Read it and weep. Seriously, this makes me cry.
They won't be the only ones getting a knock on the door.

A little reminder over to the left there of the damage we are causing. These are just civilian casualties on their side; it doesn't include deaths to our boys (or theirs). Also, this doesn't count damage we're doing to the priceless historical treasures that Iraq is replete with.

In my last job I worked on military contracts that found me working with US Air Force planners all over the world. One project I worked on involved tracking high-level objectives (like, "win the war") all the way down to individual targets, like bridges or airstrips, so that one could look up why were bombing a particular place. I'm not such a peacenik that I'm ashamed of working on that; it was important, necessary work, that is the logical conclusion of the supposition that we need to have national defense. However, I did not appreciate at all noticing one day that we had high level objectives that were focused on painting rosy scenarios for the press and the people back home. I witnessed it first hand. Our appointed protectors feel that we "can't handle the truth!" about what they are doing.

There's an interesting scene in Graham Greene's The Quiet American where a reporter, after many minutes of wrangling, manages to pin a general into reluctantly giving out an estimate of the enemy losses, in the early days of French/American occupation of Vietnam. Nowadays, the generals just hide behind a veil of self-righteous indignation when asked. Actually, they do more than hide and evade; they attack the reporter who asked, in hopes of discouraging future inquiries. It's funny -- if they're so intent on minimizing civilian losses then you think they wouldn't object to some sort of metric to tell how well they're doing. There's only one reason why they don't answer, regardless of what they say: it makes them look bad.

By the way, our military IS truly intent on minimizing civilian losses, despite what it may seem like I'm implying here. I witnessed that firsthand too. They are probably more intent on it than any other military in history. What I'm objecting to is their refusal to report on it.

Chickening out. We had an invite to go to the American Club last night. In a reverse of our traditional roles, Marjorie was all for it, but I vetoed the idea on cautionary grounds; the war had just started, and the American Club has been talked about as an obvious target here in town. Have the terrorists already won?

Hooray. The War to Encourage Terrorism has begun. Keep your head down everyone.

So where have we been the last few months? Singapore. Hanoi. Hong Kong. New York. Atlanta.

So where have they found this new killer virus, SARS? Singapore. Hanoi. Hong Kong. New York. Atlanta.

Are we "Typhoid Mark" and "Typhoid Marjorie"?

I was sent to the Principal's office today: Turns out my tattoo is a school no-no. She hadn't noticed it until today; she was relatively cool about it, but school policy says I have to keep it covered. So, now I have to wear pants everyday, which really sucks because I have some cute skirts and dresses that I only wear to work. Sigh.
Water cooler talk at work sucked today too as the conversation turned to the inevitable war and, as the only American, I was left in the awkward position of trying to defend my countrymen (i.e., we don't all want this war, don't support it, etc.) while agreeing that our president seems to be determined to be a bully without the world's consent.

On the eve of one war, some very gripping reading from the front lines of another. These are emails that Rachel Corrie, the American who was crushed by a bulldozer on the Gaza Strip, sent home. It's only one data point in a vast and complicated situation, but it's definitely worth a read...

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day: I saw a little girl in one of the kindergarten classes wearing a green little shamrock, and it still didn't occur to me that it was St. Patrick's Day. That's either how much of a non-event it is here, or how overwhelmed I am with other stuff at school. Either way, I'm sorry I missed an occasion to drink green beer with friends.

Interesting factoid: Apparently Brunei Ringets are interchangeable with Singapore Dollars. I received a $10 Brunei Ringet as change recently and didn't even notice it because it looked like one of the special edition Singapore dollars. When I found it I started to get miffed thinking someone had passed me a bill of less value, but turns out it's usable/interchangeable here. I'm not sure how that works with the federal banks of both nations, but it's obviously not a problem.

Today was fun. We set out, far too late, for Pulau Ubin, a little island wedged in the canal between Singapore and Malaysia, which is set aside as a recreation area. You get there via a ferry from Changi Village, but some apparent misremembering of the guidebook I checked beforehand led us down near the baggage area of the airport, where we were greeted by concertina wire and signs showing guards shooting trespassers. We tried to get on a bus out, but the bus only took us in, and a policeman came on board and interrogated us, and finally kicked us off. We found a bus back to Changi Village, and were ready to just hang it up and head home. We ended up spending a half hour watching the flock of long-tailed parakeets up in the trees. The ferry, we finally found, was just nearby, so we hopped on (only S$2) and made it out to Ubin. Rented a couple of bikes, and rode around basically looking at birds. There were lots that you don't see in the city; we're getting geeky enough on the whole birding thing that we could just listen for their calls, and immediately tell whether it was a bird we were familiar with. I saw a crimson sunbird, I'm pretty sure; a brahminy kite; and several other small sunbirds that we never could identify. There were some amazing loud, crazy, beautiful calls we heard at one point but never got a visual.

Back in Changi Village we had some questionable seafood; what I'm eating is the "prawns with oats", which prompted the question, "Do I eat this, or, did I eat this?"

A few photos from our trip to Ko Samui:

Customs at the Ko Samui airport.

Another scene from the Ko Samui airport.

The giant buddha.

A temple.

The airport bar on the way out.

View from the plane on the way out.