A sad day on planet Earth

It's a sad day because today Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Pakistan, after an electoral meeting during the campaign for the elections on Jan 8th. Somebody shot her in the head and then immolated himself to kill 14 other people.

Above her particular death and the situation in Pakistan, it is a sad day because she was a symbol. She symbolized democracy, somebody that was brave enough to come back to a country that needed her help to establish a democracy, well aware that half of the population wanted her dead. And nevertheless she went there, selflessly, for her people.

So today democracy died a bit. They say that when we are young we tend to be optimistic about humanity, and believe that time will (must) bring always better times, but that we become increasingly pessimistic and cynic with age. The way I see it, the argument is absolutely correct, and the time it takes us to lose that optimism depends on the resistance our souls have against events such as that of today, and how many of these events we have to go through... myself, I'm close to defeat.

Fare well, Benazir. Fare well, Optimism.