Inside World Politics

Image Source: awm.gov.au

Last Tuesday, Europe remembered the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War. A handful of veteran survivors attended at the vanguard of commemorations for the fallen soldiers. It is interesting to observe that the leaders of the nations that fought each other during the war are now allies, and stand side by side to pay their respects to the victims of the war and gathered at the site of the Battle of Verdun in 1916. 300 thousand people were slaughtered during that battle. The French president spoke at the village of Douaumont where lies the thousands of those killed in the battle. He spoke of the need to honor and respect all that had died without exceptions. Also, small memorials were held in smaller towns across France, Britain and other countries.

Image Source:iasociety.org

President Bush announce just last week that the United States is repealing visa requirements for the citizens of some European countires and South Korea, as part of a move to do away with the source of contention among allied nations. The six countries are Estonia, Latvia, Hungary, Lithuania, Czech Republic and Slovakia. These countries allows US citizens to come to their countries without visas. It got mixed feedbacks from Americans, Fearing it would make it easy for terrorists to smuggle themselves in the country. It is very vulnerable to exploitation by the enemies. Adding that the Homeland Security Department has no system to monitor those who enter. The countries included in the program are taking measures to come up with tamper proof passports, using biometrics so it will be hard to forge. These seven countries agreed to share information about security threats so as to improve security over the nation.

We all know about stars like Barbra Streisand and Jane Fonda actively campaigning for their favored political parties, but this year’s presidential campaign will probably go down in history as having the most celebrity participation of all time. From Oprah (who unarguably holds a lot of clout for her daily viewers) to Samuel L. Jackson, Hollywood certainly seems to love Barack Obama. And now comes a music video by will.i.am, singer of The Black Eye Peas, “Yes We Can” and “We are the Ones” that are based on Obama’s speeches.

Originally released in YouTube and Dipdive.com, the songs feature cameos by several celebrities who support Barack Obama. “Yes We Can” even won an Emmy for Best New Approaches in Daytime Entertainment, and won a Webby Award for will.i.am as “Artist of the Year”. It is now being promoted as a viral video on Obama’s campaign website. You can check out more about the songs in Wikipedia.

image source: www.travelblog.org

The current Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has made some huge political blunders both internally and internationally such as bringing Thailand close to fighting with Cambodia over the border line surrounding the Preah Vihear temple which was settled in 1962 by the World Court. The Thai People always felt cheated about this and PM Samak had “solved” the problem in a one day meeting with the Cambodian leader about six months ago. There has been a military build up on the border near this temple in the last few months…
So … between the conviction and some actions and decisions that are not particularly cared for by the general population many Thai People are not happy with the current Prime Minister. The opposition party is staging protests and has been for the past 3 or more months. Peaceful protesting is a healthy expression of democracy, when the government allows people to express themselves in the open. The protests became unhealthy last week. The protesters were met with a rival group of “anti”-protesters supporting the current government. The two groups clashed and resulted in a death and over 40 injured people. The clash led to a “state of emergency” declaration by the government causing concern for the situation throughout the world.

To go Kazakhstan Pope John Paul II has risked a lot not least his health at the age 81, to plead the case of peace. He did it with so much unusual force, at a mass attended mostly by Muslims, asking Americans for restraint in their response to the terrorism, and telling the Islamic world that there is no such thing as a holy war.

President Bush’s alleged unilateralism is at the heart of European-American disagreements and conventional wisdom expresses disenchantment. The principal difference between the two sides of the Atlantic is that America is still a traditional nation-state whose people respond to calls for sacrifices on behalf of a much wider definition of the national interest than Europe’s definition. But it will become apparent soon after the change of administrations.

France’ President in response to the protests of French fishermen against the rising prices of crude oil has proposed the cutting of fuel taxes in Europe. He urged the EU to put on hold part of the VAT on fuel to deal with oil prices that have risen continually in the past weeks. The fishermen have blocked ports in France to rally against rising fuel prices. The protest was planned to reach neighboring countries. The President had said that the country can adopt some measures on its own to offset the effect of higher crude oil prices but declared that any decision to lower the value-added tax must be European.

In a briefing to the Australian Defense Minister there were claims that the TV and Radio personality, Tania Zaetta, had sex with Afghanistan soldiers. The Ministry is trying to determine how the report was leaked to the press. The document prepared to brief the Minister about this alleged indiscretion contained the names of people involved but was withdrawn immediately by the Ministry because of privacy concerns. The unauthorized disclosure had shown a breakdown in the process of dealing with highly confidential matters and there is an immediate need to take steps to prevent it happening again. A review in the process of information distribution should be done.

The local war that has plagued Sri Lanka for the past 25 years has brought it to the point of economic collapse and the government is using a carrot and stick strategy to deal with it. Domestic terrorism carried out by the Tamil Tigers has somewhat been contained by trying to convince the Tamil population not to support the terrorists group’s agenda of establishing an independent state in the northern and eastern part of the country. Previously, the group had shelved its demand for a separate state and consented to a form of local sovereignty but the failure of the peace talks between the group and the government widened the discord between them.

Political analysts have said that Kuwait’s new government is not likely to bring about the long-overdue economic changes because its power balance is practically the same. There has no change as far as economic reform and privatization of industries is involved. The privatization bill allowing foreign companies to invest in and develop oil fields had been put on hold by parliament since 1992 and no new development is seen to change this scenario, as seen by the non-appointment of a permanent oil minister since June. Incoming investment is hindered by strict labor policies, too much red tapes and very limited access to land.