Black and green

Signs of our times. Ex-First Lady turned Foreign Missionary Hillary Clinton was in India over the last days. Series of difficult topics on the agenda as India falls amidst a very troubled region (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Burma, Tibet,...). But as a sad proof of the state of our world the USA and India can agree and sign deals on bigger weapons trade but not on global warming and pressing environmental issues. Death before survival. Black over green.


It’s amazing how in most, if not all, foreign relations between major to semi-sized nations there is always a merchant of armoury in the corridors. Deals on rockets, submarines, surface to air missiles, new radars, choppers, jeeps, trucks, planes, bombs, bullets, military radio communication systems, torpedoes, warning systems and pre-warning systems and systems that mislead the existing or non-existing enemy, systems that scramble cell phones,... there is always something that makes the military cut when nations meet. There is never a recession, a global meltdown, a freeze,.... in the trade of death and destruction. Of course, I agree, some of these Grim Reaper tools have a very effective deterrent and self-protection purpose and they work nicely in that area. But from warning to self-defence to attack to invasion is a fluid phase. Some doctrines and tactics see attack as the first step of defence anyway.


Anyway, the issue of so called ‘end use’ came up when the US and India talked about US arms and arms technology being sold from DC to Delhi. The US would very much like to keep an eye on where their tools and ending up. Meaning if it’s to be used for the purpose India said they wanted to buy them for, or is there a secondary agenda. With India breathing air (polluted too often) in a very volatile region and itself not free from bombs and suicide freaks, and on top of that being a nuclear power too, it is very much understandable that Washington wants to keep an eye on where its high end (military) technology ends up. But it seems in the end Clinton and company had to give in on their strict demands to monitor end usage and the deal was done. The merchants of death got the bucks and the politicians lost out on strict control. And India just smiles.


Meanwhile any attempts to tackle global warming didn’t progress. It’s freeze on that front. Subzero amidst a warmer planet. And that’s not a good omen ahead of a global environment gathering later this year. The US and India are two major polluters and thus major contributors to global warming. So they could drive a new consensus. They could break the barriers. Come up with new proposals. End the deadlock. Move from spin and speech to action. But the green hope stayed locked up.


But global warming, of which really the effects already can be felt by African farmers for instance, will not get taken seriously by the majority of voters and thus the majority of politicians till the signs are so in your face that it is too late on many fronts. Obvious statistics, or advancing deserts, or freak storms, or declining fish stock,... it really doesn’t matter to the majority of earth’s citizens as it does not hurt their getting up / have a 5 second chat with the kids / go to work on a jam-packed, stinking underground train or sit in a car in stinking traffick jams with raging drivers and crap radio programs / hate the job / go home / warm up a pre-cooked meal / have a 10 second chat with the kids / sink in the sofa / watch 2 soapies and 1 talk show / go to bed and start the same shit all over again.


When food prices go up by 20%, when coastal areas get battered more and more by hurricanes, when rivers burst more often and more violently,.... then maybe a very slow process of open up your eyes and ears and mind to what is happening around you might start sinking in. Slowly.


Meanwhile more bombs, planes, radars, jeeps, choppers, jets, bullets have been sold to nations where education and health could need a serious financial injection.


As the US and India were signing arms deals amidst the polluted air of Delhi, a German highway looked like a scene of a new Bruce Willis movie. Some 260 vehicles crashed into each other. I don’t think Hollywood could come up with a better scene that that. Maybe it was a cunning plan to inject new momentum into the car industry amidst growing job cuts and closing down dealerships. A stimulus plan with a twist!


Throw out. Just heard the new tunes by Tom Morello, the guitar-artist from Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave fame. He teamed up with rapper Boots Riley in a project called Street Sweeper Social Club. Sounded like RATM meets Lenny Kravitz. I especially like the 3rd track – The Oath. The others seem to swing between ‘cool’ to ‘ok’. The album certainly didn’t hit with like a bomb.


C-Ya


collateral – 2nd half of July 2009