The Merry Minuet: Only the Names Have Been Changed, The Situation Is Actual, Well Sort Of

"The more things change, the more they stay the same."

A proverb making the observation that turbulent changes do not affect reality on a deeper level other than to cement the status quo.

This week I contemplated more global financial bad news, especially with the recent revelation that Hungary, too, may have participated in creative financial accounting and reporting, and France hinted at devaluing the Euro to parity with the US dollar.  Something tells me that the meetings of the European Union may not be the chummiest of get togethers these days.  (I'm envisioning lots of finger pointing, side conversations, and, at the least, kicking under the table.)  That and the big Gulf Oil spill brought to mind "The Merry Minuet," a Kingston Trio 1959 hit that I heard from the time I was a young girl.  The song referenced threats of war and discord and humanity's attempts at self destruction.  The names have changed, we could substitute other similar crises, but it all boils down to the same old, same old.

The Merry Minuet
Sheldon Harnick

They're rioting in Africa. 

They're starving in Spain. 

There's hurricanes in Florida 

and Texas needs rain. 

The whole world is festering with unhappy souls. 

The French hate the Germans. 

The French hate the Germans. 

The Germans hate the Poles. 

Italians hate Yugoslavs.
South Africans hate the Dutch 

and I don't like anybody very much! 

But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud 

for man's been endowed with a mushroom shaped cloud. 

And we know for certain that some lovely day
someone will set the spark off
and we will all be blown away. 

They're rioting in Africa. 

There's strife in Iran. 

What nature doesn't do to us will be done by our fellow man.