Give Peace A Chance

Despite all the doom-and-gloom in the media, there are signs that the world isn’t too bad a place after all: the number of armed conflicts has declined by more than 40% since 1992. The deadliest conflicts (those with 1000 or more battle-deaths) dropped by 80%.

TEDBlog: Huge story… largely ignored puts it well:

“The global media also, of course, largely ignored the report. Chances are this is the first you’ve heard of it. I’m getting more and more angry about this… the strange, unspoken, self-reinforcing alliance between media and public, which results in such a distorted world image being created. Drama, celebrity and parochialism inevitably trump insight, reason, and the global view.”

Maybe if we could acknowledge the progress that’s we’re making, we could be more optimistic about what can be achieved; which would free us to attack the really big problems facing us.