2007 has been a year full of many interesting,sad,happy and terrifying events like most years . Johanna and myself spent the first half in Cape town. A couple weeks in Lamu,Kenya. Johanna spent a week in New York and i saw Rosenborg play equal with Chelsea in London. The rest was spent here in the North.

There have been a few other noteworthy events i also want to comment and that i have kept a close eye on.

1. Iraq,Iran and Pakistan. The U.S. troop surge in Iraq reduced violence but has not led to political stability; tensions and military attacks grew between Turkey and the Kurds; the nuclear cat and mouse game continued with Iran; the Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan; and instability grew in Pakistan—culminating this week with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

2. Israel-Palestine. As the internal Palestinian struggle between Hamas and Fatah continued and the violence between Israel and Hamas in Gaza intensified, the Bush administration convened an international peace conference. The president plans his first trip to the region in January.

3. Global warming. Awareness of the threat of global warming continued to grow in response to news coverage of the largest melting of the polar ice cap in history and Al Gore and the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change winning the Nobel Peace Prize. At a climate change treaty meeting in Bali, the U.S. refused to join other nations in pledging cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. On the religious front, the National Association of Evangelicals rebuffed James Dobson’s attempt to silence their concern for global warming.

4. Darfur. Another year has gone by, the violence and death continue, and the United Nations still cannot secure an adequate peacekeeping force on the ground.

5. Guns. The U.S.’s love affair with guns continued despite mass shootings at Virginia Tech University (32 dead), an Omaha, Nebraska shopping mall (eight dead), the New Life Church in Colorado Springs and Youth With a Mission in Arvada, Colorado (four dead). All three gunmen also died. If recent trends continue, approximately 10,000 others were also murdered with firearms this year. In Finland a young man also used a gun to kill students and school workers.

6. Muslim-Christian dialogue. One-hundred-thirty-eight Muslim clerics and scholars sent an open letter to the leaders of Christian churches, “A Common Word Between Us and You,” proposing common ground on the shared values of loving God and loving neighbor. Hundreds of Christian leaders and scholars responded by welcoming the initiative.

Other stories of note included an uprising in Burma/Myanmar led by Buddhist monks; a growing mortgage crisis in the U.S.; the passing of Jerry Falwell; a growing split in the Anglican communion; new prime ministers in the U.K. (Gordon Brown) and Australia (Kevin Rudd). “Scooter” Libby was convicted of lying to a grand jury; Karl Rove and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned; and North Korea closed and began disabling its only nuclear reactor producing weapons-grade plutonium.

I wish you a blessed new year!

Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid. — Fyodor Dostoevsky

This second feature film from Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev had a lot to live up to considering how great his 2003 debut, The Return, was. I was really a bit skeptical going in because the advanced reviews had been mixed, and I really didn’t know how a director who had made such brilliant use of the Russian landscape as almost a perpetually menacing character in its own right, would handle what sounded like a very indoor domestic drama.Boy was I wrong to doubt.

The new 2007-2008 UN Human Development report is focused on “Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world.” According to news stories, the report clearly links overcoming climate change with global poverty:

“The poorest countries and most vulnerable citizens will suffer the earliest and most damaging setbacks, even though they have contributed least to the problem,” the report says.
…

As the world’s richest countries bear the greatest responsibility, the UN Development Programme called on them to bear the largest burden in cutting emissions and in providing financial aid to the poor.

And, as is true with so many of the big issues facing us,

“The world lacks neither the financial resources nor the technological capabilities to act,” the UN report said. “What is missing is a sense of urgency, human solidarity, and collective interest.”