Another year is behind is. 2020 will surely be remembered for the global pandemic. But beyond covid, there were so many other things that happened in the world, that have left unnoticed: about wars and conflicts, protests, but also all those positive stories across the world that show that 2020 wasn’t so dark after all. We talked about favorite highlights of the year and we want to hear what were yours.

In our 4th episode, we talk about Ghana, one of the few democracies on the African continent. Our guest talks about how is living in Europe compared to living in Africa, why is a successful democracy and other countries from West Africa are struggling, what he would change in each of the continents he lived in, China’s influence, and much more.

In today’s episode, we talked with a student activist from Uganda that leads the campaign „justice now“.

Uganda is one of those countries whose president has been in office for a very long time. Most of the population was actually born during his time in office. The average age of the population is 15 and Yoweri Museveni has been in office for 34 years.
How does that affect democracy and rule of law?

Uganda has a history of violent coups that brought presidents to power, instead of them being selected by people in elections.

In January, elections will take place, and a young music star Bobi Wine will also be in the race. He was jailed earlier this year on the day of announcing his candidacy. Does he stand a chance?

Find out more at https://the-polinet.pinecast.co

Episode Notes

Ljudi su se oduvek okupljali oko zajedničkih ideja i vrednosti kako bi skrenuli pažnju na probleme i kako bi pokrenuli akciju. Gotovo sve istorijske promene bile su zapečaćene velikim protestima i pritiscima od strane građana/ki koji su generacijski potvrđivali tezu da su upravo oni nosioci promena. ⁣

Na međunarodni Dan ljudskih prava razgovarali smo o slobodi okupljanja sa organizatorom i organizatorkama protesta u Srbiji, Crnoj Gori, Hrvatskoj i Bosni i Hercegovini. Ova tema je posebno aktuelna u vremenu pandemije u kojoj trenutno živimo. Uživajte!

Iz Srbije – Jelena Anasonović
Iz Crne Gore – Vuk Vujisić
Iz Hrvatske – Ivana Brajdić
Iz Bosne i Hercegovine – Anja Grubačić
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What is happening in Hong Kong?

Hong Kong was British colony since 1841 and was returned to China in 1997 after over 150 years of British rule. Colonial life left its mark on Hong Kong in a sustainable way. That’s why people say that people from Hong Kong „share a way of life and core values that resembles at least as much as the average Londoner“. In 1984, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and China’s premier Zhao Ziyang signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration, agreeing that China would give Hong Kong some political and social autonomy through a “one country, two systems” policy for a 50-year-period.
After the handover, Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region of China, under the principle of “one country, two systems”. The “one country, two systems” principle is enshrined in a document called the Basic Law and the Basic Law is known as Hong Kong’s mini constitution. Basic Law protects rights such as freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, neither of which exist in mainland China.

Now China wants to reduce Hong Kong’s autonomy and that is why in June this year China passed the National Security Law (NLS) for Hong Kong which made it easier to punish protesters and reduce HK’s autonomy.