Wednesday, November 26, 2014

The Middle East, fast forward couple of years.

I guess it would be in very poor taste to say "I told you so".
But, I did.

In 2013, it upped its opium poppy cultivation by 36%, its opium production by almost 50%, and drug profits soared. Preliminary figures for this year, recently released by the U.N., indicate that opium cultivation has risen by another 7% and opium production by 17%, both to historic highs, as Afghanistan itself has become“one of the world’s most addicted societies.”
Meanwhile, where there once was Iraq (171st on that index of kleptocracies), there is now a Shiite government in Baghdad defended by a collapsed army and sectarian militias, a de facto Kurdish state to the north, and, in the third of the country in-between, a newly proclaimed “caliphate” run by a terror movement so brutal it’s establishing records for pure bloodiness.  It’s headed by men whose West Point was a military prison run by that same great power and its bloodthirstiness is funded in part by captured oil fields and refineries.
In other words, after 13 years of doing its damnedest, on one side of the Greater Middle East this power has somehow overseen the rise of the dominant narco-state on the planet with monopoly control over 80%-90% of the global opium supply and 75% of the heroin. On the other side of the region, it’s been complicit in the creation of the first terrorist mini-oil state in history, a post-al-Qaeda triumph of extreme jihadism.   Source 

Nobody with half a thinking brain could be surprised at the outcome.
The details impossible to predict, but the general direction was pretty much locked in from the start.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Fallujah

No, I so not suffer from amnesia.
I'm glad to see some others who don't, either.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

This is it.

The outcome of our elections. These two hold the future of our country in their hands. Our future, our well-being.















Best buddies already.
I'm not holding my breath.

Why, I wonder, do I still bother to vote.
It always ends up with the same crowd.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Today's headlines

I haven't done this in some time but this particular combination of news headlines on nu.nl made me snigger today
(really, do they think we all are braindead??)


Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Drought

The people of northern Mexico did not cause this drought.
The rich west did.
They are paying the price, though...
As for the west, we still delay, delay, delay.
(where is the next climate conference planned?)


This is our future.
Perhaps not soggy Netherlands' future - IT will be under water.

Saturday, April 07, 2012

I grieve

for what's coming.

for what could have been.

for what will never be.

for that young child so long ago, sitting in front of a scratchy radio with her father, listening to one small step for man while dreaming of a world expanding into the universe. Dreams that were in vain.

for all young children of today who are inheriting destruction.



Minister Kamp

Wat is ie toch een eng, ENG man.