Several European countries are experiencing populist movements in their domestic political systems. Some of the impetus toward right wing extremism is fueled by the fear of a rise in refugees and also by Russian meddling.
Since one of the first signs of a totalitarian regime is the control or muzzling of the free press, it becomes more difficult for affected populations to discover the truth of their situations. Repression of facts and a rise in false news make that knowledge more difficult to find.
Here are extreme nationalist votes in Western Europe by share [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36130006]
Austria - Freedom Party – 26%
Switzerland - Swiss People’s Party- 29%
Sweden - Sweden Democrats 18%
Denmark – Danish People’s Party 21%
Hungary – Jobbik 19%
Finland – The Finns – 18%
Those are just the countries where the share of extremism exceeds 17%; the movement is active in all Western European countries.
Countries like Ukraine, Moldova, and other former Soviet Bloc nations are not represented in the table.
Simultaneously, a number of Arab speaking countries endure totalitarian regimes with little opportunity for the populations to make their voices heard.
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - King Salman (House of Saud)
Qatar - Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
United Arab Emirates - Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Kingdom of Oman - Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said.
Brunei - Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.
Perhaps it is an appropriate time to provide the populations of all these afflicted countries with an objective and non-political source of information in their own languages.
Radio Free Europe, funded by the US CIA, provided this function in Post WW2 Europe; it may be time for a more objective institution to bring it back to life.
A new Radio Free Arabia could provide s similar function for the Arab speaking populations.
Any such effort should be transparent in its funding and objectives and non-religious.
No comments:
Post a Comment