World News Digest: Two terrible natural disasters have affected two neighboring countries

BRITAIN

The Times, London, May 14: Two terrible natural disasters have affected two neighboring countries within eight days. In Burma, the cyclone that left up to 100,000 people dead or injured now threatens the lives of thousands more people because of the criminal refusal by the junta to accept and deliver urgently needed foreign aid. In China, the worst earthquake for more than 30 years is known to have killed at least 12,000 people but has probably taken the lives of three or four times that number in Wenchuan alone, the epicenter that remains cut off from the world. China’s leaders, however, have reacted with exemplary speed and concern, mobilizing a massive national effort to rescue survivors and prevent the outbreak of disease. The contrast could not be more poignant.

For China, where old habits of secrecy still linger, the new openness and concern are heartening.

Growing frustration

Burma, by contrast, has neither the experience nor the capabilities to deal with the neediest 1.5 million people now at risk. The military Government’s refusal ... to accept help and expertise is causing growing frustration in United Nations and international relief agencies and has even led to proposals, well intentioned though impractical, for armed intervention to deliver aid. ... Perhaps only China can convey the harsh truth. It needs to do so. Beijing has shown sense and leadership in rescuing its own victims.

JAPAN

Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, May 14: A rising number of countries are responding to skyrocketing international grain prices by imposing bans or strict quotas on the export of domestically produced cereals. Alarmed, the government has made an emergency call to establish international rules on food export restrictions in ongoing multilateral trade talks under the World Trade Organization.

More than a dozen countries have already imposed restrictions on grain exports. Among food exporters, Russia has slapped export duties on wheat and other crops, while Argentina has effectively halted exports of corn and wheat. As for the Asian staple, rice, Vietnam and India, the second- and third-largest exporters of the grain, have both moved to ban their export.

Rising food prices

These export restrictions can be seen as desperate self-defense efforts by countries where grain exports are ballooning due to rising food prices and posing a serious threat to many residents.

The recent surge in grain prices and the resultant food shortages have triggered riots in many poor countries in Asia, Africa and Central America. The international community’s immediate priority should be to expand food aid to these battered countries.

At the same time, though, steps must be taken to rein in the global rush to pass curbs on exports and keep the world on a course toward freer trade.

ISRAEL

Jerusalem Post, May 13: Of all the U.S. presidents over the past 60 years, it is hard to think of a better friend to Israel than George W. Bush. No president has been more committed to steering the Middle East toward the values of liberty and tolerance which Americans naturally cherish, and presuppose to be universal.

Bush arrives here ... with a little over seven months left in his presidency. Though his policies in Iraq were paved with good intentions and Israelis are grateful that Saddam Hussein is dead and buried, we are left with the lingering sense, albeit informed by hindsight, that the Iraqi campaign was a strategic blunder of historic proportions.

American losses

It turns out that Saddam was not the greatest enemy of civilization; he did not have weapons of mass destruction and was not directly tied to Sept. 11. Yet, so far, America has lost over 4,000 troops; suffered tens of thousands of wounded and spent billions of dollars in treasure in an Iraq which shows little sign of coalescing. Consequently, it is today doubtful whether the American people have the political will (or the U.S. military the wherewithal) to confront the Iranian menace.

Still, while Bush may have been wrong on Iraq, he is dead right about Iran - though an ungrateful, sometimes spiteful world appears in denial. Iran is blatantly pursuing destabilizing nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them beyond the Middle East, even as key international players stoke its economy.

Europe must understand that Iran is pivotal; that there will be no stability, no progress — not in Iraq, not in Lebanon and not on the Palestinian front — until Teheran’s advances are first contained, and eventually rolled back.

LEBANON

Daily Star, Beirut, May 12: One of the most disturbing aspects of the violence that broke out in Beirut last week was the targeting of media outlets. The extent to which freedom of the press is respected in Lebanon is one of the most important features distinguishing this country from less fortunate peers across the Middle East. Any failure to cherish and protect this characteristic is therefore a failure to preserve the principles of tolerance which alone can help make Lebanon’s diversity a strength rather than a weakness.

Dangerous implications

Representatives of all sides have acknowledged the dangerous implications of these incidents, but what is required is for all spokespeople for every side to do so. Lebanon’s media environment is far from perfect, consisting primarily as it does of broadcasters, publications and Web sites aligned with individual political parties or alliances thereof. This has the unfortunate effect of blurring the lines between news and propaganda, and therefore those between observer and participant. This is precisely why all Lebanese media need to condemn what happened, but also to re-examine how we perform our functions. It would be unrealistic to expect fully objective information from providers that are owned outright by (or heavily indebted to) one political force or another, but it is not too much to ask that they refrain from exacerbating the inflammatory rhetoric of their respective masters.

Despite these relative weaknesses, Lebanon’s media sector retains tremendous symbolic value as a demonstration of the vibrant society that all Lebanese seek in broad terms.

Whatever its weaknesses, this environment provides a forum for the exchange of different ideas. This is an asset for all Lebanese, making it incumbent on all of us to speak out in its defense.