Victory via Mars

Of course, this could be just an 8216;8216;election year head snapper8217;8217;. And yes, 8216;8216;Putting a man on Mars will not help find Osama bin Laden or his descendants8217;8217;. But where is the money coming from? And why has Bush called for new footprints on the moon only by 2015 and Mars after that? Did he set out to pass on the tough calls to a successor? Certainly, the technology will be a problem. And what about NASA bureaucracy?

Bush has set them talking about his 8216;8216;vision8217;8217; in Britain as well. The ECONOMIST announced its opposition to sending a man to Mars. Its view was that manned flights to the moon are expensive white elephants that do little to advance human knowledge. And only private enterprise will truly drive human expansion into space.

Meanwhile in Lebanon, columnist Rami G. Khourie was writing about the face-off in Iraq in THE DAILY STAR. Will the US give up its 8216;8216;slap-dash, quick-fix, made-in-one-weekend-in-Washington plan8217;8217; for transition to Iraqi sovereignty through appointed councils? Will it meet the increasingly vocal street-level demands to hold direct elections? In the end, 8216;8216;Even the man on Mars would probably agree8217;8217;, appealed Khourie. 8216;8216;A global power with the proven technological and political will to reach his home planet surely can organise an election among the citizens of the one country on the planet Earth that is most eager to hold a vote?8217;8217;

Destination Oslo?

Or maybe Bush could learn something from Vajpayee. India8217;s prime minister seems not to even need the last-minute Big Idea. 8216;8216;The prime minister8217;s stock is soaring8217;8217;, remarked the ECONOMIST. It harked back to that time in middle 2002, when India8217;s PM was being written off at home and abroad, and TIME magazine had declared him permanently 8216;8216;out to lunch8217;8217;. Now, at 79, 8216;8216;he is increasingly recognised as one of the world8217;s most surprising statesman8217;8217;. On the eve of general election, he is 8216;8216;confident of a victory that few analysts are yet prepared to question8217;8217;.

TIME was also prompted to take another look at Vajpayee8217;s BJP. It noted Vajpayee8217;s 8216;8216;enhanced stature8217;8217; and his party8217;s efforts to craft a 8216;8216;drastically new image8217;8217;. The party of moderation, economic growth, peace?

The new BJP talks economics and Vajpayee8217;s coalition has disappointed Hindu fundamentalists. It presides over a 7 per cent economic growth. And Vajpayee went to Pakistan. But, said the magazine, 8216;8216;the BJP8217;s attitude toward the Hindu right has been strategically ambiguous8217;8217;. In the accompanying essay, William Dalrymple warned that though the moderates like Vajpayee seem to be in the power seat for now, 8216;8216;far more extreme figures are waiting for their moment8217;8217; in the BJP. The 8216;8216;zealots, racists and ultra-nationalists8217;8217; are biding their time.

And in the WASHINGTON POST, columnist Jim Hoagland all but predicted an imminent trip to Oslo for India8217;s PM. 8216;8216;Shrewdness on the Indian side and desperation in Pakistan have come together to produce a potential Nobel Peace Prize for two uncommon leaders8217;8217;, he said. Vajpayee has seized the moment in Kashmir. Along with Musharraf, he has begun on a journey 8216;8216;that can change the world8217;8217;.

Antiwar capital

The NEW YORK TIMES reported that the 8216;8216;The loud answer to Davos, in Bombay this year, is antiwar8217;8217;. It noted that in addition to denouncing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the forum highlighted issues ranging from caste and gender discrimination to nuclear disarmament and rights of the disabled. Over six days, during which more than 80,000 people from over 100 countries took part, 8216;8216;hundreds of groups raised their voices in protest, if not always in unison8217;8217;.

The GUARDIAN also observed a shift in focus from the inequities of global capitalism. The agenda had 8216;8216;splintered8217;8217;, it said. But the paper took the plunge into the 8216;8216;colourful protests and intense discussions8217;8217; between participants 8216;8216;wide-ranging in their ideas, beliefs and origins8217;8217; and seemed to enjoy it. The WSF is gaining momentum, it said: About 50,000 people attended the WTO protest in Seattle in 1999, while at the three previous WSF gatherings in Brazil, participation was put at 20,000 in 2001, 55,000 in 2002, and 100,000 in 2003.

Veiled debate

And in Egypt, a stern rebuke for a debate that serves to mask another debate. The Arab Women8217;s Solidarity Organisation, in a statement published in the AL AHRAM WEEKLY, said: 8216;8216;It is a sign of political and economic helplessness, an indication of cultural deterioration and media impotence in our Arab countries, that the headdress should raise such fury; that Muslim scholars, politicians and media savants in Arab and Islamic countries should throw themselves into the debate with such abandon.8217;8217;

The organisation was referring to the unabated storm unleashed by the French president8217;s decision to ban the headscarf from public schools in France. It reminded those squalling over Chirac8217;s dictat of those other issues which could benefit from their intervention: 82 per cent of women who graduate at universities in Arab countries are unemployed. Unemployment among Arab women is the highest in the world. Millions of girls are deprived of education or drop out of school. Women are driven into marriages, forced to live in seclusion at home, beaten and humiliated by the men, killed in the name of honour.