It's finally ALL over.

With more than eighty-eight percent of potential voters having taken the time to stand in line and cast their ballots on Sunday, the incumbent was re-elected with a bit more than fifty-three percent of the vote, as verified on Monday, then took the oath of office when inaugurated on Tuesday.

There's no messing around with lag time between election and power-taking, and if the opposition had won, the entire government would have been replaced overnight. Transition time? We don't need no stinkin' transition time.

Seems... more

Orphans in Bulgaria are getting some encouragement toward independence from that country's Olympic shooting champ.

Children at a Bulgarian orphanage were surprised on Monday by a celebrity visitor, the country's Olympic shooting champion Maria Grozdeva.

Grozdeva spent several hours with the children, encouraging them to pursue their goals not matter how difficult that might be ...

Bulgaria's Face to Face charity... more

Today is my birthday, so I'll not be spending too much time at the computer, but did want to post the results of yesterday's election here in Seychelles.

The early final numbers look like this:

SPPF: 32119 votes and 53.83%

SNP: 25682 votes and 45.81%

Broulle: 200 votes and 0.36%

The district-to-district breakdown is not yet complete, but I have seen that in Au Cap, a village on the other side of the island, there was a ten vote difference between SNP and SPPF. Every vote really does count in a democracy.

So,... more

Just back from checking out today's voting. I wanted to take a photo of the outside of the polling station, but Mark was not happy at all about that idea. Instead, I have this shot of him showing his thumb ... and his darling daughter, who just happens to be perched on his shoulders. We dropped the kids off with Grandma and Granddad, as they'd already completed their civic duty and were happy for Sam and Cj to hang with them while we went to see how it all was going and do our bit.

We're on the global media back burner... more

Continuing from me on the election ...

Yesterday was the last day active campaigning would be allowed before the upcoming Presidential election here in Seychelles. A week's cooling-off period leads up to the actual election, so last night's TV was wall-to-wall ads and footage of rallies both major parties held during the day.

The enthusiasm is obvious as the party faithful, decked out from head to toe in either... more

Continuing on the Seychelles election theme I've been on and off about recently ...

So, Citrus Heights, California (or Davenport, Iowa or Port St. Lucie, Florida ... pick a little town any little town with a population around 85,000) can manage to have a local election with nothing but a few lawn signs and a couple of volunteers helping Council candidates get their names and faces out and about. Sounds reasonable, so why doesn't it work that way here in Seychelles?... more

I'll be writing about the election here in Seychelles off and on until it's over ... and perhaps beyond ... hoping it's interesting to those of you out there in big countries with hundreds of years of practice in democracy.

Because this country is so small, everyone knows everyone else ... their backgrounds, their business, their foibles, their indiscretions ... so it can seem that it would be a simple thing for candidates to run on their own merits without the need... more

It's coming up to election time here, and folks are all in a tizzy. Pickups full of people drive around and around and around our island waving flags, shouting slogans, singing songs, taunting. Posters are stuck up on telephone poles, buildings and coconut trees, and almost every conversation comes around to politics eventually.

Sheesh. I'll be so glad when it's over.

There are about 85,000 people in Seychelles ... the population of... more

This is so far off topic as to be an invasion from outer space, but I just can't help myself ... it's just too good a story to pass up!

As I follow as much news as I can from Cambodia, and Southeast Asia in general, this report grabbed my attention, wrestled it to the ground and held it in a hammer lock for about an hour. (I'm not sure I'm free if it yet!)

An exhibition in Shah Alam, a pleasant city in West Malaysia I've passed through a number of... more

So, I've been going on and on about the world getting smaller and the cultural gaps growing tiny in the modern world ...

Here was a shop IN SEYCHELLES that had: potato chips, pancake mix AND syrup, disposable diapers NOT from China, 50 kinds of shampoo, 20 varieties of olive oil, real yogurt, a huge selection of breakfast cereals, Oreo cookies, cake mixes, nuts, raisins, all sorts of dishwashing liquids, razors WITH extra blades, fresh asparagus,... more