“If present trends continue, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity by 2025, and two thirds of the world population could be subject to water stress.”
UN Environment Programme report, 2007
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Thursday, January 01, 2009
A GENERATION AGO....
It's thirty years since Maggie Thatcher first came to power in the UK and in a future history the chapter about her era may well be subtitled (1979 - 2008). Whatever the main title (I'd go for Thatcherism And The Age Of Waste), its theme will be an ironic one - that her policies ultimately hastened the death, or at least the containment, of the very free markets she revered.
Free market capitalism is emphatically not the greatest system that we can devise for running the world. It distributes goods and services, true, but what a failure it's been in terms of maintaining social cohesion, and even economic stability. What a rejection of human expertise it now seems, after a century of progress in the understanding of how to (and how not to) manage a balance of growth, relative economic stability and social justice. (Remember the "social market"?) What an abdication of planetary responsibility it turns out to have been. And in its old age, what a festival of consumer overspend, fantasy and political corruption.
The party's over. Soon Thatcher's admirers won't have a leg to stand on, and the dear leader will be gone. Not the end of history, then.
It's thirty years since Maggie Thatcher first came to power in the UK and in a future history the chapter about her era may well be subtitled (1979 - 2008). Whatever the main title (I'd go for Thatcherism And The Age Of Waste), its theme will be an ironic one - that her policies ultimately hastened the death, or at least the containment, of the very free markets she revered. Free market capitalism is emphatically not the greatest system that we can devise for running the world. It distributes goods and services, true, but what a failure it's been in terms of maintaining social cohesion, and even economic stability. What a rejection of human expertise it now seems, after a century of progress in the understanding of how to (and how not to) manage a balance of growth, relative economic stability and social justice. (Remember the "social market"?) What an abdication of planetary responsibility it turns out to have been. And in its old age, what a festival of consumer overspend, fantasy and political corruption.
The party's over. Soon Thatcher's admirers won't have a leg to stand on, and the dear leader will be gone. Not the end of history, then.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
LESS MAD WORLD
The world is a less mad place to be now. Listening to Jarvis Cocker's guest editor slot on the Today programme this morning, it slowly dawned on me that we're both part of the new orthodoxy. I found myself agreeing with everything he said - many were things I have thought again and again over the past twenty years. The urgent need to push the environment to the top of the political agenda can now be delivered in a flat monotone rather than screamed in panic - because everyone apart from career contrarians (Jeremy Clarkson et al) believes it, at some level. It all seemed a bit dull, however, even though Jarvis was doing his best, just like the mournful progress of a hymn tune which makes its weary way to its final utterly predictable conclusion.
So we had to fight hard for the boring mainstream. And so it came to pass - the UK government and Barack Obama both committed to 80% reductions in carbon emissions by 2050, and I am going into 2009 with a spring in my step and feeling more at home in our strange civilisation. Not only this; the progress of history and ideas is at last resuming. (See September 18th, below) It's not a bad time for the new President to be taking office. The timing is uncannily perfect.
What I'd most like to do in 2009 is get reinspired.
The world is a less mad place to be now. Listening to Jarvis Cocker's guest editor slot on the Today programme this morning, it slowly dawned on me that we're both part of the new orthodoxy. I found myself agreeing with everything he said - many were things I have thought again and again over the past twenty years. The urgent need to push the environment to the top of the political agenda can now be delivered in a flat monotone rather than screamed in panic - because everyone apart from career contrarians (Jeremy Clarkson et al) believes it, at some level. It all seemed a bit dull, however, even though Jarvis was doing his best, just like the mournful progress of a hymn tune which makes its weary way to its final utterly predictable conclusion.
So we had to fight hard for the boring mainstream. And so it came to pass - the UK government and Barack Obama both committed to 80% reductions in carbon emissions by 2050, and I am going into 2009 with a spring in my step and feeling more at home in our strange civilisation. Not only this; the progress of history and ideas is at last resuming. (See September 18th, below) It's not a bad time for the new President to be taking office. The timing is uncannily perfect.
What I'd most like to do in 2009 is get reinspired.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
A GREEN NEW DEAL
"As long as the basic tenet of unlimited hoarding of wealth remains fundamental to our economy, economic disparity and environmental degradation will continue. We will continue to accept as fair and inevitable that economic growth creates concentration of wealth, on the one hand, and unemployment, displacement of people and poverty, on the other. Without a fundamental rethinking of the current economic dogma of private property rights above all other values, and that human progress is best measured in increased material consumption, we cannot create an environmentally sustainable and poverty-free society."
Roar Bjonnes, a Proutist thinker.
It is much easier to diagnose the problem than to propose solutions for it, especially solutions that don't contain the kind of dynamic which moves inevitably to some kind of old-style state-controlled economy. I think that, even in the context of a free market economy, certain restrictions would be practicable, and without removing incentives for motivated and successful people. For example:
1. The prohibition of dealing in certain kinds of "junk" stocks, however they are defined: hedge funds, short selling, etc
2. Fixing currency exchange rates, or otherwise prohibiting large-scale currency speculation.
3. An end to corporate lobbying to restore democratic control of parliaments, and the payment of MPs at a more moderate level to attract people who are genuinely interested in public service.
4. Increasing taxation on multinational corporations as part of a co-ordinated reining in of the supranational freedoms which they have accumulated and abused. The money would be used to fund green technologies and training for work in a more environmentally sustainable economy.
5. Repossessed property should be taken into the public domain to replenish the public housing stock, and rented in the first place to the defaulting occupant(s), at a subsidised rate. Over time, there should be a gradual restriction in the number of properties one individual/family is allowed to own.
6. A substantial increase in the minimum wage, which would be paid (including flexible increments) to people working for publicly-funded sustainable projects. This would be paid for by a drastic reduction in military expenditure, as well as far heavier taxation on higher earners.
"As long as the basic tenet of unlimited hoarding of wealth remains fundamental to our economy, economic disparity and environmental degradation will continue. We will continue to accept as fair and inevitable that economic growth creates concentration of wealth, on the one hand, and unemployment, displacement of people and poverty, on the other. Without a fundamental rethinking of the current economic dogma of private property rights above all other values, and that human progress is best measured in increased material consumption, we cannot create an environmentally sustainable and poverty-free society."
Roar Bjonnes, a Proutist thinker.
It is much easier to diagnose the problem than to propose solutions for it, especially solutions that don't contain the kind of dynamic which moves inevitably to some kind of old-style state-controlled economy. I think that, even in the context of a free market economy, certain restrictions would be practicable, and without removing incentives for motivated and successful people. For example:
1. The prohibition of dealing in certain kinds of "junk" stocks, however they are defined: hedge funds, short selling, etc
2. Fixing currency exchange rates, or otherwise prohibiting large-scale currency speculation.
3. An end to corporate lobbying to restore democratic control of parliaments, and the payment of MPs at a more moderate level to attract people who are genuinely interested in public service.
4. Increasing taxation on multinational corporations as part of a co-ordinated reining in of the supranational freedoms which they have accumulated and abused. The money would be used to fund green technologies and training for work in a more environmentally sustainable economy.
5. Repossessed property should be taken into the public domain to replenish the public housing stock, and rented in the first place to the defaulting occupant(s), at a subsidised rate. Over time, there should be a gradual restriction in the number of properties one individual/family is allowed to own.
6. A substantial increase in the minimum wage, which would be paid (including flexible increments) to people working for publicly-funded sustainable projects. This would be paid for by a drastic reduction in military expenditure, as well as far heavier taxation on higher earners.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
STRANGE PRIORITIES
A colleague of mine asked a good question today: Why is it that the UK government bought the debts of the Bradford & Bingley the other day (at a cost of £4000 per household, on average) - and yet sold the profitable part to a (privately owned) Spanish bank? Is this simply bad business sense or, more likely, knee-jerk neoliberal thinking by a government that has well and truly lost touch with its roots?
A colleague of mine asked a good question today: Why is it that the UK government bought the debts of the Bradford & Bingley the other day (at a cost of £4000 per household, on average) - and yet sold the profitable part to a (privately owned) Spanish bank? Is this simply bad business sense or, more likely, knee-jerk neoliberal thinking by a government that has well and truly lost touch with its roots?
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
GOOD NIGHT TO FREE MARKET FUNDAMENTALISM!
"This is a failure of a system where we relied on the markets and excluded government. And the markets failed." Tony Benn
"The authorities on both sides of the Atlantic have demonstrated that they'll do all they can to protect and preserve institutions that directly touch the lives of millions of people." Robert Preston, BBC News
The events of this week are the final full-stop at the end of the long, rather tedious Thatcher-Blair era when free market dogma was seen to trump all other concerns and put an end to sensible political debates about how our economies should best be structured and run. Suddenly, it's all up for grabs again, and so much the better.
Trumpeted by Reagan and Thatcher and followed blindly ever since, the dogma that people's interests should be subordinated come what may to the whims of the free market rolled back some of the best achievements of the twentieth century. This flawed doctrine bequeathed us the evil inheritance of an ever widening gap between rich and poor, unviable economic prescriptions for developing nations, spiralling property prices, economies built on "industries" that produced nothing, increasing profits in the hands of Fat Cats and financiers, and ever more miserly wages for people who actually did the work and produced the goods. Even more seriously, it was this apparently unassailable idea which has brought the global environment to the brink of collapse. Finally, (finally!) the system has begun to implode.
This leaves an intellectual vacuum into which the new ecological thinking, hitherto dismissed as a heresy of the fringe, can begin to develop and mature in the arena of serious debate. Unfettered by a dogma which now looks as dated and irrelevant as the scholasticism of Medieval Christendom, people (and possibly even the less cautious politicians, when they eventually put down their hymn sheets and realise the world has moved on) will be able to debate green and sustainable solutions to the global problems of the new century without being shouted down. We can dare to imagine, for instance, repowering with wind and solar energy. We can now do better to provide a decent standard of living for everyone without relying on "trickle down". Once unthinkable, now that governments have shown they will actually intervene in the economic sphere, such completely affordable aspirations are now possible with a bit of political imagination and a whole lot of pressure from people on the streets.
We may be going through the birth pangs of a new era and it's been a long time - my whole adult life - coming. The battle of ideas is back on, and there's a whole world out there to be claimed. "For the many", Mr Blair, actually for the many. Good night free market fundamentalism. You won't be missed.
"This is a failure of a system where we relied on the markets and excluded government. And the markets failed." Tony Benn"The authorities on both sides of the Atlantic have demonstrated that they'll do all they can to protect and preserve institutions that directly touch the lives of millions of people." Robert Preston, BBC News
The events of this week are the final full-stop at the end of the long, rather tedious Thatcher-Blair era when free market dogma was seen to trump all other concerns and put an end to sensible political debates about how our economies should best be structured and run. Suddenly, it's all up for grabs again, and so much the better.
Trumpeted by Reagan and Thatcher and followed blindly ever since, the dogma that people's interests should be subordinated come what may to the whims of the free market rolled back some of the best achievements of the twentieth century. This flawed doctrine bequeathed us the evil inheritance of an ever widening gap between rich and poor, unviable economic prescriptions for developing nations, spiralling property prices, economies built on "industries" that produced nothing, increasing profits in the hands of Fat Cats and financiers, and ever more miserly wages for people who actually did the work and produced the goods. Even more seriously, it was this apparently unassailable idea which has brought the global environment to the brink of collapse. Finally, (finally!) the system has begun to implode.
This leaves an intellectual vacuum into which the new ecological thinking, hitherto dismissed as a heresy of the fringe, can begin to develop and mature in the arena of serious debate. Unfettered by a dogma which now looks as dated and irrelevant as the scholasticism of Medieval Christendom, people (and possibly even the less cautious politicians, when they eventually put down their hymn sheets and realise the world has moved on) will be able to debate green and sustainable solutions to the global problems of the new century without being shouted down. We can dare to imagine, for instance, repowering with wind and solar energy. We can now do better to provide a decent standard of living for everyone without relying on "trickle down". Once unthinkable, now that governments have shown they will actually intervene in the economic sphere, such completely affordable aspirations are now possible with a bit of political imagination and a whole lot of pressure from people on the streets.
We may be going through the birth pangs of a new era and it's been a long time - my whole adult life - coming. The battle of ideas is back on, and there's a whole world out there to be claimed. "For the many", Mr Blair, actually for the many. Good night free market fundamentalism. You won't be missed.
Saturday, August 02, 2008
IRREVERSIBLE
"Today is just another Friday in August. Drowsy and close. Office workers' minds are fixed on the weekend, clock-watching, waiting perhaps for a holiday if your finances have escaped the credit crunch and rising food and fuel prices. In the evening, trains will be littered with abandoned newspaper sports pages, all pretending interest in the football transfers. For once it seems justified to repeat TS Eliot's famous lines: "This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper."
Andrew Sims, New Economic Foundation, writing in the Guardian
(Today I felt like a child who has woken up from a nightmare, except that it's a waking dream and it's continuing. There is almost no one who understands the situation; there's little comfort to be had; it's crouching in the shadows every minute; I'm powerless.)
100 months
from the same article: "But does it have to be this way? Must we curdle in our complacency and allow our cynicism about politicians to give them an easy ride as they fail to act in our, the national and the planet's best interest? There is now a different clock to watch than the one on the office wall. Contrary to being a counsel of despair, it tells us that everything we do from now matters. And, possibly more so than at any other time in recent history."
There's little comfort in that, because most of the people are like the politicians: no one seems to want to know.
get ready for 4 degrees
"Today is just another Friday in August. Drowsy and close. Office workers' minds are fixed on the weekend, clock-watching, waiting perhaps for a holiday if your finances have escaped the credit crunch and rising food and fuel prices. In the evening, trains will be littered with abandoned newspaper sports pages, all pretending interest in the football transfers. For once it seems justified to repeat TS Eliot's famous lines: "This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper."
Andrew Sims, New Economic Foundation, writing in the Guardian
(Today I felt like a child who has woken up from a nightmare, except that it's a waking dream and it's continuing. There is almost no one who understands the situation; there's little comfort to be had; it's crouching in the shadows every minute; I'm powerless.)
100 months
from the same article: "But does it have to be this way? Must we curdle in our complacency and allow our cynicism about politicians to give them an easy ride as they fail to act in our, the national and the planet's best interest? There is now a different clock to watch than the one on the office wall. Contrary to being a counsel of despair, it tells us that everything we do from now matters. And, possibly more so than at any other time in recent history."
There's little comfort in that, because most of the people are like the politicians: no one seems to want to know.
get ready for 4 degrees
Saturday, March 01, 2008
JAMES LOVELOCK, PASCAL'S WAGER, RALPH NADER & THE ROBOTS
In The Revenge Of Gaia, the new book by the climate scientist James Lovelock, he "predicts that by 2020 extreme weather will be the norm, causing global devastation; that by 2040 much of Europe will be Saharan; and parts of London will be underwater." (from an article in today's Guardian.) Given that some kind of catastrophe is inevitable, Lovelock's solution is to "Enjoy life while you can. Because if you're lucky it's going to be 20 years till it hits the fan." A lot of people I know have been saying this kind of thing for a while; often they're the same ones who refused to believe in the ecological crisis when it first burst, well, crept, into the newspapers in the late 1980s. Funny, that. Of course it's nice to live with the weight of the world lifted from your shoulders... but there's a more intelligent solution.
We've been here before, in the face of another great defining moment, the retreat of religion. At the time when there was still uncertainty about God's existence, French philosopher Pascal came up with his famous "wager', namely that in the face of this uncertainty, it was a better bet to believe in God because of the size of the prize i.e. eternal bliss. Presumably, the pleasure we might lose in terms of reining in the worst of our Earthly desires would be made up for in the sense of serenity we'd experience by doing the right thing? Anyway, this is how I understand it.
Something similar applies now. It is simply a better bet to act as if we can ameliorate the climate catastrophe. Until we're sure we can't. This time it's the size of the possible loss that counts.
On a related topic, given that we expect climate catastrophe, and that we have daily exposure to the latest evidence (if such were needed) that capitalism isn't working very well at the moment, why isn't there more of a fuss about veteran campaigner Ralph Nader's presidential bid?
Take a minute to look at what Nader stands for. Click the link, go on. He wants to cut the bloated military budget, adopt a carbon tax, lead an "aggressive" clampdown on corporate crime and - if this doesn't sell him, nothing will - impeach Bush & Cheney! None of the other candidates would dare to confront corporate power. But isn't this precisely what needs to be done in 2008? It's hard to believe that so many millions of voters can't see this. (Ignorant? Stupid? Androids? A combination of all of these?)
The mainstream politicians wallow in the public's ignorance/stupidity/roboticness, of course. Even though it's clear we are locked into a kind of danse macabre with global corporations, none of them have the imagination to disengage from this, or even talk about how this might be done. We can have "change", Mr Obama, but it needs to be radical and visionary.
I would like to see the current generation of politicians swept away - by the ballot box if possible, but by any means necessary - to be replaced by more courageous people, like Nader, who are not afraid to say what they believe, and whom we can therefore trust to respond effectively to the current crisis in capitalism, and to the threat of global catastrophe.
In The Revenge Of Gaia, the new book by the climate scientist James Lovelock, he "predicts that by 2020 extreme weather will be the norm, causing global devastation; that by 2040 much of Europe will be Saharan; and parts of London will be underwater." (from an article in today's Guardian.) Given that some kind of catastrophe is inevitable, Lovelock's solution is to "Enjoy life while you can. Because if you're lucky it's going to be 20 years till it hits the fan." A lot of people I know have been saying this kind of thing for a while; often they're the same ones who refused to believe in the ecological crisis when it first burst, well, crept, into the newspapers in the late 1980s. Funny, that. Of course it's nice to live with the weight of the world lifted from your shoulders... but there's a more intelligent solution.
We've been here before, in the face of another great defining moment, the retreat of religion. At the time when there was still uncertainty about God's existence, French philosopher Pascal came up with his famous "wager', namely that in the face of this uncertainty, it was a better bet to believe in God because of the size of the prize i.e. eternal bliss. Presumably, the pleasure we might lose in terms of reining in the worst of our Earthly desires would be made up for in the sense of serenity we'd experience by doing the right thing? Anyway, this is how I understand it.
Something similar applies now. It is simply a better bet to act as if we can ameliorate the climate catastrophe. Until we're sure we can't. This time it's the size of the possible loss that counts.
On a related topic, given that we expect climate catastrophe, and that we have daily exposure to the latest evidence (if such were needed) that capitalism isn't working very well at the moment, why isn't there more of a fuss about veteran campaigner Ralph Nader's presidential bid?
Take a minute to look at what Nader stands for. Click the link, go on. He wants to cut the bloated military budget, adopt a carbon tax, lead an "aggressive" clampdown on corporate crime and - if this doesn't sell him, nothing will - impeach Bush & Cheney! None of the other candidates would dare to confront corporate power. But isn't this precisely what needs to be done in 2008? It's hard to believe that so many millions of voters can't see this. (Ignorant? Stupid? Androids? A combination of all of these?)
The mainstream politicians wallow in the public's ignorance/stupidity/roboticness, of course. Even though it's clear we are locked into a kind of danse macabre with global corporations, none of them have the imagination to disengage from this, or even talk about how this might be done. We can have "change", Mr Obama, but it needs to be radical and visionary.
I would like to see the current generation of politicians swept away - by the ballot box if possible, but by any means necessary - to be replaced by more courageous people, like Nader, who are not afraid to say what they believe, and whom we can therefore trust to respond effectively to the current crisis in capitalism, and to the threat of global catastrophe.
Monday, December 31, 2007
"ENJOY YOURSELF. IT'S LATER THAN YOU THINK"
Even though I'm not a polar bear, at the end of 2007, everything has come to seem increasingly temporary to me and I'm not sure quite how to lay plans. I'm trying to prepare myself psychologically. Above all, I'm trying to lighten up and just to get on with things. That explains the title, from a great old Specials song.
It's been a really bad year for polar bears.
"On Sunday 16 September 2007, the sea ice covering the Arctic ocean melted back to a record low point. It has always melted back in the summer, but in recent years it has retreated further and further, to new lows, strongly suggesting the influence of climate change. The 2007 retreat, however, shattered the previous record, set only two years earlier, by a quite colossal amount, an amount so enormous as to be scarcely credible. It exceeded the September 2005 low point by another 22 per cent – an area of 1.2 million square kilometres, or more than 385,000 square miles. This represents an extra area of ice five times the size of the United Kingdom. Gone in a single summer. If you consider that and you don't think the world is rapidly warming up, what do you need to convince you?" Michael McCarthy, The Independent, 28.12.07
The main event of the year was this, and the weak (but not wholly disappointing) response of the UN Climate conference in Bali. With a potential rise of 6.4 degrees in global temperatures by the end of the century, which would make life on the planet unviable, (source: IPCC Report) what should my response be?
And then there's the - potentially - even more urgent question. What happens if the oil runs out? Despite the awful problems with biofuels, I still want to know (very selfishly) whether they can lubricate mechanical parts, power planes, and be used in the manufacture of plastics. Politicians have largely avoided talking about the potential scarcity of oil from about 2015 onwards, probably because, compared with global warming, we aren't even close to consensus on this. But you have to think. (Don't you? Don't you?) Will we be catapulted within a couple of decades back to an almost pre-modern (static, localised) society? Will the internet and other media work in a society where oil is unavailable or twice as expensive? Will technology and transport be the exclusive preserve of the very rich? At the very least, a huge hike in oil prices must lead to an unprecedented economic recession. As for the other consequences, they're hard to see. I'm not an economist. But jobs, house prices, the whole social order are going to change. My sector, teaching EFL, will shrink drastically with any recession in international trade.
I may be crazy. I think this because almost no one else is talking about it! This is what it must feel like to be mad. But I can't pretend that prospects like these don't overshadow most of my hopes as I look to 2008 and beyond. Ultimately it feels like planning a last gasp holiday, or a final fling, just before the shit hits the fan. There will be last gasps and final flings in 2008.
To lighten up for a moment, here's my other review of 2007:
BEST MOMENT
I loved everything about Zurich, especially looking down my street to the mountains beyond. Also seeing the turquoise waters at Plitvice for the first time, on a photograph and then for real.
FILMS
Atonement (not seen until 20th Jan 2008)
The Lives Of Others
This is England
Notes On A Scandal
The Last King Of Scotland
BEST THING I SAW
rewatched Our Friends In The North
ALBUMS
King Creosote - Bombshell (for great songwriting)
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand (for the voices)
The Shins - Wincing The Night Away (the melodic hooks)
and the Radiohead album turned out to be great, after about the 5th hearing
GIGS
Madness at the Sziget!
Roger Waters in Budapest (for those timeless songs, and how he stitched them together into a whole)
Gogol Bordello at A38, Budapest (for the sheer energy)
BEST THINGS I HEARD ALL YEAR
Shearwater - Palo Santo
The Good The Bad & The Queen - Herculean
Simian Mobile Disco - Sleep Deprivation
And the best album, not from 2007 I don't think, was The Rough Guide To The Music of Hawaii.
MISCELLANEOUS EVENTS
DELTA
Led Zeppelin reunion (I wasn't there, I want them to tour)
Facebook (I am there, and wondering if the novelty will fade in 2008)
BOOKS
Mervyn Peake - Titus Groan
Martin Amis - London Fields (both of these for the imaginative scope, the characters and the prose)
Chris Abbott, Paul Rogers & John Sloboda - Beyond Terror (for the facts. If there are such things, and it's a moot point, then here they are, and in a little over 100 pages.)
Even though I'm not a polar bear, at the end of 2007, everything has come to seem increasingly temporary to me and I'm not sure quite how to lay plans. I'm trying to prepare myself psychologically. Above all, I'm trying to lighten up and just to get on with things. That explains the title, from a great old Specials song.
It's been a really bad year for polar bears.
"On Sunday 16 September 2007, the sea ice covering the Arctic ocean melted back to a record low point. It has always melted back in the summer, but in recent years it has retreated further and further, to new lows, strongly suggesting the influence of climate change. The 2007 retreat, however, shattered the previous record, set only two years earlier, by a quite colossal amount, an amount so enormous as to be scarcely credible. It exceeded the September 2005 low point by another 22 per cent – an area of 1.2 million square kilometres, or more than 385,000 square miles. This represents an extra area of ice five times the size of the United Kingdom. Gone in a single summer. If you consider that and you don't think the world is rapidly warming up, what do you need to convince you?" Michael McCarthy, The Independent, 28.12.07
The main event of the year was this, and the weak (but not wholly disappointing) response of the UN Climate conference in Bali. With a potential rise of 6.4 degrees in global temperatures by the end of the century, which would make life on the planet unviable, (source: IPCC Report) what should my response be?
And then there's the - potentially - even more urgent question. What happens if the oil runs out? Despite the awful problems with biofuels, I still want to know (very selfishly) whether they can lubricate mechanical parts, power planes, and be used in the manufacture of plastics. Politicians have largely avoided talking about the potential scarcity of oil from about 2015 onwards, probably because, compared with global warming, we aren't even close to consensus on this. But you have to think. (Don't you? Don't you?) Will we be catapulted within a couple of decades back to an almost pre-modern (static, localised) society? Will the internet and other media work in a society where oil is unavailable or twice as expensive? Will technology and transport be the exclusive preserve of the very rich? At the very least, a huge hike in oil prices must lead to an unprecedented economic recession. As for the other consequences, they're hard to see. I'm not an economist. But jobs, house prices, the whole social order are going to change. My sector, teaching EFL, will shrink drastically with any recession in international trade.
I may be crazy. I think this because almost no one else is talking about it! This is what it must feel like to be mad. But I can't pretend that prospects like these don't overshadow most of my hopes as I look to 2008 and beyond. Ultimately it feels like planning a last gasp holiday, or a final fling, just before the shit hits the fan. There will be last gasps and final flings in 2008.
To lighten up for a moment, here's my other review of 2007:
BEST MOMENT
I loved everything about Zurich, especially looking down my street to the mountains beyond. Also seeing the turquoise waters at Plitvice for the first time, on a photograph and then for real.
FILMS
Atonement (not seen until 20th Jan 2008)
The Lives Of Others
This is England
Notes On A Scandal
The Last King Of Scotland
BEST THING I SAW
rewatched Our Friends In The North
ALBUMS
King Creosote - Bombshell (for great songwriting)
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand (for the voices)
The Shins - Wincing The Night Away (the melodic hooks)
and the Radiohead album turned out to be great, after about the 5th hearing
GIGS
Madness at the Sziget!
Roger Waters in Budapest (for those timeless songs, and how he stitched them together into a whole)
Gogol Bordello at A38, Budapest (for the sheer energy)
BEST THINGS I HEARD ALL YEAR
Shearwater - Palo Santo
The Good The Bad & The Queen - Herculean
Simian Mobile Disco - Sleep Deprivation
And the best album, not from 2007 I don't think, was The Rough Guide To The Music of Hawaii.
MISCELLANEOUS EVENTS
DELTA
Led Zeppelin reunion (I wasn't there, I want them to tour)
Facebook (I am there, and wondering if the novelty will fade in 2008)
BOOKS
Mervyn Peake - Titus Groan
Martin Amis - London Fields (both of these for the imaginative scope, the characters and the prose)
Chris Abbott, Paul Rogers & John Sloboda - Beyond Terror (for the facts. If there are such things, and it's a moot point, then here they are, and in a little over 100 pages.)
Friday, December 14, 2007
2007 CHRISTMAS CAROL: A TALE OF EVERYDAY BETRAYAL
dedicated to the negotiating teams from USA, Canada and Japan who served us so memorably at Bali:
In ten days' time, they'll be knocking back the wine, having watched their children sing about the baby Jesus and how the new-born king came to save the world. They might get a little dewy-eyed then, and while they watch again the tale of Tiny Tim they'll probably "reconsecrate" their hard hearts to him. But we who watched it all on TV will never forget their moment now, how those gutless gentlemen couldn't muster their sentiments in the Earth's defence, even in the face of all that evidence. They probably thought they were pretty smart, obviously mindful of their great careers, even as the world was coming apart around their ears.
dedicated to the negotiating teams from USA, Canada and Japan who served us so memorably at Bali:In ten days' time, they'll be knocking back the wine, having watched their children sing about the baby Jesus and how the new-born king came to save the world. They might get a little dewy-eyed then, and while they watch again the tale of Tiny Tim they'll probably "reconsecrate" their hard hearts to him. But we who watched it all on TV will never forget their moment now, how those gutless gentlemen couldn't muster their sentiments in the Earth's defence, even in the face of all that evidence. They probably thought they were pretty smart, obviously mindful of their great careers, even as the world was coming apart around their ears.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
IT'S DRIVING ME URBANE
When I was a student, we used to talk about what was going on in our souls. Now we make polite conversation. We used to "set the world to rights". Now anything of epic proportions is ventured tentatively, and to close friends only. To see if they're in the mood. We used to revel in exploring the mysteries of life and death and consciousness. We'd speculate wildly about radical schemes, and shout about love to the sky. Nothing was taboo. I know it was a bit strident sometimes, a bit direct and unhewn, but it was in some ways randomly philosophical. And I liked that. Now we're features journalists. Like Sunday magazine articles, each carefully hedged opinion is as unlikely to give offence as it is to raise a flicker of real excitement. I often find. I wonder what happened in the years in between. Did something change our minds?
When I was a student, we used to talk about what was going on in our souls. Now we make polite conversation. We used to "set the world to rights". Now anything of epic proportions is ventured tentatively, and to close friends only. To see if they're in the mood. We used to revel in exploring the mysteries of life and death and consciousness. We'd speculate wildly about radical schemes, and shout about love to the sky. Nothing was taboo. I know it was a bit strident sometimes, a bit direct and unhewn, but it was in some ways randomly philosophical. And I liked that. Now we're features journalists. Like Sunday magazine articles, each carefully hedged opinion is as unlikely to give offence as it is to raise a flicker of real excitement. I often find. I wonder what happened in the years in between. Did something change our minds?
END OF THE WORLD - BUT NOT IN HUNGARY
Saturday December 8th is the International Day of Climate Change Protests. It is, arguably, the most important protest in human history in that the issues concerned urgently affect us all, although doubtless it will come and go, and be forgotten. The latest IPCC Report warns starkly of "abrupt and irreversible changes" if nothing is done to reduce carbon emissions, and global leaders are meeting in Bali to cobble together whatever bland compromise they imagine their electorates can stomach.
We, the people, are gathering on the streets to urge them to go further, to let them know that we care about policy in this area, that we acknowledge the apocalyptic nature not only of the report, but of events occurring weekly in the News.
Although protests will take place in at least 83 countries, including Albania and Belarus, there is no action planned for Hungary. Presumably it will be isolated from the economic and social upheavals in the next decades by virtue of being well inland? I understand that people are dealing with seemingly more urgent and relevant problems here, but it is frustrating and bewildering that so few pay any interest at all in this era-defining issue that is ineluctably coming home to roost.
Global Climate Campaign
Saturday December 8th is the International Day of Climate Change Protests. It is, arguably, the most important protest in human history in that the issues concerned urgently affect us all, although doubtless it will come and go, and be forgotten. The latest IPCC Report warns starkly of "abrupt and irreversible changes" if nothing is done to reduce carbon emissions, and global leaders are meeting in Bali to cobble together whatever bland compromise they imagine their electorates can stomach. We, the people, are gathering on the streets to urge them to go further, to let them know that we care about policy in this area, that we acknowledge the apocalyptic nature not only of the report, but of events occurring weekly in the News.
Although protests will take place in at least 83 countries, including Albania and Belarus, there is no action planned for Hungary. Presumably it will be isolated from the economic and social upheavals in the next decades by virtue of being well inland? I understand that people are dealing with seemingly more urgent and relevant problems here, but it is frustrating and bewildering that so few pay any interest at all in this era-defining issue that is ineluctably coming home to roost.
Global Climate Campaign
Saturday, November 03, 2007
MALAISE
I'm thrown from pillar to post
Don't know what I fear the most
My escape plans are littering the ground
Broken window where the world came in
Stomach-churning dose of vitamins
Will help me make the right constructive sounds
I feel I've lost control
Got a riot for a soul
And they're looking for somebody to kill
All their faces are mocking masks
As my decisions are disasters
And the procession is winding down the hill
There's nothing I've ever done
Made a difference to anyone
Of my deeds, there's little to record
Now the river has burst its banks
And all its filth has filled my tank
And its noise will drown my final words
I'm thrown from pillar to post
Don't know what I fear the most
My escape plans are littering the ground
Broken window where the world came in
Stomach-churning dose of vitamins
Will help me make the right constructive sounds
I feel I've lost control
Got a riot for a soul
And they're looking for somebody to kill
All their faces are mocking masks
As my decisions are disasters
And the procession is winding down the hill
There's nothing I've ever done
Made a difference to anyone
Of my deeds, there's little to record
Now the river has burst its banks
And all its filth has filled my tank
And its noise will drown my final words
Sunday, October 28, 2007
IN PRAISE OF KING CREOSOTE
As a songwriter, especially one going through a fallow period, you can tell immediately when someone else has just *got it*. The muse, the knack, the moment - whatever you want to call it. You don't get jealous or anything - you just listen and marvel. This year it's King Creosote. He's been producing material from his base in Fife for years now, but I don't know his back catalogue at all. The songs on his new album Bombshell are irresistably good, all of them. The lyrics are often from the heart and always to the point. They are original, often yearningly romantic, occasionally witty and with (refreshingly, in the days of Radiohead) no pretentiousness at all. The melodicism is effortless, so there's no need to surround it with sound effects. His voice, while often sailing off into falsetto, doesn't grate and is surprisingly rich. I like his musical principles too: "King Creosote maintains that the song is more important than the style, and that the performance outweighs recording quality. If a part can’t be recorded in one take, scrap it for something simpler." I reckon it might be the best album of 2007.
Some lyrics I liked from the last track:
"And your words chased round and round in my head last night
they chased their own tails
and your words jigged round my mind all night
to look at me now I'm quiet as sand
and the tide shrinks back into its womb
and I hope the empty shells and bones of your stories
will litter and clutter the shore
and I hope that when I find them
I'll remember how they danced
and the racket they made
when they were alive"
(c) King Creosote, 2007
King Creosote site
KC on Guardian Weekly podcast
As a songwriter, especially one going through a fallow period, you can tell immediately when someone else has just *got it*. The muse, the knack, the moment - whatever you want to call it. You don't get jealous or anything - you just listen and marvel. This year it's King Creosote. He's been producing material from his base in Fife for years now, but I don't know his back catalogue at all. The songs on his new album Bombshell are irresistably good, all of them. The lyrics are often from the heart and always to the point. They are original, often yearningly romantic, occasionally witty and with (refreshingly, in the days of Radiohead) no pretentiousness at all. The melodicism is effortless, so there's no need to surround it with sound effects. His voice, while often sailing off into falsetto, doesn't grate and is surprisingly rich. I like his musical principles too: "King Creosote maintains that the song is more important than the style, and that the performance outweighs recording quality. If a part can’t be recorded in one take, scrap it for something simpler." I reckon it might be the best album of 2007.
Some lyrics I liked from the last track:
"And your words chased round and round in my head last night
they chased their own tails
and your words jigged round my mind all night
to look at me now I'm quiet as sand
and the tide shrinks back into its womb
and I hope the empty shells and bones of your stories
will litter and clutter the shore
and I hope that when I find them
I'll remember how they danced
and the racket they made
when they were alive"
(c) King Creosote, 2007
King Creosote site
KC on Guardian Weekly podcast
Thursday, September 20, 2007
POSTSCRIPT: A QUESTION FOR SCHEDULERS
Since News editors feel they must feed viewers the daily gruel of "the" Business and "the" Sport - mostly any old thing they've dredged up, stories which are mind-altering in their elevation of the banal and irrelevant to headline material, perhaps they could find a slot for the Planet?
After all, if you think you can turn stock market movements into edge-of-the-seat stuff, why not try your hand at raising interest in the end of the world?
Here is today's News.
George Monbiot: the apocalypse, with sources
Climate Change Coming Home: The Guardian
To The End Of The Earth
Since News editors feel they must feed viewers the daily gruel of "the" Business and "the" Sport - mostly any old thing they've dredged up, stories which are mind-altering in their elevation of the banal and irrelevant to headline material, perhaps they could find a slot for the Planet?
After all, if you think you can turn stock market movements into edge-of-the-seat stuff, why not try your hand at raising interest in the end of the world?
Here is today's News.
George Monbiot: the apocalypse, with sources
Climate Change Coming Home: The Guardian
To The End Of The Earth
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
WAKE UP CALL
I can't compose today. I feel too upset and actually disturbed about the unfolding events in Ghana and the rest of Africa, which was the main item on the BBC World Service news on Saturday. It's heightened by the fact I used to live there. Global warming is coming home, to stay. My friends and I *all* knew this was going to happen as long ago as 1987. Some dolphin crisis (as I remember) brought the Environment to the attention of the wider public and the Greens got 15% in the next UK European election.
Books were published. Artists caught on: "India under water, Africa - walking, What a scene of confusion, and the seas rising" - Julian Cope, Give Me Back My Flag, 1992. Climate change was in the new National Curriculum in 1992. And the kids sent their paper leaves with their thoughts on to the Rio Earth Summit. Hopes were high.
I kept saying over and over that the impending crisis ought to be on all the front pages and in all TV News bulletins every day. Of course, the media let us down, and they are still doing so. What's on CNN today? Interest rates and, just like in 1995, O.J. fucking Simpson! They haven't even run the Africa story yet; probably because the journalists can't or won't get into the disaster zones to take pictures.
Most Ghanaians are deeply religious, open-hearted, resilient people. It's another "land of smiles". Against all the odds, they persevere in their steady faith and optimism. And they have an engaging sense of humour and of the absurd: they know the odds are stacked against them. And now the fields lie flooded, and hundreds of thousands are displaced, their rickety mud and straw huts washed away. The outlook is bleaker - food shortages because of the drowned crops; increased occurrence of malaria; cholera; even locusts, to make it truly Biblical. (To echo John Humphrys, where was God?)
BBC NEWS: Africans' responses
We all let them down. But most of all, the politicians, who should have known much better, let them down. For twenty years they have soldiered on in the vain pursuit of economic growth at all costs - full steam ahead. And if that were not enough, they planned wars to guarantee that precious oil supply, which unsettled the whole Middle East. Ignoring the Environment and huge disparities of wealth, they are directly to blame for the "Terror" we hear so much about now. How different things might have been if they had thought to invest heavily in renewable energy in the 90s, or bring in "carbon credits", which I first heard about around the same time. Apart from Prince Charles, Al Gore's was the only prominent voice I heard promoting green issues, but even he did little at Kyoto and was strangely silent about the Big E during his Presidential bid in 2000, splitting the Green vote, and consequently losing California. And we all know what happened next. Cheers for the great movie, Al - I've almost forgiven you.
In December, these politicians are assembling for yet another expenses-paid international talking shop. This time they had better act and bring in some of those mythical "tough targets". Because if we fail to keep the temperature increase below 2 degrees, all Hell will break loose. Not just for the poor Africans, either - the security implications will threaten everyone's comfortable lifestyle.
We have a global village, and the internet is amazing. People in huge numbers support Green issues. And - shock! - would vote for them. I have that much faith left in people. And there's no dearth of ideas. People in the public eye only need to speak up. Imagine if we had a Green alternative to vote for, for example. How hard would it be for Brown, Cameron or any of those Presidential hopefuls to cobble that together? And CNN - How hard would it be to follow the BBC World Service's lead and "front" (or just run) the story, the one which is the underlying and compelling narrative of our times?
I can't compose today. I feel too upset and actually disturbed about the unfolding events in Ghana and the rest of Africa, which was the main item on the BBC World Service news on Saturday. It's heightened by the fact I used to live there. Global warming is coming home, to stay. My friends and I *all* knew this was going to happen as long ago as 1987. Some dolphin crisis (as I remember) brought the Environment to the attention of the wider public and the Greens got 15% in the next UK European election.
Books were published. Artists caught on: "India under water, Africa - walking, What a scene of confusion, and the seas rising" - Julian Cope, Give Me Back My Flag, 1992. Climate change was in the new National Curriculum in 1992. And the kids sent their paper leaves with their thoughts on to the Rio Earth Summit. Hopes were high.
I kept saying over and over that the impending crisis ought to be on all the front pages and in all TV News bulletins every day. Of course, the media let us down, and they are still doing so. What's on CNN today? Interest rates and, just like in 1995, O.J. fucking Simpson! They haven't even run the Africa story yet; probably because the journalists can't or won't get into the disaster zones to take pictures.
Most Ghanaians are deeply religious, open-hearted, resilient people. It's another "land of smiles". Against all the odds, they persevere in their steady faith and optimism. And they have an engaging sense of humour and of the absurd: they know the odds are stacked against them. And now the fields lie flooded, and hundreds of thousands are displaced, their rickety mud and straw huts washed away. The outlook is bleaker - food shortages because of the drowned crops; increased occurrence of malaria; cholera; even locusts, to make it truly Biblical. (To echo John Humphrys, where was God?)
BBC NEWS: Africans' responses
We all let them down. But most of all, the politicians, who should have known much better, let them down. For twenty years they have soldiered on in the vain pursuit of economic growth at all costs - full steam ahead. And if that were not enough, they planned wars to guarantee that precious oil supply, which unsettled the whole Middle East. Ignoring the Environment and huge disparities of wealth, they are directly to blame for the "Terror" we hear so much about now. How different things might have been if they had thought to invest heavily in renewable energy in the 90s, or bring in "carbon credits", which I first heard about around the same time. Apart from Prince Charles, Al Gore's was the only prominent voice I heard promoting green issues, but even he did little at Kyoto and was strangely silent about the Big E during his Presidential bid in 2000, splitting the Green vote, and consequently losing California. And we all know what happened next. Cheers for the great movie, Al - I've almost forgiven you.
In December, these politicians are assembling for yet another expenses-paid international talking shop. This time they had better act and bring in some of those mythical "tough targets". Because if we fail to keep the temperature increase below 2 degrees, all Hell will break loose. Not just for the poor Africans, either - the security implications will threaten everyone's comfortable lifestyle.
We have a global village, and the internet is amazing. People in huge numbers support Green issues. And - shock! - would vote for them. I have that much faith left in people. And there's no dearth of ideas. People in the public eye only need to speak up. Imagine if we had a Green alternative to vote for, for example. How hard would it be for Brown, Cameron or any of those Presidential hopefuls to cobble that together? And CNN - How hard would it be to follow the BBC World Service's lead and "front" (or just run) the story, the one which is the underlying and compelling narrative of our times?
Sunday, September 02, 2007
SOME TIME IN TIMISOARA
I arrived in Timisoara thinking it would be more or less a den of thieves, and worried about being conspicuously Western (even though my three years in Budapest ought to mean I've become "Central") and the rickety railway station, with a few down-on-their-luck-looking characters hanging about, confirmed my prejudice that I was now in the Wild East.
Admittedly, the train journey wasn't fun, as I had to fight a particularly grumpy Hungarian woman for the privilege to open the window, which she immediately closed, then, seeing I wasn't about to give way, proceeded to scowl and sigh about, casting exasperated glances to win support from our fellow compartmentees. They all looked sullen and ugly - probably I did too - and I'd been warned not too fall asleep in case I lost all my belongings. But doze off I - inevitably - did. Luckily, all my stuff was present and correct on waking. The countyside as you cross the border is particularly grim-looking; a chemical pipeling, miles long with the lagging peeling away goes right through people's gardens below head height. You notice that all the buildings are either depressing blocks with the paint peeling, or else industrial plants.
So much for (what I saw of) the countryside. Timosoara is different altogether. In the centre are impressive squares, the prettiest of which is cobbled and surrounded by the usual kind of Imperial buildings in the style of Christmas cards, with geometric arched facades painted in pastel colours, and high-angled rooftops. Many are in a state of advanced decrepitude, some still cratered by war, but the elegance stubbornly remains. Much of the square itself is now shaded by the parasols of terrace cafes. Here, the waitresses carefully squirt dilute blue detergent on to the paper tissue placed in each ash tray.
What surprised me the most was the amount of wealth here. Of course, leaving the centre, there are the usual Communist blocks which a few of the owners have beautified with flowers on the balconies. (Flowers are really popular here - a large section of the central market is given over to dozens of flower stalls.) Just beyond, it was easy to locate the enormous Julius Mall, which dwarfs the buildings around it. With four floors, it's the biggest I've seen, a mall-as-city on an American scale. And it's busy. People are drinking beer and coffee (at inflated prices) in the perimeter cafes, and the car park is full of cars. While I drank my beer, four wedding parties went in - is there a registry office in there, perhaps, or are they just topping up on flowers? The cutomers are mostly loaded with the expected plastic bags, and everyone is sporting sunglasses and clothes in the latest styles (long shorts, short tops, etc) - including the children. It doesn't look like a poor country from where I'm sitting.
A final mystery is the rich Roma families. No one quite knows how they get their money. I was told "don't ask", but I did, and the stories you get are uniformly nasty - it's begging, at best, or selling their children in the West. Well, I once saw a Roma woman in Budapest doing the hard-sell with pairs of socks in Budapest - this wouldn't be enough to fund the kind of palaces these families are building near my school. These are ostentatious, in the very grandest of styles - conical pinnacles of towers, balconies with pillars, often roughly finished. They're similar to the Western mock-gothic, except with a definite Oriental twist that makes me think of the Arabian Nights and the Golden Horde. (My architectural vocabulary isn't wide enough to do them justice; I'd call them "Sultanic".) Everyone says they're tasteless, but the cones and pinnacles aren't so different to my eyes from those of the magnificent Orthodox cathedral in the town centre.
Some of these buildings could fuel urban vampre fantasies. I bought a bottle of Transylvanian "V" wine. With a drop of blood dripping from the logo, it boasted the fact that it was made from the "grapes of immortality". In small print underneath, it turned out that V drinks are a company from that well-known haunt of the undead, Cardiff!
I arrived in Timisoara thinking it would be more or less a den of thieves, and worried about being conspicuously Western (even though my three years in Budapest ought to mean I've become "Central") and the rickety railway station, with a few down-on-their-luck-looking characters hanging about, confirmed my prejudice that I was now in the Wild East.
Admittedly, the train journey wasn't fun, as I had to fight a particularly grumpy Hungarian woman for the privilege to open the window, which she immediately closed, then, seeing I wasn't about to give way, proceeded to scowl and sigh about, casting exasperated glances to win support from our fellow compartmentees. They all looked sullen and ugly - probably I did too - and I'd been warned not too fall asleep in case I lost all my belongings. But doze off I - inevitably - did. Luckily, all my stuff was present and correct on waking. The countyside as you cross the border is particularly grim-looking; a chemical pipeling, miles long with the lagging peeling away goes right through people's gardens below head height. You notice that all the buildings are either depressing blocks with the paint peeling, or else industrial plants.
So much for (what I saw of) the countryside. Timosoara is different altogether. In the centre are impressive squares, the prettiest of which is cobbled and surrounded by the usual kind of Imperial buildings in the style of Christmas cards, with geometric arched facades painted in pastel colours, and high-angled rooftops. Many are in a state of advanced decrepitude, some still cratered by war, but the elegance stubbornly remains. Much of the square itself is now shaded by the parasols of terrace cafes. Here, the waitresses carefully squirt dilute blue detergent on to the paper tissue placed in each ash tray.
What surprised me the most was the amount of wealth here. Of course, leaving the centre, there are the usual Communist blocks which a few of the owners have beautified with flowers on the balconies. (Flowers are really popular here - a large section of the central market is given over to dozens of flower stalls.) Just beyond, it was easy to locate the enormous Julius Mall, which dwarfs the buildings around it. With four floors, it's the biggest I've seen, a mall-as-city on an American scale. And it's busy. People are drinking beer and coffee (at inflated prices) in the perimeter cafes, and the car park is full of cars. While I drank my beer, four wedding parties went in - is there a registry office in there, perhaps, or are they just topping up on flowers? The cutomers are mostly loaded with the expected plastic bags, and everyone is sporting sunglasses and clothes in the latest styles (long shorts, short tops, etc) - including the children. It doesn't look like a poor country from where I'm sitting.
A final mystery is the rich Roma families. No one quite knows how they get their money. I was told "don't ask", but I did, and the stories you get are uniformly nasty - it's begging, at best, or selling their children in the West. Well, I once saw a Roma woman in Budapest doing the hard-sell with pairs of socks in Budapest - this wouldn't be enough to fund the kind of palaces these families are building near my school. These are ostentatious, in the very grandest of styles - conical pinnacles of towers, balconies with pillars, often roughly finished. They're similar to the Western mock-gothic, except with a definite Oriental twist that makes me think of the Arabian Nights and the Golden Horde. (My architectural vocabulary isn't wide enough to do them justice; I'd call them "Sultanic".) Everyone says they're tasteless, but the cones and pinnacles aren't so different to my eyes from those of the magnificent Orthodox cathedral in the town centre.
Some of these buildings could fuel urban vampre fantasies. I bought a bottle of Transylvanian "V" wine. With a drop of blood dripping from the logo, it boasted the fact that it was made from the "grapes of immortality". In small print underneath, it turned out that V drinks are a company from that well-known haunt of the undead, Cardiff!
Thursday, July 26, 2007
TOUR DE FRANCE
What a bloody fuss about nothing! I heard someone say that doping should be made a criminal offence. Why? Let them all take as many drugs as they want if it makes them go faster, which is the whole point of the thing - or did I miss something? Far from being the end of the TdF, it could usher in a new era of performance-enhanced sport which might be slightly less tedious to watch on TV. Next item, please...
What a bloody fuss about nothing! I heard someone say that doping should be made a criminal offence. Why? Let them all take as many drugs as they want if it makes them go faster, which is the whole point of the thing - or did I miss something? Far from being the end of the TdF, it could usher in a new era of performance-enhanced sport which might be slightly less tedious to watch on TV. Next item, please...
Saturday, July 21, 2007
FEEL THE HEAT
As I type, the fan is hissing away in the corner, making some currents in the air. Because they carry a little of the cool of morning, these are welcome relief from the heatwave. My shutters are closed to preserve what’s left. Outside, at 9am, it’s already 27 degrees and in the day temperatures have soared to 42 degrees in the shade. This means that most fans feel like hair-driers, and you start to go a little crazy. You’d give your entire salary for the week for a big, cool slice of watermelon; luckily, these are so plentiful that they’re almost giving them away. The other day, I went for an ice coffee but the outdoor café was deserted; it was too hot, even under the parasols. Nearby, people were standing fully clothed under some kind of sprinkler system.
All round the city, various stinks have been let loose: foul-sweet decay, a mild smell of sewage and something fungal. The sources of these are obscure, buried somewhere. If I arrive home without having done all the dishes and wiped all the surfaces spotless, there will be an army of ants massing on every wooden spoon and missed drop of fruit juice. It's the kind of weather to listen to Crosby, Stills & Nash. Or have a cold shower and then dry off in front of a fan.
As I type, the fan is hissing away in the corner, making some currents in the air. Because they carry a little of the cool of morning, these are welcome relief from the heatwave. My shutters are closed to preserve what’s left. Outside, at 9am, it’s already 27 degrees and in the day temperatures have soared to 42 degrees in the shade. This means that most fans feel like hair-driers, and you start to go a little crazy. You’d give your entire salary for the week for a big, cool slice of watermelon; luckily, these are so plentiful that they’re almost giving them away. The other day, I went for an ice coffee but the outdoor café was deserted; it was too hot, even under the parasols. Nearby, people were standing fully clothed under some kind of sprinkler system.All round the city, various stinks have been let loose: foul-sweet decay, a mild smell of sewage and something fungal. The sources of these are obscure, buried somewhere. If I arrive home without having done all the dishes and wiped all the surfaces spotless, there will be an army of ants massing on every wooden spoon and missed drop of fruit juice. It's the kind of weather to listen to Crosby, Stills & Nash. Or have a cold shower and then dry off in front of a fan.
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