Iranian President performs felicitatio on Austrian counterpart, American press mum on subject

Yup, you probably didn't read this while perusing major news sites, but the Iranian News Organization is reporting that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "felicitate[d] his Austrian counterpart to mark their National day."

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cabled a message on Thursday to his Austrian counterpart Heinz Fischer to congratulate him, the Austrian government and nation on the country's Nation Day. [sic]

But, according to late developments in the story, the cross-continental felicitating didn't stop there:

In another development, Iran's First Vice President Parviz Davoudi sent a message to Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer to congratulate him, the Austrian government and nation on the country's National Day.

In the mean time, the famously anti-felicitating Austrian press declined to even cover the day's felicitating. Instead they opted to push decidedly felicitating-free stories on grown men picking fights with kindergartners and penis removal.

But that's Austria. We might expect this sort of anti-felicitation bend from those pointy-bearded solipsists, right? But sadly, the fact of the matter is, when it comes to the vast array of felicitating going on around the world, many media operations turn a blind eye.

Some (mostly angry unwashed liberal arts types) may put forth the notion that "felicitating-based news is the grist of a controlled press" and "designed to give benevolent views of despotic powers." But I would ask these cynics: are you so disgusted with your own lives that you truly desire a press enslaved to combating with those in charge, or do you want a press corps that is free to report on the time-honored practice of felicitation? Well, you dirty hippies, what is it?

Now, if you're like me and you want to find stories about Heads of State hopping on for a ride on the Good Ship Felicitate, you already know where to get your fix. The less-is-more craigslistesque-design of the official site for the Republic of North Korea is a gold mine of felicitation happenings. Here you will find a library of paragraph-length vignettes about countries and organizations sending greetings and well-wishings to the "Great Leader" via various forms and mediums. Just recently, prime digital real estate was set aside for such felicitating-friendly fare as the receiving of an Icelandish diplomat and even the presentation of an undetermined gift from the Vietnamese Confederation of Labor to Kim Jong Il. Fan-tastic!

While most of the elitist felicitating-haters of the global media were covering state-wide protests and eventual military crackdown happening throughout in the country of Myanmar, the military junta's official site still found time to cover, you guessed it, felicitation! In this case, the President of Kazakhstan literally sent "a message of felicitations!" Now that's what the fuck I'm talking about!

While many here bemoan the mainstream media's abysmal lack of American feliciation-related happenings, I still keep hope alive that our apparent media malevolence towards felicitation is finally starting to dissipate.

I speak to this felicitation-gap, not for some fetish regarding the good will amongst military overlords and despotic bureaucrats of the third and second worlds, but out of hope for this little planet of ours. For if the leaders amongst us can make nice with each other through the art of felicitation. Then just maybe, there's hope for the rest of us.