NEW WORLD ORDER DIARY
Hal Pepinsky
October 10, 1993
ORCHIDS AND ONIONS
...is the title of an editorial column in the Bloomington Herald-Times
evaluating recent events. I like the title. Here, in a BRIEF entry, is
my version for today--
Orchids:
To Mandela and DeKlerk, who I long ago predicted will win the Nobel
Peace Prize to be announced in Oslo this Friday. Rarely in history will
we find a leader of a regime of one color negotiating reconstitution of
power to turn over leadership to a leader of peoples of other colors he
has released from imprisonment as an enemy of the state. You'll recall
I predicted the award. Do I know my Norwegians? If I'm right, this
award will sure beat the hell out of giving it to Henry Kissinger.
To Clinton for announcing yesterday that he wants African leaders to
take over the task of building community in Somalia. Bush would never
have DREAMED of such a thing. If he had left Saddam to the Arab League,
Saddam would probably have pulled out of Kuwait on his own.
To Shane Johns and the UCS supervisor who found the misuse of accounts
with which Shane was charged, who have thanked one another and
reconciled.
Onion:
I'll concentrate on one onion: Whoever contributed to the scenario in
which AFT chiefs took the fall for the Waco debacle in a highly
publicized, star-studded press conference, and in which the Justice
Dept. denying any FBI wrongdoing whatsoever was delivered by a single
nonentity at a podium late on a Friday afternoon. At least I see the
networks using footage in the Thompson video. Get this: While
describing what the Justice Dept. report says about punching small holes
and injecting CS gas (which Linda Thompson reports is either highly
flammable, or else if mixed with water, a powerful, life-threatening
narcotic), CNN shows the tank retriever knocking big holes in the
stairwell of a house in the compound. Talk about disturbance!
...with Bush's involvement with Noriega during Noriega's very public,
highly censored trial; with the riot in Lucasville; with apparent mass
murder in Waco...the silence is awesome