Literary Corner: Old Forester

Photo by Tim Allendörfer, soft forest floor, somewhere in Germany, I think, July 2015. I couldn't find an image of a really well-raked forest.

The Floors of the Forest

by Donald J. Trump

We have to take care of the floors,
the floors of the forest; it is very
important. You look at other countries,
they do it differently and it's a whole
different story. I was with the president
of Finland and he said: "We’re a forest nation."
He called it a “forest nation.” And they spend a lot
of time on raking and cleaning and doing
things, and they don’t have any problem.
And when it is, it is a very small problem.
So I know everybody is looking at that…
to that end. And it’s going to work
out; it’s going to work out well.

A lot of people don't know that Finland is a forest nation. I do like the picture of all the Finns patiently raking the obnoxious needles, like so many Zen monks cultivating it as a garden, and whisking them away to a decent burial somewhere, perhaps at sea. It's nice to see Donald in this contemplative and caring mood, anxious to make things better, though he's not well equipped for the task.

My peace plan for Afghanistan

Photo by Narid Popalzai/IRIN, via Afghanistan Online.

Ever wonder why it is that whenever you read anything about the economics of Afghanistan, there is always an emphasis on the country's famous fruits, the apricots and pistachios and other nuts, the cherries, figs, mulberries, and pomegranates, as well as melons and grapes, and yet whenever you see a picture taken outdoors you see a treeless waste? I certainly have. That forbidding terrain doesn't look even a little hospitable to trees.

Guess what! That's another gift from the war. NPR tells us this morning that before the struggle with the Soviets began, 50% of the land area was covered with forest; today it is 2%. It's not [jump]