New year, but same old violence
- By Brad Franklin
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E-mail China.org.cn, January 2, 2014
It's that time of year again, when everyone looks back at what has happened over the last 12 months and then ahead to the new year. The older I get, the more often I have done this, but unfortunately it has become more and more depressing and frustrating.
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2013 was an interesting year, but also full of violence. [File photo] |
2013 was an interesting year, but they all are. In the United States, Angelina Jolie announced that she had undergone a double mastectomy, while Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the U.S. National Security Agency, leaked classified information to several media outlets, revealing the massive scope of the agency's spying program on American citizens and others.
In England, a future king was born. Russia passed an anti-gay bill that has been denounced by many countries and activists. The Canadian Supreme Court struck down a law that would have banned prostitution. The Chinese government announced it would relax the one-child policy. And late in the year, the world lost a major role model when former South African president and anti-apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela died.
I like to follow these and other stories as the world unfolds, but there is a part of it that I don't like: the violence.
In the Middle East, drone strikes continued to kill people, including guests at a wedding party. Syrian leaders used poison gas on their own people, while hundreds of thousands of others fled to neighboring countries. In China, a series of homemade bombs killed one person and injured eight others outside the local Communist Party's headquarters. In the United States, there were more mass shootings and a bombing at the Boston Marathon, a sporting event intended to promote good health and friendly competition. The list of violence goes on and on.
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