You may have to trust me on this, but the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is a terrific organisation that does remarkably good work, considering that it works for member states as diverse, and governments as severally ill-intentioned, as the United States, Russia, Uzbekistan and the UK.
When I was looking to leave the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, I applied for a senior post at ODIHR and travelled to Warsaw for an interview. I believe my application was torpedoed by the FCO, who considered me far too committed to democracy and human rights to be allowed to work on the subject in a formal international body. There is a de facto – amd perhaps even an acknowledged – veto by member states on employment of their individual nationals in international institutions.
Yet somehow despite national governments ODIHR has managed to do its job credibly, and by and large OSCE election monitoring in particular has been very valuable, even where the result of the monitoring is not what some or even most member states on the OSCE Council want. All of Uzbekistan’s elections have been judged not free and fair, for example, with election monitoring missions generally not even being deployed on the grounds of assessment by ODIHR that the preconditions for free and fair elections simply do not exist.
Unfortunately ODIHR has no means to prevent member states from simply ignoring its reports, which they do, and the Heads of State whose election OSCE pronounced fraudulent immediately turn up as members of the OSCE council. But the rports themselves and the work behind them are good.
One important criterion for a free and fair election is that there should be a real choice offered to voters between genuine political alternatives. You find this expressed several times in the ODIHR guidance for election observers:
Genuine elections presupposes that the electoral process will be conducted in an accountable
and transparent manner and will provide a real and informed choice for voters,
A genuine election is a political competition that takes place in an
environment characterized by confidence, transparency, and accountability and that provides
voters with an informed choice between distinct political alternatives.
In Uzbekistan, for example, everyone has the chance to go and vote and there are several alternative candidates to choose between, but they all support President Karimov and his policies. In fact, this provision on distinct political alternatives and genuine choice has been repeatedly used by ODIHR and OSCE against elections throughout the former Soviet Union.
So what do we make of the EU – all of whose members are members of the OSCE – insisting that the leaders of all Greek political parties must sign up to an agreement to supprot the dreadful cuts in public spending, in imminent elections? With severe financial menaces, they are demanding that the Greek people be denied any real choice in the upcoming election. The EU members are thus in the most brazen breach of their OSCE commitments and obligations. It is appalling hypocrisy.
I am not sure in practice what mechanisms exist in Greece to keep independent candidates off the ballot or deny them access to the media. But the institutional advantages enjoyed by the main parties are massive throughout Europe, and having all the main parties campaigning on the same economic policy – due to direct foreign political pressure – cannot be a free and fair election.
I hope that the example of Greece will further open people’s eyes to what has happened in the UK, where the massive and growing gap between rich and poor is enmeshed with complete corporate control of what are now three neo-con main parties, whose policy distinctions are absolutely tiny. They all support bank bailouts, quantitative easing, public spending cuts and aggressive neo-con wars. The differences of degree are extremely marginal.
I published an article on this in The Guardian before our last general election – the rather foolish headline was not mine. But I am quite proud of that article, and believe there is increased understanding and support for the view it expresses.
According to the Financial Times, parties of the far left in Greece now poll 42% of the electorate. Leftwing leader snubs Greek bail-out:
UK Uzbek! I’m your man!
.
The problem you see comes in having a nation borrow its money from an international banking monopoly. Why should a sovereign nation have to do this? Especially considering that the bankers never had the money to begin with. They simply conjured it from thin air with a click their fingers – nice work if you can get it. Not forgetting that that nation is then required to pay interest on this imaginary money. Madness.
.
It’s a simple fact that if a nation’s bond (by which it guarantees the ‘loan’) is good then any money they issue themselves should be just as good. No? Both are just a fiat, the only difference being that one leaves a nation beholden to a brutal supra-national monopoly (and carries interest) and the other is a simple expression of independent sovereignty (and doesn’t). God forbid the latter! Sorry, did I say God? I meant to say ‘bankers’.
.
Anyway, were a nation to control its own money supply, and provided it weren’t starved or bombed into submission by us (the mindless debt-peon dupes of the bankers) there’d be no need for any lifeblood-sapping interest and that nation would find itself back on its feet within a few years. If history is anything to go by, that is.
.
So there you go. And there went Iceland! Since they kicked the bankers out are they in need of any bailouts? Hmm… best the media pay no attention.
.
Iceland aside, I think there’s two nations left who control their own monetary policy – North Korea and Iran. By way of mass-starvation trade embargoes (aka ‘act of war’), we’ve reduced the former to a pallid near corpse, and the latter? They’ll get theirs! Mossad is right this minute busily running around painting an otherwise absurd picture of a threatened Iran inviting their own destruction by way of (almost, but not quite) harming valueless Israeli targets here, there, and everywhere. It doesn’t make a lick of sense but we, the dim-witted debt zombies of the West, will declare it good enough and pile in on their destruction. Like we did with Libya. Sure enough, the seizing of Libya’s central bank was one of the first act of the ‘rebels’. Sure. Of course.
.
Sorry to one-up you there Craig but if you’re looking for ‘a right to a choice’, the monetary supply and who controls it is the mother of them all. (With support for the banker-created Israel a close second I’m thinking). The rest is just details.
.
Otherwise, very good!
O/T – But has any thought been given to the rising tensions between Britain and Argentina over the islands?
.
“I am not negotiating the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands with anyone, they are British.” (Margaret Thatcher, Christmas 1984 radio broadcast to the Falkland Islands, quoted in the Daily Telegraph, 27, Dec. 1984 )
.
Stirring stuff! British nationalism in the framework of British colonialism – Ah yes, I remember those strong feelings from a wounded national pride over the Argentinian invasion.
.
Passion, Pride and rage in the heady days of ZZ Top and Bananarama needed an ‘escape valve’ for a huge segment of Britain and ‘The Sun’ had a field day with “our lads … going to war”.
.
Well it appears Steve Hilton, the section 5 public order offense man and agent Cameron’s adviser, is trying to tap into that dormant passion and revive it! (hence the Argy Bargy over ‘Wills’ in the Falklands, the inspection of military installations on the islands by MP’s and a new British warship in the Falklands sound, all nicely orchestrated thank you.
.
Can anyone guess what agent Cameron is up to? (Hint – Libya, Syria, Iran.)
“People picked randomly off the street could make better decisions than those self-serving parasites.”
.
I don’t know if you meant that as a throw-away line, but it happens to be true. Consider the composition of a parliament elected randomly by lot:
.
50% female
<2% members of political parties
<1% millionaires
<7% privately educated
0% with no experience of employment outside politics
0% war criminals
.
Lots more statistics could be added showing the superiority of chance over our present system of unnatural selection.
.
Of course the original Greek idea on democray was election by sortition, or lottery. Perhaps the problem with democracy is voting – it creates continuity of power in the same few hands and this rapidly, even instantly, leads to corruption. Freedom of choice is no freedom at all unless one also has the power to set the options.
@Vronsky: and between 40 and 50% would not have any university degree at all, not to mention a degree relevant to government. I don’t want elected representative with no clues about economics any more than I want brain surgery performed by a baker. Technocracy has its failings, but there’s lots to it also.
The solution is not bringing ignorance to government, it’s offering knowledge to the people.
Richard Quest on CNN is repeatedly making an historical connection between the Greek settlement and the treaty of Versailles. We all know what happened to Weimar Germany … If Greece does default the main loosers are western financial institutions who stupidly loaned them the cash to fritter away in the first place. I beginning to doubt the wisdom of the EU’s support for Greece. Let them go the way of Iceland? Would it really be such a calamity for the EU of the very unhappy Greek people queuing at soup kitchens.
Ben Franklin, good comments, but I’d advise against sarcasm in text communication; it is too easily misinterpreted.
.
Indeed, the price of oil would rise in WWIII, but it’s a double-bind, like hungry men fighting over a basket of eggs. In conflict, extraction becomes very difficult, and armed forces run primarily on hydrocarbons. All sides have to conserve the infrastructure, the reserves of the extracted resource, and the ability to extract more, at the same time as fighting over it. There’s a balance between how fast they can extract it and secure it to their own side vs. how fast they’re consuming it and destroying extraction infrastructure by fighting.
Mary,
.
Both WWI and WWII have been the deadliest conflicts in human history. Both Russian Empire and Soviets have suffered the most in human casualties and in material destruction. And yet for VIP foreign visitors to Russia it is not compulsory to attend WWII monuments.
.
But casualties in war (even civilian) by moral definition cannot be compared to the victims of Holocaust. This is quantitative comparison but rather normative. Holocaust was killing programme targeting to wipe out particular group of people based on their culture, religion and in some cases ethnicity. This is something that never happened before and particularly in such large scale and in such organised manner. This is shame not only for those who participated in it either actively or passively but for all humans for allowing something like this to happen. For the sake of all of humans and not just Jews we shall all remember Holocaust, we should teach our children and grandchildren so that this never happens again.
Thanks for another great article. I have just re read the befitting CIF piece you wrote before the Guardian was muzzled by its new owners.
The wretched karma that has landed Blackburn with Jacks Straw’s ‘guile and cunning’ (Barbara Castle’s reasoning for choosing him as her next in line)and with a continuous reign over this Town, has not changed since you stood there.
His utterance of making Blackburn a City, despite being in Government for 13 years, failed, as did any integration of his multiethnic society makeup in Blackburn, local democracy and provisions. Blackburns once hardworking community is divided and unemployed, a once thriving manufacturing on its knees, it now has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.
Rather than advancing the Town for all involved, he plays off ethnic communities, feeding hundreds during election time, and using his City Hall stooges and the police to do the harrassment of other candidates for him.
Being the election agent and campaigns coordinator In Blackburn for Bushra, has drastically turned my views of the election system, it is run by town halls and they use local bylaws as they see fit to twart your every effort. An affidavit served against Jack Straw, for feeding 700, singed by three individuals attending and handed in by Craig, who came up to help for the occaision, was filed and forgotten about. Still today, the City council jobsworth are pursuing Bushra Irfan, the first ever Independent woman muslim candidate in Blackburn, with rigmarole and spite.
Blackburn should be exempt from postal voting regulations and all voters should be carrying ID, police and City council as well as venues such as the Towns cathedral, where the still serving sacrister physically pushed me against a stone pillar, despite Jack Straws personal police guards standing 2 ft. away, should have Electoral commission staff watching engagements every day. I asked for monitors, citing past records of postal voting fraund and manipulations of the local voters, I pleaded with them more than once, to come and watch this election closely, they refused and said that ‘they trusted City Hall to conduct these elections’.
Voting day saw regulatiopns broke at five polling stations, inhabited by newLabour thuggies intimidating voters going to the booth, Labours election literature was displayed, against strict rules, within 200 yards of polling stations, on cars and key properties.
On meeting the leader during an inspection on election day, the leader of the council in charge of the electoral eforts of City Hall, rebuked my question when I asdked whether these displays were within range and reasonable in his views, by saying’ in his opinion they were acceptable’.
This was the worst election I have ever conducted and organised, the continuous stifling of just about every move one made, was incessant and bordering on the criminal. It was enough to turn you off politics forever, but…..:)????
“between 40 and 50% would not have any university degree at all”
.
I’m afraid I can trace no correlation between their education and their results in government – the point, I think, that DownWithThisSortOfThing was making.
Nobody,
.
I agree with some you said but not with everything.
.
For instance you said: “there’d be no need for any lifeblood-sapping interest and that nation would find itself back on its feet within a few years. If history is anything to go by, that is.”
I am afraid this is not that simple. Not only interests rates but also way nation conduct its economic activity is important. For instance when USSR collapsed Russia was heavily borrowing from IMF to pay its bills and by the time Yeltcin resignation Russia was in deep debts. But then 9/11 had happened, Iraq war, hike in oil prices and at present Russia has over 250 billion USD in stabilisation fund. BUT is this not due to that Russian economy has undergone significant modernisation this is due to high oil prices. One might think that Russia is off the hook BUT as if oil prices go down so will Russian economy.
.
Also you said: “…I think there’s two nations left who control their own monetary policy – North Korea and Iran.”
Well, interesting point. But what about China? Is not renminbi artificially lowered and US/EU and the rest of the world are trying hard to push China to value its currency by market value? Is not China subsidising its industries with other means, cheap energy, removal of people from places where factories or offices need to be built etc? If you think that China is mastered by Wall street or City then I disagree with you at large.
.
As for North Korea, I also disagree that bankers have anything to do with tragedy in which North Korean people are. I think that North Korean regime is to be blamed and hopefully will one day be hold responsible.
Uzbek
I agree with your response to Mary. Also the point can be made that state visits involve following protocol’s and procedures that ask respect for the sovereignty of the state and try and show off something of what that state sees as important symbols of its sovereignty. The Israelis are entitled to create whatever protocols they like and a visit to Yad Vashem is no worse or better than any others in that respect: reviewing troops, paying visits to the queen etc.
I repeat, we should be going after the banks, investors and speculators – it is their actions (unhindered of course by governments who should have known better) which have brought about the current ongoing crisis.
Well written, Craig.
.
Still, the democracy you propose seems to forget that 95 (or rather 99) percent of voters are dumb, or at least, by having no idea about governing a country, get easily manipulated into voting decisions. Tricks of social psychology are extremely simple, you can trick 95% of people into doing anything (even killing others if you wish). Leaving too much power in the hands of people, while sounds nice, is dangerous.
Lloyd It is probably best not to continue this particular discussion here but suffice to say that the guilt engendered in people by the continual mention of the Holocaust, now six decades away, has allowed Israel to get away with murder, literally.
.
I found this article informative if somewhat long, with many references.
Liberal Citizenship, not “Jewish Identity”
by Harry Clark / February 14th, 2012
http://dissidentvoice.org/2012/02/liberal-citizenship-not-jewish-identity-2/
Mike Cobley
.
No doubt that you are right and I agree with you. But also I think that the rest of us, non bunkers are too be blamed. Why have we spent money that we had not earned? Why did we buy 50inch plasma TV, new car every 5 years, leather sofa etc. And most of all why have we agreed to buy typical 3 bedroom terraced house for over 400K? DO NOT always blame market and only market. Market is there and will grow until WE agree to pay.
There is now a delegation of MPs going down to the Falklands to join HMS Dauntless, maybe a nuclear sub and Prince William. Further aggravation for the the Argentininians.
.
This morning Simon Jack was talking to an oil industry expert, Ian McLelland, and it is apparent that there are very large oil reserves (8 billion barrel were quoted) there offshore. 23 mins in here http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/b006qj9z/console
.
Cannot decide if this is all hype or not.
{http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/9076530/Falklands-oilfields-could-yield-176bn-tax-windfall.html}
Mary,
.
It is probably not too wise to correlate crimes of state of Israel with the victims of Holocaust. If one tries to use denial of Holocaust as defence in his argument supporting repressive nature of state of Israel then this is not just unwise but also slightly arrogant. It might have happened 6 decades ago but this crime was so significant that it would be better if many more generations remember of it and feel guilty of allowing this to happen.
.
Holocaust and Zionism are two different issues. Humans should feel guilty of Holocaust and Europeans in particular. But this should not make anyone feel irresponsive towards crimes made by state of Israel.
I interpreted the ‘hype’ as ‘population inducement’ or conditioning for a strike on Iran by Britain Mary.
.
Craig has already revealed Britain is preparing for war and our airforce and Navy are busy rehearsing in Argentinian waters.
.
I wait for the false-flag strike on a British naval boat in the straits of Hormuz. Remember Britain pleaded with the Yanks to join the US task force in the Gulf. I can see the ‘Sun’ headline already: British boat ‘Mullahed’ in Straits’ – is that a sign of paranoia?
Matthew Gould has not answered three polite requests to intervene in the case of Khader Adnan who is imprisoned by the Israelis and who is on the 61st day of a hunger strike.
.
He is obviously much too busy to deal with correspondence.
.
British envoy opens first of seven Holocaust survivor clubs in Israel
By Nathan Jeffay, February 16, 2012
.
Matthew Gould (centre) with his wife at the opening
.
Praising the British Jewish community’s generosity as “fantastic”, Britain’s ambassador to Israel has opened the first of seven new social clubs for Holocaust survivors funded by philanthropists in the UK.
.
Matthew Gould and his wife Celia, together with Israeli Minister for Welfare and Social Services Moshe Kahlon, launched the centre in Hadera on Tuesday.
.
He came up with the idea of helping Holocaust survivors soon after becoming ambassador in September 2010. “It struck me how deeply sad it is that people survived the Holocaust and yet live today without friends, family or much human contact, and without much chance to talk to people about their traumas,” he said.
.
/…
http://www.thejc.com/news/israel-news/63680/british-envoy-opens-first-seven-holocaust-survivor-clubs-israel
.
Background
Dear all,
Thank you all for your effort and support, so far the petition colected over 4000 signatures, it will remain online and an updated copy will be sent to the ICRC soon. Today Khader Adnan is still imprisoned, though he is continuing his hunger strike with an iron will to LIVE FREE and it is very necessery to take farther actions and make more pressure to save Khader’s life, I suggest that you send a letter to the Israeli authority, Samidoun – Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network created a letter form that every one can send to the Israeli authority and it is very easy to use, please invest less than one minute to send the letter. Khader Adnan is in a very critical stage and every step we take could help to save his life.
.
It is urgent that Israeli officials hear that the case of Khader Adnan is being followed internationally, and that people around the world support his struggle for freedom and justice, and that of his fellow prisoners. Follow the link below to use the form to send a letter of protest to Israeli officials
{ttp://samidoun.ca/2012/02/take-action-for-hunger-striking-palestinian-prisoner-khader-adnan/#letter}
.
For update about Khader’s medical state please visit the website of Physicians For Human Rights at:
{ttp://www.phr.org.il}
.
For other updates regurding the leagal procces and his reports from his visits please visit Addameer Prisoner Support And Human Rights Association at:
{ttp://www.addameer.org}
Thank you
Anan Odeh
Off-topic – can anyone who is a Twitter user and is also subscribed to Craig let me know if his post alerts are appearing in their Twitter feed? I am not a tweeter, so wouldn’t know – but want to check that these are being received intact by followers. At least all the articles on the front page of this blog should have gone out (and probably more).
.
Thanks 🙂
Posted by the medialens editors. Note the illegality of the US action.
.
US ‘expels’ Iranian banks from SWIFT
.
Posted by The Editors on February 16, 2012, 2:20 pm
.
From: DP
Sent: 16 February 2012 02:12
To: Media Lens Editor
Subject: US ‘expels’ Iranian banks from SWIFT
.
There has been a development in the Iran saga the significance of
which appears to have eluded the British press. Barack Obama is
trying to expel Iran from the Society for Worldwide Interbank
Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a place I used to work. SWIFT
handle any bank transfer over £25 which is more than half the money
that passes hands globally each day, many trillions of dollars.
.
This is a near total financial blockade on Iran and on all Iranians.
This has never been done before. Not only does it bypass the UNSC, it
isn’t legal – US banks are individual members of SWIFT, and the US
government has no jurisdiction over a European based independent
organisation. They have done it by threatening to arrest the SWIFT
directors unless they comply. This could also destroy the business of
SWIFT which is built solely on it’s reputation as a neutral and
trustworthy third party, and lead the Chinese to set up an alternative
money transfer system.
.
This is huge and no one in Europe seems to have noticed how huge it is
– to me it seems sure to cause war.
Ah Mr Murray. There exists now a new dimension that will seriously batter any chances for free and fair elections in the future:
http://kleinonline.wnd.com/2012/01/18/obama-donor-scytl/
SCYTL. Used by the UK already and now taking over 900 US locations. Add to this the latest report that 2,000,000 deceased Americans are set to vote and I put it to you that effective oversight is ended. Corporate poweres are now free to shoo in any candidate that suits them (to increase their bottom line).
Tweets for Craigs latest blogs are coming through Jon, and Craig has 2330 followers.
Mary, extremely interesting. Has this been published anywhere or it is an insider info?
@ Conjunction,
” One of the main problems with western democracy, most especially in the USA, is the funding of the election process.”
And you have hit the problem squarely on the head. Which is why, since the US is the world’s riches country – it also clearly has – the best “democracy” money can buy.
A remarkable piece in the Daily Mail:
“Beware the oily diplomacy of U.S. politicians”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2101217/Beware-oily-diplomacy-U-S-politicians.html
“This is huge and no one in Europe seems to have noticed how huge it is”
.
“Mary, extremely interesting. Has this been published anywhere or it is an insider info?”
.
They have noticed in Europe, on Twitter. And it’s all over the internet:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/16/us-iran-usa-swift-idUSTRE81F00I20120216
Hello Craig , I know you picked up on Sean Hoare’s death at the time so if I may just leave this here with you. Not sure of your opinion on Tom Watson but he is trying to find those who knew TRON and Murdoch is in town tomorrow.
Many thanks
http://themurdochempireanditsnestofvipers.blogspot.com/2012/02/sean-hoare-and-tron-history-repeats.html
UN ‘Travesty’: Resolutions Of Mass Destruction – Part 2 – Medialens
http://t.co/z6Ty1wvc