Archive 1986 – 2017

Irak 1Helsingborgs Dagblad 11 oktober 2002 Tjänstemannen i det lilla kontoret i Irak reser sig och skakar hand med mig och säger “Frid vare med er” och “Välkomna till Irak” med handen mot hjärtat. Han har en Samsung-dator på skrivbordet och medan jag väntar kan jag se en ung lättklädd kvinna dansa på skärmen ackompanjerad av en liten orkester: “CD från Syrien. Visst är den bra!?” En TV intill den enkla järnsängen, där han förmodligen vilar när det inte kommer några inresande, står och rullar utan bild. Detta är första exemplet på vad jag senare skulle erfara många gånger: det kommer faktiskt in varor i Irak. Jag åker från Amman i Jordanien. Det är omkring 900 kilometer till Bagdad. Det tog gott och väl en timme vid gränsen att komma in i Irak. Jag deklarerade min valuta och ett dokument upprättades för min dator och kamera. Under väntetiden bjuds jag...

Irak 1Helsingborgs Dagblad Embedsmanden i det lille kontor i Irak rejser sig op og trykker min hånd og siger “fred være med Dem” og “velkommen til Irak” med den anden hånd mot sit hjerte.Han har en Samsung-computer på skrivebordet, og mens jeg venter, kan jeg se en ung, letklædt kvinde danse på skærmen ackompagneret af et lille orkester: “CD fra Syrien. Ikke dårligt, hva’?” Et fjernsyn ved den enkle jernseng, hvor han formodentlig hviler sig, når der ikke er nogen rejsende der vil ind i landet, står og murrer uden billede. Dette er det første eksempel på noget jeg senere skulle erfare mange gange: Der kommer faktisk varer in i Irak. Jeg rejser fra Amman i Jordan. Der er ca. 900 km. til Bagdad. Det tog godt og vel en time ved grænsen for at komme ind i Irak. Jeg deklarerede min valuta og et dokument over min komputer og...

Iraq 1Helsingborgs Dagblad The man in the small Iraqi office gets up, shakes my hands and says “may peace be with you” and “welcome to Iraq” with a hand on his heart. He has a Samsung computer on his desk, and while I am waiting, I can see a young, scantily clad woman dancing on the screen accompanied by a small orchestra. “A CD from Syria, it is really good!” said the man. There is a television, turned on but without displaying any particular image, standing next to a single metal bed where he probably rests when no travellers are coming through. This is the first example of what I was to experience many times during my visit: material goods do actually make it into Iraq. I am travelling from Amman, Jordan, a city about 900 km from Baghdad. It took a good hour at the border before I was...

Globalisation and Business for the Common Good:Theology and Economics working together R.H. Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism President Franklin Roosevelt, Inaugural Address, 1933. From the dawn of our creation, it has been our ultimate desire to find happiness. This desire is in the nature of things, common to all of us, at all times, and in all places. Nature, the material of the universe, is modified by us to create wealth so that this desire might be satisfied. Today, at the dawn of the Third Millennium, our civilisation has scored its greatest success in the material sciences. Its glory is the willing application of these teachings to daily life. In them it has found the way of truth, but in the study of the forces governing us, it has shown little aptitude. So tragic is this failure that we have turned the masterpieces of the material sciences into engines...

A war initiated by the United States to oust Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq under the present circumstances, and without U.N. Security Council authorization, would be tantamount to a “war of aggression,” an international crime for which high-ranking leaders of the Axis countries during World War II were held to account at the International Military Tribunals at Nuremberg and Tokyo. The chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Robert Jackson, described such war as “the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” Thus, the seriousness of the international law violation that such a war would entail would exceed the seriousness of the Iraqi violations that the Bush administration has cited to justify it. Such a war would also symbolize the complete reversal of official U.S. policy toward international law since World...

By Hazel Hendersonauthor of Beyond Globalization, Building a Win-Win World and other books. October 4, 2002 SYNDICATED DISTRIBUTION TO 400 NEWSPAPERS IN ASIA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA, AND AFRICA IN 27 LANGUAGES. For information on subscribing to INTERPRESS SERVICE (IPS) Rome, contact: Pablo Pacientini, fax: 390-6-481-7877. For permission to syndicate or reprint, contact: Teddy Jefferson (IPS) New York, phone: 1-212-924-9102; fax: 1-212-924-9120. For InterPress Service © Hazel Henderson, September 2002 www.hazelhenderson.com Popular US comedian Jon Stewart announced recently on his mock news show’s headlines, that there were plans for a regime change in Florida. After another botched election, Florida had become an embarrassment to the nation. Bombing would begin with targeting the city of Pensacola. On a more serious note, politics and elections in democracies are always about regime change. How far will the Bush II Administration go with its new preemptive strike policy, now officially spelled out in the latest White...

LONDON – In last month’s speech to the UN General Assembly President George Bush spoke of “broken treaties” and UN resolutions being “unilaterally subverted”. Yet the United States has one of the worst records of all when it comes to bypassing or subverting important UN resolutions. The U.S. has a long history of continuing to use international law when it works in its favour and to discredit it when it is not. For example, the U.S. filed suit against Iran before the International Court of Justice (the World Court) for taking U.S. diplomats as hostages. Yet, only four years later, when Nicaragua took the U.S. to the World Court for mining the harbour of its principal port the U.S. refused to accept the court’s jurisdiction. In 1988 the World Court ordered that an execution of a Paraguayan citizen in the U.S. be suspended. It argued that under the Vienna Convention...

IA and the quest for peace and justice 2002 Opening Speech, Donor Day By Dr Kevin P. ClementsSecretary General, International Alert  October 4, 2002 Introduction  This time last year the September Board Meeting was overshadowed by the appalling terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York. In my introductory talk to donors then, I noted that this horror would prove to be a “hinge event” which would seriously challenge many taken for granted assumptions about international relations and the international rule of law. I noted that such a brazen attack on the most powerful nation in the world would generate a strong and decisive military response. I signalled that the strong instinct for revenge, which 9/11 generated, should be tempered by respect for the international rule of law under the leadership of the United Nations. In the light of the events of the past week the question is...

Published in World Editorial & International Law (www.worldeditorial.net), September 15, 2002 Not since the beginnings of modern-day international law at the Hague peace conferences of 1899 and 1907 has the United States been so contemptuous of the world rule of law as it has in the past 20 months of Bush-Cheney rule, since 9/11 especially. As befits an imperial presidency unmatched since Richard Nixon, the White House has treated the law, U.S. as well as international, like a fence made to be climbed. Enthralled by solo superpowerdom, it has substantially turned its back on a half-century’s nurturing of multilateralist diplomacy and institution-building; snubbed hard-won consensus on international environmental threats and trade agreements; subverted a decades-old quest for international criminal accountability; made fledgling democracies hostage to regressive oil politics; ignited the militarization of space at the expense of delicate nuclear safeguards; dismissed the law of armed conflict in favor of “unavoidable...

Rather than war or sanctions, there’s a better way to get rid of Saddam Hussein: strategic nonviolent action. The soft underbelly of any dictatorship is the ability of the population, including soldiers, to withdraw consent. Take away that consent and the regime will collapse. This may seem like wishful thinking but there are plenty of historical examples to show how it can actually happen. In 1989, most Eastern European regimes were toppled with little or no loss of life. There were no foreign military attacks, no guerrilla struggles, no sabotage. Instead, there were rallies in the streets, initially small but before long massive, causing entrenched communist rulers to lose their nerve and resign without a fight. A similar thing happened in the Soviet Union in August 1991. In the face of a coup, citizens rallied around the Russian parliament building, a symbol of resistance. The plotters sent in tanks. But...

One year later, September 11 has certainly lived up to the early claim of being a transformative moment, at least for Americans. One of the least noticed sea changes has been the abrupt shift in the past year from diplomacy to war talk as the foundation of national security. And what is most surprising about this shift is that it bears only the loosest connection with the genuine threat that continues to be directed at the well being of the nation by the deadly al Qaeda challenge. It is extraordinary that the US Government at such a time seems to be recklessly determined to wage a preemptive war against Iraq that is contrary to international law and morality, constitutionally dubious, and strategically imprudent, risking catastrophic side effects. A disturbing element in this gathering war momentum is the deeply disappointing quality of the debate on policy toward Iraq. President Bush most...

Evil should not be tolerated. Acquiescing to mass destruction is wrong. Those who love America must speak out. If we the people of the United States bomb thousands of innocent people then we become guilty of the horrors we are trying to prevent. If we use creative intelligence and diplomatic channels to limit violence, if we hold fast to those Constitutional rights which our ancestors won with imagination and courage, if we act as an inspiring member of the community of nations, then we may have a marvelous future. I do not understand why thousands of innocents should be slaughtered so that one tyrant may be removed. The goodness of one Kurdish grandmother is more precious than a thousand Husseins. Not one of my students should die! Should Charles or David or John die to satisfy George Bush’s or Saddam Hussein’s bellicosity? Both George Bush and Saddam Hussein seem to...