World of opinion
On Yemen’s future:
Many Yemenis are rightly questioning whether the Feb. 21 vote constitutes the democratic future they have fought for, and in many cases, died for; whether this is really the promised end to Saleh’s 33-year rule.
Over a year after Yemenis first took to the streets to demand political reform, the country will go to the polls in an uncontested election in which ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s deputy is the sole candidate.
In a deal signed late last year and brokered by Gulf states in Saudi Arabia, where Saleh was recovering from wounds sustained in a rocket attack on his palace, the former president agreed to transfer power to Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Now in the U.S. for further treatment, Saleh has vowed to return once more to Yemen.
The deal stipulated that Hadi could run uncontested, granted Saleh immunity from prosecution and allowed his party, the General People’s Congress, to maintain power through a power-sharing deal with the opposition. Twelve members of Saleh’s family have retained their positions in senior security and political roles, including his son as commander of the Republican Guard Forces and his nephew as commander of the paramilitary Central Security Forces.
While Hadi has vowed to usher in major reforms, including the drafting of a new constitution and a reorganization of the army, the country faces many great challenges, and coupled with Hadi’s ascendancy to power in a way many view as undemocratic, it is unclear as to what the next few years will hold. …
Coupled with endemic corruption, none of these signs point toward a stable, democratic or prosperous Yemen. They point toward the creation of a failed state.
The Daily Star, Beirut
On oil sands and climate change:
Canada is justified in making very clear to the European Union that it may well start a World Trade Organization lawsuit, if there is a vote in favor of a proposed measure that would attach a special opprobrium to oil from the Canadian oil sands, under the EU’s fuel quality directive.
A group called Friends of the Earth Europe is making much of Canadian documents it has obtained under a freedom-of-information request, but in fact Joe Oliver, the Minister of Natural Resources, made public the federal government’s position in October, 2011, in a letter to the EU’s commissioner for energy. He raised the prospect that Canada would “not hesitate to defend its interests” if “unjust, discriminatory measures … are put in place.”
According to the WTO, countries have a duty to treat similar goods from other countries similarly to their own, and not to discriminate. Some elements in the EU, however, are trying to stigmatize oil-sands bitumen as being in an ignominious class of its own. What’s more, WTO case law has already established that different production processes — oil-sands extraction requires special techniques — do not make similar products dissimilar.
This controversy has a hypothetical, somewhat unreal, quality, because Canada does not export bitumen to Europe from the oil sands. Europe does, however, import comparable heavy crudes from Nigeria and the Middle East — which are often worse on the emissions front. The EU measure, if approved, would be a rhetorical gesture, but one that would doubtless be invoked in other settings in order to damage Canada’s reputation.
… Fortunately, Britain and France are on Canada’s side, and a number of other EU members appear well disposed, too. The federal government is right not to let the oil sands be manipulated as a pawn in a much larger debate over climate change.
The Globe and Mail, Toronto
On European financial crisis
China is putting flesh on the bones of its commitment to work together with the European Union to address the evolving European sovereign debt crisis.
Both President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao assured visiting EU leaders that the country supports global efforts to back the eurozone and Europe.
On Feb. 15, China’s central bank also pledged it will increase its holdings of euro-denominated assets.
Though specific investment plans are yet to be announced, China’s willingness to help clearly goes far beyond rhetoric. And the reason is more than obvious as the two sides rank among each other’s top trade partners and China is eager to diversify its portfolio of foreign exchange reserves.
However, while such external support is important if Europe is to survive the ongoing debt crisis, it is unrealistic to expect too much of such help. The eurozone must come up with a credible long-term solution of its own. …
Admittedly, debt-laden countries should be held accountable for their rapid accumulation of debt, which was enabled by the creation of the single currency market more than a decade ago. But that does not mean EU policymakers can ignore the difficult and painful task of implementing fiscal consolidation plans. …
A self-help program within the eurozone is therefore badly needed.
It is believed that Europe can find a better way to make use of its overall strength to expedite economic recovery in those debt-laden countries.
Only then will external help really work as hoped.
China Today, Beijing