New Round-up

Falling... off... the bandwagon... must post immediately!

Seems like the media has been going nuts lately: elections, leaks, holidays, Koreans. I would spend my time reading news reports from all perspectives if I had the time (and internet at home)! My 2 cents --

Elections:
Perhaps not so wise for Egypt to refuse international observers. 80 million people. Tourism the main industry. $1.56 billion in aid each year (from the U.S. alone!). Candidates put in the hospital. Citizens shooting each other. Ran out of ballots.

Haiti's elections? Pretty much a failure before they even took place.

N. Korea bombing S. Korea - showing the new underling how it's done? Exercising a little military might to shake things up a bit? Get a little attention, maybe.

Wiki leaks. I think it's super interesting to compare the British version of the story with the American story. British wouldn't shush up about it. They thought we Americans were conniving for spying on the U.N. They thought the world should know that Saudi Arabia is pressuring the U.S. to attack Iran. Americans, on the other hand, played it down. A lot. Morning news rolled around to the story 20 minutes into the hour. There were maaaaybe a few impolitic things released. No big deal. Some smallish middle eastern countries put a teeny bit of pressure on western countries, perhaps hinting or suggesting the U.S., to maybe stand up to Iran. Right.

I think most of the Wiki leaks, while not wrong were probably released with a tad of malicious revenge in mind. Like a bratty tattle tale who you want to think is annoying, but you have to admit is actually telling the truth. But, there are things in there (of course, it's a quarter of a million correspondences!) that really should be released to the public. I guess, generally, I think Wiki leaks provides a public service, even if they could have a bit more discretion about what's really important for the public to know, not just deliciously entertaining political gossip. The U.S. will play dumb about it for awhile. Countries the already don't like the U.S. will grumble. But structuralists win the day and all will blow over.