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!