In the recent past two people have won elections to stay in office, one a positive advance in politics while the other one could be a major step back. I am looking at particular the elections of Tadic and Kibaki.
I found the election in Kenya that lead to the re-election of Kibaki as president. This has lead to major violence that has been compared to the ethnic violence in Rwanda, which was never to have happened again. The violence if you do not know is between ethnic groups in the Rift Valley in Kenya, those that are in support of the current government and those that are in opposition. What I find the most shocking is how the 'western' 'civilized' world does not care or seem to care about what is happening. We say that will never again, but it has happened again and continue to happen in many places around the world.
The western world is prepared to go and invade a country that is not in the possible brink of civil war. But we are not prepared to stop governments who are attacking their own people. I know that I am pulling an example from Africa, when there are many other areas of the world that have issues and we should not just be picking on Africa. I will provide a list at some point of the countries that we in the west have forgotten about, who are going through major issues that cause people pain.
I do not know too much about how the issue of Kenya because I feel that we do not get a balanced view of the situation, and I have not been looking into the geopolitical dynamics of the region for many years.
The election of Tadic may have a completely different perspective. To my knowledge there has not be widespread dismay with his re-election as President of Serbia. He was running against a component that some people had feared would be a new Milosevic and would cause the Balkan region to be filled with war once again. The Balkans have been one of the bloodiest places in Europe, but not the world, and as caused the European community to look at who they are going to be. The major issue with the Serbian election was the issue of the response if (when) Kosovo would declare independence; which is expected shortly.
I feel that the EU is not doing enough in the Balkan region, if the European peoples are not able to support peace projects in their own back yards, how will we be able to support peace around the world. The EU I know is having issues over its own identity, but I think that the USA is have an affect on their 'nation' building. From stopping the EU from having a unified military, having many US troops there, and dividing the block with crazy ideas (missile shield). I use the world nation in the way that most people would consider it. A country is a nation, not a particular ethnic group or common history. It is true that most of Europe has a common history and ethnic group, but if Europe stays focused on this then they will never be able to adapt and change to remain strong in the future.
One of my highschool teachers thought me that empires and nations need remain open to new ideas other wise they will fall. The examples the teacher gave were Spain, France and Rome. I fear this is where the USA is heading, working by itself and spending too much time on small issues. Should the national government really care if people are doing drugs while being sports heroes??
The election of Tadic could create a new age in Europe when Europe can come together as a whole community and work together to solve the common issue of Kosovo. The election of Kibaki on the other hand could cause more political issues in a region of the world that has had too much violence. This region I am talking about is not Africa, I am talking about the Great Lakes region. The conflicts that have happened in that region have been major but in my view over looked, and they did just get hit by an earthquake. Both of these issues will test the western worlds response and hopefully create a peaceful world, I know I am an optimist
Yes I know I did a lot of posts in one day but this will be how many I will do a day. If I do not do this many a day I will forget about it and it will disappear into history.
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>Should the national government really care if people are doing drugs while being sports heroes
Perhaps concentrating on drugs is not that important, but in my opinion, the government of a country's first and foremost important job is to focus on the country they have been elected to govern. Part of the reason of the US's downfall is that they are trying to influence the world to be like they are without spending enough time fixing their own problems. Why are they spending billions of (borrowed) dollars on a war when they have a whole cities (such as New Orleans) that are still horribly devastated.
Foreign policy is important, and foreign aid is important, but not as important as serving the people who elected you to run their country.
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