The world continues to reel in the cash for the tsunami victims more than the rest of the Indian Ocean knows how to salt. Funds and donations on aggregate ensuring that even the laid back and penniless have contributed their small nothingness toward the grand scheme of charity in spirit only.
Muslims in Indonesia are wary on the incoming aid relief, the suspicions of a Christian tidal wave rampant with the foodstuffs hauled their way. The washing away of people en masse, and the new religion of another county looks tempting under a god that would wipe out half their tourism.
Aceh, gangrene, Pakistan, aid relief, the Maldives, amputations, Thailand, tourism. Buzzwords swarming the mindscape over the past fortnight. Other issues swept away and under the shave of skin.
So it is on this stream of a light-footed foreign diplomatic balancing and magic act that sparks interest in a simple gaol walk. Excreted from Cuba's own luxury resort, Guantanamo "Gitmo" Bay, Australia's very own terrorist suspect, Mamdouh Habib. Seemingly with the US in full knowledge of this journey back to a land lead by PM John Howard's stern and unapologetic eyebrows. Compensation claims laughed off as the greasy backroom deals are covered in out-turned egg cartons.
The word of the world is tipped slightly back onto the cheek of the US. At times like these, when the first thing to hit the nightly bulletin is of thousands dead not from bomb blasts but by nature herself, reassuring to know that there are nations still looking to perserve their way of standing in the scheme of fear and death. Don't forget, there's terrorists still at large.
David Hicks, you're still screwed.
Written on Wednesday, 12 January 2005