Merciless Mugabe

Stealing the spotlight once again, Mr. Mugabe, the dreaded dictator of Zimbabwe is now being pressured by world leaders to step down and finally hand over the gauntlet. Will he do it? Personally, there's a better chance of seeing a cow jump over the moon than Mugabe resigning any time soon. If you look at his ruling record, he's never been one to concede defeat. His so-called "free and fair elections" have continually been questioned by foreign observers. Not surprisingly, since his party, the ZANU-PF goes around the local townships and villages harassing and intimidating (to put it lightly) people who don’t vote for him. Or, because many registered voters (who cast their ballot for Mugabe) are already deceased.

So, for the last three decades under his ruling regime, the African country has plummeted into a hole of economic despair. Since taking power in 1980, inflation has sky rocketed. According to the International Monetary Fund, Zimbabwe's inflation rate has been pegged at 150,000 per cent. In light of the economic turmoil, Zimbabwe's unemployment rate has reached 80 per cent. Actually there was even one report stating it had risen to 90 percent!

On top of rising inflation and high unemployment there are also major food shortages throughout the country. Given the dire situation in the country, it would have been a blessing for the opposition to defeat Mugabe in the presidential elections earlier this year. Unfortunately once again, the March elections were flawed. Algthough the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC leader) did win the first round of presidential poll, he lost in the presidential run-off.

Since the elections, there has been an attempt to create a power-sharing agreement between the MDC and the ZANU-PF. Although the agreement has been signed, the two leaders remain deadlocked over the allocation of ministries between their parties, the ZANU-PF and the MDC.

Additionally, Mugabe has come under fire for the growing health crisis sweeping his country. Cholera, a water-borne disease has already claimed the lives of nearly 800 Zimbabweans. According to the World Health Organization, the disease could reach 60,000 if nothing is don’t to halt it. Sadly, many government-run health institutions have been shut down, leaving thousands of patients stranded and without aid. Why have they been shut down? Surprise, surprise, a lack of finances. According to BBC news striking doctors and nurses have refused to return to work until they are paid $2,500 a month.

In response to the current humanitarian crisis, Mugabe argues that Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic has been "arrested." What kind of dream world is this guy living in? While Mugabe is arguing the crisis is over, the United Nations is warning him that the epidemic is growing worse. Moreover, South African officials have just declared part of their northernmost province a disaster area because Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak is spreading into their territory.

In any case, whether he acknowledges it or not, he has to face another election in six weeks. With so much international pressure mounting on him to resign, maybe this time he will have mercy on his people, step down, and finally give someone else a chance to save his country.

Forget the news

When you get home from work and turn on your television, what exactly are you looking for? Do you switch to the news for the latest breaking stories? Or, do you switch to some fluff to get the latest celebrity gossip?

Well, taking a wild guess, I would have to say most people would be channel surfing for a fluffly kind of show. Not necessarily to get the celebrity gossip, but something which requires no intellectual processing. Unfortunately, it is very easy to get glued to those silly no brainer shows (i.e. The Hills) which run late into the night. Although most reality shows are crappy, they do provide a temporary escapism from your hectic workday. Nevertheless between commericals, if you are flipping through channels, its hard to avoid CNN, BBC, FOX, ABC, NBC, and even CBC.

Unlike your other entertainment channels, the news can be boring, depressing and repetitive. Boring, in the sense that most stories are focused on the latest political scandal or the latest drop in the stock market. If you're not a hardcore poli sci fan or an economics junkie, both headlines will be dreadfully mind-numbing.

Depressing, especially when the whole world seems to be erupting in crisis. Last week, the Mumbai bombings sweeped the networks, giving viewers live-by updates from journalists stationed in the Indian city. This week, Zimbabwe's horrific cholera crisis and the deplorable Greek riots have consumed the networks.

Repetitive, in the sense that you hear the same 'updates' every hour.

Given that the holiday season is a time to be merry and jolly, I suggest you take a break from the news. Yes - take a break. Dont worry there's not much else that could go wrong with the liberal party.

Instead of the news, just sit back, relax and enjoy a few christmas shows.

Hopefully, in the new year, we can turn back on the telly, and the news will gives us something to smile about.

Toronto Raptors: Dribbling away the year

It's never easy to turn over a new leaf. Especially, in basketball. But with the new season well underway, the Raptors President and General Manager Bryan Colangelo decided to revamp both their bench and coaching team. To the bench, he has added Jermaine O'Neal, Will Solomon, Roko Ukic, Hassan Adams and Nathan Jawai. Of all the new players, only O'Neal has played a decent few minutes. Actually, in his last game he averaged a season high of 24 points. Another new player that seems worthy of mention is Solomon. Coming over from Clemson, Solomon has been a sturdy substitute for our point guard, Jose Calderon. Despite the new line-up, "CB-4" or Mr. Chris Bosh is still averaging the highest set of points and carrying his team to victory.

To be honest, the Raptors started out the season surprisingly strong, wining against the 76ers, Warrios, and Bucks in late October. Unfortunately, the team started to falter in early November losing against the Pistons, Hawks, Celtics, Lakers, Magics, Heat, Nets (all within a span of three weeks).

However, their worst loss came on December 2nd against the Denver Nuggets. The Raptors lost the game by a whopping 39 points. Sadly, on the following day, the Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell was fired. Soon afterwards, Colangelo announced that Jay Triano would replace Mitchell. Triano is the first Canadian-born head coach in NBA history. Despite the changes, the Raptors have lost the last two games against the Blazers and Jazz.

With 8 wins and 11 losses so far, the Raptors rank 11th in the Eastern Conference. Hopefully, under the guidance of their new coach the Raptors can ring in the new year with some wins.

Little Things about Home

Normally, when your visiting someones house you're greeted by a huge slobbering dog or a furry feline. This happened to be the case when I returned home to Barbados last week. Althougth there were two big hairy dogs (Van and Roxy) slobbering all over my cute puma shoes, there were also some nasty little monkeys dancing around our yard. These little ragamuffins are nothing like the monkeys you find in the Toronto Zoo. They come into your yard, steal any kind of food they can find, take one bite of it, then throw it away.Very wasteful creatures. On the weekend, I went into our gully (backyard) and there was a bunch of rotting limes on the ground with a bite taken out of them.

Since then, I have only had one other run in with the little beasts. Yesterday morning when i was sitting outside, a baby monkey jumped from the mahogany tree onto our roof and began dangling its tail off the edge, eagerly waiting for our dogs to notice it. Fortunately, Van was asleep, so they turned their attention to me. Inching closer and closer. Meanwhile, I was thinking about the time my brother had been chased by a pack of relentless monkeys. Anyways, our dog woke up and chased them off.

Aside from the monkeys, I must mention the mosquitoes. You mostly see them in the evenings, buzzing around your legs trying to suck your blood. These mosquitoes carry a deadly disease known as denge (not the same thing as West Nile virus). Anyways, becuase you can get dengue fever from the insect, we continue to put a mosquito net over our beds to prevent them from biting us while we sleep.

Okay, so besides some scary wildlife and insects, there are some other interestings things I noticed about home.

Firstly, the lack of clothing people tend to wear (not just in the heat) but even in the supermarket (grocery store). Yesterday, I saw a man walking barefoot through our supermarket. At first glance you would probably think he is some crazy homeless person. However, I remember when I used to live in Barbados it was common to see people walking around with no shoes or just bikinis when shopping. Definetely something you wouldn't see in Toronto.

Like my shopping list, the things I noticed could go on. But, I will stop there.

Proroging goverment

Seven weeks ago, (on October 14 to be exact), I cast my ballot in another general election. I crossed my fingers hoping that the liberal candidate in my riding would retain her seat. She did. But the liberals suffered a heavy defeat, and Stephane Dion decided to step down as the Liberal party leader. Although, I would have liked the Liberals and NDP to gain more seats, I accepted the results and hoped that Harper’s minority government would immediately get to work. However, that seems to an impossible task since the Liberals and NDP have decided to form a coalition government to overthrow the current conservative government.

The irony of the present debacle is that Mr. Dion who was posed to step down after the election, is now doing a complete 360 and taking back the reins to form a new coalition against Harper’s government. His move seems a little bit fishy to me. But then again, we’re talking about a politician so what can i really expect. Anyways, Dion's and Layton’s proposed coalition government would spread cabinet responsibilities to various NDP & Liberal party members. The NDP would be guaranteed 6 of the 24 cabinet seats. The coalition accord also stipulates that the current finance minister would be replaced by a liberal MP.

Another fishy issue, is the fact that neither the NDP nor the Liberals discussed forming a coalition government during their election campaign. So why now, when the economy is in dire straits? Why are Layton and Dion so eager beaver to take on Harper?

Unfortunately, I’m not sure why either of them want to challenge the current Canadian prime minister or take on the heap of problems he has to deal with.

All I know is that the whole situation is pretty embarrassing for our country. Especially in comparison to the U.S., the President –elect Obama is hard at work selecting new members (for each cabinet portfolio) to help him run the country for the next four years. Meanwhile, Canadian politicians are still fumbling like children over who should take the reins.

So what’s the next step? Well, Stephen Harper has already made a television appearance to explain his position. In a soft and almost endearing gentle voice (not normally seen) he began to explain to viewers why Canada is a democracy. He argued that in a democracy it is the people who choose their leader and that the consensus of the people will determine who will form government. In light of the recent election, the consensus of Canadian citizens was that the Conservative government should remain in power. His elongated discussion on democracy was basically an attempt to show that Dion’s coalition government is undemocratic (because it was not formed on the consensus of the people). Stephen Harper then went on to discuss his budget plan, how Canada is going to help manufacturers and businesses through the economic crisis, and so on.

Now, it is up to Canada’s Governor General Michaelle Jean to calm the political storm in Ottawa. Firstly, Jean can grant Mr.Harper’s request to prorogue (postpone) parliament so he can work on his government's already proposed Jan 27 budget and put the crisis on the backburner for a few weeks. Or she can refuse his request, allowing a non-confidence vote from the House of Commons to proceed. If the House does yield a non-confidence vote, then Harper’s government will have to resign.

Michaelle Jean then has two options. She can either turn over power to the coalition or call another federal election.

I think Michelle Jean should write a letter to Santa asking him for advice.

In any case, Santa would at least be able to tell us which politician is on his naughty or nice list.

The Bombing of Bombay

Christmas is just around the corner and nearly everyone is buzzing around the city buying presents, decorating their Christmas tree, and getting ready for the big turkey dinner. While we celebrate this joyous holiday season, it's sad to see how India has suddenly unravelled into a firestorm of bloodshed.

I was actually surprised when I turned on CNN and instead of talking about U.S. president-elect Barack Obama or America's economic woes, the broadcast was solely focused on the militant attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay). However, the attacks also dominated every other news channel, giving viewers minute-to-minute reports and updates of what was unfolding in the well known Bollywood capital. To summarise briefly, the attacks lasted 60 hours, killing at least 188 people and injuring more than 200 individuals (BBC News, 2008). Nearly two dozen of those killed were foreigners, including two Canadians, Elizabeth Russell and Dr.Michael Moss.

The terror attacks started last Wednesday, when a group of gunmen began firing on people in the Victoria Terminus railway station. After leaving the station, the gunmen opened fire on people at the Cama and Albess hospital. Around the same time another group of gunmen began firing at a cafe, two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre. In the wake of the attacks, authorities have speculated whether several groups could be implicated for the bloodshed. Firstly, a relatively unknown terrorist group known as the Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility. Additionaly several people have argued that the Mumbai attacks were very much "al-Qaeda" style inspired (Gohel, CNN, 2008).

However, one of the captured gunman, Azam Amir Qasab has admitted that he received training in a LET camp. The LET ( Lashkar-e-Taiba) is a Pakistan based militant group which has links to Al-Qaeda (Boutet, C, National Post, 2008). The LET, also known as the Army of the Pure, was founded in the early 90s by Hafiz Saeed and Zafar Iqbal. It represents a militant offshoot of Markaz Daatul Irshad an islamic charity and educational organization (reuters, 2008). The LET is said to have introduced suicide bombing to the Kashmir Conflict (Shah, Globe and Mail, 2008). In 2001 the militant group was banned from India.

Anyways, in light of Mumbai's attacks, one of India's top security officials, Shivraj Patil (the Home Minister) has resigned. The Globe and Mail reported that Mr.Patil took "moral responsibility" for the intelligence failure which led to the attacks (Nolen,S.2008). According to Guardian reporter, Randeep Ramesh, the public is dissatisfied with the way the government has handled the crisis. On Sunday, demonstrators blamed the government for its inability to protect India from such extremists. Earlier this year, several coordinated bomb blasts and explosions rocked different parts of India including Jaipur, Ahmedabad, New Delhi and Assam.

Although India does have a special police force known as the elite Black Cats, they were not able to respond immediately to the recent attacks (sadly, because they had no plane to transport them from Delhi to Mumbai). In addition to the Black Cats, India also has half a million armed state police officers, home guards, and more than 200,000 central reserve police (Timmons, H.,Kumar, H, Herald Tribune). On Sunday, the Herald Tribune also reported that India plans to double the size of the 7,400- National Security Guard, in four more areas across the country. It will be interesting to see if this "beefed up" security plan will improve the government's ability to target terrorists.

Hopefully, India will enter the New Year with just fireworks and not bloodshed.