When I was in Olympia, Washington, last year I had the privilege of meeting the parents of Rachel Corrie. Rachel was a young woman who was killed by an Israel bulldozer in 2003 as she stood in front of the home of a Palestinian family she knew in the Gaza Strip.

I have only visited Paraguay once—in 1985. It was an offer that I couldn’t refuse.

I have just finished reading INTERPOL’s report on the computers that the government of Colombia says it found in an encampment of the FARC-EP on March 1. Reading the report I am once again fascinated with what experts can do with computers. But I am shocked that the world’s best known detective agency cannot add three plus three.

Thousands died recently in the cyclone that hit Myanmar. The government said that it would accept foreign aid. That seems logical and humane. It also said that it was not interested in certain foreigners accompanying the aid. That seems strange. Unless…

Today I swept and mopped the floor. I used scouring powder to clean the bathroom sink, toilet and shower. I did what is called in Spanish “limpieza” or “cleaning.”

But when I heard the word “limpieza” yesterday I shuddered. The person saying the word was coming from Colombia and was speaking about what he felt was necessary to bring peace to the country.

I am writing this the day after the meeting of the Rio Group in the Dominican Republic. I am still amazed at what happened there. I awake today with two reactions to the event. I will share both.

Since learning of the assassination of the FARC leader, Raul Reyes, in Ecuador Saturday morning, my mind has been spinning.

I watched four teenagers burst out laughing as they read the headline, “U.S. mistakenly kills nine civilians.” It was a great example of a gross understatement. There was nothing new in this “news” article about the U.S.’s war in Iraq: simply the tip of an iceberg of dead civilians.

(I wrote this the day after the referendum failed. A few days later my computer stopped working and Toshiba kept it in its repair shop until late in January. I am sorry that I am only posting it now, two months later, but I think it has some historical and futuristic value.)

After losing a senatorial election to Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln said that he was too old to cry but that it hurt too much to laugh.