Impossible Demands
“Palestinians fighting for the right to live in freedom cannot be expected to stop fighting just to convince their oppressors that they really want to live in peace.

“A closer look at Israeli demands is necessary to see how one-sided and impossible they are. For 34 years, Israel, its army, its intelligence service, and its torturers have failed to stop Palestinian resistance. Now Israel wants the Palestinian leadership to do its dirty work: Israel’s condition for restarting the peace talks is that the Palestinian Authority (PA) take active—if need be, military—measures against its own people to stop acts of resistance against Israeli soldiers and illegal settlers.”

—Daoud Kuttab, Arab Media Network, March 21, 2001. From the June 2001 issue of World Press Review (VOL.48, No.6).

Troubled Ukraine Key to Russia’s Fate
“A Polish diplomat, speaking after the dissolution of the Soviet empire at the beginning of the 1990s, stated that ‘if Ukraine remained independent, then Russia would have a chance to become a normal nation.’ What he meant was this: Unless it annexed Ukraine—the largest of the European republics, with some 50 million inhabitants—Russia would never again enjoy the hegemonic status in Europe it strived to achieve during the czarist and Soviet imperial eras. The fact that Ukraine has maintained the independence it unexpectedly gained 10 years ago is, therefore, of great interest to all of Europe.”

—Neue Zürcher Zeitung (conservative), Zurich, Switzerland, Feb. 24, 2001. From the May 2001 issue of World Press Review (VOL.48, No.5).

This Lone Ranger Seeks a Silent Partner
“In an interview with The Bulletin last year, Southeast Asia’s elder statesman, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, said of Prime Minister John Howard’s view that Australia could play the role of deputy to the United States in the region: ‘Some things are best left unstated but understood.’”

—Michael Maher, The Bulletin (centrist newsmagazine), Sydney, Australia, Feb. 6, 2001. From the May 2001 issue of World Press Review (VOL.48, No.5).

Would Xiamen Attack Kinmen by Force?
“Since 1949, the islands of Kinmen and Matsu were Taiwan’s frontline defense against mainland China. Taipei banned direct trade, communication, and transportation with its western neighbor. In early January, with the first officially sanctioned ferry between the fortress islands and the mainland, Taipei and Beijing inaugurated direct trade, transport, and postal connections—the so-called ‘three mini-links.’ ”

—China Times (online, Chinese- language), Taipei, Taiwan, Dec. 29, 2000. From the March 2001 issue of World Press Review (VOL.48, No.3).

Too Much Change—or Not Enough?
“The Taiwan government understands that the two islands of Kinmen and Matsu have close ties to Xiamen and Fuzhou. It therefore attempts to manage the rampant trade between them. This is what is called trade ‘decriminalization.’ For local residents, what the government does now is to simply accept the existing state of affairs.”

—Fei Guozhen, China Times, Taipei, Taiwan, Dec. 29, 2000. From the March 2001 issue of World Press Review (VOL.48, No.3).

Who Will Resist the Second Scramble for Africa?
“...[L]iberalization has turned out to be the second Scramble for Africa by Western companies piggybacking on the conditions set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. Like the first Scramble for Africa in the late 19th century, this scramble, too, is in the name of raising the Dark Continent from the squalor and misery of its natural state.”

—Dagi Kimani, The East African (independent weekly), Nairobi, Kenya, Oct. 16-22. From the January 2001 issue of World Press Review (VOL.48, No.1).

Iraq: Ten Years After
“Ten years have passed since Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, and the wound is still open. The circumstances fluctuate daily, and the Iraqi situation is wearing in every possible way: domestically, internationally, socially, politically, and economically.”

—Areeb al-Rantawi, Amman, Jordan. From the November 2000 issue of World Press Review (VOL.47, No.11).

The Truth About Abortion
“Clandestine abortions lead to the death of half a million women annually, and in countries such as Mexico, they are one of the main causes of death for women 15-39 years of age…. It is not an exaggeration to say that the value placed on the lives of women is meager indeed. There is a directly proportional relationship between the poverty of a pregnant woman and her chances of dying from the procedure.”

—La Jornada (Official), Mexico City, Mexico. From the November 2001 issue of World Press Review (VOL.47, No.11).

Modernizing Death
“Saying that there is no difference between suicide and the voluntary termination of life, or euthanasia, the Kerala High Court of southwestern India has denied a petition filed by two individuals who wished to end their lives.  The High Court must be right. The law is based on a notion of sovereignty directly derived from Christian ethics in which life is a gift from God that man cannot alienate on his own volition.”

—The Statesman, New Delhi, India. From the October 2000 issue of World Press Review (VOL.47, No.10).