The world is coming apart at the seams
The rip in the fabric starts right here
Over 5,000 dead. 12,000 wounded. Millions forcibly displaced.
Tragic figures from Gaza? Think again: Those are the casualty figures after six months of fighting in Sudan between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), according to Amnesty International. In July, a mass grave was found containing the bodies of 87 civilians in Darfur in the west of Sudan. The New York Times reported that the civilians were likely killed by RSF soldiers fighting for one of the two generals contesting control of Sudan. Four and a half million people have been displaced. More than a million other Sudanese citizens have sought shelter in the surrounding countries of Chad, Egypt, South Sudan and the Central African Republic. The Wagner Group, the private Russian army that was run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, has established a base in Darfur and is advising one of the sides in the conflict. Russia is seeking influence in Sudan so they can be permitted to station their warships at a port along Sudan’s Red Sea coastline.
How about Yemen, the country with coasts on both the Red and Arabian seas, including the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait between Yemen, Djibouti, and Eritrea? What is happening in that incredibly strategic part of the world? How about nearly 400,000 killed, with 11,000 of them children, nearly 60 percent of the deaths from hunger, lack of healthcare and safe water. According to the U.N., 4.5 million Yemenis – one in seven of the country’s population – have been displaced in the eight years of fighting between Houthi rebels and Yemen’s floundering government.
In the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar, there has been a civil war going on since a military coup d’etat in 2021. According to Sky News, more than 6,000 civilians have been killed, with more than 3,000 of those deaths coming in the last 12 months. The U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian affairs reported that more than 1.6 million people have been internally displaced and 40,000 have fled Myanmar into neighboring countries. As many as 55,000 civilian buildings have been destroyed in the fighting.
Let’s not forget Ukraine. Since Russia launched its illegal attack on Ukraine in February of 2022, nearly 10,000 civilians have been killed, according to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights. Nearly 18,000 civilians have been wounded.
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Incredibly sad & horrid news sir. Your writing is fabulous, Lucian & I thank you for your work.
And as I've been watching national news, waiting for the latest mass murderer to find his end by his own hand, this aged hippie asks: how DO we get an assault weapon ban?
Does anyone think we can, with the stacked courts & so many folks of influence selling their souls? Hard to have any hope.
Lucian, is it possible that you could do a future article directing people like me to the best organizations to volunteer to for gun control. Perhaps I'm kidding myself but change has to begin with action, and I need something to do with my hands and even a tiny bit of spare time.
In the past I've driven people to polls. This year I'm resolving to do it again for the 2024 election. It's not much money to rent a 10 passenger van. Call my local party's office, collect fellow minded voters. Buy a few burgers & get the vote out. Start there I guess, beats doing nothing....
The last time I posted a reply I was totally struck by how many people were encouraging me to continue speaking up.
Love & peace, hoping for more in our future. Take care people.
Corky in KC
OK I have as a creative person long dealt with low levels of intermittent depression that I can work my way out of with my photography and some travel and some recreational weed. But this year? I have never felt this hopeless and angry. I think it was the election of that Cristo fascist to run the house that really finished me. Have you read what that man stands for? I didn’t realize he was the deranged human who suggested that women were aborting babies as they were being born. He thinks Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. Then there is the Koch org working behind the scenes. They’ve already packed the Supreme Court under Trump and there are some very important cases coming up. And the upcoming elections. You can see how the media has been really bought and paid for by dark money because no matter what he does Biden is portrayed as a doddering old man. The latest figures on job growth just fall on deaf editors.
So I got to ask, does anyone see anything besides the death of democracy the death of Israel the death of all civilization coming our way? It’s not even going to matter when Trump is gone and he will be. I think that the criminal and financial and election cases are going to closing on him I think even he knows that he looks absolutely fried. Fani in particular has him nailed. But it was his influence that put Johnson in the speaker position and I can’t think of anybody worse. So am I the only one? Does anybody see a scenario that’s gonna work out by 2024?
Please convince me we are not doomed. I was thinking once the GOP is fully in charge and they’ve killed Social Security and Medicare well, then I’m gone. There’s no other reason for me to be in America but where else is there to go anymore? And I sure don’t have the funds to Expat like a king.