Controversial Media Law in Kenya

Kenyan lawmakers are trying to pass a bill in Kenya right now that will force reporters to reveal any sources that they use in their stories. This bill is in responce to accused actions taken by the press in which they often defame people, destroying certain people's reputations. In response to the bill, over 300 Kenyan press members marched to Parliament with black gags and white tape over there mouths, to symbolize the restriction of free speech and free press that the bill would create. Macharia Gaitho, an editor for The Nation Newpaper, said that "gagging the media is the first sign of a dictatorship".

I don't know exactly where I stand on this issue. On the one hand, Kenyan media, according to this report, does suffer from relatively wide-spread corruption. If the media really is defacing public officials for their own gains (or the gains of those pulling the media's strings) then I think that is a serious issue that needs addressing. Media corruption for one side is just as bad as if it is for the other side. I don't really think that this measure is the answer though. When you take away the anonymity of sources, then oftentimes those people won't want to be sources, because they could fear reprucussions. This would greatly reduce the effectiveness of the press to reveal scandals and report other stories that need reporting. If there is a problem with corruption in Kenyan media, I think there are much better ways of dealing with it then subliminally silencing it.

North Korea gets (a little) International Aid

Strong floods have destroyed many farms and homes in North Korea over the last few weeks. According to this article, there are an estimated 58,000 destroyed homes, 222,400 acres of destroyed farmland, and over 300,000 people left homeless. Also, over 800 buildings, 540 bridges, 70 stretches of railway, and 500 electricity towers have been partially or completely destroyed. The devastation to the farming communities are especially troubling, because North Korea has been fighting hunger in its country already, and now that 11% of its rice fields have been destroyed....ya, their food problems just got worse.

In responce to such a huge crisis the United States government has decided out of its great generosity to donate......... A Whopping $100,000!! Thats not all, we're not even donating that money to North Korea, we're donating it to NGO's who will go put that money into recovery programs there. Ok, I realize that the US and North Korea have had somewhat of a ....how do I put this... strained relationship over our history, but come on. $100,000 to help flooding that left 300,000 people homeless, destroyed huge parts of the infrastructure, and whiped out 1/10 of their crops when they're already facing a hunger crisis? Don't forget that our GDP in 2006, according to the CIA, was 13.13 trillion dollars. Wanna know what that math calculates out to? $100,000 goes into $13.13 trillion over 130 million times. We donated 1 130 millionth of the money we made. Compare that to how much money we give foreign governments who are friendly to us and it becomes obvioius how wrong this is. I personally don't care if we're not on good terms with their government, we shouldn't hold that against the hundreds of thousands of innocent people who need help right now, especially when we're in a position to give them that help.

Life Expectancy Rates Drop In US

A new international report has declared that Americans are not living as long as citizens in many other industrialized nations. In the last twenty years, America has dropped from 11th on the list of longest living people to 42nd, as our people now live an average of 77.9 years. Even though there are 41 nations above us on the list, the highest life expectancy is only 83.5 years, which is only 3.6 years longer. The report listed many countries in sub-sahara Africa as having the lowest average life spans, with Swaziland taking last place with an average of 34.1 years. This report also named America as having one of the worst infant mortality rates of any industrialized nation: 6.8 deaths for every 1000 births. One final note from the report: it found a startling difference between black and white Americans in both subjects. According to its findings, the average black American lives five years shorter than white Americans, and there are 13.7 african america child deaths per thousand births.

I found this report relevant to our class because it highlights one of the most important aspects of development; life expectancy. Oftentimes developed nations are demonized for this and that and everything else that they're doing wrong (and granted that can be a lot at times) but it seems very few people talk about the benefits that being developed has brought us. How about the fact that we in the developed nations are living twice as long as those in underdeveloped nations? Or how about the fact that our infant mortality rate is 6.8 per thousand, but the rates in Angola and Sierra Leone are 184.44 and 158.27 respectively? When I see statistics like these, I feel all the arguments about loss of culture by becoming developed go right out the window. How can you compare loss of traditions with loss of life? I personally feel that life is much more important, especially when it is in numbers like these.

Nuclear Concerns in Pakistan

I've done a few blogs recently on Pakistan so I thought I might continue this trend with an update on some new worries concerning the country and its leader, President Pervez Musharraf. Earlier this week it was thought he might impose a state of emergency in order to keep himself in office, because it would give him a lot more powers. The government has since denied this, and it has not happened so far, so thats good. The reason Im blogging about this even though there have been no new developments in the issue is because this particular article raised a good question: what will happen to Pakistan's nukes under any course of action. The only solution to this situation that would not result in a major change in the nuclear program, as well as with our relations with the country based on that nuclear program, would be if he imposed no emergency state and won re-election in November. This would cause the situation to continue as is. If he were overthrown or killed before then by some form of coup, or if he were not re-elected in November, control of the nukes would go to someone yet unknown. This is a very scary thought because nukes are, obviously, serious business. There's nowhere Im trying to go with this, specifically, which might make it seem pointless that I even made this blog, but I just found this issue as one that should be considered by people who might be also watching the recent Pakistani developments closely as I am. I just thought it should be brought up

Im Getting More Worried

I said it before; if I heard about a third case of foot and mouth disease in Britain within a week of my last blog I'd be worried. Well it done happened. A third farm was discovered in Southern Britain that was 9 miles outside the containment zones surrounding the first two known cases. Similar to the precautions taken in responce to the first two cases, all livestock on that farm have already been put down, and all livestock on surrounding farms have been tested. The tests will take 24 hours to get results.

The fact that the outbreak has been discovered on a farm so far away from the first two cases is very troubling. It raises the questions how did it get there? and are the farms in between infected also? Nine miles is pretty far to travel without hitting any other potential victims and infecting them. This troubles me because, like I've said in my previous blogs, this is how the outbreak of 2001 started. That outbreak resulted in the deaths of millions of animals all over Britain (Fox News says 7 million, CNN says over 3.5 million) and severly damaged both the agricultural and tourism industries of that nation. The agricultural section, actually, has still not fully recovered its losses from that epidemic. With every extra confirmed case, the chances of containing the virus drop dramatically. While the government is being praised for mobilizing against it much more quickly this time, it still might be too late.

Musharraf Doesn't Declare A State of Emergency

In response to growing violence and political unrest in Pakistan recently, President Prevez Musharraf was reported to be considering declaring the country as being in a state of emergency. The reason this is such a big deal is because if he were to to do so, the government, of which he is the head, and the army, again which he is in charge of, would both be given considerably more power in order to "deal" with the situation and 'restore order' so to say. The increase in violence is perhaps best currently represented by the raid to recapture the Red Mosque in Islamabad, which resulted in over 100 deaths.

I think that if he were to declare a state of emergency it would be a very scary thing. First of all, Musharraf first gained power by leading a military coup to overthrow the then current administration. I know nothing about the former government, so I don't know if this was a good or bad thing. Second, after doing so, he set up elections, which he won, but that were also reported to be rigged. Again, I don't know the details so I make no judgments, but these rumors come up in many of the articles I read that mention him and his presidency. Next, the country is supposed to go through new elections later this year, and if he were to declare a state of emergency, part of the the powers that would be granted to him would include the ability to stop people from engaging in political activities and assert fundamental freedoms, such as free speech. All of this evidence seems to support the notion that declaring a state of emergency would be an act of desperation on his part with the hopes of saving his power. This seems very.... sly to me: I don't like it. I especially don't like it because Pakistan is a leading ally of ours in the war on terror, and we need their true support, not just their false support. Pakistan shares a border with Afghanistan, where there is still much fighting going on between the coalition forces there and a combined terrorist-Taliban insurgency. I said in a previous article that I don't question the commitment that Pakistan has given the war on terror so far, but this article just troubles me a little, because I don't like the idea of someone who is supposed to be helping us fight terrorism making such desperate ploys to remain in power

Size of Afghan-Taliban skirmishes expected to increase in size

This article was written literally as the fight it is reporting is still going on. Afghan and coalition forces are right now in a firefight in the Helmand province of southern Afghanistan with Taliban insurgents. The insurgents outnumber the Afghan troops, but the Afghan troops have coalition air support. At the time of this report, ten of the insurgents (out of over 50) have been killed and no Afghan troops have been lost, but the battle is continuing. The insurgents are attacking with machine guns, mortars, RPGs, and grenades.

There are two things I find interesting about this article. The first is that it was so far down on the list of current worldwide events on CNN.com. While I realize that there is a lot going on in the world, I think that something that is happening right now and involving the lives of many should be more publicized news. To me this almost reflects a sort of attitude that we're tired of hearing about all these things because they've been top news for years now, which kind of disheartens me. The second interesting thing about this article is that it does seem a positive step for me. What I mean is that I agree with Capt. Vanessa Bowman, a military spokeswoman, when she said "We should expect more of these types of large-scale engagements as the insurgents start to run out of places to hide". This makes sense to me, because it is the second large scale attack by insurgents on the Afghani army and government in the last week. Such large battles are very rare because this has been a guerilla war since we ousted the Taliban from power six years ago. I think that it is a very positive sign, especially if she is right that these are the final acts of desperation from a fallen regime.