sett att ett företag som heter Creative International Associates Inc, CAII, och som är baserat...

en hurtig patentløsning på Iraks uddannelsessystem Hvilken slags uddannelse vil Iraks børn få under den amerikanske besættelse ? Vi har hørt det igen og igen og vi ved det er en gammel sandhed: Vore børn er fremtiden. I disse uger fokuserer medierne næsten udelukkende på krigen, på militærfolk som “genopbygger” Irak (efter, at de har ødelagt det) og de fokuserer på politikken. Men sammen med sikkerheden er der intet aspekt af efterkrigstidens genopbygning, forsoning og udviklingen, som er vigtigere end uddannelsessystemet i bredeste forstand. Det fortjener bestemt større medieopmærksomhed end det får. Hvad den amerikanske besættelsesadministration gør i disse uger og måneder, har til hensigt at have en langsigtet indflydelse på det irakiske samfund – altså hvis de lykkes. Det er derfor naturligt, at jeg blev nysgerrig for nogen få dage siden, da jeg modtog en e-mail fra en ven, som spørger om jeg har set, at Washington-firmaet Creative Associates...

What kind of education will Iraq’s children get under US occupation? We’ve heard it time and again and we know it’s an old truth: our kids are the future. These weeks, the media focus almost exclusively on the war, on military people who “rebuild” Iraq (after having destroyed it) and they focus on politics. But together with security, no aspect of post-war reconstruction, reconciliation and development is more important than the education system in a broad sense. It certainly deserves more media attention than it gets. What the US occupation administration does these very weeks is intended to have a long-term impact on the Iraqi society – that is if they succeed. Naturally, therefore, I get very curious when, a few days ago, a friend sends me an e-mail asking whether I have seen that Washington-based Creative International Associates Inc, CAII, has been awarded a contract worth US$ 62 million to re-build...

By Margaret Owen Widows for Peace and Reconstruction July 26, 2003 18 June 2003 Dear Senator Clinton NEEDS AND ROLES OF IRAQI WOMEN IN POST-CONFLICT RECONSTRUCTION, DEMOCRACY AND PEACE-BUILDING I have often heard you speak about the human rights of women and children in developing countries in general, and in countries afflicted by armed conflict specifically. I have listened to you with admiration at the Beijing Conference of 1995, and at the UN Commission on the Status of Women in previous years. Aware of your commitment to justice for women, I am writing to you on behalf of Iraqi Women in the hope that you will be able to exert your considerable influence in the US Senate to ensure their human rights at this crucial time in their history. I am the Founder of the international, UK-based NGO (with consultative status at the UN) EMPOWERING WIDOWS IN DEVELOPMENT (EWD). After...

LONDON – It is unlikely that the judicial enquiry now set up by British Prime Minister Tony Blair following the apparent suicide of David Kelly, the senior expert on weapons of mass destruction, will get to the bottom of why Dr Kelly chose to die. The assumption that he was angered on the one side by a BBC report that erroneously overstated what he had said to one of its reporters or, on the other, that he felt he was being made a fall guy by the government doesn’t add up. He clearly had doubts about the government’s case for going to war, but even inside the ministry of defence he was no lone voice – many of the generals advised against going to war. As for the BBC, at worst the reporter “sexed up” what Kelly told him, a hazard anyone who deals with the press even occasionally is acutely...

LONDON – When six years ago the British lowered the Union Jack on their last remaining important colony, Hong Kong, Chris Patten, the governor, buried his face in his hands, for the entire world to see, and felt the profoundest sentiment a proud and ambitious politician could experience – failure. It was indeed a personal failure to be added to his other great misfortune, the timing of elections back home in Britain that made it impossible for him to become prime minister. But on that damp evening it was the people of Hong Kong, those who knew him well could tell, that pierced his conscience. The British had let them down. They were giving up a colony having unaccountably failed to bequeath it with a functioning democracy. In every country except Palestine in 1948- when the top British officials literally dropped the keys to their secretariat on the steps of the...

LONDON – By now it is fair to say that only the economists and newspaper headline writers are still in love with GNP (Gross National Product) as a way of measuring progress. Everyone in any country that has experienced rapid economic growth, whether it be a mature economy like the United States or Sweden or an up and coming one like Taiwan or Brazil knows from their own bitter experience that it doesn’t tell you that much about a society. It gives a kind of useful bench mark of aggregate economic momentum. But, beyond that, the more one looks at it the more misleading it can become. For most people health, security and love are the three important things in life, and how many people can put their hands on their heart and say they are sure that in their own lives these three things are eternally spoken for. Besides, income...

LONDON – The crisis in the Congo, and to a lesser extent in Liberia, throws into relief an issue that has long lain at the doorstep of the United Nations – whether or not to authorize the use of an almighty force and a civilian occupying administration. It is not just the Americans who have shied away from going all the way. At various times countries from all the four corners have given it short shrift. “Peacekeeping” with lightly armed troops was the compromise, which worked well when both sides arrived at the point (often after a lot of fighting) when they wanted a neutral middleman, as in the Middle East or Cyprus (where it averted a Bosnian type Christian/Muslim war), but less well where things were still on the boil, as in the Congo in the early 1960s and Rwanda in 1994. The question pressed by the widening civil wars...

If Usama bin Laden is still alive – and the indications are that he is – he must be feeling very pleased with himself, because his terrible terrorist activities are beginning to bear fruit, and his main aim of polarising the world and creating a clash of civilisations is on the point of fruition. His call to the Muslims of the world “you are either with the faithful believers or with the infidels”, seems to have been echoed by President Bush’s insistence that “you are either with us or with the terrorists.” Last summer I visited the United States after many years. I was very pleased to find that the Americans have regained their composure after the dreadful events of 11th September and that they are the same positive, optimistic, friendly and hospitable people that they have always been. At the same time, I found some signs of hardening of...

By If Usama bin Laden is still alive – and the indications are that he is – he must be feeling very pleased with himself, because his terrible terrorist activities are beginning to bear fruit, and his main aim of polarising the world and creating a clash of civilisations is on the point of fruition. His call to the Muslims of the world “you are either with the faithful believers or with the infidels”, seems to have been echoed by President Bush’s insistence that “you are either with us or with the terrorists.” Last summer I visited the United States after many years. I was very pleased to find that the Americans have regained their composure after the dreadful events of 11th September and that they are the same positive, optimistic, friendly and hospitable people that they have always been. At the same time, I found some signs of hardening...