Alliance with an 145;a146;

Let's just say L.K. Advani8217;s visit to the US did not make headlines. Amid the general indifference in the US media, the lone analysis p...

Let8217;s just say L.K. Advani8217;s visit to the US did not make headlines. Amid the general indifference in the US media, the lone analysis put out by VILLAGE VOICE rang out loud and provocative. The Indian Deputy PM8217;s three days of talks could herald a huge shift in the 8216;8216;geostrategic tectonic plates of Asia8217;8217;, it said.

For the US and India this time, the issue wasn8217;t just Kashmir, but something 8216;8216;much grander8217;8217;. The two countries share an interest in Pakistan but, more importantly, 8216;8216;a shared uneasiness, if not downright fear8217;8217; of a China aspiring to be 8216;8216;regional hegemon8217;8217;. These common interests have been discussed, it said, by senior advisors to the Indian government and the Pentagon in Washington last month. 8216;8216;More precisely 8230; the discussions were about setting up a formal defense alliance between the United States and India that would be open to other western-aligned East Asian countries such as Singapore, South Korea and perhaps Japan.8217;8217; It could be broadened to take in Israel and Turkey and possibly some Arab states, such as Oman, Bahrain, and Qatar.

Not everyone in Washington believes such a pact is on the anvil though. Teresita Shaffer at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, for instance, was of the view that the Bush administration would not be interested in a 1950s NATO-like arrangement. It may go in for an alliance with a small 8216;a8217;, she said, but not with a big 8216;A8217;. But the analyst in VILLAGE VOICE was undeterred as he savoured the possible US gains from a grand alliance of the latter kind: 8216;8216;Elsewhere in Asia, the US is already well placed8230; it will be in a commanding strategic position in south and central Asia and on its way to being capable of reaching into the Chinese and Siberian north of the continent.8217;8217;

Uncle Sam, Unkind Sam

It was billed as International Fence-Mending Week. A time, in the ECONOMIST8217;s words, for 8216;8216;Putting the world back together again8217;8217;. But even as George W. Bush pumped hands in Europe and promoted his Road Map in the Middle East, a poll released by the Pew Global Attitudes project declared that the American president had an uphill journey ahead.

Conducted during May, the poll covered 16,000 people in 20 countries and the Palestinian Authority; eight of these countries were Muslim. It said that foreign approval for the US has plummeted after Iraq, particularly in the Muslim world. There, 8216;8216;the bottom has fallen out of support for America8217;8217;.

Writing in THE WASHINGTON POST, Harold Meyerson, editor at large of the AMERICAN PROSPECT, decoded the findings: 8216;8216;Unfriendly governments tremble anew at our armed might and our willingness to use it8230; But when it comes to our soft power 8212; our ability to persuade nations to work with us, to inspire their people to admire us and our social arrangements and ideals 8212; we have all but unilaterally disarmed. At least so long as George W. Bush is president.8217;8217; Respondents in 17 nations had said the problem with the US was 8216;8216;mostly Bush8217;8217; rather than 8216;8216;Americans in general8217;8217;.

Bush has clearly decided it is better for the US to be feared than admired, rued Meyerson. 8216;8216;Our greatest presidents haven8217;t viewed foreign relations as requiring this kind of trade-off8217;8217;.

Who8217;s ghost is the best?

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No, he didn8217;t mention Ram Gopal Varma8217;s Bhoot. But in THE NEW YORK TIMES, veteran movie-watcher Terrence Rafferty had a theory about Asian ghost stories. They8217;re the best, he said.

Because the cinemas of Japan and Hong Kong have a 8216;8216;surer, clammier8217;8217; grip on ghosts. Because the Asian ghost story has a distinguished lineage: serious filmmakers have worked in the genre 8216;8216;without shame and without a hint of condescension8230; it8217;s as if the filmmakers were discharging a solemn duty, honouring an obligation to the spirits they invoke8217;8217;.

Hollywood ghost stories are less ghostly because there is always a remedy that, once discovered, will keep the unwanted spirits at bay. But Asian genre pictures are willing to admit the possibility that spirits are simply with us, and there8217;s not much we can do to make them go away. 8216;8216;They8217;re not home invaders, crashing into our lives as western ghosts do; they8217;re just unannounced visitors 8212; people we forgot we8217;d given keys to8217;8217;.

Rafferty offered some clues to this difference. Perhaps it is because ghosts are primarily metaphors for the inalienable presence of the past, and so a culture in which tradition is seamlessly threaded into daily living would view the appearance of a ghost with less alarm. Perhaps the west just cannot summon the 8216;8216;contemplative fatalism8217;8217; that comes so naturally to the east, even now.

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Rafferty8217;s affectionate ode to the Asian ghost story walked the thin line between image and cliche and kept its balance. His obvious enjoyment of the genre rescued his analysis from rigging up that tiresome old encounter yet again: between Mysterious East and Modern West.

P.S.: His 8216;8216;poems8217;8217; are doing the rounds. And if you haven8217;t already savoured them all, here8217;s a tidbit from Pieces of Intelligence: The Existential Poetry of Donald H. Rumsfeld compiled and edited by journalist Hart Seely: In a June 2002 interview with THE WASHINGTON TIMES, the US Defence Secretary said: 8216;8216;The truth is, look/If something is going to happen,/ There has to be something/ For it to happen with/ That8217;s interested in having it happen.8217;8217; Truth may be beauty, but evading the truth can be downright poetic 8212; was NEWSWEEK8217;s comment on that verse this week.