Terrorism in Africa
Islam means patience, love, and togetherness. That's what the Koran says and the definition that is given by many Muslims when asked to give a little explanation of what the religion is about.
But the new crave of violence going on around the world and the desire to commit suicide by killing innocent people by Islamic fanatics, quickly questions or disagrees with that definition.
Islam is fast becoming a violent religion more than the love and togetherness they are preaching about. Failed suicide bomber Umar Abdulmutallab spelled out his nightmare vision of a world ruled by fanatical Islamic hardliners in a series of internet messages.
Many times the continent of Africa is totally neglected or underestimated. The success of this 2
3-year-old terrorist by beating security measures and all their detectors and made it into the plane with the intention to bomb Flight 253, from Amsterdam to the United States, warns world leaders not to underestimate Africans any longer.
If his deadly intentions would have been successful, Islamic fanatics like al-Queda would have boasted about it and planned more attacks.
It is now time for world leaders to concentrate more on Africa to prevent the usage of that continent as a safe haven for terrorists.
I believe that there will be a time genuine Moslems and true followers of the prophet Mohammed would openly speak against what their fanatic brothers are doing and try to do their best to end or reduce this unnecessary global violence, especially in Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
Yves Leterme, Belgium's former prime minister who is now deputy secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
On Wednesday, 25 November 2009, Belgium named the controversial Dutch-speaking conservative Yves Leterme as its prime minister, succeeding Herman Van Rompuy, who resigned to become the European Union first president.
The 49-year-old Mr. Leterme, although is held unpopular by many people in the French-speaking colony, he got the job because he is the most popular politician in Belgium`s majority party, the Flemish-speaking Christian Democrats.
Although Belgium is relatively a small country with 6 million Dutch speakers, 4 million French speakers and 70 thousand German speakers, it is a country difficult to be governed, because the people are not one.
This has caused much distress in the country in terms of politics, employment, and distribution of resources.
Leterme as an intelligent politician must be aware that a strong economy is not built on a sand. His second coming to most Belgians does not mean anything but what he is coming to do, is what matters.
He has a big responsibility on his shoulders by creating more jobs for the Belgians because Belgium lacks jobs. Even before the severe economic recession hit America and Europe, Belgium is one of the leading western-Europe countries with few job opportunities.
However, comparing the country to other European countries, Belgium is one of the best countries to live in Europe, in terms of the cost of living. Astonishingly employers pay very well.
Another crisis that Leterme has to pay particular attention to is to resolve internal tensions over how much autonomy to grant to the three regions of Wallonia, Brussels, and Flanders.
Dutch-speaking Flanders want to avoid paying taxes that fund the poorer region of French-speaking Wallonia and seeks to expand its administrative powers.
But it has so far fallen short of demanding full independence, mostly for the fear of losing its shared political control of Brussels, a majority French-speaking city located within Flanders.
The Belgians are watching him to tackle what they called (aggressive issues) affecting and dividing the country, else his second coming would be seen as meaningless.
