The Government's Attack on Universities

The current government has continued its betrayal of students and the educational establishment. After ruthlessly cutting funding to universities and tripling fees to £9,000 for domestic students, it would appear the government is now going after international students.

When this government entered power in 2010 it promised that immigration would be slashed. The problem with this is that students make up 41% of “immigrants” so immigration cannot be realistically cut without hitting students and thus universities. Yet students should not be counting towards immigration numbers, 80% return to their country of origin. They also contribute to the British economy, of the 20% that choose to stay, many go on to become entrepreneurs and employ thousands of Britons. Foreign (non-EU) students are also essential to the maintenance of our world-class university system, as there are no limits on what universities can charge they often pay tens of thousands of pounds every year. Without foreign students our universities would not work.

This is why what the government is doing is so dangerous. The government has revoked the London Metropolitan University’s right to teach foreign students. This is a major problem as it not only stops new students attending the university, but all current non-EU students will be deported! This is not only disastrous for our image as a country that welcomes foreign students but it also is a moral abomination. The majority of students affected by this have done nothing wrong and are losing all the money they invested in their education.

If the current government has its way we will lose our world class higher education and our country will suffer for generations.

Romney Pandering to Racists?

If you know anything about American politics, you will probably know that the Republican Party is not very popular amongst minorities. For the past number of decade’s minorities, particularly blacks have flocked to the Democrats. In 2008 polls show that John McCain won 31% of the Latino vote and only 4% of the African-American vote. You would think that this abysmal performance amongst minorities could never again be matched, but Romney seems likely to actually do worse than McCain. Amongst Latino voters, Romney is polling at 26%, five points below McCain in 2008 but amongst African-American voters he manages to do worse, polling at a jaw-dropping 0%. That’s right, 0%.  

This is disastrous for the Romney campaign, according to research by Ronald Brownstein at the National Journal; if white voters make up the same proportion of the electorate as they did in 2008 then Mitt Romney needs to win 61% of the white vote! The graphic below shows just how difficult this is going to be, not since 1984 when Reagan won the overall election by 20 points have so many whites voted Republican. The only modern election to beat Reagan was Nixon, when he won the overall election by 25 points in 1972.

So basically Mitt Romney has a choice, attempt to improve his standing amongst minorities or try and get more of the white vote. It would appear Romney is going for the latter. In America the issue of welfare is a racially charged one, when you talk about welfare you find it is connected to minorities. In a recent political advert the Romney campaign asserted that Obama had ended welfare to work requirements and that welfare would be given to people regardless. This could not be further from the truth; Obama has not ended welfare to work requirements. In fact the only change in welfare that Obama has done is to allow states more flexibility with their own systems. This was under pressure from Republican governors and something that Mitt Romney asked from the federal government when he was governor of Massachusetts. Romney has refused to remove the advert and actually put out another advert defending the blatant lies espoused by the first one.

This is not the only way Romney is trying to win over a certain section of white voters, in a campaign speech in Michigan last week Romney decided he should appeal to the birthers in American politics. In case you don’t know a birther is someone who believes that Obama was born outside of the USA and therefore is not legally allowed to be president of the US.  The fully quote of his pandering is as follows:

“Now I love being home in this place where Ann and I were raised, where both of us were born. Ann was born in Henry Ford Hospital, I was born in Harper Hospital. No-one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate; they know that this is the place that we were born and raised.” *cue applause*

If this was a joke, it was both in poor taste and terribly delivered. If he had stopped after saying birth certificate, in my mind he may have gotten away with it. It’s actually the final part of the whole statement that I find the most disturbing, the final part would indicate to me that he is being serious. I believe that it is a coherent pander to the birthers within his party and without.

Whatever the outcome election is, Romney has brought the issues of race into the field much more than in 2008. Despite the fact that 2008 gave America the first black president, Romney is ensuring that this issue of race won’t go away. It may hurt his chances of winning in November.

Prince Harry Photos Published by the Sun

As you probably already know by now, pictures of Prince Harry naked in a Vegas hotel have been circulating the web for a few days now. Originally published by TMZ, an American gossip website, earlier this week the photos have been a hit on the internet. Oddly enough, until yesterday, no British paper had published the photos, the editors of the newspapers agreed with each other that they would not publish the photos. Some of the editors believe that they need to be on extra good behaviour as Lord Leveson is currently writing up his report with how to deal with the British press. They believe that by publishing the photos, which man y people believe are a complete invasion of privacy, will prove to Leveson that the press cannot regulate itself. Well it didn’t take long for one newspaper to break ranks; yesterday the Sun published the photos. This has angered some of the other editors, in one editor’s (anonymous) words; “they’ve just handed Leveson a loaded gun.” The Sun had two main arguments for publishing the photos: The first is that there is a public interest aspect, the fact that the images have been searched millions of times by Britons proves this. Secondly, they believe that since the pictures have been circulating online that there is no reason for the press not to print them.

The second argument is childish and quite frankly, stupid. Just because everyone else does something morally wrong, bad or illegal doesn’t mean you have to do it too. If all your friends shop lift, does that make it ok to shoplift? No. If everyone speeds, does that make speeding ok? No. Sorry to sound like someone’s mother, but it is a silly argument. The first is more difficult to attack, the public are certainly interested, but is it in the public’s interest to publish them? There is a fine, but important distinction between the two. Celebrities are entitled to a private life, without public scrutiny; there is a strong argument to be made that publishing of the photographs crossed the line between public and private life. Whatever the arguments, it will surely affect Leveson’s judgement. 

Breivik Guilty

Today Anders Breivik was found sane and sentenced to 21 years imprisonment on the charges of mass murder of 77 people and terrorism. The result marks an end to the long episode that began on the 22^nd of July last year when Breivik planted a bomb in Norway’s capital city of Oslo and later went and killed 69 children and teenagers at a youth camp on the island of Utøya. After being declared sane Breivik made a statement in which he said; “I wish to apologise to all militant nationalists in Norway and Europe for not being able to kill more.” Before he got to say anymore he was cut off by the judge.

Many western countries have suffered from serious terrorist attacks, the United States had 9/11, Spain had the 2004 Madrid Train Bombings and the United Kingdom had the 7/7 bombings. Norway’s reaction to the tragic attack was very different from other nations, rather than weakening civil liberties, Norway reacted by making sure the country did not change. As a whole Norwegians have not reacted with hatred for Breivik, rather love for the victims and many are trying to make sure Norway becomes more multi-cultural and more tolerant of immigrants; the very thing Breivik detests.

I think Norway is a phenomenal country, very liberal with a strong social safety net and sensible government. Norway is a model for the world in many aspects, the Breivik case simply emboldens the Norwegian ideal.

Brief: The Assange Case

The plot of the Julian Assange affair is a complex one, it involves many countries and different alliances. Assange is an Australian who lives in the United Kingdom. He was the head of Wikileaks, an organisation that embarrassed many nations by releasing diplomatic cables and other sensitive information, most of the information was related to the United States which infuriated the government. Previously he was accused to sexually assaulting two women in Sweden, the charges had been dropped but since Wikileaks and Assange became famous the two women have taken them up. This has led to many people believing that they only did so under pressure from American authorities. Since Assange currently resides in London he must be extradited to Sweden so the police can question him, he has been fighting extradition for months but has been unsuccessful in doing so. Eventually he broke police bail and asked for asylum from Ecuador and took residence in their London Embassy. The primary reason that Mr Assange does not wish to go to Sweden is not because of the charges, it is because of the fear that he will then be extradited to the United States.

I find this last point the weirdest as he currently lives in America's closest ally: the United Kingdom, so why going to Sweden would put him more at risk I don't understand.

It is a very complex case as it involves five nations and four continents. Although he has been granted political asylum by Ecuador, the British government have told police that if he leaves the embassy to go to the airport that they must arrest him. The issue is not looking likely to disappear any time soon, Assange was only granted asylum last Saturday and the British government refuses to back down. No doubt Argentina will support Ecuador.

Pussy Riot Convicted

Devastating news for Russian democracy came today with the news that three members of Pussy Riot have been sentenced to two years each in a penal colony. The band drew international attention after performing a “punk prayer” in the Christ our Saviour cathedral in Moscow. The song called for the Virgin Mary to remove President Vladimir Putin from power and included many profanities. The case has divided Russia, many of Putin’s strongest supporters are very religious Conservatives, and to them this was blasphemy.  Many in the Orthodox Church felt that Pussy Riot should have been given an even harsher sentence.

Although I completely understand why many Christians would be offended by this, I also believe that what Pussy Riot did was right. Ever since Putin returned to the Kremlin earlier this year (in a rigged election), there have been numerous laws passed that crackdown on dissent and opposition. When Pussy Riot performed their song, they understood that the consequences for them personally would be grave, but this has given them a national and international stage to speak of their grievances. They have received widespread support in Russia and abroad, many artists such as Madonna, have come out in their support and calling for their release.

Today as the final verdict of guilty was given to the three band members (other band members not involved in this particular stunt are still free) up to 50 protesters were arrested outside the court room. Afterwards the chorus of international condemnation began with governments and institutions in America, Britain and the European Union brandishing the imprisonment as proof that Russia has lost its freedom of speech.

The next few days will be very important for the future of democracy in Russia, watch the public reaction to their conviction. If there are protests in Moscow then they will have been successful, and even if there isn’t, it still brought attention back to Russia’s lack of freedoms.

Attention Returns to the Dismal Economy

The Olympics are barely over yet the talk in the media is already returning to Britain’s dismal economic news. The Bank of England has predicted that growth for this year will be non-existent; we also know that the UK is still in the recession it entered earlier this year. The bizarre thing is, the UK has somehow managed to add jobs. This is confusing economists and politicians alike, the deputy governor of the Bank of England, Charlie Bean, said that the bank was completely confused by the figures and further reviews would need to be conducted.

What we do know is that half of the jobs created were in London and a significant proportion of the jobs were self-employed. Temporary jobs created thanks to the Olympics are expected to take up a significant proportion of the London-based job growth. The description of “self-employed” disguises what most of those jobs really are, these aren’t entrepreneurs, many have been hired on zero hour contracts. Basically these contracts stipulate that you have a job, but it’s not regular; basically each day you will receive a message from your employer to tell you whether or not you will be needed for that day or not. (I don’t fully understand why their classed as self-employed either).

Yet if we leave aside the surprising, if bizarre, job figures, the picture of the economy is bleak. The recession will continue for the time being, but it will remain relatively mild.

There was a surprise outburst from London’s mayor, Boris Johnson; in an interview with the London Evening Standard he attacked David Cameron and the “institutional inertia of government.” In his interview he said “This is the time to be ambitious about London and what it can do for Britain. One of the ways of doing that would be to commit to further infrastructure – Crossrail 2, more river crossings, a massive house building programme for the city… The government needs to stop pussyfooting around.” I find myself in the unusual position of completely agreeing with Boris, I do believe that investment in infrastructure is exactly what this country needs, after all a poor construction sector is the primary cause of this current recession. Whatever they decide to do, I would encourage Cameron and Osborne to follow Boris’ advice on this issue.

More Bad News for Assad

This week has been a bad one for the Assad regime in Syria, footage released on Monday by rebel fighters shows them taking down a Syrian jet fighter. This is a very significant moment, being able to take out a jet means that the rebels have the gun power to do so; previously all they had were a few Kalashnikovs. Whether these weapons were stolen from the regime or supplied by Gulf nations, we do not know, but it still represents (another) significant turning point for the civil war in Syria. The symbolism of this jet’s destruction will hopefully encourage more Syrians to abandon the regime in favour of the revolution. But there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Assad still controls the sky, this is only one jet in the entire military and can easily be replaced.

The ex-PM, Riad Hijab, has spoken publically for the first time since his defection, in a speech he said that the Syrian regime was “near collapse” and encouraged other leaders to defect to the rebels and to tip the scales.

No doubt there will be more high profile defections to come; the ones in the regime with less personal loyalty to the regime will begin to recognise that Assad will soon be gone. If they wish to have power in a new Syria, and save their lives, they will have no choice but to defect. This is what happened in both Libya and Egypt, when the tyrants’ days were numbered people saved their own lives by joining the rebels. Likely I will be writing about Syria again before the week is out…

The End of a Fantastic Journey

The Olympic flame is extinguished, the Olympic flag has been handed to Rio de Janeiro and the athletes will soon leave London. Yet the games of the XXX Olympiad have exceeded all expectations, before the games there were worries over how London’s transport system would cope with the influx of tourists and athletes, there was also fear about whether or not Britain would get behind the games. With the games finally over, we all recognise the triumph they have been, everything went off seamlessly.

One thing that I’m really impressed with is the way in which the British public got behind the games, there was so much joy and passion in the media. Speaking with friends and family and from watching the television, most of us seemed glued to our TV screens for the sixteen days of competition. One of the reasons why the British public were so enthusiastic once the games began may partially be due to Team GB’s success. Great Britain has had the best Olympic Games since 1908; we are third in the medal table with an impressive 29 gold medals. 

Rank	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	USA	46	29	29	104
2	China	38	27	22	87
3	Great Britain	29	17	19	65
4	Russia	24	25	23	82
5	South Korea	13	8	7	28
6	Germany	11	19	14	44
7	France	11	11	12	34
8	Italy	8	9	11	28
9	Hungary	8	4	5	17
10	Australia	7	16	12	35

There have been some really memorable moments at London 2012, for most Brits the best will probably be “Super Saturday” when Team GB clinched an impressive six gold medals. The rowers at Eton Dorney and the cyclists in the velodrome gave Britain three gold medals in the morning. Beneath the watchful eyes of 80,000 spectators in the Olympic Stadium; long jumper Greg Rutherford, heptathlete Jessica Ennis and 10,000m runner Mo Farah all won gold medals to cap Britain’s most successful day since 1908. Many commentators are already calling it the greatest day in the history of British sport.

The games have also helped further the idea that the United Kingdom really is multi-cultural, and that it’s a good thing to. Mo Farah moved to Britain when he was only eight from Somalia and Jessica Ennis is of mixed race decent. Numerous other black and Asian athletes competed for Great Britain; the feeling of patriotism instilled by non-white athletes will surely better us as a society.

These games also made history, the 2012 Olympic Games are the first ones in which women were able to participate in an equal number of sports and every National Olympic Committee sent female athletes. London has been dubbed the “women’s games”.

The Olympics have had many other memorable moments, Usain Bolt is undoubtedly the international star of the Olympics having achieved gold in the 100m, 200m and the 4x100m relay for the second Olympics running. Kirani James gave his country, Grenada, a reason to celebrate by winning the country’s first ever medal, and it was a gold! Michael Phelps also secured his place in history by becoming the most decorated Olympian of all time with an astonishing 22 medals, 18 of which are gold. David Rudisha’s record breaking performance in the 800m for Kenya wowed us all and Steven Kiprotich won Uganda’s first gold medal since 1972 in the men’s marathon.

I believe a special mention should be given to the BBC, recently the corporation has been receiving a lot of criticism, especially surrounding coverage of the Diamond Jubilee. Yet the BBC has proved that it’s worth the license fee, the coverage of the Olympics has been fantastic. At one point Clare Balding was trending on Twitter, many of the messages were calling her a national treasure and claiming that she should get an award for her contribution to sport.  

It’s not just Brits who have enjoyed the games; a group of foreign journalists have voted London 2012, the best Olympic Games ever. Athletes have also praised the British people for the hospitality they received during the games. Speaking in interview the Bolt and Blake personally thanked the people of Birmingham for their kindness and helpfulness (the pre-games Jamaican training camp was in Birmingham)

Although I am naturally very biased, I do believe these games have been the best is ever seen. Rio will find it difficult to follow, but I’m sure 2016 will be another phenomenal Olympic instalment.

Mo Farah and Usain Bolt exchange dance moves

Massive Boost to Syrian Rebels

The Syrian opposition received a major boost yesterday with the announcement that the British government would provide £5 million in non-lethal equipment. This is great news for democracy in Syria and bad news for the Assad regime, it is also good news for us. By giving this aid to Syrian rebels we are establishing contacts in the new Syria. Everybody knows that Assad’s days are numbered and that his regime will not last, it’s just a matter of how long he will last. We know that by helping the rebels now, they will look more kindly to the Britain when democracy finally comes to Syria’s beleaguered citizens.

So what else could we do to help? Arming the rebels is out of the question because the weapons could fall into the hands of militant Islamists. Any other avenue requires UN support, the problem here of course is the opposition of China, but more important is Russia.  This rules out any sort of direct military action from outside forces, there will not be a no fly zone in Syria and there will certainly be no “boots on the ground”. The best thing that Britain and the rest of the West can do is to try and persuade Russia to change its position, if we can convince them that regime change is inevitable then it could be a game changer. When Assad is finally kicked from power the Syrian people will not be impressed that Russia was protecting their oppressor on the international stage. We must convince Russia that to have a voice in a new Syria, they will need to change support. This isn’t impossible.

Romney Chooses Ryan

Mitt Romney has finally picked his running mate in what was a surprise announcement. In the early hours of Saturday morning, not the usual time for political news to break, the news came that Romney had chosen Paul Ryan as his choice for vice-president. This is definitely the biggest campaign announcement since Romney locked up the Republican nomination in May following the Texan Primary.

Romney making the announcement in Virginia
Source: maddowblog.com

The choice of seven-term Congressman Paul Ryan is not a surprising one; he is a favourite amongst many of the Republican base due to his hyper-radical “Ryan Budget”. Yet when a presidential nominee chooses his running mate, the opposing party is supposed to recoil in fear, not jump for joy. Many on the Democratic side are delighted with Romney’s choice; Ryan is the poster boy for the current congress, which is the most unpopular since modern polling began. His role in the “Ryan budget” which proposed destroying medicare, giving tax breaks to the very wealthy and gutting social security, will make many independents feel uneasy.

At this stage in the race Romney should be pandering to moderates, not his base, if he wishes to win in November. Even though Romney locked up the nomination two months ago, he is still unpopular with people in his own party, particularly Christian Evangelicals and the Tea Party. Despite this fact, I don’t understand why he chose such a radical conservative. Romney is in a very lucky position, the base of the Republican Party absolutely detest Barack Obama, they believe he is Satan, Hitler and Stalin in the one body. He does not need to get the backing of his base, they will turn out to vote in November anyway, not out of love for Romney, but out of hatred for Obama. So choosing a radical conservative as his running mate is a foolish choice at best, it will alienate independents whilst not increasing the turnout of the Republican base.

Third British Bank Scandal

Britain’s thirteenth largest company, Standard Chartered, becomes the third British bank to be mired in controversy. This follows the LIBOR Scandal at Barclays and the HSBC Mexican gang controversy. Standard Chartered has been accused by American authorities of performing illegal transactions with Iranians. As you probably know, America has placed economic sanctions on Iran, so if an Iranian company wishes to perform a trade based in US dollars, it cannot do so. What Standard Chartered is accused of is hiding the fact that these transactions involved Iranian companies. Allegedly Standard Chartered has performed such actions up to 60,000 times. Standard Chartered completely refutes the accusations.

If it turns out that Standard Chartered has acted illegally then it would be devastating to the bank. It could lose its banking license in the US, considering that the dollar is the worldwide reserve currency, this would affect a significant proportion of transactions outside of the United States. It would also cause irreparable damage to the bank’s image; the bank prides itself in being ethical. Consistent reviews by organisations place the bank as one of the most ethical banks in the world, and Britain’s most ethical bank.

Another important point to note is that this is the third scandal involving a British bank that has been exposed by American, not British, authorities and regulators. There is a growing feeling in the City of London that the Americans are increasingly gunning for UK banks. This is somewhat unfair as the Barclays’ scandal is known to involve more banks, Barclays’ was simply the first to admit its guilt. Nonetheless London’s taking over as the worldwide financial centre from New York has left a lot of American banks less than happy.

Is the Coalition Collapsing?

The Liberal Democrat leader and deputy Prime Minster, Nick Clegg, has finally announced that House of Lords’ reform has been abandoned by the coalition. Reform of the Upper House has long been a dream of the Lib Dems, so losing it has caused a lot of anger in the Liberal Democrat party. Nick Clegg speaking yesterday said that the Conservatives have “broken the coalition contract”. As a result Lib Dems will not back the boundary changes that the Conservatives wanted. The new boundaries would cut the amount of MPs by 50, from 650 to 600 and favour the Conservative party. This news has delighted Labour, expected to lose out the most from the new boundaries.

But what does this mean for the coalition? Well we already know that it is one of the weakest British governments in years, Tony Blair was Prime Minister for eight years before he suffered his first bank-bench rebellion in 2005. On the other hand David Cameron has suffered two back-bench rebellions since 2010. A third rebellion could occur over the issue of gay marriage, although it is unlikely to be as big as the first two. This is the first time that one party has refused to abide by the terms of the coalition agreement and will likely cause a rift in the cabinet and between the back-benchers of the different parties. This is a major headache for the government as now both parties have broken a psychological barrier; neither will have stuck to the coalition agreement. Now that it has been broken on these two issues, what could be next? The NHS reform bill is not quite finished yet, could the Liberal Democrats block it? What about the issue of gay marriage, will this cause more Conservatives to rebel? We won’t fully know the fallout from yesterday’s news, but know this: it was a huge turning point in the coalition government.  

Nick Clegg leaving the press conference yesterday
Source: Telegraph

The Noose Tightens

Assad and his cronies have suffered a massive humiliation, the defection of Prime Minister Riad Hijab is the highest profile defection yet. Yesterday it was revealed that the PM had defected and fled to Jordan with his family, in a statement he called the Syrian government a “terrorist regime” and says he has joined the ranks of the revolution. This is a huge blow to the regime, considering the PM has only been in office for two months and removes the regime’s most important Sunni member. Many people will begin to wonder which minister will be the next defect as Hijab is unlikely to be the last.

On top on the refection, the headquarters of the state television and radio station were bombed yesterday. Although nobody is reported to have been killed, this is a sign that the rebels are trying to target Assad’s propaganda machine that is still trying to brainwash the Syrian people. We all know that Assad has lost control of most of the eastern portions of Syria, as well as many districts of Homs and Aleppo.

With the rebels basically in control of whole swathes of the country and achieving high profile defections every week I am finally seeing a comparison to Libya. Right from the start I always believed that we could not treat Libya and Syria as the same. Syria has always been a completely different situation. Things are completely different now in Syria, even to what it was like just a matter of weeks ago. Although we cannot treat them as exactly the same, I believe that the situation in Syria is such that we can look to what happened in Libya to guide us in Syria. The major obstacle to this is the UN Security Council, Russia and China decided not to block Western action in Libya, but they are fighting tooth and nail to make sure no Western action is taken in Syria.

Although I disagreed with military aid in the past, I now believe that the new situation is such that we should provide some limited resources. I would still be wary of providing weapons, due to the risk of them falling into the hands of jihadists, instead we could provide intelligence as well as communication technology as well as vehicles for transportation and food to help sustain the rebels.

We must act now if we wish to have favour in a new Syria.

Annan Quits and the UN Condemns Itself

The head of the UN special envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, has announced that he will now be renewing his position when it expires at the end of August.

Kofi Annan speaking at the press conference

Speaking in a press conference he accused he international community of a lack of action. Annan has refused to place blame on either side of the conflict, he says that both sides are to blame for the failure of his peace plan. Although he did add that the problems in Syria were further " compounded by the disunity of the international community". Annan specifically called out the UN Security Council for its lack of action, he added "when the Syrian people desperately need action, there continues to be figure pointing and name calling in the Security Council."

For me this marks the end of the chances of a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Syria. Although I was always very sceptical of a diplomatic and peaceful solution, this largely marks the end if the attempts. Although someone probably will take over from Annan, the exit of a seasoned negotiator shows the hopelessness of the situation. 


Following Mr Annan's announcement, on Friday the UN General Assembly voted to condemn its own security council for the lack of action to the crisis in Syria. It did so by an overwhelming majority, 133 votes to 12, with 31 abstentions. 

There is no real hope for peace in Syria. Assad knows that he would have to go in a new Syria, he has nothing to gain and everything to lose. On the other hand the rebels had nothing in the old Syria, so they have nothing to lose but everything to gain. Both sides know this, and so the fighting continues. 

The Heat Builds on Romney

"Romney has not paid taxes for ten years". This potentially devastating accusation has been levelled against presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. The accuser, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, claims to have been contacted by an investor in Bain Capital who told him the likely reason for Romney only releasing a year of tax returns, and only a partial year at that. 

The Romney campaign has been suffering for months due to accusations by Democrats that Romney's personal finances are less than savoury. He is known to currently, or formerly, have bank accounts in the tax havens of Switzerland, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. The accusation also comes after Romney's disastrous trip to Britain, Israel and Poland. The trip was supposed the show Romney's diplomacy but instead descended into farce when he and his campaign advisors insulted the British and the London Olympics, Arabs for having inferior culture and the Polish media. 

The tax returns debacle could prove politically transformative, many Americans are becoming increasingly fed up with the extravagant wealth of the top 1% when the rest of the country is suffering with economic uncertainty, unemployment and foreclosure. If the accusation if found out I be true, or partially true, then it could decide whether it not Obama gets re-elected in November. 

The whole issue is particularly poignant for Romney. His father, George Romney, when he ran for president released twelve years of tax returns. Not only did he release so many, he was the first to do so. In doing this he set a precedent for all future presidential hopefuls. George Romney is quoted to have said "Any politician who will not show multiple year taxes may be hiding something."

So what is Mitt hiding?

Mitt Romney claims to have paid taxes...
So why won't he release his tax returns?

New World Order - Africa

Population: 1.3 billion

Area: 30 million km²

GDP: $ 1.1 trillion

GDP (per capita): $ 1,200

Economic Growth: 5.16%

Democracy? Mostly no

Unlike the countries I have previously written about, Africa proves the most difficult to assess its potential. One of the biggest obstacles is the fact it is not one country, rather a continent of 54 independent nations. There is great diversity in Africa, there are more spoken languages there than any other continent and all major religions are represented somewhere. There are also major obstacles that Africa needs to tackle before it can become a great power.

Africa is a seriously unstable continent; there have been numerous conflicts since the end of the colonial era between states and within states. One of the major issues is that when the European colonists left the continent, borders of the newly independent states were largely unchanged. In terms of ethnicity, the borders made no sense; they cut through tribes and religious groupings. In a continent as poor as Africa, this was a recipe for disaster.

The following graphs should hopefully give you a visual idea of the problems faced by Africa.

The first graph represents the Human Development Index, the better the quality of life people have in a country, the higher the HDI. It is measured out of a maximum of one, the highest HDI in the world is Norway with 0.943 and the lowest is the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 0.286. HDI is calculated using data related to life expectancy, literacy, education, standards of living and quality of life.

The second graph relates to how free Africa is (as rated by Freedom House). As you can see Africa is not a particularly free continent, with only a few countries being rated as free. This is a very important factor in the development of a country. If you look at the wealthy nations of the world, countries with very high HDI and very high GDPs, they are almost all free. The only non-free wealthy nations, are the Gulf States.

The third graph shows African country’s life expectancy, as you can see it is very low, no African country has a life expectancy higher than 74. In fact, the two worst nations, Mozambique and Swaziland have life expectancies that Britain would have had during the Roman Empire. That’s how bad this continent is. AIDs poses a major threat, since it first emerged as an epidemic in the 1980s, African nations have watched their life expectancies decline rather than rise! The situation of Africa’s health is horrible, and it is preventable. Most people in Africa die completely needlessly, to combat AIDs people need quick access to contraceptives. If Africa was to have clean drinking water, this would also cause a dramatic rise in the life expectancies. If you do wish to do some good, donate to WaterAid, the charity does phenomenal work to combat the lack of clean drinking water. Dirty water is a source of a whole host of diseases and we must help Africa remedy this terrible, human tragedy.

I could sit here and list you 101 problems Africa is facing that other continents simply do not face to the same degree, but I think my point has been made. Before Africa can become a world power it has some serious issues it must deal with first, poverty, the lack of democracy, education, health just to name a few.

I do not believe that Africa will become the next powerhouse, the five other nations I have reviewed will move into the spotlight. I do believe, though, that if Africa can sort out its issues, it could one day replace the countries at the top of the world. But the countries it will one day replace will not be the Western nations; it will be China, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil.

New World Order - Indonesia

Population: 237 million

Area: 1.9 million km²

GDP: $ 1 trillion

GDP (per capita): $ 4,700

Economic Growth: 6.4%

Democracy? Yes

Despite being the fourth largest country in the world, when most people think of a new world order, they don’t think of Indonesia. Although it will never become a global superpower, I do believe it will one day challenge the Wests dominance.

One of Indonesia’s biggest disadvantages is how dispersed it is, it is made up of over 17,000 islands although over half (133 million) live on the island of Java. This still leaves 100 million people on other islands. This hampers Indonesia as it makes travelling within Indonesia difficult as a boat or plane must always be used. Although this could have its advantages, shipping by boat is still the most popular way to transport goods, by the nature of having many islands; no part of Indonesia is too far from the coast.

One way this could at least by partially remedied is by a series of tunnels or bridges. A bridge is already currently being constructed between the country’s two most populous islands, Java and Sumatra. It wouldn’t be unthinkable either to link Bali to Java or Sumatra to Malaysia. The latter would thus connect the capital Jakarta to the continent of Asia. Bridges or tunnels would be attractive in the above situations, but may not extend to some of Indonesia’s other large islands such as Borneo, Sulawesi or New Guinea. Here it may prove too expensive or even impossible to link these islands to the more populous southern islands.

Below is a map of Indonesia, the red islands on the map are islands that have a population greater than one million. Pink represents another country.

Indonesia’s growing economy can be seen by some recent events. Until 2009 Indonesia was a member of OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries), it had to leave the group in 2009 because domestic demand was so high that it was no longer a net oil exporter. Oil is a good measure of the wealth of a nation as it is necessary for all major industries; the more oil a country requires, the more industry and wealth a country has.

Yet like all the other developing nations poverty is still a major issue in Indonesia, at only $4,700 GDP per capita, Indonesia is still in the rank of poor nations.

Jakarta - the Capital of Indonesia

New World Order - Mexico

Population: 112 million

Area: 1.9 million km²

GDP: $ 1.2 trillion

GDP (per capita): $ 11,100

Economic Growth: 5.5%

Democracy? Yes

Mexico is the third largest economy in North America, behind the USA and Canada and the 14^th largest economy in the world. With a population of 112 million and a booming economy, Mexico should be on track to become a global power, but the fate of Mexico is uncertain. Drug cartels pose a major threat to the stability of the country, since the government crackdown on drugs began in 2006, 55,000 people have been estimated to have been killed. The only region thought of to still be safe is the tourist region around Cancún, and even that is now being threatened. Although cracking down on drug cartels was a necessity if the country is ever to move into the tier of highly influential states, in doing so the Mexican economy has been severely hampered. The country has been completely torn apart by the Drug War, which is far from over.

Mexico has a well-established infrastructure, with over 116,000 km of paved roads. Railways, although they are good, could do with a lot of improving. In fact something that could be done that would improve the whole of the region would be a railroad stretching from the USA in the north, to Brazil in the south. This would allow for the easy transport of goods through Mexico and would significantly improve the region’s outlook.

Mexico has a big advantage over the other rising nations; it has a long border with the world’s richest country, the USA. This makes trade with the USA very easy for Mexico and allows for the quick and easy movement of goods and people.

The Mexican Drug Cartels pose a major threat to the development of Mexico

New World Order - Brazil

Population: 190 million

Area:  8.5 million km²

GDP: $2.5 trillion

GDP (per capita): $13,000

Economic Growth: 2.7%

Democracy? Yes

Brazil is the largest country by both population and size in South America and already the 6^th largest economy in the world by GDP. Amongst the countries I am reviewing, Brazil has the highest GDP per capita and the economy is continuing to grow, although at only 2.7% per annum, is much slower than many Brazilians would have hoped.

Brazil is awash with resources, there are very large proven deposits of iron and manganese which are currently being exploited and very important in Brazils growing industry. Deposits of nickel, tin, chromite, uranium, bauxite, beryllium, copper, lead, tungsten, zinc, gold and numerous other minerals are also currently being exploited. These mineral deposits are very important for Brazilian exports.

One of Brazil’s major problems is its infrastructure; Brazil has around 1.7 million km of roads, but of this 94.5% are unpaved, leaving only 96,000 km of road paved. For comparison, the UK (which Brazil is 34 times the size of) has 398,000 km of paved roads, or four times the length of Brazil’s. This will constrain growth as large lorries and trucks, which are important for economic growth, need good (paved) roads to drive on. At certain times roads in Brazil can become jammed for days, this is a problem that needs tackling soon if Brazil is to move up in the world. The country also has a very low car ownership rate of only 140 per 1,000 people. The rail transport is significantly better, but far from perfect, Brazil has no high speed rail link currently, although there is one under construction between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil is probably most famous for its forest, the Amazon rainforest. This poses a massive conflict of interest, as I mentioned earlier Brazil has a massive amount of resources. The issue is many of them are underneath the rainforest, cutting down the Amazon is massively unpopular in the West and Western leaders are pressurising Brazil into not destroying the Amazon. This does have benefits for Brazil anyway, not destroying the Amazon helps to prevent floods and soil erosion. It is also well known that rainforests contain a massive diversity, so far less than 1% of the Amazon has been analysed, yet it accounts for a majority of modern medicines. The Amazon has great potential in the area of medicine and the profits from a strong pharmaceutical industry will benefit the Brazilian economy.

Yet like India and China, Brazil has a large amount of poor people, there are huge slum areas, especially around the largest city. If Brazil needs to help these people if the country wishes to become more influential.

Octavio Frias Bridge, São Paulo, a stunning tribute to modern Brazil