Diplomat Awards 2013

The Langham Hotel, just opposite BBC Broadcasting House, claims with justification to be one of the oldest top-end hotels in Europe. Crown Prince Edward presided over the opening of its grand function room in 1865; this evening, almost a century and a half later, it welcomed the massed ranks of London’s diplomatic corps, at what has become a key date in the capital’s annual social calendar: Diplomat Magazine’s Awards for diplomats of special note, nominated by their peers. It’s true that in the interim the hotel went through some barren years, especially after the Germans dropped a bomb through the roof and the BBC then occupied it for offices. But now it is back to its former glory (despite recently hosting Justin Bieber, on the less than glorious London led of his concert tour). The Awards were presented tonight by Sir Christopher Meyer, former UK Ambassador to to Washington and head of the ill-fated Press Complaints Commission; he is now sucked into the corporate sector and performed with immense slickness and occasional wit. The laureates included the Christian Lady Ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain (Middle East), the German Ambassador (who sent a deliciously subversive pro-European Unity message in his absence), the Ambassador of Brazil (South America), the Ambassador of Indonesia (Asia)  and the High Commissioners of Mozambique (Africa) and Trinidad & Tobago (The Americas). The hotel and various sponsors certainly did us all proud and it is a credit to the Diplomat’s owners/editors Hugo and Venetia de Blocq van Kuffeler that they manage to keep the whole enterprise going in these difficult economic times. With over 160 diplomatic missions London as a posting remains one of the highlights of any diplomat’s career and indeed for some being accredited to the Court of St James’s is the crowning of a professional lifetime, even if on occasions (as Sir Christopher wickedly reminded us, in the words of Henry Wotton) they are being sent abroad as honest men (and women these days) to lie for their country.

[photos show HE Georg Boomgaarden, Ambassador of Germany, and HE Carlos dos Santos, High Commissioner of Mozambique]

Why the EU Needs to Integrate More

It’s 40 years since Britain joined the EU and siren voices among UKIP and the Tory right are arguing that it’s time to turn the clock back and pull out. They couldn’t be more wrong. On the contrary, this is the time for the EU to integrate more — as the eurozone now seems destined to do — and Britain should be an enthusiastic participant. In the 1950s it was clear to the Founding Fathers (sorry, ladies, they were all men) of what developed into the EU that a degree of economic integration, notably between France and Germany, was necessary to make wars between western European states impossible. That goal was so smoothly achieved that European peace is taken for granted, especially by the young. A second huge victory since 1989 has been the absorption of formerly Communist states of central and eastern Europe ino the EU. This year, Croatia will be the next. But there is an urgent reason why EU integration should move ahead, namely the way that the global economy is developing, with the rise of new heavyweights including Brazil, Russia, India and China — the BRICs. As EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso has rightly pointed out, by 2050 not a single individual European country will be among the world’s top 10 economies* — not even Germany. So in order to compete — indeed, to survive as an economic force — Europe must unite further and start operating more as not just a single market but also a single economic force. It would be madness for Britain to stay out of that, condemning itself to a form of offshore irrelevance. It is not the Europhiles in Britain who are unpatriotic, as some of our critics allege, but rather UKIP and the Europhobic Tory right who want to consign us to the role of an historical theme park. 

*A new entry at number 10, however, could well be Turkey, which makes it all the more important that Turkey be embraced into the European family.

Michael Palin on Brazil

Those of us who are members or supporters of the Heath Library in Hampstead were treated to a preview of Michael Palin’s new BBC TV travel series (and associated book) on Brazil when he came to give a talk at the library this evening. Most of Michaell’s previous travelogues have involved crossing many, often difficult borders; his series on New Europe took him to no fewer than 22 countries, albeit briefly in some cases. But for his latest venture he stayed just in Brazil, never having been to that part of Latin America before. He chose four different regions: the North East, the Amazon, Rio and nearby mining areas, and the far south, thus getting four very different flavours of landscape, people and food. When asked by a young audience member which he would like to return to if he could Michael opted for the Amazon, as it was the least noisy and he had especially valued his time with indigenous communities in inaccessible parts of the rainforest, with their harmonious lifestyle that depends on their knowledge of and respect for their environment. Brazil — which I have been visiting quite regularly for over 30 years now — has gone through extraordinary transformations, from military dictatorship to a functioning democracy, from hyper-inflation to a steady, strong currency, and from a sense of resigned hopelessness about the future to the vibrancy of a get-up-and-go society that is proudly asserting its membership of the BRICs groups of emerging economies as well as its place as an increasingly influential global political player. Being Michael Palin, of course, he had various Palinesque, even Pythoesque, adventures, including being immersed in a rubber tutu in the middle of a river in the Amazon basin while pink river dolphins playfully headbutted him.

Misha Glenny on Cyber Crime

The writer and broadcaster Misha Glenny was the guest at the Association of European Journalists (AEJ) lunch at Europe House yesterday; many of us had worked with him at the BBC and elsewhere, mainly during the period when he was a leading authority on the Balkans. But as he explained at the lunch, by 2000 editors around the world had had their fill of the Balkans. Nobody was interested in the area anymore. 9/11 and its aftermath further sealed his fate as he then had to find a new area of expertise, which is why he has spent much of the past decade in the company of gangsters. Some of these were involved in traditional crimes, such as gun-running, people trafficking and prostitution (more details of which you can find in his books). But more recently he has tended to focus on cyber crime — hacking and the like. People engaged in this type of activity usually don’t need to resort to the violence employed by other sectors of the international criminal fraternity, and many of them are young. One of his star interviewees in recent research was a teenager in Sao Paulo, Brazil, who made millions in a short period of time. States, intelligence services and commercial companies also increasingly engage in cyber crime, be it cyber warfare — of the type that forced Estonia to shut itself off from the Internet for a while — or the deliberate infection of Iran’s nuclear facilities by US and Israeli cyber-operatives, and indeed the blitz on Western countries — including Britain — by China and Russia in particular. Most people tend to think of cyber crime in terms of phishing scams which result in one’s credit or debit card being hacked. But such offenses are piffling compared with the high level stuff being carried out by the real professionals, including extortion of banks and commercial companies by people who have the ability to bring down their whole IT system or steal all their contact lists, emails and future product specifications. Having brouht out his book on the subject, Misha Glenny can now turn to a much less dangerous project: the rise of Brazil as an emergent world power.

Reaching Out to Latin America

Latin America has been the Cinderella of British diplomacty in recent decades, though that situation has mercifully been changing since the Coalition Government came into office twp year ago and Liberal Democrat Jeremy Browne took over responsibility as junior Minister for the region (along with East Asia, Australasia and most recently India). Several new British Embassies have been opened in Central and South America — some resuscitating posts the previous Labour government closed down — and staff beefed up at others. There has been a series of new consulates too, one of the latest being in Recife in North East Brazil, which Jeremy recently opened. This evening he came to talk to the International Relations Committee of the Liberal Democrats to explain the thinking in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. There is recognition that as well as the BRIC, Brazil, there are other countries in the region that have been developing economically to a notable degree. Interestingly, he divided the states of Latin America up into three groups, from his point of view: those with liberal economies (the new Pacific Alliance of Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile), the Left-leaning fraternity (Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador and to an extent Bolivia) and the rest. Most have undergone profound and in general positive political change over the past three decades, but British companies have by and large not capitalised on new opportunities there. Despite the ongoing difference of views regarding the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands — in which Argentina’s claim to ‘Las Malvinas’ gets widespread support across the region – in general Latin Americans have a fairly positive view of Britain and we are a country that still punches well above our weight. Although Jeremy did not say so, another reason we are liked in Latin America is because Britain is not the United States, though often the British government — of whatever political colour — finds itself in close partnership with Washington.

Jeremy Browne the Golf Club

Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne has increased his empire recently, adding India to East Asia and Latin America. But as he told a meeting of London Liberal Youth and others which I chaired at SOAS this evening, there is logic to this, in that he is now broadly responsible for emerging economies (outside the former Soviet Union). These are now ranked, reasonably, in FCO terms in three bands: the top one including China, India and Brazil; the second, countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Colombia et al; the third, the Philippines and others. He used some inventive analogies in his talk and during the subsequent Q&A, saying that at Foreign Affairs question times in the House he often feels like that oddly-shaped golf club which a player almost never uses, but you are jolly glad to have with you when the need arises. Almost all questions tend to be about Europe, the Middle East (including Afghanistan) and North Africa, with the United States being a recurring point of reference. But he is on to a good thing (my editorialising) by concentrating on countries that are on their way up. Europe, including Britain, is shrinking both in its share of global population and in its share of the global economy. But the EU is still the world’s largest economic bloc, and Britain still maintains considerable influence over ideas (through the Financial Times, the Economist, the BBC, etc). So providing Jeremy remains a reasonably long time in his job, he’ll be performing at question time in the House not so much as a chipper but as a wood.

 

Liberal Democrat Friends of Brazil

As today is Brazilian Independence Day it’s a fitting moment to promote the new Liberal Democrat Friends of Brazil, whose steering group met at my house last night. There are several Brazilian nationals who are members of the party as well as people like me who either have Brazilian partners or else longstanding relations with the country. The idea of the group is to further knowledge in this country about the Brazilian economy, culture and politics, as well as encouraging greater UK-Brazil trade. Britain used to be a major ecnomic force in South America in the 19th centuy and early 20th century, but has been overtaken by others in most countries in the region, which is  a shame, to put it mildly. The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, did go to Brazil earlier this year, accompanied by other government figures, and Taunton LibDem MP Jeremy Browne is the Minister at the Foreign and Commonwelath Office with responsibility for Latin America. So there is solid ground on which to build. LibDem Friends of Brazil will have a modest presence at the Party conference in Birmingham later this month and members who would be interested in getting involved are invited to contact david.nsimmons@btopenworld.com

Brazil’s Credit Card Economy

Brazil has for some years been the dark horse among the BRICs — the four largest emerging economies. The huge problems of income inequalities and crime have often been cited as reasons why Latin America’s biggest economy would get stuck in the mud. But under the past eight years of rule by President Lula, who steps down at the end of the year, the pessimists have been largely silenced. Of course, the discovery of huge offshore oil reserves has helped. But just as in China, in Brazil millions of people have been lifted out of poverty and the infrastrture is improving. Much remains to be done, that is for sure. But the overall mood is optimistic. Yet there is one feature which many casual observers have missed and which is potentially a cause for concern: the degree to which Brazilians live on credit card debt.It must be the country with the worst addiction to credit cards,which can be used almost everywhere, even for the tiniest purchases.Moreover, in Brazil there is the option to spread one’s credit card payments over several months when purchasing goods and services. I was astounded at the bus station in São Paulo this morning to be asked whether I wanted my bus ticket to Foz do Iguaçu spread out over several months on my visa card! One just hopes that all these Brazilians saddling themselves with credit card debt to fuel the consumer economy won’t go under. Meanwhile, hyper-inflation and devaluation are distant memories. The Brazilian real has strengthened against most major currencies, including the poor pound.

Lula: The Film

It’s rare for Presidents in the democratic world to have a film made out of a book about them while they are still in office: the genre smacks more of North Korea. Yet in cinemas around Brazil, the film ‘Lula: O Filho do Brasil’ (Lula: Brazil’s Son) is playing. Not to packed audiences, I have to say. There were precisely five people in the cinema where I watched it in Fortaleza yesterday afternoon. The original book, by Denise Paraná, had a certain success and actually Fábio Barreto’s celluloid version has much going for it: beautiful shots (very Hollywood), a strong story and some fine acting, not least by Glória Pires, who plays Luiz Inacio ‘Lula’ Da Silva’s mother. But the portrayal of Lula, particularly as a boy, is just too goody-goody to be true and actually diminishes, rather than inflates, the personality (as The Economist pointed out when the film first came out). Many people are boycotting it, because it seems like hagiography and Lula’s Workers Party is currently busy trying to promote his potential successor (Lula can’t stand for a third term himself). It’s a pity, because the film has many strong points and the underlying theme of the plight of desperate migrants who leave the impoverished North East to look for work in São Paulo state is part of the Brazilian dream (or nightmare). But I can understand why so many Brazilian film directors are furious that this prestige project received so much cash from private company sponsors – notably automobile companies, the petroleum industry and telecommunications firms – while they usually have to operate on a shoestring.

Brazil’s Nuclear Cooperation with Iran

As the United States is preparing a new Resolution to submit to the UN Security Council regarding Iran’s nuclear programme, the government in Tehran has announced that it has begun 20% enrichment of uranium at the plant in Natanz, under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Last Sunday, the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, announced the uranium enrichment and denounced what he called ‘the enemies of Iran’ for trying to halt his country’s nuclear and technological development. US President Barack Obama has voiced common fears in the West that Iran is aiming to achieve nuclear weapons (a situation that would particularly alarm countries on the other side of the Persian/Arabian Gulf, as well as Israel). But not all countries in the Americas see things Washington’s way, Brazil being a notable example. Since last November, President Luiz Inacio ‘Lula’ Da Silva and his Ministers have been exploring nuclear cooperation actively with Iran and this week, the Brazilian Foreign Minister, Celso Amorim, declared, in defence of this collaboration, that the Iranians ‘have the right to a peaceful programme of nuclear development, just like other countries.’  That is a line which finds great resonance in much of the developing world, as well as among Tehran’s close friends and allies, who point out that (a) the United States is the only country ever to have used nuclear weapons, and (b) Israel is the only country in the Middle East to possess nuclear weapons, in defiance of the non-proliferation treaty. Indeed, the Israelis bombed Iraq’s main nuclear facility when it looked as if Saddam Hussein’s scientists were on the way to weapons-grade production.  And the Israelis have made clear that they would be prepared to do the same to Iran — which is why the United States has despatched missile-carying ships to the Gulf, in the hope of cooling the Israeli hotheads.  But many Latin Americans, at least, ask whether there aren’t double standards at play on this issue.

[photo: PressTV]