Tackling Boko Haram

A GLIMMER of hope has been shone on the fate of more than 200 missing Nigerian schoolgirls following the release of a video this morning. The video, which was obtained by the French News Agency AFP, shows about 130 of the girls wearing full length abayas and apparently praying. Speaking for 17 minutes the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, claims that the girls, the majority of whom were Christian, have converted to Islam.
The plight of these girls has gripped the world. In a rare break from tradition the American First Lady, Michelle Obama, took the weekly Presidential address to appeal for help. The hashtag bringbackourgirls has become an international phenomena, with British Prime Minister David Cameron promoting it on national television.
The video released by Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is forbidden" has helped to galvanize the campaign. Already teams from the UK and USA are on the ground helping with the search for the girls, who were kidnapped on April 14th, and an Israeli counter-terrorism unit is reportedly on its way.
A number of observers have warned, however, that this international agenda has detracted from the larger scale threat posed by the group. Since January Boko Haram has been responsible for more than 1500 deaths in the area. In February they were reportedly responsible for the deaths of a 59 boys in a school in the northeast Nigerian town of Bama.
The French government has offered to host a summit with Nigeria and its neighbours to combat the threat which Boko Haram poses to the stability of the region. Speaking during a visit to the Azeri capital Baku on Saturday French President Hollande said: "With Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathon,  I have proposed to hold a meeting with the countries bordering Nigeria."
Nigerian Interior Minister Abba Moro has dismissed the terrorist group's video demands for a prisoner exchange, stating that it was "absurd" for them to set demands.
With the world now watching a meaningful solution to tackling Boko Haram is firmly on the agenda. By releasing the video, however, it appears as though they are prepared to use emotional blackmail to distract from their attempts to destabilise the region.
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More haste less speed for Ukrainian referendum

AS TENSIONS continue to run high following yesterday's referendums in Eastern Ukraine international observers have warned of the potential for civil war in the country.
With reports this morning of Ukrainian military forces preparing to resume operations in the city of Slavyansk this may not be so far fetched. Governments across Europe have joined with America to condemn the referrendum as illegal and pledged to support authorities in Kiev. Even the pro-seperatists greatest ally, the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin, called for the vote to be postponed to allow the situation to de-escalate.
While the West has continued to threaten further sanctions against Russia it is possible that it may have been the only one suggesting a sensible solution.
The issue is not that regions of Eastern Ukraine may split away from the country, nor even that they may wish to join Russia. The crucial factor is the speed at which they are doing it.
In the United Kingdom the thorny issue of Scottish independence is set to be resolved on September 18th. Groups on both sides of the debate have had months to put forward their opinions.Even the most ardent Scottish nationalists accept that there are complex issues involved in creating a seperate country. The economic implications alone are enough to baffle some of the most educated in the debate and need careful analysis.
In Donetsk, and other Eastern regions, there has not been time for the electorate to fully understand what a call for independence may mean. There has not even been enough time to ensure that the system for voting was set up to be impartial and effective.
Yesterday's referendum highlighted how disorganised the pro-seperatist movement is. Queues outside hastily contructed polling stations feared that they would not have an opportunity to submit their ballot. Security was compromised as results were intercepted and released before voting had been completed. This is completely aside from the obvious implications of bias, which have been so roundly condemned by the West.
What was needed was time. If, as in Scotland, a true referendum had been arranged for a suitable time in the future the West would have little defence to condemn the decison. Even the counting was conducted at speed, with results released showing 89.07 per cent of the turnout voting in favour of leaving Ukraine.
The pro-seperatists aknowledge that the vote will not be recognised by the international community so its purpose is still in question. With a little more time they may have been able to make a case, and in so doing garnered much needed support outside their own borders and diminished the threat of armed conflict.

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Ukrainian referendum takes deadly turn

As Eastern Ukrainians in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk vote on their future the world watches on and tensions run high. Reports are already coming in of clashes in Krasnoarmeysk leaving one dead and others injured as National Guardsmen open fire.

According to reports from journalists on the ground the bloodshed took place after guardsmen shut down voting in the referendum which could see the region split from Ukraine. The shooting has already started to raise questions about how much control the Ukrainian government in Kiev has over the pro-Ukrainian forces in the region.

Monika Kalinowska,@mkalinowskaa, who was visiting the area, reported on Twitter that she had witnessed the shootings from the Guardsmen. “Before the shooting took place in Krasnoarmeysk people were negotiating with the ‘national guards in the adm building,” she tweeted prior, adding “they have told people that they are here peacefully and were asking for cigarettes, next thing we know they are starting shooting.”

With the voting stations now closed and the counting started there are hopes in the region that the situation will start to calm tonight ahead of tomorrow’s announcement, however, with Ukrainian officials reasserting their stance that the referendums are illegal these hopes seem slim.

“This is a step into the abyss for the regions,” warned Ukrainian acting President Oleksandr Turchynov yesterday (Saturday).

Meanwhile the escalation of fighting in the region comes as reports state that 400 Blackwater Mercenaries arrived in the area to support pro-Ukrainian forces. Blackwater has been surrounded by controversy following accusations of killing civilians while deployed in Iraq.  Western governments’, including America, Britain, France and Germany, have condemned the referendums as illegal and threatened harsh sanctions against Russia if they are allowed to be recognised.

Not everyone in the international community is taking the same stance. Venezuelan authorities have already warned that they will not back any efforts in Ukraine. In a statement released to the media officials from the Foreign Ministry said that they would “not recognise as legal a government that emerged as a result of a state coup. In view of the regrettable developments of events in Ukraine, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela confirms that it rejects violent processes that, with the support of the United States and NATO, led to the overthrow of the government, jeopardising the peace and the unity of the Ukrainian people as well as the stability of the entire Eurasian region.”

Until the votes are counted and the results announced tomorrow (Monday) both sides of the debate will be left powerless to do anything more than take part in a war of words. For the people on the ground the situation may take a far more deadly turn.

The rise of the right

AS EUROPE gears up for the May 22^nd European Elections the rise of right wing politics has become increasingly noticeable. This is not isolated to the European Union though.

In America the Tea Party Movement has made inroads into mainstream politics. The United Australia Party may not be seeing the gains of some right wing parties, however, it is starting to have an impact on the political establishment. Despite, or possibly because of, being led by a comedian Beppo Grillo’s Five Star Movement in Italy has surged forward, challenging the old guard of the Democratic Party and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia. Nowhere seems immune from the politics of fear these groups play upon.

It was only a few short years ago that groups such as the American Tea Party Movement, a group which United Kingdom Independence Leader, Nigel Farage, has revelled in being compared to, were seen as fringe and dismissible. In the current political environment they are starting to pose a problem for the main political parties.

In America and Britain it seems unlikely that the establishment could be overturned by these groups. In 2015 UKIP may gain a couple of seats, this would be a far cry from the number they would need to put them in a position of serious power though. The threat they pose is by splitting the vote of the more moderate parties and diverting the debate away from areas where it needs to be focused.

For countries such as Italy and Germany, where coalition governments are more frequent than in the US and Britain, these parties can have a genuine influence on the way the country is run. For groups such as Tea Party or UKIP, however, they are fighting against an entrenched establishment where it is a near certainty that one of two parties will be in power.

This has not stopped them from shouting their causes from the rooftops, however. It is perhaps even more of incentive to create ever more outrageous and right wing agendas for these groups than ones which know they may have a chance of power, and therefore would have to meet their manifesto pledges.

UKIP has claimed that they will fight back against unlimited immigration from the European Union, while failing to address how they will do this, or exactly how far reaching the levels of immigration will be. In its EU election manifesto for example UKIP claims that the Office of National Statistics estimates from 2010 that the UK population will rise by 3 million by 2020 through immigration. The ONS actually forecasts a growth of 4.9million, of which 56 per cent would be from ‘natural increase’.

Additional figures provided by UKIP also fail to take into account the rate of emigration from Britain by naturalised citizens. The same story is repeated in America with the Tea Party Movement. Statistics are taken out of context, or fabricated. Both groups use volume and self proclaimed righteous anger ahead of genuine debate and solution.

In part this rise of the right wing has come about from the groups themselves. An increase in communications technology has made it easier for them to reach the electorate, and by repeating the same phrases enough they have instilled them into the minds of people as fact.

An increasing level of fear and disillusionment in the system has given them the crack to force themselves into. Membership of the more mainstream political parties has diminished over the years, with approximately only 1 per cent of the UK belonging to a party,  as people lose faith in the process. Fear of terrorism and crime is also on the increase, which gives certain right wing elements the fuel they need to feed the fire of xenophobic attitudes.

On May 22^nd the British electorate, and others across Europe, will have their say for who represents them in the European Union. For right wing groups the world over it will be seen as a test of whether volume and propaganda has swayed the people over debate and solutions.

The fall of a superpower

Has America’s role as the global moderator of all that is right been compromised beyond repair? That is the question which must surely be asked in the wake of recent events involving the world’s foremost superpower.

Rather than demonstrating its power America’s announcement on Tuesday that it would send a team to help find more than 200 missing Nigerian schoolgirls proved that it no longer has the teeth to act when needed.

The world has known since April 14th that the terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapped the girls from their school. The group, whose name translates loosely as “Western education is a sin”, was known to have been trading the girls into marriage and shipping them across the border. Yet the world, and in particular America, sat back and did nothing.

Nigeria’s own government, ostensibly fearful of reprisal from this increasingly powerful group, did little to take action, preferring to hope that the loss of so many young women would go unnoticed. They are fighting a rear guard action against extremism though. They are under constant fear of what the next atrocity will be. If allowing more than 200 young girls to be taken could be seen as a price to keep things from escalating then apparently it was a price they were willing to pay.

The West, however, is under no such constraints. America has time and again pledged its strength to root out extremism and fight for a moral cause. Why is it therefore that it did nothing until its hand was forced by a statement released by the group?

The same story has been repeated time and again. With Syria President Obama clearly stated that chemical weapons were a red line which could not be crossed. To do so would bring the wrath of the world down upon the Syrian government like so much biblical thunder. Chemical weapons have been used though and America and the West have done nothing. Refugees flood across the borders and many more are trapped inside besieged cities, waiting for the next dose of chemicals to fall upon them, and the West does nothing.

In Ukraine America made it clear that they would support the newly formed government and would take strong action if Russia was seen to be instigating aggression. Pro-separatist groups roam the streets, many equipped with Russian weaponry. Reports come in on a near daily basis of supposed Russian interference in the region. Crimea fell with Russian support and its people left Ukraine. Yet the West does nothing more than threaten sanctions which have already been demonstrated beyond a doubt not to work.

America, Britain, France, Germany et al cannot wage war on every country which they deem to have gone against their moral principles. The West cannot be the world’s police force. Imposing a different culture and identity on a people through force has already been proven to fail in Afghanistan and Iraq. To keep pretending, however, that the world has not changed, that the threat of force without the will to back it up and that the ability to do so even exists undermines any hope that a more rational approach to tackling increasing global unrest can ever be found.

A political presence

The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) has had to cancel its Freepost service after receiving faeces to their offices. While I disagree with UKIP on almost every topic this was never going to be the way to make a political statement.

We are fortunate in Britain that we are able to have freedom of speech, to hold widely differing views and to argue those views. We live in a democracy where we can choose our elected representatives based on what they stand for, something denied to millions of people around the world. It is this which gives us the ability to participate in such childish pranks but it is also this we gives us a moral duty to not do so.

In our political system if you disagree with someone’s point of view then you are free to debate it with them. Changing minds through discourse, that is surely the basic premise of any free thinking political system. Sadly, however, we as a populace seem to have forgotten how to hold an argument, how to hold a view for that matter. We seem to be only interested in meeting the intellect of the lowest common denominator. We have dumbed down our society so much that we have forgotten the very principles upon which it was founded.

We have forgotten that millions of men and women have fought and died to preserve our right to free speech and freedom of political protest. We have forgotten that our leaders used to be intelligent men, and rightly so. We valued honour and intellect. We may have disagreed with someone’s views but we had the character to respect their right to have them. All of that seems to have been lost somewhere along the way.

Instead we now have celebrities telling us that the system is broken and we should stop voting. We should stop voting? We should sacrifice the right which so many people would still die to just have a glimpse at, which so many already have, as a form of protest. If the system is broken then the way in which we change it is by voting, by choosing better leaders.

Nigel Farage’s greatest selling point is his “voice of the common man” approach. People like him because he makes them feel on the same level. Surely our leaders should be the best and the brightest. They should be men and women of conscience and intellect, they should be brighter than the majority and we should feel that we can respect them.

As it stands at the moment we have very few such politicians in place. This is not the fault of the system though, this is the fault of us the electorate. We voted these people in. We chose them, we gave up on wanting the best.

If you want to prove that UKIP is wrong, something which does not take the best and the brightest by any means, then join in the debate. Show how flawed their ideals are, show why they are wrong, show that you have a better plan, don’t act in a way which would have your peers in primary school look down at you for immaturity.

World Press Freedom

Last Saturday (May 3rd 2014) World Press Freedom Day, defined by the United Nations as “celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; assess the state of press freedom throughout the world; defend the media from attacks on their independence; pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty.” (http://www.un.org/en/events/pressfreedomday).

It has seemed from following the news over the last year that freedom of the press has become an ever diminishing commodity. This has perhaps been shown in stark reality by the United Kingdom dropping four places in the Press Freedom Index to 33^rd out of 180 countries (http://www.un.org/en/events/pressfreedomday).

It is all too easy for proponents of press freedom to condemn countries such as Egypt, where three Aljazeera journalists have just had their appeal rejected for a second time today. The fight for press freedom can be lost in the battle against countries and governments. For the average man in the street it is only the figures which count, if that. Sixteen journalists killed this year alone, a further 168 imprisoned.

The fight for press freedom is not a battleground against countries though. Nor is it a crusade against governments. Press Freedom is something which lies in our hearts and our minds. The greatest threat to Press Freedom is through our own media.

We live in a world where the news which is published is the news which will sell. Media is a business after all, there is no profit in running stories which will not entice readers. It is readers which pay the bills at the end of the day.

In recent weeks more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls were kidnapped, little is known about their fate. This story and countless others have been buried at best, ignored at worst. They make readers feel uncomfortable over their breakfasts. It is far easier to run front pages of the faces of evil, of those we know and can feel superior to. I speak of course of Max Clifford and his ilk.

It is this process of censorship through economics which is killing press freedom. It is a slow decline as we seek the news which will sell the papers as opposed to the news which matters which is the greatest threat.

Freedom of the press must mean the freedom to be the voice which tells those who do not know the thinks which they should know. Instead it has become a timid whisper, fearful of disturbing advertisers and consumers.

Where once journalists where inviolable lest the wrath of the press reign down upon those who had harmed them, a romantic but not entirely forgotten ideal, now they are treated as targets and hostages. The world has changed but not so much that this has happened without the input of the media itself.

The presses self-censorship and scandal has weakened it. It is now looking only to survive through funding, where once people trusted the media now they look on it with scorn. This is the heart of our loss of freedom, our failure to stand for the lost ideals of journalism and freedom.