Look on the Bright Side!!!

By what would seem to be popular acclaim, the unofficial national song here in the Happy Little Kingdom is the Monty Python number from "The Life of Brian" -- "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life!"

I try to adhere to that bit of cracker barrel philosophy.

A hundred thousand drowned in the flood that Typhoon Nargis donated to Myanmar and that number will increase many times because lack of sanitation, drinking water, food, shelter -- which will bring on dysentery, dengue fever, cholera and other pestilence. All of which will be accompanied by another old acquaintance -- famine.

On the bright side, the international press seems to be learning to refer to the poor country as Myanmar and not the colonial name of Burma. True, that is not much of a bright side, but, to paraphrase Mr. Rumsfart, you go with the bright side you've got and not the one you'd like to have...

A major earth quake in China started with a modest two thousand dead which quickly went to ten, then twelve thousand and may continue to exponentially increase. The quake came at the worst possible time -- around three in the afternoon. At that time, people are all in schools, offices and factories. Since the building codes, their enforcement at least is shoddy -- this not being a high priority for the present regime -- many buildings, in particular factories, collapsed like the concrete card houses they were.

On the bright side? Well, this may well mean that China will not be able to ship as many Arrogant flag-pins to the USA as planned in time to be worn during the Quadrennial Horse Races also known as the Prezidenshul (se)Election. In turn, this could harm chances of Senator Mad Kane to win the races!

On another bright side -- except for an elderly lady who died and a lot of cattle who are going to starve to death because their forage is covered in pumice -- is the recent dramatic eruption of the Chaitén Volcano in southern Chile. Some of the photos of the eruption and the electrical displays in the clouds of ash and pumice are simply awe inspiring!

Actually, it is very much on the bright side that all that ash, dust and sulfides Chaitén is belching into the upper atmosphere will counteract something of effect of the 385 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere as well as the methane being slipped from the thawing permafrost of the northern tundras.

Why, Chaitén might even give us a few more months before we reach the tipping point where global climate change is irreversible -- isn't that a wonderful thing to think about?