Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Chris Good Seeing this newsletter as a forward? Subscribe here. July 14, 2021 In South Africa, Populism, Angst, and the Rule of Law Collide More than 70 people have died in South Africa amid protests and riots that have followed the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma, who turned himself in for a 15-month contempt-of-court jail sentence, imposed for his refusal to appear before an anti-corruption commission.
As looting engulfs parts of the country, most notably Zuma's home province of KwaZulu-Natal, German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle notes that the former leader's foundation has said peace will not be restored until Zuma is freed. At The Guardian, Mark Gevisser calls Zuma's jailing a victory for the rule of law over corruption, accusing the former President of "Trumpish" provocations before his surrender to authorities.
It's not clear how much of the public animus is motivated by support for Zuma—Gevisser calls his loyalists a "ragtag" bunch—and how much is motivated by economic problems and the pandemic, in a country that ranks among the highest in the World Bank's measure of inequality, where $24 monthly support payments to the poorest citizens have expired, and where a deadly third wave of Covid-19 has sent citizens back into lockdown, as The Wall Street Journal's Gabriele Steinhauser and Aaisha Dadi Patel point out. "People are tired and frustrated with the whole situation," one South African mall vendor tells them. "The spark may have been Zuma. Now it's a revolution against the lockdown, because nothing is being provided."
On Twitter, Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer depicts a no-win proposition for the current government: "Cyril Ramaphosa was elected president of South Africa because of his promises to root out corruption," Bremmer writes. "And now, the moment he arrests ex-President Jacob Zuma, the most corrupt person in the country's history, the streets explode in violent riots. Nobody said it would be easy." Roadblocks Ahead for the EU's Climate Plan? The European Union has released an ambitious plan to reduce net greenhouse-gas emissions by 55% (compared to 1990 rates) by 2030 and to reach net-zero by 2050—but as CNN's Luke McGee writes, it could face significant obstacles, as countries like Hungary and Poland may resist. As Politico Europe's Kalina Oroschakoff and The New York Times' Steven Erlanger and Somini Sengupta have written, difficulties include the need for all 27 member states to ratify a maze of laws and the criticism that carbon taxes, like sales or VAT taxes, can be regressive in that they raise prices on consumers, regardless of their incomes.
The plan's centerpieces include an enhanced emissions-trading scheme and a carbon-related tariff, to tax imports from less-carbon-restrictive economies. Unsurprisingly, The Wall Street Journal's pro-business editorial board isn't fond of either. "We'd love to be a fly on the wall when someone in Brussels sits down to explain this to industry leaders," the paper writes, of the different rules applied to various industries and the possible rollback of subsidies and free credits for carbon-intensive sectors.
Then again, climate activists will likely applaud, as they've sought for decades to convince policymakers that climate change is a borderless problem that demands drastic measures. After thousands of Cubans protested over the weekend in a rare display of public criticism aimed at their government, The Economist writes that the streets have been quiet since, as police have fanned out to "roun[d] up" demonstrators.
"The big question is how much staying power the protests will have," the magazine writes. "The coming days will show whether the regime's stock response of swatting down any signs of dissent will work again. The government has little leeway to buy social peace. Cuba has been badly hit by covid-19 and by a precipitous drop in tourism, on which it is heavily dependent. A lack of foreign currency with which to buy imports has led to acute food shortages and blackouts. Under the administration of Donald Trump, the United States tightened sanctions on Cuba. These have compounded the island's economic troubles." Cubans haven't demonstrated widely since the 1990s, the magazine writes, but Internet access could facilitate more protests these days. As the US calls for Haiti to hold elections as planned in September, following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse last week and amid uncertainty over who's in charge, Marcela Garcia writes for The Boston Globe that US involvement has done much more harm than good over the decades, and "what Haiti may need the least of right now is intervention from the Biden administration."
Garcia's protest echoes those lodged by others over the quality of foreign involvement—including Haitian journalist and activist Monique Clesca, who has called for the Organization of American States to butt out, and US–Haitian NGO leader Pierre Esperance, who has suggested the US should back off its call for a vote, given the current state of danger. Bush on Biden's Afghanistan 'Mistake' As the pending US exit from Afghanistan produces grave concerns about the country's future—the Foundation for Defense of Democracies's Long War Journal has gathered open-source information to map a burgeoning Taliban takeover, mostly in rural areas—Fareed has argued that powerful countries like the US are mistaken when they believe they can prevent instability far beyond their borders.
In an interview with Deutsche Welle, former US President George W. Bush argues for trying to. Agreeing that the US and NATO withdrawal announced by President Joe Biden is a "mistake," Bush says: "Sadly, I'm afraid Afghan women and girls are gonna suffer unspeakable harm … I think the consequences are gonna be unbelievably bad. … Laura and I spent a lot of time with Afghan women, and they're scared, and I think about all the interpreters and people that helped not only US troops but NATO troops, and … it seems like they're just going to be left behind to be slaughtered." |
