Natalia Rogozhina (NEO) : The closing down of the recently built factory belonging to Coca-Cola in India, located close to Varanasi in the state Uttar Pradesh, is the result of a prolonged and persistent struggle by the local residents, which has been going on for the past 11 years. The grounds for the protests were the concerns of the locals regarding the depletion and the pollution of the ground waters, due to the activities of the company, as well as the unlawful seizure of the territories belonging to local communities.

As a result, the Regulatory Authorities of India refused to issue Coca-Cola a permit for the activities of the new enterprise (one of the 58 factories, located on the territory of the country) and refused to present their decision for consideration to the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which sanctioned the closure of the enterprise in the first place. India is one of the few developing countries, where the active role in supporting ecological safety belongs to the court system.

The Court ruled that the five-fold increase in groundwater withdrawals, requested by the company will aggravate the water supply situation even further, which has significantly deteriorated since the arrival of Coca-Cola in India in 1999.

Back in 2009, the local authorities of Mehdiganj (the area of Varanasi being part of it) were forced to impose restrictions for peasants to use the ground waters, which could not but entail their negative response, aimed at the largest American corporation. The situation was aggravated by the fact that 70% of the water withdrawal accounts for the period from March till June, when the level of the groundwater occurrence reaches its minimum, which restricts the possibility of it being used by the locals, living at the expense of agriculture.

One Coca-Cola enterprise only uses one million liters per day. However, the production of the final product (600 bottles per minute) requires a quarter of the withdrawn ground water volume. A large part of it becomes waste which is discharged, without a full cycle of purification, into the environment and reaching the fields and water reservoirs, causing their contamination. State ecological authorities of India took samples of the waste produced by nine Coca-Cola factories and found a very high content of lead, cadmium and chromium, exceeding the safe standards for the health of the population by 30 times, which can result in the immune system malfunctions and presents a danger for cancer occurrence. One cannot say the same about the Coca-Cola drinks sold in the USA. There, according to conclusions made by the Indian non-government organisation ‘Centre for Science and Environment’, no poisonous substances were found in the company’s products. The Indian parliament has even prohibited the sale of Coca-Cola drinks in the building of the legislation authority, due to the high content of pesticides and chemicals, including DDT.

Another problem for Coca-Cola became the territorial aspect. Business expansion requires new areas, part of which is in the ownership of the communities, and the private usage of which is prohibited by Indian law. At the end of 2013, the Mehdiganj local authorities issued an order which envisaged evicting Coca-Cola from the territories unlawfully taken by it. Earlier the Supreme Court of India ruled in favour of banning the placement of any structures into the communal properties. Therefore the instruction of the local authorities on demolishing the Coca-Cola factory does have legal grounds.

The loss of the project worth 25 million dollars is a great financial fiasco for Coca-Cola, which considers India to be one of the major sale markets (among 200 countries where its products are being sold), generating high profits, which have significantly decreased in developed countries. This is due to the fact that people there are becoming increasingly concerned about their health and the consumption of Coca-Cola products presents a serious threat to it. Coca-Cola, which is considered to be the largest foreign investor in India (2 billion dollars from 1993 up to 2011), is planning to invest 5 billion dollars by 2020, into the development of its business in the country. And all of this is happening despite the growing discontent of the population, legal costs, and disputes with local authorities. Now the company has to improve its ecological image by trying to convince the Indian population that it does not have to do anything with water contamination or its shortages.

However, the statements of the company have not reassured Indian society; neither have the attempts of Coca-Cola to expand its charity activity in India. The population is protesting against the American company in different ways every day. According to Amit Srivastava, head of India Resource Center, R&D institution, which is taking an active part in arranging the protest campaign, “Coca-Cola’ is a shameless and non-ethical company, which places receiving its profit above the well-being of the communities, existing in proximity to its enterprises”. Nandlal Master, a representative of another non-governmental structure, campaigning for the closure of the factory, admits: “The local community has achieved a great victory and it has proven that it is possible to destabilize the authority of a large business”.

Russian officials are speeding up negotiations for Vietnam to join the Moscow-led Customs Union bloc, officials said on Monday. The inclusion of Vietnam in the group would reinforce President Putin’s drive to show Russia will not be isolated by Western sanctions.

The two countries will boost bilateral trade revenue to $7 billion in 2015 and $10 billion in 2020, said Doan Duy Khuong, vice chairman of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), on Monday. The two sides are also beefing up efforts to conclude negotiations on a free trade agreement, said the official at a Vietnam-Russia business forum held in Hanoi.

Russia expects Vietnam to soon join the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia as negotiations on the free trade agreement between the union and Vietnam is yielding much progress, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in April this year.

“Russia attaches great importance to the traditional friendly relations with Vietnam and highlights the increasing role of Vietnam in the Asia-Pacific. Russia and Vietnam have the same viewpoints over many regional and international issues. Russia supports Vietnam’s active role in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as ASEAN’s role in establishing a new regional architecture,” said Lavrov.

In May this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed Kazakhstan and Belarus into a new Eurasian Economic Union, with a market of 170 million people, a combined annual GDP of $2.7 trillion and vast energy riches.

“In the past three years trade turnover within the Customs Union has gone up by 50 percent – that is by $23 billion (in 2013 it amounted to $66.2 billion). We also discussed the prospects for other partners joining the Union. We agreed to step up our negotiations, as I already said, with Vietnam on creating a free trade zone,” Putin said in a press conference following a Eurasian Council meet in Astana, Kazakhstan.

The agreement once signed will create breakthrough to realize the targets of bilateral trade revenues in 2015 and 2020, said the chief of the Vietnamese business body on Monday in Hanoi.

“In the past few years, Vietnam has been among countries in Asia-Pacific that Russia sets priorities in political and economic fields,” said Russian Ambassador to Vietnam Andrey G. Kovtun.

The Customs Union guarantees the free transit of goods, services, capital and workforces and coordinates policy for major economic sectors.

Russia is working with Vietnam on 12 big investment projects including the construction of the Ninh Thuan 1 nuclear power plant, oil and gas exploitation by Russia-Vietnam joint-venture companies on Vietnam’s continental shelf and Russian territories, and the expansion and modernization of Vietnam’s Dung Quat oil refinery factory.

Vietnam and Russia established diplomatic ties in 1950. In 2013, two-way trade turnover hit $4 billion, up 7 per cent year-on-year, while in the first seven months of 2014 the figure already stood at around $2 billion.

Meanwhile, the US continues to woo Vietnam as part of its much-hyped “Pivot to Asia”. The United States last week announced it was partially lifting a ban on lethal arms sales to Vietnam which was imposed in 1984.

I'm having trouble understanding why the Federal Reserve would be in bankruptcy and why they would then turn over power to China rather than just printing more money.

Australia, Indonesia and South Korea skipped the launch of a China-backed Asian infrastructure bank on Friday as the United States said it had concerns about the new rival to Western-dominated multilateral lenders.

China's $50 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is seen as a challenge to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, both of which count Washington and its allies as their biggest financial backers.

China, which is keen to extend its influence and soft power in the region, has limited voting rights in these existing banks despite being the world's second-largest economy.

The AIIB, launched in Beijing at a ceremony attended by Chinese finance minister Lou Jiwei and delegates from 21 countries including India, Thailand and Malaysia, aims to give project loans to developing nations. China is set to be its largest shareholder with a stake of up to 50 percent.

Indonesia was not present and neither were South Korea and Australia, according to a pool report.

Japan, China's main rival in Asia and which dominates the $175 billion Asian Development Bank along with the United States, was also not present, but it was not expected to be.

Media reports said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry put pressure on Australia to stay out of the AIIB.

However, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: "Secretary Kerry has made clear directly to the Chinese as well as to other partners that we ‎welcome the idea of an infrastructure bank for Asia but we strongly urge that it meet international standards of governance and transparency.

"We have concerns about the ambiguous nature of the AIIB proposal as it currently stands, that we have also expressed publicly."

In a speech to delegates after the inauguration, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the new bank would use the best practices of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

"For the AIIB, its operation needs to follow multilateral rules and procedures," Xi said. "We have also to learn from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank and other existing multilateral development institutions in their good practices and useful experiences."

PERSONAL LOBBYING

The Australian Financial Review said Kerry had personally asked Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to keep Australia out of the AIIB.

"Australia has been under pressure from the U.S. for some time to not become a founding member of the bank and it is understood Mr Kerry put the case directly to the prime minister when the pair met in Jakarta on Monday ­following the inauguration of Indonesian President Joko Widodo," the paper said.

South Korea, one of Washington's strongest diplomatic allies in Asia, has yet to say it will formally participate in the bank. Its finance ministry said last week it has been speaking with China to request more consideration over details such as the AIIB's governance and operational principles.

"We have continued to demand rationality in areas such as governance and safeguard issues, and there's no reason (for Korea) not to join it," South Korean Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan said in Beijing on Thursday after attending a separate regional meeting.

The Seoul-based JoongAng Daily quoted a South Korean diplomatic source as saying: "While Korea has been dropped from the list of founding members of the AIIB this time around, it is still in a deep dilemma on what sort of strategic choices it has to make as China challenges the U.S.-led international order."

The AIIB is expected to begin operations in 2015 with senior Chinese banker Jin Liqun, ex-chairman of investment bank China International Capital Corp, expected to take a leading role.

The memorandum of understanding signed on Friday said authorised capital of the bank would be $100 billion and that the AIIB would be formally established by the end of 2015 with its headquarters in Beijing, state news agency Xinhua said.

Takehiko Nakao, the president of the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB), said the AIIB should function in line with international governance, labour and environmental standards.

"I hope the new bank will adhere to these standards," Nakao told Reuters in a phone interview.

He acknowledged there was an overlap of the AIIB's role with that of the ADB.

"But again, because of very big financing needs of the region it is understandable to have a new idea of establishing a bank," Nakao said, adding: "We will consider the appropriate collaboration after it is really established."

The ADB, created in 1966, offers grants and below-market interest rates on loans to lower to middle-income countries. At the end of 2013, its lending amounted to $21.02 billion, including co-financing with other development partners.

China has a 6.5 percent stake in the ADB, while the United States and Japan have about 15.6 percent each.

In a landmark achievement, 21 Asian nations including China and India on Thursday signed on a new infrastructure investment bank which would rival the World Bank.
The governments of Bangladesh, [censored] Darussalam, Cambodia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Vietnam signed on as founding members of the new Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Beijing on Friday.

One of the first projects of the new Bank is expected to be financing infrastructure projects along the “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the “Maritime Silk Road” re-establishment.
Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said on Friday the “multi-national financial institution which is fair, just, open … with a good governance structure” will be an “efficient financing platform for infrastructure”.

Lou said the AIIB has a different focus than established multilateral organizations such as World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB).

China and other emerging economies, including BRICS, have long protested against their limited voice at other multilateral development banks, including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank.

China is grouped in the ‘Category II’ voting bloc at the World Bank while at the Asian Development Bank, China with a 5.5 per cent share is far outdone by America’s 15.7 per cent and Japan’s 15.6 per cent share.

The ADB has estimated that in the next decade Asian countries will need $8 trillion in infrastructure investments to maintain the current economic growth rate.

Chinese President Xi Jinping had last October proposed to establish the AIIB to boost Asian economic integration and infrastructure projects like roads, railways, ports across the region. The new Bank has a capital target of more than $100 billion.

US allies Japan and Australia alongwith South Korea and Indonesia are notable absentees from the list of nations who signed up for the China-led Bank. The AIIB will extend China’s financial reach and compete not only with the World Bank, but also with the Asian Development Bank, which is heavily dominated by Japan.

In July, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said that he welcomed a new multilateral infrastructure bank, saying there was a “massive need” for new investment in this area.

The BRICS nations have already announced a $100 billion development bank during the 6th BRICS Summit in Brazil this year.

China on Monday announced it would allow direct trading between the renminbi and the Singapore dollar beginning Tuesday, a step that is likely to increase international usage of the yuan by lowering trading costs.

The Chinese government is gradually relaxing its hold over the yuan and making it a global reserve currency. China is also under pressure to diversify its foreign exchange reserves, which stood at $3.89 trillion at the end of June.

The announcement by China Foreign Exchange Trading System (CFETS) extended the yuan’s list of direct onshore trade to more major currencies, including the US dollar, Russian ruble, the euro, British sterling, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar, and Malaysian ringgit.

The move aims to boost bilateral trade and investment, facilitate the use of the two currencies in trade and investment settlement and reduce exchange costs for market players, the CFETS said in a statement on its website.

The yuan has staged a spectacular rise in recent years on the back of China’s economic ascent.

The move is also expected to help Singapore in its bid to become a renminbi offshore center.

According to the arrangement, China’s interbank foreign exchange market will kick off direct trading between the yuan and the Singapore dollar via spot, forward and swap contracts.

Previously, the exchange rate between the two currencies was calculated based on the yuan-US dollar central parity rate and the Singapore dollar-US dollar rate.

Beijing is keen on substituting the US dollar with the yuan in all of China’s trade with other countries.

China’s central bank on Monday authorized and welcomed the CFETS announcement, saying it is an important measure between the Chinese and Singaporean governments to jointly push forward bilateral and economic relations.

“The direct yuan-Singapore dollar trade is good for forming a direct exchange rate between the two currencies and reducing exchange costs,” the PBOC said in a statement on its website.

To boost the use of the yuan internationally, China has also signed multiple currency swap agreements totaling 2.9 trillion yuan $472 billion) with 26 overseas monetary authorities.

The PBOC has also authorized offshore renminbi clearing and settlement arrangements in Singapore, London, Frankfurt, Seoul, Paris and Luxembourg, as well as Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao.

HSBC expects the yuan to be one of the top three global trade currencies by 2015.

The Transpacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) is a secret free trade treaty Obama is negotiating with eleven other Asian Pacific countries (US, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Japan, Chile, Peru, Canada, Mexico, Vietnam, Singapore and [censored]). The President had hoped to seal the deal at the recent Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing. Instead all 21 Pacific Rim countries have agreed to develop a roadmap for a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) treaty. The FTAAP would include China and Russia, whereas the TPPA excludes them.

China Deliberately Excluded

The TPPA is viewed as a centerpiece of Obama’s “strategic rebalancing” towards Asia. Also known as the “Asian pivot,” Obama’s intention is to counter China’s growing economic strength by isolating them economically and militarily.

The US has required the twelve countries participating in TPPA negotiations to sign a secrecy clause. Only corporations (i.e. the 600 corporations that helped write it) are allowed to see the text of the treaty. Not even Congress is permitted access. If Wikileaks hadn’t leaked large sections of the draft agreement, we wouldn’t even know it existed.


Is TPPA Really a Trade Treaty?

Scheduled to coincide with the APEC summit, November 8 was an International Day of Action against the TPPA, with major protests in New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia and the US. From the sections which have been leaked, it seems the TPPA isn’t a trade treaty at all. It’s really an investor protection treaty, granting corporations the right to sue countries for laws that potentially hurt their ability to make a profit. These lawsuits, involving hundreds of millions of dollars, would be heard by secret tribunals run by corporate lawyers. There would be no right of appeal.
In other words, the intent of the TPPA is to allow corporations to overturn the environmental, labor and healthy and safety laws and regulations of member countries. There’s even a special “transparency” clause inserted by the pharmaceutical industry that would allow them to challenge formularies (in the US this would include Medicaid and the VA) that promote cheaper generic medications.

If finalized, the TPPA would also allow oil and gas companies to overturn fracking bans, Monsanto to overturn GMO labeling laws, investment banks to overturn banking regulations and the telecommunications industry to overturn Net Neutrality laws.


Why the Secrecy?

It’s pretty obvious why Obama is trying to negotiate the TPPA in secret. Prior investor protection treaties (e.g. the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement) have gone down in flames thanks to massive public lashback, both in the US and in treaty partner countries.

Congress isn’t too happy, either, about being denied access to the draft TPPA treaty. In November 2013 Congress voted down Obama’s request for “fast track” authority on the TPPA. Fast track, otherwise known as Trade Promotion Authority, would require Congress to accept the final TPPA deal or reject it. No debate would be allowed on specific provisions.

There are rumors Obama plans to reintroduce TPPA fast track authority before Christmas, hoping for a better outcome with a new, pro-business Republican congress.
The POTUS also had hopes of ramming through an agreement on the TPPA treaty in Beijing, at a side meeting in the US embassy. It appears he did try and failed, as Pepe Escobar describes in a recent RT article Lame Duck Out of the Silk Trade Caravan.


The Effect on Australia and New Zealand

A trade deal that excludes China, their major trading partner, makes absolutely no sense for Australia and New Zealand. Kiwi and Aussie environmental and labor activists are also deeply concerned about signing an international agreement that allows multinational corporations to sue their governments in a secret corporate tribunal. They’ve worked damned hard to win laws and regulations guaranteeing minimal environmental, labor and health safety standards. If the TPPA goes through, these could all be wiped out with the stroke of a pen.


China Aims to Suppress US Influence in Asia

In an interview with Chinese media, Obama denies he was trying to isolate China by pressuring Asian Pacific countries to sign a secret trade deal that excludes them. Yet it’s pretty obvious to all concerned that’s exactly what he’s trying to do.

It’s also pretty clear that Chinese president Xi Jinping outmaneuvered him. In addition to getting all 21 APEC nations to sign onto an FTAAP feasibility study, China signed other trade deals geared towards reducing US dominance in the region.

On Monday the Chinese and Malaysian central banks signed a deal to establish a yuan clearing bank (to facilitate energy and other trade deals in local currencies rather than US dollars).

Russia and China signed a similar deal to conduct oil trades in rubles and yuan, rather than US dollars. According to Russian president Vladimir Putin, the new agreement will significantly reduce US influence over world energy markets.

Back in October,
Back in October, China launched the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank a rival to the US-dominated World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

Here’s the G20 in Australia in a one-liner: a tiny bunch of Anglo-Saxon political buffoons attempts to drown out the Global South.

Countries representing over 85 percent of the world economy get together to (in theory) discuss some really heavy economic/financial issues, and virtually the only thing pitiful Western corporate media blabbers about is Russian President Vladimir Putin cutting an ‘isolated figure’.
Well, Washington and its string of puppets did try to turn the G20 into a farce. Fortunately the adults in the room had some business to do.

The five BRICS member-nations – despite their current problems, the G5 that really matters in the world - did meet before the summit, including the ‘isolated figure’. Economically, this G5 more than matches the old, decrepit G7.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff forcefully encouraged the G5 to turbo-charge their mutual cooperation – as well as South-South cooperation. That includes, of course, the BRICS Development Bank. The BRICS, stressing their ‘serious concern’, once again called Washington’s bluff – perpetually refusing to endorse much-delayed structural reform at the IMF.

The IMF quota and governance reform package was in fact approved by the IMF’s Board of Governors way back in 2010. One of its key resolutions was to increase the voting power of emerging markets, the BRICS at the forefront. For Republicans in Washington, this is worse than communism.

Chinese President Xi Jinping added that BRICS cooperation should not only boost the global economy, but also ensure global peace. Make trade, not tomahawks. The over 120 nations of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) – beggars in the G20 banquet - were paying very close attention.

So much ‘aggression’

Now compare the BRICS at work with EU heads of state meeting exclusively with US President Barack Obama to define their ‘strategy’ - not to improve the global economy, but to further demonize Russia.

And this after British Prime Minister David Cameron told Putin in a “robust” meeting he’s at a crossroads and about to be hit with more sanctions; Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper complained he had to shake Putin’s hand; and Australian Prime Minister Tony ‘Shirtfront’ Abbott got everyone to pose with koalas – talk about animal abuse - after apparently backing down on ‘shirtfronting’ the Russian leader.

And it was not only ‘Russian aggression’. Obama, Abbott and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also met separately to increase “military cooperation” and “strengthen maritime security” in the Asia-Pacific. Against (what else?) “Chinese aggression.”

Imperial arrogance and buffoonery apart, Putin did meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel for over three hours. They discussed Ukraine, essentially. No leaks. So Putin met and talked with all the adults that matter: the BRICS and Merkel. There was nothing else to do, business-wise.

In the Russian President’s own words: “It will take nine hours to fly to Vladivostok and another eight hours to get to Moscow. I need four hours sleep before I get back to work on Monday. We have completed our business. ”

Oh goodness. That was the cue for Western corporate media go absolutely bonkers spinning the ‘isolated figure’ fled the G20 in shame.


When in doubt, print money

Despite the Anglo-Saxon political gang’s every effort to debase the summit, some – minimalistic - work was done. Even Putin himself hailed the “constructive atmosphere.” More like constructive wishful-thinking atmosphere.

In the final communiqué, a promise was made to increase global GDP by a whopping $2 trillion by 2018. The crux of the magic plan is to facilitate investment in infrastructure, which creates jobs and improves global trade.

By the way, that’s exactly what China has been doing – en masse. China and Russia clinched two humongous gas deals worth $725 billion this year. The $40 billion Silk Road Investment Fund will finance development projects in seven nations across Central Asia. The ‘isolated figure’ has confirmed that Russia’s trade with China and the rest of Asia will rise from 25 percent to 40 percent of Russia’s GDP.

Moreover Russia, China, Iran – and soon other Asian nations – are actively on their way to establish their own currency-clearing systems, independent of the SWIFT system and the US dollar. Russia-China trade and investments are increasingly in rubles and yuan instead of USD. For the buffoons, this is worse than the Apocalypse.

The G20 communiqué also talks about a de facto, renewed neoliberal offensive – from “deregulation”in the markets for goods and services to “flexibility” in the labor market. A hazy global investment hub will be set up in Sydney, but no one really knows how it will work.

The G20 also insisted on the need to combat shadow banking. Pure wishful thinking – as monster shadow players/speculators/outright financial gangsters will prevent it. You’re not seriously going after sewage farms of the “pray to the US dollar, kneel to the Crown” Turks & Caicos kind, are you, boys?

Not surprisingly, every single reference about transparency in extractive industries totally disappeared from the final communiqué. As for climate change, more wishful thinking on “effective action” before the Paris conference in December 2015. Casinos of laundry money could be bet that nothing substantial will happen before or after the conference.

The Wahhabis of neoliberalism obviously derided the attempt by “deadbeat” Argentina to get the G20 to develop a supranational bankruptcy regime. After all, vulture funds of the Paul Singer variety should always be able to act like vultures.

In the end, the ‘isolated figure’ was back to heavy work Monday morning, Moscow time. The EU is set to lose at least 15 percent of $330 billion in trade with Russia in 2015 – while trade among the BRICS will double. The EU’s absolute debacle will continue to be caused to a large extent by neoliberalism. And the diktat by Washington/Wall Street elites that all instances of mixed economy in the EU must be shattered.

While the Fed ends its quantitative easing (QE), the ECB dreams of printing money like crazy, Japan’s Central Bank prints money like crazy and Russia and China buy oceans of physical gold. Under the print money smokescreen, the global economy will keep suffering.

Still, the Russian economy will keep integrating closer with China, Iran and Kazakhstan. The center of global investment and the heart of the action will continue to be – where else? – the Asia-Pacific. No wonder the G20 in 2016 will be hosted by China.

In other news, Pepe Mujica, Uruguay’s former president, did not go to the G20. But let him have the last word. He is stepping out of power. It takes a second to compare his personal dignity, honesty, humility, intelligence, courage, altruism and sound policies with the reckless buffoonery of the Cameron, Harper and Abbott mold.

There are politicians, and ‘politicians’. Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of global public opinion can see right through them.