Random News Generator- Kuwait

The United States is far from the only country with controversy over what they teach in their schools, as witnessed today in the Random News Generator, which has landed on Kuwait.

And, unsurprisingly, it involves the prophet Mohammed... or at least, two of his companions, which are a point of contention among Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Among Sunni Muslims, the companions are highly regarded. Among Shiites, they are demonized.

The controversy is that Minister of Education Moudhi Humoud met with some Islamic studies teachers concerning questions about the companions on a 9th-grade final exam, telling them that they might want to skip over the questions, which have been seen as promoting a Sunni viewpoint, sparking outcry from Shiites.

For this, some Sunnis in the Kuwaiti parliament are calling for a 'grilling', which is a line of questioning that means pretty much what you think it means, and which usually ends in the emir pressuring the minister to step aside before the questioning gets too probing. They've had it in for Humoud ever since she arrived, dating back to when she was sworn in without a headscarf.

We'll have to wait to see how that goes. While we're here, we should check in on some previous RNG stories...

UAE: The trial of the 17 Indian foreign workers on death row has been adjourned to September 1st. This is the third such adjournment; all have been over matters of finding a good interpreter. The first two, on May 19 and June 16, were due to no interpreter being available; this one is due to the found interpreter not being accepted by the court.
Macedonia: No, they and Greece still haven't come to terms over their name, preventing them from ascending to the EU or NATO. As far as the Macedonian public is concerned, that is perfectly fine by them.
Peru: The deadline for Doe Run to restart operations at its infamously polluting La Oroya smelter, under environmental regulations imposed by the Peruvian government, is tomorrow, or else Peru will shut it down for good. So far, it's not open, and a last-ditch effort by Doe Run to settle with its various creditors fell through last night. That probably has sealed La Oroya's fate, but we'll check back and make it official.

RNG Update

Main computer's still in the shop. Still. So, we might as well get an update on some of our previous stories covered in the Random News Generator, linking to the original coverage of each story...

UAE: The court hearing of the 17 Indian nationals accused in the death of a Pakistani in Sharjah has been adjourned to June 16, after allowing them access to a Punjabi translator.

Nepal: Jordon Romero summitted Mount Everest yesterday, becoming the youngest person to do so. However, as Nepal wouldn't give him permission to climb on Nepalese territory due to his age, Romero did it from China, which doesn't care about age.

In December, he plans to climb Antarctica's highest peak, Mount Vinson, which would give him the highest peaks of all seven continents.

Macedonia: It's still called the Republic of Macedonia. Greece is still displeased. A whole lot of nothing has actually gotten done.

Random News Generator- Macedonia

Having just done an RNG update, let's go ahead and run a new one. Today, the RNG lands on Macedonia.

Macedonia has wanted to be part of the European Union since 2005. They're in the process of scheduling talks on how exactly they're going to go about getting in.

As you're probably well aware, the EU is the cool kids' club. They don't let just anybody in, because with everyone using the euro, and everyone tied together in other, more subtle ways, one economic basket case has the capability to stymie the entire group.

One of those more subtle ways is what's kept Macedonia at bay to this point. If you want to be in the EU, you have to go along with what the current members want you to do. You don't go along, you don't get in. It's that simple. And Macedonia has not done enough to please EU member Greece.

Specifically, it's Macedonia's name, the 'Republic of Macedonia', as stated in their constitution. Greece has a province also named Macedonia, and believes that Macedonia-the-country's name as currently stated makes undue claims on Macedonia-the-province. If, however, Macedonia-the-country were to rename itself 'Northern Macedonia', or what it's called at the UN, the 'Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia', that would be enough to please Greece. The same problem has also kept Macedonia out of NATO, which they'd also like to join.

What's in a name? In the eyes of Macedonia, national pride. As EU Observer reports:

"By objecting to our chosen title, Greece shows that their demands do not end with the constitutional name of the country but go beyond and touch the forbidden zone of individual and national rights to self-determination and national identity", [Macedonian foreign minister Antonio] Milososki complained after the Greek reaction.

That's the short version, anyway. Here's the long version.

This has been going on since 1991. They'd like to have the issue hammered out by the end of June, but posturing still abounds. According to Bulgaria's Focus Information Agency, Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski is scheduled to arrive in Athens next week for a conference organized by The Economist, but as Gruevski's plane reads 'Republic of Macedonia', it's up in the air as to whether he will be allowed to land the plane on Greek soil.

Hopefully they can hammer it out, but we'll see how it goes.