OK, I know I always try to bring you my opinion disguised as news (I learned it from watching you NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, MSNBC, CNBC etc.), but this really is news. There is a country on earth called Kyrgyzstan. Seriously, I’m not kidding, it’s a real country. Today’s prize winner will be the person who can pronounce it. Try it, Kry-gyz-stan. So, who cares, you ask? Well they had a riot there today ... a riot that overthrew the government ... in about an hour. Wow, that’s a big riot ... or a really small government. So the whole thing is settled already, the protesters took the TV station and the security offices and gave the security office a new boss and announced that a lady named Rosa would be in charge for the next six months while they form a new constitution and have elections. They did this five years ago too, and the president they elected last time is hiding in a city called Osh (with a scarecrow, a lion and the tin man). The next ex-president, although not yet elected, has already made reservations at his post-riot hideaway for 5 years from now.
On to South African news. I was going to give you my opinion of this story, but I’ll just lay out the facts and see if you agree with me or not. Please tell me what you think in the comments section (if you don’t have a google account just pick anonymous and comment anyway). Quick history: South Africa was ruled by Apartheid, a system which allowed an all white government in a country has a super majority of blacks. To simplify, it was basically like the American south prior to the Civil war. Blacks were not given rights and systematically brutalized and kept in utter poverty. A group called the ANC was formed to fight this system and the whites formed a group called the AWB to violently oppose the ANC. Since 1994 the apartheid system is gone, but tensions remain. The AWB still exists and still fights (sometimes violently) for an all white republic. Which brings us to today. A man named Eugene Terreblanche was beaten to death by a 15 year old black boy while lying in his bed. The boy turned himself in and the police think that he did not act alone, as they found two murder weapons at the scene of the crime. The unnamed boy claims he murdered the man for his brutal treatment and because he refused to pay the boy for the work he did on Terreblance’s farm. So that’s all pretty cut and dry. Bad murderer, good farmer. Right? Except for this, Terreblance is an outspoken member of the AWB, active it seems, in all areas of their campaign, and if that weren’t enough he has been convicted in the past of attacking black farm hands, and served six years in prison for his brutality. And for icing on the cake, just last month a very popular ANC youth leader led a large group of students in a song that encouraged them to “kill the Boer (white farmer)”. Needless to say the AWB is blaming the ANC for the man’s death and ramping up hostilities in the wake of the slaying. All this ten weeks before the largest sporting even in the world, soccer’s World Cup, comes to Africa for the very first time as it is set to be held in South Africa ... good times. So, what do you think? Good farmer, bad murderer? Or, not.
And lastly, in adding insult to insult to insult news, Russian President and sometimes Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attended a memorial in Poland honoring the 22,000 Poles slaughtered by the Soviet secret police during the final stages of WWII. After the solemn ceremony was concluded Putin shook hands with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and then turned to the cameras. Putin went on to tell the press that Stalin had the Poles killed because he felt responsible for the 32,000 Red Army soldiers that were captured from his command and starved to death in Polish prisoner of war camps in 1920, and it was out of guilt and a sense of revenge that Stalin had the thousands of Poles executed. Forget forgiveness and healing, i love me some justification! Way to go Vlad!
Happy Wednesday!
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