Commentary: Sarkozy and Obama prepare combination to save the world -- at least for a while
By David Marsh, MarketWatch
Last update: 12:01 a.m. EDT Oct. 27, 2008
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Franco-American presidential combinations have frequently stirred the blood, but they produce a cocktail that has mostly been laced with venom.
Charles de Gaulle challenged John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson over gold; François Mitterrand tried to stand up to Ronald Reagan over Star Wars; Jacques Chirac defied George W. Bush on Iraq.
In the future, such acrimony could all be forgotten. If Barack Obama wins the U.S. presidency, expect an extraordinary love-in with French President Nicolas Sarkozy across a broad range of economic and monetary issues. Franco-American relations may never be the same again.
The ingredients are all in place. The French president swept to power in May 2007, burning with Americanophilia -- and with ill-concealed passion for hyper-active political management.
Sarkozy spent much of his first 15 months in office nursing grievances that the rest of the world was not taking much notice of his demands for high-level measures to improve the international economy.
Since the beginning of October, however, Sarkozy has burst into the headlines with a vengeance. Presiding over European affairs while France takes its six-month turn in the chair of the European Union, Sarkozy played a leading role in a series of high-profile measures to coordinate the continent's attempt to climb back from the economic abyss.
Provided he wins, Obama seems to be just the man to join a duet with Sarkozy that could complete the French president's transformation.
Problem: Freshly-elected American leader promises to change the world, but lacks any kind of foreign policy experience. Solution: Find a successful and energetic mentor with similar inspirational ideas.
What better candidate than the enfant terrible in the Elysée Palace? Six years Obama's senior, Sarkozy can dispense advice with the aura, by comparison with the Democrat leader, of an elder statesman. The alternative sources of wisdom for Obama -- the U.K.'s Gordon Brown and Germany's Angela Merkel -- look pale and tired by comparison, and both face difficult elections in the next two years.
The two men's similarities are striking.
Like Obama, Sarkozy has managed to build a brilliant political career that has overcome his "outsider" status as the son of an immigrant father. Like Obama, Sarkozy exudes missionary fervor. Like Obama, Sarkozy presides over ample reserves of innovative thinking. The potential list of issues on which both men would like to spend time could hardly be wider-ranging.
Reforming the International Monetary Fund? Expanding public spending on infrastructure? Improving coordination between the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank? Establishing new mechanisms for banking supervision? Safeguarding domestic companies against aggressive sovereign wealth funds? Whatever the questions, the Sarkozy & Obama combination can be relied upon to come up with the answers.
All these topics can be expected to make the agenda when Sarkozy attends the planned world economic summit to be convened by George W. Bush and his designated successor on Nov. 14 in Washington. A fine opportunity to put the world to rights.
With the right kind of American at his side, Sarkozy can escape the cares of recession, high unemployment and low competitiveness at home, and open up a new front for an improved transatlantic alliance in a troubled world.
The stuff of dreams -- and there's just a chance that the anticipated new bond between Paris and Washington will last longer than a honeymoon period.
Verse:
John 3:16; Jn 3:16; John 3
Keyword:
Salvation, Jesus, Gospel
With Operators:
AND, OR, NOT, “ â€
Showing posts with label Global Unions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Global Unions. Show all posts
Monday, October 27, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Closer global integration needed
Blair: 'Globalization is good, if everyone is on same page'
Jay Bryan
Canwest News Service
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned that everything from climate change to terrorism, cannot be dealt with successfully without close international co-operation.
MONTREAL - Any impulse to retreat from a globalized economic system would be exactly the wrong response to the current worldwide financial crisis, warns former U.K. prime minister Tony Blair.
Blair - whose successor, Gordon Brown, is being hailed as the architect of a financial rescue plan largely copied in the U.S. and other industrial nations - told the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal that the crisis demonstrates the need for closer global integration, not less.
Those who would pull back from global trade and financial flows are taking the wrong lesson from the banking and credit tumult, Blair said, because globalization is "a fact, not driven by governments, but by people." The challenge facing governments is to make it work better, he said.
Blair asked a rhetorical question: "Why is it that irresponsible lending in one area suddenly produces a convulsion in the world economy?" Because, he answered, all countries are now so closely linked that it isn't realistic to imagine withdrawing from the risks and benefits of globalization.
However, unlike some commentators who focus on the need for internationally co-ordinated regulatory constraints on business, Blair also pointed to the dangers of too much regulation.
There must clearly be globally synchronized financial regulation "where there is systemic risk," Blair said, referring to the kinds of risks that can go beyond one bank or institution to endanger the whole financial system. A recent example was the collapse of Lehman Bros., a leading U.S. investment bank, which triggered a collapse in confidence that bank obligations would be honoured and greatly worsened stresses on financial institutions.
However, Blair insisted that such new regulation must not be so heavy-handed that it stifles the entrepreneurship that he described as the heart of any successful economy.
Blair's comments about the financial crisis were part of a broader perspective on a more closely knit world in which, he warned, no serious challenge, from climate change to terrorism, can be dealt with successfully without close international co-operation.
Partnered with the theme of global interdependence was one of power shifting inevitably toward Asia, leaving the big Western powers with a limited window of opportunity to help define the nature of a new world order.
"Power is shifting East, and shifting East fast," Blair said.
He noted that in meetings with Chinese leaders during this summer's Olympic Games, he learned that China is now building more power stations than have been created in Europe since the Second World War and planning to open no fewer than 70 new international airports. India will soon be in a position to achieve similar spectacular growth, he said.
The lesson of this gigantic power shift, Blair said, is that the West can no longer dominate the world through sheer economic and military strength.
Instead of dictating, it must seek to persuade through the power of universal values: freedom, democracy and justice.
And to be persuasive in enshrining such values in global institutions, it must be true to them - working harder, for instance, to solve the problems of disease, hunger and poverty in the poorest nations.
Brown, who is now the official envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East, a group including the United Nations, the U.S, the U.K. and Russia, offered another example from his current work.
If there were to be a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said, this would be the most powerful influence imaginable in creating healthier relations between the West and the Islamic world.
Brown was speaking at Montreal's Palais des congres, at an event sponsored by the TD Bank Financial Group.
Friday, October 03, 2008
Bank lobby calls for global action on credit crunch
DPAFri, Oct 3 08:00 AM
Washington, Oct 3 (DPA) An influential international banking lobby group has called for urgent and bold actions globally, particularly from European nations, to stabilise troubled financial markets.
A systemic, internationally coordinated response in the US and Europe was essential at this point, even requiring large - if temporary use - of government funds, Charles Dallara, director of the Institute of International Finance (IIF), said Thursday.
'The global financial system is facing the most extraordinary challenges of the last eight decades, requiring prompt, internationally coordinated actions if a global recession is to be avoided,' said an IIF letter drafted Thursday to finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Washington next week at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Dallara said the IMF needed to play a leading role in addressing the financial turmoil and would have to urgently change to be effective in dealing with the financial crises of the 21st century.
He also called for the inclusion of emerging economies in the G-7, the group of leading industrialised democracies, echoing a call by French President Nicholas Sarkozy at the UN General Assembly last week.
While acknowledging that US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's $700 billion financial rescue plan 'can have a catalytic effect on markets', Dallara said it wasn't enough. The US House of Representatives could vote Friday on a second version of the emergency bill that failed Monday, sending markets plunging.
Dallara called Paulson's proposal 'a turning point' because it showed the way ahead for governments to step in, in times of crises.
In its letter to the IMF, the lobby group noted that the world was at a crucial point in international regulatory development.
'Either we fall back into national approaches resulting in a fragmentation of the global regulatory environment, or we reach out to strengthen international coordination,' it said.
Dallara told reporters that it was clear the IMF needed to change, and the financial meltdown showed that this was the time for it.
'There has been no better opportunity in the last 60 years, and no greater need, for the IMF to change,' Dallara said.
He suggested that at its meeting next week, the IMF should frame a resolution to guide a compatible global approach to the turmoil and perform the role of multilateral coordinator.
He also spoke of the benefits of European governments creating a common pool of funds that would tide them over future financial crises and assist banks that were burdened with toxic assets.
The ongoing credit crisis has made it clear that countries needed to take a broader, macro-economic view of finding innovative solutions, Dallara said, adding that 'emerging markets deserve a larger presence at the decision-making table and in the G-7', referring to the group of leading industrialised nations.
'The G-7 has served the global financial system well for over two decades,' the IIF chief said. 'But, just as the G-5 gave way to the G-7 in the mid-1980s, so it is time to expand the G-7 to include ... several systemically important emerging market countries as full partners.'
In an address to the UN General Assembly last week, France's Sarkozy called for adding new members to the exclusive G-8, which is the G-7 plus Russia, to reflect demands of emerging countries.
Under such proposals, the G-8 in particular could become the G-14, with new members like China, India, Mexico, South Africa and Brazil, the emerging economic powers among developing countries, Sarkozy said. The group currently is comprised of the US, Germany, Italy, France, Canada, Japan, Britain and Russia.
Sarkozy said the world is still governed by 20th-century institutions. 'Let today's major powers and the powers of tomorrow unite to shoulder together the responsibilities their influence gives them in world affairs.'
Washington, Oct 3 (DPA) An influential international banking lobby group has called for urgent and bold actions globally, particularly from European nations, to stabilise troubled financial markets.
A systemic, internationally coordinated response in the US and Europe was essential at this point, even requiring large - if temporary use - of government funds, Charles Dallara, director of the Institute of International Finance (IIF), said Thursday.
'The global financial system is facing the most extraordinary challenges of the last eight decades, requiring prompt, internationally coordinated actions if a global recession is to be avoided,' said an IIF letter drafted Thursday to finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Washington next week at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Dallara said the IMF needed to play a leading role in addressing the financial turmoil and would have to urgently change to be effective in dealing with the financial crises of the 21st century.
He also called for the inclusion of emerging economies in the G-7, the group of leading industrialised democracies, echoing a call by French President Nicholas Sarkozy at the UN General Assembly last week.
While acknowledging that US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's $700 billion financial rescue plan 'can have a catalytic effect on markets', Dallara said it wasn't enough. The US House of Representatives could vote Friday on a second version of the emergency bill that failed Monday, sending markets plunging.
Dallara called Paulson's proposal 'a turning point' because it showed the way ahead for governments to step in, in times of crises.
In its letter to the IMF, the lobby group noted that the world was at a crucial point in international regulatory development.
'Either we fall back into national approaches resulting in a fragmentation of the global regulatory environment, or we reach out to strengthen international coordination,' it said.
Dallara told reporters that it was clear the IMF needed to change, and the financial meltdown showed that this was the time for it.
'There has been no better opportunity in the last 60 years, and no greater need, for the IMF to change,' Dallara said.
He suggested that at its meeting next week, the IMF should frame a resolution to guide a compatible global approach to the turmoil and perform the role of multilateral coordinator.
He also spoke of the benefits of European governments creating a common pool of funds that would tide them over future financial crises and assist banks that were burdened with toxic assets.
The ongoing credit crisis has made it clear that countries needed to take a broader, macro-economic view of finding innovative solutions, Dallara said, adding that 'emerging markets deserve a larger presence at the decision-making table and in the G-7', referring to the group of leading industrialised nations.
'The G-7 has served the global financial system well for over two decades,' the IIF chief said. 'But, just as the G-5 gave way to the G-7 in the mid-1980s, so it is time to expand the G-7 to include ... several systemically important emerging market countries as full partners.'
In an address to the UN General Assembly last week, France's Sarkozy called for adding new members to the exclusive G-8, which is the G-7 plus Russia, to reflect demands of emerging countries.
Under such proposals, the G-8 in particular could become the G-14, with new members like China, India, Mexico, South Africa and Brazil, the emerging economic powers among developing countries, Sarkozy said. The group currently is comprised of the US, Germany, Italy, France, Canada, Japan, Britain and Russia.
Sarkozy said the world is still governed by 20th-century institutions. 'Let today's major powers and the powers of tomorrow unite to shoulder together the responsibilities their influence gives them in world affairs.'
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Toward a new North America
Margret Kopala
The Ottawa Citizen
Saturday, August 23, 2008
The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) is dead. Long live the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.
After NAFTA, the SPP has been the most significant development in North American integration, so its imminent death and potential resurrection seem strangely out of step. Yet this is the only conclusion possible reading "The Future of North America: Replacing a Bad Neighbour Policy," which appears in the July/August edition of Foreign Affairs.
Published by the prestigious American Council on Foreign Relations, it is the latest in a series of articles and books written by Robert A. Pastor. The intellectual father of what former U.S. ambassador Paul Celucci has indicated will in 10 to 15 years be a "union in everything but name ..." says North American integration has stalled and that last April's summit meeting between the leaders of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada was probably the last hurrah for the SPP.
"The strategy of acting on technical issues in an incremental, bureaucratic way, and of keeping the issues away from public view, has generated more suspicion than accomplishments." Following his inauguration and discussions with his two closest neighbours, "(t)he new president will probably discard the SPP."
The European Union became a reality in 1993. Inevitably, someone would fashion a template and provide the road map to achieving something similar in North America. That someone would be a well-connected Harvard political scientist who served in various postings in Latin America and whose response to the peso crisis of 1994 was Towards a North American Community: Lessons from the Old World for the New. NAFTA, Robert Pastor argued in this 2001 publication, lacked the institutional mechanisms to address such serious crises. But before anyone could read it, 9/11 intervened.
Languishing in the devastation of 9/11, the template needed resuscitation. Fortuitously, heightened security needs would be its life saver. The Canadian Council of Chief Executives, the Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales and the Council on Foreign Relations combined forces to create the necessary task force.
Under the co-chairmanships of John P. Manley, Pedro Aspe and William F. Weld, with Thomas P. d'Aquino, Andres Rozental and Robert A. Pastor as vice-chairs, the task force produced "Creating a North American Community," whose recommendations drew heavily on Pastor's book. They included the "establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community" with a common external tariff and an outer security perimeter as well as the development of a customs union, common market, investment fund, energy strategy, a set of regulatory standards, and an advisory council, to name a few. Absent was Pastor's recommendation for the creation of a common currency he called the "amero."
Barely two months earlier in March of 2005, the SPP, anticipating many of these themes, had been announced at the Three Amigos summit in Waco, Texas. By 2007 and 2008, the Three Amigos were met by organized anti-continentalization forces. With CNN's Lou Dobbs leading the charge, their anti-NAFTA incantations reached even into the Democratic nomination race.
Now, replete with instructions for America's incoming president, Pastor is fighting back. Dismantling trade and investment barriers, NAFTA succeeded in what it was designed to do, he argues in The Future of North America. U.S. trade with Canada and Mexico has tripled from $341 billion in 1993 to more than $1 trillion in 2007. Inward direct investment quintupled and, in Mexico, increased tenfold between 1990 and 2005. "North America, not Europe, is now the largest free-trade area in the world in terms of gross product."
But rather than build on the success of NAFTA, the last eight years were reduced to a North American game of Scrabble with new acronyms purporting to be initiatives while growth in trade has diminished, wait times at the border have lengthened and public opinion toward integration has deteriorated "in part because the U.S. failed to comply with NAFTA on issues ... like trucking (in Mexico) and softwood lumber (in Canada)."
Instead of refighting the NAFTA debate, the new president should lay the foundation for a new North America. He can do this, Pastor says, by negotiating a customs union, by creating a North American Commission and a North American investment fund, among other initiatives.
Margret Kopala's column on western perspectives appears every other week.
The Ottawa Citizen
Saturday, August 23, 2008
The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) is dead. Long live the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.
After NAFTA, the SPP has been the most significant development in North American integration, so its imminent death and potential resurrection seem strangely out of step. Yet this is the only conclusion possible reading "The Future of North America: Replacing a Bad Neighbour Policy," which appears in the July/August edition of Foreign Affairs.
Published by the prestigious American Council on Foreign Relations, it is the latest in a series of articles and books written by Robert A. Pastor. The intellectual father of what former U.S. ambassador Paul Celucci has indicated will in 10 to 15 years be a "union in everything but name ..." says North American integration has stalled and that last April's summit meeting between the leaders of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada was probably the last hurrah for the SPP.
"The strategy of acting on technical issues in an incremental, bureaucratic way, and of keeping the issues away from public view, has generated more suspicion than accomplishments." Following his inauguration and discussions with his two closest neighbours, "(t)he new president will probably discard the SPP."
The European Union became a reality in 1993. Inevitably, someone would fashion a template and provide the road map to achieving something similar in North America. That someone would be a well-connected Harvard political scientist who served in various postings in Latin America and whose response to the peso crisis of 1994 was Towards a North American Community: Lessons from the Old World for the New. NAFTA, Robert Pastor argued in this 2001 publication, lacked the institutional mechanisms to address such serious crises. But before anyone could read it, 9/11 intervened.
Languishing in the devastation of 9/11, the template needed resuscitation. Fortuitously, heightened security needs would be its life saver. The Canadian Council of Chief Executives, the Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales and the Council on Foreign Relations combined forces to create the necessary task force.
Under the co-chairmanships of John P. Manley, Pedro Aspe and William F. Weld, with Thomas P. d'Aquino, Andres Rozental and Robert A. Pastor as vice-chairs, the task force produced "Creating a North American Community," whose recommendations drew heavily on Pastor's book. They included the "establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community" with a common external tariff and an outer security perimeter as well as the development of a customs union, common market, investment fund, energy strategy, a set of regulatory standards, and an advisory council, to name a few. Absent was Pastor's recommendation for the creation of a common currency he called the "amero."
Barely two months earlier in March of 2005, the SPP, anticipating many of these themes, had been announced at the Three Amigos summit in Waco, Texas. By 2007 and 2008, the Three Amigos were met by organized anti-continentalization forces. With CNN's Lou Dobbs leading the charge, their anti-NAFTA incantations reached even into the Democratic nomination race.
Now, replete with instructions for America's incoming president, Pastor is fighting back. Dismantling trade and investment barriers, NAFTA succeeded in what it was designed to do, he argues in The Future of North America. U.S. trade with Canada and Mexico has tripled from $341 billion in 1993 to more than $1 trillion in 2007. Inward direct investment quintupled and, in Mexico, increased tenfold between 1990 and 2005. "North America, not Europe, is now the largest free-trade area in the world in terms of gross product."
But rather than build on the success of NAFTA, the last eight years were reduced to a North American game of Scrabble with new acronyms purporting to be initiatives while growth in trade has diminished, wait times at the border have lengthened and public opinion toward integration has deteriorated "in part because the U.S. failed to comply with NAFTA on issues ... like trucking (in Mexico) and softwood lumber (in Canada)."
Instead of refighting the NAFTA debate, the new president should lay the foundation for a new North America. He can do this, Pastor says, by negotiating a customs union, by creating a North American Commission and a North American investment fund, among other initiatives.
Margret Kopala's column on western perspectives appears every other week.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Major Interfaith Conference Urges Anti-Terrorism Pact
Religious leaders at the historic Saudi-organized interfaith conference that ended Friday called for an international pact to combat terrorism. They asked the U.N. General Assembly to call a special session to help foster dialogue between “followers of religions, civilizations and cultures” and prevent “a clash of civilizations."
Fri, Jul. 18, 2008 Posted: 03:11 PM EDT
Religious leaders at the historic Saudi-organized interfaith conference that ended Friday called for an international pact to combat terrorism.
Representatives – which included Islamic, Christian and Jewish leaders – asked the U.N. General Assembly to call a special session to help foster dialogue between “followers of religions, civilizations and cultures” and prevent “a clash of civilizations,” according to Agence France-Presse.
"Terrorism is a universal phenomenon that requires unified international efforts to combat it in a serious, responsible and just way," the three-day World Conference on Dialogue said in a final statement.
"This demands an international agreement on defining terrorism, addressing its root causes and achieving justice and stability in the world."
The statement was read at the closing session of the closed-door gathering held in Madrid. It echoed Saudi King Abdullah’s speech at the opening session where he rejected religious extremism and said conflicts were created by misinterpretations, not by religions themselves.
"There is a need for continuity in dialogue and not depending only on resorting to the UN," Abdullah al-Turki, secretary general of the Muslim World League, told a news conference. "This is going to be the first of a series of conferences. We have talked about organizing a conference in Japan."
The Mecca-based Muslim World League had organized the interfaith conference for Saudi King Abdullah.
Participants on Thursday also called for religions to re-examine the treatment and position of women, whom some described as marginalized by religions.
Saudi Arabia is the only Arab Muslim country that bans all non-Islamic religious practices despite having a sizable number of non-Muslims in the country. Wahhabism, a extremely conservative strain of Sunni Islam, is practiced in Saudi Arabia.
This year, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended again that the State Department designate Saudi Arabia as a Country of Particular Concern – the worst religious freedom violation category – for its egregious and systematic violation of religious freedom.
The government is accused of promoting hate ideologies towards non-Wahhabi Muslims through its official educational textbooks.
Among what the textbooks teach include commanding Muslims to “hate” all non-Wahhabi Muslims; instructing students not to “greet,” “befriend,” “imitate,” “show loyalty to,” “be courteous to,” or “respect” non-believers; and instruct that the “fighting between Muslims and Jews” will continue until Judgment Day.
Some of the prominent religious and political figures at the event included evangelist Franklin Graham, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, former Vice President Al Gore, American civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Rabbi David Rosen.
Ethan Cole
Christian Post Reporter
Fri, Jul. 18, 2008 Posted: 03:11 PM EDT
Religious leaders at the historic Saudi-organized interfaith conference that ended Friday called for an international pact to combat terrorism.
Representatives – which included Islamic, Christian and Jewish leaders – asked the U.N. General Assembly to call a special session to help foster dialogue between “followers of religions, civilizations and cultures” and prevent “a clash of civilizations,” according to Agence France-Presse.
"Terrorism is a universal phenomenon that requires unified international efforts to combat it in a serious, responsible and just way," the three-day World Conference on Dialogue said in a final statement.
"This demands an international agreement on defining terrorism, addressing its root causes and achieving justice and stability in the world."
The statement was read at the closing session of the closed-door gathering held in Madrid. It echoed Saudi King Abdullah’s speech at the opening session where he rejected religious extremism and said conflicts were created by misinterpretations, not by religions themselves.
"There is a need for continuity in dialogue and not depending only on resorting to the UN," Abdullah al-Turki, secretary general of the Muslim World League, told a news conference. "This is going to be the first of a series of conferences. We have talked about organizing a conference in Japan."
The Mecca-based Muslim World League had organized the interfaith conference for Saudi King Abdullah.
Participants on Thursday also called for religions to re-examine the treatment and position of women, whom some described as marginalized by religions.
Saudi Arabia is the only Arab Muslim country that bans all non-Islamic religious practices despite having a sizable number of non-Muslims in the country. Wahhabism, a extremely conservative strain of Sunni Islam, is practiced in Saudi Arabia.
This year, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended again that the State Department designate Saudi Arabia as a Country of Particular Concern – the worst religious freedom violation category – for its egregious and systematic violation of religious freedom.
The government is accused of promoting hate ideologies towards non-Wahhabi Muslims through its official educational textbooks.
Among what the textbooks teach include commanding Muslims to “hate” all non-Wahhabi Muslims; instructing students not to “greet,” “befriend,” “imitate,” “show loyalty to,” “be courteous to,” or “respect” non-believers; and instruct that the “fighting between Muslims and Jews” will continue until Judgment Day.
Some of the prominent religious and political figures at the event included evangelist Franklin Graham, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, former Vice President Al Gore, American civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Rabbi David Rosen.
Ethan Cole
Christian Post Reporter
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Sarkozy's Speech
The full text of the inaugural speech of French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Paris summit of the Union for the Mediterranean held at the Grand Palais in Paris:
Ladies and Gentlemen Heads of States and Government of Europe and Mediterranean,
Mr Secretary General of the UN,
Mr President of the European Commission,
Mr President of the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council,
Mr President of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly,
Ministers,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Friends,
It is an immense honour for France to host, here in Paris, the representatives of all the people who share the Mediterranean and for whom it is the source of all faith, all reason and all culture.
These people who have so often been divided, have so often fought, have so often torn each other apart, not because they were too different, but because underneath it all they were too similar, and who today have joined together because they know they share the same dream of civilisation and they want that dream to finally come true.
The Mediterranean has created a certain notion of happiness, wisdom and self-esteem. It has also created tragedy and its own way of feeling and expressing joy, suffering and human passion. It has pushed, sometimes to the extreme, the zest for life and fascination with death.
Today, everyone wants the forces of life to triumph. Everyone knows it will be hard. Everyone has memories of injustice, pain and broken dreams that will not fade away. Yet without forgetting any of the past, we owe it to the future generations, and primarily our children, to look to the future together.
Everyone is well aware that if this future is to be great, if this future is to be bright, if this future is to be a future of peace, a future of justice, a future of progress, everyone will have to make an effort as the European did to put an end to he deadly spiral of war and violence that, century upon century, sporadically brought barbarity to the heart of civilisation.
If we are all gathered here, it is because we all believe that the European dream and the Mediterranean dream are inextricably linked, that they will come true together or they will be broken together.
If we are gathered here, it is because we cannot base our relations merely on tolerance, because we have to go further and open ourselves up to one another in understanding and respect.
If we are gathered here, it is because we no longer want to be merely neighbours, we want to be partners.
In 1995, Europe took the initiative of launching the Euro-Mediterranean dialogue in Barcelona, which raised so many hopes among all those who love the Mediterranean and that it will one day cease to be the theatre of so many dangers and so many tragedies and will become a melting pot of civilisation again.
For the last thirteen years, the people of Europe and the Mediterranean have learnt to talk to one another and together think about the future. What Barcelona has accomplished must be sustained.
Yet the time has come for the awareness of our common destiny to prompt us to find the way to take action together, to together resume control of our common future, together write our common history. Huge challenges lie ahead, and they can only be taken up together.
The time has also come for the solidarity dictated by geography, history and culture to drive the peoples of Europe and the Mediterranean to share the responsibilities, decide unanimously, and recognise equal rights and duties for all.
We will only manage to build a better future by sharing power, in true solidarity, with respect for one another. This is the basis of the political choice, the moral choice, the fundamental historical choice of the Union for the Mediterranean: Parity, Equality and Shared Decision-Making Power.
The success or failure of everything we undertake together will depend first and foremost on the ability of each and every one of us to truly share. This means building increasingly close solidarity based on concrete projects.
Learning to get to know one another, understand each other, and respect each other by working together on projects that will satisfy everyone's vital interests. And in this way prepare the ground for prosperity, stability and peace.
This new approach to the relations between the peoples of Europe and the Mediterranean will be symbolized by this joint presidency at the head of the Union for the Mediterranean, which will join a Northern country with a Southern country.
And it is in this spirit that, with Egypt, France intends to assume on behalf of you al this responsibility that you have done it the honour of entrusting in it.
Not bloc against bloc, not North against South, not Europe on one side and everyone else on the other, not face to face, not even side by side, but united, together expressing everyone's common interest, together embodying this solidarity on which we wish to build our common future.
It is in the Mediterranean that the first fraternal civilisation was born, built on the idea of diversity. It is for all the peoples of the Mediterranean to again impart this lesson to all humankind by reviving this diversity that in the past enabled all the peoples and all the faiths of Cordoba, Tangiers and Constantine, Tunis, Alexandria, Beirut and so many other cities to live in pace, with mutual respect and in the knowledge that beneath their differences lay the same sense of humanity, the same love for life and the same need for justice that united them all.
It is in the Mediterranean that the religions of the Book were born. It is around the Mediterranean and nowhere else that they must be reconciled.
Together, we can build a major alliance between Africa, the Middle East and Europe out of the Mediterranean. We can make it the cleanest sea in the world, but also the world's largest co-development laboratory.
And by giving everyone access to water, food, energy and healthcare, by sharing knowledge, knowhow and education with everyone, by building shared universities, shared laboratories, by together creating the conditions for all young people to move freely between shores, by pooling our resources to safeguard people's security as best we can, we will show al of humankind what the beautiful word civilisation can still mean.
And we will teach our children how peoples who have lashed so often, but who still recall Antigone's cry - "I have come to share love, not to share hate"- and who remember that all their prayers speak of love, can once again understand and love one another.
Ladies and Gentlemen Heads of States and Government of Europe and Mediterranean,
Mr Secretary General of the UN,
Mr President of the European Commission,
Mr President of the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council,
Mr President of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly,
Ministers,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Friends,
It is an immense honour for France to host, here in Paris, the representatives of all the people who share the Mediterranean and for whom it is the source of all faith, all reason and all culture.
These people who have so often been divided, have so often fought, have so often torn each other apart, not because they were too different, but because underneath it all they were too similar, and who today have joined together because they know they share the same dream of civilisation and they want that dream to finally come true.
The Mediterranean has created a certain notion of happiness, wisdom and self-esteem. It has also created tragedy and its own way of feeling and expressing joy, suffering and human passion. It has pushed, sometimes to the extreme, the zest for life and fascination with death.
Today, everyone wants the forces of life to triumph. Everyone knows it will be hard. Everyone has memories of injustice, pain and broken dreams that will not fade away. Yet without forgetting any of the past, we owe it to the future generations, and primarily our children, to look to the future together.
Everyone is well aware that if this future is to be great, if this future is to be bright, if this future is to be a future of peace, a future of justice, a future of progress, everyone will have to make an effort as the European did to put an end to he deadly spiral of war and violence that, century upon century, sporadically brought barbarity to the heart of civilisation.
If we are all gathered here, it is because we all believe that the European dream and the Mediterranean dream are inextricably linked, that they will come true together or they will be broken together.
If we are gathered here, it is because we cannot base our relations merely on tolerance, because we have to go further and open ourselves up to one another in understanding and respect.
If we are gathered here, it is because we no longer want to be merely neighbours, we want to be partners.
In 1995, Europe took the initiative of launching the Euro-Mediterranean dialogue in Barcelona, which raised so many hopes among all those who love the Mediterranean and that it will one day cease to be the theatre of so many dangers and so many tragedies and will become a melting pot of civilisation again.
For the last thirteen years, the people of Europe and the Mediterranean have learnt to talk to one another and together think about the future. What Barcelona has accomplished must be sustained.
Yet the time has come for the awareness of our common destiny to prompt us to find the way to take action together, to together resume control of our common future, together write our common history. Huge challenges lie ahead, and they can only be taken up together.
The time has also come for the solidarity dictated by geography, history and culture to drive the peoples of Europe and the Mediterranean to share the responsibilities, decide unanimously, and recognise equal rights and duties for all.
We will only manage to build a better future by sharing power, in true solidarity, with respect for one another. This is the basis of the political choice, the moral choice, the fundamental historical choice of the Union for the Mediterranean: Parity, Equality and Shared Decision-Making Power.
The success or failure of everything we undertake together will depend first and foremost on the ability of each and every one of us to truly share. This means building increasingly close solidarity based on concrete projects.
Learning to get to know one another, understand each other, and respect each other by working together on projects that will satisfy everyone's vital interests. And in this way prepare the ground for prosperity, stability and peace.
This new approach to the relations between the peoples of Europe and the Mediterranean will be symbolized by this joint presidency at the head of the Union for the Mediterranean, which will join a Northern country with a Southern country.
And it is in this spirit that, with Egypt, France intends to assume on behalf of you al this responsibility that you have done it the honour of entrusting in it.
Not bloc against bloc, not North against South, not Europe on one side and everyone else on the other, not face to face, not even side by side, but united, together expressing everyone's common interest, together embodying this solidarity on which we wish to build our common future.
It is in the Mediterranean that the first fraternal civilisation was born, built on the idea of diversity. It is for all the peoples of the Mediterranean to again impart this lesson to all humankind by reviving this diversity that in the past enabled all the peoples and all the faiths of Cordoba, Tangiers and Constantine, Tunis, Alexandria, Beirut and so many other cities to live in pace, with mutual respect and in the knowledge that beneath their differences lay the same sense of humanity, the same love for life and the same need for justice that united them all.
It is in the Mediterranean that the religions of the Book were born. It is around the Mediterranean and nowhere else that they must be reconciled.
Together, we can build a major alliance between Africa, the Middle East and Europe out of the Mediterranean. We can make it the cleanest sea in the world, but also the world's largest co-development laboratory.
And by giving everyone access to water, food, energy and healthcare, by sharing knowledge, knowhow and education with everyone, by building shared universities, shared laboratories, by together creating the conditions for all young people to move freely between shores, by pooling our resources to safeguard people's security as best we can, we will show al of humankind what the beautiful word civilisation can still mean.
And we will teach our children how peoples who have lashed so often, but who still recall Antigone's cry - "I have come to share love, not to share hate"- and who remember that all their prayers speak of love, can once again understand and love one another.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Mediterranean summit hailed as 'best news for peace in the Middle East'
Written by Chris Perver
Saturday, 12 July 2008
French President Nicholas Sarkozy has hailed tomorrow's Paris summit as the "best news for peace in the Middle East". Forty-one of the forty-four heads of state invited to the summit have agreed to attend. The list of participants include Albania, Algeria, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Lithuania, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Palestinian Authority, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and the United Kingdom. French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will co-host the event. But it is the presence Syrian President Bashar Assad and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that is expected to steal the show. Both countries have been involved in indirect peace negotiations since May, and have signalled their readiness to move to direct talks.
There was a mixed reaction to the proposal for a Union for the Mediterranean (UPM) when it was first announced following Sarkozy's election in October 2007. Northern European states originally feared that the new project could become a competitor to the European Union, and objected to EU money being used to fund an initiative they had no part in. Arab states were concerned that the UPM would be dominated by wealthier European states, and objected to Israel's inclusion in the group. But the plan was adopted by the European Union on the 13th of March, and on the 13th of July the new Union for the Mediterranean will be formed...
Quote: "The union was the brainchild of his special advisor and speech-writer Henri Guaino. In Toulon in February 2007, Sarkozy said he wanted "to be the president of a France that will set the Mediterranean on the path of its reunification, after 12 centuries of division..." He wanted "to achieve a new Renaissance... undertake with this project a policy of civilisation as envisioned by the philosophers of the Enlightenment." In Tangiers last October, Sarkozy said: "Within every man and woman who lives on the shores of the Mediterranean sleeps the memory, nostalgia, for the unity lost 15 centuries ago." Not since the Italian dictator Mussolini revived the ancient Roman concept of Mare Nostrum ("our sea" in Latin) has a politician held such high ambitions for the Mediterranean.
Revelation 13:1
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
A beast out of the sea
And as you can see from these two maps, despite the watering-down of Sarkozy's original proposal, the above quotation is an apt description of what is happening here. For it seems that the European Union and the Union for the Mediterranean are fulfilments of Biblical prophecy. The old Roman Empire is being revived, just as the Bible predicted. Throughout the centuries Christians have proclaimed the rebirth of the nation of Israel and the revival of the old Roman Empire. These Christians staggered not at the promises of God, though there was little evidence of these things coming to pass during their lifetimes. We have been privileged to witness the rebirth of the nation of Israel and the revival of the old Roman Empire. There is no excuse. The fact that there is a nation called Israel in the world is plain for all to see. And just in case you are not sure if the EU is the revival of the old Roman Empire, we have the frequent allusions to it by European leaders, the references to it in EU paraphernalia, the design of the EU parliament building, the motif on our coins, and the geographical area of the EU and UPM are roughly the same. The EU is the revived Roman Empire, no question about it. The Bible predicted over 2000 years ago that these things would happen. And today they are coming to pass before our very eyes. If the Bible was right about these things, what other things does the Bible say that we should know about? Jesus Christ is coming back soon (John 14:3). First, to take all those who have trusted in Him for salvation to be with Him where He is (John 14:3). And again, to judge this world for its wickedness (2nd Thessalonians 1:7-8). We need to be ready for His coming. How we can be ready? The Bible says our sins have separated between us and God (Isaiah 59:2). And if we die in our sins, where God is we cannot go (John 8:21). We need to have our sins forgiven. How can we have our sins forgiven? God sent His only Son Jesus Christ into this world 2000 years ago. He took God's punishment for your sins when He died upon the cross (Isaiah 53:6). All who believe on Him for salvation can have their sins forgiven and have eternal life in heaven (John 3:16). Turn away from your sins. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation today and you shall be saved (Acts 16:31).
Source Irish Times, Bloomberg, Wikipedia
Saturday, 12 July 2008
French President Nicholas Sarkozy has hailed tomorrow's Paris summit as the "best news for peace in the Middle East". Forty-one of the forty-four heads of state invited to the summit have agreed to attend. The list of participants include Albania, Algeria, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Lithuania, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Palestinian Authority, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and the United Kingdom. French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will co-host the event. But it is the presence Syrian President Bashar Assad and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that is expected to steal the show. Both countries have been involved in indirect peace negotiations since May, and have signalled their readiness to move to direct talks.
There was a mixed reaction to the proposal for a Union for the Mediterranean (UPM) when it was first announced following Sarkozy's election in October 2007. Northern European states originally feared that the new project could become a competitor to the European Union, and objected to EU money being used to fund an initiative they had no part in. Arab states were concerned that the UPM would be dominated by wealthier European states, and objected to Israel's inclusion in the group. But the plan was adopted by the European Union on the 13th of March, and on the 13th of July the new Union for the Mediterranean will be formed...
Quote: "The union was the brainchild of his special advisor and speech-writer Henri Guaino. In Toulon in February 2007, Sarkozy said he wanted "to be the president of a France that will set the Mediterranean on the path of its reunification, after 12 centuries of division..." He wanted "to achieve a new Renaissance... undertake with this project a policy of civilisation as envisioned by the philosophers of the Enlightenment." In Tangiers last October, Sarkozy said: "Within every man and woman who lives on the shores of the Mediterranean sleeps the memory, nostalgia, for the unity lost 15 centuries ago." Not since the Italian dictator Mussolini revived the ancient Roman concept of Mare Nostrum ("our sea" in Latin) has a politician held such high ambitions for the Mediterranean.
Revelation 13:1
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
A beast out of the sea
And as you can see from these two maps, despite the watering-down of Sarkozy's original proposal, the above quotation is an apt description of what is happening here. For it seems that the European Union and the Union for the Mediterranean are fulfilments of Biblical prophecy. The old Roman Empire is being revived, just as the Bible predicted. Throughout the centuries Christians have proclaimed the rebirth of the nation of Israel and the revival of the old Roman Empire. These Christians staggered not at the promises of God, though there was little evidence of these things coming to pass during their lifetimes. We have been privileged to witness the rebirth of the nation of Israel and the revival of the old Roman Empire. There is no excuse. The fact that there is a nation called Israel in the world is plain for all to see. And just in case you are not sure if the EU is the revival of the old Roman Empire, we have the frequent allusions to it by European leaders, the references to it in EU paraphernalia, the design of the EU parliament building, the motif on our coins, and the geographical area of the EU and UPM are roughly the same. The EU is the revived Roman Empire, no question about it. The Bible predicted over 2000 years ago that these things would happen. And today they are coming to pass before our very eyes. If the Bible was right about these things, what other things does the Bible say that we should know about? Jesus Christ is coming back soon (John 14:3). First, to take all those who have trusted in Him for salvation to be with Him where He is (John 14:3). And again, to judge this world for its wickedness (2nd Thessalonians 1:7-8). We need to be ready for His coming. How we can be ready? The Bible says our sins have separated between us and God (Isaiah 59:2). And if we die in our sins, where God is we cannot go (John 8:21). We need to have our sins forgiven. How can we have our sins forgiven? God sent His only Son Jesus Christ into this world 2000 years ago. He took God's punishment for your sins when He died upon the cross (Isaiah 53:6). All who believe on Him for salvation can have their sins forgiven and have eternal life in heaven (John 3:16). Turn away from your sins. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation today and you shall be saved (Acts 16:31).
Source Irish Times, Bloomberg, Wikipedia
Monday, May 26, 2008
South American Union
Twelve South American nations founded Friday a regional union at a summit meeting in Brazil's capital Brasilia, the BBC reported.
The founding members of the South American union are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.
The organization called UNASUR is seen as many as bearing many similarities to the European Union but still far from achieving such a level of cohesion.
South American leaders disagree over a number of issues including plans for a South American Defense Council opposed by Colombia, and bringing the already existing regional organizations Mercosur and the Andean Community under the UNASUR, the Washington Post reported.
The region's relations with the US are also a matter of contention especially between the Venezuelan leader President Hugo Chavez, who is cited as saying that the number one enemy of the union of the south is the empire of the United States, and the US-allied Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
The diplomatic issues between the two countries involve the allegations of Venezuelan funding for the Colombian FARC rebel group.
Yet, in the words of the Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the move showed that South America was becoming a "global player".
The twelve members of UNASUR together have the fifth largest GDP in the world, and a population of 361 million, ranking fourth after China, India, and the EU.
UNASUR will have a revolving presidency and bi-annual meetings of the foreign ministers.
The founding members of the South American union are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.
The organization called UNASUR is seen as many as bearing many similarities to the European Union but still far from achieving such a level of cohesion.
South American leaders disagree over a number of issues including plans for a South American Defense Council opposed by Colombia, and bringing the already existing regional organizations Mercosur and the Andean Community under the UNASUR, the Washington Post reported.
The region's relations with the US are also a matter of contention especially between the Venezuelan leader President Hugo Chavez, who is cited as saying that the number one enemy of the union of the south is the empire of the United States, and the US-allied Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
The diplomatic issues between the two countries involve the allegations of Venezuelan funding for the Colombian FARC rebel group.
Yet, in the words of the Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the move showed that South America was becoming a "global player".
The twelve members of UNASUR together have the fifth largest GDP in the world, and a population of 361 million, ranking fourth after China, India, and the EU.
UNASUR will have a revolving presidency and bi-annual meetings of the foreign ministers.
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