March 2005

WAS Syria responsible for the assassination on 14 February of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri? A part of Lebanese public opinion, which has been profoundly shocked, believes so. The denunciation by the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, of the perpetrators of “this odious crime”, and of those who are behind them, has done little to dissipate the charges against Syria. The culpability of the Ba’ath regime is not in doubt for most of the international media. Journalists have (...)

George W Bush’s visit to Europe last month showed a desire for rapprochement with the members of the EU, even if differences have not disappeared, for example over Iran and arms sales to China. Beijing influences the rate of the dollar, interest rates and the US commercial deficit. The Chinese now hope their financial and economic power will bring diplomat benefit.

WHETHER the dollar soars or crashes, other economies always pay for the damage. This is the consequence of the unique position that it enjoys internationally as the currency both of settlement and reserve. This exorbitant privilege has rarely been questioned since the end of the second world war.

Since the murder of film director Theo van Gogh last year by a radical Islamist, there has been tension between communities in the previously tolerant Netherlands. The debate risks presenting immigrants as troublemakers rather than as the victims of an unjust social system.

Stable relationships between Muslim communities and the rest of Britain were shaken by 9/11, and British Muslims suddenly felt vulnerable to negative stereotyping and even outright hostility.

At the Bratislava summit last month, experts from the United States and Russia suggested there should be a joint military base in Kyrgyzstan. Central Asia is torn between nationalism and Islamism, and a trial of strength continues there between Washington and Moscow.

President George Bush has hailed Bahrain’s progress towards democracy. Yet Bahrain’s emir proclaimed himself king three years ago, promulgated a constitution giving him full powers and has attacked the few remaining civil liberties. Arbitrary imprisonment is commonplace and one of the main human rights organisations has been closed.

Globally, 1.4 billion people do not have enough drinking water; others waste it. Intensive agriculture has brought unrestrained consumption and unprecedented pollution. But instead of encouraging people to change the way they live, the governments of the world’s rich countries prefer grandiose projects. Multinationals are rushing to appropriate groundwater resources, but they are meeting resistance; the major global companies are determined to meet these challenges and control water resources.

Three French companies are among the world’s leading water management groups, after some 60 years developing skills in deals and financial engineering while supplying water within France itself. But the world is beginning to refuse and reject their interventions.

English is not the world’s majority language. If the speakers of Latin- originated Romance languages could unite, they would form a majority group, a couple of thousand million ahead of English speakers.

The voices of the blues take the extra high and extra low registers that were once enforced on slaves to mark their subjugated status, and transform them into a style of defiance and resistance.