Sunday, May 30, 2010

Maldives president takes on US in Hay call for direct action on climate

10:33 AM | Posted by schueib' | Edit Post


Young, dynamic, radical, good looking. Forget the Milibands, Balls and Abbott - President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives would have got the audience vote for leader of the Labour party after his tour de force at the Hay festival this afternoon.
Appearing  by live video link, Nasheed showed more life and animation in 2-D than any of the politicians currently wandering around the site (there's a lot of former Labour ministers with time on their hands these days) usually manage in the flesh. Where our MPs duck and dive and try to say as little as possible that might upset anyone, Nasheed went in with all guns blazing.
Asked about educating people about climate change, he said it was too late for that. "Direct affirmative  action 1960s style  is what we need," he said. When Ed Miliband suggested he might not be able to answer a question on the US and China for diplomatic reasons, he interrupted to say "Yes I can. The Chinese believe in climate change. Not all Americans do."
Here was a man with honesty and humour. Was the underwater cabinet a publicity stunt? "Of course it was," he says. "The Maldives are a small country and we cannot bomb a city to get people's attention."  Here also was a politician with lyricism. "If the Maldives were to disappear, where would the butterflies and the sounds go?"
Nor was there any of the usual love-in stuff in which politicians from different countries ritually indulge in public. Just as Miliband was signing off the event with protestations of undying love and respect, Nasheed reminded him that it was the Tories who had campaigned hardest for his party's right to contest the election in the Maldives two years ago. Miliband took it all in good grace. But he should also have been making notes.

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