Browsing: Politics

A Brief History On June 16, 2019, over 2 million people in Hong Kong protested the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, an extradition law enacted by the Chinese communist government of Hong Kong as well as alleged police brutality.  The protests had started over a variety of reasons months earlier and continued until disrupted by the pandemic of 2020. Digging Deeper Ever since Hong Kong reverted to Chinese control in 1997, protests have been a frequent event on that fabled island and its associated territory.  Some other massive protests vying for the “largest” in history include: The Baltic Way human chain across…

A Brief History On June 12, 2009, incumbent Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was announced the winner of the national election over three challengers, a result hotly disputed by millions of Iranians and protested in many countries around the world. Digging Deeper In the US, the presidential elections of 2000 and 2020 have been hotly debated, but apparently other countries experience the same or similar lack of confidence in election integrity.  In 2024, the Russian presidential election was a romp for incumbent Vladimir Putin, especially after stifling any opposition.  It seems few people in or out of Russia take their elections…

A Brief History On June 8, 1949, the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by English writer Eric Blair, writing as George Orwell, was published, telling a story of a dystopian future where an intrusive government controls all, sees all, and wages never ending war. Digging Deeper Modeled after the regimes of the USSR under Stalin and Germany under Adolf Hitler, the novel terrified a generation about the dangers of big government and what the future might hold.  Politicians and others often referred to the work in an effort to prevent the creep of government power. Some other novels that have shaped public…

A Brief History On June 4, 1989, an estimated tens of thousands Chinese military troops opened fire on perhaps a million Chinese protestors at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the capital of China.  While numbers of troops, protestors, and casualties are only estimates, because historically, governments cannot be counted on to provide accurate accounts of embarrassing events, as many as 10,000 or more of the peaceful protestors may have died in the massacre. Digging Deeper Not only were hundreds or thousands of people shot, but many others were also trampled in the rush to avoid the gunfire or crushed under the…

A Brief History On June 3, 1980, the long history of the Statue of Liberty was threatened by a bomb that exploded at the base of the statue, although luckily no one was killed and damage was minimal. Digging Deeper The alleged culprits in the 1980 bomb attack were Croatian nationalists that wanted to be separated from Yugoslavia to form their own country.  Directing their anger against the US during the Cold War seems a strange way to demand freedom from communism! Completed in 1886 as a gift to the US from France, the actual name of the statue is…