XPost: uk.politics.misc, alt.politics.british, alt.conspiracy   
   XPost: alt.conspiracy.new-world-order, alt.america, alt.conspira   
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   From: oO@oO.com   
      
   Latin America and Asia are at last breaking free of Washington's grip   
      
   The US-dominated world order is being challenged by a new spirit of   
   independence in the global south   
      
   Noam Chomsky   
   Wednesday March 15, 2006   
   The Guardian   
      
      
   The prospect that Europe and Asia might move towards greater independence   
   has troubled US planners since the second world war. The concerns have only   
   risen as the "tripolar order" - Europe, North America and Asia - has   
   continued to evolve.   
   Every day Latin America, too, is becoming more independent. Now Asia and the   
   Americas are strengthening their ties while the reigning superpower, the odd   
   man out, consumes itself in misadventures in the Middle East.   
      
   Regional integration in Asia and Latin America is a crucial and increasingly   
   important issue that, from Washington's perspective, betokens a defiant   
   world gone out of control. Energy, of course, remains a defining factor -   
   the object of contention - everywhere.   
      
   China, unlike Europe, refuses to be intimidated by Washington, a primary   
   reason for the fear of China by US planners, which presents a dilemma: steps   
   toward confrontation are inhibited by US corporate reliance on China as an   
   export platform and growing market, as well as by China's financial   
   reserves - reported to be approaching Japan's in scale.   
      
   In January, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah visited Beijing, which is expected   
   to lead to a Sino-Saudi memorandum of understanding calling for "increased   
   cooperation and investment between the two countries in oil, natural gas and   
   investment", the Wall Street Journal reports.   
      
   Already much of Iran's oil goes to China, and China is providing Iran with   
   weapons that both states presumably regard as deterrent to US designs. India   
   also has options. India may choose to be a US client, or it may prefer to   
   join the more independent Asian bloc that is taking shape, with ever more   
   ties to Middle East oil producers. Siddharth Varadarjan, the deputy editor   
   of the Hindu, observes that "if the 21st century is to be an 'Asian   
   century,' Asia's passivity in the energy sector has to end".   
      
   The key is India-China cooperation. In January, an agreement signed in   
   Beijing "cleared the way for India and China to collaborate not only in   
   technology but also in hydrocarbon exploration and production, a partnership   
   that could eventually alter fundamental equations in the world's oil and   
   natural gas sector", Varadarjan points out.   
      
   An additional step, already being contemplated, is an Asian oil market   
   trading in euros. The impact on the international financial system and the   
   balance of global power could be significant. It should be no surprise that   
   President Bush paid a recent visit to try to keep India in the fold,   
   offering nuclear cooperation and other inducements as a lure.   
      
   Meanwhile, in Latin America left-centre governments prevail from Venezuela   
   to Argentina. The indigenous populations have become much more active and   
   influential, particularly in Bolivia and Ecuador, where they either want oil   
   and gas to be domestically controlled or, in some cases, oppose production   
   altogether.   
      
   Many indigenous people apparently do not see any reason why their lives,   
   societies and cultures should be disrupted or destroyed so that New Yorkers   
   can sit in their SUVs in traffic gridlock.   
      
   Venezuela, the leading oil exporter in the hemisphere, has forged probably   
   the closest relations with China of any Latin American country, and is   
   planning to sell increasing amounts of oil to China as part of its effort to   
   reduce dependence on the openly hostile US government.   
      
   Venezuela has joined Mercosur, the South American customs union - a move   
   described by Nestor Kirchner, the Argentinian president, as "a milestone" in   
   the development of this trading bloc, and welcomed as a "new chapter in our   
   integration" by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president.   
      
   Venezuela, apart from supplying Argentina with fuel oil, bought almost a   
   third of Argentinian debt issued in 2005, one element of a region-wide   
   effort to free the countries from the controls of the IMF after two decades   
   of disastrous conformity to the rules imposed by the US-dominated   
   international financial institutions.   
      
   Steps toward Southern Cone [the southern states of South America]   
   integration advanced further in December with the election in Bolivia of Evo   
   Morales, the country's first indigenous president. Morales moved quickly to   
   reach a series of energy accords with Venezuela. The Financial Times   
   reported that these "are expected to underpin forthcoming radical reforms to   
   Bolivia's economy and energy sector" with its huge gas reserves, second only   
   to Venezuela's in South America.   
      
   Cuba-Venezuela relations are becoming ever closer, each relying on its   
   comparative advantage. Venezuela is providing low-cost oil, while in return   
   Cuba organises literacy and health programmes, sending thousands of highly   
   skilled professionals, teachers and doctors, who work in the poorest and   
   most neglected areas, as they do elsewhere in the third world.   
      
   Cuban medical assistance is also being welcomed elsewhere. One of the most   
   horrendous tragedies of recent years was the earthquake in Pakistan last   
   October. Besides the huge death toll, unknown numbers of survivors have to   
   face brutal winter weather with little shelter, food or medical assistance.   
      
   "Cuba has provided the largest contingent of doctors and paramedics to   
   Pakistan," paying all the costs (perhaps with Venezuelan funding), writes   
   John Cherian in India's Frontline magazine, citing Dawn, a leading Pakistan   
   daily.   
      
   President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan expressed his "deep gratitude" to   
   Fidel Castro for the "spirit and compassion" of the Cuban medical teams -   
   reported to comprise more than 1,000 trained personnel, 44% of them women,   
   who remained to work in remote mountain villages, "living in tents in   
   freezing weather and in an alien culture", after western aid teams had been   
   withdrawn.   
      
   Growing popular movements, primarily in the south but with increasing   
   participation in the rich industrial countries, are serving as the bases for   
   many of these developments towards more independence and concern for the   
   needs of the great majority of the population.   
      
   © Noam Chomsky   
      
   · Noam Chomsky, the author, most recently, of Imperial Ambitions:   
   Conversations on the Post-9/11 World, is a professor of linguistics at the   
   Massachusetts Institute of Technology   
      
   www.chomsky.info   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)