21st Century Vision

General Election - We Shall Be Ready!

There was speculation in the Sunday Papers today that there could be a snap February General Election although 10 Downing Street has dismissed this as “idle speculation.” That probably means that there is active consideration in Government circles.

Whenever that election takes place then we plan to be ready. We hope to hold a number of online and realtime Hustings for the candidates in the four constituencies that we cover – Enfield North, Edmonton, Enfield Southgate and Chipping Barnet.

We shall be soon writing to candidates of the main parties in all of these four constituencies inviting them to take part and we will publish a special Weblog for the duration of the election period – probably opening as soon as January of next year.

We also plan to work with other organisations to hold some actual Hutsings in a venue within the Constituencies so that candidates can answer questions to a live audience.

Our aim is to ensure that issues surrounding the Iraq War together with development, human rights, the environment and the role of the UN in resolving conflict are centre stage during the General Election Campaign.

See February poll speculation ..

Join Us This Tuesday!

The next meeting of The Enfield & The Barnets UNA Book Group will be discussing Noam Chomsky’s book – Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest For Global Dominance. This will take place on Tuesday Nov 2nd at 8.0pm If you are interested then phone 0208 882 3621 for more details. Publishers Weekly said of this book,

In this highly readable, heavily footnoted critique of American foreign policy from the late 1950s to the present, Chomsky (whose 9-11 was a bestseller last year) argues that current U.S. policies in Afghanistan and Iraq are not a specific response to September 11, but simply the continuation of a consistent half-century of foreign policy-an "imperial grand strategy"-in which the United States has attempted to "maintain its hegemony through the threat or use of military force." Such an analysis is bound to be met with skepticism or antagonism in post-September 11 America, but Chomsky builds his arguments carefully, substantiates claims with appropriate documentation and answers expected counterclaims global magazine of politics and culture.

See more reviews..

Huge Iraqi Civilian Casualties

Today the Independent and other national papers have reported on The Lancet’s first scientific study of the human cost of the Iraq war that suggests that at least 100,000 Iraqis have lost their lives since their country was invaded in March 2003.

More than half of those who died were women and children killed in air strikes, researchers say. Previous estimates have put the Iraqi death toll at around 10,000 - ten times the 1,000 members of the British, American and multi-national forces who have died so far. But the study, published in The Lancet, suggested that Iraqi casualties could be as much as 100 times the coalition losses. It was also savagely critical of the failure by coalition forces to count Iraqi casualties.

The figures provoked a furious response last night in Westminster. Clare Short, the former cabinet minister who resigned over the war, said:

It is really horrifying. When will Tony Blair stop saying it is all-beneficial for the Iraqi people since Saddam Hussein has gone? How many more lives are to be taken? It is no wonder, given this tragic death toll, that the resistance to the occupation is growing.

We have all relied on Iraqi body counts from media reports. That is clearly an under-estimate and this shows that it was a very big under-estimate. It is truly dreadful. Tony Blair talks simplistically about it getting better in Iraq. These figures prove it is just an illusion.

See full story in The Indpendent..

Developing A Global Partnership

Taking Forward A Global Partnership Of Cities Threatened By Global Warming

We wrote to Members of the London Assembly in September to ask them if they would consider starting an alliance of cities endangered by global warming to put pressure on Governments to take what action is necessary and to engage in a massive campaign in public education on this. As a result Darren Johnson asked the Mayor, Ken Livingstone the following question.

Would you be willing to promote an alliance of cities threatened by the effects of climate change, such as Dhaka, New York and New Orleans, and including London, to put pressure on governments to take action and engage in a wide-ranging public education campaign, as proposed by Enfield and the Barnets United Nations Association?

Ken Livingstone gave this reply, which was very encouraging. We will be writing to other Assembly members now to see if we can follow this up so that action is taken.

London has a Friendship Agreement with Dhaka and a Partnership Agreement with New York. Through the medium of these Agreements, London is able to work on areas of mutual interest with both cities and share good practice. The idea of a partnership between cities threatened by the effects of climate change is an interesting one and I will ask the Climate Change Partnership and my officers in the GLA International team to consider how we can take this forward.

Paths To Globalisation

We recently questioned Theresa Villiers MEP about Globalisation and its adverse effects on the developing world pointing out that the free trade argument in a world dominated by non free trade corporations was rather idealistic. We tried to underline the dangers of Washington dominated globalisation both to the environment and to the developing world.

In making the point, we were probably not being totally fair to Theresa as she does not seem to be an advocate of the so called “Washington Consensus.” She argues that there must be structural changes if the developed world is to benefit from any advantages of globalisation. She tells us,

As part of a global society, we should consider those in the developing world as our neighbours. We have a duty to help our neighbours grow and prosper. We need responsible globalisation. The responsibility of western countries is to open up our markets to the developing world. For a sustainable solution to poverty we need a serious commitment to the end of tariffs and protectionism. It is a scandal that, for every dollar that western countries give in overseas aid, developing countries lose two dollars through barriers to their exports.

The European Union has been one of the greatest offenders in excluding developing countries from participating in European markets. There is simply no way that impoverished African farmers can compete with the subsidies given to farmers under the Common Agricultural Policy.

Reading Theresa’s answer in full does suggest that like John Gray, the author of “False Dawn,” Theresa believes that there are alternative approaches to globalisation that need to be relevant and appropriate to those engaged. This is widely different from the American unipolar model of “Washington Consensus” globalisation dominating the world agenda at the moment.

See Theresa’s answer in full ..

Mexico And Globalisation

A UN report has shown that Mexico has some of the highest and the lowest standards of living in the world. Some parts of Mexico City could be compared to Spanish or German cities, the study found, but other parts were more like the poorest parts of Africa. The UN Development Programme study found that more needed to be done to close the nation's wealth gap.

Joseph Stiglitz the World Bank Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Feb 1997 to Feb 2000 has argued that with globalisation when the US sneezes then the rest of the world particularly South American catches flu. Stiglitz has been a critic of the "Washington Consensus" version of globalisation that is being forced on developing countries.On Mexico, Stiglitz argues,

Poor Mexican corn farmers face an uphill battle competing with highly subsidized American corn, while relatively better-off Mexican city dwellers benefit from lower corn prices. And as all but one of Mexico's major banks have been sold to foreign banks, local small- and medium-sized enterprises — particularly in non-export sectors like small retail — worry about access to credit.

Growth in Mexico over the past 10 years has been a bleak 1 percent on a per capita basis — better than in much of the rest of Latin America, but far poorer than earlier in the century. From 1948 to 1973, Mexico grew at an average annual rate of 3.2 percent per capita. (By contrast, in the 10 years of Nafta, even with the East Asian crisis, Korean growth averaged 4.3 percent and China's 7 percent in per capita terms.)

And while the hope was that Nafta would reduce income disparities between the United States and its southern neighbor, in fact they have grown — by 10.6 percent in the last decade. Meanwhile, there has been disappointing progress in reducing poverty in Mexico, where real wages have been falling at the rate of 0.2 percent a year.

See more on UN report ..
See Stiglitz article on “the broken promise of NAFTA” ..

George & Tony's Fairy Tale

Once upon a time George Bush and Tony Blair made up a fairy story that a war in Iraq would “make the world safe for heroes.” Weapons of mass destruction would be found and embargoed and we would all sleep better in our beds!

Yesterday another plank was taken from under that fairy tale when The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told us that Nearly 350 tons of conventional explosives have vanished from a former military complex in Iraq.

The IAEA said the US-led coalition had been warned about the danger posed by the explosives on several occasions. It says the coalition forces were specifically told to keep the material secured.
"Our main concern is that if the materials fall into the wrong hands they could be used to commit terrorist acts," a spokesman added. He said the explosives had been kept under seal by the IAEA until the US-led invasion of Iraq, after which point it had not been allowed to access the site.

The IAEA earlier this month raised concerns over the disappearance of nuclear equipment and materials from Iraq's main nuclear site, Tuwaitha.

See full story ..
See Daily Kos Blog on this ..

The Problem For MPs

Sometimes it is difficult to understand why so many Labour MPs have been so faithful to their own Government over the Iraq War and its aftermath. It is a war that was and is condemned by the vast majority of world public opinion, the reasons for engaging in it have been rejected and the consequences have been horrific – and yet still many MPs follow their leader like the pied piper. So why?

Many years ago a Yale University psychologist, Stanley Milgram, carried out what became a world famous experiment. The experiment showed that when a number of “teachers” were asked to administer a lethal electric shock to an actor/learner by an authority figure then most did. Sixty percent of the "teachers" obeyed orders to punish the learner to the very end of the 450-volt scale! No subject stopped before reaching 300 volts!

In British politics and particularly the Labour and Conservative Parties, tribal loyalties are very strong and in the Labour Party most of all loyalty to the leader is often paramount. Unlike the Conservative Party, Labour rarely if ever gets rid of its leader. He is the authority figure. So when he says the War is moral and that care will be taken over civilian casualties then many an MP believes him, as he is their leader and authority figure. Why should they not believe him? That in real life many casualties are suffering and dying and the consequences of war are a disaster rarely crosses the mind of many MPs sufficiently enough to question it. They go on administering the 450-volt shock because the leader says it won’t hurt too much!

But the deference of the tribal animal is not the only reason for such unquestionable loyalty. There are other equally strong reasons. There are the obvious ones of Prime Ministerial patronage, career ambitions and the pressures of the Whip’s office but there are also other perhaps stronger reasons for tribal fidelity.

Much has been made recently of MPs salaries and expenses. A half a century ago, MPs were paid only just above the national average wage but today with expenses they have a very comfortable living indeed. We also know that the fate of many an MP who loses his or her seat is not an attractive one and highly paid jobs do not exist for all of them out there in the open market. So the fear of losing their comfortable life style is a very real one and paying MPs more in both salary and expenses rather than making them more independent has added to the pressure of making them more deferential. They will be loyal so they can hang on to their seats and their income unless loyalty threatens that very status.

Add to that the fact that MPs live in a world where decisions are made increasingly on a global scale and across national boundaries then many MPs are left questioning their role. Their legislative function in real terms is diminishing so politics becomes more of a game than a reality to them – and loyalty creates reward points in that game that hopefully can be redeemed by Prime Ministerial approval.

Today it takes a brave MP to become a rebel and with an independent mind question the executive in the manner they should. Rebellion and awkward questions are an irritation to the centralised executive of the modern state and should be avoided at all costs. So MPs are left floundering and always made to consider their position and they are forced to play the game. The House of Commons today often reflects a “Big Brother” environment – a group of people locked in together divorced from the real world and happily interacting with each other in front of the cameras of the nation. Maybe we should ban elections and just vote each week for one MP to be expelled – eventually leaving one winner who earns the nation’s hugs.

Reform is desperately needed if our political system is to mean anything substantial to people anymore and one major priority for reform is to have independent minded MPs who are not afraid to be different and to question authority. They have to learn to protest that 450-volts can kill.

Francis Sealey

The BioTerror Threat

Today the Independent carries a story about the dangers and threat of bioterror and reports the BMA is calling for an International Agreement. One thing is clear and that is that the USA is developing biological weapons and would have to be part of any agreement – and it has excluded itself from many other agreements on for example small arms and nuclear proliferation.

We have to somehow get the USA away from the doctrine of pre- emptive or preventive strike to one of international agreement and wanting to tackle the causes of terror in the world. It seems clear that the more confrontational we are then the more certain bioterror weapons will be used. There is no alternative but negotiation and agreement. Any other way is suicidal. Unfortunately the UK tends to follow the Americans on this.

Below is the extract from the Independent.

The world faces a growing risk that terrorists will use new biological weapons created by genetic engineering, the British Medical Association will warn this week.Advances in research make it more likely that virulent and lethal forms of influenza and laboratory-enhanced strains of smallpox could be used as weapons, the BMA claims.

The warnings are spelt out in a report on the threat posed by biological warfare, released tomorrow by the BMA. The association, which represents 128,000 GPs and medics, will call for international action to curb the threat posed by these weapons. Dr Vivienne Nathanson, the BMA's head of science and ethics, said: "We have a small window of opportunity to make the world safer. The fact is that window is getting smaller."

The report lists a series of recent experiments creating lethal new viruses and bugs. The BMA will argue there are grounds for using biowarfare tests to find defences against threats from terrorist and rogue states. But it warns there are no international treaties to control these tests.

It is understood the BMA report will focus on recent tests including:

* Russian admissions that they created genetically enhanced anthrax.

* The creation by US scientists of a new type of smallpox - which is eradicated worldwide by a global vaccination programme - from the vaccine itself. This new bug, called SPICE, is 100 times more potent than the original.

* A new generation of weapons designed to attack the human nervous system or immune system with "catastrophic effects", perhaps using genetically modified natural toxins.

Go to article ..

Iraqi Child Victims of War

Hackney Empire - Gala Concert in aid of Iraqi Child Victims of War. Monday 1st November 7.30pm - Proceeds to help finance a children's rehabilitation centre in Fallujah

Performers include -

Medici Quartet (they will play Mozart's Quartet in G and the Ravel Quartet)

Olivier Pons (violin) and Annika Palm (piano) (will perform Paganini's Introduction and Rossini's Theme and Variation on I Palpiti)

Moscow Piano Trio (flying to London especially for the concert, will play an unspecified work by Shostakovich and the world premiere of Cry Jerusalem by the Jordanian composer M.I Quandour)

Tickets from £10 - £50 - Hackney Empire Box Office 020 8985 2424