The Newtown Massacre.

As recently as 2010 global international politics such as the COP/CMP process has been wholly dominated by the relationship between the two global superpowers - the USA and China. However since the so-called Arab Spring and the fall of Libya in particular the Gulf Monarchy's lead by Saudi Arabia have begun to emerge as a powerful third player. Therefore I am hesitant to go into much detail on the Internet.

However I think it's well established that yesterday (14/12/12) 27 people - most of them young children - were massacred at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut in what has been one of the worst mass shootings in US history. This was proceeded earlier in the day by a mass stabbing attack at an elementary school in Henan, China which left 22 wounded. This was a Chinese enquiry over the US' progress on significant issues that were raised in and around the COP18/CMP8 Summit. As I used the example of knife attacks in China as an argument against further gun control in the US following the Aurora shooting this further raises the authoritarian versus libertarian approach to government that crops up every time a government discusses banning something be it guns, drugs cigarettes, sugary drinks or even Internet pornography. Mainly though it was an enquiry as to the US' position on the shock and revulsion the majority of the world has expressed in response to the US' efforts to turn Rihanna into a diplomatic pawn by engineering her reunion with Chris Brown. Although most of the people involved in this debate regularly do truly horrific things to each other many still like to make the distinction between those in the business and innocent civilians. As Rihanna is just about viewed as a civilian and if anything a victim there is a general discomfort about the levels of violence being used against her amongst people who understand that using her as a pawn in this way will involve dehumanising her to the point where it would be more humane just to kill her. There is also shock that the US could be so stupid as to behave in this way to someone who is not only truly world famous but has the sort of fame that means she has millions of older brothers and cousins prepared to extract revenge on anyone who harms her.

The Newtown massacre was very much the US rejecting this criticism over it's use of violence by being so exceptionally violent that they not only massacred 18 young children but killed 27 of their own citizens. They were also trying to dismiss China's concern over the US' conduct by trying to make it look like China was simply expressing false concern as a to register it's displeasure at a range of other issues. This include things like whether the shooter broke into the school or was given permission to enter which feeds into a debate over the levels of access that people like me are given to things like COP/CMP Summits and the wider current discussions about restricting the freedom of the Internet. The shooter is said to have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder which is a very hot topic with the new edition of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual dropping the Asperger's Syndrome diagnosis and instead considering it as part of the broader autism spectrum. Many people have also suggested that my father suffers from a form of autism and because of that I've picked up some autistic personality traits. There will also be lots of talk about how the surviving children at the school will cope with the psychological trauma of the incident. With large numbers of service personnel returning from Afghanistan and Iraq with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) this is huge topic within the US military establishment and something they've long been trying to trick me into helping them with. There is also some debate over whether the reason I don't trust them is because I suffered some sort of childhood trauma or because I've just had years of experience dealing with them. Eventually the discussion about helping the survivors will get around to how therapists working with children often use play as a counselling method. Basically this involves giving the child something like building blocks/Lego to play with while the therapists talks to them. The idea being that the play activity keeps the analytical/practical part of the mind busy allowing the therapist to access the emotional parts of the child's mind without the child really noticing. The idea here was to promote discussion about the recording of Rihanna's new album "Unapologetic" just after the para-Olympic closing ceremony and during the time of the reunion with Brown because everyone in the business looked at that and went; "Dull and repetitive familiar activity intended to relax and build confidence - soft interrogation techniques 101." The Sandy Hook is of course a reference to the average Americans refound interest in global warming/climate change in the wake of super storm Sandy and any discussion about protecting children always seems to have a sexual element to it these days.

Apart from the actual reference to Rihanna I don't think any of these is what China was enquiring about though. Obviously there are issues that the US and China need do need to discuss with each other such as efforts to combat global warming/climate change. Another such issue is the US' proposed withdrawal from Afghanistan which is something I would have thought the US wanted to keep quite quiet at this stage. The people who arranged the Newton massacre clearly didn't though because it resulted in TV screens the world over being flooded by images of local SWAT teams carrying L129A1 'Sharpshooter' rifle. This is a weapon that is used by both US and UK troops in Afghanistan and has been the source of quite a bit of controversy. Although US troops had been using it for years when UK troops started using the weapon there was some scandal over the fact the rifle has a biblical quote on the sight mounting which was felt could be bad relations with the Afghans by making it appear western troops were Christian crusaders occupying Muslim lands. The timing of this scandal just as UK troops started using the rifle seemed to be the US suggesting that the UK couldn't be trusted to keep their weapons out of the hands of the Taliban. The L129A1 also reopened a very old argument within NATO because when the alliance was formed in the 1950's the US insisted that all members had to use the 7.62mm rifle round. Then in the 1960's the US turned round and introduced the M16 which uses the 5.56mm round and eventually everybody in NATO followed suit. The L129A1 fires the 7.62mm round and the reason it had to be introduced in Afghanistan was because it was found that the 5.56mm round lacked the range and stopping power to match the Taliban's 7.62mm AK-47's.

The US' final F*ck You! to the world from the Newtown massacre was that it actually seemed to be a direct effort to kick lumps out of Rihanna who while all this was going on was back in a recording studio recording her part in an upcoming animated film with an actor called Jim Parsons. Parson's is probably best known for playing Sheldon Cooper in the US TV show "The Big Bang Theory" in which his character displays many autistic personality traits such as adherence to a strict routine and an inability to detect sarcasm. Specific elements of the shooting story would also have particular personal resonance for Rihanna. For example this debate over whether the 20 year shooters mother was a teacher at the school or at another school sounds a lot like the story of Chris Brown's punishment for the assault on Rihanna. The then 20 year old was sentenced to do community service in a child care centre run by a friend of his mother. As this seems like an extremely soft sentence and the courts have raised questions over whether Brown actually turned up when he claims to even if Brown hadn't racked up multiple probation violations since then the courts could still jail him on the grounds he failed to complete his original sentence. This is an issue the US tried to needle Nigeria over in the run up to the COP18/CMP8 with the conviction of Jessica Tata over the deaths of four children in a fire at Houston daycare centre. Also a Glock handgun and a SIG-Sauer handgun might have been two objects that I suggested could be used to resolve the Brown issue should the US be unwilling or unable to use the judicial route.

16:45 on 15/12/12.

Edited at around 15:20 on 16/12/12 to add: I've just remembered that while I was going on about Glocks and SIG's Chris Brown was having a meltdown on Twitter after his concert in Poland. This altercation was so bad that Brown was immediately ordered off Twitter and although his account has been reactivated his tweets seem more written by his media team the Brown himself. I think a large part in the delay in Poland being announced as host from the COP19/CMP9 Summit is a significant proportion of the world using the issue as a way to bash the US over the Rihanna/Brown thing. So rather then the Rihanna/Brown thing being a code for the issues of the summit the issues of the summit appear to have become a code for the Rihanna/Brown thing. This really gives the US the deciding vote over whether or not the COP19/CMP9 will go ahead. With nations like Britain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar very opposed to the summit going ahead and equally powerful factions like the EU and the BRICS excluding Russia very keen for it to go ahead this puts the US in a very difficult position diplomatically. 

Oh and Obama will be visiting Newtown today before addressing the nation. Hopefully he will keep the fake tears to a minimum.