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Most Important News 2005

Most Important News 2005

Of all the available News received during 2005, which News do you deem the most important of 2005?

News Important Most

This year has been quite newsworthy but I think the most important, and one of the most under-reported stories, was the tragic civil war the has destroyed the Democratic Republic of Congo.

I'm going to vote for this because until peace was brokered about 1,000 civilians a day were being killed through fighting and starvation. People continue to die to malnutrition and other preventable illness. There are hundreds of thousands more displaced. The conflict has killed well over 3 million lives since it began.

There is unstable peace at the moment. It is a country that was used largely as a battleground for neighbouring countries since 1997. I think this is one of the worst cases of genocide in recent times and it is quite shameful that the West and media ignored it for so long.

A referendum held on a new constitution was approved by parliament this year. Early results indicate a strong "yes" vote for the draft. So this year is the first genuine signs of progress.

The International Court of Justice has also ruled this year that Uganda must compensate DR Congo for rights abuses and the plundering of resources in the five years up to 2003.

Congo also gets my vote because it is a man-made diaster unlike some of my other choices. A lot of African countries are major stories including Liberia which is being destroyed by civil war, Ethiopia, Eritrea... this list really goes on. Why don't we care about this?

Number two would be the Tsunami, even though it actually happened last year. The sheer devastation and everyone's response made this a big story well into this year. It affected many countries and displayed an inspiring side of humanity which we seldom see today.

Number three and on a similar par to the tsunami was the Pakistan earthquake, another devastating natural disaster with over 100,000 deaths that was largely ignored by the media. This quake, one of the largest in that region's history, is having a severe effect on millions of people in that region today.

Iraq continues to be a massive news story for its daily bombings and gross mis-management by the occupying forces. Saddam has finally gone to trial, albeit Iraqi style. It is also a large story because it involves some powerful countries who have finally admitted they lied to justify this ideological crusade.

Hurricane Katrina was also devestating and it was interesting to see how the world's most resourceful nation was so helpless in response. It also looked quite terrible because the majority of those who suffered were black.

Edited: arvhic on 23rd Dec, 2005 - 10:09am