Oil battles, social forums and Chris Rock’s horoscope.

by Jessica Reed

Guantanamo’s 5th anniversary is looming. We published a lot about the topic in the past few years, with highlights such as Clive Stafford Smith’s “torture: an idea of our time” and “Guantánamo and back: an interview with Moazzam Begg”. Last December Amnesty launched a global action against Guantanamo, which started with the very mediatised procession of volonteers dressed as prisoners slowly walking from Big Ben to Dowing Street. Learn about it here.

A lot is happening in Africa. Starting with the World Social Forum 2007, which this year will be held in Kenya. Patricia Daniel will be covering the 5 day event for us, blogging it live from Nairobi. She will however focus on women’s perspectives: is another world possible without them?

Combats are still raging as the US bombards islamic militia positions in Southern Somalia, which underline two distinct levels: the great parade of justice whih walks hand in hand with the executions of dictators, and yet the continuous re-engagement of the USA in wars, on grounds too often poorly defined. Meanwhile, some Ethiopian blogs are claiming Somalian developments were used to mask internal crackdown on Ethiopian dissidents.

Now to the topic of energy and seasonal remarks (in winter, countries with important ressources seem to enjoy reminding their counterparts of their power): Belarus complained that Russia is aggravating the trade battle that could have an impact as far as Germany, as they stopped pumping oil to Europe last monday via the pipelines that cross Belarus, which “accuses its neighbor of siphoning off oil” : it turns out the country with pipelines ends up having as much power as the country producing energy, as Russia finds itself quite restricted. The EU stepped in and tried to diffuse the quarrel, as the EU Commission should release a report on energy policy early next week.

And while we are talking about oil – Hugo Chavez made great use of his country’s ressources, as he engaged in talks related to energy with China last year, prompting some commentators to call it the new Axis of Oil. He now seems to be more highly focused on nationalisation than ever, as his platform solidifies, finding its roots in South-American socialism. He also denied a license renewal to an opposition broadcaster, accusing the TV station of “backing plots to oust him“.

And finally for some tech-related news: Mia Farrow will be “among those discussing and answering questions about the genocide in Darfur and the worsening situation in neighboring Chad at a live, virtual 3-D event in the on-line community Second Life.” (raising your eyebrow? Me too). But that’s nothing compared to MI5’s latest project: to use e-mails to send terror alerts. I’d rather rely on Chris Rock’s horoscope which supposedly predicts our future: “Scorpio – you’re gonna die. Gemini -you’re gonna die, etc”. This am sure will really happen, in due time.

Today at openDemocracy

Democratic change in France usually needs a little help from the street -it has been an unwritten pillar of every Republic, bringing stability and voice as much as instability. So when the urban homeless brought their homes – in the form of tents – to the streets, they follow a long political process of integration. > Will the rushed “right to a roof”, fueled by presidential hopes, be more than symbolic? The powerful homelessness films by Agnes Varda -Sans Toit ni Loi and Les Glaineurs – remind us how fast a marginal life can sink.

Descending to the streets is part of the typical HOWTO of deliberative democracy, nor is it clear how exactly the Wisdom of the Crowd shines through in this process. But maybe there is nevertheless a “hidden secret” of the French constitution at work: there is nothing like action to show you really mean what you say.

The problems of urbanisation more generally are highlighted by The Worldwatch Institute’s Vital Signs report. More than half the world’s population is urban, and the number is growing. Point to a social problem – climate change, people-flow, identity, poverty, homelessness – and it is bound to also be an urban problem.

Even, it seems, the very rural issue of organic farming. David Milliband criticised the health claims made by Organic farmers. Lobby capture? Or is there a valid trade-off to be seen between agricultural productivity and other pressing issues – urban poverty, of course, but less intuitively also climate change, with the claim that Organic food tends to spend more carbon getting to us than logistically optimised supermarket food? We won’t expect Fast Food to translate to “green food” in the film of Schlosser’s book, soon to be released in the UK.

The trials of urbanisation are evident also in Rio’s riots: another sign of the Brazilian state’s challenge to meet its basic Hobbesian compact of preserving order, as Arthur Ituassu has noted in a string of articles for us.

by Tony Curzon Price.

Voyeurs! (or the public execution of Saddam Hussein)

by Jessica Reed

Releasing the normally gruesome pictures of dead leaders is a powerful gesture. It has often been used in the past to mark the end of an era – From the BBC “‘in pictures’“

With millions of hits over the last few days, the leaked phone footage of Saddam Hussein’s execution has become one of the most-viewed video on the website. On the other hand, a great majority of national tv channels refused to broadcast the video – CNN “vowed discretion“, as the BBC implies that the phone camera footage may be “the most controversial media disclosure from Iraq since snapshots of US guards abusing prisoners inside Abu Ghraib”.

Some bloggers have rightly called out the hypocrisy shown by some mainstream media, who refuse to show the video when it is crystal clear that censorship is proved to be difficult to apply and enforce on the internet: it is very true, as this Comment is Free piece suggests, that our reaction and indignation to the execution would may not be the same, had we been confronted to the ‘official, edited and silent’ version only.

(Of course conspiracy theorists were all thrilled, displaying their interrogations (it wasn’t the real Saddam!) minutes after the news were released.)

Meanwhile, the Iraqi PM longs to leave office, as the conflict shows no sign of improvement and the body count keeps on escalating at an alarming rate.

Some commentators, like the Times’ Andrew Sullivan are now calling for a withdrawal of the US troops:

The alternative is withdrawal. Many will call this a defeat. In many ways, it is. The attempt to remake the Middle East on our terms and on our own schedule has been revealed in retrospect as pure folly. The core goals of the Iraq war – to disarm Saddam and remove him from power – have been accomplished. Iraq is no longer a potential source of WMDs – just of suicide bombers and terrorists. Saddam is dead.

What strikes me as menacing is the possibility of an expansion of the already explosive civil war and increasing regional segmentation should the US decide to call its troops back. Stability will undoubtlessly be lost. A great deal of time will be needed for the conflict to resolve itself, not to mention that the country will be left to its disarray- in an arguably worse shape than it was before the war began.

Update: An official in charge of supervising the execution has been arrested. He is believed to have recorded the hanging and remains unamned for the time being.

Elsewhere: Charles Peña asks: “Now that he has been executed the question that must be asked is: Since Saddam Hussein was the raison d’être for taking preemptive action against Iraq, was launching such a war worth it?” + Al Jazeera on the video and Iraqi divisions.