In Upcoming Documentary, RTE Will Focus on Yet Another Victim of U.S. Bombing

On the face of it, it is about a humanitarian cause. bombs and mines left over from the Viet Nam war have left an appalling trail of suffering in Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia. The United States deserves some criticism for this and the world must do what it can to help victims and clean up the mess.

But, once again, RTE documentary programming will be focusing on victims of American foreign policy. The succession of such programs in recent years evokes sympathy for Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, leftist guerrillas in L:atin America, and now the neocommunist dictatorship in Laos.

Reporting Tiananmen: The Rest of the Story

Old Progressive Irish media continue to report on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square incident with a key qualification: the West would be wrong to assume that this was about a struggle for Western-style democracy. It is true, after all, that leading student protesters denied they were trying to verthrow the state. Some talked of Communist reform or a better form of socialism. And, of course, to the extyent that Tiananmen was rooted in internal Chinese politics, the outcome could never fit a precise Western paradigm.

But this analysis is like the same kind of thinking that reflected Irish Times and RTE praise for the “civic” NGOs in East Germany and Czechoslovakia in 1989. Once change got under way, these mystical third forces just slipped away.

China’s economy is, in some respects, very capitalist already. Now, we have the diaries of Zhou Enlai showing that he, a Communist Party leader, saw democratization as leading to something very close to Western liberal democracy. Other East Asian democracies – S Korea, Japan, ROC/Taiwan etc .. have their Asian characteristics, their Confucian traditionalism and all the rest. But they are still recognizably “bourgeois democracies,” to use the old left’s term of abuse. Though the path might be tortupous, this is also the likely outcome of any real opening in China (assuming it does not trigger a rightist authoritarian backlash).

But old Progressive Irish media outlets only reluctantly celebrate liberal democracy in Eastern Europe and deny its relevance to China and Cuba.

Irish policymakers should treat the challenge of regiume change and democratization in Communist states on the basis that the struggle for democracy is indivisible and should be constituted as a component of Ireland’s moral voice and national interest on the world stage. Academic and media obfuscation designed to sideline this issue should be challenged wherever they occur.

EP Elections: Cross-Posting

Commentary from our EastWestEurope blog:

Looking for a Home in Europe

Irish politicians and journalists often lament the disconnect between European election campaigns and the great issues of EU policy. They explain this by arguing that the perceived weakness of the European Parliament turns it into an expendable plaything, a tool which to beat national governments over the head in a “mid-term” revolt. Or perhaps a place to put either trainee or has-been politicians.

But the attitudes of Irish parties to EP party groupings give the game away. Those same politicians who lecture the public on its ignorance of European issues haven’t a clue when it comes to the ideological families of European politics. They have to join groups, as if it were some great boring chore.

Martin Will Not Topple Cowen, for Now

Foreign Minister Micheal Martin indicated that the Fianna Fail party would not unseat Brian Cowen, after Fianna Fail scored disappointing results in local and European elections this weekend. Martin is tipped as an ambitious party member with considerable experience and gravitas, despite questionable positions he has taken on EU policy and, as we have reported,  on Irish relations with Cuba. In the climate in which both reporting on and critical analysis of foreign policy are limited, Martin’s Cuba policy will not register at all if he runs for leadership.

NO DEBATE ON DICTATORS, PLEASE: WE ARE IRISH

Micheal Martin Prefers Solidarity
to Democracy
as a Goal in Foreign Policy

Micheal Martin’s abysmal record in Foreign Affairs is capped this week with his much-heralded visit to Cuba. That the Dail, the media and academia should fail to offer a proper critical evaluation of this initiative is confirmation that Ireland no longer has a culture of intelligent, pluralist debate on international relations and foreign policy.

Biofuels Campaign Focuses on U.S. Business, Ignores Greens

Two big economic controversies of recent times highlight the selective media reporting of environmental issues.

Firstly, there is a great anxiety that business and farming interests are pushing for the shift of agricultural production into lucrative biofuels, with a consequent downgrading of food production. This leads to food price hikes that affect the poorest worst of all.

Of course, the biofuel drive was originally part of the green campaign against hydrocarbons. It was championed by middle class leftists and greens in liberal American states and Germany. Business and farming interests were pressurized into showing their green credentials at any cost. Since they are in business to begin with, it is not surprising that they chose a market version of environmentalism.

The increases in fuel prices in Western Europe have many causes. Big oil is certainly playing a key role. However, the green campaign for disincentives for using hydrocarbons will add more levies and taxes in the years ahead. This will hurt those who travel by air, the truckers and many more. Greens now want subsidies to help the poor deal with this “necessary pain” for social progress. It is clear that a cycle from the past is reappearing before us…. regulation, taxation and more spending. When reporting on the culpability of the oil giants, the greens get little or no attention.

One wonders how long it will be before green ideology is properly challenged and investigated by a “progressive” public service broadcast media in any West European country.

Irish Troops Under Fire in Chad

There were no injuries as Irish troops got caught up in gunfire from anti-Government rebels in Chad over the last few days. The rebel offensive is now focused on areas beyond the Irish protected zone. Some rebel leaders are repoorted as having given assurances of no malign intent toward what they perceive as neutral Irish forces.

Ireland Opposes Cluster Bombs

Dermot Ahern, Ireland’s Foreign Minister, has stressed Ireland’s role in opposing cluster bombs and other indiscriminate anti-personnel weapons. In an Irish Times opinion piece, March 6, he singled out Israel’s widely reported use of these weapons in South Lebanon for a particularly sharp rebuke – he was influenced by what he saw in Lebanon on a visit there last year.

Human Rights Alert

It’s a one-party state. People are arrested for listening to foreign radio stations or providing those broadcasters with information. Dissidents are sent to re-education camps. Opposition people demanding free and fair elections are harassed and jailed.

Cuba?

No!

Zimbabwe?

No

Here’s a hint – they are busily embracing aspects of capitalism to distract people from demands for freedom.

Ah … China?

No!

Viet Nam’s premier is due to visit here next week at the invitation of the German and British leaders. And Bertie Ahern.

Almost everything said about Cuba in the previous post applies to Viet Nam. Except , that is, for their exploration of market economics. But our message should be clear: Viet Nam’s enjoyment of the fruits of a market opening and trade should …. must … be conditional on starting a transition to democracy like the other ex-Communist states. China is too powerful – we cannot dictate to a giant. But we can make a difference to a smaller state like Viet Nam.

Now, where are the human rights solidarity people this time?

Let me guess – Burma, Zimbabwe, ………

And David Norris…..?

Viet Nam is not so far from Timor.

Another Small Island: Double Standards in the Irish Foreign Policy Debate

Cuba. Another small island nation, trying to assert its independence from a bullying neighbor. Trying to build its own form of democracy. Right? Well, perhaps they need to do more on the democracy front.

This is the benign view of the Communist dictatorship in Cuba held, not only by the Irish Communist Party, but probably a fair chunk of the Irish intellectual and journalistic class. After conceding that “they really should do democracy, you know,” they typically apologise for or downplay the oppression that remains characteristic of that island polity. And, even the dictatorial elements are blamed on the United States. The message is clear: if the Cubans were left alone, they would sort it out. Democracy would evolve.

The United States certainly abused Cuba on many occasions in the years from 1899 until the Communist takeover. In the earliest years of the twentieth century, America was sorely tempted to join the European colonial game – witness her role in the Philippines too.

However, by the 1960s, all of this was history. From this point on, U.S. interventions were largely about countering Communist insurgencies that might have produced strategic inroads for the Soviet Union. Castro’s flirtation with the Russians, and especially his encouragement of their dangerous missile deployment, were bound to provoke the United States.

In the 1970s, Castro sent thousands of young Cuban men to fight in nasty wars in Africa, especially in Angola, under the rubric of “internationalism.” Cuba became a mercenary state for the Soviet Union. There has been some discussion among dissidents about the treatment of veterans. But Cuba didn’t have its post-Angola debate on foreign policy. It doesn’t have an Obama preaching that its overseas ventures were too costly for a poor and enfeebled nation. It doesn’t have real debate….. period.

Think about Ireland again. Suppose Ireland had allowed Britain’s enemies to plant missiles here. Suppose Irish troops were sent, not as peacekeepers, but as “internationalist fighters” to fight the British in the Malvinas-Falklands War! Suppose Ireland had supported the Axis Powers. And suppose it was ruled as a one-party Sinn Fein dictatorship! I think we would suffer more than an economic embargo.

Irish liberals are actively campaigning for elections in Zimbabwe. they would surely see a Mugabe resignation but no chance  of ZANU-PF abdication as unacceptable. But the Cuban opposition demands for freedom and democracy are no different from those of the Burmese and Zimbabwean campaigners.

Irish NGOs involved in solidarity campaigns with the Castro dynasty should be ashamed of themselves. Ireland is a better model than Cuba  – for small, developing nations. The Irish Government should openly assert this on the world stage, even in Latin America.  

Ireland should express its solidarity with Cuba, with the Cubans who are struggling to replace the Communists with a democratic government. It should join the U.S. embargo. It should offer tax incentives to firms disadvantaged by European and Canadian sanctions-busting. It should block any further European Union appeasement of the Havana regime.

Forget the Castro apologists in RTE or among the NGOs. End Fianna Fail silence. Ireland should have a lot to say about Cuba, and nothing like we have heard from Dublin so far.