"The Invisible War"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/the-invisible-war_b_1205741.html

As I was watching the news earlier, I heard a story that disgusted me to say the least. “One of our country's most shameful and best kept secrets”, rape and sexual assault within our own military. Women are more likely to be sexually harrassed or raped by their own fellow soldiers than to be killed in combat. Men are also subjected to assault, but much fewer cases are reported.

A film called “The Invisible War” is a documentary that will premiere later this month, that focuses on the crimes committed in our own army to innocent soldiers. It will show true stories of men and women that were victimized in the military. The numbers reported to people are much less severe than they are in reality.

“Estimates indicate that anywhere from 8 percent to as high as 37 percent of the victims of sexual assault and trauma cases reported last year were men. The Pentagon believes that fully 80-90 percent of assaults (of men and women) are not reported. Only 1 in 15 men report assault, versus 1 in 5 women.”

How awful is our society and government if this kind of thing is still happening with very little punishment or change? People look up to soldiers as heroes, yet there is this hidden crime that not many are aware of, and not much is being done to fix it? Soldiers shouldn’t have to fear being victimized by their fellow soldiers, they should be trying to protect the country.

How do you feel about this article/trailer? What can be done to stop this injustice?

Modern Day Titanic?

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2104511,00.html
As most people have probably heard, on Saturday January 14, an Italian cruise ship called Costa Concordia ran aground off the west coast of Italy. It had 4,200 people on board, and the current death toll is 6 people, with 16 still missing.

This disaster looks as if it was a scene right out of the Titanic. Passengers on the ship frantically evacuated, being taken ashore by lifeboats and rescue teams. The captain of the ship is currently under investigation for suspected manslaughter, as well as allegations about abandoning ship before passengers were safe. Passengers said that crew members showed no signs of urgency and did not let them know the severity of the problem. (I think I'd want to know if the cruise liner I'm on is capsizing...)


The ship had passed all of the safety tests and met all of the regulations prior to departure. This led authorities to want to investigate why the captain would have steered so dangerously close to shore, hitting a reef. Not only was it dangerous to the people, but the 500,000 gallons of fuel in the ship could be dumped into the ocean if it continues to shift.

"Costa ships have their routes programmed, and alarms go off when they deviate, the chief executive said in a press conference. "This route was put in correctly. The fact that it left from this course is due solely to a maneuver by the commander that was unapproved, unauthorized and unknown to Costa," he said."
 
Do you think this was a secret plot by the captain of the ship? In this day in age, with such sophisticated technology, how could this kind of accident even happen?