As citizens we must prevent our politicians from pursuing this insane brinksmanship
In the United States, both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party owe their allegiance, not to the people, not to the voters, but to large corporate donors | Image fromWall Street International.
26 February 2022 (Wall Street International)* —In many countries, and especially in the United States, we do not have “government of the people, by the people, and for the people”, which Abraham Lincoln called for in his famous Gettysburg Address.
Instead, we have government of the people, by corrupt politicians and for the enrichment of corporate oligarchs. In the United States, both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party (with the exception of progressive Democrats) owe their allegiance, not to the people, not to the voters, but to large corporate donors.
(UN News)* — As the Syrian war has driven poverty and hunger to levels higher than at any previous point, UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen told the Security Council on Friday [25 February 2022] that he would continue to focus on engaging the parties to bring an end to the protracted conflict.
“We will convene a series of Constitutional Committee meetings in March, May and June; and we will continue rolling out a set of consultations on step-for step within the wider issues…and on how we can make progress,” he said via teleconference.
International donor-led schemes promote peacebuilding and collaboration rather than pushing Israel to end its occupation
Palestine’s struggle is also a climate and environmental struggle | Eddie Gerald / Alamy Stock Photo. All rights reserved
25 February 2022 (openDemocracy)* — At the core of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is its theft of Palestinian natural resources, including land and water, which exacerbates the climate crisis.
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 25 2022 (IPS)*– As a new political twist to an old saying goes: the dogs bark but the military caravan moves on.
Russian military operations inside the sovereign territory of Ukraine “on a scale that Europe has not seen in decades, conflict directly with the United Nations Charter,” Secretary General Antonio Guterres told journalists February 24. Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe
Despite ominous warnings from an overwhelming majority of member states both in the General Assembly and the Security Council— against a military attack on Ukraine —Russian President Vladimir Putin stood defiant when he ordered a full-scale invasion of a sovereign territory.
Politicians in the West are scrambling to use the crisis for their own agenda, while experts suggest Russia is not yet on a full war footing
Russia’s President Putin speaks at a joint press conference with Germany’s Chancellor Scholz, 15 February | Kay Nietfeld/dpa/Alamy Live News
18 February 2022 (openDemocracy)* — In the past week, the situation in Ukraine has veered from a position of imminent war to a ‘war/no war’ pendulum, producing one of the most complex crises of recent years. One thing is clear though, the certain winners will be the arms industries.
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 23 2022 (IPS)* – The widening political crisis in Ukraine, which has taken a turn for the worse with the declaration of two new independent states—the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic — is likely to prove once again the ineffectiveness of the 15-member UN Security Council (UNSC).
The Wall Street Journal has an article out titled “U.S. Aims to Thwart China’s Plan for Atlantic Base in Africa“, subtitled “An American delegation wants to convince Equatorial Guinea against giving Beijing a launchpad in waters the U.S. considers its backyard.”
The article quotes the former US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy saying “We’d really, really not like to see a Chinese facility” on the Atlantic, and discusses “American concern about China’s global expansionism and its pursuit of a permanent military presence on waters the U.S. considers home turf.”
“What he really wants is respect,” Schönbach said, referring to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. “And my god, giving someone respect is low cost; even no cost.”Furthermore, Schönbach said that in his opinion, “It is easy to even give him the respect he really demands and probably also deserves.”
War would be in no-one’s interests. How often have we heard that, in the current Ukraine crisis? But there is one obvious exception.
Jake Lynch
‘Defence industries’ are perennial winners in such situations and – whatever the outcome of the standoff involving thousands of Russian troops at the border – arms dealers will be circling for opportunities to profit.
Stability is no good, from their perspective, if it engenders too great a sense of security. “Actual shooting wars are needed” from time to time, as Ismael Hossein-Zadeh puts it, “not only to draw down stockpiles… but also to display the wonders of what they produce”.
Being able to stamp the brochure for a new weapons system with the words, ‘battle-tested’ is the ultimate marketing ploy. In between open hostilities, however, a period of raised tensions will do nicely.
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 18 2022 (IPS)* – A former Indian ambassador once told an American audience that one of the biggest misconceptions about the Indian Ocean is that it belongs to India. “Not so, but we wish we did”, he said, amidst laughter.
The Seychelles is a nation made up of some 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Credit: UN News, Manahas Farquhar/ Matthew Morgan
Speaking before the UN’s Ad Hoc Committee on the Indian Ocean last year, an Indian diplomat told delegates: “India and the Indian Ocean are inseparable. It is not just a statement of a fact of geography; but of deeper civilizational, historical, cultural, economic and political linkages that have been forged over centuries between India and the Ocean that bears its name”.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 