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The definition of the word mull.
Mullings by Rich Galen�
A Political Cyber-Column By Rich Galen
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Tsunami Duty

Rich Galen

Monday January 10, 2005


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  • I am back from my trip to India which extended into a brief visit to Sri Lanka with Dr. K.A. Paul of the Global Peace Initiative.

  • The trip involved moving supplies and medicines, a couple of teams of doctors, reporters from two networks and at least three newspapers, a group of high school students and their minders, and assorted hangers-on through three countries, six cities, and several centuries between leaving Cincinnati on Monday night and arriving back in Washington, DC on Saturday evening.

  • I wrote contemporaneously from the road, but the electricity was spiky; cell phone service was dicey, and internet was virtually non-existent.

  • In one night three reporters' laptops succumbed to the uneven electrical voltages and, on another, the Fox News Channel crew went oh-for-three trying to send reports via video-satellite phone back to the US.

  • My rule was: If it needs to be plugged in, don't.

  • So, let's use today's column as a sort of executive summary, followed by the report from the field over the remainder of the week.

  • That will get us caught up, and starting next week, Mullings can return to what it does best: Laughing at Liberals and coddling Conservatives.

  • I would like to say a special thank you to the officials at the Presidential Inaugural Committee for letting me scoot away on this trip while the Inauguration is looming. I have a minor responsibility with part of that proceeding (and, by the way, I have no access to tickets and don't know anyone who does, so don't e-mail me, please).

  • The Chairman, Ambassador Jeanne Phillips, and Executive Director, Greg Jenkins, reminded me that, as the motto of the Inaugural is: "Celebrating Freedom; Honoring Service," delivering supplies and medicine to stricken areas seemed to qualify.

  • I mentioned this to one of the reporters on the trip who asked me, in perfect innocence, "When is the Inaugural this year?" I said without any - or at least without much - sense of irony, "January 20th as required, since 1933, by the US Constitution."

  • Our first stop was at the orphanage sponsored by Dr. K.A. Paul located outside of Hyderabad. I visited this facility, "Charity City" four years ago and was eager to see the progress which had been made there. That report will come to you tomorrow.

  • The reports of repair work being done at places like Phuket Island in Thailand are good news. But there are international bankers lined up to lend money to the big resort operators there knowing they will be repaid in short order.

  • There are no reports of representatives of New York City venture funds boarding planes offering to finance the rebuilding of fishing villages along the Southeast coast of India.

  • We visited one such village which will be the subject of Thursday's report.

  • My part of the trip ended on the tarmac at the airport in Columbo, Sri Lanka where we offloaded the tons of supplies and medicines which we had not previously taken off the plane in India.

  • A group of docs took some of those supplies and headed north in a small fixed-wing aircraft into the rebel-held areas where the government would not allow Kofi Annan to visit the other day. That will be Friday's Mullings.

  • Quick story: Former heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield was on the trip. Mr. Holyfield is a very large individual. He is also kind, garrulous, and has a wonderful sense of humor.

  • During one of the interminable bus rides a discussion arose between Mr. Holyfield and Dr. Paul over who would get to ride on the back bench seat of the bus, thus being able to lie down and sleep.

  • Dr. Paul offered to fight Evander for the seat. Evander declined. Someone in the bus asked if it was because he didn't want to fight a holy man.

  • "Ain't got nothin' to do with it," Evander said. "I just don't fight for free."

  • On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A Link to donate to help the orphaned children. A nostalgic Mullfoto of a package of Oreo Double Stuffs and a honey shot of the Mullmeister with some of the supplies. Also a link to the original Indian Travelogues from 2001.

    --END --
    Copyright © 2005 Richard A. Galen

                                                                       

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