My highest praises go out to the young Kayla Donnelly who managed to serve in Afghanistan's deadliest war zone, whilst being seven months pregnant! After assuming the changes to her body where from the stress of being at war, she still managed to soldier on and fight where 106 British soldiers have lost their lives.
Possibly the youngest solider to serve in Afghanistan, baby Josh arrived just two weeks after Kayla returned back to England. She is said to be the first to serve in Afghanistan so close to giving birth as pregnant soldiers are barred from service. And I can see why.
This obviously show's the great will power and strength of women.
Thursday, 17 February 2011
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
A date for the history books
Finally after 2 weeks of brutal protests Mubarak steps down as the Egyptian president. Only took several deaths and many more injured. The military is now the heart of the Egypt at least until re-election, which for the first time, will be the citizens choice. Quick changes are to be seen as the military has announced that work on reforming the countries constitution is to be completed in only ten days. Maybe they might achieve what Mubarak couldn't in 30 years?
I suppose it's easy to see both sides. Mubarak didn't step down in fear of the country falling into chaos, but on the other hand, a resolution could have been made much more sooner.
The EU has said it's ready to assist Egypt in the transition to a democratic society, maybe we really will be seeing massive changes. We will keep our fingers crossed for a more successful country, and see what the future may bring.
I suppose it's easy to see both sides. Mubarak didn't step down in fear of the country falling into chaos, but on the other hand, a resolution could have been made much more sooner.
The EU has said it's ready to assist Egypt in the transition to a democratic society, maybe we really will be seeing massive changes. We will keep our fingers crossed for a more successful country, and see what the future may bring.
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
Can it get any worse for Wikileaks?
As the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange begins his second and final day of a hearing over allegations of rape and sexual assault, you begin to wonder if it will ever end.
You don't know if you should pity the guy after going through one scandal after another, or wonder if he's finally got his comeuppance. It may be quite an inevitable outcome that a person who chooses to go against such forces as the US air force, will not easily come out on top. After thousands of classified documents were published on the Wikileaks website the federal government warned millions of its employees to refrain from reading them, as they still remained classified. This may be a hard task to dodge as they had been published in newspapers such as The Guardian and New York Times. Even families of employees who access the website from a home computer may be subject to prosecution for espionage. Obviously, someone’s got something to hide hear.
When trying to establish what Wikileaks was actually about I found this quote from their website explaining. 'Wikileaks is a non-profit media organization dedicated to bringing important news and information to the public. We provide an innovative, secure and anonymous way for independent sources around the world to leak information to our journalists. We publish material of ethical, political and historical significance while keeping the identity of our sources anonymous, thus providing a universal way for the revealing of suppressed and censored injustices.'
When leaks were posted on live internet it seemed newspapers didn't know how to handle a story of its kind. Many were more fascinated by how Wikileaks had managed to pull off this hi-tech hack rather than what was actually discovered. The most recent leak was 251,287 United States embassy cables. The documents showed an insight into the US governments foreign activities, which until this day have been highly confidential.
The invasion of privacy did cause Assange immediate (and possibly the wrong sort of) fame. After all, maybe Wikileaks may not have been such a big success if it was not such a scandal. Even bad publicity is still publicity. Its hard to define whether he is a man we can be grateful too for providing us with information we may never have even known, or just another shady criminal.
You don't know if you should pity the guy after going through one scandal after another, or wonder if he's finally got his comeuppance. It may be quite an inevitable outcome that a person who chooses to go against such forces as the US air force, will not easily come out on top. After thousands of classified documents were published on the Wikileaks website the federal government warned millions of its employees to refrain from reading them, as they still remained classified. This may be a hard task to dodge as they had been published in newspapers such as The Guardian and New York Times. Even families of employees who access the website from a home computer may be subject to prosecution for espionage. Obviously, someone’s got something to hide hear.
When trying to establish what Wikileaks was actually about I found this quote from their website explaining. 'Wikileaks is a non-profit media organization dedicated to bringing important news and information to the public. We provide an innovative, secure and anonymous way for independent sources around the world to leak information to our journalists. We publish material of ethical, political and historical significance while keeping the identity of our sources anonymous, thus providing a universal way for the revealing of suppressed and censored injustices.'
When leaks were posted on live internet it seemed newspapers didn't know how to handle a story of its kind. Many were more fascinated by how Wikileaks had managed to pull off this hi-tech hack rather than what was actually discovered. The most recent leak was 251,287 United States embassy cables. The documents showed an insight into the US governments foreign activities, which until this day have been highly confidential.
The invasion of privacy did cause Assange immediate (and possibly the wrong sort of) fame. After all, maybe Wikileaks may not have been such a big success if it was not such a scandal. Even bad publicity is still publicity. Its hard to define whether he is a man we can be grateful too for providing us with information we may never have even known, or just another shady criminal.
Thursday, 3 February 2011
The bitter sweet world we live in.
Many say life begins at 40, but for me, I beg to differ. When a new path is created this allows us to mold our own future. Only being 19 myself I choose to take it for everything it's got and not waste a minute.
With tuition fee's ready to rise dramatically I feel one of the privileged few able to get a degree education whilst financially possible. For the first time I am able to study topics in which I am truly passionate about, and for that no price tag may be attached.
Even though I am forever grateful for the opportunities I have been given in life, sometimes we easily take for granted what a peaceful country we live in. Therefore, one mans laughter, is another mans tears.
The current protests in Egypt offer a perfect example. With people constantly trying to put pressure on the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down from his position, it really does show what a bitter sweet world we live in.
Already 10 people have been reported dead and 800 injured, I'm sure it's not just me that wishes the message had been put across by now. How many more lives are to be sacrificed before any action is taken?
I realise the President fears that if he does step down then the country will sink into chaos, but alternative plans need to be made before the death toll doubles itself. Maybe it's time for a democratic government in Egypt?
With tuition fee's ready to rise dramatically I feel one of the privileged few able to get a degree education whilst financially possible. For the first time I am able to study topics in which I am truly passionate about, and for that no price tag may be attached.
Even though I am forever grateful for the opportunities I have been given in life, sometimes we easily take for granted what a peaceful country we live in. Therefore, one mans laughter, is another mans tears.
The current protests in Egypt offer a perfect example. With people constantly trying to put pressure on the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down from his position, it really does show what a bitter sweet world we live in.
Already 10 people have been reported dead and 800 injured, I'm sure it's not just me that wishes the message had been put across by now. How many more lives are to be sacrificed before any action is taken?
I realise the President fears that if he does step down then the country will sink into chaos, but alternative plans need to be made before the death toll doubles itself. Maybe it's time for a democratic government in Egypt?
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