World's Ten Most Corrupt Leaders

You gotta love the internet..makes our job faster! Check out Erap Estrada and his fellow crook Ferdinand Marcos.


Name Position Funds embezzled
1. Mohamed Suharto President of Indonesia (1967–1998) $15–35 billion
2. Ferdinand Marcos President of the Philippines (1972–1986) 5–10 billion
3. Mobutu Sese Seko President of Zaire (1965–1997) 5 billion
4. Sani Abacha President of Nigeria (1993–1998) 2–5 billion
5. Slobodan Milosevic President of Serbia/Yugoslavia (1989–2000) 1 billion
6. Jean-Claude Duvalier President of Haiti (1971–1986) 300–800 million
7. Alberto Fujimori President of Peru (1990–2000) 600 million
8. Pavlo Lazarenko Prime Minister of Ukraine (1996–1997) 114–200 million
9. Arnoldo Alemán President of Nicaragua (1997–2002) 100 million
10. Joseph Estrada President of the Philippines (1998–2001) 78–80 million

World's Ten Most Corrupt Leaders-
1. Defined as former political leaders who have been accused of embezzling the most funds from their countries over the past two decades.
2. All sums are estimates of alleged embezzlement and appear in U.S. dollars.

World's Worst Dictators, 2005

Name Country In Power Since
1. Omar al-Bashir Sudan 1989
2. Kim Jong Il North Korea 1994
3. Than Shwe Myanmar 1992
4. Hu Jintao China 2003
5. King Abdullah Saudi Arabia 2005
6. Muammar al-Qaddafi Libya 1969
7. Pervez Musharraf Pakistan 2001
8. Saparmurat Niyazov Turkmenistan 1990
9. Robert Mugabe Zimbabwe 1980
10. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Equatorial Guinea 1979

Prepared by David Wallechinsky for Parade after consultation with Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, Amnesty International, and Reporters without Borders.

Source: Transparency International Global Corruption Report 2004.

Freedom in the World, 2005

Since 1978, Freedom House has published Freedom in the World, an annual comparative assessment of the state of political rights and civil liberties around the world. Widely used by policy makers, journalists, and scholars, the 600-page survey is considered the definitive report on freedom around the globe. The 2005 ratings reflect global events from Dec. 1, 2003, through Nov. 30, 2004.

According to the survey, 89 countries are free. Their 2.8 billion inhabitants (44% of the world's population) enjoy a broad range of rights. Fifty-four countries representing 1.2 billion people (19%) are considered partly free. Political rights and civil liberties are more limited in these countries, in which corruption, dominant ruling parties, or, in some cases, ethnic or religious strife is often the norm. The survey finds that 49 countries are not free. The 2.4 billion inhabitants (37%) of these countries, nearly three-fifths of whom live in China, are denied most basic political rights and civil liberties. In 2004, Russia was the only country to register a negative category change, moving from partly free to not free.

The list below features only independent countries. Freedom House's separate listing of territories reveals that four territories received the lowest possible political rights rating: Chechnya (Russia), Kashmir (Pakistan), Tibet (China), and Western Sahara (Morocco); of those, Chechnya and Tibet also received the lowest possible civil liberties ratings.
FREE
* Ranking: 1
* Andorra
* Australia
* Austria
* Bahamas
* Barbados
* Belgium
* Canada
* Cape Verde
* Chile
* Costa Rica
* Cyprus
* Czech Republic
* Denmark
* Dominica
* Estonia
* Finland
* France
* Germany
* Hungary
* Iceland
* Ireland
* Italy
* Kiribati
* Liechtenstein
* Luxembourg
* Malta
* Marshall Islands
* Mauritius
* Micronesia
* Nauru
* Netherlands
* New Zealand
* Norway
* Palau
* Poland
* Portugal
* San Marino
* Slovakia
* Slovenia
* Spain
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* Tuvalu
* United Kingdom
* United States
* Uruguay
* Ranking: 1.5
* Belize
* Bulgaria
* Greece
* Grenada
* Japan
* Latvia
* Monaco
* Panama
* St. Kitts and Nevis
* St. Lucia
* St. Vincent and Grenadines
* South Africa
* South Korea
* Suriname
* Taiwan
* Ranking: 2
* Antigua and Barbuda
* Argentina
* Benin
* Botswana
* Croatia
* Dominican Republic
* Ghana
* Guyana
* Israel
* Lithuania
* Mali
* Mexico
* Mongolia
* Samoa
* Sao Tome and Principe
* Vanuatu
* Ranking: 2.5
* Brazil
* El Salvador
* India
* Jamaica
* Lesotho
* Namibia
* Peru
* Philippines
* Romania
* Senegal
* Serbia and Montenegro
* Thailand

PARTLY FREE
* Ranking: 3
* Albania
* Bolivia
* East Timor
* Ecuador
* Honduras
* Kenya
* Macedonia
* Madagascar
* Nicaragua
* Niger
* Papua New Guinea
* Paraguay
* Seychelles
* Solomon Islands
* Sri Lanka
* Trinidad and Tobago
* Turkey
* Ranking: 3.5
* Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Fiji
* Georgia
* Indonesia
* Moldova
* Mozambique
* Sierra Leone
* Tanzania
* Ukraine
* Venezuela
* Ranking: 4
* Bangladesh
* Colombia
* Comoros
* The Gambia
* Guatemala
* Guinea-Bissau
* Malawi
* Malaysia
* Nigeria
* Tonga
* Zambia
* Ranking: 4.5
* Armenia
* Burkina Faso
* Congo, Rep. of
* Gabon
* Jordan
* Kuwait
* Liberia
* Morocco
* Singapore
* Uganda
* Ranking: 5
* Bahrain
* Burundi
* Djibouti
* Ethiopia
* Nepal
* Yemen

NOT FREE
* Ranking: 5.5
* Afghanistan
* Algeria
* Angola
* Azerbaijan
* Bhutan
* Brunei
* Cambodia
* Central African Republic
* Chad
* Egypt
* Guinea
* Kazakhstan
* Lebanon
* Maldives
* Mauritania
* Oman
* Pakistan
* Qatar
* Russia
* Rwanda
* Tajikistan
* Togo
* Tunisia
* Ranking: 6
* Cameroon
* Congo, Dem. Rep. of
* Cote d'Ivoire
* Iran
* Iraq
* Swaziland
* United Arab Emirates
* Ranking: 6.5
* Belarus
* China
* Equatorial Guinea
* Eritrea
* Haiti
* Laos
* Somalia
* Uzbekistan
* Vietnam
* Zimbabwe
* Ranking: 7
* Cuba
* Libya
* Myanmar (Burma)
* North Korea
* Saudi Arabia
* Sudan
* Syria
* Turkmenistan

1. Countries are ranked according to political rights and civil liberties on a scale from 1.0 (most free) to 7.0 (least free). Source: Freedom in the World, 2005, published by Freedom House. www.freedomhouse.org/research/survey2005.htm .

Global Trends in Freedom

Year Free Partly Free Free
1974 41 (27%) 48 (32%) 63 (41%)
1984 53 (32%) 59 (35%) 55 (33%)
1994 76 (40%) 61 (32%) 54 (28%)
2004 89 (46%) 54 (28%) 49 (26%)
Source: Freedom in the World, an annual comparative assessment of the state of political rights and civil liberties around the world, published by Freedom House. www.freedomhouse.org/research/survey2005.htm .

Information Please® Database, © 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.


The Failed States Index

FOREIGN POLICY and the Fund for Peace have ranked troubled countries that are in danger of collapse. The countries are ranked according to twelve social, economic, political, and military indicators, including economic decline and inequality, demographic pressures, war, and corruption. A failed state is defined as “one in which the government does not have effective control of its territory, is not perceived as legitimate by a significant portion of its population, does not provide domestic security or basic public services to its citizens, and lacks a monopoly on the use of force.” The indexes countries at risk, not countries that have already failed. Below are the top 20 most vulnerable countries.

* 1. Sudan ( Darfur/ Janjaweed Issues/ State Sponsored Terrorism)
* 2. Dem. Rep. of the Congo
* 3. Côte D'Ivoire
* 4. Iraq (Under US Occupation)
* 5. Zimbabwe
* 6. Chad
* 7. Somalia
* 8. Haiti
* 9. Pakistan (Under military dictatorship sponsored by the US)
* 10. Afghanistan (Under US control)
* 11. Guinea
* 12. Liberia (Recently elected the First Woman President in Africa)
* 13. Central African Rep.
* 14. North Korea
* 15. Burundi
* 16. Yemen
* 17. Sierra Leone
* 18. Myanmar (Aung San Suu Kyi, still in house arrest, passed over ASEAN chairmanship due to pressure from other members, EU and the US)
* 19. Bangladesh
* 20. Nepal (Under civil unrest, King Gyanendra still effectively control the state, Maoist attacks and figure prominently in recent protests)

Source: The Fund for Peace www.fundforpeace.org , 2006.

Blame Canada!

Oh my...

Filipino table etiquette punished at local school
Lunch monitor tells student his eating habits are ‘disgusting’

BY ANDY BLATCHFORD



The Chronicle



A Roxboro woman has filed a formal complaint with a local school board after her son was disciplined by a lunch program monitor at Ecole Lalande for eating in what she says is a customary Filipino manner.



Luc Cagadoc’s table behaviour is traditionally Filipino; he fills his spoon by pushing the food on his plate with a fork, his mother, Maria Theresa Gallardo, says.



But after being punished by his school’s lunch program monitor more than 10 times this year for his mealtime conduct — including his technique — the seven-year-old told Gallardo said last week that he was too embarrassed to eat his dinner.



“Mommy, I don’t want to eat anymore,” Gallardo says Luc told her at the kitchen table April 11. “My teacher is telling me that eating with a spoon and fork is yucky and disgusting.”



When he eats with both a spoon and fork, instead of only one utensil, the Grade 2



student said the lunch monitor moves him to a table to sit by himself.



Upset over Luc’s story, Gallardo confronted the lunchtime caregiver the next day and on April 13, she telephoned the school’s principal, Normand Bergeron. His reaction brought her to tears, she says. “His response was shocking to me,” Gallardo, who moved to Montreal from the Philippines in 1999, told The Chronicle. “He said, ‘Madame, you are in Canada. Here in Canada you should eat the way Canadians eat.’



“I find it very prejudiced and it’s racist. He’s supposed to be acting like a professional. This is supposed to be a free country with free expressions of culture and religion. This is how we eat; we eat with a fork and spoon.”



Luc’s father, Aldrin Cagadoc, was also surprised by the comment. “I can’t believe even the principal would say that,” he said. “A person of that calibre, I wouldn’t expect him to say that.”



Gallardo, who operates a day care out of her Roxboro home and is close to completing her studies in early childhood education, wrote a letter last week and lodged a formal complaint to the Commission scolaire Marguerite Bourgeoys (CSMB) yesterday.



She disagrees with the lunch monitor’s approach to teaching children how to eat and says it is emotionally abusive to Luc. When she questioned Bergeron about punishing students for their table habits, she says he replied that, “If your son eats like a pig he has to go to another table because this is the way we do it and how we’re going to do it every time.”



But Bergeron says it was Luc’s eating technique combined with his behaviour at the table that was inappropriate that day, which is why he was moved. “Luc can be turbulent,” he said yesterday. “Like other children, he is frequently in situations where we have to intervene. It’s normal, he’s a child. He is in a period of learning.”



The principal of the 387-student Roxboro school said he explained his position on using two utensils to Gallardo during their telephone conversation. “I said, ‘Here, this is not the manner in which we eat.’



“I don’t necessarily want students to eat with one hand or with only one instrument, I want them to eat intelligently at the table,” he said. “I want them to eat correctly with respect for others who are eating with them. That’s all I ask. Personally, I don’t have any problems with it, but it is not the way you see people eat every day. I have never seen somebody eat with a spoon and a fork at the same time.”



CSMB spokesman Brigitte Gauvreau says the board will not comment — due to confidentiality procedures — until Gallardo’s complaint is filed and she makes a public statement.
---------------------


From West Island Chronicle:
http://www.westislandchronicle.com/pages/article.php?noArticle=6063

The Politics of No and the Deodorant Commercial Models

(Images: 1) The deodorant models. Imagine Imee Marcos whose Daddy waged a nasty war against the communist at the backing of the United States raising fists alonsgide with her mortal enemy, Satur Ocampo. It is so sick. 2)One of the cash coupons found in Ayala Avenue, Makati City during an Anti-Arroyo rally staged by the opposition. This confirms the systematic and well-funded effort to destablize the government. 300 Pesos are paid each person to crowds usually gathered from the slums of Makati.)

Finally, the Batasan 5 left the protective custody of the Philippine Congress after rebellion charges were dropped by the Makati RTC. Strangely, for a militant leader, the five was too cowardly to face arrest and jail time; instead they hid under the skirt of democracy, the very same space that these flimsy-veiled Communists always wanted to overthrow in the history of their so-called ‘struggle’. Give us a break, these political parties – Bayan Muna, Anakpawis, Gabriela and other militant groups who you can always count on to scream “NO to (fill in the blanks)” and Anti-“This or That” and “(name of the seated Philippine President)/US regime” tirade in every street demonstrations there is available. Punching the air with their clenched fist that reminds us with deodorant commercials (only with unsavory looking Communist hags and cadres), an anachronistic defiance of every thing that is not connected to their own anti-establishment, pro-Communist agenda, these are the same groups that receive (and up still is unaccountable) the much-vilified Countrywide Development Fund or simply Pork Barrel.

Of course, these militant groups have a finger in everything, like the consummate politicians and demagogues they are. At the University of the Philippines, the premier state-run school of higher learning, these very same groups have penetrated and manipulated student politics, making sure they have control in the major student publications, in student councils and usually representations to the Board of Regents. During the Estrada years, under the recommendation of KASAMA sa UP, the largest and loose dictatorial association of student councils in the university- composed mostly of left-leaning and sympathizers of the Reds, Hannah Serrana of UP Cebu College was appointed as the Student Regent. Before her term expired, she was found out having embezzled millions of pesos of funds that was supposed to be used in constructing an alumni hall in UP Diliman. Until now, she and her family was nowhere to be found. Prior to Serrana, her compatriot Desiree Jaranilla of UP Miagao also sat on the Board of Regents as the student representative but her left-leaning tendencies and incompetence earned her a pariah status even in her home campus. Although UP Iloilo like UP Manila has been more centrist traditionally than other campuses, sympathizers in UP Iloilo have dwindled in the past 10-15 years, with left-leaning student council candidates are junked in favor of a more centrist student leadership.

On the international front, the Terrorist Group tag by EU and Washington given on the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, is well-justified. Aside from the several extortion rackets, gun smuggling, attacks on telecommunications facilities and transportation, encouraging child warriors and other nefarious activities, a Time report in May 13, 2002 (Return to Year Zero by Alex Perry) confirmed the support and the meeting of Filipino Communist guerrillas with their Nepalese counterparts in Kathmandu in 1999 along with Indians and Bangladeshis and “resolved to turn the kingdom into a laboratory for various revolutionary game plans,” which basically making Nepal and the Nepalese people virtual guinea pigs in the communist social experiments. No wonder, communist cadre Roger Rosal recently praised the communist agitations in Kathmandu recently. What the local media failed to take notice is that the Communists in Nepal is as much hated by its people as the authoritarian monarchy of King Gyanendra who ascended to power when the Crown Prince massacred his entire family. As the Time report tagline correctly says “Nepal’s Maoist rebels are murdering, beating, bombing and looting- all in the name of “protecting the people””. So familiar. According to the Kashmir Telegraph, the Maoist communist Revolutionaries from Peru (the lethal Sendero Luminoso), Philippines and India (Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar) are linked with the Revolutionary Internationalists Movement (RIM) of Nepal, which is preparing the ground for the ultimate coming together of the Communist Revolutionaries throughout the world. Sounds sinister? The communist movement in Nepal has killed thousands of people in its protracted struggle to topple the establishment. Very much like in the Philippines and in Peru.

As usual with the Batasan 5 out of their rat holes, expect more noise in Manila. Or maybe in Ayala. Ask Jejomar Binay (You have got to hand it to the man, I am expecting he will single-handedly bring down the recent stock market gains by his Ayala jaunts). Makati taxpayers are shouldering the cost of the usual paid crowds in the stretch of Ayala.

Meanwhile, count that the Commission of Human Rights will always be siding with this troublemakers everytime they are dispersed in demonstrations. I always wondered whose side is the CHR is on. When a police or a soldier is murdered or a common person is inconvenienced by these stupid demonstrations or a legit company victimized by these Communists, criminals, demagogues, bandits, terrorists and troublemakers, the CHR's reaction is strangely muted but when these people cry oppression everytime the law put its foot down, CHR is quick to howl violation of Human Rights. For crying out loud. what is this double-standard application?

Clash of Civilizations?

Does cartoons like this help?

I was at a farewell street party for my Brazillian friend Joao last Saturday, 4th of March 2006. Booze was flowing freely and music was pumping courtesy of the good DJs of soundsrealgood (Edge, Brian and Ant). Anyway, we were about to leave around 4 AM when suddenly a friend of ours (Iranian Dutch) and another Danish friend was suddenly going at each others throats and the Iranian guy was pounding the Dane in the pavement. The reason? The Dane punched the Iranian because the latter's French was bad. Good thing the fight was broke up as soon it started but without the Iranian guy (who happened to be a Muslim) crying out for blood for that unprovoked assault. I wont mention their names here to avoid inflaming the issue. I exchanged SMS with the Iranian hoping to calm him down, as he was bent on looking for the Dane and give him a nasty thrashing. I've known the Dane for like over a year now and he is quite known in my circles as rude, and abrasive. But on the other hand, his namesake who is also a Dane is a bestfriend of mine and was certainly embarassed with the whole issue.

***These are unedited text messages sent to me by my Iranian Dutch friend.

3/05/06
4:14 AM
Fuck that. I am drop ing my friendi home and I am coming for his soul. Forgiveness is for christians.

3/05/06
4:20 AM
I am not smarter then anyone. however i am stronger then most and he will say the price. I am n my way to optigar*. And after i drop the drunk guys off. I will search for him in embassy**. And beat him to an inch from his life.


3/05/06
4:31 AM
I can not, he will pay for his unprovo Ked crime. And I will have him.However we are lost. So perhaps i will be late. But i swear, i will have him. May i burn in hell for all eternity if not. And i shall be kept to my word him and his threats ur es friend will bleed by my hands, i swear to all that is holy and unholy, i will see them bleed.


* Optigar may mean Ortigas Centre. A business district that straddles the cities of Mandaluyong and Pasig, the Philippines.
** embassy or more popularly known as Embassy Superclub is the latest hangout in Manila where most young expats hang out.

The world reeling from a spate of anti-Danish protests in the wake of the offensive cartoons of Jyllands-Posten, incidents like this only confirm the fact that there is still much to learn from each other.

Rebels Without a (Good) Cause

Finally, like manna from heaven, a day after I "wished" that Proclamation 1017 be rescinded, the President lifted the controversial Proclamation. Yesterday, news reports say that the opposition are planning to send a complaint to the United Nations regarding 1017. Whatever that should result with, I couldn't see the UN even take a second look at it when it had more pressing problems of its own like the recent corruption scandals that racked Kofi Annan's term. At a Columbia School symposium, United States Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton on Saturday declared the United Nations is hobbled "by bad management, by sex and corruption and by a growing lack of confidence in its ability to carry out missions.'' It also has to grapple with the mess in Iraq, the recent flagrant flaunting of International Atomic Energy Agency's Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of the Republic of Iran. There is Darfur, the AIDS crises and the avian influenza pandemic, the Hamas victory in the Palestine Territories, the persistent threat of global terrorism and the frequent unilateral response of the United States amongst others. The UN never did really intervene during the Marcos dictatorship did they? Not even ASEAN can interfere in the internal affairs of its members. How many years did it take ASEAN to finally publicly censure Myanmar's military regime? The generals kept Dame Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for several years now, and never allowed her National League for Democracy party to take power even if it won the elections. It took several years and thousands of deaths in East Timor before UN finally stepped in.

Taking the case to the United Nations is an exercise in futility and as far as I know it it is just another ploy by the opposition to gain media mileage as well as an air of international legitimacy over their much-discredited and scorned cause. What scorn is greater than having the general public, the middle forces, the real taxpayers ignore their political acrobatics? In the end, its the people that must decide. Thankfully (and hopefully) , with 1017 lifted, we can finally move on.

Enemies of the State

At the height of the tensions last weekend, the President placed the whole country under the State of National Emergency (Proclamation 1017). While I feel that the power grabbers and coup conspirators should be arrested, detained and charged, the vague powers that the Proclamation encompasses can be chilling. The raid on the Tribune was a huge mistake. Whoever reads that paper anyway? Whoever suggested that raid to GMA should be sacked. Threatening the Fourth Estate, especially in the Philippines is a deathwish. Information is power, and who wields this power but the most freewheeling of all media in Asia? It controls radio, TV, print and the internet. When Marcos left in 1986, EDSA 1 spawned the freest media in this region and its accompanying scourge- irresponsible and payroll journalism. Recent years saw increasing attacks on the media personnel in the country. Although Filipinos ignored the state of emergency, (I visited Greenbelt 25 Feb. 2006, and found that , it was teeming with the usual crowd, there was even a birthday party in Salcedo Village attended by a diplomat from the US Embassy), the effects abroad was panic. Family members called in to check on my friends who are from the US, Brazil, Denmark.

What follow is the full text of Proclamation 1017 declaring a state of national emergency:

MALACAÑANG PALACE
MANILA


PROCLAMATION NO. 1017

PROCLAMATION DECLARING A STATE OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY

WHEREAS, over these past months, elements in the political opposition have conspired with authoritarians of the extreme Left represented by the NDF-CPP-NPA and the extreme Right, represented by military adventurists--the historical enemies of the democratic Philippine State—who are now in tactical alliance and engaged in a concerted and systematic conspiracy, over a broad front, to bring down the duly constituted Government elected in May 2004.

WHEREAS, these conspirators have repeatedly tried to bring down the President;

WHEREAS, the claims of these elements have been recklessly magnified by certain segments of the national media;

WHEREAS, this series of actions is hurting the Philippine State--by obstructing governance including hindering the growth of the economy and sabotaging the people’s confidence in government and their faith in the future of this country;

WHEREAS, these actions are adversely affecting the economy;

WHEREAS, these activities give totalitarian forces of both the extreme Left and extreme Right the opening to intensity their avowed aims to bring down the democratic Philippine State;

WHEREAS, Article 2, Section 4 of our Constitution makes the defense and preservation of the democratic institutions and the State the primary duty of Government;

WHEREAS, the activities above-described, their consequences, ramifications and collateral effects constitute a clear and present danger to the safety and the integrity of the Philippine State and of the Filipino people;

NOW, THEREFORE, I Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, President of the Republic of the Philippines and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested upon me by Section 18, Article 7 of the Philippine Constitution which states that: “ The President…whenever it becomes necessary,…may call out (the) armed forces to prevent or suppress…rebellion…, “ and in my capacity as their Commander-in-Chief, do hereby command the Armed Forces of the Philippines, to maintain law and order throughout the Philippines, prevent or suppress all forms of lawless violence as well any act of insurrection or rebellion and to enforce obedience to all the laws and to all decrees, orders and regulations promulgated by me personally or upon my direction; and as provided in Section 17, Article 12 of the Constitution do hereby declare a State of National Emergency.

IN WITNESS HEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the Republic of the Philippines to be affixed.

Done in the City of Manila, this 24th day of February, in the year of Our Lord, two thousand and six.


GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO
President
Republic of the Philippines

Freedom is not always absolute. Freedom comes with a responsibility. The problem with this proclamation is it blurs the definition. Rights can be trampled and for a country who was under a dictatorship for a long time, people will do anything to protect that freedom (sadly, no one raises a howl about responsibility).

As of this writing states of emergency are imposed on the following (from wikipedia):

• Nepal has been in a state of emergency since political parties and the constitution were suspended by King Gyanendra in response to Maoist rebel factions.
• Egypt has been in a state of emergency almost without interruption since the Six-Day War in June 1967.
• Brunei Darussalam has been in a state of emergency since December 12, 1962 in response to a pro-independence rebellion.
• Swaziland has been in a state of emergency since the constitution was suspended by King Sobhuza II on April 12, 1973
• Israel has been in a state of emergency since the 1948 War of Independence (May 19, 1948- )
• Syria has been in a state of emergency since the Baathist coup of March 8, 1963, however it is to be relaxed. [7]
• New Mexico (U.S.) declared a state of emergency on August 12, 2005, in counties bordering Mexico as a result of illegal immigration and border crime.
• Arizona (U.S.) also declared a state of emergency for the same reasons on August 14, 2005, in four southern border counties.
• Louisiana (U.S.) declared a state of emergency on August 27, 2005, due to the imminent threat posed by Hurricane Katrina. [8]
• Mississippi and Alabama (U.S.) also declared a state of emergency on August 28, 2005, in response to Hurricane Katrina.
• Texas and Arkansas (U.S.) declared a state of emergency on September 2, 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
• Tennessee, Georgia, Oklahoma, Florida, West Virginia, North Carolina, Utah, and Colorado (U.S.) declared a state of emergency on September 5, 2005, bringing the total to thirteen states under a state of emergency as a result of Hurricane Katrina.
• France has entered a state of emergency effective midnight, November 8, 2005, in response to civil unrest
• Philippines has entered a state of emergency effective February 24, 2006, in response to coup threats against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's government in the midst of the 20th anniversary of the 1986 People Power Revolution that toppled the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

I am not scared of the proclamation, what I am worried is that it will be abused. The sooner it is lifted, the better for the country.