Ebola Ravages West Africa

One of the worst tragedies of 2014 is the ongoing Ebola epidemic currently taking place in West Africa. The disease is particularly nasty with the current strain having an estimated mortality rate of 76%. The outbreak has mostly affected the three west African nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, which have had over 99% of reported cases. Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, Spain and the United States have also had reported cases of the disease.

The current outbreak is believed to have begun in December 2013, although it really began spreading in about March. After that Ebola seemed unstoppable, however the news coverage was rather sparse for most of the early months of the epidemic. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which had been leading the response to the crisis, grew increasingly critical of how the world was reacting to Ebola. Very few Western countries appeared to care that thousands of people were dying, that was until Western people started to get infected and die.

Attention really began when a 45 year old man named Thomas Duncan was admitted to hospital in Texas with Ebola. Although he was not the first Ebola patient in the US (previously doctors who had gone out to help with the pandemic had been brought back for treatment when they fell ill), he was the first to discover he was infected whilst in the United States. After that there was almost rolling coverage of Ebola for several weeks. On the 6^th of October a nurse who had been treating two Ebola patients in Spain became the first person to contract the disease outside of West Africa. In the US two nurses who had been treating Thomas Duncan fell ill with Ebola on the 11^th and the 14^th of October. Furthermore on the 23^rd of October a doctor who had just returned from West Africa where he was working with MSF became ill in New York. The doctor, Craig Spencer, was released hospital on the 11^th of November. Since then coverage of Ebola has plummeted, with the exception of a Band Aid single. This is what has led me to believe that we only cared about Ebola when Westerners were ill.

Despite what you may believe, due to the lack of media attention, Ebola is still tearing apart parts of West Africa with hundreds of new cases being reported every day. The world needs to step up its game, or thousands of people will die as a result. 

The Ebola virus
source: www.cdc.gov

Homophobia Takes Centre Stage in Uganda

With all the positive stories of gay rights, it can sometimes be easy to forget just how rampant homophobia is across the globe. We need to be reminded that homophobia is alive and well. In Russia you have the propaganda law, several US states are considering pro-discrimination laws and, of course, there is Uganda.

The African country became infamous in 2009 when a bill appeared before the Ugandan Parliament that would make homosexuality a capital offence! Thankfully, due to a massive international outcry, the bill never passed and so never became law. Unfortunately another anti-gay bill was introduced last year that would make homosexuality punishable by life in prison. Despite another international outcry, the Parliament passed it and on Monday President Museveni signed the bill into law.

The West needs to take a concerted effort against Uganda and its disgusting law. Already Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands have cut or frozen aid that they give to Uganda. Canada, the US and UK are also considering cutting their aid. So long as the aid is redirected to another poor country, I fully support the measure. It may be too late to influence Uganda, but a strong action taken by the West would deter other countries from considering similar legislation.

“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the centre of the universe.”

-          Elie Wiesel

Chaos Returns to Egypt

Egypt has been plunged into chaos since President Morsi was deposed earlier this week and much of the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood was arrested. Egypt is split over whether to support the actions of the army, initially Morsi opponents spilled onto the streets, letting off fireworks and cheering with joy. The Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters are distraught and have since poured onto the streets to show their rejection of the army's actions. Some protests have turned violent and over 70 protesters have been killed in clashes with the army and security forces. The next few weeks will be extremely important for Egypt's future as the Muslim Brotherhood continues to protest and the army continues to crack down on them. The army has called for fresh elections to the presidency and parliament and a re-drawing of the constitution.

New elections will give the secularist left a chance to steal the revolution back from the Islamists. The left was totally disorganised at the last election in 2012 with no uniting candidate for President. This meant that the run-off for president was between Ahmed Shafik and Mohammed Morsi. Shafik had been the final Prime Minister under Mubarak and Morsi had the backing of the 85 year old Muslim Brotherhood, so both were considerably better organised than the disorientated left.

If Egypt actually makes it to the next election in a peaceful state then we can only hole that the President Egypt chooses is not an Islamists or a Mubarak crony but rather a force for change.

Tunisian Democracy in Peril?

Tunisia is the birthplace of the Arab Spring, the protests that began there and toppled a government quickly spread throughout the Middle East. Unfortunately Tunisia’s fledgling democracy is looking increasingly unstable. Following the assassination of the opposition leader, Chokri Belaid, on the 6^th of February mass protests began and numerous politicians resigned. The latest to go is the Prime Minister, Hamadi Jebali, who resigned on Tuesday after he was unable to form a coalition and refused to create a government of technocrats. The political tensions following Mr Belaid’s assassination and the completely paralysed economy means that more protests and more violence will soon follow. Others will try and form a coalition government, but it will not be easy as tensions go and more people resign. Although still several months away, these sort of problems could prove detrimental to the smooth running of the general election scheduled for summer.

All throughout the Middle East countries that overthrew dictators look increasingly likely to relapse into autocracy, their economies are struggling due to the revolutions and their politics are increasingly tense. At a time of austerity, this may not be welcomed in the West, but we must help them out. A triad of democratic states (Tunisia, Libya and Egypt) could prove invaluable as allies and would help to stabilise the region and oil supply lines (an appeal to conservatives). We’ve already seen the invaluable work a democratic Turkey has done, adding three more nations to the list would be brilliant. We must help these nations in any way possible.

Jebali announcing his resignation
source: www.bbc.co.uk

Review 2012

Well what a year we’ve had! There has been the most expensive Presidential Election of any country ever, Greece has gone from bad to worse, the Arab Spring continues in Syria and here in Britain we entered into a double dip recession. Although I don’t feel that 2012 was the year of change that 2011 was, it will still go down as important in the history books. The shooting of a 15 year old girl by the Pakistani Taliban sparked outrage in the country. The attack could help to stop people joining the terrorist organisation! The Palestinian-Israeli conflict took a turn for the worse after Israel killed one of Hamas’ leaders and Israel was furious when Palestine had its status upgraded in the UN.

The year saw a change of leadership in China and France and Greece choose a new government for its sinking economy. It was confirmed that in 2013 the EU will get a new member, Croatia, whilst the Eurozone crisis continued to rattle on.  

The year ahead of us will be the sixth since the economic crisis began and still there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Predictions are that the Eurozone economy has shrunk by a small amount in the past year, the same is true for Britain. What stopped the crisis that began in 2007 being worse than the 1929 crash was the economies of the developing nations, particularly Brazil, China and India. Unfortunately their economies are beginning to slow down, China has stopped producing double digit growth for the first time in a decade and India and Brazil are below 5%. Although European countries would kill for growth figures like those, the world economy depends on them being very high. The US has just fallen off the fiscal cliff (although a deal should be one the way) and Europe’s economy is expected to shrink again this year, if the developing nations’ economies do start to slow this could have cataclysmic knock on effects.

We are living in a time of change, what happens over the next year could prove very important in the long run.  

Egypt's Chaotic Year

It’s been a rocky year for Egyptians in 2012, but there is some hope for the future. It started off well in January when parliament sat for the first time, the army subsequently handed over legislative authority to the parliament. This was a sight that Egypt may indeed be moving forward, progress seemed to occur again when the presidential election took place. Although people were not pleased with the choice in the second round of voting, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi and ex-dictator Mubarak’s last Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik. Things began to look a bit more like a rollercoaster after that, later in June the army declared that it had picked the people who would sit on a 100 member assembly that would draft a new constitution and the next day it dissolved parliament. On the other hand on the 26^th of June the courts revoked a decree allowing military personnel the right to arrest civilians and on the 30^th the army handed power to the newly elected President, Mohamed Morsi.

Right from the start Morsi faced problems, the economy was (and still is) in tatters and foreign investors are wary of putting any money into Egypt. Over the coming months there was a struggle between Morsi, allied with the Islamists and Salafists, the army and a coalition of secularists, Christians and women. Unfortunately for the final group they have no power, they were outnumbered on the Constitutional Assembly and the President is an Islamist. They fear the introduction of even parts of Sharia Law, Coptic Christians account for 10% of Egypt’s 80 million citizens. The Army hopes to remain powerful, and it may get its wish! When Morsi issued his controversial decrees in November, one of them stated that the minister of defence must come from the army. This basically means that army lacks civilian oversight. The November decrees that broadened Morsi’s powers were met with anger on the streets of Egypt as people feared a return to dictatorship.

The coalition of anti-Islamists decided to boycott the referendum on the new constitution which led to the low turnout of only 33%. In the end the constitution passed with around 64% of people voting to adopt it. Next year will be very important for the direction of the country, whether it does liberalise as many people had hoped originally or does it go down the route of Sharia law?

A poster comparing Morsi to Mubarak
source: theatlantic.com

Terrorism

Terrorism did not slow down in 2012 unfortunately, thousands of people were killed across the globe in terrorist atrocities. Yet most of those attacks took place in just a handful of countries:

Country	Attacks*	Dead
Iraq	55	1,676
Afghanistan	35	543
Nigeria	21	511
Pakistan	30	425
Yemen	14	328
Somalia	11	78
Russia	9	51
Kenya	8	47
Colombia	5	31
China	2	26

*Co-ordinated attacks that take place on one day are counted as one attack.

Looking at this rather horrifying table you can see that Iraq had the worst year of any country. Terrorists killed over three times as many people as in Afghanistan, the second worst affected country. One of the most prominent terrorist attacks of the year was not in Iraq or Afghanistan, but Pakistan; the shooting of 15 year old Malala Yousafzai. Thankfully Malala survived and is recovering well in a British hospital. There were protests all across Pakistan against the assassination attempt and 50 Islamic clerics issued a fatwā against the perpetrators. Despite this the Taliban claim they still want to kill her and her father. So what was her ‘crime’? Trying to get young girls into education in Pakistan, this infuriated the Taliban who are anti-education especially when it comes to women. As Malala rose to fame in Pakistan, the Taliban increasingly sent death threats to her home and on the internet. But she continued in her struggle, in 2011 Desmond Tutu nominated her for the International Children’s Peace Prize and later won Pakistan’s first National Youth Prize. Time magazine recently selected her as the runner up of Time Magazine’s person of the year.

There was some pleasant news on the terrorist front, Anders Breivik, was finally sentenced to Prison for this mass shooting and bombing in July 2011.  There is finally closure for the families of the 77 killed and those that were on the island of Utøya on that fateful day.

Up until November 2012, Northern Ireland was relatively quiet on the terrorism front, apart from the odd bomb scare. Then on the 1^st of November a prison officer was shot dead. Then trouble began after Belfast City Council voted to fly the Union flag on certain days of the year. That seriously upset some unionists who for the past few weeks have been causing chaos across Northern Ireland, but particularly in Belfast.

Terrorism is something that will likely always exist, it will never go away but certain places such as the Basque region, Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka all prove that things can be done to improve the situation, to show the terrorists that talking produces better results. The West should learn from these if it ever wants to truly ‘defeat the Taliban’.

Malala Yousafzai's page in Time Magazine

Morsi Bows to Pressure

Early this month I posted about Egypt’s democracy being on a knife edge, the President Mohamed Morsi had issued a number of decrees with massively expanded his authority. This sparked massive protests, the biggest since last year’s revolution, under pressure Morsi has cancelled some of the controversial decrees. Morsi has cancelled the decrees which block judges from challenging his authority and give him the ability of pass ‘emergency laws’. Yet this does not mean that the protests will end and everyone will go home happy, the opposition protests also want the constitutional referendum cancelled. The constitution is not very popular with the opposition; they claim that it ignores the needs of women, secularists and the country’s significant minority.

The protests have resulted in seven deaths and over 700 injuries, the Cairo headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood (Morsi’s party) have been set on fire and protesters have threatened the Presidential Palace. Morsi has been forced to retreat behind barbed wire, police, militias and tanks as the protests have become increasingly violent. Some of the protesters have begun calling for Morsi to resign.

Egypt’s powerful army has warned against the country entering a “dark tunnel” and have called for the two sides to meet and broker a compromise. Despite Morsi’s repeal of a decree, a compromise is looking increasingly unlikely. Just today an opposition group has announced that they will boycott the referendum, which is scheduled to take place next Saturday. This doesn’t seem like the best idea, in boycotting the referendum they will not register a vote against it and therefore make the constitution more likely to become the law. It is a dangerous game they are playing, both sides argue that they have the ideas of the revolution at heart but they seem unable to agree on anything.

The events of the following week will be extremely important for the future of Egypt and the chances of its democracy surviving.

Democracy in Egypt on Life Support

When Hosni Mubarak was ousted as dictator of Egypt last year there was a wave of hope that change was coming. In the past year and a half there were the first elections to Egypt's parliament and the position of president was actually elected. Yet Egypt's fledgling democracy now lives on a knife edge. Riding on a wave of praise due to his involvement in the Gaza-Israeli ceasefire, Morsi decided that it would be a good time to give himself radical new powers and issue other decrees that infuriated Egyptians. The resulting fury spilt into protests across Egypt and the largest (as always) was in Tahrir Square, Cairo. The protests, which are the largest since the 2011 Revolutionary Protests, should remind Morsi that he only has weak support. Although Morsi did win the Presidential election, he only received 51.7% of the vote and the only other candidate was a Mubarak ally. Many Egyptians chose Morsi, not because they liked him by because he was the lesser of two evils. Ordinary civilians aren't the only ones angry at Morsi, frightful investors cause the stock market to plummet by 12%, Egypt's judges have gone on strike an basically every Christian, secularist and female representative in parliament has resigned.

For many Egyptians the decrees prove their extreme suspicion of Morsi and his party, the Muslim Brotherhood. One of the more controversial decrees is to put the president above the law until a constitution imposes a limit! Morsi had also decreed that there can no longer be any legal challenges to the body that drew up the constitution. Not all the decrees have caused anger, the decision to fire the public prosecutor, a Mubarak appointee and allowing the retrials of Mubarak's allies were welcomed.

The constitution going forward to a referendum could easily be defeated by a coalition of secularists, Christians, women and trade unions. Many fear the constitution puts too much power in the hands of the executive and the military (a combination which ruled with an iron grip for 40 years). The decision that the defence minister must also was be in the army had worried many that without civilian oversight, the army will be as powerful as ever. If Egyptians reject the constitution it gives hope that a new one will be fairer and less Islamist. The opposition needs to form a strong coalition to fight back against the powerful Muslim Brotherhood.

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.

The New World Order

Between the Age of Discovery in the 15^th century and World War Two, European nations ruled the world, both directly and indirectly. The colonial Empires of Spain and Portugal dominating in the early years of Empire, but they were eventually leapfrogged by the French and British Empires, and to a lesser extent the Dutch Empire. Russia, Germany, Austria and Italy also played an important role, especially in the later years. By the time the 20^th century dawned the world was changing, Japan and the US were emerging powers and Germany was threatening the balance of power within Europe itself. The two World Wars that followed devastated Europe, both economically and politically, immediately after WWII the empires of France and Britain fell apart and the UK handed superpower status to the USSR and USA. Yet Europe was far from unimportant, the USSR was a European country after all, and Germany, France and Britain still commanded significant influence. But with the fall of the USSR in the early 1990s, for the first time in modern history, the most powerful and important nation was not a European one, rather the USA.

So I think I’ve made my point, countries rise and fall and everyone has to adapt to the new world order brought about every century or so. Although Europe is still far from unimportant, of the top 20 economies, nine are European and of the five countries with a veto on the UN Security Council, three are European.

The Question is where is the world heading? Who will be the new countries on the scene, which nations will challenge western power?

The truth is nobody really knows, but there are certainly contenders. Over the next few days I will write about countries I believe could take the mantle of power from the West. The big debate surrounds whether China will eventually best the USA or will another country be the one to overtake America?

The following are the countries I believe have a chance of besting the west:

1.       China – the favourite to become the next superpower

2.       India – A rising nation with a population set to become bigger than China

3.       Brazil – the big boy of the South American economies

4.       Mexico – the rising star that may not be if drug lords have their way

5.       Indonesia – the island nation could be a surprise winner

6.       Africa – as a continent it will not take power any time soon – but its day will surely come 

New World Order Countries in red

The Death Penalty - The Facts

Last year over 4,000 people were executed across the globe, many of these were executed for petty reasons and many will also be innocent.

The following map shows the extent of execution in our world, red indicates that the country retains the death penalty; orange indicates the country retains the death penalty but has not used it in over ten years. Green indicates that the country has abolished the death penalty except for exceptional circumstances (such as war) and blue indicates that a country has abolished the death penalty in all circumstances.

 This map gives an indication over where we’re at in the world. Europe has the best record on execution; Belarus is the only country in Europe that still executes prisoners. One of the reasons that Europe has such a good record on execution is that both the Council of Europe and the European Union require members to abolish the death penalty before they are admitted.  The Americas is another continent with a good record, the majority of countries have not used it in the past ten years. Only three countries still actively use the death penalty, the USA, St Kitts and Nevis and Cuba. Australasia has mostly abolished the death penalty, with only a few (very small) states still actively using it.

Asia is the worst offender when it comes to execution: of the 21 nations that performed executions (officially) in 2011, 15 of the states were Asian.  The top four states by number of people executed were also Asian.  China carries out more executions that all other nations combined, it is thought that in 2011 China executed up to 4,000 people. Although there have been moves in China to reduce the amount of crimes that result in execution. 

Elections in Libya

In 1969 Colonel Gaddafi took control of Libya, and for the next 41 years there were no elections. This has finally changed as yesterday Libyans took to the polls for the first time since overthrowing Gaddafi last year. Over 100 political parties are vying for seats in the 200 strong parliament, the parliament will then begin to draft a constitution and select a leader. The constitution will then be voted on in a referendum.

So far, everything seems to be going rather smoothly, even in Gaddafi loyalist areas voter turnout has been remarkably high. The election has also been marked with relatively low violence, particularly in the East around Tripoli. In Benghazi on the other hand there have been a few attacks on polling stations and skirmishes with the police, but nothing major.

The National Transitional Council has promised to hand over power as soon as a government is formed, which will take a few weeks as vote counting will take quite a long time and one party is unlikely to receive a majority. Yet if a stable government is formed there will be many challenges for it, central government is currently very week and armed militia are the de-facto government in rural areas.

Despite the challenges ahead, things are looking bright for Libya. The vast oil wealth will be able to prop up the civilian government against terrorists and will allow Libya to be rebuilt. Let’s hope the revolution will turn into a shining success, like those in Eastern Europe after the end of the Cold War.

Mubarak Sentenced to Life

Many in Egypt never thought this day would come, the day when Hosni Mubarak was finally sentenced for his crimes. Today he was sentenced to life imprisonment on the charge of ordering the killing of protestors during the revolution that threw him from power. When the verdict was announced it was met with jubilation from the friends and family of those killed in the revolution. Despite the good start to the day things began to turn sour after six senior ministry of interior officials were acquitted of all crimes. Of these people, two were Mubarak’s sons. The fury spilled onto Tahrir Square as people protested the acquittals, for many of these people the only sentence strong enough is the death penalty for all involved – including those acquitted.

Yet despite the disappointment at Mubarak’s sons and friends’ acquittal today is still a landmark day in Egyptian politics. Today proves that people can triumph over power and against all the odds to make change for the better. Although the future for Egypt is not yet clear, at least now there is a faint glimmer of hope. Hopefully Egypt will be a success, just like the success of Eastern Europe after getting rid of its dictators in the early 1990s.

Hosni Mubarak meets his fate with an emotionless face

Horrific Attack in Nigeria

There was a horrifying attack yesterday in Nigeria, 16 people were gunned down on Bayero University campus in northern Nigeria. They have been attending religions services when small bombs went off inside the church. This drew them outside where they were shot by armed gun men. Before the police had time to respond the assailants had left the area on motorcycles. Although no group has claimed the attacks, the tactics are similar to that of the radical Islamist group, Boko Haram.

For years sectarian warfare has torn Nigeria apart, the north is predominantly Muslim and the south is predominantly Christian. The sectarian strife takes hundreds of lives every year as people fall victim to increasingly radicalised groups. The rise in the number of Christians over the past half century has helped as Islam is now contested as the prime religion of Nigeria, the current president is a Christian. Nigeria’s democracy is weak and could easily collapse if enough pressure was put on it.

Attacks are common from both sides of Nigeria, with churches being the primary target. Unfortunately it marks a trend in the increase in sectarian violence across Africa, we must help the Africans to overcome their differences and try to adopt a Sierra Leone attitude continentally (Sierra Leone has one of the highest levels of religious tolerance in the whole world). International companies must try and re-invest in the communities whose resources they are plundering, especially the oil companies.

Success in Somalia is far from Complete

After writing about Yemen on Sunday, today I go across the Gulf of Aden to Somalia. Somalia has been torn apart by a generation of violence and bloodshed. The violence has contributed to the harshness of the famine currently affecting much of Somalia. Tomorrow an international conference is held in London to discuss what should be done to deal with Somalia. Just like Yemen, Somalia is of strategic importance, it lies on a major trade route between Europe and the Far East as well as Australasia and the Indian Ocean, billions on barrels of oil flow through here every year. The country is also a problem as the area is one of the worst affected by piracy, Somali pirates raid many ships each year and cost the global economy billions of pounds! An international consensus on how to tackle the pirates is required to make the area safer, British crews in the UAE monitor much of the Gulf of Aden and surrounding waters and international crews investigate any disturbances. Yet the vastness of the area needing to be patrolled and the money that pirates can earn will make stamping out the piracy very difficult and very expensive. It’s not only the waters surrounding Somalia that are unsafe, people are frequently kidnapped from neighbouring countries such as Kenya and Ethiopia. The kidnappers mostly target white people (due to the chance of a higher ransom), last year a British man was kidnapped from his holiday villa on the Kenyan coast and many more have been kidnapped over the years.

African Union troops have managed to push insurgents
out of Mogadishu but they still have a lot of work left.

More importantly though than the security of shipping lanes, defence of trade and a few foreign people is the people of Somalia. Shebab insurgents have held the capital, Mogadishu, for a long time now and only today were African Union troops, led by a group of Ethiopians, able to push them back. The fighting is far from over, the Al-Qaeda allied insurgents have a strong following in the country, chiefly to do with the high level of poverty in Somalia. Just like Yemen, what Somalia needs is money and lots of it. But just like Yemen, nobody knows where the money will come from as the West is broke. The people of Mogadishu and other recently freed areas are only just beginning to rebuild a society that has been destroyed by years of perpetual warfare. I hope that the London conference can produce exactly what Somalia leads and spur the international community on to do some good for the Somali people.