Monday, October 7, 2013

Sea Change II

This year’s U.N. General Assembly has also been a sea-changing event. Not only did Dilma Rousseff, a former Brazilian guerrilla fighter who became president of her country in 2011, open the proceedings with a very stateswoman-like indictment of American foreign policy, following revelations that not only those of her government, but her personal communications had been hacked by the NSA. After a conversation with President Obama who has yet to make a formal apology, she had cancelled her state visit and announced a plan to render her country independent of American communication networks.

A few days later Iran’s new President Hassan Rohani reversed the playbook used by his predecessor. His call for a denuclearized Middle East that included not the slightest attack on Israel won broad approval. this all but forced President Obama, who had campaigned on a promise to speak to enemy leaders, to break a thirty year official silence between the two countries in a phone conversation during which he admitted Iran’s right to nuclear technology and endorsed a diplomatic approach to resolving their differences. This is a monumental event that for the first time leaves Israel on its own to continue claiming, as it has for decades, that Iran is six months away from a bomb. (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not disappoint when came his turn to address the GA, claiming that Teheran has missiles that can reach New York, home to a large percentage of American Jews.

Meanwhile Bolivian President Evo Morales announced that since dismissing the IMF and American ‘advisors’, his country has registered 4% growth. In an interview to Spanish media, the Latin American leader called for President Obama to be indicted for crimes against humanity for his attack on Libya, and to stand trial in front of an international tribunal presided by heads of state and human rights organizations.

What do these events mean? With the growing prominence of the BRICS nations - Russia, China, Brazil, India and South Africa - representing two-thirds of the world’s population and 40% of its economy - the mass of countries formerly known as The Third World no longer feels it has to pay lip service to the lone superpower. Europe, Israel and Australia and Europe remain as the United States’ sole Western allies, with the latter in the depths of an existential economic crisis, the subject of Sea Change III.

1 comment:

  1. Excellent post, Deena. Your new blog looks great. I love the cover image of you! Will follow via email because I am not a member of Google+ and the site will not allow me to follow unless I join. Perhaps you can add an additional gadget to follow on regular old Google. I think that is still available in the gadget list.

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