World returnes to 9-10 concerns

Anne Applebaum:

Late last week you could have been forgiven for thinking that the Star Wars era had begun. Space-age computer graphics dominated the news: Satellites orbited the globe, target sites throbbed on interactive maps of Europe and the Middle East. The talk was of Russia and Iran and of whether high-tech missile defense equipment might endanger human health. The pictures, in the wake of the Group of Eight summit, were of statesmen: George Bush's helicopter landing at a Polish beach resort, Vladimir Putin giving interviews (" I am a true democrat"). At any rate, that was the news and the talk, and those were the pictures, if you happened to be living in Central Europe.

If you happened to be living in Britain late last week, you saw something rather different. On the BBC, the same day's coverage, following the same summit, focused almost entirely on news of . . . Africa. The talk was of AIDS drugs, malaria cures and poverty, not of missile defense. The pictures were of aging pop stars: Bono and Bob Geldof, bitterly attacking the world's statesmen ("creeps") for failing, again, to offer enough aid (" a total farce").

On the other hand, if you were living in Germany, the news was different again. Judging from their media, the Germans appear to believe that the leaders of the world met, above all, to discuss . . . climate change. The German press crowned Chancellor Angela Merkel " Miss World" because she apparently persuaded George Bush to "seriously consider" halving global carbon emissions by 2050 -- a statement that, by the low standards of G-8 summits, counts as an enormous triumph. And of course the pictures, in Germany, were of melting ice.

I am exaggerating here to make a point: In fact, the Germans did mention Africa a few times, as sort of an afterthought. But it's not exaggerating at all to say that the events of the past week -- and the wildly divergent international news coverage that accompanied them -- illustrate a profound transformation that has taken place, slowly and quietly, over the past several years. Call it post-post-Sept. 11, or maybe just a return to status quo ante: Either way, it's pretty clear that that brief moment of consensus -- those very few years when the world's most powerful governments all believed that the world's worst problem was international terrorism -- has now passed.

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Actually the missile defense debate is about international terrorism on a grader scale that Iran threatens. Since Iran remains the chief state sponsor of terrorism that is no small concern. The hysteria over global warming is clearly man made--the hysteria, not necessarily global warming. AIDS remains a problem in Africa because too many Africans are too promiscuous. Even if only a spouse if promiscuous, that spouse puts everyone at risk. However, we still treat only the results of that promiscuous conduct and poo-poo any attempt to stop the conduct causing the problem.