The bloody crackdown by the government has led the opposition in Ukraine to demand Western sanctions against the government of President Viktor Yanukovych. The protests followed Yanukovych’s decision to seal a trade agreement with Russia instead of opting for closer relations with the European Union. The protests follow a familiar pattern in Ukrainian politics, beginning with protests in 1990 against the Soviet Union and another set of protests in 2004 after the election of Yanukovych. The division in the country between the eastern (which looks to Russia) and western parts (which looks to the EU) of the country is deep and longstanding.
Croatia’s citizens voted to ban gay marriage in a referendum. The vote will actually amend the constitution to enforce the ban and it was passed by a 65% vote in favor of the ban. Croatia is the European Union’s newest member, and it will be interesting to see how the other countries in the Union react to this vote. The Union struggled with Croatia to force the country to allow extradition of its citizens who had committed war crimes prior to Croatia’s entry to the Union.
Today is World AIDS Day. About 1.7 million people die every year from this disease, even though the world has made significant progress in developing effective treatments. It has proven to be very difficult to alter risky behaviors and even more difficult to figure out how to get the treatments to the most affected populations. One of the great success stories in the world is Rwanda which has made incredible progress is addressing the disease. We should take hope from the fact that a very poor country has proven that the will to conquer the disease can be decisive.
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