20 October 2008-10-20 Back Home—The Financial Crisis

A week back at home and into the groove, does not take long does it? Fortunately for me I am not overly busy right now and have been able to slip back into things smoothly without any stress.

Actually it has been a lovely week, apart from the fact that it is always nice to come home and I have been enjoying pottering around the house and garden it is just such a gorgeous time of year.

We really do live in paradise here in SA.

The Jacarandas are in full bloom (beautiful deep lilac blossom), all the other various blossoms are out, pinks, blues, reds, purples, orange and yellows amongst others, the birds are all singing, the veldt is alive with the sound of the oncoming summer and the evenings are warm and balmy.

The first bit of rain came on Friday evening which has cooled everything down and left a fresh crispness in the air and virtually overnight the grass has developed a greenness that offsets all the colours on the trees and shrubs beautifully, the smells are exquisite.

Although not particularly busy at work right now I have had a busy week putting all my pictures from the October trip together. Jeez!!…it’s a lot of work to deal with over 800 shots. Hardly work for me though as I thoroughly enjoy it, but quite time consuming all the same. Anyway, I finally got through them all and ended up putting over 300 pics onto the site. I suppose there are probably about 20 to 30 that I am fairly happy with which is not too bad, but only a handful that I am delighted with….Oh well the next trip up there is booked for December/January so I will just have to go and practise some more!!

The next thing I need to do is learn how to convert all the video footage I have taken and upload that onto the site. I have glanced through some of it, and on this last trip especially, I am quite happy with what I managed to get.

Meanwhile the world is in turmoil it seems…

So what’s new? Call it dark humour if you like, but quite frankly I find it all quite hilarious. Am I honestly expected to believe that this ‘financial crisis’ has just happened? Pelleeease….Leave it out!!

It is all controlled and manipulated.

I guess I find it hilarious because it is better to laugh rather than to cry, but the fact is everything that is occurring currently totally highlights just how rotten the systems are.

I understand that the ‘governments’ around the world are having to try and save the situation, they have no choice, but at the end of the day all they are doing is bailing out all the very people who have screwed up in the first place. I heard a comment from someone who compared the actions of the various governments as giving the drunks another bottle to keep them quiet…well said I reckon.

What about all the unfortunate folk who have been mercilessly thrown out of their homes….by the same people who are being bailed…..can they now go to government and claim help? I don’t think so.

Somehow, as much as I do understand that the situation needs to be saved, it is difficult to get away from the thought that the whole shooting match is fundamentally sick.

Billions and billions of pounds and dollars, at the click of the finger relatively speaking, are being thrown at the problem in the hope of rescuing this sorry state of affairs.
All this, presumably, spare money, yet approximately 90% of the world’s population lives on or under the poverty line with poor education, poor health care and little prospect of escaping their plight.

Meanwhile many of the very people who have screwed up in the first place are now, today, making small fortunes out of the volatility of it all!

As I say, fundamentally sick, unfair, unjust and wrong….please don’t try to tell me that we live in a civilised society, it is nowhere near it. In fact, I would hazard a guess and say that in the great curve of time, mankind today is barely out of the crèche.
In time to come, we, the people of today, will probably be looked upon in the same light as that in which we, the people of today, look back on the darkness of the middle ages .

That said I’ll move on, not for me to fret over things I can do nothing about….and anyway, the sun came up again this morning.