Notations On our World (weekend edition part II): On Turkey, @Malaysia, @BRICS & #Zimbabwe

Turkish Police @ Zaman HQ 

As our team just finished the latest on our #Americas watch, we have also been assessing our World over a very challenging 24 hours in our World which we will be assessing.

The first profound challenge we've been witness to has been the continued attack on Freedom of the Press in Turkey.    On orders of Istanbul Prosecutors, the Daily +Zaman Gazetesi was taken over by the police:

The world was witness to protesters being tear-gassed as the Police raided the offices.  It is part of a concerted effort by the Turkish Government to suppress decent under its' policy of fighting the separatist PKK since Mr. Edrogan abrogated the peace treaty with the Kurds.   It is an on-going developing story as we went to press.

Robert Mugabe with his Birthday cake 

Beyond Turkey, we had been assessing another country of focus this week:  Zimbabwe.   The President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, turned 92:    

Our team agreed with the characterization by the opposition party in Zimbabwe, the Movement for Democratic Change, that it was "obscene".   The cake was 92 Kilograms, 50 heads of Cattle were slaughtered and some 800,000 dollars was spent on the birthday celebration.    This is as the country continues to be suffering from a prolonged drought, civil servants cannot get paid and the estimated unemployment is around 80%.    Mr. Mugabe latest' antics was to nationalize the diamond mines--and his latest antics was to threaten a reporter by punching him to the ground for daring to suggest that he should retire.    We have also been assessing the latest out of Malaysia (a member of our "NASIIM" group we're studying) on the increased repression by the Malaysian Government as the corruption allegations against the Prime Minister continues to grow--there allegded corruption is now around 1.1 Billion Dollars.

One more focus for us has been @BRICS.      We have been assessing the student protests in India as we captured this by the NDTv's Barka Dutt:

  

This is also a developing story and his eloquence and bravery is quite remarkable.      This is a China is in the midst of the annual meeting of its' Parliament--The National People's Congress.   Most of the decisions have already been made--but what is remarkable is a tacit acknowledgement of what the Chinese Premier has said is the "New Normal"--a slowdown as cutbacks loom in State Enterprises and there seems to be a major overhaul of the top leadership in the country.     We are also continuing to assess how Brazil seems to be falling apart politically especially as former President Lula was detained especially as Rio 2016 is before us--and as Zika continues to take a profound toll on the Country.     South Africa is also in the midst of profound challenges as well as underscored by the protests against Jacob Zuma.

It is indeed quite a challenging World.......