U.S. man arrested, accused of threatening to kill Obama

A 78 year-old American man, Michael Bowden, was arrested for threatening to kill the U.S. President, Barrack Obama, and is expected to show up to the county jail on November 26th. Federal authority stated that the suspicion began when he told a nurse that he was thinking of killing the U.S. president Barack Obama because Obama is "not doing enough to help African-Americans" during the Veterans Affairs clinic. Immediately after the telling, the nurse has reported Bowden to the police and the case was eventually reported to federal security. After the search of this man's property, the suspicion and threat has gradually increased due to the fact that this man owned dozens of rifles.

After being arrested by the federal agents, Bowden admitted to his statement and gave a written sworn which wrote "If I had opportunity to put Obama against the wall and shoot him, I would". After several investigations, Bowden turned out to have several mental problems. According to the records, Bowden had suicide tendencies during a screening in April. United States' Magistrate Judge, Kevin McDonald, ordered Bowden to be held in bond until a mental evaluation had been completed.

In my perspective, whether Bowden was really planning to commit a murder or he was just saying it out loud to express his dissatisfaction towards the president, it was equitable to arrest Bowden in order to prevent any possible threat. President, a leader of a country voted by the citizens, should be protected in every way and every single threat towards the president should be eliminated or quarantined immediately. It is clear to me that Bowden had palpable mental problems and insecurity according to the investigation results. From suicide tendencies to murderous statement towards the president is psychophatic. I believe that the best way to resolve this problem is to give mild penalty and help him recover from his mental problems rather than condemning Bowden severely as he still is a citizen of the country.

Moreover, according to Bowden statement "not doing enough to help African-Americans" suggests that racism was one of the biggest factors towards creating this incident. Racism, even over 65 years after the official United Nations Charter promising equal rights towards every human race was signed in 1945, it still is one of the world's biggest issues which should be dealt with. Incidents like this can happen not just in United States but in every nation around the world. It is every individuals job to step up and make changes to eliminate prejudice and racism around the world to promote fairness, equality, mutual respect and finally, to prevent any further horrifying incidents like this.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/897199--u-s-man-arrested-accused-of-threatening-to-kill-obama

South Korean military on high alert

On Tuesday November 24th, North Korea fired heavy artilleries towards Yeonpyeong Island, 120 km west from Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Due to North Korea's artillery fires, two marines were killed, 15 troops and 3 civilians were injured and dozens of buildings were burned and destroyed. In return, South Korea quickly responded back by firing their artilleries towards North Korea. The casualties and damages caused in North Korea are currently unknown. South Korean Minister of Defense stated that South Korea will be sending additional military enforcements towards five islands near the disputed sea border including the Yeonpyeong Island.

South Korean government announced that the skirmish began as North Korea warned South Korea to halt their military drills near their sea border. However, South Korea refused and continued the military drills and fired their artilleries in to disputed waters. However the shootings were clearly away from the North Korean shore and their official sea regions. Despite the fact that the shots did not effect North Korea in anyway, North Korea retaliated by firing artilleries to Yeonpyeong Island as South Korea refused in return. Few minutes later, South Korea responded back with artillery firings towards North Korea.

As the tensions between South Korea and North Korea developed with much intensity due to the artillery fire exchanges, the whole world's views immediately became focused towards Korean peninsula including U.S. , Canada and China, just to name a few. U.S. government stated that they will be increasing the military supports towards their ally, South Korea. U.S. government also stated that North Korea's attack was outrageous and unprovoked. Moreover China, a country with great influence towards North Korea, is expected to encourage North Korea to ease their tension.

As a South-Korean, it is heartrending and outraging to see North Korea's attack especially because the attack was towards civilians as well. Attacking an island where thousands of civilians are present, just because opposition army had fired artilleries towards "disputed" water which had no impact on North-Korea in any aspect is horrendous and pugnacious. The Korean War has been dragged on for over 60 years and instead of choosing the safer and rightful way to resolve the trouble, North Korea decided to provoke South Korea and the world with an absurd excuse. Therefore it seems questionable whether the North Korea is concerned with peace and safety for their country and their civilians.

Secondly, it is surprising to see how North Korea has paid back after all the financial and food aids that were supported by South Korea for past decades while North Korea has never made any significant contribution towards South Korea. Moreover, South Korea has promoted peace and negotiations in order to search for resolution to end the dreadful war which lasted for 60 years. Ever since the armistice was signed in 1953, South-Korea had never made any forms of direct provoking actions which involved any harmings towards North Korea. Therefore, it is evident that all of the struggles within the Korean peninsula since 1953 has been due to North Korea's preposterous actions.

The war within the Korean Peninsula can possibly develop in to a larger scale internationally and perhaps it can even trigger the start of the World War III. As the world has experienced the abysmal world wars twice in the past century, I would like to see the whole world step up as one in order to resolve the problem within the Korean peninsula peacefully to stop repeating the same mistake that we have made in the past which resulted in vile and atrocious outcomes. I wholeheartedly hope that the tension within the Korean peninsula will settle down and ultimately, I hope to see the conflict between South and North Korea resolve peacefully.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/11/24/korea-artillery-attack.html

Irish banks will be reorganized in bailout

Irish banks will be accompanied with huge bailout which the Ireland will need to navigate its way out of a spiraling debt and banking crisis according to the Irish government minister on monday. Irish finance minister suggested significant financial struggle that they are going through as he stated that the Irish banks will not be able to access normal markets until they are reorganized. The rescue bailout package which will be issued to Ireland from EU(European Union) and IMF (International Monetary Fund) is worth up to 100 billion euros (US$ 137 billion) and it is expected to keep Ireland solvent for at least three more years.

Experts believe that the main factor which lead to the near bankrupty of major Irish banks is because of Irish government's risky investements which they have made towards British and American properties. According to the statistics, the taxpayers in Ireland has paid over 50 billion euros over the past two years as Irish authorities nationalized three of the major banks and took major stakes of two additional banks since 2008. It is said that government's risky investment or "gamble" has lead to country's financial sector to become almost bankrupt and these investments could not have been possible without governments action on nationalizing and taking stakes of the 5 major banks in Ireland. Therefore the Irish government, especially the prime minister, Brian Cowen is being blamed for financial struggle of Ireland.

EU-IMF bailout is intended to give Ireland somewhat long term stability as they sort out their problematic issues in order to prevent Ireland's bank, government and market from crashing and collapsing. Entire EU as well as the world will be focusing their perspectives towards Irish government and the decisions and policies they will be making in order to reorganize the country and get back on the track.

In my opinion, I find the financial struggle of Ireland very shocking and problematic. First of all, according to the HDI (Human Development Index) for 2010, Ireland has the 5th highest HDI in the world. Therefore it was stunning to see a country with 5th highest standard of living struggle financially due to its major banks being on the verge of bankrupty. Secondly, it was disappointing hear about the cause of the whole situation. I believe that Irish government should not have nationalized and take major stakes of the banks in Ireland. As the Irish government took control of the major banks, they were able to control their financial budgets easily without any serious questionings or conflicts. Thus the Irish government was able to invest billions of dollars towards risky investements such as the properties in foreign countries. There is no doubt in my mind that this risky investment was not worth leading five major banks in the nation to bankrupcy and spending over 50 billion euros from the citizens without definite assurance.

In order to minimize the impact of this incident and to secure financial stability for the country and its citizens, the Irish government should act immediately by accepting the bailout and financial supports from other countries. Moreover, the Irish government must come up with assuring and definite plans to reshape and reorganize country's financial mangement, economy, banks and so on. At times like this, where the world's economy is struggling, it is government's full responsibility to approperiately guide, organize, and help the citizens in every aspects including suitable financial and economical managements and supports.

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20101122/ireland-eu-imf-bailout-details-emerging-101122/

Toronto School Board floats cash-for-grades

TDSB(Toronto District School Board) is considering to pay money for students in order to get the students to stay in school and achieve good grades. According to this idea, the students will be paid money as an incentive for going to school, taking tests, getting good grades and so on which will ultimately encourage students especially those who are in poverty to keep up their education. This idea generated from Chris Spence, an education director of TDSB, as he wrote: "Should we pay kids in our more disadvantageous communities to do well in school? Perhaps, as a part of a poverty reduction scheme." TDSB announced that this idea will be carefully examined by the board's new anti-poverty task force. Head of the TDSB's nine-member group Lloyd McKell also said "This is not about bribing. This is helping students who have no resources or very limited resources to focus on learning". TDSB finds that the idea of paying students in order to help those who are struggling from poverty and to encourage students to get better grades could be a great solution towards many aspects that needs improvements.

On the other hand, there are great numbers of oppositions who have made complaints and showed sign of discouragement towards this idea including TDSB's own students. Grade 12 student Derek Neilson said "I like having my job, having my own place. I don't like being in school. People want to get bribed, go ahead. It's your morals, not mine". Anni Kidder with group People for Education also discouraged the idea of cash-for-grades by saying "There are solutions, but they're not necessarily simple and they have to be integrated solutions". According to the statistics, the money incentive policy which was initiated in U.S. in the past have worked out for some students but not for all. People's viewpoints especially the viewpoints of people in Toronto will be focused on this idea to see if the money incentive policy will actually be set in place for the students.

In my opinion, I strongly disagree to the cash incentive policy to students. Yes, it is true that education is critical and necessary towards all students. Yes, it is true that both government and school board must financially aid students who are in poverty in order to help them receive appropriate education. However, I believe that the idea of paying students "if" they get good grades is a way of bribing, segregating students and also wasting money that could be spent much more effectively. By paying money only towards students that get good grades, this can ultimately separate and divide students in to different groups depending on the grades that they are receiving and create serious social and intolerant problems within the students.

Moreover, in my opinion, there can be much more effective ways to support students struggling with financial issues than only paying students that get good grades in order to"force" the students in poverty to study hard so that they could receive cash for their living. I believe that setting up student support charity for living, study, etc. and paying families that are struggling financially which are causing problematic effects towards students' education will be much more effective and adequate solution. Because every student has right to study and be educated in same environment, I believe that it is government and school board's job to help those who are less fortunate and create the adequate environment for them to study in.

On the whole, I disagree with the idea of cash incentives only for students that are getting good grades and I believe that there could be much more meaningful and effective ways to support students that are less fortunate in order to help them receive appropriate education. Better education for younger generation now will benefit our country in the future as they will be the generation that will be running the country in 20~30 years. I would like to see TDSB come up with much more suitable policy than paying, bribing and ultimately forcefully making students to work and study.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/11/18/toronto-cash-for-grades.html

Canada to End Combat Role in Afghanistan at End of 2011

The Canadian government confirmed on Tuesday November 16th, that its military force in Afghanistan would end the combat mission at the end of 2011. Although United States asked members of NATO including Canada to continue to put military efforts in Afghanistan, Canadian Parliament announced that they had already set timetables for the withdrawal of their military. However, the Parliament stated that some of the military forces will still remain in Afghanistan for repairing, teaching, training Afghan security forces, providing medical aids and so on that are not involved with dangerous combats.

According to the public opinion poll in Canada, only little proportion of Canada is supporting the continued fighting in Afghanistan. Therefore although Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative party and their government does not have enough seats to have majority votes, other major opposition parties such as Liberal party of Canada are expected to support Conservative Party's proposal. Bob Rae, a Liberal member of Parliament said "There are obviously still a lot of operational details to work out. But it's not as if there's any doubt about the support of the two major parties." during an interview in order to assure that Liberals will be supportive towards the government's proposal.

In my point of view, I strongly support Canadian government's decision on withdrawing the Canadian troops from the combat missions in Afghanistan. According to the statistics, the Afghan war is the first time which significant number of Canadian soldiers (152 soldiers) have been killed since conflict in Korea. It is heartbreaking for me to see Canadian soldiers return home lifelessly especially when unnecessary sacrifices can be prevented if government just decides to withdraw their troops. Considering that Remembrance day (November 11th) was only about a week ago, it is very emotional and pleasing for me to hear about the Canadian government's decision on withdrawing troops.

Secondly I also support Canadian government's decision on leaving the soldiers behind in Afghanistan not for life threatening reasons such as combat but for safe and much more meaningful reasons such as repairing, teaching, training, providing medical aids and so on. It is equitable that Canada is helping other countries that need help and I surely believe that this support doesn't always have to involve human life sacrifices. In fact rather than having thousands of soldiers risking their lives to fight in battles which seem to be endless, teaching, repairing, training and providing medical aids can be much effective towards Afghanistan and their people.

On the whole I wholeheartedly agree to Canadian government's decision on withdrawing troops in Afghanistan. There is no doubt that Canada's decision towards withdrawing troops will help the world to be one step closer to achieving the world peace. I hope to see the Afghan war finally come to an end in the near future in order to achieve peace and prevent further unnecessary sacrifices.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/world/americas/17canada.html?_r=1&ref=americas

Masked refugee claimant used U.S. passport

Ten days ago, a young Asian man disguised himself as an elderly white man and boarded on an Air Canada flight from Hong Kong to Canada. This man's disguise was not discovered until the flight staff had identified the elderly white man change to a young Asian man after he had emerged from the washroom. Therefore, after the landing in Vancouver, this man was reported and was escorted off the plane by the police. Immediately after getting off the plane, this man claimed refugee protection.

After precise investigation, the police discovered that the identifications such as passport this man has used to board on the plane were legitimate identifications from U.S. Moreover, police also believe that this man had at least two accomplices including one American according to the security camera footage in Hong Kong airport. Therefore police are now suspecting criminal organizations being involved in this case for human smuggling business. Moreover, the lawyers of this man are requesting Canadian government to abolish the public hearing as well as banning any ties with Chinese media and government. Lawyers stated that this man could be in severe danger if more information about him is revealed towards the public since his face has already been exposed through the media. In addition, the lawyers also stated that this man is part of the organization in China that could seriously jeopardize his life.

Public Safety Minister of Canada, Vic Toews stated that this case is no different from any other illegal refugee border crossing cases except for the fact that the man has used mask instead of commonly used disguise tools such as wigs, hair dyes, glasses, and so on. Many of the people including the lawyers and workers from various broadcasting stations are encouraging government to halt further information being exposed to the public and are also questioning the government about how the information of this case was leaked to mass media broadcasting stations such as CNN in the first place.

In my opinion, I believe that this man must be protected and receive aids and support from the Canadian government. First of all, whatever the reason is, this man's life is jeopardized in his home country therefore in order to help this man live safely, Canada should take him as a refugee. I believe that this is morally right. Secondly, Canada, a great country with great policy towards refugees should take this man in and help him in order to keep up the great reputation which Canada holds as being a global leader and supporting others that need desperate help in international level.

Secondly, the fact that the information about this man's identity was released through media is a major problem. This man's identity should have been protected under the refugee policy and he could be in severe danger if the identity is exposed. However due to the information leak, media revealed the case and the man's identity including the picture although his eyes were censored out. I believe that refugees' identity shouldn't be exposed under any circumstances to guarantee their safety from the public, however due to this leak, Canadian government failed to do that. This leak of information has not only jeopardized this man's life but also ruined the Canada's reputation on refugee policy. It is Canadian government's job to learn from this incident and set much more strict laws to prevent this kind of situation occurring again in the future.

On the whole, in order to protect this man from further danger, additional information towards this man's identity should not be revealed to public and Canadian government must do their best to appropriately assist this man to settle in Canada without any major problems. Moreover, the government should set much more strict laws in order to prevent additional refugee information leaking in the future which can threaten refugee's lives, especially regarding to their identity.

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20101108/masked-man-detention-hearing-101108/

Georgia Shops for Fleet of Eco-Friendly Cars

Georgian government announced this week that they are planning to replace its entire fleet of state-owned cars with eco-friendly hybrid or electric cars within 4 years. Many believe that out of all the bold plans which Georgian government had proposed in recent years, such as plans to convert the entire city as free WIFI zone and replace all Russian-language college books in to English, this plan is the most equitable and probable. Georgia is the first nation in the world to make this commitment.

According to the Ministry of the Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, Georgia is one of the most adequate and appropriate nation to be able to achieve entire fleet of eco-friendly cars today. This is because Georgia has rich supply of cheap hydroelectric power from dams in the Caucasus Mountains. Moreover the Ministry also stated that Georgia is also capable of acting as a global laboratory for the use of electric cars in the future due to their rich hydroelectric power supplies. This global laboratory will allow and encourage world to convert the fleets of cars within their country to eco-friendly cars by enhancing technology, etc.

Georgian government is planning to purchase over 4000 vehicles shortly from various car companies such as General Motors. In addition, Georgian government announced that converting trucks, larger cars and presidential motorcades to eco-friendly vehicles will be exempted for now since the electric power technology today is still inefficient for large vehicles. Anyhow, Georgia is getting lots of positive interests and encouragements from various automakers, countries, and so on. The world will be watching Georgia once again to see if they will be able to make changes and set the bars high for other nations to follow.

From my point of view, I am fully supportive towards Georgian government's commitment towards eco-friendly vehicle conversion plan. In my opinion, environmental and economical issues associated with oil usages are one of the most problematic subjects in the world. For example, the hazardous side-effects of oil usage such as contaminating our environments and the scarcity of oil which will lead our economy to face oil crisis in near future. Therefore it was thrilling to see a nation step up to the line and announce that they will convert entire fleet of vehicles within their country in to eco-friendly cars. Moreover, the fact that Georgia has rich supplies of hydroelectric power supplies also make this plan very promising. If Georgia is able to accomplish and achieve entire fleet of eco-friendly cars, they will be bringing new vision and solution to the world regarding to the problematic oil usage.

I believe that the conversion of fleet of vehicles to eco-friendly cars is one of the most influential and significant changes we could make in order to prevent oil crisis, reduce oil dependency and ultimately to be eco-friendly in order to protect our environment. There is a proverb "Well begun is half done". This proverb suggests that beginning and start is one of the most important steps towards completion and accomplishment; because without beginning, you won't be able to finish anything. Georgia, small country with only about 4.5 million people might not be able to show immediate and significant changes regarding to all of the problematic issues that i have stated above. However, they will be able to promote the idea of "entire nation with fleet of eco-friendly cars" all across the world. Therefore Georgia will influence other nations to initiate the conversion of their vehicles to eco-friendly cars. Now, it is up to us, the rest of citizens in the world, to step up and make changes in order to protect our mother nature for greener and clearer environment for us and for future generations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/05/world/europe/05volts.html

Greece hit with more mail bombs

On Monday November 1st, the bomb mails were first discovered as one of the devices exploded during the delivery service in Central Athens. One day later, bomb explosion was reported again at the Swiss and Russian embassies in Athens, Greece. Also, suspicious packages were detonated outside of the Greek parliament, Bulgarian embassy and a courier company which was originally meant to be delivered to the German embassy in Athens. Fortunately, no injuries or serious damages were reported from the series of small bomb explosions. Authorities announced that the bombs were not particularly powerful.

Two Greek men that were spotted near one of the bombing sights were arrested for suspicion of plotting the attack immediately after the bombing on Monday. According to the police, both of these men were carrying handguns with bullets, wore body armor and were disguised with wigs and caps. Police announced that one of these men was wanted for his connection with the radical anarchist group called "Conspiracy Nuclei Fire". The Greek government's spokesman Petalotis, in respond to the mail bomb attack, said "The government condemns in the strongest possible way those who try in vain to terrorize and disturb the public tranquility." Moreover, another government's spokesman stated that "No one can terrorize democracy", assuring that the Greek government will not tolerate the mail bomb terror. The Greek police announced today that the major suspects for the mail bomb terror are the anarchist groups. Greek Police also announced that they will be preparing in case for additional bomb attacks. Thus, extra police force for security will be provided towards every embassy in Greece.

My perspective towards this event is that no matter whom the terrorists are and no matter what the purposes and reasons for creating these mail bombs were, the mail bomb terrorization should not be justified. In my opinion, I believe it was the anarchists who sent out these mail bombs in order to get attention, speak out their beliefs and also to show their resistance towards government. I agree that the anarchist groups have rights to have sayings and voices regarding to their beliefs however their ways of promoting those voices are not admissible. Although the series of small bomb attacks didn't cause any severe injuries or destruction, they are still weapons that can cause severe injuries and kill innocent people. Moreover, the mail bombs have made the entire nation and the world feel insecure and unsafe. I strongly believe that people should not suffer and be concerned with their safety just because of the minority groups that are not satisfied with the world.

With all of these facts in mind, my point of view is that appropriate consequences and punishments seem necessary to the anarchists who plotted and sent out the mail bombs. Their actions have made dreadful impacts around the world such as making everyone feel insecure, attacking international embassys to damage the international connections and so on. Moroever just by the fact that these bombs were intended to hurt, injure and kill people, they should be punished instantly. The anarchist will have to admit to their guilt and step up as soon as possible. Anarchists will also have to come up with more adequate and justifiable ways if they want to promote their beliefs and have stronger voices within our society in the future.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/11/02/world-greece-mail-bombs.html