The Unreasonable Man

..the people of Haiti and those working on their behalf”, said president Obama just now on CNN.

Seems to me that it was God who caused the earthquake (insurers call an earthquake an “act of God”, after all) in the first place, so why would he want to help now? He’s pretty schizophrenic, if you ask me.

Of course the president has to talk about God. This is required in the USA. Even if you are an atheist (which as an intelligent man he must surely be). What you think is not important; what you say, how you pander to interests, is.

But he does not pander to mine. President Obama is the man who promised to close Guantanamo in his first year. Hasn’t happened. Politician. Liar. First it was close it in the first 100 days, then it was in the first year; it was always “no more military commissions”. Right. Credibility = zero.

I am not sure why if I break a promise during a minor commercial transaction, say when I promise to pay for a pair of surgical stockings, or a new Metallica CD that I have ordered in, I can be taken to court and will be made to pay; but when I make empty promises in the commission of becoming president of the United States, it is glossed over and allowed “because, yes, it was difficult”.

“I intended to pay my taxes,your honour, but it was more difficult than I thought”. “I intended to keep up my car payments, your honour, but it was more difficult than I had anticipated”. Think those would stand up in court? But in politics, we apparently expect lying and we condone it.

When I say “we”, I exclude “me”. I will never vote for a lying politician, which is why I did not vote in the last election. Nor will I say kind things about them. Mr Obama held out some hope of being an honest politician who would keep his promises. Phuh, shows you how naive I am.

This of course adds to the sense of betrayal. And yes, US politicians matter to me as a non-American. The US is, after al, the imperial superpower and much of what we do worldwide is because the US dictates it.

And this is true in so many ways. The way I consume media is US-dictated. Air travel has been made into police state bullying because of US-imposed rules. My car’s emission system and my car’s inability to start more than 20 times when the special liquid is out is US-dictated. Even the dial on my watch is US-dictated (it has a tritium dial but the US decided years ago that radioactive tritium is not allowed anymore or you go on the terrorists list, so the Swiss had to drop it).

If I were American, I would ask why my nation is so resented worldwide.  After all, America is a great nation, the land of the free, the land of free enterprise, the birthplace of Apple and Playboy and Hollywood and The Grateful Dead.

I guess the lesson is: imposing your will on others always creates resentment. How about learning from others instead? But I fear that will never happen in America, too many of whose citizens think Africa is a country.

We can make travel safe. But at what cost?

Every time I bring up my slipperly slope argument, people accuse me of scaremongering.

Oh yeah? Wake up, everyone. My life as a traveller is now much worse than it was 15 years ago. Much.

Now it gets worse. The pilot has to approve bathroom visits, and “no luggage at all” on flights to the USA, Canada’s airport authority has announced, says The Globe today. And “there are increasing calls for full body scanenrs”, say the media. The average person does not, it appear, mind being scanned naked in order to “assure safety”. I have already said it’ll be strip-searches for all. That is coming closer.

Slipperly slope? We’re in the lake already.

And for what? Air ravel is safe already. The cost/benefit analysis is utterly missing from any discussion of “terrorism”.

“Security trumps all”. Yeah? That’s what Goebbels said, too.

If I sound more scathing about our own people than I do about Al Qaeda, that’s because that is exactly how I feel. We should know better.

How I will travel, I am not sure, My $20k of equipment will not be insured and may wel not arrive if I have to check it. So… from now on I drive.

More UK “no filming allowed” reported on this blog here:

http://blog.benjam.in/filming-in-london-trafalgar-square

So professional photography is not allowed in London, and the definition is “looks expensive”.

Seems that instead of being reasonable and saying that the definition is “obstructing the pavement”, British authorities have once again taken the nanny-state route. Remind me never to visit the UK. Oh wait, I did not need reminding.

When I saw Richard Dawkins the other day I was briefly reminded of the right kind of Britain (and Briton). But alas, it does not take much to remind me that the wrong kind of Britain far outnumbers the right kind.

Mumbai in flames-  or at least, parts of it. 80 dead, hundreds injured. Fires in hotels. Hostages. So will the typical hotel environment no longer be safe for western travellers?

Who knows. Is it terror? I wonder - it could just be local gangs. But this looks more like terror. Or perhaps it is gangs, but the gangs are “Muslims” and “Hindus”?

We will have to see. Either way, the bullies are using new tactics. Police cars shooting at people - very clever and very evil. If this is indeed terrorism, it once again in my mind confirms how dogmatic religion is a force for evil. If not, it just confirms how some people are evil.

…was watching me, and not me, when I left The Netherlands.

You see, in most European countries, when you leave. you go through an immigration (or rather, emigration) check. This check showed me to be in arrears: an order had been issued to hold me and to confiscate any car I drive for 31 days.

The reason? I “parked illegally in Nijmegen on 27 April 2007 at 22 past midnight”. And I “ignored all letters about the 93 Euro fine”.

One problem: I have never in my life been to the City of Nijmegen. The other problem: they had sent letters to me but without my country or postcode (the Dutch database had no fields for a country or for funny un-Dutch postcodes). So these letters of course never arrived.

Amazingly, after I argued my case for half an hour, the cops let me out of the country without paying. But unless I sort this out, any car I drive in The Netherlands wil be confiscated, they tell me.

You see, this is the problem with the Database society. The Database can be wrong. And to those who say “if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear”, I say “rubbish”. I am thanking my lucky stars this mistake concerned parking, and not murder.

POSTSCRIPT: I read on CNN that from now on, to book flights you need to supply your birth date too. That is meant to stop false positive terrorist warnings:

They are often subjected to extra security at airports because their names are similar to ones on the lists.

A government program unveiled Wednesday is aimed at addressing that problem.

Under the program, Secure Flight, travelers will be asked to provide their full name, date of birth and gender when making airline reservations. The encrypted information will then be transmitted to the Transportation Security Administration, which will run it against the watch lists. The Department of Homeland Security believes the few pieces of additional information will dramatically reduce the number of people falsely identified as being on a watch list.

Won’t work. Wouldn’t have helped me.  Will just make our countries more police-state like.

The picture above, taken from the office yesterday, shows that while it is OK to be on camera 300 times a day in London, the moment you bring one out, the security police come and check you out very quickly. Especially when you use - shudder - a tripod.

Detail:

(Click each picture for larger)

You know, that picture really, really reminds me of East Germany (the DDR, or German Democratic Republic) and its VoPo (Volkspolizei, or People’s Police) in the 1970s.

And to exactly see how Orwellian the UK is threatening to get, read this BBC article and this Telegraph article.

(as always, click for larger - and you should, to do them justice)

The Israel tour 14-27 March 2009 is on. The price is under $5,000, and amazingly, that includes flight, hotel, tours, and of course our photography coaching for this almost two-week tour. See here [link] for the details.

So this is why I like Israel. People can make a Youtube video out of “Shabbat Shalom” (er, that would roughly translate as “have a good Sunday”). Video here [link]. Catchy. Can’t stop humming this tune. Can’t wait ’till March, when I will be in Israel again. With the photo tour.