Miniya's blog

Free Trade’s virtues have been praised for three hundred years. By allowing everyone equal access to all markets, the theory goes, you guarantee the most efficient allocation of resources and the cheapest prices for consumers. Can such a theory work in practice? Specifically, could it help the least developed countries of the world provide themselves with a better quality of life? Western rhetoric says it can, and points to international institutions such as the World Trade Organisation to promote free trade of goods, and the World Bank to provide credit for development projects. However, so long as the West continues to protect its own agriculture and industries from the international market – either through the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy, or the United States of America’s bale out of its steel industries – its position is arguably hypocritical  Read More »

It is a contradiction in terms to argue that democracy can successfully be imposed. Democracy relies on the rule of law (undermined by military imposition), freedom of choice and independence (destroyed by external determination), and on accountability (impossible when a foreign power chooses one’s rulers).

It is acceptable to encourage the pursuit of democracy, but this is not the same as imposing it. The desire for, and fight for, democracy must come from within; otherwise the system created will be unable to withstand pressures for long.  Read More »

Assassination can be defined as the targeted killing of an individual for political reasons in peacetime. It can be undertaken by individual citizens, or by the agents of another state, but in either case it takes place without any legal process. Assassinating a dictator is often considered in the context of Hitler and Stalin, or of secret CIA action against foreign leaders such as Fidel Castro in the Cold War period (after this became public knowledge in the mid-1970s US Presidents have banned the use of assassination by Executive Order). However, this issue regained topicality in the 1990s as leaders such as Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic pursued bloody careers which threatened international peace. In recent years US airstrikes apparently aimed at killing Muammar Qaddafi of Libya (1986), Osama Bin Laden (1998) and Saddam Hussein (1991 and 2003) have provoked argument - were these assassination attempts or did these leaders have the status of enemy combatants in a time of war? Certainly the UN Charter (Article 24) and various conventions (e.g New York Convention) clearly appear to make assassination in peacetime against international law.  Read More »

It is right to accept that couples using In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) can ensure that of the embryos conceived a healthy one is implanted. However, this foretells a slippery slope for future exploitation of the process. If we set a precedent for screening and "choosing" babies, this must not develop into the widespread abuse of screening to create "designer babies" chosen for other aesthetic or desirable qualities. This is morally wrong.  Read More »

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) was founded on the 16th of November, 1945 and is based in Paris, France. Its stated goal is ‘to build peace in the minds of men.’ UNESCO has a humanitarian agenda – it pledges to work towards particular Millennium Development Goals, in particular, it wishes to
* halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty in developing countries by 2015
* achieve universal primary education in all countries by 2015
* to reverse current trends in the loss of environmental resources by 2015.
However, the organisation is allegedly misused to promote particular political aims. The Reagan administration said that UNESCO “politicized virtually every subject it deals with, has exhibited hostility toward the basic institutions of a free society, especially a free market and a free press, and has demonstrated unrestrained budgetary expansion.” The USA withdrew from the organisation in 1983 and only rejoined in 2002 - a decision which surprised many both at home and abroad, and which remains controversial.  Read More »

There is constantly a lot of press coverage, especially in the US, about banning violent viodeo games. Since some incidents of murderous rampages in the UK the issue has really heated up. In one case a teenager killed several people and then said, "Life's like a video game , you have to die sometime."

Studies have shown that naturally violent people are attracted to violent video games and the games do nothing to provoke this sort of behaviour.  Read More »

Afrikan conflicts need Afrikan solutions, not artificial resolutions imposed by non-Afrikan nations and organisations.

Often, only neighbouring countries in Afrika are able to respond to crises in time to sort them out before they can become international incidents. A case in point was during an uprising in the kingdom of Lesotho (Southern Afrika), where South Afrika sent in troops and was able to stabilise the country and restore the rightful ruler, thus preventing what could have degenerated into the civil wars we see elsewhere on the continent.  Read More »

Every life and every child is precious, whether born to a married woman or to a single mother who had pre-marital sex. It is insulting to the very notion of human life for society to treat children born out of wedlock as a ‘problem’, to pass policy on the basis of that they are less desirable than ‘normal’ children, and ultimately to seek to eliminate their existence by encouraging young people not to have sex until marriage.  Read More »