On IMF economic reforms

On IMF economic reforms

We hope the government will not give in totally to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank pressure and completely change its course.

Our opposition to the macro economic policy framework that the IMF and the World Bank are imposing on our country is not necessarily that its goal of stabilizing macro-economic variables is wrong in itself. Our concern is that they prioritize stabilization over all other considerations, and set ambitious targets on what seem to be global norms, on the assumption that these measures would appeal to foreign investors who would respond by significantly increasing foreign direct investment in our economy. They may achieve something on most of their macro- economic targets, but massively underperform in the growth, employment creation and poverty reduction targets.

It is clear that these policies simplistically assume that a few economic indicators -- inflation, money supply growth, interest rates, budget and trade deficits -- could serve as a basis for a set of policy recommendations. This approach has clearly underestimated the trade-offs between the pursuit of these macro stability goals and other very important economic objectives.

There is no doubt that the recipes given to us by the IMF and the World Bank have failed. These recipes have caused severe poverty in our country and should be ended.

And something tangible has to be done to get our people out of this deepening poverty. There is need to seriously re-examine our economic policies.

-- The Post, Lusaka, Zambia

On the Bush presidency

Like no president before him, he has exacerbated the American fracture line. On the coasts and big cities, there is a rather liberal political tradition, built out of tolerance in moral matters, where one isn't necessarily convinced that the country personifies The Truth and The Good. In the South and inland, there is a political culture increasingly marked by religion where traditional family values are valued as highly as hyper- nationalist patriotism, and the Bible and the Star Spangled Banner stand as a manifesto. On one side, the democratic nation; on the other, the republican nation. And in between them, less and less in common.

-- Le Monde, Paris

On screening foreign visitors to the United States

Seconds. That's the amount of time it takes for foreign visitors to the United States to undergo tighter security measures.

Critics contend the tighter security will discourage foreigners from visiting the United States or make them feel unwelcome here. Hogwash.

Seconds. It's no major inconvenience. It doesn't even remotely send out the message that America doesn't want law-abiding visitors from around the world to travel to the United States.

Foreign visitors with nothing to hide won't mind the few seconds it takes to undergo the security measures. Most, if not all, of them will welcome it. After all, it will make the United States a safer place for them to visit, too.

We Americans -- and the rest of the world -- must be resigned to the fact that waiting lines at checkpoints and reasonable, added security measures are here to stay. They are aimed at making us safer. We may be inconvenienced, but it's worth the wait. -- The Express-Times, Easton, Pennsylvania

On America's beef supply

America's beef supply should be the world's safest, and, ironically, it will be made safer because of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease.

As cattle producers, meatpackers and the U.S. Department of Agriculture scramble to shore up consumer confidence at home and abroad, the nation's mad-cow testing program is coming under the microscope, and rightfully so.

The startling news ... that a Holstein from a dairy farm near Yakima, Wash., had bovine spongiform encephalopathy was only eclipsed by the fact that the fatal disease was found by fluke, and not because the animal was exhibiting symptoms of a mad cow.

In the wake of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease, stricter rules seem inevitable. It will be expensive to expand America's cattle-testing program, and consumers should prepare to help bear the cost. -- The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

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Corriere della Sera, Milan, Italy, on British Prime Minister Tony Blair's recent visit to Iraq.

The British Prime Minister returned to Basra, in Iraq, for the second time in a few months, and brought the British nation's sympathy to the troops deployed there.

He defended the motives for acting against Saddam, gave the soldiers a reason to stay, a cause for feeling useful to their country, and the certainty that they are not being abandoned.

In order to make this trip to Basra, Blair faced many a risk to his safety. He evidently assessed that personal risk is not a plausible argument for keeping a statesman at home, especially when the troops run daily risks on the battlefield. A statesman cannot allow himself the luxury of fearing for his own life.

One particular event during the Prime Minister's trip deserves to be mentioned above others: Blair did not meet exclusively with his own troops, like Bush did on Thanksgiving.

Blair shook hands with representatives from other coalition states.

If the term Europe has any real meaning ... yesterday Blair spoke not only as a British Prime Minister, but as a European leader in the full meaning of the term.

One can only hope that Blair's example will be followed by other statesmen. --- Helsingin Sanomat, Helsinki, Finland, on Indian-Pakistani relations:

Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's short meeting with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad cannot yet be considered to be a breakthrough. The leaders previously held talks in Agra, India, in the summer of 2001, and a few months later these two southern Asian nuclear states came to the brink of war. This time the signs seem better, however. The will for detente seems increasingly sincere on both sides.

The most poisonous issue between the two countries -- the question of Kashmir -- does not seem closer to a solution. The hopes for detente, indeed, are based more on the realization that they can reach a solution no more through diplomatic means than through war, and that one has to learn to live with the status quo. Bilateral relations have been improved bit by bit since the spring, and the cease-fire on the Kashmir border achieved in November has, more or less, held. ---- The Decatur Daily, Decatur, Alabama, on Mars landing:

Nearly two-thirds of the attempts to land on Mars were failures. Only one in the three last attempts succeeded.

Bucking those odds, NASA scored a major victory in space exploration Saturday night when golf cart-size Spirit bounced to a safe landing as a prelude to major exploration on the Red Planet. ...

The accuracy with which Spirit landed is a boost to NASA's prestige after the last shuttle tragedy. While Spirit is unmanned, it is a much more difficult mission than getting humans into and out of Earth orbit safely. The consequences of failure, however, are not comparable.

Still, NASA is on an incredible mission, and one that will grow even more exciting if and when the companion rover, Opportunity, touches down Jan. 24 on the opposite side of the planet. --- The Buffalo News, Buffalo, New York, on the CIA leak and John Ashcroft:

Attorney General John Ashcroft last week recused himself from the ongoing investigation into who leaked the name of a CIA undercover operations officer to political columnist Robert Novak. Belated though it was, the decision was correct.

Ashcroft has been under pressure for months to name an outside counsel to oversee the investigation and, while he didn't go that far, his choice has been met with general approval from critics. The probe will be led by newly appointed Deputy Attorney General James Comey, who has handed the case to Patrick Fitzgerald, a friend and respected federal prosecutor from Chicago.

It's not the same as an independent counsel, whose activities are beyond the control of the Justice Department, but as Kenneth Starr proved in his agonizing Whitewater/sex/perjury/sex/kitchen sink/sex investigation, independent counsels may not always serve the national interest. ...

This is the first such significant investigation since the Whitewater embarrassment, and it is important for it to be handled professionally and properly. That means Ashcroft must leave Comey to his work, and Comey must do the same for Fitzgerald. The investigation must be allowed to lead where it leads -- even in an election year. ---

GetAP 1.00 -- JAN 9, 2004 00:42:10 ;AP; ANPA ..r.. NA-GEN--Editorial Roundup By The Associated Press= JP/

By The Associated Press= A selection of excerpts from editorials in newspapers worldwide: ---

--- Jordan Times, Amman, Jordan, on talks between India and Pakistan:

Certainly Asia, if not the rest of the world, breathed a great sigh of relief over the news that the leaders of Pakistan and India sat down for a one-hour talk on Monday.

These two countries have had their share of dangerously sparring with each other over the past five decades. But during that period also, domestic woes have increasingly afflicted these two nuclear powers.

Their neighborhood has been plagued with threats by various terrorist organizations, militant infiltration, tribal conflicts and assassinations, not to speak of socio-economic ills compounded by burgeoning populations in the face of huge defense spending.

The talks between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee have been described as a breakthrough.

We in the Arab world are accustomed to 'breakthrough' talks which all too often breakdown. The same holds true for the Indian-Pakistani conflict. From experience, we can recommend that talks of this sort be maintained at all costs.

The science of conflict resolution requires courage in defining the problem, willingness to offer confidence-building measures and acceptance of compromise. The key is to keep talking and understand that each side to the conflict will reach times of apparent impasse. --- Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, on Afghanistan's new constitution:

The 2001 Bonn accord, backed by the United Nations, called for setting up an interim government composed of representatives of ethnic groups, establishing a new Constitution by the end of 2003 and holding elections in June 2004. The political process up to the halfway point -- enacting a new Constitution -- more or less is on schedule.

Yet, the content of the new Constitution is far from what the international community had sought. Under the new Constitution, the country is henceforth to be called the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. It says all laws must conform to the teachings of Islam.

Basic human rights, such as freedom of thought and beliefs, are guaranteed, but only within the framework of Islamic teachings and legislation. This provision is heavily imbued with the ideas of the old guard. There is a real danger that freedom of political activities and religious beliefs could be constrained by this provision.

While a roadmap for reconstruction of Afghanistan has been made, the country still faces a bumpy road ahead. ... For Afghanistan to move to the next stage of its reconstruction, with the promise of elections, it is essential that it benefits from the firm support offered by the international community. --- The Guardian, London, on British troops in Iraq:

British troops in Iraq may feel encouraged by the prime minister's lightning visit to Basra yesterday. But perhaps it is Tony Blair's morale that is more in need of a boost.

The armed forces are doing a fine job in Iraq. Nobody doubts it. The same cannot be said with confidence of Mr. Blair's past and present performance on this issue. ...

Although the war was a success in purely military terms, Mr. Blair still refuses to face up to the central contention of its numerous opponents: that he led Britain into battle on what Sir Menzies Campbell calls a "flawed prospectus." The fact is, the principal, official justification that Saddam's weapons of mass destruction posed a threat to the region and to Britain itself was just plain wrong. There were no such weapons. ...

It is simply no good for Mr. Blair to persist in claiming, as he did before Christmas, that "massive evidence" of illegal Iraqi weapons activity has been uncovered. This assertion was flatly rejected at the time by the senior US official in Iraq, Paul Bremer. It is not borne out by the Iraq Survey Group's findings to date. Even the Bush administration no longer wants to talk about it. In short, few believe it any more. As Robin Cook says: "It really is time that the prime minister accepted that himself. It is undignified to continue to insist he was right when everyone can see he was wrong." --- Frankfurter Allgemeine, Frankfurt, Germany, on the Afghan constitution:

Afghanistan is a state -- but it remains to be seen whether a nation can be made of it.

The delegates of the constitutional convention took an important step in that direction Sunday. It was clear until the last minute how difficult it was for them to agree on a new constitution.

As late as Saturday, failure appeared probable. But representatives of the United Nations and the United States, both of which had an immediate interest in an agreement, finally managed to talk the holdouts round.

However, that is one of the weak points of the accord.

After the end of their meeting, the delegates will return to their regions, and there they will be exposed to other influences.

It is not clear whether all those who showed willingness to compromise in the capital will have the strength to stand by their votes.

A piece of paper alone, however great the ceremony with which it was approved, cannot bring peace to Afghanistan.

Even if one ignores the increasingly active Taliban, there is still plenty of fuel for conflict in the country. There is great distrust between the various ethnic groups and their leaders. --- Kuwait Times, Kuwait, on the danger of ignoring the Taliban:

The Bush Administration will make a big mistake if it, in its present difficulties in Iraq or its enthusiasm to win the 2004 presidential election, reduces American military presence in Afghanistan, transfers its role there to a regional ally, or handles the Taliban issue softly. ...

Today, after two years of forcing the Taliban out of Kabul by a successful American-Northern Alliance-led military operation, Taliban forces are making a determined comeback. Their increasing attacks on foreign and local troops since early October, and their daily threats against the important cities of south and southeastern Afghanistan indicate they have risen from the ashes like the legendary phoenix and that they are determined to regain power in Kabul. ...

In spite of the above facts, the US shows no concerns, refusing to take a decisive action against Islamabad or even criticize the Musharraf regime. Washington still maintains that the latter is doing everything it can to fight terrorism. ... --- The Hindustan Times, Delhi, India, on the Mars rover:

Butterscotch-colored Mars has just become more exciting, thanks to a mechanical geologist that goes by the name of Spirit. ...

Spirit's copybook landing breaks what has been a jinx with Mars-bound spacecraft. Hopefully this will become a bad memory once Opportunity its sister probe sets down on the opposite side of the planet later this month. ...

Thanks to these missions, we may soon have enough knowledge about Mars' dynamic weather systems and be able to develop mineralogical maps that will be even better than those of the Earth! Add to this the possibility of tracking down those elusive frozen swimming pools and its easy to see why scientists are so excited.

For the presence of so much water could serve as a source of fuel, drinking water and oxygen for manned Mars missions and could help the very landscaping of the Martian surface for future human settlements. ...

One thing is certain: the question of whether there is or ever was life on Mars will be settled by the end of this decade. --- MORE[

GetAP 1.00 -- JAN 9, 2004 00:41:53