One Week Off

Things are still going on around the world. There're always plenty of them to talk about. But probably I have to go hiatus for at least one week to finish my Mission-Impossible-like graduation thesis. God bless me.

Enjoy your week!

The Result of Attending an 18-year-old Girl's Birthday Party

Italian economy is in deep turmoil. But thanks to their ridiculous prime minister, his latest scandal probably can distract people's anxiety a little bit. His wife demanded divorce after he openly flirted with young ladies and "attended one 18-year-old girl's birthday party" while he didn't even attend her daughter's 18-year-old birthday party. Now he hit back, demanded apology from his wife and believed their marriage was dead. (BBC) It turns out that Italian politics is even more ridiculous than we previously thought.

The 72-year-old billionaire, who owned AC Milan, is still popular, though anyone outside Italy can't understand why. His frequent gaffes and absurd personal behavior has earned him worldwide notoriety. Now, he claims to be hurt by his wife's words. Interesting. He will certainly feel more pain if the voters finally dump him for the sake of their country.

Death Sentence not to be Executed

A Nigeria-born British woman, who is pregnant, was arrested in Laos for possessing drugs. The amount she carried is adequate for a mandatory death penalty in that country. As one of the last communist states and the poorest in the region, Laos is not known for its rule of law or good human rights record. But this time, human rights activists' did a good job to persuade the government not to go ahead with the inevitable inhuman decision. (Fox News)

The Laotian government official must have been happy for being under international limelight since it has been rarely noticed ever since Vietnam War. The decision not to execute her plus giving her time to find an attorney surely can win some praises, but I doubt that's the only thing they get in return. But anyway, executing two British with one bullet is probably too much for it.

North Korean Said "Thank You" to South Korean Military

This news is quite eye-catching, and rightly so. Somali pirates certainly didn't expect they would trigger a rare collaboration between Koreans from the North and South. (BBC) I hope the one who sent the thank you message won't be executed for treason.

A South Korean navy warship has foiled a pirate attack on a North Korean cargo ship off Somalia's coast, military officials in Seoul say.

...

South Korea said the crew on its warship had received a thank you message from the North Koreans after thwarting the pirate attack.

Mexican Detainees in China

Chinese government do have arguments with many counterparts. Japan, France, United States, to name a few. But Mexico is one of the last countries we would contemplate. But recently it happened. (BBC)

A Mexican passenger carrying H1N1 virus has flown to China to Hong Kong with a stop in Shanghai. This news came as a shock and the Chinese popular anxiety pressed the government to take a stronger and quicker action. As a result, the government did a thorough search and found every passenger, which is quite an achievement. All of them are now still being detained. Good news is none of them currently show any symptoms.

When being confident that it has dealt with the situation better than with SARS, a protest from Mexican government has been received for unreasonable detain of its citizens. Though on Xinhuanet News, President Calderon still thanked Chinese for the humanitarian aid, he is clearly not happy. Foreigners, with the exception of journalists, generally have been well treated since 1978. Being detained in such an amount is somewhat unprecedented.

The problem is clearly the populism. Both government is trying to do what's popular, while unfortunately it may not be what's right. Isolation and quarantine of those passengers for a short period of time is necessary, but it should be done as quick as possible to make those visitors suffer less discomfort. And the Mexican president, trying to calm his people down, has hurriedly declared the decline of the epidemic, which is still too early to tell. His intention is understandable, but other countries' concerns are real, and shouldn't be met with such strong criticism, for a verbal conflict is the last thing Mexico wants during this kind of emergency.

Probably the swine flu will never truly arrive in China, but its damage has already been done to the relation with Mexico.

For the sake of our country, stop making love!

We've all seen different ways of protest. Some climbed up skyscrapers, others burned flags, effigies, and even themselves. But nothing like this has occurred to me when Kenyan women stopped making love to their husbands as part of the protest against President Kibaki. (BBC)

It's definitely a cool way to stop violence and political impasse. But its effectiveness is another question. This proposal only shows how desperate the people are after experiencing the post-election violence last year. 

If all the Kenyan can be so united as those advocates wished, especially if Mrs. Kibaki could join, nothing can't be solved. But since sex is such a private matter, you may never know whether it works or not.

The Worst Massacre since 1995's Rwanda

Egyptian President Mubarak ordered its military to slaughter all the 400,000 pigs in the country immediately to quell any panic. (al Jazeera)

It is a curious order not only because there is no confirmed or suspected H1N1 case in Egypt or Middle East and anywhere near Egypt, but pigs can't spread this virus to human. Is it just simply a golden now-or-never opportunity for the government to oppress the potential "pig revolution" as George Orwell described in his book Animal Farm.

As a matter of fact, this order is far more than ridiculous. We all know Muslims don't eat pork, which makes the case of killing pigs even less understandable. Pigs are miserable creatures in that they are born for human consumption. Their living space is tiny and filthy, and what they eat is not what they actually like, but what we hope can make them grow faster. According to scientific reports, contrary to public belief, pigs are actually intelligent, even as good as dogs. But different from dogs, their deaths won't be mourned by many, even for most animal right activists.

Why on earth did Mubarak go on his massacre operation despite UN called it "a mistake"?Mr. Mubarak, known for his iron-fist rule in this country in the past three decades, doesn't care a lot about what others say when he has made us his mind. This order could be resulted from a misunderstanding in the first place, but for this type of dictators, rescinding an order to save animals would be too much for them to take.  They believe it would shake their authorities.

Moreover, is it just a result of misunderstanding? This is also very unlikely. Mubarak understands his dictatorship should rely on the public support, so he would love to gain public support whenever possible. Noticing the anxiety in Egypt about a potential outbreak, he wants to ensure the people he is ready to do whatever it takes to protect them. This probably works, as his other policies in the past three decades did. But just consider what the military did to the pigs. They might well be what they will do to the people if necessary to show his determination and keep his throne.