Thinking about the future is always a weird process. At times it seems threatening; at other times it seems promising. But, as we all know the future will be what me make of it. The outlook of technologists is always interesting and 800 of them were polled at the World Economic Forum and here is how they think the world will change by 2025.
India has decided to allow women to take combat roles in the armed forces. India now joins only a handful of countries which allow women to fight in combat situations. In the US, women recently got that right, but, in truth, American women have seen a great deal of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan even though that role was not officially sanctioned. Acknowledging the right to serve in combat should not suggest that women have achieved gender parity in the armed service: true parity means total and complete acceptance of women’s rights, and most of the world’s armed services are quite far from that threshold.
Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg is going to introduce legislation that will prevent refugees spilling over from Sweden into Norway. [The link will bring you to the Norwegian newspaper, Berlingske which is written in Norwegian so I would recommend that readers use Google Chrome so that it can be translated into English] The legislation will allow Norway to reject refugees who do not come directly from a “conflict area”. So asylum seekers from any European country will automatically be rejected. Such a policy contradicts international law, specifically the Geneva Convention. For Norway to violate international law is an indication of how seriously Norwegians regard the problem.
World Politics News 
Please look at “Terrapower.com” or “TriAlphaEnergy” or at todays article about Gates in the NYTIMES.
Could those articles be the cause of the persistent weakness in the OIL pricing picture ?????
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I think the causes of the current oil price declines are more easily explained by Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep producing even in the face of an oversupply of oil throughout the world. Saudi Arabia is desperately trying to undercut all alternatives to cheap Saudi oil (which is profitable even at $10 a barrel). The energy alternatives suggested by the sites you mention will eventually have an effect, but those effects are years away.
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Hi, Vinnie,
My wife, Evelyne Mugadia took your class a couple of years ago, and I have subscribed to your World Politics News email list ever since. Thank you for your thoughtful and succinct commentary on current events, which has become a principal source of international news for me.
One of the things I appreciate about your analysis is that it is based on a variety of source material. Especially when so much misinformation is being circulated, I appreciate looking at events from as many perspectives as possible.
For a close view of events in East Africa, I recommend the blog below, written by David Zarembaka of the African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams, a Quaker organization in the region. This particular article is on the recent elections in Uganda, and it struck me as sadly relevant, to the whole question of the democratization of Africa and the Middle East.
http://aglifpt.org/rfk/?p=809
Thanks again for your postings. Without them, I suspect I would give up almost entirely on staying in touch with the wide world.
JHW
Jay Weber 191 Wachusett Ave. Arlington, MA 02476
617-888-5136
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Dear Jay,
Thank you for your kind words. I am delighted that you find the blog useful. And thanks for Zarembka’s blog. It is great to have a source closer to what really is going on.
Best,
Vinnie
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