The Courier

© Hegel Goutier

The special report in this issue of the new Courier series examines from various perspectives the growing attraction of the African continent’s energy resources at a time when the whole world fears for the future of energy supplies, and even for the survival of planet Earth in the centuries, if not the decades, to come. The African continent’s energy resources, both in fossil fuels such as oil or nuclear fuel, and renewable energies, are vast and will contribute to the continent becoming the focus of many and varied interests.

The ACP countries of the Caribbean and the Pacific regions are not to be ignored, although the issue affects them on a smaller scale. Timor Leste, a small country in Southeast Asia, is the subject of an in-depth Courier report for the first time. Its oil reserves have attracted considerable interest, and in the years to come will probably play a part in Timor Leste’s co-operation with the European Union, given the EU’s decision to make the fight against climate change and the management of energy resources a priority in its development policy.

Timor Leste is a country whose recent history has been a rather sad tale. It remains largely unknown. Since gaining independence in 2002, Timor Leste has rarely been the focus of attention of the world’s press, that is, during the upheavals that left many people displaced but resulted in relatively few deaths. Its assets are remarkable, beginning with its geo-strategic position between Asia’s current and future dominant powers, a relatively healthy, well-managed state sector, no foreign debt, oil, and particularly the management of its reserves, the transparency of which is more often compared to that of Norway than to that of countries where hardship and poverty are frequently in direct and stark contrast with their natural wealth.

Another small country comes under the spotlight in this issue of the Courier. Slovenia, a country on the other side of the co-operation equation, is in a class of its own. It is the first country of the former Yugoslav federation to emerge from the post-Soviet turmoil and upheaval and become a member of the European Union, and the first of the 10 new Member States of 2004 to gain access to the euro-zone. At the beginning of 2008, Slovenia will become the first of these ten to accede to the presidency of the European Union. It will be called upon to guide and set the tone for relations between the European Union and the ACP countries during the crucial period of the implementation of the next five-year tranche of European development financing. But above all, Slovenia will be required to manage the launching of the economic partnership agreements between the African, Caribbean and Pacific regions and the EU, or to oversee the remaining difficulties of the negotiations.

One of our readers has asked whether the Courier is a publication that only covers the success stories of the ACP countries and their co-operation with Europe, in other words, if it is just a good-news magazine. The answer, quite simply, is that the Courier covers both good and bad-news. Timor Leste, for example, is not yet completely free of its woes; United Nations forces are still stationed there to prevent further trouble. Slovenia, on the other hand, has not yet caught up with the old countries of the European Union.

Nothing is perfect. However, is this a reason to be drawn into exaggerations in the media, as in so many other aspects of life? The Courier refuses “fatal strategies” of exaggeration identified and denounced by Jean Baudrillard, which neglect to present the positive side-by-side with the negative, and lead to destruction through excess where what is sought is truer than true, more real than real, uglier than ugly, what is more sensational than sensational, and mimic, but without the underlying humour, the pithy maxim of the celebrated 19th century actress, Marie Duval: “Je ne suis pas belle, je suis pire” (I am not just beautiful, I am worse than beautiful).*

*  Jean Baudrillard "Les stratégies fatales" ED Grasset & Fasquelle 1983