A Cynical Glance At Events Around The World

October 15, 2009

U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, on a whirlwind tour of Europe, has had a bit of a problem with her hosts in Moscow where Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, poured cold water over Washington’s plans of strengthening sanctions against Iran. Mr Lavrov, who seems to be under an impression that Russia actually still matters on the world stage, was saying that further sanctions against Tehran would be ‘counterproductive’, at a time when efforts are being made to negotiate a solution to prevent Iran from making its own nuclear weapons. Mrs Clinton, though, showed no signs of being upset and smiled seductively at everyone around her. She obviously knows that should the need arise to beat the shit out of Iran, the United States would do whatever they want and not consult Moscow. The Russian leadership knows that too and that is why it pretends to be difficult, to appeal to its domestic audience.While Mrs Clinton was having her talks in the Kremlin and in the surrounding area a much bigger event took place in Moscow where the Russian underworld said its final farewell to the legendary mobster, Vyacheslav Ivankov, also known as Little Japanese Man (Yaponchik). Mr Ivankov started his career as a petty thief in Russia in the 1960s, but very quickly grew to become one of the biggest criminals in the country, moving in the 1990s to the United States, where he was at one time running one of the biggest extortion rackets in the country while based in New York. Rumour had it that Yaponchik’s people sank so low as to sell petrol diluted with urine through the chain of petrol stations that they controlled. Mr Ivankov was eventually jailed in America, and then deported to Russia to stand trial for murder. Shockingly, he was acquitted at the trial in Moscow and spend his last years as a criminal living legend, until a sniper shot him in July and he died eventually from his wound last week. Yaponchik’s funeral was attended by 500 top criminals and some senior officials in disguise who promised to keep the deceased’s traditions and ideals alive in Russia.

Staying with Russia still. The pro-Kremlin party, United Russia, has swept regional and municipal elections across the country over the weekend, proving once again that the Russian people have a taste for one party rule and would want their current leaders to stay in power forever. Although turnout was low, the enthusiasm of those who did manage to pop down to the polling stations was very high indeed, contributing to an impressive victory by United Russia. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe should take note of how the Russian authorities manage to run elections so smoothly, getting the desired result with the minimal of effort.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, announced in the House of Commons that Britain was ready to send another 500 troops to Afghanistan, to add to its contingent of 9,000 soldiers, but only if certain conditions were fulfilled, most important one of them being that they would be equipped properly. Considering that it is Mr Brown’s government that equips them, it did sound rather odd. Not to mention that 500 more troops do not really change anything, considering that NATO’s commanders are talking about 40,000 reinforcements, at least. Prime Minister Brown’s speech was all the more confusing as he did not really produce any convincing arguments that would give the British people an idea why it was so important to continue fighting in Afghanistan. Suggestions that Afghanistan is a training ground for terrorists, who could attack targets in the West, do not really hold water, as most of the suicide bombers are now trained in Pakistan and Somalia. Not to mention that the terrorists behind the 9/11 attacks all came from Saudi Arabia and Europe.

In another conflict area, Iraq, things, according to the top American commander, Brigadier General Stephen Lanza, are going swimmingly. Especially if you live in the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad. General Lanza said that by the end of this month the number of American troops stationed in the country would fall to around 120,000 – from the 143,000 that were stationed in Iraq in January 2009. General Lanza also confirmed what everyone was suspecting: that any further reductions in U.S. troop numbers could only start when the Iraqis vote in parliamentary elections in January 2010. Which sort of implies that Washington is not really ready to entrust the frail democratic process of free elections to the Iraqis themselves, as they may make the wrong choices and vote for people whom the U.S. views as not really helpful to democracy.

Attempts by government across the Western world to pretend that the recession is coming to an end continue unabated. On Wednesday more ‘encouraging’ data came from the United States and Britain. In the U.S., where members of the Obama Administration constantly hint that things are picking up, the big story of the day was the Dow Jones Index going over 10,000 points, with some people saying that it signalled the end of the recession as we know it. In Britain, jobless figures were announced and officials were keen to stress that they actually registered a slower growth than before. Instead of the expected 100,000 people losing work last month it was ‘only’ 88,000. TV news bulletins actually had the cheek to mention that it was a sign of improvement, quoting false official statistics about the overall number of jobless in Britain staying below 2.5 million, when everyone knows that in reality it has already passed 3 million, and is probably close to 3.5 million. The battle with this recession is fought with statistics rather than policies and practical measures, as most of the money has been blown on bailing out the banks.

Something very fishy is happening in relations between Armenia and Turkey which have signed a historic agreement to establish diplomatic relations and open borders after nearly a hundred years on animosity and suspicion. Cynics all around the world are asking: how could it have happened that Armenia finally gave in and decided to embrace its most hated enemy, which it accuses of committing genocide against its people and wiping out 1.5 million Armenians in the space of 2 days in 1916? Especially as relations between the two peoples remain tense and passions are still flying high. According to some experts, Armenia was probably pushed into the open arms of Turkey, if you pardon the expression, by Russia and America, who are keen to help Ankara achieve its dream of joining the European Union. Although most of the people living in the EU have no idea why Turkey should be allowed to join a union of European countries, Washington wants it to become a member in the hope that it would help to implement American confusing strategy in the Middle East. Russia is convinced that by helping Turkey it would be seen as being involved in something big and important. And Armenia finds itself a pawn in the games of others.

Meanwhile the EU’s top brass are getting really angry with Czech President Klaus who stubbornly continues to refuse to sign the Lisbon treaty that would turn the EU into a federal superstate. Threats and more threats have been coming from Brussels that is telling the Czechs that they risk losing their place on the European Council if they do not get their President to sign the treaty. The fury in Brussels is fuelled by the fact that President Klaus does not hide his scepticism about the future of the whole EU project, and is even saying that attempts to turn it into a federal superstate might end up in the whole block crumbling and Europe turning into an arena of wars and conflicts. Mr Klaus appears to be the only European leader who thinks in sensible terms, while the rest have obviously lost all their political instincts and just want to lead a life of luxury and excess in a unified Europe that would resemble the Soviet Union. Before it collapses, that is.

– End –

Bookmark to

Add 'A Cynical Glance At Events Around The World' to Del.icio.us

Add 'A Cynical Glance At Events Around The World' to digg

Add 'A Cynical Glance At Events Around The World' to reddit

Add 'A Cynical Glance At Events Around The World' to Technorati

Add 'A Cynical Glance At Events Around The World' to Newsvine

Add 'A Cynical Glance At Events Around The World' to Stumble Upon

Add 'A Cynical Glance At Events Around The World' to Google Bookmarks

A Cynical Glance At World Events: Would Someone Tell These People…
Adam Lovejoy writes: Would someone tell President Barack Obama that he can send as many troops as he wants to Afghanistan but he would...
A Cynical Glance At Events Around The World
Well, there you have it: there’ll be a second round of presidential elections in Afghanistan on November 7, with the incumbent President, Hamid Karzai, standing...
A Quick Cynical Glance At Events Around The World. In No Particular Order
Dan Majestic and Adam Lovejoy write: Few people are holding their breath as the long awaited Chilcot inquiry into the war in Iraq opens this...
A Cynical Glance At World Events. D-Day Celebrations And Crisis In Britain Included
Adam Lovejoy writes: Politicians never seem to be comfortable at events that demand sincerity and passion. Like that ceremony in France over the weekend dedicated...
A Cynical Look At World Events. With A Russian Flavour To Them
Anton Goryunov writes from Moscow: Rumours about the purchase of General Motors (Europe) by a consortium led by the Russian Savings Bank (Sberbank sounds...