THE WORLD
From Issue #18
GLOBAL ISSUES
World News Briefs
Read, contemplate, comment, discuss
WASHINGTON - Four More Years
This January George Bush II begins his
second term as President after being rewarded by
a majority of American voters. Despite much of the
world’s population hoping he’d lose (only 17% of Canadians
wanted Bush to win) Bush’s campaign managers did an
excellent job of motivating church-going Americans to come
out to the polls in record numbers. In a very positive
development, young voters also came out to vote in record
numbers with 52% of them voting (mostly for Kerry) versus
only 36% in 1996. Let’s hope youth participation in
elections is a permanent trend so governments will
start to pay more attention to the issues that
matter to youth.
WAY UP THERE- Faster Planes and
Slower Spacecraft
The world’s fastest plane, a pilot-less experimental
jet, flew at the sizzling speed of 9.6 times the speed of
sound (Mach 9.6 or roughly 11,000 km/h), blowing away its
old speed record of Mach 6.8. Despite the success, the NASA
run project is being pushed aside to focus on developing a
replacement for the space shuttle and on two pet projects of
President Bush: flying men to the Moon within 10 years and,
soon after, to Mars. Meanwhile, after 15 months of flight a
European spacecraft is now in orbit around the moon for
the first time, only America and Russia have
accomplished the feat. The Europeans tested a
new solar power system, which worked
better than expected.
CHILE - Divorce Allowed
In Chile
Chile passed a new law allowing married couples to
divorce, making it one of the last countries in the world to
do so. Only Malta and The Philippines still ban divorces.
Chileans were overwhelmingly in favour of making divorce
legal although the Roman Catholic Church argued strongly that
allowing divorce would be a threat to marriage and to
families. Over 70% of Chileans are Catholic.
The new law requires a separation period of at least one
year before couples agreeing to split up can get an
official divorce.
SWITZERLAN - The Alps Melting Away
Warmer summers, particularly in Europe, are
taking their toll on ski hills everywhere but this is
especially true for the famous Alps, home to some of the
most beautiful ski resorts in the world. Year-round tourism to
the Alps is a major part of the Swiss economy. Summer glacier
skiing is in risk as Swiss glaciers have shrunk by 20% over the
last 25 years. Shorter winters are impacting winter skiing as well.
The retreating glaciers leave barren and rocky valleys that are
prone to rock slides and flash floods. The Himalayan
mountains, including Mount Everest, have also seen
significant melting. Unless the current climate trends
reverse, many of these great ice-capped
mountains could be nothing but rock.
EGYPT - A Plague of Locusts
It was like a story out of the Bible, as millions of
flying pink desert locusts (a type of grasshopper)
swarmed into Egypt for the first time in 50 years. The
swarms arrived on strong winds after they spent months
devouring the countryside in many parts of western and central
Africa. This has been one of the worst years for locusts although
the food crops were not as damaged as originally expected.
Nevertheless, there was still a great deal of destruction, the
country of Mauritania, for example, had half of its cereal
crops consumed. A swarm can contain 40 to 80 million
insects per square kilometre and travel up to 130
kilometres a day.
IRAQ - Iraqi Resistance
Fights On
The job of the American occupation forces in Iraq
isn’t getting any easier. As they continue to impose
military rule on this country of 25 million, the underground
Iraqi resistance appears to be getting better organized. The
resistance goal is to stop the Americans from making any
progress in rebuilding Iraq. That means sabotaging oil pipelines,
killing government officials and police officers seen as loyal to
the U.S. command, striking the U.S. troops and reconstruction
crews with roadside bombs and suicide attacks. With the
U.S. elections out of the way, Bush has stepped up the
war against the resistance as American soldiers
continue to die in alarming numbers.
CHINA - CN Tower
Crown To Topple
Relocation work has started in the Chinese city of
Guangzhou to build the world’s tallest tower which will
stand almost 600 metres high, beating out Toronto’s
CN Tower which is 553 metres high. The CN Tower is an
amazing piece of architecture and has held the title of the
world’s tallest free standing structure since it was built in 1976.
Like the CN Tower, the new Chinese tower will be a TV
transmission tower and will include bars, restaurants and
tourist observation sections. Around 200 families will
have to be moved to make room for the new tower.
Chinese officials are hoping that the tower will
be completed in 2008.
INDONESIA - Hobbit-Like Species
Discovered
A new species of human has been found on the
tropical island of Flores. Although now extinct, this
three-foot high cousin of ours was living as recently
as 14,000 years ago and perhaps much more recently and
may have come in contact with our own race of humans which
had already been migrating for thousands of years through
the South Pacific islands. It is suggested these people evolved
in isolation on the island having descended from another
extinct cousin Homo Erectus. Modern islanders tell
folktales of a race of shy little people that lived
in the island‘s caves as recently as
500 years ago.
