Sunday, April 16, 2006

They Got It Wrong

It was obvious as we pulled into the main car park at the Whitgift Centre in Croydon that Mammon was having the day off. The Computer Fair at Ashburton School (advertised but not confirmed) had already announced its absence, but that had happened before. There was plenty of traffic (especially at either end of the traffic light controlled contraflow on the Lower Addiscombe Road where the lights had equitably decided to show red in either direction) and an air of palpable expectation.

The metal gates guarding the Whitgift Centre were resolutely closed and attended by a group of vaguely distressed would-be shoppers. We took the scenic route round the outside of the Centre and up towards the pedestrian thoroughfare, past a dark and catatonic Marks and Spencer.

A few shops were open: McDonalds (of course), a few coffee places, and a smattering of the smaller clothes shops.

But there were lots of people. Purposeful individuals, families, all slightly incredulous and impatient. A few people were at cash machines, as if extracting money would cause the shops to open by some kind of sympathetic magic. The air was frayed with barely suppressed resentment. A substantial number of people had turned up to pay homage to the only god that seems to matter and all the churches were closed. This was wrong. We drifted back to the car like others, probably wearing the same slightly hurt expression as if we had unexpectedly been kneed in the groin by a favourite aunt.

We are in a grey area here. A few years ago we would not have expected anywhere to be open. A couple of years time and we will be truly cross to find anywhere closed. But now, here, frustratingly, we are ahead of the curve. Nobody I saw today looked like they were embarrassed at making a mistake. This is Easter Sunday. Easter Eggs, bunnies, all that. Open the bloody shops.

Monday, April 10, 2006

Now I feel better

Close shave where I had to listen to Atkins drivelling earlier in the week, but other than that life has been largely full of a lung infection and the inevitable effect on my digestive system of large quantities of antibiotics.

It is good that George W Bush gives me something to think about to take my own slight troubles off my mind. So if the voice in his head tells him to nuke Iran he will because that is his destiny. I have met a lot of Americans and have have counted many amongst my friends, but it is almost as if there are two different races there. I remember the Question Time after 9/11 where Dimlebore obviously expected there to be a relentless outpouring of sympathy for the US and the representative Ambassador on the panel. There was some, but there was also plenty of criticism, and it incensed the BBC into a grovelling apology for the incorrectness of the views of the audience.

Some Americans cannot understand why so much of the world hates them so much. It is not a hatred of 'freedom'. It is a hatred of naked greed, rampant capitalism and the unflinching support of nasty, fascist regimes. It is a hatred of McDonalds, the IMF and the endless apologies for the terrorist government in Israel. Most of the world do not want to be Americans.

American foreign policy will always be mired in problems so long as a significant number of its creators are limited to the viewpoint from inside their heads. "If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it's good enough for me."

What other country could come up with a quote like that?