The Distracted English

It seems to me that the English have, over the past 7 days or so, become somewhat distracted and not as aware as they should be as to what is happening in the big, wide world around them. After all, there were two far more important events taking place than world-wide drought, threats to the water supply, increase of population by multiple millions, further threats to the money supply, growth of Taliban influence and activity, and the election today (Wednesday 30th June) of a new president of Germany. There are, so it would seem, two main contenders. One is Social Democrat Joachim Gauck and the other is Christian Wulff a Christian Democrat, the same party as Chancellor Merkel. He is regarded by Mrs Merkel as a “reliable conservative” There has also, this past weekend, been an important meeting of the G20 nations in Toronto discussing the world’s economic situation.

What were the two far more important events diverting the English? One was the football World Cup and the other the Wimbledon tennis championships. The English have now gone into a state of shock! Their football team was soundly beaten 4 goals to 1 by the highly competent and motivated German team. For the English, to be beaten by Spain or Portugal would be seen as a temporary aberration. To have been beaten by the French would have been embarrassing. But to be beaten by Germany is as though England had lost the war. The other diversion, Wimbledon, is compulsory viewing for most of the English to a virtual total disregard of anything else other than losing at football to Germany. The obligatory strawberries and cream are still served at Wimbledon. The fact that the U.K. has only one representative tennis player of any ability is nowhere near as important as the event – and that representative in fact is a Scotsman!

G20 MEETING IN TORONTO

The Sunday Times – 27th June – G20 backs budget cuts. G20 leaders and finance ministers will today seek to paper over a split on economic policy at their meeting in Toronto, by committing themselves to cutting budget deficits as long as it does not damage the global recovery….. Timothy Geithner the U.S. treasury secretary, has said the focus of today’s G20 meeting should be growth and confidence
International Herald Tribune -- 28thJune – Reluctantly, U.S. to back call for debt reductions. …. to assuage concerns by the United States , Japan, India and other G20 members, the statement was to depict the timetable as an expectation or prediction, rather than as a firm commitment, and was to make it clear that some economies would not be able to meet the deadlines, according to an official who had seen the final draft communiqué on Sunday morning.
Our comment: The agreement essentially was that financial institutions were to be required to hold huge amounts of “high quality” capital to act as a cushion against another financial crisis. But the new rules won’t come into force before 2012! “High quality” assets are usually regarded as being “cash”! And not the “toxic” assets such as Lehman’s Bank in New York , Northern Rock and the Royal Bank of Scotland were piling up quite regardless of the problems being accumulated. Delaying implementation of the agreement is going to leave it wide open for everyone to do just what they want to regardless of the rest of the world. As God said of human society every man will do that which is right in his own eyes! Read “nation” for “everyman”
It’s going to take a real catastrophe before mankind pays attention to his Creator and begins to obey God.

DROUGHT

The Guardian – 25th June – Drought order threat just months after Cumbria floods. Parts of England and Scotland have seen the lowest rainfall since 1964. Areas of north-west England hit only seven months ago by severe floods are now threatened with hosepipe bans and drought orders after the driest start to the year in almost a century, while house-holders in Scotland are facing their first drought order in five years. Many reservoirs in Cumbria are only two-thirds full, with levels falling fast after the lowest rainfall during winter and spring since 1929. …. In November’s floods thousands of homes and businesses were damaged, four bridges collapsed, and a police officer died after more than 30 cm of rain fell in Cumbria in 24 hours.

Our comment: Climatic extremes are getting more and more frequent as time moves along.

The Guardian – 26th June – Water wars loom as demand grows. Fifteen years ago Ismail Serageldin, an Egyptian who was vice-president of the World Bank, shook politicians by predicting that the wars of the 21st century would be fought not over oil or land, but water. So far he has been proved wrong, but escalating demand for water to grow food and provide drinking water for burgeoning urban populations has raised political tensions between many countries. …. Nearly all the world’s major rivers are expected to come under increased pressure to provide farming, industry and drinking water for the three billion extra people expected to be born before the world’s population starts to drop. By 2025, says the UN, nearly one in three people will live in countries that are affected by water shortages. These already affect 450 million people in 29 countries, and according to the World Water Forum, tensions over water rights and allocations are expected to mount.

Our comment: the report shows that there are around 300 potential conflicts around the world. But it also says that …”history suggests very few if any are expected to develop into armed conflict. In the last century, only seven minor skirmishes over water were documented.” However, we are now faced with quite a different situation! Drought is becoming more and more extensive – the world population increase is virtually exponential – and already there are problems as to how the present population might be housed, fed, provided with an infrastructure, provided with jobs, etc – water shortages could be the “last straw” they could be the trigger which when pulled will see major conflicts break out. There are already conflicts over water between Mauritania and Senegal. Just two among a number of nations also in conflict over water.

ETHNIC VIOLENCE

Sunday Times – 20th June – Uzbeks massacred. Ethnic violence exploded last week as Kyrgyz mobs ransacked Uzbek villages, slaughtering residents and burning homes in the south of the country. At least 191 people have been killed and nearly 2,000 injured since the latest bout of violence began. A quarter of a million people have fled their homes and tens of thousands of Uzbeks have fled the country, fearing for their lives. “What is happening is already a tragedy and it could become a catastrophe,” said Antonio Guterres, the head of the United Nations refugee body.

Our comment: There is already conflict between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan over the rivers Amu Daria and the Syr Daria. It wouldn’t take much for actual war to break out between the two. It then doesn’t take much more to embroil other nations, especially when there are already other issues causing problems. The two nations border others which give support to the Taliban, such as Afghanistan. They are also not far from Iran. And thereby close to major oil fields. A weapon to be used against the West would certainly be that of energy supply.

ENERGY SUPPLY

International Herald Tribune – 24th June – Belarus’s gas cut leads to anger in Europe. European officials for the first time on Wednesday accused Belarus of restricting energy supplies through its territory , in what one official described as an “attack” on the European Union amid an increasingly tense energy standoff over unpaid debts on natural gas between Russia and Belarus. Belarus announced Wednesday that it had settled the debt for unpaid deliveries of natural gas at the centre of the dispute, but Russian officials said they had not yet received payment. Belarus restricted natural gas supplies flowing into Lithuania by at least 40 per cent, said Gunther Oettinger, the European commissioner for energy. “This is not only a problem for this one member state.” Mr Oettinger told journalists in Brussels. “It’s an attack, against the whole European Union. We have an expectation that this crisis and these politics between Russia and Belarus should not come to Europe.” …. Poland and Germany also rely partly on Russian natural gas supplied through Belarus. Poland reported a slight dip in gas supplies Wednesday, Reuters reported. Germany, so far, has been unaffected.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

The Independent – 30th June – Pope launches mission to re-evangelise the West. Pope Benedict has created a new office to fight secularisation in Europe. Pope Benedict XVI has created a new office to “re-evangelise” the Western world in an attempt to roll back secularist advances in what the Vatican sees as the traditional heartland of Christendom. The Pope has made no secret of his dislike for secularism and has been determined to persuade Western countries to rediscover their Catholic roots. He has frequently railed against some of the key pillars of secular liberalism such as the acceptance of homosexuality and abortion rights and the use of contraception. ….the Pope said that Europe and North America have suffered from an “eclipse of a sense of God” and needed to be re-evangelised.

SOME CLOSING BRIEF NEWS ITEMS
The Guardian – 25thJune – N.W.England drought order after driest start to year in almost a century.

The Independent – 30thJune – Tropical Storm Alex disrupts oil clean-up.

The Daily Mail – 30th June – The chances of landing a graduate job? One in 270

The Independent – 30th June – Angry Putin issues warning to U.S. over damaged relations.