CURRENT AFFAIRS: July 2005
WATER SHORTAGES IN U.K.
(Comments: tpapard@btinternet.com)
Mayor Ken Livingstone has recently advised Londoners to conserve water, even saying we shouldn't wash vegetables, etc. under running taps, and suggesting we don't flush the W.C. when we just have a pee. He says if we don't follow his advice, after another fairly dry Winter Londoners could be drawing their water from stand-pipes in the street next Summer.
I really don't understand why there should be a water shortage, especially in islands like the U.K. which are surrounded by water. If there is not enough rainfall, why haven't we developed de-salination plants around our coasts? The whole country is virtually floating in the sea - how the Hell can we be short of water?
As for London, there's a bloody great river (the Thames) not half-a-mile from where I live. There seems to be plenty of water in that, indeed at exceptionally high tides they have to close the Thames Barrier to stop it from flooding.
Water is a resource which can never run out. Unlike oil, coal and other fossil fuels, water is constantly recycled naturally. Most of the world's surface is covered in deep oceans. There shouldn't be a water shortage anywhere.
The real problem, of course, like most other things, is privatization and money. We can build pipes to pump oil across thousands of miles, but the water companies won't spend this kind of money on desalinating water and pumping it to where it is needed.
Also, if the water companies spent money renewing the aging pipes which leak water it would help enormously. Shortage of water? I simply don't believe it. Everywhere you go in London the lakes, rivers and ponds are full of water. 50 miles away is the sea. Spend the money and sort it someone
SPORT ON TV
Not being a sports fan, I am fed up with the TV program schedules being thrown out by sports coverage. Whenever there is some football match, cricket match, the Olympics or similar international jamboree, or when Wimbledon is on, programs are delayed or canceled without even an apology sometimes.
Last Sunday Wimbledon was on BBC1 and BBC2 simultaneously (albeit different courts/games). BBC1 over-ran their coverage by hours to cover some game in which a young Briton was playing. The arrogance of these TV program chiefs who just assume everybody is glued to the set during these international sporting events, gagging for the British to win. I couldn't give a damn, quite frankly. All I'm concerned about is why my regular programs have been delayed, or as last Sunday, canceled without notice, and not even an on-screen explanation at the time last week.
In this age of VCRs and DVDs when people pre-set programs to record at a certain time, and when there are satellite/cable/digital channels to cater exclusively for sports fans and many other interests, I see no need for sport to be featured on the 5 main channels at all. BAN ALL SPORT on the main channels, and leave the schedules free for other programs. If they must show certain sporting events on the main channels, stick to the timings in the TV guides. If people are that interested in following games which over-run the main channel program schedules, they can get coverage on the special sports channels now available, I don't see why the rest of us should suffer.
FORGET TRAFALGAR!
As if there are not enough terrible wars going on in the world today, Britain had to re-enact the Battle of Trafalgar at Portsmouth this week to 'celebrate' some anniversary. They changed the warring sides to Reds and Blues out of 'sensitivity' to our EU partners, the French and Spanish, but we shouldn't be 'celebrating' wars or battles at all, certainly not imperialist ones. As Tony Benn said on Question Time, we should be celebrating peace and those who have worked to make the world more peaceful, not jingoistic bloody battles and wars.
I think it is a national disgrace that Trafalgar or any other battles are 'celebrated' in a way which glorifies war. Let's rename Waterloo station, Trafalgar Square and all the other streets, squares, buildings and monuments celebrating war and warmongers, pull down statues of Nelson, Churchill, 'Bomber' Harris, Monty and all the other military personnel and war-mongering politicians, many of whom have committed war crimes.
Wars should only be remembered with all the horror and suffering they caused on all sides, and along with the fact that they never solve anything, just lead to more wars/complications. Even the Second World War didn't achieve its original objective as far as Britain was concerned - liberating Poland. On the contrary, thanks to Churchill and the other Allied leaders, the whole of Eastern Europe was handed over to the Soviet sphere of influence (i.e. virtual occupation) for another 45 years. The people of Poland just exchanged Hitler for Stalin. The war also sealed the fate of 6 million Jews and others, providing the cover and excuse for the Nazi wartime policy of the Final Solution. In addition 17 million Soviet citizens died, plus millions of others on both sides. There would never have even been a Hitler or Nazi Third Reich if it hadn't been for the imperialist First World War and the unfair treaties imposed upon Germany at the end of that, so Britain and the other victors of World War I are directly responsible for Hitler and all that ensued. In any case there were more efficient ways of dealing with Hitler (and other dictators) than a full-scale war which he survived unscathed, until he chose to commit suicide in the last few days of hostilities.
What has the Iraq war solved, or the one in Afghanistan for that matter? Just killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people, made millions hate the USA and UK, plunged Iraq into a state of anarchy and a hotbed of terrorism, and generally made the world a very unsafe place.
It is time we concentrated on strengthening the United Nations, providing it with a full-time, permanent peace-keeping force able to remove dictators, protect civilians from genocide, ban the arms trade and nip wars in the bud. Let's commemorate Peace and build the infrastructure to preserve it, not celebrate jingoistic imperialist wars which are best forgotten.