By Brian Barkley

Friday, I was sitting around stewing about how self-centered people can be. Saturday, the "Black Cats" finally killed the last terrorists in Mumbai, India. Today, the people's protest against the Thai government continues in Bangkok. 

The connection here is that I have friends over in those two countries, and I had never thought of them or their safety. It is very lucky that the Kalamazoo College programs are located away from the action, but these events still affect them. I wonder what Kalamazoo would do if they chose to pull the students out of Thailand only to find that every airport in the country is being suffocated by peaceful protestors. Personally, I wish I had taken my blinders off and thought about my friends sooner.

Collectively, we've all watch the world fall into a "Crisis" with a capital "C" because the Stars And Stripes screwed up on sup-prime mortgages, so it's becoming increasingly obvious that all these countries are linked together. My example is a specific one, but one could argue that the disruption of the Mumbai trading center and the possible overthrow of the Thai government have numerous consequences for us all. In addition, Nigeria is hosting riots that show a microcosm of the "War On Terror," and your neighborhood church might be sending youth groups to build houses for the survivors of the floods in the Santa Catarina region of Brazil.

Whether it's a common courtesy for a friend or a world event, it's clear that we should stop stop thinking about ourselves so much and pay attention to what's going on around us. Every headline in the "International News" section affects us, even if it's not obvious. So whether or not we care, it's time to read.