Friday, February 25, 2011

Julian Assange

So District Judge Howard Riddle has ruled that Julian Assange should be extradited from the UK to Sweden to face charges of sexual assault, however suspect or bogus the claims may be.
No doubt there will now be a round of appeals which will delay the dreaded day. After all, Julian Assange is surrounded by high profile celebrities and lawyers who see him as an innocent about to be indirectly shafted by the vindictive American Government who have made it plain that they have been highly embarrassed by the Wikileaks disclosures.
Whatever your viewpoint on the rights and wrongs of what Wikileaks does, espionage is not a charge that Julian Assange should face in America, which is where he will end up for sure if extradited to Sweden due to the connivance which no doubt is going on behind the scenes between the authorities in Sweden and America. The Oxford dictionary quotes espionage as: the practice of spying or of using spies, typically by governments to obtain political and military information.
This has been a very sad week for British justice and one can only hope that in the end good will triumph over the bad.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Mubarak's Resignation

At last, Mubarak has resigned. It took a bit of a push but in the end people power won through.
Mind you, with the level of corruption in Egypt and the billions of dollars of assets accumulated and secreted away by the President, Government Ministers , their families and relatives it was no wonder he needed the breathing space before the final resignation in order to cover up their tracks before walking away.

There are many parallels I can draw between the Egyptian uprising and the EDSA Revolution in the Philippines in 1986 when the President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda were unceremoniously chased out of the country by the people. In the Philippines, the people marched on the Presidential Palace, whereas in Egypt Mubarak escaped that indignity, but only just judging by the mood of the Egyptian people who were stunned yesterday when Mubarak refused to step down immediately.

Congratulations to the Egyptian people and fingers crossed that you will finally get the democracy you deserve. People power works, if you don't like something and want it changed stand up and be counted.