Global Voices update: Among the exciting developments at Global Voices over the past few months are the posts offering translations of the action in the non-English speaking blogosphere. Two recent entries that should be of interest to CFR readers are David Sasaki’s “Journalism 3.0 in Cuba: A Utopian Wish?”, which discusses an online debate among journalists and academics about internet access and online journalism in Cuba; and Alice Backer’s “Senegal: Conversations on Drowned Migrants”, which compiles the reactions from the Francophone African blogosphere to the story of the boat found adrift off the coast of Barbados bearing the corpses of 11 Senegalese nationals.
Gifted, or bordering on senility?: My dentist has been on vaction, so I had to wait until last Friday to have some work done on one of my pre-molars. As minor as the work required was, for the past couple of weeks the tooth has been quite sensitive to cold and to any kind of pressure, which meant that consuming anything but room-temperature beverages and softish foods has been like, well, pulling teeth. On returning home from the dentist on Friday, and experiencing the first cold drink I’ve been able to put near my mouth in the last two weeks without feeling like somebody had attached live electric wires to my right pre-molar, I was suffused with a feeling of utter joy — anybody looking at me would have sworn this was my first brush with the transformative effect of ice cubes.
I experience a similar sensation when I have had something repaired: I get all excited at the fact that the thing is working again, that the tap has ceased dripping, the appliance no longer makes that droning noise, the car engine has stopped emitting the scent of burning rubber. I’ve begun to wonder, however: am I lucky to be able to experience this sense of newness in the face of small changes? Or does it simply mean I have a short memory, or perhaps even ADD or the early stages of Alzheimer’s? Will a used car salesman one day be able to convince me that the jalopy he’s selling me is that year’s model?
Well said: Sure, we’ve all heard versions of this idea before, but sweet trini puts it very nicely today:
Hear, hear.
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It’s early onset Alzheimers..I think I have it too 
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