Blog

[Blog] A contribution to solving the problem in Ukraine and achieving peace

Dr Michael Atchia — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 06:33:40 +0000

[Blog] A contribution to solving the problem in Ukraine and achieving peace Dr Michael Atchia mer 20/08/2025 - 10:33

To President Donald Trump, to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, to President of France, PM of UK, PM of Italy, Chancellor of Germany, PM of Holland and to Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, present in Washington today 18th August 2025. And to Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation.

1. A call for a ceasefire in Ukraine. Negotiation and a referendum on self-determination to follow, leading to peace, security and reconstruction.

2. Join us in condemning war “as a tool of political action”. Instead let us use negotiation and where necessary arbitration, instead of missiles, tanks and bombs, hostages as “arguments”.

3. We therefore invite you to consider this proposal as a major tool for reaching an acceptable peace when you meet and start negotiations (with China/the European Union/UN/or other facilitators).

Based on the acceptance of the democratically elected government in Ukraine, to conduct a referendum (by UN for example) on self-determination by the people in Donbas, South Ukraine and Crimea, as to whether they wish to be:

• part of Ukraine,

• part of Russia,

• or become independent states (as per UN Charter for self-determination of people and nations).

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers, Ukrainian civilians and young Russian soldiers have been killed and massacred uselessly, not to say criminally since the invasion, and this number will double if war persists. So we call for an immediate ceasefire: stop firing, talk, both consider the requirements of the other side. Sign an agreement, a peace treaty. After a ceasefire, and a peace treaty, we can start the rebuilding of Ukraine, a destroyed country. We support the full resumption of production and export of cereals, grain and natural gas from Russia. Sanctions should end and free trade be re-established as soon as possible. Your actions will be an example of how to end that other war, between Palestine and Israel.

Dr Michael Atchia

Past UN Programme Director, Democracy Watch Mauritius

mklatchia@intnet.mu

18th August 2025

[Blog] Participating in the Protest March in London against Genocide

guest — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 05:34:02 +0000

[Blog] Participating in the Protest March in London against Genocide guest ven 15/08/2025 - 09:34

On 9 August was held the monthly national protest march in London against the unspeakable genocide in Gaza. It was attended by a huge crowd of some 300,000 people. It started at around 12 hrs at Russell Square and the destination was 10 Downing Street.

I reached Russell Square one hour later and so joined the march at its tail end. Behind me, hundreds of people kept coming, and in front of me the crowd was so big that it could not be fathomed. On both sides of the road were multiple booths manned by volunteers, activists, and sympathizers. They were distributing pamphlets, newspapers, magazines — all dealing with the horrors being committed in Gaza in sheer impunity in front of the eyes of the world. Palestinian kefiyehs were being sold to collect funds for the children of Gaza who could still be saved before it is too late, as just pointed out by none other than Madonna.

The core of the crowd was composed of white British people who came in their thousands to manifest their anger against the inaction of the British government. There were young and old, rich and poor, disabled and non-disabled. All in a great moment of solidarity, they moved forward together with scores of Asians, Africans, Caribbeans, and so many others who have migrated to the UK from different parts of the world and now form part of the mosaic of British diversity. The most eye-catching was the presence of Jews in the manifestation. With their traditional costumes, they stood out in the crowd and carried banners with inscriptions like "Jews worldwide condemn unending Israeli brutality," or "Judaism condemns the state of Israel and its atrocities," or "Jews against Genocide."

Children of survivors of the Holocaust marked their presence to denounce the genocide and to point out that "never again means never again to anyone else."

The ambience was electric. Most of the protesters were carrying Palestinian flags and banners with inscriptions like "Stop the Genocide," "No to starvation," "Starmer is Starver," "No arms to murder children," "No trade with genocidal Israel," etc. Many were wearing Palestinian kefiyehs and T-shirts and were shouting "Free, Free Palestine," "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."

The climax came when some 1,000 Britishers, having reached 10 Downing Street, opted for an action of civil disobedience. They pulled out their shirts and put on T-shirts of the banned Palestinian Action Group, which has been declared a terrorist group by the British government. They courted voluntary arrest by shouting slogans in favour of this group despite the fact that they were aware they could run the risk of being imprisoned for a maximum of 16 years.

Some 500 protesters, both men and women, were arrested by the police. Their aim is to force the courts to pronounce on the legality of the move by the British government to declare the Palestine Action Group a terrorist organization.

It was a great moment of solidarity towards the martyred people of Gaza.

Azize Bankur

[Blog] Never again the destruction of humanity

Dr Michael Atchia — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 13:53:09 +0000

[Blog] Never again the destruction of humanity Dr Michael Atchia mar 05/08/2025 - 17:53

Anniversary of Hiroshima: On 6th August 1945, an American atomic bomb was detonated on the city of Hiroshima, killing an estimated 130,000 people.

The main causes of destruction of humans and life on the planet are through wars, genocides, epidemics, famines, natural catastrophes, technology, nuclear bombs and soon, climate change and global warming. At a time when Russia, Iran, USA, and others are brandishing the nuclear threat, the story of Hiroshima and Nagasaki must be told again.

We are a small planet out of billions of others. Our planet supports life, especially conscious human life. How precious! How unique. We can only be grateful for life. All our actions and words can only respect life, protect life, and enjoy life. No place for destruction.

Has our real concern about climate change and global warming made us forget the threat of atomic war and other causes of death to human beings? Having written on numerous occasions on the nuclear safety issue in the past as well as being the author of the Nuclear Rectangle theory (a major nuclear war world could modify the orbit of planet Earth around the sun), I urge readers to join the worldwide campaign of the seventies to ban the bomb, to fight for nuclear safety. It is more than ever necessary today in 2024.

At present nine countries out of 193 countries on planet Earth possess nuclear weapons (atomic or hydrogen bombs), namely:

• Russia, 6,850 nuclear warheads
• US, 6,550 warheads
• France, 300 warheads
• China, 280 warheads
• UK, 215 warheads
• Pakistan, 145 warheads
• India, 135 warheads
• Israel, 80 warheads
• North Korea, 15 warheads.

With North Korea expanding its nuclear arsenal, other countries are trying to get the bomb (Iran for example?).

On the positive side, 4 countries including South Africa, that formerly possessed nuclear weapons, gave them up. One of the greatest fears today is that a terrorist organisation gets its hands on a nuclear device, some of which are small enough to get into a large lorry.

Radiation is the greatest enemy of life, of all organic living things on planet Earth. Remember the nuclear accidents at Chernobyl and Fukushima, where radioactive material was released and affected people, animals and plants.

In this nuclear world, what is the meaning of 'safe'?

Are we reassured knowing who in these countries has his finger (or her finger!) on the nuclear trigger? Donald and Vladimir? Narendra and Shehbaz Sharif? Benjamin and Kim Jong-un? Emmanuel and Keir? Xi Jinping? Can we trust them?

Only one country: the United States detonated two atomic bombs, on people, in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (on 6th August) and Nagasaki (on 9th August) in 1945. How many people were killed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

The two bombs killed an estimated 130,000 and 225,000 people respectively, most of whom were civilians. The USA remains the only country to have used nuclear weapons to destroy cities and structures and inflict death, admittedly in an armed conflict, the Second World War. Therefore, a pertinent question for us: Are nuclear missiles and bombs stockpiled by the USA in the Chagos?

Never again to the deadly destruction of humanity, for example through wars (e.g. during the 30 or so wars of the 20th century, 2 of them world wars, 100 million humans were slaughtered!)

Dr Michael Atchia

(Former United Nations Programme Director)

(For Democracy Watch Mauritius)

6th August 2025.

[Blog] Gaza Genocide - Macron: the Chirac example

guest — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 06:22:07 +0000

[Blog] Gaza Genocide - Macron: the Chirac example guest lun 04/08/2025 - 10:22

For some time now, Emmanuel Macron has been announcing that France would recognize Palestinian statehood. A few days ago, he made his intention clearer by sending a letter to the Palestinian Authority in which he declared that at the next UN General Assembly to be held in September, France would officially give recognition to the Palestinian state. This is a major step forward, as although more than 140 nations have already done so, mostly from the Global South, it is the first major Western power to take this step.

By moving in this direction, Macron is following in the footsteps of Jacques Chirac. It would be recalled that shortly after his election as President in 1995, one of his major preoccupations was the bloodbath in former Yugoslavia. This war had been dragging on for more than four years, costing the lives of some 200,000 people, mostly Bosnian civilians who were the victims of Serbian violence, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing.

Despite the presence of UN peacekeeping forces, the violence continued and very often culminated in massacres like that of Srebrenica. Chirac could not tolerate this situation. He did not accept that the French troops within the UN peacekeeping forces could not retaliate when attacked. He expressed his vehement indignation at a mini cabinet meeting where he stated: "Nous devons réagir. Rendre coup pour coup. Nous faire respecter... Si c'est la guerre, eh bien tant pis, il faut la faire" (Scènes de la vie politique 1986-2006, Frantz-Olivier Giesbert). He forcefully denounced the Serbian barbarity and called on Western democracies to "se ressaisir" and not to accept the unacceptable.

Avoiding the hypocrisy of diplomatic language, he unblinkingly condemned what he called "les maniaques de la race pure". His powerful stance led to the awakening of other Western nations. At first, there was reticence on the part of the United States and United Kingdom. Finally, Bill Clinton called Chirac one night and a decision was taken for NATO to intervene in the conflict by bombing the Serbian forces, which capitulated soon after. On 14 December 1995, the Dayton Accords were signed at the Élysée between Alija Izetbegović (on behalf of Bosnia), Franjo Tuđman (Croatia), and Slobodan Milošević (Serbia). The Accords led to the creation of a Croatia-Muslim Federation and a Serbian Republic, resulting in a lasting peace.

During Chirac's presidency, French exceptionalism manifested in different ways. One would recall his outburst against the Israeli police's high-handedness, who prevented him from hobnobbing with Palestinians during his visit to Jerusalem. He also strongly opposed the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. The speech of his Minister of External Affairs, Dominique de Villepin, at the UN Security Council, remains a masterpiece in eloquence.

It is hoped that the initiative of Emmanuel Macron will have a snowballing effect and will eventually bring an end to the genocide in Gaza with a long-term solution for both Israelis and Palestinians. Already, many other nations, like Canada, for example, have expressed their intention to recognize Palestinian statehood. Right at this moment, there is a high-level conference attended by some 100 countries at the UN on the subject of the two-state solution. There is a glimmer of hope.

Azize Bankur

[Blog] We must stop this genocide and reach peace for Gaza

Dr Michael Atchia — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 05:08:23 +0000

[Blog] We must stop this genocide and reach peace for Gaza Dr Michael Atchia lun 28/07/2025 - 09:08

1.   Aim: We must stop this genocide and reach peace for Gaza.

2.   The reality: A monstrous genocide is currently happening on this Earth, in Gaza. The perpetrators, Israel, will not stop the destruction and killing, and no one else so far has intervened strongly enough to stop it.

3.   International Court of Justice ruling: There was a great step for humanity: the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled for South Africa, condemning Israel to take all steps to stop and prevent genocide in Gaza. The ruling does not have binding effects, Israel did nothing, ignored the ruling, making it an illegal, unlawful state.

4.   The facts: 57,000 people murdered by Israel since October 2023. Israel is attempting the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza by destroying most schools, most hospitals, most housing, most roads, most production systems, and attempting to starve the population of Gaza/Palestine. The final act in their Final
Solution is to occupy the entire Gaza area and, as has started, move all people to homelessness, hunger and eventual death. This action of Israel constitutes a war crime and genocide. It is a monstrous genocide of human beings for baseless political reasons, carried out with guns and missiles mainly provided by the USA. Condemn this genocide! By remaining silent states, their PM and governments are guilty of complicity. (Or by beating about the bush like US President Trump does)

About 1,500 Israelis were killed during the same period, with 50 hostages still held by Hamas and around 1,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.

5. Genocide: The world has known a few genocides, of Tutsis in Rwanda, of 6 million Jews by the Nazis, of Native Americans to name but a few. Humanity, the human civilization of this 21st century, cannot just continue to sit and witness this present genocide of a people. Genocide, you remember, means elimination of a people, a civilization, a country, by one or more murderous groups. I personally remember the worst sentence I ever heard, namely the call by one of the Hutu leaders on Radio Mille Collines in Kigali in 1992, urging their people to go to all villages to kill Tutsis, “n’oubliez pas les femmes et les enfants.”

Since October 2023, 60% of those killed by Israel in the violence in Gaza are women and children. The marks of genocide by Israel on the population of Gaza: Since October 2023, 60% of those killed in the violence are women and children, and there are over one million children in dire need nutritionally. These include 2-year-old babies, all labelled by the Israeli army as “terrorists.” Children bear a disproportionate burden of the crisis.

Beyond the immediate physical dangers, the psychological trauma of constant displacement, loss of family members, and disrupted education can create lasting impacts that will affect an entire generation.

Over 90% of homes in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, leaving most Palestinians without a permanent and safe place to live. People are seeking refuge in tents or makeshift shelters that fail to provide safety or dignity and are continually (purposefully!) moved by the Israeli army.

Civilians injured in the conflict and those suffering from everyday health problems are increasingly unable to access basic care. More than half of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are only partially functional—and they’re understaffed, lacking proper medical supplies, and overwhelmed with patients.

With the use of food distribution as a “weapon,” the daily killing amounts to 30, 50, 70 deaths.

With the end of June Israeli order to evacuate part of North Gaza, the genocide continues. (The well-rehearsed method used by Hitler: move people from this house/home and oblige them to move, gathered into specific areas, camps. Then came the gas chambers and extermination.)

Perpetrated by the state of Israel, largely with American weapons supplied free to them or purchased by Israel with American money (14 billion US dollars given to Israel by the USA in 2024).

The 1941 Final Solution was a plan orchestrated by Nazi Germany during World War II to eliminate all Jews. The 2022–25 Final Solution is a plan orchestrated by Israel. In both cases, the final aim is the elimination, by murder or starvation, of an entire population (the Jews in Hitler’s plan, the Palestinians in Netanyahu’s plan).

6. Immediate action is necessary. We all must act to stop this present pogrom of Palestinians in Gaza, now! Already 57,000 people have been murdered.

So, we invite, we urge the governments of all states of the world, all 191 countries, all members of the United Nations must now issue a warning to the state of Israel for:

•   An immediate ceasefire
•   The free flow of food and medical aid into Gaza
•   Gradual retreat of Israeli troops (after action required from Hamas are fully completed)
•   With external aid the reconstruction of Gaza: its habitats, roads, hospitals, schools, production system, trade and policing
•   Clean drinking water through water trucking
•   Urgent re-upgrade of all hospitals, sanitation, and hygiene services—including building emergency latrines
•   Direct cash assistance to help families meet their urgent needs

From Hamas side: the immediate release of all hostages held as well as return if any of bodies of those who died in custody. The formal replacement of the name and constitution of Hamas as an organization by the PPP (Palestine Peoples Party) or alternative appellation with as main organizational objective the governance and development of independent Gaza and Palestine. With the same membership and responsibilities such as that of the Ministry of Health etc.

All 191 countries to now issue a warning to the state of Israel for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and other necessary actions. (With a warning of complete isolation, trade, and communication sanctions to Israel if it does not act now.)

Strong and coordinated action from all states to block off Israel (financially, air and sea communications, export and import, banking, supply of all weapons or part thereof, etc. with the message that Israel does the following now (these embargoes would be lifted as soon as the required actions are started and completed).

An equally definite warning to the Hamas of Gaza for an immediate release of all hostages and other complete ceasefire action.

Calling for a UN General Assembly resolution for Israel, its Prime Minister Netanyahu, and government to be sued for war crimes if, let’s say by 4th of August 2025, all above are not achieved.

As indeed the world would have done to Hitler in 1945 i.e. capture and sue him for war crimes (as was done for his main lieutenants and to Mussolini) had Hitler not ended his own life.

The two-state solution is the proposed long-term approach to permanently resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, by creating two states on the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine, details to be worked out with, for instance, assistance from the UN, USA, EU, the Arab States, India and China.

7. Some additional consideration for achieving peace in Gaza

Apart from actions required from Israel and from Hamas, as detailed above, the international community and UN can set up a Palestine Reconstruction Fund (PRF), perhaps based in Saudi Arabia or Doha for the reconstruction of Palestine, including a link road between Gaza and the West Bank, the return of all Israeli colons from the West Bank to that part of the West Bank given to Israel as balance for the land used for the new road from Gaza to West Bank.

Plus, developments such as a new airport (let’s say in the West Bank) and a new seaport in Gaza. As well as developments (reconstruction of roads, houses, building of hotels and resorts on the Gaza sea-strip as a sort of new Gaza Riviera etc. which will both give work to people and upgrade Gaza. Gradual and assisted opening of all schools, universities, production farms, commerce etc.

Additionally: Israel and Gaza can build a road for free travel from Gaza to the West Bank. The loss of land to be compensated by giving an equal area of West Bank land to Israel, as well as the return of all settlers in the West Bank back to Israel.

8. The PM of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu

If you had to forecast which leader of any of the 194 countries of the world could be the new 21st century Hitler, would you have thought of the Jewish leader of Israel?

A few months after Hitler formally declared the Shoah (Holocaust), the arrest and putting to death of all Jews, several leaders and others in Germany, realising the depth of the incoming genocide, voiced (or out of fear did not voice) their objections. Nothing doing, Hitler and other Nazi leaders pursued their elimination policy.

Brazil’s president, Lula da Silva, speaking at the 37th African Union Summit compared Israel’s actions in the war against Hamas to the Holocaust, in which Nazis killed six million Jews. “What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people has no parallel in other historical moments,” but “it did exist when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.” The UN Security Council, the ICJ, the EU, Egypt and other Arab states voiced their concern about a possible coming genocide of the people of Gaza by Israel. After almost 30,000 deaths. Nothing doing, Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders pursue their elimination policy.

Hitler gave as reason the need for more space for his people (Lebensraum). Israel specifically wants the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. If necessary, by first destroying all housing infrastructure, hospitals, schools, water, and food supplies, thereby starting the elimination of the people of Gaza, men, women and children.

Netanyahu: “Humanitarianism is the expression of stupidity and cowardice”; “Success is the sole earthly judge of right and wrong”; “When we have won the war, who will question our methods?”

9. The struggle for independence

The continued non-recognition of Palestine by Israel, its people living under siege for the last 50 years. The ‘imprisonment’ of the Palestinian people till today, denied return to their land, denied the 2-state solution—one being an independent Palestine. Israel cites the condemnable 7th October attack by Hamas which killed 1,200 innocent Israelis. Like Hitler cited the takeover of the German economy by the Jews for him to continue eliminating all Jews, from 1940 to 1945, till 6 million of them were criminally killed.

Many human groups have in the past launched a struggle (in some cases a war) for their liberation and the establishment of an independent country.

For example, the American war of independence against the British. In India, the struggles for independence from Britain was led by Gandhi and Nehru. In the 20th century, African independence movements were witnessed, as a wave of struggles for independence from European/colonialist rule. For example, Kenya, led by Jomo Kenyatta, Algeria for its liberation from France, Mozambique and Angola for liberation from Portuguese rule, Malagasy nationalists revolt against the French as from March 1947, Eritrea from being an Italian colony from 1890 to 1941, then having to struggle against domination by Ethiopia, Namibia against German rule, South Africa led by Nelson Mandela against internal apartheid rule – and so many others.

Now, let us—let the world—recognise the ongoing struggle/war of the Palestinian people for their land, freedom and independence from Israeli control and rule. Side by side with the peaceful existence of Israel free from attacks. Including the rights of the 700,000 Palestinians now living in foreign countries, a figure not far from the total number of Jewish immigrants of 482,900 who came and created the state of Israel in 1948.

Dr Michael Atchia
(Ex Programme Director, UNEP; Ex President, Mauritius Academy of Science & Technology; D.Sc. University of Salford, Manchester)
mklatchia@intnet.mu
27th July 2025

[Blog] Mauritius' Economy Depends on Sustainable Public Finances

guest — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 14:17:11 +0000

[Blog] Mauritius' Economy Depends on Sustainable Public Finances guest mar 15/07/2025 - 18:17

In an article published on 15 July 2025 on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) website, Mariana Colacelli, IMF Mission Chief to Mauritius, and Felix Simione, Senior Economist in the IMF’s African Department, highlight the economic challenges facing the country. “Mauritius now faces challenges from high public debt, significant public investment needs, low productivity, and an ageing society. To address them, fiscal policy would need to be recalibrated to preserve today’s dodo: inclusive economic prosperity,” they write. They further stress that “fiscal sustainability relies on increasing revenues, reforming pensions, and spending more efficiently.” We are reproducing the full article below for our audience.

Fiscal sustainability relies on increasing revenues, reforming pensions, and spending more efficiently

The island of Mauritius was once the native habitat of the dodo—a striking, flightless bird that went extinct in the face of unsustainable hunting by sailors. Today, the dodo is a national symbol for the country, representing the importance of conservation and sustainability efforts.

Economies are also shaped by human action, including fiscal policy. Mauritius has a strong policy track record that has engendered a transition from an agricultural economy to a diversified upper-middle-income country.

However, Mauritius now faces challenges from high public debt, significant public investment needs, low productivity, and an ageing society. To address them, fiscal policy would need to be recalibrated to preserve today’s dodo: inclusive economic prosperity.

Fiscal sustainability measures

The Mauritian authorities recently announced their 2025-26 budget, which prioritizes reforms to support sustainable fiscal policy. These reforms aim to increase tax revenue by over two percent of GDP in 2025-26, while reducing government spending by over one percent of GDP in the same period. Overall, the authorities expect to reduce government debt from 87 percent of GDP in 2024 to 75 percent in 2030.

Our recent annual economic health check of the island nation—our Article IV Staff Report and Selected Issues Papers—offers policy options to achieve sustainable fiscal policy in Mauritius, including (i) strengthening revenue mobilization, (ii) reforming the pension system, and (iii) increasing spending efficiency. The announced budget is in line with many of our proposed policy options.

Increasing fiscal revenue

Given that tax exemptions are high—they accounted for 4.6 percent of GDP in 2024-25—the new budget aims to discontinue selected exemptions from VAT and excise duties, such as those for construction, real estate, and electric vehicles. The budget also lowers tax payment thresholds and raises new taxes. The implementation and sequencing of these reforms would need to limit any potential adverse impact on economic growth, while also protecting the most vulnerable.
Reforming pensions

On the expenditure side, there is room to make pension spending more sustainable. Benefits paid to individuals through the Basic Retirement Pension program (BRP)—received by all Mauritians aged 60 and older—have more than doubled since 2019. On top of higher benefits, fiscal pressures are mounting from a relative increase in the number of pensioners. As society ages, Mauritius is expected to face a doubling in the old-age dependency ratio over the next thirty years, resulting in a fast-growing pension bill.

Maintaining the present system would imply significant intergenerational redistribution from younger to older generations, as the (relatively small) younger cohort would likely face higher taxes to finance pensions for the (larger) older one. An option to help contain the growing cost of the BRP is a gradual alignment of the eligibility age from 60 to the official retirement age of 65. Given demographic trends, the alignment in the BRP eligibility age would help make the pension system more sustainable, while containing intergenerational inequalities and protecting the most vulnerable. The announced budget is a step in this direction.

Spending efficiently

There is also scope for streamlining broadly targeted and regressive fiscal transfers. Social subsidies in Mauritius, in many cases, reach relatively few poor individuals. For example, only 11 percent of beneficiaries of the social aid program are defined as poor. The announced budget proposes savings by gradually unwinding some broadly targeted subsidies. The resulting savings will help create fiscal space to finance targeted schemes for the most vulnerable, while making fiscal policy more sustainable.

Unlike the dodo, now extinct, Mauritius’ economy will continue to thrive so long as fiscal sustainability is secured.

* This article is based on the Staff Report for the 2025 Article IV Consultation with Mauritius.

[Blog] In the context of the French National Day : The personal tragedies of Jacques Chirac

guest — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 06:43:25 +0000

[Blog] In the context of the French National Day : The personal tragedies of Jacques Chirac guest lun 14/07/2025 - 10:43

On the occasion of the French National Day, it is not inopportune to delve into some aspects of the life of one of its last presidents: Jacques Chirac. He marked French history by being Prime Minister on two occasions (1974–76, 1986–88) and was elected twice as the President of the Republic (1995, 2002), thus serving 12 years at the supreme post. He singularised himself by endorsing the legacy of De Gaulle, emphasizing French exceptionalism and marking its difference from American hegemony, though the end of his career was not so glorious. All this is well known and is part of history.

What is less known, however, are the personal tragedies of Jacques Chirac. As Frantz-Olivier Giesbert, the author who followed him everywhere and on whom he confided, puts it: "Si vous regardez la vie de Chirac, c'est un homme d'un naturel gai et chaleureux, qui n'a connu que très peu de moments de bonheur". In fact, Chirac faced many tribulations in his private as well as public life. He had two daughters, Laurence and Claude. The eldest one, Laurence, was a source of great suffering for him. She suffered from acute anorexia. At first it was thought that this was just a whim of adolescence, but in her case the problem persisted and became aggravated with the passing of time. She had no appetite at all and bordered on depression all the time, despite being treated by the best psychologists and best physicians in the best institutions. She made several attempts at suicide.

On 13th April 1987, while the Chiracs were holidaying in Thailand, she jumped on the ground from the 4th floor of her apartment. She suffered serious injuries but survived. Rumours began circulating that she had died and had been secretly buried. All these had a strong toll on the morale of the parents. As Bernadette Chirac pointed out, both her husband and herself were "dans un terrible désert moral et affectif". After other attempts at suicide, Laurence disappeared from public view and was usually referred to as 'l'absente'. On 14th April 2016 she died of a massive heart attack. In order not to lose his second daughter and to compensate for being too absent from home, Jacques Chirac doted on Claude, showered her with affection and even overprotected her.

To keep her by his side, he appointed her as a sort of private secretary who looked after his meetings and appointments, controlled his agenda and apparently had a strong influence on him. But Claude too faced personal tragedies. She was unhappy in love. Her first relationship was with the judo champion, Thierry Rey, who gave her a son in March 1996 and left soon after. She then had a long affair with actor Vincent Lindon before getting married to a Figaro columnist and lecturer in political science, Philippe Habert. They seemed to be head over heels in love with each other. However, when they went to Venice for honeymoon Claude discovered that she was not on the same wavelength with her husband and on their return, she began to live separately. She asked for divorce. A few months later, the corpse of Philippe was found in his apartment, apparently the result of a desperate act of suicide.

But it is in his political life that Jacques Chirac was the butt of bitter betrayal on the part of his collaborators. The betrayal that hurt him the most was that of Nicolas Sarkozy. They first met in 1975. It was like a "coup de foudre". Chirac was impressed by the dynamism and forceful ambition of this young man. "Come with me" he told him. "You are gifted for politics". Sarkozy indeed followed Chirac and became his close collaborator. Their relationship was like father and son. He even developed a strong bond of friendship with Chirac's daughter, Claude. However, when the time came to support the candidature of Chirac for the presidential election in 1995, he opted for Edouard Balladur and canvassed actively with much zeal and enthusiasm for the latter. Chirac was devastated. "Et tu Brute", one is tempted to say.

Regarding Balladur, it was the same man who shared a bond of friendship with Chirac for thirty long years. The latter was his mentor in politics and propelled him to the forefront. He appointed him 'Ministre d'État' in 1986 when he served as the first Prime Minister of cohabitation under François Mitterrand. There was a tacit, even verbal, agreement between them to the effect that if Chirac won the presidential election in 1988, he would nominate Balladur as Prime Minister. Unfortunately, Chirac lost. Mitterrand was still contemplating to nominate him as Prime Minister of cohabitation once again, but Chirac showed no interest to play this role once again. Instead, he pushed forward the candidature of his friend and close collaborator Balladur, little knowing that the latter would use this platform to aim at the next presidency which Chirac considered legitimately as his personal aspiration. Their relations began to sour soon after Balladur's assumption of office as Prime Minister. He did not consult his previous mentor on the choice of his ministers. Chirac learned about them on TV like anybody else. He had no say in the political and economic orientation of the new government as he was not consulted as the leader of the majority party.

In fact, Balladur concentrated on redressing the economy which the socialist Bérégovoy had left in tatters with his policy of "relance par la demande". GDP fell by 1.4%, the debt was colossal and some 5 million people were out of employment. There were major challenges ahead. As Helmut Kohl, the German Chancellor put it, "une nation industrielle n'est pas un parc de loisirs où les retraites sont de plus en plus jeunes, les étudiants de plus en plus âgés, les horaires de travail de plus en plus réduits et les congés de plus en plus longs".

Balladur began to tackle the economy with a first devaluation. His seriousness in tackling the economy won him popularity and the more he rose in the polls, the more he distanced himself from Chirac. He never mentioned the latter in his speeches and in private he would refer condescendingly to him as "ce pauvre garçon". One by one the collaborators began to desert Chirac who had nothing to say but "c'est dur toutes ces trahisons, très dur". The fatal blow to the erstwhile friendship came when Balladur announced his candidature to the presidential election of 1995 despite the agreement between himself and Chirac that he would serve as Prime Minister to the latter in the eventuality of Chirac winning the election.

Finally, Chirac won the election because he was a true "bête politique" but he could not forget the strings of betrayal.

Azize Bankur

Courtesy: La Tragédie du Président, Frantz-Olivier Giesbert, Flammarion, 2006

[Blog] BRICS and the Architecture of a Post Western Global Order

guest — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 01:00:00 +0000

[Blog] BRICS and the Architecture of a Post Western Global Order guest mer 09/07/2025 - 05:00

In his article published on July 8, 2025, Warwick Powell, Adjunct Professor at Queensland University of Technology and Senior Fellow at Taihe Institute, Beijing, analyzes the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro as a pivotal moment in shaping a post-Western global order. He highlights U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat of a 10% tariff on nations aligning with BRICS, reflecting failed trade negotiations and diminishing American leverage. Together, the BRICS network accounts for 50% or thereabouts of global GDP on a purchasing power parity basis. It represents more than half the world’s population. BRICS nations are delivering stronger growth than the collective west. The full article is reproduced below.

A Strategic Response to Western Systemic Disintegration

By Warwick Powell, Adjunct Professor at Queensland University of Technology and a Senior Fellow at Taihe Institute, Beijing

“Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”, bellowed U.S. President Donal Trump on 7 July 2025. This social media outburst was prompted by the issuance of a joint statement by BRICS leaders, who convened in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

On the same day, Trump began signing and sending off his fabled tariff letters, announcing to recipient heads of state the unilateral determination of Trump’s administration on the applicable tariff to be charged for products from those countries. The letters opined about the absence of reciprocity, rationalising whatever tariff rate Trump announced.

These two missives seem intertwined, reflective of failed bilateral ‘negotiations’ post the suspension of the so-called ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs on the one hand, and a belief that BRICS is an American adversary on the other. The failure of the negotiations over the past near-90 days speaks of collapse of American coercive leverage and the passing of an indifference threshold amongst many nations. Trump’s suspension two days after the grand proclamation of the misnamed reciprocal tariffs regime on most countries and the subsequent escalation of tariffs with China, which refused to cede to his unilateral whims, evoked a strategic blunder of considerable proportions.

He’d boxed himself into a corner. No matter how many puckered lips he would claim were lining up the “kiss my ass”, the Trump administration had effectively alienated nations across the board while creating strong incentives for them to coordinate their approaches.

And now, we come to the convening of BRICS. This event, in Brazil, marks more than just another gathering of non-Western states. It is a declaration - quiet but unmistakable - that a new global architecture continues to take shape. Despite years of Western scepticism, caricature and efforts at containment, BRICS has expanded its institutional footprint, global relevance and strategic coherence.

With ten full members, an expanding circle of partner countries, and over 50 countries seeking affiliation, BRICS is no longer merely a diplomatic forum. It is becoming a gravitational force within the emerging multipolar world, and a structural response to the intensifying contradictions of Western-led globalisation.

Together, the BRICS network accounts for 50% or thereabouts of global GDP on a purchasing power parity basis. It represents more than half the world’s population. BRICS nations are delivering stronger growth than the collective west. More critically, it commands a vast share of the world’s energy reserves, industrial production and critical minerals, thereby placing it at the centre of the real economy upon which global stability depends.

This influence is not just economic. It is systemic. In a world where the material foundations of prosperity - energy, infrastructure and food systems - are under threat, BRICS offers a model of international cooperation rooted in mutual development, strategic autonomy and infrastructural interdependence; sovereign and interdependent.

The Real Economy and Systemic Exchange Value

Unlike the financialised West, BRICS economies remain grounded in the logic of what I have termed Systemic Exchange Value; that is, the capacity to generate and circulate real use values necessary for social reproduction and economic sustainability. Energy, in this framework, is not simply a commodity to be speculated on. It is the substrate of productive life: the energetic base upon which value is created, stored and exchanged.

The U.S. Financial Model: Global Distortion and Domestic Hollowing

The transformation of the U.S. economy over the last four decades has been profound, and profoundly destabilising. Money capital has flooded into financial assets rather than physical infrastructure. Corporations increasingly prioritise share buybacks over investment in fixed capital formation. Banks have shifted from lending to productive enterprises to acting as speculative platforms. The result is a bifurcated economy: financial wealth accumulation at the top and stagnation and precarity below.

Domestically, this has produced widening inequality, shrinking industrial employment and a decaying infrastructure base. Real wages have stagnated for the majority, household debt has soared, and a generation of Americans face declining life expectancy and unaffordable healthcare, housing and education. Politically, this has fueled polarisation, disenchantment and a retreat into nostalgia and culture war posturing.
Globally, the consequences are just as corrosive. The dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency has allowed the U.S. to externalise its imbalances by running persistent trade deficits while exporting volatility. Nations are forced to hold dollar reserves to access global markets, tying their monetary policies to the U.S. Federal Reserve and exposing them to cycles of capital flight, interest rate shocks and dollar liquidity shortages.

The United States has come to depend on financial inflows to fund consumption, while the real economy
withers. In parallel, it has deployed financial infrastructure - SWIFT, sanctions, and dollar clearing - as a geopolitical weapon. The more these tools are used for coercion, the greater the incentive for the rest of the world to build around them. What was once a privilege is now a liability.

This logic of systemic dysfunction is not limited to the United States.

Europe’s Economic Unravelling: Energy, Competitiveness, and Strategic Confusion

Western Europe faces a different but no less severe crisis. Its postwar model, anchored in German industrial exports, French agricultural stability and cheap energy imports (primarily from Russia), has been dismantled by geopolitical rupture and self-inflicted policy incoherence.

The decision to sever from Russian energy supplies has plunged Europe into a state of structural energy insecurity. Natural gas prices have surged. Electricity costs are among the highest in the world. Manufacturing is being offshored or shuttered altogether. German industry, the continent’s manufacturing backbone, now faces an existential crisis. Steel, chemicals, and automotive sectors - once global leaders - are struggling to stay viable.

At the same time, Europe’s green transition has stalled. Over-reliance on intermittent renewables, premature decommissioning of nuclear and fossil infrastructure, and failure to invest in storage or grid resilience have created a perfect storm of vulnerability. What began as an energy transition has become an energy trap.

Europe’s response, comprising subsidies, tariffs and strategic autonomy slogans, amounts to reactive protectionism. Meanwhile, Europe’s geopolitical positioning grows more incoherent. It champions multilateralism while participating in sanctions that fragment trade. It lectures on rules while seizing sovereign assets. It preaches peace while escalating military deployments.

This crisis is not merely cyclical; rather, it is structural. Europe no longer possesses a coherent industrial or energy strategy. It has outsourced security to the U.S., supply chains to Asia, and now finds itself in a strategic cul-de-sac, dependent on expensive American LNG, locked into U.S.-led confrontation with China and unable to generate endogenous growth. Its planned turn to ramping up military spending may inject new liquidity into the flaccid economic system, but it will also channel this wealth into a narrow range of activities with limited system-wide benefit. The rentiers of the military industrial complex will, doubtless, rub their hands together in anticipation but ordinary working households will find little joy in this militarised turn.

Autoimmune Geopolitics: Projecting Decline, Attacking Alternatives

In this context, the attacks on BRICS members - economic, rhetorical and sometimes military - must be read for what they are: autoimmune reactions. Unable to resolve their own internal contradictions, Western powers have projected blame outward, targeting those who dare to pursue alternative development paths.

Russia is sanctioned not merely for military actions, but for asserting resource sovereignty. Iran is isolated and attacked not for its nuclear ambitions, but for refusing to bow to Western economic dictates. China is confronted not because it poses an ideological threat, but because it models a functioning alternative: one based on infrastructure, planning and state-led development. Even erstwhile neutral states seeking to hedge - India, Brazil and South Africa - are treated with suspicion and pressure.

What these reactions reflect is a deeper insecurity. The Western order - rooted in postwar liberalism and post-Cold War unipolarity - is no longer able to secure domestic cohesion or global legitimacy. Its crises, of inflation, inequality, ecological volatility and institutional breakdown, are internal. Yet its response is externalisation: punish others, fragment the world and escalate tensions.

Ironically, these efforts only accelerate the very transformations they seek to delay. Sanctions create incentives for monetary innovation. Exclusion drives new institutional forms. Hostility produces solidarity. The attempt to smother BRICS has, in effect, given it purpose.

In this regard, the BRICS grouping enjoys decisive structural advantages. Russia, Iran, Brazil, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are major energy producers. China leads in renewable energy capacity, grid innovation, and energy storage. These endowments allow BRICS members to anchor value in material reproduction, rather than via financial abstraction.

This contrasts sharply with the West - particularly the United States - where value extraction has become divorced from real production. What began in the 1970s as the liberalisation of capital markets has matured into a hypertrophic regime of financialisation, whereby profitability is driven less by technological innovation or productivity growth, and more by asset inflation, debt-leveraged speculation and shareholder enrichment.

BRICS: Strategic Infrastructure for a New Developmental World

In this landscape, BRICS offers the Global South two essential strategies.

First, it provides a platform for reform. Many BRICS members continue to call for the transformation - not the abandonment - of existing multilateral institutions. This includes fairer voting rights in the IMF and World Bank, a restructured UN Security Council and global trade rules that support industrial development, not just liberalisation. This focus on reforming existing institutions was again prominent in the joint statement of BRICS nations.

Second, it offers protection. Should reform prove impossible, BRICS is building the systems to reduce dependence: trade in national currencies, sovereign digital platforms, development banks without conditionality, and cooperative approaches to energy, food and technology. The goal is resilience not autarky, but autonomy with interdependence. Again, this hedging could be seen in the progressive development and consolidation of its own institutions that run in parallel to, and not against, those dominant institutions of the post-war era.

This shift is already visible. The BRICS New Development Bank funds projects in local currencies. Russia and China conduct energy trade outside of the dollar. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are engaging in multipolar financial and energy diplomacy. Even African and Latin American states are exploring BRICS+ engagements to break free from debt cycles and dependency. The introduction of Indonesia and other countries of southeast Asia into the grouping simply consolidates the diversity of economic resources that can contribute to more effective and balanced trading amongst member states.

China: The Unflappable Heart of a Multipolar Order

At the heart of BRICS lies China - unflappable, disciplined and forward-looking. Its rise is not merely a function of scale, but of strategic continuity. In contrast to the volatility of Western politics, China offers stability. It invests in long-term infrastructure, pursues ecological modernisation, and promotes interconnectivity through logistics, finance and data platforms.

China does not demand ideological conformity within BRICS or indeed elsewhere across the Belt and Road Initiative ecosystem. Instead, it enables alignment on shared goals: development, energy security, technological upgrading and multipolar cooperation. It embodies not a hegemonic power, but a gravitational one - capable of holding diverse partners together while avoiding collapse into rivalry.

The BRICS Horizon and the Reckoning of Globalisation

The age of Western-dominated globalisation is over. What remains is a transition marked by some uncertainty and flux; one defined by systemic instability, geopolitical realignment and the search for new institutional forms.

BRICS is not an anti-Western project. It is a post-Western one. It represents a collective effort to recover sovereignty, build real economies, and reconfigure global governance in line with contemporary realities. It offers the developing world tools of cooperation and mutual empowerment rather than dependency and conditionality.

For the West, BRICS is both a challenge and an opportunity. It can be met with hostility and hubris (the current default reaction) or with introspection and reform. But the choice is narrowing. The world will not wait for the West to heal itself. BRICS is not the future because it seeks to displace the West. It is the future because it is already doing what the West no longer can: building systems that work, for the majority of humanity, in the real world of energy, infrastructure and interdependence.

About the author

Warwick Powell is Adjunct Professor at Queensland University of Technology and a Senior Fellow at Taihe Institute, Beijing. He is the author of "China, Trust and Digital Supply Chains". "Dynamics of a Zero Trust World".

Visit his website

[Blog] Why are we silent? Condemn this genocide!

Dr Michael Atchia — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 13:34:28 +0000

[Blog] Why are we silent? Condemn this genocide! Dr Michael Atchia mar 01/07/2025 - 17:34

56,142 Palestinians killed, murdered by Israel since October 2023.

(Hamas official, 29th June 2025) (84 more Palestinians killed on 30th June 2025)

About 1,500 Israelis were killed during the same period, with 50 hostages still held by Hamas and around 1,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.

Humanity, the human civilization of this 21st century, cannot just continue to sit and witness this genocide of a people. Genocide, you remember, means elimination of a people, a civilization, a country, by one or more murderous groups. I personally remember the worst sentence I ever heard, namely the call by one of the Hutu leaders on Radio Mille Collines in Kigali in 1992, urging their people to go to all villages to kill Tutsis, “n’oubliez pas les femmes et les enfants.” Since October 2023, 60% of those killed in the violence in Gaza are women and children.

This genocide of Palestinians must stop now.

We invite all states of the world, all 191 countries, all members of the United Nations, to now issue a warning to the state of Israel for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and other necessary actions (see below). (With a warning of complete isolation, trade, and communication sanctions to Israel if it does not act now.)

Calling for a UN General Assembly resolution for Israel, its Prime Minister Netanyahu, and government to be sued for war crimes if, let’s say by 14th July 2025, all above are not achieved.

As indeed the world would have done to Hitler in 1945, had he not ended his own life.

Since October 2023, 60% of those killed in the violence are women and children, and there are over one million children in dire need nationally. Including 2-year-old babies, all labelled by the Israeli army as “terrorists.” Children bear a disproportionate burden of the crisis. Beyond the immediate physical dangers, the psychological trauma of constant displacement, loss of family members, and disrupted education can create lasting impacts that will affect an entire generation.

Civilians injured in the conflict and those suffering from everyday health problems are increasingly unable to access basic care. Almost half of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are even partially functional—and they’re understaffed, lacking proper medical supplies, and overwhelmed with patients.

With the use of food distribution as a “weapon,” the daily killing amounts to 30, 50, 70 deaths.

Perpetrated by the state of Israel, largely with American weapons supplied free to them or purchased by Israel with American money (14 billion US dollars given to Israel by the USA in 2024).

Immediate action is necessary. The world has known a few genocides: of Tutsis in Rwanda, of 6 million Jews by the Nazis, of Native Americans, to name but a few. We all must act to stop this one now!

The government of each of the 191 countries of the world, all members of the United Nations, must now urge the state of Israel to take these urgent actions:

An immediate ceasefire. The free flow of food and medical aid into Gaza. Gradual retreat of Israeli troops (after Hamas actions are fully completed).

With external aid, the reconstruction of Gaza will start: its habitats, roads, hospitals, schools, production systems, trade, and policing. Clean drinking water through water trucking. Urgent re-upgrade of all hospitals, sanitation, and hygiene services—including building emergency latrines. Direct cash assistance to help families meet their urgent needs.

From Hamas’ side: the immediate release of all hostages held, as well as return, if any, of bodies of those who died in custody. The formal replacement of the name and constitution of Hamas as an organization by a new one named PPP (Palestine People’s Party) or alternative appellation, with as main organizational objective the governance and development of independent Gaza and Palestine.

With, of course, the same membership and responsible officers as now in Hamas, such as that of the Minister of Health, etc.

Genocide is gradually erasing the population of Gaza. Hamas, with the bien-être of that population in mind (whose genocide could erase it completely, and for which Hamas would have a complicity role), must equally do these: immediate release of all Palestinian hostages, return the bodies of those dead, if any, while Israel would gradually release Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.

Dr. Michael Atchia

(Ex-Programme Director, UNEP; Past President, Mauritius Academy of Science & Technology; D.Sc. University of Salford, Manchester, UK)
mklatchia@intnet.mu

1st July 2025

[Blog] Whitewashing Genocide

guest — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 07:28:37 +0000

[Blog] Whitewashing Genocide guest lun 30/06/2025 - 11:28

It is a well-known fact that Israel keeps in its pockets most of the American politicians on all sides of the political spectrum. This is done through the inordinately powerful lobby called AIPAC which, through billions of dollars, fund their campaigns to ensure or reensure their election. Those who happen to criticise Israel are usually victims of smears, blackmail, false flag and adverse publicity on the media. This grip is not limited only to politicians but to media people as well.

One of the multifarious ways by which the control is done is by organizing and funding guided tours to Israel where the journalists are given special treatment and made to visit places which show a glowing image of the country. Recently, one such guided tour was organized for journalists from some francophone African countries such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote D'Ivoire, Senegal, Togo, Benin , Cameroon, Burundi, Madagascar and so on. This group included a journalist from a local paper from Mauritius as well. The result was an idyllic article on Israel as if in a paid advertisement. It paints Tel Aviv as a place of vivacity, brimming with life and people going along with their daily routine without any worries. No attempt is made to interview Israeli Arabs, both Muslims and Christians, who lead a segregated life as second-class citizens in a country where reigns apartheid as per Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. There is no attempt to find out what is going on in the occupied West Bank throttled by hundreds of checkpoints and where daily acts of vandalism, land grabbing, destruction of agriculture, houses, including violence and murder are being committed against the Palestinians with the complicity of the Israeli soldiers.

The visit to Kibbutz Be'eri, supposed to be the culminating point of the tour, has yielded stories that simply serve to consolidate the Israeli narrative of so- called Hamas brutality and savagery. Yes, there were acts of violence and brutality as in any war but there was also the Hannibal directive as confirmed later by Yoav Gallant and Yasmin Porat, a survivor. In fact, a number of houses in which Israeli civilians were kept as hostages by Hamas fighters, were attacked by Israeli forces to prevent them from being used as bargaining chips by Hamas. These houses were shelled by tanks. This was the cause of the burnt bodies found inside.

What is really shocking with the article of the journalist who went on the guided tour is the nonchalance with which an IDF soldier is described after his retorn from his stint in Gaza . Here was a man who has just returned from Gaza where a genocide is taking place. This soldier might have participated in the killing of women and children in Gaza. He might be one of the snipers who had blown the skull of children there. He could have personally participated in increasing the number of Gaza'n victims to 100, 000 as per the figures released by the Israeli paper Haaretz. The same paper, in its edition of 27 June, reports that the soldiers have received orders to shoot at unarmed civilians coming to fetch food at so called distribution centres. It is not a surprise, therefore, to see more than a hundred victims in some days. According to Haaretz, Gaza has become "a killing field". Hence , instead of being appalled, our journalist jokes about the Israeli soldier by writing that he carries his gun "like his girlfriend". Whitewashing genocide is equivalent to being indirectly complicit to genocide.

Azize Bankur