World of Opinion
On climate change: The economic and financial world has become global: but the globalists that roam it travel like sleepwalkers.
They tell us that in 10 to 20 years China will be the biggest world power, with India in the second place, and in the meantime they throw themselves into China and they relocate services to India.
Up to a point, in the short term, they are right, because the development of China is extraordinary. But is it sustainable? Can it last?
At the half of this century the Chinese should reach 1.5 billion people, and the same goes for the Indians. But how are we going to feed them?
It is a question that doesn’t shake the sleepwalkers. The answer is obvious to them: we will farm more. But how are we going to do it if water is growing scarce even today?
Planet Earth is risking a terrible water and food crisis, but our global sleepwalker doesn’t know and doesn’t want to know anything about this.
So far the sleepwalkers have coped by saying that there have always been climate changes and there’s nothing we can do about it. But no, that’s not true. This time, for the first time, it’s all our fault.”
On friendly fire:
In the case of Lance Corporal Matty Hull, who was killed when two U.S. aircraft mistakenly fired on his convoy in the first weeks of the Iraq war, investigations were conducted by the relevant military bodies in Britain, as in the US.
This is not, however, where their obligations stop. The authorities, military and civilian, also have a duty to be honest with the bereaved family about exactly what happened. It is a duty that is moral, as well as judicial.
That the relatives of many servicemen and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan have had to wait so long – and in some cases fight – for the clarity they should have been accorded as of right is nothing short of a disgrace.
The experience of Lance Corporal Hull’s widow, Susan, has been particularly bitter. In common with more than half of all Iraq war widows, she had to wait almost four years for the inquest into the death of her husband to be opened.
When it finally got under way, it was adjourned by the coroner, Andrew Walker, last Friday because he needed authorization to air the cockpit video of the US pilots in action – and British officials refused point-blank to give it without first obtaining clearance from the Americans. Two further facts are also pertinent.
The coroner had sight of the video only because he had received a copy “unofficially.” And second, Mrs Hull had previously been told such a video did not exist.
Forgive our doubts. Had the coroner not received a copy of the video “unofficially,” had another copy not found its way into the public domain via The Sun newspaper, how long would it have taken for Lance Corporal Hull’s inquest to reach its conclusion? More to the point, would his family have ever learnt the truth?
This case was described … as a “real test for UK-US relations”. We disagree. It was a test of honesty, common sense and humanity – a test which, until the eleventh hour, and until they felt the intense pressure of outraged public opinion, officials on both sides of the Atlantic had grievously and shamefully failed.
On A-bomb survivors:
The Supreme Court … handed down a ruling criticizing the attitudes of administrative organs, both central and local, concerning financial assistance to atomic bomb survivors living outside the country.
Based on the five-year statute of limitations stipulated in the Local Government Law, the central and local governments have been refusing to pay health care benefits when survivors living overseas claimed the benefits.
In response to the Supreme Court ruling, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will stop applying the statute of limitations and disburse unpaid benefits to the survivors.
This is a natural course of action, taking into consideration the intent of the Atomic Bomb Victims Relief Law, which calls for “comprehensive assistance measures” for atomic bombing survivors.
According to the ministry, among atomic bomb survivors living overseas, there are several hundred people who did not receive health care benefits partially or totally due to the application of the statute of limitations rule.
The average age of the atomic bombing survivors is 74. The government should deal with their benefit claims speedily.
On the Mideast and the need for skilled manpower:
With civil wars, bitter infighting, sectarian strife and political chaos raging across the Middle East, it comes across as little surprise that regional economies are facing collapse one after the other.
What is more, the skilled manpower needed, now more than ever, to steer them to safe zones is packing bags and making for greener pastures at an unprecedented rate.
Reports coming from Lebanon are indicative of the trend across much of the troubled region.
Apparently, there was hope in exiled and expat Lebanese at the end of the 15-year civil war to come home and help with the rehabilitation and reconstruction of their homeland.
But just as the country was getting back on its feet and stood ready to record a bumper tourist season, last summer’s 34-day war with Israel wrecked it again.In situations like the street violence in Lebanon, the hell-breaking-loose civil war in Iraq, and armed Hamas-Fatah battles in Palestinian territories, respective economies are shattered beyond short-term remedy and the trained, skilled labour force invariably takes off for more secure surroundings. While Arabs rightly take pride in their nationalistic tendencies, they cannot be faulted for being fed up with aspiring leaders’ disregard for common man and country. Having lived through chaotic situations most of their lives, why should they not want a better future for their children? But if these countries are to snap out of the present malaise, they will need a wide human resource base. Going by on-ground reality, materialising that seems easier said than done. The leaders would have to make firm commitments and show by meaningful example that, in the interest of all concerned, the violence will cease and doors to progress opened. Nothing less will check the Mideast brain drain.