Tuesday 1 March 2011

vexillology

Since following closely the uprising in the Middle East, I have come to fondly identify our big mood lamp in the living room--"horned," originally, but now decidedly crescent, especially when viewed from outside on the balcony--as a sign of solidarity with the protesters, a sort of Bat-Signal, beacon, that this will ultimately turn out for the best for everyone. 
There seems to be genuine progress, condemnation and empathy in a united front however much that may be wanting to stave off interference and the potential to meddle and vouchsafing the people's security, safety and precariously delicate revolution.  It is more than a talent of statecraft to strike the right accord between talk and action, especially when the revolt itself was in part made possible by the byways and transparency of communication that make it more and more difficult to make one's self-interest and motives diffuse and deniable. 
Some governments have not yet invented (or forgot) the vocabulary to express honest and undisguised intentions, and such intrusion might be checked within a larger framework.  It is difficult to say what the international community could or should do, beyond being receptive to developments, not unfairly burdening the people's business of change with future projections and fears--the cost of oil and the flood of refugees--and applying the lessons that these cautionary leaders have been teaching all along. Incidentally, notice how one of the banners of the Franconia region of Germany, of which there are many standards of state, has a strong, inverted likeness with the flag of Bahrain.