I listen to NPR all day long, so the news is something I keep up with on a pretty regular basis. I’ll admit that I’m not the perfect employee. I love my toys. In the car, I listen to my iPod mini. I named it “Greenie”, but that’s not too creative of a name for it. It’s green, so… duh. It goes running with me and, pretty much, everywhere else I go. To kind of get away from work, I’ll listen iTunes at home and what not, just to get my mind off of things. Doesn’t always work, but I do try.
Anyhow, the hostages that were taken in Russia is just dumbfounding me right now. As the reports came in yesterday, I knew it was only going to get worse as the whole situation was sorted out in its aftermath. Of course, it getsworse than you can really imagine. I understand the need of making your voice heard when it becomes a matter of political significance. You can see that in this country almost every place you look right now.
I don’t understand this. I got really curious and researched the history of the conflicts in Chechnya, and there is no really solid way to comprehend what is going on except pure hate. There is some arrows pointing towards a struggle for independence based on the abuse of Chechnya’s natural resources by the Russian government. Immediately when I say that, you probably think oil, to which you’re pretty on the money. However, within the area, there are numerous groups struggling for power, all with deep hatred for the Kremlin. It just keeps getting ugly after that. And confusing. I still don’t know the whole story, but this is something that is not easy to wrap your head around.
Over three hundred have been pronounced dead, most of them being under the age of twelve. Herded into the gym, surrounded by explosives, shot in the back by their captors as they fled, and that was after they blew up the roof. They were stripped naked and forced to watch other hostages be killed in front of them as to make them fear the same fait if they tried to get away, scaring them into place. It’s all over now, but this might be a prelude to a civil war.
Oh yeah, there’s that election thing going on, too.