Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Plus ça change

Every now and then Walt, like most others who put words in public spaces regularly, hits a dry patch -- a time when inspiration fails, the juice dries up and the monitor is a big white void.

Something may have happened in the world. Something may be about to happen. But in my world right now, nothing is happening. Nothing that matters to me, at least. The things that are happening today have happened before, and will happen again, if not tomorrow then certainly the day after.

In the Middle East, there are wars and rebellions. Muslims are killing Christians when they're not killing each other. People are dying in the streets of Syria, Yemen and Palestine. Nothing new there.

A think tank has warned the Canadian government that if it keeps troops in Afghanistan as "trainers", they could get killed, so maybe a rethink of that decision would be in order. Well, stop the presses! Walt said the same thing months ago.

A trio of African leaders -- three who have yet to be overthrown -- jetted into Libya and brokered a truce between the Mad Colonel's forces and those rebelling against him. The ink wasn't yet dry on the Kufic script when Gadhafi's men shelled the excrement out of a rebel sandcastle. The rebels responded by calling in a NATO airstrike. (Yes, they're now "communicating with" NATO forces.) The body count rises as the stalemate continues.

Speaking of stalemates, the government of the Excited States of America did not grind to a halt on the weekend, as a truce was reached in the debate over how much more indebtedness the nation could stand. Well, not a truce so much as an agreement to continue the fight for another six weeks. The ship is sinking and the solons are arguing over the side on which the lifeboats should be launched.

And in Canada, there's a rumour than an election campaign is in progress, if "progress" is a suitable word for such an event. A TV debate between the leaders of the four parties which held seats in the outgoing Parliament is scheduled for tonight. Walt predicts all four leaders will prove themselves masters of evasion, but none more so than Stephen Harpoon. Lifetime pct: .974.

The French debate was to have been held on Thursday night, but has been moved up to tomorrow night so Canucks can watch what they really want to watch, namely the NHL playoff game between Boston and Montréal. At least one country has its priorities straight!

So...everything is kind of stuck in neutral, chez Walt. But keep watching this space. Something might happen tomorrow.

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