Day #112: Al Seny, O A La Rauxa?
Posted by Alex | | Posted On Monday, 21 December 2009 at 14:48
It snowed last night, and you know what, for the first time in 20 years I haven't thought "Oh my! Snow! How happy I am!" My initial thought was, in fact, to tell all the people who are far too excited or stressed about the snow to move to another country and quit hogging my air with their festive cheer. Yes, I'm a scrooge, but, you know what, I could care less.
In more heartwarming news, I finished up my two album lists for the year. I should really do an 'album of the year' sort of malarky, but I've really not listened to enough new music this year to warrant it. Instead, I gave the accolades of "Album of the Decade" and "Underrated Album of the Decade" to Daft Punk's Discovery and Venetian Snares' Detrimentalist. Somehow, I've boiled down an entire decade of indie pop and 'emo' into French techno, and an American having an electronic seizure. And frankly, I don't care if it's not what the NME, Rolling Stone, Q, or Pitchfork had as their album of the decade; I feel I have captured the spirit of the noughties in the fact that it was a time of general happiness. As the Catalans would put it, it was a time of rauxa.
Continuing with the trend of the moan today, it seems like sanity is rushing out of the room very quickly in Britain, to be replaced with one heck of a white elephant in the corner. Basically, we've gone from having the good sense to know when everything is screwed beyond repair, to having to argue till we're blue in the face. What am I talking about? Well:
1. Eurostar has decided to cancel its services, whilst it works out how to improve them in order to stop breakdowns in the tunnels over this snowy, cold period. How do we react? We don't say "Oh, thank you Mr Eurotunnels." No. We queue in St Pancras in the hopes that, magically, someone will say "You know what, get on this non-existent train, and it'll all be fine". Moral of the story: Grow up, and get some common sense. If they say it's not running...it's damned well not running!
2. Copenhagen basically devolved into an average political discussion on climate change. The Americans don't want to concede to China; China can make as many demands as it likes because it's unaffected by the Kyoto agreement (being a developing nation); countries like Tuvalu and the Maldives shouted to no avail; and in the end, our great idiot-in-chief and his second-in-command for this weekend jolly said "It was bureaucratic chaos!" In short, we lost the game of marbles and came back crying to mother.
Perhaps the better solution to climate change is for discussions to go into sub-discussions. Europe, the Arabian Peninsula, South Asia, North Asia, Australasia, South America, Central America, North America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Northern Africa, and the Island Confederations. Then, when they all agree on 75% of the policy, they come together and make demands. Don't try to get 192 member states to 'discuss' when each wants a voice as big as China and America. Honestly...
And on that depressing note. I'm going to settle in for a week of drinking glasses of red wine, cider, and doing no work. Living a la rauxa, in a world that is slowly forgetting how to be al seny.
In more heartwarming news, I finished up my two album lists for the year. I should really do an 'album of the year' sort of malarky, but I've really not listened to enough new music this year to warrant it. Instead, I gave the accolades of "Album of the Decade" and "Underrated Album of the Decade" to Daft Punk's Discovery and Venetian Snares' Detrimentalist. Somehow, I've boiled down an entire decade of indie pop and 'emo' into French techno, and an American having an electronic seizure. And frankly, I don't care if it's not what the NME, Rolling Stone, Q, or Pitchfork had as their album of the decade; I feel I have captured the spirit of the noughties in the fact that it was a time of general happiness. As the Catalans would put it, it was a time of rauxa.
Continuing with the trend of the moan today, it seems like sanity is rushing out of the room very quickly in Britain, to be replaced with one heck of a white elephant in the corner. Basically, we've gone from having the good sense to know when everything is screwed beyond repair, to having to argue till we're blue in the face. What am I talking about? Well:
1. Eurostar has decided to cancel its services, whilst it works out how to improve them in order to stop breakdowns in the tunnels over this snowy, cold period. How do we react? We don't say "Oh, thank you Mr Eurotunnels." No. We queue in St Pancras in the hopes that, magically, someone will say "You know what, get on this non-existent train, and it'll all be fine". Moral of the story: Grow up, and get some common sense. If they say it's not running...it's damned well not running!
2. Copenhagen basically devolved into an average political discussion on climate change. The Americans don't want to concede to China; China can make as many demands as it likes because it's unaffected by the Kyoto agreement (being a developing nation); countries like Tuvalu and the Maldives shouted to no avail; and in the end, our great idiot-in-chief and his second-in-command for this weekend jolly said "It was bureaucratic chaos!" In short, we lost the game of marbles and came back crying to mother.
Perhaps the better solution to climate change is for discussions to go into sub-discussions. Europe, the Arabian Peninsula, South Asia, North Asia, Australasia, South America, Central America, North America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Northern Africa, and the Island Confederations. Then, when they all agree on 75% of the policy, they come together and make demands. Don't try to get 192 member states to 'discuss' when each wants a voice as big as China and America. Honestly...
And on that depressing note. I'm going to settle in for a week of drinking glasses of red wine, cider, and doing no work. Living a la rauxa, in a world that is slowly forgetting how to be al seny.
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