Adrian Liberto

Contributing editor

In the August 2020 issue of The Gordian titled Russian Roulette: Why Putin’s Referendum Victory is a Threat to Humanity we published an article cheekily called Vlad the Terrible. It listed a range of crimes committed by Putin ranging from mass murder to mass deceit.

AFRICA 01.02.22: Guinea-Bissau. President Umaro Sissoco Embalo survived a coup attempt that went on for five hours.

Society is a raft made from the wreckage of our dreams and fears. Space is limited and we struggle to keep aboard, scrambling for the middle ground so we do not have to witness those sacrificed at the rim: pushed, or slipping, or just unable to grab a hold.

Apart from the hackneyed pleas to resolve the differences and a blunt reassertion of the facts there were no enlightened solutions aimed at finding ways of de-escalating the Ukraine crisis.

Quickly catch up with everything you may have missed last monty!

Our silence is pernicious and yet we seem to not care; not when caring can threaten the comfort zones we have become so used to. Here are five points that will shed some light on the issue of migration.

UN-aligned has chosen Domenico Lucano as its Person of the Year 2021. The ex-mayor of the Italian town of Riace has been chosen for his vision regarding the integration of refugees into their destination of choice, while at the same time revitalising a dying town.

AFRICA 01.12.21: Democratic Republic of Congo. Ugandan troops have joined government forces in the DRC in order to coordinate attacks on the Allied Democratic Forces, an extremist group responsible for the slaughter of civilians.

Deluded people generally believe that they would have been on the right side of history, without ever really questioning whether they are on the right side of what is making history. Sure, now, most people are convinced that they would have been against slavery, child labour, the burning of heretics and cannibalism… but given their same mindset, would they have been? All those practices were legal or socially acceptable; and sadly, for most of us, that social acceptability is what defines our morals.

AFRICA 01.11.21: Nigeria. A 21-story building collapsed in Lagos killing dozens of people.

When federalism is not enough When the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFR Yugoslavia, or simply Yugoslavia) fell apart in the early 1990s, its ruins bred unimaginable chaos and destruction. Even though the founding of the federation dated back to anti-Fascist resistance following the occupation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers in 1941, the Kingdom itself had been a precursor to the entity since the end of WWI.

Listen to Ruby Goldenberg and Ariana Yekrangi help you catch up with everything that happened in October 2021. AFRICA 08.10.21: Libya.

This is an open letter drafted by UN-aligned and addressed to the President of the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

“Disaster… it could happen to anyone.” Think about it too much and you will go mad: that endless list of slings and arrows. Yes, it could happen to anyone, but it is best to plod along as though it could never happen to us.

The Sixth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was published on August 9, 2021. The Report paints a grim picture of the planet’s health owing to human induced climate change and rising temperatures.

AFRICA 07.08.21: Egypt. Egyptian actress Dalal Abdel Aziz died aged 61 as a result of having contracted COVID-19.

On July 29, the UN had a Security Council Arria-Formula meeting on the deteriorating situation in Myanmar. US ambassador and senior advisor for political affairs, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, summarised the dire situation, stating: “Humanitarian aid workers inside Burma are sounding the alarm.

The United Nations: the devil you know I met someone from a peculiar land with a completely messed up political system yielding a society that was plagued with poverty, oppression, corruption and strife. I commiserated until I found out that there actually was an alternative party that, given the chance, would put things right, yet nobody seemed to care about it.

AFRICA 01.07.21: DR Congo. At least 10 people were killed in a terrorist raid on the city of Beni in the east of the country.

At the end of June, the budget for peacekeeping operations for the period from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022 was approved by the United Nations. Eye-watering sums have been allocated in order to maintain buffers between hostilities that have been stewing for decades.