2005-10-04 - 2:21 p.m.
I've been recovering from surgery on my hand, the removal of a ganglion from the top side of my left wrist. Two hours of arthroscopic surgery later, the whole thing, including the sac that held the solidified synovial fluid, the root, and part of the wrist joint capsule was removed (and then repaired), so it most likely won't come back, as they sometimes do.
Not being able to currently type all that well with one hand, I've mostly been doing a lot of reading, on the Internet and in books. Having just come through the latest in the advances of medical science, I feel so privileged, and from some of my reading, compared to stuff that is going on elsewhere in the world, that privilege and thankfulness is doubly felt.
For example, look at these marvelous photojournalist-narrated sites, the first two of which (New Orleans and American Iraq War Funerals) the Bush administration probably wouldn't want us to see (so all the more reason that we should). All of these are eye-openers in one way or another (rocket ships routinely crashing on farmland in Russia?), but the ones that affected me the most were the American soldier funerals (I challenge you to watch those and not cry) and the "Vietnam At Peace" one. The conclusion is clear, although so easy to say: What can EVER be done to utterly prevent WAR? The waste just continues and continues and continues and continues.
One thing, I suppose, is to never have evil people in government--ha ha ha--or get rid of them once they are found out and guess what, that means here at home just as much as Americans would like to think it means only abroad. Corruption is rife in our very own current government, as more and more people are learning, now. Notice how any one of these characters, if they wanted a second career, could have played the part of "Satan" in Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of the Christ? They not only ARE the part, they LOOK it, too (especially Karl Rove or Scooter Libby)! I wonder what the hopes are of soon throwing this entire bunch out of governmental buildings and into prisons where they belong? Why aren't we having Nuremburg trials when we need them?
Despite our having such criminals in high positions of influence, the magazine, International Living, still ranks the United States as the best place in the world in which to live (receiving a composite score of 86 out of 100), but only one point above France (which received 85). Next (comprising the top 10) were Australia (84), Switzerland (83), New Zealand (82), Austria (81), Canada (80), Belgium (78), Denmark (77), and Finland (76). Interestingly, though, "the land of the free and the home of the brave" was the only country in the top ten to not get a score of 100 for Freedom. America got an 82. I guess that's not really so surprising. I forget who it was who made this astounding observation about the Bush administration: "They are always talking about life and liberty, but whenever they are are talking about 'life,' they are in the process of removing somebody's liberty, and whenever they are talking about 'liberty,' they are in the proces of removing somebody's life." How true is that! (P.S. This diminishment of freedom doesn't lay entirely at the feet of the Bush administration--they've just accelerated it. But it has been going on for a long time, now, and probably really got its start with Abraham Lincoln. All Presidents from Lincoln on have been issuing "Executive Orders" that moved them further from their Constitutional powers and more toward despotism. I really recommend actually reading the Constitution and then seeing what powers the federal government branches were supposed to have, and what powers they have stolen for themselves ever since.)
But life in the Third World is a combination of all the bad things in the world: corruption, misery, and the whole nine yards. For example, I learned from a book I read during my recouperation what happens to ships that get too old and dangerous to use anymore. They end up on beaches in India, Bangladesh, Turkey, and China, and are literally scavenged by work-crews using crude tools and machinery (where at least one person a day gets killed in these shipyards). It looks like Hell on Earth, and Greenpeace has a major campaign out to stop these practices (which, among other things, pollute terribly), yet for the people involved, shipbreaking is an economic miracle and the conditions under which they live on the shipbreaking beaches of the Third World are better than life without this work. Watch these short smuggled out shipbreaking videos.
Now, after seeing all this unalloyed misery from New Orleans to Bangladesh, let me fill your eyes back up again with beauty. Here is a slide show of the French Alps where I hope to go on my vacation this next summer. Underscore the word "hope", because sometimes plans do get changed or derailed, but that's what the plan is right now. Part of my idea is to learn parasailing there, and in this slideshow of the hotel where I think I may be staying, in one of the photos of the swimming pool, you can see a person doing said parasailing off in the distance. This region of the Alps, near Annency, is a world-famous location for training people in this sport. But that's quite a long way off from now. Still, I can dream...and be thankful that my life still allows for such possibilities.
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