Major Developments » Society & Politics

Explosions at Airports in Thailand Created Political Crisis

admin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:09:03 +0000

On November 26, 2008, the explosions at two Bangkok airports provoked the closure of its main international gateway, which is a major center in the region for travelers. These explosions in airport are done by thousands of anti-government protesters to object the return of Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat from the APEC summit held in Peru. The PAD (People’s Alliance for Democracy), which is an anti-goverment group, has been conducting protests against the government, for being a reason for expelling former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Protesters surrounded the parliament building on Monday, forcing lawmakers to postpone their session. Incoming flights have been diverted to other airports around Thailand and the region and the helpless passengers are made to fly out by other means. The closing of Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports from November 25 to December 4 stopped 3.4 million tourists from visiting Thailand. There is a huge loss in many sectors. There is loss of 120 billion baht (currency of Thailand) (4.75 billion dollars) in the service industry, 90 billion baht (3.56 billion dollars) in logistics and 60 billion baht (2.38 billion dollars) in industry (ANI). The continous political crisis has frustrated government from decision-making and weakened investor faith in Thailand’s economy.

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Somali Pirates Hijacked the Largest Oil Tanker

admin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:58:42 +0000

On November 17, 2008, the U.S. Navy announced that Somali pirates had hijacked the Sirius Star, a Saudi-owned supertanker loaded with crude oil. The attack occurred on November 15, approximately 450 miles off the coast of Kenya. It has 25 crew members boarded in the ship and was sailing under a Liberian flag. It is the largest ship that is ever captured by pirates. It is owned by Saudi oil company Aramco. It is 1,080 feet long – nearly equal to the length of an aircraft carrier – so it is considered as one of the largest ships to sail the seas. The capacity of Sirius Star ship is nearly 2 billions barrels of oil. Somali pirates have captured several ships off the Horn of Africa in the past, but the hijacking of a supertanker created sensational news. The pirates are trained fighters, usually dressed in military attire, using speedboats or racing boats provided with satellite phones and GPS equipment. They are mostly armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rockets launchers and various types of grenades. They collected nearly 300 million dollars in the year 2008 by hijacking ships. The Ship consists of 25-member crew from various nations like Croatia, Britain, Philippines, Poland, and Saudi Arabia. The ship and crew members were released on January 9, 2009 only after paying of $3 million in bribe.

Finally, Kosovo was Declared Independent from Serbia

admin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:36:33 +0000

In February 2008, the parliament of Kosovo, Serbia’s southern province with racial Albanian majority was declared independence. The province has been under the administration of U.N. and protected by NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) troops since a 1999. The independence of Kosovo is supported by United States and superior European nations, including France, Britain, and Germany but was reluctantly opposed by Serbia and Russia as they feared that this can encourage separatist movements by other countries. Serbia considered Kosovo as beginning of their civilization, so did not accept Kosovo’s independence on its neighborhood. But in Kosovo, majority of people are Albanian, they opposed the discrimination of serbs on them and wished to have separate democratic province. The Protesters in Serbia argued with police outside the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade after the release of declaration. In Pristina, capital of Kosovo thousands of people large masses of people gathered in streets earlier to Sunday’s parliamentary declaration and it is followed by singing, dancing after Prime minister of Kosovo Hashim Thaci announced the independence. A 100-foot-long birthday cake was laid on Pristina’s main street. Hundreds of people celebrated this moment by waving Albanian flags in Times Square. Kosovo government has clearly announced its readiness and its desire to support rights of Serbian people in Kosovo.

Rise in Food Prices Created imbalance in Poor and Developed Countries

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:08:07 +0000

The sudden increase in food prices in 2008 created global crisis causing political and economical imbalance and social disturbance in both poor and developed nations. The short term causes for the rise of food prices are untimely droughts in grain-producing nations, increase in oil prices which led to increase in costs of fertilizers, food transport, and industrial agriculture or modernized agriculture, increasing use of bio-fuels in several countries that is, diverting of farm lands to produce fuel, increase in demand for different diet products, decrease in world-food stock. The long term reasons for rise in food prices are fundamental changes in trade and agricultural production, risky marketing of goods, and climate change. Major rice exporters, such as China, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Egypt, have imposed strict export bans on rice in order to secure food remains for their internal populations. The emergency steps that should be taken to come out of this crisis is to improve productivity in the commercial food crop sector, in terms of production, processing and marketing or else people will suffer from lack of nutrition. Agricultural development should be given top most importance on the global agenda. Governments should allow farmers to access little more fertilizer, phytosanitary products, good roads, processing facilities, credit, advisory services, insurance and information on prices, cut police taxes on roads and the cost of diesel.

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Terrorist Attack in Mumbai Drew World Wide Attention

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:53:06 +0000

The terrorist attacks occurred at seven places in South Mumbai at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the Oberoi Trident, the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital, the Orthodox Jewish-owned Nariman House, the Metro Cinema theatre. The shooting and bombing attacks by more than ten people, began on 26 November 2008 and lasted until 29 November, killing nearly 173 people and wounding nearly 308 people. After the 9/11 (terrorist attack on World Trade Centers in US) incident in 2001, the 26/11 (the Mumbai terror attack on 26 November 2008) is the terror attack to which the world turned its attention with serious concern as the hotels on which attacks were made had British, US, Israeli and some other nation citizens. The world leaders confirmed their support for India and showed unity in blaming the act in positive terms. The degree of terror act intimated the long-term plan of the terrorists that are associated with organizations like Al Qaeda of Pakistan. The three demands put forth by India on Pakistan are that they should handover the criminals involved in the attack to allow legal proceedings in India, it should destroy the terror networks established in Pakistan to prevent attacks on India and it must accept bilateral, multilateral and international agreements against terrorism. Though Pakistan has started the process of investigation superficially under the pressure of US, the results demonstrate the negligent approach of Islamabad in destroying terrorist organizations.

Barack Obama wins Historic Election Victory in US

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:52:31 +0000

The 56th quadrennial United States presidential election was held on November 4, 2008. Democratic party member Barack Obama, the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican Party member John McCain, the senior United States Senator from Arizona. Barack Obama became the 44th president of United States. He is the first African-American president of the United States and the first person of color to govern a country with a white majority. The U.S. Presidential elections had world wide attention as the victory speech of Barack Obama’s inspired many people worldwide and won spontaneous applauses from the crowd. Obama is a person who prioritizes logic over sentiment, discussion over conflicts and awareness over blind belief, which were observed in his campaigning. No president had ever influenced the United States into both an unfair war and financial crisis of the uncontrolled magnitude as done by George W Bush. He did significant harm to his country and the World. So, people of US wished for positive change and elected Barack Obama as their president. The main slogan of his campaigning is ‘CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN’ which influenced people. His Environmental policy, Fuel efficiency policy, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) policies attracted public.

Nepal Became Republic After Many Years of Monarchy Rule

admin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:10:15 +0000

Millions of people marched onto the streets demanding an end to the cruel monarchy and the creation of a new Constitution through a Constituent Assembly. The people finally forced the king to give up state control on April 24, 2006. The success of the People’s Movement II left king Gyanendra helpless. The political parties are then engaged in writing a Democratic Constitution through a Constituent Assembly elected by the people. The Maoists became a part of the Parliament. The responsibilities which are authorized to the King are transferred to the Prime Minister. Pushpa Kamal Dahal-Prachanda, chief of Maosits was declared Prime Minister on August 15, 2008. He defeated his opponent, Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba by 465 votes, against 113. He was sworn on August 18, 2008. Nepal’s first-ever Presidential poll is held on July 19 over political arguments. The country failed to reach the 67 percent turnout that was reached for the last general election in 1999. UK is the largest mutual donor to Nepal in 2007/08 as it contributed 86 million dollars. These elections has more importance, because it will be decided whether 240 years of monarchy will be continued or become republic country. The 601-member constituent assembly prepared a new constitution. International observers declared the elections a success, despite of violence that prevailed. Former US president Jimmy Carter along with human rights group helped to supervise the polls in Nepal.

Responses to Kosovo’s declaration of Independence

admin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:52:51 +0000

On 17^th February, 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia by the members of the assembly, with no opposition, all 109 in favor. But all the 11 Serb representatives boycotted the proceedings which showed the International reactions towards Kosovo’s declaration of Independence. Among the 4 countries that lie in the borders of Kosovo only Serbia refuses to accept it. Serbia in October 2008 at the International Court of Justice wanted to prove the declaration of independence was illegal and the United Nations General Assembly considered the proposal of Serbia for ICJ advisory opinion on this matter.

Among the 192 sovereign united nations members, 62 have recognized Kosovo as an independent state by 11July 2009. Not only these, majority of European union (22 of 27), NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) 24 of 28 have accepted Kosovo as Independent state. Many of the countries recognized Kosovo as Independent in the months of February and March itself. But only some countries took time to respond on this issue.

State Politics Change In India

admin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:52:20 +0000

In 2008, 10 states went to the elections and in the early half of the year Left front formed government in Tripura, MPA (Meghalaya Progressive Alliance) came to power in Meghalaya, and DAN (Democratic Alliance of Nagaland) formed Government in Nagaland.

In the next few months Congress was expected to loose some power because of the anti-incumbency wave that resulted from the grown up prices, raging inflation, and also the terrorist attacks. But besides all these congress managed to regain power in Delhi, Rajasthan, and Mizoram.

On the other hand BJP could manage to retain power in Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh but they lost Rajasthan to Congress. In the first half of the year BJP also established government in Karnataka.

On 22^nd July 2008, UPA government had to face trust vote that is vote of confidence. On 21^st July a resolution was passed and on the next day the voting procedure was conducted and UPA government managed to win the voting of confidence by getting 275 votes in favor from a total of 487 valid votes.

The election commission of India decided to conduct elections for the Loksabha and also some state elections in 2009 in 5 phases ranging from April 16^th to May 13^th. It also started making preparations from 2008.

Russia says Dmitry Medvedev as Putin’s successor

admin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:51:31 +0000

The result of the Presidential elections in Russia which were held on 2^nd March, 2008 favored Mr. Dmitry Medvedev and made him the Third President of Russia. Mr. Medvedev was supported by the former president Vladimir Putin and 5 political parties namely United Russia, Fair Russia, Agrarian Party, Civilian Power, and Russian Ecological Party. He got 71% of the total voting percent.

Though some of the official monitoring groups reported that only some candidates had the media coverage and some were treated unfair. But the European Election Monitoring Group (PACE) and Vladimir Churov, the Head of the Election Commission denoted the result as the will of the people.

One of the main reasons for Medvedev’s victory is the support of Putin. On 10^th December, 2007 Vladimir Putin announced that his preferred successor was Medvedev. So other parties that supported Putin came forward announcing Medvedev as their candidate for presidential elections on Dec 17^th 2007.

After registering his candidature with election commission on 20^th Dec, he started his election campaign in January 2008. In his first speech he declared that he would appoint Vladimir Putin as the Prime Minister after becoming President. Putin also accepted this saying that he would be the Prime Minister with Medvedev as President. “Together we will win”, was the slogan on the election posters with both of their photos side by side. The election polls also said Medvedev would be replacing Vladimir Putin.

Nepal, Now A Federal Democratic Country

admin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:50:53 +0000

Nepal was under monarchy for several years and Kings used to rule in Nepal.But 2008 elections brought the monarchy to an end. For this to happen they conducted elections to form democratic government. The elections for forming a constituent assembly in Nepal were postponed twice and at last they were successfully held on 10th April, 2008.

After the elections the results were announced on May 8th 2008. The highest number of seats were won by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists). The members elected for constituent assembly were sworn in on 27th May, 2008 and the first constituent assembly was conducted on 28th May. In the first meeting of the constituent assembly, Nepal was declared as a Federal Democratic Republic country. With a count of 564 members in the assembly, 560 supported the proposal while only four members rejected it.

The national flag of Nepal was hosted on Narayanahiti palace on 29th May by removing the royal standard. The former king Gyanendra announced that he accepted the constitution on 2nd June. As Gyanendra was asked to leave the Narayanahiti palace , he requested the government to make some sort of arrangement for his residence and he was accepted to stay in Nagarjuna palace. Gyanendra left the Narayanahiti Palace on 11th June after declaring his acceptance and co-operation for the government. The first president Dr. Ram Baran Yadav from Nepali congress was elected on 21st July with a majority of 308 from a total of 590 votes. Later Subash Chandra Nembang of CPN-UML was elected unopposed as the Chairman of Constituent Assembly. The Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda was elected as the first Prime Minister of Nepal with an enormous majority of 464 votes.

Americans Opt For A Change- Says Polls

admin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:49:20 +0000

As per the statistics given by various organizations worldwide for the 56th Presidential elections of USA which were to be held on Nov 4th 2008 between Barack Obama(democrat) and John McCain (Republican), Obama received 62% votes on an average of different surveys.

The reasons for this public opinion is as follows:
The Americans were waiting for a change in order to face the financial, political crisis, and also the problem of terrorism. Barack Obama was entirely opposing George Bush in his policies and also he presented himself as a person with global outlook and as a leader for change.

Obama also opposed dropping of nuclear bombs on terrorists, his idea was to remove nuclear weapons from the hands of terrorists. For this he also announced to withdraw armies from Iraq from the day he took the power in his hands. He also put forth his policies to end terrorism in front of the people.

His foreign policies on not only Iraq but also on all the countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, India, Europe, Africa etc attracted the Americans to vote for Obama. Besides this John McCain supported George bush and his foreign policies. His foreign policies were also not so realistic. This made people think twice before voting to him.