Thursday, June 21, 2007

"Driving towards a brick wall"?

So just what were the actual outcomes of the G8 meeting last week?

I found little in the outputs that made me feel any the more secure - it was all 'moving towards', 'look at', 'review our position', 'agree to think about' - all talk, and very little actual do or will, and certainly no actual definitive targets at which to aim. I concur that it was more of a 'tactical political shift', rather than a positive way forward.

So, rather than attempt to review the entire G8 gamut, this rather eyebrow raising item from freelance journalist Ralph Surette pretty much says it all. Although written very much from a Canadian perspective, I can't find anything in it with which to disagree.

The "Captains of no progress" are still at the helm, and the "dirty, lumbering supertanker called the world economy" shows but only minimal signs of changing course.

How far off is that wall? Is there time to brake and/or change course? How about listening to the G8 String Octet? Maybe they sound a little similar to Nero fiddling as Rome burned? Or the band on the Titanic playing as she slowly went down?
Fading out .... 'For those in peril on the sea........'

Thanks due to David Suzuki for the title of this post.

Today's forecast - Heavy Wars

Oh dear ..... another frightening glimpse of the future?

The UN's top environment official is now predicting massive geo-political disasters caused by water shortage and migration wars in Africa and East Asia. Full story from The Independent.

"Climate change has become a major security issue that could lead to "a world going up in flames", the United Nations' top environment official has warned. From rising sea levels in the Indian Ocean to the increasing spread of desert in Africa's Sahel region, global warming will cause new wars across the world, said Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). "

It looks like our bet-hedging arms dealer (See Monday's blog - Arms dealing - the career of the future?) is possibly a very perceptive chappie indeed.