Pakistan, Cote d'Ivoire, Ireland

When I clicked on to CNN this morning to read that Benazir Bhutto was assassinated - I fell into a dumb disbelief and heaviness sank into my heart. It wasn't completely surprising based on the past attempts on her life but her determination to return to her country, even with her own problematic past, to make it a better place was to be admired. Any time there is a "democracy" and an opposition party, that opposition must be encouraged - even if one doesn't agree with it. It's painful to watch a country struggle and all of these people grieve for the person they thought could make it better. (Plus I have a soft spot in my heart of India and Pakistan with their tumultuous, problematic and rather rich history.)

One of the main reasons Cote d'Ivoire had a coup d'etat on December 24th, 1999 was because the 3rd party opposition had been thrown in prison - all of the leaders. The presidential candidate wasn't allowed in the country and the people doing the grassroots organizing were tossed in jail when the government, at midnight, revoked a parade permit (for a rally). It was impossible to tell thousands of people NOT to show up. That was in October and it was only a matter of time before the pot boiled over and it did. The initial coup was amazingly peaceful - considering this was the first time Cote d'Ivoire had ever done anything like this. Ivorians liked to compare themselves to their neighbors Sierra Leone - we will never be like that. Those savages. But it didn't take long for it to go from ok to pretty rotten.

When I was exiting a tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, an Irish man asked me how it was. I told him how great the paintings where and the colors, etc. He asked me where I was from - I told him the Seattle, Washington, the USA. "Great place." And you? "Ireland." He went on to bitch about the British a bit and then came back to Seattle. "I would love to live there." Well, if you like the rain, it's perfect. "Yeah, you've got a great country, you know." Genuinely curious as to why he thought that I replied, why do you think so? "It's one of the last true democracies in the world. Really it is. Think about it. It's a great place."