I watched the 4th presentation in Samantha Zimmerman’s current events series. We learned about the Myanmar Coup, the wrongful expulsion of European Diplomats by Putin leading to protests from the opposition, the post Vale Dam compensation in the form of payouts to families of those who were killed and also in the form of socio-economic and socio-environmental reparations, the brushfire in Perth, Australia causing hundreds to evacuate, the bomb plot to blow up a rally held in France by an Iranian diplomat, and that the US economy is adding almost 50,000 new jobs.

The current event that I found to be the most interesting was the coup in Myanmar. Myanmar is experiencing unrest because people are protesting that there was no voter fraud with their latest election and that Ms Suu Kyi won fairly. Something I found to be the most interesting about this protest was the fact that the protesters used the three finger salute from the Hunger Games to symbolize defiance against authoritarianism. Also, when it comes to protests, at least like we have experienced in the United States recently, most are not very peaceful, but there was no violence between the police and the protestors in Myanmar. The protesters actually gave the police roses and bottled water and called on them to support democracy, which I thought was very interesting and unique. The internet shutdown that occurred because of these protests is quite troubling. The government turned off access to facebook, twitter, and Instagram to prevent the mobilization of more protesters. I feel like this is the best thing that could have happened for the protestors in terms of further showing why they were protesting. Controlling social media and access to the internet is a grave violation of freedom and something that would only happen with an authoritarian government.

This event relates to International Affairs because we learned about current events that are happening around the world. It is very important, especially as International Affairs Scholars, to stay up to date with the news, domestically and internationally, so I very much enjoyed this event and Samantha’s presentation style.