Planet Earth Round-Up

In all the fuss about the US election, it's easy to forget that there's a whole big world out there, with its own issues, and it doesn't stop having them because "change has come to America." Here's an round-up of what's going on all around this wonderful planet of ours:

-The crisis in Zimbabwe continues to drag on. This week a planned mission to highlight the humanitarian problems in that country from Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, and Graca Machel (wife of Nelson Mandela) was cancelled because the Mugabe government didn't want them showing up. The stated reason? They would boost Morgan Tsvangirai's opposition party. When saving your starving citizens is considered a partisan act for the other side, you know you're in trouble.

-Protests and violence continue in Bangkok as the citizens demand the ouster of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), which, although democratically elected, the protesters claim is a front for corrupt former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. One Prime Minister was removed for appearing as a paid guest on a cooking show (apparently a big no-no under Thai law), but the PPP replaced him with Shinawatra's brother-in-law. Now the protesters are being attacked by a series of grenades, which have injured many. Sone appear to have been launched from the Bangkok Police Headquarters, which protesters say proves they come from the government. The situation appears to be escalating at this time.

-In somewhat lighter news, the top Islamic body in Malaysia, the National Fatwa Council, ruled that Muslims should not practice yoga because it contains elements of other religions and could "corrupt" Muslims. This comes after another recent ban on "tomboys." You know, considering Malaysia isn't quite a first-world nation by most standards, you'd think they would have other things to worry about. On the other hand, at least women can drive in Malaysia, unlike, say, Saudi Arabia.

-It appears that, for now, both sides in the civil war (another one?) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have agreed that Virunga National Park, the oldest national park in Africa and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, should be neutral ground. Park rangers returned this week after previously fleeing the fighting. Virunga is home to a closely-studied group of 200 Mountain Gorillas. It is estimated that there are about 700 Mountain Gorillas left in the world.

-al-Qaeda may be the cool new terrorists, but other terrorist groups are still around after many decades. ETA, the Basque separatist group, is back in the news after the arrest of Mikel Garikoltz Aspiazu (Basque is the one European language not related to any other known language). Aspiazu is suspected to be the current head of ETA, and is charged with masterminding a series of attacks that have killed over a hundred people, mostly close to the Basque homeland in Northwestern Spain. Concerns for the security of the court proceedings were so great that the identity of the judge is being kept secret.

-Some Persian Gulf states might ask "Global financial crisis? What global financial crisis?" The Palm Jumeirah, a man-made palm-shaped island off Dubai, opened this week to a huge star-studded party, as well as a $20 million fireworks show. The island features resort hotels, luxury homes, expensive shopping, and entertainment. The island apparently doubles Dubai's total shoreline. Among those seen at the opening party? Robert de Niro, Janet Jackson, the Duchess of York, Charlize Theron, Kylie Minogue, Lindsay Lohan, and, the key to any gathering, one of the Olsen twins.

Bits: Theater of the Absurd Edition

-The Machinist today has a great entry on how digitized today's entering college students are, focusing on the Amherst College class of 2012. 99% are on Facebook, 99% have only cell phones, 99% have only laptop computers...

-Michael Grunwald has a great article on Time.com... "Oh, the Drama! McCain in the Theater of the Absurd".

-Watch the Sarah Palin/Katie Couric interview on YouTube. "Saturday Night Live" hardly had to change the words in order make this hysterically awful.

-io9 tells the bizarre story of the recent Season Finale of the Sci-Fi Channel drama "Eureka"... which I recently watched most of without actually realizing it was the series finale. Sci-Fi Channel apparently repeatedly rejected entire plotlines, resulting in the finale basically being improvised by the writers as the episode was filmed... thus lending credence to all those viewers who think "they're just making this up as they go along." "Eureka" is a fun show, but in the end it's inherently "small"... something that, based on my possibly mistaken impressions of what's going on here, may have been Sci-Fi Channel's problem. In other weird news, there's a rumor going around the intertubes that the Sci-Fi Channel wants to change its name to "Beyond." Kay.

-This week's WalrusFile free internet TV pick is the season premiere of "The Office." I'll be trying to come up with a full review of it in the next day or two. In the meantime, discuss amongst yourselves.

-Overlooked News Story of the Day, from the Dayton Daily News: Chemical Irritant Empties Dayton Mosque. An apparent major hate crime not that far from where I live. Sigh.