by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Johannesburg (South Africa) : Barack Obama has used his first high-profile speech since stepping down as US president to take swipes at “strongman politics” and politicians’ disregard for facts.
Obama on Tuesday here mounted a passionate defence of democracy and warned against the politics of the day as his successor, Donald Trump, was heavily criticised for a humiliating news conference on Monday with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the BBC reported.
In his address in honour of the late Nelson Mandela ahead of the 100th anniversary of his birth, Obama slammed populist movements toward authoritarianism around the world and ridiculed the “utter loss of shame among political leaders” who lie.
Obama, who has made an art of criticising Trump’s values without explicitly naming him, peppered his speech on Tuesday with warnings against some of his successor’s key policies, including protectionism, climate change denial and closed borders.
“The politics of fear and resentment and retrenchment is on the move at a pace that would have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago,” he told the crowd of around 15,000 people in Johannesburg.
“I am not being alarmist, I’m simply stating the facts. Strongman politics are ascendant, suddenly, whereby elections and some pretence of democracy are maintained,… those in powers seek to undermine every institution or norm that gives democracy meaning.”
His remarks followed Trump’s news conference in Helsinki, Finland, in which the US leader sided with Putin over his own country’s intelligence agencies on whether Russia interfered in the 2016 US election, the CNN reported.
Dashing expectations of him confronting Putin over the issue after the US indicted 12 Russians, accused of hacking the Democrat’s emails and computer networks to target Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, Trump sort of toed the Russian line.
“You have to believe in facts. Without facts there’s no basis for cooperation. If I say this is a podium and you say this is an elephant, it’s going to be hard for us to cooperate,” he said.
“I can’t find common ground if somebody says that climate change just isn’t happening, when almost all the world’s scientists tell us it is. I don’t know where to start talking to you about this. If you say it’s an elaborate hoax, where do we start?”
He said politics today often reject the concept of objective truth. “People just make stuff up. We see it in the growth of state sponsored propaganda, internet fabrications, the blurring of lines between news and entertainment, the utter loss of shame among political leaders…,” he said, to laughter in the crowd.
Obama had opened his speech reflecting on the recent chaos of the world that gave him the opportunity to seek perspective.
“But in the strange and uncertain times that we are in — with each day’s news cycles bringing more head-spinning and disturbing headlines — I thought maybe it would be useful to step back for a moment and try to get some perspective,” Obama added.
He warned that the press was under attack, that censorship and state control of media is on the rise and that social media was being used to promote hate, propaganda and conspiracy theories.
“So, on Madiba’s 100 birthday, we now stand at a crossroads,” he said, using a clan name of affection for Mandela.
He said that there was a choice between two visions of humanity’s future that the world must choose between.
“Let me tell you what I believe. I believe in Nelson Mandela’s vision, I believe in a vision shared by (Mahatma) Gandhi and (Martin Luther) King (Jr), and Abraham Lincoln,” he said.
He talked about equality and justice and freedom and multi-racial democracy built on the premise that all people were created equal and were endowed with certain inalienable rights.
Obama’s speech at the 16th annual Nelson Mandela Lecture, is one of his highest-profile appearances and his first return to Africa since he left office in 2017.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, World
Washington : US President Donald Trump suggested the NATO countries to increase their defence spending to 4 per cent — doubling the 2 per cent target that many members of the bloc were yet to meet.
“During the President’s remarks today (Wednesday) at the NATO summit, he suggested that countries not only meet their commitment of 2 per cent of their GDP on defence spending, but that they increase it to 4 per cent,” CNN quoted White House press secretary Sarah Sanders as saying in a statement.
She said Trump “raised this same issue” at NATO last year.
“President Trump wants to see our allies share more of the burden and at a very minimum meet their already stated obligations,” Sanders added.
But according to NATO data, the US doesn’t even spend as much as Trump is calling on other countries to.
Earlier Wednesday, Trump said the US “in actual numbers”, is spending 4.2 per cent of its GDP on defence.
However, according to numbers released by NATO on Tuesday, the US is expected to spend an estimated 3.5 per cent of the GDP on defence in 2018 which is lower than last year’s number, at 3.57 per cent.
Trump has long complained that NATO members were not meeting their fiscal obligations to the alliance, reports CNN.
“Many countries in NATO, which we are expected to defend, are not only short of their current commitment of 2 per cent (which is low), but are also delinquent for many years in payments that have not been made. Will they reimburse the US?” Trump tweeted on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Trump singled out Germany for particular criticism as he continued to assail NATO allies for failing to spend 2 per cent of their GDP on defence spending, a target NATO allies agreed to meet by 2024.
“Germany is just paying a little bit over 1 per cent… So I think that’s inappropriate also. You know, we’re protecting Germany, we’re protecting France. We’re protecting everybody. And yet we’re paying a lot of money to protect” Trump said during a breakfast with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.
Addressing the media following Trump’s comments, German Chancellor Angela Merkel touted the country’s contributions to NATO and in defence of US interests.
“Germany also does a lot for NATO. We are the second largest donor of troops, we put most of our military abilities into the service of NATO and we are strongly committed in Afghanistan, where we also defend the interests of the US,” Merkel said upon arriving at NATO headquarters Wednesday.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, SMEs, World
Washington : President Donald Trump has ordered the start of imposing additional 10 per cent taxes on Chinese imports worth $200 billion, according to a statement by the US Trade Representative (USTR).
The new tariffs were adopted on Tuesday by the Trump administration in retaliation for Beijing’s response to the first set of taxes imposed by Washington, Efe news reported.
On July 6, the US levied 25-per cent tariffs worth $34 billion as part of a first tax package worth $50 billion, to which China responded with similar measures.
“As a result of China’s retaliation and failure to change its practices, the President has ordered USTR to begin the process of imposing tariffs of 10 per cent on an additional $200 billion of Chinese imports,” the agency said in a statement.
Along with the statement, the USTR published a 200-page list of products affected by the measure such as fruits and vegetables, cereals, products of animal origin, wood, boats and construction materials.
The list also includes chemical products, fuels, tobacco and alcohol, textiles, answering machines and photographic and video material, among others.
“For more than a year, the Trump administration has patiently urged China to stop its unfair practices, open its market, and engage in true market competition,” the USTR said in its statement.
“We have been very clear and detailed regarding the specific changes China should undertake. Unfortunately, China has not changed its behaviour that puts the future of the US economy at risk,” the text added.
The agency also announced that it will proceed with a public notice and comment process before the new tariffs officially take effect.
Trump had previously warned China of the imposition of the latest tariffs and of a possible third tax package worth $300 billion if the Asian giant decides to respond.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions, World
By Ashok Easwaran,
Chicago : Few changes in the US Supreme Court have provoked the widespread consternation of the American public, specially women, as the recent exit of Justice Anthony Kennedy.
After his retirement, announced in a brief and ‘gracious’ letter to President Donald Trump was made public, it came to be known that the White House had ever so gently nudged Kennedy to retire, giving Trump the opportunity to choose the second Supreme Court judge since taking office.
There is trepidation that President Donald Trump has a free hand to fulfill his campaign promise of filling the Supreme Court with ‘conservative judges’.
With the appointment of another conservative judge, the 1973 verdict in Roe vs Wade, which legalized abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy, could well be overturned. Also on the judicial chopping block could be restrictions on the rights of minorities, gays and labour unions.
With Trump’s appointment last year of Neil Gorsuch, Supreme Court conservatives on the bench outflank the liberals 5-4. Another right leaning judge could change the character of the US Supreme Court for decades to come. It is a legacy which Trump, and the Republicans, have salivated over since the 2016 election campaign.
The appointment of Gorsuch, and the coming one to replace Kennedy, are projected by the administration as necessary to preserve the legacy of the icon of judicial conservatism – the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
But Scalia’s pronouncements have frequently betrayed a jurist who was not the rabid conservative Republicans would have us believe. Indeed, many of his public pronouncements show him guilty of letting reason and rationale trump conservatism, a cardinal sin in the Trumpian lexicon.
Scalia was a ‘textualist’ – who called those who interpreted the US Constitution a ‘living’ or ‘evolving’ document ‘idiotic’.
Nevertheless, on abortion he had this to say: “My view is regardless of whether you think prohibiting abortion is good or whether you think prohibiting abortion is bad,” he said. “Regardless of how you come out on that, my only point is the Constitution does not say anything about it. It leaves it up to democratic choice.”
To die hard evangelicals whose boundless faith in Trump obscures most issues, Scalia’s advice to high school students in 2010 may be prescient.
“Movement is not necessarily progress,” Scalia said, “More important than your obligation to follow your conscience, or at least prior to it, is your obligation to form your conscience correctly. It is your responsibility not just to be zealous in the pursuit of your ideals, but to be sure that your ideals are the right ones. That is perhaps the hardest part of being a good human being: Good intentions are not enough. Being a good person begins with being a wise person.”
In a Trumpian era with an increasingly dysfunctional Congress, the judiciary would seem to be the last bastion of the three branches of government. But to the increasing consternation of the Left, and the stridency of the Right, this citadel seems to be crumbling.
The US Supreme Court has played an increasing role in determining – or in recent weeks, undermining – the protection for immigrants (travel ban), women (abortion rights) and the working class (labour unions).
A veteran lawmaker, California Senator Dianne Feinstein has warned that President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, “could eviscerate women’s freedoms for generations”.
“The American people must know what’s at stake in this nomination … because overturning Roe vs Wade would take us back to the days of women being seriously injured and dying because they can’t get basic medical care,” said Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
One of the great mysteries of the 2016 election was the unqualified support for Trump by a significant number of white evangelical women. Even in the face of the ‘#Metoo’ movement and Trump’s consistent profane and public insult of women, they – along with white evangelical men – form his most cohesive block of support.
Trump has revealed in his obvious disdain for women. In an interview on Fox News, he made a veiled reference to the interviewer’s menstrual cycles. He has consistently had problems with a woman’s biological processes. In a presidential debate, he called then presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s need for a toilet break ‘disgusting’. Earlier, he had used the same epithet for an opposing female attorney who sought a break to breast feed her three month old daughter.
Eighteen months into Trump’s presidency, there are signs of revolt among women and minorities, the two groups most affected by his actions in office.
Four hundred and seventy-two women have entered the race for the US House of Representatives this year, a record of sorts. Fifty-seven women have filed their candidacies for the US Senate. Political analysts have said that since a majority of female candidates are Democrats, it is safe to presume that many of them are fuelled by frustration, if not fury, against the current occupant of the White House.
Another remarkable feature of the contestants is the diversity – it includes more women of colour than in previous electoral years, as well as a number of immigrants.
The elections in November are likely to be the first indicator of the degree of vigour behind the revolt against Trump. Or more precisely if the anger and anguish can be converted into political capital. As in any election with high stakes, there are variables, of course, but perhaps the core risk factor is the probability of the human species to act against its own best interests.
In The Republic, the Greek philosopher Plato describes a conversation between Socrates and Adeimantus in which Socrates compares a democratic society to a ship. If Adeimantus was heading out to sea, Socrates queries Adeimantus, who would he have as the skipper of the ship. Any passenger at all or someone skilled in seafaring ? Adeimantus does not hesitate. “Why, the latter of course,” he says. “So why then,” responds Socrates, “do we think that any old person should be fit to judge who should be a ruler of a country?”
Voting in an election is a skill, asserts Socrates, not a random intuition. And like any skill, it needs to be taught systematically to people.
The citizens of ancient Athens had a bitter experience of the decline of democracy. It came in the form of Alcibiades, a rich, charismatic, smooth talking man who eroded basic freedoms and helped to push Athens to its disastrous military adventures in Sicily.
Socrates knew how easily people seeking election could exploit our desire for easy answers. “It takes very little”, Socrates warns, “for a democracy to descend to demagoguery”.
Only the boundlessly faithful can miss the parallel between Alcibiades’s Athens and Trump’s America.
(Ashok Easwaran is an American journalist of Indian origin. He has reported from North America for over two decades. He can be contacted at ashok3185@yahoo.com. The views expressed are his own.)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
Stellan Skarsgard
By Sugandha Rawal,
New Delhi : Stellan Skarsgard doesn’t want to enter the political world thanks to US President Donald Trump. The Swedish actor, who has been part of films like “Good Will Hunting”, “Thor”, “Avengers” and “Mamma Mia!”, says politicians unite people for all the wrong reasons.
He feels there is a wave of religious nationalism around the world, and that it will lead to more bloodshed.
Skarsgard has always been vocal about everything, including politics. He has said on several occasions that his perspective about the world changed after reading the Bible and the Quran after the 9/11 tragedy.
“For decades since the Second World War, the West had become a developed democracy… developed an idea that everybody is equal, values of humanism and tolerance. Now, in the last 10 years, there has been a backlash… And there is religious nationalism all over the world,” Skarsgard told IANS over the phone from Scotland.
“I believe everybody should have the right to have their own religion. But that doesn’t mean that they should forget everybody else’s right to have their own religion… The idea of nationalism is excluding, not including.”
Skarsgard pointed out that “nationalism and religion are always used by strong politicians to unite people for the wrong reasons”.
Skarsgard looked back at the time when work brought him to India, and he saw a world embracing diversity in its true sense.
“When I was working in Mumbai, it was in the 1980s… What I loved about the city and India was that it was not very violent. You could walk in the middle of the night and didn’t have to fear of getting attacked or robbed or anything.
“There were a multitude of different approaches of religion and approaches of life and they were all tolerated. And I must say that the current religious nationalism is encouraging the opposite. They are encouraging fight and there has been a lot of bloodshed and more will come.”
As a child, Skarsgard wanted to become a diplomat and travel the world with the message of harmony and peace. But instead found his way into showbiz and went on to do iconic roles like Jan Nyman in “Breaking the Waves”, Professor Gerald Lambeau in “Good Will Hunting”, Bootstrap Bill Turner in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, Bill Anderson in “Mamma Mia!”, Dr. Erik Selvig in the “Thor” and “The Avengers” franchise.
The actor turned 67 last month. Indian channel Sony Pix had a special screening session and aired some of his iconic films as part of the birthday celebrations.
Does he think he is spreading the message of peace as an actor?
“No, I don’t… I wanted to become a diplomat as a child and I thought it would be a great idea… I don’t believe actors have the power to change reality.”
For a lot of fans, Skarsgard, who has dabbled in all the mediums — be it films or small screen or theatre — will be an inspiring politician. But he wants to stay away from politics.
“No, because in this, if I know more about the world than Trump, then I don’t know enough.”
His opinions have created trouble for him in the past, but that doesn’t deter him from calling a spade a spade.
Recalling an incident, he said: “I always say what I have on my mind. And it is not always appreciated. I did an American horror film and on the premiere at the red carpet somebody asked me ‘What scares you?’, and it was at the time of George W. Bush. I said the reign of this country scares me and that had repercussions… But you still have to express (yourself).”
On the work front, he will soon be seen in “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again”, “Music, War and Love”, “Out Stealing Horses”, “Chernobyl” and “The Painted Bird”.
(Sugandha Rawal can be contacted at sugandha.r@ians.in)
—IANS
