The attack on the US Embassy's WC - an update

/ dude, this wasn't really major /

[cellphone camera image of damage inside the US embassy, from Greek e-journal e-Liberta]

OK, since a few people in the US (the comments, see the comments) were over-reacting and being in a rather implausibly conspiratorial mood about the attack on the US embassy in Athens, I'd like to point out a few things:

A false-flag operation - Mossad or CIA - an Iranian retaliation, an Al Qaida attack should all have in common some level of competence. And some level of bloodthirstiness too, I guess. The guys (and gal possibly) who launched the rocket against the US embassy's loo, were neither competent or murderous: They aimed (and missed) at the shield with the eagle in front of the embassy, and fired at a time when it was least likely that any people would be inside the offices.

Not only that, but the missile they used was so old and badly preserved that, the reports state, it didn't do much damage (except for the bathroom). The missile was a 1974 Chinese replica of a Russian RPG-7 (but the Chinese know nothing about it), which likely found its way to the embassy via an Albanian army arsenal, raided during the 1997 pyramid scheme riots, possibly passing through Kosovo and/or Tetovo and ending up, through a rather efficient arms smuggling ring that involves (my home island of) Crete (possibly the EU region with the highest number of illegal guns and firepower per capita - hey its "tradition", what can I say..) which is a major consumer and traffic center for illegal arms in the broader Eastern Mediterranean, Near East and SE Europe, into the hands of some person related to the strike - who quite likely was ripped off in the process since the damn thing couldn't explode because its explosives were eroded/degraded, according to the Greek press and TV.

Greek TV BTW, has gone beyond the realms of the surreal, finding first a photo of the arms stash of the "Revolutionary Struggle", right out of Wikipedia - from Fallujah it turns out, and then, despite lamenting the lack of real leads, going on to such a detailed description of the terrorists, their origins, age groups and political affiliations (leaked supposedly from the antiterrorist squad or the police) that these journalists either have very vivid imaginations, or they're psychic... Another possibility is that they're printing whatever the intelligence services are leaking - for they're own purpose.

If one wants to be somewhat realistically more conspiratorial, I would point out that the first reactions coming out of the Greek government were to call for a toughening of antiterror laws, including easier and more extensive wiretapping provisions, extensive use of surveillance cameras for non-traffic purposes etc. This is the same "terror group" BTW who exploded a "bomb" against the former Minister of Public Order (some sort of explosive tied to a bicycle) at a time when he and the whole government was in political deep shit, allegedly for helping and allowing foreign intelligence services to roam freely in the country and for covering up the huge wiretapping scandal. The attack happened outside his house, a few meters away from the bomb-squad which was equipped with explosives'-sniffing dogs, and "three minutes" before he was scheduled to leave his house. The attack created some sympathy for Voulgarakis and a much needed diversion for the Greek government - which was sliding in opinion polls amidst the various scandals... The Greek Intelligence Service would also be very likely to be Clouseau-like in their attempts, given their history of gaffes and would have had to operate with full knowledge of the US government (which could have used a more "successful" attack for obvious reasons of their own)... But I dislike conspiracy theories, even the marginally more plausible ones, so I suppose that it is indeed a minor local armed group, which tried to pull off a highly symbolic yet bloodless attack. As long as nobody got hurt, it would have been rather popular (occurring almost on the anniversary of the opening of the Guantanamo detention camp) here, so that alone would have been reason enough for them to strike... By the way, if they're real, I expect they will probably get better at it...

As I noted, these inept "terrorists" supposedly called the private security company's offices to claim responsibility - a world first. One of my favourite Greek bloggers, Old Boy, announced yesterday that he received a written statement from Revolutionary Struggle, which I think is brilliant enough to be worth translating:

We assume responsibility for yesterday's rocket attack against the American Embassy. We choose to publish our proclamation in a blog because we believe that the revolution will start and spread through the internet. In fact the revolution has already started...
... Unfortunately in terrorism, just like in football, everything is judged by the result: a few centimeters off and the ball hits the post, the game is lost and all the players are bums - a few centimeters off and the rocket, instead of hitting the shield, lands in the crapper. Shit.
We live in the age of the image and the image of the destroyed US emblem would immediately reach the four corners of the planet. What's more effective than that? We would be adored across the world. Our image would become a global inspiration, a symbol, a standard. We would have become legends. But because of a few fucking centimeters, our dream was shattered like the glass and ended up in the loo. Our strike, beyond its global dimensions, would have made us especially loved and accepted by the Greeks. Just like November 17 was in the beginning, when it attacked CIA station chiefs and Greek torturers. But today, thirty years later, we, the younger generation, have realized that by killing a minor officer you simple take a life, while by blowing up a symbol you speak to the hearts of everyone and achieve a far greater effect. Honestly, which Greek hasn't looked up at that particular shield and emblem, at some point in his or her life, with hatred? We took the protester's rock and we turned it into a rocket. But we missed. And that hurts. But whether we like it or not, that's how terrorism goes, the rocket is cylindrical and a whore (to paraphrase Ivica Osim [Who had stated that in football, the ball was round and a whore]) and we have no other option but to pick ourselves up, see where we made mistakes, and work hard in correcting them, and focus on our next strike, taking each strike one at a time [standard football-coach talk after a defeat].

R.O. Revolutionary Struggle

Warning: For the really clever officers of the anti-terrorist and cybercrime squads: do not arrest this person! It's satire/commentary. He didn't really receive a proclamation. Seriously.

Rocket fired against the US embassy in Athens

/ Bomb and tell / the wrong people /


So this morning around 6 am local time (GMT +2), a rocket was launched against the US embassy in Athens, which inflicted rather minor damage: a 30 cm hole in the window and, possibly, the destruction of a lavatory. No one was hurt. No one is sure about the identity of the perpetrators of the bombing but there are claims that a militant group calling itself "Revolutionary Struggle" called the Private Security company that was guarding the embassy, to claim responsibility for the attack in what must be a world first: not the police, the authorities or the media, but a private security company. As you might imagine I'm not inclined to take the alleged phone-calls seriously.

Interestingly, Greek TV channels report that the missile fired was of Eastern European origin- possibly East German, this being the first time that I remember that a local armed group would be using Eastern European weapons - if indeed it is a local group - which I doubt, but can't totally dismiss as a possibility. Anyway that's what the TV reports but I'm not ready to trust them on anything...

Despite the unspectacular character of the strike, one should remember that the US embassy in Athens is possibly among the most heavily guarded buildings in the world, and the total failure of both private security and the Greek police to prevent or capture the perpetrators is astonishing - as is the fact that the surveillance cameras in the US embassy failed to spot the attackers.

I'm not sure about the meaning of this attack, I'm not sure who the perpetrators were, but I can report that we're being bombarded (again) here by all sorts of TV "terrorism experts", a serious threat to our nerves and general peace of mind.

Image from in.gr which has a photo-gallery of the bombed embassy.

... And this analysis is almost (but not quite) correct.

Peace, Love and Understanding in Occupied Iraq

/ the Iraqi civil war /

Iason Athanasiadis, sent the following transcript of a talk show from Al Jazeera TV featuring Sunni MP, Mish'an Al-Jabouri (owner of Al-Zawraa TV) and Shiite Iraqi Journalist Sadeq Al-Musawi (political advisor to the President of Iraq Jalal Talabani). The debate aired on Al-Jazeera TV on January 2, 2007:

Host: "Do you support the execution of Saddam Hussein?" 4,787 people, who constitute 88.6% of the public, say: "No." 11.4% say: "Yes." What do you want to say to them?

Mish'an Al-Jabouri: With your permission, before he responds... I would like to begin this show by calling upon the viewers to recite the Al-Fatiha verse for the soul of the martyred president Saddam Hussein...

Sadeq Al-Musawi: We are not going to recite the Al-Fatiha for anybody. We are here to condemn a man who killed thousands and millions of Iraqis. We are not here to recite the Al-Fatiha for anybody. He was an oppressive tyrant who spilled the blood of the Iraqis. [...] Saddam Hussein was not an Arab leader. Saddam Hussein came to power by stealth, in the dark of night. He killed his friends and his comrades in order to attain power. Saddam Hussein has gone to the garbage bin of history. [...]

Mish'an Al-Jabouri: You should have some self-respect, and choose your words carefully, or else, I will do to you things you cannot even imagine, you Persian liar... Behave yourself, you liar...

Sadeq Al-Musawi: You are a thief... You are a thief. You've been convicted for theft..

Mish'an Al-Jabouri : Get out. Saddam Hussein is your master and the master of your parents...

Mish'an Al-Jabouri: These are your documents. You are an Iranian citizen. You are Persian... You are an Iranian citizen... Saddam Hussein is your master and the master of people like you... (throwing the pages at Al-Musawi) These are your documents...

Sadeq Al-Musawi: Your father killed Kurds...

Mish'an Al-Jabouri: These are your Iranian documents... You are Iranian. These documents show that he applied for Iraqi citizenship in May 2004.

Sadeq Al-Musawi: We will settle accounts with all of you...

Mish'an Al-Jabouri: To hell with you and your accounts...

Host: Sir, I beg you to sit down...

Mish'an Al-Jabouri: You Persian shoe...

Host: You cannot talk this way.

Mish'an Al-Jabouri: He shouldn't offend the master of his own parents... Saddam Hussein is his master and the master of his parents... That man is an Iranian...

Host: OK. Let's sit down. Let's talk calmly, without getting upset, please. This isn't the way to hold a discussion. [...]

Mish'an Al-Jabouri: As you know, Saddam executed my own brother and many of my relatives. He executed the uncle of my children, but the way he was executed proved Saddam was a brave man. He has truly become our martyr, and we will visit his grave like the graves of the righteous. [...] They sentenced him to death and executed him on the holiday. The people who executed him are the same people who killed Omar [ibn Al-Khattab]. These are the same peple who killed Abu Bakr... Sorry, the same people who hate Abu Bakr and all the Prophet's companions... [...]

Host: To the viewers who have just joined us, we had Mr. Sadeq Al-Musawi with us, and he left after one minute...

Mish'an Al-Jabouri: He is not Sadeq Al-Musawi. You know that's not his name. Don't make me an accomplice to this forgery...

Host: It looks like he is coming back. I hope Mr. Sadeq will return. Please, let's not make it personal.

Mish'an Al-Jabouri: If he's rude or if he says things that are wrong about Saddam Hussein, I will do things...

Host: Mr. Mish'an, you can say whatever you want about politics...

Mish'an Al-Jabouri: Speak politely and do not offend the memory of the martyred president. Do not offend the memory of... The martyred president Saddam Hussein has become an imam for the heroic resistance fighters around the world.

Sadeq Al-Musawi: That's your opinion.

Mish'an Al-Jabouri: Yes it is, and you should respect my feelings and those of the public. [...] I will not allow him to curse the president....

Sadeq Al-Musawi: I will curse him until this show is over...

Mish'an Al-Jabouri: By Allah, I advise you not to do that....

Sadeq Al-Musawi: Don't advise me, kill me in Iraq... Send your militia to kill me...

[another version here].

I note that the AJ host claims that there is some sort of poll that shows that close to 90% of respondents were against Saddam's execution. The transcript does not make clear who was asked - whether it was Arabs in general or Iraqis. If the latter, the numbers are difficult to believe, and I haven't seen anything on the english (or french, or greek) speaking websites that even mentions such a poll. We do know that when the trial started, a poll claimed that over 50% of the Iraqi population supported his hanging. On the other hand, whereas in a poll published on April 2005, only 39% of Iraqis believed that Iraq was then somewhat worse off or much worse off than before the U.S. invasion, a recent poll shows that:

...Only five percent of those questioned said Iraq is better today than in 2003. While 89 percent of the people said the political situation had deteriorated, 79 percent saw a decline in the economic situation; 12 percent felt things had improved and 9 percent said there was no change. Predictably, 95 percent felt the security situation was worse than before...

However if anyone knows more about the poll quoted by the Al Jazeera anchor, feel free to comment and/or post a url.

Post-Christmas Rampage

/ season's greetings /
...'Tis the season for some follies. A quick denouncement of the rotund commercialising icon in red, british parental concerns save children from the ugly truth - and the Perfect Christian Gift.

1. Letter to Santa

Dear Santa

OK, to be frank I don't like you. Apart from your garish sartorial habits and the fact that you make elves and other vertically challenged minorities (quite possibly underage) to work in what are (no doubt) sweatshop conditions (and thus help legitimize child labor in the process - or  simply outsource it), under permanent surveillance (and note the sign: it's been "0 days" since they had an accident, which means no labour safety standards), and surely abuse your reindeer making them travel the whole world in a single night, you are the personification of the overcommercialization of everything. Your likeness is used to sell everything from condoms, to cigarettes, to, of course Coke, which was the corporate sponsor of the spread and internationalization of your current shape and form.

Add to that the fact that over here (as in many places the world over) you have been slowly displacing the local traditions: Saint Nicholas, from whom you are derived, is the patron saint of seafarers and ships in the Greek tradition and most certainly was not fat and did not dress in drag to deliver presents to children on Christmas. This was done, minus the suit, the chimney and the reindeer, according to Greek Orthodox lore, by Saint Basil of Caesarea, a scholar and a theologian of great calibre who was indeed active in creating poorhouses and charities during his life. Instead of this ascetic saint - we are now presented with an image (for the saint that brings gifts is still named Ayios Vassilis here and that means that the fat guy in red is supposed to represent him) of a guy in weird clothes residing in some snow-covered place, far, far away...

2. No! Not the Tooth Fairy!

As far as myths are concerned, they seem to be protected as such by the British school system, thanks to parental vigilance. The story reads like a spoof, but apparently it's real and actually it's two incidents, in one of which:

...At yet another school, pupils went home in tears after being told Father Christmas does not exist by a teacher who was telling a class of nine-year-olds how Christmas is celebrated across the world.

Angry parents at Calcot Junior School in Berkshire said the teacher had 'ruined' Christmas for their children.

Mel Barefield, whose son was in the lesson, said: 'The teacher had said to them that Father Christmas wasn't real, Rudolph was a cartoon character and that Christmas trees come from Germany.'

A governor said: 'It's not just Father Christmas that's the problem. We also have issues with things like the Tooth Fairy...

3. Onward Christian Soldiers: Kill them all and let God sort them out... and a very Merry Christmas:

Known Christmasphobe Matt Taibbi, reports on the one present that he really would like to get from Santa: Left Behind: Eternal Forces, the game version of the well known Left Behind Christian fundamentalist action novel series. The whole concept is so grotesque that it is some kind of genius in an accidental post-dada happening sort of way, in which cultural artefacts themselves serve as their own magnificent, marketable parodies. To quote Taibbi on the pre-launch press releases (prayer requests actually) for the game, which he celebrates as "easily some of the greatest examples of unintentional comedy ever to grace the Internet" (after cheering for nativity desecrations the world over):

...But when the date arrived, the company's "Prayer Team leader," Annette Brown, began to get more and more specific in her corporate prayer goals [circulated by email]:

   1. Pray God will put it on the heart of the consumers to purchase our product at select Walamart [sic] Stores (top 100 stores) that have our invetory [sic].

    2. Next weekend is the biggest shopping weekend of the year, pray the game hits record sales for PC Games.

    3. The press is still reviewing the game, pray they will be kind in their reviews.

    I mean, how twisted do you have to be to pray that consumers will buy your product at select Wal-Mart stores? Wouldn't you hesitate and call a psychiatrist before sending that out into cyberspace?

... And a Happy New Year everyone!
[Cross-posted in the European Tribune]

And the winner is...

/ evilest lobby /
The final results for the 2006 Worst EU Lobby Award, are in!

ExxonMobile's efforts in generously funding misinformation campaigns which try to convince people that there is no climate change problem, really, at all, swept the Worst EU Lobbying award, gathering more than 50% of all votes - an acknowledgment of their hard work and open purses...

In the category of "Worst Privileged Access", the award went to Directorate-General Internal Market, "For manipulating a consultation on EU patent policies"...

The list of runner-ups includes some impressive nominees, a true pity that there are no awards for them - maybe next year, eh?

[and an update on C4C, last year's winner]

In denial

/ iran's aryan fans /
Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinejad (his site) has recently proved without a doubt that he lacks basic political skills, to a degree I never thought possible for a leader of such a huge country. His recent "Holocaust conference", is an affair of such astounding stupidity and ignorance that, were it not a fact that he is pretty much under the command of the (ruthless yet) rather more intelligent religious leadership, might be really bloody scary - if only because of the childishness that this whole matter indicates residing in the upper levels of a powerful country.

As Norman Markowitz notes in a recent article in Political Affairs magazine:

If I were a conspiracy theorist, which I am not, I would say that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's far right president, was an agent provocateur of the Bush administration, working to isolate his country from the civilized world and set the stage for a military attack on it. Ahmadinejad seems to think that the best way to advance himself is to seek alliances with open fascists throughout the world while distracting his own people's attention from the high unemployment and inflation that they face, posing as the defender of the Palestinian people and the enemy of the U.S. and the Israeli governments.

In fact, as Markowitz concludes:

Actually Ahmadinejad has helped Bush more than if he were an agent. He has on his own given the Bush administration a propaganda victory against his country that millions of CIA dollars could not have accomplished. If he continues on this path he may even top Saddam Hussein as a paragon of political wisdom.

Alternatively, inviting a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan (among other similar illuminaries) as a panelist, might indeed indicate that the man is truly a racist and a fascist, in which case it would be nice if someone would ask his theologically erudite superiors if they consider racism and nazi ideology compatible with Islam.

Despite the regime making an effort to exclude from the conference, participants who were in a position to dispute the holocaust denialists, there was a host of reactions from the Arab and Muslim world. Especially worthy of note is the open letter of Mahmoud Al-Safadi, in Le Monde (original in French), who is a PFLP member, recently released from an Israeli prison, where he was locked up for 18 years for throwing molotov cocktails (no, really). In it he decries Ahmadinejad's conference and holocaust denial, stating among other things that:

...Whatever the number of victims -- Jewish and non-Jewish -- the crime is monumental. Any attempt to deny it deprives the denier of his own humanity and sends him immediately to the side of torturers. Whoever denies the fact that this human disaster really took place should not be astonished that others deny the sufferings and persecutions inflicted on his own people by tyrannical leaders or foreign occupiers...
...Concerning the struggle of my people for their independence and their freedom: perhaps do you regard the negation of the Holocaust as an expression of support for the Palestinians? There, again, you are mistaken. We fight for our existence and our rights and against the historical injustice which was inflicted on us in 1948. We will not win our victory and our independence by denying the genocide perpetrated against the Jewish people, even though the forces who occupy our country today and dispossess us are part of the Jewish people...

[Translation: MRZine]

Similar condemnation comes from the Muslim American Society:

...President Ahmedinejad should recognize that the issue of the Palestinian people must not, and cannot, be transmogrified into the ugly and spiritually bankrupt context of racial hatred. The cause of freedom must never drink from the well of hatred and racism...

Finally, Fawwaz Traboulsi, writing in the Beirut daily as-Safir of 14 December 2006 has much to comment on, regarding the regional contradictions of holocaust denial:

...How can we ever hope to make a convincing contribution to the unmasking of the "Holocaust industry" if we deny Nazi crimes against the Jews? How can we ever hope to draw attention to the crimes of the "new Nazis" against the Palestinian people if we decrease the number of victims of the historical Nazis? What is the significance of making comparisons between Nazism and Zionism, in order to denounce the latter, if we also exonerate the Nazis of their greatest historical crime, which is the Holocaust? And is this not the mirror image of what the Zionists have done when they appropriate the role of victims and deny the Palestinians of even claiming they are victims?...

The apologetics for Nazi Germany, are not acceptable. The reality of the holocaust and the colossal human toll of the Nazi hordes in all of Europe, is only denied by committed fascists and assorted nuts. In aligning himself with the global extreme-right, Ahmadinejad reveals his utter cluelessness. At the same time he is providing the New Colonialists with more fodder for their spin machines.

Thankfully, things aren't going too well for him on the electoral front, recently.

Death and the Dictator

/ a death too quiet /



So on Human Rights Day, 2006, Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, died, aged 91 and not in custody. The death of the man responsible for thousands of deaths, torture and imprisonment in Chile, a crook, who supported a bizzare zoo of sadists, and turned Chile into a neoliberal Guinea Pig, was a cause for joy to many, a relief to some. It also means that among the protagonists of September 11, 1973 in Chile, only one remains alive today...
Instead of further expounding on the man's horrors, I present the following poem by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (who died a few days after Pinochet's coup).


The Dictators

An odor has remained among the sugarcane:
a mixture of blood and body, a penetrating
petal that brings nausea.
Between the coconut palms the graves are full
of ruined bones, of speechless death-rattles.
The delicate dictator is talking
with top hats, gold braid, and collars.
The tiny palace gleams like a watch
and the rapid laughs with gloves on
cross the corridors at times
and join the dead voices
and the blue mouths freshly buried.
The weeping cannot be seen, like a plant
whose seeds fall endlessly on the earth,
whose large blind leaves grow even without light.
Hatred has grown scale on scale,
blow on blow, in the ghastly water of the swamp,
with a snout full of ooze and silence
[translator unknown, found i.e. here,
more info on the translator welcome]

Los Dictadores Canto General (1950) Ha quedado un olor entre los cañaverales: Una mezcla de sangre y cuerpo, un penetrante Pétalo nauseabundo. Entre los cocoteros las tumbas están llenas De huesos demolidos, de estertores callados. El delicado sátrapa conversa Con copas, cuellos y cordones de oro. El pequeño palacio brilla como un reloj Y las rápidas risas enguatadas Atraviesan a veces los pasillos Y se reúnen a las voces muertas Y a las bocas azules frescamente enterradas. El llanto está escondido como una planta cuya semilla cae sin cesar sobre el suelo y hace crecer sin luz las grandes hojas ciegas. El odio se ha formado escama a escama, Golpe a golpe, en el agua terrible del pantano Con un hocico lleno de légamo y silencio.

The 1956 Hungarian Revolution - by DoDo

/ hungarian / revolution /
DoDo (owner of the lately inactive Manic Net Preacher, inter alia) has completed his "1956 Hungarian revolution" series over at the European Tribune, offering an excellent acount of the events of half a century ago, their context and their aftermath.

It's an exemplary article, and if somewhere, someone, is thinking about an award for "Best Historical Blog Post of 2006", or something, this should be a major contender.

Contents:

Prelude (communism in Hungary and the forces behind the revolution)

Outbreak (the turbulent events of 23 October)

Turmoil (the hectic events in the next twelve days)

Fighting (the final losing battle against the Soviet tanks and its background)

Personal Memories (eyewitness accounts from DoDo's relatives)

Aftermath (what happened to the country and the people, and what role did its memory play later)

Mike Davis: Fear and Money in Dubai

/ neoliberal / dreamworlds /
From the New Left Review, Mike Davis writes about the new entrepreneurial, feudal modernity of Dubai:

"On the rim of the war zone, a new Mecca of conspicuous consumption and economic crime, under the iron rule of Sheikh al-Maktoum. Skyscrapers half a mile high, artificial archipelagoes, fantasy theme parks—and the indentured Asian labour force that sustains them...
...Al-Maktoum, who fancies himself the Gulf’s prophet of modernization, likes to impress visitors with clever proverbs and heavy aphorisms. A favourite: ‘Anyone who does not attempt to change the future will stay a captive of the past’. Yet the future that he is building in Dubai—to the applause of billionaires and transnational corporations everywhere—looks like nothing so much as a nightmare of the past: Speer meets Disney on the shores of Araby."

Post-American Geopolitics

/ empires in upheaval /
There has been ample discussion of the USA's decline as a superpower, other than as a military superpower that is. Immanuel Wallerstein has been arguing as much for a long time, most recently in his essay "The curve of American Power". Dennis Redmond chips in, in a piece in MRzine titled "Post-American geopolitics", about the emerging multi-polar world, a world of "three metropoles and four peripheries", as he puts it. Excerpt:

Many of us on the Left have pondered what would replace the Cold War division of the planet into the First, Second, and Third World. Though the three worlds thesis was arbitrary at best -- the social divisions within nation-states are often more significant than the distinctions between nation-states -- it did have the merit of emphasizing the primacy of the US Empire. From 1945 to 1985, the US was the reigning global superpower. It had the richest economy in the world, the most advanced technology, and the most productive workforce on the planet. While it did have significant regional challengers, e.g. the Soviet Union and China, and suffered local defeats everywhere from Cuba to Vietnam, it had no truly worldwide economic or cultural competitors.

Times have changed. Today, the European Union and the East Asian region have caught up and surpassed their erstwhile mentor. The EU and East Asia are self-financing, autonomous economies, endowed with world-class technologies and some of the highest productivity levels on the planet. They dominate world trade and financial flows the way the US once did. Both are the leading creditors in the world-economy, and control most of the key levers of the world financial system. Today, the US is not only the world's biggest debtor, it is also shockingly dependent on capital inflows from East Asia and Europe.

Perhaps the best way to think of the contemporary world-system is to see it as "three metropoles and four peripheries." Contrary to what you may have heard, most global trade occurs within each metropole and its corresponding semi-periphery, and only secondarily between metropoles or semi-peripheries. The four peripheries, by contrast, have the blessing (or curse) of not yet being fully integrated into any single bloc. They do have significant trading links with one or two metropoles, but they are not structurally integrated into any single metropole. This makes it more difficult for them to access metropolitan markets, but also gives them more freedom to maneuver.

The article contains some interesting data, notably on world banking shares and "cultural production" world-wide.

Also interesting, and related to this whole discussion, is Jerome's commentary in Eurotrib, on an Economist article regarding Asian technological ascendancy. Note the graph on published articles in Phys.Rev. - an unimaginable inversion since the early nineties, to be sure.