Somali Separatist Ambitions.

In my daily scour of the internet for international news a story that really caught my eye was the recent elections in the self Governing Somalian province of Somaliland.

Voters all over the province headed to the polls on Saturday to democratically elect their new President. Over 1 million citizens were on the electoral register in the region of more than 3.5 million. The elections were marred by security threats from the Al Qaeda inspired Shebab group which has been responsable for major troubles in the rest of the country over the past few years.

Me and Studio Ghibli: Part 2

If  you missed part one of my Me and Studio Ghibli series you can catch up at the link provided. Today, for part two, I move onto two film's that could not be more different in tone. Both were released in 1988 astonishingly as a double feature. They are Grave of the Fireflies and My Neighbour Totoro.

1988- Grave of the Fireflies
The first film of Isao Takahata to be released by the studio and most certainly one of his most celebrated. The film is based on a popular semi-autobiography by Akiyuki Nosaka, of the same name. I have already posted on the film. Catch it in my World Cinema link at the end of the post. But for the continuity of the series I shall continue.

Status Update

Hey guys. Just a quick note to say I'll be heading down the country for the next couple of days to catch up with some friends so I'll be away from the site until at least Friday. But as I have become a little more blogger savy I have discovered the miracle of automatic post scheduling so you shall enjoy/endure daily posts in my absence.

Also Id love to hear from any ofyou with any opinions on any of my posts, what you want to hear about or what I'm doing wrong. Leave me a comment and I shall reply to you in the fullness of soonity.  Until I return, stay safe and happy:)

The G20 Guide

In the past few days the G-20 summit has been taking place in Toronto, Canada. It is a meeting of the Finance Ministers and central bank Governors of 19 prominent world Economies plus the EU. Of course many heads of State also attend the Summit which has grown is status significantly in the past few years.They have been held bi-annually. However, 2011 they are scheduled to be convened on an annual basis. The next meeting of the group will take place in South Korea in November. The first meeting of the group took place in 1999. Although some members such as the UK, France and Italy are represented as part of the EU contingent they do also send their own contingents to the meetings.

You got News in my Opinion

There are many things about America that perplex me entirely. One, is how it matters hugely how much of a God fearing man a President is. I can safely declare now that if our own Prime Minister was to proclaim " God bless you and God bless Ireland", he would most certainly be laughed at by all of those listening to his speech.

Second, how the largest economy in the world has only recently passed any form of universal healthcare is completely beyond the imagination of those of us in Ireland and the UK at least. The fact it has constantly faced controversy is even more unimaginable.However, as someone with a mild interest in journalism the state of journalism in America is totally shocking for me.

Me and Studio Ghibli

I figured its been a good few days since my last post unrelated to current affairs so I decided that Id write about something close to my heart, the movies of Studio Ghibli.  This brilliant animation studio was founded in June 1985 by the studio's two current major directors, Hayao Miyazaki and the less celebrated but certainly no lesser genius, Isao Takahata. Over the course of the next couple of weeks I will be running a series of blog posts covering all of the studio's breathtaking catalog of releases over the past twenty five years. I hope that my profiling each of the films gives you an insight into both my own personality and the magic of the worlds greatest animation studio (in my opinion : ) ).

Women in Politics

One of the major current international stories is the resignation of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. The resignation seemed to come as a shock to all. Indeed, anyone in a failing European economy is likely to be aware of the mass emigration to the supposed greener pastures of Australia. And while the country has of course not been immune from the recession the economy is unlikely to continue to suffer for as long as its European counterparts.

But the fact remains, after a number of notable U-turns particularly on climate change, Welsh born Julia Gillard has emerged as the Labor Party's new leader after the party voted to oust their Prime Minister of 3 years. It appears to have been a good decision. Gillard is clear favourite in the polls to keep her position at the time of the country's next general election. It would make her one of the few female leaders of Goverment in our world. So I thought for today's post Id take a look at the role of women in politics worldwide and why so few of them rise to the highest echelon in their chosen careers.