Tommaso Nigra, Reporter
2016 Nobel Prizes assigned in Stockholm
During the first half of October, the 2016 Nobel Prizes were announced in Stockholm, Sweden. The well-known international awards honor the men and the women who, during the year, bestowed the greatest benefits on mankind.
The Nobel prize in Chemistry was awarded to Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L. Feringa. The prize in Physics went to David J. Thouless, F. Duncan M. Haldane and J. Michael Kosterlitz while Yoshinori Ohsumi took the Nobel in Medicine.
The most relevant awards have been the Nobel in Economic Sciences, the Nobel Peace Prize and the Nobel in Literature. They went to the two economists Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström, the Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and the songwriter Bob Dylan. Hart and Holmström have been awarded for their contribution to “contract theory,” which is the result of several studies on the contractual relationships.
This is very important for understanding many processes concerning corporate mergers or privatization of institutions. President Santos won the peace prize for his efforts to bring the 50-year-long Colombian civil war to an end. Finally, on Thursday, Oct. 12, Bob Dylan was awarded for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition,” according to the Swedish Academy, which also considered him as the successor of the bardic tradition started in ancient Greek thousands years ago.
Hurricane Matthew devastates Haiti.
At the beginning of October, tropical Hurricane Matthew hit the Caribbean and the U.S. East Coast, causing devastation and several deaths. Haiti, struck by the hurricane on Oct. 4, has been the most damaged area.
Matthew hit the Caribbean country as a Category 5 storm with 145 mph winds, causing torrential rains and devastation, leaving about 1.4 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. In addition, a few days after the storm, cholera spread through in the hardest hit areas, causing the death tolls to rise to more than 1000 people.
The most violent Caribbean storm in nearly a decade, the hurricane continued its run along the U.S. East Coast, striking Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina and causing 46 deaths.
Colombia on the difficult way to peace.
Colombia is going through some of the most crucial weeks of its modern history. The government is trying to reach definitive peace with the main rebel guerrilla groups present in the country. This effort is after more than 50 years of violence and 260,000 victims.
Since the early 1960s the country has been afflicted by a long and bloody civil war between the central government and a large number of leftist guerrilla groups; in particular, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (F.A.R.C.) and the National Liberation Army (E.L.N).
Recently President Juan Manuel Santos, after four years of peace talks, reached an historical agreement with the F.A.R.C. to end the hostilities. He decided to leave the last word to the result of a consultative referendum on Oct. 2. Shockingly, 50.2 percent of Colombians rejected the agreement with a margin of only 54 thousand votes, causing a sudden halt along the way to peace. One reason for these numbers is that 60 percent of the population did not vote. An additional key reason is that the voters who are against the agreement still want some sort of punishment for the violent guerrilla activities over the decades.
Despite this unexpected result, President Santos is still trying to promote peace in the country and has started new talks with the E.L.N., the second major rebels group, on Oct. 27 in Quito, Ecuador.
United States risks being involved in Yemen’s civil war.
Between Sunday, Oct. 9 and Wednesday, Oct. 12, in the international waters near the strait of Bab el-Mande in Yemen, the U.S. navy ship, Mason, engaged in a firefight with military forces most likely belonging to the Shiite Houthi rebel group.
Missiles were launched from the shore towards the US warship during more than one attack, luckily causing only a fire. The navy responded by targeting rebel radar installations. The reason for this hostility is that U.S. has always been supportive of the bombing campaign launched by the Sunni Saudi lead-coalition against Houthi in March 2015.
The Shiite rebels, backed by Iran, are still supporting the deposed president Ali Abdullah Saleh and are fighting against the Sunni government, established by Saudi Arabia and led by Abd Rabbo Mansur Hadi.
In particular, these recent attacks have been triggered by Saudi airstrikes on Oct. 8 during a Houthi funeral in the Yemeni capital Sana, that caused 155 deaths and left more than 500 wounded.
Since the civil war started, the U.S. has provided limited aid to the Saudi coalition and publicly pushed for a peace deal. These recent developments, though, have put the Pentagon in a delicate position and now U.S. risks to be more deeply dragged in the conflict.