Living with Terrorism
Posted: Sun 3 January, 2010 Filed under: Cynicism, Politics, Security, Thoughts, Travel 4 Comments »Over Christmas there was yet another terrorist “attack” in a plane over the US. And as a result, Fuhrer Brown has said that full-body scanners will be brought in to all the main UK airports because ‘they’re crucial in the fight against terrorism”. Which, frankly, is bollocks – the experts don’t even agree that the explosives used by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on Christmas Day would be found by a full-body scanner.
I’ve written before about Security Theatre, and really this is all more of the same.
What makes me really laugh though is all the shite that politicians spout about doing this “because we won’t give in to terrorism”.
- Every single time you take a flight and have to take your shoes off for a search, terrorism caused it.
- Every time you go through a full-body search from now on, that’s been caused by terrorism.
- Any time you can’t take a drink or shampoo abroad, that’s been caused by terrorism.
- Any time you read about ID cards or airport security, that’s been caused by terrorism.
And actually, for pretty much all the above items, you could replace “caused by terrorism” with “caused by the threat of terrorism”. Because most of it isn’t actually related to terrorist acts – it’s related to “plots”, rather than the real thing.
Basically, if you’re travelling by plane, you’re affected by terrorism or the threat of it. Every time you’re affected, you think about why you’re being affected. And bang, terrorism wins yet again.
In fact, the only recent occasion where terrorism really hasn’t affected things (yet, anyway) was the bombings in London on the 7th July. Certainly that event has made people more aware of the risk of terrorism and suicide bombers – but it hasn’t involved extra security checks, or changes to the way we live.
So wittering on about not letting terrorists win, while adding in new pointless security measures “to prevent terrorism”, that’s terrorism winning its case.
Start of a new year
Posted: Sat 2 January, 2010 Filed under: Advertising, Cynicism 2 Comments »TV Adverts have a way of letting you know when Christmas and New Year are over and done with.
From yesterday, it stopped being all about perfume, CDs and gift ideas and instead became all about
- Holidays
- Stopping Smoking
- Losing Weight
January is the time for resolutions and booking holidays – can’t you tell?
Not An Emergency
Posted: Wed 30 December, 2009 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, News, People, Thoughts, Weirdness Leave a comment »As always, I despair of people’s idiocy when it comes to calling 999. (And regular posts and Twitters from Reynolds reinforce this too)
In this case, a woman calling 999 because her cat has been playing with string for two hours. I have no idea whatsoever what makes this an emergency in anyone’s mind (or what passes for a mind in this case) but I do think that anyone who thinks it’s an emergency deserve a punishment served up by a stun-gun.
Christmas Done, Easter Coming
Posted: Mon 28 December, 2009 Filed under: Advertising, Business, Cynicism, Festering Season 3 Comments »Yet again, you can tell that the Festering Season is over and done with, the fucking Easter Eggs are in the shops!
Tesco, you utter utter bastards.
Competition Prize
Posted: Tue 22 December, 2009 Filed under: Advertising, Cynicism, Thoughts Leave a comment »I just got a promotional email from Travelodge, with the tag line “Win a weekend at a Travelodge”
I wonder what the second prize is. Two weekends?
Timing and Communication
Posted: Wed 16 December, 2009 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Thoughts 2 Comments »The news today about the military buying 21 more Chinook helicopters “for use in Afghanistan” is – to me – a bit weird.
Fair enough, they’re being purchased, and that will help with troop movements and the like. Except even the most conservative estimates say the first ten won’t actually be “in theatre” (i.e. being used) until 2012 at the absolute earliest, and more like 2013/2014.
All of which doesn’t quite add up with the previous statements from Brown, Obama et al that the troops will start being pulled out of Afghanistan in – um – 2011.
So I wonder which date is more likely to be the correct one. My cynicism says it’s more likely to be the latter one.
Resources and Consequences
Posted: Tue 8 December, 2009 Filed under: Cynicism, Green, Thoughts 2 Comments »Following on from yesterday’s post about Global Warming, Claire commented
Yes, the planet will happily survive, but are you implying that we shouldn’t be going out of our way to prevent the millions of deaths that will be caused by Climate Change in the very near future?
And to be honest, I don’t know.
On my more cynical days, I wonder whether Climate Change isn’t just another case of Darwinism and/or that Gaia hypothesis. We’re working so hard to save everyone, but does the planet have enough resources to support all the people that are saved? And if we don’t have the resources in the first place, what’s the answer?
As an example, one of Comic Relief’s big aims this year was about tackling malaria. According to Comic Relief, Malaria kills a child every 30 seconds – so the money raised for this project was primarily aimed at providing mosquito nets, and thus stopping those children from being infected in the first place. But for all those people who now survive, rather than die of malaria (or other disease of choice) will they take up extra resources? Will we see Uganda (and Africa in general) in droughts and famines in ten years time because there are so many extra mouths to feed than there used to be?
If Climate Change and Global Warming are going to be as world-changing as they’re purported to be, planetary resources are going to be reduced from their current levels anyway. So how will we plan on feeding/watering/housing everyone?
I don’t know the answers – I don’t even pretend to know the answers – and this is just shit I think about on cynical days.