MLP time, since I'm between classes. Mostly courtesy of the BBC, since I'm in a hurry, and lazy. Here's some things you really need to be keeping an eye on.
First, in Iran, Serious Trouble has been brewing for the past few days, with a move by the country's Guardian Council to ban hundreds of moderate and reformist candidates from running in the upcoming general election. This sparked outrage from the large reformist movement in Iran, which includes President Mohammad Khatami, much of the younger generation, and a great deal of the legislature, and it looks like Iran's careening headlong towards a major political crisis. Ali Khamenei, the Ayatollah in Iran currently, is seemingly bowing to pressure and urging the Council to rethink their bans, but this is still very up in the air.
Keep an eye on what's going on here, folks. If Iran implodes, there's a whole lot of trouble for the entire region, as one of the last stable states with a major reform movement goes under. If it weathers this crisis, however, we'll probably get a chance to see how serious Iranians are about the reform movement in the coming months.
Meanwhile, we might be seeing a final push of another type, as a mass immunization plan against polio is set into motion by the World Health Organization. Six countries on this planet continue to have a polio problem. Six, out of all of them, with polio cases reduced to a low of seven hundred last year. Although paranoid nutbars have managed to derail the anti-polio campaign in Nigeria long enough to allow it to spread again, it appears as though a move to eradicate the disease is back underway. If we're lucky, and the remaining endemic states are supportive enough, then we will have wiped out two of mankind's great plagues in a period of only thirty years. Screw wars, assassinations, political scandals and even potential moonshots (oh, there'll be words on that on NFZ soon by one writer or another!) - this is big.
The Indo-Pakistani thaw continues unabated, it seems, with the resumption of rail links between the two coutnries for the first time in a couple of years. Although relations between India and Pakistan are still very tense, the two countries seem to have stepped back from the near outbreak of nuclear war, and meetings between India's and Pakistan's leadership is creating an atmosphere of cautious optimism for the future. Although some rhetoric has been thrown around as of late - something I doubt will change - we could see this hot spot cool off considerably over the coming year. An actual proper peace agreement is probably going to be some time away, but this is definately a journey of a thousand miles and should begin in the same way most such journeys do.
I'm going to be writing about other things over the next few days. Expect a return to discussing some Canadian politics, possibly some more on Bush's space plan - such as it is - and whatever else might inadvertently strike my fancy over the next few days. However, the things I've listed here are Big And Important Things. As citizens of this planet and members of humanity, I think we should all keep an eye on this developments, which could make or break the futures of a lot of people. Education, attention, and a little bit of hope can go a long way.
Posted by zibblsnrt at January 15, 2004 09:54 AM