World News

It appears my last post was tax day, 15 April. And now it be the 9th of May, so soon? I have been negligent of this space, such that I did not see the kindly corrections to my attempt at simple French until today. Ah well, to France I must travel and stay for a spell if I am to learn the language to any useful degree. Here it seems unlikely to progress very well, provincial vacuum that we inhabit.

Speaking of provincial vacuums, misery around the world continues apace. The good people of Lebanon seem to find it dashed hard to be good to each other - being fellow countrymen means nothing to the goons with guns; does the quality of life in their country matter nothing to them? When you have various Christian sects, Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims, Druze and others all mixed together and living relatively peacefully for 20 years, why set fire to your own house?

In southeast Asia, the rulers of Myanmar (Burma) would rather preside over a vast graveyard than to behave like anything resembling humans - these guys are like the Daleks from Dr. Who; it would be funny if it weren't so painfully tragic. What is the point in being such ruthless bastards? What in hell are they afraid of? That they might not go down in history as execrable pigs?

And in Africa, what is going on in Zimbabwe? The opposition leads in the vote, but evidently Mugabe admires the statesmanship of Idi Amin and is sending armed thugs around the country to terrorize anyone who just maybe voted for the opposition. What to do when you are in danger of losing the election? Break some bones. Burn some houses. Kill some people. Democracy in action.

And China sent a shipload of weapons to Mugabe last month while the election was sinking into chaos. China had to recall the shipment after neighboring countries refused to unload it. China also has close ties with Sudan, another international pariah. Are the Chinese leaders being willfully blind? Do they have any clue what they are doing?

As Margaret Atwood observed, it is dangerous to read newspapers.