Ninjas!

The picture may be inspiring some less than serious reactions, but a country in the Pacific has managed to be overrun by "ninjas". East Timor, a neighbor of Indonesia in the Pacific Ocean has been in a virtual civil war with these masked assailants. These "ninjas" are essentially a militant anti-government group trying to gain power in the country. the grips of a six-month campaign aimed at curbing "ninja" activities. "Any ninjas that want to take us on, your final stop will be the Santa Cruz cemetary." I can't help but laugh but this just wreaks of the kind of bad drama that unfolds in a childrens comic, and its happening in a real country!

The country might find itself in a little bit of a pickle, as this corps of ninjas is reportedly in the ballpark of 90 thousand strong, nearly ten percent of the population of East Timor.

What I am a little confused about is who decided to coin these mysterious criminals as "ninjas", seeing as "no one in the country would ever self-identify" as a ninja." Clearly there is someone that is just mocking the situation and therefore added a juvenile twist to the story. It is anything but funny considering several people have been victims of the ninjas, several people have been murdered this year. Especially when the country has just ended a 24 year period in which they were occupied by Indonesia, where an estimated 100,000 people died. My questions is why did this country's problem become some kind of joke? Is it the media's fault? (see for yourself)? The government's?