Somali pirates free British couple

British Couple Released from Somali Pirates, Gian Sexsmith

British Couple Released from Somali Pirates, Gian Sexsmith

Rachel and Paul Chandler describe their awful beating from Somali pirates. This British couple spent close too 400 days held hostage in Somalia. Paul and Rachel chandler are both experienced sailors and were sailing from the Seychelles towards Tanzania as part of a longer sailing excursion.  This British couple was taken right off their yacht in October 2009, The pirates were trying to separate the couple but Paul and Rachel refused to be separated and were viciously abused. As said in BBC Mr. Chandler, 60 , said “ they had been driven across Somalia, then were left locked in a car to sleep over night. Just after dawn, about 7 o'clock, we were asked to leave and join our rescuer. It was hard to have any feelings really, almost disbelief, it was too good to be true,"

            The couple was held in very unpleasant conditions and dreadful heat in Somalia for thirteen months. When they were rescued they were “rather skinny and bony” as said by Mr. Chandler. They were taken to the British High Commission in Nairobi where they had received medical check- ups. The couple said that the worst time was when they had to abandon their boat and were taken on board the container ship. Rachel and Paul had not had any communication with the outside world since the middle of June.

            The couple did not release any information in the UK, except a statement saying "The family believes it would be irresponsible to discuss any aspect of the release process as this could encourage others to capture private individuals and demand large ransom payments, something that we are sure none of us wants." This couple has been through what you would see in a Hollywood movie and something that you would never expect to happen. Ending their horrifying journey safe at home but with the loss of their yacht.

Nuclear Waste Makes it to Germany, By Gian Sexsmith

Nuclear Waste Makes it to Germany, By Gian Sexsmith                        

Germany has kept nuclear waste in the city of Gorleben for the past three decades. The past three decades protesters have tried to block transport of that waste. Some protesters have chained themselves to railroad tracks and blowing whistles. Officials said that this year is by far the largest group of protesters. The reason for the massive group of protesters is because the government has made the decision to make their seventeen nuclear plants keep going for another twelve years even though they were supposed to be shut down by 2020.

There were three days of protests that sometimes resulted with violent interactions with cops. The train that was being protested was carrying 123 tons of nuclear waste eventually arrived in Germany on Monday. The nuclear waste was reprocessed in France and was transferred to trucks that knew they were going to run into a final group of protesters. On Monday 4,000 protesters caused a twelve-hour delay by blocking the tracks not letting the train make its way to Dannenberg. Local farmers were using everything they could to try and block the roads, they were using sheep, goats and tractors. In the last three days 1,000 protesters have been arrested.

The reasoning for chancellor Angela Merkel and her associates to extend the nations nuclear plants was because it was necessary to preserve access to cheap energy as part of a comprehensive energy policy that included developing renewable resources.

In conclusion the government really wants to keep the nuclear power plants up and running and were willing to send out 20,000 police officers to make sure it gets done. They spent about $70 million on making sure everything happened according to plan. Even with all of that the protesters still managed to delay and delay the arrival of the nuclear waste. They did all they could to not let the nuclear waste make it to its final destination but it wasn’t enough.

The end of the Protests, By Gian Sexsmith

The end of the Protests, By Gian Sexsmith

After weeks of strikes, school protests, blockades, gas shortages and some violence France has begun to get back on track. The pension has passed raising the legal minimum retirement age from sixty to sixty- two. This should become a law by mid November.

France is picking up its streets from all the trash left and businesses now counting the cost of all the strikes. What has France learned? That strikes do not do the same damage as they used to. This is because now with people striking it doesn’t cause people to not get to work and people who do strike are no longer paid. This being the case, local bosses have turned to other ways to disrupt and stop people getting to work. They have turned too blockades on oil depots or getting a blockade of cars to go slow on the highways.   

“As said in the economist, In 1995 the government backed down because unions were able to cripple the country with public-transport strikes.” Now Nicolas Sarkozy didn’t back down to the strikes and kept the retirement age the same. Nicolas Sarkozy took a bet that there was more people striking that would accept the change, once the pension was passed and stop protesting even though they said they wouldn’t accept it.

Now with the strikes over France has the chance to go back to everything being normal and everything running smoothly again. Gas stations open, kids back in school, there wont be over a million people in the streets protesting and even flight will be landing on time and not getting cancelled. 

France Passes Pension Bill, By Gian Sexsmith

 France Passes Pension Bill, By Gian Sexsmith

France has finally come to a conclusion and passed the pension bill. On Tuesday, the French Senate passed the final draft making the minimum age for a pension from 60 to 62 and now a full pension from 65 to 67. The Pension was passed from a vote of one hundred and seventy seven to one hundred and fifty one.  

The bill is expected to become a law in November and be brought into full effect by July of next year. One of the main exceptions of the law says there will be a new debate on a more comprehensive review of Frances pension system after the next presidential elections. This is because right now Nicolas Sarkozy has most of the National Assembly on his side and that is who is passing the pension bill.

With all the Union striking and all the walkouts from oil refineries and airports it has really hurt  Frances economy but now most have stopped last Tuesday morning. France lost so much imported fuel in the past few weeks; France has been importing fuel at four times the rate to help re-supply their gas stations.  Train services are working back to normal and the garbage men returned to work. The garbage men were on strike for two weeks and now are forced to clean up 10,000 tons of garbage that has been left unattended. 

 The unions are talking about having more national strikes on Thursday and one more on November 6^th. The government isn’t worried about it because once the National Assembly passes its final vote, they think the demonstrations will keep lessening.  

In conclusion France has finally made a decision. Hopefully causing everything to go back to normal for Frances economy. People will be getting back to work and quit striking or at least until next year president elections in 2013. Where the Pension Bill will be revised again. 

OIL STRIKE IN FRANCE 10-18-10

French Strikers still going at it but even more intense, Gian Sexsmith

            French Strikers still going at it but even more intense, Gian Sexsmith

France last week was experiencing its biggest strike yet at three hundred thousand people and was its third strike. This week Frances turnout on its sixth strike was over one million people. They are still striking because of Frances president Sarkozy is trying to raise the government pension reforms. These strikes have affected Frances fuel supplies, public transportation and its education.

Frances fuel economy is being affected because right now there are over 4,000 gas stations with out any fuel. In France there are only 13,000 gas stations and if 4,000 of them have no fuel, that is about 1/3 of Frances gas stations.

Frances public transportation is being hit hard half of Paris’s Orly airport were cancelled because of a walk out by air traffic controllers. Frances train services were very over crowded because only half of the services were running.

The education system was affected with 379 secondary schools were being blockaded with people or had some sort of disruption. In some areas schools were rioting throwing stones at police officers, which they responded back with tear gas.

Overall Sarkozy is going to have to do something to take control back of his country. His popularity has been decreasing since 2007 as shown in the graph. As said from BBC, “One poll for BVA conducted on 15 and 16 October suggested his approval rating was down to 30%, the lowest for three years.” Otherwise France is going to be suffering for a while.