Which global issues are you most concerned with right now?

<ul>
<li>Soaring food prices</li>
<li>Soaring oil prices</li>
<li>Global warming</li>
<li>China Quake (even Google has a special section for this)</li>
<li>Myanmar Cyclone (ditto)</li>
<li>The Olympics and all the ensuing problems with the Olympic torch and the Tibetan issue..</li>
<li>US Presidential Election (this issue will affect the rest of the world!)</li>
<li>US recession (again, even people in Asia are feeling the heat 'cos of this)
And so on and so forth...</li>
</ul>

<p>So many things happening in the world right now. Which global issues are you most concerned with, and why? Feel free to add in your own topics!</p>

<p>Israel - I'm particularly concerned with the security of its people, as it faces threats from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Al Queda, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, and many others. What makes it more worrying is that a moron like Olmert is in charge. </p>

<p>Serbian coaliton - I expect an SRS-DSS-SPS coalition to come about, and am hoping for exactly that. But until a final agreeement is reached, the entire future of the Balkans becomes unclear. It would be nice to see them finally announce a deal, as it would inform us as to how major issues with Kosovo, Srpska, and Croatia will play out.</p>

<p>Barack Obama - If he wins, the results will be awful. McCain is a terrible choice too, but a far superior alternative. Obama will make the worst foreign policy blunders of any President other than Carter and Clinton. </p>

<p>Obscenity law - There are a few ongoing cases, the biggest one being that of Max Hardcore. Given that several recent cases have resulted in major setbacks for free speech, we need a case to turn the tide. Unfortunately, the judge seems unwilling to comply with the legal requirements for a fair obscenity trial. </p>

<p>Rise of Islam in Europe - Pipes says 15% of Muslims are radical, and thus a threat. But they are over 1 billion in number, and are gaining a steady foothold in Europe. It ranges from the faux state of Kosovo to the UK, but the problem is evident to anybody that follows European current events.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Barack Obama - If he wins, the results will be awful. McCain is a terrible choice too, but a far superior alternative. Obama will make the worst foreign policy blunders of any President other than Carter and Clinton.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>In the "Clinton" you mention there, you mean Bill Clinton or Hillary or both? Is it because you feel that Obama is inexperienced?</p>

<p>And yeah I heard, this year Islam overtook Catholicism as the religion with the most followers... Are you from Europe?</p>

<p>Hahahaa, racist bastards.</p>

<p>At the risk of sounding cliched, the environment as a whole. To narrow down the focus a bit - global warming, deforestation, and overexploitation of natural resources (primarily coal and petroleum). I'm a big enviro-person, so...</p>

<p>Apart from that: terrorism in India - it's scarily out at large. The recent natural disasters (read China+Myanmar).</p>

<p>
[quote]
Hahahaa, racist bastards.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Lol why racist bastards? It doesn't have anything to do with being racist, please. It's funny you say that since my super best friend is a Muslim, and I love that guy. :) </p>

<p>I think it's more of a demographic problem... Say, if you're from a Muslim country, and then suddenly there are more Christians there. You just feel a bit "displaced", like you don't belong there anymore, you see? Not saying that it is my problem. Just saying what the possible issue is there in Europe.</p>

<p>Sheed30, please keep an open mind before you accuse people of being racist. :)</p>

<p>
[quote]
Lol why racist bastards? It doesn't have anything to do with being racist, please. It's funny you say that since my super best friend is a Muslim, and I love that guy.

[/quote]
I was unaware Islam was a race; I always thought it was a religion. <em>shrugs</em> FAIL</p>

<p>I noticed that too actually. Well since he said 'racist bastards', couldn't really refer to anything else could it??</p>

<p>I thought the racist stuff was concerning Obama :S</p>

<p>GLOBAL WARMING</p>

<p>and the fact that they still haven't brought back the West Wing for another season... but mainly...</p>

<p>GLOBAL WARMING</p>

<p>
[quote]
Say, if you're from a Muslim country, and then suddenly there are more Christians there. You just feel a bit "displaced", like you don't belong there anymore, you see? Not saying that it is my problem. Just saying what the possible issue is there in Europe.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Wait...so Europe is a Christian continent? They may have many Christians who live there, but from what i remember they usually try to separate church from state.</p>

<ul>
<li>Soaring food prices - Not too worried.</li>
<li>Soaring oil prices - As soon as people stop buying Hummers and then complaining about gas prices. But for the people who really are being hurt by this, its unfortunate.</li>
<li>Global warming - Makes it that much more sad that the current President wasted 8 years ignoring the problem. Not to mention the US climate report just came out.......4 years later than when it was scheduled. I almost want to cry they were so inept with this issue.</li>
<li>China Quake (even Google has a special section for this) - Government was ill-prepared, reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina in terms of that.</li>
<li>Myanmar Cyclone (ditto)</li>
<li>The Olympics and all the ensuing problems with the Olympic torch and the Tibetan issue.. Imo, the US should have the Olympics go forward. If any particular athlete is really offended by China's problems, they they can stay home.</li>
<li>US Presidential Election (this issue will affect the rest of the world!). Even though Obama is the best candidate, imo, theres really too many things for him to deal with, and not enough solutions or cash. </li>
<li>US recession (again, even people in Asia are feeling the heat 'cos of this).
Not too worried, I think the economy will be up and about again in a few years.</li>
</ul>

<p>First, let me paraphrase Marx:
Philosophers interpret the world; the point, however, is to change it.</p>

<p>Here are a few random ones.</p>

<p>** Autism, Bipolar and Schizoid Genotypes **
Despite typically bad representation in the US Media, Autism is not the monster some people make it out to be. It is a genetically based neurological spectrum [acc. to Prof Simon Baron-Cohen], and is responsible for certain points of social ineptitude that correlate strongly with certain mental abilities. Several pivotal contributors to our state of affairs displayed what is regarded as the phenotype, and society cannot benefit from its absence. The senseless campaign for its extermination is the suicide of mankind.</p>

<p>** Arab Society Human Rights Violations **
Even in Egypt and other supposedly moderate countries you cannot campaign for president as a non-Muslim. Saudi Arabia parries criticism with oil. Many of those nations are monarchies. In any other state, if something like that were introduced, most of the neighbours would recoil in uproar.</p>

<p>** Israeli Army Human Rights Violations **
The Israeli army should be registered as a terrorist organization. Targeting BBC reporters and invading Lebanon is not self defence. It is like the army is just going after lebensraum, like Nazis. This is in defiance of internal pressure in the only effectively secular state and democracy in the area. I know it is bad elsewhere too, but the Israeli army gets no criticism from the insanely timid US Media [save for Stephen Colbert and his State-of-the-Union address in 2006], which is in another point.</p>

<p>** Docile Media Houses **</p>

<p>** Hate and Social Conservatism **
Censure, homophobia, racism, nationalism, patriotism, religious discrimination, fear of strange people or neurodiversity, ethnic cleansing, gender identity and gender discrimination, specific limitations on women's rights, sex and gender inequality in military service, attempt to "cure" autism, tolerance of school bullying, tolerance of rape and humiliation in being raped, expecting the protagonist to be "him", tolerance of unprovoked interpersonal violence, encouraging people to regurgitate old traditions as opposed to think up their own, reliance on so-called "family values", ostracism, discrimation on impractical basis, use of mores as opposed to logic, use of old religions where opposed to personal religions, reliance on societal approval and other intellectually indefensible practices that also do not belong in a straightforward economy where they inhibit production.</p>

<p>** Access to Education **
If you pick a random zealot, and made a deal that you would fund its education [I would rather not use "her" or "his"], I think that the enthusiasm to learn would easily extrapolate to paying you back in many cases. Of course, not everyone will be cut out for that, so at least if the whole world becomes a socialist meritocracy, we can get things to run a bit more smoothly if everyone gets to do what they can as opposed to having a disillusioned potential scholar, in poverty, commit suicide and take out a whole community as it dies.</p>

<p>** Climate Change **</p>

<p>** Overpopulation **
Hopefully we will go below 4 billion people on the Earth by some miracle. Oh yes! That's what most of these other concerns are for! Yay! Human extermination! However, I would much more rather a law that strips you of the right to Human Rights if you fail to be humane at any time.</p>

<p>** Animal Rights **
It does not make logical economic sense, for the human individual, for all animals to have rights.</p>

<p>** Nationalism [as opposed to Internationalism] **
The desire to fit in, to call oneself part of a meaningless contrived group, is the Viagra(TM) of most evil. The existence of sovereign nations with the right to geographic coercion makes as much sense as the existence of sovereign villages and sovereign individuals with said right.</p>

<p>** Extremism **</p>

<p>** World Food Prices **
Around "here", the price of food for a day has just about doubled in the past 18 months.</p>

<p>** Effects of US Recession **</p>

<p>** The future of US Foreign Policy **
I think that the US would benefit from Mr. Obama, and the world at large would be a tad relieved. On the other hand McCain now seems like a lose-lose progenitor. Ariana Huffington puts it lucidly in effectively saying that the reasonable McCain "is no more," and says "it's like Fonzy." He sucked up to the far far right [forgive me; by standards outside of the US, even the Democrats are often conservative] and abandoned those ideas of his that slightly flavoured my study US politics.</p>

<p>** Future of Intellectual Sharing; Legal Efficiency **
It is currently possible to copyright almost anything. Unfortunately, that makes practicality bend towards trite manipulations of permission and a legal system despite the incoherenct and at times illogical nature of human legal constitutions. A legal code should be programmable if it is unequivocal. If it is not unequivocal, then it is unjust.</p>

<p>** Belief **
To quote myself, all that is apparent is experiment, that is, an education of statistics. I seriously entertain the idea that the only reason people "believe" things is that they are
- over-culturalized and under-intellectual
or
-lazy.</p>

<p>"* China Quake (even Google has a special section for this) - Government was ill-prepared, reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina in terms of that."</p>

<p>Excuse me? Ill-prepared? You try preparing for an earthquake.</p>

<p>I think much depends on where you live..</p>

<p>for me, the most global one would be Global Warming.. (just my 2 cents)</p>

<p>oh yea.. and human-to-human transmission of bird flu..</p>

<p>
[quote]
Excuse me? Ill-prepared? You try preparing for an earthquake.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>They moved very well immediately after the earthquake had struck, but they did not do enough ahead of time to prepare. There are lots of fault lines in Asia, as earthquakes are not uncommon.</p>

<p>1.) The Chinese government initially refused and then accepted an offer for aid from Japanese rescue teams.
2.) Several scientific journal articles published between 2002 and 2007 predicted that there was a high probability of a large earthquake in the Sichuan-Yunnan region. I realize it is near impossible to predict the timing of an earthquake, though.
3.) Some public school building codes were not strong enough, as evidenced by the concrete - dust effect. Hundreds and hundreds of students were killed, sadly.
4.) "In Deyang city crowds gathered outside a children's clothing store where they suspected an official had stashed 10 boxes of earthquake relief goods.
The footage shows the crowd cheering as two young men climb on a police car and stomp around. One raises his fist. The footage does not show what happens next, but cuts to a shot of the car upturned, the street around it empty."</p>

<p>other issues have been raised w/ regard to political corruption of the relief efforts, but I wont get into that...</p>