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LONDON – Iconoclasm – the destruction of the figurative depiction of God and his prophets- was one of the important factors that in the ninth century strengthened the split between Roman Catholicism and Byzantine Orthodoxy. In fact the iconoclastic movement of the Eastern Church was in part a sympathetic reaction to the puritanical values of Islam. Later the Reformation led to similar moves against Catholic practices with Protestants stripping out of their churches images of Mary and the saints and the crucifix became bodiless.   The reaction against the Danish newspaper cartoon drawing of Muhammad with his turban pierced with a bomb should come as no surprise to Christendom. The Danes are going through a strange period of over emphasis, which undoubtedly has something to do with insecurities over their threatened culture and small population on the outer edge of northern Europe. During World War 2 the sense of beleaguered independence...

LONDON – The Western democracies, so keen on exporting their political model to the rest of the world, seem to be perfecting the art of shooting themselves in the foot, and I’m not even going to mention the war in Iraq. The cartoon affair which showed up Danish democracy as religiously illiterate at the onset and by last week’s end defensively bigoted was preceded only two weeks earlier by President Jacques Chirac of France boldly announcing that any (presumably Islamic) nation that supported groups that tried to use terrorism and weapons of mass destruction against France should expect a nuclear riposte. In an age when a terrorist group could at best detonate a so-called “dirty bomb”, conventional explosives wrapped around some stolen nuclear waste and kill at most a thousand people, or biological weapons like the anthrax letters that killed all of half a dozen people in the U.S. four...

Some reflections on the electionsin Palestine and on the tasks ahead Elections in Palestine – a major achievement All Palestinians and other friends of Palestine should be congratulated with the elections! Despite occupation, travel restrictions, checkpoints and a number of other obstacles from the Israeli side, the PA, the political parties and the constituency managed to hold the campaigns, the actual voting, the counting of votes and the presenting of the results at a remarkably high standard. No state in the region has ever been able to deliver such a standard under such conditions! The formal parliamentary democracy is now established in Palestine. For it to become a real and functional democracy there is still a way to go, but this a very important step in the right direction. In this perspective, let us not forget that only a few, if any, countries that brag about being democracies are doing...

LIMA – In Bolivia, with the election as president of a representative from the excluded Indian majority, Evo Morales, it is clear that belatedly the Indian community has expressed its deepest longings, albeit by voting for a leader who if he walks like he talks will destroy any hope they may have for escaping the worst poverty in Latin America. In Peru, whose election is only a few weeks away, the Indian question, although not as polarised as in neighboring Bolivia, threatens to undo the good economic work done by president Alberto Fujimori (who had to flee to Japan in 2000 after scandal felled him) and the present president, Alejandro Toledo. Even though Toledo is an Indian, and even though he has been able to maintain GDP growth rates at a healthy 5% a year, he is probably the least popular president in Latin America. In this polarised situation there...

SAO PAOLO – It was Charles de Gaulle who once said, “Brazil has a great future. But it always will have.” Yet times are changing in Brazil and it is no longer inconceivable that Brazil will emerge in the next few decades alongside India and China as one of the world’s economic superpowers. As Dilma Roussef, chief of staff to President Luis Ignácio da Silva, “Lula”, put it to me with only a touch of hyperbole, “It’s more difficult to make this economy not grow than to make it grow.” Can Brazil move itself from Third World to First World? Can Brazil, the world’s most successful country in terms of growth in the twentieth century, repeat this achievement in the twenty-first? Many, viewing the dismal inflation-consumed performance of the 1980s and early 1990s, with a currency adding zeros faster than the printing presses could turn, believed Brazil could never make...

The BBC has reported that Mr. Tarek Azziz has suffered a stroke and that his lawyer fears “he may not live more than a month” following a “cerebral embolism”. The lawyer, Badie Arif Ezzat, has said that Mr. Azziz is being held in a two square meter cell that was “only fit to keep dogs in”. Given his apparent health situation and the fact that he has not been charged after giving himself up in April 2003, this is a request for his release from Hans von Sponeck and Denis J. Halliday, former United Nations Humanitarian Coordinators in Iraq (1997-2000). In keeping with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions and Protocols, Mr. Azziz, former Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq is entitled to humane treatment and should not be further held without charges after three years of incarceration. At the age of 70 years,...

It’s with deep sorrow I have learned tonight that Dr. Rugova, the President of Kosova (Kosmet i Metohija/Kosovo) has died. TFF Associates Sommelius, Weston, Cullberg, Schultz and Schierup and I myself have known him for almost 15 years. Together with then President Kiro Gligorov of Macedonia, Rugova was the only political leader in former Yugoslavia who embrased non-violence, albeit pragmatically.In the early 1990s, it was with Rugova and his LDK party officials TFF’s team worked out the modalities of an independent Kosova – a Kosova with open borders, non-aligned, non-military and neutral. Dr. Rugova was our partner – together with three government leaders in Belgrade – in TFF’s conflict-mitigating endeavour to develop a comprehensive international treaty that would secure a negotiated solution with a civilian UN presence there (UNTANS, 1996).Regrettably, hardline Kosovo-Albanians, with the support of the German intelligence service, CIA and others created the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, behind his back. Predictably, a...

SAO PAOLO – For the best part of thirty years the President of Brazil, Luis Inácio da Silva, “Lula”, has been a rising star in the Brazilian firmament. From the days when he led the metalworkers of the car industry of Sao Paulo out on a strike against the military government he has been a darling of the workers, the Catholic Church, and the liberals. In those early days Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of Germany and Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez of Spain came to seek him out, partly to bolster his stature against the generals and partly to attempt to discern where mighty Brazil, then far ahead of China and India, might be heading. I found him at the time living in a small worker’s house in one of those less than awe-inspiring suburbs on the outskirts of this immense, smog-filled, city of over 11 million. He was, as I discovered...

The idea and the future of theEarth Charter Vicky Rossi’s conversations with peace visionairies around the worldare listed at her CV page here and collected here. Peace Antenna Interview with Mr Federico Mayor Zaragoza, Earth Charter Commissioner, Chairman, Fundación Cultura de Paz, former Director-General of UNESCO. Rossi interviewed Federico Mayor at the Earth Charter +5 Conference, Amsterdam, 7-9 November 2005. Background to the creation of the Earth Charter The idea of creating a new charter to promote the fundamental principles for sustainable development was declared by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987. However, despite the impetus of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, the drafting of the Earth Charter remained incomplete. In response to this delay, in 1994 Maurice Strong, the secretary general of the Earth Summit and chairman of the Earth Council, joined together with Mikhail Gorbachev, founding president of Green Cross International, to launch...

We wish to invite you to join a select group of 45 students from around the world in an intensive course in peace and conflict studies at the European University Center for Peace Studies (EPU) in Stadtschlaining, Austria. All the courses are taught in English, by leading specialists in their field from around the world, including Johan Galtung, one of the founders of the academic discipline of peace research and frequent mediator in international conflicts. Studying with the founder of a new academic discipline is a rare opportunity, like studying economics with Adam Smith. EPU offers students a well-rounded program covering Peace with Security, Development, Freedom, Nature and Culture. The Program, established in 1991 by Dr. Gerald Mader, Founder and President of the Austrian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution, received the 1995 UNESCO Prize for Peace Education. A LITTLE BACKGROUND: In addition to attending courses, students get to know...

LONDON – Spain’s Socialist government continues its heady run of the bulls overturning one sacred applecart after another. A few months ago it was legislation to permit gay marriages, the third country in Europe to take this step, and a cold slap on the face for Spain’s Catholic heritage. Now there is the cold turkey of stopping the smoking habits of Spain’s bar-visiting populace who smoke more than any other nation in Europe except Greece. Prime Minister José Zapatero who surprised all the pundits by winning the election nearly two years ago and who had no previous experience of government and precious little of leadership appears to have the all confidence of an experienced matador. Last week he coined a new phrase to mark his philosophy of government- “social patriotism”, which presumably means that Spaniards should hold their heads high as their country bucks the United States over Iraq, its...

LONDON – Americans seem to have less appetite for war than before. In took the best part of a decade for public opinion to swing firmly against the Vietnam War. This time in Iraq it has taken barely three years. Critics may like to make out that America is a warrior nation with an urge to dominate the world. But although from time to time martial figures do push themselves through to the seats of power they seem unable to carry the public with them for long. It looks likely that in the next general election Americans will vote for a candidate who stands against overseas adventurism. Those who are trying to erect a case for de-fanging a putative nuclear Iran by force will not succeed. Nor will those who want to up the ante with China. Of course nothing is simple when it comes to matters of war and...