The rule of law and other vital pillars sustaining democratic society in the United States of America have been under attack for years but the lack of respect and support by President Donald Trump and his administration are weakening democracy at home and threatening to undermine political rights and civil liberties worldwide is the major conclusion of this year’s annual survey¹ of Freedom House of Washington. The decline in global freedom has sustained a variety of countries in every region. In states designated as Not Free, governments have increasingly shed that thing façade of democratic practice that they established in previous decades. More authoritarian powers are now banging opposition groups or jailing their leaders dispensing with term limits, and tightening the screws on any independent media that remain, warns Freedom House.

“The greatest danger comes from the fact that American democracy is not infinitely durable, especially if a president show little respect for its tenets,” said Michael J. Abramowitz, president of Freedom House. “We have seen democratic institutions gradually succumb to sustained pressure elsewhere in the world, in places like Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela. Antidemocratic rhetoric and the rejection of democratic constraints on power can be first steps toward real restrictions on freedom.”

“Challenges to democracy in the United States have outsized effects beyond American borders,” Abramowitz added. “Other nations watch what is happening in the United States and take cues from its leaders’ behavior. The ongoing deterioration of American democracy will accelerate the decline of democracy around the world.”

¹ Freedom in the World 2019, Washington DC: Freedom House, 4 February 2019.

February 2019

Chinese influence spreading

China deepening its influence in Africa and elsewhere is now getting more attention inside German and US governments. The Federal Chancellor is visiting the neighboring continent and is shown talking to African leaders in Berlin. The national security adviser in Washington on 13 December spoke at the Heritage Foundation about the government making a greater effort to widen its economic and financial footprint in Africa.

Down Under more comments are heard from Canberra voicing concern about Chinese efforts to enter or strengthen its influence through Belt & Road projects or other economic endeavors in the Pacific island states.

Then there is Cambodia where sanctions by the European Union (EU) and the US to encourage greater democratic efforts have had the opposite effect. Every time funding is withheld, China steps in granting Hun Sen’s government more money and whenever Western criticism is voiced, Beijing praises Cambodian action, even that of the military deputy commander after having his forces attack unarmed Cambodians for years.

January 2019

Brazil's next president

With considerable concern, Brazil and the world are awaiting the installation of the new government of President Jair Bolsonaro on 1 January. He is known as a right wing extremist who speaks highly of the current US counterpart and his actions. A number of his announced cabinet appointees are equally conservative and favor strong actions on relations with Cuba, Venezuela, state-owned enterprises, exploitation of natural resources in the Amazon region, and have strong reservations about taking action to slow global warming.

November 2018

The Iranian-Saudi Conundrum

Inability or sticking to an unyielding position to reach out to Iran is overlooking the much greater peril - the pernicious schemes employed by Saudi Arabia in various countries and the government-supported spread of Wahhabism, including staffing of numerous mosques and schools abroad with teacher steeped in extreme Islam. Teachings and movement did not create current extremist and so-called jihadist organizations (al-Qa’ida, ISIL/Da’esh) but preaching the ultra-conservative brand of Salafism by radicals helped them along.

October 2018

Amnesty International (AI) is warning that hate crimes in India are on the rise

The immediate target are Muslim Indians, especially in Jammu + Kashmir (J+K), but some members of indigenous ethnic minorities also are picked out be Hindu extremists. Behind these attacks are followers of the right-wing paramilitary National Volunteer Organization, better known as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Closely linked to it is the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He does not openly approve of discrimination and violent acts but his government actively silences critics. Offices of AI’s India branch were raided and on 26 October authorities froze its bank accounts, ostensibly investigating violations of foreign direct investment guidelines, i.e. foreign donations. Greenpeace India also had its accounts frozen, reopened and then cancelled. It commented that the raid on Amnesty “seems to be part of a larger design to muzzle democratic dissent in the country that began in 2014.”

October 2018

UN warns about ultimate threats

With the job comes the global outlook and United Nations (UN) Secretary General António Guterres keeps coming back to the two ultimate threats: nuclear catastrophe and climate chaos. By 10 September, his warning had become more urgent ̶ “the direct existential threat of climate change nears point of no return.” Disastrous consequences affect not only people across the planet but also natural systems that sustain them. In his landmark speech on climate action at UN Headquarters in New York, Guterres noted that stopping temperature rising by less than 2-degree-Celsius and working to keep the increase as close as possible to 1.5-degree-Celsius as targeted by the 2016 Paris Climate Accord, “were really the bare minimum to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.” Action is needed now: “Put simply, we need to put the brake on deadly greenhouse gas emissions and drive climate action,” he added, calling for a shift away from the dependency on fossil fuels towards cleaner energy and away from deforestation to more efficient use of resources,” the UN chief demanded.

September 2018

Walling off Mexico from the US could become an ecological disaster for both countries.

Erecting a wall separating the United States of America from Mexico, ostensibly to protect the country and keep out illegal migrants from southern America, is a pet project of US politicians, first George W. Bush and now of the current president. Judging by the checkered history of such walls and the unfavorable comparison of high cost vs. desired benefit, US public support is less than 50 percent, partly because of cost, tradition of being an open country, abhorrence of the recent Iron Curtain and Berlin Wall of Soviet Russia, and the unfavorable image among Central and South American neighbors.

On 24 July, renewed reasoning against a wall for ecological reasons appeared in the monthly BioScience journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) in McLean VA-Washington DC. A total of 2,556 scientist signatories from 43 countries, including 1,472 from the US and 616 from Mexico, warned of devastating natural results from such an obstacle between the two countries. Already it threatens 62 species. The findings of 18 researchers entitled Nature Divided, Scientists United: US–Mexico Border Wall Threatens Biodiversity and Binational Conservation, by Robert Peters et al, forewarns that the wall will hinder seasonal migration and reduce the habitat of animals, cause species to split into less viable groups, and hinder bi-national conservation.

August 2018

Two Summits - A selected press fallout

12 June Kim-Trump Summit meeting in Singapore

12 June

Trump: ‘We are taking care of a very big problem for the world’¹

Trump: ‘We’re prepared to start a new history and we’re ready to write a new chapter between our nations’²

Trump’s vow to end military drills with Seoul stuns a region³

13 June

Donald Trump declares North Korea ‘no longer a nuclear threat’ despite no denuclearization timeframe⁴

16 June

Trump praises teams authoritarian rule, says ‘I want my people to do the same’¹

3 July

Trump: Without him, ‘we would now be at War with North Korea’⁴

7 July

North Korea says talks with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were ‘regrettable’⁵

18 July

Singapore Sham⁶

25 July

North Korea’s ruling party informs officials Kim regime will not give up nukes⁷

16 July Putin-Trump Summit meeting in Helsinki

15 July

Trump calls EU a ‘foe’ before arriving in Finland for Putin Summit⁸

16 July

‘I don’t see any reason why’ Russia would meddle, Trump says after Putin meeting¹

17 July

‘Treasonous”: Trump-Putin Summit leaves US leaders aghast¹

Trump forks back from Putin Summit remarks, says he ’misspoke’⁹

Trump dismissed the idea that Putin wanted him to win. Putin just admitted that he did.¹⁰

McCain: ‘No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly for a tyrant’¹¹

¹The Age ²Press conference in Singapore ³The Japan Times ⁴ABC Australia ⁵Associated Press ⁶The New York Review of Books ⁷Radio Free Asia (RFA) ⁸Reuters ⁹Wire services ¹⁰The Washington Post ¹¹The New York Times

July 2018

Leaders supporting nuclear agreement with Iran

International and European leaders are making strenuous efforts to keep the nuclear agreement with Iran after the US president not only denounced the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) but cancelled US participation on 8 May. Ironically, he steadfastly supports a vague exchange with North Korea on denuclearization that he hoped would earn him the Nobel Peace Prize and most recently led him to claim that he prevented war. Britain, France, and Germany have hinted at compensating Iran if it upholds the undertaking, The Age reported on 8 May. A day later, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran was “subject to the world’s most robust verification regime” and attested to Iran’s consistent adherence to its commitments.

June 2018

US president's gun remarks outraged France

The defense for carrying a weapon by the US president speaking to the National Rifle Association on 4 May by saying “strict gun laws failed to prevent the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris,” immediately brought forth outraged retorts from France. The foreign ministry voiced its “firm disapproval” and asked for “respect of the victims” of this close ally. François Hollande, who served as president at the time, denounced the US president’s word as “shameful” and “obscene play-acting,” noted le Monde.

June 2018

French government prepares for major institutional reforms

An outline of proposed reforms of institutions – in line with the president’s campaign promises - was revealed by the prime minister on 4 April, BBC reported. On 9 May, the Council of Ministers will deal with draft bills on constitutional law, organic law, and ordinary changes.

The changes agreed with the Senate, according to Le Monde include

Cutting the number of deputies and senators by one-third resulting in 404 deputies (from 577) and 244 senators (from 348).
Electing 15 percent or 60 lawmakers by proportional representation starting in 2022.
Banning an accumulation of mandates with certain exceptions.
Reducing the size of the 233-member Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) by half.
Inserting an explicit reference to Corsica in the Constitution.

May 2018

China’s newly acknowledged president comes up with new ideas and initiatives not quite every day but often enough to bolster his effort to shape a uniform society under tight party control, increasing social management of the people of China, controlling and limiting internet and social media, especially when it comes to the free world spreading practical ideas of democracy and freedom, introducing nationwide discipline enforcement, turning non-Chinese ethnic inhabitants of Tibet and Xinjiang into Chinese, bribing, forcing or persuading the country’s neighbors to obey the new middle kingdom’s demands and support it, advancing the Belt & Road infrastructure project, asserting sovereignty in the East and South China Seas, dispatching party delegations to meet with political parties abroad to build support for common concerns (especially rewarding in Africa), propagating party views among students in foreign universities, and diminishing, impairing or undermining influence and strength of the world’s other countries and powers.

In March, China’s president called for deepened military-civilian integration. Addressing military and police on 12 March, he outlined the strategy: "Implementing military-civilian integration is a prerequisite for building integrated national strategies and strategic capabilities and for realizing the Party's goal of building a strong military in the new era," noted Xinhua. He said party committees and governments at all levels should do more to support the cause of defense and military advancement, while the armed forces should render their service to economic and social development.

April 2018

The president of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) called for an international conference to restart peace in the Middle East during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on 20 February. Addressing the Council for the first time since 2009, he proposed that the meeting be held by the middle of the year, that parties refrain from unilateral actions during negotiations, the US suspend the move of its embassy to Jerusalem, and that Israel halt its settlement activity.

March 2018

Defending a multi-cultural and diverse world, the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), on 20 January, warned against getting used to hate in language, mindsets and symbols: “We must reject those who fail to understand that as societies become multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural, diversity must be seen as a source of richness and not a threat,” he underscored. In his remarks, the UN chief cited examples from around the world showing the rise of the neo-Nazi threat as well as the growing concern that such groups are trying to “rebrand themselves” and present themselves as kinder or gentler to win wider favor – “They are less crude and more dangerous.”

February 2018

Beijing’s assertiveness and activity are characterizing the Middle Kingdom’s role abroad. After continuing positioning in Africa and the Americas and the “Belt and Road” initiative, the Communist Party of China (CPC) is now energizing the party-to-party approach and taking it worldwide. From 30 November to 3 December the “CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties” High-Level Meeting was held in in Beijing. Designed to find influence in foreign non-communist parties, the initiative is portrayed as one to consolidate and deepen friendly cooperation to promote global development, share prosperity and guide the world’s future, notes Xinhua.

Turkey’s repressive president is making sure that his country is receiving close attention from international organizations and countries alike. Cozying up to Iran and Russia and picking fights with the United States of America may even jeopardize the nation’s standing in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). While the government will reject any form of affiliation, such as associate or privileged membership or partnership, other than full membership in the European Union (EU), according to the Minister for the EU Affairs, neither France nor Germany are currently willing to welcome it. The new Austrian government even adopted opposition to Turkish EU membership as part of its program. While its majority Islamic population is a problem for some EU members, resisting admission is strategic, political and personal. Bordering on the volatile Middle East, a next door member would expose and involve the EU immediately in conflicts and unsettled situations there. The Ankara government’s bloody conflict with its Kurdish citizens, the political feud with a former ally and his supporters, continuing violation of human rights and cultural and democratic values of the EU, progressive Islamic influence in public affairs, and the relentless pursuit of the president for near total control of the government, weigh heavily against proceeding with membership negotiations.

Bolivia’s Constitutional Court, packed by presidential supporters, has come up with a new ploy to justify staying in power perpetually. It recently ruled that term limits are a denial of human and political rights.

January 2018

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