How long must we go on laughing?

I am leaving for Kenya in a couple hours, so this story in the Onion caught my eye: "Nigeria Chosen to Host 2008 Genocides."

Seeing this story is very appropriate, given the impending annual clash of my two worlds -- hip and defensively ironic blue-state liberalism, currently drowning in a despondently cutting humor -- and sub-Saharan Africa, basket-case of the world according to those outside, home to some within its gates. I go to mourn a cousin who bravely lived with AIDs, and to ponder why a Ph.D. and all the chances in the world have not brought me some knowledge of how to make sure that this headline remains only a joke.