International Affairs: May 2007 Archives
I've written about Dubai a few times, so here's another crazy engineering project they're financing with our petrodollars: a ski resort in the desert. Check out the pictures.
(HT: JV.)
The Los Angeles Times carries an insightful profile of Paul Wolfowitz by Lawrence WIlkerson, a former colleague who describes the man's brilliant mind and inept management skills. I've long been a fan of Wolfowitz's ideas, but knew nothing about his leadership abilities.
WHEN I WAS ASSIGNED to the U.S. Pacific Command in the mid-1980s, we military officers would often discuss the ambassadors in our theater of operations — a huge area embracing more than 30 countries and most of the Pacific and Indian oceans. One name came up constantly as one of the best of the best: then-U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Paul Wolfowitz. He understood the culture, the people and the special circumstances of the world's most populous Muslim country, and he did a superb job in dealing with that country within the context of U.S. national security interests.Understand, then, my wonder over the last few years at Wolfowitz's fall. From my position, first at the Pentagon, then at the State Department, I watched the talented Wolfowitz self-destruct. How could such a successful, intelligent ambassador transmogrify into the petulant old man I watched fighting unsuccessfully to keep his job as president of the World Bank?
There were early signs. In 1990, when both of us were at the Pentagon — I worked for Colin Powell, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Wolfowitz for then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney — I discovered that Wolfowitz was geared entirely to conceptual thinking and not to practical action, planning and detail and the disciplined routine that government requires.
Of course, part of the problem with the government bureaucracy is that it is often all action with no vision. Taking the article as truth, there is an important place in the world for Paul Wolfowitz and others like him, but it's probably not at the head of a large organization. Nevertheless, the World Bank would do well to be guided by his vision, even if he wasn't capable of implementing it.
Update
And apparently now that Wolfowitz is resigning the World Bank ethics board has announced that he did nothing wrong.
Speculators are betting that Paul Wolfowitz will resign from the World Bank by the end of June with around 70% probability. If they're right, that will be a grim day for America and democracy in general. Billions of dollars will continue funding tyrants around the world, and the poorest will suffer most.
My Japanophile brother sent along this NYT article about Japan's criminal justice system that was incredibly surprising to me. Norimitsu Onishi makes it sound as if Japanese police don't even do proper investigations or gather evidence, they just pick a suspect, coerce a confession, and then rely on that confession alone for a conviction.
The Japanese authorities have long relied on confessions to take suspects to court, instead of building cases based on solid evidence. Human rights groups have criticized the practice for leading to abuses of due process and convictions of innocent people.But in recent months developments in this case and two others have shown just how far the authorities will go in securing confessions. Calls for reforms in the criminal justice system have increased, even as Japan is to adopt a jury-style system in 2009 and is considering allowing victims and their relatives to question defendants in court.
In Saga Prefecture in March, a high court upheld the acquittal of a man who said he had been coerced into confessing to killing three women in the late 1980s. The court found that there was no evidence against the man other than the confession, which had been extracted from him after 17 days of interrogations that went on more than 10 hours a day.
In Toyama Prefecture the police acknowledged early this year that a taxi driver who had served almost three years in prison for rape and attempted rape in 2002 was innocent, after they found the real culprit. The driver said he had been browbeaten into affixing his fingerprint to a confession drawn up by the police after three days of interrogation.
Who knows how exaggerated or widespread these incidents are, but it's still odd to consider that a rather modern, wealthy, civilized nation doesn't even have jury trials.
A couple of my friends from church are on a short-term missions trip to Thailand that's focused on evangelizing vacationing Chinese tourists (if I understand correctly). That link takes you to some pictures and a daily account of their activities. Keep them in prayer... China is a hard nut to crack, but from reports we've heard the Chinese people are hungry for the gospel.
Update:
More pictures from Thailand.
French Socialists are now urging an end to the riots they incited Sunday after their presidential candidate lost to conservative Nicolas Sarkozy. Most interesting is the completely unbiased reporting by AP writer Angela Charlton.
The leader of France's defeated Socialists appealed for calm Tuesday after a second night of post-election violence left cars burned and store windows smashed.While the unrest has been small-scale, it sent a message to Nicolas Sarkozy: He may have won the presidency, but he hasn't won over the many French who consider him—and his free-market reforms and tough line on crime and immigration—frighteningly brutal.
Sarkozy, who beat Socialist Segolene Royal in a runoff Sunday, is a divisive figure whose tough language and crackdowns on crime and immigration have angered many on the left—and in the immigrant-heavy suburban housing projects that erupted in riots in 2005. An anti- Sarkozy rally in Paris was planned for Tuesday afternoon.
Some 730 cars were burned nationwide Sunday night and 592 people arrested, police said.
The language shows that the "some people" who are so often referred to most likely includes the reporter herself. Rather than sourceless opinions, why not actually do some reporting and get some quotes? And since when is "small-scale violence" a term sufficient to describe 730 burnt cars and almost 600 arrests?
