Friday, Jan.8th, 2009: Sihanoukville, Cambodia

Well, here goes.

The Security Council voted for an immediate cease fire in the Gaza Strip which means to me that Ban ki-Moon is quite confident that there are no WMD's in Gaza City, the most densely populated city in the world. So, the Israeli's should reign in their hostilities and realize that they are more paranoid than accurate vis-a-vis WMD's. Without a doubt, actions such as in the War of 2006 in Lebanon and War of 2008 in Gaza against the Hezbollah and Hamas are ostensibility against "terrorist" organizations that are traffiking in WMD's. If this should turn out to be a complete paranoid fantasy and the wars are more about making the Palestinians hysterical and traumatized, we have a dangerous, extremely hazardous war going on with no real reason. Besides, the financial crisis will be weathered only because the price of oil is way down. We are actually in the process of becoming a poverty stricken world; but we are still acting like there is money aplenty to take care of everything. To be sure, if we overspend while in the process of becoming poverty stricken, the "free market" will not be able price products and commodities so it is profitable and pays all of the bills at the same time. This is an extremely hazardous financial situation.

I am also going to talk just briefly about the illusions that the modern world has about Asia.
Just a little bit about some of my tallies here in Asia. The list of non-conforming, undemocratic regimes is: Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Vietnam, Laos, N. Korea, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. The list of conforming, democratic countries is: India, S. Korea, Thailand, Philipines. The drop-out countries are: Brunei, Bhutan and Malaysia. The dominating power in the region is China, a system that is not transparent, allows no freedom of thought or religion, has no labor rights and who has exercised rigid, authoritrian control over a billion + people. This is a region of the world in deep trouble.

These are my thoughts for today.