End Daylight Saving Terror and Godwin’s Law

Daylight saving time (and yes, it’s saving not savings) is a great example of the power of traditions, even stupid ones. Traditions are often powerful defaults that should be re-examined from time to time. For example, most people agree that DST is as antiquated as bloodletting, hazing, or child labor. So we should just kill DST. In California there’s a bill to end it, but the power of time must ultimately be adjudicated by the US federal government.

Dutch-Turkish Pissing Contest Continues: Relations between the Netherlands and Turkey have hit rock-bottom following a series of cancelled campaign events of Turkish government ministers in cities such as Rotterdam and The Hague. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, well-known for his aggressive treatment of Western European governments, planned to send various high-ranking cabinet ministers to Germany and the Netherlands, both countries where significant Turkish populations reside. Erdogan sees their support as key to winning an April referendum that, if passed, would see his powers as president significantly extended. Expanding Erdogan’s powers would continue to align Turkey’s government more with its Sultanate neighbors to the east than its NATO allies to the west.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, himself on the campaign trail for parliamentary elections later this week, wasted little time in bringing out the big guns. On Friday, the Netherlands refused landing rights to a Turkish government plane carrying government ministers, while minister for family affairs Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya was escorted out of the country and refused entry into the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam.  

As always, President Erdogan and his conservative AKP party was quick and–to put it mildly– unhinged in their criticism. In a speech to supporters, the 61-year-old quipped that the Dutch were “Nazi remnants.” A highly hypocritical statement considering the current crisis in Turkey. Rutte fought back admirably, criticizing the Turkish government of its staunch and aggressive approach and claiming that “diplomatic lines have been crossed.” As if 2016 hadn’t proven to all of us that such lines may have never existed in the first place.

South Korean President Impeached: South Korean President Park Geun-hye was removed from office on Friday following a ruling of the country’s constitutional court, which upheld a parliamentary impeachment vote. The move comes on the back of months of demonstrations by millions of South Koreans who see her as a key player in a corruption scandal that shocked the nation’s ruling class.

Park’s “long-time confidante” (cue corruption scandal lingo) Choi Soon-sil is accused of using her presidential connections to pressure firms–including tech-giant Samsung–to give millions of dollars in donations to foundations under her control. Park is alleged to have been personally involved in these arrangements and to have given Choi unacceptable levels of access to official documents. Her presidential immunity gone, she now faces prosecution for bribery, extortion, and abuse of power.  

Park, the first female president of South Korea and the first popularly elected female head of state in East Asia, remains defiant and stated on Sunday: “I feel sorry that I could not finish the mandate given to me as president. It will take time, but I believe the truth will be revealed.”

Japan’s Godzilla-Like Radioactive Waste Problems: Six years after the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit northern Japan, Japan still faces a nuclear disaster so severe it was reported that radioactive waste was finding itself to the United States. Even now, Japanese officials are still trying to safely deal with the continuously growing pile of nuclear waste, from the contaminated water used to cool reactors to the suits used by cleanup workers to 3.5 billion gallons of soil. The Japanese definitely need their version of a running Yucca (or perhaps more aptly described as Yucky) mountain nuclear waste repository.

Prior to Fukushima, Japan generated around 30% of its power from nuclear power. Now more than three-quarters of Japan’s energy needs are imported. Japan’s energy situation complicates Sino-Japan-US national security relations, given Japan is crucially reliant on open sea lanes, and China has been on a decades-long march to secure ever more access to the world’s natural resources.

Four Countries at Risk of Famine and Starvation: The UN has stated that more than 20 million people in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan, and Nigeria are in danger of famine and starvation. The UN humanitarian chief said on Friday that “already at the beginning of the year we are facing the largest humanitarian crisis since the creation of the UN.”

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