A flying politician and an inflatable soldier

Chopped up

With the polls scheduled for the weekend, the Zimbabwe Independent ran a story this week chronicling the cost of President Mugabe’s flying jaunts over the four-week campaign. According to the report, Mugabe’s use of helicopters to transport him to his 30 rallies thus far has totalled $30 million. All of the money, the Independent says, comes directly from public funds.

State coffers provided ZANU-PF with $62 million under the Political Parties (Finance) Act last year. Mugabe’s presidential campaign has cost considerably more.

Meanwhile, First Lady Grace Mugabe is said to have so far distributed $2.2 million in cash at the rallies addressed by her husband. The ‘supporters’, many of them forced to the attend the meetings, have also been the recipients of sewing machines, handed out by the seam-conscious First Lady. Her spokesman, Lawrence Kamwi, was curt in his response to enquiries: “I cannot disclose the source of those funds”. Perhaps someone should ask Gadaffi?

My steel guitar gently weeps

In September 2001, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick was pounding out the message that free trade is an essential wing of the fight against terrorism, that it “promotes the values at the heart of this protracted struggle.” He had two battles to win: fast-track negotiating authority for the President, and a new WTO round to launch at Doha. He also said he would not provide relief for the US steel industry unless it was courageous enough to restructure (the business papers trace its problems to lack of consolidation and massive pension liabilities).

Hmm.

Zoellick is eating his words since Tuesday. The industry has not restructured, but his President has announced politically expedient tariffs on most steel imports. The rest of the world is furious at an old protectionist bailout – unilateralism on a new front. This action, like so many these days, has been justified by the ‘war on terrorism’: preserving America’s uncompetitive steel industry in its current form is now, apparently, a matter of “national security”.

This is not an isolated storm in a teacup – the whole crockery cupboard is shaking. The US foreign sales corporation scheme, criticised on openDemocracy by Harlem Desir, were ruled by the WTO to be an illegal export subsidy vehicle at the beginning of 2002. This isn’t just between the EU and the US; back-up plaintiffs are heavyweight, with Australia, Canada, India and Japan all piling in behind Europe. The US acknowledges it will have to reform its tax law to comply with the ruling.

As a consequence of the ruling, the EU will in May gain the right to impose $1bn – $4bn worth of retaliatory tariffs. They have so far held off. But will the steel fiasco tip them over the edge, just as the Doha round of trade negotiations begins to get underway? Expect next month’s EU-US summit to be tense.

Full of Hot Air

Colombia’s national army unveiled a surprise new weapon in their ongoing war with the rebels this week. Few expected the government forces’ next offensive to be led by a 10-foot inflatable soldier, but those who did, mostly over- indulgers in the nation’s chief export, displayed a remarkable talent for prediction.

On his first public outing, the three-metre private was escorted to an army checkpoint on the main road from Bogota. The BBC reports that the cuddly recruit ‘spent the visit waddling around on the roadside, waving and hugging people indiscriminately.’

This bizarre strategy follows the collapse of peace talks between the government and FARC last month. The army hopes that the inflatable figure will encourage local people to rat on the rebels. They have set-up a special 24-hour hotline, where locals can give information on guerilla insurgencies. Said Sergeant Diaz, accompanying his blow-up colleague, “Remember your army loves you.”

Amin to that

A historic decision was reached in Uganda this week. Twenty-three years since the end of Idi Amin’s brutal dictatorship, the country plans to mark his downfall with an official celebration. The Associated Press reported Moses Byaruhanga, President Yoweri Museveni’s political secretary, as saying, “It was decided that the overthrow of Idi Amin be given the necessary attention.”

Celebrations are to take place on April 14.

Music for Peace

Daniel Barenboim, Israeli pianist and conductor, was forced to call off a concert he had planned for Wednesday night in the city of Ramallah. The Israeli army, which has been pounding the city in which it confines Yasser Arafat, said that it could not guarantee Barenboim’s safety, having banned all Israeli citizens from entering Palestinian-controlled territory. Before the war prevented it, he was due to conduct “Recital for Peace”.

“I express myself by means of music and I find that until now no political solution has been found,” Barenboim is reported as saying. “For those of us who have the possibility of opening up a dialogue, I think it’s our duty.”

But dialogue is somewhat scarce in the region at the moment. Ephrain Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Remembrance gave voice to the opposition: “ For a person of Barenboim’s stature to go to Ramallah now shows a certain insensibility to the pain of the average Israeli here.”

Of course, Barenboim is no stranger to controversy. Only last year he was under attack after he conducted the overture to Wagner’s Parsifal at the Jerusalem music festival. He has an ongoing a high-profile commitment to forging ways to a future peace – often with his friend Edward Said – and routinely holding workshops in which he brings together young Israeli and Arab musicians. Miguel Angel Marantinos , the European Union’s Middle-East envoy had described the planned event as “ a useful contribution to efforts toward peace, dialogue and understanding between Israeli and Palestinian peoples.”

With the cancellation of this concert, the aim of peace, through music or otherwise, has suffered yet another symbolic blow. But concert sponsor Mustafa Borghouti remained upbeat: “Nothing will break our joint determination to bridge our efforts at working towards a just peace.” If the concert ever goes ahead, one feels its staging could signify a important step away from the current escalation of violence.

Quote of the week

“The Italians know how to distinguish between the good and bad, between love and hate. And the majority are for love.”
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, after 120,000 marched through central Rome in protest against his premiership.

Contact the Diary editor: dominic.hilton@opendemocracy.net