Aleksandr Shustov

Uzbekistan’s foreign policy is becoming more West-oriented. In late October the EU removed the sanctions it had imposed on Uzbekistan after the massacre in Andijan in May 2005. Uzbekistan is one of the US’ key partners of the US and Central Asia again.

Also Uzbek economic partnership with Japan is quite successful. But it is also obvious that Uzbekistan is drifting away from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), EuroAsian Economic Community (EurAsEC) (Uzbekistan withdrew membership a year ago), from the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

The sanctions the EU imposed on Uzbekistan included the embargo on supplies of all types of weapons to the country, banned the entry to the EU for 12 Uzbek officials involved in the riots in Andijan, cut financial assistance introduced restrictions in trade. Last November the EU removed most of these sanctions despite the protests of rights activists. According to the EU, by that time Uzbekistan had made significant progress in human rights protection. On October 27, 2009, during a meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers it was decided to remove the last sanction, which was the ban on weapons supplies. But the real reason behind this decision was Brussels’ plan to establish oil and gas supplies from Uzbekistan to Europe bypassing Russia.

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Chris Floyd

No one forced any of these decisions – or these specious, obscene justifications – on Obama or Blair. It is their own narcissism -- their own lust for power, and their love for the system that gave them that power – has covered them with the blood and shame that now taint their every word and deed.

In recent days we have all witnessed two vomitous eruptions of moral nullity that would tax the powers of a Voltaire or a Vidal to do them proper justice; they quite o'er-crow the meager gifts of a hack like me. But I will sketch a few observations here nonetheless, if only to add one more small voice to those few who bear witness to the evils perpetrated by our unaccountable leaders.

We speak of course of Barack Obama's Nobel speech and Tony Blair's recent comments on the Iraq War. Let's take the lesser figure first.

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Merv Bendle

As the Copenhagen conference unfolds it is possible to detect the outlines of the grim future dystopia that will emerge if the stealthy and remorseless proponents of global eco-fascism are allowed to remake our world in their image. Consequently, the opportunity exists for an artistic and literary critique of the Brave New Green World these fanatics wish to impose on us all.

Once again we face the totalitarian temptation that has bedevilled modern history, that all-encompassing will-to-power that possesses ideological fanatics and drives them to transform themselves (and all of us) into mere components of a great Totality, an immense unified and holistic system where every person becomes an obedient and unquestioning functionary mobilized in the pursuit of a single goal, an ultimate solution: in the twentieth century entire generations were sacrificed to ensure the triumph of the race, the Volk, the people, or the proletariat; in the twenty-first century similar demands are being made for sacrifices on a mass scale to appease the earth goddess Gaia, conceived as the wrathful, relentless, unyielding, and omnipresent source of all life, value and meaning. Gaia – She who must be appeased.

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