akrish

I started reading the news recently (yes I used to not read the news or really care what was going on in the world) and it’s making me really depressed. I subscribed to the New York Times’ RSS feed and here’s what I read about today.

• 16 Dead in Afghan Helicopter Crash – Last week there was the Iranian plane crash that killed over 100 people and now this. The middle east is still as depressing as ever.
• Explosion Kills 9 in Afghanistan – These I.E.Ds are still littering afghani streets and pretty much just wreaking havoc. not good.
• Chinese Question Police Absence in Ethnic Riots – First of all there were massive ethnic riots in China between Uighurs and the Han, and second of all, the police really didn’t do a good job of stopping the initial riots of the Uighurs and the ensuing retaliation of the Han.
• Explosions at 2 Hotels in Indonesia Kill at least 9 – Yup, and I’ll be in Bali in just a couple of days…
• 5 Officers Shot and 2 Suspects Killed in N.J. Melee – And even at home things aren’t pretty. This one is a pretty violent gunfight.

I guess there is some light in all of this but it doesn’t seem like much consolation

• Mauritians See Chance to Break Cycle of Coups – After years of living under military regimes, the Mauritians appear to be having a legitimate election. Of course, the current ruler is a pretty strong favorite to win, and he first came to power via a coup, so while this is good, it’s not all that amazing.
• Signs of Hope Emerge in West Bank – The Palestians, no longer under Hamas, is experience some economic growth and some form of peace. There has been a lot less violence between Israel and Palestine over the last year or so and I personally am pretty hopeful for some sort of peace agreement.

And while most of the world is as chaotic as ever, Israel seems to be relatively peaceful. Of course it’s a pretty precarious peace here, but there haven’t been any commotion since I’ve been here, so that’s pretty good.

I think this is partly why I don’t like to read the news. I guess it’s good to know what’s going on in the world, but when the world is as messed up as it is, it just makes me depressed.

So I’ve been reading The Economist a bit recently and they have a lot of international news. Unfortunately most of it isn’t good. Reading it this morning kinda got me depressed. Here’s what I read:

1. Brazil: Teenagers in Brazil, specifically Rio de Janeiro, are walking around with machine guns selling cocaine and marijuana in open-air markets. Policemen, officials and ordinary people are pretty much turning the other cheek. Pretty scary, but I guess the good news is that the mayor is supposedly trying to clean things up, but he hasn’t gotten very far. Read about it here.
2. The rest of the Americas: Venezuela has a reported murder rate of 48 in 100,000. That’s the second highest in the world, second only to El Salvador (another central american country). Pretty much I don’t want to go to South America. I don’t understand how people can live and be productive if they’re constantly fearing for their lives. Oh by the way, that’s just the reported rate, it doesn’t count most police-related deaths, prison deaths, and others. Read this article, it’s really scary.
3. India: The Ganges is ridiculously polluted, and so is a lot of India for that matter. So my question is… the Ganges is supposedly holy right? then why is it so polluted? Shouldn’t it be something that Indians are proud to take care of? Maybe I’m just being naive here but I really don’t get it. The problem is that, since the Ganges is holy, people continue to bathe and drink the water, and then they get sick. But again there’s some good news in that there are environmentalists that are working to clean it up, but so far they haven’t been very successful. Read about this here.
4. China: Olympic athletes are refusing to compete in endurance events because they’re worried that the pollution will affect their performance in the future. This just makes me really sad. Pretty soon people won’t want to go outside because there’s too much air pollution. Kind of reminds me of Wall-E…

And don’t even get my started on the middle east. That region is just a disaster.
And now to cheer you up…