Another Perspective

As we know, all reporters, bloggers, and humans innately have a bias.  Usually in for my classes when articles are involved, I attempt to keep them as unbiased as possible.  Or if that is not the case, I note the obvious bias.  But this morning I came across a writer/blogger who is so one sided I caught my breath.  The article I stumbled upon was in regard to the bailouts and rescues worldwide.  This individual expressed such disdain for the western European countries and the United States I was in awe.  Yet I decided that it was intriguing to see a world issue from such a strongly opinionated person.  Although I may not agree, it was good to get a sense of how other people see our world today.  So take a look at Paul Adujie and his views on the world!

EU and Africa

This Monday and Tuesday (December 29-30) there is a summit being held in Tripoli, Libyan with an underlying focus on free trade agreements.  In short, the European Union wants its former colonies in Africa's five regional groups to "open their doors to European goods and services in return for duty-free access to European consumer and commodities markets" but so far none of Africa's regions have complied (Brussels).  African leaders are very fearful of these advances being made by the European Union, and they should be.  Once an Economic Partnership Agreement has been made, the European Union will undoubtedly "swamp [Africa's] states with European goods and services" (Brussels).  This in turn will essentially decimate any of Africa's growing local history.  Additionally, according to the article it appears as though the European Union wants to take over Africa.  For a continent that was once under European colonial 'dictatorships' these requests may seem daunting.  And African leaders have expressed that to the European Union.  If these agreement talks continue to fail, leaders claim that their countries may have to stop the Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations.  I think that if Europe wants to gain any type of connections with Africa, their best bet is to tone down their overly ambitious demands.  If they do not, they are going to lose any security Africa may have left in the European Union.

The UN Discusses Human Development

I found this article from the BBC regarding the progress, or lack there of, of human development globally.  The article itself is not very dense, but the 9 charts at the bottom of the article are worth looking at.  They show Africa’s progression between it main regions, but also amongst the world.  It illustrates that Northern Africa is overall doing much better than the rest of the continent, and also quite better than its surrounding continents.  Take a look!

Somalia's Government Under Attack!

The Al-Shabaab is a militant group that is at odds with the government in Somalia.  The rebel group, Al-Shabaab has been pushing the Somalia’s government to impose sharia within the country.  Sharia, is in its simplest terms, a stricter form of Islamic law.  When the conflict began months ago, everyone thought that the Al-Shabaab group held little to no threat to the western government of Somalia.  But recently this group has directly attacked government officials and the violence has gotten worse.  Al-Shabaab leaders say that they will stop at nothing to get what they want in their country.  These fighters have been linked to Al-Qaeda.  They have implemented scare tactics that include mass killings, both within and outside of the Somalia’s borders.  Keeping the citizens of Somalia in a state of terror if a key factor as well.  The Al-Shabaab has begun to accuse uninvolved citizens of being a spy for the Somalia government.  This tension and war between Somalia’s government and Al-Shabaab has recently escalated so greatly that it is quickly becoming a humanitarian crisis.  The Al-Shabaab has now been listed as a terrorist organization.  Due to the escalating violence, the African Union has stepped in with peacekeeping soldiers primarily from Uganda and Burundi.  The Al-Shabaab has responded with plots for revenge attacks in the capital cities in Uganda and Burundi unless they withdraw from Somalia.  If they withdraw, this leaves the already weaken Transitional Federal Government of Somalia utterly helpless to the attacks from the Al-Shabaab.  What can be done to salvage this developing nation and diminish the Al-Shabaab?

What really agitates me though is that a religious group is using violence to fight for their religion.  I know that this happens all across history, yet it still baffles me.  Is that really what your God wants…?

Public execution article