1 Gaza versus Goliath (Irfan Husain in Dawn) Today, battles – especially completely asymmetrical ones – are waged as much on TV screens as they are on the battlefield. Given this development, even pro-Israeli leaders in the West are advising against a ground invasion as this would cost Tel Aviv dearly in the media war. Chemi Shalev, writing in Haaretz, the Israeli daily, captures this reality well: “Television cameras get closer to the battle, usually from the Palestinian angle, and the view of the campaign shifts to the side that is dramatically outmanned and outgunned. From this point on, it is only a matter of time before even Hamas terrorists are suddenly cast as valiant freedom-fighters opposing the forces of darkness, the oppressed fighting off the oppressors.”
As more time passes, the more difficult it becomes to reach a negotiated peace. Israel’s unending construction activity on occupied land has made a two-state solution all but impossible. However, given the rapidly shifting political alignments in the region, Israel’s 45-year old occupation of the West Bank may soon be more vigorously challenged than it has been thus far. Another truth that policy-makers in Tel Aviv and Washington will have to come to terms with is that as popular governments are elected in Arab countries, leaders will be more responsive to their people. And the vast majority of Arabs are fed up of Israeli oppression in the West Bank, and its siege of Gaza.
For Obama, this is a lose-lose situation. Given the open-ended support Israel has traditionally received from Washington, he cannot withhold his public blessings from a ground assault on Gaza. Yet he knows that by refusing to condemn the relentless pounding of a virtually defenceless people, he risks alienating newly elected Arab governments. If Washington wishes to retain some influence in the new Middle East that’s being shaped today, it will have to rethink its lock-step alliance with Israel. And Israel, too, will need to rethink its policy of continuing its colonial policies in the West Bank, as well as its siege of Gaza.
2 A new political order (Jonathan Power in Khaleej Times) The rubber-stamp congress of China’s communist party is over. There have not been any surprises. Now, for the results of the leadership battle: The script has been written, the actors are in place and the show goes on. I suspect most Chinese don’t care a damn about the details. What the masses see is the momentum of the wave of economic progress which seems to lift most boats, albeit at the price of a widening in income distribution and the most destitute being left behind. But if you are a villager, do you care much if middle-class town dwellers have a new car if you can buy a motorbike, a fridge, better furniture and a TV?
However, a growing middle class —
many of them highly educated — does care. It doesn’t like being told what to do
by edict. As time passes and their numbers swell, the system will be
increasingly questioned. The big secret worry for the leadership must be that
the communist party will just collapse one day as it did in Russia and Eastern
Europe, an event which hardly any western politician, academic or journalist
predicted.
And if it does, is there any kind of
governing system China could put in its place? Russia and its satellites had
western democracy to turn to. But China is far away and it only experienced
democracy for a brief time under the nationalist leader, Sun Yat-sen, following
the abdication of the last emperor.
3
Must-have job skills in 2013 (Ruth Mantell in The Wall Street Journal) Even as
employers remain cautious next year about every dollar spent on employees,
they'll also want workers to show greater skills and results. For employees who
want to get ahead, basic competency won't be enough. They must have these
skills: (a) Clear communications Whatever their level,
communication is key for workers to advance. As office conversations
increasingly move online, some workers are losing or never developing the
ability to give a presentation, for example. Others may be unable to write
coherently for longer than, say, 140 characters.
(d) Productivity improvement In 2013, workers should find new ways to increase productivity, experts say. Executives are looking for a 20% improvement in employee performance next year from current levels, according to a recent survey by the Corporate Executive Board, an Arlington, Va., business research and advisory firm.
4 SA democracy devalued (Justice Malala in Johannesburg Times) The Sunday Times reported yesterday - with depressing familiarity - that South Africa’s top prosecutors were "overwhelmingly in favour of pressing ahead" with the corruption case against Jacob Zuma in 2009 despite the emergence of tapes allegedly showing a conspiracy against him. But the NPA was forced to drop charges and Zuma's lawyer has defied court orders to produce the tapes that purportedly exonerate him or prove his case.
The courts are being shown the finger. If the highest office in the land can do this, what is the chance that our children will not be doing it in the future? After all, if the president can break the law then the rest of us might as well do so too. It is not just our institutions that are being devalued. It is happening across the board, with many of our politicians acting in a way that one wonders if they have any regard for the value of the freedoms we enjoy. What we have built in 18 years is of great value.
5 End of a parochial politician (Khaleej Times) While India’s pre-Independence leaders, who had battled a mighty colonial power and won Independence in 1947 brought together a disparate, multi-cultural society comprising millions of people under a common umbrella, a later generation of public men were not so concerned about such niceties. One such man was Bal Thackeray, who in the early 1960s set up the Shiv Sena, which was unabashedly parochial and proudly divisive in its political strategy to win support from the Marathi-speaking people in Bombay, once the most cosmopolitan city in Asia.
The cartoonist-turned-politician, who passed away at the age of 86, was initially used as a tool by the Congress, which wanted him to destroy the leftist stranglehold on the city’s trade unions. But as the Shiv Sena leader tasted blood with his initial foray into politics, he soon turned on his patrons and launched a divisive hate campaign against different communities: initially it was the Gujarati trading community in Bombay, followed by south Indians and later north Indians. But more dangerously, as the Shiv Sena acquired clout, winning the civic elections in the metropolis, he changed gears in the 1980s, projecting himself as a protector of Hindus and targeting Muslims.
A decade later, the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP), which was desperately seeking allies across the country in its bid
to form a government at the centre, stitched up an alliance with the Shiv Sena,
and began ratcheting communal tensions over the Babri Masjid issue. The results
of that discordant campaign were devastating and shattered India’s secular
fabric. In his stormy public career spanning nearly 50 years, Thackeray
fiercely retained his antediluvian and ultra-orthodox political, social and
economic views. He was initially opposed to dynastic politics, but then
anointed his son — besides even grooming his grandson — as the Sena chief.
6 Drones and winemaking (Zoe Kleinman on
BBC) Precision viticulture (PV) is the
gathering of all sorts of data about a vineyard, from sunny spots to soil
humidity, which is then mapped and analysed in order to grow the best grapes
possible on the optimum parts of the site. The first step is to get aerial
images of the entire vineyard.
These days, the equipment is a
little more sophisticated – some use a Parrot AR Drone controlled by an iPad
and captures both stills photographs and video on two cameras - one on the
front and one facing downwards. The technology is able to help winemakers track
seasonal fluctuations year-on-year. The aerial photography forms the basis of a
vineyard map, against which other data such as soil sample results can be
plotted and GPS coordinates for the optimum areas for grape growing can be
identified.
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