It's truly amazing the shallow depths to which American international news organizations aspire.

We honestly do not fully comprehend what's going on around us in the world. For example:

Did you know that six Gulf nations, including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, are planning a monetary union in 2010?

Did you know that the U.S. has offered to hold join military exercies - WITH VIETNAM?

Did you know that Vietnam's ruling Communist party is becoming more capitalist in its outlook, and that some party members are not voting the "party line" on important votes put before it?

Did you know that warlords in Somalia have surrendered their weapons, but to radical Islamist militias who now run the country?

While far away, each of these could have a direct impact on our economy, on our military and even on on our way of life.

If we've learned anything from the past few years, its that everything in every nation has the potential to impact us here in the U.S. in ways we never thought of before.

I'm interested in feedback about the WPNews blog (which is currently in "Beta" testing.) Please post here if you have a comment. Thanks.

Pick ten links. Get the world.

Pick ten links. Any ten. 

Pick out ten links from the world politics news blog. It doesn't matter what day
it was posted.

It could be from yesterday's postings, or todays. Pick ten of them, click the 
links, read the  articles they link to, and  you will  be better educated about the world's political situation than 95% of the rest of the American public.

That's the great thing about the blog, and the SAD thing about American media today.

In a global marketplace in which a government's decision not to devalue a currency in Asia can have a ripple effect in New York - and in your community - we desperately need to know what's going on in the political world.

But the mass media is letting us down. That's why the world politics news blog exists.

Spread the word.

Fighting the "fistfight in parliament" dynamic

As noted in the very first posting to the world politics news blog, most Westerners (what the heck, let's just say "Americans") don't get exposed to enough world politics. Instead, we get a cartoon version of world politics - the stereotypical fistfight in the Korean - or Japanese - parliament.

There's no doubt that fistfights do occur, occasionally, but they are a sideshow, not the main attraction.

That is a huge disservice to American consumers of news. Take a gander at the first few days of coverage on the world politics news blog. You'll see news from the Ukraine, Bangladesh, Mexico, Peru, France, the UK,  Sudan, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and many, many more nations.

And for those tempted to say "Who cares?" consider that the Peruvian Congress just approved a trade deal with the U.S. So did Oman. Did you know that? What are the political and economic ramifications of these deals in the U.S., or in these other nations?

Did you know that France just passed tough immigration reforms, and that New Zealand's immigration minister is "wary" of accepting more workers from poorer neighbors in the Pacific?

This is what should be on the cable news channels, not the sensationalism we have now.

Hopefully, this site will help inspire members of the media to look at their news coverage once again, and give us the political news we deserve.