Where debating everything under the sun is only the beginning

It's not always possible to easily divide news into exclusive groupings of good or bad. Often the news is an admixture.

Fortunately, the West has moved away from religiously inspired killing, but in Africa and Indonesia the same is not the case.

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Boko Haram says its aim is to impose a stricter enforcement of Sharia law across Africa's most populous nation, which is split between a majority Muslim north and a mostly Christian south.

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After the predominantly Muslim Seleka militia took control of the Central African Republic under President Michel Djotodia in 2013, a period of lawlessness and sectarian violence continued. Following warnings of "genocide" by the UN and a controversial intervention force by MISCA, Djotodia resigned. Despite neutral Catherine Samba-Panza being made president, the Anti-balaka Christian militants continued sectarian violence, including reported targeted killings, against Muslim civilians.

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INDONESIANS are reeling from one of their country's most awful incidents of religious violence in years. It happened on February 6th, in a village in Banten, the western end of Java, not far from Jakarta, a district where strictly Islamist parties poll well. Out of keeping with the more usual pattern of Muslim-versus-Christian attacks, this was a mob attack by Muslims against men who claimed to be their own fellows: members of a Islamic sect called the Ahmadiyah.

Remember Rodney King?

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"People, I just want to say, can't we all get along? Can't we all get along?"

Demographically Africa is becoming a major continent.

An Egyptian court has sentenced 683 people, including Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie to death.

In a separate case, the same court also upheld the death penalty for 37 defendants, reversing 492 death sentences out of 529 it passed in March, the AFP news agency reported. Most of the death sentences were commuted to life in prison.

Monday's hearing in the southern province of Minya comes amid a brutal crackdown on supporters of President Mohamed Morsi and the Brotherhood since the military overthrew him last July.

The court has come under the spotlight after the same judge in March sentenced the 529 defendants to death in just two sessions.

The second batch, including Badie, had faced charges of the murder and attempted murder of several policemen during rioting by Morsi supporters in Minya on August 14.

It is not easy to find out the truth in Nigeria.

The Baga killings last week are a case in point, with politicians and government officials offering vastly different information - from 150 dead to 2,000.

News of another attack by Islamist militants from Boko Haram often starts as a vague one-liner as was the case on 3 January: "Attack on Baga. Loud gunfire heard."

This first bit of information often comes via social media. The challenge now is to find out the details and there are plenty of obstacles in the way of getting to the truth.

First up there has been no mobile phone connection in Baga for many months after the jihadists attacked mobile phone masts in the north-east.

There are of course the officials whose job it is to tell the world what is going on.
But for the first few days of the Baga crisis both the military spokesmen and government officials were silent or not picking up calls.

There has been a great deal of concern over possible election violence as both sides were so hell-bent on winning this contest.
The man who has been voted out, Goodluck Jonathan, has played a huge part today in helping to prevent unrest.
He made the phone call to concede victory and to congratulate Muhammadu Buhari when a disputed outcome would have sent the country on a dangerous road.
"I promised the country free and fair elections. I have kept my word," he said later in a statement.
"I have also expanded the space for Nigerians to participate in the democratic process. That is one legacy I will like to see endure," he added, urging people with complaints to follow due process and not to go to the streets.
No doubt some in his camp would have preferred to dig their heels in.

Last year the Government theorised that letting people drown would end the crossings



The Government has ignored calls to back restored search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean after 950 people drowned on a boat crossing to Europe.

Reinstating the rescue missions, which the UK government has previously said it opposes, pointedly does not feature in the Foreign Secretary’s response to the latest mass deaths.

In a statement released on Sunday Philip Hammond blamed ‘traffickers’ for encouraging people to flee conflicts and come to Europe but was silent on helping families who might drown in future.

“We must target the traffickers who are responsible for so many people dying at sea and prevent their innocent victims from being tricked or forced into making these perilous journeys,” he said, calling for a “comprehensive, co-ordinated response” to the regular deaths.

Mr Hammond said he was “horrified at the appalling loss of life” at the crossing and accused groups assisting the migrants to make the crossing of “cynicism”.

When the rescue missions were ended in October last year the Government said it believed the prospect of being saved from drowning in the event of an accident encouraged people to make the journey.

“Ministers across Europe have expressed concerns that search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean have acted as a pull factor for illegal migration, encouraging people to make dangerous crossings in the expectation of rescue,” a Downing Street spokesperson said in October.

“This has led to more deaths as traffickers have exploited the situation using boats that are unfit to make the crossing.”

Migrants have continued to make the journey despite the Government’s theorising, however. Well over 1000 people had died crossing the sea so far this year.

The mass drowning of eight or nine hundred—nobody knows precisely—illegal immigrants in the Mediterranean last Sunday triggered a lot of commentary about these boat people, most of it stupid. Here are some of the grosser stupidities.
They’re just seeking a better life.
Who isn’t? I guess there are some Lotus eaters among us who are perfectly happy with their lives and seek nothing better, but I doubt they’re a majority. Most of us, most of the time, want something we don’t currently have, in hopes it will make our lives better.
It’s a matter of methods. Al Capone rose from Brooklyn street urchin to be the boss of a major crime syndicate, presumably because he sought a better life. Should we admire him for that?
These boat people are self-selected as the bravest and most enterprising of their stock.
Then their home countries need them more than Europe does.
They are the poorest of the poor.
No they’re not.

For economic migrants, the decision to leave is generally a conscious choice by relatively well-off individuals and households to enhance their livelihoods … Clandestine travel costs anywhere from US$5,000-$35,000. Many of these migrants are petty entrepreneurs who sold their businesses or property in order to pay for the expensive trip.

I think even that writer may have put some lipstick on the pig. Petty entrepreneurs, sure; but in sinkhole Third World countries like Niger or Eritrea there are other classes of people who can get their hands on a few thousand dollars. There are minor government functionaries—cops, for example—with jobs that allow them to squeeze bribes out of their fellow citizens. There are also, of course, criminals.
A thing you notice about these illegals from the news photos is that they look well-dressed and well-fed. Some are positively chubby.
Sure, their countries are crappy places, but these are people who haven’t been doing too badly in them.

(the rest is here)

“To permit mass settlement by blacks who are also Muslims is to pass beyond the bounds of mere folly into homicidal insanity.”

They are dying needlessly. People are dying needlessly all over the world, but this is significant, and much more importantly, avoidable.  By avoiding the avoidance we Europeans are passively complicit in their death.

European politicians are actively complicit with their death. We, European citizens, are passively complicit by having such politicians.