Though any amount is far more than I’d like, there was surprisingly little “human filth” to be found in this part of the series. The focus is instead exactly where it should be, with dragons that are really coming into their own, reaching their potential both in how they act and in how they’re presented, and battles that are depicted wonderfully.
I must also note that, while the author has raced through a lot of potential action, seeming to only want to depict that which was particularly meaningful, the effort to take a shot at several important issues that the world is still facing is still obvious and, I believe, largely successful.
Rating: 4/5
Note: Original review date lost. Using date listed as the date I finished reading.
It was just brought to my attention that Kiva sponsors are currently giving away $25 to loan out for free to anyone who joins after being invited by an existing user, plus a similar bonus, if more limited in how it may be used, to the user who successfully invited them. So, well, as annoying as invites generally are, here you go.
The “offer” is limited however. A quick search turns up mentions of something like this as early as March, but I gather that those refer to a similar but different promotion, with perhaps a larger number of such free loans given out as well, and the messages I find around the beginning of August are the ones that actually refer to this one. Still, at the time I’m writing this it says that there are some 5500 such free loans left out of a total of 32000, so you should hurry if you want to get your chance to help someone for free.
As it was entirely expected by anyone who thought things through and was neither blinded by nor forced into USL’s rhetoric, our Constitutional Court ruled that the referendum was invalid, so Traian Basescu can return to office. Obviously, since four judges were already determined to vote this way and there was no way for the data to change sufficiently to make a difference, it’d have been completely impossible for the three who were determined to say that it was valid to persuade at least one of them, on top of the two who weren’t so set on one position or the other, to change their stance and therefore obtain the required two thirds majority, so this decision could have been reached immediately after the referendum as well, sparing us all a lot of trouble.
Of course, everybody knew what was going to happen, even if USL kept trying to make it seem that they firmly believed that the decision will be in their favor, but the delay served its purpose for both sides. For Traian Basescu and PDL, and even for the Constitutional Court’s judges, it was to give the people some time to cool off and therefore avoid a harsher internal backlash, while for USL it was to increase the support they enjoy internally while also attempting to respond to the international backlash while they could more easily get away with the fact that their primary focus is in fact this war for power and not actually governing the country properly.
Still, I guess it’s better late than never and, since the leaders of USL have stated that they will abide by the Court’s ruling, at least this particular issue is settled for the moment. Based on the current information, the Parliament should convene on Friday to take act of the ruling and send it to be published, after which interim president Crin Antonescu will step down, likely returning to his office as president of the Senate, Traian Basescu will be reinstated and, obviously, the war will continue. After all, USL’s leaders have also ruled out cohabiting with Basescu in the statements they made today, saying time and time again that he was in fact impeached by the people and they will continue to fight until he will be removed from office and his regime will be completely annihilated and replaced with their own, Crin Antonescu even specifically stating that another impeachment procedure may well be started if Basescu will offer them any opportunity to do so.
As for what happens next… I won’t even dare say that we should wait for the dust to settle, because it won’t settle. Through a ruling that was admittedly immoral, but legal and absolutely necessary, the Constitutional Court has stopped the greater evil from completely taking over the country, but that still leaves us with two major problems: The first is that, while they failed in obtaining the presidency as well for the time being, USL is still left with the Government, the Parliament and most mayors and local council members, and they won’t relent until they’ll be in full control. The second, and likely worse, one is that the the only thing that may still stand in the way of USL and Crin Antonescu is the only marginally lesser evil of PDL and Traian Basescu, any people or groups who’d actually have the country’s and the people’s interests at heart and truly good ideas in mind being doomed to constantly be squashed underfoot by these warring behemoths.
Watched Julian Assange’s statement from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy and, while it was still an important moment after two months spent practically in hiding, I have to say that I was hoping for something more. I wasn’t exactly expecting more, so I can’t say that I’m disappointed, but I was hoping for some new information, a more determined speech in defense of others who are being persecuted and against oppressive governments everywhere, or at least some reason other than listing the countries supporting Ecuador’s decision to have the whole thing prepared and written as he did.
Still, I did notice that he mentioned the Pussy Riot issue, which is admittedly only an issue because the Russian government chose to make one out of a little stunt which would have probably gone largely unnoticed otherwise. This is rather important, because it’s a step away from his and WikiLeaks‘ general stance of opposing anything the United States supports and supporting anyone who opposes the United States, which has led them to have a pretty warm relationship with Russia. Now we’ll have to wait and see whether this small gesture will be followed by others along the same vein or it was simply a little ploy meant to reduce suspicions that he is in fact working for Moscow.
About the issue of the asylum itself, it’s certainly a good thing because he’s still the public image of whistleblowers and of those who fight to make governments more transparent and accountable for their actions, so whatever increases his odds of staying safe helps the cause, even if Ecuador, or in fact that entire region in general, is hardly a bastion of freedom and democracy, so this is quite clearly largely motivated by the personal interests of those who are in power in that part of the world. I do still wonder how will it be enforced, however, seeing as they currently don’t even seem to have any way of getting him out of the embassy without him being arrested and extradited to Sweden, much less out of the country, so this may well get more interesting over the coming days.
No, I didn’t miss the fact that he never mentioned anything about what he’s supposedly being accused of in Sweden, but I don’t see why he’d have bothered and have already expressed my views regarding that matter several times before. Even if the reported events are real, turning the matter into a criminal investigation is clearly a setup and shouldn’t be given much attention, seeing as he could at most be accused of being an asshole about the whole thing… And the fact that he is sort of an asshole about many things and has a personality and certain behavior patterns that are a liability for such an organization, not to mention for the cause as a whole, is no news. However, as I said above, he is still the public image and him being taken down would be a blow which we shouldn’t allow past our guard, at least not as long as he’s not clearly proven guilty of a real crime, which would imply causing real and unjustified harm to another, either willingly or by choosing to remain ignorant about the consequences of his actions despite opportunities to become aware of them.
I’m actually talking about the “Personal” category this time, since that’s closer to breaking my rules than all personal posts put together. Not entirely sure what to do, seeing as I’m quite obviously unable to write pretty much anything non-personal anymore, but I guess I’ll figure something out over the next few weeks. With just four “slots” left at the moment, I’ll have to.
Meanwhile, I want to say here that last night I almost had to resort to my backup plan regarding writing in my story, since the power went out shortly after midnight, as I was washing the dishes after eating. After about one hour, remembering that dad had said that they had automated the whole process and you no longer need to talk to an actual person, I called the power company and heard that the problem will be solved by 5 AM, so I was understandably very worried, largely about the very easily spoilable things from the fridge. However, there was nothing I could do about those, so I hoped for the best and decided to take care of the writing instead, lighting a candle, taking a pen and some paper and getting to work in the kitchen.
Truth be told, I’ve been thinking of trying to write like that for a while now, thinking it may help me get more of a “feel” of the words and also work somewhat against my tendency to overthink and get stuck on trying to make a few words sound right instead of continuing the scene, so I wasn’t surprised when it worked reasonably well and I had a reasonable amount of text which didn’t sound quite so bad after well under one hour. Who knows, I may try it again now and see how it works out, at least to get the basic ideas down, since I’ll be able to work on the details and make any changes when I’ll type it in the file later, just like I did last night after the power thankfully came back much earlier than expected, around 2:50 AM.
Otherwise, I meant to go out more this week, seeing as it wasn’t too hot anymore, but I only went to buy some things twice, the plans to just go to the park and maybe even simply sit on a bench and read, possibly also starting Victory of Eagles, being dumped along with pretty much everything else I keep meaning to do. But it shouldn’t be hot during the weekend either, so maybe I’ll at least go for one walk, even if only a rather brief one. It’d still mean going out three times during a single week, so it’d be highly unusual either way.
Until then, I’ll just see what I can still do around here and, I hope, keep playing The Spirit Engine 2, seeing as I started it recently, after deciding that I’ve had quite enough of being hopelessly squashed time and time again in Battle for Wesnoth, and so far it seems to be quite enjoyable. If I’ll finish it, I should at least have another review to write too, though that won’t particularly help with the issue mentioned in this post’s title…
