TWTW: The World This Week / Episode #18
Tunisia, Fiji go to the polls….It's Argentina over France….Musk madness…..Europe's winter and covid….an exploding aquarium ….and our cartoon from KAL.
This weekly feature for Andelman Unleashed, explores how the media of other nations are reporting and commenting on the United States, and how they are viewing the rest of the world.
But first, ELECTIONS….Coming down to the end of 30 national elections we’ve chronicled this year—a kaleidoscope of hopes and dreams.
First, a pair of 'votes'
Tunisia….where's the Vote?
The birthplace of the Arab Spring in 2011 held an election on Saturday. But no one showed up. Well, almost no one. Barely 8.8% voter turnout for an election called by a dictator set a new world record—half the 18% in Haiti in 2015 or the 19% in Afghanistan in 2019. Perhaps an object lesson, peeling back the mask of dictatorships. When voters recognize they have no real choice, they simply don't bother showing up.
As Simon Speakman Cordall, writing in London's Guardian put it: "Since suspending parliament in July of last year, [President Kais] Saied has introduced a new constitution, greatly reducing the prominence of the country’s political parties, who he characterized as enemies of the people." Saied has banned the Ennahda party, which sprang directly from the Arab Spring, dissolved parliament, fired 57 judges and moved to rule by decree. Change clearly won't be coming from the ballot box.
Fiji votes….a tropical paradise?
It’s hard to envision corruption, manipulation or apathy for that matter in a South Pacific paradise, but that’s just what's been the rule in Fiji. Still, this is a sharp contrast with Tunisia, half a world and 11 time zones away. In the end, it appears, democracy just might have won out. Fiji’s prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, lost his parliamentary majority in last week's elections.
While his FijiFirst party still has a plurality of 42.5%, the two leading opposition forces—People’s Alliance with 36% and the National Federation Party with 9%—said they'll form a winning coalition to block Bainimarama. At the same time Fiji's military has pledged not to intervene, especially since international election observers said they've seen "no significant voting irregularities." This came as welcome news. After all, in 2006 Commodore Bainimarama, then the armed forces commander, overthrew the elected government in a bloodless coup and seized power. In 2009, he suspended the constitution, imposed a state of emergency, and continued ruling by decree. Until now, it would seem.
Le Foot….and
….the Winner (hint: not France)!
It was pretty clear at the 35-minute mark of the first half, when Argentina scored its second goal, that France and its star Kylian Mbappe, were being outshot in their efforts to stage the first repeat victory in the World Cup since Brazil accomplished that feat in 1958 and 1962.
Then France evened it up. On to double-overtime, still tied. By this time, President Emmanuel Macron, who's rarely seen without his dark suit, white shirt, carefully knotted dark tie, had doffed his coat, rolled up his sleeves and loosened his cravat. Sadly, it was not enough. France scored only a single final penalty kick, missed the rest. Argentina missed not one. Argentina took home the World Cup.
What more can I say? Unlike on most issues where I strive for objectivity and impartiality, I confess my utter allegiance to Les Bleus. Still, they did make it to the finals twice in a row. So, until 2026 at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands of New Jersey!
How Others See America
Musk madness
If there was one headline in America that has captured the world's attention, it is Elon Musk and the catastrophic meltdown that has engulfed Twitter since his takeover—and now, Tesla, the origins of his fortune. As Le Monde's New York correspondent Arnaud Leparmentier put it, "the obsession of the billionaire for Twitter is fracturing his industrial successes….Tesla shareholders are grieving."
And Leparmentier continued: "Elon Musk, the genius engineer who knew how to run multiple companies, had made their fortune. He is in the process of bringing about their ruin, their shares having lost 60% since the [Twitter] affair began in early April. Admittedly, his car manufacturer [Tesla] is still worth $500 billion dollars, but that's nothing compared with the $1,250 billion at the start of the year. Main culprit: the self-destructive behavior of the man who, with a fortune [once] estimated by Bloomberg at $160 billion, halved in one year, is no longer the richest man in the world (Frenchman Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, took his place): Musk against Musk, the press boss against the captain of industry."
And then there's Trump
But if there is a single joke that is rocketing around the world, it is Donald Trump, his fading political star, even his playing cards. "Without strategy, Donald Trump in the middle of a political air hole," Le Monde's Piotr Smolar suggested from Washington. "The ex-president seems devoid of ideas and strategy, apart from a vengeful spirit focused on imaginary fraud in 2020. On December 14, he promised a big announcement for the next day. It was in fact a commercial operation: the sale of cards presenting him in all forms, in particular as a superhero, like the cards of baseball players."
"Every day, its supporters receive several requests to spend their money or participate in a consultation." BUT…. "Donald Trump's entourage seems limited, between those who have deserted the ship, those targeted by the judicial investigations, and those who have been fired."
Or, as London's Independent concluded: "The same people screaming about 'inflation' and 'gas prices' just paid $99 for a single JPEG image." Of a buffoon?
How Others See the World
Iran executions
As many as 26 protesters are facing execution in Teheran, the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle quoted Amnesty International, with at least two protesters having already been hanged. "The protests have been called the biggest threat to the Islamic Republic's regime of clerics since the Iranian revolution in 1979 that first brought them to power," DW reported. "The protests — which broke out after the death of a young Kurdish woman, Jina Mahsa Amini, in custody after being arrested for allegedly not abiding by the country's strict dress code — have seen hundreds of people killed in street clashes with the police. Tens of thousands of people have also been arrested and detained in high-security prisons.”
Europe’s winter
The view of Europe from Britain, offshore and out of the EU, is always interesting. Now The Economist of London worries that the continent "looks increasingly complacent about the winter ahead. The continent has navigated the first cold spell. There are more to come. 'We are safe for this winter. Russia’s blackmail has failed.' Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, was in a confident mood on December 12th, speaking during the first cold spell of the season."
"It was a confidence born of a sure-footed start to winter. It may also turn out to have been premature. The continent enjoyed a warm autumn, with October and November much balmier than normal. But Arctic cold arrived at the beginning of December, as temperatures dropped below zero [Centigrade] in Berlin, London and Paris, prompting fears that gas supplies would be hit and electricity networks would falter. In France, each degree centigrade drop in temperature requires an additional 2.4gw of generation capacity, the equivalent of an average nuclear plant."
Speaking of nuclear
France has long styled its vast nuclear generating system as a post-carbon model for Europe and the world and an antidote for Putin's toxic market manipulations.
But not so fast, London's Financial Times cautions as Electricité de France [ EDF ] "has delayed the start-up of its new nuclear reactor in northern France by at least six more months, dealing a further blow to the country’s attempts to boost its weakened electricity output in the middle of Europe’s energy crisis." It's all about the welds that will push off the launch until early 2024. And the price has ballooned to €13.3 billion from €3.3 billion. "The setback is another blow for the company," the FT continued, "which has become a net power importer this year, after outages at its existing fleet of 56 reactors sent production tumbling
Putin hits the road
Meanwhile, in another troubling development, Johanna Schwanitz reported in the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: "Russian President Vladimir Putin is traveling to Belarus on Monday. Putin will meet his colleague Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk for a working visit, the Kremlin and the press service of the Belarusian President announced. According to the Kremlin, the heads of state want to discuss the 'strategic partnership' between their countries."
China's ‘limitless partnership’ with Russia
Vladimir Putin may be taking special comfort from reports that "China’s ambassador to France has defended Beijing’s so-called 'limitless partnership' with Russia, notwithstanding the war in Ukraine," Jonathan Eyal, Global Affairs Correspondent for Singapore's Straits Times writes, quoting Ambassador Lu Shauye as "rejecting criticism of his country’s relations with Russia by noting that, as 'all sovereign states,' China retains 'the right to shape our cooperation in all areas.'" Eyal notes that Russian media is abuzz over reports circulating about a face-to-face meeting between Putin and Xi Jinping "before the end of the year."
And then there's Covid…
….with some positive news from Europe. In France, Le Monde writes, "the epidemic continues to grow, but at a slower pace….643 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants, versus 578 the previous week (+ 11%). [But] this increase was +27% a week earlier."
In Berlin, an Aquarium bursts
If there was one image that rocketed around the world, it was the bursting of the world's largest aquarium implanted within the towering inner courtyard of a luxury Berlin hotel. Some 1,500 fish met their maker, 264,000 gallons of water roared out into the streets, and miraculously just two were injured, as The Japan Times reported. The cause? Material fatigue. Truly exhausting.
And finally, there’s … KAL
Kevin Kallaugher, veteran editorial cartoonist of London’s The Economist—widely known as simply KAL—has a most interesting take on the challenges the new Republican majority in Congress may pose for the Biden administration, but especially Joe Biden’s errant son, Hunter. Republicans should leave Hunter Biden to his painting, because when, as KAL envisions a GOP elephant depicting Hunter at work on an easel, the outcome is a devilish character, far more malevolent than the somewhat benign original. KAL each week illustrates the Lexington column, written by James Bennett who earlier in his career served as editorial page editor of The New York Times and editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. Now Lex observes: “Hunter Biden, remarried and living in Malibu, is pursuing the life in the arts that, he has written, he always wanted.” And Lex's cautionary conclusion: “History suggests Americans judge presidents on other grounds than their prodigal relatives."
KAL, who has published more than 8,000 cartoons in 140 publications, is a member of the inestimable Cartooning for Peace collective. Here’s how he imagines himself:
And KAL is an American, with a sharp eye and quill