I see that a great number of my friends are at present posting "it's exam time and I'm procrastinating" blogs, whereas I have other means of procrastination and so haven't blogged for a very long time.
Well, this blog is supposed to be for the discussion of world issues etc. (can a blog be a highbrow art form? I think so.)
So here are some issues to chew over while I get back to my study:
*Darfur - the problems remain and are even spreading because of porous borders with Chad etc.
http://www.savedarfur.org/content?splash=yes
*Flooding in some parts of NSW while many other parts remain in deep drought. Farmers are continuing to commit suicide because they cannot provide for their families and are losing their stock and properties.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/indepth/featureitems/s1946546.htm
* The planet is continuing to heat up.
* There is yet more fighting in Mogadishu (capital of Somalia)http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6655261.stm
*There is plenty of fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo
http://www.pulitzercenter.org/showproject.cfm?id=17&gclid=COuT3IDa04wCFQJIYQodSStTsg
*Iraq continues to be a horrific mess.
*Much of Afghanistan continues likewise. (I don't think I need to put any links on these - everyone knows.)
*Russia and the US are having yet another face off over missiles (and much as I enjoy studying the cold war, I'd really prefer not to live in one, especially considering how desperate we'll all be for Russia's fuel pretty soon.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,,2099454,00.html
*Child (and adult) slavery continues to be rife, as does poverty, disease, illiteracy, hatred, violence, drug and other abuse and all the other detritus which forms our fallen world.
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
AND...
*Most people in this area are not particularly bothered about this beyond "tsk tsk, how dreadful . . . have another biscuit?"

Well, in an astonishing act of hypocrisy, I will now leave all those problems to my small but dynamic readership and return to my study of declensions and conjugations. I just thought I'd put them out there. Feel free to investigate them for yourselves, of course!

PS: Please don't get me wrong. I am not sunk into a deep slump of blackness over these issues, not do I suggest that we all should be. Very rarely is a deep slump of blackness the place from which change can be perpetrated. I just think they should enter our consciousness, so that we can build our reactions and decisions around an honest and thoughtful awareness of the world we live in and the people we share it with. Good evening!