Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obama. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Obama’s secret weapon!

Countries like Iran and India have strangely not realised the importance of Rahm Emanuel; it is time...

Rahm Emanuel is a name that irritates many more than it intended to in the first place; some say because the man shoots first and doesn’t even ask later. That Obama is using Rahm to straighten numerous issues in America’s foreign policy – be it for Afghanistan or Israel or Arabs – is now well known, but what might not be known is that it was William Daroff (who directs the Washington office of the United Jewish Communities or the UJC) who first called Rahm Emanuel “Obama’s secret weapon.”

For the uninitiated, ‘Rahmbo’ Emanuel began his political career raising money for several Democratic campaigns and later in 1991, became a fund-raiser for Bill Clinton’s Presidential bid. A few years later, in 2006, he was central in devising the Democratic takeover of Congress. Currently, Rahm is Obama’s Chief-of-Staff – a position widely accepted to be the second most powerful in the US government – and although Obama may not like the inference, Emanuel is believed to be the cerebral force and pusher behind Obama’s ‘do-everything-at-once’ strategy. From supporting and promoting Obama’s stimulus package plan, to helping overhaul the healthcare bill and getting it passed, Rahm has worked fanatically for most of Obama’s initiatives, lobbied with numerous research groups, fought for the bailout, the budget bill and much more, not just for the sake of the nation, but as Obama states, for a friend.

Both Obama and Emanuel’s political legacy can be found in Chicago. They have known each other since their early political career. But the truth behind their personal friendship perhaps became starkly clear to the world only after Obama’s official speech, which he gave after inviting Rahm to be the Chief of Staff this year, “I am pleased to announce that my good friend, Congressman Rahm Emanuel, has agreed to serve as my White House Chief of Staff... In just six years in Congress, he has risen to leadership, helping to craft myriad important pieces of legislation and guide them to passage... The son of an Israeli immigrant, Rahm shares a passionate love for this country, and has devoted much of his life to its cause... I appreciate his friendship. And I, and all Americans, should be grateful that Rahm is once again answering his country’s call.” It has been unprecedented for any past President of the United States to publicly accept his personal closeness at such levels to such a high member of the cabinet, and this at the danger of being accused of being nepotistic.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Sunday, October 28, 2012

ISRAEL: CONSENT BUILDING INITIATIVES

Israel is hell bent in changing its image in the global community and is taking up a new PR excersise

And if it still fails to convince the audience then blame the “terrorist” Hamas for the bloodshed. Above all, portray Israel as a victim of Hamas terror. The idea is to convince audience that Israel invaded Gaza to bring peace and prosperity in the region and dismantling of Islamist Hamas was a must.

Coming to Iran, Israel – a nuclear-armed country – is using every possible PR tools to mould world opinion, and encourage the US to destroy its nukes. And if it can’t do that Israel should be allowed to attack Iran. But there are roadblocks as public perception in the US and elsewhere is not in favour of another war. To overcome this perception the reports suggest to “Establish the connection between Iran and “Iran-backed Hamas” and “Iran-backed Hezbollah.”

But President Obama is understood to be extremely doubtful that Israel will honour its commitment over settlements. The report suggests a way out of this quagmire. It cites three ineffective arguments that Israeli officials often make in defence of settlements: the Religious Argument, the Ownership Argument and the Scapegoat Argument. The report tries to change this perception. It says: Continually establish the connection between Iran and “Iran-backed Hamas” and “Iran-backed Hezbollah.”

The fact of the matter is that Israel has always managed to sway the global media on its side. More often than not, only Israel’s side of the story is presented in the western press. And the irony is that many in the free Indian media republishes them without cross checking.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Tuesday, October 9, 2012

USA: OBAMA'S NEW TEAM

Obama's brigade promises a fresh perspective to the Middle East issue, but is treading on a difficult terrain 

Clinton also named former US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who negotiated the Dayton Accords to end Balkan Wars. Mitchell has been nominated as “special envoy”, while Holbrook bears the label “special representative”.

Even though Obama seems to have fallen very much to the contour held by the Bush government (considered pro-Israel) on the Palestinian issue, he appeared to demonstrate a better understanding for the predicament of the Palestinians and presented an uncommonly comprehensive sketch for securing the current Gaza armistice. Obama also expressed concerns over the widespread belief in US that only taking a “pro-Likud” approach can assure peace in west-Asia. Obama added, “One of the things that struck me when I went to Israel was how much more open the debate was around these issues in Israel than they are sometimes here in the US.” The choice of Mitchell conveys that US will be back as an honest negotiator in the Middle East conflict. But that does not necessarily mean that US will be an effective mediator, after all, soft power has its limits.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

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Thursday, August 9, 2012

Obama and the services of his lip

Rather, how his promises on human rights’ violations were lip service

2009 was been a busy year for all those who battled against human rights violations. Human rights activists were busy campaigning for a range of issues; from people harassed in places like Gaza and Sri Lanka to illegal prisons, genocides and bonded labour.

Amidst all these, there was a ‘ray of hope’ in the form of America’s new President. Obama’s promises like closing Guantanamo Bay’s prison, bringing peace in Central Asia, decreasing troops in Iraq, et al brought in some good news for the activists. But by the end of 2009, all this has turned out to be more or less a service of the lip. To worsen matters, many other human rights scandals like BlackWater (in Iraq), sexual harassments of Tamil women in refugee camps, debate over arrest warrant of Omar Bashir (the Sudanese president) and the recent news of resurfacing of ‘Blood Diamond’ activities have shamed the world. According to recent reports by various NGOs, blood diamonds are still trading freely and smuggling is quite rampant. Both Human Rights Watch and UN’s Kimberley Process want such countries to be suspended out of diamond trade; but unfortunately, no concrete action has been ordered so far.

While the beginning of 2009 gave some hope to human rights activists, they have found themselves back to square one in 2010 – rather, a few steps backward. Since no major breakthrough happened in 2009, the whole of 2010 will obviously be a busy season for both the activists and abusers. Issues regarding war crimes and illegal prisons will continue to be paramount. Even numerous pending and ignored cases at the International Court of Justice are expected to be closed due to huge media pressure.


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Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Birth rights of sperms & eggs

The debate on abortion has moved away from the empowerment of women to cutting religious propaganda

Of course, all this is not happening for the first time. Since time immemorial, a woman’s body has been the theoretical and unembellished territory for societal and political war. From the theoretical, scientific and religious end, there are numerous logical stages that define the starting point where ‘human life’ begins. Many schools of thoughts believe that sperms & eggs have life; and put them at par with humans, thus considering them as preconceived life. Many don’t! But almost all blocks ranging from political to religious are in some or the other form discussing the issue of abortion – or as the critics call it, immoral killing of a life. And that is where the whole debate on abortion starts, with opposing philosophies promoted by two schools of thought: Pro-choice campaigners (who demand a mother be allowed to choose whichever of the three options she might wish to undertake), as opposed by pro-life campaigners (who generally argue in terms of foetal rights rather than reproductive rights). The concepts of pro-life versus pro-choice are in general visible across the world, leading to starkly distanced abortion laws across the world – for example, if in Canada abortion is available ‘on demand’, then in a country like Nicaragua, abortions are illegal.

Since the last few decades, as per reports published by Guttmacher Institute, most of the decline in abortion rates occurred in countries where abortion had long been legal. Contemporarily, the highest rates of abortion have shifted to developing countries, which often have restrictive abortion laws. In countries like Thailand and Iran, after abortion restrictions were eased around 1997, unsafe abortions have slipped from 15 to 14 per 1,000 women, a big drop when seen demographically, given the fact that around 70,000 women die each year from unsafe abortions.

In the US, almost half of all pregnancies are unintended and thus four in ten of these end in abortions. The Bush administration had placed a ban on federal funding for international family planning programs that provide abortion information to clients. Obama, within a week of being sworn in, lifted the Bush administration’s ban. Obama further passed an executive order officially scrapping the Mexico City Policy (that ‘protected’ – or rather, restricted – taxpayers from involvement in overseas abortions for eight years).


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