November 2009
Vol 9, No.11
THE UNITED STATES AND THE EAST ASIA COMMUNITY What role the United States should play in a future East Asia Community was apparently one of the unresolved issues at the recent 16 nation East Asia Summit (EAS) in Hua Hin, Thailand. The truth is the US is already a significant player in the region. This is not just the result of the deep economic and political ties that the US enjoys with most of the 10 ASEAN states, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand. Huge American military bases with tens of thousands of soldiers and some of the most sophisticated weaponry on earth, are spread throughout Asia and the Pacific. The US has over the years forged security alliances with some of the governments in the region and continues to sell arms to many of them. Neither the EAS, nor ASEAN plus Three, (China, Japan and South Korea) nor ASEAN itself — the driving force behind the other two formations— has, at the collective level, questioned the overwhelming US military presence. The US quest for global hegemony —
By Chandra Muzaffar military power is a critical pillar of this—has never been on the formal agenda of any of the meetings of these groupings. And yet, East Asia has also been a victim of the push for global dominance and control. It was because of a tussle precipitated by the desire for hegemony that the Korean Peninsula was partitioned in 1953. More than four million people were killed mainly in Vietnam, but also in Cambodia and Laos in the sixties and seventies largely because of the politics of hegemony. In Indonesia, a million people were massacred in the wake of a right-wing coup in 1965 related to hegemonic politics. In the Philippines, US hegemonic power helped to perpetuate the power of a corrupt and greedy dictator for 14 years before he was ousted by a popular uprising in 1986. Other direct and indirect consequences of hegemony also manifest themselves in East Asia. The global climate change crisis and the global economic crisis are inextricably linked to hegemony just
as hegemony is the barrier to both the emergence of global democracy and the universal application of international law in a number of spheres. It is partly because of US and Western hegemony that the autonomous intellectual development of Asia—- in spite of its profoundly rich philosophical values — has been stymied. If the present generation of political leaders in East Asia are generally less critical of hegemony— compared to say a new crop of leaders in Latin America— it is mainly because the region’s relationship with the US appears to have brought a degree of prosperity to segments of society. It is true that easy access to the huge American consumer market, and massive American investments in East Asia are among the many reasons that explain the spectacular growth of Singapore, Korea, China, and other economies in the region. Nonetheless, in Hua Hin, East Asian leaders readily acknowledged that they Turn to next page
STATEMENT
ARTICLES
ARRESTING DR ASRI: AN ACT OF INJUSTICE ........... The arrest of former Perlis
MUSLIM ‘TERRORISTS’ MANUFACTURED BY THE MEDIA
Mufti, Dr. Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin raises disturbing questions. .........................................................P.2
ARTICLES By Sanen Marshall ..................................... page 3 OR
EXTINCTION?
By Guy R McPherson
THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS THE ROLE OF RELIGION
AND
By Hans Köchler....................................... page 8
ISRAEL NEEDS ANOTHER WAR APOCALYPSE
By Yoginder Sikand ................................... page 5
............................. page 4
THE
DEMISE OF THE
By Robert Fisk
DOLLAR
..................................... page 10
TRAGIC PARADOX
OF
OUR TIMES
By Unknown Author .................................. page 11
2 I N T E R N AT I O N A L
MOVEMENT
continued from page 1
could no longer rely upon the US and the West to consume the cheap goods produced in their region since the latter’s economic recovery was slow and impeded by major structural obstacles. It is worth observing that if cheap consumer goods from Asia help to sustain a certain lifestyle in the West today, there was a time when cheap raw materials from the region propelled the West’s industrialization and economic development. The realization that instead of remaining a mere supplier of goods, East Asia has to strengthen domestic demand and become less dependent upon the West is a positive sign. What this entails is raising the standard of living of the vast majority of the populace, redistributing wealth more equitably, focusing upon scientific research and technological innovation, and enhancing regional trade and cooperation. At Hua Hin, it was even proposed that East Asia establish its own currency in order to strengthen its financial independence This sort of thinking began developing
FOR
A
JUST
WORLD
in the aftermath of the 1998 Asian financial crisis when some governments in the region were rudely awakened to the fact that the IMF— an instrument of Western hegemony— was more interested in protecting Western banks than in salvaging the devastated Asian economies. Governments in East Asia should now demonstrate even greater determination to safeguard their nations’ independence and to stave off hegemony for a reason that may seem paradoxical. US hegemony is declining. Its own economic and social malaise; its inability to impose its will upon others, in spite of its military supremacy, especially in the Middle East; the revolt of the masses against US dominance in much of Latin America; and the ascendancy of a number of other centres of power such as China, India and Russia, all indicate that the era of overbearing US power is coming to an end. One should not expect this declining power — to use an analogy from those
MAIN ARTICLE cowboy movies that were part of its propaganda in the heyday of its hegemony— to ride quietly into the sunset. It is not inconceivable that the US will try to perpetuate its hegemonic power by seeking to dominate East Asia, the planet’s most dynamic region that accounts for more than 50 percent of the world’s foreign currency reserves. There is a precedent of sorts from recent history. When the British empire— once the world’s most powerful empire— discovered that though victorious in the second world war it was totally emasculated, it sought to resurrect itself by hitching on to the US wagon, the world’s most powerful nation. In the last 60 odd years, Britain has played a pivotal role in most of the US’s imperial designs. We have to be wary of this: hegemonic powers sometimes reincarnate themselves! 1 November 2009 Dr.Chandra Muzaffar is Professor of Global Studies at Unversiti Sains Malaysia and President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST).
STATEMENT ARRESTING DR ASRI: AN ACT OF INJUSTICE The arrest of former Perlis Mufti, Dr. Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin raises disturbing questions. One, isn’t it unjust to arrest a person and take him to court while investigations on him are still ongoing? Two, doesn’t this smack of arbitrariness and high-handedness, and doesn’t it erode established judicial norms and the rule of law? Three, wasn’t the deployment of an extraordinarily large number of JAIS staff and police personnel a show of force which is tantamount to abuse of power? Four, since Asri has been giving talks in Selangor and elsewhere for a while
now, what was the reason for arresting him at this point in time? Five, was the arrest a well orchestrated move by certain religious authorities, backed by some Muslim NGOs, to dissuade the federal government from going ahead with the appointment of Asri as the new head of a potentially influential Islamic dakwah foundation, YADIM? Six, if this was the motive, doesn’t it show that there are religious institutions and groups in the country that are intolerant of views on Islam which are different from theirs, however humane and rational some of these views may be, and however well grounded they are in the Qur’an? Seven, isn’t such intolerance a betrayal
of the respect for differences of opinion, and for dissent, embodied in Quranic Thought and in the practice of the Prophet? It is important to ask these questions because Asri’s crude and coarse treatment echoes the authoritarianism of certain groups in other parts of the Muslim world that has led to tension and conflict. This is why any attempt by any group to monopolize religion and marginalize alternative voices should be checked immediately. It was one of the causes of the closing of the Muslim mind in past centuries and was partly responsible for the decline of Islamic civilization. 4 November 2009 Chandra Muzaffar
3 I N T E R N AT I O N A L
MOVEMENT
FOR
A
JUST
A R T I C L E S
WORLD
ISRAEL NEEDS ANOTHER WAR By Sanen Marshall The failure of the September summit negotiations between President Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Barrack Obama of America has the potential to expose the true cause of the continuing IsraeliPalestinian conflict. Democratic President Obama has come into office hoping to make inroads into today’s Israeli-Palestinian stalemate that is the result of the abysmal failure of former US Republican President George Bush’s ‘Road Map.’ Thus, unlike the Bush administration, the Obama administration initially opted to give a voice to a basic Palestinian concern: Israel must freeze settlement-building activity in the Occupied Territories. A little backtracking, however, is necessary for any President of America when meeting face to face with the Prime Minister of Israel who is supported by powerful lobby groups in the US. In the immediate aftermath of the summit, where Netanyahu refused to concede, Obama modified his administration’s demands for Israel to ‘restrain’ rather than ‘freeze’ settlement activity while at the same time charging Palestinians with the ambiguous responsibility ‘to stop incitement.’ Since Israel ended its war on Gaza in January, there has been very little in the way of armed retaliation from Gaza. Palestinian methods of resistance at this juncture are increasingly diplomatic. Palestinians are hoping to get the UN Human Rights Council to endorse of a report attesting to the crimes committed by Israel during the war on Gaza. If they succeed through the popular vote at the Human Rights Council, this UN agency would be required to forward the report to the UN Security Council for action. Knowing the way that America and its allies have manipulated, misused and circumvented the Security Council in the past, it is unlikely that anything would have come of this. But even a debate in the Security Council on this issue would be damaging to Israel. It
would bring to the fore the issue of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, which is something that Israel would be anxious to avoid. It might yet happen. Although the Palestinian Authority under the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas has controversially chosen to defer putting forward the motion to endorse the report, there is still a chance that when the Council reconvenes in March 2010, the Palestinians will receive the support they need to get the endorsement. Netanyahu must be worried. He knows that the Human Rights Council is a UN agency that is less prone to ignoring the plight of the Palestinians. Over a thousand Palestinians died during Israel’s war on Gaza, up to one-half of them civilians. Netanyahu knows that the longer the stalemate with the Palestinians lasts the more likely it is that ordinary people will begin to understand that it is really the state of Israel and not the Palestinians who are the impediment to peace. This is important as most international news outlets today continue to depict a convoluted picture of what is happening in the Occupied Territories. Again, to refer to the 2008/2009 war on Gaza, many are oblivious to the fact that it was Israel who broke the IsraelHamas ceasefire that in early November 2009 was only in its fourth month. In that month, by launching an attack that killed six Hamas fighters, Israel had effectively resumed hostilities. Hamas, which is operating in a strangulated Gaza, retaliated sometime later with rockets. This brought on the Israeli bombing of Gaza targets, some of which involved the use of white phosphorous. Human Rights Watch, an Americanbased non-governmental organisation, has publicly accused Israel of using white phosphorous. This claim is backed up by munitions experts. Interestingly, Israeli spokespersons, who at first flatly denied its use, later modified their views, attesting that any weapon that Israel used in the Gaza
bombing was in accordance with international law. It defies logic that white phosphorous, a weapon that may not even be used against enemy combatants (soldiers), could be lawfully used in Gaza. Gaza has a population density of well over 4000 persons per square kilometre. Israel desperately needs a distraction. The second intifada (uprising), now in its ninth year, is being complemented by public campaigns and diplomatic efforts in major cities across the world. As Israeli spokespersons try to capitalise on the issue of Hamas terrorism, Palestinians continue to demand that the UN prosecute Israel for war-crimes. In Netanyahu’s recent address to the UN, he took the opportunity to vilify the Human Rights Council and chastise Iran for seeking nuclear weapons. President Obama had one day earlier begun the nonproliferation rhetoric by speaking of his dream of a world without nuclear weapons. Netanyahu was more than happy to pick up the theme with his charge of that Iran embodied the ‘greatest threat facing the world today’ because of the ‘the marriage between religious fanaticism and the weapons of mass destruction. As if on cue, the very next day Obama and the premiers of Britain and France announced that Iran had been hiding a secret nuclear facility. Iran admitted to possessing a near-operational facility but announced that it was willing to let the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspect it. The outlines of the political shenanigans that led to continued next page
4 I N T E R N AT I O N A L
MOVEMENT
continued from page 3
the war on Iraq in 2003 are now reappearing on the horizon. Next move? Tougher sanctions on Iran, then more intrusive inspections, and then perhaps a UN Security Council resolution authorising all necessary measures to deal with Iran if it refuses to comply fully and immediately with the IAEA. What is most ironic in this entire process is that neither Obama nor any other Western leader is willing to deal with the question of Israel’s nuclear weapons, which are variously estimated at between 100 to 200 warheads.
FOR
A
JUST
WORLD
Back in the mid-1980s, Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli technician who had worked for almost a decade at the Dimona plant in the Negev Desert in Israel, provided convincing evidence of Israel’s nuclear weapons production. He presented his testimony and the photographs he had secretly taken to top-notch American and British nuclear scientists contracted by a UK newspaper to verify Vanunu’s claims. As in the case of the use of white phosphorous in the recent war on Gaza, Israel is today neither admitting nor denying its possession of nuclear weapons. It has also steadfastly refused
A R T I C L E S to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of which even Iran, which is supposed to harbour nuclear weapons ambitions, is a member. Netanyahu’s vilification of Iran is thus a high-stakes gamble that could backfire on Israel. But with the Palestinians agitating relentlessly for justice, Israel needs to produce a big distraction in the international arena that would sideline Palestinian efforts. It should come before March 2010. 12 October 2009 Sanen Marshall is a member of JUST
APOCALYPSE
OR EXTINCTION? By Guy R McPherson
Your medical doctor informs you: “You need to stop all industrial activities immediately, or you’ll be dead in twenty years. And so will your fiveyear-old child. You might die anyway — after all, nobody gets out alive — but your death is guaranteed if you do not stop relying on fossil fuels for travel, heating and cooling, water from the tap, and food from the grocery store.” Naturally, you go straight from the clinic to the nearest store. You need liquor, and time to ponder whether the trade-off is worth it. About two years ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) announced we were committed to warming the planet by about 1 C by the end of this century. Never mind that we were almost there when they reached this profound conclusion. Simply for elucidating the obvious, the IPCC was granted a share of the Nobel Peace Prize (climate crusader Al Gore received the other half). About a year ago, the Hadley Centre for Meteorological Research provided an update, indicating that, in the absence of complete economic collapse, we’re committed to a global average temperature increase of 2 C. Considering the associated feedbacks, such an increase likely spells extinction
of the “wise” ape.
Last month, the United Nations Environment Programme concluded we’re committed to an increase of 3.5 C by 2100, thus leaving little doubt about human extinction by then. Last week, Chris West of the University of Oxford’s UK Climate Impacts Programme indicated we can kiss goodbye 2 C as a target: four is the new two, and it’s coming by mid-century. In a typical disconnect from reality, the latest scenarios do not include potential tipping points such as the release of carbon from northern permafrost or the melting of undersea methane hydrates. Giving the response I’ve come to expect from politicians, the Obama administration calls any attempt to reduce emissions “not grounded in political reality.” Have you noticed a set of patterns? Each assessment is quickly eclipsed by another, fundamentally more dire set of
scenarios. Every scenario is far too optimistic because each is based on conservative approaches to scenario development. And every bit of dire news is met by the same political response. Is there any doubt we will try to kill every species on the planet, including our own, by the middle of this century? At this point, it is absolutely necessary, but probably not sufficient, to bring down the industrial economy. It’s no longer merely the lives of your grandchildren we’re talking about. Depending on your age, it’s the lives of your children or you. If you’re 60 or younger, it’s you. In 2002, as I edited a book about global climate change, I concluded we had set events in motion that would cause our own extinction, probably by 2030. I mourned for months, to the bewilderment of the three people who noticed. About five years ago, I was elated to learn about a hail-Mary pass that just might allow our persistence for a few more generations: Peak oil and its economic consequences might bring the industrial economy to an overdue close, just in time. If we abandon the industrial culture of death, we might persist until your children are old enough to die a continued next page
5 I N T E R N AT I O N A L
MOVEMENT
continued from page 4
“normal” death. But the odds are long and the time short. Barack Obama epitomizes the actions of every politician in the world by ensuring, with every political act, a miserable future and insufferable death for his wife and children.
FOR
A
JUST
WORLD
Now I mourn because the solution is right in front of us, yet we run from it. We fail to recognize our salvation for what it is, believing it to be dystopia instead of utopia. Are we waiting for the last human on the planet to start the crusade? 16 October 2009
MUSLIM ‘TERRORISTS’ MANUFACTURED
A R T I C L E S Guy R. McPherson is Profesor Emeritus at the University of Arizona. Educated in the ecology and management of natural resources. In addition, he facilitates research by students. Source: Countercurrents.org http:// countercurrents.org/mcpherson161009.htm
BY THE
MEDIA
By Yoginder Sikand It is not just the ‘loony’ ‘vernacular’ media, as many are given to believe, but even the ‘respectable’, ‘mainstream’, ‘national’ Englishlanguage press in India that have sedulously cultivated the notion of ‘Islamic terrorism,’ so much so that the image of Muslims in general being either terrorists or their sympathizers enjoys wide currency today. While it is true that some of the most dastardly terror attacks that India has witnessed in recent years have been the handiwork of some Muslims—and this is something that the vast majority of the Indian Muslims themselves deplore—it is also undeniable that Muslims have been unfairly blamed for many other attacks or alleged ‘terror plots’ by the police as well as the media in which they have had no role to play at all. Many Muslims—and others, too—believe that these false allegations are not innocent errors, but can be said to represent a deliberate and concerted effort to defame and demonise an entire community and the religion with which it is associated. That, precisely, is what a recentlyreleased report, brought out by a team of secular, leftist non-Muslim activists from Karnataka argues. Titled ‘Media on Terror’, and issued by the activist group ‘Column 9’ [so named, the report says, because in a standard newspaper of eight columns, issues and perspectives that deserve a column of their own generally go missing), it is a detailed examination of the coverage and projection of ‘terrorism’ in the state of Karnataka. It is based on an analysis of the reporting of ‘terrorism’ in the Bangalore editions of leading Kannada and English
newspapers over several months in 2008, supplemented with in-depth interviews with journalists, stringers and police officials in Honnali, Davangere, Hubli, Kalghatgi and Bangalore—places where, the media had reported, ‘terrorists’—all of them incidentally Muslims—had been apprehended. This was a period when the media was awash with stories of Muslim ‘terrorists’ allegedly plotting to ‘take over’ the whole of Karnataka. A striking finding of the report is that the media in Karnataka, both Kannada and English, ‘dangerously seemed to pronounce judgments on those arrested, much before the due process of law was played out’. In fact, the report says, there was ‘no material basis to most of the news reports’. The tone of their reporting was sharply ‘jingoistic’, and ‘none of the standards’ expected of professional journalism ‘seemed to be in evidence’. Alleged terrorists—in many cases innocent Muslim youths arbitrarily picked up by the police—were subjected to ‘media trials’ based simply on unsubstantiated police claims. The report speaks of ‘the blurring of lines between police officials and investigative journalists, who seemed to pre-empt “official” investigation.’ The language and rhetoric used in the reporting reflected, the report says, an obvious and deeprooted bias against Muslims, and a deliberate effort to create a sense of siege among Hindus. Scores of sensational stories of Muslims being picked up for being ‘suspected’ terrorists published in the Karnataka media were based on information allegedly received from
what were routinely called ‘highly placed police officials’ or ‘intelligence bureau officials’. Predictably, the report says, the names of these police or investigating officials were not provided, which meant that these stories—many of which were patently fabricated—could not be substantiated by these officials. In numerous instances, the reports were based on ‘news’ wholly manufactured by reporters and stringers, as evidenced from the denials that emerged from the police officials themselves a day after these reports were published, which many papers chose to ignore. In almost all such cases, the newspapers did not bother to issue an apology despite irrefutable confirmation of their falsity. In most instances where the stories about alleged Muslim terrorists were based on information supplied by the police, journalists simply asked no questions at all as to the process of investigation that took place within the police stations despite it being common knowledge that torture is widely used by the police in such cases to extract information or else to force detainees to admit to crimes that they have had no hand in. Consequently, the arrested Muslims were uncritically presented in the media as ‘hardcore Islamist continued next page
6 I N T E R N AT I O N A L
MOVEMENT
FOR
A
JUST
WORLD
continued from page 5
terrorists’, even without the courts having made their judgments. By presenting no version other than that of the police, the report remarks, the ‘investigative’ aspect of journalism in Karnataka on the matter of alleged Muslim involvement in ‘terrorism’ has in fact been reduced to what it calls ‘stenographic reporting’. The report adds that the few journalists who tried to balance the stories with the other views about reported incidents about Muslim ‘terrorism’ or foiled ‘terrorist plots’ rarely found space in the newspapers. In this regard, it is significant to note that, as the report says, it was mainly at the lower-rungs of the police that journalists depended for their ‘stories’ (often, for a price it suggests). The journalists interviewed by the team that commissioned the report confirmed that to sustain their relations with police constables they needed to ‘keep them happy’ and desist from ‘undertaking any steps to antagonize them’. This, the report points out, greatly affected the credibility of their reports since they assumed the police version as valid and often failed to critique or to ask any questions about that version. The report adds: ‘Across the board, journalists specifically mentioned lower rung police officials, including constables and head constables within the concerned police stations, as sources of information. The journalists’ access to these police officials was determined entirely on the basis of their personal rapport and connections staked out within the police stations. It was fairly obvious that the journalists nurtured these relationships with the officials very carefully since the relationships were the base for a potential “exclusive” story”[…] Despite the team’s repeated questions seeking names of police officials who acted as sources of information, not a single reporter was willing to share these details.’ Another alarming finding of the report was the arbitrary branding by both the police and the media of literature and
CDs allegedly seized by the police from the Muslims who had been arrested as ‘jihadi materials’. These were presented as ‘proof’ of those arrested as being behind acts of terror or even as would-be terrorists. In many cases, the police officials simply refused to share the material with journalists, at most showing them only photos of the covers of books seized from the arrested Muslims. Amazingly, the report relates, according to the journalists they interviewed, ‘evidence of the books indeed being jihadi materials lay in the fact that most were books written in Urdu.’ In one location where alleged Muslim terrorists had been arrested and so-called jihadi material recovered from them, journalists interviewed by the team mentioned that the police had produced a panel of Urdu experts at a press briefing to confirm that the seized materials were indeed ‘jihadi’. Strikingly, none of the journalists had any clue about the identity of these socalled Urdu ‘experts’. A journalist in Honnali spoke about a particular CD that was seized by the police from an arrested Muslim, whom the police and the media had alleged was a ‘terrorist’. Far from being incendiary material, as was alleged, the CD, it turned out, was actually about an orphanage. Another journalist provided the team that had prepared the report a photograph taken on a mobile phone, where they could read the titles of two books since they were printed in English—one of these was ‘The Spirit of Islam’ and the other was the ‘Holy Quran’, books that, needless to say, are not proscribed and are readily available in the market. In this regard, the report rightly asks, ‘How can possession of the Holy Koran be presented as proof that the
A R T I C L E S people owning them are suspected terrorists? Why weren’t any questions or objections raised about this new tendency of the Indian police who chose to present the possession of the Holy Koran as proof of possible terrorism?’. Thus, the report argues, ‘It was very clear that the journalists had labeled books and other seized materials primarily on the basis of their interactions with the police and, to some extent, on the basis of internalized personal prejudice’. Yet another striking finding of the report is that not a single journalist whom the team met and who had reported on the arrest of alleged Muslim terrorists had received clear instructions or editorial guidelines pertaining to coverage of sensitive issues such as terrorism from their respective editorial chiefs. Many journalists spoke of the pressure to meet the evening deadlines for daily reports, and so, they admitted, there were several occasions when they did not have the time to verify the claims of police officials in cases of real or alleged terrorist attacks or plots, and merely carried police version without cross-checking. Equally distressingly, the report unveiled, reporters located in regions that usually received no print space or attention in the press found themselves catapulted to attention through the sensationalist, and often false, reports that they filed during the time of the arrests’ and got front page coverage. The reporters also mentioned the pressure exerted on them by the state bureau chiefs to file reports that were “exclusive” to the organisation. This conduced, the report says, to sensationalism and even to the fabrication of reports. As the report puts it, ‘In the consequent oneupmanship created by the pressure to perform within the confines of a profit-driven industry, the journalists admitted to several compromises on the articles’ authenticity and their contents.’ Some journalists interviewed unanimously admitted that the reports they had filed were intentionally sensationalist in nature. According to them, what was of continued next page
7 I N T E R N AT I O N A L
MOVEMENT
FOR
A
JUST
WORLD
continued from page 6
paramount importance was for them to ‘prove’ that the arrested persons were in fact guilty, that they were in fact members of ‘Islamist terrorist’ organisations, even much before the courts were given the chance to lay down their verdicts. Sadly, as the report says, these reporters saw their ‘sensationalist reporting’, not as a crime, but, rather, as ‘a service that they were rendering to the nation’— they claimed that in this way they were exposing ‘hardened criminals’ and potential terrorists who were capable of inflicting much harm to society. One of the persons interviewed by the team, the reporter for the Kannada Prabha in Hubli, openly admitted that ‘60% of the reports that he had filed were false and inaccurate’. Similarly, the Hubli reporter for the Times of India admitted to using a photograph of an unrelated dargah with his report about an alleged Muslim terrorist camp, and and falsely described the flag near the dargah as a Pakistani one. In fact, it so turned out, the correspondent himself had never been to the location. In an incident in coastal Karnataka, after two Muslim men were paraded naked and brutally assaulted in public by Hindu Yuva Sena activists for transporting cows, a Muslim protest rally was taken out in Udipi. Kannada papers falsely alleged that the demonstrators had unfurled a Pakistani flag and raised proPakistan slogans and, without any evidence, accused them of being linked to Al-Qaeda and the Lashkar-e Tayyeba. Although the police denied these claims, the papers pressed on with their accusations. In another bizarre case, a Muslim man from Bangalore associated with the Muslim IT Association was wrongly accused by the Times of India of being linked to a terrorist organization. Despite these blatant falsehoods, the report notes with distress, in the overwhelming majority of cases the newspapers did not issue any apologies or acknowledge their (possibly deliberate) errors. The team also met with senior police officials in Bangalore and Davangere.
It found that ‘they appeared to be less concerned and engaged with the prevention of biased media reporting and introspection into the role of the police.’ They argued that it was not the responsibility of the police to challenge inaccurate reports filed by
..... The report indicates that journalists in Karnataka (and this probably holds true for the rest of the country) typically see terrorism as a specifically Muslim phenomenon, and do not even consider the possibility of Hindu ‘terrorists’ ..... journalists, and that this was also timeconsuming. The SP of Davangere, the report says, ‘readily acknowledged the leakage of information to the press through the lower rung officials though they were expressly forbidden from doing so.’ She admitted its continuance despite the issuing of a whip asking all police officials below the rank of SP to refrain from interactions with journalists, and suggested that journalists should depend on official press communiqués released by SPs. Among the many cases of false framing of Muslims as ‘terrorists’ in Karnataka that the report highlights, one deserves special mention to indicate the deep-rootedness of antiMuslim prejudices in the state machinery, particularly since the BJP emerged as such a powerful force in Karnataka. The team met with judicial officer Jinaralkar at the judicial magistrate’s first class court at Honnali, where two Muslim youths, Abdullah and Nasir, had been arrested on grounds of allegedly being terrorists. Jinaralkar defended his awarding of the two to police custody, although they were initially arrested and presented as bike thieves, a decision the media highlighted and lauded, crediting the judge with foresight in identifying the arrested duo as ‘suspected terrorists’. The judge
A R T I C L E S explained his decision by stating that the material seized from them when they were arrested indicated that they might in fact have been terrorists, rather than bike-robbers as was initially claimed: duplicate identity cards, a dagger, a map of south India with red marks against Udupi and Goa, an American dollar, two pieces of paper, with the phrase www.com written on one and ‘Jungle King Behind Back Me’ on another. The judge told the team, ‘When I looked at these materials in their entirety, several things were clear to me. I felt that these were definitely not just bike thieves—why would bike thieves carry around duplicate identity cards and a map of south India? The fact that they had an American dollar seemed to indicate their international links, while the paper with www.com indicated that they were tech-savvy […] Definitely enough grounds in my opinion to grant the police their custody to facilitate their further investigations’ The report indicates that journalists in Karnataka (and this probably holds true for the rest of the country) typically see terrorism as a specifically Muslim phenomenon, and do not even consider the possibility of Hindu ‘terrorists’, although, as the report points out, in Karnataka today, particularly with the rise of the BJP, scores of incidents of terror against Muslims (as well as Dalits) by Hindu groups have been recorded. Predictably, the media does not describe these as instances of ‘Hindu terrorism’. This points to what the report terms as the dangerously marked ‘internalisation of Hindu nationalism’ by media professionals in Karnataka, and the projection by the media of the Hindutva lobby as the presumed ‘sole representative’ of the Hindus. 26 August 2009 Yoginder Sikand is an Indian writeracademic and the author of several books on Islam-related issues in India. Source: http://www.twocircles.net/
8 I N T E R N AT I O N A L
MOVEMENT
FOR
A
JUST
WORLD
A R T I C L E S THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS AND THE ROLE OF RELIGION By Hans Köchler
The metaphysical and dimensions of the economy
moral
Looking at the history of international economic exchanges, we observe repeated crises of the financial system in different epochs and under different social and political circumstances – as if man, when acting collectively, were unable to learn from his own errors. The global crisis we are confronted with today is not the first such event and will definitely not have been the last, as long as the human race focuses all its attention and concentrates most of its energies on the finite realm of the material and subordinates everything to the goal of wealth accumulation for its own sake. Instead of accepting that process’s intrinsic futility – in view of man’s rootedness in absolute reality –, he stubbornly engages in an effort that is nurtured by the fiction of endless progress in space and time. The dynamic of what can be described as historical “cycles of greed” (in terms of individual and collective action), culminating in periodic economic collapses (that are often and superficially perceived as “crashes” of a supposedly stable order), will condemn mankind to a perpetual struggle of Sisyphus, having to start anew after every collapse, only to fail again. The problems that are apparent in those cyclic systemic crashes cannot be solved within the parameters of a given system of economic and financial interaction. The respective order of the economy has to be viewed – and evaluated – from an outside perspective. This means that its norms and given assumptions have to be transcended towards a realm that is independent of the human economy’s system of finite transactions. It is characteristic of the modern “globalized” economy that its transactions are not only conducted as if there were no temporal limits, but also without due consideration of moral constraints. It should not surprise us that most economic experts and political leaders in the industrialized
world were unable to predict the present crisis – since they lacked the intellectual distance, or a point of reference outside the system, which is needed to adequately view and evaluate man’s economic activity. The apparent ignorance of the things to come of the World Economic Forum in Davos is a case in point. Furthermore, in the strict sense, there can be no morality as long as the contingent reality alone is seen as basis of all human action. Without being able to relate our understanding of the world (“life-world”) to an external system of reference, man will always end up with the postulation of mere utilitarian principles as parameters for all his actions and will not be able to conceive of genuine moral values as guidelines for human self-realization. The ongoing global financial crisis – which is also a systemic crisis of the materialistic and areligious worldview of a dogmatically understood “globalization” – is clear and dramatic proof of the lack of moral credibility as well as sustainability of an economic doctrine that closes the eyes to man’s finiteness and inevitable mortality within the physical world. This has also direct bearing on the status of the human being, i.e. the inalienable dignity of the human subject, which, in our analysis, can only be ensured in a metaphysically “open” context. Against this background of the (ontological) incompleteness of an exclusively secular worldview and that approach’s failure to detect the systemic (internal) contradictions of economic activity based on it, one can distinguish two fundamental aspects (or dimensions) of the relevance of religion for the analysis and evaluation of the contemporary economic and financial crisis: The metaphysical aspect: The dominant economic system’s internal “logic of greed” is based on the fictitious assumption that the accumulation of wealth can and eventually will go on indefinitely, an
approach that excludes all limits in space and time (as if life on earth was eternal) and often also rejects any constraints in terms of basic moral principles. It is in fact related to a linear understanding of progress, which has all along characterized the industrialized world’s ideology of “globalization.” Only religion, not any empirical science or social tradition, can “break” this irrational dynamic of greed, since it brings into human life an awareness of the absolute. Under the pressure to conform to an as yet undefined “modernity,” and to function as an “efficient” participant in the ever more competitive global economic environment, modern man has all too often excluded religion from everydaylife. The religious interpretation of the world goes indeed beyond an “innerworldly” (and exclusively secular) selfrealization of the human being and exposes the intrinsic futility of every effort, whether individual or collective, at amassing wealth for the sake of gaining personal security and fulfillment. Religion evaluates human activity, including all matters economical, sub specie aeternitatis [under the aspect of eternity] and provides an interpretation of this activity that makes us aware of its limits vis-à-vis the absolute reality, and of the ultimate vanity of all material endeavors. Regrettably, establishment religions in the industrialized world at times appear having forgotten the essentially metaphysical message of religion, refusing to question the selfish and arrogant exclusion of the transcendent by the advocates of economic “liberalism,” and resigning themselves to a rather opportunistic continued next page
9 I N T E R N AT I O N A L
MOVEMENT
FOR
A
JUST
WORLD
A R T I C L E S
continued from page 8
approach, which often makes institutionalized religion a mere corollary of a society that has become forgetful of its material limitations and, at the same time, of the ultimate destiny of man. The moral aspect: Unlike any worldly ideology, political program or economic doctrine, whether of capitalism or communism or a so-called “third way,” religion makes the members of the human race aware of their common destiny in the context of the universe – and beyond the lifespan of the individual as well as of any given society or civilization. The awareness of the absolute dimension of life implies, or is the foundation of, solidarity among individuals and groups (societies) at the global level, comprising all civilizations and sociocultural traditions. The moral aspect is intrinsically linked to the metaphysical aspect, it in fact results from the latter. The sense of common destiny that is generated by religion enables the members of the human race to commit themselves to a common purpose (i.e. one to which all human action is subordinated), which in turn paves the ground for solidarity among people of all creeds and cultures and helps modern man to escape from the trap of selfish isolation in which he got entangled due to the uncritical acceptance of the supremacy of the economy – or what may be called the ideology of “globalization” that appears having become the surrogate religion of the modern industrialized world. Any analysis of the global economic crisis that ignores these two aspects of religion will actually only be able to propose a cure of symptoms, but will not be capable to grasp the root causes of the crisis, and will thus be unable to offer lasting remedies that could prevent the recurrence of systemic instability in the future. Conclusion: “Transcending” the economic approach Thus, a sustainable solution to the crisis can never be found within the parameters of the present economic system, namely with the concepts of
the immanent worldview that has caused the very crisis. This would create a circulus vitiosus in the literal sense: a vicious circle of self-betrayal, within which no genuine normative critique of economic activity will be possible. The anarchic “network of greed” that the “globalized,” and highly interdependent, economy has become in our era – and mainly due to the uncoordinated interaction of individual and group interests, in total neglect of the bonum commune not only at the level of the nation-state, but of mankind – must be viewed and evaluated from outside of that system. This perspective can eventually only be provided by a worldview that goes beyond the parameters of the “lifeworld” (which is the subject of the empirical sciences), namely by a position that includes the absolute as point of reference for the definition of humanity.
global level too. Herein lies, in our view, the true meaning of “globality.” This approach alone may eventually enable mankind to overcome the entrenched attitudes of egotism and metaphysical nihilism, which have been at the origin of modern materialistic doctrines (whether communist or capitalist), and which can now be identified as the root causes of the systemic crisis of the global economy. As we know by now, this is indeed a crisis of what – particularly since the end of the Cold War’s rivalry between the capitalist and socialist worldviews – has been advertised as “globalization,” with Francis Fukuyama’s vision of the “end of history” as ideological consequence. In the meantime, he, like so many other apologists of dogmatic secular ideologies, has been proven a false prophet: ignoring the contingent nature of all human activity, he has created expectations that can never be fulfilled. The belief in all things material and the subordination of human life to the supremacy of the economy has, to a large extent, become the surrogate religion of the globalized and “secularized” society of the 21st century. It is up to the religions of the world to join their efforts so as to remind humanity of their common destiny in relation to the absolute. Under the prevailing circumstances, this will be a timely – and desperately needed – contribution to economic justice and peace among nations. 21 October 2009
This metaphysical dimension is largely wanting in today’s industrialized societies that proclaim the ideals of secularism and of unending economic progress. It is to be understood in an interdenominational sense. Awareness of their metaphysical origin unites people of all creeds and religions in the context of the universe and defines their identity by relating them to the absolute, instilling in them a sense of belonging to the same human race.
Department of Philosophy, University of Innsbruck, Austria. Member of the International Academy for Philosophy. President of the International Progress Organization. He is also a member of the JUST International Advisory Panel.
Only religion, not any worldly science or philosophy, however “enlightened” it may be, can provide this kind of comprehensive worldview, a position from which people can draw inspiration and motivation for joint action not only domestically, but at the
The above lecture was delivered at the Seventh Doha Interfaith Dialogue Conference “Human Solidarity”, organized by The Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID) Doha, State of Qatar, on 21 October 2009.
Dr. Hans Köchler is University Professor,
10 I N T E R N AT I O N A L
MOVEMENT
FOR
A
THE DEMISE
JUST
WORLD
OF THE By Robert Fisk
In a graphic illustration of the new world order, Arab states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using the US currency for oil trading In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar. Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars. The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices, but it also augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years. The Americans, who are aware the meetings have taken place – although they have not discovered the details – are sure to fight this international cabal which will include hitherto loyal allies Japan and the Gulf Arabs. Against the background to these currency meetings, Sun Bigan, China's former special envoy to the Middle East, has warned there is a risk of deepening divisions between China and the US over influence and oil in the Middle East. "Bilateral quarrels and clashes are unavoidable," he told the Asia and Africa Review. "We cannot lower vigilance against hostility in the Middle East over energy interests and security." This sounds like a dangerous prediction
A R T I C L E S
DOLLAR
of a future economic war between the US and China over Middle East oil – yet again turning the region's conflicts into a battle for great power supremacy. China uses more oil incrementally than the US because its growth is less energy efficient. The transitional currency in the move away from dollars, according to Chinese banking sources, may well be gold. An indication of the huge amounts involved can be gained from the wealth of Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar who together hold an estimated $2.1 trillion in dollar reserves. The decline of American economic power linked to the current global recession was implicitly acknowledged by the World Bank president Robert Zoellick. "One of the legacies of this crisis may be a recognition of changed economic power relations," he said in Istanbul ahead of meetings this week of the IMF and World Bank. But it is China's extraordinary new financial power – along with past anger among oilproducing and oil-consuming nations at America's power to interfere in the international financial system – which has prompted the latest discussions involving the Gulf states. Brazil has shown interest in collaborating in non-dollar oil payments, along with India. Indeed, China appears to be the most enthusiastic of all the financial powers involved, not least because of its enormous trade with the Middle East. China imports 60 per cent of its oil, much of it from the Middle East and Russia. The Chinese have oil production concessions in Iraq – blocked by the US until this year – and since 2008 have held an $8bn agreement with Iran to develop refining capacity and gas resources. China has oil deals in Sudan (where it has substituted for US interests) and
has been negotiating for oil concessions with Libya, where all such contracts are joint ventures. Furthermore, Chinese exports to the region now account for no fewer than 10 per cent of the imports of every country in the Middle East, including a huge range of products from cars to weapon systems, food, clothes, even dolls. In a clear sign of China's growing financial muscle, the president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, yesterday pleaded with Beijing to let the yuan appreciate against a sliding dollar and, by extension, loosen China's reliance on US monetary policy, to help rebalance the world economy and ease upward pressure on the euro. Ever since the Bretton Woods agreements – the accords after the Second World War which bequeathed the architecture for the modern international financial system – America's trading partners have been left to cope with the impact of Washington's control and, in more recent years, the hegemony of the dollar as the dominant global reserve currency. The Chinese believe, for example, that the Americans persuaded Britain to stay out of the euro in order to prevent an earlier move away from the dollar. But Chinese banking sources say their discussions have gone too far to be blocked now. "The Russians will eventually bring in the rouble to the continued next page
11 I N T E R N AT I O N A L
MOVEMENT
FOR
A
JUST
WORLD
A R T I C L E S
continued from page 10
basket of currencies," a prominent Hong Kong broker told The Independent. "The Brits are stuck in the middle and will come into the euro. They have no choice because they won't be able to use the US dollar."
the G20 summit in Pittsburgh; the Chinese Central Bank governor and other officials have been worrying aloud about the dollar for years. Their problem is that much of their national wealth is tied up in dollar assets.
Chinese financial sources believe President Barack Obama is too busy fixing the US economy to concentrate on the extraordinary implications of the transition from the dollar in nine years' time. The current deadline for the currency transition is 2018.
"These plans will change the face of international financial transactions," one Chinese banker said. "America and Britain must be very worried. You will know how worried by the thunder of denials this news will generate."
The US discussed the trend briefly at
Iran announced late last month that its foreign currency reserves would
TRAGIC PARADOX We have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness. We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years.
OF
henceforth be held in euros rather than dollars. Bankers remember, of course, what happened to the last Middle East oil producer to sell its oil in euros rather than dollars. A few months after Saddam Hussein trumpeted his decision, the Americans and British invaded Iraq. 6 October 2009 Robert Fisk is the Middle East correspondent of the The Independent. S o u r c e : h t t p : / / w w w . informationclearinghouse.info/ article23648.htm
OUR TIMES We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less. These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.
--- Author Unknown
CORRECTION: JUST apologises for the typographical error on the front page of the October issue of the Commentary . The title of the article by Dahr Jamail should read Colonizing Culture. --- Editor
P.O BOX 288 Jalan Sultan 46730 Petaling Jaya Selangor Darul Ehsan MALAYSIA www.just-international.org
TERBITAN BERKALA
The International Movement for a Just World is a nonprofit international citizens’ organisation which seeks to create public awareness about injustices within the existing global system. It also attempts to develop a deeper understanding of the struggle for social justice and human dignity at the global level, guided by universal spiritual and moral values. In furtherance of these objectives, JUST has undertaken a number of activities including conducting research, publishing books and monographs, organising conferences and seminars, networking with groups and individuals and participating in public campaigns. JUST has friends and supporters in more than 130 countries and cooperates actively with other organisations which are committed to similar objectives in different parts of the world.
INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT FOR A JUST WORLD (JUST)
Bayaran Pos Jelas Postage Paid Pejabat Pos Besar Kuala Lumpur Malaysia No. WP 1385
About the International Movement for a Just World (JUST)
It would be much appreciated if you could share this copy of the JUST Commentary with a friend or relative. Better still invite him/her to write to JUST so that we can put his/her name on our Commentary mailing list.
Please donate to JUST by Postal Order or Cheque addressed to: International Movement for a Just World P.O. Box 288, Jalan Sultan, 46730, Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia or direct to our bank account: Account No. 5141 9633 1748 Malayan Banking Berhad, Damansara Utama Branch, 62-66 Jalan SS 21/35, Damansara Utama, 47400, Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, MALAYSIA Malaysian Tax Exemption no. LHDN.01/35/42/51/179-6.5755 Donations from outside Malaysia should be made by Telegraphic Transfer or Bank Draft in USD$