The losing of the news

Posted by admin on Nov 18, 2008 in Issues & Ideas | 0 comments

Fall 2008 has certainly been a bit of a windfall for all those who follow politics. In Canada, we had the federal election on Oct. 14, the municipal election on Nov. 15 and we’re already looking forward to the B.C. provincial election on May 12, 2009. Of course, we also had the American federal election on Nov. 4, where our brothers and sisters to the south managed to get all three of these done on one sheet of paper – not that I would ever necessarily advocate for such a course of action here. But what about the stories that were ignored because of all this activity? With the opinion pages bulging, a lot of other content was cut out – here are some of the more interesting stories that didn’t make the front page but perhaps should have:

British propose a real Big Brother network:
The Home Secretary in London has put forward a $23 billion proposal to monitor and track every cell conversation, email exchange and web search in the British Isles. Known formally as the Communications Data Bill, the network would monitor the times and durations of all communication, while the actual content would not be stored. The proposal would make it possible to monitor an individual without a warrant; thus, this suggests that the government assumes all the citizenry to be potentially guilty. After several damning reports, the bill is unlikely to pass in its current form.

U.S. quietly adopts a policy of Market Socialism:
With the introduction of the “Bailout Bill” – the $750 billion proposal to prevent the insolvency of U.S. banks and financial institutions – the U.S. government has quietly become a major shareholder in several large financial institutions. Many of the institutions that the Treasury department has bought into have taken major losses in the fourth quarter and may need further capital in order to stay afloat. One major bank, AIG, is in significant trouble again, even after the recapitalization of its assets through a $150 billion bailout in early November. It is also possible to get worried about the upcoming potential for insolvency among Chrysler, General Motors and Ford – but that show has barely started. The real market socialists – those in China – have begun to implement a bailout of their own, to the tune of “only” $586 billion.

Zimbabwe returns to political chaos:
Though not exactly a non-political story (and this country has clearly been ignored for a very long time), Zimbabwe’s political leaders Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsangari have once again confined themselves to a political deadlock. Perhaps the most important story that was overtaken by the elections – the development of a power-sharing agreement on Sept. 15 between the two factions (Zanu PF and the Movement for Democratic Change) – was a landmark deal that marked a hope for peace. However, in the past few weeks the agreement seems to have fallen apart, with reports last week claiming that the Zanu PF faction was urging Mugabe simply to form a government independent of the agreement – that itself had followed fraudulent elections back in March, where witnesses suggested that the MDC had won significantly. With inflation still at over 1,000 per cent per month, stability and focus cannot come too soon for this country.