Qatar remedy
Despite widespread speculation to the contrary, the stage looks set for the go-ahead of the WTOs 4th Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar from 9-13 November. On 22 October, following two days of meetings with Qatari officials in Doha, WTO Director-General Mike Moore said: We are going ahead. I am confident with the planning and preparations here in Doha. If something seismic or catastrophic happens we will reconsider. But we're planning to come here to Doha in just over two weeks time.
Sounds pretty conclusive. So, are we in for the desert-leg Seattle, Goteborg, or Genoa? Well, quite what this means for the anti-globalisers is anyones guess (although the openDemocracy debate might offer a few answers). The remote location was chosen long before 11 September. Since then, Qatar has been a central stopping point for western diplomacy, with leaders and ministers familiarising themselves with the surroundings. And it is, of course, the base of al-Jazeera, the media-organisation de jour. Better still, public protest is outlawed in Qatar. Sources tell us that a sea assault was planned by the protestors, but how many people will be willing to travel to the region for the sake of peaceful, or otherwise, demonstration is another matter. Dedicated anti-capitalists have been notably quiet on this one.
The Guy and Bill show
But before the dunes, globalisation and its stars come to Belgium. Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian prime minister, is one of those politicians who thinks and writes intelligibly for the public. And his recent open letter on the paradox of anti-globalisation is to be discussed at an international conference on globalisation on 30 October.
The conference will be held at the University of Ghent, Belgium, on Tuesday 30 October. The morning session asks if globalisation can acquire an ethical foundation. The speakers include Susan George, Naomi Klein, Hernando de Soto, and Owens Wiwa. In the afternoon, the focus is on what political instruments could be used to achieve this. The keynote contributors are Noreena Hertz, Chee Yoke Ling, Peter Piot, and Mary Robinson. But top draw must be Bill Clinton who will be contributing before the debate and Belgian beer reception.
Graffiti Menace
Those well-known terrorists of cyberspace, Hacktivists, are in the news again. According to BBC online, the web, always a home for dissent, is currently under invasion from graffiti artists, desperate to slip their tag onto your homepage. The current Picassos of the trade are a group of Pakistani hackers called GForce Pakistan. Kashmir, India, and Palestine are their main sources of grief, but recently they have come out in support of Bin Laden and the Taliban. Their latest victim was the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency. You call it terrorism? We call it Jihad, the words screamed from the sites homepage. Osama Bin Laden is a holy fighter, and whatever he says makes sense. Visitors to the site were obviously surprised by the new line being taken.
A warning was then given to all US and British military websites: get out of Saudi Arabia, stop bombing Afghanistan, show evidence of Bin Ladens guilt, or we will spray you with graffiti.
The trouble is, theres a new gang on the block. YIHAT, the Young Intelligent Hackers Against Terror, are dedicated to counter-hacking. Founded by Kim Kimble Schmitz, a German entrepreneur, YIHAT took the fight to the Al Shamal Islamic Bank in this weeks Diary hot-spot, Sudan. By hacking into the bank records, they claim to have discovered information on accounts held by Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, as well as identifying the GForce ring-leader.
The FBI has warned that cyber protests are on the rise. And its nothing to do with openDemocracy.
Chemistry between partners
Reports from the RFE/RL say that Russia has been offering medicines and vaccines to the United States to help fight against anthrax. It remains to be seen whether the US will use the Russian anthrax vaccine, which is based on live spores, but they can be certain of one thing: when it comes to anthrax, the Russians know what they are talking about.
After all, as the Moscow Times reports, Russia possesses some rare natural strains of anthrax, and its military boasts of having the worlds best complex anthrax vaccine protecting against all anthrax bugs. This is unsurprising. One of the worlds worst outbreaks of anthrax occurred in Sverdlovsk in April 1979, following an accident at a germ-warfare plant.
Over the course of two months, sixty-six people died. The local Communist Party boss at the time, one Boris Yeltsin, officially named the source as anthrax-contaminated meat. Thirteen years later, as Russian President, Yeltsin admitted that the outbreak was the result of a technical failure at the plant, most likely human error in failing to replace a filter, allowing anthrax spores to escape and be carried on the wind.
The war on spores
Meanwhile, from New York, openDemocracy editor Anthony Barnett reports an international conflict that has become an internal war against spores. Watching American TV you might never know that America is bombing Afghanistan, he says. You could be quite unaware of the new relationship between President Bush and President Putin. The anthrax scare, real and disturbing as it is, has taken over. Diagrams of the human lung have replaced the maps of Central Asia.
The fear is that anthrax has given a free reign to US narcissism. The immediate and dignified response of America after 11 September involved a notable degree of reflection, a pondering of a new relationship with the outside world. Our editor fears anthrax may have killed that off. In America today, war is becoming a metaphor for illness.
Lessons from Chechnya
The Jamestown Foundation has picked up on a piece by journalist Lyudmila Averina in the 18 October issue of the weekly Argumenty i Fakty. On the ecological map of the planet, Chechnya should be indicated with bright red colors warning: Careful! Danger! she writes, estimating that more than thirty per cent of the territory of the republic is a zone of ecological disaster, with another forty per cent a zone with a particularly unfavorable ecological situation.
Heavy concentrations of phenol, ammonia, pesticides and other poisons pollute the ground water. In Grozny and in the villages of Sary-Su and Kargalinskoe, the concentration of pollutants in the water exceeds by tens of times the maximum permitted level. Health officials say that eighty per cent of the populace suffers from tuberculosis, heart and blood diseases, and various cancers. The percentage of stillborn children is twice the Russian average, while in Grozny it is five times the Russian average. Does this horrific picture await Afghanistan?
Libya, oh Libya
The whirlwind diplomatic efforts of the west continue in the Middle East with the French government minister, Charles Josselin, making the first official visit to Libya by a French government official in nearly a decade. Josselin was there in 1999 to discuss educational and cultural cooperation, but this time is speaking on the record. His aim: to gain Tripolis backing for the US-led coalition against terrorism. However, Josselin admitted that trade links were also a priority of his visit. Sudan, home to the Bin Laden savings account, follows.
Forgotten wars
And Sudan provides one of the few upbeat notes to a new report from the London-based think-tank, the International Institute for Strategic Studies. The development of the Sudanese oil industry, the study says, has led to a greater sensitivity towards its international image. Nevertheless, this does little to improve the figures across Sub-Saharan Africa, in which half of the worlds sixty thousand war victims in the last year were killed. Military spending in the region rose to $9.4billion, Nigeria topping the bill.
Birdland
Meanwhile, an eight year survey by ornithologists, volunteers and government staff has been published by Birdlife International, encompassing fifty-eight countries across Africa. It concludes that ten per cent of the continents bird species are under threat as a result of hunting, habitat clearance and commercial logging. It fears the extinction of two hundred and eighteen species of bird. The finger is pointed at an intensification of land-use resulting from often appalling poverty, civil conflict and international debt. To save many of these wonderful species, the authors call for the protection of just seven per cent of Africas land area. Sudan should do it.
The world on its bike
But first, Africa must address its Brain Drain a new study by the Pollution Research Group at Natal University in South Africa is reported by the BBC as saying. Over the past few decades, the continent has lost a third of its skilled professionals. For a few months now, the British press in particular has been using the influx of foreign professionals as evidence of the failing public services. But the research group counts the cost to the African continent of replacing their lost brains with western ex-pats at $4billion a year. It seems the Brain Drain flows both ways.
The skys the limit
Finally, a strange story in the Hollywood Reporter. A ban on the flight of small commercial aircraft over all but three cities in the US since 11 September is set to be lifted as long as they arent reporting the news or filming. News helicopters, blimps and banner-towing aircraft will remain prohibited from flying within twenty nautical miles of airports located in the thirty biggest US cities. Quite why traffic reporters pose the biggest threat is a mystery. National security reasons, said FAA spokesman Bill Shuman, adding, as if we hadnt noticed, [that] is all I can say. Presumably, on American soil, the press will still be free.
Contact the Diary editor: dominic.hilton@opendemocracy.net
