School Violence in the Americas—an in-depth look at the mind of the Killer

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/americas/2007/virginia_shootings/default.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6567143.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6564653.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6562529.stm

The recent Virginia Tech shootings will surely come down in History as an intensely memorable incident, the scars it inflicts staying open for many years to come. Indeed it comes down as a searingly painful reminder of how the actions of a single person can shatter and damage the lives of so many. While much of the world laments, a quiet question comes to mind – what silent, potent force has motivated a youthful someone to commit such an intensely perverse and abominable act?

Warning Signs
Many articles have been written on the mental state of Cho, and many of them have focused some of the most graphic and violent aspects of his personality, highlighting on his highly aggressive writings in his literature class involving graphic descriptions, which lead to a reference by a worried teacher to the school psychologist. He has also exhibited much abnormal behaviour, stalking and harassing two female students, and his friends have reported the incidence of suicidal thoughts to the police. Cho often referred to himself as “Question Mark”, and sometimes used that as his name for certain forms. Such irrational behaviour got more and more intense and the day of his attack drew near.


Conditioning
While many articles have chosen to follow such developments in Cho’s character, to see the true motives of his actions one must look deeper, past his branded name as an insane killer.

Many references to a highly disturbed and lost childhood can be found, and many often remark on how his place in his parent’s eyes was obscured by those of his older sister who went to prestigious universities, while he went to Virginia tech. While being attending church sometimes, many of his friends in his church and even in his school mistreat and bully him, and often treat him as no more than a ‘pathetic boy’, whose life was theirs to destroy.

In the now-famous tape he submitted before his act, he mentioned an admiration of the perpetrators of the Columbine high school massacre. He even compared himself to Jesus Christ, seeing himself as a martyr-model for all the weak and bullied worldwide, of how they could strike back. His then almost mentally ill mind could not see how he was at fault in his current situation, and he hit back at the world with a morbid vengeance.

Soul-search
It is only too easy to see how the intolerant culture of social Darwinism and survival of the most popular in his society, among other things, led to his unacceptable behaviour. However the reasons for his actions are not singular, but involve a multiplicity of many different reasons. One of the most referred to reasons for this killing is the relative freedom of the exchange of firearms in the United States, which allowed Cho to start preparing for his attack, hoarding weapons a few weeks before his actual act. This might sound appalling, one reason why the debate on gun control has been rekindled. The widespread occurrence of various forms of violence, from gory movies to video games, among young male American teenagers is also one visible cause.

Indeed much of the American public reacts with a general disappointment with the decay of mores of society, not focusing on any one particular reason, and others respond with just shock and lament.

Perhaps it is more useful to ask why the existence of this drifting, lost soul heading in the wrong direction was not reported earlier, not until almost an hour after his first killing. Perhaps the onus will always be on the family, friends, and others around a person to stop a murderer in his tracks.

Paris and Her Banlieues—Liberté, Equalité, Fraternité?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4415018.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4405790.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4413964.stm
Views of police:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4405620.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6096706.stm
Views from the Banlieue:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2006/11/30/paris_riots_feature.shtml
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4412590.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6091344.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4440422.stm

The Paris riots of last years were some of the biggest civilian uprisings in France’s History. They involved a large proportion of city populations over a huge area, often corresponding to several arrondisements, and occurred in almost all major cities, from Paris to Toulouse. The riots were so destructive and well organized, that they were referred to by police officers as ‘urban warfare’.

The riots were sparked off by the electrocution of two teenage boys at a local power station, which triggered the expression of many years of simmering anger against the French government and the police. This led riots which paralyzed France for a period of around half a month, the torching of over 8000 vehicles and buildings, and disruptions of law and order in many states.

Liberté, Equalité, Fraternité?
A quick glance through the articles and other sources makes it clear to us the problems faced by the residents of the Banlieues. The everyday life in these areas is marked by an absence of police to enforce law and order, a lack of good schools, and a soaring unemployment rate.

The situation is so bad that many of the famous rap songs that originate from these troubled neighbourhoods deal with the common perception that the residents have been neglected and rejected by France and the French ethos. Also, evident in the lyrics is a mournful, sad depiction of the trials of everyday life, of poverty, lawlessness in their environments and a hopelessness and disillusionment with the government.

This is also exacerbated by the explicit racism of many people in the French public. While not similar to the apartheid policies in South America, The general aversion to immigrants, especially Africans, is made painfully evident to them, especially for young job seekers. This discrimination is extended to other citizens who live in the Banlieues, even if they are of the white majority, and this policy, while not written down, is an unspoken rule among many French employers. The lack of good schools there reinforces the notion that those born in the Banlieue have no future. There is also a marked absence of police–public contact with the Banlieue, and they are particularly hated by the young.

While this problem has existed for a long time, and the French government has tried to help the residents, some of its rhetoric is inflammatory, helping reinforce the image of the Banlieue resident as an exile in his own country. To help the residents of the Banlieu, much more must be devoted to her residents, including money for law and order, housing projects and above all, good schooling, and the equality that is central to the French ethos must be extended to them. The testimony of the two Banlieue residents paints us a portrait of two 15-year old brave young women who attempt to stand up to their current order. These people deserve to be helped. Indeed, these French also deserve Liberté, Equalité, Fraternité, the qualities essential to the French republic.

Climate Change-Causes, Costs, Current action

Climate Change:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6324029.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6098362.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6096084.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6321351.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4269021.stm

Renewable Energy:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/5316946.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/5264364.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6271773.stm
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070125/wl_nm/davos_climate_developing_dc_4


The Evidence, Causes, Effects
While evidence for Climate Change is consistently reported almost all around the world, the issue of whether it is happening or not has always been a controversial issue, with many scientists and economists taking sides. However the mainstream opinion is that Global warming is happening, and is certainly an adverse impact, but how much so is a matter of debate.

Many economists base much of their stand on their belief that the actions needed to mitigate Global warming shall damage economies, more than the damage climate change itself can deal. Indeed Australia and the US have rejected the Kyoto protocol based on such grounds. However there is ample evidence to prove the contrary. As in the above articles, the UK-sponsored Stern report on climate change estimates that up to 20% of Global GDP might be shaved off if there is a warming of around 5 C by 2100.

The effects of Global warming on such scales, is of course catastrophic. The many aspects of the effects, the most worrisome among them rising sea levels, extinctions of up to 40% of species, deficiencies in agricultural production, pestilence, permanent climate changes, freak weather events and also the possibility of stronger, more frequent hurricanes paint a environmental dystopia of the future, a feverish Earth with its systems gone wild.

Current Actions
While the future certainly seems bleak, it is not all gloom-and-doom. Many of the worlds developed nations, including the EU and America, are actively involved in actions to reduce the effects of global warming, the EU being highly active in particular.

Many of their efforts have been highly effective, the EU emissions trading scheme being one of them, and there is now a lively market of ‘carbon credit’ operating between big businesses around the world.

Enormous successes have been achieved in recent years by the Green energy industry, particularly the wind industry, especially in Europe and the American Midwest. These areas, among others, have proven their value as wind farms, with each wind turbine generating up to hundreds of megawatts of electricity. In these places they have become crucial to the energy grids. Biofuels, especially ethanol, have also achieved greater prominence in recent years, with the energy giant, Petrobras, instrumental in its worldwide commercial success.

Developing Nations
Developing nations have traditionally used their right to develop as a argument against taking action. However they are increasingly seeing the need to change, as, ironically, they will be the most affected by climate change. There is therefore much incentive for them to act. Indeed, China and India are working to wean themselves away from coal, and the former already has Wind farms operating in its western provinces, with large dams also under construction.

Final opinions
The fight against climate change ‘cannot wait’, as the effects are severely detrimental to human development on all levels. All nations therefore have to make a concerted effort to mitigate this threat, because its effects are not inevitable, and actions can be taken.

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Politics, Society and Religion – Some things about Extremism

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/6369251.stm#al
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/6369529.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4802388.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4204820.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4204820.stm
The above articles tell us that most people believe that Islam is compatible with Western values of democracy and that the sides in the so-called “clash of civilizations” scenario are ultimately working towards integration, and not towards mutual annihilation. They also touch on the important issues concerning terrorism, and highlight the importance of knowledge, as opposed to political agendas and presuppositions, when dealing with terrorism.
However what these articles did best is to draw attention to extremists on both sides as the true proponents of terrorism, and that it is they that have helped create the “modern-day climate of mutual fear and suspicion" that has been so conductive to radicalism.
Islam has traditionally been a highly tolerant religion. Indeed, the earliest seventh-century Muslim communities in Arabia was well known as feminist, helpers of the poor and preachers of an open, liberal message. They filled in the gaps for a society, which the establishment, who were a powerful plutarchy of family clans continuously waging feudal wars against each other, could not fill.
Islam is also the world’s only large religion that recognizes the legitimacy of another religion. In fact, in the Koran Christians, Jews among others are referred to as ‘People of the Book’, who also knew the ‘God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’.
It is ironic that today most people would never attribute the above characteristics to the Muslims, due to the group of clerics that are commonly referred to as ‘hijackers’ of Islam. True ‘fundamentalist’ Islam is therefore not the extremism we see today.
As one person puts it—“Devoid of the necessary skills and tools to decipher the religious texts, minions of chaos have side-stepped over 1,000 years of scholasticism and Koranic exegesis to create their own deluded Sharia - a new law couched in Islamic terminology established solely to be the antithesis of the West. Under this law, there is only hatred and rejection. Under this law, Muslims and non-Muslims alike are its victims”

On the other side, there are the controversial, ‘super-liberal’ critics of Islam in the West, and also some of the governments and even communities that have taken actions against Muslims that can best be described as inappropriate. These parties’ opinions and actions, while carrying a seed of truth, are inflammatory to Muslims and do not contribute positively to the process, and their stand that Islam cannot be reconciled with the West are counterproductive. They only serve to prove the Islamic extremists right in their assertion that Islam is under siege.
In conflicts like the Iraq war and The Palestinian war, and in terrorist attacks, along with controversies such as the Danish cartoon conflict, it is ultimately these extremists that gain support for themselves, and it is they who get the most people and resources, to generate the next round of conflict.
Therefore the thing to do to counter extremism in both sides is thus to keep an open mind about the other, and thus broaden the “middle ground” of the conflict.


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