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“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” These revolutionary words from the Declaration of Independence are worth reflecting upon in light of the current struggle for economic justice in America. The government of the United States, the richest and most powerful country in the world, is perpetuating...

LONDON – Why does the United Nations so often shoot itself in the foot? Just as the World Health Organization is basking in accolades at its annual assembly this week and next for its part in the battle to overcome the spread of SARS another story has begun to emerge – of  political ineptitude and moral cowardice that should bring shame not honour on its departing director-general, Gro Harlem Brundtland. It is the way the UN agency has dealt with Taiwan, now the country outside China with the fastest growing number of cases, despite it having a national health service, according to a year 2000 report of the Economist Intelligence Unit, only second in the world to Sweden’s. This suggests that if Taiwan doesn’t get on top of the disease no one will, for all the self-serving reports put out by the WHO this past weekend that it appeared that the...

21 maj 2003 Den delade ön Cypern är inte sig lik. Sedan en tid strömmar grek- och turkcyprioter över gränsen mellan den turkcypriotiska norra och grekcypriotiska södra delen av ön, en gräns som sedan 1974 varit i det närmaste hermetiskt sluten. Det är nu möjligt för var och en att besöka platser som varit utom räckhåll i nära tre decennier. Den 21 april meddelade den turkcypriotiska regeringen överraskande att man beslutat tillåta fri passage i båda riktningarna. Turkcyprioter skulle inte längre behöva tillstånd från sina egna myndigheter för att besöka den södra delen av ön. Grekcyprioter, som endast kunnat passera gränsen undantagsvis och under hårt kontrollerade former, skulle nu till och med kunna ta bilen över för ett besök i norr. Besöken tidsbegränsades dock i båda riktningarna: grekcyprioterna tillåts stanna i tre dagar medan turkcyprioterna måste vända åter innan midnatt. Redan två dagar senare trädde de nya reglerna i kraft...

Comments about Operation Iraqi Freedom and about the mediaBy TFF’s Iraq Conflict-Mitigation team & Associates “It is enough that a lie is believed for three days – it has then served its purpose.”Marie de Medici, 1573-1642, queen consort and queen regent of France  # 3 April 28 till now. Start at bottom   # 1 March 27 – April 8 # 2 April 9 – April 27 54. Kill the looters, says Ambassador Bremer and echoes the colonial mantra: Exterminate all the brutes… Day 57 – May 15, 2003 – Day 57 – May 15, 2003 – Contrary to all the propaganda, a rule can now be established: war criminals and other “bad guys” are not found and brought to justice for two reasons. First, they could tell embarrassing things about the US and other Western governments. Second, they are needed as symbols of the terrible threat against which we must permanently...

There are always lessons to be learned after a war. Often governments and pundits focus only on lessons having to do with military strategies and tactics, such as troop deployments, engagement in battles, bombing targets and the effectiveness of different weapons systems. There are, of course, far bigger lessons to be learned, and here are some of the principal ones from the Iraq War. 1. In the eyes of the Bush administration, the relevance of international organizations such as the United Nations depends primarily upon their willingness to rubberstamp US policy, legal or illegal, moral or immoral. 2. The Bush Doctrine of Preemptive War may be employed against threats that have no basis in fact.  3. The American people appear to take little notice of the ìbait and switchî tactic of initiating a war to prevent use of weapons of mass destruction and then celebrating regime change when no such...

LONDON – The latest polls tell us that a majority of American public opinion doesn’t care that much if no proof comes to light of Iraq possessing significant numbers of weapons of mass destruction. Not just for President George Bush but for America as a whole it has been “a good war”. Nevertheless, deep down the Administration is a little nervous about the course of events in Iraq. How else to explain the rapid change in American senior personnel supposedly running Iraq? But it can’t be that concerned about its long-time bete noire, nation-building, as otherwise it would have asked for a sizeable appropriation in the 2004 budget for reconstruction in Iraq. But not only did it not ask Congress for any money for Iraq, neither did it for Afghanistan. The old jibe that America only does wars not peace has a sad ring of truth. If one wanted to be...

LONDON – Europe, including Britain, is going through an agony of heart searching about what its future relationship with America is going to be. American policy makers seem to have no compunction about telling Europeans that they no longer need Europe to do what they want to do in the world. The mood may be extreme- one can’t imagine ex president Bill Clinton allowing it to run away with itself as it has the last six months. But Bush, aided by the fallout from September 11th , seems quite capable of making these so called neo-conservative views the mainstream over the next five years. On the European side the signs of estrangement are just as manifest. While in Britain, always at heart a warrior nation, public sentiment, following victory in the war, has swung back in favour of American leadership, in the rest of Europe opinion is firmly against being under...

Dagen före statyfällningen på Paradistorget i Bagdad dödades (8/4) tre journalister under mycket anmärkningsvärda omständigheter, som Robert Fisk diskuterat i brittiska The Independent (26/4). Två av dem dog när en amerikansk stridsvagn sköt mot Hotel Palestina, där merparten av de internationella journalisterna bodde. USA:s utrikesminister Colin Powell påstod att man besvarade “fientlig eld från hotellet”. Men Fisk hänvisar till en film tagen av franska television av samma amerikanska stridsvagnar. Ljudspåret är tyst till det ögonblick stridsvagnen skjuter. Ingen av journalisterna på hotellet ifråga har heller rapporterat om krypskyttar eller liknande där. Till saken hör också att hotellets byggnad är en av de största i området. Det är ytterst svårt att tänka sig att de amerikanska trupperna inte visste att det rörde sig om journalisternas hotell. Tre timmar tidigare samma dag attackerade ett amerikanskt flygplan den oberoende arabiska TV-sändaren al-Jaziras kontor i Bagdad. En av al-Jaziras reportrar dödades. Vad var det...

LONDON – Woodrow Wilson, the idealistic president of the United States during the First World War, said that the U.S. world role came “by no plan of our conceiving, but by the hand of God that led us into this way”. Until Vietnam this view was held right across the American political spectrum. America was the God-given example to other nations and was the leading nation on a progressive scale of historical development. The Vietnam-induced pause in this historical march now seems to be a long time ago. The forward momentum of the exceptional American spirit continues with a union under President George Bush of  two powerful schools of American foreign policy: the Wilsonian liberals anxious to extend democracy and the neoconservatives, unilateralist inclined, who believe in power projection and who also think that an aggressive American leadership around the world will work for the good of all societies. Yet the...

Inledningsanförande vid offentligt mötei Folkets hus, Helsingborg, 7 maj 2003 TFF rådgivare 3 juli 2003 Det lär finnas tre slags utbildning – INBILLAD UTBILDNING. UTBILDAD INBILLNING – OCH FOLKBILDNING! Det är med goda folkbildningsambitioner jag här tar till orda. Ett lydigt folk är förvisso bekvämare än ett olydigt. Men det är olydnaden som bevarar vår demokrati. Det är modet och viljan att ställa frågor som håller vårt politiska system vitalt. Den senaste tidens oroande världshändelser visar varför folkbildningen behövs i framtiden. Att den måste våga stå fri och modig och våga vara ett forum där praktiska demokratiska ideal råder. Där det inte är farligt att ifrågasätta makten. För visst är vi olydiga när vi samlas med plakat och slagord för att göra Sveriges och världens politiker uppmärksamma på att vi inte uppskattar att de förvandlar FN och världen till en sandlåda. I alla fall är det svårt att uppfatta det på något...

Comments about Operation Iraqi Freedom and about the media By TFF’s Iraq Conflict-Mitigation team & Associates “It is enough that a lie is believed for three days – it has then served its purpose.”Marie de Medici, 1573-1642, queen consort and queen regent of France  # 2 April 9 – April 27. Start at bottom   # 1 March 27 – April 8 # 3 April 28 till now 50. Professor Nadhmi – true intellectual who may still see a danger coming Day 39 – April 27, 2003 – When I met political science professor Wamidh Nadhmi*) in his home in May 2002, I immediately liked him. Humble, knowledgeable, in touch with his own emotions, outspoken. He is a true intellectual who had been willing to pay a price for his opinions. Le Monde wrote about him that he was the strongest opponent inside Iraq, tolerated by the regime. ” People who support...

LONDON – Flying at 30,000 feet with President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria can be a nerve wracking experience – nothing to do with the pilots from the Nigerian air force. They are more than competent. No it was the man himself, the gruff, ex-general, veteran of Nigeria’s terrible civil war when the emerging province of Biafra was ruthlessly crushed. Now poised to win a second term in Nigeria’s return to democracy his campaigning relies much on his natural warmth and good heartedness. But the rough, tough side is also there. “I will throw you out of this plane”, he said in a moment of anger at one of my questions. “That’s what we do in Africa with people who need to be punished.” “Right now!”, he added, to make sure there was no question of the plane landing first. Luckily I have known Obasanjo for over 20 years and count him...