Zona

War has broken out in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel. People are dying on both sides as American vacationers wonder why they can't be swept to safety instantaneously by American forces emblazoned with a big red "S" on their chests.

THIS is what I hate about traveling Americans. They think themselves different than others. I had a man in Aruba talking to me almost to the point of screaming because he was sure that his human rights had been violated. Something had been done to HIM that he knew should not have happened to him on the island of Curacao.

Was he jailed and beaten by corrupt police? Was the town where he was staying shelled by forces from the island of Bonaire?

No.

What his was livid about, and wanted me to rectify instantly, was that when he checked into his hotel the desk clerk had held onto his passport. It was, of course, returned to him when he checked out. Many of you who have traveled the world know that this is a common practice with hotels. Then he was livid with ME when I told him that when he was in a foreign country he was subject to that country's laws and customs.

The American and Canadian embassies in Beirut are now overwhelmed by citizens who believe it their right to be transported like starship crew out of Lebanon.

I wish that I was a computer photo changing wizard.

I would then switch the faces of the family in the photo above with faces of a family from Darfur or North Korea or Bagdad or any of the Central African countries.

Then nobody who works for a western embassy would care.

And that my friends, is my twice annual monthly political thought of the day.