Closing the gap

March 22, 2013 in Middle East, The World Today

 

Photo from Getty Images

By: Razanne Chatila

In the wake of country reconstructions and faltering economies, findings in the latest report from the World Bank illustrate the number of Middle Eastern women in the work force are at half of the global level falling at 25 percent.In an article from Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS), out last week it stated that “not only would more employed women stimulate economic growth, but a more inclusive labor market has also been thought to encourage political participation among women.” At the same time IPS also notes how the World Bank is warning that Middle Eastern and North African countries are falling behind on bringing more women into the workforce.

In the report it notes some of these discrepancies is based on the regions norms and customs that emphasis the strict ideas of women’s role in society, however it also noted the diversity of the region and how there is a lot of other factors at play. Some of these include as IPS states, is “low-wage, export-oriented industries such as textiles are one typical way through which women have entered the workforce in developing countries. But during oil booms, academics have found that economies tend to shift away from female-heavy ‘traded’ sectors and instead towards male-dominated non-traded sectors, such as construction and retail.”

However, despite having an economy of this manner, Mayra Buvinic, a senior fellow with the U.N.  Foundation said, “The benefits of educating girls are many, and I believe families in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region are aware of that.” Another factor that adds to these low numbers is the lack of need seen by many women to work. In Kuwait for example, subsidies for food or electricity account for as much as 20 percent of government spending.  These types of vouchers typically lower household costs, which makes working outside of the home less attractive for women, as it can in turn be accompanied by additional costs. At the same time, however, one of the more prosperous economies in the region, Saudi Arabia has been seeing some of the lowest unemployment figures with women employment in the private sector also doubling in the last year, according to the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Labor.

Photo from IPS

Saudi Arabia is really pushing to help its citizen obtain employment and recently this has also included women. Labor minister, Mofraj al-Haqbani said in a press conference in Riyadh this past Tuesday that they have about one million individuals who are a part of the unemployment program called Hafez and 87 percent of these numbers are women. To make employment even easier, the government introduced new rules last year that made some retail jobs such as lingerie and cosmetics for women only. Also they have sent tens of thousands of women on scholarship abroad, alongside men to improve their job prospects.

“Gender diversity today is no longer a corporate responsibility charter but a sound business practice, with numerous studies clearly pointing out the direct co-relation between diversity and profitability of companies globally,” said Sanjay Modi, managing director India, Middle East and South East Asia, of Monster.com.

More governments need to continue to improve employment opportunities for both the men and women of their countries. Not only will it allow for a more diversified pool of employees but also a more profitable market in the long-run.

This post reflects the author’s personal opinions, not the opinions of Arizona Model United Nations.

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This Isn’t Your Father’s PRI

March 21, 2013 in Articles, México, The World Today

Courtesy of Excelsior

While those of us at MUNdi were away on vacation for a few days of much-needed rest and relaxation (bringing you the news you need can be draining sometimes), the Mexican government of President Enrique Peña Nieto was anything but resting. In fact, they have been quite busy in the last couple of weeks.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about the arrest of the head of the SNTE (Mexico’s powerful teacher’s union) Elba Esther Gordillo on embezzlement charges. Since then, a Mexican judge has ordered her to stand trial after assessing the government’s case against her. The same judge also ordered her to stay in prison while the trial proceeded. As if things could not get worse for Gordillo, she appears to have been abandoned by the party she helped create (the New Alliance Party or PANAL) as well as the SNTE itself, who moved quickly to find her replacement in Juan Diaz de la Torre. Dias de la Torre, who failed to mention her even once in his first speech as the new leader, also announced that the SNTE would no longer oppose the constitutional education reforms passed by Congress. This is good news as it will give the reforms a greater chance of passing once the supplementary bills are drafted and approved.

In my last article, I also questioned whether or not Peña Nieto and the PRI would stop at Gordillo or choose to prosecute other prominent union leaders. Both the conservative PAN (National Action Party) and the left-wing PRD (Party of the Democratic Revolution) have called for Peña Nieto’s government to go after the head of the oil worker’s union, Carlos Romero Deschamps. However, Attorney General Jesus Morillo Karam has said the government is not pursuing an investigation into Deschamps at this time despite Peña Nieto himself warning his party that “there are no untouchable interests” in Mexico.

All of this does not mean that President Enrique Peña Nieto’s campaign to reform the PRI and prove to the Mexican public that his party is indeed different has ended. If anything, it has picked up momentum. Last Monday, Peña Nieto unveiled a plan to reform the telecommunications sector of the country, which is criticized for being dominated by a handful of major companies. These reforms would raise or eliminate limits on foreign investment, create two new national television channels, and form a new independent regulatory commission à la the FCC here in the United States. This new commission would have the power to unilaterally punish non-competitive practices while a second independent commission would have the power to order firms to sell off their assets to reduce their market dominance.

The reforms do not stop there. They require TV networks to provide their programming free to most cable operators and said operators must carry all broadcast channels. They also allow for foreign firms, currently banned from radio and TV broadcast, to have as much as a 49% stake and allow for total foreign ownership of all telecommunications and satellite TV services.

All of these changes and reforms to telecommunications will pit Peña Nieto and his administration against the richest man in the world: Carlos Slim. Slim, whose Telmex controls 80% of Mexican landlines and 70% of the mobile phone market, has initially been open and welcoming of the reforms. The proposal of the reforms appear to have been born out of a pact made between the three major political parties in Mexico and have some saying that Peña Nieto is the first Mexican president since Carlos Salinas to exert such executive power.

President Enrique Peña Nieto does not appear to be the only one pushing reforms in Mexico, at least within his own party. A day before Peña Nieto announced to the country his telecommunications reforms, the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) voted to alter its platform in order to allow for private investment in the oil industry. This could result in a possible overhaul of the state-owned petroleum company PEMEX, an overhaul that Peña Nieto has been advocating for a long time in order to end PEMEX’s monopoly on oil production while preserving its state-owned status.

In order to cover the projected loss in government revenue from such a move, members of the PRI also unanimously voted to remove their opposition to raising food and medicine taxes. These changes in the PRI are quite ironic considering the same PRI had voted against them when proposed by the ruling PAN between 2000-2012. These proposed changes will also pit Peña Nieto and his party against the left of Mexican politics, who see PEMEX and its state-owned status as a source of national pride and do not want to see it become compromised to foreign investment.

Two weeks ago marked President Enrique Peña Nieto’s first one hundred days in office and boy what a hundred days it has been for him and the country. If I were to ask my parents if they ever thought they would see a day where the PRI would be the party prosecuting the powerful union leaders, pushing through much-needed educational and telecommunications reforms, or even suggesting a break-up of the petroleum monopoly, they would look at me like I was loco. But fortunately for myself, my parents, and many other Mexicans, this is the reality we are facing. And as surprising or farfetched as it may appear to many, the PRI has realized that Mexico is on the verge of becoming a major economic player on the world stage and it can no longer be the ones getting in the way of our country reaching its full potential.

This post reflects the author’s personal opinions, not the opinions of Arizona Model United Nations.

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That Shirt Looks a Little Weird

March 20, 2013 in Articles, Asia

By Aniket Maitra

Walking through the streets of any major city in India, you will notice that shirts have a lot to say. They may say ridiculous things like “take me home with you, I’m single” and even the most profane phrases that could not be said on most airwaves in the English-speaking world. Some of the T-shirts even have top brand names written all over the shirt. Nike, Adidas, Reebok….. there’s no end to the list. But perhaps you’ll notice something interesting about the shirts that you’ve always noticed. The Nike sign seems a little too curved. The Adidas sign is backwards. And perhaps the Reebok sign doesn’t even look like Reebok logo. All these shirts are worn by the driver of the smallest auto rickshaw to the vendors on the street.

The world of ideas today has produced imitation products of all sorts. This is not an uncommon story in a country where most people probably can’t afford Nike shirts or Reebok shoes to go with a typical outfit. But it’s produced a completely new consumer market whose implications should be looked at a little closer.

While the world of Nike factories might be well-known in the news for exploitation of labor in countries in Southeast Asia, China, and Mexico, their products have moved beyond that into a market system that has been created solely by brand consumerism. While perhaps involving labor violations, these name-brand imitation shirts are the ultimate source of revenue for street vendors in places like India whose customers appear to care about the brand but not exactly where the shirt came from or whether it’s actually an original.

The list never seems to end with this story. We all know that Rilex is a brand name watch company and so is Adibas in the trade of sportswear but did we really think there would be Facebook bags? Apparently, these items and watches made by none other than BNW are the norm.

Interestingly, next to some of these stalls are A/C-running and glass-doored authorized Reebok and Adidas outlets in many urban areas. They carry pants, jackets, and shoes that can be bought at standard prices that would be charged in the U.S., UK, or Hong Kong. It appears that the fake and real while competing simultaneously for customers are competing for two different consumer groups. 

This explains why fearing the entry of Wal-Mart into a country like India shouldn’t really be feared. Wal-Mart will perhaps never eliminate local vendors in India because those that go to Wal-Mart shop elsewhere in the Indian economy anyway. Tea stalls won’t have to relocate to a coming Starbucks because the college students drinking at Café Coffee Day (an Indian coffee shop chain) aren’t going to drink street tea but the patrons that always come will keep coming regardless of the globalized franchises appearing. This phenomenon also explains the role that corporation have taken in many countries. While considered a mediocre eatery in many parts of America, McDonalds is a fairly fancy sit down restaurant in India.

Perhaps we should take a look at the way globalization is shaping these corporations and sometimes look at the way they are being shaped by the country and how they are shaping the countries as well, sometimes even, for the better.

 

This post reflects the author’s personal opinions, not the opinions of Arizona Model United Nations.

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Introducing Pope Francis I

March 19, 2013 in Latin America, The World Today

Image Courtesy Reuters

By Elise Zimmerman

The Catholic Church’s new pope is, for the first time in history, from the Americas. After a brief, two-day Conclave, 76-year-old Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires was announced as the new leader of the faith. Pope Francis I, as he has chosen to be called, has been described as moderate, monk-like, and diplomatic. According to Reuters, he led a simple life, utilizing public transportation and residing in a simple apartment outside of Buenos Aires before moving to the Vatican.

Bergoglio is the first pope to come from the Jesuit order. After becoming a priest at the age of 32, he rose quickly among the Jesuits in his area, serving as their leader from 1973 to 1979. In spite of his success within the church, the new pope’s first years in power were marked also by Argentina’s “Dirty War” and military dictatorship.

As is common for those active in the church during the dictatorship, Bergoglio has received criticism for his failure to condemn the heinous crimes and human rights abuses that were common at the time. Despite Bergoglio’s public apology for the crimes committed during the dictatorship, Argentine journalist Horacio Verbitsky has suggested that Bergoglio downplayed the church’s collusion during the war.   

Perhaps more serious, allegations have been made about Bergoglio’s involvement in the 1976 kidnapping of two Jesuit priests in Buenos Aires. According to another expository article by Verbitsky, the then-leader of the Argentine Jesuits approved the abduction of the bishops, who he believed were too progressive. Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics, the victims, were found five months after their disappearance, reportedly drugged and half naked.

Years after the end of the Dirty War, tension continues to follow the new pope. Since the beginning of the Kirchner administration in 2003, the relationship between Argentina’s federal government and Bergoglio has been strained. Beginning with the description by Bergoglio of the government’s “exhibitionism and strident government ads,” the rift between church and state only grew larger due to notable differences in values.

Tensions appeared to settle when the presidency was passed to the late Kirchner’s wife and current president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. However, the two sides clashed once more over the passage of same-sex marriage in July 2010. Shortly before the bill’s passage in congress, Bergoglio published a letter condemning the initiative. The letter was met by a response expressing alarm at the archbishop’s interpretation of the issue as a moral dilemma, rather than a “reality that is already.”

It appears some progress has been made, however, as the new pope entertained President Fernandez Monday, holding his first audience with a head of state. Ceremonial visits aside, there is still much to be desired in the relationship between Argentina and the new leader of the Catholic faith.

Despite the mounting criticism, Pope Francis’ history represents many of the themes faced by Latin Americans today: nations struggling to properly address the atrocities of abusive dictatorships, modernization versus traditional views of social issues, and the role of Catholicism in each nation are all relevant now both in Latin America and the Vatican.

This post reflects the author’s personal opinions, not the opinions of Arizona Model United Nations.

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Preparedness Level: Kim Jong-un

March 18, 2013 in Asia, The World Today, United States

AP Photo/The Santa Maria Times, Daniel Dreifuss

 

By Stewart Benson

In response to Pyongyang’s recent daring threats against South Korea and the United States, recently appointed Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced a $1 billion deployment of ballistic missile interceptors along the Western coast of the United States. The deployment is a clear indication that North Korea’s young leader, Kim Jong-un, is becoming increasingly unstable and without China’s normal restraint. After China helped draft a Security Council resolution enacting even tougher sanctions on the already impoverished country, the relationship between the two can only be described as severely frayed. The number of interceptors in Alaska and California will increase from thirty installations to forty four, and will be completed by 2017.

 Senior Obama Administration officials have acknowledged that part of the reason of deployment has been the severity of the North’s threats, but also because China seems to be losing control of its once strong ally. In the past, any provocations of the North would be handled accordingly by leadership in Beijing, making sure things did not become out of hand. After the Security Council resolution was approved, and general discontent among the Chinese towards their North Korean neighbors has become vocalized, the increasing isolation has led to the present case of belligerence.

 The installations have been called as a reminder to the world that the United States will stand firm against aggressors towards the homeland and their allies. The threats of North Korea breaking a long-standing cease-fire with South Korea and of a pre emptive nuclear strike has propelled the U.S. to develop a ‘two-tiered’ response to any North Korea threat. Admiral James Winnefeld Jr., the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has described this system as one where the U.S. has the deterrence capability for any North Korean strike, but if they do commit a strike, then serious costs will be put upon them. While worded in generalized terms, this warning suggests that North Korea would be sufficiently disabled from performing any military action in a time of war with the United States.

 The antimissile systems will also serve other purposes. The Senate Armed Services Committee has stated that they will also be needed to not only successfully deter North Korea, but also the growing threat of Iran’s nuclear program. However, the reliability of these interceptors has been in question. Administration officials and members of Congress are wary of pouring additional funds into these programs, which have only proven a success rate of around fifty percent. The Pentagon has stated that the new antimissile systems will have to prove reliability before they are deployed. They will stick with their ‘fly before we buy’ approach and cited a successful launch in late January. However, Congress is adamant that the systems need to be successful in order to avoid wasting taxpayer money. 

 In addition to the interceptors being deployed in the U.S., Patriot Missile batteries will be installed in South Korea and U.S. warships with ballistic defense capabilities will be stationed off the Korean Peninsula. The U.S. is also working closely with Japan in deploying missile-defense radar in the region. While it is hopeful that the recent North Korean provocations will be unfulfilled, the threats have clearly struck a nerve with the U.S. and its allies, the most severe in recent memory. 

This post reflects the author’s personal opinions, not the opinions of Arizona Model United Nations.

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“Silicon Savannah”

March 1, 2013 in Africa, The World Today

Photo from Newsweek Magazine

By: Razanne Chatila

A new industry has hit Africa. The mobile phone market in Africa is the fastest-growing in the world and for many industries it is being considered as the “last frontier with the potential for unlocked riches and luring global interest.” However, this is not a sure golden ticket to success but rather many industry leaders and analysts stated there are two important challenges they face. These include lowering prices for handsets and services and boosting a patchy network.

Nonetheless, the use of this technology is booming across the continent especially as landline networks are poorly developed and many individuals rely on mobile phones for financial transactions or to link to the Internet. Global consultants PwC said the number of mobile telephone subscriptions in Africa exploded from 16 million in 2000 to 246 million in 2008 and is more than 500 million now, with estimates of 600 million subscribers by 2016. To profit from cheaper calls many Africans have two SIM cards, which can change the data on the estimates of who actually has a mobile telephone.

Getting more mobile phones to individuals is what Chinese manufacturer Huawei did. Just this month they launched a new smartphone adapted for Africa called the 4Africka that runs on Microsoft’s Windows phone operating system with a four-inch screen.  The phone is expected to sell for less than $200 and is going to be launched in Angola, Egypt, the Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa within the next month. The total investment in fixed and mobile networks in Africa according to PwC  is expected to rise from $78.8 billion in 2008 to $145.9 billion by 2015.

It is beyond just having a means of communication but in many rural areas it has become a tool. In Uganda, banana plant farmers use their mobile devices to track crop disease and communicate the latest scientific facts to other farmers. New companies are also developing applications specifically geared to the needs of that region such as agriculture focused apps. Although, Africans have never been avid telephone users and with most Africans living on $2 a day or less, many corporate investments in cellular networks far outside the more prosperous cities and towns saw this region as too poor. But the lack of resources is not stopping many citizens or companies from capitalizing on this new opportunity.

The Kenyan company Safaricom introduced M-KOPA, which is program that offers simple solar lighting equipment and a pay-as-you-go SIM card. Customers have one year to pay for the package, and after that they have free solar electricity. This allows over 80 percent of Kenyans to be able to charge their phones and still be able to afford lighting their homes. These innovate approaches are what is needed for this region. It is not a matter of not having the means to be technologically advanced, but rather it is about adapting this to the capabilities and resources of Africa. Communication is essential for development and these new technologies could be the pathway to a more prosperous future for many. 

 

This post reflects the author’s personal opinions, not the opinions of Arizona Model United Nations.

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Mexico’s New War

February 28, 2013 in Articles, México

Courtesy of Reuters

Mexico’s next conflict will not be waged in some far away land or against the Zapatistas in the south of the country. Instead, this new war will be fought in the courtrooms. With the ongoing battle against organized crime and drug kingpins waging in the background, President Enrique Peña Nieto today declared war on syndicalism in Mexico when authorities arrested Elba Esther Gordillo at an airport outside Mexico City.

Ms. Gordillo, who has been the head of the country’s most powerful teachers’ union for over twenty years, has been accused of embezzling more than $153 million in union funds that have gone towards her lavish style: plastic surgery, designer clothes and bags, a private jet, and even houses in California. Jesus Murillo Karam, Mexico’s Attorney General, said the arrest was a result of an investigation that begin in December that looked into money laundering from 2008-2012.

This move, which has sent political shockwaves through Mexico, comes on the heels of the signing by President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico’s biggest and most sweeping constitutional educational reforms in seventy years. After receiving approval from congress and a majority of the states’ legislatures, the reforms will create a system of standards for hiring and promoting teachers based on merit and will also allow for the first-ever census of Mexico’s schools and teachers. Further reforms include extending learning hours in over forty thousand schools, raising the completion rate for middle schoolers to 80% and 40% for high schoolers.

Education in Mexico had been under the firm control of the most powerful union in Latin America: the National Union of Education Workers or SNTE. Under the SNTE, which was headed by Elba Esther Gordillo until her arrest, teaching positions could be sold or inherited, thousands of phantom teachers were on the federal payroll, and teachers were personally hired at times by Ms. Gordillo herself. With the new reforms in place, much of the control of the public education system will return to the federal government.

Not surprisingly, Ms. Gordillo was very against the president’s educational reforms. Despite originally being a voice for educational reform, she has ran unopposed for years and turned herself into the SNTE’s ultimate leader, consequently transforming the union into a vital voting bloc that president after president sought after. Affectionately called “The Teacher,” she had vowed to fight the reforms and even mobilized the members of her 1.5 million-member union into mass demonstrations against it in a futile attempt to derail them.

Is this a sign that Enrique Peña Nieto has decided to take on the old school political bosses that have reigned untouched for decades within his own party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), to prove he is serious about distancing himself from its past while restoring power and confidence in the presidency? Or is this just a simple case of Mr. Peña Nieto targeting a political enemy to help push through his reforms?

The answer will be found in whether or not President Enrique Peña Nieto chooses to ignore or heed the call by leaders of the National Action Party (PAN) to continue to go after these union bosses. In a statement, the PAN has already called for Mr. Peña Nieto to target Carlos Romero Deschamps. Deschamps, who is the head of the powerful oil-workers union, has also been in power since the 1990s and has also served as a political kingmaker in the past. The president also vowed during his campaign to privatize Mexico’s national oil company, PEMEX, so any efforts to do so or reform it might also result in the persecution of Mr. Deschamps.

The eyes on an entire nation will be on the courtroom where not only will Elba Esther Gordillo be tried, but the future of Mexican politics will be shaped. It is said that Ms. Gordillo will not go down without a fight and will be using her wealth and political influence to build her case and cause havoc for the government.

In the meantime, President Enrique Peña Nieto has stated that the inquiry will continue to the very end with full adherence to the law. “The resources of the unions are for the members, not their leaders,” he said in a national address to the nation. Without directly mentioning Ms. Gordillo, he followed up by saying that the case is strictly legal and that he had ordered due process and human rights to be respected. “No one is above the law.”

This post reflects the author’s personal opinions, not the opinions of Arizona Model United Nations.

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A heavy hand remains in Quito

February 26, 2013 in Latin America

Image Courtesy Getty Images

By Elise Zimmerman

With well over half the ballots counted, President Rafael Correa of Ecuador declared his third presidential campaign a victory early last week. Correa, who has been in power since 2006, will now likely be the country’s longest-serving president to date. With a reported 57% of the votes going to the incumbent, it appears that the vast majority of Ecuadorians are pleased with their leader.

Several factors have been attributed to Correa’s success in the public eye. Criticized by some, his nationalist policies have kept extra profits from skyrocketing petroleum prices within the country, providing additional money for public spending. Under Correa, Ecuadorians have seen improvements in schools and hospitals, a minimum wage that has grown past rates of inflation, and social policies meant to assist the poorest citizens economically.

While these successes during, as Correa describes it, the “citizens’ revolution” provided some sense of security going into the campaign, the president attempted to up his chances of reelection by playing both sides of the media. According to the Washington Post, the Ecuadorian government owns “five television channels…four radio stations, two newspapers and four magazines.” These, as well as a law giving him the right to airtime whenever he chooses, were used to blast pro-Correa propaganda all campaign long. Meanwhile, Correa spoke out against private media outlets throughout his bid for office, going so far as to close eleven radio stations whose coverage he disagreed with. With supporters distrustful of private media opinions, Correa’s other campaign tactics went largely unchecked and included aggressive statements about the policies of his opponents.

Poor strategy on the part of these opponents also assisted Correa in his victory. The seven other candidates in the election split the remaining votes among themselves, giving the next runner-up in the election a significantly weaker 22%. In speeches, many challengers chose to discuss the failures of Correa’s economic policies, which are generally well liked by Ecuadorian citizens. It wasn’t until the weeks leading up to the campaign that the more negative aspects of Correa’s presidency were addressed. When they did address the issues of high crime rates, Correa’s intolerance of criticism and other abuses of power, his opponents failed to make compelling arguments, likely due to Correa’s tendency to attack political critiques with personal insults.

Despite his questionable methods, Correa also secured power for his Alianza País (AP) party in this election. By manipulating voting districts and changing the way assembly seats are distributed, Correa’s party now holds 70% of the seats in congress. The combination of the AP’s legislative super majority and Correa’s near-absolute authority as President are drawing many comparisons to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. While illness has forced Chavez to relinquish his role as the symbol of left-wing Latin American politics, it appears Correa is here to fill that void.

This post reflects the author’s personal opinions, not the opinions of Arizona Model United Nations.

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Cyber Wars

February 25, 2013 in Asia, The World Today, United States

Martin H. Simon/Pool via Bloomberg

By Stewart Benson

The Cold War may be over, but it looks like another type of “cool” war is brewing between the United States and China. Instead of the buildup of nuclear weapons as a form of deterrence, the two prefer the use of cyber attacks by hacking groups. Last week, the Obama administration sent a confidential list of computer addresses to U.S. internet providers who have stolen data from American Corporations. These addresses are all linked to a specific hacking group in China: the Chinese military’s cybercommand. The fact that all of these attacks from China are coming from one source, connected to the military and government, is a very troubling find for the United States. China has repeatedly denied issuing state-sponsored cyber attacks, however the evidence points that not only is the military behind the latest attacks on American corporations and even The New York Times, the hacks are being traced to a specific address in Shanghai. Confronting China over the attacks is a sticky situation for President Obama; how do you threaten such an important trading partner and, technically, your bank?

The Obama administration had previously kept the source of the cyber attacks a secret to the nation’s internet providers and to those affected because there is still a question on what should be the correct course of action in confronting China. In the latest State of the Union Address, President Obama spoke on foreign countries stealing American corporate secrets, but avoided mentioning China by name. He also said these enemies were conspiring to sabotage our power grid, financial institutions and air traffic control systems. There is sensitivity in Washington over outright accusing the Chinese of issuing the cyber attacks; perhaps there is worry that the Chinese will become even more defensive and perhaps nationalistic, making future talks uncomfortable and unproductive. However, Attorney General Eric Holder as well as members of the House Intelligence Committee are backing confrontational approaches to the Chinese, saying it is without a doubt the Chinese are behind the hacking.

One way in convincing the Chinese to stop the attacks is the toll the espionage is taking on American global firms. Over the last several decades, these multinational corporations have forged a strong economic relationship with Chinese firms, resulting in trade priced at $425 billion in goods last year. It could be very effective to tell the Chinese that continued attacks will erode their alliance with the American business community, hurting not only the U.S. but the Chinese as well. American officials have said that in the next few months, private warnings will be issued to many Chinese leaders, including new president Xi Jinping. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon and Secretary of State John Kerry will be making trips to China to further cement these warnings, hopefully convincing the Chinese that more attacks on American global firms will undermine the special U.S.-China economic relationship.

There are only a few ways to deter cyber attacks by another country, and the U.S. is facing the problem of choosing the best course of action. The Chinese have been aiming at American commercial targets, such as plans for aerospace design and wind-energy products, and American officials have demanded that these need to end. But in what way do we convince the Chinese? As of now, the only way to end cyber attacks is either through negotiations, economic sanctions or cyber counterattacks. If an attack is made on American infrastructure or another massive American institution, then counterattacks should be ordered. However, that has not yet come to fruition, thankfully. According to Robert Hormas, the under secretary of state for business and economic affairs, convincing the Chinese  that future attacks will hurt their hopes for economic growth is the best choice. Hopefully negotiations will be successful, but you can be sure that the debate over retaliation to cyber attacks is just beginning in Washington.

This post reflects the author’s personal opinions, not the opinions of Arizona Model United Nations.

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Numbers illustrate a brewing problem in Africa

February 22, 2013 in Africa, The World Today

Photo from Deutsche Welle News

By: Razanne Chatila

Africa has taken second place in the worldwide trafficking and consumption of illicit drugs. Drugs take a heavy toll on Africans. According to UN statistics,  37,000 people in Africa die annually from drug-related causes, with estimates of over 28 million drug users. Chief of drug prevention and health branch at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Gilberto Gerra, said the reason for this rise of illegal drug consumption is the result of political instability and loose borders.

To address this problem a two-day, international conference in Kampa took place this week.  At the conference, young people in consumption countries were identified as the most vulnerable population falling victim to drugs with the lure of fitting in or having a better a life with each drug they take.

Just last month, the West Africa Commission on the Impact of Drugs on Governance, Security and Development was launched by the former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the Kofi Annan Peacekeeping Center in Accra, Ghana. Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, was appointed to serve as its chair. Some of the goals of this commission include: developing evidence,  based policy recommendations,  public awareness and political commitment, and promoting local and regional solutions to deal with drug trafficking.

In regards to this new commission, Obasanjo said,  “The trade in illegal drugs has already caused devastation in other regions of the world. We must all work together to prevent West Africa from experiencing the same fate. The Commission looks forward to its urgent and important work.”

Although globally, illicit drug use has remained stable in five years according to the World Drug report, the problem still remains large. Governments in countries all over Africa voiced their concern for this issue and protecting their most vulnerable, the youth.

With West Africa’s weak borders, according to Gerra, drug cartels from Colombia and Latin America have chosen to use these locations as gateways to reach Europe, which has increased significantly in recent years. In an article by All Africa news, it was reported that since 2008 the volume of cocaine transiting through West Africa was about 50 tons a year, an estimated $2 billion annually. They also stated that nearly 50 percent of cocaine, or about 13 percent of all global flows, is now believed to be smuggled through West Africa. The reason for this is due to West Africa’s geographical proximity to European markets that make it strategically well-located for drug-smuggling purposes and with the lack of strong government control of its borders, this area has quickly flourished to a drug transit hotspot.

With 70 percent of the sub-region’s population under the age of 35, the vast majority has limited access to education and large portions are unemployed. The lack of opportunities or reliable income put most individuals in a risky situation. Drugs offer a means of escaping difficult and desperate circumstances and a ticket for securing an income. However, not only do alternate livelihoods need to be provided for these populations, but more drug education needs to be taught in schools to educate the younger population of what these “golden tickets” really mean and what effects it can truly have on their lives. 

 

This post reflects the author’s personal opinions, not the opinions of Arizona Model United Nations.

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