What Caught My Eye Today - Papua New Guinea, Nicaragua, Michele Bachmann, Vocabulary

Nicaragua - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega sent the National Assembly a proposed law that grants a 50-year concession to a recently formed Chinese company, HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co. Ltd. (HKND), to build and manage a megaproject combo that includes an inter-oceanic canal, an oil pipeline, a “dry canal” freight railroad, two deepwater ports, two airports, and a series of free-trade zones. Fifty years seems like a long time, but consider how long it will take to build all this stuff not to mention the amount of time it will take to recoup the investment cost.  In that light this doesn't seem unreasonable. So what's the problem? No details about the canal project have been made public. Nicaraguans have no idea where the funding will come from, what the proposed canal route is, how long it would take to build, what the environmental toll would be, or even how much the project will cost. Lack of transparency, that's it? That's the big problem? This sort of thing happens all the time. Clearly, there must be something else that has folks concerned. The Chinese company is run by a telecom mogul and apparent canal enthusiast whose cellphone company recently won a full-service telecom operator license in a Nicaraguan bidding process. Now we're getting somewhere.  It does seem a bit peculiar that an infrastructure project of this size would be awarded to brand new company with no prior experience in canal building. Then again, the head of the company a "canal enthusiast" so that should good enough, right? China and Nicaragua do not have diplomatic relations, which adds a level of complexity to the project. Critics say it's unlikely that a private and untested Chinese company could do such a large project on its own, without the backing of the Chinese government. I think what was meant to be said is that China and Nicaragua have no official diplomatic relations.  A deal like this doesn't make it this far without some back channel wheeling and dealing.

Papua New Guinea - Violence linked to witch hunts is an increasingly visible problem in Papua New Guinea, a diverse tribal society of more than 800 languages and 7 million people. Experts say witch hunting appears to be spreading to parts of the country where the ruthless practices never took place before. There is no clear explanation for the apparent uptick in killings in parts of the South Pacific nation, and even government officials seem at a loss to say why this is happening. In a way I am somewhat encouraged that the government is confounded by the proliferation of witch hunting.  I'd hate to think that a government official might actually think that this sort of thing is rational in any way, shape or form. Some are arguing the recent violence is fueled not by the nation's widespread belief in black magic but instead by economic jealousy born of a mining boom that has widened the country's economic divide and pitted the haves against the have-nots. There's that wealth gap rearing its ugly head again. The United Nations has documented hundreds of cases of sorcery-related violence in Papua New Guinea in recent years and many more cases in remote areas are thought to have gone unreported. Until last month, the country's 42-year-old Sorcery Act allowed for a belief in black magic to be used as a partial legal defense for killing someone suspected of inflicting harm through sorcery. Let me see if I've got this right. There was an official law on the books called the Sorcery Act, and it has been in force for more than forty years? Where I come from, we don't call it 'sorcery'; we call it 'bat crap crazy'. Recent cases don't appear to be motivated by a genuine belief in the occult, but instead are a pretext under which the wealthy can be attacked by poorer neighbors, and, many times, get away with it. Are the naysayers, suggesting that this mob violence might not necessarily be driven by a desire to rid the world of witchcraft, but rather but a seething hatred of those who are better off than they are? Seems pretty far-fetched to me. 

Speaking of bat crap crazy...

Michele Bachmann - Facing a federal investigation of her campaign finances and a possible loss in November, Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann announced that she would not seek a fifth term in office. Say it ain't so.  Politics won't be nearly as entertaining without her pearls of wisdom. Bachmann is known for warning that President Barack Obama was an "anti American" socialist who was "turning our country into a nation of slaves"; that Obamacare will "literally" kill women, children and senior citizens; and that the Muslim Brotherhood has achieved "a very deep penetration" of the U.S. Government. According to Politifact, 75% of Bachmann's statements since 2009 were false, the highest of any elected official. So what? Since when did the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech mean that you had to speak the truth?   Fiction is much more interesting than fact, don't you think? As I see it, Bachmann was simply living up to the adage, "How can you tell if a politician is lying? His/Her lips are moving."  Way to stay true to your calling, girlfriend. She used a combination of sheer audacity and an "unrepentant, cable-ready persona" to propel the Tea Party movement to national prominence and even briefly lead the otherwise all-male field of the GOP presidential candidates in 2012. Ah yes, an achievement all Republicans can be proud of. 

The annual Scripp's Spelling Bee was held a few weeks backs. The winning word was 'knaidel,' which is a Jewish dumpling. This last item could be considered a spelling bee contestant's worst nightmare.

Vocabulary - The German language has lost its longest word thanks to a change in the law to conform with EU regulations. Rindfleischetikettierungsueberwachungsaufgabenuebertragungsgesetz, meaning 'law delegating beef label monitoring', was introduced in 1999.  Try saying that 10 times real fast. The 63-letter word came into being as a result of efforts to combat BSE, or mad cow disease. But with the European Union calling a halt to the testing of healthy cattle, the need for the word vanished. The longest German word in the country's official records is the 39-letter Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften, which is 'an insurance company that provides legal protection'. I find it curious that the word is almost as long as it's definition. Kind of makes you wonder why they bothered creating the word in the first place. English actually beats that record, with the 45-letter pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis which means 'a lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silica dust, causing inflammation in the lungs'. Alright friends, here's the throw down. See how many times can you work 'pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis' into the conversation at the next social gather you attend? That is if you can figure out how to pronounce it.