01831: Storm Clouds on the Horizon



A situation is developing in Iraq that certainly merits attention. And while it is welcome that President Obama has declared that the US will not be sending troops back into the country, I'm sure that the debate about US involvement will come back into public discussion. Some will argue that the present situation is a direct result of US forces having pulled out a few years ago. Others still will argue that the present situation is because of the fact that the US had invaded the country to begin with. And such are the harsh realities of the post-9/11 world. Nothing is ever simple.

At the same, the US government has also released a statement that they have reason to believe that Russia has dispatched tanks across their border with Ukraine in order to support pro-Russian separatist forces active in the Eastern part of the country. Things haven't gotten much better after Crimea broke off from Ukraine to join Russia. And it doesn't look like things are going to shift anytime soon.

There are protests in Hong Kong related to the question of the nature of their continued relationship. The status quo is supposed to be 1 country with 2 systems, but now it appears that a government white paper asserts Beijing's full control of Hong Kong, thus denying their claim to autonomy. Naturally that brings a lot of concerns to Hong Kong citizens, especially those who were around before the 1997 handover.

Meanwhile we're either struggling to get enough classrooms for students or trying to figure out why so many schools do not have the necessary permits to operate. We are still dealing with on-going PDAF scam investigation and the wheels of justice are still trying to generate enough inertia to even just begin movement.

Looking at what is happening elsewhere in the world, at times our problems seem almost minuscule in comparison. But this is not to say that they are any less valid or meaningful to us on a day-to-day basis.

Needless to say, things are less than ideal in the world.

Comments

  1. There are never any easy solutions. Just try to keep greed at bay the best we can.

    Do you have a link for the PDAF information?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Because the internet moves quickly, there are a lot of options.

      First, there is actually a Wikipedia page:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDAF_scam

      The news sites used to have dedicated special reports pages for the story, but it seems that there are just too many stories about it by now.

      Inquirer still links their page to Napoles:
      http://www.inquirer.net/napoles

      GMA has an interesting infographic:
      http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/363096/news/specialreports/infographic-the-napoles-web-of-plunder

      Delete

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