Week in Review: Tiger's Return, the Rohingya Crisis, & Lying to the FBI
This Week in Review was written by Frank Roberts and Stephen Nielsen. Read their bio's.
Image: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
1. Once again, Tiger Woods is making headlines in the news. This time, it is his return to the golfing world in the Hero World Challenge. He put up an impressive score of 69 putting him at 3 under; the par of the course at 72 (lower scores are better). While the leaders ended their first round with lower scores, it is an impressive number for the 14-time Major champion to put up after his 10 month sabbatical. Read more on Tiger’s return in this USA Today article. To see his hole-by-hole performance, check out PGA’s website.
2. And in the news today, lieutenant general Micheal Flynn, who is also the former national-security adviser, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. This article states that Flynn lied to the FBI in two way and decided to plead guilty in order to "reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country." Flynn takes full responsibility for his actions. Read more about this breaking story.
Image: Lauren Victoria Burke / AP
3. The fall of dictator, Muammar Gadaffi during the Arab Spring seemed to spell out a hopeful turn for the people of Libya. Among many of Gadaffi’s flaws was overlooking the smuggling of migrants from Africa to Europe. But this week, a damning report by an undercover CNN revealed a dark undercurrent to the ongoing state of things in Libya The report contained footage showing several migrants held up in warehouses for what appears to be human trafficking. Many of these migrants come from West and Central Africa hoping to sneak through Libya to make it to Europe in hopes of a better life. The men who hold them up pretend to be transporters willing to help them get across but lead them to a fate of being locked up and auctioned off for labor. Several humanitarian groups and world leaders have spoken up about this in the wake of the report. French President Emmanuel Macron said,“these smugglers are deeply linked to many terrorist networks and feed [them] … the UN is discussing how best to target human traffickers.” More on this article can be found here.
4. The Mockingbird once again makes it into our Week in Review. With all of the sexual abuse and assault allegations appearing in the news—the story of Matt Lauer the most recent—it is both hard to hear of, and the people are easy to write off. In this article “Love the Art, Hate the Artist?” by a guest contributor, it calls the reader to ask the question of whether or not the artist’s decisions affect the quality of their art. Essentially: is it valid to write off works of art because the artist is a sleazebag? I will attempt to refrain from quoting the whole article. The contributor also challenges the reader with this: “The fact that morally bankrupt people can make beautiful things troubles our sense of right and wrong.” However, the contributor doesn’t let the celebrities off the hook, and is understanding that earthly justice must be received. I urge you to read this writer’s perspective on appreciating these celebrities’ art, while also condemning their actions.
5. Keeping our thoughts global, Pope Francis visited Myanmar this week where he indirectly called for peace among its people groups. The Pope, a few months ago, vehemently called out the persecution of the Rohingya minority. Myanmar’s leader and criticized Nobel Peace Prize laurete, Suu Kyi, has been notoriously idle about the ethnic cleansing of the small Muslim Rohingya population by violent Buddhist hate groups in the country and refuses to claim this as an act of genocidal terrorism. At this point, nearly 650, 000 Rohingyas have fled the country to Bangladesh to be spared their lives. While many, including the U.S. Congress have been outspoken about this, very little in the way of sanctions or anything in that regard have been placed on the government of Myanmar likely because it is difficult to trace a direct link from Suu Kyi to these attackers. The New York Times has more on the Pope’s visit and further facts about the the cleansing can be found on a posting by the Cato Institute here.
6. Ending on a lighter note, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday all happened within the last seven days. Giving Tuesday follows two of the biggest holiday spending opportunities to feed America’s consumerism. There was an estimated 5 billion dollars spend this past Black Friday, as this Atlantic article reported. Cyber Monday offered more deep discounts on many items, which I’m sure also reached numbers close to that of Black Friday. What about Giving Tuesday? For a holiday that only started in 2012, it is earning a respectable amount, around $200 million this year. Although paltry earnings compared to the other non-holidays, “If charities can benefit from that, it’s most certainly a day worth celebrating.”
