War Is Not the Answer

Today is the third anniversary of the day that changed all our lives. Some of us were affected more than others, of course, but I believe that everyone's life has been touched in one way or another. Sometimes in very indirect ways.

I was in New York City on September 11, 2001. I still lived there during the first two anniversaries. So it feels a little weird to be away from New York on September 11 for the first time since 2001. As a matter for fact, this is my first September 11 away from New York since 1996. I'm sure that some of that plays into the unusual feeling I'm experiencing today.

More upsetting, however, is the evergrowing number of fatalities in what I believe, like so many others, is a misdirected war or terror. I was very pleasantly impressed to hear this morning that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency that runs the site of the World Trade Center, is suing Saudi Arabia for that countries involvement. How ironic that the Bush administration has done nothing but appease the Saudis regardless of the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers from 9/11 were Saudi nationals. Incidentally, never forget: none of the hijackers were Iraqi.

Starting today my blog will display a body count meter from the so-called war on terror in Iraq, courtesy of antiwar.com and IraqBodyCount.org, as well as a cost of war estimate from costofwar.com.

It's already been one week

I've already been in Scarborough for a whole week. This time last week I was sleeping off my jetlag. By the weekend I had recovered completely, however, I'd say I'm still a couple of weeks away from really becoming comfortable about living here. I'm still living at a guest house in town and my computer set-up still needs a bit of tweaking.

While I could turn this blog into my personal journal about my first days in Scarborough, I feel that I should stick to the original spirit within which I created it. It's been a little odd not commenting about what's going on in/around Malta and beyond these last couple of weeks.

So today I want to blog a couple of news items that I know I'd bring to this blog if my private life was a little less hectic right now. Here goes:

University administration withdraws graduation fee - It's good to see that the wonderful idea of "free" education for all lives on in the 21st century, even if it always felt like the right socialist to do when I was growing up.

Almost 400 illegal immigrants reached Malta in one month - I started commenting about this troubling phenomenon a couple of months ago. I still believe that the worst is yet to come, particularly when you keep in mind that this past months influx equals about 0.1% of Malta's population.

I still want to comment about the recent Broadcasting Authority report, which among other things mentioned the streaming of Maltese radio station signals on the Internet. And even more importantly than that there's this amazing statistic today about the fact that over 1,000 Americans have died in Iraq since March last year while dozens of international aid agencies are considering quitting Iraq following the abduction of two Italian women. This staggering death toll should be considered in light of another fact: more than 10 times as many Iraqi civilians have also lost their lives in the so-called liberation of Iraq.