BBC News: Can the World stop Genocide?

A short essay over at the BBC about the mechanics or Politics in face of Genocide and Mass Murder. Interesting and frustrating at the same time.

The UN was founded to stop and prevent wars.

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz in power since 1959. Has led his country into isolation and missed the chance to open his society after the fall of communism in the late 1980’s. Although the US is also to blame for the decades of useless embargo it’s mostly Mr Castro’s fault that Cuba is such a miserable place.

Robert Gabriel Mugabe running or better ruining his country since 1980. Great work! It has fallen from being Africa’s high ranking food producer to a starving and terribly poor country. He hunted down gays, disowned white farmers and wasted huge amounts of foreign aid with his cronies.

Kim Jong-il is since 1994 continuing his fathers work of starving and killing his own people. While neighboring South Korea and China have made huge progress his country spiraled downwards. But at least he became a world famous atomic bomb salesman and movie collector. Well done little man.

Muammar al-Qaddafi - self proclaimed leader of Libya since 1969. Sponsored terror on his people and the west for decades. Although he finally succumbed to American pressure and military power his country is still in ruins. Economic reforms are badly needed although it is rich in oil. His family and cronies have a total grip on the country. The rule of his laws is harsh, there is no political culture nor any official working opposition.

Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud current King of the House of Saud, which is running the richest and most depressive country in the world since 1744. The House of Saud teamed up with Wahhabism - an especially conservative brand of Islam to sanctify it’s hold on power. The country riches are mostly given to the huge royal family - according to Wikipedia around 25.000 people. The Saud tyranny and grip on power is supported by the US since 1945. Most islamic terrorism is funded with Saudi money as well as manpower. Osama bin Laden is the most prominent example. Saudi clerics are among the fiercest in the region and they can rely on the official religious police to see their rules empowered.

Did I miss anyone? I am not sure to include Iran, since it’s people to continue so much to oppress themselves. So I consider it more like a fascist state with changing players at the top. Suggestions welcomed!

Before 1914 the world was already starting a global society without any political systems to divide them.

Then Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, was assassinated by a terrorist which started the first half of the great war from 1914 till 1945. It took half a century to restore the global society to the same flow of goods and people like before 1914. It took Europe another World War to finally start the European Union.

Are we now having a new global war thanks to 9/11? Instead of communism and capitalism will we have a competition between Islam Fundamentalism vs. Western Democratic Idealism?

Our global society is still very young and unstable - are these the wars to unite us? Is the horror of war the only way to break down national differences?

The US wants that Iran, North Korea and many other countries give up their atomic bombs. On the other side they recently started new programs to build such weapons of mass destruction (or even smaller tasks like bunker busting). Plus recent events have shown us, that the US adopted a new doctrine to strike first …

Anyone surprised that even more countries want nukes?!

Ed sent me this great link: BBC Global Dimming (from 2005). A great documentation about the complexity and effects of climate change. This one concentrates less on CO2 and Methane (the usual suspects) but simply on dirt & dust in the atmosphere.

Here is a more scientific Wikipedia link for some more background information. As usual with BBC stuff: highly recommended.

Thanks Ed!