Week In Review:16/1/11

Tunisia has just been put on the map! After years of sitting on the fringes of Africa and of being used solely for the purposes of a cheap holiday with great sun, Tunisia has previously been the silent sidekick to the world class superhero of ridiculous: Colonel Gadaffi’s Libya. Yet in the past few days they’ve not just hit the headlines, they’ve taken the headlines down an alley and beaten them to a bloody pulp. Losing their parliament, Tunisia has become a state filled with violence, looting and deadly jail riots… it starts to get pretty unfunny after this.

A state of emergency is enforced within the country and there’s little economic activity whilst schools, government offices and most shops remain closed. In fact, in the past 48 hours they’ve had three presidents, a legitimate one, an illegitimate one and an interim one, most people in Britain can’t handle the fact that we have one leader, let alone having three in 48 hours. Further to this, the police are yet to be able to handle the situation – reports suggests gangs are looting and the streets aren’t safe. The army is trying to sort out the sudden dissolution of government. As they are seemingly respected more than the police, they’ll hopefully be able to sort out what is becoming an incredibly desperate situation.

It’s a great fear, actually. The country has descended into absolute, unrivalled anarchy: a problem which any democracy can experience and every democracy should be worried about. Equally, in a strange way it shows an enlightening statement about the need for government and about the necessity to have controlled institutions like the government to maintain stability of a country. On the other hand, what a sour note, who ever realised that humans can descend into sheer violence and destructive behaviour, just because the government’s no longer there. In 48 hours the country is desperate and debilitated, let’s hope a government comes in as soon as possible.

Yet at home, what are we worried about?! Well, a police chief has called for a DNA database for men who use prostitutes. Having never used a prostitute I don’t think I have a cause for concern that my DNA will end up on the database, but really, do we need a database for this?! Supposedly it’s meant to make people ‘think again’ about committing crimes against women. I’ve got to question though the sanity of all this. I’m not trying to be funny here, but surely if you’re a committed sex attacker a database isn’t going to stop you… it just sounds like another way to get peoples fingerprints on file and add to the already expensive bureaucracy of the UK.

The West Yorkshire police, who are responsible for this suggestion, were involved in the case against Stephen Griffiths last year, who was sentenced to life for murdering three women in  the Bradford area. Hopefully this idea won’t go any further.  This news comes just as Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, lost his appeal to overturn a ruling which says he can never be released. Yet, the police don’t appear to realise that Sutcliffe was not the average person – his crimes don’t get committed everyday and we shouldn’t be worried that they ever will.

What a sorry state of humanity. We appear unable to control ourselves as a race, be that without a government or without DNA databases to protect us from ourselves. Personally I’m a believer in people, I think that we’re smart and intelligent enough to rule ourselves: the above stories, frustratingly, suggest otherwise.