RAVE: Sweden Wins Eurovision!

At last, I back a winner!

Okay, it may only be the Eurovision Song Contest, but who the hell cares...

Sweden wins the Eurovision Song Contest!!!



I cannot remember the last time that my all-out favourite at the Eurovision Song Contest went on to win.

The Swedish entry was techno-pop at its most emphatic and polished best. It was the class of the entire field, and even Europe agreed with me this time, as the Swedish entry amassed 373 points - over a hundred points more than 2nd-placed...ahem...Russia (the joke was on us after all, and those lousy babushkas did as well as I knew they would...an unacceptable travesty).

Loreen sang "Euphoria" with amazing shifts in tempo and stunning vocal range - the song has already gone triple platinum in Sweden, and is surely destined to be a huge dance club hit in Europe this year.

My final Top 10 on the night:

1. Sweden
2. Lithuania
3. Germany
4. Hungary
5. Cyprus
6. Denmark
7. Estonia
8. Romania
9. Serbia
10. Bosnia & Herzegovina

My mom and friend, Stuart, watched along with me, and our combined results were:

1. Sweden
2. Germany
3. Lithuania
4. Estonia
5. Serbia
6. Romania
7. Denmark
8. Bosnia & Herzegovina
9. Hungary
10. Spain

We had a Eurovision party second to none and shouted with joy every time Sweden got 12 points and shouted at the television every time Russia got good points!

A great time was had, and the absolute best song won - for once. Thank you for that, Europe.

RAVE: Schumi, the King of Monaco

It seems almost unbelievable, but out of almost nowhere today Michael Schumacher set the fastest lap and got pole position at the Monaco Grand Prix!

WOW!!!



Wow, what an achievement, Schumi!!!

Even though he will only start 6th owing to a penalty obtained at the last Grand Prix in Spain, I'm still really thrilled that he was able to set the best lap. And this at what is one of the most challenging and technically scary tracks on the Formula 1 calendar.

Michael became the oldest man in the modern era to set pole position, showing all the drivers younger than him just how it'done. And on the most glamorous circuit in Formula 1 - how fitting, and what a man!

Monaco may be a principality, but for today Michael Schumacher is the undisputed King of Monaco.

Well done, Michael! You have done your legions of fans very, very proud.

RAVE: My Eurovision 2012 Picks

There's a lot of doom and gloom about. Syria is in a near-state of all-out civil war, rumblings continue about an eventual attack on Iran, Greece remains on the verge of collapse, as does the entire euro project, the latest predictions by climate change scientists are depressing and many countries continue to struggle with a debilitating, even devastating recession.

In a week that has even seen the death of two disco and pop icons, Donna Summer and Robin Gibb, it seems only fitting that along comes the campest and most vacuous annual pop events of all to distract one from all the doom and gloom - yes, it's Eurovision time!

Twenty-six finalists will belt/ shriek/ screech/ whine/ purr/ maybe even sing their songs tomorrow night at the Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Here then are my top ten for 2012, as scored Eurovision-style:


(10th) 1 point - NORWAY

"Stay" by Tooji: There's nothing to hate about the Norwegian entry, but nothing to love about it either. His voice is generic and the song is Eurovision generic to the hilt. It's very clever and very catchy chorus is why it just makes my Top 10, just nudging out Serbia. It'll do quite well on the night, although I demand it be overshadowed by the far superior entry of its neighbour, Sweden.

(9th) 2 points - BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA  

"Korake ti Znam" by Maya Sar: A beautiful voice with a song that doesn't fully do it justice. Some interesting orchestration it may have, but the song lacks a catchy tune or memorable hook. What sells this for me is the attempt at a fulsome, intelligent sound and a genuinely beautiful voice.
    
(8th) 3 points - ESTONIA 

"Kuula" by Ott Lepland: This man has one of the best voices in this year's contest. I wasn't a fan of the song at first, but sung at the Second Semi-Final it came across powerful and sweeping, and I really liked it. Not a fantastic tune per se, but his voice and delivery is power itself. Estonia deserves to do well, although it may not.

(7th) 4 points - GERMANY 

"Standing Still" by Roman Lob: Once again Germany provides the best of the 'Big Five' automatic qualifying songs. He has a voice that is at once reminiscent of many other mellow male singers and yet distinct, with a song that sounds like many others but still memorable. Not a brilliant song, but polished and at least he has a super voice. It won't do well at all, though.

(6th) 5 points - DENMARK 

"Should've Known Better" by Soluna Samay: Bless Denmark! It has become in this new millennium what France was for me in the 80s and 90s - a perennial favourite. She has a lovely, natural voice and it is a very catchy little song. Perhaps that is its problem, though - it's just a little too 'little' and insubstantial a song. Still, I do like it, even if it'll do poorly on the night when the votes count.

(5th) 6 points - ROMANIA  

"Mandinga" by Zaleilah: Romania consistently provides some of the catchiest and best pure dance songs at Eurovision, and very much to its credit. Not a fan of the song when I saw it online, but on stage she was sexiness personified and it was damn fun to watch. Not as great as Romania's 2010 entry, but still a very good, feel-good effort. It'll do well, perhaps even very well.

(4th) 7 points - LITHUANIA 
"Love is Blind" by Donny Montell: A singer that gives it his all, and a lovely song with a great, smart riff. The said riff and mod upswing in tempo comes a bit too late for me, but I definitely like this one. It won't do well at all, and starting 4th won't do it any favours, but a really funky, groovy effort from a country that often offers funky, groovy entries.
     

And now my Top Three...

(3rd) 8 points - CYPRUS 

"La La Love" by Ivi Adamou: I know some people will positively hate this very poppy, quite repetitive little ditty, but I really like it. I find it catchy as hell, and it's for sure a terrific song to which to dance away on a dance floor. Adamou's voice was admittedly shaky and not that polished during the 1st Semi-Final, but I still love this one, even if going quite early (8th) and the countries surrounding it don't help Cyprus' chances. Greece will probably score better, of course - enough said.

(2nd) 10 points - HUNGARY 

"Sound of Our Hearts" by Compact Disco: This is the most intelligent and sophisticated entry in both lyrics and composition. I really love aspects of this very mod song. It didn't translate that well on stage during the First Semi-Final, but I was thrilled when it made it to the Final, as I did not expect that. It'll do poorly on the night, but to hell with that - well done, Hungary!

And finally...

without any doubt for me...

my ABSOLUTE favourite song of the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest...

1st with DOUZE POINTS...SWEDEN!






"Euphoria" by Loreen: The first time I heard this the hairs stood up on my body. I just knew this was my instant favourite, and an ultra-modern techno dance hit to beat all others. She has a terrific voice, the synthesized orchestration is sublime in places and the shifts in tempo quite superb. And I think it may just win too. This not only deserves to win Eurovision, it deserves to be a major dance hit all over the world.

GO SWEDEN!!!!!

And there they are - my favourite ten songs for this year's Eurovision.

Countries I really liked that didn't make the Final:

SAN MARINO, BELGIUM, THE NETHERLANDS, PORTUGAL and SWITZERLAND - in that order. Notice how they're all Western European countries...hmmmm. Especially galling when utter shite like Russia, Turkey, Greece and Moldova got through. So it goes every year at Eurovision.

Now the other finalists...

The UK made a nice gesture by having Engelbert Humperdinck sing their entry, and, although the song is innocuous enough, it's frankly weak and it won't fare well.

Many rave about Iceland, a country I often really enjoy at Eurovision, but I simply can't get into it, finding it somewhat disjointed and the type of heavy Celtic angle that doesn't work for me. It'll do mid-table to quite poorly. Ditto with the raves for Spain's entry, which I simply cannot like, much as she has a strong voice and the song tries to have gravitas and power. When, oh when will Spain again send a decent song to Eurovision? It won't do well either, which is fine with me, gracias.

France, once my perennial favourite Eurovision country, continues its trend of offering songs that are quite unique but that I'm somehow not mad about. Their entry this year is quite catchy, with some interesting riffs, but I find it somewhat soulless and not a great dance tune. Italy's tune is quite mod and funky in a retro '60s sort of way, and the singer's vocals strong and quite reminiscent of Amy Whinehouse, but I'm just not much of fan of this one. Maybe it'll be a lot stronger sang live on the night. Neither nation will do well, although Italy should at least beat France. France may well come last, methinks.

Serbia has a very attractive male balladeer with a superb voice, but with a song that simply doesn't draw me in enough and is never memorable. Having said that, his performance at the Second Semi-Final was excellent, and I have a feeling this entry will do very well on the night, maybe even achieving a top three finish. Being the third-last song on the night will also help its chances a lot.

Malta is okay and inoffensive pop, but nowhere near the best dance or pop in this year's crop, and it's too forgettable. It'll do well enough though. So, pretty much as Malta usually does. Macedonia's entry has powerful, powerful female vocals let down by a pretty ugly composition sung in a not-too-pretty language. It should do quite well to mid-table on the night, though. And it's late in the line-up, which must help.

Host nation Azerbaijan's entry is polished and respectable enough, although hardly memorable, and perhaps a bit too cynical in its pro-forma composition for its own good. It'll no doubt score very well, and very possibly come in the top 5 when the votes are in. The Ukraine has a catchy, if very generic song, an entry which I liked online but found very poorly executed at the Second Semi-Final. It's not a hateful song, but way too generic, even if it should score quite well on the night.

Albania has a woman with a killer voice who's a bit too much an Adele (the hairdo) and Bjork (the voice) wannabe. And the song is a bloody mess with way too much shrieking. Her voice should've been reined in, not let loose. I think it'll do well, though, although going very early won't help. I can live in hope. Moldova's entry has its moments but its whining rubbish for the most part and a tad too regional. Mid-table fare, although starting last on the night should be considerable help. I do hope fatigue will kill its chances.

Ireland, once so reliable in giving us great voices at the Eurovision, has those tiresome, camp and frankly untalented twins as their entry this year. Again! As if we deserved that, Dublin. Many are saying this is one of the favourites to win, and it does go late, which helps, but I have a feeling this will slump and maybe even crash and burn with the voting. I sure hope to hell that's the case.

I really hate the Greek and Turkish entries, and especially because I know all too well that they will both do very well on the night. Greece does its usual ultra-slick, ultra-safe forgettable dance number of which I'm frankly sick to death,  and Turkey comes in with a lazy, whiny and amateur song knowing full well it'll get massive votes due to the gazillion Turkish migrants all over Europe.

As for the tuneless, guileless and frankly stupendously bad babushkas from Russia - the less said about that horror, the better. HORRIBLE! The fact that Russia and its band of ugly, grinning grannies got through to the Final is testament to just how flawed the voting system at Eurovision continues to be. The old hags can't even bloody sing. A travesty.

Russia, Turkey or Greece winning will be absolutely horrendous and totally undeserving. They will all do very, very well in the voting, of course, which means I'll spend the entire voting part of the evening with my stomach in a knot, hoping none of them wins. No, no, NO!

Well, here it is again - it's almost Eurovision time! And thank goodness for that.

RIP: Robin Gibb

It was with much sadness that I heard today that Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees has passed away after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer. He was just 62 years of age.



I feel sad because, besides the fact that he had an incredible voice and was a master songwriter, Robin Gibb formed part of a group that were instrumental to my childhood. I have often said (and even written) that my childhood was blessed with the amazing music of the 1970s and early '80s. And the Bee Gees were an indelible part of that music.

Some people may have bitched that the Bee Gees were too 'high pitched' or that their sound was 'too disco', but that was mere distraction from the fact that their sound was pitch perfect, vocally rich and resolutely and distinctly theirs.

Say what you will about the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever, for example, but it defined an era, gave the 1970s its hallmark dance moves and just made everyone with half a sense of rythm just want to dance, dance, dance. And the Bee Gees were fulcrul to the sound and beat of what still remains the best-selling soundtrack of all time.

And that is not to say that the Bee Gees were all about disco and pop, because that would be far from true. They were already going strong in the late '60s, but I cannot confess to know that period of their music very well. I should perhaps make an effort to search it out and listen well. I do know that Robin may have been the quieter, more slight of the three brothers in the group, but also know that his unique voice and prodigious writing talent were well respected in the music industry, even if begrudgingly.

Only the eldest of the trio of brothers who comprised this mega group, Barry, remains alive. It was as if the group were on a slow ember, refusing to go out and still flickering away like an ephemeral soundtrack in the mind. Now it really does feel like the Bee Gees have finally come to an end. And that is very sad indeed.

It has been noted by an online journalist that Robin Gibb's death just three days after that of Donna Summer must be making disco fans feel their mortality. I may have been very young when John Travolta was strutting his sexy stuff to Staying Alive, but I do know what they mean.

RANT: Shame on You, South Africa - 128th in the World!

The 2012 edition of the annual Environmental Performance Index (EPI) rankings was released. Compiled by a team at Yale University, it ranks countries according to their commitment to, and performance on, environmental issues, as well as, interestingly, the human health-environment connection.



I had heard that South Africa had ranked poorly. So I had to see for myself. I scanned the list and my horror/ anger just grew as my eyes went further and further down the list. Finally I found the country of my birth and in which I country reside - there it was in 128th position.

128th place in the world!!!

It was with much embarrassment that I saw us in 5th-last place out of the 132 countries ranked, under the cringeworthy header of "EPI Rank weakest performers" - only Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Iraq did worse. Even countries ravaged by recent war (Libya, 123rd) and ongoing civil war (Syria, 113th) ranked better than us. It's disgusting.

Embarrassed and disgusted I may have been with how poorly South Africa ranked, but was I in any way surprised? To be perfectly honest, not at all.

In fact, if anything, these results do validate what I have always known about this country in the strongest and most uncertain terms. Yes, I do indeed live and work in a country and society that is as polluting-and-greenwashing-window-washing-we-pretend-to-love-organic-and-all-things-green-whilst-we-expand-our-carbon-footprint-ever-more as most others on this planet.

Furthermore, if anything, it just vindicates my constant, neverending frustration at having been an environmental/ sustainability consultant in this country for 14 years now.

 I am vindicated for so many reasons, including:

• Years of blank stare apathy in my classes
• Years of shrugging apathy in my seminars
• Years of apathy to recycling
• Years of apathy to sustainability
• Years of apathy to anything green
• Years of the dirtiest electricity available
• Years of two-faced, cynical government policies
• Years of great legislation and nearly non-existent enforcement
• Years of GMO-poisoned food
• Years of some of the unhealthiest air in the world
• Years of colleagues who don't even understand climate change
• Years of being patronized by greenwashing business 'leaders' and managers

Yes, years of annoying, despairing, horrendous bullshit greenwashing at every level.

Years of wondering what it must be like to do environmental/ sustainability work in countries like Switzerland, Norway, France, Italy, the UK or Sweden (ranked 1st, 3rd, 6th, 8th , 9th and 10th this year, respectively). Or even Costa Rica for that matter, ranked 5th in the world according to the EPI. What a pleasure.

It's always been a case of shame on you, South Africa.

At least something good came out of me seeing South Africa fare so poorly in the 2012 EPI rankings. Vindication for me and what I have endured in this country all these years. Self-centered it may be, but nevertheless the undeniable truth.

I can at least take some comfort from that, however limited.

Do you get my point?

RANT: EUR Not Serious About Greece

First, this terrific image from The Telegraph for an article about the ongoing euro crisis:

I read a very interesting article online by the The Telegraph, and dated May 10th. The headline itself piqued my interest:

"It's too late for Germany to save the euro"

Oh, for that to indeed be true...

I was never a Telegraph reader when I lived in the UK, and it's certainly not the most liberal of British papers, but I found myself agreeing with much of what this article stated, and it's therefore worth quoting the said article here (with bold or underlined bold added by me for emphasis):

"Greece’s motorcycling Marxist, Alexis Tsipras, makes an unlikely champion, with his commuter leathers and largely unrealistic Left-wing views, but he seems to be about the best of a bad bunch right now. As far as I can see, he’s the only member of the Greek political class who makes any kind of sense, albeit only marginally so and with one rather important deficiency.

Rightly, he’s rejected Berlin’s austerity programme as “barbaric” and counter-productive (though, incongruously, he rides to parliament on a German-made BMW), but he’s not yet managed to reconcile himself to the logical corollary of this analysis – that Greece must take back control of its own destiny by leaving the euro. As it is, the economy is condemned only to permanent depression.

Youth unemployment in Greece was yesterday revealed to have overtaken even that of Spain, at an almost unbelievable 53.8 per cent. This for an economy which, if it sticks to the programme, has a further 150,000 public sector jobs still to shed. Those who think that, with the requisite degree of structural reform, the private sector will automatically move in and fill the gap can forget it.

The banking system is insolvent, credit is plummeting , the flight of capital continues unabated and businesses are going bust in record numbers."

It continues: "As long as Greece remains in the euro, there is no plausible path back to growth."

Very valid points indeed.

Time will yet be testamant to just how insane and downright ridiculous this entire Greek euro crisis really was.

And that's not even including Italy and Spain and Ireland and Portugal and Belgium and...

Do you get my point? 

RIP: Donna Summer, Queen of Disco

I was really saddened today by the news that pop star Donna Summer has died of cancer at her home in Florida. She was just 63 years of age.

Donna Summer was the undisputed 'Queen of Disco', with her heyday at the top of the charts in the late '70s and early '80s, with such memorable songs as "I Feel Love", "Love to Love You Baby", "Last Dance", "On the Radio", "MacArthur Park", and many others.

She was the total personification of the disco era, an era much reviled by many at the time and since. People so love to pooh-pah disco as 'frivolous' and 'crap', but, to hell with that - disco produced some of the best dance music ever. Ever. And Donna Summer was the personification of that terrific music and those tremendous beats that make you want to just get up and dance, dance, dance. Happy, memorable music.

In this current plastic era with so few distinctive and strong voices in music, hers was a pitch-perfect, beautiful and utterly distinct voice at a time when the radiowaves were replete with amazing female voices. Just a few bars of her incomparable voice (she had mezzo soprano range, let it be known) and that lush gorgeousness would just overwhelm me.

Where Whitney Houston was my mid- to late teens, so Donna Summer was my very young youth - which happened to be amongst the happiest days of my life. No wonder then that Donna Summer's voice always invokes so much happiness in me, and such good memories of a carefree time.

I once knew and loved a man who loved music more than any non-musical person I have ever personally known. He loved many singers and bands, but for him no one compared to Donna Summer. There was just something about her that entranced and bewitched that man like no other when he was no more than a teenager himself. I always understood why, but today I understand even more so.

He died in 1996, and a part of me died with him.

At least now you can listen to your beloved Donna sing to you in heaven, Denis.

R.I.P.

RANT: Makes Me Fracking Mad

"Fracking Gets Backing" screamed the newspaper headline from lampposts here in Johannesburg yesterday. That made my blood boil, and not for the first time on this issue of fracking that has become so divisive in this maddening country in which I live.

According to Wikipedia, "Induced hydraulic fracturing or hydrofracking, commonly known as fracking, is a technique used to release petroleum, natural gas (including shale gas, tight gas and coal seam gas), or other substances for extraction.This type of fracturing creates fractures from a wellbore drilled into reservoir rock formations." The fracking in question here is for supposedly significant amounts of natural gas that South Africa has in its semi-desert region known as the Karoo.

Below is a simple schematic showing how fracking essentially operates:



Hmmmm...all that underground water seems to be in the way of all the drilling and surge in release of natural gas...this cannot be a good thing.

More about the debacle from a South African perspective, as from the www.savingwater.co.za site:
"Speaking at the Shale Gas Conference in Johannesburg [held in July 2011], chairman of Treasure Karoo Action Group (TKAG) Jonathan Deal said there was not enough evidence at hand that the potential benefits of fracturing could outweigh the attached risks. “At this juncture of our history, with climate warming on the increase and increased threats to water supplies it would make corporate and social sense to invest research and development funds in seeking renewable energy alternatives, rather than pursuing finite fossil fuels,” said Deal.

Yes, we're back to that tired, tired, tired refrain by those of us who care about this planet and the future sustianability thereof that our energy future SHOULD NOT rest on fossil fuels like natural gas.

For anoyone remotely still in doubt as to the madness of engaging in this type of drilling for natural gas, I defy them to see the following documentary:



"Can you light your water on fire?" reads the alarming, wry caption. Indeed.

And then tell me you still think fracking is a rollicking good idea for energy.

I am cursed to be living in a country with such plentiful renewable energy potential, whether from solar, wind or wave, and yet that keeps investing in malignant, unsustainable energy from coal, nuclear and, now, natural gas.

South Africa is fast becoming the 'environmental Canada' of Africa - such a 'nice guy image', the feel-good 'peacemaker', even great environmental laws, and yet a big, fat polluting behemoth that deserves nothing but contempt from other nations at least making an attempt at more renewable energy.

Fracking gets backing? But, of course - after all, I do live in a corrupt, facile country that says all the right things to the world but screws its own citizens to the hilt back home. Even when it comes to how we get our lights on.

Do you get my point?

RAVE: The Greeks Say Oxi, No, Nein!

The recent Greek election resulted in a substantial portion of the vote going to parties and candidates that oppose the outrageous and penurous bailout packages that have been imposed on the debt-stricken nation by Brussels (read: Berlin).

So much so that the Greek parties have been deadlocked for days on end in talks on how to set up a coalition or 'unity' government, all to no avail. The Greeks are set to return to the polls again.

And hurrah to that. Even if thus far it has been little more than a squeak of democracy, rather than a roar thereof. A stall is still better than full speed ahead with this bailout madness.

It's not exactly the collapse of the Greek political and econo-casino system that I would have liked to see. An outright coup d'etat/ revolution and exit from the euro is really what Greence desperately needs. But it certainly beats having had the status quo continue with either an outright win by the 'centre-right' NDP or 'centre-left' PASOK parties.

As if there were such a thing as 'leftwing' and 'rightwing' in these days of lily-livered, self-interested and corrupt corporatist 'consensus' politics.

There were huge flappings and rumblings from Frau Donut Merkel in the European capi...ahem, German capital, Berlin. Flappings and warnings and cajolings about how Greece simply cannot renege on its bailout 'obligations' and how Greece leaving the Eurozone would be tantamount to the end of civilization as we know it.

Which is all nonsense, of course. Greece has been hijacked by European and American financial terrorists and their EU lackeys, not to mention Deutschland uber Alles, and all the 'debt' that has been repaid thus far has been to financiers and bankers and other such financial slimebags, and not a centime to the Greek national coffers itself. All this meaning that the 'inevitable' slashing of the Greek welfare state is taking place, leaving its populace ravished with less education, healthcare and pensions. And the Greek voters know that all too well.

So now the Greeks go back to the polls. It is my wish that they deliver the exact same message all over again - loud and clear to the powers-that-be in Athens, Brussels and, most of all, Berlin. Or even worse would be even better.

Muck and mayhem is what Brussels and Berlin deserve for what they have put the Greek people through. Even the collapse of the euro project would do very nicely, thank you very much.

Do you get my point?

RANT: Branson Should Be Iced

Just when you think you've seen it all when it comes to the sheer self-indulgence of the super rich and super stupid, along comes that mega prat, Richard Branson.

I was innocently wending my way through Yahoo News this morning, and thought I was having a serious allergy-induced hallucination when I read the headline:

"Sir Richard Branson ice cubes take off on Virgin"

What could that headline possibly mean, I thought?

Did he design ice cubes for his airline?

Did they capitalize the word 'virgin' by mistake and it's actually some kinky British sex play I've never heard of?

Oh no, don't tell me...surely not...

Oh, yes, he did...just take a look:

Yip, ice cubes with Richard Branson's visage, cheesy, horsey grin and all, are offered on board Virgin Atlantic flights.

Oh, and only to 'Upper Class' passengers, of course. Heaven forbid the hoi polloi on Virgin flights should have their beverages graced with those ice cubes. Branson may parade around as the dashing, iconoclastic 'people's billionaire,' but he's still an elitist schmuck at heart.

The Yahoo articles goes on to say that, "Virgin claims that the creation of the cubes required a team of four designers a "painstaking" six weeks to craft, using "laser scanning technology" to match the likeness of his face."

Uh huh.

Who are these fricking people?!

I wonder who'll be the first to choke to death on one of these Bransoned ice cubes as they stand at the Upper Class bar twirling their Johnnie Walker in their hand? And will their family sue Branson himself? I'm sure there would be an American attorney who would find just cause.

And just in case you thought the above pic was some grim piece of Photoshopping, here's another pic showing a Virgin stewardess grinning inanely as she holds up one of these little cubes:

Makes you want to smack her face.

It's the sheer chutzpah of this man that defies all logic.

I have no doubt that Branson thought he was being deliciously ironic when he agreed to these ice cubes, when all he was being was vintage Branson - a super rich, super vain, total twat and nincompoop.

Do you get my point?



RANT: Shame On You, FIA and F1

It's official - the Bahrain Formula 1 GP came and went on April 22nd, with the full blessing and support of the FIA.

The dust has long settled and the F1 circus already has its sights on the next Grand Prix in Spain. And I as an F1 fan am left as if with dust in my eyes, still smarting all these days later.




The FIA, Bernie Ecclestone and all the teams and drivers of Formula 1 should be ashamed of themselves for having allowed this GP to go forward.

Crony capitalism, corruption and oil riches trump fights for democracy, human dignity and simply doing the right thing.

It's disgusting.

Enough said.

RAVE: Workers of the World, Ignite!

Today is May Day or Workers' Day around the world, and millions of people in cities worldwide are marching and demonstrating and showing their solidarity for their fellow workers.

Workers of the World Unite! is a refrain over a century old.




I cannot remember a time in my lifetime in which the gap between those who control capital and have power and the rest of us has been so huge, so gaping - it is not a gap, it is a veritable chasm that makes the Grand Canyon look like a crack in the pavement.

Let us review the state of the world on this May the 1st:

• many countries in the world continue to wallow in the mulch that is the 'recession'
• Spain has a record 25% unemployed - and those are official figures
• Greece is on the brink
• Romania is on the brink
• Italy is close to the brink
• Portugal edges to the brink
• Belgium has never looked more shaky
• There are student riots in Montreal
• There are student riots in Madrid
• Students today in many countries could have debt well into middle age

Pundits speak of how we are in the midst of a 'Third World War', except this time the weapon of choice is debt. And it's being used against all of us.

Never before in human history have there been so many billionaires on Earth, even taking population and economic growth into consideration.

Executive pay in the financial sector in cities like London and New York reportedly went up by up to 50% in the last year - and those are no doubt conservative estimates.

And then one wonders why these bastards haven't had their swanky offices invaded and been hauled into the streets, tarred and feathered.

Let's hear a new refrain, shall we:

Workers of the World, Ignite!

When it comes to fatcat corporate bastards and their politician lackeys it should be a case of...

Burn, Baby, Burn.

Do you get my point?