A friend writes from Bangkok:
. "A few days ago, on Yahoo news, there was an article critical of the Thai military government that featured a photograph of a line of serious-looking armed soldiers blocking a street. I wonder where the picture was taken because in the two years of military rule I have not seen a single soldier, armed or unarmed, in the streets of Bangkok or, indeed, anywhere in the country. Thai military governments are not like those in Africa or Latin America. The culture is different as are the traditions of the military. Such is the world!"
A friend writes from Izmir: "Our future is being destroyed by a psychopath." It seems as sound a summation of Erdogan and the situation in Turkey as anything I've read in the American press.
If Trump wins, we could get a White House with his name atop it.
The other day I was telling a friend that I always found ridiculous those people - often actors - who said that they would leave the country if the candidate they disliked got elected. But this year's race has made me rethink my position. "I wouldn't want to live in a country run by Trump," I said.
"I wouldn't want to live in a condominium run by Trump," said Mark.
Among the things Hania brought back from Poland Sunday – jewelry, ceramics, vodka – was my secret police file, which she obtained at the beautifully named Institute of National Memory. The file makes for very dull reading, which I have to take most of the blame for; my two and a half years in Warsaw were more queue-and-tutor than cloak-and-dagger. But reading one official document after another I have come to the conclusion that the disintegration of communism in Eastern Europe was partly the result of a collective sense of boredom.
The Brazilians jeering Yoani Sanchez must think they know more about life in Cuba than Cubans do.