Madagascar is facing a civil war after
Andry Rajoelina, the Mayor of the capital city Antananarivo, denounced President Marc
Ravalomanana as "a dictator, a scoundrel and a thief." Protests and violence have gotten out of hand, leaving about 100 people dead. My sister-in-law's family lives there and it stinks with the dead and burning bodies. For now they are safe, but they are close to the violence.
I asked Ken and Eva what they thought, "Who side are you on?" They basically told me that while they don't really like either one, the mayor is clearly the greater of the two evils. He just wants power, and so he creates contention and encourages his supporters to over throw the president. Honestly he has enough followers to become president if he waits until 2011.
So here is what I find funny.
Rajoelina actually declared, that he was ruling Madagascar now and that the people will be following him. He told school children and civil servants to stay home on Monday, to show solidarity. No one really did that, showing that he overestimated his support.
So what do you do to a mayor who's a rebel
rouser? You fire him, duh! And that's what they've done.
I must say that the guy has a lot of guts to suddenly declare himself in charge.
So, I was in
el baño thus pondering if I would have the guts to do that. I'm not a huge fan of the U.S. government as it is. Could I ever just stand up and say, "President Obama is a dictator, a scoundrel, and a thief. He doesn't deserve to be our president. I do. I am the president now and I will be giving the orders!" I had just finished that thought when the light bulb in
el baño let out two loud pops and went out. According to cartoon laws of physics, if it had suddenly come on, that would mean I had a brilliant idea. Since it exploded and went out, apparently the universe was telling me it was a bad idea.
So I have come to the conclusion not to overthrow the U.S. government. Too bad, as president I was going to take over Canada and Mexico. Then I was going to turn around and sell Mexico to Ireland. They deserve more land and I would much rather have leprechauns sneaking over the borders with their spunky attitudes and pots of gold...not that I mind Mexicans coming here, as long as they do so legally.