Friday, March 21, 2014

Mexico (again)

Article found here:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/mexico/1
40310/mexican-craziest-nazario-moreno-drug-war




This article is about how a drug cartel owner recently died 

(again). It says he was reported dead by machine gun fire in 
2010, though most of the public didn't believe that, and it 
points out that this highlights how corrupt law enforcers protect
the criminals in Mexico, like Mrs. McMurray was saying. It also
goes into details of another drug guy that was reported dead 
months before he actually was dead, and even another guy who was
reported dead on a plastic surgery table, when they later found
the bodies of the plastic surgeons stuffed in barrels on the 
highway.

I am pretty much doing this article because it is just so crazy. 

It sounds like something from a movie or a video game where you 
have to kill the bad guy like 2 million times because he wasn't 
really dead. Even the way they reported him dead before- from a 
machine gun on a helicopter- sounds like a movie. Anyways, as far
as actual political stuff goes, I think the article is right in 
that there could be some corruption going on through all of 
these cases, though I have no idea how to fix it. The article 
did say at the end though, that it was starting to get better.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Nigeria

Article found here:
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/04/nigeria-must-hold-extremists-accountable/

This article urges Nigeria's government to properly deal with Boko Haram, an Islamic extremist group. It tells of the terrorist acts committed by the group and then highlights the tension between Christians and Muslims. It argues that the Nigerian government must "embrace a comprehensive approach that includes the protection of human rights and the promotion of rule of law."

This is a sticky situation. Reading around, I have found more articles on attacks on a school and a town and other things that have killed people, so I obviously do think that this group can not be allowed to continue to act like this. I think it needs to be done carefully, without using the same or similar methods against the group as they have used, and religious freedom should still be protected, but this group should still be held accountable for their crimes. You can have your religious freedom, as long as you don't infringe upon others rights. It makes me sad that groups like this give all of Islam a bad name.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Mexico

Article found here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/mexico/10639879/Mexico-City-government-mulls-legalisation-of-marijuana.html

This article is about a bill in Mexico City that would allow the legalization of marijuana. It talks about how "If [the bill] is approved, the Mexico City legislature could find itself at odds with federal government" because the national government is more conservative right now, and then it goes off to talk about how laws regarding marijuana have been in the past in mexico (it said that they were allowed to be in possession of up to 5 grams, but buying or selling was illegal, which I thought was kind of weird), and then the article gave what specifics about the bill it knew, but it said that it was unknown how it would be taxed and regulated and such.

I feel like I have been saying this a lot, especially lately, but I am not 100% sure of my opinion. On one hand, I could see how it could bring in new revenue via taxes and hopefully stop the black market, and part of me is saying "just let people do what they want with themselves". But I also see that there could (and in my opinion would) be some bad consequences of legalizing marijuana. People always say things about how marijuana isn't really that bad and stuff, but I am not convinced; it is a gateway drug. Anyways, I think I am leaning towards thinking it should not be legalized, but I am not certain. If they do legalize it I would be interested to see how things turn out.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Iran

Article is here: http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/10/world/meast/iran-nuclear-deal/

I think this article might be slightly outdated, it was from earlier in the year, so if something else happened feel free to correct me. It pretty much says that Iran and the US, UN, China and Russia are trying to come to an agreement about Iran's nuclear plans. It says that while the talks are still ongoing, they think they might have an agreement. It also talked about a bill in the senate that would "authorize new economic sanctions on Iran if it breaches an interim agreement to limit its nuclear program or fails to strike a final accord terminating those ambitions", and then talked about how President Obama has "threatened to veto any legislation that would authorize new economic sanctions on Iran, saying such a bill at this time would undermine delicate efforts to forge a lasting deal with Tehran".

So once again, I am not super educated when it comes to issues like these. I just feel like nobody should have nuclear weapons, including us. We should all just agree never to make them again and ship them all off into space or something. But I feel like that is NEVER going to happen, so the question is since they are going to exist how do we deal with them? I really don't know. I obviously don't want to get nuked by another country, but I also don't want us to be the police of the world. How do we find the balance? Thoughts?

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Russia

Article found here:  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26424738

This article is about just what you would expect it to be about: Russia's invasion of the Ukraine. It talks about how rumors are flying around that the Russian military has demanded surrender of their forces in Crimea, or risk a full assault, but a Russian spokesperson said that is not true.  It talks about how the US is possibly going to "Target Russian individuals and organizations with economic sanctions", and how the EU is "also preparing to hit Moscow with sanctions." It also says that the UK prime minister urges allies to send economic aid.

I honestly don't know much of the situation or how things were between the Ukraine and Russia before this whole ordeal. I obviously do not think it is good that Russia invaded Ukraine, but I don't feel informed enough to know whether I think we should intervene or not. I feel like I can't really make comments when I don't know how the Ukraine people really feel about it, or how things really are over there. One thing that made me think is the quote they had from Obama saying that Moscow was "on the wrong side of history". I do wonder what the history books 100 years from now will say about today. Maybe it will just blow off and the history books will all but ignore it, or maybe it turns into WWIII. Who knows, but it is interesting to think about.