Teenagers and the World

I had the pleasure of the company of five young people today (between 13 and 20, and a baby, but she didn't say anything) over dinner. Since the male of the species were playing "I'm-cooler-than-you" show-off-talk games, I decided to ask a discussion question to the round.

"Do you think they will have to call off the Olympics this summer?"

T13: When is the World Cup? [WiseWoman answers "2010" and then explains the difference between the Soccer World Cup and the Olympics]

T16-1: Why should they have to call the Olympics off?
WiseWoman: Because of the earthquakes and the danger of diseases.

T16-2: Isn't the president of China in Berlin right now?
T16-1: Yeah, what's his name?
WiseWoman: Ahem. It's not the president of China, but the spiritual leader of the Tibetians who is in Berlin. Do you know his name?

[Silence]

T20: It's something really easy, I think.
T16-1: Chang or something?
T16-2: Himalaya?
T16-3: No, that's the mountain, silly.
WiseWoman: No, he's the Fourteenth ...... and he even got a Nobel Peace Prize - can any one name him?

Eventually, I give up and explain who the Dalai Lama is and why he is in exile and why the Tibetians are so riled up right now. T16-1 then asks a thought-provoking question: if he's the spiritual leader, why did he leave because he was afraid of getting killed? I thought religious types didn't mind dying because they get new lives or something.

T14 then chipped in with something about a girl born in India with two sets of arms and two sets of legs and T20 said that was the born-again Shiva and off they were talking about that. I think they meant Lakshmi, but I seem to have missed that item in my news feeds, maybe my RSS is broken.