Brittany’s Blog

5 Most Important Stories of 2008

There are several top stories that ruled every newspaper heading and every single news station for the year of 2008. But there are five great stories that really struck my attention; they are ranked from most important to least in my judgment.

1.       Immigrant Round-ups to Gain Cheap Labor for U.S. Corporate Giants
The North American Free Trade Agreement flooded Mexico with cheap US agricultural products that displaced millions of Mexican farmers. Between 2000 and 2005, Mexico lost 900,000 rural jobs and 700,000 industrial jobs, resulting in deep unemployment throughout the country. Desperate poverty has forced millions of Mexican workers north in order to feed their families. The National Campesino Front estimates that two million farmers have been displaced by NAFTA, in many cases related to the increase in US imports. In my opinion, it’s unfair to treat immigrants the way some people treat them, there all the same kind of people and we should treat everyone equal this is my number one.

2.       The Scam of “Reconstruction” in Afghanistan
There was a report issued in June 2005 by the nonprofit organization Action Aid, that much of the U.S. tax money to rebuilt Afghanistan. Additionally, 70 percent of the aid that does make it to a recipient country is carefully “tied” to the donor nation, requiring that the recipient use the donated money to buy products and services from the donor country, often at severely inflated prices. The US far outstrips other nations in these schemes, as Action Aid calculates that 86 cents of every dollar of American aid is phantom. In my opinion, it’s not fair that much of the U.S. tax money to rebuilt Afghanistan, that’s a very poorly decision to make just because what were going through with that country its ranked 2nd.

3.       More Than 1 Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by U.S. Occupation
More than 1 million Iraqis have met violent deaths as a result of the 2003 invasion, according to a study conducted by the prestigious British polling group, Opinion Research Business. These numbers suggest that the invasion of Iraq rival the mass killings of the last century—the human toll exceeds the 800,000 to 900,000 believed killed in the Rwandan genocide in 1994, and the number (1.7 million) who died in Cambodia’s infamous “Killing Fields” during the Khmer Rouge era of the 1970s. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration, in 2007 almost 5 million Iraqis had been displaced by violence in their country, the huge majority of which had fled since the war started in 2003. In my opinion, there have been so many deaths I cannot believe it I think that the war in Iraq needs to stop to save a lot of incident people’s lives that’s just way too much dying and I rank this 3rd.

4.       Marijuana Arrests Set New Record
For the fourth year in a row, U.S. marijuana arrests set an all-time record, according to 2006 FBI Uniform Crime Reports. Marijuana arrests in 2006 totaled 829,627, an increase from 786,545 in 2005. At current rates, a marijuana smoker is arrested every 38 seconds, with marijuana arrests comprising nearly 44% of all drug arrests in the United States. Possession arrests exceeded arrests for all violent crimes combined, as they have for years. I believe that there have been so many arrests in the past year that is so crazy I rank it 4^th.

5.       Cruelty and Death in Juvenile Detention Centers
In states across the country, child advocates have harshly meant the conditions under which young offenders are housed—conditions that involve sexual abuse, physical abuse and even death. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed lawsuits against facilities in 11 states for supervision that is either abusive or harmfully negligent. It’s very difficult to know exactly how many teen have been abused or neglected. The worst confrontations have ended up in death, at least five juveniles died after been forced to be placed in restraint in facilities. I believe that kids that are hard to control need to be ruffed up, but not to the point where death is in the situation this is ranked 5.