Carne Ross

Palestine/UN – quick update: showdown at the Security Council less likely

After talking with a lot of people at the UN, and in the leader- and diplomat-packed corridors and lobbies of various mid-town hotels in a rainy New York City, the likely early outcomes of the Palestinian initiative are becoming a bit clearer.  Any observations now however must be stated with a very clear proviso that things are moving fast, and the diplomacy is hectic.  Things may change very suddenly.

 

A simple guide to Palestine’s application for membership of the United Nations

There’s a lot of confusion about the PLO’s likely attempt this week to gain full membership of the UN.  In particular, many commentators (and the PLO itself) often refer to the initiative as an attempt to gain “recognition” by the UN, which it is not.  The UN does not recognise states; only other states can recognise states (however, UN membership would undoubtedly boost Palestine’s claim to be a state).

 

An extraordinary example of what “The Leaderless Revolution” is all about

My cousin told me about this remarkable story.  It illustrates perfectly the arguments of “The Leaderless Revolution”: a tragic and difficult problem which an appeal to conventional insitutions could not solve; instead this brave and resourceful couple took matters, peacefully, into their own hands and addressed the problem, with great compassion, directly…

 

From shipwreck to solidarity

 

By Rafael Estefania
BBC News, Hansala, Morocco

When Government is Broken

In the US and Europe, disillusion with politics is feeding the far right. We need a radical response that returns power to people

The recent debacle in Washington, where wrangling over the debt limit has triggered a downgrading of American debt, has underlined the deep incompetence of the US political system. Thanks to needless brinkmanship, particularly by the Republicans, confidence in US debt has been undermined, thereby likely increasing the cost of borrowing – a price that will eventually be paid by all Americans.