This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- As immigrants surge into Greece, 22 die on Aegean Sea
- U.S. considers helping Nigeria find its abducted girls
- Pakistan travel restrictions urged to stop spread of polio
- Violence in Odessa Ukraine revives memories of Nazi massacre of Jews
As immigrants surge into Greece, 22 die on Aegean Sea
At least 22 people drowned, including several children, and 10 moreare missing when a dangerously overloaded yacht overturned as it wastraveling from Turkey to Greece through the Aegean Sea. There weresome 65 immigrants on the 30-foot yacht. The survivors werefrom Syria, Somalia, and Eritrea.
As we reported in 2012, Greece hasbeen building fences and posting border guards along the Evros riverthat separates Turkey from Greece. Since then, the number of immigrantsmaking the dangerous trip across the Aegean sea has increasedsubstantially to about 1,000 immigrants per month. However, by April,the number has surged further to 1,500. Kathimerini and Greek Reporter (4/12)
U.S. considers helping Nigeria find its abducted girls
The evidence is mounting that the administration of Nigeria’spresident Goodluck Jonathan and the army have done little or nothingto find and recover the 276 or so schoolgirls, aged 16-18, who wereabducted by the terror group Boko Haram on April 16. Reports indicatethat nothing was done even when leads to the location of the girls hadbeen provided. This had led to charges of ineptness or incompetenceor worse — accusations that the government supports the terroristabductors. On Monday, Boko Haram released a video bragging aboutthe abduction and threatening to sell the girls, usually for around $10-20apiece. (This leads me to wonder, why doesn’t the government just
United States Secretary of State John Kerry pledged that the U.S. willdo “everything possible” to help return the captives to theirfamilies. However, it’s not clear what kind of help is beingproposed. Any sort of military help has been excluded, and presumablythis would prohibit the use of American drones to search for thegirls. CS Monitor
Pakistan travel restrictions urged to stop spread of polio
There was a time, several years ago, when the World HealthOrganization (WHO) thought that polio could be exterminated completelyworldwide. This goal took a major turn backward in 2011 when the Obama administration bragged that a polio vaccination program in Pakistanwas used as a cover to locate and capture Osama bin Laden. Sincethen, the Pakistani Taliban have been murdering health care workers inPakistan involved in polio vaccination, with the result that polio isspreading in Pakistan and being exported to other countries,particularly China and the Mideast.
According to WHO, polio has begunto spread rapidly in 2014, particularly in Pakistan, Cameroon, andSyria. WHO is recommending, at the highest priority, that thesecountries implement immediate polio eradication strategies and ensurethat all travelers leaving the country receive a dose of polio vaccinebefore leaving. WHO and Dawn (Pakistan)
Violence in Odessa, Ukraine revives memories of Nazi massacre of Jews
Jews living in Odessa are considering an emergency evacuation under the expectation that violence will grow considerablynext week. Jews haven’t been directly affected by the violenceso far, but the International Fellowship of Christians and Jewshave prepared a fleet of 70 buses and are consideringrenting a holiday camp to house 600 Jews away from Odessanext weekend.
During World War II, the Nazi army and their Romanian allies massacredsome 30,000 Odessa Jews and Russians, beginning in October 1941.Feeling on all sides have been polarized by last week’s violence inOdessa, especially because this week marks the defeat and surrender ofNazi Germany on May 8, 1945. Ukrainian nationalists had collaboratedwith the Nazis in fighting the Russians. From the point of view ofGenerational Dynamics, this kind of polarization is most likely torecur around the time that the survivors of the previous massacre havedisappeared (retired or died), which would be about now, and so theJews are right to be concerned about the possibility of violence inOdessa. Russia Today
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Greece, Turkey, Aegean Sea, Evros River,Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, Boko Haram, John Kerry,Pakistan, World Health Organization, WHO, Cameroon, Syria,Osama bin Laden, China,Ukraine, Odessa, International Fellowship of Christians and Jews,Nazi Germany, Romania