The other day, in the midst of more hairpulling over the current US political paralysis and
continuous series of bad choices that the administration and Congress keep making, as if they're trying to crash through a 2010 looking-glass version of 1994 but with potentially far more disastrous outcomes, I asked myself: what else is going on in the rest of the world, in addition to the terrible post-quake situation in
Haiti, which has gotten a great deal of attention.I began to catalogue some of the things I was somewhat aware of, just off the top of my head, and am listing them here. What am I missing?
- Angola continued on as the host of the African Cup of Nations, after the deadly attack on the Togolese team in the restive Cabinda province
- Argentinian leader Cristina Fernández de Kirchner fires central banker, battles other government officials, economy faltering
- Australia has recently witnessed repeated violent attacks, including murder, on South Asian residents, many of them students (the cartoon at right has sparked outrage)
- Bolivians reelected Socialist president Evo Morales
- British ruling party facing likely defeat in upcoming elections
- Canada prepares for winter Olympics in Vancouver (someday I'll actually see this supposedly very beautiful city and region)
- Chile elects right-wing billionaire president, first rightist in half a century
- China and Google in tiff over hackers, Net control, censorship
- Colombia moves forward with extension of presidential terms for conservative, pro-US president Álvaro Uribe
- France's government considers ban on burqas/face covering garments
- Honduras' ex-president, Manuel Zelaya, overthrown in coup, will go into exile in Dominican Republic
- Iraq in turmoil in lead-up to January 30, 2010 governmental elections, multiple bombings over last 3 days, former Saddam-era official executed
- Japanese city elects anti-US military base mayor, negotiation over Okinawa installation likely
- Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua out of country since late fall, feared dead, sparking a political crisis, recently issued a tape saying he's okay; sectarian riots in central Nigerian city of Kos have led to the death of hundreds of people
- Northern Ireland government teetering after sex scandal revelations involving conservative leader's anti-gay wife, Iris (Mrs.) Robinson, crisis talks underway
- Portugal legalizes same-sex marriage
- Somalia remains wracked by civil war
- Sri Lanka's civil war is over, but a battle brews between the president who won it and his top general
- Turkey and Israel in a tiff over Israeli ambassador's public humiliation of Turkish ambassador, Israel apologizes
- Venezuela's leader, Hugo Chávez, devalues currency, bolivar, begins reelection push
- Yemen is the site of increased US military and intelligence activity
