Pertubuhan Kerjasama Shanghai 2007

Pengukuhan SCO dan Persaingan Rusia-China


Sidang kemuncak Pertubuhan Kerjasama Shanghai (SCO) di Bishkek, ibu negara Kyrgyzstan baru-baru ini berlangsung ketika berlaku pelbagai perkembangan dramatik negara anggotanya, terutama melibatkan hubungan Rusia dan Iran dengan Barat.

Pertemuan itu juga diadakan berlatarkan latihan perang besar-besaran dinamakan Peace Mission 2007, kali pertama melibatkan kesemua negara anggotanya, menandakan dimensi keselamatan kolektif pertubuhan yang digelar "Nato Timur" itu semakin ditekankan, lebih-lebih lagi oleh Moscow yang berang dengan rancangan Washington menempatkan sistem pertahanan peluru berpandu di Eropah Timur sehingga menarik diri daripada perjanjian melibatkan penempatan tentera dengan Pertubuhan Perjanjian Atlantik Utara, Nato.

Apa yang menarik untuk diperhatikan ialah Rusia di bawah Presiden Vladimir Putin semakin agresif membawa SCO untuk memenuhi agendanya, seperti mewujudkan kelab tenaga di kalangan negara-negara Asia Tengah dan meningkatkan peranan pertahanan SCO. Rusia telah berjaya merapatkan hubungan SCO dengan Pertubuhan Perjanjian Keselamatan Kolektif (CSTO) badan pertahanan kolektif pimpinan Moscow yang disertai semua ahli SCO kecuali China. CSTO juga turut melibatkan Armenia dan Belarus. Pembinaan hubungan CSTO dengan SCO ini dibuat ketika Rusia sedang menentang dengan keras perluasan operasi Nato ke timur.

Latihan perang Peace Mission 2007 juga, yang melibatkan 6,500 anggota tentera, boleh dilihat sebagai isyarat SCO kepada Nato tentang kepimpinannya di rantau Asia Tengah. Pembinaan hubungan SCO dengan CSTO memberi isyarat kepada Nato bahawa pengaruh dan kemampuan pakatan baru pimpinan China dan Rusia ini tidak boleh dipandang ringan oleh Nato yang masih tidak mengiktiraf CSTO.

Sejarah ringkas CSTO menerangkan persaingan Rusia dengan Barat di Kaukasus dan Asia Tengah. Azerbaijan, Georgia dan Uzbekistan menarik diri dari CSTO pada 1999. Ketiga-tiga negara tersebut ketika itu mula cenderung kepada Barat. Pada penghujung 2003, kebangkitan rakyat di Georgia mengubah kecenderungan politik negara bekas Soviet itu ke Barat.

Georgia kini menganggotai Pertubuhan bagi Demokrasi dan Pembangunan Ekonomi GUAM, pertubuhan anti-Rusia terdiri daripada Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan dan Moldova. Uzbekistan menyertai GUAM - dan menjadikan namanya GUUAM buat seketika - setelah keluar dari CSTO tetapi berikutan peralihan dasar luarnya berikutan peristiwa Andijan, negara pimpinan Presiden Islam Karimov itu kembali menyertai CSTO pada 2006 selepas meninggalkan GUUAM pada tahun sebelumnya. Sejak itu, CSTO mula menunjukkan kesepakatan dan kepimpinan Rusia kembali ditegaskan.

Pada masa sama, China kelihatan lebih berhati-hati, antaranya untuk tidak memburukkan lagi hubungannya dengan Amerika Syarikat, rakan perdagangan yang penting. Tetapi China juga sedang melalui hubungan dingin dengan AS ketika ini. AS baru sahaja menyempurnakan perjanjian kerjasama nuklear dengan India, negara berstatus pemerhati dalam SCO tetapi juga pesaing utama China di rantau Asia.

Dan pada masa sama juga, AS sedang mengukuhkan pakatan pertahanan melibatkan Jepun dan Australia dan cuba membawa India untuk menyertai pakatan ini. Bagi China, jelas sekali pakatan ini ditujukan terhadapnya, lebih-lebih lagi negara yang paling agresif mahu mengukuhkan pakatan ini ialah Jepun, yang juga sedang menuju pindaan perlembagaan untuk menamatkan era "perlembagaan aman" yang menghadkan peranan tenteranya.

China lebih mengutamakan dimensi ekonomi dan politik SCO berbanding pertahanan. Hal ini menunjukkan satu persaingan China dengan Rusia. China yang sedang pesat membangun memerlukan sumber minyak dan gas yang semakin meningkat dan negara-negara Asia Tengah dalam SCO ialah sumber bagi China. Dalam hal pertahanan, jelas sekali China agak terkebelakang berbanding Rusia dan penekanan dalam hal pertahanan akan memberikan Rusia peranan kepimpinan yang lebih besar.

Sejak penubuhannya sebagai kumpulan Lima Shanghai pada 1996, pertubuhan ini telah menunjukkan pengukuhannya dalam pelbagai bidang, walaupun berdepan banyak halangan melibatkan perbezaan agenda. Pakatan ini wujud ekoran daripada usaha penyelesaian pertikaian sempadan China dan Rusia.

Pada mulanya kumpulan Lima Shanghai melibatkan China dan Rusia dan tiga negara Asia Tengah, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan dan Tajikistan. Kemasukan Uzbekistan dan penukaran nama kepada Pertubuhan Kerjasama Shanghai pada 2001 menjadi petanda penting kepada SCO. Tahun 2001 ialah tahun bermulanya AS memasuki kawasan Asia Tengah yang penting bagi kedua-dua China dan Rusia.

Pada mulanya, pertubuhan ini dilihat sebagai tidak lebih daripada sebuah "kelab diktator." Kemudian, ekoran peristiwa 11 September, 2001, AS mula menempatkan tenteranya di Asia Tengah yang dilihat oleh Rusia sebagai ruang pengaruhnya. Negara terbabit menerima kehadiran tentera AS dan membina hubungan politik yang rapat dengan Washington.

Tetapi kemudian penempatan tentera AS dan penyebaran demokrasi oleh Barat di sana semakin menimbulkan keresahan Rusia dan China. Pada 2005, sidang kemuncak SCO memutuskan untuk menghadkan penempatan tentera AS di Asia Tengah. Pada tahun yang sama, musuh AS, Iran diterima sebagai ahli pemerhati.

Walaupun berbeza ideologi, SCO berpotensi untuk memainkan peranan politiknya dengan berkesan, dengan adanya kepimpinan China dan Rusia. Kepentingan bersama negara terbabit sudah cukup untuk membina pakatan yang mampu mengimbangi pengaruh AS. Hal ini merupakan satu ancaman kepada kepentingan AS.

Bekas penasihat keselamatan nasional AS, Zbigniew Brzezinski memberi amaran tentang potensi ini dalam bukunya The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives yang diterbitkan pada 1997.

"Senario paling berbahaya adalah pakatan besar China, Rusia dan mungkin Iran, satu pakatan 'antihegemonik' yang disatukan bukan oleh ideologi tetapi rasa tidak puas hati masing-masing." Menurut Brzezinski, pakatan ini akan mengingatkan kembali kepada cabaran blok China dan Soviet terhadap Barat semasa Perang Dingin.

Peranan pakatan antihegemonik ini telah pun terbukti mampu dibawa oleh SCO, walaupun perbezaan mampu menjejaskan kesatuan pertubuhan ini. Peranan sebagai pengimbang AS, dan untuk mewujudkan dunia yang tidak dikuasai oleh satu kuasa sahaja sering ditegaskan oleh pemimpin-pemimpin negara SCO, terutama Rusia, China dan Iran.

Negara-negara lain, yang tidak memiliki kekuatan seperti kuasa tersebut, terpaksa memilih untuk bersama pakatan ini, untuk mengambil manfaat daripada kumpulan tersebut dan mengelakkan daripada kerugian akibat dipinggirkan.

Ini kemungkinan matlamat yang paling dapat dipersetujui ahli-ahli. Semua negara pasti mahu hubungan dengan jiran sekitarnya terus berjalan dengan baik, tetapi tidak mahu kepentingan mereka tergadai untuk memenuhi agenda kuasa lain tanpa mereka mendapat pulangan yang setimpal.

Walaupun mengiktiraf kepimpinan China, seperti yang dilakukan malah oleh Rusia sendiri, negara ahli lain tidak mahu kehilangan terus kebebasan membuat keputusan. Rusia telah menunjukkan kekuatannya sendiri yang perlu dihormati oleh China, iaitu kekuatan tentera dan kemajuan teknologi senjata yang melebihi apa yang mampu dibangunkan China. Apa yang dilakukan Moscow ialah menegaskan bahawa ia adalah negara paling kuat dari segi ketenteraan dalam SCO dan oleh itu perlu memimpin dalam soal ketenteraan. Rusia juga menjadi sumber bekalan senjata canggih China.

Negara kaya minyak dan gas Kazakhstan pula tidak mahu terus menolak hubungan baik dengan AS dan syarikat tenaga Barat kerana potensi untuk mendapatkan keuntungan daripada kedudukannya sebagai salah sebuah gergasi tenaga dunia. Kazakhstan memiliki tiga medan minyak besar yang menjadi perhatian semua pihak, iaitu medan minyak Tengiz, Kashagan dan medan minyak dan gas Karachaganak.

Kazakhstan memerlukan modal dan teknologi untuk membangunkan potensi itu, tanpa mengira politik. Medan minyak dan gas Kazakhstan kini dibangunkan syarikat utama dunia seperti Exxon Mobil, Chevron Texaco, Royal Dutch Shell dan juga syarikat dari Rusia.

Tetapi respons baik dari negara ahli menunjukkan minat negara-negara ahli terhadap SCO semakin kukuh dan pertubuhan ini menjadi semakin kohesif sebagai sebuah pertubuhan serantau.

Bagaimanapun, sifat tidak demokratik rejim-rejim negara ahli SCO berpotensi untuk mewujudkan ketidakstabilan dalaman negara terbabit. Alasan memerangi "terorisme, fundamentalisme dan ekstremisme" ditujukan kepada minoriti yang bagi kes Rusia dan China - dan juga negara Asia Tengah - ialah warga beragama Islam.

Tekanan ke atas pembangkang dan minoriti yang menjadi asas pembinaan SCO ini menjadikan pakatan ini sukar untuk melaksanakan diplomasi awam bagi membina imej yang diterima ramai. Kelemahan ini antara faktor yang boleh membuka negara-negara SCO kepada kecaman antarabangsa dan memberi peluang kepada aktiviti kumpulan masyarakat sivil Barat yang boleh menyumbang kepada perubahan politik negara terbabit.

SCO juga mampu berperanan sebagai pakatan pelbagai negara untuk kepentingan perdagangan tenaga. Rusia, Iran dan Kazakhstan ialah negara kaya minyak dan gas manakala China kini sentiasa memerlukan bekalan tenaga untuk memacu pembangunan. China kini menduduki tangga kedua pengguna minyak terbesar dunia. Kedudukan geografi negara terbabit juga memudahkan urusniaga dan kerjasama dalam sektor ini dilaksanakan.

Dalam sidang kemuncak kali ini, Turkmenistan akan diwakili Presiden Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, menunjukkan hubungan semakin rapat Turkmenistan - sebuah lagi negara kaya minyak Asia Tengah - dengan SCO. Sebelum ini, di bawah pimpinan Presiden Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmenistan cuba mengekalkan dasar neutral dan tidak mahu melibatkan diri dengan SCO. Perubahan sikap Turkmenistan ini mampu membawa manfaat kepada Rusia dan China, antaranya dalam konteks perebutan sumber minyak dan gas Asia Tengah antara negara rantau tersebut dengan AS dan Eropah.

Baru-baru ini, Turkmenistan menjalin kerjasama sektor tenaga dengan ekstensif dengan Rusia, China dan Iran, mengukuhkan kerjasama tenaga negara SCO dan memberi pukulan kepada usaha AS dan Eropah merebut sumber tersebut dan mengangkutnya melalui saluran yang dipersetujui pihak mereka. Perkembangan ini yang menguatkan hubungan Turkmenistan dengan SCO membuka kemungkinan untuk negara ini diterima sebagai ahli.

Bagaimanapun, setiap negara menyedari kuasa masing-masing dalam hal ini dan akan menggunakannya untuk memelihara kepentingan masing-masing. Kedua-dua Rusia dan China terlibat dalam usaha mendapatkan sumber tenaga di negara-negara Asia Tengah dan persaingan ini mampu membawa kepada pertembungan antara kedua-dua negara itu.

Pengkaji Asia Tengah dari AS, Martha Brill Olcott, penulis buku Central Asia's Second Chance meramalkan kedua-dua Rusia dan China yang mengejar sumber terhad yang sama akan bertembung. Sekiranya ini berlaku, kedua-dua negara tersebut perlu bertindak bijak untuk memelihara pakatan ini.

Persaingan Rusia dan China juga dapat dilihat dalam penentuan ahli tetap SCO. Kemasukan Iran sebagai ahli tetap membimbangkan China yang tidak mahu menjejaskan lagi hubungan dengan AS, manakala Rusia bersikap menerima Iran, walaupun hubungan kedua-dua negara sedikit terjejas akibat isu nuklear Iran.

Iran sebagai ahli tetap akan menimbulkan perhatian berlebihan terhadap SCO dan pengaruh Iran sebagai negara kaya tenaga akan membolehkannya melebarkan pengaruh dalam pertubuhan ini. Iran ialah salah sebuah negara yang berhasrat mengukuhkan dan melebarkan pengaruh di Asia Tengah, seperti juga Rusia, China dan India.

Iran kini sedang berunding dengan Pakistan dan India untuk membina saluran paip gas dari Iran melalui Pakistan ke India. Projek ini sekiranya terlaksana memberikan satu kelebihan kepada Iran dalam hubungannya dengan Pakistan dan India. Projek ini ditentang pentadbiran Bush, walaupun sekutunya India mahu ia diteruskan.

Dalam sidang kemuncak di Bishkek, pemimpin Iran Presiden Mahmud Ahmadinejad dalam ucapannya menimbulkan kebimbangan terhadap apa yang disifatkan sebagai ancaman program pertahanan peluru berpandu AS, pandangan yang selari dengan sikap Moscow. Tindakan ini jelas menunjukkan usaha Tehran menjaga hubungan baiknya dengan pentadbiran Putin. Di sidang kemuncak tahun lalu di Shanghai, Ahmadinejad juga menarik perhatian Washington melalui kenyataan provokatif.

Dua lagi negara nuklear berstatus pemerhati, India dan Pakistan juga memperlihatkan persaingan Rusia dengan China. India ialah sekutu penting Rusia manakala Pakistan sekutu China. Kemasukan kedua-dua negara musuh tradisi itu juga akan membawa masalah dari sudut perpaduan SCO dan penerimaan kepimpinan China dan Rusia. Dua negara terkuat SCO, China dan Rusia pasti tidak mahu SCO yang ahli tetapnya terlalu bebas memilih haluan sendiri, terutama sekiranya kerjasama dua hala dengan AS dan kuasa Barat.

SCO telah membuktikan kemampuannya menjadi pengimbang kepada AS seperti yang menjadi matlamat China dan Rusia. Bagaimanapun, persaingan dua kuasa utamanya, China dan Rusia untuk menegaskan agenda masing-masing yang adakalanya tidak sehaluan mampu menjejaskan pertubuhan ini sekiranya tidak ditangani dengan berkesan.

SCO telah berkembang maju sejak penubuhannya, dengan agenda baru untuk mengukuhkan kerjasama pertubuhan ini ditegaskan setiap tahun. Apa pun cabaran dihadapinya, disebabkan pimpinan kuasa besar China dan Rusia, kepentingan bersama, saiz wilayah, populasi dan sumber minyak dan gas negara-negara SCO, pertubuhan ini mempunyai segala kemungkinan untuk menjadi sebuah pertubuhan yang semakin penting dan perlu diberi perhatian. - 16 Ogos, 2007

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Meet Mr Orlov

From The Los Angeles Times, August 13, 2007

Bad Guys Make Even Worse Allies
By STEPHEN BRAUN

A notorious arms dealer was the wrong person to enlist in the U.S. war effort in Iraq.

THE UNITED STATES seems to be missing some guns in Iraq. Somehow, the U.S. military has lost track of 110,000 AK-47 assault rifles and 80,000 pistols that were supposedly delivered from our caches to Iraqi security forces.

It was classic bureaucratic bungling, the Government Accountability Office concluded last month in a report criticizing the Pentagon's failure to keep proper records

and track weapons flows. But there may have been another factor -- the government's dangerous and bumbling use of bad guys.

Consider the case of one particular bad guy, Viktor Bout -- a stout, canny Russian air transporter who also happens to be the world's most notorious arms dealer.

When the U.S. government needed to fly four planeloads of seized weapons from an American base in Bosnia to Iraqi security forces in Baghdad in August 2004, they used a Moldovan air cargo firm tied to Bout's aviation empire. The problem is that the planes apparently never arrived. When Amnesty International investigators tried two years later to trace the shipment of more than 99 tons of AK-47s and other weapons, U.S. officials admitted they had no record of the flights landing in Baghdad.

The missing Bosnian weapons could simply be a paperwork problem (and it's not certain that they are among the missing weapons the GAO discovered; they may be an additional loss). But Bout's involvement as the transporter raises bleak possibilities far beyond bureaucratic error -- including the possibility that the arms were diverted to another country or to Iraqi insurgents killing American troops.

That's because Bout is about as bad as bad guys get. For more than a decade before he landed on U.S. payrolls, Bout's air cargo operations delivered tons of contraband weapons -- ranging from rifles to helicopter gunships -- to some of the world's most dangerous misfits.

He stoked wars across Africa, supplying Charles Taylor, the deposed Liberian president now on trial for war crimes. He ferried $50 million in guns and other cargo, and he even sold air freighters to the Taliban, whose mullahs shared their lethal inventories with Al Qaeda's terrorists in Afghanistan.

Bout also has a well-known record for working both sides of the fence. His planes armed both the Angolan government in Africa and rebel forces arrayed against it. He cut weapons deals with Afghanistan's Northern Alliance government before betraying it by arming the Taliban.

By the late 1990s, much of this was known to U.S. intelligence, which had targeted him for an early form of rendition in the hopes of putting him out of business. But then, just two years after the 9/11 attacks, Bout turned up as a linchpin in the U.S. supply line to Iraq. Air Force records obtained by The Times show that his planes flew hundreds of runs into the high-security zone at Baghdad International Airport, delivering everything from guns to drilling equipment to frozen food for customers from the U.S. Army to mega-contractor KBR Inc. The military officials who oversaw his flights knew nothing about the war-stoking background of the Bout network.

How did Bout go from being persona non grata to a valued U.S. contractor? Some European intelligence officials believe that Bout made a deal with the U.S., secretly using his talents to aid the invasion of Afghanistan and getting a payday as an Iraq contractor. But there is also ample evidence that U.S. officials simply dropped the ball when it came to checking contractor bona fides as they rushed to set up supply lines into Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

Bout's planes were used as what former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz described as "second-tier contractors." The Army or the Army Corps of Engineers would hire KBR or other prime contractors to fly in supplies, and the firms would then hire Bout planes, either directly or through air charter services.

One problem was that although the companies had nominal responsibility to know the background of their hires, no one at the Pentagon seemed to share in that role. Department of Defense officials should have known about him -- even if U.S. intelligence didn't share its knowledge, there was plenty of public information available that should have soured the military on allowing him into Iraq under U.S. auspices. Defense officials could have circulated an informal "no fly" list to make sure that gunrunners like Bout were not hired. But "it was 'do it now, the fewer questions asked the better,' " said Air Force National Guard Lt. Col. Christopher Walker, who oversaw the air operations in Baghdad in 2004.

Once Bout's firms were hired, there also was no follow-up effort to learn more about their background and performance. There should have been spot-checks to scrutinize him, but oversight was nonexistent.

By the fall of 2004, however, Bout had been targeted by a Treasury Department freeze in assets, prompted by a United Nations' effort to use economic sanctions against Liberian dictator Taylor and his inner circle -- which included Bout. But weeding out Bout's contracts was not a pressing problem to the Defense Department -- even after he had become an official enemy of the U.S. government. ("We're talking about tens of thousands of contracts," said one Army official.)

Worse, as late as 2005, after Bout's nefarious background and his role in Iraq were publicly exposed, military officials pressured Treasury Department officials to hold off on sanctions against his business empire until he had finished a final run of supply flights to Iraq.

Defense officials now say they have tightened up procedures, but other government veterans who dealt with the Pentagon on the Bout affair remain dubious.

The Pentagon has provided few specifics about how it will scrutinize air transporters in the future. And without any congressional or public government inquiry into Bout's hiring, there is no pressure for it to do so.

One thing about the Bout affair is certain. As of mid-2006, his firms were no longer flying for the U.S. in Iraq. But now he poses a new problem: "blowback," the blunt term espionage writers like to use for the deadly consequences of poor spycraft.

When the U.S. turned to the Bout network to mount its Iraq supply flights, it was already clear that Bout's network had aided the Taliban's extremist mullahs. How could the U.S. be absolutely certain he wouldn't fly for our enemies once he had left the payroll?

We couldn't and, apparently, he is.

Last summer, a jumbo Il-76 flying the Khazakh flag swooped down to a landing in Mogadishu to unload arms for radical Islamic leaders who briefly seized control of Somalia. It was one of Bout's planes, concluded U.S. military intelligence officials.

Another bullet-point in a bad guy's resume.

Stephen Braun is a national correspondent for The Times and co-author with Douglas Farah of Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible.

The Exploitation of Quentin

From The Japan Times, August 16

Quentin Tarantino
A B-movie Badass
By GIOVANNI FAZIO



The Japanophile U.S. director talks about his love of trashy '70s cinema and why his latest film looks like it was put through a blender

Quentin Tarantino is back, and if you thought he had exorcised the spirit of exploitation cinema from his soul with the "Kill Bill" films, well, think again. His latest project is "Grindhouse," a double-feature homage to sleazy 1970s B-movies, which has him working with friend and fellow director Robert Rodriguez, each offering up a film.

"Grindhouse cinema" is a term that's been bandied about more frequently since the release of "Kill Bill." It refers to the run-down, seedy cinemas of the '70s, often located in dodgier parts of town, that showed nothing but exploitation flicks, from soft-core sleaze ("Valley of the Ultravixens") to sick-inducing splatter ("The Corpse Grinders"), blaxploitation ("Coffy") and sexploitation ("Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS"). The "grindhouse" nickname derived from the fact that many of these cinemas were striptease clubs in an earlier incarnation.

Tarantino's take on this period comes in the form of "Death Proof," a bad- girls-vs.-evil-stuntman car-chase flick that plays like some sort of mutant hybrid of '70s existential road-movie classic "Vanishing Point" and sleaze classic "Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!" Rodriguez, for his part, came up with "Planet Terror," a trashy zombie-splatter flick featuring a go-go dancer with a machinegun leg.

Both men are no strangers to exploitation cinema — see "From Dusk Till Dawn," for one — but what's different here is the obsessive, maniacal extent to which they attempt to duplicate the grindhouse cinema experience. Aside from the texture of the film itself — which literally screams '70s — the reels are deliberately scratched, stained, wobbly and otherwise messed up. There's even a "missing reel" in Rodriguez' film. And between the two films are some delightfully trashy (and fake) trailers by Eli Roth, Edgar Wright, Rob Zombie and Rodriguez that perfectly duplicate the cheap and over-the-top pleasures of the period.

Tarantino, in an interview with The Japan Times this month, discussed how the project came to be. "I have a really big print collection at home, and I have a really nice theater," says the director. "It's one of the things I did when I 'got rich.' That year I didn't make a movie, I made a movie theater. And so I have movie nights at my house where I show these really cool grindhouse movies and stuff. And Robert would come over, and he'd always have a really great time. And he said: 'Y'know, these movies are so much fun! We should do our own version of this. Let's give the world what it's like at movie night at Quentin's house.' So that's what we tried to do."

Tarantino, as legend had it, spent a lot of time slumming in East L.A. cinemas soaking up grindhouse. (Though he may have been one of the few people watching the movies — grindhouses were notorious for attracting dopers, dealers, whores, tricks, cruisers and the mentally infirm.) He recalls how, in those days, "We saw a lot of bad movies. I've never been of the 'so-bad-it's-good' school. Very rarely was it so bad it was good. You hoped for the best, and you bought your ticket, and then in 5 minutes you're like, 'Oh, yuck, Jesus f**king Christ!' . . . But then you go see Joe Dante's 'Piranha,' written by John Sayles, and all of a sudden, 'Hey! This is a good "Jaws" ripoff!' Back then it seemed really good because you weren't expecting it. Stephen King had a line about this, right on the money. He said, 'You gotta drink a lot of milk before you can appreciate cream.' And in the genre we're talking about, you gotta drink a lot of bad milk before you can appreciate milk."

"Death Proof" is actually a strange contribution to the grindhouse tradition. The film certainly captures the vibe, with tinny, warbly sound, scratchy film and title credits that look like they came out of Tarantino-favorite "Switchblade Sisters." It starts off appropriately prurient, too, with yet another example of Tarantino's foot-fetishism, as the camera prowls up the long, bare legs and midriff of Jungle Julia (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) in an incredibly hot shot. "Actually, one of the things I've always been rather proud of about me as a director and my handling of women, is that I've always been a gentleman," says Tarantino, "My girls are cool, and they look sexy, but I've always been a gentleman (pause.) I sent the gentleman home on this film (laughs.) You don't want to see a grindhouse movie made by a gentleman! You want to see it through the eyes of someone who's turned on by his women and who is presenting them in the sexiest way he considers possible."

As the film progresses, though, you feel like you've been dropped into a Richard Linklater ("Before Sunrise," "Slacker") movie, where the main attraction is lots and lots of cool talk. Radio DJ Jungle Julia and her homegirls — Butterfly (Vanessa Ferlito) and Shanna (Jordan Ladd) — hang out trying to score weed and pounding the tequila at Austin's Texas Chili Parlour while engaging in all sorts of foul-mouthed girl talk. ("She doesn't actually have a black girl's ass; she has a BIG ass!") One critic has suggested this is boy-talk put into the mouths of girls, and when this point is raised, Tarantino nearly leaps out of his chair: "I think he's full of s**t! He's got his head up his ass — that's totally not the case. That sounds more like a guy who doesn't know how young girls talk now! And is out-of-touch. I get the same s**t all the time from white critics complaining about my black dialogue, when they haven't had a black friend in f**king 10 years!"

After a good half hour of talk in "Death Proof," many grindhouse fans will be wondering when the mayhem is going to kick in (although B movies have a long history of padding out low-budgets with extended setups before the action). Finally, it does, with stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell), a scary stalker in a black Dodge Charger, setting a trap for the girls. After 5 minutes of the old ultraviolence, the whole thing starts over again, with four different "bad girls" — including Uma Thurman's stunt double, Zoe Bell — who also run into madman Mike, this time culminating in an impressive CG-free car chase, with Bell holding onto the hood of a Dodge Challenger for dear life.

It's a strange blend of stasis and stunts, languor and lickety-spit auto-racing. Tarantino notes, however, that all his films play with expectations. "I definitely have a fondness for genre (films)," says the director. "But I'm doing my own wacky version of them. I play by the rules when I want to, but I break them when I need to."

Perhaps the most mystifying quality of "Grindhouse," especially for viewers under 30, is the ragged quality of the print. Tarantino explains: "The distributors (back then) had very little money; maybe they'd make three prints, maybe five. And they would go into each individual market, one by one, over the course of a year, and these same three prints were playing at the worst theaters, in the worst projectors in America. So by the time the film stumbled into your town, you had no idea what you were gonna see. The print could be spaghetti by that time. It's beatup, there are jump cuts in it, reels could be missing or faded or out of order, maybe a projectionist sees a nude scene he likes and snips it out for his own collection."

These effects are duly imitated in "Death Proof." As to how Tarantino achieved them, he says very little, except that they are not CG and the film was physically scratched up and beaten against bushes. "We even did a thing that was kind of cool," explains Tarantino. "We'd go to a metal rail that was outside and just wrap (the film) around it and — ftchooosh!"

Japan is fortunate in that viewers here will get to see the full double-feature — with the awesome trailers — for a week, before the films go on to play separately. In other markets, not-so-confident distributors opened "Death Proof" and "Planet Terror" separately. Tarantino is happy with both versions but notes that for "Grindhouse," "me and Robert had to cut our films to the bone, past the bone, to make it work for the whole double-feature experience. It's interesting to be in that situation and see if your movie can still survive, and it did." But the full-length version of "Death Proof" is 30 minutes longer, while "Planet Terror" gains another 15.

Quentin's clearly a Japanophile; he has been coming here for 16 years, since the release of "Reservoir Dogs," and if "Kill Bill" wasn't evidence enough of his J-cinema obsession, he's got a cameo in shock-cinema director Takashi Miike's "Sukiyaki Western (Django)."

But aside from cinema, the director clearly has an attraction to all things Japanese. "I love the city of Tokyo, I like the Japanese nightlife scene, I have a lot of friends here, and I feel very comfortable with the Japanese. I feel like I was Japanese in another life, if not a few other lives."

On cinema, he adds: "It's not just samurai films that I like — Ishiro Honda ('Gojira') is my favorite science-fiction director." Tarantino name-drops yakuza films and J-horror before turning to what really turns him on. "I even like — in fact, I'm quite enamored with — the whole Nikkatsu (studio) roman poruno thing ('70s, big-budget adult movies). I almost can't believe that that existed in cinema! The way they did it in the '70s, where they're real movies with real actors. The woman who played the proprietor in "Kill Bill" (Yuki Kazamatsuri), she was a roman poruno actress. I saw a couple of her films and I thought they were fantastic! Even the fact that the genitals were blurred out actually made it work even more!"

So, is a homage to roman poruno in the cards? Tarantino's not saying, but if he does try it, it's a safe bet the gentleman will stay at home for that one too.

Political Learnings of Kazakhstan for Make Benefit the Big Oil Fields

After the fictional journalist Borat Sagdiyev, the "glorious nation" of Kazakhstan is particularly known (and prized) for its three huge oil fields: Tengiz, Kashagan dan Karachaganak.

The Tengiz is a big onshore oil field, one of the biggest in the world, now developed by a consortium of energy companies led by Chevron Texaco of the United States. Its proven oil reserve is 6 to 9 billion barrels. It is a United States and Kazakh joint venture, although Russia's Lukoil holds 5 percent in the project.

The Kashagan, the biggest oil field discovery in 30 years, lies in the Kazakh territory of the Caspian sea, holding 7 to 9 billion barrels of oil. It is in the news today. It is reported that a major operator of the filed, Eni SpA of Italy may lose its control of the project, because the Kazakh government "is very disappointed" with the delays and cost overruns.

Some say the Kazakh government may demand bigger share in the profits. Eni, Exxon Mobil, Royal Ducth Shell and Total each holds 18.52 percent of the project. It is projected to produce 3 million barrels per day by 2015.

The Karachaganak contains mostly gas and is being developed by a consortium of major oil companies. It holds 2.4 billion barrels of oil and 28 trillion cubic feet of gas. It is developed by British Gas (32.5 percent), Eni (32.5 percent), Chevron (20 percent) and Lukoil (15 percent).

In addition to the three oil fields, another major joint venture project in Kazakhstan is the Caspian Pipeline Consortium from Tengiz to Novorossiik on the Black Sea.

Because of its huge energy reserves, Kazakhstan is courted by both the West and Russia. Perhaps it was no coincidence that Russia was the only country other than Kazakhstan that banned the film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make benefit the Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan for political reasons.

The New Great Game

Rusia, China realisasikan 'Nato Timur'

SCO sering disebut media Barat sebagai "Nato Timur," tetapi sebenarnya gelaran itu lebih tepat diberikan kepada CSTO yang bersifat kumpulan pertahanan kolektif (dan mempunyai simbol hampir serupa dengan Nato), walaupun SCO lebih berprofil tinggi dan lebih banyak mengeluarkan simbol-simbol persaingan kepada Pertubuhan Perjanjian Atlantik Utara, Nato.

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World Watch: Perubahan Rejim?

Presiden Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf mungkin sedang hampir kehabisan cip untuk tawar-menawar, setelah masalah datang bertimpa-timpa.

Berdasarkan perkembangan terkini, daripada projek saluran tenaga dari Iran ke India yang ditentang Washington, kepada kerjasama nuklear negara pesaing India dengan Amerika Syarikat, nampaknya Musharraf semakin tidak diminati pentadbiran Bush.

Mungkin satu tawar-menawar besar-besaran diperlukan, untuk mengekalkan kuasa.

Rebranding untuk Kelihatan Lebih Cool

Satu momen yang mentakrifkan, barangkali, dalam budaya popular Malaysia, apabila Mawi mula bercakap tentang Darfur, menyertai aktivisme "isu-isu penting" sejagat.

"Assalamualaikum dan salam sejahtera. Penderitaan yang ditanggung mangsa peperangan di Darfur, Sudan mendapat perhatian masyarakat dunia. Berdasarkan perangkaan Pertubuhan Bangsa Bersatu (PBB), lebih dua juta rakyat negara itu menjadi pelarian dan hampir 200,000 lagi terkorban," kata Mawi.

Watch this space!


Link: 1. Kolum Mawi 2. Berita di akhbar Metro

World Watch: Peace Mission 2007

The second Peace Mission war games is sceduled to run from 9 to 17 this month. First carried out in 2005, this exercise will involve all six members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

The drill will be held in both China and Russia's territory. According to the S.C.O., this is an anti-terorrism exercise.

According to news reports, around 6,500 troops and 80 aircrafts will take part in the war games.

The S.C.O. summit will be held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on August 16. It will be an event very rich in symbols. Leaders of the S.C.O. members will watch the conclusion of the exercise the next day.

Politicians Showing Cojones

1. Obama plans to attack Pakistan
2. Russia claims Arctic territory
3. Abe won't quit