Anyway, blog morale is still running low, hence the measly one post last week, so today I've decided to write a summary on a few things that interested me last week. Whilst asleep last night I dreamt of a fantastic idea for a post, but like all good dreams by the morning it was forgotten. So, apologies in advance for the lacklustre content, but I'll do the best I can with what I've got.
On Monday morning I was taken aback by the scenes of London on the weekend and the mass rally against public spending cuts, apparently the biggest protest since the Iraq war in 2003. What strikes me as the biggest outrage is the governments plans to privatise the NHS. Does Cameron not realise that the British NHS system is the envy of the world? It's a system that many countries strive towards and a system that many countries would do anything for. After living in a country where free public heath isn't readily available, I've realised the NHS is an indispensable necessity. Good health should be available to everybody, not just the fortunate. However, it has been reported that Cameron is due to make a U-turn this week on his plans in order to salvage the Tory's image. He's going to need a good PR campaign for this one, I have a funny feeling the damage has already been done. Honeymoon period, over.
Monday = British unrest.
The majority of the rest of the week has been dominated by Middle East anarchy. The domino effect of Middle Eastern protests is gradually spreading eastwards and protest rallies have now been seen in a large number of countries situated within the Middle East. But why are they protesting? Many of these countries are riddled with corruption and injustice. The situation within these countries has been contained within a boiling pot, brewing for many years needing just one catalyst to induce explosion, in the case of Libya, that catalyst was an uprising against Colonel Gaddafi. As we have seen over the past few months, this catalyst in many other countries has simply been the rumblings in neighbouring countries. People power in one country has rubbed of on the citizens in another and is gradually whipping out Middle Eastern leaders. Some of these leaders have been in power for over 20/30 year, allowing the country to grow stale. Since 2010 political unsettling has touched 12 out of the 18 countries within the Traditional Middle East, and that isn't including the ongoing situation within Israel and the Gaza strip. Often what all of these countries have in common are high poverty rates, low rates of literacy, a young population with high youth unemployment. According to the corruption index as mentioned on the BBC news websites all of these factors combined with the corruption ranking equates to an unrest index, a high unrest index results in protests.
Monday - Friday = Middle East unrest
Eruptions were also seen in the African country of Ivory Coast this week International calls for the African leader, Laurent Gbagbo to step down have been ignored and fighting within the country has turned into a massacre. The question on everyone's lips is, is greater international intervention need? The UN has been urging Gdagdo to cease power and UN soldiers are already stationed in the country, but is this enough? This weekend French soldiers took over parts of the UN mission, but the country is already feeling stretched with its leadership in Libya, so its hard to say to what extent it can contribute in the Ivory Coast.
This weekend - Ivory Coast unrest
So it seems it' was a pretty shaky week across the globe, and I expect that this week will be much the same, but I hope that next time I'll have something a bit more positive to write about.
Fingers crossed!
