Global attention now diverted to politics from downturnc

FE Team | Published: August 18, 2009 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

From Fazle Rashid
NEW YORK, Aug 17: Media's attention worldwide in past two or three days has diverted to global politics from the crippling economic downturn which is now showing flickers of slow, sluggish and even painful recovery.
The significant process of political news that have emerged are: Talebans in Afghanistan have threatened to cut off fingers of those who will go to vote in the coming presidential polls set for Thursday; North Korea has agreed to reopen its militarised borders to allow family reunion and tourism; Myanmar has released John Yettaw, an American citizen who uninvited visited country's jailed democratic leader Aung Sun Suu Kyi; UNDP in a report has warned Nepal that the time bomb it is sitting upon will explode unless social inequalities are immediately addressed; and in Iran, President Ahmedinejad re-elected in a controversial election in order to silence his critics has agreed to induct three women in his cabinet.
Of more political significance is the development in Iran that a group of clerics has issued an anonymous letter calling upon Ayatollah Khatemi to step aside from the position of the topmost religious leader in the country and describing him as a dictator. Earlier some lawmakers called into question his qualifications to hold the office.
Meanwhile, Taiwan which was recently battered by a typhoon in which more than 400 people perished is now facing the threat of a political turmoil. The typhoon damaged agriculture produce worth $12 billion. Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou conceded handling of the typhoon was poor.
Myanmar which has hardly made any international news barring political dissents may well have cast aside its previous role and may start afresh in the international arena. The release of John Yettaw is a big indication.
North Korea's conciliatory move coming after release of two American journalists and a South Korean worker will ease growing anxiety on Korean peninsula. Top US officials both military and civilian have in recent days expressed fear that increased meddling by foreigners in its domestic affair will make Afghanistan more weak. Afghanistan which has suffered a lot was totally lost. "I saved it", claimed Hamid Karzai the sitting president. Karzai has been accused of fostering corruption, an allegation he has denied. Karzai took over power eight years ago in 2001 after the fall of Taleban government. He is running for the election.
The proverbial light at the end of the tunnel has started to become visible in most part of the globe, uncertainty looms large over Arab nations. Malls still bustle but the spending sprees have ended, heading in the prestigious paper succinctly pants a gloomy picture about the economy in Arab nations. "The spectacular six-year oil boom came to a painful halt." The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in May this year said the Saudi economy would contract by nine per cent, UAE's by six per cent and Kuwait by 11 per cent. Yet experts say the region is still better placed than most to weather the storm, given governments accumulation of substantial financial reserves and the fact that the Gulf is home to about 45 per cent of the world's proven oil reserves.