BP loves Facebook

British Petroleum has discovered the most efficient way to communicate with Americans- Facebook.

This was on my wall today, and I thought that it was interesting that they've decided to be trendy and reach out to American Youth through their most favorite medium- social networking sites. Ha.

Paying for the world....

I know that this issue I'm about to tackle isn't necessarily WORLD news- on the surface at least... It has come to my attention that Obama is considering cutting the funding to community groups such as food banks, NPR, and other community programs.

There's a petition that can be found HERE to help fight against this, it's in support of one group in particular, "Community Services". My question is this: How much of our nations budget are we sending overseas to help support other countries, and why are we sending aid to other countries before making sure that everyone in America is first taken care of?

Sudan Splits

Last month Southern Sudan voted to split from North Sudan. According to their reporting services, this has been a peaceful split.

The chairman of the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission, which organized the vote, said 98.83% voted for separation, while 1.17% voted for unity.



In processing this split, Sudan has been trying to play by the rules, inviting UN officials and other world leaders to witness this process, to show that no laws have been broken.


"It was a peaceful process," said chairman Muhammad Ibrahim Khali at a ceremony in Khartoum attended by Sudanese politicians, international diplomats, U.N. staff, academics and others. "It was a transparent process."




It is important to note however, that while this individual vote has been peaceful, Sudan has been involved in a civil war for the past two decades over this issue. It is estimated that over 2 million people have died during this conflict.



This war has remained in conflict because the North, where the government was located was dominated by black Christians, while the south where the Oil Reserves are located is dominated by Arab Muslims. These two groups disagree on many issues, as is evidenced by their lack of shared commonalities.


The question I post is: When two parts of a country are so obviously different, what is the global responsibility to step in and help them peacefully split? I believe that we SHOULD step in and help countries management their splitting- once they've shown that they can't manage it on their own (and as long as nothing evil- like slavery- is going on). Obviously, the US has gone through its own civil war, but quite frankly with recent technology this is NOT the same situation.


Articles on this can be found on CNN or on NPR.

Who owns the Worlds treasures??

Some of the world's countries have been blessed with a rich wealth of history and archaeological items. These countries have recently been fighting to reclaim their treasures, and asking for the countries that currently hold them, to give them back.

However, should we? These countries are often the most explosive and unsafe locations for these treasures. These other countries (Egypt, Greece, Turkey... etc) dispute this argument and claim that in our modern era, that they are ready to hold responsibility for their history.

I would suggest, that it is not the readiness of their intellectual communites that should be judged, but the readiness of the common man of the country. For it is those commoners that will either respect their own history or they that will destroy it.

This past weekend, an example that cannot be ignored has taken place. The riots in Egypt have caused harm and damage to the treasure kept in the Cairo Museum. Items have been smashed, damaged, and stolen as apart of the violence that was taking place.

Yes, the intellectual community of the region, may be ready and willing to take on the important responsibility of caring for their past, but this is a fine example of how the common man does not respect their own history. Its better to the leave those items that are in Germany, France and Britain and etc where they currently are. Maybe someday they will be ready. But I do not think it is right now.

A copy of this story can be found online at the Time website HERE. Below is another reporting directly from the Egyptian news reporting agency, Al Jazeera.