Kenya in the Somali crossfire – ISN
May 20th, 2008
Somalia map (BBC)
The assassination of a Somali al-Qaida affiliate overshadows peace talks, with Kenya vulnerable to terrorist attacks in response.
By Daniel Ooko and Simon Roughneen in Nairobi
As Somalia engages in another round of peace talks, the security and humanitarian situation in the country deteriorates. Some 2.5 million of the country’s estimated eight million people now need humanitarian assistance, according to the UN – a 40 percent increase in 2008 alone. Hundreds of thousands are displaced, including 250,000 in what is thought to be the world’s largest refugee/IDP camp outside Mogadishu.
Yet another round of peace talks held in Djibouti last week ended without a face-to-face meeting between the US/Ethiopian-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG), and the opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, which encompasses many of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) routed by the invading Ethiopian army in late 2006.
All told, there seems to be scant hope for a viable political settlement in a country that has lacked effective government since 1991.
Since taking office in November, Somali TFG Prime Minister Nur Hussein has engaged Somalia’s Islamist opposition, unlike his predecessor, Ali Mohamed Gedi – a move also opposed by TFG President Abdullah Yusuf. (more…)
The Church in Albania – The Irish Family
May 10th, 2008
St Pauls Cathedral, Tirana (Simon Roughneen)
from Ottoman control to Communism to?..
- Simon Roughneen in Tirana
An old Albanian saying goes as follows: ‘Where the sword is, there lies religion’ . Thus, under the long years of Ottoman rule, up to 70% of Albanians converted to Islam, escaping the onerous taxes and dhimmitude second-class citizenship imposed on non-Muslims. Before then, Albania’s strategic location on the marches between western and eastern Christianity saw its people divide into largely northern Catholics and southern Orthodox.
Later, under the Stalinism-on-steroids Hoxha regime, Albania was declared the world’s first atheist state, and the Catholic Church felt the force of Tirana’s totalitarian jackboot even more than Albania’s other major faiths. As Hoxha himself said: “The Muslim religion..[..]..was not as serious an obstacle..[..]…as the Catholic”, and as the Archbishop of Tirana-Durres Rrok Kola Mirdita told this reporter “priests were called Vatican spies, Hoxha feared us, many were executed”. (more…)
The Rise of Developing-World Multinationals – World Politics Review
May 7th, 2008
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=2073
Lenovo Chairman Liu Chuanzhi (L) and IBM vice-president John Joyce sign an agreement in which Lenovo buys IBM's PC unit [China Daily![Lenovo Chairman Liu Chuanzhi (L) and IBM vice-president John Joyce sign an agreement in which Lenovo buys IBM's PC unit [China Daily]](http://simonroughneen.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/LenovoIBM-150x150.jpg "LenovoIBM")
Those with a longer historical view might recall that it was private business — the British East India Company — that imposed imperial control over the “brightest jewel in the empire,” before crown rule was implemented in 1858. With Tata scooping up two high-prestige British brands, a reversal of historic proportions appears to be taking place. Meanwhile, during the recent worldwide credit crunch, sovereign wealth funds, state-run investment vehicles often controlled by resource-rich developing countries, have helped bail out cash-strapped Western financial powerhouses like Merrill Lynch, Barclays, UBS and Morgan Stanley.
In the past, globalization’s critics have alleged that the opening up of economic borders is little more than a license for giant Western companies to colonize emerging economies. But recent trends suggest otherwise.
In his “The Emerging Markets Century,” Antoine Van Agtmael says that the combined size of today’s emerging economies will be bigger than their Western counterparts by 2030, which he predicts will help more and more emerging-market companies overtake their rivals in industrialized countries. (more…)
Rising tension could hinder Zimbabwe run-off election – VoA
May 1st, 2008
| By Joe De Capua Washington |
De Capua interview with Simon Roughneen - Download (MP3) 
De Capua interview with Simon Roughneen - Listen (MP3)
As the debate and controversy over Zimbabwe’s presidential election results continue, one analyst warns that rising tensions will make any run-off difficult.
Simon Roughneen is a former humanitarian worker in Africa and an analyst for the International Relations and Security Network. From Dublin, he spoke to VOA English to Africa Service reporter Joe De Capua. (more…)
Irish party says U.S. ‘opposed to EU integration’ – The Washington Times
April 30th, 2008
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080430/FOREIGN/383010006/1001
DUBLIN — The party once led by the current European Union ambassador to Washington is claiming that the U.S. is actively opposing European integration, posing a potential embarrassment as Prime Minister Bertie Ahern prepares to address a joint session of Congress today.
Lucinda Creighton, a spokeswoman for Ireland’s largest opposition party, Fine Gael, says in a Web posting that “U.S. foreign policy has traditionally been opposed to EU integration.”
“The U.S. supports the EU as an economic bloc but nothing more. The idea of a politically strong EU, acting as a check or counterbalance on the U.S. does not sit well with our trans-Atlantic friends,” says the spokeswoman, a member of Ireland’s Parliament. (more…)
War in Darfur – ISN
April 18th, 2008
Conflict in the Darfur region in western Sudan has raged since early 2003, with massive loss of life, displacement and suffering.
The protagonists are Sudanese armed forces and their Janjaweed Arab militia allies on the one hand, and various African-Darfurian-Sudanese resistance groups on the other. Also included are some Arab tribes siding with anti-government forces and various rebel factions engaging in sporadic mutual conflict. Estimates of deaths from the conflict range from 9,000 – 450,000.
Multiple causes
The conflict in Darfur has multiple causes. (more…)
The global food fight – ISN/The Irish Examiner
April 14th, 2008
The biofuel craze, commodity speculation, growing demand in emerging economies and soaring energy prices coalesce to boost food prices, with mass hunger and political instability looming, Simon Roughneen writes for ISN Security Watch.
“A hungry man is an angry man” – this was Brenda Barton’s (the World Food Programme Deputy Director for Communications) apposite summing-up to ISN Security Watch last week.
Jacques Diouf, Head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), took this further, wondering aloud to the world’s press why he had not been asked to brief the UN Security Council about a looming crisis that leaves 37 countries without enough affordable food.
In recent weeks protests have taken place in Indonesia, Peru, Mauritania, Yemen, Burkina Faso, Bolivia and Uzbekistan. In Egypt and Haiti riots turned deadly, with seven and four people killed, respectively, in both countries in the past 10 days, while over 40 died in Cameroon’s February food unrest. (more…)
US Woes danger to Celtic Tiger – The Washington Times
April 8th, 2008
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/apr/08/us-woes-danger-to-celtic-tiger/
Croagh Patrick, on top of which St Patrick emulated Christ's 40 days in the desert. Each St Patricks Day the Irish PM meets the US President at the While House (Simon Roughneen)
DUBLIN — Before his recent resignation, outgoing Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern prefaced the annual St. Patrick”s Day pilgrimage to the White House by predicting “a hard year” ahead for the Irish economy.
The banking crisis and credit crunch in the United States, as well as the falling dollar, worry Irish policy-makers. Ireland has 25 percent of its trade in dollars and has bet much of its recent economic boom on a 12 percent corporate tax rate — an enormous incentive for U.S. multinationals such as Intel and Microsoft to run pan-European operations out of Ireland.
Google has the headquarters of its European and Middle East operations in Dublin.
“The company is very pleased with how the Dublin operation continues to develop,” a Google spokesman said.
The spokesman, who asked not to be named in keeping with company policy, said the company “was attracted to Ireland for a number of reasons, including its highly educated work force, multilingual talent pool, where there are in excess of 140 languages spoken, and its solid economic environment.”
The unanswered question is: How will the present economic slowdown in the U.S. affect Ireland?
Dublin”s Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) is predicting the lowest economic growth in 20 years, at just 1.6 percent. Others are even more pessimistic, predicting zero growth. (more…)
Good old Bob – ISN
April 4th, 2008
A meeting of minds - Robert Mugabe and Mahmoud Ahmedinijad (ISNA)
Meeting Robert Mugabe at the outset of his presidency in 1980, former Rhodesian leader Ian Smith noted his erstwhile enemy’s “reasonableness and fair play.” Twenty-eight years after Mugabe’s Marxist rebels defeated the white-led government and established an independent Zimbabwe, Smith would doubtlessly rethink his views, were he still alive. But his death last year has not stopped him being registered to vote in last Saturday’s elections – and almost certainly matching his 1980 assessment with a posthumous vote for the incumbent.
But stuffing the electoral roll with dead or non-existent voters seems venial relative to Mugabe’s litany of mortal oppression. After a decade of demagogue-driven economic disaster, “Africa’s (former) breadbasket” depends on food aid for 4 million of its 11 million population. Three million others have left Zimbabwe, mostly white farmers and black urban middle classes, the country’s economic lynchpins. With inflation at 160,000 percent – and counting – a wheelbarrow of cash would hardly buy a few strips of biltong – a type of local sun dried meat or jerky – if any could be had that is.
And now a country where electricity supplies are intermittent at best is in the dark about its political future. “Good old Bob” has hedged his bets so far on his next move: The electoral commission has given the parliamentary win to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), but as yet no results from the presidential election are forthcoming. (more…)
Ahern to quit leadership post – The Washington Times
April 3rd, 2008
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/apr/03/ahern-to-quit-leadership-post/
Bertie Ahern announces his resignation
DUBLIN — Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern announced yesterday that he will step down next month after accusations of corruption.
Ireland achieved record economic growth and peace with Northern Ireland during Mr. Ahern’s 11-year tenure, but an ongoing inquest into the prime minister’s personal finances raised questions about more than $1 million in payments.
Mr. Ahern will formally step down May 6. He is scheduled to address Congress in Washington on April 30 and then host the Japanese prime minister in Dublin.
“I have done no wrong and wronged no one,” an emotional Mr. Ahern told reporters. He was surrounded by his government ministers, most of whom learned of the resignation only hours before the announcement.
Mr. Ahern said he had “never done anything to corrupt my office.”
On Monday, Mr. Ahern challenged a tribunal that had homed in during the past year on a plethora of cash gifts and loans in the early 1990s, when he was finance minister. (more…)
