Peace initiatives take a back seat

Nobody speaks of the Bush Middle East peace "vision" anymore. Surprised? Of course not. George W. Bush promised a deal, a just and lasting one, that would be signed before he left office in January 2009. An independent Palestinian state - a viable one - he stressed, would be established too, according to his own deadline.

The plan is long gone. The Bush administration is now mired in the global financial crisis and the US presidential election. And Bush has failed to put pressure on Israel to stop its colony expansion and adhere to the conditions of peace.

Even if there was the slightest hope for some sort of peace agreement to be achieved in the next few months, the latest news from Israel definitely comes as the final blow to the "Bush vision".

The influential Shas party announced it would not join a coalition led by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who has to form a government in a few days to avoid early polls. Livni has secured a pledge of support from the powerful Labor party, but without Shas they will be short of a majority. Therefore, while the Israeli and US leaders are busy with elections, peace has to wait, perhaps longer than expected.

Exactly a year after His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, announced the green building initiative, Dubai World has launched a Dh2.75 billion ($750 million) solar power project.

The project is expected to generate 130 megawatts of power when completed in 2010. This commendable move comes at a time when the UAE Government is going ahead with clean nuclear technology to boost future power generation and supplies to create a sustainable society.

Dubai's leading role in the going green campaign has been commended by global leaders at a forum that endorsed the government's initiative.

Former South African president F. W. de Klerk, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, said the world's population had crossed seven billion this year. The last billion was added to mankind in just 8 years, faster than the sixth billion that took 12 years to grow from 1988 to 2000.

It took mankind about 2,300 years to raise the population from 100 million to a billion in 1880.

The fifth billion took 13 years to reach in 1988, and the fourth billion took 15 years from 1960 to 1975. It took the third billion 30 years to be added to mankind, from 1930 to 1960, and the second billion took 60 years to grow. At this rate, the global population could hit 9 billion by 2025, which is not sustainable. "Our earth is in danger," de Klerk told the forum on Friday, saying that massive awareness of environment issues could save planet Earth and mankind from disaster. "We are a victim of our own successes," he said. The challenge now is to create sustainable societies. "Where there is a will there is a way. Dubai has shown this and they are implementing this," he said, adding that others need to join the move.

The Asia-Europe meeting (Asem), which concluded in Beijing yesterday, managed to bring the two continents a little closer - thanks to the global financial crisis.

Leaders from 40 countries sat down to try and agree on a common purpose that would help prop up their economies in a biennial meeting that is usually restricted to talking shop and is devoid of any substance.

This is a step in the right direction.

The workings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were seen in a larger light as confidence, cooperation and responsibility were the buzz words. But the onus is also on each and every government to try and exercise more responsibility towards their people and be more aware and sentitive to market patterns.

These two continents accommodate more than 60 per cent of the world's total population and financial foresight is preferred to financial innovation.