Welcome back to the world of a genuine rant. No pictures to accompany the words today. Out of curiosity, dear Reader, have you heard of Tropical Storm Stan? Those of you in the UK might have heard a mention, or had you delved into the Americas section of the BBC news website you'd have found a few small articles mentioning its existence. Strange, isn't it, how a disaster that is very much in the process of happening at this moment, is receiving less coverage than something that happened weeks ago - namely, Katrina. The simple answer is that we are all amazed by how America was not prepared for the storm, but somehow aren't so amazed - or apparently concerned - that the same, or arguably worse, has happened in the likes of Guatemala and Honduras. At least America had the resources to effect a rescue operation even if it didn't employ them suitably; the countries devastated by Stan are using everything and everyone they can and still don't have anything like the equipment they desperately need. So wouldn't it have been, well, NICE if America had said hey, we messed up on ourselves, but dear God we aren't going to mess up for some of our closest neighbours. We'll prove that we do know what we're doing, restore the faith of the American people in our emergency services.
Oh, but what we do have on the websites - just by the by - are endless photos of the horror and destruction that Stan has caused. Admittedly not as many as were used to illustrate the unfolding nightmare in New Orleans and surrounds, but enough to show us that oh look, people are suffering. We'll take photos. That makes for real 'impact' photography. How damn fake the whole thing is.
I am sitting here quietly seething about this. Just annoyed myself further by wandering around the internet trying to find a charity that would be accepting donations to help with the victims of Stan. There isn't one yet - not one. Within days of Katrina, we had appeals even in the UK for aid. The American Red Cross is still pushing for donations. They've all gotten so caught up in helping America they seem to have forgotten anybody else.
Anybody else hate this world we live in?
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Generally travelling around the globe, making observations at large - primarily negative ones, if truth be told, but if you read enough there may be a positive, WOO HOO, kinda comment in here. Needles can be found in haystacks. Disclaimer: as with life, this is not to be taken too seriously.
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2005
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- U.S. Spending...
- Creating Priorities
- Bless this Age of Technology
- Like a fish needs a bicycle...
- Inconsiderate Garden-Goers
- Blithering Idiots
- Tropical Storm Stan
- And there was this gorgeous guy who was just so ha...
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D H Lawrence
I am in love - and, my God, it's the greatest thing that can happen to a man. I tell you, find a woman you can fall in love with. Do it. Let yourself fall in love, if you haven't done so already. You are wasting your life.
When one jumps over the edge, one is bound to land somewhere.
Henry David Thoreau
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined.
Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.
Cecil Beaton
Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.
Oscar Wilde
Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
A kiss may ruin a human life.
There is much to be said in favour of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.