Category: International

Nelson Mandela personified the best in our species. Fight for what’s right. And then refuse to hate the haters. A fist to a handshake. Mere words don’t do him justice.

Once again we have been reminded–via the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)–that U.S. students continue to lag behind their teen-aged counterparts when it comes to math, science and reading. U.S. 15-year-olds did no better than 24th in reading, 28th in science and 36th in math. There were no bonus points for remediation emphasis. Top global leaders were the usual suspects: China, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Other familiar names: Canada, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Netherlands, Poland, Estonia and Finland.

Here in the U.S., the usual knee-jerk response was elicited: ever higher standards. And the usual skepticism ensued: Are standardized tests part of the solution or problem?

Standardized tests are certainly in the mix, but they’re not as impacting as obvious demographics and common sense deficits. To wit:

You’d be hard pressed to find permanent, sizable, minority underclasses in Liechtenstein or Finland. The correlation between economic status and academic progress is a universal given.

You’d also be out of luck if you were looking for a societal-cultural counterpart in Japan of academic accomplishment trivialized and debased as “acting white.”

And you’d find no takers in Estonia for a pedagogic approach that valued self-esteem over achievement.

It would be pretty easy to make a case for not visiting North Korea, Dennis Rodman’s bromance with Kim Jung-un notwithstanding. So, it’s still sort of mystifying why anyone who doesn’t have to go there would. But we’re all glad, of course, that 85-year-old Korean War vet Merrill Newman was released and has returned home.

But here’s the point, whether we’re talking the hermit kingdom or Iran, whether we’re talking visiting a country where you advised its enemies or carelessly crossing a border into an arch adversary’s sovereign territory. The U.S. State Department doesn’t need to have important ongoing and delicate negotiations unnecessarily complicated by such incidents. It gives actual or perceived leverage to such countries–countries that matter from a national security perspective.

There is reason for optimism on the Iranian front. And there is, to be sure, ample reason to be circumspect and cautious when it comes to dealing with Iran over its nuclear energy program.  “Trust but verify” should, of course, remain a non-negotiable approach.

But ever wonder, purely from the Iranian point of view, how far from the surface this sub-text is?

“Let’s see if we have this right. After the U.S. and the old Soviet Union, a few other countries were able to join the nuclear club. The usual Western stalwarts, such as England and France, but later China, India and those ever-reliably prudent Pakistanis. And let’s not forget, Israel, although it’s not politically correct to note that there’s something other than sand and cacti in the Negev Desert. But the world draws the line at North Korea and us. Thanks again, America, for that ‘axis of evil’ association.

“And nobody, of course, speaks with a more authoritative, influential voice than the U.S. on the need for crippling Iranian sanctions and the rationale for how destabilizing it would be for the world if we were allowed to do what we want with nuclear energy. And how ironic is it that in the history of the world, only one nation has ever actually used a nuclear weapon. And it was the U.S.–and they did it twice. So, other than Japan, nobody knows the obscene, almost incomprehensive danger inherent in nuclear-weapons proliferation more than the U.S. They’re the experts. They’ve earned it.”

Every time my wife Laraine and I travel abroad, I promise that it–the “experience”–will not turn into a working holiday. I’ll shoot photos and generally make note. But I won’t take notes. Alas, we know where that can lead. Well, it led there again in a recent visit to Vienna, Budapest and Munich.

But, no, I’m not Rick Steeves. I’m not about to go all Frommer’s and Baedeker’s here. It’s Old Europe, and, of course, it’s charming. So, just a few observations from an American adding another perspective of his own country while noticing his Medieval-meets-light rail surroundings.

For openers, what timing.

There’s literally no escaping media ubiquity these days–and when it’s a drumbeat of “shutdown” and default scenarios, it’s as embarrassing as it is maddening. Not hard to detect a sense of smugness in European anchors and editorial writers referencing America’s “suicide caucus” and quoting and re-quoting President Barack Obama’s “held hostage” comments. Sure, the ripples from America’s dysfunctional Congress have global impact, none of it good, but there was no mistaking a hint of schadenfreude over the self-inflicted predicament of the world’s most powerful country.

Enough on that. It’s infuriating just referencing it. A pox on the OutHouse of Representatives.

* If you haven’t picked up an International Herald Tribune lately, you will be taken aback by its size. In the age of broadsheet downsizing, the IHT is like unfolding a table cloth. It’s so much bigger than it used to be without becoming larger. Amazing.

* Vienna has no edifice complex, to be sure. And much of it is Habsburg related. Speaking of, this political dynasty lasted for 640 years. Puts the Adamses, Roosevelts, Tafts, Kennedys, Clintons and Bushes in humbling perspective.

* Amid the baroque, gothic and art nouveau architecture is its contemporary counterpart. Hardly a complement–anymore than those McDonalds and Burger King franchises–but you know what modern replaced. About a third of the city was destroyed in World War II.

* Talk about re-purposing. More than 160 families now live in government, rent-controlled apartments in the iconic Schonbrunn Palace.

* Surprising how much graffiti is in evidence around Vienna. You can tell a lot of it is politics related–immigration is an issue as well as an evolving definition of “neutral.” But you can also tell the generic handiwork of the usual, narcissistic idiots.

* Upon further reflection: Following the Rays online inside the Opera House was probably a sacrilege.

* Imagine happening upon a “grow house” along the Danube in Vienna. Who knew?

* On a side trip to Salzburg, it was pointed out where various “Sound of Music” scenes were filmed. No less well-noted: where the inventor of Red Bull lives.

* Budapest straddles both sides of the Danube River. Buda and Pest were formerly separate cities. The contrast–Buda is hilly and leafy, Pest is flat and the administrative and commercial center of all Hungary–is visually intriguing. Buda is known for lush parks and fashionable neighborhoods; Pest features luxury hotels and upscale shopping. Ten bridges–two for trains only–span the Danube. The dynamic includes Viking river cruises as well as large dinner, gambling and night-club boats. There’s even a Sinatra Piano Bar barge. Talk about a river-centric synergy. The development of The Heights on the Hillsborough can’t come soon enough.

* Watching anything but politics on TV eventually gets you to local sports. This is Europe, so soccer and cycling is a given. But darts? Seemed like the players were the only ones sober.

* Goulash is a Hungarian staple. But who knew the acclaim over marzipan? There’s even a Budapest museum dedicated to it.

* What’s compelling about Budapest history is that you don’t have to go all Medieval in its pursuit. The 20th century, alas, more than suffices. Most notably, 1956. Soviet tanks rolled into downtown and crushed an anti-Communist, anti-East Bloc citizen revolt. It was brutal, and vestiges–and survivors–remain. The “Terror House” museum now stands as a graphic reminder. It formerly housed Hungarian Nazi headquarters before morphing in 1945 into a Communist interrogation, torture and execution chamber. Now it commemorates its victims. Incongruously enough, the Neo-Renaissance “Terror Haza” sits prominently on tree-lined, stately Andrassy Boulevard, often referred to as Budapest’s Champs Elysees.

*Munich, which was 70 percent destroyed in World War II, has an understandably modern, not just Bavarian, feel. It’s also nefariously steeped in early Nazi and Hitler history. Putsch Hall now doubles as a spacious, tourist restaurant. In Marienplatz,  the city’s most famous–and eclectic–square, you can shop for a Rolex next to a sausage shop and then wander down to hear and watch the 11:00 a.m. Glockenspiel attraction rotate its 32 life-sized figures on top of the Town Hall.

* Had an interesting dining experience at a restaurant at the Munich train station. The menu included a “Tampa Bay” sandwich (mit schinken and kase), which turned out to be ham and cheese with lettuce, tomato and mayo–and not to be confused with a Boliche Boulevard Cuban.

* Granted, it was a limited sampling, but nice–hardly fancy–restaurants sans flat-screen TVs were most welcome.

* Wherever you go, there’s an Irish pub.

* There is no seamless transition to Dachau, the notorious concentration camp about 10 miles northwest of Munich. The weather, almost on cue, turned cold, windy and rainy. If there’s a place that should never be sunny and nice, it’s this place. You walk around, and you know you’re confronting the artifacts of evil. Nothing this calculated is anything but.

Among the memorials and inscriptions, this one from a Dachau survivor:

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out, for I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out, for I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the gypsies, and I did not speak out, for I was not a gypsy. Then they came for the  Jews, and I did not speak out, for I was not Jewish. Then they came for me. And there was no one left to speak out for me.”

Time was you could take an extended trip–say, leave the hemisphere–and leave it all behind. Pack your suitcases and leave the baggage of domestic politics behind. The global ubiquity of modern media, however, now precludes that. The Senate and the OutHouse of Representatives seem a continuous global loop.

I was reminded again over the last fortnight during a European visit. There’s nothing like confronting the contemporary face of “American exceptionalism”–reminders of a brinksmanship-causing government shutdown–while overseas. Paralysis politics, upshots of gerrymandered, Tea Party-friendly congressional districts and government by stop-gap measures now seems the new normal. It’s beyond frustrating and outrageous. It’s infuriatingly embarrassing.

From BBC, Sky Network, Bloomberg TV and CNN International to German, French and Russian news channels and newsstand (remember those?) headlines, there was no escaping the accompanying news albatross from back home. “Shutdown Showdown.” “Debt Limit Showdown.” “Obama a No-Show” (in Asia). “Stop Holding U.S. ‘Ransom'” (quote of President Obama). Sure, there were references to neo-Nazis in Greece, Silvio Berlusconi’s lingering influence in Italy, Bibi Netanyahu’s contrarian views on Iran, a scandalously big-spending German bishop and Vlad Putin’s Nobel Peace Prize nomination. But nothing got more play than inexplicable U.S. priorities.

One sensed an almost perverse delight in news readers referencing the world’s most powerful country in nigh on to dysfunctional, banana-republic (“suicide caucus”) terms. No way you don’t take it personally. Vietnam and Iraq, comparatively speaking, made more sense than a shutdown and a potential U.S. bond default.

Even our Budapest hotel participated.

It provided guests with a daily news-clipping service that featured President Barack Obama as a dominant, page-one staple every day regardless of what was going on in the Middle East or with typhoons or with corruption charges against Nicolas Sarkozy. It was a reminder of how much the United States matters and how the ripple effects impact so many. It was well noted that negotiations on a sweeping free trade pact between the U.S. and the European Union, for example, had to be postponed. The United States, after all, is Europe’s biggest trading partner. The president, to be sure, was a well-chronicled absentee in Bali, Indonesia at the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference (APEC).

APEC was particularly important, given the U.S.’s so-called “pivot” to Asia. It’s no secret that the U.S. is increasingly competing with China for influence on that rapidly growing continent. It’s also no secret that the dysfunctional dynamics of Washington are starting to spook those, most notably the Chinese, invested in America. The Financial Times reported that Beijing was in a state of “deep anger” over Washington’s debt stare downs–such that it’s resolving to lessen the world’s reliance on the dollar. The Chinese have more than $1.3 trillion invested in U.S. Treasuries. This is what you get with party-first, partisan politics in America.

Going outside the country also makes you more likely to be privy to interviews with the likes of Noam Chomsky. The emeritus MIT linguistics professor and chronic critic of  U.S. politics and foreign policy was interviewed on the Sky Network about the shutdown. Of America, he said: “It’s a plutocracy, not a democracy. All this is embarrassing to Brand America.”

I’ve strongly disagreed with Chomsky in the past. I wish I still did.

As has been well noted, there are positive, albeit cautious, signs that Iran just may be positioning itself for constructive engagement with the West. Most notably, of course, that means with the U.S., which hasn’t had normal diplomatic relations with Iran since 1980–and the hostage crisis. Certainly the election of President Hassan Rouhani–as much of a Mahmoud Ahmadinejab antithesis as Iranian politics will permit–is encouraging. And then there are the tea leaves to be read. Rouhani and President Barack Obama have spoken on the phone. The Iranians have released political prisoners. And the Iranian leadership not only acknowledged the holocaust but sent Rosh Hashana greetings to Jews worldwide via Twitter.

But here’s another hint of hope: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Jayad Zarif. He’s hardly a “Great Satan” rhetorician. In fact, he’s Rouhani’s go-to guy with America. He recently had well-chronicled, direct–as in face-to-face–contact with Secretary of State John Kerry. Moreover, the affable Zarif, 53, is fluent in English and U.S. educated. He has BS and MS degrees in International Affairs from the State University of San Francisco and a doctorate in law and international relations from the University of Denver. He’s known inside the Beltway.

A further sign that Iran is upping the ante on showing that it actually cares what America thinks is seeing Zarif, Iran’s former UN ambassador, making the rounds of Sunday morning political talk shows. He did ABC’s This Week last Sunday. But, no, don’t look for Zarif to be emulating former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who appeared on the The Daily Show with Jon Stewart–more than once.

Don’t you hate it when you agree with Vladimir Putin? It’s even worse than concurring with Charlie Krauthammer.

I read that New York Times op-ed piece that Putin authored–or authorized–and initially thought: What ironic chutzpah. That smirking, swaggering KGB punk who bullied his way into a third term as Russian president has the gall to lecture us on Syria–or anything else? And then, sure enough, this Cold War throwback lived down to expectations as I waded into a rhetorical morass of misrepresentation and disingenuousness. From his take on why the League of Nations failed to the unacknowledged Russian role in supplying weapons to its Syrian client.

“We are not protecting the Syrian government,” wrote Putin, “but international law.” Oh. And what about international law in Chechnya or Georgia?

“No one doubts that poison gas was used in Syria,” wrote Putin. “But there is every reason to believe it was used not by the Syrian Army, but by opposition forces to provoke intervention …” Nobody but Putin and Ayatollah Khamenei think Syria never tapped into its outsized tonnage of sarin and mustard gas.

And yet.

Putin’s heat-seeking missive made some uncomfortable points.

He pointed out that most of the world–including the pope and the U.S. Congress–had disagreed with America’s targeted, military-strike plans, however equivocating and “limited.” And how do you fire off cruise missiles without “inevitable civilian casualties”?

Sounding not unlike most American libertarians and liberals, Putin also questioned the seeming “commonplace” U.S. strategy of “military intervention” in “internal conflicts in foreign countries.” He called them “ineffective” and “pointless.” By “them,” he meant Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq.

He characterized  Syria as an “armed conflict between government and opposition in a multi-religious country”–not as a “battle for democracy.” This frankly resonates with anyone who follows Middle East history, where contemporary countries are often arbitrarily bordered, post-colonial constructs steeped in tribal/religious enmities.

Then he added the zinger. Putin took exception, as it were, to “American exceptionalism” that President Barack Obama had referenced in his address to the American people last week.

“It is extremely dangerous,” Putin brazenly admonished, “to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. … We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.”

There ought to be a red line for not feeding Putin straight lines that enable him to hypocritically mount a moral high ground. “American exceptionalism,” which requires serious, non-jingoistic context, is also the theme of every self-serving, self-congratulating Marco Rubio speech. Its connotation is as much American arrogance as it is American uniqueness. Enough of us know the difference at home. To many around the world, alas, it makes us look less than morally equal to that rhetorically duplicitous, 21st century Josef Stalin–Vladimir Putin.

Indeed, what ironic chutzpah, and we set him up for it.

No need to rehash again how the topic of U.S.-Cuba relations remains a sensitive subject in Washington. Would that times were manifestly changing–not merely evolving over half a century. But the tea leaves are a frustrating read in Havana too.

Robertico Carcassés sang at a rally for the (U.S.-incarcerated) “Cuban 5” (4 now) at the Martí Plaza directly in front of the United States Interests Section in Havana last Thursday night. He notably deviated off lyrics–and ideology–between choruses of “Quiero….acuérdate que siempre quiero….” (I want….remember I always want…”):

“Libre acceso a la información para tener yo, mi propia opinión.”
(“Free access to information so I can form my own opinions.” )

“Yo quiero elegir al presidente por voto directo y no por otra vía.”
(“I want to elect a president by direct vote and not any other way.”)

“Ni militantes ni disidentes, cubanos todos con los mismos derechos.”
(“Neither militants nor dissidents, we’re ALL Cubanos with the same rights.”)

“Y que se acabe el bloqueo…..y el AUTOBLOQUEO”
(“And stop the blockade [embargo]…..and the SELF blockade!”)

The upshot?

Word from Havana is that Carcassés has already been sanctioned by the Cuban Institute of Music and removed from upcoming music gigs. It was a reminder that governmental changes are still incremental in Cuba and that criticism of the workers’ paradise can still exact an unfair price.