Welcome

Welcome to News Abridged. A blog that condenses the tangled, heaving mass of daily news into a snug offering of no more than 500 words.

This will hopefully be useful and interesting for people who

a) want to know, very broadly speaking, what is going on in the world

b) don’t, for whatever reason, follow the news properly.

Logging into the news for the first time in a while can sometimes feel like coming back to a novel you started once but never finished. You’ve forgotten who all the characters are and it’s difficult to follow the narrative.

So for these purposes, I shall set the scene and for one time only - it will take more than 500 words to do so:

Today is Sunday. It’s the 6^th of March 2011 and we are in London, England. David Cameron is our Prime Minister and the Conservative party is back in power after 13 years of New Labour reign. Technically, the Conservatives are sharing power with the Liberal Democrats - whose leader Nick Clegg is deputy Prime Minister - as part of a collation government. If you zoom out a bit, there’s not a whole lot of difference between camps at the moment because we are living in an era of centre party politics. If you zoom out even more, this is true for most of the western world.

In terms of our economy, things had been going well during the last boom. Banks had been lending money to businesses and businesses were doing well. So the banks said to the government: “Look how well we’re doing. Isn’t this all great? Hey listen: It would be even better if you stopped regulating us so closely and let us get on with making everyone rich.” The government agreed, and the banks were deregulated. Party time. It wasn’t long, however, before the banks got drunk with power and started getting carried away with their lending. We, in turn, got carried away with our spending. As with all big parties, the booze eventually ran out and the hangover was bad. Blame has been tossed back and forth but the situation remains the same. Everyone’s got a headache and it’s clear up time. The government is trying desperately to restore our economy and that means plenty of cuts, which is no fun at all. Again, our situation is pretty much in line with the rest of the western world, and by that I mean America, Europe and Australasia.

So what does the rest of the globe look like?

Africa, as it stands, is enough to make our troubles look deeply insignificant. Governed largely by brutal dictators and rife with civil war; most of the population live well beneath the poverty line. That is not to say that parts of it aren't wonderful of course.

The Middle East is a melting pot of competing cultures and religions. You’ll see much more coverage on their squabbles because it’s an oil rich part of the world, and thus inextricably linked to us and to serious money. Parts of the Middle East are doing phenomenally well and act as havens and holiday destinations for the very rich - Dubai being one example. Other parts, such as Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan are in a bit of a mess.

India is still struggling with poverty but is certainly on the up. A huge population makes for a formidable work force and unlike other developing countries that are constantly at war, this one is churning out plenty of produce to trade with.

Neighbouring China has an even bigger work force, and both are considered to be the next world super powers. China is still largely rural, although urbanization is rising, and is fairly strictly governed by the Communist Party.

Japan, although small, is hugely productive and economically strong, with a particular knack for producing good cars and gadgets. Unlike China, it is a democratic nation with a culture that is becoming increasingly westernized.

The rest of Asia (relatively speaking) has a fairly stable culture and lifestyle and a healthy tourism industry. In other words, it generally stays out of our headlines.

Russia is vast and largely rural with stonking great oil and gas resources. After a long period of political and economic turmoil, it has now reasserted itself as a world power and boasts a handful of very wealthy cities – Moscow being the most notable.

South America has been growing its economy steadily in the last few decades and democratic rule is now widespread. Its huge rich-poor divide, however, is evident in cities where sprawling slums sit nestled beside luxury hotels and skyscrapers.

So there you have it. The world as it stands. In a very, very tightly packed nutshell. Its people have been mingling and its cultures converging since the birth of humanity, although perhaps never more so than right now. We have the invention of the Internet to thank for that and it’s why you are reading this very blog.

I hope you enjoy it.