Arnold Trampe and Monique Lapidaire invited me to lunch today. The walk from Motovun to their house in Sandri near Flegi was a joy. The lunch was great, too. But the best thing was our conversation. At some point, Arnold brought up the subject of sexual violence in war, which is widely discussed as of late. “I am willing to go a step farther,” he said. “War is okay, but there should be no killing!” I agreed at once, for killing is even worse than rape. “Each side should be collecting points,” I added enthusiastically, “so that the side with the largest number of points would be the winner.” Arnold accepted the corollary without any hesitation. Both of us felt that we were unto something big, and Monique joined us in our merriment. “War is okay,” we kept repeating, “but there should be no killing!” All that remains to be done is to develop a system of scoring. After some negotiation, the United Nations can certainly come up with rules acceptable to all. Hooray!

To Angelina Jolie