INTERVIEW WITH AHMED QUREI: ‘I WILL NOT MEET WITH SHARON FOR

There is no time to lose: the European Union and Russia must reactivate the Quartet, together with the UN and United States, in order to realise the Road Map to peace in the Middle East, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei told IPS.

IN LONG RUN, OUTSOURCING WILL BENEFIT EVERYONE

The emerging reality of global enterprises that can shift their business across borders with increasing ease to maximise profits poses both an opportunity for competitive countries and a challenge to some of the standards prevailing in other societies, writes Reubens Ricupero, . In this article Ricupero writes that a heated debate is under way on whether or not outsourcing undermines the accepted trade liberalisation paradigm, is leading to a job exodus from developed to developing countries, and what the cost/benefit ratio is and whether protectionist government intervention is needed. Claims of a big wave of offshoring to poor countries swallowing up high-skill jobs in rich countries do not reflect reality. Outsourcing export opportunities for developing countries are much broader than generally presented, with a wide range of these countries significantly increasing their presence in global outsourcing markets. While the realisation of these opportunities may in fact lead to increased job losses in advanced countries, it should be recognised that these short-term costs will ultimately be trumped by the long-term gains of cheaper services being available to consumers in both advanced and developing countries.

GREEN BUILDING: RECONSTRUCTING COMMUNITY, REUNITING PEOPLE AND NATURE

In advanced industrial nations we spend 90 percent of our lives in the Great Indoors with little connection to the Great Outdoors. Modern construction techniques have successfully shielded us from Mother Nature, and one another, and too often at the expense of our well-being, writes Mark Sommer, a journalist and host of the award-winning syndicated radio programme \'\'A World of Possibilities\'\'. In this article, Sommer writes that in response to the growing divergence between our architecture and our well-being, a new generation of architects and designers is emerging with a different vision and strategy, setting new standards for construction based on principles that reunite humans with one another and nature. What has gone wrong with the buildings we inhabit is a reflection of the deficiencies of modernity itself -- its isolation from nature, brutal disregard for community, and uncritical embrace of a narrow economic calculus. The post-modern sustainable building movement places the conservation of resources and reconnection between people and nature ahead of privileged isolation and private profit. But to be widely adopted, it must also satisfy the bottom line, albeit one that gives greater weight to social and environmental benefits.

ULTIMATE EU GOAL: PEACE AND SECURITY FOR THE CONTINENT

Although the forthcoming enlargement of the European Union is the largest in EU history, it is important to realise that it still does not encompass the whole of Europe, writes Martti Ahtisaari, president of Finland in 1994-2000. In this article, the author writes that after the accession of Romania and Bulgaria in 2007 preparations should begin for the next enlargement round. The Union must make sure that it provides the South-East European countries a meaningful and concrete vision for their membership. The EU also needs to establish its relationships with a number of countries not expected to become members in the near future, such as Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova. The EU must be able to offer something between mere collaboration and full membership. The final objective for enlargement of the Union to the east is to consolidate peace and security on our continent. The former foreign minister of Poland, Bronislaw Geremek, has said \'\'the enlargement will bring history and geography in harmony with each other\'\'. This goal, which the member states and the applicant states have pursued for over a decade, is finally materialising.

THE BIRTH, PASSION, DEATH, AND RESURRECTION OF THE EU CONSTITUTION

Last December, Spain and Poland sent the EU constitution project into collapse by rejecting a revised vote-weighing calculation for the EU Council and insisting on retaining the more advantageous system from the 2002 Nice Treaty, writes Joaquin Roy, Jean Monnet professor and the director of the Centre for the European Union of the University of Miami. Thus began what was feared would be an excruciating passion for the text of the constitution, the author writes in this analysis. Thrice the Italian presidency refused to cooperate. Some, like Judas, seemed to be bargaining for money. The Spanish and Polish governments transformed themselves, as if under Mel Gibson\'s direction, into Roman soldiers on the road to Golgotha. Blair like Pilate washed his hands. All stood by silently and no one intervened to prevent the death of the project, as one of the largest crises in the history of the EU settled on a horizon heavy with thunder and darkness. Then, suddenly, as a result of the legislative elections in Spain, the main obstacle disappeared. Spain returned to the bosom of \'\'old Europe\'\', and in a display of the art of late repentance the Polish government expressed its doubts about its alliance with the US in Iraq. After a death foretold came the resurrection, as a final prelude to the ecclesiastic cycle. Brussels now sighs with relief.

A WATERSHED IN NORTH-SOUTH RELATIONS

There are a host of disturbing signs that North-South relations require immediate attention, writes Omary Mjenga, secretary of the Tanzanian Secretariat of the Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy, an initiative launched by Finnish and Tanzanian governments. In this article, the author writes that increasing numbers of people in the South view the current process of globalisation as no less than a modern imperialism, which uses every mechanism possible to shape the global order to suit the preferences and needs of the major advanced industrial nations. Moreover, this new imperialism is largely unhindered, indeed is even aided and abetted, by the multilateral mechanisms developed over the past five decades. If ever there was a time for the collective voice of the South to make itself heard, it is now, when the multilateral institutions to the United Nations still retain some legitimacy. If developing countries are to exert some influence over international or global relations and to affect the shape of global and national governance of economic policy, they need to summon the political will to improve rapidly their intellectual and technical capacity to take up the challenge.

THEO VAN BOVEN: ‘CERTAIN COUNTRIES ARE RESORTING TO TORTURE”

Theo Van Boven, UN Special Rapporteur (SR) Against Torture since 2001 -- laughed when we began our interview. He just realised that as he had been speaking with a delegation from the Chinese government, lying on the table was an announcement for a conference on the \'\'Repression of Religious Liberty in China\'\'. It was an embarrassing moment in this international centre for loquacious diplomacy.

THE ANC WILL NOT DISAPPOINT THE PEOPLE

The people of South Africa recently voted overwhelmingly for national unity and reconciliation by renewing the mandate of the African National Congress, writes Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa. In this article, Mbeki writes that South Africans rejected the ANC\'s opponents\' assertion that the country\'s challenges could only be met if the people separated into antagonistic camps, defined by race, colour, and ethnicity. They also rejected the claim that the same movement that has led and leads them in the struggle to eradicate poverty and underdevelopment is the cause of the poverty and underdevelopment they continue to experience. Today we must work together in a people\'s contract to take our country further forward towards the eradication of the legacy of colonialism and apartheid. This will include the creation of more jobs and the reduction of poverty, the building of a non-racial and non-sexist South Africa with sustained reduction of the racial and gender disparities that continue to disfigure our country, and the reinforcement of national unity and reconciliation.

SOUTH AFRICANS FACE CHOICE BETWEEN MOVING FORWARDS OR BACKWARDS

On the eve of South Africa\'s third general election and the celebration of our second decade of liberation, one of the major contestants at the polls is a right-wing coalition that would have opposed much of the progress our country has made since 1994, including ending apartheid, writes Thabo Mbeki, president of South Africa. The Coalition for Change is a right-wing group comprised of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) of Dr. Mangosuthu Buthelezi, and the Democratic Alliance (DA), a merger of three right-wing parties. It is opposed to many of the initiatives we have taken since 1994, especially to address the interests of the poor at home and abroad, Mbeki writes in this article. The ANC will continue to put forward its own policies, focused, among other things, on the vigorous intervention of the democratic state to ensure a better life for all our people, both black and white. We will continue to encourage the formation of a people\'s contract among all those, including the overwhelming majority of our population, who are committed to the building of a non-racial and non-sexist people-centred society.

NEVER NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS?

Global terrorism represents an absolute horror which must be fought with the greatest determination, courage, and force, but it must also be fought with intelligence, information, and knowledge, writes Mario Soares, president of Portugal between 1986-1996. In this analysis, the author argues that military force is necessary but not sufficient. To deal with this new and complex phenomenon born of Islamic fanaticism, we must consider other components, including the profound humiliation by the West felt by the populations that have been permeated by terrorism, and the socio-economic conditions they live under. Regarding the Bush strategy, it is worth asking whether it is true, as is often repeated, that democracies don\'t negotiate with terrorists? History is full of examples to the contrary, including two from the past year involving Bush and the UK and Libya and North Korea. Soares calls for a dialogue with Islamic scientists, theologians, intellectuals, and political scientists as the correct way to begin negotiations -- though from a position of strength, noting that negotiation does not mean capitulation, much less abdication.

AGRIBUSINESS, THE PATENT SYSTEM, AND BIOPIRACY

India is being swept by an epidemic of biopiracy -- the patenting of indigenous biodiversity and traditional knowledge by global corporations, writes Vandana Shiva, author and international campaigner for women and the environment who received the Right Livelihood Award (Alternative Nobel Prize) in 1993. First it was the neem plant, then basmati rice. Now our wheat has been patented, Shiva writes in this article for IPS. Biopiracy is both legally and morally wrong. By allowing indigenous innovations to be treated as \'\'inventions\'\' of the patent \'\'owner\'\', biopiracy patents amount to the outright theft of India\'s scientific, intellectual, and creative achievements and must be challenged. The economic consequences are serious. In the short run, a biopiracy patent robs us of markets overseas for our unique products. In the long run, if these trends are not challenged and intellectual property rights systems changed to prevent biopiracy, we will end up paying royalties for what belongs to us and is necessary for everyday survival.

IRAQ: ONLY THE UN CAN END THE CATASTROPHE

The current debate about the UN\'s ability to rectify the disasters left by the war in Iraq, rebuild the country, and lead it to democracy omits a fundamental fact: that the strength or weakness of the UN depends solely on the will of and resources provided by its member states, writes Flavio Lotti, secretary general of the Round Table for Peace. Only intervention by the UN in Iraq, with the appropriate powers and resources, is capable of ending the rampant violence, preventing civil war, depriving terrorism of space and support, and protecting the human rights of the Iraqis. In this article, the author writes that the US plan for reconstruction was very efficient in its destruction of existing institutions and the armed forces and in privatising state industries, but it has been a complete failure in building a new democratic state. Similarly, the security concept of the occupation troops and its implementation --in part delegated to private and mercenary companies-- simply does not address the needs of the civilian population. A radical change in policy is urgently needed that gives the UN intervention in Iraq centrality, credibility, and support.

BLAMING AL QAEDA FOR SPANISH ELECTION NOT IN US INTEREST

The right\'s diagnosis of the defeat of Spain\'s Popular Party as capitulation of Spanish voters to terrorism may console the outgoing prime minister and Mariano Rajoy but it badly serves the true interests of the United States, writes Joaquin Roy, Jean Monnet Professor and Director of the European Union Centre of the University of Miami. In this analysis, the author writes that the US government, before and after November, can be reassured by what the new Spanish administration will offer: unlimited cooperation, on equal footing, in the fight against terrorism, domestic and international, in coordination with Spain\'s natural partners in the European Union. Spain\'s place in the world will continue to be the same it has occupied since the 80s: it is a member of NATO, contributed to UN peacekeeping operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Central America, and participated in the Gulf War. Spain will stay (why not?) in Iraq, but only under a UN mandate, which will be implemented with the requisite backing of a stronger and more integrated European Union, anchored in a \'\'new\'\' Old Europe.

THE REAL LESSON OF MARCH 11TH: EVERYONE TO IRAQ

With all due respect to the Spanish electorate and those citizens mourning their dead, I believe that socialist leader Jose Luis Zapatero\'s position on withdrawing his country\'s troops from Iraq constitutes a victory for Al Qaeda, writes Emma Bonino, deputy in the European Parliament and leader of the Transnational Radical Party. In this article Bonino writes that March 11th provided irrefutable proof that Al Qaeda represents a real threat to us all. Certain leaders of the European left have stated -- involuntarily, I am sure-- that they share the position of Zapatero. Perhaps they haven\'t grasped how this announcement might be read and acted upon by the terrorists themselves. In sharp contrast to Zapatero\'s position, the correct response to March 11th should be, \'\'We will all go to Baghdad,\'\' with the determination to assume a concrete role in the fight against terrorism. Only in this manner can the calls for UN and/or NATO involvement have real meaning and effect, as expressions of shared responsibility.

THE WHITE CURSE

On the first day of this year, freedom in this world turned 200. But no one noticed, or almost no one. A few days later the country where this birth occurred, Haiti, found itself in the media spotlight, but not for the anniversary of universal freedom but because there had been a bloodbath that culminated in the ouster of President Aristide, writes Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan writer and novelist and author of \'\'The Open Veins of Latin America\'\' and \'\'Memories of Fire\'\'. But the international experts are far more destructive than invading troops, Galeano writes in this column. Placed under strict orders from the World Bank and IMF, Haiti obeyed every instruction. The government paid what it was told to even if it meant there would be neither bread nor salt. Their credit was frozen despite the fact the state had been dismantled and the subsidies and tariffs that had protected national production had been eliminated. Rice farmers, once the majority, soon became beggars or boat people. Many have ended in the depths of the Caribbean, and more are following them to the bottom, only these shipwreck victims aren\'t Cuban so their plight never makes the papers. Today Haiti imports all of its rice from the US, where international experts, who are rather distracted people, forgot to prohibit tariffs and subsidies to protect national production.

SPAIN, NOT IRAQ, PROVIDES MODEL FOR FIGHTING TERRORISM

President elect Zapatero\'s intention to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq unless the UN takes over is both logical and coherent, writes Mario Soares, President of Portugal from 1986-1996. In this article, Soares writes that brute force alone cannot defeat terrorism. We must study its causes and understand the reasons for its influence over desperate and humiliated populations. The March 11th attacks demonstrate that global terrorism still has resources and can broaden its scope of action. Those who believed that \'\'the war on terror\'\', to use Bush\'s phrase, could be won by defeating and occupying Iraq and, later, by capturing Saddam Hussein are unable of explaining what just happened. The fact that today\'s world is interdependent means that we are all responsible. Solidarity and social justice cannot remain mere words. As ever, everything depends on whether we decide to improve the troubled world in which we have to live. Zapatero\'s victory reinforces those who are working for peace, social justice, dialogue, human rights, and international law. This is the way to fight terrorism.

AN ATTACK ON THE HEART OF MADRID, AND FREE SOCIETY

The commuter trains that pass through eastern Madrid on their way to Atocha station are one of the primary routes for the daily influx of thousands of students and workers into the city, writes Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, mayor of Madrid. In this article, the author cites Madrid as a historic bastion of freedom that now defends freedom for all Spaniards with the same determination to not give in to the oppressor that has always given us courage. We must denounce not only those who were materially responsible for this collective assassination, which has already been recognised as a crime against humanity, but also those who are intellectually complicit, who with their silence or indifference contribute equally to make such acts possible. The best way to not give in to the ferocious attack inflicted on us yesterday as members of a free society consists in not losing sight of these people who yesterday, as on any day, made their way to Madrid to give the best of themselves, not to be remembered as victims but as what they were: passengers on trains that carried the life of the city.

AN INTERVIEW WITH SAVATER: AS EUROPE BROADENS, IS SPAIN DIVIDING?

Fernando Savater is thrilled to be back in Rome, where he has the luxury of anonymity. The philosopher- activist director of the Basta Ya movement, which represents the victims of terrorism in the Basque Country, can\'t take a step in Spain without a security escort. A professor of history and the author of numerous books, he is in Rome to participate in the colloquium \'\'Europe: A Nation of States or a State of Nations\'\'. He agreed to speak with IPS about the prospects for the upcoming elections in Spain, which will be held 14 March, and the future of the Basque Country.

H2O BUSINESS TURNS PUBLIC WATER INTO PRIVATE WINDFALL

In a seemingly unquenchable thirst for new wellsprings of profit, multinational food and drink industry giants are rapidly draining public water supplies worldwide into a billion-dollar bottled water industry, writes Mark Sommer, director of the US-based Mainstream Media Project and host of award-winning internationally-syndicated radio program \'\'A World of Possibilities\'\' The issue, Sommer writes in this analysis, is whether industry giants are drowning in profits at public expense. When there are effectively no rules and no enforcement, when the profit margin puts drug dealers to shame, and an inalienable common resource is privatized at public expense, then we must reconsider the very basis of the enterprise. Pure fresh water is growing ever more scarce as population and pollution accelerate. But the most effective response is not to sell the last liters like fine wines to the fortunate few but to upgrade public water systems worldwide, at far lower individual and aggregate cost, so no one needs to resort to \'\'private\'\' water.

A FAIR GLOBALISATION FOR ALL: IT CAN BE DONE

The world stands at a historic moment of decision, write President of Tanzania Benjamin William Mkapa and President of Finland Tarja Halonen, Co-Chairs of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation. In this analysis, the authors write that it is in our power to take a correct turn, which would make the world safer, fair, ethical, inclusive, and prosperous for the majority, not just for a few, both within countries and between countries. But it is also in our power to prevaricate, to ignore the road signs, and let the world slide into further political turbulence, conflict, and war. The authors propose a process by which the benefits of globalisation can be enjoyed at all levels, beginning with empowered local communities and improved national governance. Unfairness currently characterises the system. Equal rules for unequal players ensure unequal outcomes. Some rules, such as on farm and textile and trade, specifically disadvantage developing countries. The lack of a level international playing field is deepening mistrust and perpetuating social divisions. The real question is not whether globalisation can work, but how. The positive must be enhanced, the negative minimised. Only when everyone has a stake can the prosperity we expect from globalisation be sustainable. Only then will our collective peaceful future be founded on solid ground.

THE CHURCH, VIOLENCE, AND BASQUE SEPARATISM

ETA, the Basque separatist group, has killed more than a thousand people, from businessmen, functionaries, and professionals to children, but not a single priest. Does ETA perhaps have some debt to the church, or fear it? writes Jose Bono, president of the autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha. In this article, Bono notes the predominance of nationalism in sectors of the church hierarchy and the Basque clergy, which raises new questions about the relation between power and religion, not only for the church prelates but the parishioners as well. In the Basque Country, many citizens have lost the freedoms that they had won. Though it is difficult to state with precision when this happened, the cause is clear: the terrorism of the ETA. The loss was gradual and progressive, as an unobserved sowing of hatred and destruction brought an ever greater harvest of fear. What the Basque region needs is to end ETA violence and guarantee democracy, which requires not only politics but the ethics necessary to a pluralist society, which Basque society is and must remain. If the church (the whole church, not just the Spanish or the Basque, the clergy or the lay) wants to play a role in this transition, based on an ethic of democratic coexistence --which does not exist today-- it must broaden its thinking and historical perspective on its own relation to higher powers and on violence.