This morning's key headlines from
GenerationalDynamics.com:
- North Koreans fight starvation by turning to cannibalism
- Israel's warplanes strike target in Syria
- Syria's refugee crisis overwhelms Jordan
- Egypt's Port Said's curfew is reduced as anger increases
- Port Said residents increasingly contemptuous of Cairo and Morsi
North Koreans fight starvation by turning to cannibalism
Reports are surfacing that North Koreans are turning to cannibalism
for survival. In one horrendous story, a father was put to death by
firing squad after it was discovered that the had killed and eaten two
of his children last year. (This story reminds me that decades ago I
read a book on the three-year Nazi siege of Leningrad, with numerous
deaths by cannibalism.) Global Post and Daily Mail (London)
Israel's warplanes strike target in Syria
Israel's warplanes crossed Lebanon's air space and struck targets in
Syria on Wednesday. However, there is a dispute over what the targets
were. Unnamed U.S. intelligence officials say that Israel was
targeting a convoy of trucks carrying advanced Russian-made SA-17
anti-aircraft to Lebanon, where Hizbollah would use them to target
Israeli planes. However, Syria's media disputed this account, saying
that the Israeli warplanes had struck a "military research center"
building near Damascus. It's possible that both were targeted, and if
a military research center was targeted, it may be that it was storing
or producing chemical weapons. Bloomberg and BBC
Syria's refugee crisis overwhelms Jordan
Since January 1 of this year, between 40,000 to 50,000 Syrians have
fled into Jordan, in the fastest influx since the beginning of the
Syrian conflict. At this rate, there will be over one million Syrian
refugees in Jordan alone, and several million more in other countries.
Iraq has closed its borders to refugees, but Syria has kept its
borders open, with the result that the flow of refugees is
overwhelming Jordan. The winter has been particularly cold, and
people are living in makeshift tents with little clothing, rarely
getting more than one meal a day. The United Nations High Commission
on Refugees (UNHCR) is calling for $1.5 billion in donations from
other countries to provide aid to the refugees. Al-Jazeera and Reuters
Egypt's Port Said's curfew is reduced as anger increases
The Governor of Port Said, on the Suez Canal in Egypt, has reduced the
9-hour per night curfew imposed by president Mohamed Morsi to 4 hours,
from 1-5 am each night. A similar curfew reduction also went into
effect for the other two Suez Canal cities. It's just as well that
the curfews were reduced, since citizens of the three cities were
ignoring them anyway. Al-Ahram (Cairo)
Port Said residents increasingly contemptuous of Cairo and Morsi
President Mohamed Morsi's highly selective "state of emergency"
curfews for cities along the Suez Canal not only did not restore
order, but it highlighted how out of the control the situation is
becoming. Port Said residents have been particularly contemptuous of
the fact that Morsi did not impose a curfew on Cairo, where the riots
and demonstrations have been much bigger than in the canal cities.
Furthermore, the canal cities make a lot of money for Cairo, but it
all goes into the pockets of the wealthy élite in Cairo, with little
returning to Port Said. There is increasingly the feeling in Port
Said that the Cairo is losing control of the country, and that they're
on their own. According to one Port Said protester, "[The
authorities] are sitting in their houses, waiting to cash their
salaries at the end of the month, without taking any action toward the
disintegration of the town, leaving people to the chaos." Foreign Policy
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