TDOR

I remember.

Movies

Work has been so brutal lately, that I think I hadn't rented any DVDs in over a month. So Thursday I grabbed a stack. Observations:

The Expendables was tremendously mediocre.

There's a Michael Cera movie that I don't hate and actually enjoyed! (I count Juno as an Ellen Page movie, not a Michael Cera movie).

I could tell, from the soundtrack that Eat Pray Love had the same composer as did music for Pride and Prejudice. Extremely similar stuff.

My favourite line from Toy Story 3 is "Claw!" The first time it was said, I killed myself laughing.

Thought for the Day

The unrest comes ahead of Haiti's national election on November 28 to choose a new president. Some parties have sought to rally popular support by blaming the international community for the country's continuing misery from the earthquake and now for the outbreak of disease.

Rumors have been spreading for weeks that the cholera epidemic began because septic tanks at a base for Nepalese UN peacekeepers in central Haiti leaked into a major river, contaminating it.

"These guys are coming here and they rape our women, kill our people, and now bring us the disease," Haitian protester Joseph Jacquelin charged of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti, or MINUSTAH, in a Reuters interview. "We are tired of them and they must go. Down with MINUSTAH!"

The cholera epidemic isn't the sole root of this anger. The years of violence that MINUSTAH has waged on the people has not gone unnoticed.

The UN said it tested some of the Nepalese peacekeepers and found no trace of cholera. Meanwhile, health officials said it is impossible to know and the focus must be on containing the epidemic and not divining its source.

The targeting of the foreign peacekeepers for popular anger over the cholera epidemic is particularly worrisome as UN peacekeepers are scheduled to oversee the election later this month.

By discrediting them ahead of time as enemies of the Haitian people, some parties may be preparing the ground for rejecting the election results as unfair.

Um. The elections are unfair.

If so, that could set the stage for still more trouble for Haiti in the coming months as political unrest compounds the country’s already long list of problems.

— "UN Sees Mounting Violence In Haiti Targeting Peacekeepers"

Swedish Diplomat says Haitian Cholera strain originated in Nepal

Stockholm - A Swedish diplomat said categorically Wednesday that a cholera outbreak in Haiti had originated in Nepal.

More than 1,000 people have died of the disease since its outbreak on October 19, with another 16,000 infected, and there have been violent protests at UN peace-keeping forces blamed by locals for the cholera.

'Unfortunately that is the case. It has proved that the cholera came from Nepal,' Claes Hammar, Sweden's ambassador to Haiti, told daily Svenska Dagbladet.

— "Swedish diplomat says Haiti cholera strain came from Nepal"

Also:

STOCKHOLM: A Swedish diplomat claimed on Wednesday that Haiti's cholera outbreak originated in Nepal.

"Unfortunately that is the case. It has proved that the cholera came from Nepal," Claes Hammar, Sweden's ambassador to Haiti, told daily Svenska Dagbladet.

Hammar, who visited Haiti two weeks ago, said the information came from "a diplomatic source. It is 100 per cent true. Tests were made and the source was traced to Nepal."

— "Swedish diplomat says Haiti cholera strain came from Nepal" The Times of India

I haven't seen this particular part of the story emerge in North American media.