13 December 2015

Watching the news can send you mad! Merkel wins Time magazine's Woman of the Year. Understandable that after the racist madness in Germany 70 years ago she's desperate to show Germany's compassionate side by admitting those of a different faith, albeit a bit late. Conversely, another woman, Le Pen, pulled off a 'historic' win last weekend for FN, topping the vote in the first round of regional French polls. One thing's for sure: she won't be showing any compassion to those of other faiths/nationalities. If she wins today, what would she do? She'd stop charity subscriptions to migrants, family planning and human rights groups and would burn the EU flag.  'We will absolutely respect the law until we are in government and can change it!' she said. Enough said. And while all this was happening, we see a 'historic win' at the Paris Climate Change conference. But for those who feel climate change may just be the result of a normal planetary shift, I'd urge them to deal with the after effects of such change:  the sea is encroaching everywhere. Build sea defences, move people inland etc. The week's news: a microcosm of the ebb and flow of global life today.

8th February 2009

It's been a funny old week. Sarkozy's rubbished Gordon Brown's VAT-reduction, saying the economic solution is to boost industry. I agree. And the old country, i.e. the UK, is still up to its old tricks. The first ID cards are here - but no one in the UK can read them because the necessary finger-print scanners haven't yet been produced! Then there's the thought-police who've not only positioned Orwellian spy cameras on every street corner, but now are set to force their way into homes to check that you're eating properly. And the weather's gone beserk. There's white-out Arctic conditions in normally moderate Britain, so everyone's having to take the ice-trucker route to work, but without the snow-chains. Climate change has certainly started with a vengeance - maybe it's the last billion years of the Earth's existence. I certainly prefer this, natural, explanation rather than the man-made greenhouse gases reason. Everyone's gone recycling crazy, even though when you investigate what happens, the answer is 'nothing'. Apparently more energy is needed to recycle our rubbish than is saved. Our local French binmen tip each recycling container into one big heap in the back of their lorry anyway! And lightbulbs: don't get me started. Here in France our beloved 100w bulbs can no longer see the light of day, all to be replaced by the stupid so-called energy-efficient long-life bulbs. Do people realise that to save money at all, you have to keep these new-fangled things on all day? You can't keep switching them on and off or they won't last. And you won't be able to use your relaxing dimmer-switches any more. And, to cap it all, it takes more energy to dispose of these new lights than they save. You couldn't make it up.

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