Tyranny in Jakarta<\/p>\n
The eviction of squatters living in 1,500 houses in Jembatan
\nBesi, Tambora, West Jakarta two days ago was a "war" between the
\npeople and the security apparatus.<\/p>\n
Some people had to be taken to the hospital after sustaining
\ninjuries. The city administration and the owner of the land
\noccupied by the people refused to claim responsibility for the
\nforced eviction.<\/p>\n
Who then should be responsible for this? It would take a long
\ndebate to get an answer to this question.<\/p>\n
The war is only the tip of the social problems piling up on
\nJakarta. The problems stem from the poor mentality of the law
\nenforcers.<\/p>\n
It seems that almost everything could be done in Jakarta,
\nprovided one has the money to pay the security apparatus. And
\nthe result? Jakarta has turned into a kampong, recognizing only
\nthe law of the jungle.<\/p>\n
The guilty people whose number is large then emerge as the
\nwinner or dictator.<\/p>\n
Ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers already have the courage to
\nwait for passengers at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.
\nThey even have the guts to block the street leading to the
\nairport.<\/p>\n
The rich meanwhile are also tyrants in Jakarta as with their
\nmoney, they could hire people to commit violence.<\/p>\n
-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta<\/p>\n
;MI:
\nAnpak..r..
\nOtherOp-US-economy
\nThe economic performance of President Bush
\nJP\/06\/<\/p>\n
A group of prominent Democratic economists organized a conference
\ncall last week to blast the economic performance of President
\nBush. Nobel laureate Robert Solow of MIT pointed out that three
\nfederal tax cuts in three years have done little to stimulate the
\nsluggish economy. Laura Tyson, who ran President Bill Clinton's
\nCouncil of Economic Advisers, observed that the government has
\ntraded structural budget surpluses for structural deficits since
\nBush took office. Berkeley professor George Akerlof, another
\nNobel laureate, called Bush's tax cuts the worst fiscal policy in
\n200 years.<\/p>\n
One might dismiss this critique as predictable sniping from
\npartisan players - except that these leading liberals now
\nrepresent the responsible wing of economic thought in the United
\nStates. ...<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most scathing critique, however, came from the
\nInternational Monetary Fund, an organization of ultracautious
\ndevelopment experts who monitor fiscal responsibility around the
\nglobe. In a scathing report on U.S. fiscal policy, the IMF warns
\nthat continued government borrowing could undercut world
\nconfidence in the U.S. dollar and that tax and budget gimmicks
\napproved by Congress this year mean that "fiscal transparency
\nappears to have weakened in recent years."<\/p>\n
That's the sort of language the IMF usually reserves for
\nbasket-case economies such as Brazil or Mexico.<\/p>\n
Bush's advisers say there's nothing wrong with federal budget
\ndeficits during a recession, and they're right. But there's
\nnothing temporary about these budget deficits. Every major
\nforecast - by the White House, by the Congressional Budget
\nOffice, by private economists - shows federal deficits persisting
\nlong after the economic recovery takes hold. ...<\/p>\n
-- Star Tribune, Minneapolis<\/p>\n
Human shields
\nin the Iraq war<\/p>\n
One of the almost forgotten sidelights of the Iraq war was the
\n"human shields."<\/p>\n
Some 300 of these self-styled peace activists, about 20 of
\nthem Americans, journeyed to Iraq before the war with the
\nintention of placing themselves in schools and hospitals to
\ndiscourage air strikes.<\/p>\n
Most of them left before the bombing, many of them
\ndisillusioned by the Saddam regime's use of them for propaganda
\npurposes and its suggestion that they might more usefully be
\nplaced around military targets. Those shields that stayed
\nsurvived the war, unwitting testimony to the precision of the
\nallies' attack.<\/p>\n
Now, those Americans who went to Iraq are receiving letters
\nfrom the U.S. Treasury noting that they face up to 12 years in
\nprison and fines of up to $275,000 for violating U.S. sanctions
\nagainst Iraq. ...<\/p>\n
The sanctions against Iraq are U.S. law and Treasury is not in
\na position to ignore its violations, but the human shields merit
\nonly the most token penalty and probably shouldn't be prosecuted
\nat all. Surely there are bigger sanction busters the Treasury
\nshould be after.<\/p>\n
The human shields and the few dollars they brought with them
\nwere of no material benefit to the Iraqis, did not affect the
\noutcome of the war, and engendered more ridicule than emulation.
\nThese are not John Walker Lindhs. ...<\/p>\n
-- The Stuart News, Stuart, Florida<\/p>\n
By The Associated Press=
\nHere are excerpts from editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad:
\n---
\nLa Repubblica, Rome, on the bombing of United Nations headquarters in Baghdad:<\/p>\n
If the attack on the U.N. building carries Saddam's signature
\nit could be a calculated warning to the United Nations, a body
\nthat has now recognized the Anglo-American occupation and is
\nbecoming more involved in it.<\/p>\n
But there's another possible explanation. Hitting the U.N.
\nrepresentatives was intended to show that the Americans are inept
\noccupiers, that they can't guarantee security, water and electric
\npower. They are not even able protect their guests. It was a
\nbloody insult from an invisible Saddam to George W. Bush.<\/p>\n
The fact that a suicide bomber may have carried out the attack
\non the U.N. is alarming. It is not typical of the Iraqi regime,
\nwhich never counted among its ranks religious fanatics ready to
\nsacrifice themselves. The Baath was traditionally a lay party,
\nrabidly anti-clerical.<\/p>\n
Even if in the last few years Saddam was seen in mosques
\nproclaiming jihad, he never became a fundamentalist.<\/p>\n
But in recent weeks, Iraq has been a target for those who want
\nto hit America. And among those are Islamic terrorists. For them
\nthis is a unique opportunity: America is no longer a remote
\nobject, it's now within their grasp.
\n---<\/p>\n
The Guardian, London, on the bombing of Baghdad's U.N.
\nheadquarters:<\/p>\n
If there is any organization in Iraq about which it can be
\nsaid unequivocally that it is there to help, it is the United
\nNations. The bombing of its Baghdad headquarters yesterday is
\nthus doubly a tragedy, both for those who lost their lives -
\nincluding the U.N.'s most senior envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello -
\nand for the people of Iraq, whose future was as much a target in
\nthe attack as was the world body.<\/p>\n
It is also further and startling evidence of the vulnerability
\nof the occupation regime to what appear to be new tactics by the
\ndiverse saboteurs who have harassed it from the start and who may
\nhave more recently been joined by extremists coming from
\noutside. ...<\/p>\n
Senator John McCain said in Baghdad yesterday even before the
\nU.N. headquarters were hit that more American troops might be
\nneeded, an expansion that would be deeply unpalatable to the Bush
\nadministration. If more troops are needed, American or British,
\nthey will no doubt be found. The ultimate solution, however, has
\nto be an Iraqi one. Real security can only be achieved by the
\ncoalition forces and the Iraqis working in tandem, in policing,
\nin intelligence and, eventually, in military action. In its
\nefforts to expand the Iraqi police and lay the basis for a new
\nIraqi army, the occupation regime has recognized this truth, but
\nthere is unhappily a long way to go.<\/p>\n
Yet there is another side to these events. They are not likely
\nto lead to a general repudiation of the occupation, and may even
\nstiffen Iraqi support for the Americans and British, albeit in a
\ndespairing way. Whatever the imperfections of the project to
\nbring stability and normality back into Iraqi life, it can be
\npresumed to be still preferable to the chaos and bloodshed which
\nis all that the spoilers have to offer.
\n---<\/p>\n
---<\/p>\n
---
\nLe Figaro, Paris, on France's deadly heat wave:
\nTwo, three, or five thousand? The victim count is not yet final. But the mere idea that elderly people can die from heatstroke in 21st century France is an intolerable one ... the first impulse is to identify the culprits among us. The witch hunt has begun, the polemic is raging. ... In a democratic society, it amounts to a game. We've nearly strayed from the real issue: could we have avoided all these deaths?
\nMost health care professionals say (the catastrophe) can't be blamed on weakened rescue and emergency services. Ambulances, fire departments and doctors worked around the clock. They took action without orders from the government. But what can be done when an elderly person ... dies alone at home? The alert is often signaled too late. ...
\nBut the reality of the situation matters little. ... To govern is to communicate. And on this point, the government failed. The presence of (the Prime Minister and the Health Minister) in hospitals from the outset of the crisis would certainly not have averted many deaths. But it would have reassured everyone. Our era is a strange one: communication is held up as a measure of precaution and compassion goes in guise of good leadership. ... And the media circus almost makes the real human drama look irrelevant!
\n----
\nExpressen, Stockholm, Sweden, on attack against U.N. headquarters in Baghdad:
\nThe working hypothesis for the actor in Iraq must be that an organized guerrilla and terror threat is starting to take shape. First, a sufficiently forceful military - internationally based - resistance must be mobilized against this threat. Second, massive efforts must be made to help the Iraqi society, politically and in civilian life, to become self-propelled. Third, humanitarian efforts by the U.N. as well as other aid organizations, must continue and accelerate.
\nThe victorious war against Saddam, as well as yesterday's act, are reminders that destruction is easy. To rebuild is infinitely more difficult. But the world community has no other choice than total engagement in Iraq's cause. Disintegrated states, we know by now, spread their venom across the world with the ease of the wind."
\n---<\/p>\n
The recent blackout<\/p>\n
And so, it seems, into each generation, a massive power
\nfailure must fall.<\/p>\n
The Blackout of '03 introduced millions of younger, plugged-in
\nAmericans to what life was like on the prairie. OK, maybe that's
\nan exaggeration. But certainly, it was an echo of what it was
\nlike before cell phones, microwave ovens and PlayStation 2, all
\nof which were useless when the power went out from Canada to
\nCanarsie. ...<\/p>\n
Indeed, the most encouraging aspect of the massive power
\nfailure that crippled the New York metropolitan area, along with
\nmuch of the rest of the state and surrounding areas, is the calm
\nmanner in which most people reacted. It may be that having lived
\nthrough major blackouts in 1965 and 1977 and the tragic terrorist
\nattack on the World Trade Center in 2001, many New Yorkers have
\nbecome not only survivors, but also adept ones. ...<\/p>\n
Sure, they wondered why the power was out and weren't happy
\nthat it was. But no one panicked over rumors of terrorism.
\nRather, they rushed to buy water and ice and nonperishable food.
\nThey checked out candles and flashlights.<\/p>\n
The younger ones watched and learned about power grids and
\npatience. They rediscovered board games. (Some cheated and
\nwatched portable TVs.) And they cheered when the lights finally
\ncame back on, having become the newest members of that ever-
\nlarger club that can ask: "Where were you when the lights went
\nout in (fill in the blank)?"<\/p>\n
-- The Times Herald-Record, Middletown, New York<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/tyranny-in-jakarta-1447899208", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }