World commentary
Alan Fisher
Wrong moves in Afghanistan
Norman Fenton
The frog and the scorpion
Thinkpiece
Jill Stephenson
The myth about university education
Life of George
George Chalmers
Paris daze
Norman Fenton
A frog is happily swimming up and down in a wadi, when he becomes aware of a sound coming from behind him. He looks round and finds a scorpion on a bank of the wadi trying to attract his attention.
Being a wise frog, he swims further towards the opposite bank, though listening to what the scorpion is attempting to say to him. The scorpion apparently wants to continue peacefully on his journey, but to do so he must first cross the wadi. He is proposing that the frog swim over to him, and he climb onto the frog’s back, who could then swim across taking him to the opposite bank.
The frog points out to the scorpion that should he do so, he would, in all probability, be stung by the scorpion during the crossing. ‘Unlikely’, replies the scorpion, ‘since if I sting you, you will sink and we will then both die’.
So, persuaded, the innocent frog swims over to the scorpion who climbs on his back. About half way across the wadi, the frog feels the sudden fatal sting of the scorpion’s tail. As he dies, the frog points out to the scorpion the madness of their situation since, thanks to the scorpion, they would now both die.
‘
Ah,’ says the scorpion, ‘welcome to the Middle East’.
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As the many young people faced with poor prospects and unemployment see where our decline into plutocracy has led them, they must be thinking that there is a better way. I doubt if our political class or the complacent super-rich, inbred and inexperienced in the realities of life in contemporary Britain can see this. How long before we see a Facebook revolt here?
An essay for the weekend by Professor Anthony Seaton
Click here
World commentary
The move to finish off
the Taliban could
embolden it further
Alan Fisher
At a time when attention is focused on events in Libya, across North Africa and the Middle East, it is almost understandable that a war which has sucked in billions of dollars and hundreds of lives grinds on almost unnoticed.
Just last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai was in Downing Street. The news conference he held with David Cameron was curtailed – only two questions allowed – and the visit barely made the news. Karzai looked little different from the last time I saw him: small, smart, precise.
David Cameron reiterated the plan to withdraw British troops from ‘combat roles’ in 2015, in line with the international timescale which should see the Afghan security forces in a position to take the lead across the country. Cameron took on the idea first openly articulated by David Miliband that the door is still open to the Taliban to enter into government. To do so it has to renounce violence, cut all ties with Al Qaeda and accept the Afghan constitution.
There have been some talks to achieve this with the Saudis among others, but a story in the New Yorker indicates that these talks may have gone further than before. It suggests that people representing the US administration are involved in face-to face talks with senior Afghan Taliban figures. Only last month, Hilary Clinton said that the Taliban must make a decision between ‘political compromise and ostracism’. But she also accepted that, while reconciling with a group once considered a sworn enemy would be tough, you don’t make peace with your friends.
The talks have not gone as far as negotiations. They are exploratory. It doesn’t mean there could soon be a peace deal. The US began secret talks with the north Vietnamese in 1968. The Paris peace accords were signed in 1973. This is about finding out if there’s any point in further discussions or any prospect of some sort of agreement being reached somewhere down the line.
Every electronic communication from the country can be intercepted, read and acted on by the Americans. The area is crawling with spies.
Alan Fisher is an Al Jazeera correspondent
Still clinging to power
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