Internal Battles, Part 3: Meanwhiling Away

Zimbabwe's opposition leader banned from holding rallies and arrested twice in the past week, leading up to the re-run of the Presidential elections. Current elected president threatens war if the opposition wins the election. More proof of failure of imposed democracy, as if Kenya was not enough. Alexis De Tocqueville knew that a country's government must grow organically out of it's mores in order to be properly nurtured and to flourish. Beyond a more than persuasive argument for this theory, he offers Mexico's attempt and failure to adopt the United States' exact constitution for an example. I suppose the western cultures just want to offer more examples for the doubtful. I suppose since our own governments are so perfect and free of corruption, we ought to concentrate our efforts on imposing our beliefs on the rest of the poor, unfortunate world.

Meanwhile....
The square people with their square heads wile away their time in their square houses with their square yards staring at their square boxes with its strictly-regulated, square broadcasting. But I understand why they don't want to know. I understand why they do their best to keep their heads tucked out of the rapid fire of bad news. Even the ones considered aware of or even active in the problems of the unfortunate and helpless, these people only have the energy, the heart, to care about one thing. These martyrs have to choose just one thing to focus all their energy into. Because how do you deeply care for the entire world? Who has a heart so big? You have to leave some room for yourself. So of course I would rather buy my Dolche and Gabana sunglasses than try to choose which cause to fight for. Better to stay inside the square world.

A girl stares at the black wall flying by, in the honeycombs under the city, and wonders where she can find a man. A man who could be her lover and her beloved. A man who might respect her as much as she does him. She left a man, whom she loved dearly, and who doubtless loved her, but he loved his own life and his own thoughts more. She left him in a hopeful state of mind, with the faith that she could find someone who would not only love her, but who would also care about her life and her thoughts. She believed she could find a man who would get excited about her pursuits instead of jealous of them. She would try to do the same for him. So far, no one, and hope is fading, but she refuses to settle.

Meanwhile...
Women in Mexico City can't travel to work without being fondled, gawked at, cat-called, and even raped. The city had to make women-only buses and train cars to try to reduce the occurrences. They say the problem is that it is embedded in their culture to treat women as mere sexual objects. If the women take the incidents to court, judges question them on their lifestyles and the way they dress. They try to figure out how the women bring these incidents on themselves.