Don't read the news, it's too depressing!

Yesterday no matter which way you looked at the news, there was very little positive. 

The biggest headline was the death of singer Amy Winehouse.  The comments here were mostly, that she should have gone back to rehab. It's sad, she was but 27, an age that seems particularly dangerous for musicians who like to abuse drugs and alcohol.  The sad part is, she is just one person, she shouldn't have been on the top of the headlines.

The 2nd headline was the nearly 100 dead in Oslo, Norway. I believe 7 died from a bomb attack and about 90 died from being shot by a madman. The saddest part of this incident after the fact so many died and about an equal amount of people got injured, was the fact that the first speculation was that it was done by Muslim terrorists.  Goes to show how anti-Muslim the west has become, especially when manifestos come out like this.  You'd think both the 'Christian world' and the "Muslim world" would have both lightened up  in the centuries between now and the crusades. You'd think we'd have learned something, you know? Sadly, the views of the few extremists are now starting to colour everyone else  view.

Then there's the continuing wave of protests in Syria, they say more then 1.2 million marched last Friday mostly in Hama and Deir Ez Zor, but smaller protests happened throughout Syria.  The death toll continues to climb  in Syria[depending who you read it's between 1500-2000] and so do the number who have been arrested, detained and tortured [Anywhere from 12000 to 15000].  Sadly this week they were pounding on Homs again. It didn't prevent some folks from Homs from having mini demonstrations, where people gather, shout slogans and disperse before the Security forces arrive. 

So far the Syrian security forces are not giving up. They continue to target and shoot unarmed civilians.  There is now rumour that some of the snipers are from Iran. There was a train derailed and the Syrian media blames it on the protesters, but as far as we know it could be any number of the Syrian forces and/or Iranians who are behind it, to make the protesters look bad. Much like the Syrian regime is trying to say that it's the protesters that were behind sectarian violence in Homs last week. There is no proof of that.  But again it's hard to get proof when the media is tightly controlled and the ambassadors of France and the US were told they could NOT leave Damascus.

There's still fighting going on in Libya, there's massive protests going on in Egypt as well as violent clashes, there's been a bomb near a military building in Aden, Yemen the 2nd in this city in 2 months, there's been a train derailment in China which caused deaths.

Then there's the situation in the horn of Africa. Things have been bad in Somalia for over 20 years and instead of getting better, now there's drought again, thousands are already believed to have died of famine and thousands of women and children of fleeing in hopes to survive the drought.The men are afraid to travel fearing to be recruited in one armed group or another.

The protests that started in the Arab world now forever known as Arab spring was just the beginning. The wave is spreading, there's been protests in Spain, and Greece, there's been protests in Israel. The theme is similar, people want to be able to make a living. People want reforms.  The reasons behind the protests in Greece and Spain may not include personal freedoms like they do in Syria, but in the end, the needs of people are the same world wide.

That's the thing. Whether we're white or black or red or yellow, whether we're Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans or other, whether we're straight, gay, bi or transgender, whether we're male or female, we're all HUMANS, and it would be nice if we started treating each other with respect instead of being suspicious of anything that isn't familiar.  

Edit 25/07/11: Norwegian death toll was 73 people.   
Edit 26/07/11: Norwegian death toll was 76 people, but I couldn't retain number long enough to re-post it correctly!