Fire Rat: Earth Season: 4b

24 Aug ~~ 28 Aug

Piracy. Rape and pillage. Looting. Mob rule and swarms of all kinds. The strong abuse the weak and call it heroism. The wealthy add to their wealth at the expense of the poor. Dispossession. Persecution. Beware of disease and of accidents of every description.
The Fulfilment:
Russia: Chechnya: Alex Lebed cancels further peace talks and scurries back to Moscow for better instructions.
Albania: Socialist party at last dumps Karl Marx and condemns Stalinism --- the last exCommunist party in the East to do so.
Belgium: Police arrest a fellow detective and charge him with vehicle theft in connection with Dutroux's pedophile ring, thus confirming public suspicions that this ring had high-level protection. "The strong abuse the weak and call it heroism."
Estonia: Parliament fails to choose the nation's next president in a vote today --- only two candidates, but neither of them get 50% of the votes because of abstentions.
France: Court begins hearing appeals to deportation orders against African migrants, two days after most were forcibly deported home. "Dispossession. The strong abuse the weak and call it heroism."
Israel: Govt troops ransack and demolish a Bedouin camp near the Old City, stealing their valuables and driving them away into the wilderness. "The strong abuse the weak and call it heroism. Dispossession."
Israel: Palestinians object to govt demands that they close three offices in the Old City of Jerusalem, but comply far enough to close two in order to avoid confrontation. "Dispossession."
Korea: exPresident Chun Doo Hwan is sentenced to death and exPres Roh Taewoo is given 22.5yrs in prison for their 1979 coup. Twenty other men get jail terms, either for participating in the coup or for bribery. Interesting -- this one definitely does *not* fit. An acquittal would have been more in character ...
India: More pilgrims die of exposure in the mountains of Kashmir. Helicopters sent to pluck 2000 from the mountainside.
China: Govt asks the USA to please refrain from selling 1300 Stinger missiles and other weapons to Taiwan, but the sale will proceed.
UK: London: Sudanese plane is hijacked en route from Khartoum to Amman and taken to London. But it ends peacefully.
India: Mother Theresa in hospital with malaria -- health very precarious now. "Beware of diseases and accidents of every description."
France: Govt chides its former African colonies for not doing enough to keep their migrants at home where they belong....! Too bad the French didn't keep themselves at home 200 years ago and then they wouldn't have this problem. :-) "The strong abuse the weak and call it heroism" or justice, as the case may be. What an arrogant self-satisfied smug thing to say!
Sweden: Int'l UN conference opens on the sexual abuse of children. The abuse of the weak by the strong ....
Israel: Govt uses crane to hoist bulldozer over the walls of the Old City, then uses bulldozer to flatten an Arab community centre there, saying it had been built without a permit. At the same time, it approves plans to expand a West Bank settlement. "The strong abuse the weak and call it heroism. Dispossession." Compare the Israeli activities this week with what happened in Hong Kong under entry 2b in late July.
Canada: Natives bomb bridge leading into the Temagami logging country to protest deforestation.
France: Govt deports another 15 Africans today, all amid street protests by some 11000 Parisians who object to govt treatment of the refugees. "Dispossession."
UK: Marriage of Charles and Diana ends without ceremony in a courtroom attended by neither party.

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