Journey to Poland prefigured

It may be that President George W. Bush II is not being served well by his aides but his intemperate language is not helping the American cause, either. Take his warning to Baghdad and other ‘reluctant’ US allies referring presumably to France, Russia and China and a number of smaller states. "They would be unwise to test our resolve to disarm Saddam Hussein. Our goal is to fully and finally remove a real threat to world peace and to America. Hopefully this can be done peacefully." That is hardly the way to speak to friends. It also shows a lack of understanding of the precise issue of difference. There is no dispute about disarming Saddam Hussein or removing him from power. The problem is how to do so within the framework of the quasi judicial procedures of the United Nations which is the real issue bothering the American president. Why should the president of the most powerful nation in the world be subjected to the ground rules of a body with doubtful power to enforce?

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The bone of contention between the US and its allies in the United Nations has less to do with inspectors or the capability for mayhem of Saddam Hussein than it has to do with how America perceives itself. It is unfortunate that a man like Bush who has no talent for nuance or the articulation of complexity should be at the helm of his country when these are sorely needed today. How, for example, does the President of the United States express its ascendancy without sounding imperious? It would be difficult but not impossible. Certainly it would require humility that the current president has not been gifted. Moreover being the world’s sole superpower in itself has its own provocation. Even without the problem of Iraq, the United States suffers from a domineering and peremptory image that drives other powers to be defensive. The drive to build up the authority of the United Nations Security Council is not just how to stop Saddam Hussein but also to stop the imperium of George W Bush.

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Some Americans may exult in their President’s rhetoric of power but there will be those who will shirk knowing too well that this could be hubris and a prelude to its fall as the only superpower in the world. No matter how noble America’s causes are, it must be able to express these without the arrogance of domination that unnecessarily rubs less powerful friends the wrong way. The Bush statement of determination may have been meant for the UN Security Council but its threatening tone can also unite the world against the US. The Australian scholar Coral Bell accurately described America’s challenge: "to recognize its preeminence but conduct its policy as if it were still living in a world of many centers of power."

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Journey to Poland prefigured. The author Vladimir Nabokov of Lolita fame says in one of his books that things that happen to us and in our lives are always prefigured except that we are not aware of it. We can recall earlier events, memories that have a bearing or predispose us to later events and feeling. If what he says is true, then my journey to Poland on Monday was prefigured more than thirty years ago when I took a train from East Berlin to Moscow. Poland from a train window many years ago seemed then an endless forest of birch trees — a forbidding landscape of white trees and bitter cold. I will have an opportunity to recast that train window impression into what the Polish refer to as the real nature of their country – a kaleidoscope of many colors and fine scenery. It is the country of Walesa and Pope John Paul II and could be said to be the place that started the crack on the Iron Curtain. Now it is among a few Communist countries deemed qualified to join the European Union. How are its relations with the Philippines? Although it does not have an embassy here, its affairs are ably managed through the efficient honorary consulate under Fernando Lising, president and CEO of UPL in a building across Fort Santiago. For the moment Mr. Lising says there is little trade or relations between our two countries but there are promising areas of cooperation that could be developed – soft coal from them and thermal energy from us. The first is their expertise and on the second, we are second only to the US as a producer of thermal energy. But to develop more exchanges between the two countries needs political will says Mr. Lising. This may be more possible now with its entry into the European Union.

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Follow-up: OFWs are following closely the hearings on the Absentee Voting Bill. Here’s a letter sent via Internet: Dear Everyone, For the second time in a week, we watched history being made as the House of Representatives passed on second reading their version of the Absentee Voting bill. Announcing that the ayes have it, Majority Floor Leader Neptali Gonzales III banged down the gavel to the applause of many of the House members and the sparse audience. The time was just inside 9 pm. The grateful and hardworking Speaker of the House, Jose de Venecia, took to the podium to thank all his colleagues who had participated in this historic undertaking. There were some tense moments when the passage of the bill became doubtful since the deliberations on the individual amendments had started close to 6pm. More than an hour later, they were still stuck in page two with thirteen more pages to go. The most contentious issue had been the definition of National Elections. Yesterday, during the committee amendments, this was amended to include only the President and Vice President as candidates for the AV elections. Today, Rep. Salacnib Baterina first moved to include party list representatives to make this constitutional provision more "vital" to the overseas Filipinos. Party-list Akbayan Rep. Etta Rosales echoed his defense saying that the inclusion of party list reps would make the AV electoral exercise "more meaningful to OFWs" who would "be able to vote for their own representatives." Rep. Teddyboy Locsin, who had become co-chair of the Suffrage Committee, rejected the amendment which was then put to a vote. The amendment was defeated by a vote of 54 to 38. This was followed by Rep. Ruben Torres’s move to amend the same provision to include ALL elective positions, on the premise that the constitutional provision on suffrage cannot be divided, but must be an all or nothing proposition. Again, the amendment was defeated.

The third reading of the bill was set for Monday, October 21, a day before the Senate will do the same. No date has yet been set for the start of the bicameral sessions, where the public is not invited; but, this will most likely occur after the period of the next recess which will run from Oct. 26 to Nov. 10. After the long night, the ICOFVR group hooped it up by having dinner with Rep. Jesli Lapus.

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My e-mail address: [email protected]