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Sanders Administration- Summer 2017
Summer 2017
"Looks like this year's expo is bigger and more drastic than ever..."
"The Grenfell Tower fire really lit a flame against the Tories here..."
"Wonder how Sanders will handle the foreign affairs..."
Summer continued to signal upcoming changes since 2016's shift and beyond culture slowly beginning to change as such, there was a growing acceleration in the idea that things needed to be changed. Prime Minister Corbyn urged his fellow European politicans and heads of state to begin implementing more radical changes to combat the threat of climate change along with instituting reforms to the European Union. He noted that while it was invaluable in what it provided, it was not above needing improvements and getting the people more involved and aware with the EU. Sanders promoted similar actions across the world. Perhaps no mroe this would be seen than in the 2017 Expo held over in Astana, Kazakhstan. The expo's theme was "Future Energy", and aimed to create a global debate between countries, nongovernmental organizations, companies and the general public on the crucial question: "How do we ensure safe and sustainable access to energy for all while reducing CO2 emissions?" The importance of the Expo and need for discussion was touted by President Sanders while sigifying a growing change in thinking. While wind and solar remained prominent points, they saw less exposure than expected in favor over tidal power, geothermal and other sources of power. Many noted that this was likely out of a growth in critical thinking over how effective are solar and wind power when construction, maintanance and recycling is factored into the equation. Biofuels saw a resurgence given the growing technology and likely as a result of the growing interests in algae with ideas such as biosolar panels to reduce CO2 while growing said algae as a way to improve food or even as a form of cabon-neutral biofuel for heating or electricity. Ideas deemed obscure or esoteric were seeing more prominence for their unforeseen potential. At the same time, wider discussions were held that were indirect results of such, such as the potential of nuclear fusion, the cultural aspects of energy sustainability compared with consumption and the involvement of the government versus the private sector.
Astana Expo 2017 logo
However, not everything was quite hunky-dory. The United Kingdom would reach headlines when on 14 June 2017, a fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of flats in North Kensington, West London. The disaster caused 72 deaths, including those of two victims who later died in hospital. More than 70 others were injured and 223 people escaped. It was the deadliest structural fire in the United Kingdom since the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster and the worst UK residential fire since the Second World War. The fire was started by a malfunctioning fridge-freezer on the fourth floor. It spread rapidly up the building's exterior, bringing fire and smoke to all the residential floors. This was due to the building's cladding, the external insulation and the air gap between which enabled the stack effect. However, the bigger controversey came due to a snowball effect that came as a result of the responses to the fire. While this initially came in response to the fire, it would quickly grow to focus on the inadequacies of the buildings that led to the fire. Reinhard Ries, the fire chief in Frankfurt, Germany, was critical of lax fire regulations in the United Kingdom, contrasting the laws in Germany that ban flammable cladding on buildings higher than 22 m and require segregated fire-stairs and firefighting lifts which can be used by the fire brigade and injured or disabled people. Other issues included the negative responses from foreign colleagues over how UK regulations permit high-rise buildings to have only a single staircase. The Corbyn government was quick to call to try and overhaul these regulations while also lambasting the previous Conservative governments for their budget cuts, loosening of regulations and the neglect. This led to growing accusations and viewpoints that the Tories' do not care for the common person or poor. These have become more solidifed with further accusations and problems with the Conservative-run council attempting to restrict access to meetings along with that of the media's lack of real call to action. Unsurprisingly, the Corbyn administration worked to try and gather support for further reforms, improving standards and making people pay their fair share, with the media's attitude toward him backfiring as it further confirmed their role as accomplies with the Tories. Global support included that of President Sanders and Canadian Prime Minister Jack Layton.
Grenfell Tower fire, 4:43 a.m. June 14, 2017
More drastically however was the news coming out of Myanmar. Namely a continuation of what has been dubbed the Rohingya genocide. A series of ongoing persecutions by the Myanmar (formerly Burmese) government against the Muslim Rohingya people. The genocide has consisted of two phases to date: the first occurred from October 2016 to January 2017 and the second now starting in August of 2017, as a result of a Rakhine militant attack. The crisis is forcing thousands of Rohingya to refugee status. Most fled to Bangladesh while others escaped to India, Thailand, Malaysia, and other parts of South and Southeast Asia. The McCain Administration did work to some degree to criticize and plan some sanctions on it, it is only now that with this, greater action is needed. Calls were made in, exploring "all avenues for justice and accountability, including through international courts". The idea of targeted sanctions and arm embargos were also considered. The UN Security Council was called in and the talk of the Rohingya genocide would be the talk of the news for the upcoming months. However, several obstacles were included into resolving this, namely Myanmar's governemtn trying to stand by the actions of their government along with China and India supporting Myanmar, albeit for different reasons. While various world leaders went to discuss ans NGOs and other groups worked to try and resolve, there was a sense of growing unease in further cultural influneces. China has also been likely noted to try and block the UN Security Council from mroe force actions through this has not stopped some plans for Europe, the Americans and other nations from potentially enacting sanctions of their own, such as direct sanctions against the Burmese military and penalties for firms that do business with companies linked to it. Anothernote was on the usage of social media, primarily Facebook in responding to the spread of hate-speech.
Image of military presence in Rakhine state
"Looks like this year's expo is bigger and more drastic than ever..."
"The Grenfell Tower fire really lit a flame against the Tories here..."
"Wonder how Sanders will handle the foreign affairs..."
Summer continued to signal upcoming changes since 2016's shift and beyond culture slowly beginning to change as such, there was a growing acceleration in the idea that things needed to be changed. Prime Minister Corbyn urged his fellow European politicans and heads of state to begin implementing more radical changes to combat the threat of climate change along with instituting reforms to the European Union. He noted that while it was invaluable in what it provided, it was not above needing improvements and getting the people more involved and aware with the EU. Sanders promoted similar actions across the world. Perhaps no mroe this would be seen than in the 2017 Expo held over in Astana, Kazakhstan. The expo's theme was "Future Energy", and aimed to create a global debate between countries, nongovernmental organizations, companies and the general public on the crucial question: "How do we ensure safe and sustainable access to energy for all while reducing CO2 emissions?" The importance of the Expo and need for discussion was touted by President Sanders while sigifying a growing change in thinking. While wind and solar remained prominent points, they saw less exposure than expected in favor over tidal power, geothermal and other sources of power. Many noted that this was likely out of a growth in critical thinking over how effective are solar and wind power when construction, maintanance and recycling is factored into the equation. Biofuels saw a resurgence given the growing technology and likely as a result of the growing interests in algae with ideas such as biosolar panels to reduce CO2 while growing said algae as a way to improve food or even as a form of cabon-neutral biofuel for heating or electricity. Ideas deemed obscure or esoteric were seeing more prominence for their unforeseen potential. At the same time, wider discussions were held that were indirect results of such, such as the potential of nuclear fusion, the cultural aspects of energy sustainability compared with consumption and the involvement of the government versus the private sector.
Astana Expo 2017 logo
However, not everything was quite hunky-dory. The United Kingdom would reach headlines when on 14 June 2017, a fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of flats in North Kensington, West London. The disaster caused 72 deaths, including those of two victims who later died in hospital. More than 70 others were injured and 223 people escaped. It was the deadliest structural fire in the United Kingdom since the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster and the worst UK residential fire since the Second World War. The fire was started by a malfunctioning fridge-freezer on the fourth floor. It spread rapidly up the building's exterior, bringing fire and smoke to all the residential floors. This was due to the building's cladding, the external insulation and the air gap between which enabled the stack effect. However, the bigger controversey came due to a snowball effect that came as a result of the responses to the fire. While this initially came in response to the fire, it would quickly grow to focus on the inadequacies of the buildings that led to the fire. Reinhard Ries, the fire chief in Frankfurt, Germany, was critical of lax fire regulations in the United Kingdom, contrasting the laws in Germany that ban flammable cladding on buildings higher than 22 m and require segregated fire-stairs and firefighting lifts which can be used by the fire brigade and injured or disabled people. Other issues included the negative responses from foreign colleagues over how UK regulations permit high-rise buildings to have only a single staircase. The Corbyn government was quick to call to try and overhaul these regulations while also lambasting the previous Conservative governments for their budget cuts, loosening of regulations and the neglect. This led to growing accusations and viewpoints that the Tories' do not care for the common person or poor. These have become more solidifed with further accusations and problems with the Conservative-run council attempting to restrict access to meetings along with that of the media's lack of real call to action. Unsurprisingly, the Corbyn administration worked to try and gather support for further reforms, improving standards and making people pay their fair share, with the media's attitude toward him backfiring as it further confirmed their role as accomplies with the Tories. Global support included that of President Sanders and Canadian Prime Minister Jack Layton.
Grenfell Tower fire, 4:43 a.m. June 14, 2017
More drastically however was the news coming out of Myanmar. Namely a continuation of what has been dubbed the Rohingya genocide. A series of ongoing persecutions by the Myanmar (formerly Burmese) government against the Muslim Rohingya people. The genocide has consisted of two phases to date: the first occurred from October 2016 to January 2017 and the second now starting in August of 2017, as a result of a Rakhine militant attack. The crisis is forcing thousands of Rohingya to refugee status. Most fled to Bangladesh while others escaped to India, Thailand, Malaysia, and other parts of South and Southeast Asia. The McCain Administration did work to some degree to criticize and plan some sanctions on it, it is only now that with this, greater action is needed. Calls were made in, exploring "all avenues for justice and accountability, including through international courts". The idea of targeted sanctions and arm embargos were also considered. The UN Security Council was called in and the talk of the Rohingya genocide would be the talk of the news for the upcoming months. However, several obstacles were included into resolving this, namely Myanmar's governemtn trying to stand by the actions of their government along with China and India supporting Myanmar, albeit for different reasons. While various world leaders went to discuss ans NGOs and other groups worked to try and resolve, there was a sense of growing unease in further cultural influneces. China has also been likely noted to try and block the UN Security Council from mroe force actions through this has not stopped some plans for Europe, the Americans and other nations from potentially enacting sanctions of their own, such as direct sanctions against the Burmese military and penalties for firms that do business with companies linked to it. Anothernote was on the usage of social media, primarily Facebook in responding to the spread of hate-speech.
Image of military presence in Rakhine state
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