A review of events for the first week of December 2012.
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Today is Monday, December 10, 2012, making it 492 years since Martin Luther publicly burnt Pope Leo X's "Bulla contra errores Martini Lutheri et sequacium", or "Exsurge Domine" (Arise O Lord): "Because you have confounded the truth [or, the saints] of God, today the Lord confounds you. Into the fire with you!"
What some are now calling the Persimmon War, a series of violent clashes between squirrels and U.S. animal control teams over a handful of fruit and nut orchards, orchestrated by factions of the Unassimilated Squirrels, appears to have reached into Libreville. On the chill fifth of December morning, sympathetic protests through the downtown streets erupted into full-scale riots as protesters set fire to a local studio, destroying most of the original footage for a new film, and ransacked businesses over a three block area. Graffiti found in the aftermath included calls to "Destroy human culture!" and other anti-human epithets. Several arrests have been made, and many local squirrels have gone into hiding, fearing retribution for the violence.
Back in Washington, D.C., farmers who have seen their orchards seized by squirrels decried the lack of effective government intervention, protesting on the steps of Congress for federal assistance; one, preferring anonymity, went so far as to say "in this world, human life has no value: squirrels run free and are feted." Claims of "an impending U.S. civil war" were called "absurd" by the Squirrel Czar, who assured reporters that municipal animal control teams were more than capable of containing the problem. On the other end of the political spectrum, Ratatat-tat, self-declared President of the Squirrels, cheered the actions of the UnS in a statement released from his headquarters in the West Side of the Forest.
Just one day after the squirrel riot, another was only barely contained: the annual Santa Claus Parade was protested from the sidelines by Hallows supporters, all decked out in skull, pumpkin, and witch masks, holding torches along the side of the route. Police managed to keep the two sides apart for the duration, despite some tension over loud calls by the Christmas paraders for the city to approve a citizen-led initative for a Saint Nicholas statue to be erected in the city downtown year-round.
Unfortunately, the day was not to be entirely without incident: following the dispersal of the parade, a party of Christmas revellers called police to report they had been attacked near Oblivion Park, resulting in the arrest of several Hallows kids on assault charges. Lilia Lightsey, spokeswoman for the local Hallowe'en Action Committee, claimed that the Clausians provoked and initiated the attack, and suggested that political support for the Clausians may have been a factor.
Will Libreville be one of the first to join Thailand, the Maldives, and Abu Dhabi in serving up hot Black Ivory Coffee? Adhiambo Ackland, local entrepreneur and importer, thinks so, believing that the specialty brew is exactly the kind of luxury item that Librevilleans will want to try in the new year. He hopes to arrange import and distribution of the coffee in 2013, to be made available to local vendors and hotels before moving into national markets.
And so went the week In Infictive, lacking as ever any real moral lesson, save Martin Luther's word that "we will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides."
Today's banner image is Petr Kratochvil's "Squirrel in Winter" (PD)
