No Smiles

Tears are sometimes an inappropriate response to death. When a life has been lived completely honestly, completely successfully, or just completely, the correct response to death's perfect punctuation mark is a smile.- - - - Julie Burchill

Unfortunately, tears are well warranted considering the gruesome events that have occurred in several African countries over the past few days.
If you haven't been obsessing over the news, you may have missed the events including those in DR Congo http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4673609.stm and
Kenya http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4678211.stm
In fact, just read the entire BBC Africa index.
10 years after Srebrenica http://web.amnesty.org/pages/bih-040705-action-eng, apparently we've barely evolved.
Why aren't these events public knowledge? Why is there not some sort of intervention taking place?
Perhaps Colonel Oliver in Hotel Rwanda best summed up the stance of the world: [explaining why the world will not intervene] You're black. You're not even a nigger. You're an African.
And there you go, we'll say to each other "That's terrible" and then we'll turn the channel on the television and return to our supper.

So. Let's start by changing how we approach the world.
A little list for you (many thanks to various websites and a great poster from 10 Thousand Villages):

How To Build A Global Community
Think of no one as "them"
Don't confuse your comfort with your safety
Talk to strangers
Imagine other cultures through their poetry and novels
Listen to music you don't understand
Dance to it
Act locally
Notice the workings of power and privilege in your culture
Question consumption
Know how your lettuce and coffee are grown: wake up and smell the exploitation
Look for fair trade and union labels
Help build economies from the bottom up
Acquire few needs
Learn a second (or third) language
Visit people, places and cultures -- not tourist attractions
Learn people's history
Re-define progress
Know physical and political geography
Play games from other cultures
Watch films with subtitles
Know your heritage
Honor everyone's holidays
Look at the moon and imagine someone else, somewhere else, looking at it too
Read the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Understand the global economy in terms of people, land and water
Know where your bank banks
Never believe you have a right to anyone else's resources
Refuse to wear corporate logos: defy corporate domination
Question military/corporate connections
Don't confuse money with wealth, or time with money
Have a pen/email pal
Honor indigenous cultures
Judge governance by how well it meets all people's needs
Be sceptical about what you read
Eat adventurously
Enjoy vegetables, beans and grains in your diet
Choose curiosity over certainty
Know where your water comes from and where your wastes go
Pledge allegiance to the earth: question nationalism
Think South, Central and North -- there are many Americans
Assume that many others share your dreams
Know that no one is silent though many are not heard.
Work to change this.