When will we ever learn?

The old Pete Seeger song has been echoing in my mind as I've been reading today's news*, foreign and domestic.

I brought it up on YouTube, and found this version; Marlene Dietrich, singing in English. Seeger's version is beautiful, but almost soothing in its gentleness; I was moved by Dietrich's face and voice, tragic and angry by turns, as the song really demands.

Sometimes the lyrics are changed; "they" becomes "we". I think that's better; there's no passing the buck.

*Sample news from the last few hours: Canada, US, Syria, Iraq, Cuba. And on and on and on it goes. When will we ever learn?

Aftermath of a Windstorm

... At least, that was what I was planning to blog about. Death and destruction, on a miniature scale.

I'm leaving that aside for now; the "real thing", in human scale, is in the news. Go read.

Chris Mooney's blog is following the story closely: Time to Panic over Cyclone Sidr, and Preparing for Sidr from the other Side of the World are the two latest posts. (As of 6:00 PM PST)

Greg Laden has more: Hundreds of Thousands of People May Die Tomorrow Afternoon in Hurricane. "A Category 4 hurricane/cyclone is about to plow into what might be the most vulnerable place on the earth..."

CNN, inexplicably, has not carried the story yet. But it is up on CBC (Canada).

From the comments on The Intersection: "Nearly 10 million Bangladeshis live in vulnerable points along the coast, but there are storm shelters for only half a million people".

I will get back to our local storm and its ravages anon.