Israel Ides of March

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1092/fo1.htm

In the Egypt newspaper there is an article talking about protest that have been happening in Israel. When Israel took the west bank and the Gaza strip in the 1970s there were protest by the Palestinians which resulted in six deaths. After these protest Israel began it ethnic cleaning according to the article. This year Land day protest involved a death and wounded in the Gaza strip but was relatively small protest. In the next few months two more large protest days are ahead. the article talks about past protest and the violence that has taken place in them but the success that they have had. Student groups have been protesting Israel in the past weeks and their actions were commended by western countries. The article finish talking about comparing the Israel state to the Nazi and then the fall.

This article was interesting because being about protest in Israel it had a very different view than American sources. The US are one of the biggest supports of Israel and almost never commended their actions. In the US this same event would have only talked about how Israel was doing its duty to protect its borders and its interest. this article though takes the side of the protesters and supports their actions against Israel. The deaths are described in such away that the reader feels sorry for the killings and wants to do something to prevent them. Also at all points it make Israel out as a bully that just took the land from the rightful owners. This makes since as Egypt is a Muslim country that would support its fellow Muslims against Israel.

The main reason that more people should read articles like this is to see both sides of the stories. In international news we are so use to just reading the American press which is from a American point of view. Many of times we never see the other side of the issue and therefore can not act in away to solve the issue. The Israel Palestinian issue is not going to be solved over night and unless both sides talk and try to understand the others side nothing can be done. Article like this while does share the side of the Palestinian does nothing to end the cause. Israel will read this article and feel threaten and attack or increase security while supports will fell like they are doing the right thing and keep up their actions. In the end this issue will have to be solved by the people of the Israel and Palestinian without influence from other nations.

Kevin Whaley

Zoning In Nepal

http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2012/04/09/money/zoning-to-be-done-as-concrete-overruns-farmland/233633.html

The government in Nepal is proposing a policy that will implant zones of land use. The major zones will be agriculture, forest, residential, urban, and industrial. The policy is being implanted because of declining food supplies. The Nepal government want to make sure that land that is fertile enough for farming is used for farming and that land that is fertile is also not left unused. The own of the farmland can ask for special permission to use the land in special cases. The policy also gives the government the right to level heavy taxes if farmland is not used. The reason for the policy is that housing projects are taking farm land and the massive lost of farm land in the past years.

How countries handle food shortages is an important issues that the world is facing. Nepal use of zoning areas is a way that use other countries policies in a different way. The US which does not have a food shortage use zoning laws. These laws are more used to keep business under control. In Nepal if this policy is enforced than this could be a positive step in stopping hunger. The policy allows the government to make sure that the land is being used for farming and not homes. The other thing this law does is prevent land that should be used as left unused if the owner is not there. With this law Nepal can maximize there land so there is more farming and there for more food.

The other interesting part of this policy is the about of power that the government took and passed up. The government used this to get it so that the land has to be zoned and the government decides the zones. This gives the government the power to decide if some land is now farmland and force people to farm or face huge taxes. The government does not take all of the power in that the zones will be set and then not changed. Also all of the zones are set around farming which is less profitable than industry meaning the government is passing up money. The most important part of the policy is that the government does not take over the land. This is important when governments take over parts of the economy the economy goes down. Overall I feel this policy is a go idea for the country of Nepal to prevent hunger.

Kevin Whaley

Alert in Bay

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=229694

In Bangladesh a storm killed one boy are caused a great deal of damage in the region. At least 1000 mud homes have been destroyed due to the storm. The waves were seven to eight feet high tidal waves that swept through the area. Also lost during the waves were hundreds cattle that were carried out to sea. There has also been reports of large numbers of crops being destroyed. Parts of the town were submerged under the waves as this area of Bangladesh is very low lying. This wave was about four feet higher than the normal tidal waves that hit this coastal area. The damage cannot be fully measured due to bad weather and flooding.

This article is important in the World news because the country of Bangladesh is one of the poorest nations in the world. Until the damage is fully seen area like this have a history of rising body counts and damage cost. When countries like Bangladesh have these large national disasters are process that was being made to better the lives of the people is but back years and all of the work must be redone. This article gives you a cool feeling for the suffering that is taking place all around the world. The article made it seem that though this was a very bad event that flooding happens all the time and the town just rebuilds. In the US if something happens like this that they whole country turns to look and help while when it is overseas in a poor nation it is just brushed aside. I feel that events like this need to be netter covered around the world instead of focusing on some celebrity’s new dress.

This article also brings into the light just how poor some countries are. Multiple times in the article they talk about mud dwelling. These are not just kids play places but these are people’s homes that they live in and need to survive. This article makes be realize how lucky and spoiled I am to live in America when I complain that my heater is not working. I never have to worry about the house getting to wet ad falling apart or where I live floods wiping away everything I have. To be this is a insight on how many people live around the world that I would have never seen before. I hope that this event gets more media coverage as people begin to see the effect it has one human life even though only one person died which is still too many.  

Bahrain Soccer

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=327635
The Bahrain national football team is defending themselves for their victory over Indonesia. This match was part of a World Cup Qualifier and has sparked a probe by Fifa. The match ended in a final score of 10 to zero which is a very high scoring football games. The reason for the probe is that the Bahrain trailed the Qatar team by 3 points and nine goals in qualifying before this match. The coach of the Bahrain National Team said that the high score can be attributed to the inexperience of the Indonesia team as they were mostly reserves. The Indonesia team had nothing to play for in this match as they were already out of qualify. Fifa is going to conduct interviews with players coaches and refs about the match.
I found this article to be very interesting in how much attention is being given to a soccer match. Soccer or football is the world most popular sport in the world. Still at the end of the article it said that this match did not have an effect as Qatar tied their match with 2 goals apiece and therefore advanced. Also the fact that FIFA is going to do an official probe tells a little bit about how all matches are taken serious. This to me seems important as neither Bahrain or Indonesia are World Cup powers that the mach would have a great effect on. The fact the Bahrain need a win and nine goals to over take Qatar and got ten goals is really weird with out something else happening though not unheard of. If the Indonesia team was mainly reserves and the Bahrain coach say that there was an opportunity to gain ground that he took a great opportunity.
This game and the follow probe is something that needs to happen more in the sports world. Many time if the game is being played by two teams that are not very good or are way out of first place that there is not much attention and interesting things can happen. These thing can be either large jumps up in the standing due to lopsided victories or more commonly one player has a career game. These could be just that one team is better or that player happen to wake up on the right side of the bed that day. The other side is that since these two teams are bad to great interest they make a great story that has to get noticed later. I thing that FIFA is doing the right thing to investigate this game and that more sports governing bodies should do the same thing. Also i will be interested to see the out come of this case.

Kevin Whaley

Kenya National Football

http://www.nation.co.ke/sports/football/Kimanzi+Brazil+2014+tall+order+/-/1102/1333022/-/fmkxi9z/-/index.html

 

The Kenya national football team has never been to a World Cup but the people of Kenya are hoping that is about to change. A large check was donated by a private donor to make the national team a more appealing option for players. The Kenya Football federation which runs the national team said that the team’s and donor’s goals are to qualify for the 2013 African Cup of Nations and the 2014 World Cup. The team knows that it has to build the side up step by step and promise not to take shortcuts but build a strong team for years to come. The coach is looking forward to the challenge and has some players that he wants to be on the team but cautions that qualify will not be easy.

As a fan of all kinds of sports any article of sports interest me. The reason that this article is so interesting is the stark difference between western national teams and the national team in Kenya. The teams of the major western nations have lots of players and have to cut some of them because they are not good enough. On the Kenya national team it sounds like that the coach is going to have to recruit the better players to come back home to play. This goes a little bit with what we were learning in class were unlike the west where we have strong ties to the government, many of the nations in Africa due to the colonial period due not because they feel that the government does not represent the people. The fact that there was a large article about the team getting a donation from a business stands out to me as well. In the west we just assume that Nike, Coke, Pepsi, and others are just going to be lining up to give out money to the national team so that there player use their products. In Kenya it seems as this is the first time that the team has had a large sum of money to work with and are looking forward to building a strong team.

Football is the world’s largest sport. As many of these African countries are not very strongly united a good national football team can no wonders to bring the nation together. When the Olympics or even the World Cup was on every on in the U.S. was cheering for the team and talking about the athletes success.  In a country like Kenya seeing a team that represents all of Kenya not just one group do well will help bring the country together. Sports to many are a form of entertainment but when a national team is able to do something that that country has never experience before it can unity the country in ways that no one thought were possible.

Kevin Whaley  

Sports Day

http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=&to=en&a=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lanation.dj%2F2012%2F2012_ln37%2Farticle9.php

For many Americans we take high school sports for grated, but that is not the case in the rest of the world. A few days ago the schools in Dikhil, Dijbouti had a sports day. On this day the kids at all levels of schooling participated in three sports football, handball, and cross. The event was put on by the National Education and vocational training minster and is the second time this has been done in the past year. This event was not just a regional event but schools across the country also were a part of it. The article also states which schools won the important events and if there were any repeat champs. The Minster of Education went on to thank the people who contributed to the success.

                 As I was growing up I always heard of my dad time on his high school football team and that of my uncle’s achievements as well. To me and many of my friends part of looking forward to middle school and high school was the chance to play on a sports team. When I read this article and saw that this was only the second time that there had been interschool competition in made me pause for a moment. The idea of going through out high school without sports is just foreign to me. To see that these schools are just starting an interschool sports is a sign that the government is becoming more stable. When the communities are able to take time to watch sports and the government is able to organize to it shows a higher level of stability. The chance for students to play sports at a competitive level is something that all students should have an opportunity to do and I feel that the government of Dijbount is doing a good thing to push this.  

                Being from The U.S. where we have a large number of pro and college sports it was surprising to see the high schools sports on the main page. In St. Louis high school sports are something of a local event and only are news worth when it is the state championships. In this article not only is this a huge event but the Minster of Education is the one who is putting it on. To me this shows that even though it is a step in the right direction of having high school sports it is still a long way off if the federal government is putting them on.

Kevin Whaley

Businesses in Peru: Uncertified

http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=&to=en&a=http%3A%2F%2Felcomercio.pe%2Flima%2F1377300%2Fnoticia-gamarra-casi-tan-insegura-informal-como-mesa-redonda

A large portion of the businesses in two different regions in Peru are operating with out licenses say the government. The local government says that many of these businesses are working towards getting their licenses and that many a pending. Those businesses that have not become the process were being advised on how to get a certificate. The Chief of business development says that the policy is to work on getting business formalized instead of shutting them down. The areas which have the highest rate of uncertified businesses are in the Gamarra, Central Market and Roundtable areas. To prevent the rising number of uncertified businesses the government needs to have more officers checking licenses and paperwork according to local businesses experts. In a few cases businesses have been closed for security measures.

                I chose this article because it gives a very different insight into many different levels of Peruvian culture. The thing that jumped out at be first was how both the government and the local paper did not seem very concerned about this issues. This is very surprising to me because in the U.S. all business have to register before they open up. In America when you walk inside any company one of thing if you look for it is the license for the community allowing them to operate and to hear that a large number of businesses are operating with any license is strange. On of the ideas that this article seems to be touching on is that there is very low government oversight into businesses in Peru. This could be because that the government just does not have the manpower to keep up with all the businesses. It also probably has to do with the government wanting the economy to grow through more local businesses. As someone who is use to living where the government has lager oversight, I feel as though the government is being lazing and is not protecting its people.

                The article also lets you see a little bit in to the life of some of the Peruvian people. Many of these people need these businesses for money and their income depends on it. To spend time waiting in government permits and paperwork is time that is wasted when you need money to buy food. Since the people need jobs many will open businesses and then try to get the permit later after they have some money. Another one of the interesting things in the article was when they were talking about the closing of businesses. Many of these businesses where being closed for security reasons as their exits were blocked with goods. With the world economy how it is it, the way people are edging the line on what is legal and illegal is not very surprising.

Kevin Whaley