BY HARRY RING
`We aim to pleasé - A recent issue of the prestigious
mag, Foreign Policy, did a glowing piece on the spread of
privatized armies. The article, "Outsourcing War," does see
one problem, "the tendency to brand them as `mercenaries'...
rather than to recognize them as multinational entrepreneurs..."
Could use a union - The Mormon church denied its missionaries the right to communicate with families and friends by e-mail or fax. This is needed, a church officer said, because e-mail could easily lead to circumvention of the rules. Missionaries are allowed one letter a week, plus a phone call on Xmas and Mother's Day.
What does this guy drink? -New York police commissioner Howard Safir declared people arrested for drunk driving will have their cars seized and not returned unless they're acquitted. If convicted, their impounded cars will be sold at auction.
Capitalist health care - In a National Health Service hospital in Birmingham, England, a 84-year-old critically ill man died after laying on a gurney 28 hours waiting for a bed. And in London, another man, 68, admitted with a bleeding stomach, died after eight hours on a gurney.
How about the ocean? - Residents of a seaside suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico, face having their homes demolished to make way for a humongous statue of Christopher Columbus. The site was a second choice. The initial one was deemed too close to a light aircraft airport. "I don't want to move these people, they know I don't." the mayor assured. "But there's no other place I could put it."
We can't all be blessed - The lower House of Russia's parliament approved a 1999 budget of $25 billion, with revenue of $21 billion. In an average week, Uncle Sam collects and spends $30 billion.
Thought for the week - "This is, unfortunately, a longer term project than anyone realized....We don't give up before the job is finished. It's not going to be real soon that you're out of here." - Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, answering a GI's question in Saudi Arabia, "When will we go home?"