Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 12, 2008, Winnipeg, Manitoba C m y k Page 4 v new Winnipeg free press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol 136 no 331 a 10 Winnipeg free press sunday october 12, 2008 Winnipeg repress. Com Winnipeg free press editorial Board members Are Margo Goodhand Gerald flood Catherine Mitchell Tom Oleson Dave Obrien cartoonist Dale Cummings six month View from the West Archive available online at Winnipeg repress. Com � 2008 Winnipeg free press a division of up Canadian newspapers limited partnership published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Avenue Winnipeg Manitoba r2x 3b6, pm 697 7000 Bob Cox / publisher Margo Goodhand / editor submissions to the View from the West Are Welcome. Contact comment editor Gerald flood 697 7269 Gerald. Flood free press. My. Ca c old empty and Rich in fish and minerals the seas of the High North Are a tempting prize for a big confident country. Even before the startling news of Vladimir Putinas offer of a 4 billion euro $ 5.4 billion emergency loan to Iceland Russia had been beefing up its presence in a part of the world where the nato presence is fitful. Although american submarines still ply the Northern seas other nato vessels Are rarely seen. America bruised icelandic feelings when it pulled out of its Kef Lavik air base in 2006. The Kremlin by contrast commands a Cash pile of Over $ 500 billion and despite sagging markets in Moscow is Well placed to assist a country facing bankruptcy. Ice lands prime minister Geir Haarde said that apart from some support from nordic states he had received Little response to his appeals for help from Western countries. When our old friends did not help us we had to find new friends he declared. What Russia might want in Exchange is unclear. But it is unlikely to be nothing. That highlights worries elsewhere particularly in Norway where fighter jets scramble on average once a week to intercept russian warplanes buzzing close to their country. The Kremlin is aircraft and ships do not quite break International Law. But they commit what a senior official terms breaches of etiquette. These have included naval Maneu vers in the midst of nor ways Oil and Gas platforms in the North sea involving aggressive air sorties that grounded All offshore helicopter flights that was inconvenient expensive and dangerous. Also troubling was a mock bombing run against nor ways Northern command Center at Bodo and at least three other so far unpublicized incidents. Russian planes and ships May be old but training and Upkeep have improved and some of the weapons they carry Are increasingly modern such As a new Long Range cruise missile. Some think russian submarines in the North have been experimenting with the Shuval a super fast torpedo that gives Western navies the jitters. Russia is establishing a new reality in a strategically empty space says Jon Bingen a defence analyst in Oslo. Legal fuzziness increases russians room to manoeuvre. The Grey zone off the Northern tip of Norway is claimed by both countries. Another dispute is around the Island of Spitsbergen on which Russia has had mining rights since 1920. Norway says it owns the Continental shelf around it. Others chiefly Russia dont agree. Russia is prospecting for minerals beneath the seabed there. Norway objects to that and to russian trawlers sometimes Cavalier behaviour their on Board electronics can be unusual too. Norway is the Only old european nato member bordering Russia. Its military planners Are disappointed by their allies tepid response to russian provocation for instance when a rogue russian trawler briefly kidnapped norwegian fishing inspectors in 2005. At stake Are not just fish hydrocarbons and minerals melting ice Means that the Arctic once largely a dead end May become a strategic route to East Asia. How to Deal with Russia after its War with Georgia in August has become a key Issue for nato whose defence ministers met in Budapest on oct. 9. America wants the Alliance to drop its taboo on making contingency plans to defend members that feel threatened by Russia such As Estonia. Norway plays Down the threat of real conflict. Unlike some sex communist countries we Are not hysterical an official insists. Indeed neighbourly relations on Border controls and sea safety have survived russians freeze on military contacts with nato. A norwegian firm is weighing whether to help exploit the Shtokman offshore Gasfield a showcase investment project for the Kremlin. But even the most sanguine norwegian officials admit that the trajectory in Russia is worrying. Norway is quietly boosting defence cooperation with Sweden and Finland. And it Hopes to nato ize a big land sea and air military exercise next Spring named response. Just what that is responding to is left tactfully unclear. Russian Aid to Iceland worrying the economist c Canberra Stephen Harper Australia salutes you. As the Canadian prime minister prepares to face his political Fate next week australians would like him to know theress no hard feeling about plagiarizing that speech from our own former prime minister John Howard. Win lose or Hung parliament As outsiders in this contest we quite properly make no predictions about the outcome nor hint at any preference for Victory or defeat. But we would like the prime minister to know that All decent australians with a sound character solidly grounded in our largely Judaeo Christian based morality know full Well that ripping off other Peoples work is a National trait we not Only tolerate but have a quiet admiration for. And we also want Harper to know that As a mature nation we Long ago abandoned that old trick of connecting a righteous froth of moral indignation when we spot failings in others which so blatantly exist within ourselves. So rather than Stern lectures and censorious stares we tip our Beer Glass in your direction prime minister smile knowingly Over the rim give you an aussie Wink of approval and wish you a thoroughly non partisan Good Luck. For australians in truth have embraced plagiarism for More than 200 years with an almost hysterical Fervour found in few other human hives. We started Back in the 18th Century when we discovered a unique fully functional society of aboriginal inhabitants and plagiarized great Britain right Over the top of them. Architecture Law economics the Westminster system of government even the rail gauges All got downloaded straight from old blighty without so much As one attribution not one Lousy asterisk pointing to one Lousy footnote. Finding the warmth of the Southern hemisphere to our liking we settled into such a Blissful lethargy that we even Rouse ourselves to make up names for our towns. Aborigines who had conjured up gems As Wollongong and the truly magnificent Woy Woy which thankfully remain intact gazed on in embarrassed silence As we lazily hijacked Bedford Bexhill and Blackheath. And without so much As a mitigating Blush we brazenly slapped those gentrified rain soaked monikers on towns sitting As comfortably with their namesakes As a Kangaroo in st Paulus Cathedral. When it comes to naming states we should hang our Heads in a shamed silence As we Are confronted with the sheer criminal indolence of our stunted imaginations. While Canada is also culpable in this regard at least you people had the imagination to lift the Cree word for swiftly flowing River and give us the exotic Saskatchewan. We simply grabbed South Wales a Region bordered by England and the Bristol Channel threw a new in front of it and Hung it out front of our most populous state. New South Wales Given our blatant disregard for copyright Law we had a treasure trove of potential place names to plunder. Instead a largely tone deaf people in an almost permanently drought stricken land called themselves after a country whose chief claims to Fame Are the Treorchy male choir and rain. Heading farther South and West we merely plagiarized the Compass gorm Lessly muttering South Australia Western Australia Northern territory As we passed through. We plagiarized the English Flag into the top left Corner of our own Ensign then threw in a few stars to make it look like wed put in a genuine Effort and listlessly lifted god save the Queen for More than a Century and a half before rustling up our own National Anthem. The parliamentary Triangle in the National capital of Canberra is plagiarized from Washington while inside the parliament oppositions plagiarize government policies and vice versa. A succession of immigration ministers can thank Canada for an immigration policy partially lifted from our Commonwealth Cousin. Melbourne is Monash University vice Chancellor David Robinson quit his Post in 1992 after allegations he plagiarized material for a Book one of our More famous authors Helen Darville was dismissed As a newspaper columnist amid accusations of plagiarism. Last month opposition Treasury spokeswoman Julia Bishop plagiarized the Wall Street journal while explaining her backing of the u. S. Bailout of failing Banks. Twelve months before that then opposition Leader Kevin Rudd plagiarized the governments tax policy with the slightest of variations and went on to become prime minister proving the positive Power of plagiarism. University students plagiarize academics who plagiarize each other while newspaper journalists plagiarize the australian broadcasting commissions website which is occasionally a plagiarism of the australian associated press wire plagiarizing government press releases. Everybody plagiarized Wikipedia. Shell be right is a widely used australian phrase which roughly translated in this context Means dont trouble yourself everything will be Fine no one will notice. So or. Harper and your poor put upon speech writer Owen Lippert who must still be sitting in stunned Slack Jawed amazement that someone actually caught him out Shell be right. No one Down Here thinks any less of you and if they did they be genuine aussie patriots. Just one thing dont get caught next time break up the paragraphs and throw in a few adjectives of your own. Trust us were experts. Michael Madigan is the Winnipeg free press correspondent in Australia. He wrote about politics for the Brisbane based courier mail. Michael Madigan Shell be rights whats a Little plagiarism Between Commonwealth cousins u until the past few weeks of global turmoil africans Doughty band of boosters were feeling they at last had something to smile about. After four decades of political and economic stagnation that kept most of their 800 million Odd people in poverty and gloom the continents 48 sub saharan countries have been growing for the past five years at a Perky Overall rate of five per cent or so. If they maintain this Pace or even bump it up a bit Africa still has a Chance of taking off. Now with commodity prices Likely to fall world markets sure to shrivel and Western Aid set to plateau or even dip Africa though More isolated from the global Economy than other parts of the world is bound to suffer from its ill Breeze. But maybe not As badly. Once described by the economist perhaps with undue harshness As the hopeless continent it could yet confound its legion of gloom sters and show that its Oft heralded Renaissance is not just another false Dawn prompted by the passing Windfall of booming commodity prices but the Start of something solid and sustainable. Despite its manifold and persistent problems of Lousy governments and erratic climates Africa has a Chance of rising. Pessimists have plenty of evidence to Call on. There have been spurts of growth before especially when commodity prices have risen sharply. But when those prices have fallen growth has fizzled. Africans few recent successes tend to be set against a previous history of disaster. Ghana for instance is often cited As one of the most hopeful cases but at Independence in 1957 it was nearly As Well off As South Korea now despite its recent Bounce it is still some 30 times poorer in wealth per person. The Lively growth in several other hopeful spots for instance Mozambique Rwanda and Uganda must likewise be set against the horrors of their quite recent past. In fact the sole country in Africa with a record of consistently Strong political and economic Progress is Botswana. Many Basic indices remain grim. Africans lifespan is still declining owing largely to the Scourge of aids 60 per cent of whose worldwide victims Are african. A recent world Bank paper was guarded As to whether the african surge would last. Most of the quicker growth it notes is due to soaring revenues enjoyed by just eight sub saharan african countries blessed with Oil. A third of africans countries by far the highest proportion in any continent Are trapped in civil wars or cycles of violent unrest. The two biggest in area Sudan and Congo Are ravaged by strife and mis government. Zimbabwe once a jewel of Southern Africa is still a Nightmare despite a recent agreement to forge a government of National Unity. The world Bank paper bemoans africans standards of governance. Perhaps even More worrying in the past year or so three of africans leading countries have had heavy setbacks. Nigerians election was the shod Diest since the country is return to civilian Rule in 1999 Kenya East africans Hub succumbed to ethnic mayhem after a disputed poll and South Africa easily the sub saharan continents leading Power in every Way producing on third of its entire Gap has entered an ugly phase of politics authoritarian if not yet undemocratic just when it should be setting an example of tolerant pluralism to the rest of Africa. The recent violence against Black foreigners is a reminder that the Bottom third of South africans still face gnawing poverty. All the same the boosters Case is stronger than before. Political Freedom however Patchy is More common than it was a generation ago. Two thirds of african countries now limit presidential terms at least 14 leaders with a few bad exceptions have Felt obliged to step Down As a result. Multiparty systems however fraught Are More usual the notion of political accountability and Choice is More widely accepted. The Media partly because of the internet Are livelier. The latest Index of african governance funded by to Ibrahim a sudanese born telecoms Mogul suggests a general improvement. The presumption of state control under the Rubric of african socialism an illusory third Way has been junked. Most local leaders accept that Africa must join the global Economy to Prosper however shaky it looks right now. The Mobile phone revolution has hugely helped africans especially poor peasants and traders. Banking systems Are modernizing and mortgages More readily offered to an emerging Middle class. Businessmen around the world have been investing More especially in africans better governed countries. Even those that Lack natural wealth have grown a bit faster. The spectacular Advent of China into africans Market is on balance a Bonus. Another report co sponsored by the world Bank gently dissents from the certitude of the Washington consensus that pure free Markety could cure All and that Africa must just open up to Trade tighten its fiscal strings and sell off the state. One size in varied Africa does not fit All. The Rich world could for instance offer time limited Trade preferences. So Africa has a rare Chance to break out of its poverty trap. It would be hard even if governments were honest and efficient. Sadly most Are still not. Amid All the grim drawbacks of climate disease illiteracy and ethnic division bad and corrupt government is still by far the biggest. But the news Overall is Cheerie. And the Rich world troubled As it is must never give up in its Effort to help the poor one to stand on its own feet. The economist out of Africa some Good news Tom Hanson / the Canadian press archives Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper is greeted by then australian prime minister John Howard in Canberra Australia last year. A 10_ oct 12 08_ Grey. Ind b4 10/ 11/ 08 6 11 46 pm ;