Welcome to my monthly blog series. As a way to catalogue the happenings of the world, this blog will serve as a memento for its state at the time of publication. What I hope is that by clearly writing out top personal, local and global news, along with resources that can help us to develop skills, we can sift through the noise together. Let’s grow into our greatest potential.

Obtained from the Irish Mirror.

Top Global News

This month, there were a few stories I’d like to briefly touch on. One is the Canadian election that occurred on the 20th of September. Long story short, Canadians weren’t happy. After much debate about whether the Liberals handled the pandemic well, and if Justin Trudeau should lead, the results of this election were… more of the same. In fact, Trudeau’s plan to expand his agenda after the worst of the pandemic by calling this election and aiming for a majority government had failed. They continue to hold a minority government with perhaps the only change being somewhat equal seats between the NDP and Blocs in the House, as well as the dismantled Greens. In my view, with the pandemic slowing down, the next issue should certainly be the economy and equally the climate crisis. We need to pass strict policies that truly enact change, and perhaps a majority government would better do that. Moving onto another big story: the coup d’etat in the West African country of Guinea. In retaliation to ousted President Alpha Conda’s plans of extending his position passed the constitutional duration, the military junta took him into custody and has now taken over power. A similar event occurred in neighbouring Mali last year, where President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was also ousted in a coup d’etat, despite still having some time left on his elected role. Due to the frequency of these military coups, many are questioning the stability of the West African region, and for those currently in power, it's difficult to determine whether they should fear a military uprising and perhaps gain as much control as possible (in other words, advancing their powers as quickly as possible now). Only time will tell, as well as international sanctions to impact their economy of course. The worst part is that innocent people are always caught in the middle of this power-dance, and often pay their lives for it. This is easily illustrated in the story I would like to specifically highlight: the ongoing genocide of Tigrayans in Ethiopia. The whole situation is a clusterfuck, like many things in the world today, involving the infamous Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize and now faces international criticism and accusations of war crimes. Without going too much into the last 50 years of Ethiopian history; Ethiopia is divided by many different ethnic groups. Eritrea, a country just north of Ethiopia, was an ethnic group before departing and becoming an independent state. Around that time, Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) ousted the Ethiopian dictator that was ruling and created the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). Tigrayans, having most of the power in this coalition, only represented a small part of the entire country’s population. This led to mass protests in the country and Tigrayans mainly took northern land just before Eritrea. Along this border, war broke out between Tigryans and Eritreans, which I will return to in a bit. Now, with the TPLF reduced to a smaller power, the current Prime Minister was appointed who introduced many peace talks and reforms that hoped to bring Ethiopia together. This included, as mentioned, an end to the war with Eritrea, leading to winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. However, COVID came, and thus elections for new party rulings and position changes were postponed. The region of Tigray went against government rules and held their own elections towards the end of last year. This sparked a series of events that led to suspicion of Ahmed to make political decisions that seemed like he was accruing more power. He claimed Tigray and the TPLF attacked Ethiopian government bases, leading to increased tension and conflict, escalating to a more recognized civil war (see BTN video describing the situation here). Yet instead, this is more of ethnic cleansing. There is evidence of torture, work camps and many other atrocities made by the Ethiopian government in response to Tigrayan attacks, as many Tigrayans have fled to neighbouring countries like Sudan to escape the conflict. Many of these refugees are now facing hunger, as the United Nations recently estimated that 400,000 Ethiopians are on the verge of starvation. This was all consolidated by a joint effort by the ruling country’s government and the Eritrean government, in which it is believed the latter are seeking revenge for the border war suffered over decades. Again, we in the safety of a developed country, wait for a reversal of fortune. What will you do with this information? See the full CNN article here.

​Podcast Highlight

This month, I’m highlighting a big podcast that you are probably already listening to, and if you’re not, you should! And that podcast is Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend. Typically regarded as the number one comedy podcast available, Conan O’Brien is simply a blessing to this world. And with him leaving late night on TBS to focus on other endeavours (perhaps away from show business altogether?), the podcast with his assistant Sona and producer Matt involves interviews with other funny human beings. It’s a shift from the toxic shit you often see on news outlets and social media. Find the episode with your favourite comedian and literally laugh out loud while on the bus to work!

Obtained from Earwolf.