Picture of the Day

(From “In expectant mood, sudanese register to vote on secession for the south“)

You may not be able to read the whiteboard—but a close inspection of this same picture in my paper copy of the Times reveals:

1) there is a cow. the cow is fat. the cow is not thin.

2) that is a crocodie [sic]. the crocodie is long. the crocodie is not short.

3) the cow is drinking. the crocodie is bathing. the crocodie is looking at the cow. the crocodie is going to the cow.

4) the crocodie is catching the cow.

5) the crocodie is eating the cow

Oh dear! Oh dear!

Friend.

What starts as a simple grammar exercise on opposites (fat/thin, long/short) transforms into an Aesopian allegory espousing the importance of staying to your own watering hole (Hear that, Khartoum?!?!) and then transitions, in its final lines, to a very human expression of exasperation over the seemingly unnecessary cruelty of nature. I love it.

I also love the color version, with the older woman’s pure azure robe trailing her animated gestures. Registering to vote for South Sudan’s January referendum on sovereignty, she seems the full-body equivalent of the bright, defiant purple thumbs seen in Iraq during their elections in 2007.