SURELY THE NEWS CAN'T GET WORSE
With the news as bad as it is these days one might be tempted to fly to somewhere nice in southern Europe, or even America, there to sit in the sun and just get away from it all. However, we read in the Sunday Times last week that to actually sit on the plane and maybe have a bite to eat can be dangerous to your health. From the article we read this: “ An investigation of hygiene standards at 91 airline-food kitchens in America found meals being prepared alongside a menagerie of mice, ants, flies, cockroaches and bacteria. Employees preparing food with their bare hands and surfaces contaminated with listeria, a pathogen that can cause fatal infections in young children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems, as well as pregnant women. The inspections focused upon Gate Gourmet and LSG Sky Chefs which prepare between them about 100 million meals a year for all the major airlines such as British Airways, Delta, Continental etc. An FDA inspector found that “a pathogenically volatile combination of prawns, raw beef, fish, chicken and cheese was being stored at unsafe temperatures. Furthermore laboratory tests on rice at one kitchen found a ‘high coliform count’ indicative of human faecal contamination.” This just adds to the myriad bugs found in the actual seats which are rarely, if ever, properly cleaned and disinfected. And it isn’t just America! Who can doubt that around the world, in airport after airport, throughout Africa and Asia the standards will, if anything, be far worse.
But good news! We read the last chapter and it turns out all right in the end. In fact, the last 4 or 5 chapters are most encouraging. But, in the meantime, the ride is going to be somewhat rocky! Not least because the increase in population also threatens to be a huge problem. The Royal Society has set up a working group of leading experts to examine objectively the whole situation. At the moment the planet’s population numbers 6.8 billion but is likely to be 8.3 billion in 20 years time! As recently as 1800 there were just 1 billion. Already many countries are no longer self-sustaining. And there is nowhere else to go! This planet is it!
PEACE IN NORTHERN IRELAND??
The Daily Mail – 14th July -- Thugs aged eight pummel police in ‘recreational’ riot – Belfast battles left 82 hurt. Mobs who launched frenzied attacks on police in Northern Ireland were accused yesterday of ‘recreational rioting with a sinister edge.’ Children as young as eight were at the heart of the riots surrounding Orange Order parades, which left 82 officers injured. Armed with iron bars and wooden posts, masked rioters attacked police armoured vehicles and shield-wielding officers. The swarming mobs also hurled petrol bombs, empty bottles and bricks and set cars on fire. Police responded with water cannon and fired plastic bullets as they tried to disperse hundreds of protesters during the clashes, which raged for four hours in the nationalist Ardoyne area of north Belfast on Monday. A woman officer had a concrete block thrown on to her head and was pelted with missiles by rioters as police colleagues and ambulance crews came to her aid at the height of the riot. Yesterday she was in a stable condition in hospital. She was the worst wounded of the 82 police officers to have been injured. … in Belfast and other towns over two nights of rioting. …
Fifty-five officers were injured in Monday’s disturbances. Northern Ireland’s Chief Constable Matt Baggott described the disturbances as ‘recreational rioting with a sinister edge’. He accused dissident republicans opposed to the peace process of fomenting the violence. …. Despite the Good Friday agreement of 1998 and a power-sharing coalition between the main political parties – Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionists – age-old sectarian divides between Protestants and Catholics are as strong as ever.
The Independent – 13th July – Orange Order march sparks night of disorder in Belfast. ….three police officers were shot on Sunday during a night of rioting in the city. The two policemen and one policewoman were blasted with a shotgun fired by a masked man who emerged from a crowd of rioters in the North Queen Street area in north Belfast.
Our comment: As we made clear in the last issue of the News Review the Good Friday agreement did not bring peace to Ireland. What it did bring was a big step forward for the eventual absorption of Northern Ireland into the Republic of Ireland as Sinn Fein gains strength and voting power in the Northern Ireland Assembly. It would appear that to be awarded the Liberty Medal to which we referred last time, it can help to have a good public relations specialist assisting.
PEACE AROUND THE WORLD??
The Independent – 13th July – Africa’s day of joy turns to grief as Somali militants strike out at Uganda. Continent fears further attacks as terror group with links to al-Qa’da kills 74 fans watching World Cup final. East African nations stepped up security last night after a double bombing targeting hundreds of people in Uganda watching the World Cup final raised fears that Somali militants planned to expand terrorist attacks across the region. Al-Shabaab, a group which claims to have links with al-Qa’da and is fighting the fragile, Western-backed Somali government, claimed responsibility for its first successful foreign strike. More than 70 people – from Uganda, Eritrea, Ethiopia, India, Ireland and the United States – were killed in the synchronised twin blasts. …. “We will carry out attacks against our enemy wherever they are” said Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, an al-Shaabaab spokesman in Mogadishu. “No one will deter us from performing our Islamic duty.”
Europe could be next on al-Shabaab’s hit list. For the last 18 months Western intelligence agencies have been warning of a mounting threat from al-Shabaab which can take cover among the hundreds of thousands of Somalis who make up the global diaspora. The reverberations of the war in the Horn of Africa reached Melbourne in Australia this time last year after a huge security operation led to the arrest of four Somali men allegedly linked to an al-Shabaab plot.
Our comment: al-Shabaab is intent on taking over Somalia of which it already controls the whole southern half of the country, including the capital of Mogadishu. From this point it will go worldwide to find and intimidate the hundreds and thousands of Somalis who have left the country. Next on the agenda is to finally take over the nations of the Horn of Africa, which is in a strategic position to threaten the trade routes of the west through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea, where they already have considerable influence. These nations are: Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea . A particular target will be the nations of the EU because it has a military base at Bihanga in the west of Uganda where – as the report says – 400 Somali government soldiers are being trained by a mix of Finnish, Irish, Portuguese and French army instructors of the EU. Doesn’t look as though there’s going to be a lot of peace worldwide for quite some time. Maybe Mr Blair with Mr Obama could have a world peace conference with Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, al-Shaabaab’s spokesman. Who knows! there could be a couple of medals in it! As we have quoted before, the bible in a prophecy in Isaiah speaks of people who don’t really know the way to peace and that they lack judgment. As a result they tread a crooked path. And as a result we shall not know peace at this time. What an accurate summation of the world at this point.
Sunday Times – 13th June – Pakistan puppet masters guide the Taliban killers. Growing evidence suggests the government in Islamabad arms the insurgents, gives them targets and has seats on their war council. President Asif Ali Zardari is reported to have recently met captured Taliban leaders. The Pakistan intelligence service is said to back Taliban insurgency and is helping with attacks in Afghanistan.
Our comment: And remember, Pakistan is a nuclear power.
AN ECONOMIC WINTER?
The Guardian – 8th July – A bleak, long economic winter awaits Europe if the euro collapses. (A forecast by Jill Treanor) Possibly in January 2012 -- A cold winter has settled across Europe while the hard freeze gripping the economies of countries that once made up the eurozone spreads across the globe. European monetary union (Emu) is over. The stresses and strains caused by the bailout of Greece and the problems that enveloped other peripheral countries has made the euro a distant memory. This is the scenario explored by economists at Dutch bank ING, they have produced one of the first financial models of what might happen if the single currency falls apart during 2010. In a bleak assessment, entitled “quantifying the unthinkable” they warn that in the first year alone, output would fall between 5% and 9% across various member states, while their new national currencies would fall by 50% …..Germany and other core countries would be gripped by a deflationary shock, …. the US would flirt with a full-blown recession. Britain would be faced with a double-dip recession…. Former Merrill Lynch analyst Robert Prechter expects a crash akin to the collapse of the South Sea Bubble of 1720.
Our comment: The question posed by Robert Cliffe head of financial markets research at ING was “what would a European Monetary Union breakdown do to the politics of Europe.” It just doesn’t look good! Does it! However, within the Church of God and an understanding of biblical prophecy, we can expect some major event, an unprecedented event to happen within Europe and the wider world that will trigger the events that will lead to a threat to the world and herald the subsequent return of Jesus Christ.
SOME CLOSING BRIEF NEWS ITEMS
The Guardian – 7th July -- At least a quarter of flowers may face extinction.
The Sunday Times – 13th June – Schools leave Christianity in the wilderness.
The Independent -- 14th July -- Bloodbath at Patrol Base 3 leaves Afghan strategy in doubt.
The Independent -- 9th July -- Millions face starvation as Niger prays in vain for rain. Urgent aid is needed to avert a catastrophe in west Africa.
