Small World, or Small Mind?

Small World, or Small Mind?

You've heard of ABC, NBC and BBC, right?

Go to the ABC or NBC Home Page and search the page for 'language'.

Now, go to BBC's Home Page and see this:

NEWS IN 33 LANGUAGES

It's a link to a page with, well, news in 33 languages (actually, 35 today). Not only are the links there, but each appears in its native language, too. So, even if you can't read English, you can still find your way to, oh, Somali or Uzbek coverage.

Just to catch everybody up,
BBC == British Broadcasting Corporation
ABC == American Broadcasting Company
NBC == National Broadcasting Company

Wikipedia says BBC is the world's largest broadcasting corporation. But ABC and NBC are not chump change. So why does the BBC provide news in 35 languages and ABC and NBC, between them, cover a single language? (There may be other languages there but I could not find them.)

Maybe we folks in the US spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about ourselves?

Now, we're all pretty anxious about Gas Prices, right? (Well, at least I am, as are most of the people I know.) But our gasoline costs just one quarter of what it costs in Korea. And it's cheaper than in most other industrialized countries. Here are some details from CNN.

Yes, we worry a lot about things in our own little corner of the world.

Presently, we are engaged in some, um, theaters of military action in parts of the world. Mr. Bush is quick to take credit for elevating these regions to a (naggingly persistent) level of armed conflict during his administration. He believes that it will make our little corner, America, safer (and his prodigy, McCain, echos this vision).

Here, and around the world, there are differing views:

In December 2006, a Carnegie Scholar writing for YaleGlobal (of Yale University, George Bush's Alma Mater) stated that the Iraqi war fuels a "Global Jihad." As far back as 2003, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Iraq "will produce 100 Bin Ladens." I don't need to go on.

In my past blogs, I highlighted the global effects of greenhouse gases, of which America is a prime contributor (see my Blog Archives - Global Warming Arrives...).

How are all these things related? Well, either appreciate that it's a Small World, or suffer the consequences of a Small Mind.

JT