Sunday morning roundup

China's hand in Niger.

Shacking up is raising fewer and fewer eyebrows in India.

Russian orphanages are a bad scene, but not for obvious reasons.

The rest of Russia has its issues, too:

A fellow repat recently read Alexander Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin" with her Russian-language teacher. When they got to the part expressing hopes that in 500 years the nation would have decent roads, they burst out laughing. "Onegin" was first published in 1825.

My experience was different from that of the writer; my parents may have sentimentalized the language and culture they left, but not much else. And when we go back, we interact not with "other repats," but with people who are subject to the lesser "charms" of the place.