But I went to school yesterday

Day after day I left my father's house and went to work. I felt like a child again. There was a story which my father and mother used to tell people about me when I was a child. They had said to me one day, ' Today we are going to take you to school.' At the end of the day they asked me, 'Did you like school?' I said, 'I loved it.' The next morning they got me up early. When I asked why they were doing that they said, 'You have to go to school.' And I said, crying, ' But I went to school yesterday.' That was the way i felt about going to work in the Land Tax department, and the thought of going to work in a place like that every day every year until I died frightened me.

-from Half a Life by V. S. Naipaul

Western romance bouncing back

he said,'Africans live at peace with nature. Europeans want to conquer or dominate nature.'

That was familiar to me. I had heard similar words from young Muslim fundamentalists in Malaysia: ecological, Western romance bouncing back like a corroborating radio signal from remote, inactive worlds.

-V.S. Naipaul recollects something an Ivory Coast poet named Ebony said to him
from Finding the Centre, Two narratives

Norsunluurannikon tie, Suomen tie?

Norsunluurannikko on melko lailla Suomen kokoinen valtio, siis pinta-alaltaan. Ja parikymmentä vuotta sitten se oli myös asukasluvultaan.

1960-luvulla Norsunluurannikolla asui kolme miljoonaa ihmistä. Nykypäivänä asukasluku on n. 20 miljoonaa. Viimeisen kymmenen vuoden aikana asukasluku on kasvanut viidellä miljoonalla. Hurjaa väestön kasvua selittää mm. maahanmuutto. Neljäsosa elää alle 1,25 dollarilla päivässä (se on joku köyhyysraja).

Olisiko tilanne toinen jos suurin osa köyhyyden poistamiseen tarkoitetusta avusta käytettäisi syntyvyyden pienentämiseen köyhissä maissa. Vai eikö mikään keino toimi?
....
Lisähuomioita:

Norsunluurannikko on kahdesti pelannut jaliksen MM-kisoissa. Suomi ei kertaakaan.

1985 Norsunluurannikon hallitus pyysi, että kaikilla kielillä maata alettaisiin kutsumaan Côte d'Ivoire. Suomeen tämä tapa ei ole vielä levinnyt, mutta englanninkieliset ovat tainneet monin osin jättää Ivory Coastin. Nyt hallitusohjelmaan, että Suomi tekee vastaavan pyynnön kansainväliselle yhteisölle.

Wikipediaa vain lueskelin.

Are spies evil

I've been reading Spycraft by Wallace and Melton. Soviets spying for CIA seem heroic as much as Americans spying for KGB seem horrible. I wonder how similar or dissimilar the personalities were. I bet America had a lot of useful idiots. Like Steinbeck who supported the Soviets in Winter War, because he believed that soviets were rescuing the common man for Terijoki puppet government.

I don't know how evil Steinbeck was. I've enjoyed his novels and I believe he would have been on the side of the common man like my grandfather, but being the fool he was he put his political weight against the common man like my grandfather.