Magic!

The Holocaust, the truth and the free mind

Charles Fried
The Boston Globe

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the egregious president of Iran, is hosting a conference this week on whether the Holocaust really happened. There are serious questions that someone with Ahmadinejad's hostile attitude toward the state of Israel might ask about the Holocaust — did it justify the settlement of its survivors in Palestine in the first place and has Israel misused the Holocaust to justify the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories? — but whether the Holocaust ever happened is not one of them. To even somewhat sensible, mildly educated people, Ahmadinejad's conference is like having a conference about whether the world might be flat after all.

Although Iran surely intends this as an affront to Israel and Jewish people everywhere — my family and I fled Czechoslovakia in 1939, leaving my grandparents and many relatives behind to die in Theresienstad and Auschwitz — the real victims of this minor latter-day outrage are the Iranian people and rational discourse everywhere.

What Ahmadinejad's conference proclaims is that truth has no place in the world of politics; that if your ends are just, you can say anything, no matter how far-fetched. Ahmadinejad tells us that his pursuit of advanced nuclear capabilities is for peaceful purposes only: power generation, medical applications and not as part of a weapons program. Why would a rational person put faith in any assurance from a man so contemptuous of truth or even think there is any point in negotiating with him?

But Ahmadinejad's tortured logic seems almost broad-minded compared with Turkey's stringent criminal prohibition on any suggestion that such a thing as its genocide of the Armenian people ever happened. Many brave Turkish writers and journalists have suffered persecution in recent times for proclaiming what no reasonable person would deny. Yet the Armenian genocide is as certain a historic fact as Hitler's European Holocaust, for which Ataturk's may well have served as a model and feasability study. (A recent brief, horrifying and thoroughly documented account can be found in Niall Ferguson's "War of the World.") Turkey and Iran turn truth into either a crime or charade.

And then there is the converse: What about countries like Canada and many in Europe that make it an offense to offer propositions derogatory of races or religions, or to deny the Holocaust, or proposed legislation in France that would make it a crime to deny the Armenian genocide. Here, too, the truth and how we come to know it suffers. States that forbid such palpable lies degrade the currency of truth as much as those who proclaim a lie as their national policy.

For in the end, the only way to bite the nickel to make sure it's genuine is in debate, assertion and counterassertion. That is the process in which extremists in Iran and Turkey are shown to be what they are — charlatans and liars. But states that shut down that process, even to inane propositions like Holocaust or Armenian genocide denial, debase the currency of truth every bit as much as their opposites. For in their zeal, they assign to themselves, to politics, and to official power (with its prosecutors, judges and jailors) an authority that can reside only in the forum of individual judgment and conviction.

There is such a thing as truth; that is why Holocaust deniers are fools or liars. But that is exactly why there can be no such thing as official truth — truth endorsed, policed and enforced by the power of the state. Truth is above politics, and judges politics, which is why politics has no authority to proclaim it. Official truth is a contradiction in terms.

In one respect the Turks seem worse than the Iranians: They make it a crime to tell the truth, while Ahmadinejad claims to doubt what only a fool or scoundrel would deny. Because there is a truth about the Holocaust and Armenian genocide, this doubt is foolish, but that judgment is not a judgment of politics but of the free mind that judges politics.

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Copyright © 2006 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com

LCPL Daniel Smith stays in jail

Judge Banjamin Pozon refuses transfer to US Embassy

By: Alvin Murcia with Hector Lawas Tess Bedico, Cristina Lee-Pisco

NO GO — Senior Supt. Delvic Oreiro, Makati City jail warden in charge of the detention of US Marine Lance Corp. Daniel Smith, shows a copy of judge Benjamin Pozon’s decision denying a petition to transfer the convicted US Marine to the custody of the US Embassy. AFP US MARINE Lance Corporal Daniel Smith will remain at the Makati City Jail. Judge Benjamin Pozon yesterday denied for lack of merit Smith’s petition that he be transferred to the US Embassy while his conviction is being appealed. Pozon said Smith will stay in jail until the Philippine and US governments “shall have come to a binding agreement as to the proper facilities where the accused shall carry out his confinement or detention during his appeal.” With his ruling, the court junked the two “agreements” signed by US Ambassador Kristie Kenny, Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuno and Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez. Gonzalez said Pozon “was wrong” and that the US Embassy should have custody of Smith as provided under the Visiting Forces Agreement. The Justice chief said the judge’s decision had “ruffled” RP-US relations. Smith was recently sentenced to life imprisonment for raping a Filipino woman. His three other co-accused were acquitted. Pozon, however, insisted that Article V, Paragraph 6, of the VFA no longer applies since the court has rendered its judgment. “The custody of accused Smith by the US military authorities was terminated after the completion of the trial and rendition of judgment of conviction,” he noted. “The reason for this is that the US military authorities has no more obligation to make the accused available to the Philippine authorities or to this court for judicial proceedings after the trial had been completed,” he added. The judge said his decision to temporarily detain Smith at the Makati City Jail is in compliance with the provisions of the VFA, particularly Article V, Paragraph 10. “This court, in pursuance of the country’s obligation under the said treaty, did not commit Smith to the national penitentiary. Instead, this court temporarily committed him to the Makati City Jail pending agreement by appropriate Philippine Authorities and Unites States authorities on the facilities where the confinement or detention of the said accused shall be carried out,” he said. The court also ruled that the “agreement” to transfer custody to the US Embassy signed by the US Ambassador and DoJ officials is not binding. Pozon said only the President, or the Foreign Affairs Secretary, can enter into such an agreement. Gov’t to intervene Gonzalez, however, said the government will intervene to have Smith transferred to the US Embassy. Malacañang earlier concurred with the position of the VFA Commission that Article 5. Paragraph 10 of the treaty that the US Embassy should take custody of US servicemen who violate Philippine laws until the end of the judicial proceedings. Gonzalez said it is an “international obligation” of the Philippine government to intervene in the case in keeping with the VFA. But he said any government action would depend on the next step to be taken by the counsels of Smith. “The intervention there is once there is let’s say a petition for certiorari on the ground that the judge abused his discretion in refusing to surrender custody to the Americans when the judicial proceedings are ongoing…The lawyer of Smith could go to the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court,” he said. “When that is filed, the Department of Foreign Affairs can file a petition in intervention in favor of the position taken by Smith,” he added. The DFA said it is coordinating with the DoJ in coming out with a solution with which the Philippines can comply to the VFA provision. “The DFA will continue to explore remedies available in order for the Philippines to be in compliance with its treaty obligations,” DFA spokesman Eduardo Malaya said.

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'Banker to poor' receives Nobel Peace Prize

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on Sunday, saying he hoped the award would inspire "bold initiatives" to fight poverty and eradicate the root causes of terrorism.

Yunus, 66, shared the award with his Grameen Bank for helping people rise above poverty by giving them microcredit -- small, usually unsecured loans.

"I firmly believe that we can create a poverty free world if we collectively believe in it," Yunus said after accepting the prize at City Hall in Oslo, Norway. "The only place you would be able to see poverty is in a poverty museum." (Watch Muhammad Yunus accept peace prize to standing ovation )

The Nobel Prizes, announced in October, are always presented in Oslo and Stockholm, Sweden, on December 10 to mark the anniversary of the 1896 death of their creator, Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist who invented dynamite and stipulated the dual ceremonies in his will.

The winners for literature, medicine, physics and economics will receive their awards later Sunday at a royal ceremony in Stockholm's blue-hued concert hall. Each award carries a purse of $1.4 million, a diploma and a gold medal. The first prizes were handed out in 1901.

This year's laureates include a novelist who explored Turkey's clash of cultures and American scientists who helped cement the big-bang theory of the universe and broke new ground in genetic research.

Yunus said ending poverty was the best way to fight terrorism.

"We must address the root causes of terrorism to end it for all time," he said. "I believe putting resources into improving the lives of poor people is a better strategy than spending it on guns." (Watch Yunus deliver acceptance speech )

Grameen Bank, set up in 1983, was the first lender to provide microcredit, giving very small loans to poor Bangladeshis who did not qualify for loans from conventional banks. No collateral is needed, and repayment is based on an honor system, with a nearly 100 percent repayment rate.

Yunus said the idea has spread around the world, with similar programs in almost every country.

Clad in a traditional Bangladeshi sleeveless jacket, Yunus accepted his half of the $1.4 million prize from awards committee chairman Ole Danbolt Mjoes.

Board member Mosammat Taslima Begum, wearing a traditional dress in red with a green shawl, accepted the other half of the award on behalf of Grameen bank, saying she dedicated it to all Bangladeshis.

Mjoes said the award was an outstretched hand to the Islamic world in an era where Muslims are often demonized because of terrorism.

"The peace prize to Yunus and Grameen Bank is also support for the Muslim country of Bangladesh, and for the Muslim environments in the world that are working for dialogue and collaboration," Mjoes said

Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk won the literature prize for a body of work that illustrates the struggle to find a balance between East and West.

U.S. researchers have long dominated the science awards, and swept them all this year for the first time since 1983.

The Nobel Prize in medicine went to Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello for discovering a powerful way to turn off the effect of specific genes. John C. Mather and George F. Smoot won the physics prize for work that helped cement the big-bang theory of how the universe was created.

Roger D. Kornberg won the prize in chemistry for his studies of how cells take information from genes to produce proteins, a process that could provide insight into defeating cancer and advancing stem cell research.

Economics winner Edmund S. Phelps was cited for research into the relationship between inflation and unemployment, giving governments better tools to formulate economic policy. The economics award is not an original Nobel Prize, but was created by the Bank of Sweden in 1968.

Pamuk, whose trial last year for "insulting Turkishness" made headlines worldwide, was honored for exploring "new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures." His novels include "Snow" and "My Name Is Red." The charges against Pamuk were eventually dropped.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Gloria under fire over failed summit

President Arroyo is facing growing criticism over the Asean Summit, which she cancelled at the last-minute on Dec. 8, raising questions about her handling of the event that the Philippines was to host Dec. 10 to 14.

This was the first time in the 39-year history of the Asean that a summit was scrapped.

Philippine officials on Sun-day said “most of the Asean countries are willing to accept” a rescheduled summit Jan. 10 to 13 next year.

Malacañang had insisted that a looming typhoon in the Pacific — and not planned street protests and reports from foreign governments about a pending terror attack — was the reason for pulling the plug on the high-profile event. (See related story)

But after the storm passed far from the summit site on Saturday, politicians, opposition groups and analysts blasted Mrs. Arroyo’s decision, which sources said was “unilaterally” made.

“It’s a sign of a weak government,” said Tomas Osmena, mayor of the city of Cebu, where the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit and a wider meeting of regional leaders had been due to begin on Sunday.

“We would not have cancelled it and we live here,” Osmeña told Agence France-Presse.

The abrupt cancellation, terror worries and other problems — X-ray security machines were covered in plastic bags to keep off rain dripping through the $10-million Cebu International Convention Center — have given her critics more ammunition.

“It’s brand-new and the roof is leaking,” said one official with the Asean business and investment summit held before the main events were cancelled.

“This will be remembered as the summit that failed,” the official added.

Asean groups Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Mrs. Arroyo had wanted to use the conference and its associated meetings to showcase the progress that the Philippines has made during her presidency, from 2001.

But critics say her report card is not looking good.

Poverty is still widespread with more than 40 percent of the country’s 84 million people living on less than two dollars a day, and her administration is regularly cited as one of the worst in the region on human rights. (See related story)

Just before the cancelled summit, Japan said it was concerned about the killings of left-wing journalists that have been blamed on the government, adding improvements on rights would be a condition for further aid packages.

“Mrs. Arroyo is not fooling anyone,” said Lidy Nakpil, an organizer of a series of protests by leftist groups that had been planned for the summit.

“Not even the Asean leaders would have believed her alibi of a typhoon,” Nakpil added.

The President earlier was harshly criticized over the convention center site, where squatter camps were bulldozed to make way for the summit — whose theme, chosen by Mrs. Arroyo herself, is “A caring and sharing community.”

Despite assurances from Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia that the building would be completed on time, workmen were still painting and decorating as local and foreign media moved in last week.

But the main source of public anger at Mrs. Arroyo was her decision last week to try to bypass the Philippine Senate as part of her unpopular plans to change the Constitution in what is seen as a way to solidify her power in office.

The proposal has triggered street protests, which include those from the powerful Roman Catholic church and other religious and business organizations, as well as broad civil society and social movements.

“Political noise in Manila over Mrs. Arroyo’s plans to change the Constitution might have played a part in the decision to cancel the summit,” said one delegate to the summit who asked not to be named.

Benjamin Diokno, a professor at the government-run University of the Philippines, said the President had been “scared of the mass action” that had been planned for the summit.

“Political survival for her comes first,” Diokno said.

“The weather was a good excuse,” he added.

Philippine officials also on Sunday proposed a new date next month for the aborted summit.

Some Asean members sent special planes to collect senior delegates after Mrs. Arroyo called off the event.

Lower-level officials had to scramble for airline seats out of Cebu over the weekend.

The city on the central island of the same name suffered only steady rain, which leaked through the roof of the convention center.

Announcement of the cancellation came a day after Britain, Australia, the United States and other nations warned against travel to Cebu, citing fears of a terrorist attack.

Foreign Affairs officials privately said the gathering had been scrapped because of those fears as well as worries about political protests against Mrs. Arroyo.

Marciano Paynor, the Philippine head of the summit organizing committee, said early indications are that majority of the Asean member-countries are open to the reset of the summit to Jan. 11-13 next year.

But Paynor added it is “quite possible” that the wider East Asia Summit — which groups the 10 Asean nations along with China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand and which was also cancelled — might not take place in January.

Asean also holds “Plus Three” meetings with China, Japan and South Korea during its annual summits but it was unclear what the new proposal was for those meetings.

Paynor said he was unaware of a report that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would be in Europe from Jan. 6-14.

Typhoon “Seniang” hit some parts of the Philippines, killing at least one person and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands, but the central Cebu region was virtually unaffected.

“We still feel that we made the right decision in consideration foremost of the safety of the delegates...,” Paynor said.

He added the proposal was for Asean foreign ministers to meet on Jan. 9 and heads of government on Jan. 11-13.

“These new dates have been forwarded to their respective capitals and we expect reaction to the availability of leaders to these specific dates by next week,” Paynor told a news conference.

“But our indications are that most of the Asean countries are willing to adjust and meet the main changes in the schedule for their respective leaders,” he said.

Paynor added member-countries may designate representatives to the rescheduled summit if leaders could not make it.

“Leaders are leaders and their calendars are always full,” he said.

Asean senior officials who draw up the agenda for ministers and leaders did meet in the past week, however, and summit spokesman Victoriano Lecaros said there would be no repeat meeting next month.

In addition to the summit, the formal meeting of the Asean foreign ministers was also postponed.

At a rushed dinner session Friday night, the ministers managed to sign four agreements to speed up economic integration.

A business forum on the sidelines of the main meeting also went ahead.

“Where others see a storm, losses and leaks we see the opportunity to improve ourselves and toughen ourselves more,” Garcia told the same news conference.

“Where others see a setback, Cebu moves on and moves forward,” she said.

Some locals were less upbeat about the cancellation.

“It would have been a big chance for the Philippines,” said Jonalyn Cacal, a security worker at the luxurious seaside Shangri-La Hotel, where disconsolate workers were on Saturday packing up the signs and banners meant to celebrate the summit.

On Dec. 9, or a day after the sumit was canceled, many Asean ministers, who were already in the country, snubbed a breakfast meeting hosted by Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo at the Shangri-la Mactan resort.

Aside from Romulo, only three foreign ministers — from Thailand, Brunei and Singapore — were present during the meeting.

Cambodia and Malaysia did not push through with their trip to Cebu after the cancellation of the summit while ministers from Laos, Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam reportedly left early to catch a flight home.

They sent their senior officials instead to represent them in the breakfast meeting.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso and Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing were also invited to the meeting but did not show up.

Philippine officials said the two ministers did not make it to the meeting due to conflict of schedule.

Dismissing reports that the Asean ministers and delegates were displeased with the Philippine government’s decision to call off the summit, Romulo claimed his counterparts who were present during the working dinner Friday night “expressed full support” to move the dates of the Cebu summits.

“They appreciated the concern the Philippine government has shown for the safety and welfare of all the participants,” he told a press briefing.

Romulo took the cudgels for Mrs. Arroyo, saying he was the one who recommended the suspension of the meeting, but did not make the final decision.

But sources said the President unilaterally decided to call off the meeting in anticipation of massive protests against Charter change. AFP and Michaela P. del Callar

The Daily Tribune © 2006

RP found most corrupt in Asia after Indonesia

THE Philippine government has failed to fight corruption, with lawmakers and the police perceived as the most corrupt, according to the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI).

The findings are contained in TI’s Global Corruption Barometer 2006 survey released Dec. 7.

The survey, which was done by Gallup International between July and September 2006 as part of its Voice of the People Survey, had 59,661 respondents in 62 low, middle and high-income countries.

The survey showed the Philippines ranking second in the Asia-Pacific region in corruption behind Indonesia (18 percent), followed by India (12 percent) and Thailand (10 percent).

In the survey, 16 percent of respondents who had had transactions in the Philippines admitted to paying a bribe last year, while 84 percent said they did not.

Thirty-one percent said government actions against corruption were "not efficient;" 24 percent said government "actually encourages it;" and 23 percent said government "does not fight it at all."

Only 13 percent said the actions were "efficient" and 8 percent "very efficient."

The police and the legislature were rated as the sectors suffering most from by corruption, followed by revenue-generating agencies and political parties.

On a scale of 1-5 with 1 as "not at all corrupt" and 5 as "extremely corrupt," respondents for the Philippines gave Congress and the police a 3.9 rating, or just one point shy of being "extremely corrupt."

Other sectors got the following ratings: taxation, 3.7; political parties, 3.5; military, 3.4; legal system, 3.4; business, 3.2; registry and permit services, 3.2; education. 3.0; utilities, 2.9; medical services, 2.9; non-government organizations, 2.6; media, 2.5; and religious sector, 2.1.

The respondents also said corruption affects mostly political life, business environment and personal/family life.

The same survey listed the Philippines as among 17 countries where between 16 to 40 percent of respondents reported having paid a bribe in the last 12 months.

The others were Bolivia, Congo-Brazzaville, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Greece, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Moldova, Nigeria, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, Senegal, Ukraine, and Venezuela.

Between 51 to 70 percent of respondents believed corruption has affected political life in the Philippines and 28 other countries "to a large extent."

The TI survey showed that in most cases, people tend to be very negative about their government’s attempts to fight corruption. It also showed that only one in five surveyed worldwide thinks that government is effective to some degree in fighting corruption while nearly two in five say their government’s anti-corruption drive is "not effective."

One in six surveyed globally also thinks that their government actually encourages corruption rather than fight it.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the TI survey is based on perception, which everyone is free to make.

"But definitely a country such as ours is trying to maintain the ability to be able to keep its ship of state upright and going in the (right) direction in spite of rough seas. Pero hindi naman siguro in the manner na pinapalabas nila na ang corruption is unabated," he said.

Ermita said there are government agencies such as the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission, Ombudsman, and Commission on Human Rights, to name a few, that are on hand to check corruption.

He said President Arroyo is naturally not pleased with the survey results.

Officials from the PAGC, Ombudsman, Presidential Commission on Good Government, Anti-Money Laundering Council, and the justice and foreign affairs departments are taking part in the UN convention against corruption in Jordan from Dec. 10 to 14.

COPYRIGHT 2004 © People's Independent Media Inc. Written by Regina Bengco