To start the New Year off, here's a couple of links to stories I think will affect more than a few things this year:

America redefines torture

The Iraq-born rift between the US and UN is affecting the Tsunami aid effort (see here and here). While people are mostly talking reconciliation and denial, the truth seems to be that the US administration now holds an ingrained hatred of Kofi Annan which only seems to have got worse since his stance against the legality of the invasion of Iraq.

There's allegations aplenty that the US's response to the tsunami disaster has been not much more than a reaction to UN criticism.

This is something to watch this year, I reckon. The implications of the US facing off more openly against the UN could have wide-ranging consequences. Look at the bullshit the US has spread about Saddam throughout its own people, with a high percentage truly believing he had something to do with the Sept 11th attacks. If the same stories start getting spread about the UN, the consequences could be a cold war with the US finally showing its hand as the aggressive Neo-Colonialist Imperialists they so desperately want to be. By not showing the maturity and responsibility their position requires, they may get the isolation the insisted on 80 years ago.

America is so completely integrated with the rest of the world that most countries have forgotten that they used to get along perfectly well without them. Look at what we import from the States: stuff which originally came from far east, repackaged and resold.

We might just be looking at the dawn of a new age in propaganda as we see how the media deals with this.