An Iraqi boy receives medical treatment in a hospital after he was injured in a car bomb attack in Tikrit, north of Baghdad, Nov. 17.

In a letter addressed to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, 100 prestigious doctors have denounced the harm to children’s health and lives wrought by the war in Iraq. The signatories-- British doctors who have worked in Iraq, Iraqi doctors, leading British consultants and general practitioners--state that conditions in Iraqi hospitals constitute a breach of the Geneva Convention.
They demand that the United States and Britain --Iraq’s “occupying powers“ as recognized by the United Nation --address this situation, for which they are responsible.
“Sick or injured children,“ they point out, “who could otherwise be treated by simple means are left to die in the hundreds because they don’t have access to basic medicines or other resources.
“Children who have lost hands, feet and limbs are left without prostheses. Children with grave psychological distress are left untreated.“
According to Save the Children, 59 of every 1,000 babies born in Iraq die -- one of the highest infant-mortality rates in the region. When an incubator can be found, three premature babies occupy space meant for one. The number of premature babies in Iraq is soaring, due in part to the stress of war on mothers.
“There is a lack of everything,“ Maria Fernandez, spokeswoman for Saving the Children from War, a Vienna-based aid agency, has observed. “Antibiotics, special milk for dehydrated children, and almost all medical material for emergency conditions aren’t available.“
Doctors at Basra’s Maternity and Child Hospital have noted that every month between 14 and 16 new cases of leukemia are reported but cannot be treated for lack of medication.
Deteriorating sanitation conditions combined with the heat during the summer months have led to a steep increase in cases of Kala Azar, a potentially fatal parasitic disease transmitted by the sand fly that preys on the internal organs of those affected. I was able to observe its devastating effects on patients in Nepal. Although the disease can be treated with Pentostam, the drug is practically unavailable in southern Iraq.
Security issues and corruption among government officials also play a role. Pharmaceuticals, possibly diverted from Iraqi warehouses, appear on the market in neighboring countries or in private pharmacies, leading to the suspicion that organized crime has become involved in drug distribution.
Lack of proper nutrition is also of concern. A U.N. Human Rights Commission report has indicated that malnutrition among Iraqi children under 5 has practically doubled since the U.S.-led invasion--to at least 8 percent. The situation is worsened by the widespread occurrence of intestinal infections due to lack of potable water and appropriate medicines.
The U.S.-led invasion of the country has greatly affected Iraqi children’s psychological development, according to a report of the Association of Psychologists of Iraq (API) released in 2006. One thousand children were interviewed for the report, which concluded that fear of kidnappings and explosions has led to severe stress among children.
“The only thing they have on their minds are guns, bullets, death and a fear of the U.S. occupation,“ Maruan Abdullah, the API spokesman concludes. Ninety-two percent of the children examined had learning disabilities, in particular those whose parents are government employees or high-ranking professionals such as doctors.
The disastrous state of the health infrastructure and a shortage of doctors and nurses are complicating factors. Doctors are targets of violence and kidnappings. A report issued by the Brookings Institute in December 2006 states that 2,000 Iraqi doctors have been murdered and some 250 kidnapped since the invasion.
Fearing for their lives, many doctors and nurses refuse to work in hospitals. More than half of Iraq’s 34,000 doctors have left the country, in many cases after being targeted by criminal gangs. Stranded in neighboring countries, they lead economically strained lives.
Faced with this dismal picture, the natural question is: Can anything be done to improve the situation and increase Iraqi children’s chances to lead better and healthier lives? The answer is that small, stopgap measures will not significantly improve the situation.
As long as the conflict persists, it will continue to exact a disproportionate price on children’s well-being and their quality of life.
Cesar Chelala
JAPANTIMES.CO.JP

This is not Romano Prodi’s first resignation as prime minister of Italy. In October 1998, two-and-a-half years into his first premiership, Mr Prodi quit after a one-vote defeat in the Chamber of Deputies. Then, as is likely now, a new centre-left coalition was cobbled together, but Italy’s politicians must make sure that any new coalition can govern effectively.
The parallels with 1998 are many, although this time it was a two-vote failure in the Senate that did for Mr Prodi. His first government was praised for its economic competence--it took Italy into the euro--and his second government has acted to reduce the budget deficit. But both were brought down by their internal contradictions: in particular, their reliance on the far left to secure a parliamentary majority.
It is tempting to see the present turmoil as an opportunity; in 1998 the centre-right Christian Democrats were brought in to create a centrist coalition under Massimo D’Alema. This time round, however, the communists actually have ministers in the government, there are not enough Christian Democrats willing to help, and their antipathy toward Mr Prodi and many of the parties on the left is strong.
Italy’s centrist parties should, nonetheless, try to form some kind of coalition. A mild economic upturn is under way in Italy and the Prodi government, with its agenda of reform, has done much to boost confidence. Even a weak coalition could try to carry on that work, and with this parliament only 10 months old, the last thing Italy needs is another bruising electoral campaign featuring Silvio Berlusconi, media baron, former prime minister and still leader of the Forza Italia party.
Mr Berlusconi has a great deal to answer for; his government was populist, lacked fiscal discipline and failed to make reforms to the Italian economy. One of its last acts was to bring back proportional representation for general elections, making it largely responsible for the current deadlock in the Senate. Sensible politicians on the centre-right should take this opportunity to distance themselves from Mr Berlusconi, rather than force new elections under his banner.
The long-run trend towards greater stability and a loose two-party system in Italian politics is unbroken. But Italy’s grave economic challenges-- debt greater than 100 per cent of gross domestic product, a loss of competitiveness within the eurozone and the need to reform the social security system and healthcare--mean that what is needed now is good goverðnance. Even if a centrist coalition proves unsustainable it must be tried.
Although Italy looks set for another short-lived, unstable government, it should be a government committed to economic reform, fiscal rigour and another look at the electoral system. Mr Prodi may yet find himself travelling to the president’s Quirinal Palace again in a few years to resign for a third time.
FT.COM

Six long years of failed Middle East policies have finally brought President George W. Bush to recognise that the alliance of moderates in the region that he covets can only be forged through an Arab-Israeli peace. Indeed, only by effectively addressing the Israeli-Arab dispute can he possibly salvage America’s standing in the region.
But the round of peacemaking that America has recently embarked upon not only comes too late in the political life of a lame-duck president who has been defeated at home and abroad; it is also ill conceived and unconvincing.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s adamant resistance to engage the Syrians is not exactly wise policy.
Nor is Rice’s insistence on sticking to the failed “roadmap“ for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement promising. Susceptible to procrastination and evasion by both sides, the roadmap was stillborn. Almost four years after it was first launched, neither of the parties has managed to muster the political will necessary to implement its primary provisions. Not even the bizarre idea, reserved for the second stage, of a Palestinian state with “temporary borders“ is enticing for the Palestinians.
This Gordian knot needs to be cut, not untied. The concept of interim agreements has now become utterly obsolete, if only because the parties are incapable of paying the political price inherent in an open-ended, piecemeal process.
Instead, what is called for is a sweeping solution to all the core issues. We now stand at the end of the peace process as we have known it. From now on, our options will be a violent and unilateral disengagement, such as the one that ushered in the current war in Gaza, and a comprehensive peace plan that will have to be annexed to the roadmap and validated by an international peace conference. Only such “reverse engineering“, starting at the end and working backwards--and legitimised and monitored by strict international mechanisms--might yet save the prospects for an Israeli/Palestinian peace from ruin.
As the launch of the peace process at the 1991 Madrid international peace conference demonstrated, the prospects for peace in the Middle East always needed a concerted international push to exploit windows of opportunity. Wars in the Middle East, especially those--such as Israel’s recent war against Hizbollah, that ended inconclusively--have almost invariably created the conditions for major political breakthroughs, because they taught the warring parties the limits of power.
Trapped in a momentous struggle between the forces of peaceful change and those committed to doomsday, the Middle East is once again calling for a major international effort at peace making.
The initiators of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative likewise understood that a strictly bilateral approach might be inadequate, and instead called to regionalise the solution to the conflict. Loss of mutual trust between the parties, and their total incapacity to take even the smallest step towards each other, let alone to observe their commitments without prodding by third parties, made (and still makes) an international framework for peace the only way out of the dangerous impasse.
The end of bilateralism stems also from the dysfunctional political systems of both Palestine and Israel.
Any reformed peace process is doomed if it is guided by a roadmap within which, on the core issues, the parties have diametrically opposed views. But there is no need to reinvent the wheel, because the solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict is embodied in the main peace plans that are already on the table: the Clinton peace parameters, and the all-Arab peace initiative.
Fifteen years after the Madrid conference began a formal peace process between Israelis and Palestinians, the parties are wiser as to what is inevitable if this tortuous process is to lead to a permanent settlement. In 1991, they convened on a platform of “land-for-peace“. But the Israelis never believed they would have to give back all the land, while the Arabs did not think they might have to offer “all the peace“. Today, at long last, everyone knows what is meant by “land“ and everyone knows what is meant by “peace“.
Shlomo Ben-Ami
PROJECT-SYNDICATE.
ORG

The Arab world is known as a home to some of the least democratic political structures existing around the globe. Basic human rights are barely met even in some of the apparently liberal countries in the region, such as Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates.
But with the introduction of the Internet in the intellectually sheltered countries of the Arab world, blogging is now challenging Arab rulers. Most Middle East blogs, or online journals, are dedicated to politics because the Internet has allowed bloggers, who are effectively citizen journalists, to discuss taboos in their societies and reveal or criticize state information.
There never was a public forum in the Arab world that specifically served to help average citizens practice and bolster their right to freedom of expression. This is why blogging has become an essential communication strategy for many frustrated Arabs who use blogging as a tool to promote democratization. Many have been encouraged to join, and as a result the number of blogs initiated every day is multiplying dramatically. It is particularly attractive to Arab youth, who use blogging to agitate for a better future.
The reason why the Internet is so threatening to Arab governments is that it revolutionized the means of communication, making it virtually impossible to moderate or control. Through up-to-date blogging that is often critical of said governments, bloggers point out what is illegitimate in Arab states. It is a highly influential medium, as it welcomes and encourages rebellious movements to blossom within Arab countries.
Arab regimes have always constructed public opinion with ease due to absolute control over media outlets. Kim’s argument shows that freedom of expression can be used to transcend that, and thus the formation of public opinion will not be as systematic. Blogging invites the sociological aspects of public opinion, through public discourse and open forums. In other words, many citizens are now able to publicly criticize their governments, something that never existed in the Arab world without dire consequences. That is not to say, however, that the consequences do not exist. They do. Blogging in the Arab world comes with big risks, which many young individuals understand and accept.
The Internet is powerful enough to change, promote or enforce laws in our strict and sheltered cultures if it creates overwhelming public pressure and concern. Cyber-activism has also increased the amount of political activism. Thanks to the Internet, people became more aware of social dilemmas, as well as human rights violations that are noticeably ignored by state-owned media outlets.
Blogging in the Arab world is being primarily used to overcome corrupt political practices and introduce social and moral ideals to promote freedom of speech and the free flow of information. It is important to note that despite the lack of press freedom and sufficient access to mass media, Arab bloggers still manage to gain massive worldwide publicity.
Arab leaders are not open to democracy.
The key to communication on the Internet is words. The written word is the backbone of any industrialized modern society. Organic solidarity cannot exist without it. Without the use of the written word, we would have what sociologist Emile Durkheim referred to as “anomie,“ a normless state of disconnection to society. It is very important for Arabs to take advantage of modern technology to further promote human rights and democracy within the region. With consistency, public involvement and nonviolent yet forceful activism, democratization is possible. Blogging gives many Arabs and Muslims much-needed hope.
Esraa Al-Shafei
DAILYSTAR.COM

China’s struggle against corruption made impressive headway in 2006 by targeting commercial bribery.
The Communist Party of China Central Discipline Inspection Commission’s review of its work in the past year showcased conspicuous achievements. It also showed us the clear and present danger commercial bribery poses.
Singling out commercial bribery in itself reveals the authorities’ awareness of its threat to society. But its damaging potentials are far beyond what we generally believe.
Long before commercial bribery became a focus of the anti-corruption campaign, the country’s Law Against Unfair Competition explicitly declared it illegal.
Article 8 of the 1993 law prohibits business operators from offering money or goods in selling or purchasing commodities. Under the law, those who offer secret rebates are considered guilty of offering bribes; and those who accept them will be punished for taking bribes.
But the law has not prevented people from offering or taking bribes. Instead, such illicit dealings are so rampant that some even consider bribes an indispensable lubricant in dealing with public officials.
One may have heard about the so-called tacit rule between officials and private business operators as well as private business owners’ love-hate relationship with corrupt officials.
Although business activities are increasingly less subject to the hassle of administrative approvals, local officials retain considerable say in the disposal of public resources.
Just because there are bribe-seeking officials, lawless business people can pay their way to whatever they want. In order to avoid being left out, even law-abiding business people have to accept such unwritten rules.
The disgraced previous chief of the State Food and Drug Administration illustrates how profitable one’s powers can become.
Commercial bribery disturbs market order, tarnishes the credibility of administrative authorities, and ultimately poisons social morale.
It is a clear and present danger that must be eliminated.
CHINADAILY.COM