Songs, snacks and censorship

Islamic Tehranism

In a week when all eyes have been on Kashmir, Bush’s Euro jaunt, and Japan and South Korea, events in (“axis-of-evil” member) Iran took a back seat.

As Bush and Putin disagreed on the sale of Russian nuclear technology to Iran, US Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld was voicing his concern. The Bush administration made it clear this week that they see the construction of the first Iranian nuclear reactor (with Russian assistance) at Bushehr as the single biggest weapons proliferation problem facing the world. But Putin insisted that the deal was merely economic, not military. There were no plans, he said, for Iran to use the technology for weapon use. He even agreed to send regular international inspection teams to the plant.

But Rumsfeld was unconvinced. Back in Washington he spoke of Iran “getting assistance” in becoming an armed nuclear power. “They’ve been making good progress,” he said, “and they’ve been determined to accomplish that goal. I’m not going to get into how long it will take them, but there’s no question that they’re on a path to achieve that.”

The next day, Tehran fuelled the flames. Following the lead of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s Justice Department ruled that it was a criminal offence for any newspaper to publish material that advocated negotiations with the United States. Khamenei had said a week earlier that even to discuss the prospect of talks with the US was “an insult to the Iranian people”, and that negotiations themselves would amount to “treason and stupidity”.

The Justice Department backed up the Ayatollah’s words with action: newspapers carrying dissenting views would be considered criminal. The statement said that material not in line with national interest would be viewed as threatening to the Islamic system.

And just as this news was breaking, and debates about the ‘US-Europe divide’ filled the column inches, two European banks agreed to help Iran rejoin international capital markets. In a move that must have had Washington fuming, Germany’s Commerzbank and France’s BNP Paribas confirmed their involvement in Iran’s first eurobond issue since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Commerzbank said that Iran could raise up to five hundred million euros from the scheme. Some critics have called it unIslamic – particularly, one presumes, if US investors buy the bonds.

But internally, the media censorship has heightened the tensions between Iran’s Islamic conservatives and the reformists. Reformist deputy Elaheh Koulai told the parliament that the Jutice Department ruling was “a step towards despotic behaviour and order.” Iran’s constitution enshrines the freedom of the press, and some newspapers have called the ruling “illegal”.

A week before, President Mohammed Khatami, Iran’s premier moderate voice, had said that the Islamic revolution occurred because people wanted an Islamic republic, not an Islamic dictatorship. But it is Khamenei who has final say on all issues. The reformist paper Aftab-e-Yazd is reported as believing the press ban to be a cover-up, diverting attention away from “secret talks” that it suggests conservatives are holding with the US.

Nowrooz agrees. “It is not clear why the head of the Justice Department in the capital has decided to restrict the dissemination of information about ties with America instead of concerning himself with the recent secret talks. But the conservative papers have been on the attack against the reformers. They welcome the decision and accuse the reformists of tyranny. One hard-line paper, Kayhan, describes the reformists as “the devoted servants of America”, who “harp about talks with the Great Satan.”

Watch this space…

(Source: BBC online)

Kyrgyz gripes

Following the resignation of Prime Minister Kurmanbek Bakiev, Kyrgyzstan lost its government this week. Under the Kyrgyz constitution, when the PM goes, the government goes too. Bakiev quit following a Security Council debate that condemned the state authoroties for their role in events that led to the fatal shooting of civilian protestors on 17 March in the southern district of Aksy.

Bakiev had offered his resignation nine days earlier, only to have it rejected by President Askar Akaev. But at the Security meeting, it was Akaev who called on the government to resign. But the stand-off between the authorities and the opposition remains tense, and reports suggest that it is unclear whether the fall of the government will defuse the situation.

17 March saw the first violent political clash in Kyrgyzstan in its post-1991 history. Protests followed a series of authority measures that the report called “political shortsightnedness”. Significant among these was the state TV’s “tendentious coverage” of the trial of Azimbek Beknasarov, a leading opposition figure. For the crime of “abuse of power” (the alleged shelving of a murder case in 1995) Beknasarov was given a suspended sentence of one year, and, even more significantly, stripped of his right to sit in Parliament. He had recently called for the impeachment of Akaev. The trial brought thousands of protestors onto the streets and a hunger strike in which one leading activist died.

Meanwhile, the former vice president and popular opposition leader, Feliks Kulov, was sentenced to ten years in jail for embezzlement. This came on top of a seven-year sentence already handed to him in January for, you guessed it, “abuse of power”. The International League for Human Rights were unimpressed and said that some of the charges were “fabricated” while others “lack any supporting evidence or witness accounts.”

A couple of days on, the parliament approved the transfer of ninety thousand hectares of land to China. The opposition had opposed this move, and protestors hit the streets.

Oh, and just to refresh your memory, Kyrgyzstan is currently being used as a base for one thousand nine hundred international troops operating in Afghanistan. Many are American.

(Source: TOL)

Women’s front

In France, the new “law of parity”, which demands that political parties stand women as fifty per cent of their candidates in polls (or get fined), has brought suprising results. One of the few parties to come close to meeting the new law is Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front.

The FN is boasting 49 per cent of its candidates as women, compared to 36 per cent of Socialist candidates and 19.6 per cent of Jacques Chirac’s rightist UMP coalition. France is wondering how a party that flies in the face of feminist thinking is one of those that is successfully meeting the quota.

“Our movement has confidence in women when other parties do not – it has welcomed us and encouraged us,” twenty-five year-old FN candidate Alexandra Hardy told BBC News online.

The parity law provoked controversy when it was proposed in 2000. One of its leading proponents was the academic Sylviane Agacinski, wife of Lionel Jospin, no less. Former Prime Minister Jospin quit politics last month after losing to Jean-Marie Le Pen in the first round of the Presidential elections. Opponents included philosopher Elisabeth Badinter, who argued that women should be judged by merit, not sex.

But Nicole Aureau, an FN candidate in Burgundy, told the BBC that “Women need to be represented by women. Lots of things which concern women are decided by men, and that’s not acceptable. We’ll be representing the issues that are important to women: family, motherhood, and the protection of life.”

But in true Rousseau-ian and Mussolini-esque style, the FN has linked women with the future of the republic, the strength of the nation, and opposition to immigrants. The FN argues that France has had to import foreigners as French women have not giving birth enough. Their manifesto states it as “imperative to launch a great pro-natal policy.” Abortion would be banned. Women would be paid to stay home, rearing children. Those who have three or more sprogs will receive a full state pension.

In the first round of presidential elections, twenty per cent of men voted for Le Pen, compared to fourteen per cent of women. The far-right leader clearly hopes that his women candidates will change those numbers in his favour.

Arafattening the people

The latest junk food craze hit the Egyptian stores this week: corn chips. These tasty morsels cost twenty-five piasters a pack and come in three flavours – cheese, tomato and paprika.

But this fatty snack has a difference. The packets come with a picture of none other than Yasser Arafat on the side, and are called Abu Ammar (Arafat’s nom du guerre). Next to the e-numbers, it says batal al-nidal (Arabic for “Hero of the Resistance”). Arafat, clad in military uniform and chequered headscarf, is waving a Palestinian flag and trampling the corn chips under his boots.

“Hand in hand, we are building our future,” the punter learns. “The more you buy, the more you build.”

Why? Well, the snack has been launched to raise money for the Palestinian intifada. The proceeds of one in every twenty-five packets will go to the Palestinians, although no-one will say which organisation will be enriched. Ali Ghoneim, an executive of al-Jawhara, the private Egyptian form manufacturing the corn chips told the AFP news agency that “It’s a message to the children so that they become familiar with the Palestinian cause and the right of Palestinians to live in peace on their land.”

(For Yousir Arefat’s latest adventure, click here)

Cheap euros

Tallinn, Estonia. As contestants in the Eurovision Song Contest go through their final rehearsals for miming their ‘beyond kitsch’ entries, across the road a Golden Plover from Iceland is awarded a small trophy and “national honour”. It becomes the first-ever winner of the Eurovision Bird Song Contest.

Twenty-one birds competed in the competition from across the continent. There were no glitzy stage shows, but as the judges explained at the Tallinn Zoo press conference, the thirty second-long recordings of the birds in full voice were posted on the Eurovision Bird Song website.

Voting took place over four weeks, in which thirty thousand people visited the site to listen to mp3 audio files of the birds, and rate them from one to five.

The Golden Plover cheaped home with a score of 3.6. In second place was a Belgian Bluethroat, and in last place, a Belarussian Aquitic Warbler.

The experts seemed completely out of tune with the voting public. The choice of professional bird-watchers was the Estonian Thrush Nightingale. They placed the Golden Plover in a lousy fourteenth place.

The winning bird is described as brownish with a yellow tinge, and nests in Iceland’s lowlands. It is known as a harbinger of spring.

The competition was organised by Estonian environmentalists, with the aim of raising awareness about threats to European birdlife. During the contest a news release entitled “Illegal Killing of Bird Eurovision Artist” outlined how millions of songbirds are trapped in Cyprus each year, and then eaten as a gourmet dish. “The Blackcap is better alive and singing than dead and pickled in a jar,” the persuasive statement read.

To listen to the birdsong, go to www.birdeurovision.org

Royal warbles

Finally, London’s Daily Telegraph ran a front page story this week with a tone of notable concern. Under the heading “Queen to sing yeah, yeah, yeah”, Hugh Davies, Telegraph Entertainment Correspondent, noted that the Queen is set to join Sir Paul McCartney on-stage at the Golden Jubilee Rock Concert at Buckingham Palace on Monday, and “almost certainly” sing along to John Lennon’s hit 'All You Need Is Love'. The song ends with the line from an earlier Beatles hit 'She Loves You', “She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah.” The Telegraph didn’t appear to like the sound of this at all.

The Queen had appeared on stage before to croon with Dame Vera Lynn on VE Day, the paper acknowledged, but “that song was 'We’ll Meet Again' and contained no “yeah, yeah, yeahs.”” What’s worse, Hugh Davies was quick to note, “Sir Paul once joked that he had smoked “pot” in the Palace lavatories.” This “pot” smoking hippy clearly does not befit a royal celebration.

Still, the staunchly conservative Telegraph had some good words for the four million pound concert. It praised the efforts gone to, including the “hundreds of ‘roadies’, under the supervision of the BBC” who are lugging the gear around.

Along with Her Majesty, there will be performances by stars like Ozzy Ozbourne and Mis-Teeq. How can they compete, one wonders?

Quotes of the week

“I’m a dictator, according to some newspapers. So, my message is: go to the Far East and win. If you lose, chains await you and we shall put you in jail. If you come back without the Cup, you will be hit by 58m Italians.”
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, offering encouragment to the Italian football squad ahead of their World Cup campaign. Paolo Maldini, the Italian captain, handed the ‘dictator’ a team jersey with the name ‘Berlusconi’ printed on the back.

“I think that any time you have countries with nuclear arms, that a tension, serious tension is dangerous. And it’s hard for me to measure the degree of tension.”
President George Bush, outlining his analysis of the India-Pakistan situation in St. Petersburg on Sunday.

“The guy memorizes four words, and he plays like he’s intercontinental. Que bueno – now I’m literate in two languages.”
President Bush showing contempt for the decision by NBC White House Correspondent David Gregory to address President Chirac in French at the Elysee Palace press conference. Bush produced a series of bizarre responses in the conference, the full text of which (a must-read) can be found by clicking here. Bush explained his behaviour away as “jetlag” and being “over 55”.

“We’re not talking about whether we should expand so rapidly, because if we did, we would never do it.”
Anonymous EU official, quoted in Jim Hoagland’s column in the Washington Post.

“It looked like nothing worked, not even American pressure. He’s saying he just doesn’t bother about the world. I don’t know how far we can continue to believe him and how far he can continue to befool the world.”
Indian deputy minister for home affairs I.D. Swami, quoted in the International Herald Tribune in reference to Pakistani President Musharraf’s address to the nation on Monday.