planet earth looks blue

Riots broke out in Moldova on Tuesday in response to a sweep of the majority of legislative seats in the Moldovian parliament.  60 seats for the Communists, and 41 for the opposition.  61 votes are needed to elect the next President.  The protesters, mostly younger people, are frustrated with the present state of their country. 

With little or no ability to advance, they feel they have no future.  Moldova is the only communist country in Europe.  With only 4 million people, and little wealth, Moldova waffles between a strong alliance with pro-western Romania, and Russia.  Vladimir Voronin, Moldova’s President, accused Romania of instigating the riots in order to take down the government, and annex the small country, which has only been a state since WWII.  Of course anything is possible, but the scenario of a disgruntled youth is more likely.  Apparently they stormed government offices, smashing windows, burning furniture, and tossing computers.  Sounds like intense, frustrated rage.  The opposition believes that Tuesday’s election results are bogus.  The fatal flaw of all democracies, from the most well-developed nations to the poorest - everything rides on the sanctity of vote counting, and when there are millions of votes to count - how isn’t there just too much room for error, whether it be legitimate mistakes, or corruption.  

A 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit Italy today, killing at least 92 people.  The destruction was devastating - 50,000 are now homeless, historic treasures are lost or destroyed, thousands of buildings are destroyed.  There are still people trapped underneath the rubble.  Rescue workers are doing everything they can to find any possible survivors.  The quake hit L’Aquila, which is 60 miles east of Rome.  The area is no stranger to major quakes.  This is the third of this scale of earthquake to hit the region in the past 12 years.

Could the devastation have been prevented?  Probably not of the Italian buildings, some dating back to the Renaissance period, but maybe lives could have been saved.  Apparently, an Italian scientist, Giampaolo Giuliani, was trying to warn people about the earthquake, and somebody reported him to the police.  According to Giuliani, the presence of radon gas was a sign that a major earthquake was about to occur.  He posted the news on YouTube, and warned locals.  There have been tremors in the region, but no one was alarmed as they are normal in such as seismic area.  A state of emergency has been declared by the Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi.