Zimbabwe Better Not Go Away

The recent election crisis in Zimbabwe just proves that it is time for international action for the divided country. As Robert Mugabe continues to maintain power at twenty eight years, the country has an economy in shambles, with inflation in the thousands of percent, and it is time for a change. After it was decided there would be a runoff, Opposition Leader Morgan Tsvangirai accused the government of election tampering, and Mugabe has done the same.

The international community has sat back and waited on the issue, just to not put themselves in a predicament of disfavor. China, although, has actually sent large military shipments to Zimbabwe, continuing to stir international tensions among their African ties. They also support the Sudanese government while they systematically attempt to destroy an entire race of people within the country. What all this proves is that the international sanctions that need to be placed on Zimbabwe should be those that pin China into a corner.

Yet, what chance is there that the international community would do such a thing? Little to none, is the most likely answer to that question. What it comes down to is sovereignty, and letting nations work out their own election woes usually creates a sense of pride within those countries. And no, it isn't because Zimbabwe doesn't have oil. That is the weakest argument of them all, as, whether or not you know it, Sudan has rich petroleum and natural gas reserves.

It is not up to just a few governments to make a stand. There must be a solid, united international community to help Zimbabwe get out of this crisis. Just twenty years ago, Zimbabwe was the toast of Africa with a booming economy. Now it is a time for change. Let's hope the international community doesn't isolate Zimbabwe as it has with Sudan, or we may have another round of systematic killings in the oft-troubled African continent.

A Romantic Dinner with Congress: "Check Please"

As the War in Iraq continues and the credit and housing crises get worse, the Gallup Poll recently announced that Congress's approval rating is the lowest on record.

Coupling this with President Bush's lengthy spell in the thirty percent range, and one could say that this is the most unpopular government the United States has ever had. When the Democratic Party made large gains in 2006, taking over both the House and the Senate, the expectation was that they were going to battle President Bush on all areas, try to overpower him. Yet, what they have shown has been a general lack of force and initiative in the nearly two years in which they have been in Congress, and it seems that the American people have had enough.

Just recently a largely conservative district in northern Mississippi was gained by the Democratic Party, which they proclaimed was a major coup for their party. While that may be true, the expectation that the Republican Party is going to crash and burn in this next election isn't what I'd be looking for. I'll be watching out for all incumbents, as both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party seem to be under fire.

Yet, this special run off does show a swing to the Democratic Party in non traditional districts. The Mississippi election was a special runoff, and the third straight victory for the Democrats in that domain. While I'm not arguing that the Democrats have the edge, the worry of Americans about the economy is going to play a major role in the next election. The issue has trumped the War in Iraq in nearly every poll in the last three months. Just 14% of Americans are satisfied with the way the United States is right now, far far away from any sort of majority.

This summer presents a pivotal time for not only President Bush, but also for Congress. If Congress struggles to effectively deal with the credit and housing crises, then we very may well see a large turnover, not just for the Republican Party, but for the Democrats as well. American dissatisfaction will make this a fascinating election season.

American Universities a Valuable Export

American universities are causing an impact abroad, as seen in Education City.

Many people consider the Middle East a place of constrained male dominated learning environments, but many American universities are capitalizing on the need for higher education opportunities in this part of the world. Education City, a fourteen square kilometer home of learning for school age up to degree seekers located in Doha, Qatar, is home to five institutions of higher education with American foundations. These places offer the chance for many young adults and teenagers to gain an American degree without leaving their families and their nation. The Qatar Foundation funds most of these ventures as well, making them a provocative prospect for any university looking for a foothold abroad.

The five institutions, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgetown University, Texas A&M University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Cornell University, have each offered valuable programs for both men and women looking for a quality education. Northwestern University recently announced that in the fall of 2008 they would be creating a journalism school as well to further expand Education City.

Carnegie Mellon University, established in 2004, offers undergraduate degrees in business, computer science, and information systems.

Georgetown University, established in 2005, offers a four year bachelor degree in Foreign Service.

Texas A&M University, established in 2003, offers degrees in chemical, electrical, mechanical, and petroleum engineering. They recently started offering masters degrees as well in engineering.

Virginia Commonwealth University since 1998 has offered bachelors of Fine Arts degrees in communication, fashion, and interior design.

Cornell University, started in 2001, offers a two year pre-Med program along with a four year medical program leading to a Doctoral degree.

The exceptional buildings that house the Education City are funded by Qatar’s vast oil and gas wealth. The nation of Qatar, surrounded by turmoil in the much publicized Middle East, is a place of envy and stability that many growing nations should sought to be like.

The institutions themselves are run very differently than in the United States. Servicing a majority of Muslim students, most of the universities offer mosques and are run from Sunday through Thursday. That doesn’t mean the students don’t get to experience life as a college student. Education City offers state of the art dorm buildings, as well as the luxuries found in the average American college, such as foosball. This life promotes tolerance, as men and women of all races spend time together in the dorms, cafeterias, and the classrooms.

The competition to be part of these new, powerful learning experiences is intense. Through all five institutions, approximately three hundred openings are available a year. While this does not allow for many opportunities, the room for growth is present.

The faculty and administrators are not those of the original American universities. Many are hired on an interim basis from foreign countries, or from even Qatar.

The most important, and encouraging, factor about these institutions is the opportunity they give to women to gain a valuable degree. Also, for Qataris that do not have the credentials to initially get into one of these institutions, there are bridge programs to approve the students’ standing to make them eligible to receive a great, American education. Although most classes are single sex, some are coeducational, and overall women are not looked down upon as many are in the Muslim faith. To see a woman like Mais Taha studying to be a petroleum engineer is a promising sight for global equality. The opportunity for these men and women to improve their lives alone is invaluable.

Grand Theft Autonomy

The recently released, critically acclaimed videogame Grand Theft Auto IV continues the seven year tradition of the series creating uproar amongst politicians, lawyers, and parents about the games’ content.

With nearly all videogame publications lauding it as one of the greatest games ever made, and consumers following their lead, it has raked in over five hundred million dollars in just the first week of availability. The game has been declared the most successful release in history. It has fueled major purchases of both Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3, and has said to have entered over ten million homes in less than a month. This release clearly surpasses that of Halo 3, which was the fastest grossing game of all-time previously.

What makes this game, such a hot topic for so many people? Interest groups such as Mothers in Charge and famed anti-gaming lawyer Jack Thompson argue that the game’s violent and graphic content is destructive to society. They continue to say that the differentiation between virtual reality and reality is hard to come by in young people, and that they will take what they have seen in the game and apply it to real life situations. New York City officials are continuously attempting to deny that the virtual Liberty City is a direct relation to New York City. Within the game there are many monuments, such as the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, and Ellis Island that rendered extremely close to their actual real life counterparts. Officials are trying to dispel the myths that New York is an unsafe place to live due to the game’s graphic and lewd nature.

The most contentious issue with the game deals with the ability to drink and drive. Mothers Against Drunk Driving have taken a hard stance on the issue, saying that the game should be reassessed as an Adult Only game at once, yet Rockstar Games and the Entertainment Software Rating Board are not budging. Their argument is that it is a choice that you make in the game, and it is not a necessity to complete the game.

So what effect does playing in a virtual reality really have on a person's daily routine? Does criminal activity really increase when an iteration of Grand Theft Auto is released? There is no denying that the United States of America ranks number one when it comes to the number of crimes and percentage of people behind bars. Yet this game is not just an American phenomenon, it set United Kingdom sales records as well as a few in the EU. Is the game really about crime and violence, or is it about something bigger?

What makes any Grand Theft Auto a special experience to any avid gamer is the freedom (s)he gets by playing it. It is not only a fun, interesting story to follow within the game, but to have the opportunity to stray from the path for a few short minutes to perform any task humanly possible within the game allows for the type of freedom of expression people rarely get in reality. And I ask, what is wrong with that?

The game’s developer, Rockstar, has seen this before. Over the past decade, they have released five Grand Theft Auto games, each one more technically superior than the last, Manhunt, a brutal slayer game, and Bully, which takes place in a school and involves battling other bullies for superiority of the playground. Taking this evidence into account, it is obvious that it isn’t a coincidence that Rockstar games cause outrage.

The story of this most recent game places you in the boots of illegal Serbian immigrant Niko Bellic. Niko is on a quest to find a man who betrayed his squad in an unnamed Balkan war, and is well versed in the craft of killing. Despite this, the game takes a new direction by allowing players to make moral decisions. Deciding whether or not to kill an innocent man, or having to make the decision to kill one criminal or the other is the essence of what makes this game much more humanizing than the rest. Cut scenes show the pain Niko expresses as he is forced into tight predicaments. As he continues his quest to find that special someone the game constantly refers to, he plunges himself deeper and deeper into the criminal underworld. As with past Grand Theft Auto games no stereotypical criminal connection is left out. There is an Irish family always with some kind of liquor in their glass, a well dressed Mafioso who runs a trash collecting business, and a Jamaican drug dealer who is always smoking marijuana. While past games of the series have led to much racial backlash, it has been conspicuously absent in this game due most likely to the depth of each character.

People will continue to play the Grand Theft Auto series, despite the constant warnings of Jack Thompson, because there is a freedom within it no one can take away.

While Congress Debates, Foreclosures Increase

Shortly after the House passed a controversial bill to try and help curb the rapid amount of foreclosures that have plagued the United States housing market, the Senate is attempting to do the same.

Just as CNN reported on the possible breakthrough, they released the housing data for the month of April that shows foreclosures are up 65% from a year ago. Also, home prices have continued to decline on the mean by 7.7%. Moreover, it is the greatest number of homes to have ever filed for foreclosure in any given month, defeating August 2007.

This data is a solemn reminder of the atrocious conditions the economy is facing. The issue, though, is much more complex than one can imagine. The Senate proposal, sponsored by Christopher Dodd (D-CT) would allow for the Federal Housing Administration to insure refinanced loans if the lender voluntarily marks down the current loan to a more affordable price. It would also allow the two most powerful players in the mortgage market, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to provide more stringent surveillance over loans.

In total, the bill is expected to cost $1.7 billion to taxpayers, and the Republicans contend that is too much money to pay for an investment that is by no means secure. The disparity between the government allotting money to the foreclosure crisis and allotting money to backing JP Morgan to purchase Bear Stearns is quite drastic in favor of the JP Morgan purchase, and the Democratic Party is offering this small price for such a monumental issue.

Despite the pro-Republican stipulations, the more stern oversight by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac being the most important, the issue has become a bipartisan debate; not over whether there should be foreclosure assistance, at least that much is agreed upon, but over who should receive the assistance and how it should be handled. Democrats make their case much more for the subprime lender and borrower, those who took substantial risks and came out in financial trouble. Republicans argument is that the risk of a moral hazard is much more important than giving everyone loan assistance. They also argue that it is impossible to assist everyone whose loans became in peril once the housing crisis began, and those who should be helped are those with prime rate mortgages to keep the market afloat.

The expectation is that there won’t be a full Senate vote until June, which leaves the crisis up in the air until then. Reelection campaigns will be firing up as well at that time, so the sides could take vastly different shape they are at now. Many Republicans may switch their stance on the issue, especially those in states with the highest rates of foreclosure such as Nevada, Florida, California, and Arizona. These are the markets that had the most enormous booming of home values toward the end of the housing bubble in late 2005.

The next six months are the most pivotal for this issue to be addressed. The Democratic Party will continue to try and push their legislation, which is not completely partisan to begin with, through Congress, much to the opposition of the Republican Party. It appears that the Republicans may be trying to delay the issue as much as they can, most likely to help Presidential hopeful John McCain attempt to argue for his HOME plan, which is very consistent with that of Sen. Dodd’s proposal.

The plunging housing market doesn’t just adversely affect homeowners, with the increase in foreclosures has come a decrease in property taxes collected, showing the chain reaction that may take place if the issue is continually not dealt with. With more towns and cities filing for bankruptcy, there is further strain placed on the federal government to deal with every problem the issue is creating. This shows that the root of the problem lies within solving the housing crisis and until there is a comprehensive solution that takes into consideration the many complex scenarios that it has created, the American economy will continue to suffer as a result.

The American people are evenly split over whether or not the government should offer comprehensive aid to those in need. The poll shows little difference over one taken five months ago. This shows that without a majority outcry for a financial fix to the issue, it will remain in bipartisan hands most likely until the next president is elected. Until then, there are local refinancing hotlines and assistance services offered in most areas where the housing bubble got out of control.