Sunday 7 August 2011

The Current Moo-d


I’m in the mountains.
It’s where we’ll retreat to when the system crashes.
We’ve already decided how we’ll survive. We’ll get a cow in here like we did the sofa. We’ll hoist it up a four-storey building and keep it in the spare room.
We won’t eat the cow. She’ll provide the milk for our tea.
Tea is essential in a crisis.
Additional protein will come in the form of woodworm. There’s a bout of it going around the village, the man in the paint shop has never sold so much spray.
My father has one eye on the news at all times. He’s mostly interested in the stock markets, which I have yet to understand.
Meanwhile, the 15M movement that sparked the protests in Spain has spread to Israel.
In Tel Aviv 300,000 people took to the streets today in protest against high living costs.
The appeal of these movements is that it brings opposing sides together; right, left, religious, secular, Arab, Jew.
If we can transcend our differences so we can begin to listen to each other, then all the better.
Twitter went mad with tweets in Hebrew and Arabic.
Only one stood out in English: “To Israelis: when you demand your rights, remember that there are Palestinians with no rights; no voices to demand it”
Well, that’s all very well, but perhaps is too easy to point the finger at the general Israeli people.
What about the military missions of our own government? By the same judgement, we are also to blame for occupation and the murder of innocents.
Meanwhile the Pope is coming to Madrid.
Frankly, he might do better going to Somalia, which has been pushed aside to fit in all the other news. At least it might attract some media attention there.
And finally, London is burning.
So, you can see why I’m hiding away in the mountains.
I just need to find a cow.



No comments: