India’s Quest for a Permanent Seat on the UN Security Council

 

India's Quest for a Permanent Seat on the UN Security Council

 

Below is a lecture delivered by Ambassador TP Sreenivasan at the Goa University on 'India's Quest for a Permanent Seat on the UN Security Council'. It is a very lucid and comprehensive summing up of this very vital question for us and gives some idea of those who oppose and support us and the evolution of international thinking on the question of reform and/or expansion of the United Nations Security Council , a colonial leftover of the strategic and economic balance at the end of the WWII. 

Since retiring in 1996 as ambassador to Ankara , the author as a fiercely independent analyst of international affairs and events in over 400 in depth articles on international affairs , translated into a dozen major languages of the world, has constantly written against those who have violated international laws and conventions .In this the five nuclear armed veto holding permanent members come off as bullies. 

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts , President Reagan's Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury and Associate Editor and columnist with the Wall Street Journal, recently said ; 

"In the few opening years of the 21st century, Washington has destroyed the US Constitution, the separation of powers, international law, the accountability of government, and has sacrificed every moral principle to achieving hegemony over the world. This ambitious agenda is being attempted while simultaneously Washington removed all regulation over Wall Street, the home of massive greed, permitting Wall Street's short-term horizon to wreck the US economy, thus destroying the economic basis for Washington's assault on the world," 

My 50 articles on Iraq war since 2002 predicted the sorry state of affairs US now finds itself now

 

http://tarafits-archives-us-war-on-iraq.blogspot.com/2009/12/list-of-articles-2002-09-on-us-led.html

 

& 7 perceptive articles since 2002 on the decline and fall of US led western hegemony . 

http://tarafits.blogspot.com/2011/07/post-sept-2008-crippled-economy-us.html

 

The first shoe fell on September 2008 with the collapse of the Lehman Brothers and other established US institutions .The world awaits the fall of the 2^nd shoe .Western countries are bankrupt but brazenly and blatantly keep on violating international law and conventions .The world should prepare for the kind of epical change which happened when the forces of the Ottoman empire were turned back from the gates of Vienna in 16 century.

 

Only a catastrophic happening will change the complexion and the composition of the United Nations and its Security Council when Britain and France do not even deserve to be in UNSC any longer. They along with US ,also bankrupt, violated the UNSC resolution 1973 and have brought about a shameful feast of blood in Libya. Both Russia and China could have stopped it but did not. Moscow and Beijing are perhaps happy that after the quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan ,the West has entered a land of fierce tribal loyalties , which produced legendry resistance leader Omar Mokhtar against Italian colonization.

 

As for Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) ,Mohamed El Baradei , last head of International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA declared in 2005;  "The present system for preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons is at an end , is bankrupt."

 

El Baradei described as "unworkable" the way of thinking that it is "morally reprehensible for some countries to pursue weapons of mass destruction yet morally acceptable for others to rely on them for security and indeed to continue to refine their capacities and postulate plans for their use." Far from working for disarmament, Washington and its wild ally Israel have invented tactical and other weapons like Neutron bombs and even allegedly used them in Iraq and Lebanon etc .

 

The current UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is just a puppet of the Washington , who just got another term.

 

As for Washington's attitude on India's membership of UNSC , the support extended to New Delhi by President Obama during his visit to India is not sincere and is in the form of a wish without any commitment .Says Wikileaks; "We believe expansion of the Council along the lines of the models currently discussed will dilute US influence in the body…..On most important issues of the day—Sanctions, Human Rights, Middle East etc---Brazil, India and most African states are currently far less sympathetic to our views than our European allies", said the US Ambassador in a cable in December 2007.

 

It should be a lesson to Washington lovers .Perhaps the bait was to sell New Delhi US fighter jets to make India a poodle of USA's strategic objectives and policies and sell nuclear power stations with little responsibility for US suppliers of equipment like after Bhopal catastrophe of 1984.

 

And what has India gained after the much trumpeted Indo-US Nuclear Deal either in Nuclear Suppliers Group or supply of advanced technology apart from losing Nuclear sovereignty and creating ill will in Tehran , a major nationalistic regional power , which has made a monkey out of Washington. 

'India and the US may never be allies' Strobe Talbott  

 "From scholarships and training programmes for officers to promises of Green Cards and jobs for family members, America is doing whatever it takes to build a lobby for itself in India" Rahul Bedi in The Hindu.

"To which business groups is Mukherjee[Pranab] beholden?; Why was [he] chosen over Montek" [Montek Singh Ahluwalia as finance minister] US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in her WikiLeaked cable

To soften Indian establishment before Hillary Clinton's visit a few months ago to promote US strategic corporate interests , Strobe Talbott , ex- deputy secretary of state in the Clinton administration and now president of the conservative Brookings Institution , Washington, DC,declared ; 

"And, by the way, one reason we may never be or not, in the foreseeable future, is because there is still a huge constituency in support of India's non-aligned status, despite the fact that I would say that non-alignment and the non-aligned movement is very much an artifact of the Cold War." 

As if India has no interests .Washington has rarely sided with India, only when our stand overwhelmingly fitted with US policies and objectives .The latest declassification of papers of the 1971 War for the liberation of Bangladesh , clearly show Washington's readiness to fight India for Pakistan engaged in genocide in East Bengal , sending 10 million refugees to India .Only Indira Gandhi could stand up against Washington's real threats .The kind of uncivilized expressions US leaders use in private and even public only show how far low they are in the ladder of civilized discourse .

 

But Washington /Mumbai corporate Counts and Countesses led by the likes of Shekhar Gupta with sidekicks like C Raja Mohan will keep on pimping for their master's interest .The latter has been well rewarded by Washington.

 

Amb (Retd) K Gajendra Singh ,6 November ,2011, Mayur Vihar, Delhi   

 

Distinguished Lecture Series on Indian Foreign Policy by the Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs. Goa University, August 17, 2011

 

India's Quest for a Permanent Seat on the UN Security Council

 

By T.P.Sreenivasan IFS

 

"I am grateful to the Goa University and the Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs for inviting me to deliver a lecture in the Distinguished Lecture Series on India's Quest for a Permanent Seat on the UN Security Council. Public Diplomacy is fairly new to India, but it has spread its wings far and wide and has made a tremendous impact. I am delighted to be part of its effort to bring the intricate aspects of diplomacy to a wide audience and to attract talent to diplomacy as a profession. I must state, however, that the views contained in my lecture are my own and I have had no official briefing. I shall rely on my own experience of either dealing with the issue or following it in the last 32 years.

 

The UN reform we are seeking, particularly the expansion of the permanent membership of the Security Council, is nothing short of a revolution. We are challenging the very foundation of an institution, born out of a world war, the winners of which gave themselves the responsibility of maintaining world peace and security by assuming extraordinary powers. The UN Charter, which was crafted by them, has been embraced voluntarily by 192 nations. That there has not been a world war since and that the UN has served as a stabilizing factor in the world is the strongest argument for continuing the status quo. But the contrary argument is stronger, because the global equations have changed so much in the last 66 years that it is imperative that the UN must reflect those changes to maintain its representative character and moral strength. The struggle is on between those who wish to perpetuate their privileged positions and the forces of change that cannot but win. But no one can predict the time and nature of revolutions. They have their own logic and time.

 

The question today is not whether change is needed, but whether a real change can be brought about by the provisions of the very Charter that established the institution. If history is any guide, major changes take place when the time is ripe, in unexpected ways, regardless of the strength of those who seek change and those who resist. The provisions of the law that seek to protect the establishment will be thrown to the winds and the old system will yield place to the new. A Malayalam poet declared many years ago: "Change your out dated laws, if not, they will change you yourselves." We have many examples in history to show that those who have conceded changes have lasted longer than those who have resisted the forces of change.

 

India was among those who lit the first spark of inevitable change, back in 1979, at the height of the cold war, when an item entitled "Equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council" was inscribed on the agenda of the General Assembly. The demand was to add a few more non-permanent members, on the simple logic that the ratio between the strength of the General Assembly and that of the Security Council should be maintained. The exponential increase in the membership of the UN should be reflected in the size of the Security Council. This principle was, in fact, followed in 1965 when the number of non-permanent members was raised from 6 to 10.

The reaction from the permanent members was instant and shocking. In an unprecedented show of solidarity, they opposed the move tooth and nail. They argued that any expansion of the Security Council would undermine its efficiency, integrity and credibility and ensured that the agenda item was postponed year after year, with a nominal and sterile debate. The idea remained alive, but no action was taken till the end of the cold war.

 

The game changed in the early nineties, when the idea of adding new permanent members was brought up by Brazil and we initiated the exercise of ascertaining the views of the members and setting up a mechanism to study the proposals and to reach consensus. The permanent members led by the US offered a "quick fix" after initial hesitation and proposed the addition of Japan and Germany as permanent members on the ground of their being the highest contributors to the UN budget after the US and a marginal increase in the non-permanent membership. If India had not stopped the "quick fix" and insisted on comprehensive reform with the support of the nonaligned group, the door for expansion would have been closed after inducting Japan and Germany at that time. We demolished the payment argument by stating that permanent membership should not be up for sale. If I may be permitted to quote from my own speech at the Working Group in February 1995, "Contribution to the UN should not be measured in terms of money. We do not agree with the view expressed by a delegation that permanent membership is a privilege that can be purchased. Financial contributions are determined on the basis of "capacity to pay" and those who pay their assessments, however small, are no whit less qualified for privilege than the major contributors."

 

As a lethargic debate went on in the Working Group for years, national positions evolved and loyalties changed, but it became clear that the expansion of the Security Council could not be easily accomplished. The formation of an interest group called the "Coffee Club" and later "Uniting for Consensus" which opposed any expansion of the permanent membership made the situation more chaotic. We ourselves advanced our position from seeking to establish criteria, such as population, seminal contribution to the UN, participation in peacekeeping operations etc to staking a claim and began campaigning bilaterally in capitals. Over the years, our claim became strong and it became universally recognized that if a single developing country were to become a permanent member, that would be India. One adverse consequence of the debate, however, was that the discussions highlighted that a vast majority of member states had not served even once on the Security Council, while countries like India, Japan, Pakistan and Egypt had served on the Council several times. This led to our long absence from the Council from 1993 to 2010 after having been elected as a non-permanent member 7 times in the earlier period.

 

Efforts made outside the Working Group were also fruitless. After the deliberations of a High Level Group, Secretary General Kofi Annan proposed two Plans; Plan A, proposing creation of 6 permanent and 3 non-permanent seats and Plan B, proposing 8 new seats for 4 years subject to renewal and 1 non-permanent seat. The Plan B had greater acceptability in the Group and it was at the insistence of General Satish Nambiar, the Indian member of the Group that Plan B plan was included. Another exercise undertaken by India, Brazil, Germany and Japan (G-4) to get the General Assembly to adopt a resolution on expansion failed to take off because of differences with the African Group. It, however, resulted in the G-4 conceding for the first time that they would not insist on the veto at least for 15 years. The General Assembly recently entered intergovernmental negotiations to suggest a "timeline perspective" to agree on reform in two stages on the basis of a draft text, but no progress has been reported as yet. A move is afoot by the G-4 to introduce a resolution to decide that both permanent and non-permanent membership will be expanded, but its fate is uncertain.

 

The story so far of our quest for a permanent seat on the Security Council is "Kabhi Khushi, Kabhie Ghum" (Joy sometimes, despair at other times), as Ambassador Hardeep Puri described it, drawing inspiration from a Bollywood movie of that name. In fact, there is more despair than joy in that saga. The only reason for joy is that the need for expansion has been recognized by the entire membership and that there is also recognition that if the permanent membership is ever expanded, India will be the first developing country to find a place in it. For the rest, there are almost as many views as there are members of the UN about the size, composition and rights and responsibilities of the members of the Security Council. As of now, there is no formula for expansion which can command consensus or even secure two thirds majority of the General Assembly, including the support of the 5 permanent members.

 

The framers of the UN Charter did not intend that it should be amended easily. But that has not prevented the UN from transforming itself to deal with new issues and new circumstances. Today's preoccupations of the UN like peacekeeping, human rights, environment, climate change etc were not anticipated in the Charter. The flexibility and resilience of the Charter have been tested again and again and nothing in the Charter has prevented the UN from taking on new responsibilities and obligations. Charter amendments have not been initiated even to remove anachronisms like the enemy countries clause and the name of one of the permanent members. The most crucial article of the Charter on the veto itself has been changed in practice as abstention by a permanent member is considered a concurring vote. The proposals for reform like the working methods of the Council introduced in the Working Group from time to time are mere diversionary tactics as these can be adopted without any amendment to the Charter. But when it comes to an expansion of the Security Council, the only way is to bring a Charter amendment. This explains why the only amendment of the Charter was made in 1965 to raise the number of non-permanent members from 6 to 10 when the strength of the General Assembly increased. The different groups of countries and entrenched interests are in no mood to repeat the exercise, particularly if the permanent membership should be touched.

 

The permanent members, for instance, consider that they only stand to lose by adding new permanent members with veto. They have made it clear that there is no question of veto being extended to the new permanent members, even though some of them tactically accept the African demand for veto. Even the UK, France and Russia, who have extended support to India and others, have not taken any action to bring about changes. One thing that France and the UK dread is the suggestion that the EU should have only one representative, while they already have two inside and another at the door. They are not willing to float a formula for expansion even to set the ball rolling. The same is the case with many others, who have pledged support to India and other candidates. In many cases, such support is an easy gesture to win goodwill. No group, outside the G-4, is actively campaigning for a formula. The African Group differs significantly from G-4 because of their insistence on the veto and an additional non-permanent member. Moreover, the idea of the African Group is to rotate two permanent memberships within the Group, itself a contradiction. The Uniting for Consensus group wants to add only 10 new non-permanent members. This is an attractive proposition for a large number of small states, whose chances of serving on the Council will increase, while they have nothing to gain by adding new permanent members.  In other words, the G-4 proposal for 6 new permanent members and 4 non-permanent members cannot as yet win a two thirds majority in the General Assembly, not to speak of the support of the P-5.

 

The US, which had supported Japan and Germany in the early nineties, now favours "two or so" new permanent members, including Japan and "2 or 3" non-permanent members  making an addition of only 5 more to the Security Council. Such a formula is a non-starter. The support extended to India by President Obama during his visit to India is in the form of a wish without a commitment to bring it about.  His words were: "In the years ahead, I look forward to a reformed Security Council that includes India as a permanent member." Though this is a significant departure from the previous US position, it is not enough for the US to extend support to India; it should shape a formula, which is acceptable to the membership. Its reservation over Germany and Brazil will itself deprive it of being decisive on the issue of expansion.

 

We did not need Wikileaks to find the reasons for the reluctance of the US to bring about expansion of the Council. But we now have it in black and white what we knew from the beginning. "We believe expansion of the Council along the lines of the models currently discussed will dilute US influence in the body…..On most important issues of the day—Sanctions, Human Rights, Middle East etc---Brazil, India and most African states are currently far less sympathetic to our views than our European allies", said the US Ambassador in a cable in December 2007. The US delegation at the UN seems to have only a watching brief till intervention becomes necessary to prevent an expansion that will not serve US interests. There is expectation, however, that President Obama might declare openness to a modest expansion of the Security Council at the next session of the General Assembly. But a special report of the Council on Foreign Relations which has urged the President to do so makes the expansion contingent on demonstration of the qualifications of permanent membership. The position of the aspirants on non-proliferation, climate change and human rights will be subject to scrutiny. A few days ago, our Minister of State for External Affairs indicated that both India and the US were actively involved in the ongoing negotiations.

 

China is opposed explicitly to Japan and implicitly to India, though it pays lip service to developing countries' representation on the Council. Its position could be decisive as the permanent members will coordinate their positions before any advance is made.

If I may go back to where I began, it will be difficult to accomplish the fundamental change we are seeking by way of the procedure laid down for change. Like it happened in the case of the formation of G-20 when G-8 could not resolve the unprecedented economic crisis, a situation may arise when the P-5 find it difficult to maintain international peace and security without additional permanent members and thus force their hands to accept change. Such an ominous future was predicted by the President of the General Assembly, when he said on May 16, 2011, "Unless we find the determination to advance on the issue, the UN will lose its credibility. Our organization will be marginalized and important issues will be discussed in other forums and groupings, which are perceived to be more efficient and more representative of the new realities of the day." Such a situation may arise sooner than later and that gives us reason for joy even in the midst of despair.

 

India and the other aspirants for permanent membership, in the meantime, must maintain pressure for expansion. But to give the impression that permanent membership is the holy grail of Indian foreign policy does not enhance our prestige. Legend has it that India spurned an offer to take over China's permanent seat on the Security Council, saying that we would win it in our own right one day. That position has won us more glory than what we have gained by our constant knocking at all doors. Making support for our permanent membership the litmus test of bilateral relations is untenable. We should appear more confident and secure even as we demand our rightful place in keeping with our status as the largest democracy with a dynamic, fast growing economy, an impressive record in UN peacekeeping, ability to protect the global commons and to combat transnational terrorism and strong record against proliferation.

 

May I also say, without appearing to spurn the proverbial "sour grapes", that permanent membership without veto is not such an attractive trophy that we should expend unlimited resources and energy on it. As a member of the Council, India will be called upon to take sides on every issue in the world, sometimes losing friends in the process as we are fiercely independent and do not play second fiddle to anyone. The lack of the veto may make us vulnerable as a result, if issues of crucial importance to us come up in the Council. India has been playing a significant role even without being on the Security Council for many years. A posture of our willingness to serve when required to do so rather than being desperate about securing a seat here and now may be a good strategy to adopt. The UN needs reform not to make one country or the other happy, but to make itself more relevant, credible and effective in the world and it will be ready for a revolution sooner rather than later.

 

Thank you."

 

 

Metallica; Heavy Metal, Rock, Blues & Jazz’s Origins

Metallica; Heavy Metal, Rock, Blues & Jazz's Origins 

In a splurge of glittering but garish display of wealth by India's nouveau riche elites ,corporate and political, many having become obscenely rich via 2-G,CWG,Nrega , criminal land grab and a host of other scams , there are spectacles for the enjoyment of the rich like Formula One Race, followed by a performance by one Lady Gaga ( the more outlandish, the more appreciated ) ,the current generation avatar of  the Material Girl Madona but without the latter's raw and almost vulgar overt sexuality ,India's ruling minority joined the international fraternity of the exclusive elite when the Buddha (poor Gautam Buddha) International Circuit , costing $ 250 million, Formula One racing circuit in Greater Noida, near Delhi was inaugurated by India's tallest Dalit leader Mayawati , while the milling and toiling masses cross poverty line at Rs 32 (less than a dollar) per day in urban India (while we slipped down to 134 among 187 countries in human development index, based on long-term progress in health, education and other indicators, from 119 out of 169 in 2010 ) 

While fans from Delhi and elsewhere including my nephew Vaibhav , creative director with an Ad company and his wife Nancy were greatly disappointed , when the Metallica performance in Gurgaon, near Delhi was cancelled on Saturday , 29 October ,but close to 40,000 fans were treated to head-banging metal music by the American heavy metal group in Bangalore , even as liquor and drugs flowed freely while a heavily outnumbered police force looked on helplessly. 

During my posts and travels around the world ,as part of learning and education , I savoured local music , say In Cairo , my first post in early 1960s, where modified instruments from the Pharaonic days are still employed .The traditional Sufi dhikr rituals, are the closest contemporary music genre to ancient Egyptian music, having preserved many of its features, rhythms and instruments. Real Arabic music began in the 7th century in Syria during the Umayyad dynasty and was influenced by Byzantine, Indian and Persian forms, which were themselves heavily influenced by earlier Greek, Semitic, and ancient Egyptian music. Of course now a days the western bands are copied in Egypt as elsewhere .

But I found the Belly dancing in Egypt initially troubling because of body exposure and undulations but it was nothing compared to what was dished out in Paris , where most visitors wanted to spend an evening at Lido or Moulin Rouge if not Crazy Horse or Follies Bergere .As for suggestive and vulgar gyrations and almost copulatory motions , without baring the mammary glands ,the Indian films have crossed all limits in erotic exhibitionism, with its acme in a new Bollywod avatar ,Item girl and item number , by which all top actresses want to exhibit their assets and expertise. 

Whether it is music or food , Turkey the successor state of the Ottoman Empire which stretched from Morocco to Oman and from Azerbaijan to Austria , happily claims the music and cuisine of its conquered people , since the population of those who now inhabit Turkey and migrated from central Asia is less than 15% .The nomad Turks could roast meat or boil it with rice but their strong point was expertise in warfare .Thus the music of Turkey includes diverse elements, ranging from Central Asian folk music with influence of  Greek music, Ottoman music, Persian music, Balkan music, as well as more modern European and American popular music . Much of its current popular music can trace its roots to the emergence of modern secular republic of Turkey and modernisation and westernization in the early 1930s. With the assimilation of immigrants from various regions of the empire ,the diversity of musical genres and musical instrumentation was expanded.

In late 1960s and early 1970s, the night clubs in Turkey mostly featured Turkish folkloric and assimilated music with Anatolian and Arabic base by the likes of Neshe Karabuchek with modern singers like Calypso King Metin Ersoy , while the secular establishment patronized western modern and classical music .But in 1990s the place to hangout became Bars , where mostly the young generation sipped liquor ,with Jazz , Turkish rock, electronica, hip-hop, rap taking over with the slow decline of old grass root arabesque style music in which the audience participated.

 Scenic and medium sized Romania in East Europe has a multicultural music environment including active ethnic music from its many regions. Classical and traditional Romanian folk music was encouraged during the Communist era and remains popular. Some folk musicians like Gheorghe Zamfir became world famous throughout the world with traditional Romanian folk instrument, the panpipes. Zubin Mehta, the Indian Music Conductor I met in 1984 found Romania's music tradition rich and varied which he used to visit while learning his craft in Vienna .Since the demise of the socialist state, as everywhere else ,it is now a thriving scene of pop music, hip hop, heavy metal and rock and roll with many groups achieving success abroad. Romania used to be highly advanced in theatre ,ballet and opera too .

 During my short stay in Algeria in mid 1960s, soon after a bloody war of independence from France the Algerian music and folk dance scene was just recovering and developing .But it has now become virtually synonymous with raï among foreigners which  achieved great popularity in France  , Spain and other parts of Europe. For several centuries, Algerian music was dominated by styles inherited from Al-Andalus, eventually forming a unique North African twist on poetic forms. Algerian music came to include suites called nuubaat (singular nuuba). Lately ,derivatives include rabaab and hawzii. Algeria in general offers a rich diversity of genre; popular music (Shaabi), Arabo-Andalusian music (Malouf San'aa, Gharnati, etc. ..) music classical Arabic, Bedouin, Berber music (Kabyle, Shawi, Tuareg , Etc. ..), Rai ... 

Senegal's musical heritage is better known than of other African countries, because of the popularity of  Wolof percussive music; popularized by Youssou N'Dour and others . Senegalese folk music is distinct from ancient Mande music, or its purer expression in modern Malian music, by the influence of Serer polyphony. Generally the Senegalese folk music is more lively than the sedate, classical sounds of Malian griots. In 1970s ,Faye and N'Dour were Senegal's first pop stars, and could be seen strumming on TV channels or at night clubs   Modern Senegalese hip hop is mostly in Wolof, alongside some in English and French.  

During my stay in Dakar ( 1978-81) there used to be cultural activities galore ( apart from majority cinema halls showing Bollywood films) under Senegal president Léopold Sédar Senghor ,a poet, politician, and cultural theorist .He was the first African elected as a member of the Académie Française. A graduate of the University of Paris, where he received the Agrégation in French Grammar ,he was professor at the universities of Tours and Paris, 1935-45.

 

There were many cultural festivals and troupes from Europe and elsewhere but those from African countries specially Mali, Guineas and others  were just astounding and spell binding .What colours , rhythm, spiritual joy and ecstasy, moving the audience to be part of the performance .

 

I will leave it to Vaibhav and his generation to explain the nuances of modern music and the evolution of heavy metal music from Rock, Blues and Jazz, but here is something about the origins of this soul affecting music from my notes,

 

In classic neo- Orleans style Jazz, it is the duty of the trumpets to state and embellish the theme.

A few miles from Senegal's capital Dakar in west Africa, lies the island of Goree, which long served as a thriving entrepot for European slavers to herd Africans from the hinterland, mostly helped by rival tribes , to be sorted out like cattle for export to the new continent of Americas, to labour there as domestics or in plantations.

 

When posted at Dakar in late 1970s I went over to Goree many times, now a small, picturesque town and a UNESCO heritage site with museums including ' The Maison des Esclaves '("Slave House"), which was constructed in1786 , which displays slavery artifacts, and the Fort d'Estrées built in the 1850s.  

Once I chanced on a jazz festival there to which some well known and rising young talents, mostly from USA had come over to participate .Many others also came to West Africa in search of their roots .A few hundred miles south of Dakar is river Gambia, the locale for the book 'The Roots'.

 

There were colourful and lively Jazz bands vying with each other. But there was one young girl whose singing left a searing imprint on my soul, as if after visiting the museum and the dungeons below ,where Black Africans were chained like animals ,she had transmuted into music the bruising of their souls , tortures and suffering of centuries - free human beings turned into animals ,sold and bartered like any other commodity. Even now a flash of that wailing music, the cry of a caged soul pierces down my spine. 

 

All that Jazz; 

The enslaved from West Africa, isolated both socially and geographically from their native environment created the jazz music as an expression of their culture, borrowing from European harmonic structure, Christian religious hymns but based on African rhythms. The white hunter, forbidden to enslave other Christians invented the lie that he was enslaving a savage , converting him into a Christian to save his soul (as now a days , under the charade of globalization, US led West is saving the world's poor in Asia and Africa from poverty!) This allowed the enslaved to invent a music which diverged widely, even violently from all previous canons of musical composition and performance, as if in defiance to grab at the opportunity and the freedom .In the only domain he was his own master, improvisation ran riot as it still does. Indian classical music too is rooted in improvisation, which respects all religions, with performers though respected, used to be poor. The Indian and black musicians soon discover many affinities when they come together.

 

From the very beginnings and at the turn of the 20^th century Jazz has been a constantly evolving, expanding and changing music, passing through several distinctive phases of development. A definition that might apply to one phase—for instance, to New Orleans style or swing—is not applicable to another segment of its history, say, to free jazz. It has used both creative approaches in varying degrees and endless permutations. It is not—and never has been—an entirely composed, predetermined music, nor is it an entirely extemporized one.  

Early definition of jazz music with its chief characteristic improvisation, made it too restrictive, since composition, arrangement, and ensemble were also essential components throughout most of its history. Similarly, syncopation and swing, often considered essential and unique to jazz, are in fact lacking in much authentic jazz. But despite diverse terminological confusions, jazz seems to be instantly recognized and distinguished as something separate from all other forms of musical expression. To repeat Armstrong's famous reply when asked what swing meant: "If you have to ask, you'll never know."

The  above is an extract from

http://tarafits.blogspot.com/2011/11/after-iraq-natures-backlash-warns.html

2 November.2011.

K Gajendra Singh, Indian ambassador (retired), served as ambassador to Turkey and Azerbaijan from August 1992 to April 1996. Prior to that, he served terms as ambassador to Jordan, Romania and Senegal. He is currently chairman of the Foundation for Indo-Turkic Studies. Copy right with the author http://tarafits.blogspot.com/

 

After Iraq, Nature's Backlash Warns America Inc.

After Iraq, Nature's Backlash Warns America Inc. By K Gajendra Singh, September 9, 2005

"What the Communists said about themselves was all wrong, but what they said about Capitalism is all correct." A Moscow joke in the late 1990s.

In classic neo- Orleans style Jazz, it is the duty of the trumpets to state and embellish the theme, which unfortunately New Orleans today trumpets, failures of the America Inc.

A few miles from Senegal's capital Dakar in west Africa, lies the island of Goree, which long served as a thriving entrepot for European slavers to herd Africans from the hinterland, mostly helped by rival tribes , to be sorted out like cattle for export to the new continent of Americas, to labour there as domestics or in plantations. 

When posted at Dakar in late 1970s I went over to Goree many times, now a small, picturesque town and a UNESCO heritage site with museums including ' The Maison des Esclaves '("Slave House"), which was constructed in1786 , which displays slavery artifacts, and the Fort d'Estrées built in the 1850s.  

Once I chanced on a jazz festival there to which some well known and rising young talents, mostly from USA had come over to participate .Many others also came to West Africa in search of their roots .A few hundred miles south of Dakar is river Gambia, the locale for the book 'The Roots'.

There were colourful and lively Jazz bands vying with each other. But there was one young girl whose singing left a searing imprint on my soul, as if after visiting the museum and the dungeons below ,where Black Africans were chained like animals ,she had transmuted into music the bruising of their souls , tortures and suffering of centuries - free human beings turned into animals ,sold and bartered like any other commodity. Even now a flash of that wailing music, the cry of a caged soul pierces down my spine. 

 

All that Jazz; 

The enslaved from West Africa, isolated both socially and geographically from their native environment created the jazz music as an expression of their culture, borrowing from European harmonic structure, Christian religious hymns but based on African rhythms. The white hunter, forbidden to enslave other Christians invented the lie that he was enslaving a savage , converting him into a Christian to save his soul (as now a days , under the charade of globalization, US led West is saving the world's poor in Asia and Africa from poverty!) This allowed the enslaved to invent a music which diverged widely, even violently from all previous canons of musical composition and performance, as if in defiance to grab at the opportunity and the freedom .In the only domain he was his own master, improvisation ran riot as it still does. Indian classical music too is rooted in improvisation, which respects all religions, with performers though respected, used to be poor. The Indian and black musicians soon discover many affinities when they come together. 

From the very beginnings and at the turn of the 20^th century Jazz has been a constantly evolving, expanding and changing music, passing through several distinctive phases of development. A definition that might apply to one phase—for instance, to New Orleans style or swing—is not applicable to another segment of its history, say, to free jazz. It has used both creative approaches in varying degrees and endless permutations. It is not—and never has been—an entirely composed, predetermined music, nor is it an entirely extemporized one.  

Early definition of jazz music with its chief characteristic improvisation, made it too restrictive, since composition, arrangement, and ensemble were also essential components throughout most of its history. Similarly, syncopation and swing, often considered essential and unique to jazz, are in fact lacking in much authentic jazz. But despite diverse terminological confusions, jazz seems to be instantly recognized and distinguished as something separate from all other forms of musical expression. To repeat Armstrong's famous reply when asked what swing meant: "If you have to ask, you'll never know." 

 

New Orleans exposes putrid underbelly of corporate greed; 

Across the wide expanse of the Atlantic Ocean from Goree lies the city of New Orleans , where the slaves taken from West Africa, first mostly to Caribbean , worked themselves out on British sugar plantations  and later taken to colonial tobacco and cotton plantations in north America. 

But the scenes in New Orleans , the Mississippi delta and elsewhere in South as telecast and reported by the media convey that little has changed for these unfortunate human beings.  From time to time they cry out and explode as in the Watts riots forty years ago. Fire and anger remains bottled.  

Commenting on the handling of Hurricane Katrina a senior US officer in far off Iraq said "If anything ,I am kind of embarrassed.'' We are supposed to be telling the Iraqis how to act and this is what`s happening at home ?" He further added that still he'd rather be in Iraq than in New Orleans right now! A  National Guard member who returned to New Orleans from Iraq said that New Orleans was worse than Iraq.

 

System's Failure or I am all right Jack (in fortress condominium) 

It is not that scientists and others had not pointed out that we might indeed be entering a new, globally warmed world of extreme weather conditions. But global warming, the Bush administration which did not accept the Kyoto Protocol , has refused to acknowledge .How could they, as most of the top guns in the administration are from the energy sector .Global warming was discussed in terms of melting glaciers in terms of distant islands and atolls in South Pacific and Bangladesh. But the "Atlantis scenarios" for New Orleans was brought up by USA Today a year ago .It even discussed Mississippi delta threatened with rising ocean waters .It was well known for some time that New Orleans' levees weren't fit for a class 5 hurricane but instead , the Bush administration had slashed the budget of the Army Corps of Engineers. The "Atlantis scenario" was banished as night mare which hits others. (or the Blacks and poor ) When the reality hit , it was first ignored . For a change BBC was much better in telling the truth.( Remember , many independent reports had concluded  that the BBC gave only 5 % time for anti- Iraq war view )  

Soon" much of New Orleans became the Atlantis from hell, a toxic sludge pool of a looted former city, filled with dead bodies and fires in places. The city is threatened with diseases such as cholera and typhus that haven't visited the Big Easy since early in the last century, and with thousands upon thousands of the black poor and a few of the stranded better-to-do such as doctors, nurses and a few local officials left for days on end with next to no way out. It was, in short, the feral city that 30 years of science fiction films (and post-apocalyptic novels) have delivered to the American public as entertainment as well as prophesy."

Expectedly affluent white people and some middle class black people too fled the city in their cars , except the poor and mainly the Blacks , left behind in their below-sea-level shacks and aging tenements to face the wrath of Poseidon .To begin with ,the sanitized versions were shown by US media of the many of the black poor of New Orleans not only left behind , many thousands upon thousands of them - those who didn't die in their wheelchairs or on highway overpasses or in the ill-fated convention center or unattended and forgotten in their homes , just forgotten . But soon the reality of New Orleans and the Mississippi coast, as so many reporters have observed with shock, are 'simply the Bangladesh of North America (after a disastrous set of monsoons), or in poorest Africa . [One rarely sees US poor and blacks in documentaries made by US producers, who scour the world to show sickness and filth to make US well off feel better.] 

Katrina has only exposed the bankruptcy of US corporate free for all grab with little accountability. Every one is blaming the other, the federal government the state government and vice versa. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), absorbed into the Department of Homeland Security , are blaming each other .The budget cut of  the Army Corps of Engineers which reined in on crucial levee work in New Orleans was done under the guise of preparing for, or fighting, or funding the "war on terror" at home and abroad. It also exposed the Neo-cons going on wars in Iraq with thin results but huge benefits for their masters. 

All this had previously worried the governors of many states with significant chunks of the National Guard, just as important for disaster relief with its heavy equipment happened to be in Iraq, liberating it and through its mayhem spreading democracy, instead of handling the emergency at home. Soon when the avian flu, or the next health disaster suddenly hits, the administration and the media would again be filled with the same sort of shock about the civilian response, because the public health system has also been gutted and de-funded under the guise of the "war on terrorism".

In his recent Dispatch, Tom Engelhardt summed up 6 failures, abroad in Iraq and at home. 

1. Revelations of unexpected superpower helplessness: A single catastrophic war against a modest-sized, not particularly dramatically armed minority insurgency in one oil land has brought the planet's mightiest military to a complete, grinding, disastrous halt and sent its wheels flying off in all directions. A single not-exactly-unexpected hurricane leveling a major American city and the coastlines of two states, has brought the emergency infrastructure of the world's mightiest power to a complete, grinding, disastrous halt and sent its wheels flying off in all directions.

2.Planning ignored: It's now well known that the State Department did copious planning for a post-invasion occupied Iraq, all of which was ignored by the Pentagon and Bush administration neo-cons when the country was taken. In New Orleans, it's already practically notorious that endless planning, disaster war-gaming, and the like were done for how to deal with a future "Atlantis scenario", none of which was attended to as Katrina bore down on the southeastern coast. [How ever, the author would like to point out and has maintained since the invasion of Iraq that the best of the Plans for occupation and colonization would have failed.] 

3. Lack of boots on the ground: It's no less notorious that, even before the invasion of Iraq when General Eric Shinseki told a congressional committee that "several hundred thousand troops" would minimally be needed to successfully occupy Iraq, he was more or less laughed out of Washington. [This is Neo-cons policy at home and abroad. If you are not with us , you are against US. Out you go.]

Donald Rumsfeld's new, lean, mean military has desperately lacked boots on the ground. Significant numbers of National Guard only made it to New Orleans on the fifth and sixth days after Katrina struck .No Pentagon help was pre-positioned for Katrina and, typically enough, the Navy hospital ship Comfort, scheduled to help, had not left Baltimore harbor by Friday morning for its many day voyage to the Gulf.

4.Looting: The inability (or unwillingness) to deploy occupying American troops to stem a wave of looting that left the complete administrative, security, and even cultural infrastructure of Baghdad destroyed is now nearly legendary, as is Donald Rumsfeld's response to the looting at the time. ("Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.) In New Orleans, the president never declared martial law while, for days, gangs of armed looters along with desperate individuals abandoned and in need of food and supplies of all kinds, roamed the city uncontested .

What did the Bush administration actually do? The Environmental Protection Agency relaxed pollution standards on gasoline blends ,another 'step in the gutting of general environmental, clean air and pollution laws that strike hard at another kind of safety net - the one protecting our planet.' And second, its officials began to organize a major operation out of North com, Joint Task Force Katrina, to act as the military's on-scene command in "support" of an enfeebled FEMA. There were to be swift boats in the Gulf and Green Berets at the New Orleans airport, and yet Donald Rumsfeld's new, stripped-down, high-tech military either couldn't (or wouldn't) deploy any faster to New Orleans than it did to Baghdad. 

5. Nation-building: George Bush in his first run for the presidency eschewed any idea of "nation-building" abroad. Over two years and endless billions of dollars later - the Iraq War now being, on a monthly basis, more expensive than Vietnam - the evidence of the administration's nation-building success in its "reconstruction" of Iraq is at hand for all to see. That country is now a catastrophe beyond imagining without repair in sight. (For Baghdad, think New Orleans without water, but with a full-scale insurgency.) 

So if the Marines finally land in the streets of New Orleans, don't hold your breath about either the Pentagon's or the administration's nation-building skills in the US. (But count on "reconstruction" contracts going to Halliburton.) [Rarely, foreign policy becomes the platform for US elections but by its sheer dominance and the empire like ambitions, US Presidents are sucked into wars abroad .But the Iraq war was planned by the Vulcan group before 9/ 11 which only provided an excuse for the invasion.] 

6.Predictions: Given the last two years in which the president as well as top administration officials have regularly insisted that we had reached the turning point, or turned that corner, or hit the necessary tipping point in Iraq, that success or progress or even victory was endlessly at hand (and then at hand again and then again), consider what we should think of the president's repeated statements of Katrina "confidence", his insistence that his administration can deal successfully with the hurricane's after effects and is capable of overseeing the successful rebuilding of New Orleans.  

"All Americans can be certain our nation has the character, the resources and the resolve to overcome this disaster. We will comfort and care for the victims. We will restore the towns and neighborhoods that have been lost in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. We'll rebuild the great city of New Orleans. And we'll once again show the world that the worst adversities bring out the best in America." 

If any other country had handled a natural disaster like US did hurricane Katrina, it would have been classified a failed state .And as the neglected and almost forgotten were poor and mostly black, such a failure would have been described racist .No wonder many have accused US by comparing the response now to its swift response to 11 September attacks on New York. 

Cuba's exemplary performance; 

Compare the performance of Cuba, a country which US media keeps on deriding day in and day out. Last September, a Category 5 hurricane Ivan battered Cuba with 260 kms winds. More than 1.5 million Cubans were evacuated to higher ground ahead of the storm. Although the hurricane destroyed  20,000 houses, no one died. It was possible because "the whole civil defense is embedded in the community to begin with. People know ahead of time where they are to go." 

"Cuba's leaders go on TV and take charge," while George W. Bush, the day after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, was playing golf , waiting  three days to make a TV appearance and five days before visiting the disaster site. "Merely sticking people in a stadium is unthinkable" in Cuba." Shelters all have medical personnel, from the neighborhood. They have family doctors in Cuba, who evacuate together with the neighborhood, and already know, for example, who needs insulin." They also evacuate animals and veterinarians, TV sets and refrigerators, "so that people aren't reluctant to leave because people might steal their stuff." 

After Hurricane Ivan, the United Nations International Secretariat for Disaster Reduction cited Cuba as a model for hurricane preparation. USA refused Fidel Castro's offer of a thousand doctors and other assistance.

 

International Media reaction; 

Of course when a bully is down, his neighbours, while still afraid would express sympathy but gloat internally.  In this case people all over the world empathized with the luckless Americans in south USA .But the pictures telecast has become a watershed in the way the US is perceived at home and abroad. US media propagated  the American "myth" was shattered by the poverty and racial divisions which the disaster has revealed. Here are some excerpts from the worldwide media.

Germany's Die Welt wrote that 'Hurricane Katrina will bury itself into the American consciousness in the same way9 / 11or the fall of Saigon did. The storm did not just destroy America's image of itself, but also has the power to bring an end to the Republican era sooner than expected. America is ashamed."  But the Frankfurter Allgemeine felt that in a highly complex background, with the media as it existed the lie would have won - against the desire to understand things so as to avoid them.  

Jean-Pierre Aussant wrote in France's Le Figaro that"This tragic incident reminds us that the United States has refused to ratify the Kyoto accords. Let's hope the US can from now on stop ignoring the rest of the world. If you want to run things, you must first lead by example. Arrogance is never a good adviser! "

Expectedly France's Liberation observation was stronger, "Bush is completely out of his depth in this disaster. Katrina has revealed America's weaknesses: its racial divisions, the poverty of those left behind by its society, and especially its president's lack of leadership."  

Another ally now turned sour, Turkey's Radikal wrote,"The biggest power of the world is rising over poor black corpses. We are witnessing the collapse of the American myth. In terms of the USA's relationship with itself and the world, Hurricane Katrina seems to leave its mark on our century as an extraordinary turning point. "[ Perhaps too strong.]

In Indonesia, another Muslim country where US is disliked , an editorial in Media Indonesia said ," The superpower United States has finally succumbed to nature's wrath. The US must eventually admit that it is unable to deal with the victims itself. Something has changed. Hurricane Katrina has destroyed some of the US's arrogance." 

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, against whom US has reportedly plotted many times, was quoted in El Nacional ,"The rich were able to leave, the poor stayed there, and it is now that they are evacuating them, four, five days later. That is the model they want to sell us. Racial segregation - the mayor of New Orleans said it - is a question of social classes; the rich were able to leave, the poor were left, enduring the hurricane. It is capitalism, in its extreme individualist phase."

Jomhuri-ye Eslami of Iran , a member of Axis of Evil in US eyes editorialized ,"The devastating waves of Katrina have unmasked the real face of America's profoundly corrupt society, and proved that under the beautiful surface of modern American life, there are decadent thoughts that always try to exploit the situation to fulfil inhuman goals. Although Bush and his team proved their inefficiency in dealing with the disaster, its aftermath proved that America's corrupt system is the main culprit." 

One of the few exceptions in the trend was ally Berlusconi Italy's Il Giornale in which Robi Ronza said ,"Everything can be used in Europe to badmouth Bush, so it may be worth clarifying a few key points: New Orleans was below sea level even before drilling for oil began. Second, there is no certain proof that the increase in the mean global temperature is a consequence of the emission of so-called greenhouse gases. Finally, the federal government has no specific responsibility for the post-hurricane chaos. "The neo-cons would love this. 

Impact on Bush party's electoral fortunes; 

In any other political system President Bush would have been headed for defeat. An unknown quantity, that is why the neo-cons selected him, he got the benefit of doubt and was elected. After catering for his fundraisers by tax deduction, he then used the last 2 years before re-election to perhaps do something for the electorate .This part was taken care of by corporate controlled media, whose nominees run Washington .It literally amounts to non accountability for 6 years in 2 four year terms; the second term is mostly devoted to leaving the name in history. Bush is in danger of becoming a lame duck. 

Last weekend polls suggested 50 – 50 US split down the middle, with Bush opponents disapproving of his abysmal non-performance while supporters stayed loyal , thus heartening Republicans .It was a result of media manipulations by showing the President Bush , Defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld ,with Condi Rice , even stacking some items for the poor in cartons .Would robot like repetition of ' staying the course'  assure the Americans , as it did after 9/11 and after every exposure of its failures in Iraq;  to find WMD's , link Saddam Hussein to Al Qaeda , sham transfer of sovereignty , January 30 elections and now the new Constitution fiasco . 

London's Guardian wrote," Privately, conservatives also wonder how much sympathy white , suburban America - the crucial middle ground all politicians covet - will feel for Katrina's victims. One close-up observer describes what he suspects is a widely-held - if rarely articulated - view of those left behind in New Orleans: "They lived in a silly place, they didn't get out when they should, they stole, they shot at each other and they shot at rescue workers." If that's the view, then Bush won't suffer too badly."  

This may be true because when criticisd for US failures in Iraq and elsewhere in my articles , many enraged Americans accuse me that like the rest of the world that I am a loser .I then mail them 'the Decline of the American Century 'dated 11 September , 2002 .They come back with ' but we are superior culturally' . I then try to educate them with my article on Eastern foundations of Western civilization ( the later, Mahatma Gandhi thought would be a good idea).

Adrian Wooldridge, co-author of an excellent study on conservative America, 'The Right Nation' , says  "The big losers among Republicans will be the neo-cons," "The hubris of thinking that America could reshape the world, creating a democracy in hostile territory, when it can't even keep order in an American city - that hubris has just been punctured in a big way." Now the images of Katrina become foremost in the public mind, replacing 9/11 and the "global war on terror". Since Ronald Reagan's election in 1980, and the rise of the conservatives in USA ,they have won the argument on reduce taxes ( for the rich – which Bush has) and spend less ( on infrastructure and services for the poor ). After the Fall of the Berlin wall, the neo-liberal model of  privatisation and deregulation - has been spread, often imposed on countries that resisted it , with a debate now in the European Union, where unlike UK ,France and others insist that their social model is superior.

Katrina might reopen that debate in USA, the Mecca of neo-liberals and neo-cons .Perhaps there is an opening, for active government, for more taxing and spending on infrastructure and social welfare .This they have to do in New Orleans and the region.

  

Conclusions. 

What we see in New Orleans are remnants of historic exploitation and residues of slavery along  with  recent neglect of the poor and predominantly black people.  

Of course nowadays exploitation of the poor is implemented in a more subtle way; through globalisation , as it is implemented and foreign direct investment. In old days the black slaves were herded by other black tribes in Africa. Nowadays U.S.-led West corporate barons identify, encourage and build local slave herders in poor nations as it is not necessary to transport the slaves to USA.  The modern equivalents of local herders are the quick rich US dollar Russian billionaires, Asian billionaires and others who exploit local slaves in sweat shops and industry in situ. It is called outsourcing and keeps the new slaves in check at home, who can be hired or fired, mostly in special export devoted zones.  Even during the later decades of Communist rule in East Europe, the corporate barons used cheap labour in these countries, short of US dollars, to outsource textiles and other products. 

The system of slavery is older than human pre-history. Perhaps as the first instinct of commercial exploitation, human beings, instead of finishing off all the members of the vanquished tribes as collateral damage, saved them as slaves, as household domestics or as new auxiliaries for their fighting forces.  When human evolution progressed further, the slaves were exploited for economic benefits like farming and later plantations, especially in the New World, where the local population could not withstand the diseases brought in by the Europeans or the extreme hard labour enforced in the plantations. 

In the Old Testament slavery was taken for granted as part of the social order and a series of laws were developed regulating the treatment of slaves.  In the New Testament there is no outright condemnation of slavery but based on the Jesus Christ's teachings and his noble deeds, there was implicit criticism of the practice.  This however was not applied by Christians in the West till medieval times.  In Islam's holy book Qur'an, freeing of the slave is considered a pious act and was encouraged. 

There were distinct differences between the slaving by the West and the Asians.  In the later case slaves could be like members of the family when working in households, maids after impregnation were accepted as full members of the family. In USA the children fathered by white slave owners with their black slaves were very harshly treated .In the fighting forces, based on merit, slaves could rise to the level of Sultans, the rulers.  There were many slave dynasties in India, the Middle East and in Central Asia.  While it must be said that, in general, the Blacks came out badly but in the Arab and Turkish world there was no apartheid like system.  During my posting in Ankara in early 1970 s , black skin was considered beautiful, like black velvet .Turks  would recite poems on black eyes and black hair.  By when I returned in early 1990s, their zest to ape the West had led to an explosion of blonde haired  (peroxide) Turkish girls specially in big cities. 

Not that there were no rebellions by the black slaves in America or even in Arab lands.  In America they were crashed ruthlessly .They fared no better in Arab lands either .Before the American Civil War ( 1861–65 )  one historian found documentary evidence of more than 250 uprisings involving more than 10 black slaves, their main objective being personal freedom. There were put down brutally , many times with the help of  spies from among them.

  

Nowadays under the charade of globalisation, the local millionaires and billionaire are the willing instruments for carrying out the exploitation of their own people. An array of studies have shown that globalisation has not made spread wealth , instead it has made rich richer and poor poorer.  The myth of increasing wealth and distributing it to poor peopleby globalization was widely dissemin-ated by corporate media after the Fall of the Berlin Wall.  Even now there are all kinds of schemes to remove poverty which are nothing but to salve of the conscience of some Christian believers, who make charity donations, but most of it is used up by the so-called experts from the West, paid thousand dollars per day and other perks. 

There is little doubt then the image, mostly created by its media of the US hyper power which can do no wrong, now lies shattered. It created a quagmire in Iraq from where it does know how to exit with its honour intact and now this inapt handling of Katrina. 

The edifice of the all conquering capitalism was almost shattered in 1998.  In August/Sept its very bastions were reduced to utter panic and incoherence after the collapse of East and South East Asian economies, the decimation of the ruble and the impending fall of the Brazilian economy.  

On September 8 , The Washington Post under the title " Rethink Capitalism "wrote,' What is frightening about the world's current economic troubles is a sense that rules we thought we understood don't seem to apply now. Until a few months ago, we thought we knew what a developing country had to do to join the ranks of the wealthy. We thought we knew how a Communist country could transform itself into a capitalist one. The general understanding was that as the world became more connected, it also would become more prosperous.

 

"Now, with Russia and much of Asia having crashed, with Eastern Europe and Latin America imperiled and with much of Africa going backward, the certainties of only a year ago seem far from certain.—'Some other headlines around the same time were 'Global Capitalism, Once Triumphant, Is in Full Retreat 'by Robert J. Samuelson in 'Newsweek'. Reasons for its recovery still remain unexplained. But many economists now warn again that with heavy deficits at home and abroad, not only US economy will go down this time but it will take many others with it. 

One of the explanations for surviving the1997 – 98 melt down could be that to begin with the wealth created in South-East Asia was transferred to USA and invested in mostly info- tech and high-tech companies.  This of course totally shattered economies of South-East Asia from which many have still not fully recovered. The wealth created by financial jiggery-pokery added little goods in USA. It was only a matter of time before the bubble burst, and it did.

The increased US productivity was injected by the info-tech technology, where it is still ahead of the world and in which the contribution made by expatriate Asians especially from India was a major chunk.  USA would have had to spend many tens of billions of dollars to train in technology that large number of bright minds at home, if it could find them in science and mathematics, the two disciplines in which even white Americans do very badly compared to Asians. It remains India's massive contribution to US economic growth and well being. 

The danger to USA in medium-and long term would come from the reaction of minorities , specially the Blacks as a result of invasion of Iraq and their exposure to the reality of the world and the likely inadequacy of the US corporate elite to do justice in the rebuilding of New Orleans and the Mississippi delta. Blacks, Hispanics and other poor Americans have sacrificed much more in defending American policies in Iraq. If they're not satisfied with the reconstruction in the South USA , there would be rumblings of dissatisfaction which would create problems.

 

Let us take an example from history. At the moment the minorities including the Blacks in USA have the same status as of the dhimmis when the Arab power was rising.  Once the Arabs stopped fighting and started relying on slaves from Central Asia and elsewhere, they started losing power and control.  It is not going to happen tomorrow but the resentments could spiral into actions similar to the ex-Black sergeant sniper, who kept the capital city of Washington at bay for days or another black soldier who threw grenades into the tent of US soldiers in Kuwait just before the Iraq war. Black Americans have joined the armed forces in large numbers after the compulsory military draft was abolished. They and the Hispanics are now deeply embedded in the US armed forces.

 

What 11 September did, apart from bringing about many other fundamental changes was that those who feel repressed and persecuted, might take it as an example for revenge, which is doable.  It may not be on this massive scale and organisation but a number of smaller terrorist acts could slowly lead to the erosion of the economic and political equations that compose the US elite now. 

But US is lucky that although informally segregated in churches and elsewhere, majority of the Blacks and Hispanics are Christians. Jazz  music's spiritual base is Lord Jesus Christ and not Allah.

But conversion to Islam increased after September 11, even among Hispanics. Black American Muslims who now number 3 to 5 million remember many historic wrongs done to them. Of the 2 million Americans in prisons, two-thirds are non-white. Many feel oppressed by the white power structure and sentencing disparities, which too often fall most harshly on minorities. Islam offers brotherhood, dignity, and a sense of pride and solidarity, especially for non-whites. Thus, many, alienated and disfranchised, could become easy targets for radicals who preach violence, of overcoming oppression by jihad. Many black Americans have experienced maltreatment and dehumanization. Iraq, and now the Katrina aftermath would only re-open the old wounds.  

(K Gajendra Singh, served as Indian Ambassador to Turkey and Azerbaijan in1992 -96. Prior to that, he served as ambassador to Jordan (during the1990 - 91Gulf war), Romania and Senegal . He is currently chairman of the Foundation for Indo-Turkic Studies, in Bucharest . The views expressed here are his own.- Email-Gajendrak@hotmail.com)