Question of the week 32: Fugitive

Hi and welcome to this week’s question of the week! This week, the word ‘fugitive’ will be covered in the following question:

How do fugitives get caught?

A fugitive is a person that is on the run from the government or the police, with the purpose of avoiding arrest. Individuals who have committed crimes such as corruption, drug dealing, and murder are most likely to become fugitives due to the severity of the crime and consequent penalty. Since individuals become fugitives when authorities cannot find them, various methods are required to find them. Here are five ways in which policemen can track down and catch fugitives:

• Use the location of bank transactions to trace the fugitive
• Use bounties (reward for capture) to encourage people to help find the fugitive
• Use family members to convince the fugitive to turn him/herself in
• Authorities collaborating with each other across regions/countries to share information on the fugitive
• Trace phone calls made by the fugitive

In short: A fugitive is a person that is on the run from the government or the police. Catching a fugitive may not be easy, but there are a number of methods to catch them. These include tracing bank transactions, bounties, using family members, having authorities collaborate, and tracing phone calls.

If you have any questions, doubts, or would like to contribute, then please do not hesitate to leave a comment!

Question of the week 31: Regime

Hi and welcome to this week’s question of the week! This week the word ‘regime’ will be covered in the following question:

Why do political regimes falter?

A political regime is a government that puts rules, regulations, norms, and laws for citizens of a country to abide. It is either elected through a country’s citizens, through force, or through a governmental procedure.

Here are some reasons why political regimes falter:

1) Citizen rebellion – When a government does not provide what its citizens want and maintains its power, riots or rebellions may occur. This is especially prevalent in countries with an autocratic regime. Violent behavior would then force the political regime to leave.

2) Pressure from other countries – When a political regime does not respect human rights, other countries and organizations may put pressure on that regime to either change their ways of running a country or risk facing a trade embargo or even a conflict. One example is the spread of Communism which capitalism tried to contain in the Vietnam War.

3) Government not keeping its promises – When a president or prime minister is elected, that individual will put in place his or her political regime. This includes a set of goals and promises that were said during the political campaign before election. However, when a government cannot meet its promises, the leader’s trust, reputation, and popularity begins to falter, thereby leading to new elections.

4) Corruption, bribery, or other legal issues – Sometimes the leader of a country has a personal agenda that is not to the interest of a country. Corruption and bribery not only wastes taxpayer money for personal gain, it also limits government investments in improving the country’s standards of living. A result of this would be that the leader does not get re-elected, gets impeached, or that the reputation of the whole political party would be lost.

In short: A political regime is the rules, regulations, norms, and laws that are set by a government. They can fail if there is a citizen uprising, if there is pressure from other countries to stop the regime, if the regime does not meet its expectations, or if legal issues plague the regime leader.

If you have any questions, then please do not hesitate to leave a comment!

Question of the week 30: Riots

Hi and welcome to this week’s ‘Question of the Week’! I hope that everybody has had or is having a nice summer vacation! However, as is with every holiday, it comes to an end. Nevertheless, the question of the week is back. This week, the word ‘Riot’ will be covered in the following question:

Do riots create more change than peaceful demonstrations and protests?

The term riot stands for a violent public uprising, where a group of people create civil unrest. Examples include, the riots that occurred in London that started from a peaceful protest against the police for shooting and killing a person, and the riots that broke out in the Middle-East to topple the dictatorial/autocratic regimes.

Demonstrations, protests, and riots all have a common goal, to create change. How they achieve these changes however are different. Both demonstrations and protests can be done peacefully. For instance, a group of people that protest against the country’s involvement in war can show this through creating signs and showing negative pictures in the hope that it would persuade decision makers to back out from the war. If the protest gains supporters over time, it would then force the government to make changes.

A riot on the other hand involves violent behavior in order to intimidate decision makers into making changes. This type of behavior has, for instance, led the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to create changes in the Syrian parliament and give in to some demands to retain peace in the country. Riots however do not have to create positive changes for the rioters. As is evident in the London riots, changes have been made by the British police force in how decision-making is done during such situations. All that the rioters gained from their actions were court appearances and penalties.

To say that riots create more change than peaceful demonstrations and protests is incorrect as both create them. However, riots have a more dramatic way in showing social frustration and thus leads to quicker changes. This usually comes at the expense of the rioters themselves as they end up doing more harm than good.

In short: Riots are violent public uprisings where people try to create change through wrecking havoc. Whilst riots may create change faster, it does not mean that it will create a positive change for them. Demonstrations and protests on the other hand are more peaceful, and allow other people to understand the changes. Through this way, it forces the government and/or decision makers to create changes since their reputation and popularity is put at stake.

If you have any questions, doubts, or would like to contribute, then please do not hesitate to leave a comment!