Last Thursday Russian troops clashed with troops attempting to reassert Georgian authority in South Ossetia. The response from the West, until today, has been weak and essentially non-binding. Several threats of removing Russia from the G-8, economic group have been levied, but nothing of a more serious nature.

International Relations theory states that conflict is most likely to occur when shifts in the systemic balance of power occur. Russia has had a very difficult time adapting to its role in a unipolar world, and nowhere is this more visible then in its relations with its’ neighbors. During the Cold War, Ukraine, Georgia, and Poland were for all intensive purposes, the sovereign territory of Russia under the Soviet Union. Russia has stated repeatedly that they perceive Ukraine and Georgia to be within their “sphere of influence,” and that the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) into Ukraine or Georgia would be unacceptable. Ukraine and Poland both joined NATO, and Georgia had applied, but was turned away due to intense pressure from Russia.

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Wu Ming (无名) is an activist from the Seattle-Tacoma area who was at the 34th G8 Summit in Toyako, Japan, a rural resort area on the island of Hokkaido.

Read this year’s summit statements for the states’ perspective on what had been accomplished this year. Hundreds of NGOs and a greater number of individuals signed the “Challenge to the G8 Governments” which claimed that the states themselves were responsible for the climate crisis, and the debt crisis. Other groups who arrived in Japan made plans to hold their own Summit too, calling it a “People’s Summit”. Wu Ming tells us what it was like engaging in autonomous actions against the G8, and what the political atmosphere of the G8 was like for activists.

The video below is my own brief introduction to the G8 from an activist’s perspective, in which I use submitted videos from Spanish and German activists. (Skip to 5:25 to hear a brief history of the G8′s promises and trends.)

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On Saturday, the news broke that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki agrees with Obama that getting US troops out of Iraq by 2010 is the right thing to do. I think it’s hard to stress how important this is. For weeks the only thing we’ve been hearing from John McCain is that the surge has worked and we need to keep troops there. The conventional wisdom and the story that’s been in the media is that McCain is the foreign policy expert and that that is one of Obama’s biggest weaknesses. This obviously doesn’t completely turn that around, but I think it’s pretty significant that the leader of Iraq has explicitly said that the troops need to go home and name Obama’s plan in the process.

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Up to 15 million people around the world may be considered “stateless”. That is, having not having any official state record of their status as citizens, nor any official nationality. This usually happens because of ethnic strife or political conflict resulting from a collapse of the state’s ability to function. The UN’s arm that deals with refugees and statelessness, UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) focuses its energy almost entirely on building or re-building those connections between states and individuals. Numerous committees are setup to end statelessness and naturalize stateless people into states or institutions that will keep them under the protection of a state. But what about political asylees who decide to renounce their state citizenship and do not wish to re-enter the life of state citizenry? One blogger and English-Slovak translator from Orlando, Mike Gogulski, is doing just that.

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I’m sure that this will probably go against the grain for a lot of you, but how many have actually considered the cost of combating global warming? Sure it seems like a good cause, but perhaps that money would best be spent elsewhere. This blog by Bjorn Lomborg often talks about some of the risks of blindly lashing out at CO2 emissions. I suggest reading it with an open mind and perhaps thinking for yourself.

The Cuban economy is experiencing a slow transformation and many analysts credit Raul Castro for allowing such reform to take shape. Raul is certainly more open to allowing such measures than Fidel was, but it would be a mistake to assume that Cuba has not been transforming during the past two decades. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 traumatized Cuba, which depended on Soviet economic assistance and the COMECON market for survival. Cuba’s economic collapse forced Fidel to call for a Período especial en tiempo de paz (Special Period in Peacetime) and all Cubans were asked to make considerable sacrifices inorder to deal with the attendant consequences of the disaster. Among the most devastated sectors was the sugar industry, an indelible component not only of the economy but of Cuban history and culture. In its preferential trade agreements with the Soviet Union, Cuba exported sugar in exchange for petroleum, which was used as an input in other sectors or exported by Cuba to bring in much needed foreign exchange.

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Melonites,

I’ve got some exciting new for you. This Saturday we’ll be focusing on Veterans Issues in our Core Section and will be having an abundance of fantastic guests. In studio we should have Government Relations Director of the Northwest chapter of Paralyzed Veterans of America, Skip Dreps.

Thanks to Skip, we’ve also arranged phone interviews with Congressman Norm Dicks and Senator Patty Murray! 

We’ll be talking with them about the recent Department of Veterans Affairs hearings and a number of issues regarding US vets ranging from mental health to homelessness.

In our first hour, Walid Zafar (our International Correspondent) will be speaking with Professor of International Political Economy at the University of Puget Sound David Balaam about the world food crisis.

This should prove to be one of The Melon’s biggest shows yet, so be sure to tune in from noon to 2pm PST on 90.1 FM KUPS Tacoma or listen online here.

Electric Elliot

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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva warned Wednesday that the global food crisis is a wake up call for the international community to find a long term solution to hunger. While obviously correct in this regard, Lula denied that one of the causes of the current crisis has been the emergent market for ethanol.

“Don’t tell me, for the love of God, that food is expensive because of biodiesel. Food is expensive because the world wasn’t prepared to see millions of Chinese, Indians, Africans, Brazilians and Latin Americans eat”

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The food crisis in Haiti seems to be getting worse. The Associated Press reports that aid organizations said Sunday they feared the nutritional crisis could deepen in this poor Island nation. The majority of Haitians subsist on less than $2 a day and the rising prices have impacted nearly the entire population.

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The Pakistani government has decided to close the Jalozai Refugee Camp and has given families weeks to go leave the camp, and presumably, go back to Afghanistan. The Daily Times reports that since March 1,, some 303 refugees have already left Pakistan’s largest refugee camp. One of the oldest refugee camps in the country, Jalozai is home to some 80,000 refugees. The closing is part of a voluntary repatriation program put forth by the Pakistani government and it seems that the Pakistani government has been reluctant or unwilling to force the matter. While they are encouraging these deadlines, it does not appear that they will do much to people who choose to stay.

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