Resistance and Violence Accompany Change

[Bonzi]

It's inevitable.

People are creatures of habit and don't like the status quo to be upset. When there is a threat to the status quo, upheaval happens.

It's a necessary evil. Whether the change be good or bad.

Like growing pains..... and nothing new

 

[waltky]

Global violence on the uptick...

Global violence worsens, driven by Middle East conflicts: peace index
Jun. 8, 2016 - The world has become increasingly violent with deaths from conflict at a 25-year high, terrorist attacks at an all-time high and more people displaced than at any time since World War Two, the 2016 Global Peace Index showed on Wednesday.

The annual index, which measures 23 indicators including incidents of violent crime, countries' levels of militarization and weapons imports, said intensifying conflicts in the Middle East were mostly to blame. But beyond the Middle East, the world was actually becoming more peaceful, researchers behind the index said. "Quite often, in the mayhem which is happening in the Middle East currently, we lose sight of the other positive trends," said Steve Killelea, founder of the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), which produces the index. "If we look in the last year, if we took out the Middle East ... the world would have become more peaceful," Killelea told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

A man walks on the rubble of damaged buildings in the rebel-controlled area of Jobar, a suburb of Damascus​

More than 100,000 were killed in conflict in 2014, up from nearly 20,000 in 2008. Syria, where nearly 67,000 people were killed in 2014, accounted for the bulk of the increase, according to the index. The United Nations has said the number of displaced people is likely to have "far surpassed" a record 60 million last year. The index showed that most attacks it classed as terrorist were concentrated in five countries - Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The economic cost of violence over the past decade was $137 trillion - greater than the global GDP in 2015, the IEP showed.

The indicator which improved the most in the last year was funding for U.N. peacekeeping operations, which reached record highs in 2016, IEP said. "However, peacebuilding and peacekeeping spending remains proportionately small compared to the economic impact of violence, representing just 2 percent of global losses from armed conflict," Killelea said in a statement. More than 120,000 U.N. peacekeepers are currently deployed in 16 operations worldwide. The largest are in Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan's Darfur region, South Sudan, Mali, Central African Republic and Lebanon. Another improvement in peace, is a 10 percent fall in global military spending in the last three years, IEP said.

BUILDING LASTING PEACE

 

[Elvis Obama]

Yeah, but as the world grows in complexity and mutual dependency, and we shove more and more people into obsolescence, these upheavals become more destabilizing. We see the changes take place before our eyes, but we respond to them too slowly. We're overwhelmed by the scope and scale of these problems. Automation making broad swathes of the labor market unnecessary? Hmmn, we really should do something about that one of these days. But then we'd need an ever improving education system, instead of an ever deteriorating one. Ah well, never mind, let's just sit on the couch and get fat.

 

[Bonzi]

just look what happened in England.
Democracies are finally taking advantage of the system. People realize they DO have power.

 

[Moonglow]

just look what happened in England.
Democracies are finally taking advantage of the system. People realize they DO have power.

Yet the people do not have the final say in England..

 

[Bonzi]

just look what happened in England.
Democracies are finally taking advantage of the system. People realize they DO have power.

Yet the people do not have the final say in England..

people have power, democracy or not though

 

[Moonglow]

just look what happened in England.
Democracies are finally taking advantage of the system. People realize they DO have power.

Yet the people do not have the final say in England..

people have power, democracy or not though

Parliament must decide on the matter of the vote..

 

[Bonzi]

just look what happened in England.
Democracies are finally taking advantage of the system. People realize they DO have power.

Yet the people do not have the final say in England..

people have power, democracy or not though

Parliament must decide on the matter of the vote..

I'll take your word for that (honestly, I really don't know, I just have seen headlines) - but if that's the case, the people still have powers of influence (as they always do) and if they have the nads, there is always power in numbers -

 

[iamwhatiseem]

The EU is collapsing right before our eyes as it should.
It was a great idea economically, but then it swayed into the political arena and that is what killed it.
When you had a couple partisan courts in other countries telling you what you can and cannot do - that is never-ever going to work.

 

[Desperado]

just look what happened in England.
Democracies are finally taking advantage of the system. People realize they DO have power.

Yet the people do not have the final say in England..

people have power, democracy or not though

Parliament must decide on the matter of the vote..

I saw that too. Strangely enough the "Exit" vote was just a non-binding referendum .
Now let's see if Parliament honors the will of the people. If not I feel there will be hell to pay

 

[iamwhatiseem]

just look what happened in England.
Democracies are finally taking advantage of the system. People realize they DO have power.

Yet the people do not have the final say in England..

people have power, democracy or not though

Parliament must decide on the matter of the vote..

I saw that too. Strangely enough the "Exit" vote was just a non-binding referendum .
Now let's see if Parliament honors the will of the people. If not I feel there will be hell to pay

I don't think there is anyway possible Parliament could vote against the referendum.