Kenya building collapse by heavy rain

Summary
In Nairobi, Kenya, a building collapse and 42 people killed by this accident on April 29th. Nairobi is in the rainy season now and nany houses are substandard or built on the area where is known as not safe ground by local goverment. Local military police said ” It was built less than 5m from river, when it should have been at least 30m away”. NCA said ” The building had marked as unfit for habitation”. This fact shows a mistake about local goverment had failed to follow up to national goverment. Most people in Nairobi lives in low-come area or slums so housing is in high demand. They anxious to development of laws. The rescue lasts to save survivors.

Opinion

“This is not a disaster but a man-made disaster.” I felt so when I first read this article. As the delay of local governmental policy triggered this accident, it is clear that this one is a man-made disaster. The mistake of public institution threatens the safe of public or rejidents and citizens always are sacrificed in accident of man-made one. I want them to do their job as the public institution.

Uganda bans media coverage of election result protests

Summary

In Uganda, Yowei Museveni has been president for 30 years.  There was re-election vote on February, and opposition protest against election, Forum for Democratic Change(FDC) has called for a “defiance campaign” against him. But the government says if media support their protest against president, they will lose their license. More, a court ruled “defiance campaign” against the election result was illegal.

Media organizations was not allowed to live interview with opposition members or show their activity.

Opinion

In my opinion, media have to stand in the middle of government and civilians, or media cannot send not-filtered fact to civilian.

Especially election is the most important thing in government, I think.

But in case government banned media like this article, civilians has no way to know about government. If civilians cannot get the information about government, the country keeps being dictatorship.

To be honest, I don’t know if they civilians prefer to be democracy or dictatorship , but at least they should have chance to think about their government.

In Japan, at least we can get some information from media, though they may be filtered.

When I think about if we have no way to know what government is doing, I get so scared.

Kenya building collapse

Summary

A collapse of buildings killing 42 people in the capital of Kenya, Nairobi, prompted officials to finally take action against the substandard buildings in this area. Currently, 8 buildings deemed unfit for human population were torn down with more than 200 to follow. Building quality in this area has been precarious for a long time with many exceeding national limits. Much of the population of Nairobi live in low-income areas and because of the high demand for housing, become victims of dishonest developers. There are still people under the collapsed building. Rescuers are using all resources available to save the survivors.

Opinion

The first feeling I felt when I read this article was helplessness. Why did the 42 plus people have to die? It’s obvious that the collapsed building was built on the wrong ground, and nobody paid attention until it was too late. It’s clear that on the national level, the problem was at least recognized, with the failure of the local government being to blame. However, were they the only ones responsible for this disaster? I think not. These people had to live in poor living conditions because there was no where else to live. In order to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen again, the whole of the economy must be fixed. Unless this is achieved, the substandard building that are right now being torn down will appear again in just a few years.

Eight Policemen Have Been Shot Dead in Egypt

Summary

In the early hours of Sunday morning, a police van was ambushed and eight policemen were killed.  Culprits of this affair were militants of so-called Islamic State (IS), and said they carried out the attack.  Recently, in Cairo, insurgents have conducted surprise attacks on police.  The group opened pictures that show horrible bodies of killed policemen online.  The IS statement said the attack was revenge on capture of Islamist women in Egyptian jails.

Opinion

In November 2015, IS declared that all Japanese people became targets of IS because of Japan’s support for the Allied Nations. This in no longer somebody else’s affair, but everybody’s affair today.  What should we do against a threat of Islamic State?  I think we should make up cooperation systems in international society.  We should not only bombing, but also adopt measures without arms.  Bombing inevitably kills a lot of ordinary people and increase the number of people who join IS.  It’s only “a rat race”.  For example, if other countries close borders, they can stop an inflow of new militants and resources into IS.  Each country’s  keeping  in close contact and cooperation  is needed to finish the threat.

Eight policeman in Egypt have been shot dead on the outskirts of the Cairo.

Summary

Eight policeman in Egypt have been shot dead on the outskirts of the Cairo. Their white police van was ambushed by four gunman in a truck. They sprayed the vehicle with bullets. They are militants affiliated to so-called Islamic State. The insurgent like this have recently conducted hit-and-run attacks on police in Cairo and been behind small-scale bombings in the city. Killing so many policeman near Cairo is a worrying escalation

opinion

Recently, The current situation in the Middle East is controversial. Many journalists including Japanese were killed by terrorist like ISIS. I think Japan can bridge the relationship between the countries which are confronting each other. Indeed, It is important to fight with terrorists and suppress them. However, the fight brings damages and  victims among citizens and then it cannot solve problems fundamentally. In order to stabilize the current situation in the Middle east, each countries should cooperate even partially because this situation and terrorist are strongly related to religious conflicts which is reason why terrorists want to fight and spread their territory and destruct heritage sites between each countries such as Saudi and Iraq. These countries are connected to powerful nation like Russia and U.S. which intensify conflicts because of interests around petroleum. In this sense, Japan takes neutral position to countries like Saudi and Iraq relatively so Japan can bridge the good relationships between these countries. I think it leads to the stabilization of the domestic situation of each country to have good relationships in the Middle East and we can exterminate terrorism.

Uganda bans media coverage of election result protests

Summery In Uganda, Yoweri Museveni who acted as the president for 30 years was elected again and extended the term for 35 years. The opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) protests against the re-election of him. But FDC’s leader Kizza Beisigye’s house was sealed off by security forces. Uganda’s court ruled that what that the opposition is calling a “defiance campaign” against the election result was illegal. Now, there is a heavy military and police deployment around the city in anticipation of opposition action.

My opinion After having learned this news, I did a search for Meseveni and found that he left some achievements, for example, the action to AIDS and action to discrimination against women. However, the politics must be carried out in a fair way even if there were such achievements. Needless to say, we have the right-to-know and freedom of expression. So I think this press restraints can’t be allowed. If I was 71 years old, I would want to retire from politics. I can’t understand Museveni’s thought. I think he is deeply attaches to power. I think he should resign because it is said that he did wrong in this election. But this is difficult because he has big power in military and lawmaking. However, I don’t want Uganda’s people to solve this problem by violence. It should be solved by politic

Kenya building collapse

Summary

ln Kenya, on February 29th, happend collapses of buildings and at least 42 people were died. Many of houses are substandard or built on unsafe grounds. On that day, the six-storey building collapsed. According to a local Military Police, it was built less than 5m from a river, when it should have been at least 30m away. The National Construction Authority said it had marked the buildings as unfit for habitation, but that the local government had failed to follow up to national government. In Nairobi, a lot of people live in low-income areas or slums. So, housing is in high demand, but unscrupulous developers often bypass regulations. They are need to improve rules and ways of constructions.

 

Opinion

What can Japan do for Kenya? I think Japan should send people to Kenya, and help to build new houses. But, not only sending people but also teaching ways of buildings to people there. In Japan, earthquakes often occurs. So, Japan has a lot of advanced skills of resistant buildings. And  it is effective that raising funds and send clothes and food. The local government should follow up the saying of the national government to protect people safe. If do so, the local government may be able to get the subsidy from the national government. The standard of living of  people in Kenya will raise.

Zimbabwe parks authority to sell animals due to drought

Summary

In Zimbabwe the national parks have problems caused by a severe drought. The problem is that the grassland growth is slower than the speed the animals in the national eat, because they don’t have enough water. This severe drought is made by the longest EL Nino weather pattern in decade, and nobody knows when it will end. If the rainy season comes this problem will be solved, but the national parks don’t have enough time. So they are going to save this problem by destocking its parks estates. To destock the animals, they want to sell them to private wildlife reserves. However the national park are fearing that the animals they sell will be hunted by conservation groups.

Opinion

To save this problem there are many ways like killing or selling the animals. However, most ways are evil for the animals because most ways make the animals go to places that are different than they are living usually. So if you want to solve this problem you have to be prepared that someone or some animals will suffer, because I think there is no way to save this problem without suffer. If the people who own the national parks are prepared they should move quickly because the problem will become steadily worst.

The government of South Africa must change.

Summary

Many people made violence due to appeal their hopes to the government. The protesters had burnt 13 schools in Limpopo province. They wanted to get better housing and water, because they were frustrated about the lack of basic services like electricity and water.

Government said that the violence gave bad effect to the education of children, so they wanted to end the violence. On the other hand, the opposition parties hoped to get government, so they argued that the government had failed to improve the life level. By arguing the government, the opposition parties tried to make gains at the polls when the local government elections will hold in August.

 

Opinion

I think South Africa’s present circumstance isn’t good, the worst in the world, because the people who live in South Africa can’t know whether they can live tomorrow. The situation in the South Africa is changing every day, for example a lot of war, violence, and disaster. So it isn’t clear what kind of situation they live tomorrow.

I think government must change this situation, because “government” should guarantee the nation’s life and improve the people’s life level. So in my opinion, South Africa’s government doesn’t work enough. Whether or not the government will change next elections, not only main party but also opposition party must try to improve the life level, because this is the work of the politician.

educational problem by suicide bombing

summary

Suicide bomb is being carried out by children induced by Boko Haram i n Nigeria. There were 44 children ”suicide bombings” in West Africa last year.They hide explosives under their clothes or in baskets. The reason why Boko Haram used children  is that people usually doesn’t expect they have explosives. However,  this strategy by Boko Haram destroyed more than 900 schools and killed more than 600 teachers. Therefore educational system of Nigeria is damaged and we have to think of some solutions

opinion

What do we have to do to repair Nigerian educational system? I have an idea. Each countries should try to make textbooks for Nigerian children. It is true that sending teachers to Nigeria is a good solution.but teachers who can understand languages spoken in Nigeria is probably few and they can also be killed by ”susuide bombings” at school. Sending textbooks doesn’t have a possibility that a new person is killed. In addtion, children can study everytime with them. They don’t necessarily need to go to school to study,so danger of being involved in explosion can decrease. To conclude, sending textbooks leads to enhance efficiency of learning and defends children from being killed.I think each country should make tektbooks which Nigerian can understand and send them.