YOU could not find a hotel room in central Berlin, Germany, on June 3 2000 even if you were one of the original three Wise Men from the East. The place was awash with journalists, diplomats, bureaucrats, activists and the attendant blue-lights and bodyguards. We were all there to listen to South Africa‘s president, Thabo Mbeki, and 13 other left-leaning world leaders as they tried to flesh out their idea of a “Third Way” in world affairs. They were young — they included Britain‘s Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President Bill Clinton — and they had dreams of a more humane, more generous, more open, more compassionate and collaborative world in which the poor and marginalised had a place at the top table. Mbeki spoke of shared values and the need to put those values into practice. “There‘s a value system which is common among us. There are certain things that we‘re pursuing that need to be achieved. There‘s a globalisation process taking place and therefore the international system ...
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