As the New Year begun, of which mine was on a very sad note, nothing really came to mind for me to blog on since I have been taken over by my mourning state.
None the less I thought of rather doing what I call a year gone by, world issues that were topical around this time of the year say January, 2011. Hope that this new year of 2012 brings each and everyone on this planet earth, the very best of life.
My first issue which I want to mention is that of the Australian Floods. According to history it was one of the worse to have happened in the country where damage from the floods would cost millions of dollars to repair the damage it has caused. If you could remember, the airports were closed; the Royal Australian Air Force was brought in to deliver emergency accommodation for the evacuated residents. One good news I picked up from the floods, was there were a number of breakthrough rescues. A year gone and will want to ask if such residents affected are at least better in terms of livelihood and living standards.
I am sure the Beijing conference sometime back may at least boast their input in urging women to aspire to higher positions of their motherlands. Not surprising I guess, to them, would be when Brazil inaugurated Dilma Rousseff as President and not just any ordinary president, but the first woman president. She took over from as I picked up her mentor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who stepped down after two terms. After taking her oath of office, she vowed to consolidate the work of her predecessor who she said changed the way Brazil was governed. Also she promised to protect the most vulnerable in the Brazilian society and govern them all. Is she still stuck to her promise? I ask.
Another issue that can’t easily escape my mind is that of the aftermath of elections in the West African Sate of Cote d’ Ivoire. My take is from the period where the incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo rejected a deadline for him to step down but rather going ahead to say the international community was trying to stage a coup against him and that the country could face even greater violence if he were to leave office. All this came about when, Mr Ouattara was initially proclaimed the winner by Ivory Coast’s election commission, but the Constitutional Council said Mr Gbagbo had won. Well we all know what happened after that. Is the country painted with more violence or it’s calmer. I pray for peace in Africa especially after election periods.
I am wondering if most of you reading this article, would remember the caption “AMA fights tiGo over business operating permit”. This was also an issue that took root and wondering if it’s been fully resolved as I post this up. Well the dispute between them was over the payment of the company’s outstanding business operating permit levy which was far from over. The AMA even went ahead and threatened legal action against Millicom operators of tiGo. Well this issue led to a whole lot of scuffles which resulted in the arrest of security workers of Millicom, Millicom also destroying padlocks of the AMA, and a whole lot more.
Of course there were a whole lot of news that made rounds around this time last year, but one of them that really caught me of guard was the handshake between Chavez and Clinton amid the diplomatic tension. The handshake was between of course President Hugo Chavez and USA Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the inauguration of the Brazilian new president Dilma Rousseff. According to the footage, they smiled and chatted amicably despite the tension between the two countries. This came up as Venezuela refused to accept the nomination of the new US Ambassador to Caracas because of comments he made against the country earlier. This led to Washington also revoking the visa of the Venezuelan Ambassador to the USA. The two countries have long had reduced contacts due to the antagonism fed by Mr. Chavez’s condemnations of the US and the US State Department’s criticisms of democracy in Venezuela. We wait for the day that all shall be dropped and peace among these two countries be promoted.
I will end here since I am sure you also have stories that were topical around this time of the year in 2011.
I take this opportunity to ask each and every Ghanaian to be circumspect of real issues and avoid any form of violence as the elections approach. We have been the eye of the world due to our democratic dispensation, so we must uphold this virtue and all shall be well.
Thank you for reading.
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Qwophicedi's Blog 