Poll position
Stop the presses!
Is democracy coming to Saudi Arabia?
No, stop laughing this is for real. On Monday, Saudi Arabia laid out plans for its first elections, creating local councils.
Whatever next, human rights in China?
Crown Prince Abdullah, Saudi Arabias lavish de facto ruler, said he wanted all procedures for the creation of a more civil society in place within the year.
Wow!
Just listen to this statement by the state news agency SPA: The council of ministers decided to widen participation of citizens in running local affairs through elections by activating municipal councils, with half the members of each council being elected.
You dont hear that in the EU!
Elections, in case you hadnt figured, are not a common occurrence in Saudi Arabia. In fact, there have never been any. Saudis have no right to free assembly and no free press. The political analyst Dawoud al-Sheryan was quoted by the Associated Press as saying one year ago, just writing about elections was considered an offence.
Does the Diary know that feeling.
The decision to go quasi-democratic comes as Saudi Arabia faces growing international pressure to do something about its internal situation. This is all about 9/11. Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were Saudis a fact which hangs like a dark cloud over the Kingdom. If the US is not going to force regime change on its ally, it will encourage democratic reform.
Of course, democracy might not produce pro-American regimes. Ironically, a few days after announcing the plans for democracy, and while a two-day conference on human rights got under way in the capital, 150 demonstrators were arrested in Riyadh after calling for political reform. The Grand Mufti Abdul-Aziz bin Abdullah Al al-Sheik (the countrys highest religious authority) claimed that demonstrations are the behaviour of non-Muslims, but the BBC said the crowd was led by bearded men chanting God is great.
A report in the International Herald Tribune explains how the fear of domestic terrorism, which was brought home for Saudis after suicide bombings in Riyadh on May 12, initiated an unprecedented public debate.
Last month, for the third time this year, 300 signatures appeared on a petition urging faster reform. 51 of the signatories were women.
Whether women will be permitted to take part in the elections is not clear.
Cuban heals
Speaking of democratic transitions...
Washington unveiled a new plan for Cuba this week. And this time it doesnt involve exploding cigars or poisoning Castros beard.
Or, if it does, theyre not telling us.
Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, President Bush spoke of a new, free, democratic Cuba and an end to Fidels forty-four year rule.
Bush plans to set up a commission in Washington to plan for Cubas transition from Stalinist rule to a free and open society, to identify ways to hasten the arrival of that day.
The commission will be headed by Colin Powell, US secretary of state, and Mel Martinez, Cuban-born secretary of housing and urban development.
The New York Times judges that the announcement had as much to do with Florida as it did with Cuba.
Ah, yes, Florida! Home of free elections.
Dubya is keen to win Florida in the 2004 presidential election without, this time, the help of his brother Jeb, Hanging Chads and the Supreme Court.
Bush was spurred into action by a letter from thirteen Floridian lawmakers saying how we fear the historic and intense support from Cuban-American voters for Republican federal candidates, including yourself, will be jeopardized, barring some substantial progress being made on the demands of Miamis powerful Cuban-American community.
The Castro regime will not change by its own choice, Bush acknowledged. But Cuba must change.
Washington plans to invite more Cuban refugees into the US, and promises to crack down on illegal tourism to Cuba, which, Dubya insists, perpetuates the misery of the Cuban people.
In a show of respect and solidarity, Bush delivered some of his speech in Spanish.
Que bueno!
Maturing relationship?
And now, China...
A European policy paper released this week stated that supporting the transition to an open society based upon the rule of law and respect for human rights is an essential element of the EUs policy towards China.
The paper, entitled A Maturing Relationship: Shared Interests and Challenges in EU-China Relations, coincided with the release of a Chinese policy paper calling for an end to the EU ban on arms sales to China.
In two weeks, a European delegation will touchdown in Beijing, Silvio Berlusconi at the helm.
The papers conflict. China wants more military hardware, the EU cites what the AP refers to as a wide range of violations of political and civil rights and ... the frequent and extensive application of the death penalty and the practice of sending critics of the Beijing government to labour camps.
The EU and China are each others third-largest trading partners. China believes its future lies in its economic relations with Europe. Europe believes the future is Chinese.
Common ground between China and the EU far outweighs their disagreements, claimed the Chinese paper, using the oldest trope in the manual of international relations.
Asked whether it felt comfortable doing business with a communist superstate that shuns democratic elections, the Chinese government said such things could be overlooked.
Only kidding.
Intellectual rancour
Meanwhile, Susan Sontag, intellectual scourge of the Bush administration, has done it again.
This time, the outspoken author voiced her frustration with her country to a highly appreciative German audience. Sontag was receiving the German Bookseller Associations Peace Prize. The US ambassador to Germany decided not to show, fearing an embarrassing confrontation.
His absence shows he is more interested in affirming the ideological stance of and the rancorous reactiveness of the Bush administration than he is by fulfilling a normal diplomatic duty, said Sontag, showing no ideological stance or rancorousness of her own, of course.
Her criticisms were met with resounding applause (Agence France-Presse).
They [the US] see themselves as defending civilisation, said Sontag. The barbarians are outside the gates ... Americans have got used to seeing the world in terms of enemies. Terrorist is a more flexible word than communist.
After 9/11, Sontag got in trouble for calling the terrorists who killed 3,000 of her fellow citizens brave.
Peaks and pecs
Speaking of American icons who have straddled the continental divide between the old and new worlds, Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor-elect of California, is set to have a mountain named after him in the Caucasus.
Temur Shashiashvili, a presidential official in the western province of Imereti, Georgia, announced this week that the good people of Imereti want to bestow the ultimate honour on The Terminator.
With the naming comes an invitation to visit Mount Schwarzenegger and meet some of the stars biggest fans.
Shashiashvili said Imereti was disappointed when Arnie cancelled a trip two years ago on the grounds of ill-health.
Perhaps he was feeling a bit peaked.
Shooting party
Finally, a lesson for us all from Serbia.
Celebrating in the traditional way, guests at a wedding in central Serbia repeatedly fired shots into the air.
Unfortunately, in their excitement, they shot down a small aircraft.
The bullets lodged themselves in the left wing of the two-seater jet, which plummeted into some overhead power cables.
The passengers are said to be seriously injured.
The Serbian government has run a series of public health campaigns of late, warning citizens of the potential dangers involved in celebrating with their weapons.
Will people never learn?
Send your thoughts to the Diary Editor: dominic.hilton@opendemocracy.net
(Source: BBC)
Quotes of the week
September 11, 2001 changed everything for this country ... The strategy of deterrence which served us so well during the decades of the Cold War, will no longer do ... Sometimes, history presents clear and stark choices. We have come to such a moment.
US vice-president Dick Cheney addressing the Heritage Foundation this week.
Muslims are filled with feelings of impotence and frustration as some of their countries are occupied, others are under sanctions, a third group threatened and a fourth group accused of sponsoring terrorism. Muslims abroad are considered with suspicion, besieged, deprived of their rights.
Abdelouahed Belkeziz, secretary-general of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
The Europeans killed six million Jews out of twelve million. But today the Jews rule this world by proxy ... 1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews.
Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad speaking at the OIC.
It is a building that has been deserted for many, many years.
Bushra Kanafani, spokeswoman for the Syrian foreign ministry, on the camp bombed last week by Israeli security forces.
Never again will we Liberians use war as a way of addressing our concerns.
Gyude Bryant, new leader of Liberia.
