Comment du Jour

Iran President’s UN Rant—Beyond Bizarre!

Even by the politically paranoid standards of his past speeches, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s address to the UN General Assembly, brought the term bizarre to a whole new level. His venomous rant to assembled delegations, accusing those countries “who used the mysterious September 11th incident as a pretext to attack Afghanistan and Iraq,” prompted a walkout by diplomats from the USA as well as twenty-nine delegations, from Canada to the European Union states.

One could pass this off as merely hateful political theatre, a Middle Eastern dictator seeking the limelight in New York, and holding the rostrum before an uneasy audience.

His rambling address exhibited a rhetorical mélange of crackpot theories, mysticism, and tub-thumping hate speech mired in the political pornography of Holocaust denial and September 11th innuendo.

Yet more significantly, his address was notable for what it failed to say. There was only a passing reference to the Palestinians, no mention of the tumultuous Arab Spring political movements which have swept the Middle East from Tunisia to Syria, and perhaps most notably not about the Islamic Republic of Iran’s emerging nuclear weapons capacity.

Why? Tehran-backed terrorist proxies such as Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon oppose the mainstream Palestinian political efforts to achieve statehood. Moreover, the Arab Spring popular protests are buffeting the parapets of the Syrian regime, and it’s not to be forgotten that Tehran and Damascus share cozy political kinship. And as for the nuclear issue, the UN’s IAEA watchdog group openly warns about Tehran’s growing capacity to achieve a nuclear weapons capacity..

Most importantly, the President’s speech laid-down a calculated rhetorical smoke screen to hide the deep internal troubles inside Iran itself, masked a percolating political resistance to his disputed rule, and obscured the popular wider opposition to the Islamic Republic’s rigid theocracy.

Ahmadinjad’s caustic comments spoke of the West’s “sinister goals,” while launching the rhetorical offensive basically blaming the West for just about everything short of an evil alliance with space aliens.

So in what now has become a sordid annual ritual, President Ahmadinejad’s diatribe from the marble rostrum of the UN, looking for legitimacy where he has little, and making baseless accusations, and lifting the debate to the theatre of the absurd does little to solve global crises. Darkness at noon has descended on the proud Persian nation; one can only hope that a new light of Persia will soon again shine.

Comment du Jour

Opening Day! Fuss and Flurry of Diplomacy and New York Traffic

The 66th Annual General Assembly Debate has opened with the usual fuss and flurry of
diplomacy inside the UN HQ and the traffic jams outside. Resolving the Palestinian issue, something which the UN has been working on for over sixty years, assumed center stage with many of the speakers.

Among the main speeches to the 193 member Assembly:

U.S. President Barack Obama--long, lawyerly and lackluster

French President Nicolas Sarkozy--political panache with the rhetorical flourishes the French do so well

King Abdullah II of Jordan--classy

President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea--praises global democratic changes and human rights gains BUT forgets to mention human rights in North Korea??!!

President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine--Bla, Bla, but he has that "Soviet-style look" of the Ukrainian politicos many would rather forget.

Comment du Jour

United Nations Assembly to Open Amid “Shifting Sands,” in Uneasy World

Amid the arrival of Presidents, Prime Ministers and Kings, the 66th annual session of the UN General Assembly debate will open in New York, September 21st. But the session hardly starts in a celebratory mood as much as a reflection and reappraisal of a series of serious geo-political, financial, and natural jolts which have shaken the world body to the core, most especially the “Arab Spring,” movements of 2011 and a debilitating spate of natural disasters.

To the foreboding backdrop of a global economic upheaval and major political changes in the Middle East, the session’s elected President Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser of Qatar, stated perhaps prophetically, “The sands are shifting.” He added that “political protests were upending once-stable governments, and the seemingly unending raft of natural and man-made disasters,” were reshaping the global scene for the 193 member states.

Though the UN General Assembly will plod through its near-static 168 item agenda over the next few months, the real focus of the crucial session comes down to a few key issues; the ongoing and politically evolving Arab Spring, the Global Economic gloom, and the humanitarian challenge of natural disasters from Haiti to the Horn of Africa.

First, the “Arab Spring.” A series of unexpected popular rebellions have rocked the Middle East and North Africa since January. Formerly “stable” autocracies such as Tunisia and Egypt were jolted by protests which toppled the governments. Later similar uprisings spread to Yemen, Libya and Syria. In early January, few would have predicted the revolts in Egypt or Syria or could have imagined that NATO’s military might would be fighting alongside Libyan rebels to oust Colonel Gaddafi.

While the roots and results of each of the revolutions are different, the political bottom line remains the same, a tectonic shift in power and the players in key countries. The overthrow of the pro-American President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, presents a major loss for regional stability. The mob trashing of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo and a Muslim Brotherhood regime waiting in the wings doesn’t bode well for Egypt’s future.

Amid the political surprises in the Arab would comes the peripatetic Palestinian issue before the Assembly. Palestinian authorities are pushing for a formal move to United Nations membership, thus upgrading their longstanding Permanent Observer status. But getting a membership resolution through the 193 member General Assembly is not the challenge, passing the fifteen member Security Council remains the hurdle.

While Washington is certain to veto UN membership of a Palestinian state at this point, Israel in the meantime warns that such a unilateral move to formal Palestinian statehood in an area encompassing the pre-1967 borders, would breach previous agreements to negotiate a two-state solution. Sadly Turkey, has emerged as a vocal proponent of a Palestinian state, thus throwing its longtime friendship with Israel to the wind.

Global Economic turmoil naturally threatens the UN in profoundly different ways. As the world economy remains mired in recession, and as major economic engines of growth such as the United States, Japan and the European Union face not only economic slowdown but more dangerously the albatross of massive debt, the prospects for developing countries sours. The loss of investment, markets and commerce, has been held hostage to the recession. Developing countries are bound by this grim reality.

Natural Disasters are the third issue affecting the new Assembly. Assembly President al-Nasser stressed “We must invest in preparedness, to reduce risk and vulnerability to natural hazards.” He added poignantly, that the ongoing famine in Somalia saw people “facing starvation and humanitarian disaster on an unimaginable scale.”

According to UNICEF officials, the drought in the Horn of Africa remains a “crisis of magnitude not seen in the last decade” with thirteen million affected across the region.
Humanitarian challenges go well beyond Africa to Haiti, Pakistan, and North Korea.

Interestingly Assembly President al-Nasser, coming from the business-friendly Arab Gulf state of Qatar, confronted a lingering problem in the UN itself; “There is no shame in admitting that after six decades, our Organization needs reform,” addressing key issues such as Security Council expansion and alluding to inefficiencies in the UN management system, and the widening challenges to peacekeeping mandates.

The UN system, at 66 years of age, seems well beyond a political mid-life crisis.

Comment du Jour

September 11 2001--September 11 2011

Never Forget!!

Comment du Jour

Apres le Deluge--Vermont Rebuilding After Irene

It's been a week since Tropical Storm Irene slammed into Vermont causing flash flooding and power outages. The storm washed out bridges and roads thus marooning many mountain towns and causing havoc with the electric power grid.

Though not as devastating as the infamous 1927 storm, the Green Mountain State was still stunned by the extent of the damage. Mountain towns like Jamaica, Londonderry (pictured above), Killington, Wardsboro and Wilmington were submerged and cut off. Larger towns like Bennington, Brattleboro and Rutland were disrupted too, as was Woodstock.

Ludlow, near the President Calvin Coolidge homestead, was particularly damaged.

A week later Vermont is on the rebound largely because of the spirit and dedication of Vermonters. Fewer than fifty (50) customers have no power in south/central Vermont. Amazing--compare that with ongoing power outages in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York.

Here's my very short list of those who really deserve a big thanks for pulling Vermont through this crisis.

Central Vermont Public Service--CVPS--the power company and its crews did an awesome job restoring power.

Vermont State Police--for safety and emergency coordination

Town Road Crews and Dump Truck Drivers--who keep a steady flow of gravel and stones to fill in washed out roads.

VT National Guard--helicopters are a God send in places like Pittsfield and the engineers will fix cut roads.

The well known VERMONT SPIRIT--the can do Individualism, is making the difference!