Your Provincialism is Showing

It's been a long while since I posted a record of my global media wanderings, so I thought I'd share this Sunday morning's 'finds' in international media. When I read the international articles and the ones more focused on what's important locally, I realize how provincial I have become, and how I really, truly, should broaden my persepctive:

From The Moscow Times, I learned that foreign adoptions are grinding to a halt. The licenses of the last 2 of 89 adoption agencie that operated in Russia a year ago have recently expired.

From The Santiago Times, I learned that street protests in Chile by disaffected youths are turning violent...and that the fundamental root cause seems to be very vague. Michelle Bachalet, Chilean president I so deeply supported in her bid for office, is facing this, her third major crisis, with an uncertain future.

The Philippines Inquirer reported that the First Gentleman, husband of Philippino President Macapagal-Arroyo uttered his first words after surgery on Sunday morning. The First Gentleman had triple bypass surgery.

According to Al Jazeera, the upcoming constitutional referendum in Ecuador could further solidify the president's left-leaning agenda and distance the country from the U.S.

The Toronto Star reports on the death, at 82, of June Callwood who, from the accounts, was an extraordinary social advocate. I'm disappointed not to have known about her until after her death.

China Daily says water pollution in the Yangtze River in China is worsening, with 30 percent of major tributaries seriously polluted. This is bad news for many reasons, not the least of which the Yangtze contributes about 35% of the country's fresh water resources.

Speaking of China, Corriere della Serra says there was major street violence in Milan, Italy's Chinatown. It all seemed to erupt from a simple case of police officers interrupting a delivery of shoes in an area where no parking means, by god, no parking!

The violent clashes reported for the last day or so from Moscow have spread to St. Petersburg, according to the Times of London. This, of course, is not making my May trip to Moscow seem any more appealing. I received my visa via FedEx on Friday, so it appears the trip is on. The protests are against Vladimir Putin and his increasingly hard-line approach to quashing any dissent or opposing viewpoints.

Chicago was selected as the U.S. candidate to host the 2016 Olympic Summer Games as reported by newspapers far and wide, including the Chicago Tribune. Time will tell if Chicago can successfully outbid the likes of Rome, Rio, Tokyo, Prague and Madrid when the final decision is announced on October 2, 2009.

And, finally, not news but a New York Times opinion piece on the battle for what shall constitute vodka...who can call it what. For me, my capacity to differentiate between 'good' and 'bad' vodka is probably limited to how bad I feel the next day.