A visitor arriving to our planet from outer space would discover a world filled with chaos and anger and, parenthetically, a world that is leaderless and rudderless. The world order that was so familiar to most of the world just a few years ago has deteriorated, leaving many of its inhabitants scared, confused and concerned for the future of the globe. Ironically, people are less concerned about a nuclear exchange or an intercontinental world war – though, no doubt, these issues are at the periphery of their thoughts. Most are concerned with such basic issues as personal safety, jobs and, law and order in their respective urban centers as, for example what we have seen of late in London, Philadelphia , or Cairo. And, there are those who are preoccupied with the collapse of the global economic structure, its consequences on global markets and the prospects of a worldwide depression.
Pictures shown on TV show images that are hard to believe, they defy realities we have known for decades. The burning streets of London when juxtaposed with the recent royal wedding; Egypt’s dictator Hosni Mubarak, humiliated and helpless in a cage on trial in Cairo, when only a year ago a confident Mubarak set out to anoint his son Jamal as his successor. And in Syria, Assad is killing his own citizens literally “in front of a watching world.” All this seems perhaps unreal, lets say a bit surreal, but in the brave new world of Obama and Cameron it has become a reality.
CBS News reported on August 13, 2011 on “Stubborn poverty and high unemployment, services slashed due to recessionary budget cuts, a breakdown of social values, social media that bring people together for good or bad at the speed of the Internet, and finally a handful of actual attacks, isolated and hard to explain, by bands of youths in U.S. cities.” The report pointed out that “Racial friction is an uncertain element. In Britain,TV images have shown mixed-race crowds creating mayhem. In recent mob violence in Philadelphia and Milwaukee, attackers were black and victims white. Even though it’s unclear how much race motivates today’s mob violence, many see it as one of a combination of factors, which together make the grip of American law and order feel less secure.”
Peggy Noonan in her Wall Street Journal column of Friday August 12, 2011 wrote “What we’re seeing on the streets in Britain right now is something we may be starting to see here [in the U.S.]”
While London and other British cities were burning, the United Kingdom’s police force appeared helpless in facing off against gangs of hoodlums undeterred by figures of law and order. The “tough” words of Prime Minister David Cameron did not put fear in the hearts of British gang members who are, in large measure, the sons and daughters of immigrants, and whose arrogance is a bi-product of the British multi-cultural legacy. In America, the ruinous economic policies of an amateurish president, Barak Obama, have caused the S&P to downgrade the U.S. credit rating and plunge the U.S. into a social and economic mess.
The pro-western Arab regimes of Egypt and Tunisia have collapsed, and the prospect of increased Islamization – of the Sunni variety – appears likely throughout the Arab Middle East. In the meantime, the Arab world faces increased economic hardships, instability and chaos.
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