THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE #202 (JUNE 2007)

This issue’s contents:

COVER: The deepening crisis in Palestine

The Alvaro de Soto report and the current crisis in Palestine
By T. Rajamoorthy

When news emerged in June that Alvaro de Soto, the UN Middle East envoy, had resigned his post in the previous month, the event was overshadowed by the eruption of violence in Gaza between Hamas and Fatah militants. But as the contents of de Soto's devastating, confidential final report to the UN were leaked to the press, his resignation acquired a greater significance precisely because of the bloodletting in Gaza. In this analysis of the de Soto report, T Rajamoorthy highlights its importance in explaining the current situation in the Palestinian occupied territories.

Slouching towards a Palestinian holocaust
By Richard Falk

Richard Falk argues that in the context of recent disturbing developments in Gaza which are a clear expression of deliberate intent by Israel and its allies to subject an entire human community to life-endangering conditions of utmost cruelty, it is not an irresponsible overstatement to associate such conduct with the criminalised Nazi record of collective atrocity.

Saving President Abbas
By Uri Avnery

Uri Avnery contends that the move to strengthen President Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah against Hamas is part of an Israeli strategy designed to sever the Gaza Strip from the West Bank, a crucial step in crushing the Palestinian resistance. It is a strategy that will fail as no Palestinian will ever agree to such a separation.

Reconciliation stymied
By Khaled Amayreh

Palestinians in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank want freedom from the Israeli occupation, and no amount of economic and financial inducements can cajole them into ignoring the occupation and turning against Hamas, says Khaled Amayreh.

Finding lessons in Gaza's bloodshed
By Ramzy Baroud

What happened in Gaza was a tragedy, says Ramzy Baroud, who hopes that common sense and sanity will return so that Palestinians will discover once more that they are still an occupied nation that has no meaningful sovereignty.

Tony Blair's redemption
By Jeremy Seabrook

A Lebanese newspaper has likened the appointment of Tony Blair as envoy of the Middle East Quartet to 'appointing Nero to be chief fireman of Rome'. Jeremy Seabrook discusses the issue.

ECOLOGY

Eco Tipping Points    
By Amanda Suutari & Gerald Marten

Two Thai activists have evolved a new paradigm for restoring communities, both natural and human.  Amanda Suutari and Gerald Marten describe how its application has resulted in the rejuvenation, by a village community, of a mangrove forest after three decades of devastation.

ECONOMICS

Clash of paradigms behind latest WTO failure 
By Martin Khor

The spectacular collapse of the WTO’s G4 Ministers' meeting in Potsdam on 21 June heralded a new crisis in the Doha Round of world trade talks.  Behind the failure was a deep difference of views and paradigms on what 'development' means and what developed and developing countries have to do in this Round.

G8 summit - a costly annual gathering that has outlived its usefulness
By Chakravarthi Raghavan

Chakravarthi Raghavan questions whether the annual Group of 8 summits of major industrial nations serve any useful purpose.

Reignited debate on regulation of hedge funds
By Andrew Cornford

When the Asian financial crisis erupted a decade ago, the role of hedge funds in precipitating the crisis briefly came to the fore. Asian concerns on their destabilising role were however soon ignored and there were barely any substantial policy responses to this threat.

In the first in a two-part series of articles (the second to be published in the next issue of TWR), Andrew Cornford highlights the renewed international debate on hedge funds in the wake of their phenomenal growth since the financial crises of the 1990s and growing concern about their expanded role in the world's financial markets.

India will have 400 million agricultural refugees
By Devinder Sharma

It had been on the cards. With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announcing the formation of a new rehabilitation policy for farmers displaced from land acquisitions, it is now official - farmers in India have to quit agriculture.

WORLD AFFAIRS

Laos: Attempt to reignite war foiled
By Tom Fawthrop

The US authorities have at long last taken action to crack down on the attempts by a former CIA mercenary now in exile in California to organise a coup against the Laotian government. Tom Fawthrop explains the background to what is probably the final act of a Cold War drama.

Japan's history wars and popular consciousness
By David McNeill

Revisionist academics and best-selling authors are fuelling a revival of nationalism that is poisoning Japan's relations with neighbouring nations.

Morocco's designs on Western Sahara pose danger to Palestinians
By Ian Williams

For over 15 years, Morocco has continued to illegally occupy Western Sahara, despite a ruling by the International Court of Justice that the Saharwis should have the right of self-determination - a ruling which has, in the past, been endorsed by a UN Security Council resolution. Ian Williams argues that should Morocco be allowed to flout international law by denying self-determination, it would be bad for the rule of law, bad for the Saharwis - and bad for the Palestinians, who are waging a similar struggle against Israeli occupation.

Bolivia: The clash of autonomies
By Federico Fuentes

In the face of rising demands by the indigenous majority living in the west and centre of the country for indigenous self-determination - aimed at achieving sovereignty over all matters of concern to indigenous identity such as language, culture, community structures and natural resources - Bolivia's right-wing elites have sought to protect their economic interests and political hold through calls for 'departmental' autonomy - in effect over Bolivia's gas reserves and the agribusiness sector in the east. Federico Fuentes elucidates.

Landless rural workers confront Brazil's Lula
By Isabella Kenfield                                               

After openly acknowledging its break with President 'Lula' da Silva and his Workers' Party, Brazil's Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) has vowed to intensify its struggle to realise the promised radical social and economic reforms (especially in the agrarian sector) which he has failed to deliver.

HUMAN RIGHTS

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
By Kay Latt

July marks the 18th anniversary of the arrest and incarceration of the 78-year-old Burmese writer and journalist Win Tin, a former leader of the opposition National League for Democracy. He was sentenced to a total of 20 years' imprisonment because of his pro-democracy writings and his attempts to alert the UN to human rights abuses in Burmese prisons - the official charge against him was producing 'anti-government propaganda'. Repeated international calls for his release have been ignored by Burma's military regime.

WOMEN

Swaziland: Empowering women to beat abuse

An innovative programme to empower women economically in Swaziland's patriarchal society is helping many out of a cycle of abuse and dependency.

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