WORLD FINANCIAL CRISIS

PRESIDENT TO BE SEDATED, OR IS HE?

AIDS CONFERENCE BLOCKS JOURNOS

Maybe I hadn’t noticed but summer is here, and with a vengeance. It has been hot and muggy in New York after a virtually non-existent winter. Apartments empty out and the streets clog with people, animals, and whatever else lives here as people flock outdoors. No wonder TV viewing goes down in warm weather. But if vacation mania is upon us, the world’s conflicts are barely taking a pause.

BREAKING NEWS

In pursuit of wanted men, Israel levels part of a Palestinian HQ in Hebron. Who I wonder will pay to rebuild after all this carnage? It doesn’t seem to matter to the Generals in Tel Aviv.

Off the coast of Korea, a North Korean navy vessel had a shoot out with a South Korean ship carrying marines. 4 South Koreans Dead, 18 others wounded. The good feelings of the World Cup have dissipated as a new crisis erupts.

In Pakistan, 18 El Qaeda “foreigners” have been reportedly arrested after a shoot out there.

And, oh, yes, the Zerox’s financial condition may be worst that was reported yesterday. These company by company meltdowns obscures a much more serious economic crisis that is building almost out of media view. That’s because exo stories are rarely covered in terms of trends or any deeper analysis. George Soros is worried. And when Soros is worried, I get worried. I received this in my email, missed the source:

COMING APART AT THE SEAMS

Soros Says World Financial System is Collapsing As a Result of the ‘Bush Factor’

“Billionaire investor George Soros on Thursday blamed President Bush and his team for the fall in the U.S. dollar and declared: ‘The international financial system is coming apart at the seams. I think we’re in fairly serious trouble. I do think we’re in a crisis situation,’ said the Hungarian-born hedge fund king-turned-philanthropist in a speech to the London Business School on Thursday evening. ‘We have the Latin American crisis and we have the declining U.S. dollar, which means that the motor of the global economy is basically switched off,’ said Soros. ‘There is a lack of confidence. That’s what I call the ‘Bush factor’ in the economy… What worries me is that there doesn’t seem to be any great desire on part of the authorities to do much. There is still a belief, particularly in the United States, that the financial markets will correct themselves. But markets cannot be left on their own. You need to correct them,’ said Soros.”

BUSH SEDATED

Speaking of the President, who is about to be “sedated” for a medical procedure (Sometimes I think he is sedaded) his “vision” thing continues to evoke skepticism from thoughtful jounalsists like Tony Karon of Time.com who writes his own weblog with these items:

“On Bush’s speech, don’t get me started. Actually, the best summary I read (which made me laugh out loud, if bitterly) was from the Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland. Before they can have Palestine, the Palestinians must turn themselves into Sweden, under the tutelage of such doyens of liberal democracy as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and JordanS As the Israelis put it, the reason Bush waited so long to deliver the speech was that the White House was waiting for it to be translated from Hebrew. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4448474,00.html

” But you don’t have to read between the lines to know that Bush isn’t serious, he’s just trying to create a pretext for disengaging from any involvement in Middle East peacemaking. http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1200661

Not surprisingly, Israel’s more thoughtful analysts were as depressed as their Palestinian counterparts.” http://www.dailystar.com.lb/opinion/PressReview/27_06_02/PR1.htm

BABY KILLERS?

Other Israelis are enraged because of the latest sensation in their press: AP reports about a photo that had NOT been authenticated at the time of publication. (Disinformation?)

“JERUSALEM (AP) - The Israeli army distributed a photograph of a wide-eyed Palestinian baby dressed like a suicide bomber - complete with a Hamas headband and what appeared to be an explosives belt - stirring anger Friday among Israelis, who accused Palestinians of arming their children with hatred.

” The authenticity of the picture, which was splashed across the front pages of Israeli newspapers, and whether the explosives and ammunition were real could not be verified. But the picture incensed Israelis, who have been targeted in 71 suicide bombings that have killed 251 Israelis in the past 21 months.

” “Terror in Diapers'’ read the headline on the front page of the Israeli newspaper Maariv along with the picture of the baby, who appeared to be 12- to 18-months-old. The daily Yediot Ahronot also ran the picture on Page 1, under the headline “Chilling Costume.'’….

THE PAIN OF SPAIN

What is going on in Spain where the government is hosting an international AIDS conference, and at the same time, blocking AIDS sufferers and journalists from coming? Newsday’s Laurie Garrett, one of the world’s top AIDs journalists complains about this in a letter to the people running things:

“I previously sent you a note regarding the dastardly situation with visa denials by the Spanish government, for attendance to the Barcelona XVI International AIDS Conference next week.

” Now I have learned that NONE of the visa applications from Congo (DRC) have been approved by Spain. I am learning of vast numbers of scientists, journalists and activists who have either been denied visas outright, or have simply been unable to garner a response from the Spanish government in time to make their flights to Spain. My immediate concern is our Journalist-to-Journalist program, which is scheduled for Barcelona prior to the main meeting: our people are hoping to fly to Europe this Monday or Tuesday. It seems our gathering will be severely damaged by this reprehensible situation. Imagine the gall of the Spanish government: denying visas to journalists! Is Spain not a member of the EU, a signator to the Helsinki Human Rights Declaration and a frequent critic of discriminatory and repressive regimes worldwide?

” But it is amazing to me that the same visa-denial appears to be true for scientists.

” How in the world can Spain speak of human rights, in any context, while apparently systematically denying visas to Africans, and possibly Asians? How can the IAS endorse this gathering? Considering the decisions and resolutions that followed the flap over the Boston meeting a decade ago, this would appear to violate the fundamental tenants of the International AIDS Societies and the biannual meeting. No nation previously has so-disrupted an AIDS meeting for what, at best, appears to be inceompetent bureaucratic reasons, but might be interpreted as blatant political, perhaps racist, reasons.

“As a journalist I find it astounding that an EU member state would deny visas to fellow-journalists, simply because they come from poor, developing nations. I intend to share this information with every journalists’ organization I know. As someone who has been covering the AIDS epidemic since its inception in 1981 I can see no precendent for this behavior: in the 21-year-history of this epidemic no nation, to my knowledge, has so-discriminated against journalists, scientists and activists trying to attend the International AIDS Conference.

” I doubt there is time to salvage this situation for our Journalist-to-Journalist gathering, which was sponsoring 72 reporters from developing countries for special training regarding HIV, and support for their efforts to cover the pandemic. This is a genuinely savage blow to our efforts. (Because I am directly involved in the J2J program I cannot write about this situation — it would consitute a conflict of interest. I sincerely hope, however, that my colleagues in the Fifth Estate will examine the story closely.)”

ON INTELLECTUAL TOLERANCE IN OUR TIMES

From Today’s Times: “A group of prominent conservatives abruptly withdrew from a conference on the philosopher Sidney Hook after the black studies scholar Cornel West was invited.” http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/29/arts/29HOOK.html?todaysheadlines

PRAISE BILL MOYERS

Chris Duran writes to complain: “I’m disappointed about MC’s failure to mention the great work PBS’s ‘NOW’ with Bill Moyers is doing every Friday evening. Failure to even recognize this important work will compromise my willingness to see MC’s ‘News Dissector’ as a real supporter of truth!.” Note; I am a supporter of Bill’s work and have written about and praised his program. The problem is that by Friday night, I am usually blotto after doing this log all week long and usually crash before it goes on. I plead guilty with an explanation. Will you accept it? I did catch NOW last night with a fine report on radiologists who can’t read mammograms. Was not surprised.

C-SPAN POSTPONES

Just had a call from C-SPAN which was supposed to have me on this morning. They want to wait for the Mediachannel to resume its full publishing sched. That’s why I wasn’t on. I guess this weblog was not considered worthy enough to discuss.

Have a great weekend. I am off tomorrow. You can write anyway to dissector@medichannel.org