My Business Guide

Around the World in a Column

Date 12/12/1996 12:00 AM | Topic: News

Albright Named as Secretary of State

Madeleine Albright was named by President Clinton as Secretary of State last week. This makes her the first woman to hold the post. Albright had previously served as US Ambassador to the United Nations. Albright has adopted a "jet-set" style of Ambassadorship, travelling to Bosnia, Angola and other countries where the UN has intervened. She has also been the main opponent of UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's reelection. Albright consistently has sought greater intervention in disputes around the world, with either UN or US troops. She is fond of asking the question "What's the point of having this superb military if we can't use it?"

Serbian Protests Continue as Two Factions Emerge

After the Serbian Supreme Court upheld President Slobodan Milosevic's decision to annul recent elections on Monday, 100,000 protesters took to the streets in Belgrade, the Serbian capital. As news of the protests spread around the world, however, international observers and reporters soon found that there were two very different factions of protesters. The first is Zajedno, which is the Opposition who won election to municipal government in Bor only to have Milosevic annul the results. The other are student nationalists, who oppose Milosevic both for annulling the elections and for signing the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the Bosnian war in 1995. "Milosevic betrayed the Serbian people," said one student leader. Another said, "This is no longer a student movement, but a Serbian students' movement." Zajedno, meanwhile, is nervous that the protests will lose steam before Milosevic backs down. Apparently they are still unable to get workers to join the movement and without their support they fear they are unable to make further appeals to the rest of Serbia.

In a related story, Radio B-92 is back on the air after the Serbian government jammed their transmissions. It seems that while they were unable to broadcast they set up a homepage on the Internet which increased their audience tremendously. Milosevic ceased jamming when he realized that they were spreading their message further over the web than over the air. The web page is still active. Its address is

Swiss Closer to Investigations of Nazi Finances

On Monday, the Swiss Parliament withdrew a call for an amendment to a bill authorizing an investigation into Switzerland's dealings with Nazi Germany during World War II. The amendment would have allowed for any persons involved to retain anonymity, a move opponents felt would have created the impression of a cover-up. With this latest development, authorization of the investigation is expected to come on Friday. Swiss purchases of Nazi gold during WWII financed the war effort, and many German Jews deposited their monies into Swiss accounts before being taken to concentration camps. The investigations will determine how extensive this was, where those monies went and will try to return Jewish funds to surviving families.

UN Approves Iraqi Oil Sales In Limited Quantities

In an emergency exception to the UN embargo in place over Iraq, that country will be allowed to sell $2 billion worth of oil over the next six months in order to purchase food, medicine and other urgent civilian needs. The plan is up for renewal within six months provided there are no attempts by Iraq to get around the restrictions. One of the diplomats who drafted the plan said "We designed a resolution for a cheater" and added that he didn't expect any attempts to cheat. Iraq has been under embargo since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The conditions for removal of the embargo were the evacuation of Kuwait, which the Gulf War in 1991 accomplished, and for Saddam Hussein to account for and destroy all Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, which he has failed to do. Hussein, his family and his Revolutionary Guard live well in Iraq while the majority of the population suffers in dismal poverty.

Poet Laureate Travels Country to Urge Literacy

The Poet Laureate of the US, Robert Hass, is touring the country speaking at Rotary Clubs and other town gatherings to urge increased education and literacy for American children. He has put off writing for the last two years to use his post in an effort to raise awareness to the fact that while at the turn of the century, general literacy was at 95 percent, 50 percent of Texas' junior high schoolers read at a fourth grade level. Hass maintains that this is due to a combination of reading no longer being the pastime it once was and education being neglected. He points to the correlation between the business/money making boom of the last 20 years and the subsequent decline in education when school taxes from property are cut or frozen to save money.

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Erik Berry
Assistant Editor

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