I'm Trying, I'm Trying

Hey all - the title alludes to the fact that I have been trying to put pics up through Hello the last 36 hours or so, but no luck thus far. Maybe the system is down or something? Nah, surely not, am surfing through blogs that have pictures with the little graphic beside it posted the last couple days, I guess I am just having a slow connection day or something :)



But in the meantime, while the other programme spins around like a hamster in a wheel, let's do a bit of verbal shall we - well, more so writing. This article took my fancy, just for the sheer nuttiness of it - BBC reporter decided to retrace Stanley's footsteps from Lake Tanganyika to the mouth of the Congo. There is a freaking war going on there that has killed five million people and time hasn't just stood still, it has regressed. I can just imagine that the trip was very Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now...



Just been distracted to reading a timeline of Congolese history here, so will be a few minutes there no doubt :) Hmm, a timeline that is scattered with 'we created HIV' and 'the CIA murdered Lumumba' references - don't think I have come across the most unbiased of accounts - was good up to the 20th C though LOL... so much killing in it's history...



Hmm, reading through some of the American blogs today and a theme emerging through some of them is why give $350m to a region that probably will just hate us and forget about the aid we give, and by the way, I hope that money isn't coming from other areas of the federal government...



'In the words of Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, this is an 'unprecedented global catastrophe' that requires an 'unprecendented global response'. Put at its simplest, it means that no one has done this before. There has never been, in the memory of the modern aid world, such a colossal challenge to the way disasters are dealt with.



It is worth revisiting the facts. Some 11 countries have been hit over a huge geographic spread. Those areas hit hardest, in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, are those with the worst long-term political problems. Many of the areas affected have weak of damaged infrastructures - and that was true before the tsunami struck. Others, like the Andaman and Nicobar islands, are just severely isoated. And all this against the backdrop of thousands of bodies lying where the waters left them or being washed up with every tide. The prospect is awesome.'



Not to compare disasters, but with all the tragedy of 9/11, the rebuilding could have restarted within a couple of months. I feel that if a tsunami had hit New York and wiped out all the five boroughs, the level of rebuilding required there might be similar to Indonesia and Sri Lanka (early estimates say it may take 10 years to recover fully) - of course, much more pricey real estate in Manhattan and Queens, but the area devastated is just amazing - in a bad way.



Hmm, interesting dilemma for the Administration here - to spray poppy fields in Afghanistan or not to spray? The issue being that with elections coming up and everything, to kill off probably the best cash crop in the country, that would make the voters unhappy with the current Afghan government, who the US backs to the hilt. If aerial spraying doesn't happen, then it would be more aggressive on the ground and once the harvest has happened - yeah, that will work LOL.



Watching the cricket in the background here, Australia coming back after lunch are 2 for 92. And STILL need to get my A into G regards the job application - due January 12 yanno.



Pauly