The Third Way

President Obama is finding that he has to adapt to reality. He put an end to his lofty rethoric and is now facing tougher realities. If he wants to achieve his main goals, fixing health care, education and the energy, and perhaps go back to Congress for a second Stimulus Package, he must please his opposition. And he is more than ready to oblige: Already he has announced that the war criminals who ordered, condoned or practiced torture, hmmm, "harsh treatment", will not be accountable. For Education, he will not change NCLB which was a major coup against teachers unions from the Right. In terms of Health Care, he will keep a market based system, although shareholder profits, execs bonuses and advertising add tremendously to the cost and will not help the 50 million without any insurance. For Energy, he condemns US carmakers to building clown cars that nobody will want and that they have never been able to build (Pinto, Pacer, or Chevette anybody?)

Obama's strategy is called the Third Way. It was attempted by Bill Clinton and Tony Blair and resulted in failure for both. Barack Obama was elected by an electrified electorate who wanted to run the Vulcans and the Wall Street bandits out of town , tarred and feathered. They wanted to finally enjoy a single payer, universal health care system and guaranteed pension rights, like the rest of the advanced countries. Instead, the new president, has decided to sacrifice most of these aspirations by navigating a middle way. Is he pleasing his opposition? "NO" as they themselves keep telling him. Is he disappointing his base? Yes.
Dick Cheney's virtual immunity, Big Pharma secure profits, Detroit forced to import wound up cars from China rather than to keep jobs (Obama wants to retrain them for green jobs...... gardening?), Goldman Sachs at Treasury, thousands more troops to Afghanistan, and Military Commissions reinstated, all that does not pass the smell test.

Anyway, all this will be quickly forgotten when Israel bombs Iranian nuclear centers and our friend Kim Jong Il prepares more of his firework.

The "Barbarians"

In February 2006, a gang of 27 young French "barbarians" kidnapped a 26 year old Jewish student, Ilan Halimi, near Paris, and after torturing him for several days in an appartment, murdered him. The cause of this rampage? The leader of the gang, Youssouf Fofana, a young French Moslem of African origin, wanted to avenge the killing of palestinian kids he saw every night on French television. Today Fofana went on trial. He entered the court insulting the judges, and the public and yelling Alahu Akbar, Allah is great!
The French are right when they say that the Israeli-palestinian conflict is a domestic problem for them. Most French media is biased against Israel and readily displays the "crimes" of the Israeli military in Gaza and West bank. For the young, mostly unemployed young French moslems, parked in soulless high rises in grey suburbs, the constant viewing of dead Palestinians on French, Algerian, Morroccan or AlJazeera TV (they all have satellite dishes) acts as a red rag on a bull. Seen from the US one could think that it is a resurgence of French anti-semitism . Far from me to say his scourge has fully disappeared, but in this case it is wrong. True, the murderers are French nationals. But they are also second generation of an immigration that has never adapted. They are moslem first and last. Worse, they have scapegoated the French Jewish population (second largest in the world) for what they perceive as prsecution of Islam.
The Middle-East conflict has entered our courts. But France knew it had a problem, when, several years ago, at the opening of a soccer game that opposed Algeria to France, the young French-Moslems booed the French national anthem.
Fofana's gang of the barbarians is only the beginning.

French Response to Piracy

Much has been written recently about Captain Philips 'ordeal at the hands of Somali pirates. He is a true hero and owes his life to the Seals. Many Americans wonder aloud why the international community does not give them a hand. It is all due to the lack of interest by US media in what is going on outside the US. The world has reacted last year by creating a Task Force made up of Chinese, Russian, NTO and US warship that patrol the straits of Aden and the coast of Puntland in Somalia. The French have intervened several times. They attacked the pirates who captured the Ponant, a leisure ship, and pursued the pirates way into the desert. They captured 15 of them now waiting in a French jail for their trial. Last week, the same French Commando attacked the pirates who had taken the Tanit and killed all 5 pirates.
The problem is that Somalia is without a government. The entire population, made up of tribes and clans is engaged in piracy in order to profit from ransoms of goods and humans hostages. Luxury SUV dealers have a brisk trade on the coast.
Unless the combined force of western powers intervenes to destroy the pirates'infrastructures, lookouts, motherships, communication network and safe havens, the situation will get worse.

Medellin

I spent last week in Medellin, Colombia. A former stronghold of narco traffickers, Medellin is now a charming city in a spectacular mountain setting, where you can take the "Pablo Escobar tour". I was very impressed by the politeness, friendliness and education level of the Colombians. The rapid transit in the city make it a model for other emerging nations. A "metro-cable" has been built in order to help the poor in the favellas come down the muntains to work in town.
President Uribe managed to get rid of most narcos and reduce the strength of the FARCS. Actually, his success could inspire the US effort in Afghanistan.....
Besides president Uribe, I attended interesting conferences with such participants as Tim Geithner and president Clinton.

Guantanamo

President Obama has promised to close Guantanamo before the end of the year. His administration is under pressure to find a home for the 450 inmates remaining in this little carribean paradise. A real paradise, these are the words used by an inmate recently relocated in Britain when he compared the camp to his previous experience, a stay at the "black hole" camp in Kabul. There , according to an interview on the BBC, he spent 6 months in total darkness on a dirt floor, with constant loud music..... the same rock record for months on end.
Of course, in Guantanamo he was made to sign a confession under torture, and lived in conditions unworthy of a human being. Guantanamo probably caused more harm to the US than several divisions of jihadists, not to mention the trashing of the American model of democracy, so needed by the rest of the world.
What to do with the soon to be former inmates? The Administration has created a Task Force, in charge of reviewing each case. Many are innocent, sold by their brothers to US forces for a reward. Others cannot be sent home for fear of a terrible fate. A few will land in the US, either to be judged or freed.
The European Union has sent a high Level delegation to Washington to negotiate the intake of the rest of them. Problem: some EU member states refuse to have anything to do with them. Some agree to take a few, but want the US to apologize for its behavior. And some accept to welcome some of the lost jihadists only if they can negotiate a bilateral agreement.
Europe now has the "Shengen Area", a system that allows the citizens of its member states to travel , settle and work freely in any country. Borders have been abolished. So if a former Guantanamo guest were to be sent to Portugal, he could decide to move or stay anywhere within the zone.
After so many fervent prayers, vigils and demonstrations against the existence of this infamous camp, it seems now that it will be even harder to close it down.

Child soldiers

I just attended a DDR conference. It stands for Disarmement, Demobilisation and Reintegration. The World Bank, and a few NGOs are spending millions of dollars in post-conflict countries, one of the saddest and most enduring consequences of these endless conflicts is the enrolling of thousands of children. Kids know no fear of death and, once coerced, can be very cruel. Besides, the devastation caused on the continent by HIV-AIDS, is leaving behind millions of orphans. Meet the "orphan generation" of Africans. Little boys used as child-soldiers to amputate and mutilate civilians, usec to settle accounts with AK-47, and little girls used as camp whores.
DDR operations aim at reinserting these children in the village, to live side by side with their former victims.
What do you do with millions of kids who grew up to hate maim and kill, without any morals nor exemple? How much money and for how long will be necessary to give them a place in society?

And what are we to think of the thousands of palestinian children, goose-stepping in full regalia and touting so proudly their Kalashnikovs? Prepare some demobilisation.

French Universities

French universities are on strike. Between school breaks and strike days, most French students have not spent much time in their respective colleges. What else is new? The French, who invented parliamentary democracy thanks to the philosophers of the Enlightenment, prefer mob rule. The longer the strike, and the more annoyance to their fellow citizens, the greater the reward from the Central Government who always fears being toppled in this traditionally unruly nation.

In France, going to college is an entitlement. It is free of charge. Most students who attend high school can go to college since socialist governments in the past have so watered down the famous baccalaureate, that 85% pass. The result is that millions of students crowd the halls of hopelessly ill=maintained buildings. Their campuses have nothing to do with their American counterparts and attendance is not compulsory. Being a college student in France entitles you to a transit discount, and subsidized room and board. In June you have to show up for tests.....it is sometimes a rude awakening. Over half the freshmen fail.

France also has elite "Grandes Ecoles" , polytechnique, ENA, Normale Superieure, where admission is on a strict competition basis and where most government leaders are issued. There are very few private schools, the Metz based Geaorgia Tech being a rare example.

The reason for the strike this time, is president Sarkozy's proposal to give French Universities a small part of independence from the Central Government. The professors fear losing the statute of civil servants. The students are ideologically opposed to any collaboration between business, research, and studies.

Who will win? Two guesses and the last one doesn't count.