One year ago today, Kleostoday was launched on the anniversary of the Austrian declaration of war on Serbia in 1914..
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife thirty days earlier in Sarajevo (28 June) proved to be the single greatest casus belli in the history of warfare. When the fighting finally ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of November 1918, more than 16 million soldiers and civilians combined had been killed and another 21 million had been wounded around the globe.
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After seeking revenge two decades later for its humiliation at the hands of France, Great Britain and the United States, the German war machine was finally defeated once and for all in 1945.
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Since the defeat of Hitler, Europe has been largely free from conflict. However, war still rages across the world in Nigeria, Somalia, the Congo and elsewhere. Oppressive regimes of one type or another have not disappeared in the 95 years since the tragic beginning of World War I. The governments of Iran, North Korea, China, Russia and Pakistan - just to name a few - still rule despotically and intend to neither honor the UN Charter nor international law.
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Nevertheless, world peace and (relative) economic equality will be achieved in the future.
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Mankind began primitively with little comprehension of his surroundings. After thousands of years of struggle, man finally reached an age of reason. In the Renaissance, myths were discarded, and truth was pursued rationally, logically and scientifically.
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A new Renaissance, which began in the 1960s worldwide, continues to evolve, and its moral force is in the process of sweeping away the core elements of sexism, racism, homophobia, economic inequality, war and corruption from the planet.
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As peace, love, education and humanism advances globally, Kleostoday is looking forward to another year of publication.
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Thank you for your readership.
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Sincerely,
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J Roquen
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(Picture: Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand)