There are similarities.\u00a0 Xi and Erd\u00f6gan have a religious base, Buddhism and Islam.\u00a0 And great successes, Xi in “lifting the bottom up”, Erd\u00f6gan in ridding his country of secular military dictatorship.<\/p>\n
One may speculate that the successes have gone to their heads so they see themselves as indispensable for their countries, and invincible. Being male and strong they have Trump’s approval, a fragile benefit.<\/p>\n
Both have taken serious steps to make their reign long lasting–uninterrupted by elections–also known as dictatorships.\u00a0 And, whereas democracies are different, dictatorships tend to be boringly similar.<\/p>\n
One similarity: decline, fall and violent death of the dictator.\u00a0 There is something suicidal about dictators.\u00a0 They may be praised for problems they solve but have to know when their time is over.\u00a0 If not coalitions will arise with one shared goal: to get rid of them. The rumblings of coalitions shaping up may now be heard in both countries.<\/p>\n
We take note with sadness, mindful of their achievements.\u00a0 Gandhi did no such thing nor did Mandela, applying nonviolence to themselves. Xi-Erd\u00f6gan were not inspired by nonviolence, nor is it a requisite. The self-interest in being remembered for the achievements is enough.<\/p>\n
The world needs peaceful co-existence, not more belligerence; and arms races, China with USA, Turkey with Iran. Russia makes arms and the people less vulnerable, but “U.S. chases Russia into a new nuclear arms race” (NYT<\/em> 6 Feb 2018). Much more dangerous is “The Army of the EU” with no national democratic controls (CounterPunch<\/em> 16 Feb 2018).<\/p>\n What else?\u00a0 “The economy, stupid”, Bill Clinton said, and most economic stupidity is found in his country. “‘America First’ policy leaves country isolated while others make deals” (NYT<\/em> 26 Jan 2018) with 35 bilateral and regional trade pacts (USA only with EU, and “that negotiation has gone dormant”. Hence “Poverty American Style” (Kenneth Shurin, CounterPunch<\/em> 9 Feb 2018), brilliantly explored by UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Australian Professor Philip Alston. The USA does worse than other developed countries on “life expectancy, infant mortality, pregnant mother mortality, obesity, incarceration, homicide, educational attainment, income disparity, childhood poverty, nutrition, homelessness, etc.”<\/p>\n The recent life expectancy decline was “fueled by a 21 percent rise in the death rate from drug overdoses”.<\/p>\n Early February Dow plunged 4.6 percent, erasing January gains.\u00a0 That will happen again, and we are waiting for bigger crashes. The clever strategy is obvious: make economic distance to the USA.<\/p>\n Look at the Spanish version. The price of housing increased 3,1 percent in 2017, not much. But 3,6 percent January 2018 alone is much, even if we only multiply by 12 for 2018 (Spaniaposten<\/em> March 2018). People less able to service debts may still buy housing, and banks shall collapse as did Banco Popular in 2017, losing 13,5 billion euro in failed housing investment. Bought by Banco Santander for 1 euro.<\/p>\n German trade expands. From 1986 to 2016 Germany added to the biggest-second biggest trade partners Finland, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, most of former Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria (Le Monde Diplomatique<\/em> Feb 2018). Germany has moved east before.\u00a0 Trade creates dependence, more lasting than conquest as it craves for more. The US approach, dependence on military support, is at best ambiguous.<\/p>\n All is set to make the USA the biggest loser. But there will be many losers as “an era of easy money draws to end” (NYT<\/em> 8 Feb 2018).<\/p>\n How about Afghanistan?\u00a0\u00a0 “In an unwinnable war, what is the least bad loss?” (Max Fisher, NYT<\/em> 3-4 Feb 2018). Six points: Nation-building of sorts, Starting over, The Somalia federal model, A peace that satisfies no one, A post-American civil war, Perpetual stalemate.\u00a0 Not a word about 25,000 independent villages or about the 1893 Durand line cutting the Pashtun = Taliban nation in two; now even with palisades.\u00a0 And, “least bad” for whom?\u00a0 For the USA. of course. How about Afghans?<\/p>\n An article as badly informed as Pentagon-State Department?<\/p>\n Billy Graham passed away February 21st at the age of 99, and the article by Cecil Bothwell in CounterPunch<\/em> 23 Feb 2018 is recommended.\u00a0 Graham had incredible power over US presidents, making them believe that the way to God’s support of their wars went through him. A country listening to him and his likes is not worth listening to.<\/p>\n We note “In Britain, privatizing gone wrong” (NYT<\/em> 24 Jan 2018). The giant Carillion went into liquidation after gaping over far too many tasks that cannot be run for profits and serve all citizens. The state is needed, but not the state alone, we hasten to add.\u00a0 Both-And.<\/p>\n “Challenging the cult of youth” (NYT<\/em> 12 Feb 2018): interesting for the people advanced in age, so is “Aging Pride”. But exhibiting “Nudes of old people, men and women alike” focuses only on the body, not on mind and spirit. No.\u00a0 Like Xi and Erd\u00f6gan, do better next time.<\/p>\n “The secret to a happy marriage is knowing how to fight” (NYT<\/em> 19 Jan 2018, by Daphne de Marneffe) makes good points. But, is “fight” the word?\u00a0 How to solve conflict, concile trauma is our answer.\u00a0 How about “how to have a conversation”, “how to talk”, not how to fight?<\/p>\n Tore Linn\u00e9-Eriksen revisits (KK<\/em> 25 Jan 2018) four 1968 aspects: periphery against center (Oslo), lower against higher classes, revolt within the state church, international solidarity. Add informality<\/em>. First names, no Sie-vous, but du-tu.\u00a0 Inter-human, not only -district, -class, -state.\u00a0 An enormous, and irreversible, gain.\u00a0 Thanks, 1968.<\/em><\/p>\n ____________________________________________________<\/p>\n The world is getting worse. Violence used to cluster around the global power of USA and the regional power of Israel. Now two more:![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Galtung-side.jpg\")
<\/a>Johan Galtung, a professor of peace studies, dr hc mult, is founder of <\/em>TRANSCEND International<\/a> and rector of <\/em>TRANSCEND Peace University<\/a>. Prof. Galtung has published more than 1500 articles\u00a0and book\u00a0chapters, over 500 Editorials for <\/em>TRANSCEND Media Service<\/a>, and more than 170 books on peace and related issues<\/em>, of which more than 40 have been translated to other languages, including <\/em>50 Years-100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives<\/a> published by <\/em>TRANSCEND University Press<\/a>. More information about Prof. Galtung<\/a> and all of his publications<\/a> can be found at transcend.org\/galtung<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\n “The unstoppable growing power of China.”
\n “Erd\u00f6gan’s Neo-Ottomanism at a Dangerous Turning Point.” And “Military buildup on the reefs” in South China Sea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[244,419,504,263,291,109,278,126],"class_list":["post-107120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial","tag-china","tag-co-existence","tag-international-relations","tag-matw","tag-military","tag-politics","tag-russia","tag-violence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}