News.Az
Day: September 12, 2023
Zelenskiy Predicts ‘Powerful September’ As Ukraine Fends Off Latest Russian Air Attacks Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
The protracted war between Russia and Ukraine, which has lost media attention and become customary after a year, remains a pivotal event for the international order. The post-1945 (World War II) order had deterred war among the major powers and increased the costs of war and secession for the combatants. Yet, after the Cold War and America’s unmatched power, Washington sought to seize all the power and dictate its terms to other actors. This altered the post-war norms to America’s advantage. Washington aspired to rule the world, not just be a great power. The establishment of 800 military bases worldwide indicated its intention to turn the world into a US stronghold. This reached its zenith with NATO’s eastward expansion and China’s containment.
NATO’s eastward expansion provoked Russia and its attack on Ukraine, starting the era of conflict among the great powers and challenging the US-led order. Russia will likely lose the war in Ukraine, but it initiated a process of large and conventional wars, annexing or recovering territories, and spreading wars worldwide. This will replace the US hierarchical order with new blocs, such as BRICS and Shanghai. This is independent of China’s allies’ future coalition.
The great wars that were a means of creating the American system are now being used to overthrow it. The notion that “power creates rights” is something that has become prevalent especially in the past three decades in every action of the United States, whether from the occupation of countries in the Middle East, or the withdrawal from treaties, alliances, and agreements. Now this is the repercussion of the boomerang that the Americans threw at any country they wanted to subjugate.
The Western media asserts that collaborating with the West to oppose Russia is the sole method to reinstate the American order. Nevertheless, this is an impractical alternative. The countries that have maintained neutrality for a long period, such as Switzerland, Sweden, and Finland, have forsaken their neutrality and aligned with the stronger party in this ambiguous situation. This implies that the weaker countries will have to comply with the will of the stronger ones. Furthermore, there are other elements that influence the future of the world, such as Iran’s security partnership with Russia; China’s ties with Iran and Saudi Arabia; and the increase of Germany and Japan’s military expenditure. These are all components of a puzzle that need to be resolved to comprehend the transition from a critical situation to an unknown one. In addition to that, India will become the second economic power in the world in the next 50 years and China will supplant America by 2050. These are all aspects that need to be considered and examined collectively.
The objective of this war for the Americans is to deplete the Russian national resources in Ukraine and to generate a perpetual conflict between Europe and Russia, which is advantageous for Washington. Nonetheless, the global trends are not proceeding as Washington expects. One of these significant trends, especially in the relations between the dominant powers and the emerging BRICS countries, is the attempt to diminish the reliance on the US dollar in their trade exchanges. For example, China was the destination of 40% of Russia’s exports and the source of 30% of Russia’s imports in the previous year. While prior to this, the Russian people were not very acquainted with the Chinese Yuan, today 15% of the Russian Central Bank’s foreign exchange reserves are in Yuan, and the interest among Russians to buy Yuan has increased by 33%.
The US is waging a proxy war in Ukraine as part of its strategy to maintain the unipolar order, but it is a losing game. According to the World Bank, Ukraine needs about 1 trillion dollars to recover from the war, but neither the US nor Europe can afford to pay for its reconstruction. Ukraine is essentially destroyed, and its only hope is that China might step in and rebuild it and also gain a foothold in Eastern Europe. Russia, on the other hand, has succeeded in weakening its neighbor, but at a great price. This means that the US has lost its ability to end wars and that its interventions in the Middle East and North Africa have created a refugee crisis that will haunt Europe.
The American strategy seeks to create disorder in the world to advance its own agenda. It intends to debilitate Europe and render it reliant on its policies, to antagonize China by menacing its southern borders with its military presence, to undermine Russia with various crises, and to leave the Middle East in a state of terror after its occupation. This is a form of anarchy that the Americans employ to sustain their unilateral order in Washington, but it also entails annihilating the earth in the name of the international system.
Princeton University Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Gananath Obeyesekere, explains
The Veddas, the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka, were once numerous and lived throughout the island. But they have almost disappeared now, being less than 0.13% of the population according to the last census taken in 2011. Presently, they are confined to the Bintanna area in South Sri Lanka and Batticaloa district in the east.
These days, the Veddas are treated as museum pieces to be shown to Western tourists fascinated by antiquities. And the Veddas themselves appear to be encouraging this, willingly posing for pictures, bare-bodied, hair unkempt, and carrying an axe or a bow and arrow.
But this is a caricature of the community, whose past is as noteworthy as those of the dominant communities of Sri Lanka.
If the Veddas were numerous and widespread in the past, where did they go eventually? Were they exterminated as native Americans were after the Whites arrived in North and South America?
No, they were not, says Gananath Obeyesekere, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University, in his work: Colonial Histories and Vedda Primitivism: An Unorthodox Reading of Kandy Period Texts.
His study of the Veddas from the 1960s onwards showed that they were neither annihilated nor erased, but were absorbed by the dominant Sinhalese and Tamil communities through a symbiotic process based on a cultural give and take, inter-marriages and sexual unions.
He decries the popular notion that the Veddas were always hunter-gatherers, and were never into agriculture, which set them apart from the Sinhalese and the Tamils who practiced settled agriculture.
Obeyesekere’s studies revealed that the Sinhalese, Tamils and the Veddas were alternately or simultaneously, hunters and agriculturists. All three communities eventually took to settled agriculture which became their common preferred occupation.
In the past, Kandy district, which is the epicentre of Sinhalese Buddhist culture now, was populated by the Veddas. So was Vellassa in Monaragala district. The latter was known traditionally as Vedi Rata(Vedda land). While most residents of Vedi Rata now claim that they are Sinhalese, some in interior Vedi Rata, admit that they were Veddas originally.
The people of this area have a plethora of myths about their origin in the Vijaya-Kuveni marriage and their subsequent flight to forested areas. The story is that Prince Vijaya, a Kshatriya from Bengal, had come to Sri Lanka in 543 BC to settle. He married Kuveni, a local Vedda, but only to abandon her in favour of a Kshatriya Princess of Madurai in South India.
It is believed that Vijaya’s abandoning Kuveni led to a fight between his men and Kuveni’s people- the Veddas. The unequal battle led to the flight of the Veddas to the jungles of Central and South Sri Lanka.
Thereafter, the dominant community in Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese, believed to have been created by the union of Vijaya and the Madurai Princes, paid no attention to the Veddas. The Veddas disappear from Sinhalese records.
Obeyesekere notes that Pali language chronicles like the Mahawamsa ( Fifth Century AD) written by orthodox Sinhalese Buddhist monks, are silent on the fate of Kuveni’s people.
Intermediate Texts
However, non-Pali texts written in Sinhalese language by laymen, have plenty of references to the Veddas. Obeyesekere calls these “intermediate texts”. These are the Vamsa katha, Vadi Vamsaya and Vanni Rajavaliya. Then there are the Vitti Pot, or “stories about episodes or events;” and finally, the Lekam Miti or land-tenure registers.
Obeyesekere points to a ritual known as Veddan andagahima, or “roll-call of the Veddas,” sung during the Kohomba kankariya ritual which suggests that the Vedda territory was practically coterminous with the present-day Kandy district. Over ninety Vedda villages fell in this area.
Obeyesekere buttresses his case by pointing out that the kingdom of Vikramabahu III (1357–1374 AD) – namely Kandy – was established in a village then called Katupulla that was ruled by a Vedda chief known as Katupulle Vedda. The Kandyan kings had a police force known as Katupulle Atto, a Vedda term.
Matale, in Kandy district which is now a stronghold of the Sinhalese Buddhists, was also a Vedda area. The leading families of Matale at the time of King Rajasinha II’s rule (1629-1687), were Kulatunga Mudiyanse of Udupihilla, Vanigasekere Mudiyanse of Aluvihara, Candrasekere Mudiyanse of Dumbukola (Dambullal), Gamage Vedda and Hampat Vedda of Hulangamuva, who were all Veddas with honorific Sinhalese names.
The lands beyond Matale were under the guardianship of Kannila Vedda, Herat Banda, Maha Tampala Vedda, Valli Vedda (perhaps a female), and Mahakavudalla Vedda, to name only a few.
Obeyesekere submits that the Vedda chiefs and the Sinhalese upper class intermarried. For example, a Vedda King of Opaigala married the daughter of a Sinhala king, Vira Parakrama Bahu. His son was named Herat Bandara, in Sinhala style.
Veddas as Agriculturists
The term Vedda comes from the word Vyaadha (to pierce), that is to “hunt”. However, it is wrong to think that hunting was the Veddas’ sole occupation, Obeyesekere says.
The Veddas were also agriculturalists. Names like Herat Bandara indicate that they would also have practised agriculture in addition to hunting. Obeyesekere points out that the Sinhalese farmers of the top Govigama caste also practised hunting in addition to agriculture. “Game” which is the flesh of hunted animals, is relished by the Sinhalese Buddhists to this day.
According to Vaadi vamsaya, the Veddas rendered various services to the Sinhalese kings. They served in their armies, hunted for them and safeguarded demarcated sections of these territories. For these, they were rewarded with titles, honours and the guardianship of territories.
For example, Panikki Vedda, an elephant catcher for King Bhuveneka Bahu of Sitavaka (1521 to 1551) was given the over-lordship of the four districts or Pattus, namely, Puttalam Pattu, Munessaram Pattu, Demala Pattu, and the Wanni Hat Pattu, and honoured with the title “Bandara Mudiyanse.”
It can be assumed that the descendants of these distinguished Veddas became “Bandara Veddas” or Veddas with high rank, and then merged with the Sinhala Bandara aristocracy, Obeyesekere says. Panikki Vedda was deified at his death. He is still propitiated in rituals over a vast area of Bintanna- Vellassa.
The clan of the Vedda girl Kuveni, whom Prince Vijaya married initially, was a group of hunters or “Sabaras”. They were forced to migrate to what is now the Sabaragamuwa province after the Vijaya-Kuveni marriage broke.
No wonder, in Sabaragamuwa province, there are place names like Veddi Pangu (“Vedda’s land share”), Veddi Kumbura (“Vedda rice fields”), Vedivatta (“Vadda gardens”) and Veddagala (“Vedda rock”). These are now Sinhalese villages.
When the Sinhalese of Uva province staged an armed revolt against the British in 1817-1818, the local Veddas sided with them. A Vedda chief, Kivulegedera Mohottala, along with many other leaders of the revolt, was captured and executed. To this day, Kivulegedera Mohottala is deified in this area as Kivulegedera Punci Alut Deviyo (the younger new god of Kivulegedera). He had been transformed into a fully Sinhalized hero of the Sri Lankan resistance to the British.
(This article was published in Daily Mirror)
As reported by Focus Taiwan on August 28, the Deputy Minister of Taiwan, Tien Chung-kwang, uttered to the UN’s Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in misinterpreting the UN’s resolution 2758. Historically, the resolution was signed in 1971 by the UN in response to who would be a representative of China. Because China Communists have been a representative of China, Taiwan, as a lost party, was kicked out of the UN.
From 2008 to 2015, the ties of both parties reached “a golden age” of their relationship under the Ma Ying-jeou era, whereby, in 2015, both sides held a historical rendezvous in Singapore. Nevertheless, Tsai Ing-wen did not continue the solid relationship due to the anti-China campaign and refusing the 1992 Consensus. Tsai argues that Taiwan should have its path. It means Taiwan could diversify its relationship with others, not only China. Hence, in its development, Taiwan plans to bring back its “soul” to the international stage by promoting itself as one of the UN’s members. In this context, Taiwan has been more aggressive, lessening its dependency on China.
To support the statement, there are three reasons why the UN should consider its decision to accept Taiwan.
First, Taiwan has its political system. Although China claims it could imply a “one country, two systems policy” to Taiwan, it is irrelevant to Taiwan. Since the 1990s, Taiwan has been governed by a democratic leader and holds the presidential election. According to a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in 2022, despite not being a country, Taiwan ranked 1 in Asia; the quality of Taiwan’s democracy is in line with international values, such as freedom and the rule of law. Its political system has been buoyed by various parties, such as Kuomintang (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) – two of the big parties in Taiwan.
In early 2024, Taiwan will hold a competitive presidential election involving DPP, KMT, and Taiwan People’s Party. This election will be crucial for Taiwan and its people due to China’s pressure on Taiwan’s ambition for independence and massive support from the US. Some researchers argue that it will cause two scenarios. First, if DPP wins, China will increase its pressure on Taiwan. The Pentagon’s forecast shows that China will invade Taiwan in 2027. If KMT wins, China will not invade Taiwan; the elected president could normalize Taiwan’s ties with China, mainly boosting economic relations.
Second, Taiwan could draw its foreign policy visions. Since the 1990s and increased in 2016, the Taiwanese government has intensively expressed its commitment to gathering with the international community and has allied with democratic countries, for example, with the West. In addition, Taiwan was brave enough to vocalize its national policy, such as the New Southbound Policy (NSP), which evolved from the Go South policy introduced by the current Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. The policy aims to strengthen South-South cooperation with various countries, including Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and others. In addition, Taiwan has offered several sectors ranging from education to technology. In 2018, the NSP was allocated a budget of $241 million, up from $131 million in 2017. As the world’s 18th-largest economy, Taiwan is fully integrated into world affairs.
Third, the 2758 resolution is irrelevant. In the modern world, when some countries have developed in the economic or political sector, it could be unfair if “the controversial rule has restrained a country” like China to Taiwan. Vuyile Dumisani Dlamini, the Eswatini’s permanent representative to the UN’s Geneva office, said Taiwan’s exclusion from the UN is unjustified. Furthermore, Taiwan has the right to determine its country without having control by China.
The US’s Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, said Taiwan’s inclusion in the UN is predicted to help the world, “That is why [the United States] encourage[s] all UN Member States to join us in supporting Taiwan’s robust, meaningful participation throughout the UN system and in the international community.” In his writing, Shattuck argues that the approach of being a UN member could push for dual membership. It is more dangerous because China-Taiwan relations might be worse, but it is possible to do so if Taiwan is ready to fight.
In conclusion, the UN should consider Taiwan as a member and remove the 2758 resolution. The UN could amplify its awareness that China today does not follow the rules, for instance, having its own rules ten dash-line in the South China Sea (SCS); it does not align with UNCLOS 1982.
The African Union has taken up more formidable challenges by joining the Group of Twenty (G20) in September 2023. It has struggled down the years to develop, since its creation, into a dynamic continental union with a resemblance of the European Union. Recent developments in global great power politics have come with complex challenges and opportunities for the African continent. Nevertheless, the AU views the emerging multipolar world as an opportunity to move up, with its unified voice on pertinent issues, unto a global stage.
At the far end of the 18th summit, the African Union (AU) was finally granted the same status as the European Union (EU) at G20. This will strengthen the G20 and also strengthen the voice of the Global South. It is based on the group’s collective consensus and incorporated into the final declaration, marks a new chapter for formulating new thinking and building confidence with G20 members.
Within the framework of the emerging new world order, the G20 Delhi declaration’s language was neutrally positive, the most significant outcomes remain the inclusion of the African Union into the bloc. The summit declaration was termed “people-centric, action-oriented and far-sighted” reflecting a “shared path for all” ensuring that countries of the Global South are not left behind.
The G20 declaration noted that the inclusion of the African Union into the G20 will significantly contribute to addressing the global challenges. “Africa plays an important role in the global economy. We commit to strengthen our ties with and support the African Union realise the aspirations under Agenda 2063. We also reiterate strong support to Africa, including through the G20 Compact with Africa and G20 Initiative on supporting industrialization in Africa and LDCs. We are supportive of further discussing the deepening of cooperation between the G20 and other regional partners,” it read.
The step on AU’s inclusion was a decade-long objective, a struggle for gaining a position on global stage. It was, indeed, one of the significant milestone gestures and biggest achievements in the history of G20. Long before that, there were pleasant debates and discussions, as no key global leader raised criticisms and/or fierce objections to the proposal for a permanent seat be given to the AU.
“Thanks to the hard work of our team and your support, a consensus has been reached on the declaration from the G20 Heads of State and Government Summit in New Delhi,” Modi said, announcing the adoption of the declaration. The contents of the joint communiqué from the G20, a group of the world’s largest economies to which the African Union was officially included as a permanent member for the first time in its history.
Current Chairman of the African Union, Comoros President Azali Assoumani thanked PM Modi for his initiative and efforts in making the African Union a permanent member of the G20. He shared his particular pleasure that this had occured during India’s G20 Presidency, considering India’s role and links with Africa. Assoumani and Modi, with the almost the same message, highlighted India’s efforts to articulate the Voice of Global South and recalled the Voice of Global South Summit convened by India in January 2023.
According to reports, G20 was first formed in the wake of the financial crisis that swept through Southeast Asian economies in the late 1990s as a forum for finance ministers and central bank governors, then it was upgraded in 2007 to include heads of state and governments.
During and after the 2008 global financial crisis, the G20’s coordinated efforts helped tamp down panic and restore economic growth. The grouping comprises 19 countries cutting across continents and the European Union, representing around 85% of the world’s GDP. The G20 also invites non-member countries, including Bangladesh, Singapore, Spain and Nigeria, besides international organizations such as the United Nations, World Health Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
In comparative assessment within the complex geopolitical context of the debate over multilateral organizations reforms including that of the United Nations, BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) unwavering future projections, and for AU to set out its own critical role in strengthening strategic relations combined with mobilizing both external public and private finance for Africa’s development.
It is an established fact that Africa is India’s fourth largest trading partner. India exported US$ 40 billion worth of goods to Africa, while importing US$ 49 billion worth of goods from various African countries. India’s main exports to Africa are refined petroleum products and pharmaceuticals while Africa exports crude oil, gold, coal and other minerals to India.
China is the topmost trading partner. More than 3,000 Chinese enterprises have invested deeply in Africa, of which over 70% are private companies, says China’s state-owned Global Times. At the same time, China has been modernizing the continent’s agricultural, manufacturing and services sectors, upgrade its manufacturing and processing techniques, and create greater value-added, contributing significantly to the stability, development and prosperity of African countries.
According to the Policy Centre for the New South, China has twenty-five economic and trade cooperation zones with China have been created in sixteen African countries. With such initiatives, the Chinese footprint in Africa has grown to approximately 12% of Africa’s industrial output—about US$ 500 billion annually. As for the infrastructure sector, Chinese companies claim nearly 50% of Africa’s contracted construction market.
In Johannesburg’s 15th BRICS summit held in August, Xi Jinping said China would continue to support Africa in speaking with one voice on international affairs and continuously elevating its international standing. It has already assisted the construction of several signature Pan-African projects, including the new AU Conference Center and the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
In order to chart the course for practical cooperation in the next stage and partner with Africa to bring its integration and modernization into a fast track, on the sideline meeting with African leaders, Xi Jinping made three concrete proposals which include (i) China will launch the Initiative on Supporting Africa’s Industrialization, (ii) China will launch the Plan for China Supporting Africa’s Agricultural Modernization, and (iii) China will launch the Plan for China-Africa Cooperation on Talent Development.
United States and a number of European nations, as G20 members, have competitively been investing in Africa. Of course, reports (White House, Briefing Report, June 2023) show that the United States has more than 800 two-way trade and investment deals across 47 African countries for a total estimated value of over US$18 billion, and the U.S. private sector has investment deals in Africa valued at US$8.6 billion. In fact, United States goods and services traded with Africa totaled US$83.6 billion in 2021.
The European Union has pledged 150 billion euros (US$170 billion) for investment in Africa as it seeks to gain influence on the continent and become its partner of choice. That compared with BRICS, during its late July summit held in Johannesburg, we further heard of the general perception amongst the BRICS nations that global trade and economics are too much synchronized to the Western powers, organised and lead by the United States.
From year to year, the BRICS members are increasing their potential. As was already mentioned, the five partner states, with a total population exceeding 3 billion, account for a greater share in global GDP than the so-called Group of Seven in terms of purchasing power parity. Over the past decade, BRICS group has doubled their investment in the global economy, and their total exports have reached 20 percent of the global total, according to reports.
Over the past decades, G20 members such as the United States and Canada, the EU with their unique geographic and economic conditions have attracted African citizens, Diaspora remittances which the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, estimated at US$86 billion, supplements other finance sources for SMEs and women-owned businesses across Africa. After the New Delhi summit, it is however expected that G20 members will impact on the existing relationship between Diaspora businesses and SMEs there in the continent.
Besides that there are the traditional markets for some African products for which revenues are generated for their national budgets. The AU negotiating for removing barriers could collaborate to reach an entirely new level in the trade and corporate business relationship. These are aspects of the primary targets for the AU’s G20 membership.
Policy analysts are discussing many questions about the key results of the historic India’s G20 summit. But specifically for Africa, which is located in the Global South, it is the AU’s ability to engage in useful negotiations, adopt admirable efforts at shifting policy towards practical development and, most importantly make assertive steps to portray its own economic outlook. It, therefore, explicitly means AU has to back away from discriminating rhetoric, fix an unshakeable wedge between geopolitical confrontation and cooperation. It has to determine its relations in the context of current complexities and contradictions around the world.
There is food for thought as we continue discussing the AU and its external relations. Kenya’s President William Ruto, was not at the G20 summit, but at the gathering of Climate Change held in Nairobi, said Africa’s youthfulness was “precisely the attribute that inspired African leaders to imagine a future where Africa steps onto the stage as an economic and industrial power, an effective and positive actor in the global arena”.
African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, has stressed the recognition of sustainable development gaps while consolidating the previous achievements and demonstrate genuine commitment to the reality of working together with the African continent, whose estimated population stands at 1.4 billion. Nevertheless, the point here again is that the collective African leaders must get down to their tasks of re-evaluating and addressing existing challenges across the continent of Africa.
In order to meet the sustainable development goals by 2030, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, have indicated several times in speeches that developed nations present a clear and credible roadmap for developing nations, formulate policies for accelerating actions to improve development needs in Africa. He has always maintained that these must be a fundamental interest for wealthy nations in the entire relations with, and adopting reform measures and proactive approach towards the least-developed nations.
In forthcoming years, there will be new partnership between the G20 members and the AU, for this matter, that of Africa. Most of the European Union members already have large investment in Africa. It implies that there will be further enormous contributions to the development of relations on diverse ways in different spheres, especially those directed at economic growth in the continent.
Today the African Union and other regional and sub regional organizations across the continent have undoubtedly embark on their transformative pathways to play significant roles in international affairs. AU’s G20 membership now illustrates new doors to multifaceted opportunities, empowers it to pursue passions for forging new cooperation that will ultimately contribute to the betterment and the achievement of the SDGs.
With G20, the AU has to set new goals and tasks for the further development of cooperation in diverse areas: politics, security, the economy, science and technology, culture and humanitarian spheres. The G20 could continue to engage in exploring the African Continental Free Trade (AfCFTA), a policy signed by African States to make the continent a single market. As well-known, the United States and African public and private sector leaders, are seriously reviewing how to strengthen the economic partnerships within the framework of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
Arguably with G20, the AU has to effectively and largely address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It has act systemic action and further be instrumental in implementing the African Union’s strategic document, Agenda-2063. As an integrated continental organization, it has to represent Africa with a dynamic force in the global arena. Reminding finally that at G20, the AU has the same status as the European (EU).
Unlike the European Union, African Union has so much headaches arising from members’ national politics which invariably determine the level of economic development. It is interesting to note that nearly African States are plagued by divergent interests and, more or less, some internal tensions. The AU has the worth of experience in spearheading its collective agenda such as the AfCFTA. So the AU has to remain indispensable for G20 diplomacy, take multifaceted initiatives including mutually beneficial bilateral and multilateral partnerships. Without this, its G20 membership will only be a decorative ornament and a badge on the chest, as it has already been speculating inside Africa.
It is time for admirable rhetoric to be backed by calculated robust actions. Consolidating the new full-fledged membership by joining the G20 has widely appreciated and applauded, but it is necessary to begin exploring diverse opportunities this status offers the entire Africa. It should not only be engagement in geopolitical balance at the high-table but be viewed as a new window for prioritizing large-scale development in spite of the sharp incompatibility in approach and methods.
“We cannot let geopolitical issues sequester the G20 agenda of discussions. We need peace and cooperation, so have no interest in a divided G20.” Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said in remarks. ((India Briefing, September 10). It is becoming more and more influential in the world as a growing power. By seizing this opportunity, India can strengthen its leadership and play a more active role in shaping the global agenda.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrapped up the G20 summit that played down on geopolitical confrontations and divisions. India, the host, pressed members to agree a common statements, which finally showed a huge and successful G20 under the leadership of Narendra Modi. Probably the most intriguing views that it was, indeed, a major opportunity for India – to a considerable degree it raised its profile on the world stage.
During its term, India held more than 200 meetings across some 50 cities involving ministers, officials and civil society, leading up to a marquee summit in New Delhi in September 2023. The G20 does not have a permanent secretariat, and one member takes over the presidency each year to steer the grouping’s agenda that is split into two tracks – one led by finance ministers and another by emissaries of leaders of member countries. After India, Brazil will take over the presidency of the G20, and to be followed by South Africa in 2025.
Nancy Pelosi, at age 83, is running again for Congress. Mitch McConnell, at 81, has had two bouts of freezing in front of news cameras this summer. Dianne Feinstein, the California senator, 90, is having difficulty doing her job. At 80, Joe Biden is the oldest president the United States has ever had. Donald Trump, his likeliest rival in the 2024 election, is 77. Iowa senator Chuck Grassley is 89. The U.S. Senate is at its oldest in history.
How old is too old? In 1900, gerontologists considered “old” to be 47. Today, you are considered “youngest-old” at 65, “middle-old” at 75, and at 85, you are a member of the “oldest-old.”
I ask with some personal stake. I’m now a spritely 77 — lightyears younger than our president. I feel fit, I swing dance and salsa, and I can do 20 pushups in a row. Yet I confess to a certain loss of, shall we say, fizz.
Forgive me if I’ve said this before (I’m old and occasionally repeat myself), but Joe Biden could easily make it until 86, when he’d conclude his second term. After all, it’s now thought a bit disappointing if a person dies before 85.
Three score and ten is the number of years of life set out in the Bible. Modern technology and Big Pharma should add at least a decade and a half. Beyond this is an extra helping.
“After 80, it’s gravy,” my father used to say. Joe will be on the cusp of the gravy train.
Where will it end? There’s only one possibility, and that reality occurs to me with increasing frequency. My mother passed at 86, my father two weeks before his 102nd birthday, so I’m hoping for the best, genetically speaking.
Yet I find myself reading the obituary pages with ever greater interest, curious about how long they lasted and what brought them down. I remember a New Yorker cartoon in which an older reader of the obituaries sees headlines that read only “Older Than Me” or “Younger Than Me.”
Most of the time I forget my age. The other day, after lunch with some of my graduate students, I caught our reflection in a store window and, for an instant, wondered about the identity of the short old man in our midst.
It’s not death that’s the worrying thing about a second Biden term. It’s the dwindling capacities that go with aging. “Bodily decrepitude,” said Yeats, “is wisdom.” I have accumulated somewhat more of the former than the latter, but Biden seems fairly spry (why do I feel I have to add “for someone his age?”).
I still have my teeth, in contrast to my grandfather, who I vividly recall storing his choppers in a glass next to his bed, and have so far steered clear of heart attack or stroke (I pray I’m not tempting fate by my stating this fact). But I’ve lived through several kidney stones and a few unexplained fits of epilepsy in my late 30s. I’ve had both hips replaced.
And my hearing is crap. Even with hearing aids, I have a hard time understanding someone talking to me in a noisy restaurant. You’d think that the sheer market power of 60 million boomers losing their hearing would be enough to generate at least one chain of quiet restaurants.
When I get together with old friends, our first ritual is an “organ recital” — how’s your back? knee? heart? hip? shoulder? eyesight? hearing? prostate? hemorrhoids? digestion? The recital can run — and ruin — an entire lunch.
The question my friends and I jokingly (and brutishly) asked one other in college — “getting much?” — now refers not to sex, but to sleep.
I don’t know anyone over 75 who sleeps through the night. When he was president, Bill Clinton prided himself on getting only about four hours. But he was in his 40s then. (I also recall Cabinet meetings where he dozed off.) How does Biden manage?
My memory for names is horrible. I once asked Ted Kennedy how he recalled names, and he advised that if a man is over 50, just ask, “How’s the back?” and he’ll think you know him.
I often can’t remember where I put my wallet and keys or why I’ve entered a room. And certain proper nouns have disappeared altogether. Even when rediscovered, they have a diabolical way of disappearing again. Biden’s Secret Service detail can worry about his wallet, and he’s got a teleprompter for wayward nouns, but I’m sure he’s experiencing some diminution in the memory department.
I have lost much of my enthusiasm for travel and feel, as did Philip Larkin, that I would like to visit China, but only on the condition that I could return home that night. Air Force One makes this possible under most circumstances. If not, it has a first-class bedroom and personal bathroom, so I don’t expect Biden’s trips are overly taxing.
I’m told that after the age of 60, one loses half an inch of height every five years. This doesn’t appear to be a problem for Biden but it presents a challenge for me, considering that at my zenith, I didn’t quite make it to five feet. If I live as long as my father did, I may vanish.
Another diminution I’ve noticed is tact. Several months ago, I gave the finger to a driver who passed me recklessly. Giving the finger to a stranger is itself a reckless act.
I’m also noticing I have less patience, perhaps because of an unconscious “use by” timer that’s now clicking away. Increasingly, I wonder why I’m wasting time with this or that buffoon. I’m less tolerant of long waiting lines, automated phone menus, and Republicans.
Cicero claimed “older people who are reasonable, good-tempered, and gracious bear aging well. Those who are mean-spirited and irritable will be unhappy at every stage of their lives.” Easy for Cicero to say. He was forced into exile and murdered at the age of 63, his decapitated head and right hand hung up in the Forum by order of the notoriously mean-spirited and irritable Marcus Antonius.
How the hell does Biden maintain tact or patience when he has to deal with Kevin McCarthy or Joe Manchin or the White House press corps?
The style sections of the papers tell us that the 70s are the new 50s. Septuagenarians are supposed to be fit and alert, exercise like mad, have rip-roaring sex, and party until dawn. Rubbish. Inevitably, things begin falling apart. My aunt, who lived far into her nineties, told me “getting old isn’t for sissies.” Toward the end, she repeated that phrase every two to three minutes.
Philosopher George Santayana claimed to prefer old age to all others. “Old age is, or may be as in my case, far happier than youth,” he wrote. “I was never more entertained or less troubled than I am now.” True for me too, in a way. Despite Trump, notwithstanding the seditiousness of the Republican Party, regardless of the ravages of climate change, near record inequality, a potential nuclear war, and another strain of COVID making the rounds, I remain upbeat — largely because I still spend most days with people in their 20s who buoy my spirits. Maybe Biden does, too.
But I’m feeling more and more out of it. I’m doing videos on TikTok and Snapchat, but when my students talk about Ariana Grande or Selena Gomez or Jared Leto, I don’t have a clue whom they’re talking about (and frankly don’t care). And I find myself using words — “hence,” “utmost,” “therefore,” “tony,” “brilliant” — that my younger colleagues find charmingly old-fashioned.
If I refer to “Rose Marie Woods” or “Jackie Robinson” or “Ed Sullivan” or “Mary Jo Kopechne,” they’re bewildered.
The culture has flipped in so many ways. When I was 17, I could go into a drugstore and confidently ask for a package of Luckies and nervously whisper a request for condoms. Now it’s precisely the reverse. (I stopped smoking a long ago.)
Santayana said the reason that old people have nothing but foreboding about the future is that they cannot imagine a world that’s good without themselves in it. I don’t share that view.
I’m not going to tell Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Diane Feinstein, Chuck Grassley, or any other “middle-olds” and “oldest-olds” what to do.
But as for myself, I recently made a hard decision. At the end of April, I taught my last class after more than 40 years of teaching. Why? I wanted to leave on a high note, when I felt I could still do the job well. I didn’t want to wait until I could no longer give students what they need and deserve. And I hated the thought of students or colleagues whispering about the old guy who shouldn’t be teaching anymore.
Getting too old to do a job isn’t a matter of chronological age. It’s a matter of being lucid enough to know when you should exit the stage before you no longer have what it takes to do the job well.
It saddens me that I won’t be heading back into the classroom this fall. But it was time for me to go.
This article was published at Robert Reich’s Substack