United States
President Obama releases his budget for the year while teachers strike.
Significance: President Obama has left intact some altruistic but misguided governmental programs: Medicare and Social Security. Obama obviously realizes these programs are going nowhere fast and that they would require the retirement age to rise, the President would not do such a thing with elections in mind. Simultaneously, because most state budgets are facing problems (while federal money continues to pour in), governors have had to make touch choices. Some choices that have hit the education field have led thousands of teachers to strike. Teachers, not realizing that American students already receive more money on average than any other country, have become worried when their unions have been threatened. The unionization of America, though initially a good way to fight corporate monopolies in the nineteenth century, has suffocated the budget.
US agent killed in Mexico by cartels.
Significance: The Emigration and Customs Enforcement agent was killed in an ambush. There are about thirty agents working within Mexico. President Obama’s new budget threatens to lower the overtime pay for these and other border agents. Tens of thousands of people have died in the past few years from the cartels and the U.S. remains with an unsecured southern border while there has been mounting evidence that shows Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations allying themselves with these gangs.
International
Other Arab countries erupt in violence as Egypt calms down.
Significance: Violence and protests have now spread to the majority of the Arab countries, most dangerously in Bahrain and Libya. In these two countries, the military has been clamping down on protests leaving scores dead. The situation is unique in each country. Bahrain is a tiny kingdom of less than two million people with the root causes laying in discrimination against the minority Shiite population. Though its importance should not be overlooked (especially as an oil exporter), the crisis in Bahrain is not of the upmost importance in terms global impact. Libya is much more important geopolitically speaking. The dictator of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, is guilty of such things as organizing a hero’s welcome to the Lockerbie terrorist, allying himself with Idi Amin of Uganda before his exile, continued terrorist support, and corruption. One way Gaddafi’s lack of mental stability can be seen is by looking at the Libyan flag. This solid green flag with no design nor any other color is the result of Gaddafi’s anger at the Egyptian peace deal with the only moral and democratic country in the region, Israel.
Cambodian and Thai tensions continue.
Significance: The first ever business summit between both countries will be held regardless of the tension. Nationalist pride will be put aside as both countries ultimately care more about their wallets than their national treasures. The more interconnected their economies get, the less likely war would break out.
Thought of the Day: “There is no (solid green) flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people” –Howard Zinn, edited by Don Waintraub
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