Trouble in Mali

maliMali has been a peaceful land and has been extremely welcoming to foreigners. People are known for their helpful nature and are quite friendly and expressive. However there has been a drastic change in the scenario now , as there has been an arise of tension. Even the locals feel the tremor in existence and even though they go about doing their normal chores, their spirit is shaken and they feel helpless and displaced. The social workers from the area suggest how the children are finding extreme difficulty in coping up. They also mention a scenario where the children have witnessed the death of their parents right in front of them, leaving them shattered. Data reveal that around 1 million people have been displaced due to fighting.

rebelles-mujao-mnla-mouvement-national-liberation-azawad-base-kidalMany claim it to be the worst sort of bloodshed which ever occurred in the history of the country. Some also denote that the nature the war can also turn to sporadic as some communities treat themselves to be superior to others, which again results in vengeance and bloodshed. People are also worried over the outbreak of ethnic violence.

The involvement of Libyan Army should also be considered in this scenario. The Army trained and gave the northern Malians a lot of exposure , so apparently when the they returned to their native country when it fell apart, these people from Mali returned to the their home land with enormous quantities of guns and other advanced and high quality war machinery. Even though a lot of criticism has been poured in describing the insensitiveness in Mali, still everyone has a lot of fondness for the scenic and beautiful country.

Read also : Fishy Politics Played in Gaza

Overbooked; Elizabeth Becker Is Out With Her New Book

Mezzanine_242Renowned journalist turned author Elizabeth Becker‘s latest book, “Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism” hopes to give insights into the blooming multibillion dollar industry .She says that she was irritated and by the paradigm shift in the global economic force and was compelled to write this book in sort of bringing everything into the attention of public. She feels that, how in spite of its relevance most often it gets stuck to lifestyle columns of magazines and newspapers. She believes that through her book, it would get the deserving attention and also that people realize how the industry is also a job giver.

She estimates that around 1 billion people travel abroad each year spending approximately seven trillion dollars. However she also points out the pitfalls in the industry. As a part of her research she extensively travelled around the globe, met people and did a thorough statistical survey.

41luY6DnXGL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_All this is quite evident in the book as she supports all her claims using plenty of data. In her book she describes the research she did in Cambodia, whose revenue from tourism contributes to almost 20 percent o their Gross Domestic Product. She continues saying that, in countries like that money does not help the poor and instead the elite and other foreign countries are highly benefitted from the industry.

Becker also examines other issues that affect them such as environmental exploitation and sexual assault on minors which most often are concealed by the authorities. She also agrees that Cambodia is not the only country acing these issues and she says that was her driving force for writing this book. Through this book she hopes that tourism industry would be taken seriously and an environment would be created which would be beneficial to the tourists and the local people alike!

Read also : Know Your “Root”

A New Take On Terrorism

RBRulinRemi Brulin is a visiting faculty at New York Universities Journalism Institute, the analysis and studies about how Americans treat terrorism. He believes that terrorism is wider term which cannot be explained using a standardized definition. He says that most people agree on the basic terms and conditions of what all it involves and how it is a threat to humanity, however he also suggests that there are many aspects which are left out in doing so.

Brulin points out how politics deranges the concept as a whole. He remembers an incident from 2004, when a school in Russia was seized by Chechen terrorists. He recollects how the media as a whole went to greater steps to ensure that the word “terrorism” was not used; and rather they were described as militants and seperates. However we are forced to agree with Bruin here, as he says when a group of innocent children are made to suffer, it can only be terrorism. He leaves the debate there , saying terrorism is only a subjective word that’s used by the media .