police states, irresponsible governments, uncivil societies, and selfish individuals

Many, many years ago, I looked at myself and the world around me, and thought there was too much misery and wickedness around, and that I was too ill and feeble to make a positive difference. There was no hope for mankind, and so I decided I won't marry, won't have children, and thus won't contribute to increase in misery of the world.
But I had to try to continue to live, and I had my moments of weakness, so when my mum asked me to marry a girl, I couldn't say no, especially since I had a miraculous respite from asthma, which I thought was a recoevry.
A lifetime of work and struggle has passed; my son recently got married, and I have a brand new daughter, only she is already grownup :).
I look at the world now and I see the same that I saw nearly forty years ago.
Things haven't exactly turned out as I had imagined they would. I had looked at the UK, and felt Islamic upbringing was impossible there, but I can see that many practice Islam earnestly.
I look at the loss of human rights. People continue to be abducted, detained, tortured, killed and disappear without trace.
Women and children are kidnapped, raped and sold into slavery.
Governments have abdicated their responsibilities, catering to the powerful mafias, and the poor get poorer.
Societies have become intolerant and uncivil.
Mankind has become selfish.
The planet is overburdened with irresponsible large scale exploitation.
And Nature is having its revenge.
Am I seeing the cup half empty, or has the world really gone mad, and sane voices are rare?

Indian girl's one-rupee suicide

Indian girl's one-rupee suicide

Half of India's children are malnourished, a UN report says
A 12-year-old Indian girl committed suicide after her mother told her she could not afford one rupee - two US cents - for a school meal.
Sania Khatun lived with her mother in a village north of Calcutta under a tarpaulin sheet provided by the state.
Sania normally ate nothing at school but on Friday saw classmates eating rice and asked for one rupee.
Her mother scolded her and when she returned from work found her daughter hanged from the ceiling with a sari.
"She wanted just one rupee... but her mother could not give her the money due to poverty," government official Nakul Chandran Mahato told the Reuters agency.
'Snapped'
The mother, Jainab Bewar, is a widow who works as a maid in the village of Paraspur, 200km (125 miles) north of Calcutta.
She normally fed her daughter with food she could get from the houses she worked in.
India's Telegraph newspaper said Sania was tempted by the sight of classmates eating puffed rice and oil cakes.
Ms Bewar told the newspaper: "I did not give her the money as I did not have it. I snapped at her when she insisted on it."
She and her sons never earn more than $13 a month combined, she says.
India has seen unprecedented economic growth in recent years but many remain untouched by the improvements.
A recent UN report said half of India's children were still malnourished.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4277980.stm