Humor in Secrets

Typically....you don't expect state-classified material to have any humor.  The US state department has proven that wrong.

Several years ago (2006), there was a bear episode in Germany.  We can admit that it was the first bear to be seen in Germany in a hundred years at least.  It's a long and sordid soap opera (I blogged the entire tale at the time).....but in the end....the Germans had to kill the bear.  He was a threat.

Somewhere amongst all the WikiLeaks material, there's this analysis and discussion by the US State Department over repopulating the wilds of Germany.

There is this great quote then....by the writer:  "Perhaps the greatest insight from the whole Bruno affair might be that despite the veneer of 'greenness' extolled by German society, modern Germany in fact coexists rather uneasily with untamed nature,"

I sat for a while and pondered over this commentary and remember the Bruno the bear episode in detail.  There is an excellent point over this analysis.  There is often bragging done (similar to cases in the US) where the government and foundations are working to reintroduce wild populations back into "outback regions".  In this case, all it took was one simple bear to upset the locals.....and that got the bear onto the hit-list.

Up until this point, I had nothing much positive to say over the WikiLeaks episode.  I don't think anyone gains.  Some people may use a light term of transparency to suggest that secrets are bad.  These however, are the same people who get frustrated when governments can't readily step in to fix an international problem and sit in the midst of the living room and conjure up various solutions to international problems based on the think-tank guy who just spoke on CNN or the BBC or channel one news.

The amusing thing in this story is that it's a brief analysis of a reporter over a secret commentary by a state department guy....over a dead bear in Bavaria.  Wish I could get a job with the state department writing bear summaries.  But knowing my luck...in 2015, WikiLeaks would publish my classified bear summaries and I'd get a reputation.