All descriptions in order of posting on my blog [click here]
Contents
In general, our news is dominated by very short-term events, such as an explosion or a killing or an election, with little reporting of the underlying causes of such events and very little tracking of on-going problems. Therefore a lot of serious issues go unforgotten for long periods of time to so many of us.
I run a weblog called NightHawk [click here] and I have used this blog to run an occasional series of weekly looks at some of the parts of the world that I feel are unreported. I then decided to pull together all these brief reports on to pages of my web site, so that you can check out some of the news stories that you might have overlooked.
The theme of this section then is that we have a moral obligation not to look away, not to ignore, not to forget. Instead we need to read, to remember, and above all to act.
Nunavut [click here] covers 1,932,255 sq km (746,048 sq mi) of land and 160,935 sq km (62,137 sq mi) of water in Northern Canada including part of the mainland, most of the Arctic Archipelago, and all of the islands in Hudson Bay, James Bay, and Ungava Bay which belonged to the Northwest Territories. This makes it the fifth largest sub-national entity (or administrative division) in the world. If Nunavut were a country, it would rank 15th in area.
Nunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories in 1999 though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993. The creation of Nunavut – meaning “our land” in Inuktitut – resulted in the first major change to Canada’s map since the incorporation of the new province of Newfoundland in 1949. Despite its huge size, the territory has a population of a mere 32,000.
Brunei [click here] is a tiny country with a small population located in the north-west corner of the island of Borneo. In 1963, it was the only Malya state to choose to remain a British dependency rather than join the Malaysian Federation. It became independent in 1984 and, thanks to its large reserves of oil and gas, now has one of the highest standards of living in the world. Its ruling royals, led by the head of state Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, possess a huge private fortune.
The 400,000 citizens of Brunei enjoy high subsidies and pay no taxes, but the country is highly dependent on imports. Despite its immense wealth, most of the country outside the capital remains undeveloped and unexploited. While oil and gas exports account for the bulk of government revenues, reserves are dwindling and Brunei is attempting to diversify its economy. It markets itself as a financial centre and as a destination for upmarket and eco-tourism.
Following the break-up of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, Macedonia [click here] was spared the inter-ethnic violence that scarred much of the Balkans and became independent in 1991, but a decade later it came close to civil war as a result of the challenge of the ethnic Albanians who make up a quarter of the population of 2 million.
The conflict created a wave of refugees and the rebels made territorial gains. After months of skirmishes, EU and NATO support enabled the president, Boris Trajkovski, to strike a peace deal. Under the Ohrid agreement, Albanian fighters laid down their arms in return for greater ethnic-Albanian recognition within a unitary state.
The country’s name remains a contentious issue. It is still referred to formally as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). A large part of historic Macedonia is in Greece and much smaller parts are in Albania, Serbia and Bulgaria. In December 2008, Macedonia decided to take the issue of its name to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Egypt [click here] conducted wars with Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973, before eventually making peace with its adversary in 1979, so the country has moved from being a warring nation to becoming a key representative in the peace process. President Hosni Mubarak has been in power since 1981; his strongest challenger is the Muslim Brotherhood which is tolerated but officially banned.
Egypt’s teeming cities – and almost all agricultural activity – are concentrated along the banks of the Nile, and on the river’s delta. The economy depends heavily on agriculture, tourism and cash remittances from Egyptians working abroad, mainly in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries. However, rapid population growth – there are now some 77M citizens – and the limited amount of arable land is straining the country’s resources and economy.
(205) Northern Marianas (12/12/08)
The Northern Marianas [click here] is a chain of 14 islands in the north-west Pacific Ocean. It is self-governing but linked politically to the United States.
The territory is exempt from US minimum wage and immigration laws; this has helped to drive a billion-dollar garment trade which employs thousands of migrant workers, many of them from China and the Philippines. Migrants outnumber the indigenous Chamarro and Carolinian populations.
The industry was dealt a blow in 2005 when, under liberalised world trade rules, the US scrapped import quotas on Chinese-made garments. Economic woes were compounded when, months later, Japan Airlines ended flights to the territory, hitting the tourist trade.
Bahrain [click here] - a chain of 33 islands - is located in the Gulf of Arabia and has a population of 790,000. It was one of the first states in the Gulf to discover oil and to build a refinery; as such, it benefited from oil wealth before most of its neighbours.
In 2001 Bahrainis strongly backed proposals put by the emir - now the king - to turn the country into a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament and an independent judiciary. Elections were duly held in 2002 for a 40-member parliament, the Council of Deputies. It was the first such poll in nearly 30 years. The new body included a dozen Shi'ite MPs.
The country has enjoyed increasing freedom of expression, and monitors say the human rights situation has improved. However, opposition groups and campaigners continue to press for political reforms, including greater powers for the elected assembly.
(207) Republic of the Congo (8/6/10)
The Republic of the Congo [ click here] is not to be confused with the neighbouring and larger Democratic Republic of the Congo. This Congo is sometimes known Congo-Brazzaville (after its capital) and has a population of only 3.7 million (compared to around 70 million in the DR Congo).
After three coup-ridden but relatively peaceful decades of independence, the former French colony experienced the first of two destructive bouts of fighting when disputed parliamentary elections in 1993 led to bloody, ethnically-based fighting between pro-government forces and the opposition.
Following a ceasefire, in 1997 ethnic and political tensions exploded into a full-scale civil war, fuelled in part by the prize of the country's offshore oil wealth, which motivated many of the warlords. By the end of 1999 the rebels had lost all their key positions to the government forces, who were backed by Angolan troops. The rebels then agreed to a ceasefire, but remnants of the civil war militias, known as Ninjas, are still active in the southern Pool region.
Grenada [click here] and six smaller islands - a Caribbean nation of only 100,000 - made world headlines in 1983 when a split in the governing Left-wing party led to the overthrow and execution of the charismatic leader Maurice Bishop and provided the pretext for a US invasion. The country was dealt a serious blow in 2004 when Hurricane Ivan swept through killing dozens of people, damaging 90% of the island's buildings and devastating the nutmeg crop.
Although Grenada now has one of the fastest-growing economies in the Caribbean, poverty is widespread. Growth in investment and tourism, and a construction boom, have helped to reduce unemployment, but tourism has generated its own problems, in the form of threats to the rainforest and beach erosion caused by resort projects.
Slovenia [click here] - not to be confused with Slovakia - was formerly part of Yugoslavia and has a mere 2 million citizens. Unlike Croatia or Bosnia-Hercegovina, Slovenia's independence from Yugoslavia was relatively bloodless. The move was undoubtedly aided by Western European recognition of the Slovenes' aspirations and the low proportion of other ethnic groups in the country.
Slovenia has always been the most prosperous region of the former Yugoslavia and has found the transition from a socialist economy to the capitalist free market easier than most. On 1 January 2007, it became the first of the new EU member states to join the eurozone. A year later, it became the first former communist state to take on the EU presidency.
Tuvalu [click here] is a group of nine tiny islands in the South Pacific which won independence from the United Kingdom in 1978. Five of the islands are coral atolls, the other four consist of land rising from the sea bed. All are low-lying, with no point on Tuvalu being higher than 4.5 metres above sea level. Local politicians have campaigned against global warming, arguing that climate change could see the islands swamped by rising sea levels.
In population terms, Tuvalu is the second smallest nation on earth with just 11,000 citizens (only the Vatican City is smaller). It depends on foreign aid, the income from the sale of tuna fishing licences, and the interest from a trust fund set up in 1987. Tuvalu has shown ingenuity by exploiting another source of income through selling its Internet suffix - .tv - to a Californian company for several million dollars a year in continuing revenue.
(211) Ascension Island (12/7/10)
Ascension Island [click here] is an isolated volcanic island in the equatorial waters of the South Atlantic Ocean, around 1,600 kilometres from the coast of Africa, and 2,250 kilometres from the coast of South America which is roughly midway between the horn of South America and Africa. It is politically organized and governed as part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.
The island is the location of Wideawake Airfield, which is a joint facility of the United States Air Force and the Royal Air Force, and the BBC World Service Atlantic Relay Station. It hosts one of five ground antennas that assist in the operation of the Global Positioning System (GPS) navigational system. Less than 1,000 live there.
A former Italian colony, Eritrea [click here] was occupied by the British in 1941. In 1952 the United Nations resolved to establish it as an autonomous entity federated with Ethiopia. However, 10 years later the Ethiopian emperor, Haile Selassie, decided to annex it, triggering a 32-year armed struggle.
This culminated in independence after an alliance of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) and a coalition of Ethiopian resistance movements defeated Haile Selassie's communist successor, Mengistu Haile Mariam.
In 1993, in a referendum supported by Ethiopia, Eritreans voted almost unanimously for independence, leaving Ethiopia a landlocked nation. Eritrea emerged from its long war of independence only to plunge once again into military conflict, first with Yemen and then, more devastatingly, with its old adversary, Ethiopia.
Today, a fragile peace prevails in the country of almost 6 million and Eritrea faces the gigantic tasks of rebuilding its infrastructure and of developing its economy after more than 30 years of fighting
Montenegro [click here] emerged as a sovereign state in Europe after just over 55% of the population opted for independence in a May 2006 referendum. The vote heralded the end of the former Union of Serbia and Montenegro - itself created only three years earlier out of the remnant of the former Yugoslavia.
The EU-brokered deal of 2003 was intended to stabilise the region by settling Montenegrin demands for independence from Serbia and preventing further changes to Balkan borders. However, the same deal contained the seeds of the union's dissolution. It stipulated that after three years the two republics could hold referendums on whether to keep or scrap it. Montenegro opted for the latter.
Montenegro last experienced independence nearly 90 years earlier when it was absorbed into the newly-formed Yugoslavia at the end of World War I. Today it has a population of less than 700,000 but hopes to join the European Union soon.
Puerto Rico [click here] (Spanish for 'rich port') is a Caribbean island that is almost part of the United States - it is technically a sef-governing, unincorporated territory of the USA. The US invaded and occupied the island during the Spanish-American War of 1898, ending centuries of rule from Spain.
Under American administration, Puerto Rico saw growth and development, but nationalist sentiment sometimes spilled over into violence, notably in the 1930s and 1940s, and a series of bombings and killings in the 1970s and 1980s were blamed on a pro-independence group.
The 4 million Puerto Ricans, who elect a governor for the island, have tended to favour parties that support the union with the US. They do not pay US income tax but the island receives federal funds.
(215) Council of Europe (16/7/10)
The Council of Europe [click here] - headquartered in Strasbourg, France - is not to be confused with the European Union. The Council was formed in 1949 to promote human rights on the continent, while the European Union - as it is now called - was created in 1957 to encourage economic and political union. The EU now has 27 Member States, but the Council has 47, including every European country except Belarus.
The greatest achievement of the Council of Europe is the European Convention on Human Rights - often wrongly associated with the European Union. The last Labour Government incorporated the provisions of the Convention into UK domestic law which means that it can be enforced in British courts, but the Conservative Party has called for it to be replaced by a specifically British Bill of Rights.