Bruxelles, Oct. 24th, 2011

by Pino Arlacchi

The media constantly bombard the public with all sort of threats: the terrorist threat, the environmental threat, criminality, immigration and epidemics, without bothering to distinguish, clarify the context, weigh the messages and be responsive on the ultimate effects of their alarms. The ultimate result of this hysteria is the spreading of a sense of powerlessness, if not cynicism and indifference about what happens in the most unfortunate parts of the earth. Not to mention the idea of a great vulnerability to lethal incidents such as terrorist attacks. Yet, both domestic and international terrorist events are in sharp decline.

I publish for the readers of my site the report Myth and Reality of the Global Terrorist Threat (.doc)