Week of the Lesser-Spotted Players

The Importance of Being Ahmadinejad & Chavez

The above links to a short blog at Huffington Post.

It is a week dominated by the general assembly at the UN and almost feels like a temporary step out of time. Astonishingly, almost all the world's local leaders are currently standing together on Amerikan soil and delivering short 15 minute speeches - many of which the empire is less than eager to hear. With the orators confined to strict time limits one might be inclined to feel there is some semblance of true democracy here - in a sense there is, but it is largely an exchange of PR messages rather than any constructive attempt at finding common ground for the good of the planet.

The only really strident speech was from Kofi Annan himself. This will be his last address as Secretary General and he took the opportunity to warn the assembly that there is no place for appeasement where a huge act of genocide is looming. Whether there is a will to stop it, let alone some kind of consensus on how to go about it, remains to be seem.

The assembly almost seems like an international version of a British party conference. A time for the smaller voices to take the stage with equal prominence to the established elite. Plenty of rhetoric in an otherwise sedated environment.

Despite last week's attempts by the Bush administration to severely restrict visas for the contingents of countries it didn't approve of, the emporer's behaviour this week is such that we are probably meant to believe he has discovered the art of diplomacy. Unfortunately, he was clearly reciting a pre-prepared speech with more holes in it than a good swiss cheese. Of most note was his seeming re-definition (again!) of his "war against whatevers" as a battle betwwen "moderation" and "extremeism". If he's said that 5 years ago it might have had some credence - today it is pure hypocrisy and the antithesis of his stance on just about everything.

That was Monday and yesterday Venezuala's Hugo Chavez claimed he could still smell the sulpher on the podium. Much has been made of this likening Bush to "The Devil" but, tellingly, the remark seemed to generate rather a lot of muted amusement on the audience floor. The newly "humble" Bush was in the "Lion's Den" and for once he knew it!

France's Chrirac began the week tyring to make his own presence felt but clearly could not make up his mind whose side he was on in dealing with the issue of Iran. As a result, he took on the appearance of a "flipping coin" and was soon largely forgotten.

Iran's own president followed a couple of hours behind Bush on Monday. He didn't note whether whether the smell of sulpher was upsetting him, but did pose a very rational question - whether a permanent member of the security council was using its privilaged position to pursue its own ends in direct contradiction of the UN constitution itself. You don;t have to like or approve of this guy to realise than an answer needs to be forthcoming on that point.

Blair doesn't seem to have made it to New York yet. No doubt he'll get to preach some kind of "farewell lesson" at a later point.

In other news, we have heard confirmation of the innocence of a Canadian citizen sent to Syria by the Amerikans for an extended spell of torture. The subsequent debate has given rebirth to the definition of torture itself, the reliability of "undertakings" by foreign governments who practice it and the casual implementation of "extraordinary rendition" in pursuit of interrogation. Less attention has been paid to the fact that Syria is an "enemy" while the Lebanon battles rage and a "friend" when it comes to incarcaration of alleged terrorists.

Can Amerika make its mind up on anything? No attention at all as been given to what I consider the most obvious question of all. Forgetting rationale, definitions and other excuses, if not for convert and illegal treatment, what other purpose at all could be served by exporting a prisoner to Syria in the first place?

Later.