As IF Times

link Thousands protest Koran burning plan in Afghan north | Reuters.

Thousands huh.  In looking into the demographics of Afghanistan, some interesting statistics come to light.  To begin with, Afghanistan is not exactly the next Club Med candidate.  For this impoverished nation, non dirt floors makes you middle class.  It’s unlikely that the new Iphone creates much of a stir among the youth and it’s a certainty that the circus of Lindsay, Paris and Justin have no following there. 

According to the CIA world factbook, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/af.html, the total population is estimated to be just under 30 million people, though I’m not sure how you would go about trying to collect any census statistics.  I would think ‘of no fixed address’ could apply to a lot of people there.

In any event, the factbook says that just under half the population, 43% is between the ages of 0 to 14.  In addition, the median age is about 18.  Life expectancy is just over 44 years.  What this tells us is that this is a fairly hostile environment for humans. Survival is probably foremost in the minds of most citizens on any given day.  This includes the search for food, water, shelter, medicine and as well, the avoidance of bombs and gunfire.  If you are an 18 year old and your life is almost  half over, it’s unlikely that you would spontaneously give a rat’s ass about a small church in the US threatening to burn some holy books.  In a country where risk of AIDs is high and literacy is low, it’s a stretch that some pastor in some hick town on the other side of the planet is going to get you all lathered up.

While we can’t dismiss their political awareness, it’s unlikely that someone googled “Church in Gainesville”  and then everyone was all in a tizzy over the proposed burning.  If so, I can imagine the wives of these poor guys telling them to knock it off and get some food for the kids.  More likely, some guy came along and asked if anyone wanted to make a few quick drachmas or whatever the currency is for a few minutes of fist shaking and US flag burning.  Well, ‘why not’? they ask and voila, instant protest scene. 

18 year olds over in this part of the world couldn’t care less about things outside of their buddy group much less about who burns what books in Hicksville.  Something tells me the Afghan guys feel just the same.

link Chinas UN diplomat in drunken rant against Americans – Telegraph.

Staff were quick to brush this over as merely a rant initiated by too much fortified grape juice.  Actually, this is the most illuminating story to come out of the useless U.N.  in decades, if not ever.  It’s a poorly hidden secret that diplomacy is all about smiling in the face of your enemies until you can find a rock big enough to hit them over the head with. 

At the outset, the goal of the UN was to provide a civilized, structured forum for resolving issues between nations versus the historic option of waging war and destruction.  As some may know, this organization arose from the ashes of the precursor League of Nations, formed after WW1 in order to prevent world war from happening again.  This group disbanded upon the onset of WW2.  Since that didn’t work too well, the UN is actually the second attempt to play nicely among world nations.   At the end of WW2, the founding nations came together to create the structure we know today.  They included China, Russia, France, the UK and of course the United States.  The U.S. of course had the most money and military might at the time, so therefore the most influence.

Fast forward 65 years later and we notice that the peace loving founders find themselves at odds on many major policy issues, sort of like siblings that begin to resent each other.  Rather than work collectively for ‘world peace’ as per the original intent, they found themselves working to forward the best interests of their own nation states.  Resentment of the U.S.’s disproportionate power and financial influence has become more apparent as nations developed economically and increasingly flex their political muscle.   Except of course in the case of France.  They had resentment from the git go. 

So in this new atmosphere of increasingly equal national powers, the US has commensurately become isolated in their votes on major and minor policy issues.  The most notable dissension arises from the Americans’ support of Israel.  As of now, there is not so subtle competition going on for the world’s resources as everyone maneuvers to gain access to oil, commodities and markets.  Underneath the diplomatic veneer of civility at the UN are fierce battles to get or retain key strategic markets by all nations, notably by China and Russia.  The recent outburst by Sha Zukang is a diplomatic gaffe but lays bare the  resentment for the U.S. that is shared by all UN members.  

Here’s a suggestion.  Why don’t they serve drinks at all UN meetings?  Make it mandatory.  In this way, you can circumvent the charade of diplomatic negotiations and get to the nub of the matter.  You know the old Latin saying, ‘ in vino veritas’.  They’ll more quickly find out the various viewpoints and it won’t be couched in verbal gibberish.  This guy Sha has set new ground in political negotiations; he’s a no spin zone guy.  If you serve booze at the meetings instead of after, you’d likely have much more lively debates and quicker resolutions.   Plus, you wouldn’ t need armies of clerks, secretaries and interpreters to decipher what was said and what was meant.  

At the moment, the only people who are honest and candid about their intents are the ‘bad guys’ like Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong, etc.  They make their positions clear.  Ahmadinejad says, ‘we want to nuke Israel’: the west responds with, “well let’s see if we can find some middle ground’.  Kim Jong sinks a South Korean ship: the west responds with, ‘well it’s an accident, anyone could have done it’.    If we brought booze into all UN meetings, you’d bring back some realism to political debate.  In the 60’s, the Soviet’s Nikita Kruschev achieved notoriety for banging his shoe on his desk at a meeting to get attention.  It’s unknown whether he was over-refreshed at the time, but it’s time we brought back some sincerity to political debate.

You may get the odd fist fight a la Taiwan’s parliament, but better at the UN than in the real world.