It seems I have to be tanked up on spirits and cola to have any writing impulse these days so, as I am currently half cut on said concoction, here I am.
You can't imagine how creatively constipated I have been. I have been so busy that I have been unable to concentrate on anything long enough to even be passionate enough to comment on huge stories. It also makes me slightly uneasy at the vague potential prospect that I have to be drunk to be creative. I see so many alcoholics and see how tired and wasted they are. I don't want to have to be fucked up to write.That would be more than depressing.
I'll get on to the tsunami in a second. Blunkett's affair really seems minimal now but it has been event I was never particularly animated about even before we lost a further 124,000 poor people in the tsunami. I don't really feel Blunkett had a serious upward route in politics left and he was really nicking ideas from America most of the time in his role. Although, I think the fact that the US hasn't even seen it fit to create an ID card scheme shows how relatively pointless it is. If the US (the bullseye of terrorist targets) hasn't even begun to countenance it that why should we? I don't have a principalled stand against ID cards I just want to have a damn fine argument why they are essential.
OK, I think I can move on to the tsunami. It is a disaster that would not have been as bad had these countries been richer than we allowed them to be. The psychological damage done to individuals must be huge and this is what affects me most. The random and sudden death, largely based on chance and the heart breaking "what if"s that produces (what if I'd held on to her/him, what if I'd not missed the bus etc.) really gets to me.
I hope this historical disaster has a real effect on the soul of the rich world. I hope it (in dreadful ironic pun) causes a seachange in the developed world's thinking of how the world works. I just hope it doesn't smother the larger poverty campaign being co-ordinated this year. I hope those behind it are astute enough to use this disaster as a tool to push this broader agenda. I want to wish them the best of luck.
A interesting thing to do is look at coverage of the disaster on TV and see that all 24 hour news channels have virtually wall to wall coverage except Fox. Surprise surprise, Fox was all about Iraq, Bush and Law and Order. As I type, Fox is adjudicating the biggest News Stories of 2004 as being the election and Iraq above the tsunami. They have said that basically, the tsunami "may" beat the latter two as the biggest story!!! Come On!. This beats 9/11! This should be called the Boxing Day disaster and be referred to it as such like 9/11 is refered to. Then again, the commentator on Fox just said that Reagan was one of the "seminal thinkers of the 20th century". Jesus H Christ. John Kasich on Fox just tried to imply that the Florida hurricanes and the tsunami were possibly hinting at the end times. Jesus H Christ!! It really is staggering such tossers get on to mainstream TV in America. But the fact that CNN, ABC and NBC news are really looking at the Boxing Day Disaster so intensely is heartening.
Happy New Year.
