THE PLACES FLED VIII

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We were coming around the corner when we first saw them. We didn't know our own faces were being dismembered with the wind; and for a moment were glad at the sight of other humans. All else had been let loose. Caravans came and went. Ancient voices were easily detected. But in a strange way the silence that now enveloped him was equally as disturbing as the haranguing chorus that had been with him for so long. The Thais had never heard of Privacy Legislation; didn't like foreigners and were prepared to believe what they wanted to believe. That was a strange chorus, a jerking dance of despair. So many resources, for what, an elderly foreigner? To ridicule someone they had deceived and stolen from? To protect their own?

"They're incredibly racist," Peter said, sitting on his North Coast verandah as they shot the breeze.
"They're the most racist people on Earth," he responded; and they made sounds of agreement as they watched the palms at the bottom of the garden turn into silhouettes against the darkening sky.
"But you were always fascinated. You used to ask me about it all the time."

Peter had done a stint subbing at the Bangkok Post; and he always wanted to know everything, the mystery.

And still in those most beautiful places there was mystery; an air of opportunity.

Here flowers decorated the neat small garden beds at the front of fibro houses; there were no conspicuous displays of wealth; or any wealth to start with. And the casualties, of brand, of honour, the death of personality; all these things creeped through the lowering air and were gone; because there was no solution. Everything crept slowly away, as if forever depleted. He still envied other people their ordinary lives; and tried to go quietly about his own; as if the agony ripped across his soul wasn't there; and we were all gone to a better place. "I can see that now."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/explosions-gunfire-at-kenyan-mall-as-armed-attack-enters-3rd-day/2013/09/23/b0b558be-2442-11e3-b3e9-d97fb087acd6_story.html

THE BIGGER STORY:

NAIROBI — Kenyan security forces on Monday seized control of a luxury shopping mall that had been attacked by Islamist militants, but officials said some assailants remained hidden inside stores in the mall and little was known about who staged the brazen attack and what countries they came from.

A total of 62 people were killed after the gunmen, from the Islamist al-Shabab militia, burst into the Westgate Premier Shopping mall at lunchtime Saturday and began shooting, said Joseph Ole Lenku, a senior official with the Interior Ministry.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/data-point/rudd-saved-labor-leaked-polling-shows-20130921-2u6my.html#ixzz2fkeJf7Lc

Labor would have been reduced to a parliamentary rump worse than in the Whitlam defeat of 1975 had it not replaced Julia Gillard with Kevin Rudd as prime minister, according to leaked internal polling.

Mr Rudd saved Labor at least 15 seats, including those of enemies Wayne Swan, Warren Snowdon and Gary Gray, who would all have lost their jobs if Labor had persisted with Ms Gillard, according to the polling.

In the months before the June 26 leadership coup, Labor's pollster told the party's national office to expect negative swings as large as 18 per cent, wiping out key electorates across Australia. It suggests Labor seats would have been reduced from 71 to 40, rather than the 55 it is now expected to hold.