|
Editorial
Mr. E.A.Vidyasekera*
************************
With this issue our magazine
“Development and Socio-Economic Progress” will undergo a
transformation. As we are living in an age of “Information
Technology”, more and more people use internet in their daily life.
Most of our friends and even AAPSO national committees use internet
and websites. Therefore we have decided with this issue to feed our
website rather than separately publishing the magazine. This serves
time and economise work. Interested readers can select the required
article from the issue in the website.
2008 will make a landmark event in
modern history of the world. In the first place, the disastrous
“Bush Era” will end, to the satisfaction of peace loving people in
the world. For the first time an African-American is in the lead for
the US Presidential election which will take place in November.
Hopefully if Barak Obama triumphs, it will be history in the making.
But will the policy of U.S. change
with the election of a Democratic candidate? It would be only
marginal. “These two parties do not represent “war” or “peace” but
only different electorates, different tactics, and are always at the
service of the multinationals. Hence it is not a republican but a
democrat, Harry Truman, who launched the war in 1950 against Korea
and China. It was not a republican, but a democrat, John Kennedy,
who started the war against Vietnam in 1961”. (Michel Collon)
In the Middle East both republican and
democratic are bent on controlling the oil resources for which the
U.S. would do whatever it could to keep their foothold. As for the
Palestinian Peace process, it is unlikely to be lifted to a level
where Palestinians will get their state. U.S. is committed to
support Israel whatever the latter does. Despite tall talk of human
rights, as regards the Palestinians, it operates in the breach.
The U.S. Russian relations too are in
disarray after the Georgian crisis. The U.S. armed Georgia to the
teeth which resulted the demagogic President Shakasvili of Georgia
launching a military campaign to recover the breakaway regions of
South Osetia and Abkazia. The adventure failed because of the
presence of Russian forces within the breakaway regions ultimately
leading to declaring them independent recognized by Russia and
several other countries. The Georgian military was completely
smashed but both the U.S. and the West blamed Russia as invader. If
the U.S. continue to rearm Georgia, it would be considered a hostile
act by the Russian. Under the situation there are talks about
another cold war. All this depend on what will take place after the
election of new president of the U.S.
The financial turmoil which started
with the collapse of the “wall street” had adverse effect throughout
the world. No country has escaped from its impact. Although China
and Russia were protected by a huge U.S. dollar reserves,
nevertheless with recession in the West it will affect the foreign
trade. Asia-Europe Summit in Beijing was convened to specially
discuss this issue and to take effective measures to restore
financial stability.
Added to the financial crisis is the
falling of oil price in the world market. For the non-oil producing
countries it may be a temporary boom but will not help to overcome
the effect of Western recession on their economies.
Under these condition, the whole world
is looking towards the outcome of the U.S. presidential elections
and the policy of the new president to remedy the disastrous
mismanagement of the Bush era.
-----------------------------
*Coordinator of AAPSO Secretariat
|
