The international community need to intervene in Syria

When will the international community finally step in and actively halt the civil war in Syria? It has been over two years, since opposition forces began their campaign against the Bashar al-Assad regime with no end in sight. The United Nations estimate that almost 100,000 people have been killed and many more been injured.

In the last few days the UN refugee chief, Antonio Guterres, has reported that the conflict in Syria has become the worst refugee crises facing the world since the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Guterres estimates that over 6000 Syrians are fleeing the conflict every day, with Turkey, Jordan and Iraq being the main destinations. On top of this figure, the UN further estimates that over 6 million people are in need of aid supplies.

This report from the UN is quite disturbing, seeing that I would have thought, and I assume others would as well, that the international community would have learnt its lesson after the Rwandan genocide, but this does not seem the case.

I think that with all the recent reports over the last few months, of chemical weapons been deployed by both sides, that’s if the information is correct, and now with the ever increasing death toll and refugee crises, outside intervention may need to be examined even further.  The small amount of light military and other supplies to the opposition forces by the United States and European nations does not seem to be giving an advantage to the rebels, especially since government troops are being supplied with heavier weaponry from Russia.

The best option to end this conflict is through peace talks, but this has failed in the past and is unlikely to happen in the near future. Both sides seem content on fighting to the death and innocent civilians are becoming by-standers suffering the most. The only option that I can see to bringing peace is for more concerted effort by the outside world to actively intervene. To achieve this option would be for a meeting to take place between the all five permanent UN Security Council members and other nations from the region to discuss and hopefully come to a better solution to ending the conflict, then what has been proposed in the past.

The report by the UN on the scale of the violence and instability caused to millions of Syrians will I hope motivate more concerted action by the international community, before more innocent lives are lost. 

Tony Abbot's climate change policy inconsistent

Opposition leader Tony Abbot has announced recently that if the Liberal party is elected at the end of this year, the party plan to keep some of the tax cuts and pensions in compensation for the carbon tax,introduced last July by the Labor government, despite having previously stated his party would scrap the tax.

This new carbon tax was introduced by Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s Labor government on the 1^st July 2012. The initiative was to tax high polluting companies, with the aim of introducing behavioural change towards cleaner energy. Every tonne of CO2 emissions requires companies to buy permits. The money raised by the tax would be invested in clean energy projects and compensation for the public, who would be feeling the cost of increased energy and other living costs associated with the carbon tax.      

When the Labor government first introduced the carbon tax, Tony Abbot went on the attack accusing the government of not caring for hard working Australian’s who would suffer because of the new tax. He further argued that business large and small would experience economic hardship that would trickle down to ordinary citizens.

While Abbot is correct that living costs would increase because of the carbon tax, the impact on the public has not been as dire as predicted by the Liberal party. Last July when the tax was implemented, many declared that the scheme would not reduce pollution, however studies revealed that after only six months of the tax, emissions have dropped by 8.6 percent. If we can already see this amount of improvement in a short time, years to come, the slight impact on families and the economy would be outweighed by cleaner air in the future.

If Abbot is true to his word, that his party would keep some of the tax cuts and pension increases in compensation for the carbon tax, why not just keep the carbon tax in place? The money spent on the  compensation is funded by the money from the permits purchased by the high polluting companies; if  Abbot removes the tax, yet continue to keep some of the tax breaks and pension increases, how is he going to pay for all these incentives for the public vote? Likely chance if Abbot wins the next election, even in a landslide victory, he would not be able to scrap the tax as the Greens would still hold the balance power in the Senate. If I was Abbot, I would just leave the tax in place and make the future for our children a brighter one. 

The Australian federal election has been called

Image source: Morgue File, photo by jppi

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has publicly announced that the Australian Federal election will take place on the 14th September 2013. This gives the Australian voters over seven months to decide which way they will vote and allow other political parties time to work on policies to persuade the public.

Gillard and her Labor government are well behind opposition leader Tony Abbot and his Liberal party in the polls; Gillard’s first priority would be to try to gain increased voters approval.

We may think that announcing a date for an federal election over seven months before, to be unusual in Australian politics, but Gillard’s tactics are well advised, and as the federal treasurer Wayne Swan has stated, that now we have a date set, speculation taking over debate can not be an excuse for Tony Abbot or any others not to have policies or costing in place by the election.

I think that Gillard and the Labor party will be challenged to win the next election and retain government. Over the last few years, issues of trust in Gillard’s government have made her a target for oppositions attacks that have allowed the Liberal Party to gain popularity by most of the voters.

Although the Liberal parties have performed better in the polls in the last few years, Tony Abbot is not a popular chose for Prime Minister, with most of the public liking Julia Gillard. From this analysis, the Liberal parties are likely to win the popular vote to be the next government, but Abbot would be seen as the man to win the election, because many voters seem to agree with his principles on asylum seekers and climate change, but he may not last a full term.

I think that Abbot needs more than just outdated policies and bring up the ‘trust issue’ every time he attacks Gillard and the government, instead draw up sound policy that will drive Australia and its people into the future.

Egypt’s revolution for democracy seems to be sliding back to a Military dictatorship

Over the last few weeks ten of thousands of Egyptians and opposition parties have been protesting against former Brotherhood member and now President Mohammed Morsi, who on November 22, announced a decree giving himself sweeping powers, including oversight over the judiciary. All these powers were written into a new constitution, which will be put to a referendum on the 15^th December. Although, since last Sunday, the President has annulled some of the sweeping powers including the oversight over the judiciary, but many still stand.

Furthermore, the Army has been given increased authority toarrest protesters and to protect state institutions, meaning that police powers have further decreased with the military taking over much of the security in Cairo.

In my opinion it seems that Egypt may slide back to military rule because of the new authority for the military to arrest civilians. This may further occur if the constitutional referendum goes a head on the 15^th of December, where the new constitution will likely gain a majority supporting the document including the new powers for the President. If this does happen as predicted, the opposition will probably step up its protests against the President Morsi and his ruling Freedom and Justice Party, which could bring further violent divisions between the Islamic Brotherhood supporters and the more moderate sections of society. With increased violence on the streets and political divisions could force the military to step in once more to solve the issue and retake control of Egypt.

For the hundreds of Egyptians killed in the 2011 revolution and the people still fighting for democracy, I hope that a solution to the crises can be found and Egypt can rebuild after decades of dictatorship.