I wish there was a BIG picture, some sort of jigsaw puzzle that we could piece together and then all would be right in the world. There are lots of pieces and the pieces are all interconnected, but they do not form an easily recognizable picture.

Okay, Osama bin Laden is dead. And yes that is better than the fucking asshole being alive. But, Osama bin Laden was never more than a bit player, who managed to take a bite out of the big apple. Rather than celebrating his absence we should look at some of the pieces.

I will start with considering Pakistan. For all effective purposes Pakistan and India are at war over Kashmir. Both are countries with nuclear weapons aimed at each other. Both have severe problems with poverty. Both also have large segments of their populations that are highly educated and able to compete with US citizens in everything from software, to medicine, to working in call centers. Each country has issues with China and both have agricultural problems that are being aggravated by global warming.

Then consider Pakistan's other border with Afghanistan. Afghanistan is composed of warring tribes that fight with each other unless they are faced with a common enemy such as the US, Russia, Great Britain, Persia, . . . One of those tribes, the Pashtuns, inhabit land on both sides of the border with Afghanistan. This is similar to the Kurds in Iraq and Turkey.

So far I have only mentioned a few of the pieces. To move on the larger pieces, in the Persian Gulf, there are complexities with Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, . . . To continue into the middle east, there are still big problems in Lebanon, then there are the issues with Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya. Moving north to Europe and the countries interconnected with the Euro and the common market, there is no common policy for dealing with the financial and employment problems they have.

The world as a whole is facing problems with energy and global warming. For all the noise about renewable energy, there is no such thing. Energy on the earth is from one of two sources, the sun which is decaying, or the heat at the earth's core which is ever so slowly cooling. None of it is "renewable," but then people really do not think in terms of the laws of thermodynamics. The good thing is that the sun will last an incredibly long time, but it ain't going to magically renew itself. The point is we to think in terms of a means to use energy without creating more carbon dioxide or harmful radiation. Oh in case you weren't aware radiation is falling on us all the time, most from the sun, some from radio waves, a minor amount from nuclear plants/bombs. And not all the harmful radiation is from nuclear plants/bombs.

There are many pieces, more than can be easily enumerated. We need to recognize the size and complexity of the pieces and try to understand how we can improve the situation for human kind. Even doing this will not prevent catastrophes or make the world a wonderful place for all. We can reduce the catastrophes and improve the human condition.

Will we ever see the BIG picture? No, the earth itself is only a tiny piece of the BIG picture. But, we can improve the human condition, and that my friends is what life is all about.