If you thought America was strange consider the plight of my birthplace and its former Empire. For a start the Royal Family is so broke it’s having to send its first-born son out to work for a Hong Kong bank, no less. Meanwhile, at least one junior doctor (resident to you Yanks) thinks that doctors in the UK get paid too much. Finally a great soccer player, George Weah, (who starred for AC Milan in their hey day in the 1990s and played briefly for Chelsea and Manchester City) has decided to go back to his home country of Liberia and take over as President…

On a less light note, the earthquake in Pakistan and India is very, very serious, as are the mudslides in Guatemala. Here is a link to a page with several charities working in relief.

UPDATE: I got Liberia and Cameroon mixed up. Liberia was of course founded by free African-American slaves.