The world is full of facts but
you will not find this one in the CIA Factbook
In 1997 the US agreed to decommission the 31,000 tonnes of Sarin, VX, mustard gas and other agents it possessed within 10 years. In 2007 it requested the maximum extension of the deadline permitted by the Chemical Weapons Convention – five years. Again it failed to keep its promise, and in 2012 it claimed they would be gone by 2021. Also, by presidential order (Clinton) no outside agency may oversee, inspect or verify anything to do with America's decommissioning programme.
Also, for the record, the US and Russia – insist on keeping the pathogen Smallpox in cold storage, just for defence, you understand.
World progress to date:
The world is not a better place, fewer children are not dying needlessly, the war mongers are not taking more holidays, they are not turning their swords into ploughshares, there are not fewer greedy bastards picking the pockets of the gullible, the vulnerable and helpless are not being treated with more dignity, the police are not more honest, the politicians are not less self-serving.....
The European Union:
The continent is in meltdown. All the eurocrats have gone into a huddle of denial, they know the gravy train has come off the tracks but will not admit it. They are telling their populations that austerity is the solution. Meanwhile, citizens of Greece eat from the garbage bins and the Spanish organise raids on supermarkets and the young people of Portugal have all left for Jersey.
North Africa and the Middle East
There's turmoil in North Africa and the Middle East, the Sunnis and Shias are killing each other, the Arab and the Jew are killing each other, the generals are replacing the the dictators, the dictators killed the people, now the generals kill the people.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Every state witnesses conflict, made worse by drought, disease, poverty and corruption in government.
North America
USA
In the land of the free, the Empire of America has lost its way, cities are depopulated, soup kitchens and bread lines have returned, there's talk of protectionism and democratic forces are pepper spraying 80 year olds who show dissent.
Canada
Nothing more than a warehouse for politically correct blueprints, and the ice is melting.
Mexico
Ungovernable, the whole place is run by the drug cartels. However, the US economy would be sunk without the very cheap supply of labour from Mexico.
Central America
Think Jurassic Park, all those entrepreneurs out there are missing an opportunity here. The central American region is primed for tourist exploitation.
Latin America
Drug wars, lawlessness, death squads and corruption in government.
India
In India the extremes of wealth and poverty are disgusting, beneath any concept of civilized society; production is based on child labour, bonded servitude and slavery.
China
In China, is the situation better or worse, how would anyone know, China is no more open today than when the Ming built the Great Wall.
Australia and New Zealand
Peripheral to global events, increasingly suffering from natural disasters, re-aligning themselves to point eastwards - contributions to global development minimal, contribution to sport, significant., struggling to deal with inbred racism.
Sout East Asia
Still supplying the bulk of the world's slave labour and thereby enabling the mega corporations of the West to maintain their exceptional surplus profits.
Death in Myanmar
The Rohingya minority Muslim group are being driven out of former Burma by the nice happy clappy Buddist military. The Rohingya have been fleeing for the last two years to countries bordering on Myanmar but they are not wanted there either.
UN human rights watchers have been wringing their hands and pleading with Myanmar leader, Aung San Suu Kyi to stop the genicide. She says that press reports of violence against the Rohingya are false news. The truth she does not run the country, the army do. She should have stayed under house arrest. Some nice Buddists priests were seen on TV television telling us that the Rohingya are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
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