I saw a t-shirt yesterday....

it said, "help cure abortion". and it was worn by someone who almost definitely didn't understand it.

AND now for something completely different:

The General Secretary finally had his follow up appointment. It seems that things are not as bad as we originally thought. The levels of bacteria in his stomach have been decreasing and the labs didn't show any signs of cancer. He still has to be careful about what he eats (no Korean food), needs to stop smoking and shouldn't really drink either, but we are much less worried than before. His main problem, it now seems, is his cholesterol. But that seems manageable...

In other news, there isn't much news. And this is good. The string of unfortunate incidents seems to have lifted with the heat. Our undocumented friends are still being caught at alarming rates, but the union and its solidarity groups have set up a kind of black panthers style police the police system. They go to the subway stations that migrants frequently use for commuting in the morning and evening to ensure that every can get to and from work safely. And many of the leaders in the migrant community now have Korean "body guards" to make sure that they have a little extra protection. Fortunately, we have a lot of activists in this neighborhood so that hasn't meant that we have to accommodate the GS's "body guards".

I think the GS hates the idea of always having someone with him. He is impulsive and having someone else around ALL the time really inhibits his ability to move freely, but well, so do the police. I feel a lot better knowing that there is almost always someone with him. At least that way if he does get caught, I can find out about right away.

The way I figure it, the GS only has to avoid getting caught here for a few more months- By winter time he should be able to return to Bangladesh without too many problems with the police there, his family or his (kind of) ex-wife's family. Of course, the political situation in Bangladesh is constantly changing, but I'm trying to be optimistic about everything... I really want him to get back to Bangladesh soon so he can deal with is whole life mess, but.... to really hope for something might still be asking too much....