World Travler

I spent a little while tonight watching people strole down Broadway at Times Square in New York. That's an exciting thing for me, as I have never been to New York before.

This "watching" didn't have anything to do with September 11th. I was simply looking for someone else who is up as late tonight as myself. It is 2:23 in NYC right now. I can tell because one of the cameras is pointed at the clock.

Now it is far more interesting checking out the scene in Moscow. At least it is daytime there! I get to see beautiful, ancient, and even familiar places. The view changes directions. Constantly. I recognize this. The camera is located somewhere near the Hotel Rossia. Or so I imagine. One moment it is pointed across the Moscow river, and the next up toward Red Square. They are using the phrase Red Square quite liberally when they welcome you to Red Square. It would be quite a walk from here to Lenin's tomb.
Ah, now that's better. Now we are looking at my Cathedral!

Let's see what the weather is like in Paris. Now, this is cool. It's a bit windy today, and I can see it in live, streaming video.

I wonder, now that the "war is over" are there still live webcams in Baghdad? It doesn't look like it. Only an outdated link to what msnbc once had running. I guess we had our moment of glory and aren't interested any more.

It's fascinating how small the world is now. But I have that deep nagging in the back of my mind, are the enemies of peace (enemies of God) going to succeed in making it bigger for us once again? These days you don't even have to be rich to hop on a plane and fly somewhere. And even the poorest of us can hop on the net and get a live snapshot, or even streaming video of people walking down the street in places we never even heard of.

Small, small world. I guess Walt Disney was right. I guess Walt won. Or did he?

Now, this is crazy! These people think Germany is on the coast of North Africa!

Now this is sweet. Live, streaming video from downtown Dublin. I think I'll pour myself a Jamesons just so I can toast to their good health.

And then there is this view out my window, and sometimes me sitting at my desk. Okay, so I admit, I'm not as pretty as the girls laying in the sun at this Italian beach.

Is the world really smaller or is it all an illusion? Is the world any smaller when we can watch militants killing children with their expensive guns live on the evening news?

It is interesting, but is it progress? I thought by now we'd have learned to love each other. I thought by now the wars would be at an end. But, no, everyone has to proove they are stronger. And in the end we all lose.

But at least we can watch it live, on the news or on the webcams.

~ Basil