Globalaffairs

Issue 20/April-June 2010
By Glen Ruffle

On 11th May 2010, the 53rd Prime Minister in Britain’s history, David Cameron, took power. Yet it was not in the way that nearly every other took power before him. Under the First Past the Post electoral system, Britain is usually given one strong party that wins and allows clear and strong leadership.

However, this time, despite an electoral system that helps produce winners, there was no single, victorious party. The Conservatives, 13 years in opposition, almost achieved the magic 326 seats to make a majority, but fell 20 short. This meant they could try and govern as a minority, constantly risking losing every vote, or try to forge an alliance to govern as a majority.

The outcome has seen a most unusual alliance emerge. The right-wing Conservatives, anti-European, market-orientated and socially traditional, have teamed up with the Liberal Democrats, the most pro-European party, which talks of social regulation and a liberal society.

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Issue 20/ April-June 2010
By Xavier Cornut

“Oh mother, I see the hangman’s noose in front of me. They are going to execute me. Please save me.” Delara Darabi, 22, screamed in the phone of her parents last May from the jail of Rasht, northern Iran. A few minutes later, the line went dead, and the young woman was executed on a charge of murder. Years before, at 17, Darabi had told the police that her boyfriend had persuaded her to make a false confession by telling her that he would be executed, as she would not, being a minor. The investigation confirmed that the murder had been committed by a right-handed person, while Delera was left-handed. But in Iran, the life of a female is worth half that of a male. While her boyfriend was serving a 10-year sentence, Darabi was hanged.

On April 19, 2009, Iranian officials announced that Delara’s sentence had been granted a two-month delay. But on May 1st, they suddenly killed her without warning her parents and lawyer in advance in violation of the Iranian national code, in order to avoid domestic and foreign protests. A silent and illegal murder.

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By Niruban Balachandran
Photo: Global Affairs
China

Issue 20/April-June 2010
By Glen Ruffle

“There is no way in which one can buck the market” said Margaret Thatcher to the British House of Commons in 1988 [1]. What was true then is still true now. Market economics simply cannot be avoided: if you spend more than you earn, you will run out of money. You will need to make savings. You will need to have cuts. And failure to do these things will cause economic crisis.

Greek tragedy

Greece has got itself into a big problem. Many have jobs that, constitutionally, mean they can never be lost: jobs for life. Tax evasion is practised by everyone - it is normal and expected. Jobs in the public sector are prized above jobs that create wealth in the private sector, because you cannot lose the public sector ones. Successive governments have expanded the public sector as a way of rewarding those who voted for them, as this provided quick solutions to unemployment. Public sectors are the natural home of Unions, which then, despite the fact that no one was creating any money or doing much work, demanded much higher wages. Some people were able to retire at 45, and subsequently receive pensions and expenses for the next 30 or more years of their lives [2]. For normal people, the average age of retirement is 61, and the government only hopes to raise it to 63 by 2015 [3]! The whole situation is a mess, the logical consequence of socialist policies pursued for a long time [4].

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Issue 20/April-June 2010
By Glen Ruffle

The erupting volcano in Iceland has disrupted not only air travel but the economics and free trade of the world. Maybe it is time to start building economies that are self-reliant rather than interdependent.

Life is unpredictable. Few would have foreseen that an unknown volcano in far-away Iceland would mildly erupt and suddenly close down nearly all of Europe’s air space and cause international travel chaos.

Yet that is precisely what has happened. The quiet glacier at the difficult-to-pronounce Eyjafjallajoekull in Iceland [1] was rudely interrupted by a volcanic explosion that blasted into the atmosphere thousands of tonnes of ash and debris, making it dangerous to fly aircraft through [2].

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Issue 20/April-June 2010
By Glen Ruffle

The situation in the Middle East is, as ever, moving from one crisis to another. With America annoyed at Israel, increasing tension in Gaza, and the general malaise over land, there remain few solutions to the problems that will stop the violence.

Israel and the US - a lovers tiff

There has been much fuss about a falling-out and serious breach in the relationship between America and Israel [1]. This is, of course, simply journalists trying to make a story. Whilst the announcement of new building for settlers in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want to make their future capital, prompted anger and outrage from them, and the withdrawal of their delegation from US-managed peace talks [2], the truth is that Israeli-US relations remain strong.

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