By Stephen Vance, Editor
It isn’t often these days that I become distracted by international news. Typically I live and breathe local issues and events, and though I keep informed about what is going on in the rest of the world via podcasts, some favourite magazines and news websites, that information gathering is reserved for my spare time.
Every now and then an issue or two captures my interest and I make some extra time to delve in and learn more. Whether it’s the antics of Governor Christie in New Jersey, or the defiant systematic eradication of access to abortion and birth control in southern states, or the struggles within the European Union as they have been navigating shaky economies in recent years.
In recent weeks, however, I have found more and more of my spare time riveted to news websites, and reading background articles and columns about all that is going on around the world at the moment.
The list of major news stories around the globe is both lengthy and often horrifying. Seldom do we see so many important events taking place in so many places.
From the conflict in Ukraine with their Russian neighbour, to renewed friction in Israel, to parts of Iraq being overtaken by a radical terrorist organization with apparently deep enough pockets to be willing to goad America back into the area, the rest of the world seems chaotic to say the least.
But it doesn’t end there. If the headlines about wars and potential wars aren’t enough, western Africa is in the midst of a terrible Ebola outbreak, billions of litres of tailing pond wastewater rushing into rivers and lakes after a rupture in British Columbia, and a major earthquake in China should surely shift your brain into overload.
As exhausting as it can be to keep track of it all, it is also impossible to trim down the list of stories to follow – for me at least. So instead, I have been immersed in one news update after another, my blood boiling at times, and my heart breaking at others.
At least we get some comic relief in the likes of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, though that story too quickly morphed from humorous to outrageous to silly before becoming terribly sad.
I have feared that the number of conflicts taking place around the globe might slowly become linked. The fear, I’ve told myself, is ridiculous, and I agree with myself. But then the next headline I see informs me that Russia is now announcing “military exercises” on some islands coveted by Russia but whose ownership is claimed by Japan.
Some things that have become very clear to me in recent weeks:
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As much as a few of the roads in Meaford annoy me, they’re still easier to navigate than some of the roads in Gaza these days. We might get into a tizzy while scraping up funds to replace roads and bridges, but at least we replace them because they wear out, not because they’ve suffered a missile hit.
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No matter what trivial complaints we might have from time to time about waiting times at hospitals or for specialists, I much prefer those worries than having exhausted, overworked doctors in makeshift tents trying to contain and control the outbreak of a rare but deadly disease, as they’re doing in Africa.
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And when it comes to borders, one of the benefits of a society that holds a deep respect for the right to freedom of speech, and with a high-functioning, though admittedly not perfect, democracy is that our battles over borders – municipal or otherwise – are fought with words, and at times angry voices with a little desk pounding, and I will take that over Molotov Cocktails and Kalashnikovs any day.
It’s a great time to be Canadian. Let’s hope that we all heed the lessons to learn from what is playing out elsewhere, and perhaps, if any good comes of all of the horror stories happening elsewhere, it might be that we put our first-world problems in perspective.
