We can't allow the refugee crisis to plunge Greece into chaos

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has warned that European countries cannot afford to allow the continent’s continuing refugee crisis to plunge debt-stricken Greece into chaos by shutting their borders to migrants.

With up to 70,000 refugees expected to become stranded on Greece’s northern borders in the coming days, Merkel warned that the recently bailed-out Athens government could become paralysed by the huge numbers of arrivals from war-torn areas of the Middle East and Africa.

“Do you seriously believe that all the euro states that last year fought all the way to keep Greece in the eurozone – and we were the strictest – can one year later allow Greece to, in a way, plunge into chaos?” she said in an interview with public broadcaster ARD.

Merkel also defended her open-door policy for migrants, rejecting any limit on the number of refugees allowed into her country despite divisions within her government.

Merkel said there was no “Plan B” for her aim of reducing the flow of migrants through cooperation with Turkey and warned that the efforts could unravel were Germany to cap the number of refugees it accepts.

“Sometimes, I also despair. Some things go too slow. There are many conflicting interests in Europe,” Merkel told state broadcaster ARD. “But it is my damn duty to do everything I can so that Europe finds a collective way.“

Merkel spelled out her motivation to keep Germany’s borders open without limits on refugees, a policy which has damaged her once widespread popularity.

“There is so much violence and hardship on our doorstep,” she said. “What’s right for Germany in the long term? There, I think it is to keep Europe together and to show humanity.

Merkel ratcheted up her rhetoric against anti-immigration protesters by calling the abuse shouted at a busload of refugees in eastern Germany in February “repulsive” and “unjustifiable”.

A video of about 100 people trying to block migrants from entering a shelter in the Clausnitz on 18 February prompted concern about growing extremism in Germany. The number of far-right attacks on migrants has increased significantly over the past year, as more than a million people came to Germany seeking asylum.

Merkel has seen her ratings plummet because of her handling of the migrants issue. The majority of those surveyed by public broadcaster ARD earlier in February were dissatisfied with her.

 Europe’s growing tensions show us exactly why we need the EU

Germany attracted 1.1 million asylum seekers last year, leading to calls from across the political spectrum for a change in its handling of refugees coming to Europe to escape war and poverty in Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Merkel faces what she said on Sunday was the biggest challenge of her decade in office and is struggling to secure a Europe-wide plan for dealing with the migrants. She is pinning her hopes on talks between European Union leaders and Turkey on 7 March and a migration summit on 18-19 March.

But the scale of the problem was highlighted on Sunday with around 22,000 people seeking to travel to countries in northern Europe trapped in Greece. An estimated 6,000 were stuck at the Macedonian border after Balkan countries along the migration route tightened restrictions on their frontiers.

After many failed attempts, the two meetings look like the final chance to agree on a joint response before warmer weather encourages more arrivals across the Mediterranean. But Merkel said she would fight on for a European solution even were the March 7 meeting to fall short.

The migrants question has not only divided Europe. There is also strong dissent within Germany and the governing coalition.

Politicians from the state of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union, the sister party to Merkel’s CDU, have been critical of her stance.

They want a limit on the number of migrants, similar to that imposed in Austria. So too does the majority of Germans in the ARD survey.

Austria, the last stop on the way to Germany for hundreds of thousands of migrants, recently imposed restrictions on its borders, setting off a domino effect in Europe in limiting the flow of people, and leaving hundreds stranded in Greece.

Merkel dismissed such a “rigid limit”, saying: “There is no point in believing that I can solve the problem through the unilateral closure of borders.“

Leading German Social Democrats, part of the country’s governing coalition, earlier accused Merkel’s conservative finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble of being too thrifty in dealing with the migrant crisis.

The criticism came after Schaeuble labelled Social Democrat proposals for wider social spending on housing and public services to complement the integration of migrants as “pitiful”.

Stephan Weil, the Social Democrat premier of the state of Lower Saxony, hit back on Sunday, calling for a bigger social services budget as the country accommodates over a million migrants. Merkel said she did not support such an idea.

“The finance minister obviously just doesn’t get it,” Weil told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

Pointing to the high cost of integrating migrants, Weil said: “We cannot create the impression that this is happening at the expense of the weaker members of our society.”

Works Cited

Farrer, Martin. "We Can't Allow Refugee Crisis to Plunge Greece into Chaos, Says Merkel." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 28 Feb. 2016. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.

Response

The refugee crisis in Europe is one that is affecting Germany as a whole, and particulary Greece. The number of migrants in Greece is starting to overflow, and German chancellor Angel Merkel is pushign for Greece to pull away. Even though this may seem cruel, it makes sense especially after Greece's recent plunge in the economic crisis. Though I stand that it is right for European countries to welcome refugees, i agree with Angel Merkel that Greece should pull away because soon they will not be able to sustain them, and the Greece might start protests against migrants as well. I think it would be better if Greece imposed restrictions on their borders. The author showed no bias, clearly representing both sides to the situation.

Dozens Dead after Al-Shabaab Islamist's bomb town in Mogadishu

At least 30 people have been killed after the al-Shabaab Islamist group bombed a busy junction and restaurant in the Somalian town of Baidoa.
Al-Shabaab often carries out such suicide attacks in the capital Mogadishu and elsewhere in its bid to topple Somalia’s western- backed government. The group wants to impose its strict version of Islamic rule in the Horn of Africa nation.
“The restaurant and the junction were very busy,” police major Bilow Nurr told Reuters from Baidoa, which lies about 245km (152 miles) north-west of Mogadishu.
Police colonel Abdi Osman said the death toll was 30, with 40 others injured. A hospital officials said many of the bodies it received were charred beyond recognition.
A police officer said a suicide car bomb blew up at the junction while a second blast – possibly a bomb that had been planted or a suicide bomber – struck the restaurant.
“We targeted government officials and forces,” al-Shabaab’s military operation spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters, adding there was a police station nearby.
Ismail Olad told Reuters the two locations were full of civilians and security forces. “I heard a huge crash at the busy junction and as I ran, I heard another blast at a restaurant ahead of me. The whole place was covered by smoke,” he said.
The blasts follows a car bomb attack in Mogadishu near a park and hotel on Friday that killed 14 people, police said. He said three militants from the al-Shabaab group were also killed.

Works Cited

Dozens Dead after Al-Shabaab." The Guardian. The Guardian, 29 Feb. 2016. Web. 29 Feb. 2016

Response

It is always devastating to hear about terrorist attacks, but Al-Shabaab has gone too far. After terrorizing Nairobi, Kenya last year, it seems that they are advancing to other countries within Africa such as Somalia, Their main target seems to be targeting big public areas such as; malls, restaurants etc. The police investigation also seems to be doing their best, but failing to combat their attempts. The author seems to show no bias, and tells the stories as it is.

'Suicide bomber' on Somalia plane was meant to board Turkish flight

A suspected suicide bomber who blew a hole in the fuselage of a Daallo Airlines plane last week and forced it to make an emergency landing in Mogadishu was meant to be on a Turkish Airlines flight, Daallo’s chief executive said on Monday.

The bomber was sucked out of the plane through the one-yard-wide hole when the blast ripped open the pressurised cabin in flight, officials said. The pilot landed the plane in the Somali capital, from where it had taken off.

No group has so far taken responsibility for the attack but US officials suspect Islamist militant group al Shabaab, which has links to al-Qaida, was responsible for the blast.

Daallo Airlines chief executive, Mohamed Yassin, said most of the passengers who were on the bombed flight were scheduled to fly with Turkish Airlines, but were flown to Djibouti by one of his planes after the Turkish carrier cancelled its flight, citing bad weather.

“That particular passenger boarded the aircraft on a Turkish Airlines boarding pass and was on the list for the Turkish Airlines manifest,” Yassin told Reuters by telephone from Dubai.

Yassin said Daallo picked up the 70 stranded Turkish Airlines passengers to fly them to Djibouti, including the suicide bomber. In total, the flight had 74 passengers.

Turkish Airlines spokesman Yahya Ustun confirmed the carrier had cancelled a flight to Mogadishu last week due to bad weather and said the company will not make any further comment.

Somalia, mired in conflict since civil war broke out in 1991, has few air links outside east Africa. In 2012, Turkish Airlines became the first major international commercial airline to fly out of Somalia in more than two decades.

Mogadishu’s heavily guarded airport has several safety perimeter fences and checkpoints. It houses a large UN compound along with several other Western embassies.

Somali officials said an investigation had been launched and arrests made, including airport workers.

US officials said investigators believe the bomb was hidden in a laptop computer, and that the bomber had some type of connection to airline or airport personnel.

CCTV footage appears to show two airport workers inside the terminal handing the suicide bomber a laptop, according to the government spokesman.

“Some of the people that we have arrested are cooperating,” spokesman Abdisalam Aato told Reuters. He said security at the airport has been stepped up and that the government was seeking new technologies to improve screenings.

Al Shabaab, which wants to topple the government and impose a harsh version of Islamic law, has targeted the airport in the past. It has also attacked the Turkish embassy in Mogadishu.

Yassin said Daallo has been reassured by Somali officials that security was being improved, and will keep flying to Somalia. “We have been there for 25 years,” he said. “Our efforts to keep Somalia linked to the rest of the world will continue.”

Works Cited

"'Suicide Bomber' on Somalia Plane Was Meant to Board Turkish Flight."The Guardian. The Guardian, 9 Feb. 2016. Web. 9 Feb. 2016. <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/09/suicide-bomber-on-somalia-plane-was-meant-to-board-turkish-flight>.

Response:

This article talks about the bomb attack that happened in Somalia on board the Daallo airline plane, The suicide bomber blew a hole in the fuselage and forced it to make an emergency landing in Mogadishu.. This tragic situation has caused quite a stir, especially that it was meant to be the Turkish Airline flight rather than Daallo airlines. The author seems to be biased towards an Al-Shabab attack, due to the ongoing tensions that they have caused and the threats that they have made towards the U.S. I would agree with the author in saying that the attack could have been caused by the Al-Shabab, because in the article it mentions that the suicide bomber was seen to have been working with people at the airport, showing that there was some inside-work involved, And the fact that the terrorist was supposed to be attacking the Turkish flight provides more evidence that it could have been an Al-Shabab provoked terrorist action.

If China had to choose, it would be South Korea

On September 3, the Chinese capital will witness a massive military parade. The parade will become the highest point of the lavish celebrations, commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Asia. Chinese diplomats worked hard to ensure that as many foreign dignitaries as possible would attend the celebrations. Admittedly, their success was limited: Most developed nations chose to send only low-level delegations to Beijing. However, one feature on the list of attendees attracted much attention: while South Korea's President Park Geun-hye will be in Beijing on that remarkable day, her North Korean counterpart, Supreme Leader and First Chairman Kim Jong-un will not show up and will send one of his emissaries instead.

At first glance, this picture looks strange - even bizarre. Both Park and Kim hail from powerful political families, and both of them are scions of former leaders. However, in the days of the Second World War, Park's father was a young officer in the Imperial Japanese Army, whose defeat is now being celebrated in Beijing. Kim's grandfather was a brave guerrilla commander in the war, waging a campaign against Japan. Furthermore, North Korea is still technically China's ally, and - if official rhetoric is to be believed - a fraternal communist nation: one of few such nations to have survived to present day.

South Korea, on the other hand, is a liberal democracy and an ally of the United States. It even maintains some anti-communist legislation, which is widely ignored in practise. However, there is nothing surprising about the presence of Park and the absence of her North Korean counterpart. Of course, a significant factor is Kim's notorious aversion to summits, but there are deeper reasons behind his absence in the Beijing celebrations. The economy is what matters most in South Korea, and for the sake of the economy alone, Seoul works hard to improve relations with China. The historical legacies and ideological commitments are frequently invoked in East Asia when it is necessary to justify policies, but in practise, economic interests and geostrategic calculations reign supreme.

South Korea is a liberal democracy, but China is still its largest trade partner. In recent years, South Korea's trade with China has exceeded its combined trade with Japan and the US, which are its second and third largest trade partners. The economy is what matters most in South Korea - and for the sake of the economy alone, Seoul works hard to improve relations with China. It also helps that unlike many of China's neighbors, South Korea does not have a tradition of wars and hostility with China and has no problem with its fast political ascent. Despite being a US ally, South Korea does not want to be sucked into Sino-American clashes over territorial claims and other issues, which mean little to the average South Korean. Lastly, in Seoul, there are growing doubts about the US' ability to remain the guarantor of South Korea's security in the long run.

China is looking at these changes in Seoul's attitudes favourably. Unlike Japan, which is perceived in Beijing as the US' "unsinkable air carrier", the attitude towards South Korea is far more nuanced. Many Chinese analysts quietly hope that one day South Korea will completely drift away from the US. On the other hand, the attitude towards North Korea in Beijing is remarkably harsh. Kim's state is widely seen as a troublesome, irresponsible and capricious neighbour - always demanding aid and concessions while ignoring China's vital interests.

The North Korean nuclear programme threatens the non-proliferation agreement, which China - like all other "legally accepted" nuclear powers - is eager to maintain.

The North Korean brinkmanship threatens not only the stability along the Chinese borders, but it also creates a pretext for the US to maintain and increase their military presence in the region.

The Chinese are driven mad by North Korea's unwillingness to improve its economy through emulating Chinese market-oriented reforms.

In short, for the Chinese, North Korea is not attractive - unlike South Korea, with its sophisticated culture, huge market and willingness to make deals with Beijing.

However, these negative feelings are fully reciprocated in Pyongyang. North Korean leaders have always been eager to manipulate China in order to receive aid or preferential trade conditions, but they have never trusted their great neighbour. To an extent, this mistrust reflects a strong sense of nationalism that's common in the North, but it also reflects the sad experience of occasional Chinese interventions.

Finally, the Chinese want a reforming and non-nuclear North Korea, and this is exactly the option Kim and his advisers see as completely unacceptable. Rightly so or not, they believe that such a North Korea that China dreams of will not survive for long without being overwhelmed by both internal and external threats.

In the past, China was interested in supporting North Korea as a buffer zone. Such ideas are still widespread among Chinese officials and analysts, but many now doubt whether such a buffer zone is as important as it once was - after all, South Korea is slowly but surely changing in ways that China can only approve of.

Thus, regardless of official rhetoric, and irrespective of which side the current leaders' fathers and grandfathers fought for 75 years ago, the logic of the situation pushes South Korea towards better relations with China. But this same logic means that it makes more sense for North Korea to keep a certain distance from Beijing.

Works cited

Lankov, Andrea. "If China Had to Choose, It Would Be South Korea." Aljazeera. Aljazeera, 2 Sept. 2015. Web. 1 Feb. 2016. <http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/09/china-choose-south-korea-150902073117753.html>.

Response

The article explains why China would rather maintain ties with South Korea than North Korea. North Korea refused to attend a military parade in Beijing because of their standing hatred with South Korean president, Park Geun-hye who used to be part of the Japanese army. China has long been North Korea’s ally, supplying them with aid, but has been against North Korea’s Nuclear bombs which is North Korea’s pride. South Korea on the other hand, is doing its best to maintain good ties with China in terms of trade and China is happy to serve South Koreans on this matter. South Korea is also free from a history of wars and hostility with China. North Korea also stands on the motto of being self-sufficient, along with their strong sense of nationalism. While North Korea is strong on their views, they don’t realize that this is causing China to be more intolerant of North Korean actions, and it wouldn’t be surprising if North Korea loses its trade options with China. The author did a good job in showing both the North Korean view, the South Korean view and the Chinese views. I didn’t see any evidence of bias in the article