Election day - just hang us upside down!

If you've switched on the news or surfed the news pages recently, you will know that here in the UK our political parties have been crazy off their feet with the elections which took place yesterday.

I'm not a very political person myself, but have admittedly been sucked into watching the live political debates (first time ever to be featured in history) for the past three weeks. Nothing however could really prepare us for this messed up outcome.

The three main parties - Labour (currently in power), the Tories and the Lib Dems are now fully under the spotlight, probably in equal measure since none of the parties have had a land slide victory. In fact, although the rightist Tory party have gained the most seats in Parliament, they actually haven't got just enough to be accepted as the victorious party. As such, Mr. Brown is still Prime Minister, for now, until something called a hung parliament is arranged.

For my sake, please don't ask me what that means, just yet anyway, as like proabably every body else in the UK, I haven't got the faintest of what is going on.

Oh Lordie.

Urumqi Riots in Xinjiang, China

This past week, I have been observing the violent riots that have taken place in the Xinjiang province, north eastern China; where the two dominant ethnic groups - Uyghur and Han, have fiercely clashed causing blood baths that have lasted days.

The Uyghurs are the indigenous people of Xinjiang and have been settled in the north eastern parts of China for centuries; the Hans are the majority ethnic group in the whole of China.

From my understanding of what's been going on, the Uyghurs have for a while, felt threatened by the Han's growing presence in their indigenous state of Xinjiang. The number of Han's residing in the state has more than tripled from the early 1900's as the region developed enormously in the manufacturing sector. Many Uyghurs feel disgruntled about not prospering with the development of the state capital -Urumqi, and feel that the Government has not done enough for them to prosper both economically and politically in the economic boom.

The more immediate causes for the Urumqi riots seems to have manifested from this long history of mistrust between the two ethnic groups. Reports covering the reasons behind the riots breaking out are still unclear: two Uyghur factory worker deaths and the rape of a Han woman seem to be the two most common stories.

Whatever the immediate cause, things do not look good for the people living in Urumqi. Uyghur and Han people in their thousands are fleeing for their lives, leaving behind everything in the need of safety.


Angry Uyghur women have been compelled to protest on the streets, carrying pcitures of their husbands/sons/brothers/fathers as they fight for their voices to be heard, hoping to be reunited with their loved ones.

Pictures of Han men, strolling through Urumqi streets with cleaver's in hand, are all over the 'net. This particular picture sent a shiver down my spine >>

Tension between the Uyghurs and the rest of China isn't something new. Many Uyghurs in the past have held a very pro-separatist attitude and have fought for their Independence to live in their own state, Turkmenistan; and although they succeeded in doing so, this success was very short lived as the Chinese Government dissolved the newly independent state, merging the Xinjiang province with China.

I just hope things settle down very soon as although the army's presence does seem to have brought a sense of calm amongst the riots, I doubt things will ever be the same again.

All images belong to The Guardian (Online)

Woke up to change the world

Hello people :-)

I suggest you don't take the title of this post too seriously, I wish I could in an instant rather than over time but hey that's life, right. No, the title of this post was inspired by the essence of today's events commencing with Mr. Obama's "Muslim speech" [here is a short snippet] and sort of ending with the EU elections.

It was around 10am and I was still fixing myself after having had a lie in contemplating about life all by myself, when my father-in-law quite endearingly shouted out "babies, come down!". Len and I went down to find that Mr. Obama was to address the Muslim nation, in Cairo and beyond regarding the relationship between the US and the Muslim nation. Many points were discussed by Obama from his agenda which in turn raised even more points and questions. In short, he spoke of the long and proud Muslim heritage, which Muslims have contributed to the entire world, mentioning items from mathematical to medical value before moving onto the core meat of his speech consisting of several issues: terrorism, the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, democracy, women's right, the economy and a few other things that my mind seems to have forgotten!

The speech was yet another gripping one, one which had listeners clinging onto his every word and one which was celebrated with a standing ovation from the audience present in Cairo's prestigious University.

Personally speaking, the content of his speech wasn't one I agreed with fully despite it bringing a smile or two on my face as I watched one of the world's most powerful men, the American President, utter Islamic words almost always correctly with a conviction. Okay, so I cringed (and laughed out loud!) when he misread the word 'hijab' as 'hajib' but at least he tried and his slip-up just like his conviction at times, is seemingly genuine. Some commentators have already said how his cautious speech lacked substance, I would agree to an extent as although he did well in acknowledging the troubles in the Middle East, he refrained from expanding on them, I felt. For example, whilst talking about the Palestine/Israel conflict, I hoped Obama would display recognition of the mutual violence taking place by both parties, yet it was Hamas who were once more commanded to end the violence first. Old news man, old news. I was hoping he would command the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to also end their violence towards the Palestinian and for them to also recognise that the Palestinian's too have a right to their own state. Nope, that would be too much to ask! I guess we should just be content with the fact that at least Obama has made the effort (whether solely pragmatic or otherwise, who knows?!) to extend the olive branch to the Middle East *sigh*

On a side note to this, although I believe Cairo University is a world renowned University, why Egypt?! Why not another progressive Muslim country outside the Middle East, because hellloooo, they do exist! Kuala Lumpur would be my city of choice for suuure :-) lol

Oh yeah, another reason for the title...well, today is the day of the EU elections where all the 27 EU countries will vote to decide the fate of the EU Parliament. I don't recall knowing, seeing or being part of something like this before but my position on this was quite clear: NO2EU! For one main reason really, as the name of the political party suggest - keep the UK out of the EU! I rather the UK concentrated it's efforts on maintaining its independence, working with other nations for the betterment of its own people first and then the wider community; which would, with a lil hope, keep the current currency - the pound sterling, in tact and away from the reigns of international puppet masters'.

So there you have it, my views on the events of the world today. Hope I haven't bored you half to death with my insight into political life, which I have to say isn't something I used to particularly care too much about but have had to recently due to the absurdness going on around me!

Ciao for now! May be back with some other random stuff later.

Fatty x