Interesting Times
What interesting times we live in. What a monumental understatement that is. And when that old Chinese curse "may you live in interesting times" comes back to nip at the heels of the Chinese government, they are definitely not amused.When human rights groups shrill their dismay at the actions of the Chinese government, repressing political dissent, 'monitoring' the news media, persecuting the Falun Gong movement; when the Pope laments the plight of Christians in China; when heads of foreign governments meet with the Dalai Lama, China is humiliated, mortified, the collective sensibilities assaulted beyond endurance.
The slow but inexorable cultural genocide of the people of Tibet, the enforced absence of their spiritual and temporal leader has finally penetrated beyond the level of endurance for Tibetans and they have, once again, mounted a spirited protest. A revolt, actually, a violent back-lash against their oppressors. Turning the eyes of the world upon China in a manner she resents for she refuses to be cowed by international condemnation into acceptance of a secessionist minority demanding sovereignty.
Tibetan Buddhists went on a hunting spree, destroying Han Chinese businesses, their homes, their vehicles, and on occasion, members of the Han Chinese community living in Lhasa, as well. Truly a tragedy. In response to which the Chinese government had little option but to send in troops, munitions, armed vehicles. To surround and apprehend and take into custody the fomenters of this unrest which has embarrassed the Communist government and which threatens to overshadow its triumph in presentation of the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Elsewhere in the world events turn as they will, emphasizing mightily what tumultuous times we live in; interesting perhaps to some, damagingly violent to many others who live within the maelstrom of violence. Secessionist Kosovo enjoys the support of much of world opinion, recognizing their unilateral devolution as a sovereign country. The Albanians there are now free to visit humiliation and much worse upon Kosovar Serbs who themselves, mightily supported by Serbia and Russia, may yet wrest a portion of the new state free for majority resident Serbs.
The World Tamil Movement calls upon its many members living outside Sri Lanka to raise funds in support of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to support their agenda of violence in hopes of achieving their own sovereign slice of geography in a world that, by and large, supports the integral right of any country to maintain its entire geography intact, against the strident and violent wishes of its ethnic minorities, chafing for independence. In Canada, one such supporter and fundraiser has become the first person charged under a Canadian law banning terrorist financing.
Osama bin Laden's latest taped tirade urges Palestinians to use "iron and fire" to end the Israeli blockade of Gaza. "Our enemies did not take Palestine by negotiations and dialogue but with fire and iron. And this is the way to get it back." "My speech" he inveighed monumentally, "is about the Gaza siege and the way to retrieve it and the rest of Palestine from the hands of the Zionist enemy." And lest other grievances be too hastily overlooked, he characterized the "insulting drawings" of the Prophet Muhammad as a crime greater than "Western forces targeting Muslim villages and killing women and children." Interesting interpretations of interesting times.
In Pakistan a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-filled car into a military vehicle outside a brigade headquarters building in the restive tribal region bordering Afghanistan. This represents anything but an unusual occurrence; unusual perhaps only in the sense that in this particular instance a mere five soldiers were killed, and only eleven injured. This was claimed as retaliation for a missile strike earlier that killed at least 18 suspected insurgents loyal to a pro-Taliban commander. Another country facing interesting times.
And in Iraq two Iraqi police officers were shot to death in skirmishes with members of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia in the southern-located city of Kut. An additional five people, three of them police officers were injured in that same incident. This was a known al-Jihad neighbourhood and the incident was unleashed by police officers searching for militants and other suspects in the area. In a country beset by sectarian hatred and violence, a mere incidence of Sunni coming up against Shia. This too anything but an unusual occurrence in a country that has been facing down more than its share of interesting times.
In Albania more bodies of the dead are being recovered in the wake of a huge munitions blast that had been set off by munitions experts "disposing" of cold war munitions, as part of an international agreement. The series of explosions that occurred at the Gerdac military depot near the capital, Tirana, was of fourteen hours' duration, a week earlier. The cataclysmic blasts went on unimpeded by human intervention after the initial trigger, destroying an estimated 318 houses and damaging another 2,000. The death toll to date stands at 19, with many more seriously injured. Horrendously interesting.
In Afghanistan, yet another of those world-class interesting countries where destabilization had become a fault line in the process of existence, an exchange of fire between British soldiers and police in the south of the country left one police officer dead and two men wounded from each side, according to security sources. Let it not be unsaid, lest it be misunderstood, that British troops are fighting in that seriously benighted country, alongside Afghanistan's police; they represent colleagues-at-arms. The shootout represented a case of mistaken identity, as police were on patrol in the main square of Lashkar Gah in preparation for the Afghan New Year celebrations.
In the Middle East, Israeli troops stationed near the Gaza Strip have been informed that their new instructions are to fire on any Palestinian whose intent it is to capture members of the IDF. The commander of a reservist unit deployed along the Gaza Strip recently gave the order to avoid "at all costs" situations in which soldiers are taken hostage by armed groups that later seek to trade them for Arab prisoners held in Israeli jails. Less politely, this refers to terrorists representing the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades or Hamas or others of their jihadist ilk securing Israeli prisoners and bartering a single soldier's life for that of several hundred convicted terrorists in their version of fair trade. Of tediously repetitive interest.
Interesting places bedevilled by interesting times, and will there ever be any end to them...?
Labels: Troublespots, World News
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, March 22, 2008
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