Sunday, April 12, 2009

Three things from last week

These each deserved their own thread topics, but given other items and obligations elsewhere, this shall have to suffice as way to bring these matters to notice.

1) The Colombian Army is in action all the time, but some fights are more important than others. This one has the chance of further degrading the FARC leadership in a critical border region.

As long as we are talking Colombia, by the by, another story in the Latin American Herald-Tribune reports that Colombian Customs and the Military snagged a load of ELN cash... all in Venezuelan currency. Reminder: the ELN is "the other" Colombian Communist rebel movement, long beholden to Cuba's Communists but in recent years they are really just another narco-trafficking operation. Perhaps they have a new patron, or they got a really good exchange rate when they bought those Bolivars...

2) The Times (UK) has an analysis of what sort of leader Jacob Zuma will be when he (almost inevitably) becomes the next President of South Africa. Here's a hint: His role model is Shaka. If he lived up to that heritage, he might do fair-on well, but then Shaka wasn't beholden to labor activists and the South African Communist Party for his throne...

3) Oh, what a difference a decade makes... M. McGuinness, former IRA commander, now threatened with death by a dissident IRA faction as "a collaborator".

Pity that. Marty's been working so hard at his new life. Be a crying shame if something bad were to happen to him.

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