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Guam , the recent hot news item, is a small, exotic island in the North Pacific Ocean, home to some 160 thousand citizens. Its indigenous people are called 'chamorro', and tourism is an important factor in its economy.
The island is mostly known as an american military base. This fact makes it easy for North Korea to threaten Guam with missiles, as it knows that China and Japan (the other big players in the area), despite the mistrust and rivalry between the two, are not happy with the american military presence there.
A lot in this crisis and in the crises to come, will depend on the USA's ability to practice restraint. Its former presidents have done nothing serious to prevent Iran and North Korea from developing nuclear power. So, the USA has to face now a very complex and volatile reality.
The option to use military force against North Korea is neither a good one, nor a desirable one.
It's a different world now, one which finds it hard to accept american military presence away from its own shores, and won't agree to USA use of nuclear weapons .
In the meantime, let's hope restraint on both sides will prevail, and Guam, this little Pacific pearl, is not going to be sacrificed .
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A 27- year old german co-pilot , Andreas Lubitz, was left alone in the cockpit of a jet for a few moments, and that had a tragic outcome : 150 dead bodies scattered over a mountain in the French Alps. It has been confirmed that he was suffering of severe depression, which probably led him to deliberately smash the plane into the mountain.
At the helm of North Korea ( an east asian, isolated, impoverished nation) - the 30 year old Kim Jong- un. He looks and acts like a spoilt boy; the problem is, his "toys" include missiles, nuclear weapons, and he's constantly threatening his neighboring country of South Korea, and the USA. He runs his country like a stalinist dictator; human rights are almost non-existing there.
Since his election, the new, charming 40 year old PM of Greece, Alexis Tsipras, is shaking Europe, and has dragged his lovely country to the edge of an economic abyss. Greece, ancient cradle of democracy, is fast running out of cash, unable to pay its debts. Only God knows what will become of this nation.
The world we live in worships youth. Perhaps, wherever and whenever possible, we should have second thoughts on appointing young people to lead the crowds above, in the sky, and those below, on the earth.
