Listen to this articleHISTORY LIVE
This page represents a continuation of the "History" page of this website. This page treats current events as live history, or it treats current events as history in the making. It does so by examining daily human life as captured by a very small sample of the world's newspapers.
A few of these current events, undoubtedly, will be elevated to events of great historical significance. The vast majority of these current events will be completely forgotten or will be swept into the trash bin of history, so to speak.
248 Countries and Territories from A to Z with Photo:
Credit for Flags, Maps, and Photos: The World FactbookFor more context and depth on history live, see also: RSF's World Press Freedom IndexCHILDREN KNOW
What happens when national leaders become obsessed with ego tripping and power tripping? People begin to kill one another is what happens. At the present point in human history, there is more than enough land mass on Earth to accommodate everyone. There is no excuse for humans to be slaughtering one another over land. While disputes and disagreements over land might not be avoidable, for humans to go to the extreme of slaughtering one another over land, well, it is senseless and inexcusable. Less drastic solutions exist to resolve these land disputes and disagreements even if these solutions require binding arbitration from the international community. How silly would it be for humans to destroy the world from what began as a simple dispute over land but somehow managed to escalate into a nuclear confrontation? If humans were to one day choose such an irrational path, then they would be betraying their "wise" designation.
To be sure, if past atrocious human conduct over land is to serve as an indicator, then it is not a good sign of things to come if the projected freshwater crisis should become reality. Being an optimist, I think that the technology will emerge to generate ample quantities of freshwater for all humans to survive long before the projected freshwater crisis becomes reality.
Who suffers the most when adults bicker? Who suffers the most when nations cannot seem to resolve their disputes peacefully? It is the innocent ones who suffer the most. It is the children who suffer the most. It is the children who become contaminated by the hatred and violence that they learn firsthand from adults. Children notice and internalize what's going on around them. Children know.
ONE SPECIES, ONE EARTH
In this day and age of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, the stakes for humankind are quite high, that is, if nations do not learn how to peacefully resolve their differences. The whole of life on Earth is what's at stake if nations, at some future point in time, should permit their disputes to spiral out of control.
To this day, there is little doubt about it: National military might confers to a nation considerable respect, stature, and influence on the world's stage. Instead of diplomacy, in the final analysis, it does seem as if the nations with the biggest guns (that is, with the greatest military might) do seem to carry the day on issues of international importance. Unlike, say, a national commander-in-chief, there exists no equivalent commander-in-chief at the UN with a military force under his or her control. At the same time, national leaders should not lose sight of the fact that it is now 2014 (that is, a period in time where numerous nuclear bombs exist) and not 1944 (that is, a period in time before any nuclear bombs existed). National leaders should temper their behavior responsibly in accordance with these new realities. Might does not necessarily make right (such as the right of one or two national egomaniacs to come along one day and destroy all life on Earth by unleashing nuclear weapons upon the world). I do not see anything right about a leader using his or her military might to push the world to the brink of nuclear war. A lot has changed in the world since 1944. The advent of nuclear bombs is one of those very important changes.
To be sure, the United Nations (UN) was created in 1945 to help prevent the outbreak of (nuclear) World War III. When it comes to fostering world peace, one of the main reasons why the United Nations is not as decisive and effective as it could be is this: The UN only possesses limited and tenuous enforcement powers. No single entity at the UN is empowered to or is in charge of enforcing resolutions promulgated by the UN's Security Council. Before global enforcement action is taken, Security Council resolutions require unanimous consent by its five permanent members (that is, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, France, and China). In the UN forum, often there is a failure to take action on peace-related issues of global importance because, for various geopolitical and historical reasons, one of the five permanent members usually either would outright veto the resolution or would impede or not sternly and wholeheartedly support international enforcement of a given resolution. Another reason why the United Nations is not as effective as it could be is this: No nation wants to be viewed neither as yielding too much of its national sovereignty or its national autonomy nor yielding too many of its national prerogatives to the control of the United Nations.
To become more effective and decisive, perhaps the Security Council's unanimous consent rule should be amended. Most importantly, when a Security Council resolution is adopted, all nations must agree to abide by the resolution even those nations who oppose a given resolution but also lost on a vote that led to passage of a given resolution. Global crises require global solutions. Given the very real prospect that a nuclear war could lead to the destruction of life on Earth, then you had better recognize that humans perpetually must be on guard and vigilant of world politics. Every living thing on Earth is at peril by the existence of these extinction-inducing nuclear weapons.
It is conceivable that new problems could be created by changes in the way in which the United Nations' Security Council conducts its business. One possible problem would be that nations suddenly might decide to withdraw their memberships from—and suddenly might decide to withdraw their financial support for—the United Nations because these nations do not wish to be bound by certain Security Council resolutions.
Another possible problem is this: Adoption and enforcement of some controversial or unpopular Security Council resolutions might lead to more tensions and confrontations between nations instead of realizing the UN's goal of making the world a less dangerous place for humans to exist. That is to say, if most nations agree that binding arbitration is the preferred way to cope with a given international issue, then the United Nations suddenly becomes less of a forum to air international grievances and more of a forum to dispense international redress of grievances. The accused nation might not take too kindly to the proposed remedy. Instead of abiding by United Nations decisions, some nations might seek to vehemently and militarily oppose any United Nations attempts at enforcing its resolutions. On the other hand, if, say, 200 nations (that is, UN members) express support for a given course of Security Council action and 1 nation opposes the action, obviously, common sense dictates that the 200 nations should prevail and the 1 nation should comply.
In very, very, very recent history, humans already have witnessed World War II and Cold War I. Rhetorically speaking, who needs Cold War II not even to contemplate World War III? Nobody does! Cold War II would be akin to humans moving backwards instead of forwards. Humans must never forget about the rise of Adolf Hitler and how his megalomaniacal conduct plunged the world into war. Ten of millions of humans ended up dying because Adolf Hitler couldn't seem to keep his ego in check.
I think that, with the passage of time, the world continues to change for the better. It seems to me that positivity is on the rise. I think that humans are on the verge of undergoing and realizing a New Age of Enlightenment, and all nations are welcome to participate in it. For, as the saying goes, the more, the merrier.
Humans must not overlook or forget a very important fact of life: Despite their political, economic, social, cultural, racial, and religious differences, they remain one species here on marvelously diverse planet Earth. Are humans wise enough to overcome and transcend their differences? I think that they are.
Being the dominant life form on Earth, humans owe it to the other life forms to behave responsibly. Humans owe it to the other life forms—and they owe it to future generations of humans—to manage the Earth wisely.
HAPPINESS FOR ALL
The next bloc of songs/videos represents a brief respite or a brief refrain from this human preoccupation with nations grabbing land, or more accurately, a brief respite from this quest by nations to wield global power. The time is come for perpetual joy and happiness for all to reign on Earth. Don't you agree?
HISTORY LIVE: CURRENT EVENTS
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List of 248 Countries and Territories from A to Z with Current Events:
- Afghanistan
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- Algeria
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- Angola
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- Antarctica
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Argentina
- Armenia
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- Bermuda
- Bhutan
- Bolivia
- Bonaire
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Botswana
- Bouvet Island
- Brazil
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- British Virgin Islands
- Brunei
- Bulgaria
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cambodia
- Cameroon
- Canada
- Cape Verde
- Cayman Islands
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Chile
- China
- Christmas Island
- Cocos [Keeling] Islands
- Colombia
- Comoros
- Cook Islands
- Costa Rica
- Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
- Croatia
- Cuba
- Curacao
- Cyprus
- Czechia
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Denmark
- Djibouti
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- Egypt
- El Salvador
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Estonia
- Ethiopia
- Falkland Islands
- Faroe Islands
- Fiji
- Finland
- France
- French Guiana
- French Polynesia
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Georgia
- Germany
- Ghana
- Gibraltar
- Greece
- Greenland
- Grenada
- Guam
- Guatemala
- Guernsey
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Heard Island and McDonald Islands
- Honduras
- Hong Kong
- Hungary
- Iceland
- India
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Iraq
- Ireland
- Isle of Man
- Israel
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Japan
- Jersey
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kenya
- Kiribati
- Kosovo
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Latvia
- Lebanon
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Libya
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Macao
- Macedonia
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Mali
- Malta
- Marshall Islands
- Mauritania
- Mauritius
- Mayotte
- Mexico
- Micronesia
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Mongolia
- Montenegro
- Montserrat
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Myanmar (Burma)
- Namibia
- Nauru
- Nepal
- Netherlands
- New Caledonia
- New Zealand
- Nicaragua
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Niue
- Norfolk Island
- North Korea
- Northern Mariana Islands
- Norway
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Palau
- Palestine (Gaza Strip)
- Palestine (West Bank)
- Panama
- Papua New Guinea
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Philippines
- Pitcairn Islands
- Poland
- Portugal
- Puerto Rico
- Qatar
- Republic of the Congo
- Reunion
- Romania
- Russia
- Rwanda
- Saint Barthelemy
- Saint Helena
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Martin
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Samoa
- San Marino
- Sao Tome and Principe
- Saudi Arabia
- Senegal
- Serbia
- Seychelles
- Sierra Leone
- Singapore
- Sint Maarten
- Slovakia
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- Solomon Islands
- Somalia
- South Africa
- South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
- South Korea
- South Sudan
- Spain
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- Svalbard and Jan Mayen
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- Togo
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- U.S. Minor Outlying Islands
- Uganda
- Ukraine
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- Uruguay
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