Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Not Such Good News

20 Ramadhan

Two-thirds of the way through the fast and a certain routine has been established. It will feel strange and slightly wonderful, when Hari Raya comes, to be eating and drinking during the day. That sense of wonder is an echo of the privilege of the well-being we're granted (if we are lucky, and so far I have been) on a daily basis. Sad news of illness of two people we know makes the privilege all the more stark. It can only be a matter of time for Nenek and perhaps it's better that the time is short given the discomfort she is in.

Meantime some dark places just get darker. The news out of Burma - in a sense there is hardly any news - is entirely bleak. It will soon fade from the news pages, I fear. There are some 1500 unaccounted for (I'm using a number postulated in a report in The Straits Times), disappeared into the regime's darkest places. Let's hope they get out alive, in one piece.

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