Nerds Republic

In a somewhat disappointing turn of events, Time Magazine have announced a controversial eight-person shortlist for its annual ‘Person of the Year’ title. Last year the award was scooped by fighters against the Ebola virus for their sterling work, but this year it could be an entirely different story.

Person of the Year (called Man of the Year until 1999) is an annual issue of the United States news magazine Time that features and profiles a person, group, idea or object that “for better or for worse…has done the most to influence the events of the year”.

The chief of ISIS terror group Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and Republicans’ US presidential candidate Donald Trump are among the eight people to make the final list – something that has raised some ire with certain sections of the public.

Speaking about the Al-Baghdadi nomination, the magazine said, “As leader of ISIS has inspired followers to both fight in his self-declared caliphate of Iraq and Syria, and also stage attacks in countries like Tunisia and France”.

About Mr Trump, Time Magazine said that his populist rhetoric has made him the frontrunner in the race for the Republican presidential candidacy and stirred debate about the party’s future.

Past winners of the award include inspirational men such as Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr, but the competition has also given equal airtime to those figures who were downright evil. Adolf Hitler and Ayatollah Khomeini won in 1938 and 1979 respectively – just to give you an idea of what I’m talking about. Now it seems that Al-Baghdadi and Trump could join the ranks of those less distinguished men to walk away with the prize.

The final list also includes ‘Black Lives Matter’ activists, German chancellor Angela Merkel, Iran president Hassan Rouhani, Russian president Vladimir Putin, transgender reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.

Speaking about controversial Russian supremo Putin, the magazine said he “Has defied Western sanctions over his country’s military activity in Ukraine to play a critical but precarious role in the war on ISIS”.

Personally I’d quite like to see the ‘Black Lives Matter’ activists win, purely because the rest of them are either abhorrent or fairly boring. But sadly my mind was cast back to the premise of the award, to recognise a person, group, idea or object that “for better or for worse…has done the most to influence the events of the year”. Looking at the list again, it seems that America’s answer to Adolf Hitler or a terrorist may be crowned winner. Dark days indeed.

 

Thirty five years ago today Mark Chapman fired five shots into the body of John Lennon and robbed the world of one of its most creative geniuses. He would be the first to say that his life was no more valuable than another. And since that fateful day on December 8 1980, a staggering 1.15 million people have died in America as a result of gun crime.

Another staggering statistic is that since 1968, which was the year the Beatles white album was released, more Americans have died as a result of gun violence than in every war that the country has taken place in throughout history. And this trend looks like it’s accelerating, only last week 14 people died in a mass shooting in California.

Public opinion is slowly starting to shift toward more gun legislation but there is still very little appetite for change within the republican party. Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy tweeted a powerful message that went viral in the wake of the San Bernardino shooting.

But only last week presidential candidates Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz voted against a proposal that would increase background checks and stop terror suspects acquiring guns.

Unsurprisingly those candidates have all received huge donations from gun rights groups who are effectively funding their run for the oval office.

Presidential hopeful Lindsey Graham

This is in stark contrast to the democrats who are doing their best to change the system. Hilary Clinton made a speech in Florida last week that included some draw dropping statistics “Ninety Americans a day die from gun violence, homicide, suicides, tragic avoidable accidents — 33,000 Americans a year die,”

“It is time for us to say we are going to have comprehensive background checks, we are gonna close the gun show loopholes.” she said.

Earlier in the year after the Umpqua Community College massacre in Oregon, Obama gave an emotional speech where he said “we, collectively, are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of our inaction.”

If John Lennon were alive today I think he would certainly agree with that statement. How many more people have to die before the political landscape shifts?