The whole world is watching

I am back from various forms of the flu. Suffice it to say, it wasn't pretty.

So what's going on around this lovely little planet we call home?

According to the BBC about 70 students at Amir Kabir University in Tehran were arrested after clashing with the authorities who were re-burying the Iraq-Iran war dead on campus. Say what? Why on campus? Are the authorities trying to send a message? "Hey....it could be you students in these graves unless you shape up?" Seems a bit heavy handed to me, but that's the Ahmadinejad way.

Trouble in Russia? The Financial Times notes that President Medvedev accused Vladimir Putin's government yesterday of failing to act quickly to combat the economic crisis. Uh oh. All is not smiles and sunshine. If these guys start going at each other, it will make the mob wars of NY in the 1970's look like an Ivy league debating match.

Which leads into today's final bit about things coming apart.

An interesting read is Niall Ferguson's piece called "Axis of Upheaval" in the March/April Foreign Policy. In a nutshell he says that the axis of evil is not the real problem. What is really going to be a major problem is the economic crisis we are going through and how this crisis will create an "axis of upheaval" or in simpler terms, the recipe for violence and strife.

He says, "...three factors made the location and timing of lethal organized violence more or less predictable in the last century. The first factor was ethnic disintegration: Violence was worst in areas of mounting ethnic tension. The second factor was economic volatility: The greater the magnitude of economic shocks, the more likely conflict was. And the third factor was empires in decline: When structures of imperial rule crumbled, battles for political power were most bloody."

And who are the players? Somalia, Mexico, Russia, Pakistan, Indonesia ... and more. Suddenly that trip to Disneyland is looking a lot more attractive.