1 The year the earth moved (Khaleej Times) The year
that we just lived through has seen old political schisms re-emerging and new
fundamentalisms taking root — these are
more than likely to alter the geo-political landscape for the next five years
in ways that are still being understood. One of these has been the price of crude oil,
whose precipitous plunge in the latter half of 2014 was scarcely on the
strategists’ radar early in 2014. Oil and the health of economies (both oil
producers and consumers) are tied together and so the oil price plunge has
benefited some and hurt others, and such harm has a distinct political cast to
it.
European countries struggled through 2014 with the
imposition of ‘austerity’, by which is meant less public funds for social
sector, health and education spending but at the same time financial handouts
to banks, the transfer of the tax burden from corporations onto workers, and
real declines in wages caused by the rise of informal — and therefore insecure
— labour. This came to be called the European malaise in 2014, and fostered
calls for the break-up of the European Union while strengthening independence
movements, notably in Scotland and Catalonia.
East of Eurasia, events portended the continuing
shift in the fortunes of the world to Asia, even though China, according to the
official data, began to see the much-heralded slowing down of its economic
growth, a growth that had turned the factory of the world (in capitalist-speak)
into a vast environmental emergency. But China is to east Asia what India is to
south Asia and the two economic heavyweights are steadily returning the world
to the trade-weighted balance of the 17th century, when the world survived at
the pleasure of the great Asian empires.
It is not a world that the former superpower, the
US, wants and so American foreign policy continued its unidimensional and
violent rush. The grotesque worldwide surveillance state (which became known
through the efforts of whistle-blowers such as Snowden and Wikileaks) has been
confronted in the streets and online.
The dominant medium of the world, and especially of
young people, the internet, has been reclaimed over and over as the democratic
platform of the new generation. Through this change, politics local and
regional has been transformed, and the now familiar mask used by members of the
Anonymous movement has become the symbol of a watchful citizenry. The new year
will bring more such change and more such resistance to any dismantling of old
orders. This is the method of history, none of it is comfortable, and a good
deal is unsettling. After all, the times we live in are only ever interesting.
2 Syria war ‘killed 76,000’ in 2014 (BBC) The year
2014 was the deadliest year yet in Syria's four-year conflict, with over 76,000
killed, activists say. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said
17,790 of the dead were civilians, including 3,501 children. More than 15,000
died in conflicts in Iraq in 2014, making it that country's worst year since
2007.
Much of the violence comes as a result of advances
by Islamic State and other militants groups in the two countries. US-led air
strikes against Islamic State (IS) militants, fighting between government
troops and rebels in Syria, and sectarian violence in Iraq have also accounted
for large numbers of deaths.
Syrian Observatory said a total of 76,021 had died,
slightly up on 2013's toll of 73,447 and bringing the total number of deaths
since the conflict began in 2011 to more than 200,000. At least 22,627 were
government soldiers or members of pro-government militias. Almost 17,000 were
militants from groups including IS and al-Nusra Front. More than 15,000 were from
moderate rebel groups and Islamist factions. Civilians made up 17,790 of the
dead.
3 Dubai is busier than Heathrow (Terry Macalister in
The Guardian) Heathrow has lost its crown as the busiest airport in the world
for international passenger traffic. The oil-rich Gulf city of Dubai has
knocked London off the top spot, figures from the Airports Council
International show.
A total of 68.9 million passengers had passed
through Dubai International compared with 67.8 million at Heathrow as of
December 22, despite a late slowdown in traffic with one important destination,
trouble-hit Russia. The rise in passenger numbers at Dubai this year came
despite only a single runway being usable for 80 days because of a
refurbishment scheme, which caused a temporary decline in flights.
“Given the traffic achieved in the first 11 months,
together with some of the busiest days on record in December, we are confident
of ending the year above the 70 million mark and confirming our position as the
world’s busiest international airport,” said Paul Griffiths, the British-born
chief executive of Dubai Airports. He added: “Looking forward to 2015, the
prospects remain exceedingly bright, and we expect to maintain the growth
achieved this year in the next 12 months.”
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