Farr,+Aidan

Burma Elections = Farce
Elections to be held shortly in Burma (Myanmar), have resulted in accusations of gross violations of human rights and a complete standstill in US-Burma relations, says a news article published earlier today. The elections, the first in twenty years, will be structured so that exactly no one other than the current ruling party can win, as all opposition parties are banned from running, as are all members of religious orders.

Let me see. Whats the term for see previous citation. Oh yeah. IBID. Only look at my previous opinion. Burma is going to take one step to far some day, and the civilized world is going to fall on it like a less-than-proverbial ton of bricks. Very well armed, very angry bricks. They have to realize that what they are doing is wrong, and is fueld by jealousy and greed. So why not stop?

I used BBC and CBC for this CE. CBC's article was terrible. It just used the event in question as a segway into refugee rights. BBC contained some actual information, but it was kind of short, and need to be fleshed out. I also don't like how BBC treats each sentence like a paragraph. However, BBC coverage was much better.

South Africa Reports Seizure of Banned N. Korea Weapons
The forign ministry of South Africa reported Friday that they had seized a shipload of weapons from a congan ship bound for North Korea. Hidden among sacks or rice were parts for T-55 tanks (see inset)and T-54 tanks, gun sights and other weapons valued at 750,000 dollars. These parts violate a UN ban on North Korea buying or selling weapons.

In my opinion, North Korea needs to realize that it is brining about its own destruction. I mean, honestly, how long will it take before the UN starts enforcing its bans by banning the passage of transport vessels into North Korea. Then, stripped of international products, the government would bite the dust and be replaced by one of a more... agreeable nature.

For this I used BBC and [|The Wall Street Journal] I thought that The Journal provided much better coverage. For one thing, BBC just talked about t-55 tanks. Also, it provided no monetary figure. The Journal also goes into more depth on the background than the BBC.

P.S. Period Five prosecution, post your sources for mocktrial (in MLA format) [|here]

Upfront, I admit that this is extra-topical by some 1000 miles at least. However, this sad event deserves our recognition.

At approximately one o'clock our time today, Georgian Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili had died of wounds taken in a training accident. One of seven Georgians participating in the Winter Olympics, Kumaritashvili's death has cast a shadow over the opening ceremony of the event. It has also left spectators and participants alike wondering if the luge will be included in this years Olympics. Also potentially on the chopping block are bobsledding and skeleton, which happen on the same track, known to be one of the fastest and most dangerous in the world. Ironicaly, British skeleton slider told the BBC "I just hope Whistler is safe and that there aren't too many crashes and serious injuries." only a very short while before Kumaritashvili's crash. The now six-member Georgian team has confirmed that they will march in tonight's opening ceremony.

This is a tragic event, that a young life should be snuffed out on the eve of such a great convening of sportsmen. I extend my condolences to the family and friends of Nodar Kumaritashvili, and to his teammates. Nodar Kumaritashvili, requiescat in pace et in amore. Rest in peace and love.

For this CE, I used BBC and CNN. I thought that the CNN article was much better than the BBC article as it did not try to explain what other people thought, but simply told what hapened and that the Olympic comitee thinks about the crash. Also, CNN included a video of the crash instead of the news conference that was shown on the BBC website.

Senegal School Rape Prompts Change
Teen-aged school girls in Senegal are starting to find an unusual punishment applied if they don't learn the day's lesson. In Senegalese Koranic schools, the teacher often lives close to the classroom. Girls who do not learn what they are supposed to are sent to the teacher's bedroom. After all the other students have gone' the girl in question is raped. Also, many families decide to conceal this fact from the world, somehow believing that it protects the daughter. The Senegalese government hasfinally gotten involved and is both trying to up the penalty for rape and also create legislation allowing civil groups to prosecute rapists where parents are not willing to so. This legislation would also allow parents to be prosecuted for not coming forward about their daughter's rape.

The legislation is a good thing, but the fact that it is necessary is terrible. I can not imagine trying to learn in an environment that used sex as a punishment for not doing your work. What is worse, though, is that the parents of these girls never said anything. To me, that is completely incomprehensible that a parent would do that. If I were a parent in this situation, I would be doing everything possible to get the idiot teacher who raped my daughter locked up for the better part of a century.

I used the sources BBC and Graphic Ghana, which were all but identical. The BBC includes Aids figures and words its statistics differently. Also, the BBC includes more information about the new laws that hope to allow the prosecution of parents. Thearticles were identical in all other respects.

Captain Camara (Guinea) Shot
Reports came in early today that the leader of the ruling junta in Guinea, Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara, was flown to Morocco for medical treatment following an attempted assassination. The would-be assassin, a former aide of the Captain, has fled. Government officials maintain that Camara suffered nothing more than a graze from the bullet that is rumored to have hit his head. They say he is walking and speaking normally. However, outside analysts point out that Camara has shown fear for the security of his office and so would not leave the country unless it was a matter of life and death. Other sources point to the fact that a team of Senegalese doctors was flown in to treat Camara. Rumors exist that say that the attempted assassination was done as revenge for the recent massacre of protesters during an opposition rally. Morocco has said that it will allow Camara to be treated and will make no move to arrest him, despite possible human rights violations.

I think that Morocco should be mobilizing a very big SWAT team right now so as to contain Camara and get a real answer about the massacre. After obtaining the answer, the Moroccan government should hold Camara prisoner, allowing him all contact he desires, until such point as elections are successfully conducted in Guinea, without Camara’s presence. This would simply be helping him to stay true to a vow he made after taking power, which said that he would hold office only until the next election, which he would not run in.

I used [|BBC] and [|Sierra Express Media (SEM)] as my sources. I was surprised to notice that these were the only two news agencies that had this story that my search turned up. However, they were pretty much the same in their coverage of the headline. After that, they split, the BBC article moving into more information about the search for the shooter. The SEM article summarized Guinea’s recent history.

Free Speech at World Cup?
Journalists in South Africa have recently been complaining about FIFA regulations that say that their accreditation may be withdrawn if they write anything criticizing FIFA or local organizing comities. Journalists say that this means they will not be able to write what they think about the Cup. While FIFA says that this is not the case at all, they have refused to schedule meetings that would allow journalists to clarify the meaning of the restrictions.

My only reaction to this is “remind me why I care”. Do I give a sh** if they screwed up the organization of the event? No, I care about the football.

I looked at the [|BBC] and [|Modern Ghana (MG)]. In essence, they were the same article. Actually, the MG article said “Source: BBC- BBC News” the only difference was that the BBC article was slightly longer.

A Dose of Common Sense
Thousands of Egyptian football fans (real football not American football) clashed with police outside the Algerian embassy to Egypt early Friday morning, following reports that Egyptian fans were attacked following a 2-0 Algerian loss during a FIFA qualifying match. Egypt has also recalled its ambassador to Algiers, saying that an Egyptian plane was refused permission to land. The plane was sent to evacuate Egyptian Nationals who have reported being harassed by Algerian fans. FIFA has started disciplinary hearings against the Egyptian Football Association following the stoning of the Algerian team bus before the match. Three players were injured.

If I were totally in charge of the world, I would suspend soccer privileges to all persons living in Egypt or Algiers as punishment for the sheer stupidity of this event. No sport should stir this much passion in anyone, and anyone who lets one sport stir this much passion should be severely punished. Also, both countries need to calm down. Egypt, and possibly Algeria, have been starting to take steps that usually directly precede war (withdrawing diplomatic missions and evacuating citizens) and this needs to stop. War is bad, full stop. War because of a sport is downright embarrassing.

I used BBC and CNN to do this article. Frankly, the Brits were better. Again. Although the BBC article took a definite shine to the Egyptian point of view, this made it easier to follow. Also, it had more information and said its information much more clearly. For example, CNN used the term "39 security forces". Just what is a "security forces" and why use the plural? BBC simply used the universal term riot police. Also, the BBC video was significantly more explanatory than the picture given with the CNN article.

South Africa: License to Kill?
South African President Jacob Zuma issued a statement today reminding police that while they should crackdown on South Africa’s average of fifty murders daily. He said that while police need to reduce crime prior to the 2010 world cup, they should be careful to act within the law, which does not give them a “license to kill”. The statement came following the murder of a toddler, shot by a police officer who thought he had a firearm. The boy was three, and police say that no item that could be construed to resemble a firearm had been recovered from the vehicle the boy was in at the time.

While I recognize that South African crime is rampant and police need to get it under control, they should also avoid using terminal force. For one, the victim may be innocent. Also, they are trying to clean up prior to the 2010 world cup. However, tourists might not come if they thought the police force was trigger happy and inclined to shoot people for petty crime. While this is false, I can easily see this becoming an international rumor that would destroy South Africa’s international reputation and result in record low attendance of the World Cup. In short, the police force should have used common sense to prevent the necessity of this statement.

I looked at the BBC and Reuters for this current event. Plainly put, the Reuters coverage was exponentially better. For one, Reuters included information on the vehicular possessions of the South African police (“South Africa is boosting the size of its police force of 183,000. Its arsenal includes 200 revamped armoured vehicles, 100 high-performance cars for road security, 40 helicopters, and mobile command vehicles.”) The Reuters article also included more quotes and cited long term crime rate goals. South Africa intends to reduce violent crime rates from more than forty percent to seven to ten percent per annum in time for the World Cup.

P.S. Apologies for the lack of links. I just noticed on Saturday that they hadn't transferred from Word to Wikispaces.

DR Congo Army Attacks Aid Centers
The army of the Democratic Republic of the Congo spent its October 17th engaged in a very interesting past time: Attacking aid centers at which women and children were being vaccinated against a measles outbreak. The UN has withdrawn support from the responsible group, citing at least 62 civilian deaths resulting from the attacks. The attacks came on the first day of vaccinations in rebel controlled territory. Director Luis Encinas, local coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontiers said that they feel used and abused by the action. He and other MSF spokespeople have said that it was made very clear to the Congolese army what was happening and where it was happening, and that they received promises of peace from both the rebels and the army. The Congolese army has suggested that the fault lies in MSF not notifying the commanders of local army bases.

In my opinion, this event is horrible. What makes it even worse is the fact that the Congolese army has implied that MSF is to blame for out of line, apparently out of contact commanders in the Congolese army. I mean, honestly. One should not need to contact the local army forces to obtain permission to vaccinate. If one needs permission at all (one shouldn't), it should be obtainable from central army headquarters, which will then notify all relevant persons. Further more, the Congolese army has ushered supporters to the door of the rebels by betraying trust put into them by MSF and the local inhabitants. If I were the local army commander, I might do something like this in an attempt to weaken inhabitants of rebel territory. However, who would you support if one group was promising to support you and the other was shooting at you?

For this article, I looked at Al Jazeera and The BBC. While each was basically a jumbled up version of the other, the BBC does have some more information, such as the casualty figure. The BBC also provided a definite region (near the city of Goma) and some background on conflicts in this region. All in all, BBC had a more comprehensive, well rounded article.

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China Guinea Mining Deal Comes at Wrong Time
A Chinese firm, China International fund (CIF) has recently agreed to invest seven billion dollars in Guinean infrastructure in exchange for access to bauxite and other mineral deposits. The deal has been decried by multiple human rights groups as it comes just after an alleged willful slaughter of protesters during a rally against the Guinean Head-of-State, Junta Captain Moussa Dadis Camara. 157 people were killed and several women were raped after soldiers opened fire on the demonstrators. Guinean and Chinese governments have declined comment, as has CIF. CIF is rumored to have contacts deep in the Chinese government.

In my opinion, China is indeed sending the wrong message by agreeing to this deal at this time. In short, they are saying that they value a fairly prolific mineral more than they value keeping a volatile government in check. While this is nothing new for China (it itself having gone through a very volatile stage), I still find it worrying that they should so callously disregard basic humans rights. As was said in the declaration of independence, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." Guinea has just blatantly ignored these wise words, and China, interested only in economic gain, has rewarded them for it.

I found very good coverage of this event, but focused mostly on the Seattle Times and BBC coverage of the event. I found the BBC article both shorter and more detailed than the Seattle Times article. The BBC included more background information, including side stories about Chinese involvement in Guinea and Junta Captain Camara.