‘War on
terror’ failing: global poll
AFP, LONDON
Tuesday, Sep 30, 2008, Page 1
Most people across the world believe the US-led “war on terror” has failed to
weaken al-Qaeda and many think the group has actually grown stronger, a BBC
World Service poll revealed yesterday.
Seven years after the US launched its campaign following the Sept. 11 attacks,
even Americans appear unsure about its success.
On average only 22 percent of people polled across 23 countries thought US
action had weakened Osama bin Laden’s network, while 29 percent thought it had
no effect and 30 percent believed it had actually made al-Qaeda stronger.
Just 34 percent of Americans questioned believed al-Qaeda had been weakened,
while 26 percent thought the “war on terror” has had no effect and 33 percent
said they thought the campaign had made the group stronger.
“Despite its overwhelming military power, America’s war against al-Qaeda is
widely seen as having achieved nothing better than a stalemate and many believe
that it has even strengthened al-Qaeda,” said Steven Kull, director of the
US-based Program on International Policy and Attitudes.
The survey of 24,000 people, carried out between July 8 and Sept. 12, also
revealed that the predominant view in 15 countries polled is that neither the US
nor al-Qaeda is winning the conflict.
On average, just 10 percent of respondents thought al-Qaeda was winning, 22
percent thought the US was winning and 47 percent said neither.
Turkey, Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt were most positive about the impact of the “war
on terror” and US success, while one-fifth of Pakistanis questioned believed
al-Qaeda was winning — although 24 percent believed neither was.
A majority of those polled had a negative opinion of al-Qaeda, except in two
countries seen as on the frontline of the conflict — Egypt and Pakistan.
One-fifth of Egyptians said they had a favorable view of al-Qaeda, 40 percent
were neutral and 35 percent had a negative view. In Pakistan, 19 percent were
positive, 22 percent were neutral and 19 percent were negative.
“The fact that so many people in Egypt and Pakistan have mixed or even positive
views of al-Qaeda is yet another indicator that the US ‘war on terror’ is not
winning hearts and minds,” said Doug Miller, chairman of international polling
firm GlobeScan.
Listen
to the voice
DPP says China should pay
victims of melamine
TIMING: The KMT said the DPP was trying to obstruct cross-strait negotiations
by demanding compensation before it would welcome the ARATS head to Taiwan
By Ko Shu-Ling
STAFF REPORTER, WITH STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, Sep 30, 2008, Page 3
The chairman of China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS)
will not be welcome to visit Taiwan until Beijing apologizes for the toxic milk
scare it caused in Taiwan and compensates the victims and affected businesses,
the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday.
ARATS Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) is expected to visit Taiwan sometime next
month. The exact date is uncertain.
“The toxic milk powder issue has caused great panic in Taiwan and President Ma
Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government should demand an apology and compensation from
China,” said Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦), director of the DPP’s Department of Culture
and Communications.
It was discovered two weeks ago that 25 tonnes of milk powder that had been
imported from Sanlu Group in China in June as an ingredient for food
manufacturing contained dangerously high levels of melamine.
Last week, officials discovered that some Chinese non-dairy creamers and malt
extract that had been imported into Taiwan were also contaminated with the
chemical, resulting in a massive recall of products on the domestic market.
Unless China apologizes and compensates Taiwanese whose health has been
undermined as well as the companies that have sustained massive losses because
of the tainted imports, Chen is not welcome in Taiwan, Cheng said.
DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said on Saturday that Chen owed Taiwan “many
apologies,” and that it would fuel public anger if he were to visit the country
amid the toxic milk powder scare.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said yesterday the DPP was trying to prevent
the Chinese official from visiting Taiwan to conduct cross-strait negotiations
next month.
The KMT issued a statement on behalf of party Deputy Secretary-General Chang
Jung-kung (張榮恭) blasting Tsai for saying that the timing was not right for Chen
to come to Taiwan next month.
Chang said Tsai’s remarks were aimed at hampering the sound development of
cross-strait relations and creating a political stumbling block to negotiations.
Chang said Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and its Chinese
counterpart, ARATS, were established to conduct cross-strait negotiations,
setting aside cross-strait disputes over Taiwan’s sovereignty.
This has not only won the support of the Taiwanese public, but also gained
recognition from the international community, he said.
Both sides of the Strait would become embroiled in fiercer political
confrontation if Taiwan’s sovereignty were to become an issue during the
negotiations with Chen, as Tsai had proposed, Chang said.
What the country needed was not for the two sides to stop negotiating, he said.
The former DPP administration attempted to reopen communication channels between
the SEF and ARATS, but it had never proposed talks on sovereignty, Chang said.
“The DPP’s position now is that it does not want to see both sides undertake
friendly interactions,” he said. “They are afraid that once the two sides
develop a friendly relationship, it would diminish the maneuvering space for
Taiwanese independence.”
Following SEF-ARATS talks in June this year, the second round of negotiations
between the two agencies next month would help upgrade Taiwan’s competitiveness,
Chang said, adding that sovereignty would not be an issue.
The DPP would only disgrace itself if it were to continue stubbornly boycotting
the upcoming meeting, he said.
Concerning the tainted milk powder scandal, Chang said both sides should engage
in more communications so that the problem could be properly addressed and a
mechanism be established to ensure food safety.
He said it did not make sense for the DPP to oppose Chen’s visit because of the
tainted milk scandal, as the SEF and ARATS planned to include food safety in the
agenda of next month’s meeting.
Listen
to the voice
The stone age meets the space
age
Tuesday, Sep 30, 2008, Page 8
In most cases, states that embrace capitalism will over time
see a rift develop between the “haves” and the “have-nots” as the rich get
richer while the less fortunate are left behind, unable to catch up socially,
financially and academically. Through the “structural adjustments” imposed by
the IMF, countries seeking loans from the international lender are often
compelled to forsake social nets and embrace full-fledged capitalism, which
again leads to a world of haves and have-nots. Sometimes the divide grows so
wide that people seem to be looking at two countries rather than one.
Under Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平), China also embraced capitalism, although it managed
to give it its own idiosyncratic form. Nonetheless, capitalism created a
socioeconomic disequilibrium between the urban areas and the hinterlands, in
effect giving rise to two countries within one, where rampant destitution meets
stratospheric wealth in a seemingly unbreakable cycle.
China, however, has created a third country within its borders, one that soared
like a castle upon the pillars of the Beijing Olympics and, this weekend, its
first spacewalk. This third China exists only in the realm of the imagination,
inflated by a sense of nationalism half-believed and half-imposed. It is a China
that crushes everything in its path, where the extraordinary end goal justifies
the means, regardless of the impact on the millions of poor and the environment.
It displaces families by the hundreds of thousands, ravages identities and
religions, and drowns entire regions as monuments of grandeur — from mega-dam
projects to space exploration — scream for the world’s attention.
One wonders what the implications of this schizophrenia will be. With Chinese
leaders and the faithless masses gazing fixedly at some distant horizon, the
suffering of the present is no less pronounced, though Beijing may use a
promised Utopia as an opiate. From the mishandling of the SARS outbreak in 2003
to a less-than-optimal response to the Sichuan earthquake this summer and now
the expanding crisis over tainted dairy products, it is clear that China’s
“great” accomplishments are being made to the detriment of meeting the needs of
a normal state.
While images of a Chinese astronaut waving the Chinese flag in space may inflate
pride and nationalism, it is also evident that such costly endeavors will
achieve little in addressing the grave challenge of a country of 1.3 billion
people in which many live barely above Stone Age conditions. China can put a man
in space, but it is unable to ensure that babies will not die from the milk of
its earth.
In a way, China’s race to some Asian Utopia is a mere variant on the other
“great causes” of the previous century, such as communism, whose failings left
in its wake streets littered with bodies and, at its darkest hour, took everyone
to the brink of nuclear extinction.
As China prepares to celebrate National Day tomorrow and gloats in its ascension
to the exclusive space club, the cause marches on. Having gained a life of its
own, it brooks no dissent from those — rights activists, environmentalists,
reporters and disgruntled citizens — who seek not to end the dream, but simply
want to address the very real social problems that haunt the country.
Through its dream, China has blinded itself and grown incapable, or perhaps
unwilling, to take stock of its situation. Like a drunk driver whose eyes are
glued to the final destination rather than the road ahead, the consequences for
those on board or in its path could be disastrous.