Thursday, February 02, 2006

state of the union

pres. bush gave his state of the union address the other night. i didn't watch it. instead i've been keeping my eyes on a couple of other world leaders who have caught the world's attention through some fairly unheard of tactics. i do not know much about these leaders. they may very well be jerks. but sometimes actions speak louder than words. and every so often a sweater speaks louder than words. i present, Evo Morales, the new president of Bolivia.

this man has been travelling around the world meeting other world leaders in this sweater, made by his native people. he himself is an indigenous farmer who has vowed to change his country for the better. to start, he promises to cut his own salary in half. members of the parliament and other top officials will also have to cut their salaries b/c no person can be paid more than the president. the money saved will go to social programs. in a country like bolivia that money will go a long way. washington is afraid of morales and is keeping a watchful eye on him b/c he has long admired the country of cuba and will visit there. well washington, you better watch me too b/c i have always wanted to visit cuba myself!

next, may i present, president ellen sirleaf johnson, the new leader of liberia.

the first thing this woman did was to hold a party for children. the second thing she did was speak about rape in her inaugural address, a taboo subject, something she herself endured and wants to stop. the third thing she did was sack every person working in liberia's finance ministry. they were corrupt and they were embarrasing her country, she said. she has promised to fight corruption from the top down...and she means it. a lot of these guys were pretty pissed to lose their jobs. pres sirleaf happily told them they could reapply and go through some extensive training. however, if they didn't meet the mark, she wasn't going to rehire them. ha.

pres. bush...the state of your union is kind of a disaster. i mean, thank you for mentioning plans to reduce the use of oil. thank you for talking about the environment at all! but, if your promises about the environment are anything like your promises to "end terror" i just have to sigh. maybe you should look into getting yourself an alpaca sweater. --sn

2 Comments:

Blogger SN said...

best blog entry i've ever read. sara for president!

8:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

thanks for the lovely hopeful blog sara. i love the sweater. what a delightful many-layered metaphor. and yay again for the awesome liberian prez. apparently we need to sack our gov't and send them to south america or africa for extensive training.

5:14 PM  

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