Articles by G P D

Brahmanical Ways of the Third World G P D JOHN SCALI, the US delegate to the United Nations, was rather angry with almost everyone present when he spoke to the General Assembly a week or so ago. He did not like the way the august body of one hundred and thirtyeight members was behaving. He was annoyed at almost everything the members were doing there. American officials are not given to liberal cliches, otherwise he would have said that he was speaking more in sorrow than anger. In any case, he was perceptibly perturbed that the United Nations was very much on its way to a state of total v relevance, eventually to meet the same fate as its no less august predecessor, the League of Nations, The analogy of the League of Nations is not out of place. The League collapsed, among other reasons, Scali would reckon, because of the failure of the US to join it. He held out a similar threat now. The American people, he said, did not like what was going on at the UN. Their faith in the UN was being eroded. As the US paid for nearly 25 per cent of the budget of the UN, the members had better sit up and think. They can have either their resolutions or the US dollars. Scali forgot to add, presumably in his anger, that he hoped that the bright, well- mannered third world gentry present would see sense and make the proper choice. Established governments the world over should realise that unless they made the right choice the UN would become a subject of history.

November 30, 1974 INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS A Meeting of Needs G P D FOR nearly five years now, the normalisation of Sino-Soviet relations is being talked about. In 1969, Premier Kosygin had stopped by in Peking, on his way to Moscow from Hanoi, for talks with Chou En-lai at the Peking airport. Ever since then speculation on the prospects of Sino-Soviet relations has been rife. And there have always been signs that the impasse in Sino-Soviet relations may not be quite so hopeless.

October 26, 1974 INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Peaceful Co-dominance G P D DETENTE is the word. It's a hot favourite of the powerful ones of the international system. In plain English, it means a series of deals that the super powers have struck with each other in recent years. In 1972, for example, the two super powers were busy either negotiating a deal or signing one every week of the year practically. Old-time notions of 'balance of power' have now been replaced by 'detente', in much the same way as 'colonialism' has been replaced by 'neo-colonialism'. The terms have changed, at times even the actors have changed, but the essence has not.