FROM a Great Canadian and World Statesman

"A great gulf... has... opened between man's material advance and his social and moral progress, a gulf in which he may one day be lost if it is not closed or narrowed..." Lester B Pearson http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1957/pearson-lecture.html

Monday 1 January 2007

Peace, Security, Health & Human Rights

PREAMBLE: In our first issue of 2007, we take note of the new UN Secretary General, focus on war and peace in the Middle East, and complete the transfer of reports and commentaries from our News & Reports site (as announced in our December posting).

 KOFI ANNAN ADMINISTERS OATH OF OFFICE TO SUCCESSOR Statement by Secretary-General-Designate (synopsis)
United Nations Secretary-General-designate Ban Ki-moon, of South Korea, stood before the world’s nations mindful of the oath he had just taken and that the sentiments, loyalty, discretion and conscience, together with the principles of the Charter, would be his watchwords as he carried out his duties. He told Mr. Annan: “Your courage and vision have inspired the world” and stated that "by strengthening the three pillars of the UN, security, development and human rights, the UN family could build a more peaceful and prosperous world for future generations."
December 14, 2006 http://www.maximsnews.com/1006mnundecember29333.htm

 FOCUS ON IRAQ & PALESTINE .............................................

THE HUMAN COST OF THE WAR IN IRAQ: A survey led by the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, reveals that approximately 600,000 people have been killed in violence that began with the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003. http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~gelman/stuff_for_blog/iraq1.pdf

PRESIDENT FORD DISAGREED ON THE INVASION: In an embargoed 2004 interview (publishable only after his death on December 26, 2006) Ford revealed that he believed that President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Secretary Rumsfeld erred in justifying the war as one aimed at eliminating Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction and said he would have pushed alternatives, such as sanctions, much more vigorously.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/27/AR2006122701558.html

INVESTORS PROFIT: War is a disaster, but not for Lockheed Martin (LM). The world’s largest arms merchant (F-16 fighters, Patriot missiles, radar, satellites) turns mayhem into money. For the first 9 months of 2006, revenues rose 7% to $28.78 billion and profit jumped 43% to $1.8 billion (US taxpayers foot the bill), creating shock and awe on Wall Street. Like other firms that profit from conflict, LM claims “We are a company that values ethics, integrity, teamwork, and pursues superior performance”.
Adapted from: John Heinzl, Globe and Mail, December 30, 2006.

Book Review: PALESTINE - PEACE NOT APARTHEID: This book offers a critical analysis of the crisis in Palestine and Israel. It is unique, coming as it does from the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize awardee, former US President Jimmy Carter, who states: "Peace will come to Israel and the Middle East only when the Israeli government is willing to comply with international law, with the Roadmap for Peace, with official American policy, with the wishes of a majority of its own citizens - and honor its own previous commitments - by accepting its legal borders. All Arab neighbors must pledge to honor Israel's right to live in peace under these conditions." Highly recommended. For negative views, visit: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldopinionroundup/2006/12/jimmy_carter_palestinian_sympa.html

CAN INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH LAW HELP PREVENT WAR? This question was posed during the lead up to the invasion of Iraq, in the belief that prevention of war (the ultimate violence) is one of the most critical steps mankind can make to protect public health. Given the serious potential for future premeditated wars in our times, there is value in revisiting this idea: http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/81/3/Letter0303.pdf

 FOCUS ON AFRICA .............................................

A TASTE OF REALITY - African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF): For Africa's health realities, offers a Film Catalogue with such titles as: Gulu, TV-Slum, Speak Africa, Baba Mandela, & Big Brother AIDS. To access AMREF, winner of the 2005 Gates Award for Global Health, see AMREF’s link in column at right (Recommended Global Links).

Book Review: COMMISSION ON AFRICA REPORT: This report, chaired by Tony Blair, calls for G8 nations to end extreme poverty in the world's most desperate continent. Reference: Our Common Interest - The Commission for Africa: an argument. Penguin 2005. For the full report and background document visit the relevant link in column at right.

Book Review: BODY COUNT: Not to be confused with a novel of this title, this documents how the Bush Administration, allied with the Christian Right, joined the Vatican to promote abstinence as the preferred strategy for the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and how some African leaders fell in line, denying life-saving drugs while drug companies moved to protect patent rights and profits. Reference: Peter Gill. Body Count - how they turned AIDS into a catastrophe. Profile Books. London 2006. ISBN-10 1 86197 923 1.

 COMMENTARIES .....................................................

MAKING MARKETS WORK FOR THE POOR - CARE Canada's Approach: While a strong civil society and public sector infrastructures are essential for social development, international cooperation increasingly embraces stimulation of a vibrant private sector. Visit the relevant link in column at right.

FIRST WORLD CONCERNS - GDP: A POOR MEASUREMENT OF GROWTH: GDP, widely imagined to measure prosperity, is misleading as it does not reflect wealth disparities, and may rise even as fortunes of middle and lower income people falter.
http://www.sightline.org/publications/enewsletters/CSNews/CS_10_05_economy

THANKS FOR VISITING PacificSci GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES!

INSPIRATIONAL WELCOME ............................... from T.S.Eliot's "Little Gidding"

If you came this way From the place you would come from... It would be the same at the end of the journey... If you came, not knowing what you came for, It would be the same... And what you thought you came for Is only a shell, a husk of meaning... From which the purpose breaks only when it is fulfilled If at all.