Friday Morning Open Thread

John is in BCN and Joe has probably reached beautiful South Africa by now where they are heading into summer. Joelle and I arrived in Jo'burg around this time of the year back in 2002. After six months in and out of the country we hated to leave and only did so because our tickets were expiring. The blue skies in southern Africa are amazing and star gazing at night is spectacular. From small villages to big cities, we found the people there to be very warm and kind. And then there's the wild life that is so enjoyable and so present throughout the country. One of the toughest parts of visiting for us was to see the impact of HIV/AIDS. Statistics don't tell the full story and were highly questioned by many. It was impossible to travel the countryside without seeing fresh graves in every cemetery. The contrasts there are everywhere.

John's post below about gender equality will hopefully be a hot issue over this way. Northern Europe is so progressive on the issue and Zapatero's Spanish government has been quite good but elsewhere in Europe it's embarrassing. Then again, look at the numbers in the US either for Congress or the work world. We all need to do a lot better.

So what's happening out there? Start threading...