Failing economy, widespread violence and riots; the daily news explained.

20-02-2013

Half-awake, perusing my cereals and ingesting news*, I seat shocked or almost. The news are not good. Then the first sips ( more like gulps) of coffee having cleared some of the fog, I remembered most other mornings since I became aware of international events, their relations and causes and calm ebbs back in slowly. Terrible yes but after all common place so normal.
It is out of that sad understanding in fact that my interest for the complex mechanisms of power and its absurd theater sketches was born.

Yesterday, France’s President François Hollande finally blurted the truth that, most likely ( read : “certain to get worse” ), his country’s economy would not get the growth the government expected for it for the year. The ensuing trickle down includes not meeting budget deficit reduction and the likes which was of course better to announce AFTER the recent agreement on finances at the European Union level than before it! Tsssssk! The French’s best excuse being that almost everyone does it the very same way. And they wonder why voters feel lied to?
Meanwhile in the US, President Obama stood on a stage ranting at the impossibility of reaching a deal on budget cuts in order to avoid sequester. Funny *cough, cough* point number one : that sequester option was voted during the last presidential tenure, that of a given Barack Obama? A super committee on finances looked at budget reduction, could not agree on sensible ones but, Oh! miracle! could and did agree on unreasonable ones. The idea was that by preparing a stupid, as it was called again by experts on the same day, set of cuts, the people in Washington who were chosen for the job by the voters would have to agree in the end on a more acceptable set. Now, I don’t want to bad mouth this plan but when exactly has any government, elected or not, been afraid of stupid moves? Or moved to reasonable actions based on fear?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324449104578314113835559092.html
http://www.ideamoneywatch.com/main/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=60&Itemid=72

In the war & violence area, things are simpler. France lost a second soldier in Mali which is indicative of two things. Namely that the hunt in the mountain ranges of Northern Mali has begun in earnest after the troops just pushed back à la bulldozer the rebels to the border in the first place but also that a strange consequence of the course of action chosen has now surfaced. The official press reports from Mali by the French defence ministry were stripped of most mentions of killed enemies. It of course does not mean that the Foreign Légion ( of which the deceased soldier was part ) and the rest of various French units deployed since January 11 had shot no one so far. Instead it was a way to pull the usual call to martyrdom rug from under the Islamists feet. Which upon hearing of that death might not seem so clear now as I first thought. However, do consider this : in so doing, France took away any hope of publicity for the terrorists whose dead have so far not served their usual purpose of exemplifying cool martyrdom and enticing would-be virgin winners to fight. Dying in Mali will NOT make you famous. Except of course if you are an attack helicopter pilot as was Lieutenant Boiteux or a Staff-sergeant in Foreign Cavalry’s commandos as Harold Vormezeele. All in all, better be an Olympian if you want any violence surrounding you to earn you worldwide media attention. *Sigh!*
The French at least are clear in their intent of rooting out the extremists which as was noted by this interesting piece in Newsweek is more than can be said for a given Middle-East outing by another “superpower” that ended recently.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/02/18/france-leader-of-the-free-world.html

On a related note, a group kidnapped a French family in Cameroon. It is yet a bit early to judge the consequences but to say that on top of the lowliness shown by nabbing 4 kids, the move is not a clear indicator. A big part of Africa is plagued by the economics of hostage taking, so that armed bands unrelated to the Al-Qaeda or assorted thugs may well take profit in such cases. So that it may be common hoodlums vying for cash and fame under guise of the current events. Let it be noted that Islamists do not take children hostages on average but rather professionals abroad. Four kids hostages if they were to die would be half of the underaged victims of 9-11 ( 8 total in the planes ).
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/165470#.USUJ70bJoT8

Still in Africa, Tunisia is drowning slowly in confusion. I said many times on this blog that democratic elections were THE safe way for Islamists to gather power. It so happens that this is how it happened in Tunis. Yes, the initial protest movement was identified in the West to a wanton for more liberty from a long standing autocratic regime. Elections however put a Fiqh-supporting political party in charge. That may not be to the general liking of the Occident but you simply cannot ask for democracy when it serves you and dismiss it when it does not. Fair is fair. It is true that installing an Islamic state with its accompanying restrictions on womens’ rights is miles away from opening marriage to same sex persons but as long as these choices are democratic, we are limited to wait a few years or decades to see which brought worse consequences to their respective societies. That is not an opinion but a simple statement of fact, by the way.**

A lot of Asia is under strain and shows it in protests of varying sizes. We talked of India’s plight as concerns corruption recently ( although in a very specific environment ). At least, in Bharat, they are actively working on the eradication of such ways that limit if not endanger the country’s rise out of poverty and into modernity. In places like Bangladesh*** or  Myanmar amongst other, there are folks demonstrating too. For some reason, like the fact that their situations are often more complex ( read ethnic based rivalries ), these Asian nations are not united under a banner like the ubiquitous Arab Spring moniker. Corruption is  a problem for them too with resources so limited that reaching power is about as reasonable a way out of monetary squalor as selling crummy overpriced stuff is in capitalism ( both utterly lacking in morals, agreed ).
http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/features/escape-from-dhaka-an-inside-view-of-the-bangladeshi-riots-1-2785457
None of these riots/protests show the same level of danger as China’s new aggressive stance of course . Both subjects will warrant specific posts to deal with their respective matters.****

Still, one has to find hope somewhere in order for bitterness to stay mostly restricted to the coffee’s taste so that here :
http://www.aljazeera.com/video/asia/2013/02/201321955748969672.html
A first woman in power is a nice sign for Afghanistan. And it may shut up the poor guy I heard on American TV last night, again disparaging Pakistan by recalling that exceptional young girl Malala Yousafzai and her courage. Senator Rand Paul, sir, you know amazingly little about what goes on in Pakistan. Equating one single incident, no matter how heroic it is, with a given global view of a country’s plight in fighting extremists and trying to have this as a point for your views only show them to have just about no correlation to reality save applied demagogy. But then again as evidenced by the reaction of your party to the last elections in your land, facing reality or even having an inkling of it may not be a Republican prerogative*****. Flat Earth, anti-rape mysterious biological ways and eyes wide shut on Global Warming? Tell you what, sir : I hope you get power in the next Presidential election just so the Democrats can give the 2017 State of the Union Address’ rebuttal to extreme Islamists. It would be sick fun to check which of the two gangs is further away from seeing the World as it really stands?

Tsssssk, Tay.

* I did mention half-awake didn’t I? 😉

** An opinion will come later in a specific post.

*** And yet even the good Google news search on Bangladesh managed the four or five first results to be about cricket?

**** Expect the one on China soon, maybe even today!!!

***** Actually from the sounds of it, maybe even a hindrance?