The Foreign Service Journal, December 2013

12 DECEMBER 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Several cornerstones should be laid to underpin a de-Amer- icanized world. For starters, all nations need to hew to the basic principles of the international law, including respect for sovereignty, and keeping hands off domestic affairs of others. Furthermore, the authority of the United Nations in handling global hotspot issues has to be recognized. That means no one has the right to wage any form of military action against others without a United Nations mandate. Apart from that, the world’s financial system also has to embrace some substantial reforms. The developing and emerging market economies need to have more say in major international financial institutions, including the World Bank and the International Mon- etary Fund, so that they could better reflect the transformations of the global economic and political landscape. What may also be included as a key part of an effective reform is the introduction of a new international reserve currency that is to be created to replace the dominant U.S. dollar, so that the international community could permanently stay away from the spillover of the intensifying domestic political turmoil in the United States. Of course, the purpose of promoting these changes is not to completely toss the United States aside, which is impossible. Rather, it is to encourage Washington to play a much more constructive role in addressing global affairs. And among all options, it is suggested that the Beltway politicians first begin with ending the pernicious impasse. —Excerpted from an Oct. 13 Xinhua News (English) commentary. Contemporary Quote ral edition of its Global Slavery Index. In a pithy phrase, the WFF defines modern-day slavery as the substitution of property value for personhood. This ter- minology also encompasses forced labor and human trafficking, which are major components of slavery in the 21st century. The Global Slavery Index would per- form a welcome service if it only compiled quantitative data on the prevalence of this deplorable phenomenon across the world, but it goes much further. It identifies the factors responsible for the practice of slav- ery, explains what individual governments can do to address them, and recommends specific steps the global community can take. Howmany slaves are currently held across the globe?The Index counts 29.8 million in all, and also calculates the prevalence of slavery among each nation’s population. Mauritania, Haiti and Pakistan have the highest current levels of slavery as a percentage of population, while India, China and Pakistan have the highest absolute numbers. But slavery is not absent from the United States or the developed world, since high demand for cheap labor often creates a market for human trafficking that operates under the radar. The Walk Free Foundation has also set up a Global Fund to End Slavery , and is partnering with Humanity United to set up a $100 million Freedom Fund to take direct action against those who profit from this ancient scourge. — Valerie Sanders, Editorial Intern Weibos Want to Be Free A nyone who follows developments in the People’s Republic of China is probably familiar with Sina Weibo , the Chinese microblogging website that is akin to a hybrid of Twitter and Facebook . One of the country’s most popular sites, Weibo has a market penetration similar to what Twitter has established in America. Since its launch by the SINA Corpora- tion in August 2009, Weibo has gained more than half a billion registered users, who post about 100 million messages a day. However, the Chinese government closely monitors the site and routinely deletes items that mention, or are seen as alluding to, any subject the PRC deems too sensitive for public discussion. In response, anonymous activists set up FreeWeibo.com , a website dedicated to tracking and undermining PRC censor- ship. “We offer uncensored and anony- mous Sina Weibo searches. We ignore relevant laws, legislation and policy,” the homepage declares, adding that FreeWe- ibo is 100-percent blocked in China. The site certainly does not lack for fod- der. Consider Chinese news coverage (or the lack thereof) after an SUV plowed into a crowd in Beijing’s iconic Tiananmen Square on Oct. 28. The car crashed and burst into flames, killing two pedestrians and the three occupants of the vehicle, and injuring 38 others. Hundreds of posts about the incident (some from eyewitnesses, complete with photos) began surfacing on Weibo and other social media sites, but were just as quickly deleted en masse by censors. This was particularly true of messages suggest- ing that the crash might have been a case of self-immolation, an increasingly com- mon form of protest in China. FreeWeibo