Knocking on heaven's door

Oh, another Airbus crashes into the ocean! This time it was flying between Yemen and the Comoros Islands. Scary. The Airbus brand is getting a serious knock.

I write this as I am about to take an Airbus in a few hours, so your brain picks up these issues slightly faster and edgier than normal. Statistically flying is still the safest transport method, but two Airbus crashes in one month is a serious dent into these stats.

The Comoros are an interesting place. Stuck there between Madagascar and Mozambique, and near idyllic locations like the Seychelles and Reunion. The Comoros have three three main islands. Two of them form the Comoros Republic and the third one is (still) part of France. The independent Comoros parts have an amazing history of coups. Yes indeed, guys with guns hired to topple a sitting government and install their paymaster(s). I think the Comoros have had the most coups and coup attempts on this planet. That’s a hell of a record to have. It’s a gun-for-hire test range.

From air crashes and coups to final breath is a pretty small step. So Michael Jackson is dead. The exact, physical reason for his heart stopping to beat and Wacko Jacko knocking on heaven’s door is still somewhat unclear. Seems he was seriously lost into a labyrinth of prescription drugs. A cocktail of death.

Fan or no fan (and I am in the second category), he had clearly a massive impact on the popular music industry. But he certainly had a serious wacko lifestyle which without doubt was not good for his three kids. Grown up without a mother, in the surreal world of Neverland and with a father who absolutely does not look nor act as any other father in this planet. It cannot be psychologically straight forward. And on top of that they did not go to school, where your social interaction molds you. Sad story. Very sad and I’m sure much more too come in the Wacko saga. After North Korea and Iran, it’s a perfect story for the media.

But anyway I was thinking about Jacko because yesterday I was cruising the TV channels and at once there is his (abusive) father in front of too many microphones outside Jacko’s LA home. So you think he’s gonna announce funeral details, prayer sessions, concerts to honour his son,... maybe a word or two about the kids,.... but NO, he announces a new record label!?! That’s double wacko. So your son is premature dead and the father’s priority is some public relations for a new record label. Is that sick or sick? I mean Los Angeles is a place with often its own set of strange human behaviour and too often very detached from reality,... but this was out of space. This was moon walking! I wonder who was on drugs!

To a lighter note quickly before insanity trickles in. The Belgian government has looked at the weather forecast for the European summer and has noted that a hot summer is predicted. And thus they started to fear that hot summer + overcrowded prisons = riots. And thus the original approach to decide and announce the premature release of inmates to reduce the overcrowding and thus the chance of prison trouble. Get that! Temperature now decides your freedom. Not good behaviour or out on bail, or out with community duty,... no, a simple heat wave in the summer months sets you free. So in fact, global warming equals freedom for criminals. I wonder what Al Gore has to say about that! Remember that human behaviour that is too often impossible to grasp. Here it pops up again.

Anyway. Time to go and catch my Airbus.

Throw out. No Wacko cd in my car or ipod. Tuning into Sarah Bettens' latest effort, “Never say goodbye”. Fine acoustic tunes. She is a Belgian but living in the US of A. Great lady with a special voice and great lyrics.

collateral – last day of June ‘09