South by Southwest: Foreign affairs news digest

Foreign news items that may have slipped past during the past few weeks follow in today's post. We have not seen as much about piracy recently. That may be because of the get-tough policies of some of the main players on our side.

And it turns out that we have some new allies: "Thousands of dolphins block Somali pirates (Xinhua News Agency)," from Memeorandum (4/15/09). This is an amazing story. To quote:

Thousands of dolphins blocked the suspected Somali pirate ships when they were trying to attack Chinese merchant ships passing the Gulf of Aden, the China Radio International reported on Monday.

And it turns out that we have some new allies: "Thousands of dolphins block Somali pirates (Xinhua News Agency)," from Memeorandum (4/15/09). This is an amazing story. To quote:

Thousands of dolphins blocked the suspected Somali pirate ships when they were trying to attack Chinese merchant ships passing the Gulf of Aden, the China Radio International reported on Monday.

Image via Wikipedia: Xinhua News Agency

China may be on a roll, acquiring some new boosters as well as acquiring a huge amount of foreign reserves. "China's foreign reserves hit $1.95 trillion at end of March" from China News (4/10/09 ). Summary: "China's foreign exchange reserves rose 16 percent year-on-year to $1.9537 trillion by the end of March, said the People's Bank of China on Saturday." Though China finances a significant amount of our ballooning national debt, we must remain upset with their record of human rights violations.

And we may have a new set of allies --or adversaries -- towards that end. This news item explains:
"A New Era of Engagement," from the ACLU Blog of Rights (4/12/09). To quote:

Yesterday, the Obama administration announced that it would reverse a Bush administration decision and make bid to join the United Nations Human Rights Council, "with the goal of working to make it a more effective body to promote and protect human rights." The Council is the highest human rights body within the U.N., composed of 47 countries working to promote and strengthen human rights worldwide. It replaced the historical U.N. Commission on Human Rights in 2006, but was voted against by the Bush administration along with the Marshall Islands, Palau, and Israel. Countries bid for election for membership within the Council. Terms last for three years, and the elections are scheduled for mid-May.

. . . We look forward to the Obama administration’s constructive engagement with the council and other global human rights bodies such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and hope that human rights will be central not only in U.S. foreign policy but also in domestic policy.

Human rights violations take place all over the world, even south of the border. I cannot think of a worse case than the dramatic increase in violence against innocents by the Mexican drug cartels. The issue is high on our national agenda, as indicated by the recent visits to Mexico by our highest officials as well as major boosts in foreign aid. This post was illuminating, as it appeared just prior to those trips. "Mexico: So Close and Yet So Far," was written by Faith Smith for The Washington Note (4/7/09). To quote rather extensively from this handy little "primer:"

The label "failed state" has repeatedly been applied to Mexico. Jorge Castaneda, former Mexican Foreign Minister and fellow at the New America Foundation, recently made the case against this erroneous label, "The government represents the nation abroad, exercises a quasi monopoly on the use of force within its borders, collects taxes and ensures the integrity of its citizens against perils from within and without. By these measures-- indeed by any standard definition of a failed state--Mexico is clearly acquitted." While Mexico's current state may not warrant the exasperating label "failed" it surely deserves more attention and cooperation than the U.S. traditionally offers.

Forty percent of Mexico's citizens survive on less than $2 per day; an unacceptable figure for a nation that shares a 2,000 mile border with the World's richest (and arguably most generous) nation. Policy makers have simply overlooked Mexico time and again. Mexico has been just stable enough to ignore. The FY2009 budget allocates little more than $500million in foreign assistance to Mexico or one-third what we annually offer Egypt. Mexico is our next door neighbor; for the sake of regional stability and national security the United States must invest in Mexico and its leaders. While Mexico is not a failed state, it is facing a crisis the United States cannot afford to ignore. President Felipe Calderon does not lack the will to fight the drug lords and corruption, but the resources. The legitimate economy of Mexico is severely undermined by two shadow economies that are difficult to track and impossible to tax. The drug economy is estimated at $10billion to $50billion and revenue from remittances in 2008 was around $25billion.

. . . Mexico's process of democratization has left a power void that the drug lords happily filled. I see two ways to reclaim power from the drug lords: the state can re-consolidate power into a strong, centralized state relying heavily on the army--which would be a reversal of their recent democratization-- or they must push ahead with the democratization and decentralization process. Which means local governance, with an uncorrupted police force and judicial system supported by civic participation, will prevail. I believe the latter is necessary for Mexico to not only survive the drug war but to thrive as a prosperous, democratic nation.

A wider view of the world improves my perspective. Therefore I regularly visit my "News from other countries" folder in my Bloglines aggregator. Today's post is the result. More follows.

References to miscellaneous recent items:

Congressional Quarterly - Homeland Security: Behind the lines e-mail newsletter by David C. Morrison (5/7/09). To quote: At least 6,000 immigrants have been denied refuge in the United States because the Patriot Act and other post-Sept. 11 laws label them as “terrorists,” even if they supported pro-democracy efforts and opposed despots and dictators, McClatchy Newspaper’s Marisa Taylor surveys. . . .

Algeria is one of the Middle Eastern nations that has the scientific and technological capacity to develop nuclear weapons, Secrecy News notes, offering an open-source bibliography on the same. North Korea runs a cyber warfare unit that tries to hack into U.S. and South Korean military networks to gather secrets and disrupt service, AP learns. . . .

Bibles in Afghan languages sent to a U.S. soldier at a base in Afghanistan were confiscated and destroyed to ensure no breach of regulations forbidding proselytizing, Reuters reports — and check the Al Jazeera story that sparked the response. Libyan authorities have applied for the transfer to their custody of the sole perpetrator convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, who would have to drop his appeal to qualify, The Scotsman says. One of the “Toronto 18” has pleaded guilty to aiding a plot to detonate bombs in the city’s bustling downtown core, The National Post notes — as AP has a German investigator testifying that terror defendants were caught on tape discussing bombing a U.S. air base and joking about the probable reaction.