Domestic Disturbances

Sometimes I wonder if there is a sickness in society. Do sociopaths form from purely internal means, or are they created by society? After reading the story of a man who had killed five of his family members, critically injured his wife, and then finally committed suicide. He had killed his young son, his very young daughter, his brother-in-law, his brother-in-law's wife and their baby. He did all of this with two semi-automatic pistols. This reminded me of a previous event a few months ago, when a father who had lost his job decided to kill all of his five children, his wife, and himself. Both events are horrific, but what struck me was how the article reporting the first massacre took note that he was in no way in danger of losing his job. As if that would supply a rationale. However, that these acts of horrendous violence are repeating themselves is very disconcerting. Just today, a brother killed two of his sisters, decapitating one of them. What in our culture could influence individuals to act so inhumanly towards their own family members? I would like to think that our society's atmosphere has nothing to do with the actions of these men, but the consistency and rate of these massacres is so deeply troubling. We as a people value retribution, success, and violence. Could the combination of all of these factors actually influence sick people to take such drastically terrifying actions in order to achieve catharsis? I certainly hope not.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/31/california.shooting/index.html

Immigrant Tragedy

One benefit of living overseas is that you are given a wider perception of the immigrant issue. When I hear the word immigrant, the image of desperate South Americans hopping across the Mexican border into the United States is not the only image that comes to my mind. I vividly remember a friend of mine named Coen (pronounced Koon), who was Dutch, complaining to me about the influx of Arab immigrants into Holland. He described the problems the immigrants posed the same way that some Americans complain about illegal immigrant Latinos. The Arabs were, according to him, ruining his country's culture, bringing crime, and taking all of the lower-paying jobs. I then realized that the immigrant issue is not unique to one country but a universal fact. I have since then been more sympathetic to the immigrant cause, albeit with certain reservations. So it strikes me as deeply sad when I read about the situation in the Meditteranean sea, where many African workers have lost their lives being shipped to Europe. Apparently, the trade works this way: many impoverished Africans travel to Libya because of its relative success as an economy and because it's a good starting point for migrating to Europe. Resulting from the recent worldwide economic hardship, many of the migrants will illegally travel to Europe via an intricate smuggling system that involves a halfway point on an island in the Mediterranean. This comes at great risk, the sailing is rough and sometimes a boat will capsize. One did very recently, roughly 200 African migrants dying in the sea. I find all of this horrifying: that people would put themselves through such terrifying and treacherous circumstances out of such desperation, that their desperation is growing from the economic downturn that the world (no thanks to our economy) has found itself in, and simply the image of hundreds of bodies floating in the ocean. It's awfully sad to contemplate, and I think it ought to be a reminder to us that while we Americans are surely going through hard times, it is people in the third world countries who are getting the worst of it. And that is simply not right and not fair.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/03/31/libya.migrants.plight/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

The War on Drugs- Insanity?

I read a very thought-provoking commentary by CNN writer Jeff Cafferty, who makes a strong case on how the war on drugs is not just unfeasible, but straight up crazy. The government spends $44 billion a year to try and keep an uncontrollable cause under control. A huge percentage of law enforcement is preoccupied with incarcerating people who partake in substances many would call no more destructive than alcohol. That it is illegal gives great economic incentive to drug cartels and criminals. To me, this situation sounds very much like prohibition; a war waged on the pretense of morality that becomes very unattractive once the economy drops. The Great Depression prompted the lift on the illegalization of liquor. Perhaps this economic panic will spur lawmakers to recognize that by legalizing, regulating, and taxing narcotics, they could, according to a Harvard economist Cafferty cites, profit them $33 billion. That would be a turnaround of $77 billion, not to mention a huge blow to criminal organizations who make most of their revenue on narcotics. So I must agree with Cafferty that, while drugs aren't the most pleasant of products, it's insane for the government to put so much effort into ridding the country of them (which is an impossibility) when they could control them. Pure craziness.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/31/cafferty.legal.drugs/index.html