POST 403: I’m hearing only bad news, on Radio .... [Posted 31st December 2014]

As 2014 draws to a close, unless you’re a purveyor of bullets, surgical masks or radical religion, then it’s safe to say that it's been a big year for bad news. I’m sure there’s been some good news scattered around somewhere, but in the main, 2014 has been a horrible year for humanity.

 

In Asia and the Middle East, aircraft mysteriously vanished or fell from the skies as Islamic State, Al Nusra Front, Taliban and Boko Haram all rose to new heights of depravity. Taking advantage of the media dead-zone created by the world’s concentration on atrocities carried out in the name of some twisted god of peace, Bashar Al-Assad continued to murder thousands of his own people in Syria while Israel decided to flatten any areas of Gaza that hadn’t already succumbed to their previous bombardments.

 

In Europe, political unrest in Ukraine was swiftly followed by the takeover of Crimea and Eastern Ukraine by Russian backed separatists. Despite Vladimir Putin’s claim that it wasn’t a Russian bear shitting in the woods of Donetsk and Luhansk, the outside world disagreed, economic sanctions were imposed and the Russian Ruble collapsed in spectacular fashion.

 

Meanwhile, in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mali, Nigeria and Guinea, the Ebola virus killed almost eight-thousand people, but when one poor individual died in America, it suddenly became Obama’s fault. T-Shirts with the slogan ‘EBOLA - Obama’s Gift to America‘ sold almost as quickly as Assault Rifles and in 2014, sixteen thousand more Americans lost their lives in home-grown gun related crimes.

 

Closer to home, my home, 2014 was certainly an interesting year for Thailand. 2013 had ended with the government in limbo and the country at risk of being physically divided into North and South. Civil War was calling and action had to be taken, so Thailand fell back on its own illustrious history and the Generals seized power in the countries 17^th Military Coup. Sadly, that wasn’t the end of Thailand’s political shenanigans, simply the beginning ….