De-globalization
When China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, it was still a developing country. More than 15 years later, its circumstances have changed and it has turned into the world’s second-largest economy. The WTO has served not to discipline China, which is what the United States’ President Donald Trump, and to some extent the European Union, albeit more discreetly, now seeks, but rather to give it global thrust.
President Trump wants to stop China overtaking the United States technologically. Andres Ortega, a senior fellow at the Elcano Royal Institute stated that underlying the trade war unleashed by the current United States President, there is a clash of perceptions. It is said that President Trump sees China as a wealthy country with many poor people, while China sees itself as a poor country with many wealthy people.
According to Andres Ortega, this clash of perceptions extends beyond the United States-China dimension. The Trump Administration views Europe as a group of wealthy countries that the United States defends at its own expense. This is why it is asking the Europeans to spend more on their defense, with the mercantilist catch that they buy United States weaponry.
The European Union will spend more, but predominantly on the European Union member countries’ own systems. If the €13 billion earmarked by the European Commission for the new European Defense Fund is approved, it will be spent on European projects.
The Trump Administration also views Europe through the prism of Germany, even though that country’s trade surplus is first and foremost a concern for Germany’s own partners in the European Union. United States tariff increases are primarily aimed at Germany, with the sword of Damocles hanging over the automotive industry, a fundamental component of German exports.
Beyond Europe and China, the Trump Administration perceives the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico not only as outmoded, but as having benefited its two partners more than the United States side. That is more than debatable. The Europeans, meanwhile, tend to view President Trump more as a cause than a symptom of what’s going on. That yields yet another clash of perceptions that makes it more difficult to find solutions.
From the European Union perspective, it should not be assumed that, even if President Trump were to lose the next presidential elections to be held in 2020, United States trade policy will undergo substantial change. According to American political analysts, it is important to remember that the Democrats do not embrace free trade with any great enthusiasm either. In fact, politically they have been the stronger defenders of the victims of free trade in the past.
According to data published by the Circulo de Empresarios, the main countries with which the United States runs a trade deficit are China (47.1% of the total), Mexico (8.9%), Japan (8.6%), Germany (8.1%) and Vietnam (4.8%). With the European Union as a whole, the figure is 19%.
However, Professor John Hikes of Sheffield University argued that the statistics tend to reflect an outdated model. Digital transactions do not appear in many accounts, nor does a growing and currently crucial component of such transactions, namely the trade in data, which is not covered by the WTO. The rules applied to offline trade are not the same as those applied online.
According to Professor John Hikes, the Trump Administration has used national security as the pretext for its protectionism. But, in point of fact, what does national security have to do with, for instance, importing cars or olives in peacetime? As the German Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, likes to point out with more than a hint of irony, United States streets and freeways “are more secure with German cars.”
Moreover, President Donald Trump has deliberately deadlocked the WTO, where trade disputes are supposed to be settled. Financial Times recently reported that for the last year, his administration has vetoed all judicial appointments to the organization’s seven-member appeals chamber, which is charged with resolving trade quarrels.
That said, the WTO is in dire need of in-depth changes. As Pascal Lamy, the WTO’s Director-General between 2005 and 2013, pointed out at the recent Global Solutions 2018 in Berlin, Germany, the WTO is an organization in which its member states rule supreme. In other words, its board and Director-General have little scope for taking the initiative. In this respect, and others, change at the WTO is in order.
Many of these problems predate President Donald Trump. Not everything can be laid at his door. Since 1994, the WTO has achieved little in terms of multilateral trade agreements. Previous United States administrations, including President Obama’s, favored bilateral trade agreements, with the exception of the transpacific (TPP) and transatlantic (TTIP) treaties. The latter was undermined in the 2016 election campaign not only by Trump, but also by his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
According to economic analysts, it is also evident that the G7 is not the appropriate forum to start settling these issues. But the G20 is unlikely to be the right forum either. They are useful for expressing disagreements, talking and clearing the undergrowth. But real institutions are needed, a requirement that neither the G7 nor the G20 fulfils.
Are we witnessing a process of de-globalization? As Jorge Arguello of the Argentine think tank Embajada Abierta points out, the costs of de-globalization are much higher today than 20 or 30 years ago.
“Ethiopia in Museums and the Big Screen”
The Contemporary African Art Collection/Jean Pigozzi, which can be viewed online at caacart.com includes Ethiopian artist Gedewon (an obvious mispronunciation of Gedeon) born in Bagemdir in 1939, passing in 1995 in Därtähal. According to the biography on the CAAC site, he was the “finest practitioners of poetry and rhetoric in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church” and “far from being an artist seeking his roots. Along with his religious studies, he was secretly initiated into talismanic art, a discipline used for prayer and healing. Reaching back as far as the origins of Christianity in Ethiopia (i.e., to the fourth century), talismanic art draws on the same Hellenic sources as Arab alchemy and the Hebrew Kabala. But while the art remained embryonic in the Mediterranean world, it flourished in Ethiopia as a means to cure patients whose ills were understood in terms of spiritual possession.” They go on to describe Gedewon, talismans as “writing from before writing” quoting him as calling his works “talismans of research and study.” Finally, they remark that healing the body and soul through “ancient patterns, imagery, and invocation” was the purpose…through the practice of age old models. “Gedewon also considered it necessary to question the patient in order to incorporate specific experiences and visions into the talisman. In turn, he would create new images for new problems.” His media of choice included pencil, ballpoint pen, or ink on paper, composed in a “primarily graphic and within their geometric framework, highly representational. Gedewon is both the healer—and because of his empathy—the patient, artist and hallucinator in another’s stead.” Interesting and I can’t wait to read the responses of the viewers at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) when the facility re-opens in late October 2019 after begin closed for renovations.
When MOMA re-opens the Pigozzi gift of 45 work of art may feature drawings by Gedewon, whose work was previously shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and VENICE BIENNALE: 54th International Art Exhibition, Italian Pavilion. Also included in the gift, making MoMa a “unique institutional leader in this aspect of contemporary African art,” are a selection of sculptures by Beninese Romuald Hazoumè; paintings by Congolese Moké and photographs by Malian Seydou Keïta. I will be sure to share any feedback and further information on Gedewon who was also pegged in the category of “outsider art” with works in Vernacular Visionaries: International Outsider Art in Context Museum of International Folk Art Santa Fe, New Mexico – USA. FYI: Outsider art is typically relegated to self-taught or naïve creatives who have minimal, if any contact with mainstream art world.
My other commentary is on the newly released film Red Sea Diving Resort, said to be “loosely based on the events of Operation Moses and Operation Joshua, moving Ethiopian Jews from Sudanese refugee camps to safety in Israel in the 1980’s. The film was filled with pretty good A list actors like American Chris Evans, who appears in Marvel superhero movies and British Ben Kingsley, famous for roles such as Gandhi and too many others to name and Michiel Huisman from Game of Thrones. Evans and Kingsley pretty much saved the day in the aforementioned flicks and SURPRISE, do the same here as well yet failed to rack up positive critical review. Rotten Tomatoes writes, “makes as uninspired use of actual events, using thinly written characters to tell a story derailed by its own good intentions”. While Variety says, “Michiel Huisman as ripped Jewish heroes, swooping in to save the day, it’s impossible to ignore how badly the film marginalizes the courageous Ethiopian refugees about whom it purports to care so deeply.” Okay. My turn.
There is an old saying, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. I saw the film on Netlfix and think it would have been the inspiration for this quote, but the quote predates, obviously. So the plot line is basically a Mossad agent, eventually conspiring with the CIA lifts hundreds of Ethiopian Jews to safety from Sudan. Writing matters. What was the threat they were running from? How did “rebel leader, Kabede (Michael K. Williams, The Wire) get them to Sudan and why was he called a rebel leader? What is the backstory, usually presented in text at the beginning or a short scene to provide context. My questions are endless especially when you see photos of the “real” characters and Ethiopian Jews “saved” at the end of the film running with the credits. I think 60 seconds of screen time is worth it; else we have false heroes, a half baked plot and great actors left with reviews of mediocrity such as the Los Angeles Time, “There are echoes of other films, as he persuades the Israeli government to fund an elaborate ruse for the (only recently declassified) real-life operation. Instead of a fake movie, as in “Argo,” it’s a fake hotel, which the highly trained spies find themselves having to staff when real tourists arrive. The shepherding of Jewish refugees calls to mind “Schindler’s List” or “Hotel Rwanda” (it’s set in Sudan), but, unfortunately, “Red Sea” doesn’t deliver the stress, suspense or emotional punch of any of those films.” There you go, anti-climatic.
Dr. Desta Meghoo is a Jamaican born
Creative Consultant, Curator and cultural promoter based in Ethiopia since 2005. She also serves as Liaison to the AU for the Ghana based, Diaspora African Forum.
Free Art Felega
On August 13, 2019 Yenatfenta Abate held an exhibition at Alle Fine Arts and Design School, using the theme “Free Art Felega”. The exhibition arranged a platform for young amateur artists to show case their talent. In doing so the artists will get the opportunity to acquire recognition for the work they put their heart into, and also get the chance to get a feedback from professional artist with years of experiences. The gallery was graced by prominent artists, different local Medias and art enthusiasts. The artists used various materials such as cloth fabric, used cell phone card, thread, aluminum foil, coat buttons and many more equipment that one cannot imagine to include.
