World War 1

The total number of casualties in World War I, both military and civilian, were about 37 million: 16 million deaths and 21 million wounded. The total number of deaths includes 9.7 million military personnel and about 6.8 million civilians. The Entente Powers (also known as the Allies) lost 5.7 million soldiers and the Central Powers about 4 million.

Classification of casualty statistics

Estimates of casualty numbers for World War I vary to a great extent; estimates of total deaths range from 9 million to over 16 million Military casualty statistics listed here include 6.8 million combat related deaths as well as 2 million military deaths caused by accidents, disease and deaths while prisoners of war. The table lists total deaths; the footnotes give a breakout between combat and non-combat losses. The figures listed below include about 6 million civilian deaths due to war related famine and disease, these civilian losses are often omitted from other compilations of World War I casualties. The war disrupted trade resulting in acute shortages of food which resulted in famine in Europe, the Ottoman Empire and Africa. Civilian deaths include the Armenian Genocide, and it is debated if this event should be included with war losses. Civilian deaths due to the Spanish flu have been excluded from these figures, whenever possible. Furthermore, the figures do not include deaths during the Turkish War of Independence and the Russian Civil War.

Death of a lily

This is an ironic image as a lily which signifies death has been killed by death. This can be viewed as the cycle of life; it was born and now it was its time to die, this issue can be linked to the idea of natural causes. What is anatural causes, can you pin point this idea even in the terms of humans who supposedly die of natural causes? Is natural causes just another word for old age?

However, there is a different argument which is that perhaps this part of nature would survive longer without humans due to their industrilization, over population, and pollution which all leads to global warming which is killing the Earth. This can thus be interpreted as mass murder of nature and the possible end of human kind cause with out plants, trees and nature all living things will die as they need oxygen to survive.

Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and the oceans since the mid-twentieth century and its projected continuation. Global surface temperature increased 0.74 ± 0.18 °C (1.33 ± 0.32 °F) during the 100 years ending in 2005. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that anthropogenic greenhouse gases are responsible for most of the observed temperature increase since the middle of the twentieth century, and that natural phenomena such as solar variation and volcanoes probably had a small warming effect from pre-industrial times to 1950 and a small cooling effect afterward. These basic conclusions have been endorsed by more than 40 scientific societies and academies of science, including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries.

Climate model projections summarized in the latest IPCC report indicate that global surface temperature will likely rise a further 1.1 to 6.4 °C (2.0 to 11.5 °F) during the twenty-first century.[1] The uncertainty in this estimate arises from the use of models with differing climate sensitivity, and the use of differing estimates of future greenhouse gas emissions. Some other uncertainties include how warming and related changes will vary from region to region around the globe. Most studies focus on the period up to 2100. However, warming is expected to continue beyond 2100, even if emissions stop, because of the large heat capacity of the oceans and the long lifetime of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Increasing global temperature will cause sea levels to rise and will change the amount and pattern of precipitation, likely including expansion of subtropical deserts. The continuing retreat of glaciers, permafrost and sea ice is expected, with the Arctic region being particularly affected. Other likely effects include shrinkage of the Amazon rainforest and Boreal forests, increases in the intensity of extreme weather events, species extinctions and changes in agricultural yields.

AIDS and HIV

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

This condition progressively reduces the effectiveness of the immune system and leaves individuals susceptible to opportunistic infections and tumors. HIV is transmitted through direct contact of a mucous membrane or the bloodstream with a bodily fluid containing HIV, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid, preseminal fluid, and breast milk.

This transmission can involve anal, vaginal or oral sex, blood transfusion, contaminated hypodermic needles, exchange between mother and baby during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding, or other exposure to one of the above bodily fluids.

AIDS is now a pandemic. In 2007, an estimated 33.2 million people lived with the disease worldwide, and it killed an estimated 2.1 million people, including 330,000 children. Over three-quarters of these deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa,retarding economic growth and destroying human capital.

Protest from the Youth

June 16, 1976 - Hector Petersen, a 13-year old South African student is shot and killed during a massive demonstration to protest apartheid laws in South Africa. The photograph of the fatally wounded Petersen being carried from the scene appeared throughout the world and he became a symbol of the anti-apartheid movement. A generation later, June 16 is still a day of remembrance, particularly in Soweto, where Petersen was killed. This is just one particular case but many other school children were also killed in their protest bfor freedom and equal rights. The past youth seemed to have more "fight" in them, what is happening to the current youth in the world, why are they not protesting and making a stant?

Links:June 16th Student UprisingRead a two-part series on the Soweto student protest, browse links on apartheid laws and view the famous photograph of the wounded Hector Peterson.

Soweto South AfricaLearn about the history of the township and view the iconic photograph of Hector Peterson.

The History of Apartheid in South AfricaLearn how racial discrimination was institutionalized in South Africa through apartheid laws.

Books:Anatomy of a Miracle: The End of Apartheid and the Birth of the New South Africaby: By Patti Waldmeir 1997A chronicle of the political and personal struggles to end apartheid in South Africa through the eyes of a journalist.

Soweto: The Fruit of Fearby: By Peter Magubane 1987A photographic account of the June 16th uprising in Soweto.

Politics of the New South Africa: Apartheid and Afterby: By Heather Deegan 2000An account of life in South Africa during the past decade.

War and its Victims

A definition for war could be death in large numbers, mass murder.


The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, the Vietnam Conflict, or often in Vietnam, the American War occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia from 1955 to April 30, 1975. The war was fought between the communist North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the United States and other member nations of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).
The Vietcong, the lightly armed South Vietnamese communist insurgency, largely fought a guerrilla war against anti-communist forces in the region. The North Vietnamese Army engaged in a more conventional war, at times committing large-sized units into battle. U.S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search-and-destroy operations, involving ground forces, artillery and air strikes.

The United States entered the war to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam as part of their wider strategy of containment. Military advisors arrived beginning in 1950. U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s and combat units were deployed beginning in 1965. Involvement peaked in 1968 at the time of the Tet Offensive. Despite a peace treaty signed by all parties in January 1973, fighting continued. In April 1975, North Vietnam captured Saigon. North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year.

The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities, including 3 to 4 million Vietnamese from both sides, 1.5 to 2 million Laotians and Cambodians, and 58,159 U.S. soldiers.

What is a natural disaster?

What is a natural disaster? Is it actually natural or do humans trigger this disaster through their abuse of the world? Is it due to global warming? Or is it the worlds way of killing of mass numbers of people to try and save the world from over population? Is it not interesting that so many of the places hit by natural disasters are in poverty striken areas? So many questions and so few answers!

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. It is known by the scientific community as the Great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake,[3] and the following tsunami is known as the Asian Tsunami or the Boxing Day Tsunami.

The earthquake was caused by subduction and triggered a series of devastating tsunami along the coasts of most landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean, killing more than 225,000 people in eleven countries, and inundating coastal communities with waves up to 30 meters (100 feet) high. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history.

Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand were hardest hit.
With a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3, it is the second largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph. This earthquake had the longest duration of faulting ever observed, between 8.3 and 10 minutes. It caused the entire planet to vibrate as much as 1 cm (0.4 inches)[4] and triggered other earthquakes as far away as Alaska.[5]

The plight of the many affected people and countries prompted a widespread humanitarian response. In all, the worldwide community donated more than $7 billion (2004 U.S. dollars) in humanitarian aid.

Death being planned

In the case of the bombing of the Twin Towers, the people who orchastrated this disaster sought out to kill and cause death. They planned the death of the unknown. In this particular case death can be seen as a morbid idea. As lives were just taken!