Alan Fisher's World

Monday 10 November
America's new love affair continues. President-elect Barack Obama has been to the White House for talks with George Bush. There was a lot to discuss: the latest state of play in two wars and the financial crisis. The visit is loaded with symbolism. The White House was built using black slave labour and staffed entirely by slaves for the first 50 years.
     Obama's team has already indicated there are many presidential decrees that will be overturned quickly, including imposing a ban on controversial oil drilling and lifting the ban on stem cell research because 'they don't fit in with the President-elect's views'. The USA is beginning to get an idea of the real and significant change that's coming.
     George Bush seems to be a warm and gracious host, putting on a united front for all of America's enemies. Every time I see him now he looks like a man with demob fever, someone ready to stop what he's doing and head off.
     Meanwhile Sarah Palin will consider running for president in 2012 – if God tells her to. She faces a massive credibility problem, and not just because she is so clearly uninformed. She was defined by comedians before she managed to define herself and with one line 'I can see Russia from my house' she was dismissed as a political lightweight. She has to change her image, broaden her appeal and get smarter. Four years might not be enough. 
 
Tuesday 11 November
Russia's president is trying to extend the presidential term of office. Dmitri Medvedev wants to give the president six years in the Kremlin rather than four. He says it would then be easier to push through reforms. Many think this is just a move to strengthen the power of Vladimir Putin. Currently the prime minister, he was banned by law from running for president for a third term. Medvedev was his hand-picked successor, endorsed by the country at an election. Medvedev promptly appointed his former boss as PM. Putin is expected to run again for president in 2012. And with his parliamentary majority it's likely if he wins – and he almost certainly will – he'll get another 12 years in office. One critic has called it the 'new imperialism'. Vladimir Putin has never cared what the critics say.
 
Wednesday 12 November
Food supplies in Gaza are set to run out causing widespread hunger and misery. And the reason why this is going to happen? An Israeli blockade which the UN has called 'shameful and unacceptable'. Israel says it has been forced into the action because of rocket attacks by militants. Power supplies are already rationed because fuel supplies were cut. The United Nations agency which handles food aid distribution in the strip, Unrwa, says unless there's a break in the blockade, it will have no more food to hand out after Thursday. They have already tried to obtain special humanitarian aid to a school for blind children but the Israelis refused. Unwra's spokesman is furious. Christopher Gunn is uncommonly harshly spoken for a diplomat: 'The blind children are not firing rockets. We have a situation where hundreds of thousands of ordinary people are effectively being punished for the irresponsible acts of a few. We condemn the firing of rockets. We do it every time. We cannot punish whole communities. This has got to stop.'
     The UN is planning a major human rights education programme in Gaza in the run-up to the 60th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights. But they wonder how they can tell children they have to respect the rights of the people in Israel when they block food and fuel getting to them, leaving them cold and hungry. The reality is that a whole new generation in this area is being radicalised by short-term thinking.
 
Thursday 13 November
Twenty civilians and an American solider have been killed in a suicide bomb attack near Jalalabad. It's the latest attack in the past few days in Afghanistan which always seems to experience an upsurge in violence at this time of year – the final flurries before winter sets in. The people I speak to there are concerned that this year it'll be different and an emboldened Taliban will fight on through the cold. For those in Kabul, it's a worrying thought.