| The Kensington Review |
23 March 2005 |
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Latest Commentary:
Congress Grandstands During Schiavo Deathwatch -- Terri Schiavo has been in a "persistent vegetative state" since 1990 when she suffered heart failure brought on by a potassium imbalance that caused an interruption of oxygen to her brain for an estimated 5 minutes. Her husband Michael says she had told him that she wouldn't want to live like that, and he's been trying to get her feeding tube removed for years. Her parents maintain that there's still hope and have fought Michael Schiavo in court for years, and they kept losing. Over the week-end, Congress proved itself in a vegetative state of a sort by passing legislation that gave Mrs. Schiavo's case to the federal courts. It seems the GOP doesn't like the way Florida's courts manage Florida's laws, and this case doesn't even involve counting votes. Annan Proposes Changes at UN -- When the United Nations Charter was signed in San Francisco in 1945, it original signatories numbered 51. That number included the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which went out of business in 1991. Missing from that list are nations such as India (which was part of the British Empire until 1949) as well as Germany and Japan, the defeated Axis powers. There are now 191 member states, and the world is a much different place sixty years on. Thus, it was good to see Secretary General Kofi Annan's plan to reform the UN. But the question is really whether reform is needed, or whether a revolution is in order. EU Says Growth is its Priority -- The Spring Council of the European Union in Brussels opened yesterday. The EU bigwigs have said that they want to get the EU GDP moving up from its rather sluggish 1.6% annual growth rate. The American economy is growing at 3.6% by comparison. What the EU leaders want is a plan to kick start economic activity. The trouble is, they've had such a plan since 2000 -- the Lisbon Agenda -- and it hasn't worked. Sam Nujoma Retires as Namibian President to Become Geology Student -- South West Africa was the name of a German colony taken over the Britain at the end of the World War I, and a protectorate of the apartheid regime of South Africa. Sam Nujoma was the leader of the South West Africa People's Organization [SWAPO], which fought for independence, and when successful, he became the president of the renamed Namibia. While no Nelson Mandela (the human race is entitled only to one of these a generation), he isn't a Robert Mugabe either (too many of them). He has left office after 15 years but will have an active retirement, as a student at the University of Namibia, known locally as UNAM. © Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review , J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux. |
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