The Passing of the Torch

When I rose early this morning, it was not the usual Sunday routine I’ve come accustomed to in the cold New England winter. Instead of waking at the regular time, trudging out in the snow to get the paper and enjoy a piping hot cup of coffee, I was awakened by my vibrating cell phone. A colleague had sent me a text message very early this morning that read as follows:

SEN KDY 4 OBA

I’m sure you can decipher through the alphabet soup agency esqe lingo, my friend was letting me know that Senator Edward Kennedy would be officially endorsing Barack Obama for President. Finally, I thought to myself, the Party Elder had come out of the back room to choose the candidate he feels can best take the Democratic Party into the next generation. He’s chosen, by his estimation and those around him, that Barack Obama is the candidate who can put a Democrat back in the White House.

As someone that has grown up in Massachusetts’s politics with family ties going back decades, these are the kind of moments you dream about. This has the potential to be an incredible time in political history we will look back on in ten years as the turning point. With a decisive South Carolina victory and the Kennedy endorsement, it was the time when Barack Obama transcended the politics of race, fear, and cynicism.

Obama stood toe-to-toe with the Clinton political machine and sent them scurrying with a left hook to the tune of 55% and knocked down a native Carolina son. He is taking a sizeable percentage of every demographic and has garnered the support of major players in both Washington and the private sector. For the first time in decades, the country has a candidate who sparks enthusiasm and has energized the apathetic youth of America.

A transformational candidate can be the bridge to a twenty-first century; a century where we can end poverty, cure cancer, eliminate AIDs, and journey farther into our solar system then we ever have before. There is the potential to end wars as we know it, turn to real energy solutions, and create a safer and more secure world with our traditional allies and forge new ones with real credibility.

One of the greatest Democratic politicians in the history of the party will be coming out to endorse the heir apparent to the ideals and notions of Camelot.

We dare hope and dream that what once was great, can be made new again.

Michael Miner is a strategist at a Washington D.C. based communications firm, a senior political analyst at Americans for Informed Democracy, and resident Bostonian. The views expressed are those of the author alone.

Dems simplify voting process for US citizens abroad

So we all know how cumbersome and frustrating the bureaucracy of voting can be. And for those of us who live abroad, the process is even more confusing!

As part of my effort to ‘walk the walk’ as the responsible citizen I strive to be, I–like many others–have always voted absentee in the state where I’m registered. However, the other night I attended an event hosted by the Young Democrats Abroad UK and received some great news. The Democratic National Convention (DNC) has implemented a new initiative to simplify the voting process for American citizens living abroad (at least those planning to vote Democrat, that is). For the first time ever, the DNC has allotted 22 delegate positions to Democrats Abroad.

Lopaka Purdy, a friend of mine–and fellow Democrat Abroad–recently created a fantastically informative and easy-to-use voting guide for Americans living overseas. In his guide, Lopaka explains the Global Primary in these words:

"This means that essentially Democrats Abroad will be the ’51st State’ at the DNC in Denver in August. By joining Democrats Abroad you will be able to vote in their Global Presidential Primary where members of Democrats Abroad all over the world will be voting for the 22 delegates. So if you aren’t able to vote in your home state primary, this gives you another option to vote in a primary. The Global Presidential Primary will take place from Feb 5-12. You can either cast a ballot through the mail (one will be sent to you at the end of January once you join Democrats Abroad) or you can vote in person at two ‘voting centers’ in London and Oxford on Feb 5th."

**Obviously, the last sentence is meant for Americans living in the UK but I know they’ve made similary arrangements in Canada and probably other countries as well.

For more information on the Democrats’ Global Primary and the registration process, visit the Democrats Abroad website www.democratsabroad.org.

For all you Republicans out there, the Republican National Convention (RNC) has not yet allocated any delegate positions to Republicans Abroad (despite the efforts of the Republicans Abroad administrators to make that happen).

Happy Voting Everyone!!!

Wet Foot/Dry Foot, Repatriation, Freedom and Death

Over the past year the number of Cuban refugees arriving in the United States has increased.  Much of this increase is due to speculation and insecurity on the island nation about what life will bring after Fidel Castro’s death.

Under United States’ policy, Cubans who reach American land are generally allowed to stay (dry foot).  Under the Cuban Adjustment Act, refugees who remain for a year and one day are eligible to adjust their immigration status to that of a legal permanent resident (green card).  Cubans who are stopped by the Coast Guard at sea or stopped short of the American coastline are repatriated to Cuba.

Recently, Cubans are seeking freedom in the United States by traveling through the Gulf of Mexico to Mexico instead of the shorter route to Florida through the Florida Straits.  Smugglers are using this alternative route due to increased patrols by the U.S. Coast Guard.  Smugglers are paid thousands of dollars per refugee, sometimes up to $12,000 per person.  These smuggling operations are a lucrative business and incredibly inhumane.  Many times smugglers will demand more money just as the coast line comes into view.  Those refugees who are unwilling or unable to pay are forced to jump out of the boat and swim.  Sadly, the smugglers are paid by Cuban family members living in the United States who are either unaware of the danger their relatives will face or are willing to assume the grave risk to reunite their family.  Time magazine has recently reported about deadly turf wars among criminal gangs in Mexico that control these smuggling operations. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1704913,00.html

During this past week:

• Ten migrants went missing after their boat capsized between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.  http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/381844.html (Wednesday, January 18).
• Fourteen Cuban migrants safely landed on the shores of Miami and are on a path to become permanent residents and eventually U.S. citizens. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/379941.html (Tuesday, January 17).
• Sixteen Cuban migrants were repatriated back to Cuba after their smuggler dropped them off at a sand bar off the coast of Miami.  Eleven other migrants dropped off by the same smuggler swam to the American coastline and were allowed to stay.  One migrant died attempting to reach freedom. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/379568.html (Monday, January 14).

The above examples occur every week in South Florida.  The United States’ absurd policy towards Cubans encourages refugees to pay thousands to smugglers and risk their lives attempting to reach the shores of the United States. 

During the U.S. Presidential debate there will be no discussion about the wet foot/dry foot policy.  The Cuban community overwhelmingly supports the Republican party, largely due to their tough stance against Castro and promises to continue the harmful and outdated economic embargo.  These same Republican candidates who propose fences across the Mexico border will never discuss the wet foot/dry foot policy that allows migrants, from a nation officially listed by the U.S. State Dept. as supporting terrorism, to remain in the United States for fear of losing the strong support they maintain among the Cuban community in South Florida.

I do not propose a tougher policy against Cuban migrants.  I only propose that there should be a national discussion about a policy that is more humane than the current one.  Sadly, as awful as the results from the wet foot/dry foot policy can be, it is a much more fair and reasonable policy than the one that Haitians confront.

US Politics from Abroad: Why the US Need Barack Obama

While in England visiting a few friends, US politics inevitably came to the forefront of conversation. "I don’t think the Brits or the Europeans will speak to you again if you elect another Republic," my friend said to me. Imitating the situation we might encounter if a Republican was to take the election in November, "Hello? What was it you said, I’m sorry, can’t hear you."

Simply put, the US needs to redeem itself. The country seems even sillier when looked at from abroad. Having left the US at this critical juncture, with primaries and hopefulness for the future abound, I have been paying much more attention to the international media coverage of the wavering "super" power that is my home country.

While coverage depends where you are, what you’re reading and whether or not you have enough money to buy this weeks Economist, after careful reading and consideration, I have arrived with some rebuttals and some conclusions of my own.

A recent International Herald Tribune editorial, "Looking for an America we can recognize again" (Sat-Sun Jan 12-13, 2008), argues "the next president will have a full agenda simply discovering all the wrongs that have been done and then righting them," indeed.
The editorial adds that, "we can only hope that this time, unlike 2004, American voters will have the wisdom to grant the awesome powers of the presidency to someone who has the integrity, principle and decency to use them honorably." We can also hope that a different family takes the reigns in the next election, as lately we have been looking more like a monarchy with a strange marriage of Bush and Clinton.

In The Economist (January 12, 2008) "Charlemagne: Those naïve American voters, What Europeans make of Iowa and New Hampshire," The author looks at how the primary elections are being covered in Europe: "A French newspaper, Liberation, said that the arrival in the White House of ‘a black man, married to a black woman [with] a black family’ would be an act of ‘atonement’ that would restore the image of an America ‘shunned in every corner of the planet.’ The German tabloid, Bild, offered praise for Mr Obama’s ‘sexy’ charms, under the headline: ‘This Black American Will Become the New Kennedy.’"

The same article also quoted a Belgian newspaper, Le Soir, which seemed hopeful after Obama’s Iowa win that "this time, Americans will not be duped" and argued that perhaps U.S. citizens are now seeking "leaders with convictions." However, as The Economist notes, their optimism is not without naivety, "who is going to complain after the dark years of Bush junior?"

The US needs Obama because, unlike Clinton he consistently opposed the Iraq war. He takes a position on climate change, which is more than can be said for the current junior in power who wavers as to whether or not science is in fact factual. Obama has called for closing Guantanamo and he has expressed outrage at the federal response in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

According to The Economist, Obama has also recognized the European Union as one of the most important allies. In The Economist’s, "Has the magical mystery tour hit the buffers?"  Obama is still recognized as "the shiniest star in the political firmament," despite the few percentage points lost in New Hampshire. He has "rewritten the terms of the 2008 race" making it not just about becoming representational figure, but about change, reconciliation and hope.

Obama is himself a global citizen, as The Economist says, his own story "speaks directly to America’s sense of itself as a land of opportunity and upward mobility," even if the American dream is a fallacy these days.

As an occasional volunteer for Obama’s campaign, it is a grassroots movement that includes everyone who is interested in participating. To me, he inspires me not only to become more involved in the political system, but also to hope for a time when I can say with pride, instead of remorse or guilt that yes, "I am US citizen," and not fear that others will refuse to speak to me.

Are you a racist feminist or a misogynist multiculturalist? The personal as political in the US fight for the White House

I never thought I would disagree with Gloria Steinem. As a notable feminist, fabulous writer and co-founder of the Women’s Media Center, Steinem has been a leader in the women’s movement for as long as I can remember.

However, I disagreed with Steinem after her article “American women are never front-runners” surfaced in the New York Times as well as the International Herald Tribune (Sat-Sun Jan 12-13, 2008). Steinem argued “gender is probably the most restricting force in American life, whether the question is who must be in the kitchen or who could be in the White House.” I will agree, gender is a pervasive and restricting force, but what about religion and citizenship? Can you imagine a Muslim being elected President? Our constitution does not allow foreign born citizens to run for president, nor can undocumented workers vote.

Steinem argues that if Obama was a woman, “her goose would’ve been cooked long ago,” in other words, s/he would have no chance. Perhaps there is some truth to that, but I would rather imagine both Clinton and Obama as women of color and compare their words and policies rather than their lineage and family members. Just for a moment, if Clinton were a woman of color, she would not be married to a former President, if history is any indication, multiracial couples don’t make it to the White House. In addition, she may or may not have had the resources to make it to Yale in the first place.

Women have not historically been front-runners and the reasons, according to Steinem, are “as pervasive as the air we breathe.” Including, but not limited to the fact that men feel as though they are “regressing to childhood when dealing with a powerful woman” and “there is still no ‘right’ way to be a woman in public power without being considered a you-know-what” (b**ch). Given the lack of female front-runners, Steinem does make important points.

Though she recognizes the interdependence of race and sex, Steinem is still a Clinton supporter on account of the four more years of Senate experience Clinton has over Obama (a moot point, if you ask me). In addition Clinton has “no masculinity to prove” and “the potential to tap a huge reservoir of this country’s talent by her example.” I am assuming she means young girls and women’s talents here, which is important, but what about the people of color, or women of color who don’t see anything in Clinton that resembles their own views, or those who may have reservations about a so-called feminist who takes back her husband after cheating? Is the personal political in the race of white woman vs. black man, and should it be?

What worries Steinem though, is that “some women, perhaps especially younger ones, hope to deny or escape the sexual caste system.” To you, one of my idols, Ms. Steinem, I will say I do hope to someday escape the sexual caste system, but I do not hope to deny it, I hope to recognize, challenge and abolish it.

In a recent Financial Times article, “Tears for ballot-box fears,” (Sat-Sun Jan 12-13, 2008) Chrystia Freeland contributes her own opinion to Clinton’s tears. In response to Steinem’s praise of women over 50 and 60 in Iowa who may be “more radical with age,” Freeland argues that perhaps “younger women are more demanding when it comes to feminist icons.”

Steinem ends her piece by arguing that “it’s time to take equal pride in breaking the barriers,” I would add that it is also time to evaluate our candidates by acknowledging the interlocking systems of domination, such as race and sex, and looking beyond, to their words, morals, policies and vision for change in the US.

Africa’s Deluge

Greeting AIDers and readers!

I hope everyone had a pleasant holiday!

While we are braving the colder temperatures in the Northern hemisphere the other half of the world is in the middle of summer.  This means the wet season for many tropical nations.  The wet season is a natural and necessary time period for the many Africans who follow an agricultural way of life.

However lately countries such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Mozambique have been inundated with more water than they can handle. The BBC reported on Monday that in Mozambique alone approximately 100,000 people were forced to relocate and the food shortages that followed affected over 250,000 people.  The New York Times reported earlier today that the most destitute of African countries, Zimbabwe, ruled by the corrupt and greedy Robert Mugabe, has suffered further damages to struggling economy by heavy losses in livestock and farms.

The flooding of tropical Africa is not an unheard of event.  Throughout history there have been cases of unexpected excessive rains.  Then, just as now there were flood victims, depressions to the local economy, and overall regional instability.  However in recent years tragic weather events such as flooding have been occurring at a higher rate.  In 2000- 2001 in particular the region suffered severe flooding coupled with rampant cyclones.

Following the 2000 flooding Mike Hulme reflected on the African plight.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2000/mar/15/mozambique.guardiansocietysupplement

The facts are that temperatures have been rising around the world.  With it we have seen an increase of violent weather; Katrina as an example of how Americans are directly affected by this.  There are those who will protest that a rise in temperatures cannot be directly held responsible for these events.

Global warming is occurring, although the causes of it are disputed depending on who you talk to.  Some say that the earth is bound to go through warm and cold spells.  History shows us that we have always waved back and forth.  This, however, is not likely the whole story.  The human impact on this earth is not invisible.

While we sit on the fence undecided as to whether or not global warming is responsible for an increase in these types of natural disasters, already impoverished people are being displaced.  Countries that already were unable to feed their populations now face even more shortages.  Impoverished countries with few rescue resources and money scramble to help their population.  Mozambique, for example, has one helicopter at its disposal.  Yet every time, after the floods, the people return to attempt to rebuild. 

The wet season is not over yet and we can expect to see more tragedies coming from tropical Africa.

“This place is our home.  We don’t know anywhere else” Domingos Manuel, Struggle to Aid Mozambique Flood Victims BBC News 1/14/2008

Sorry, that doesn’t fit in our running media narrative about “crazy, blood-thirsty, tribal Africans who go out and kill each other for no reason”

IRIN has one of these forehead-smacking no shit! articles up about how the violence in Kenya is about power, greed, and poverty, not "tribal hatreds."

NAIROBI, 9 January 2008 (IRIN) – The wave of violence that engulfed Kenya after the presidential election has been widely described as tribal or ethnic in nature. But analysts in the east African country point to basic economics as the true cause of the unrest.

Widespread violence and a humanitarian crisis were triggered by the 30 December announcement that incumbent Mwai Kibaki had won a  hotly contested presidential poll amid opposition claims of rigging and international observers’ reports of serious irregularities in the vote-tallying process.

“In the urban areas, there was a lot of senseless burning and looting, which was people taking out their economic grievances during a leadership vacuum. They just let loose and attacked any targets, burning their neighbours’ houses, regardless of whether they are PNU [Party of National Unity, Kibaki’s party] or ODM [Orange Democratic Movement, the opposition],” Macharia Gaitho, a political columnist, told IRIN.

While specific ethnic groups – there are more than 40 in Kenya – were targeted during the violence, the tensions that led to such clashes were not the result of ethnicity per se, but, according an editorial in the Sunday Nation newspaper, an almost inevitable consequence of the country’s economic system: “Kenya practises a brutal, inhuman brand of capitalism that encourages a fierce competition for survival, wealth and power. Those who can’t compete successfully are allowed to live like animals in slums.”

But, of course, admitting any of this would be, I dunno, Marxist or something –and therefore wrong, naughty, wash-you-brain-out-with-Dial-soap bad.

Oh yeah, and it would also mean admitting that, maybe just maybe, the developed world and the Bretton Woods institutions need own up to their share of responsibility when awful things happen in Africa.

Renewing the Promise of America

Change is on America’s mind. Her armed forces battle abroad as citizens grow weary of the world’s troubles, violence, and domestic worries about healthcare, gas prices, and public education. While candidates battle for what changes they’ll bring, and who will bring the most – the real challenge to America will be how Americans will support, contribute, construct, and carry out these changes in their lives, in their community, and in the broader world. These challenges are ones demanding an intergenerational approach, and a renewed commitment to public service beginning with America’s youth.

Young Americans today carry a political identity forged on September 11th. Watching friends and family depart for Iraq and Afghanistan, we’ve witnessed the breakdown of Iraq, resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and acts of terrorism and violence worldwide. As images of Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib scorched across computer screens and television sets, our hearts held onto the core of America’s values, but we began seeing an America we could not recognize, and in which we could not believe.

This generation witnessed The United States rapidly changing in front of impressionable eyes. No longer could we look at our country feeling secure in our future. Not simply because of terrorism or war – but because the principles of current leadership mocked the principles of our America. This generation watched powerless as the future was gambled away by those to whom it was entrusted. Young adults and children of America today will be the leaders and workers of tomorrow confronting the outcomes of these decisions. Our future depends on decisions now. 

We can no longer be Americans who can rest easily at night, dreaming the American dream of years past. We are the Americans that look to the horizon and see the massive undertakings ahead, both at home and abroad, which merit democratic discussion on an unprecedented level, and will be the grand calling of our time.

It is time for change. We cannot allow others to squander our future, using short-sighted solutions in addressing the many issues confronting us. We must become part of the decisions that will affect us greatly, begin holding our leaders accountable for their actions through involvement in the political process, and ensure goals are met with a renewed commitment to public service.

The networks, programs, and pathways to public service need to be expanded and strengthened – actively reaching out to all Americans, particularly young Americans seeking job experience with a purpose. Many seek to contribute to a higher calling in life, and there is no purpose more resonant, more compelling, and more necessary than restoring our nation’s health, mind, and infrastructure. This means the mind of every American should be ready to contribute to progress.

Yet, while colleges produce well-qualified graduates, students in less fortunate circumstances struggle to stay in school and avoid the traps of addictions, broken families, and economic despair. Divides between rich and poor, between black and white, between red and blue, and between America and the rest of the world are expanding. Young Americans who see potential, who believe in equality, and who want to lead a purposeful life are workers this country needs to recognize early and often. Renewing a call to public service should become a priority for all White House candidates, not simply because it is time for change, but because it is time to realize the potential of American citizenship during a time of adversity. If we are called, we will serve. Our service now will benefit the country, and it will benefit the future as our skills expand, and our minds mature. It is only through such action will America be able to restore its credibility and image around the world.

It is time to start seriously engaging young America and her potential. A new generation is ready to confront the world’s challenges not because of its hardships, but because of its possibilities.  We are your children and your legacy, and we represent a county’s hopes and dreams for the future. And, Young America, it is finally our chance to step up and renew America’s promise to the world, and – more importantly – America’s promise to herself.

Michael Miner is a strategist at a Washington, D.C. based communications firm and a senior political analyst at Americans for Informed Democracy. Jessica Guiney is a master’s candidate in security policy studies at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, and a research assistant at a non-profit think tank in Washington, D.C.  The views expressed are those of the authors alone.

Will the Euro bring new hope of reunification to Cyprus?

Anyone who has been reading this blog for over a year may remember my slightly surreal visit to Cyprus in the winter of 2006.

During that visit (which was part of a semester-long European studies intensive program), I went to the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Cyprus (i.e. Greek Cyprus), where a young firebrand spokesperson informed my study enclave that any reunification agreement must foresee the deportation of all Turkish settlers who arrived after the 1974 partition of the island following a military incursion by Turkey and coup plot by Greece. I actually laughed out loud at this (as I am wont to do in such situations) –because forcing tens of thousands of people back to Turkey after three decades would not only be impossible and cruel, but also illegal– and the ministry spokesperson was not pleased. His views were pretty radical, and I don’t think representative of most Greek Cypriots.

The Annan Plan for the reunification of Cyprus –which envisaged one state composed of a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation with a weak central government– was expected to be just narrowly approved by Greek Cypriots at referendum (before Cyprus was admitted to the EU in 2004) but a zealous anti-reunification campaign by the ruling party in the Republic of Cyprus saw that the Annan Plan was soundly defeated at the ballot box. About three quarters of Turkish Cypriots voted in favour of reunification. So, amid an atmosphere of disappointment and annoyance from the Turkish half of Cyprus’s capital, Nicosia, to the EU capital of Brussels, to the UN Headquarters in New York, Cyprus joined the EU divided –nationalist politics, minefields, and frozen conflict included.

During our week in Cyprus, my enclave visited the UN Development Progamme’s offices in the demilitarised Green Zone (a swath of scrubby terrain between the Republic of Cyprus and non-recognized “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” filled with ghost villages and land-mines, and occupied by UN peacekeepers and wild sheep) and spoke to generally disheartened UN employees about their work. One UNDP employee who had worked in “hot zones” from the Balkans to Central Africa and participated in the political transition from apartheid to multi-racial democracy in South Africa, told me, quite frankly, that he had never had a more difficult or dispiriting assignment as Cyprus, where he lamented that neither side showed even a baseline commitment to progress, at least not at the political level. He did, however, say that ordinary Greek and Turkish Cypriots were willing to work together to restore and preserve historcal sites, identify the bodies of victims of the conflict exhumed from mass graves, and participate in summer “peace camps” for Greek and Turkish Cypriot youth who are too young to remember ever having lived together. Another UNDP employee was of the opinion that the UN should only conduct cultural and grassroots peace-building programs in Cyprus, and the peacekeeping mission in Cyprus (UNFICYP) should pack up and leave the Cypriots on both sides to face each other over the Green Line.

As we drove away from the Green Zone, I looked out the window of my enclave’s chartered bus at the fences, barbed wire, propaganda posters, and checkpoints, and started to think the UNDP employees were right. Later that same evening, the first of several Greek Cypriot cab drivers lectured me about how I was likely to be sexually assaulted if I left the Greek side of the Island, because “Turks are just like that.”

When my enclave did visit the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” (TRNC), we didn’t get a chance to hear similar comments from Turkish Cypriot cab drivers because we were shuttled from destination to destination in a bus owned by the TRNC Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which treated us, rather creepily in my opinion, like very important people, which, of course, we were not.

At the second stop on our whirlwind trip north of the Green Line, my enclave was brought to Near East University, the TRNC’s jewel of higher education. There, we toured a state-of-the-art TV production studio, kindergarten, library, and fitness complex. At the library stop, we were informed that NEU has trouble procuring official EU documents from Brussels for its European Union reference section because of the division of the island. Why this is was either never fully explained (it probably has to do with the fact that the body of European Union law, the acquis communautaire, is suspended in the TRNC), or I have since forgotten. I do, however, remember the librarian saying, rather wistfully, “So few people understand, we are also Europeans.”

For the rest of the day, a film crew followed my enclave as we ooohed and aaahed at the bright, shiny new buildings of NEU, and mmmed as we gobbled Turkish food at the six course banquet we were surprised with. The entire time, I had the uncomfortable feeling my classmates and I were the unconsenting stars of some kind of propaganda film.

Nevertheless, I did leave the TRNC with the distinct feeling that Turkish Cypriots, or at least students and academics, felt like they were in a kind of limbo, socially, politically, and legally. Not Turkish really. Not Cypriot. Kind of European. Kind of Not. They had voted to change this, but to no avail, and thus the bizarre status quo remained in effect.

When my flight from the Republic of Cyprus to Austria took off from Larnaca Airport, and sunshine flooded the cabin of the plane, I breathed a sigh of relief. It had been an odd week in a slightly sinister paradise. On an island known for its Mediterranean beauty and honeymoon resorts, I had felt stifled and watched.

Even in our hotel in the beach town of Limassol, my classmates and I had been under strict orders to not speak about our visit to the TRNC in public, and to only give away as many details about our reasons for being in Cyprus as absolutely necessary. When we visited the TRNC, we told our Greek Cypriot bus driver we were going sightseeing in Nicosia, and switched drivers once we passed through the UN-administered checkpoint between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot halves of the capital. This is the EU in 2006? I kept asking myself. It was a sobering experience for someone fiercely pro-European, a first-hand look at the shortcomings of that kind of idealism.

I’m not sure what, if anything, would have happened if I or anyone else in the program had skipped through the lobby of the Ajax Hotel singing, “I went to the TRNC! I went to the TRNC! I went to the TRNC! And was fed and filmed and not molested!” but we were all sufficiently freaked out to not even consider it.

Cyprus isn’t North Korea –by even the wildest stretch of the imagination– I don’t want to give the wrong impression, but it is a place where, if you so much as scratch the veneer of baklava and sandy beaches, you will see that something is unmistakably not right.

Why am I bringing all this up again? Well, as of yesterday, Cyprus is part of the Eurozone –meaning it now uses the European Union’s common currency, the increasingly strong and stable Euro, instead of the old Cypriot Pound.

The Guardian weighs in on this latest development:

Arrival of euro boosts Cyprus peace hopes

Helena Smith in Nicosia
Wednesday January 2, 2008
The Guardian

In its relatively short life, the euro has been called many things. Peacemaker has not been one of them. Now that may change as Europe’s increasingly strong common currency reaches this fractured corner of the Levant.

The island’s arrival in the eurozone yesterday, less than four years after it joined the EU, is being heralded as more than just a milestone amid predictions that it will pull off what countless mediators have failed to achieve so far, and help to reunify Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

“It’s a golden opportunity for both communities to overcome one of their major disparities,” said Ali Erel, who heads the European Union Association in the island’s Turkish-run north. “The transition will push us to cooperate more and that, ultimately, could lead to economic reintegration,” he told the Guardian.

Although EU laws and regulations are not applied in the breakaway enclave, where enthusiasm for Europe has also waned considerably, the euro is being used increasingly by the rump territory as it tries to shake off its pariah status.

Northern Cyprus’s booming property market is linked almost exclusively to the currency, while billboards exhort tourists not to cross into the internationally recognized Greek-run south with more than €135 (£99) worth of goods.

Three times closer to Baghdad than to Brussels, Cyprus signs up to the euro with Malta, exactly nine years after the currency’s birth. The home of the EU’s only partitioned capital has been the bane of peacemakers since the Turkish army invaded, seizing its northern third, in response to an Athens-inspired coup in 1974.

The new euro coins have been designed with care: the 1, 2 and 5 cent coins will, for example, depict the moufflon, the wild sheep endemic to the island for whom dividing “green lines” mean little.

With political will, the Green Line could one day mean just as little for Cyprus’s human inhabitants. I personally hope that the Euro serves, if nothing else, as a reminder that Cyprus is (regardless of the wisdom or lack thereof of its admission), part of the EU, and that the current division of the island flies in the face of everything the European Union was created to be, and remains a continuing stain of Cyprus’s reputation within that union and beyond.

It’s time to move on to real peace, not just the absence of conflict.