Australia votes for marriage equality
The Catalan crisis
The Military Coup in Zimbabwe
Robert Mugabe, the controversial 93 years old president of Zimbabwe is facing challenges from his own military. Mr Mugabe has been ruling Zimbabwe in one form or another from the 1980s. Robert Mugabe, much like many of his contemporary revolutionaries fought the battle against segregation, discrimination for the welfare of the society. Much similar to them, once he succeeded in gaining the power, he didn’t know how to create a system which will ensure welfare for all and doesn’t depend on him. The longer he stayed in power, the more he didn’t want to relinquish it. This results in charges of corruption, misappropriation, nepotism amongst many. Mr Mugabe is no different. He wants to hand over power to his wife Grace Mugabe, who had famously claimed that even Robert Mugabe’s corpse will win elections in Zimbabwe. Power got from the people was never given back to the people.
After watching this unfold for years, the military finally has taken matters into their own hands. They have captured power, arrested some of Robert Mugabe’s aides. Mr Mugabe has been under house arrest. There is still no clarity on Grace Mugabe. However, from the initial messages, it looks like the military is maintaining respect for Mr Mugabe and wants to give him a clean exit. Will Robert Mugabe accept this transition? It is still unclear what this means to the future of Zimbabwe. Are we going to see a military rule for the next few decades? Are we going to see a smooth transition to a more free and fair democracy? We don’t know yet. We have to watch over the next few weeks. What is clear now is, most people in Zimbabwe seem to feel positive about this latest military coup.
High profile Sexual assaults
I have never been a big fan of Hollywood, at least the A-Listers over there. However, I feel Hollywood has now started a trend of exposing high profile sexual abuse cases. I do not want to use the word scandal as it affects the victims. After Harvey Weinstein and CK Louise, we have had an avalanche of new cases coming out, This week we have seen women coming out against George HW Bush, Roy Moore and finally, Senator Al Franken Victims are slowly getting more courage to face the situation. I wish this snowballs and the people finally pick up the courage to impeach the Groper-In-Chief at the White House.
There are a couple of other points which have gotten highlighted through these scandals.
- Sexual abuse is pervasive and is bi-partisan. While Harvey Weinstein is a big Democrat donor, Al Franken is a democratic senator.
- The hypocrisy of the right and the conservative media is extremely apparent. Apart from a few Republicans, the rest of them as still behind Roy Morre the Child Sex Predator who is contesting for Senate seat in Alabama. The pro-marriage, anti-abortion family man has been after minor girls while he was in his 30s. The progressive left has distanced themselves from their predators while the right wants to elect them to the government. Steve Bannon wants to project the cases against Roy Moore as a Jeff Bezos-Washington Post conspiracy.
I sincerely hope more women come out in the open and everyone supports them to take the stigma out of the society. If anything the abusers should be stigmatised, instead, they are getting elected.
The 31st ASEAN Summit
Founded in 1967, ASEAN stands for The Association of Southeast Asian Nations. It is a 10-member bloc with a combined GDP of $2.4 trillion and a land mass covering more than 1.7 million square miles. The ASEAN summit has been happening twice a year since 2009, discussing trade, national security, health and climate-related issues. The most notable countries who haven’t been given membership are East Timor and Taiwan. East Timor has been excluded under the pressure of Indonesia and Malaysia. Taiwan is not included in the fear of China. The 31st ASEAN summit was held in Manila,
The 31st ASEAN summit was held in Manila, Philippines from 10–14 November. It was attended by leaders from all over the world. It looks like a congregation of human rights violators. The list which has Aung San Suu Kyi, Rodrigo Duterte, Li Keqiang, Shinzo Abe, Narendra Modi and last but definitely not the least Donald Trump.
One might wonder why ASEAN is important for non-ASEAN countries. ASEAN is important predominantly for trade and national security reasons. Good worth trillions of dollars pass through the disputed South China Sea every year. It is important for everyone to be part of these negotiations. The collaboration of the ASEAN countries is key to prevent illegal trafficking of people and resources. Further, ASEAN GDP is the 6th in the world. No country wants to miss out such an opportunity.
The Yemen Crisis deepens
One of the biggest humanitarian crisis of our generation is happening in Yemen with contribution from every nation. Even the silence of the world leaders is killing innocents in Yemen. Before the civil war, 90% of Yemen’s food requirements were imported. Saudi Arabia has blocked all imports to Yemen, leaving the country with a shortage of medicines and food. Young children are affected the most. The United Nations is calling this one of the worst famine in decades. The lust for oil from Saudi has made the world leaders continue to arm them. These arms are being used against civilians in Yemen. Not many know that the US forces are teaming up with Al-Qaeda and Saudi Arabian army to fight the Houthis. This is not the state that the human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman would have imagined for her country in 2011 Arab Springs.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=57380#.WhCICLZg3Up
Gun Crime continued
The tryst with firearms in the United States is something that I am unable to understand. The NRA is the best in creating a market through propaganda, lobbying/bribing and fake news. After the mass shooting in Las Vegas and the Sutherland Springs, Texas, this week we had two more incidents. One was a freak incident where a person showing off his guns in a discussion about the Sutherland Springs shooting accidentally shot two people. The second was a more serious one, where a lunatic went on a shooting spree before entering a school campus. Thankfully the school authorities immediately locked down the school to prevent deaths of many more innocent lives. The shocking commonalities in all these threads are blatantly disturbing.
- The perpetrators have mental issues and family problems
- They were allowed to purchase semi-automatic weapons and supplements which make them worse.
- They take their personal frustrations on the society
- The Democrats talk about gun-control and no action
- The Republicans talk about prayer and solidarity
- NRA advertises the need to have more guns to prevent such gun crimes
- The rest of the country braces itself for the next attack
Is there anyone genuinely interested in resolving this? From Bernie Sanders to Elizabeth Warren, senators only talk about sensible gun control. No one ever talks about addressing the need to have guns. Why do civilians need a gun, can we address that first?
Demystifying a skeptic's world 