Gloom, pageantry mark 2012 at international scene

By Paul Arhewe

The outgoing year, like previous ones, witnessed its share of awful and gloomy moments and some instances for jubilation, merriment and pageantry.

Syrian war

The Arab spring crisis which began in December 2010 in Tunisia continued in Syria war as a full blown war that has claimed more than 44,000 lives. The conflict began in this Arab country in March 2011 with peaceful protests, before degenerating into a large-scale deadly conflict.

The Syrian president Bashar al-Assad tenaciously held on to power, even when some of his generals had fled to the rebel side. Many efforts to bring peace to the country has failed, as world powers divided over what has become an majorly sectarian strife between mostly Sunni Muslim rebels and Assad's security forces, drawn primarily from his Shi'ite-rooted Alawite minority.

By December 12, United States and other western countries like United Kingdom, France, Turkey and some Gulf states recognised the opposition coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

US Presidential election

The United States’ 2012 general election, no doubt was one remarkable event at the international for the outgoing year.

President, Barack Obama, beats his Republican presidential opponent, Mitt Romney, to clench his second term for another four years as leader of the world’s leading economy in the November 6 general polls. Obama won 332 electoral votes to Romney's 206.

The 2012 election was adjudged to be the most expensive in US electoral history.

Obama and Biden and their families celebrating

Candidates flooded the airwaves with relentless attacks on each other, with accusations of lying, deceit, fabrications and other chicanery — even renewed charges over the long discredited claims over whether Obama had been born in this country — which flew for almost a year.

Obama questioned Romney’s lack of a specific plan for reviving the economy while branding the challenger a candidate who changed his positions to suit the shifting political winds.

Egyptians’ angst over Morsi’s power grab

By Paul Arhewe

Morsi

Six month after his election, Egypt’s democratic leader, President Mohammed Morsi has attracted the denouncement of his people, with the sudden attempt to conduct a referendum on the country’s constitution; in his latest moves to grab more power and clip the wings of the opposition.
If Morsi succeed in this manoeuvring, he may be on the path to acquiring more power and consolidating on his Islamist party’s dominance in Egypt. This is likely to split opposition and make them weak.
The autocratic regime of Hosni Mubarak, spanning three decades, was brought to an abrupt end in 11 February 2011, with the vigorous and unrelenting protests of millions of people in Tahrir Square in Cairo, and across other major Egyptian cities. The emergency law operated by Mubarak’s administration where a supposedly heir successor was groomed, no doubt is one epoch the Egyptians would never want to replay.
The victorious feat spurred by the revolution, making Egypt the second country after Tunisia to have a change of government, fallout from the Arab Spring, provided room for a democratic process which brought Morsi to power.