Kameel Majdali's Road Ahead

It happened all so quickly and unexpectedly, as is often the case with natural disasters. On iconic Mount Kinabalu in the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo, 277 people were on the mountain, including 187 climbers. The date was Friday 5 June 2015. Suddenly and without warning, a massive earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale rocked the picturesque mountain. Boulders were dislodged and began to tumble downward. The Malaysian mountain guides like Robbie Sapinggi, Valerian Joannes, and Joseph Solgin valiantly tried to rescue their climbers but tragically perished. When it was all finished 18 people were dead: 9 from Singapore including students age 11-12 on a school outing; 6 from Malaysia, 1 Filipino, 1 Japanese and 1 from China. Flags flew at half-mast in Sabah and Singapore. Athletes at the SEA games observed a minute of silence. Makeshift memorials were found in various places. Statements came out of Sabah that the earthquake was the result of...

It was 12:30 AM, April 29, 2015. The eight prisoners were brought out and tied to a cross-like figure. Blindfolds were rejected because they wanted to see their executioners. Each prisoner had 12 soldiers assigned to them. Nine soldiers ’ guns were loaded with blanks while only 3 had live ammunition, so that no soldier knew who fired the fatal shot. The prisoners sang Amazing Grace. At the signal, shots rang out, and all went silent. Within 3 minutes, the prisoner was dead. Among the prisoners were two Australians, Andrew Chan 31 and Myuran Sukumaran 34. They were part of the ‘ Bali Nine ’ arrested in 2005 and were executed for drug trafficking in Indonesia. The foreign execution of the two Australians, the first in nearly a decade, brought back to the fore the issue of capital punishment, also known as the death penalty. The term comes from the Latin term capitalis, a reference to the head and beheading. A state exercises capital punishment when they take the life of the...

United Kingdom: The UK went to the polls on May 7, 2015, with a 66% turnout. Current Prime Minister David Cameron, in power since 2010, was in coalition with the Liberal Democrats because he failed to gain a majority. During the 2015 campaign, the media and pollsters said there would be another hung parliament. The ultra left-wing Scottish National Party (SNP), led by Nicola Sturgeon, was poised for a landslide victory of taking seats in Scotland at the expense of Ed Milliband and the UK Labour Party. She promised to prop up Mr. Milliband and put him at Number 10 Downing Street - but at a price: at least GBP 148 billion of borrowing, spending and entitlements. The SNP was the party that agitated for the failed independence referendum in September 2014 and will not fail to try again if they got a chance. To the surprise of everyone, David Cameron and the Conservative Tory party won 331 seats, up by 25, thus giving them a clear majority without the need of a coalition. Labour had...

In less than 5 months in 2015, three national elections have been held where the results were a shock. An upset win. Totally unexpected, especially by the pollsters and the media. After three in a row, it is time for comment. The three countries involved: Sri Lanka, Israel, and the United Kingdom. Sri Lanka: The Sri Lankan election was held on January 8, 2015. Incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa was heading for an easy victory. In power since 2005, he is the man who presided over the end of the blood-filled Sri Lankan civil war of 1983-2009. He finally defeated the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) and its effective, ruthless leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. Having won the war, Rajapaksa proceeded to consolidate and lengthen his hold on power. After changing the constitution to abolish presidential term limits, Rajapaksa took his nation down the pathway of autocratic rule: media freedom were curbed, an authoritarian style came in, plus there were accusations of corruption, nepotism, poor...

If you have ever been to Singapore, it is hard not to be impressed. Your first port-of-call in Changi International Airport, one of the popular airports in the world. Like a model university campus with high-rise dormitories, you will find orderly design, gleaming skyscrapers, green lush vegetation, classic colonial buildings like Raffles Hotel (where English high-tea beckons), and squeaky clean streets. Affluence and orderliness is (almost) everywhere. Hard to believe that only 50 years ago it was only a shell of its current stature, with a GNP that has grown 15-fold in only 20 years. Without question, the architect of this phenomenal success story was LEE Kuan Yew, founding father and prime minister of the city state from 1959-1990, who died on March 23, 2015, at the age of 91. It is no exaggeration to call him the ‘George Washington of Singapore,’ and the great display of public grief and interest in his funeral is a testament to it. He led the People Action Party (PAP),...

The unfolding drama has all the makings of a best-selling murder mystery. First, the pilot tried to return to the cockpit but the door was locked. Next, he called out to the co-pilot within but there was no answer. He took an axe to begin breaking the door - but not soon enough. The co-pilot deliberately changed the settings of the plane so that it would make a steep descent. Air-traffic controllers tried frantically to reach him but, again, he refused to respond (though his breathing could be heard). After 8 minutes, it was all over - the plane hit the mountain and bursts into flames. While the suspense was magnetic, the results were catastrophic. One hundred and fifty passengers meet a swift and horrific death on the slopes of the French Alps. Among the dead were 16 students from a small town school on an exchange program. Two babies also perished. The unfolding drama of Germanwings Flight 9525 from Barcelona to Dusseldorf has become an internation...

•   It’s a breach of protocol; •   It will damage bi-lateral relations; •   It will torpedo negotiations and lead to dire consequences. What was this ‘thing’ that caused such commotion in the Obama Administration? A speech to be given by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister to the US Congress. The controversy raised the profile of the upcoming speech more than any advertising campaign could. Well, it finally happened on March 3rd: The speech. Netanyahu spoke to a joint-session of the United States Congress about the Iranian nuclear threat. It was not the first time he spoke to Congress - he has done it before. Nor was it the first time he spoke about Iran - he has been warning about the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program for many years. It appears that the reason this speech attracted so much extra attention is that: 1.   America is right now in the middle of sensitive negotiations with Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions; 2. ...