Posted on 09/06/2002 6:32:10 AM PDT by tom paine 2
"In one country in this region, Zimbabwe, the lack of respect for human rights and rule of law has [helped] push millions of people toward the brink of starvation." Boooooo!
"In the face of famine, several governments in Southern Africa have prevented critical U.S. food assistance from being distributed to the hungry by rejecting biotech corn." Hisssssss!
The big story coming out of this week's World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg seems to be that Colin Powell was booed. This is being chalked up by some as one more global U.S. embarrassment, but the closer we inspect this event the more it looks like Colin Powell's finest hour. As the quotes above suggest, he was booed for telling the truth.
And contrary to predictions that the U.S. would be isolated at the conference, its outcome looks to be a remarkable American success. A delegation led by Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky negotiated a document that even we could actually sign and that might do the world some good. As an added benefit, the spectacle further highlighted the moral bankruptcy of the anti-globalization left. A Secretary of State who gets booed by the supporters of Zimbabwean thug Robert Mugabe and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez must be doing something right.
All the more so because the usual suspects -- including the European Commission and some EU member states -- had hoped to use the conference as a forum to bash America and the market economy. A number of Powell hecklers got their $1,000 plane tickets by way of EU travel grants for "non-governmental organizations."
The first smart U.S. decision was to keep President Bush away, showing he'd learned from his father's embarrassment at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Then the U.S. delegation, with notable support from Australia, quietly bypassed the Europeans and worked out deals with developing countries, virtually all of whom have no interest in forgoing economic growth in order to assuage First World guilt. Ignored, for example, were European suggestions for targets on the amount of energy produced by "renewable" sources that even rich countries can't afford.
Instead the final document stresses the importance of "affordable" energy, as well as trade and honest governance as engines of economic growth -- themes the Bush Administration raised at the U.N.'s Monterrey summit in March and in Doha last November. Where First World commitments were made, they are concrete and achievable, such as a 2015 target date for getting clean water and sanitation systems to at least half of the 2.4 billion people who now lack them. Contrast this with the airy ambition of such dreams as the Kyoto global warming pact, which have the effect of making greens feel good about themselves in the comfort of Hamburg but do nothing for poor Africans who die of malaria and cholera.
Small wonder the world's self-styled environmentalists were less than pleased. "We should never have such shameful summits again," said Richard Navarro of Friends of the Earth. "The reaction to Colin Powell's speech is a very accurate reflection of the anger of non-governmental organizations at the role played by the United States at this conference," said Remi Parmentier of Greenpeace.
So much for complaints about the "lack of U.S. leadership." What really upsets these folks is the fact that the U.S. was leading, only in a pro-growth, pro-trade direction they don't like. Clean water may not make great fodder for Greenpeace's alarmist fund-raising letters to aging liberals in Hollywood. But it will make a difference in the lives of millions of the world's poor. Colin Powell should hope he gets booed like this every year.
Updated September 6, 2002
Powell is so widely admired and is so clearly NOT hostile to world leaders "of color" that he was sent to make the Bush admin look good in relation to the nuts and psychos at this "conference". They played right into the Bush administration's hands with their predictably nasty and stupid reaction to Powell's speech.
One more way to set a "heroic" tone for the coming elections in Nov. Good job.
We are winning!!!!!!
Now they want us to spend a whole load on saving the environment? Not bloody likely. All it will do is create a bureaucracy. So we can have more conferences like this. Which will have a bunch of people complaining as to why we don't spend more money on the environment. And the complainers get luxury hotel rooms, chauffeurs, high priced prostitutes, lobster dinners, etc, while the average bloke is riding the London Underground and having a curry from the local for supper.
To conclude - if we want to take a step forward, ban conferences like this. And tell sub-Saharan Africa to grow up and stop whingeing.
Regards, Ivan
YOUR TAX DOLLARS SPREAD ISLAM ACROSS AMERICA Why are your tax dollars being spent to spread Islam? More to the point, why is the United States government paying to bring Middle Eastern and African Muslims here to teach their religion to us? Sounds kooky, huh? But it’s exactly what’s happening. Right now, 10 members of the Royal Saudi Department of Islamic Education are on a three-week tour of the United States visiting mosques and making public appearances to promote Islam and seek converts. Paid for by the U.S. State Department. Over the weekend, a Saudi government official whose job is to make sure everyone in that country is Muslim told a little mosque in suburban Salt Lake City that the goal is to convert everyone in the United States to Islam. I kid you not. He – Muntaser Aseeri – said that, with eight million Muslims in America already, “If each one of them tried to reach 40 people here, all Americans would become Muslims.” Which is fine for him to say – on his own dime. But seems disgusting for the American taxpayer to have to underwrite. The 10 Commandments can’t be displayed on public property, kids can’t pray in schools and “under God” has to be taken out of the Pledge of Allegiance, but the federal government can financially sponsor the proselyting of what most of us consider a pagan religion. Weird. And dramatically at odds with the way most people read the Constitution. It just seems wrong, as we approach the anniversary of 9-11, for Americans to be paying Saudis to travel the country promoting their government’s religion. Actually, it seems wrong at any time. Yet this is at least the third such trip the U.S. State Department has paid for in recent months. Earlier propaganda tours included Muslim leaders and missionaries from Pakistan and Africa. The thinking is that this will foster and benefit from an American “interest” in Islam following the terrorist attacks on us last September. For whatever reason, while we are supposedly at war with Islamic terrorists, the federal government has decided to put on a public relations campaign for Islam. Not just to put on it’s best face, but – as the quote from the Saudi guy shows – spread the dream of making the United States a Muslim nation. Repeating: Weird. Because, it wasn’t Americans whose intolerance of Saudis drove them to go over there and kill thousands of people. No, it was Saudis whose intolerance of Americans drove them to come over here and kill thousands of people. So, if there’s anybody who needs a diversity lesson on getting along with others, it’s them. Not us. Yet I don’t suspect the Saudi government is about to pay a bunch of Baptist ministers to go over and teach those towel-headed heathens about the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor do I think there’s much chance the Saudis will pay for some rabbis to fly over and give public seminars on the Passover. Oh, that’s right. I forgot. Christianity and Judaism are illegal in Saudi Arabia. The odd fact is, their religion gets a foothold here because we’re civilized, and ours can’t get a foothold there because they’re not. And your tax dollars are being spent to make us more like them. Which raises another interesting question. Why is the State Department trying to influence American opinion and culture? I thought the role of the State Department was to handle foreign policy, not domestic religion or propaganda. I thought the job of the State Department was to assert American interest overseas, not subvert American culture at home. Isn’t the State Department supposed to teach the world about us, not us about the world? Shouldn’t it be working to make the world more like America, not America more like the world? I mean, isn’t the State Department on our side – not theirs? There are troublesome problems in all of this. Not just the meddling of State Department social engineers in domestic matters, but the essential “establishment of religion” by the federal government and the inherent discrimination against all other religions not similarly funded. The pope, for example, had to pay his own way to America, though he is a foreign religious official on a proselyting mission – just like the Saudi clerics. Ditto for leaders of the Eastern and Greek Orthodox churches. And the Dalai Llama. How could this happen? How could this possibly represent the interests of the American people? How could the Bush Administration be involved with this, and how could the Congress let it?
They guy was physically freaking out as he castigated the U.S. and said how shameful a country we are, etc.
I know liberals don't make legitmate arguements (that is a given), but this guy actually looked like he was going to have a coronary while he was being interviewed.
Probably one of the funniest (if not THE funniest) things I saw on television during the summit.
Why don't you throw some paragraph breaks in there, chief? It is a fairly simple tag... <P>
See, wasn't that simple?
YOUR TAX DOLLARS SPREAD ISLAM ACROSS AMERICA
Why are your tax dollars being spent to spread Islam?
More to the point, why is the United States government paying to bring Middle Eastern and African Muslims here to teach their religion to us?
Sounds kooky, huh?
But it’s exactly what’s happening.
Right now, 10 members of the Royal Saudi Department of Islamic Education are on a three-week tour of the United States visiting mosques and making public appearances to promote Islam and seek converts.
Paid for by the U.S. State Department.
Over the weekend, a Saudi government official whose job is to make sure everyone in that country is Muslim told a little mosque in suburban Salt Lake City that the goal is to convert everyone in the United States to Islam.
I kid you not.
He – Muntaser Aseeri – said that, with eight million Muslims in America already, “If each one of them tried to reach 40 people here, all Americans would become Muslims.”
Which is fine for him to say – on his own dime.
But seems disgusting for the American taxpayer to have to underwrite. The 10 Commandments can’t be displayed on public property, kids can’t pray in schools and “under God” has to be taken out of the Pledge of Allegiance, but the federal government can financially sponsor the proselyting of what most of us consider a pagan religion.
Weird.
And dramatically at odds with the way most people read the Constitution.
It just seems wrong, as we approach the anniversary of 9-11, for Americans to be paying Saudis to travel the country promoting their government’s religion.
Actually, it seems wrong at any time.
Yet this is at least the third such trip the U.S. State Department has paid for in recent months. Earlier propaganda tours included Muslim leaders and missionaries from Pakistan and Africa. The thinking is that this will foster and benefit from an American “interest” in Islam following the terrorist attacks on us last September.
For whatever reason, while we are supposedly at war with Islamic terrorists, the federal government has decided to put on a public relations campaign for Islam. Not just to put on it’s best face, but – as the quote from the Saudi guy shows – spread the dream of making the United States a Muslim nation.
Repeating: Weird.
Because, it wasn’t Americans whose intolerance of Saudis drove them to go over there and kill thousands of people. No, it was Saudis whose intolerance of Americans drove them to come over here and kill thousands of people. So, if there’s anybody who needs a diversity lesson on getting along with others, it’s them.
Not us.
Yet I don’t suspect the Saudi government is about to pay a bunch of Baptist ministers to go over and teach those towel-headed heathens about the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor do I think there’s much chance the Saudis will pay for some rabbis to fly over and give public seminars on the Passover.
Oh, that’s right. I forgot.
Christianity and Judaism are illegal in Saudi Arabia.
The odd fact is, their religion gets a foothold here because we’re civilized, and ours can’t get a foothold there because they’re not.
And your tax dollars are being spent to make us more like them.
Which raises another interesting question.
Why is the State Department trying to influence American opinion and culture?
I thought the role of the State Department was to handle foreign policy, not domestic religion or propaganda. I thought the job of the State Department was to assert American interest overseas, not subvert American culture at home.
Isn’t the State Department supposed to teach the world about us, not us about the world? Shouldn’t it be working to make the world more like America, not America more like the world?
I mean, isn’t the State Department on our side – not theirs?
There are troublesome problems in all of this. Not just the meddling of State Department social engineers in domestic matters, but the essential “establishment of religion” by the federal government and the inherent discrimination against all other religions not similarly funded.
The pope, for example, had to pay his own way to America, though he is a foreign religious official on a proselyting mission – just like the Saudi clerics. Ditto for leaders of the Eastern and Greek Orthodox churches. And the Dalai Llama.
How could this happen?
How could this possibly represent the interests of the American people?
How could the Bush Administration be involved with this, and how could the Congress let it?
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