Bracted fanpetal

 

Here’s another debut of a wildflower with a quaint common name: bracted fanpetal, Sida ciliaris, which I found on the ground right outside our car during one of our stops in Bastrop State Park on October 11th last year. Because closeups can belie a subject’s size, let me add that flowers in this species grow to little more than an inch across (3 cm).

 

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If pathological optimists still think the U.N. Human Rights Council cares about human rights, they might want to note events last week. A motion was made in Geneva to debate China’s abuses against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang province, and the council voted 19-17 not even to discuss it.

So began an October 9th editorial in The Wall Street Journal. Here’s the ending:

Pragmatists might be pleased that the motion Thursday failed by only two votes, after a fierce lobbying campaign by Beijing to defeat it. But what a disgrace. Everyone knows the U.N. Human Rights Council is a sinkhole of moral equivalence. But if it can’t pass a motion merely to open discussion on China’s abuses in Xinjiang, there is no reason for it to exist, or for the United States to continue to be a member.

You can read the full editorial.

 

 

 

© 2022 Steven Schwartzman