Russian attack on Georgia

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/08/07/russia.georgia/index.html

Recently, Georgia has began to draw away from Russia and has turned more toward Western influences which I can imagine has been slightly difficult considering several rebel regions of Georgia still receive support from Russia. Allegedly, a bomb was dropped near Georgia's capital, and although no one was killed (because it didn't go off), witnesses say the fighter planes came from the direction of Russia, dropped the bomb, and then turned around and flew back toward Russia. While Russian officials are denying the allegation, it seems a little unlikely it wasn't them because of growing tensions in the past few months; not only is Georgia turning away from Russian influence, but they have accused Russia in 2002 of flying fighter planes over Georgian territory and Georgia also deported four Russians claiming they were spys. I don't know much about Russia and its foreign relations, but from what I have gathered they can be a little intense; I would definitely not want to be on Russia's bad side-- especially if I was a neighboring country. What I am wondering is how can Russia get away with accusations of murdering ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko and journalist Anna Politkovskaya, and now this, without so much as a raised eyebrow from the western world?

Bush and Global Warming

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6930105.stm

So it's not entirely shocking that if the President were to address the issue of global warming and greenhouse gas emissions, that he would do so now with only a year remaining in his term. Actually, I have to give him props for actually following through with it BUT I don't think inviting the most economically progressive countries to discuss solutions is the best alternative. While these countries are creating the most emissions, they aren't necessarily being affected to the extent of developing and indigenous countries. I also think not much will come of the meeting, considering (1) it is doubtful Bush even believes in global warming, and (2) the deadline Bush promised the UN would make progress is in 2009...after he is out of office.

American Media is Poopy

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6927389.stm

The past few days have been filled with stories about the bridge collapse in Minnesota; it is estimated that up to 30 people are missing, and there is an insane about of frenzy in the local media making sure our bridges are "up to par". My internet has been down lately, and I just figured that surely there must be nothing else going on in the world if all of our media is so focused on this collapse. But this morning on BBC I found in article that mentioned that 20 million people in South Asia have been displaced because of flooding, and an additional 200 are dead. If this were to happen in the United States, in that 20 million of us were displaced, it would be impossible to imagine the damage to our communities and our way of life. I fully sympathize with the families of the people missing in the bridge collapse, but I think more attention could have been on the victims of the flooding in Asia.

Rampant Rape in the Congo

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/07/30/congo.rape.reut/index.html

This article describes how brutal mass rape has increased in the Congo, and most of the suspects are in the Republic's "police" force. Most of the time victims are females whose fathers, brothers, uncles, or sons are forced to rape them, and afterwards they are either killed or mutilated. There was brief mention that the "police" responsible for these crimes are likely the same people behind the mass murders in Rwanda years ago, but I am not very familiar with the genocide...I was wondering if anyone knew a possible motive behind these crimes?

Baby Smuggling and Brief Mention of the EU

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6917308.stm

The article discussed a recent increase in baby smuggling in Bulgaria to Western European countries, especially in the UK and France. As of now, human trafficking is only punishable by minimal immigration penalties, which is an easy financial risk to take considering a baby can be sold for up to $10,000. However what I found most interesting is a quote in the article:

Bulgaria has been under strong international pressure to crack down on organised crime since joining the European Union earlier this year.

We discussed in the class the obvious benefits and consequences of the Western Influence and Modernization, however I thought we focused primarily on the negative, even siting the European Union as an example. But this article suggests the EU to be a good thing, and in fact it is the international pressure from joining the EU that has reduced crime levels and has paid more attention to baby smuggling in recent years. It is important to understand that there are some cultural practices that we don't agree with and certainly try to impose our beliefs on, however I think this is an example in which all innocent people regardless of cultural roots can benefit from thanks to pressures from the Western world.

Aquafina comes from your tap!

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/07/27/pepsico.aquafina.reut/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

While this article focused on the growing environmental concern that bottled water just translates to an overflow of plastic bottles in landfills, I thought the article failed to truly address a genuinely ironic truth of the bottled water industry. According to the article, two of the leading bottled water companies, Aquafina and Dasani, use tap water. This discovery forces many environmentalists to wonder why on earth are people insisting on drinking bottled water if it is coming from the same source as their tap water? Surely the convenience of having bottled water everywhere is nice, but isn't it more convenient to have your own water from your own tap (which can also save you at least a buck)? The article also really doesn't pay much attention to the tremendous energy costs of transporting bottled water from "natural springs" aka water from foreign and exotic countries to the United States. Instead, the article talked about how bottled water doesn't bring in very much profit to the Pepsi company, and how the increase in environmental awareness will not impact the bottled water industry...which is ultimately frustrating because we insist on causing further environmental harm on things we already have...essentially for free!