Today’s reading

A well-written personal account of Chicago Tribune’s South Asia correspondent’s reflection on the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Marriott bombing shatters sense of sanctuary in Islamabad
By Kim Barker | Tribune correspondent | September 21, 2008

As much as any place in Asia, the Marriott in Islamabad was home.

Not just for me—for almost every foreigner in Pakistan’s capital. And with its destruction and the killing of 53 people in a brazen suicide attack Saturday, the country will be a sadder place.

Many foreigners will likely give up and leave. The families and friends of those killed in the attack—many of whom worked at the hotel—will have to somehow heal. The government will have to convince the world that it can fight terrorism as the country seems to slowly slip into the abyss. MORE

… and a different look at the financial crisis sweeping the world.


Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me
John Huxley | The Sydney Morning Herald | September 22, 2008

It is a little-known fact that this latest, calamitous sharemarket crash has been deliberately engineered by a secret organisation of central bankers called New World Order who operate from an underground bunker at Denver International Airport. They have already made off with the contents of the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, which now holds no gold reserves whatsoever. And, very soon, they will create a worldwide power blackout that will erase all electronic accounts, plunging the planet into apocalyptic chaos, dampening the sales of four-wheel-drives and slowing house-price rises in Mosman. MORE