And Now for Something Completely Different

by Michael Bear

category: Humanitarian Relief

Published January 15, 2009 @ 05:02PM PT

It's been, by any and all accounts, a rather brutal week - all the more important, then, to praise perhaps the greatest Pizza Hut employee of all time.

As with a recent pro-Gaza demonstration in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, when students marched on a local Pizza Hut calling for a boycott of US and Israeli products.  Fairly par for the course, as these things go, until they ran into Ucok Rahmat, the Pizza Hut operational manager.  As a local paper described the scene:

"Meanwhile, Ucok Rahmat, the Operational Manager of Pizza Hut, Banda Aceh said that Pizza’s is an Italian product, not US and the owner of Pizza Hut Indonesia is a Moslem. He said he didn’t have the authority to close the restaurant and he must coordinate with Jakarta. From Pizza Hut, the demonstrators moved to KFC and demand the same thing."

Two thoughts.  First, here's to hoping Mr. Rahmat received a raise.  Second, the mere fact that there's a KFC in Aceh somewhat restores my faith in humanity.

(Assuming, of course, that it still stands.)

Also, as UN Dispatch pointed out yesterday, the UN has now acquired a nuclear weapon.  Or at least so say The Onion:

"NEW YORK—The United Nations, a highly organized governing body bent on world peace, has obtained a nuclear warhead and intends to use the dangerous device to pursue its radical human rights agenda, sources reported Monday.

News of the nuclear weapon first surfaced late last week when the United Nation's own watchdog group, the International Atomic Energy Agency, released startling new satellite photos of the uranium-based device. Shortly thereafter, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a short and brazen list of demands, calling on all nations to 'bow down at once to social progress.'

'Tremble before the awesome might of this cooperative assembly of appointed representatives,' said Ban, boldly holding a stack of diplomatic resolutions in his hand. 'At last, when the United Nations calls for the development of more sustainable agricultural practices, the world at large will listen.'

Added Ban, 'We will no longer be ignored.'"

To read the rest of the Onion article, see here.

[Menu from the Banda Aceh Pizza Hut - Photo from farm4.static.flickr.com]