16 December 2002

The Smoot-Hawley Tariff

The seventieth anniversary of the BBC World Service is tomorrow. It was born in 1930, at the apex of the British Empire, Rangoon calling and all that, a full quarter of the earth's surface under the Union Jack, and a third of its people. But something was happening that same year that foretold the interconnection of us al, and the irrelevancy of Empire. America had the Stock crash the year before, and was sinking into the depression that would drag the world down behind it, even then the engine of the global economy, though no one recognized it at the time. Certainly not Senators Smoot and Hawley, whose Tariff Act may be the most destructive single event of the last century. I'll wander down that lane some day with you and take a look at the knee-jerk reaction of a Neanderthal Senate which decided foreign competition was bad for America, and raised tariff walls so high that international trade died. The world retaliated, and within a few years evryone was hunched down behind! their trade barriers and global commerce died. It didn't come back really until after World War Two.

Paul McCartny, Sir Paul, these days, was interviewed about how significant the BBC Service was for him as a global traveler. He didn't mention Senator Smoot, instead concentrating on how he felt when he heard about the melt-down at Chernobyl and the Fall of the Wall and the election of Nelson Mandella over the radio. I had to agree with him. The Beeb is an international treasure.

Did you know Paul was in a band before Wings?

Al Gore hosted Saturday Night Live, and he was hilarious. It reminded me of the Dick Nixon appearance on Rowen and Martin's Laugh-In. But I must say that the sketch of Al looking pensive on the set of The West Wing was so fawning it made me a little queasy. The word is that Al decided not to run for President on 60 Minutes last night? Is there a connection between media coverage and the decision to quit? Trent Lott is supposed to have a half-hour gig on Black Entertainment Television tonight, and somehow I don't think he is going to treated as well as Al was. The vultures are already circling over the prospective Senate Majority Leader and born-again Dixiecrat.

Al must have read the polls, and Trent must be trying to avoid it.

I am up. looking around and pecking at the keyboard. I do not find anything in the news that moves me. There is a story about the Norwegian container ship Tricolour, carrying three thousand luxury cars in ballast, which sank in the busy shipping lanes of the English Channel. Despite broad coverage in the news and the presence of helicopters and a French warship, a cargo ship ran into the wreck and became grounded on it. Two tugs floated it off this morning. There is no word on whether a rescue operation for the Mercedes sport coups will be mounted.

The Beeb reports that four have been convicted of complicity in the attack on the Indian Parliament, the big round building in Delhi. Three men and a woman were accused, though they did not actually participate in the attack. They provided planning and logistics support. No smoking gun to connect them with the Pakistanis was found, but the crisis they provoked eventually featured me as a bit player in expanded relations between our governments. In Delhi we heard that they gained access by downloading images from the Internet and making realistic looking badges. My son would be interested in the application for making fake ID.

From the former East Germany came news that skinhead neo-nazis beat a German boy to death because he was a "pest, un-German, and a Jew." Marius, the victim, had dreadlocks and a learning disability, and the prosecutor was so appalled at the vicious nature of the murder that he would not make the details public. The story is considered noteworthy because the victim was not an immigrant.

The Syrian leader Assad- not the real one, the young one who replaced him, is in London. His first visit here, a return for Prime Minister Blair's visit to Damascus last year. The British press reported the young man dressed down Tony over the Palestine issue, but apparently it was only the media that thought things went badly. The young Assad really got along famously with Blair, they say this morning and is in town for a pre-conflict meeting and some sightseeing. Mr. Assad, says the BBC, is here to lobby Blair to get Geroge W. Bush to slow down on the Iraq front.

I fell asleep last night to the HBO movie on the CNN coverage of the Gulf War. The Sopranos had their finale last week, I forgot and tuned in after the Simpsons. I was briefly disappointed as I watched Michael Keaton star as a harried producer who checks into the al Rasheed Hotel at the beginning of the crisis. Bernard Shaw and Peter Arnette were played well. The guy who played Peter, the man we loved to hate for his on-the-scene reporting, was the same guy who played the character "D-Day" in the seminal film Animal House. It was a great yarn, and held me spellbound as they depicted the day before the Storm began. The special effects were fantastic.

I remember the moment we found out it was really coming, and the way the movie told the story, it wasn't exactly a surprise in Baghdad, either. I was on the edge of my seat right up to the moment when my head fell back against the soft pillow of my chair and I fell asleep. I think I know how it turned out though, and woke this morning to the news that the Iraqi opposition groups are meeting and forming coalitions which feature up to seven co-reigning chief executives. Seems like a sound plan. The Iraqi democratis indicate they don't need any American help in figuring out how to run the post-Saddam country.

I wish Michael Keaton had been in charge of the end of the ground campaign eleven years ago. Then maybe this new year would not promise to be so interesting. From Hollywood comes the word that the Orlando-based restaurant chain Planet Hollywood is going out of business, with a 20% slump in business after 9-11.

At least there is some positive news this morning.