Sykes-Picot, Gang Depression, Aerodynamic Trains

The Mythology of Sykes-Picot in the Middle East Guest: Henri Barkey, PhD, Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars You've probably heard talk recently of how a 100-year-old agreement called Sykes-Picot still drives conflict engulfing the Middle East today. But Henri Barkey of the Woodrow Wilson Center says that's giving too much credit - or blame - to the agreement. Here's the history: In mid-May of 1916, a British diplomat named Mark Sykes and a French one named Francois Georges-Picot were assigned to meet secretly and carve up the weakening Ottoman Empire. This was two years before the end of World War I, but the empires of Britain and France were hoping for victory and eager to stake their claim to the vast land and resources of what we now call the Middle East. The lines that Sykes and Picot drew on a map – blue for French territory, red for British – didn’t pay any attention to the religions, ethnicities or languages of the people living on the land they were divvying up.   So that’s where Sykes-Picot gets its bad name, as an example of classic imperial diplomacy: “We’re the conquerors, we’re going do what we want with you.” The thing is, the Sykes-Picot agreement was never adopted. But, the rough shape of what Britain and France would eventually claim for themselves as colonial powers did bear some resemblance to the map Sykes and Picot drew.  Gangs Make Young People Depressed Guest: Chris Melde, PhD, Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University Gang membership had been declining in the US over the last decade, but recently it’s bounced back to levels on par with the mid-90s. The Department of Justice says gangs are a “stubbornly persistent” problem with current membership at about 850,000. In addition to the violence and drug trafficking that come with gangs, a study in the journal “Criminal Justice and Behavior” says there are also mental health consequences: Young people who join gangs end up with higher levels of depr