Whoosh

According to Des, if I don't post something interesting soon then he's going to stop reading this blog. This is unacceptable. If I wanted to drive Des away, I'd post gushing reviews of my new Powerbook in a tone unsuitable for use even with one's wife. You know, the tone used in so many Mac magazines; used in painfully worded pleas to Steve Jobs to come and tell them that yes, they are special and that yes, he will touch their penis.

I was in London last Monday. I'm not going to analyse my feelings about the bombings or write some trite condolence to the people of the city. What I will say is that those who deliberately target civilians are asshats of the highest order, and that “He who warns is excused” counts for shit.

While in London I picked up some Starbucks coffee. I finished the bag today. I was pretty sure that the bag had only about three spoons worth left in it, so I just poured the whole lot into the pot.

I was wrong. By about three spoons. And now I'm wide awake at half two in the morning.

Live8 came and went. One thing that annoyed me at the time, and that still does, is the idea that the cancellation of unfair debt repayments is somehow charity.

We in the West live off the continued misfortune of these nations. We get their raw materials on the cheap thanks to unfair trade practices and destroy the livelihoods of local farmers by selling our unused and subsidised crops to these countries at bargain basement prices. We keep their countries crippled with unfair debts, lent to dictators that are in many cases long gone. In some cases, debt repayments are a larger part of the countries budget than health and education. One such country is Malawi, where one in five people are HIV positive.

In effect, we are slavers, and worse; we are slavers who treat our slaves like shit. We shouldn't think of cancelling debt as charity; we should see it as the start of reparations.

It's now four in the morning, and the coffee is finally wearing off. Thank fuck. Goodnight.