Wednesday, 25 May 2016

Six Countries That May Separate


1.) Syria: Syria fell into a Civil War in 2011. Since then the conflict of the Syrian government and various rebel groups has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, massive waves of refugees and the general destruction of the country. It is not impossible that Syrian will be divided, at least temporarily between Western Syria and Eastern Syria.


2.) Iraq: The Islamic State began invading cities in Iraq in 2014, since then it managed to take a large portion of northern Iraq. Instrumental in fighting off the rebels are the Kurd's, a people who, following the Iraq War were promised autonomy. Although they received an automatism state they never formed a separate country. After showing their strength and due to the clear instability of Iraq the Kurdish people may well form their own country. Northern Iraq as well may form a separate Sunni majority state--after ISIS is thoroughly rooted out.




3.) Canada: For many years a considerable number of Queberors have wanted Quebec to become its own sovereign country. Early on in Canada's history it was the French that established the major cities. When the British took over French land they allowed them to remain Catholic, speak French and use the Napoleonic Code in Civil Law. This created a rift between Quebec's culture and the rest of Canada. In 1995 a referendum was held whereby Quebecois should decide if Quebec should separate or not--49.42% voted to separate; the voter turnout was high at 93.5%. Although Separatism has lost  favor it could easily rise again if Canada begins to fail economically while Quebec stays afloat.














4.) Spain: Spain's economy hasn't quite recovered from the 2008 crash and the region of Catalonia has strongly expressed a desire to separate. Catalonia is considered one of Spain's wealthiest regions and without it Spain may become less powerful--a far cry from the Spanish empire.















5.) Belgium: Belgium is very much a divided country: Flanders (in the north) speaks and writes in Dutch while Walloon (in the south) speak and writes in French. If the two do separate it is likely that Walloon will join neighboring France while Flanders will either remain independent or join the Netherlands. 



6.) China: China's western Province of Xinjiang also has an ambition to separate. Most people who live in the Province which is about the same size of neighboring Mongolia are Muslim. Several terrorists attacks have been carried out in the region. However separation would be difficult for Province; much of the region is desert and the largest city, Urumqi, only has about 2 million citizens meanwhile Beijing has a population of over 20 million. If China wanted the region back they could easily take Xinjing back.







10 Political Leaders You Should Know



1.) Barrack Obama: Obama was first elected to be President of America in 2008 and was reelected in 2012; he's an American Liberal Democrat and the leader of Earth's most powerful country.

2.) Hilary Clinton: Hillary is a Liberal and part of the Democratic Party of America. She ran against  Obama in 2008 in the Democratic race. She served as Obama's Security of State and is the presumptive Nominee of the Democrats in the 2016 election. She has Obama's support for presidency.

3.) Donald Trump: Mr. Trump is the presumptive Nominee for the Republicans despite being highly critical of "the establishment". Although more generally liberal than most Republicans nominees he has stood out by his far right wing ideas of how to handle illegal immigrants.

4.) Vladimir Putin: President Putin is the second Russian President since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. He was first elected as President in 1998 and although he served as Prime Minister between 2008 and 2012 it is generally agreed that he has held power since his first term as President in 1998 to the present day.

5.) Xi Jinping: Mr. Jinping is the President of the planet's most populous country, China. He was elected by the National People's Congress in 2013.

6.) Narenda Modi: Mr. Modi is the President of the world's second most populous country, India. He was elected 2014. He is part of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

7.) Francois Hollande: A member of the left-wing Parti Socialiste he was elected in 2012.

8.) David Cameron: He became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 2010, he is a member of the Conservative Party.

9.) Angela Merkel: Mrs. Merkel has been the Chancellor of Germany since 2000. She is a member of the Conservative Christian Democratic party and is noted for her decision to allow an unlimited number of Syrian refugees into the country, a decision which has since been retracted after terrorist attacks beyond Turkey occurred.

10.) Justin Trudeau: Mr. Trudeau became the Prime Minister of Canada in 2016. He is a the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada  and is regarded by young Liberals as an example of a good Head of State.



Monday, 9 May 2016

Relations Between North American Countries


United States
Canada
Mexico
Greenland
United States




Canada




Mexico




Greenland





Green indicates that the countries are in a military alliance (in this case NATO.)

Yellow indicates that the countries generally get along but are without a mutual defense treaty.