General News/Current Affairs Thread

theirsbailiff said:
For people that want to lose their friends.
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:lol: Friends who who can't stay friends despite political and philosophical disagreements aren't very good friends. We did once have a thread like this, and I think the main thing to learn from it is that if we're going to debate, let's debate the issues rather than start questioning each other's faculties. Presuming people are disagreeing with you because they're idiots isn't usually the best way of carrying on a civilised discussion.

...

Whatever anyone thinks of Chavez's politics, I don't think anyone could deny he was a politician whose heart was in the right place. He actually cared about his people rather than looking after his own interests and couldn't be bought, which is a rarity in politicians these days. Plus he was democratically elected several times so he must have been doing something right. Of course now, there are parallels to be drawn with the Soviet Union as he appears to be being forged into a symbol in death by his moustachioed successor who is a bit of an unknown quantity... That's always the problem with revolutions - Once the leaders die, they often get perverted for the purposes of others.

North Korea... Well, going back to corrupt and uncaring leaders, ours need some way of kick-starting the economy and disposing of all the useless people globalisation and the outsourcing of labour has created, don't they? A big war is pretty much their only option now really. See some of you soon for basic training, I guess.
 
if i wanted to know what was happening in the world i would of never taken up anime in the first place.

a general news thread is a bad idea
 
I read about that 16 year old girl in the Metro today. Police are basically using her Twitter for the investigation now seeing as like a whole "almost" month ago she twittered about some weird guy on her bus.

Financial wise, looks like we're the only country in the EU not going with the stance on bankers bonus'. Great stuff. I work in the financial sector but meh. If people are going to undeservingly get paid way above their wage, lucky them I say. Hate them for it obviously but it's only because I'm jealous!
At least the FTSE hit the highest it has since like 2007/2008 though.
 
animefreak17 said:
if i wanted to know what was happening in the world i would of never taken up anime in the first place.

a general news thread is a bad idea
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Don't contribute to it then. No-one forces you to post in (or even look at) threads you have no interest in.

In case you hadn't noticed, this is the random section which on the first page has threads about food, tattoos, jury duty and oh... a thread entirely devoted to you and anything you want to post.
 
ayase said:
North Korea... Well, going back to corrupt and uncaring leaders, ours need some way of kick-starting the economy and disposing of all the useless people globalisation and the outsourcing of labour has created, don't they? A big war is pretty much their only option now really. See some of you soon for basic training, I guess.
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I can't see conscription happening again even in the event of a war kicking off in NK. No matter what reasoning a politico gives for reintroducing it, it will always come back to the government forcing people to take up arms against their will. From a practical standpoint it's just not viable at a time when we're scaling back our defence spending and moving toward a smaller, more elite force. Having too train repeated influxes of amateurs (most of whom probably won't want to be there) in the basics of militarism then housing them, feeding them, paying them, kitting them is a monumental undertaking especially in a time of austerity let alone when the good times are rolling.

As for the SK/NK border what you've got there is the makings of the world's largest meat grinder. Conscripts and professional soldiers (US & SK pros) v brainwashed conscripts is not going to be pretty. Still at least there's a chance it'll put the "conscripts are the best way to organise a modern army!" argument to bed. Shame it's taken two world wars and multiple regional wars with countless dead conscripts to reach that point.

And while I'm on the subject of South Korea and Conscription I'd just like to say that them not having any provisions for conscientious objectors beyond jail time and a criminal record is an outrage. The whole thing is completely at odds with a free society and the concept of human rights even given the somewhat unique situation South Korea finds itself in.
 
This is how I see it going down eventually, maybe not even with NK but perhaps Iran in a few years time: Private companies start making war machines and make money by selling them to various governments (that's the economy back on track and a few more people back in work) the rest of the useless people who there are no jobs for are sent off to die along with their shiny new weapons (this is the important part, to make absolutely sure the majority of them die and don't come back and have to be looked after by the state - that's why a meat grinder is the perfect scenario). The few who come back are hailed as the heroes of a generation who they can afford to lavish a bit of money on to keep them comfortable and give them medals to make them feel like they've achieved something. The population is substantially decreased, the government breathes a sigh of relief because there aren't enough disaffected people to revolt against them and the burden on the welfare state is diminished. Their problems are solved and all it cost is the lives of a few million plebs.

If it came to it, how would we even resist conscription? We aren't allowed weapons as private citizens and the media would no doubt manage to whip a majority of young men into a patriotic fervour and have them bayonet charging the enemy at the earliest opportunity anyway.
 
GRCC said:
ayase said:
North Korea... Well, going back to corrupt and uncaring leaders, ours need some way of kick-starting the economy and disposing of all the useless people globalisation and the outsourcing of labour has created, don't they? A big war is pretty much their only option now really. See some of you soon for basic training, I guess.
Click to expand...

I can't see conscription happening again even in the event of a war kicking off in NK. No matter what reasoning a politico gives for reintroducing it, it will always come back to the government forcing people to take up arms against their will. From a practical standpoint it's just not viable at a time when we're scaling back our defence spending and moving toward a smaller, more elite force. Having too train repeated influxes of amateurs (most of whom probably won't want to be there) in the basics of militarism then housing them, feeding them, paying them, kitting them is a monumental undertaking especially in a time of austerity let alone when the good times are rolling.
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Not to mention the number of people that would seek to get out of mandatory conscription through loopholes or simply refusing would make the entire process a waste of time. I believe we have some of the best militaries in the world, and trust in the abilities of our armed forces to take care of matters.

ayase said:
This is how I see it going down eventually, maybe not even with NK but perhaps Iran in a few years time: Private companies start making war machines and make money by selling them to various governments (that's the economy back on track and a few more people back in work) the rest of the useless people who there are no jobs for are sent off to die along with their shiny new weapons (this is the important part, to make absolutely sure the majority of them die and don't come back and have to be looked after by the state - that's why a meat grinder is the perfect scenario). The few who come back are hailed as the heroes of a generation who they can afford to lavish a bit of money on to keep them comfortable and give them medals to make them feel like they've achieved something. The population is substantially decreased, the government breathes a sigh of relief because there aren't enough disaffected people to revolt against them and the burden on the welfare state is diminished. Their problems are solved and all it cost is the lives of a few million plebs.
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Someone has been playing Metal Gear Solid recently.
 
MaxonTreik said:
Someone has been playing Metal Gear Solid recently.
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Heh. There's probably more Nineteen Eighty-Four in there than anything... Also this.

It's fairly plain to see that WW2 saved the US economy and Korea and Vietnam helped it tick along while also getting rid of a potential generation of rebels. War is simply good for business. The wider-ranging and longer the war the bigger the potential for profit, because you can keep on manufacturing the disposable instruments of war for as long as they continue to be destroyed.
 
I like to think we've reached a point in our democracy where we don't require weapons to resist something like the reintroduction of conscription nor would we fall for elements of the media channelling Jessie Pope.

While Ayase's vision of the future is a bit "out there" he does raise an interesting issue about what we do with the soldiers after the war. Again going with South Korea you'd have 680,000 in the army alone, that's 680,000 people that have been taken out of the economy and are highly likely either not going to re-enter the economy due to death or serious injury or are not going to be able to work to full capacity because of poor post war care provided by the state. So that's a ginormous welfare bill waiting for the Korean state at the conclusion of the war to go along with costs from reconstruction of their own state and getting the North Korean state up to a basic standard of living if the war doesn't end in another stalemate and assuming the South's conscript forces don't completely fall apart under fire.

So yeah, post war is every bit as expensive as actual war. It is good for the economies of those involved but only really when you're dealing with a total war situation. The economies of the participants would only do well if they were completely focused toward the war effort something which the American and other western economies wouldn't be, the South Korean economy would struggle with if the North made any sort of meaningful incursion into SK territory. From what I understand the Northern military forces are reliant on dodgy, outside imports for their equipment rather than building it themselves and it's so focused on collectivism and state run businesses rather than the free market that I can't see a war making any sort of improvement to the NK economy. You could pull a class of primary school children out of a British school and they'd be able to run the NK economy better than the Workers party have done over the past 60 years or so.
 
Oh, I don't think it would benefit the countries who actually stand in the path of destruction. Only the ones standing on the sidelines ready to take those countries' cash and in return push man and machine alike into the meat grinder. That was pretty much our relationship with the USA in WW2 which left their businessmen rich, our government broke and the young men of both countries dead. It yields no profit for society as a whole anywhere though, only for certain individuals - That's what most national economies (and indeed the global economy) have been geared to do. Full text of "War is a Racket" here, by the way. It's one of those things I'd encourage everyone to read. Written in 1935 and has barely aged a day.

I think you may be underestimating the gullibility of the general public GRCC. I'm of the opinion a big Union Jack on the front page of the Sun is probably all it would take.
 
To be honest, if North Korea were to wage war I don't think we'd be able to make it in time even if we recruited shitloads of potential soldiers. I kinda predict NK being shelled to oblivion by China, Japan and more importantly, South Korea before any western influence shows up. Granted, what would happen after that hypothetical war (Assuming no nukes are used) would be the question of what to do with the remains of DPRK and its inhabitants.
 
I'd hate to be the guy in charge of telling the people of the north what their government has really been up to or telling them the Kim family's actual back story.

Would love to be in charge of blowing up all those hideous Kim family statues in Pyongyang though.
 
to be honest it's probably a case of Kim Jong Un has lost control of his military and they're running the show now, even his father didn't dare to break the armistace
 
Agreed on Turkson.
Nowadays the Pope is just a façade role, the Vatican powers are held by people behind the scenes. In the last couple of years the Vatican faced a lot of scandals and troubles that caused them a huge image loss. Most probably they will have to face worse things in the next years: here in Italy the overall economy is going worse and worse, most of us can't stand anymore to see boatloads of taxes going into the Vatican bank and never turn back. So they need the most "politically correct" Pope for marketing issues, which is a black one.
Plus it was predicted by Pitura Freska:




Teo
 
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So, the Falklands Referendum is finally over. 99.8% of people, with a voter turnout of 92%, voted for British sovereignty - only 3 people voted otherwise.

Shame that won't shut Argentina up about it. Seriously, if Kirchner seriously wanted the Falklands back, instead of denying them a right to an opinion etc, she should have tried to persuade the islanders why Argentinean sovereignty might have been better.
 
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