Some Good News!

[Squawker]

We have a lot of threads about what is wrong with the world, so I thought I would start one with some good news for a change. We have many things to be thankful for, so lets not forget that. :2razz:


May 14, 8:49 PM (ET)
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Warlords began withdrawing thousands of militia fighters from the Somali capital on Saturday in a bid to restore order after more than 15 years of anarchy and civil war - a move the African Union has said is essential to stability.
Hundreds of armed militiamen, who not too long ago fought one another on the streets of Mogadishu, parked about 60 pickup trucks mounted with machine-guns at Mogadishu's main soccer stadium, shook hands, smiled and even struck up conversations.
Source

May 14, 5:57 PM (ET)
By CHRIS TOMLINSON

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - Ethiopia will conduct its most open election yet on Sunday, in a critical test of democracy for an African nation that has endured dictatorships, famine and poverty to become one of the United States' closest allies in Africa.
For the first time, international observers will monitor the balloting, which marks the end of a race that has tested the tolerance of a sometimes authoritarian regime that has ruled the nation since 1991. Almost everyone in the country considers Sunday's election a test of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's pledge to introduce greater democracy in the country of 70 million.
Source

 

[Squawker]

Kuwait Names First Woman Cabinet Member

This is very good news. :2dance:

Jun 12, 5:17 PM (ET)

By DIANA ELIAS

KUWAIT CITY (AP) - An American-educated professor and women's rights activist was named Kuwait's first female Cabinet minister Sunday, a month after lawmakers in this oil-rich nation granted women the right to vote and run for Parliament.
Massouma al-Mubarak was given the planning and administrative development portfolios, Prime Minister Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah told the Kuwait News Agency. He described the appointment as a "wish come true," for the government that proposed the suffrage bill to the all-male legislature.
"This honor is not bestowed on my person but on every woman who fought to prove that Kuwaiti women are capable," al-Mubarak, 54, told The Associated Press.
The women's suffrage bill passed in a 35-23 vote on May 16, despite the opposition of many fundamentalist Muslim and tribal lawmakers who believe women should not mix freely with men and should stay home to take care of their families.

Source

 

[teacher]

I wonder if we (the US) had put any quiet behind the scenes pressure on their government? Seems unlikely an Arab government would allow such a thing to happen on their own. But then this is exactly the kind of behavior we encourage with our presence in the region. All the more reason to stay the course. Freedom is hard to put back in the bag. Qaddafi throws in the towel right away. 47 percent of voters in Afghanistan were woman. Syria out of Lebanon. Free elections in Iraq. Satellite dishes going up everywhere. All points of view more and more common in the middle east. France is more pissed than ever. Women in government in Kuwait, hell women being allowed to learn how to read. What doom and gloom you lefties see in all this simply amazes me. This is indeed good news. Poo-poo this one you libs.

Free the Arab women. Oh that I will one day hear a 7 year old Iraqi girl utter the words with an Iraqi accent,
"I do not like green eggs and ham". Sweet.