Opinions

Over 200 people, Africans fleeing Libya by boat, drowned on Wednesday before reaching safety in Italy. It is just one of many tragedies resulting from North Africa’s refugee crisis, one of the world’s worst, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres. Many of the refugees who were fleeing Libya in fact came from Somalia, Eritrea and Ivory Coast.

The White House-massaged media spin portrays President Barack Obama’s decision to go to war in Libya as a triumph for a triumvirate of liberals — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, UN Ambassador Susan Rice, and Obama adviser Samantha Power — who have well-established records of advocating the use of U.S. military force for “humanitarian” purposes.

The unceasing waves of protests and uprisings against Arab regimes have given rise to a tantalizing question: Why have the winds of change sweeping the Arab world not had any effect on the Chinese people and aroused them against their government?
There are many reasons for the absence of tumult in China. These reasons become clear if one takes an unbiased view of the country.

Documents reveal that the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan had not been properly inspected, safety procedures had been bypassed and economic considerations had been put first in spite of the risk posed by decisions such as prolonging the life of an obsolete model and accumulating more spent radioactive fuel rods than the plant was supposed to handle.

To avoid misunderstandings: Gaddafi is a brutal, cynical, corrupt dictator, who obviously considers Libya as his personal property. His sons were forged in the same furnace. And yet, to try to justify, as many do, especially the French government of Sarkozy, the international military mission against the Libyan regime as a matter of morality and values, is simply hypocritical.

It’s amazing, just amazing, this international system! It presumably has a world Parliament made of delegates from all countries on Earth and called the General Assembly of the United Nations. Such a Parliament is led by a mini executive body of only five countries, called the Security and Peace Council.
By Baher Kamal*.

Over 45 countries, ranging from sophisticated economies to developing nations, were actively considering embarking upon nuclear power programmes. Whether the shocking experience Japan is undergoing despite its hi-tec reactors, will have impact policy makers in countries striving to build atomic power plants and others which already have these, remains to be seen.

The dramatic events in Egypt, Middle East & North Africa have seen millions taking to the streets to demand real change.
Women are standing beside men, demanding end to repression and calling for root and branch reform. Both women and men have suffered under repressive governments. But women have also coped with discriminatory laws and deeply entrenched gender inequality.

On March 3 and 4, a group of teenagers and pre-teens in Springfield underwent what was called a “30-hour famine”. They fasted for 30 consecutive hours, breaking only occasionally for sips of water as nourishment.
They also participated in activities that required physical effort, just as the poor in food insecure countries would, even when enduring the pangs of hunger.

In contrast with what is happening in Egypt and Tunisia, Libya occupies the first spot on the Human Development Index for Africa and it has the highest life expectancy on the continent. Education and health receive special attention from the State. The cultural level of its population is without a doubt the highest. Its problems are of a different sort.