international

The after-dinner conversation drifted to politics, as it sometimes will, despite the best intentions of its participants.

I mentioned a Thai man who had complained to me about repression in Thailand. Speaking out against the king will land you a jail term or worse, he claimed.

“But it’s the same all over,” my British companion said. “The king is sacred there. In America, if you called Washington a sod—”

“As in George Washington? Nothing would happen. You can say just about anything you want in America,” I said, feeling a bit sheepish about giving so obvious a civics lesson. For good measure, I added: “You can burn a flag on the Capitol steps if it makes you happy.”

“You can?”

“Well, of course. Can’t you in England?”

Picket line in New York City protests repression of striking miners in Cananea, MX

NEW YORK, 12 January -- The attack by over 800 state and federal police and Mexican army soldiers, aimed at dislodging striking miners from Cananea (Sonora state), was answered with a protest picket in New York. In front of the Mexican consulate, some 20 demonstrators proclaimed their solidarity with the mineworkers, who have been on strike since July 30 against terrible safety conditions at the Cananea complex and against government attacks on the workers.