Full

The morgue is full.

Sacked cop kills police station commander in Johannesburg. Being a cop in South Africa is a pretty dangerous occupation. An average of 2 cops per week have been killed in South Africa so far in 2011. That’s lots of blood on the blue uniforms. Plenty of cop killers out there.

In Syria the unrest has turned into a slaughter in the opposition town Hama. And as history goes, the wheels keep turning round ‘n’ round. Same town saw a previous onslaught against the regime’s opponants some decades ago under the iron fist of the current president’s father. Butchering seems a family affair for the past and current tyrants in Damascus. Tanks vs people. Bullets vs stones. Madness vs cries of freedom. But people don’t forget. If the tyrant can’t be silenced and stopped now, the future will come. Revenge has no expiry date. The uprising wont be deleted from memory.

A train crashed in China, but the local media are banned from reporting on it. Free flow of information is not a communist idea. Big shows when the olympics come to town, but back to old tactics of repression when the circus leaves.

Another African famine. History is really repeating itself. Somalia has had no fully functioning central government for more than 2 decades. US , UN and AU soldiers have died in the sandpit. But it’s still a very Darwinistic country. The weak are left to die. The rule of the gun is the only one in town. Weapon salesmen are having a field day. Muslim fundamentalists are now even hijacking this famine. Control by all means necessary. By the gun. By religion. By food availability. How low can humans fall? Religion is a killer. No hope in Somalia. Death is certain, life is not.

Knocking on the morgue’s door.

From starvation to self-destruction. Amy Winehouse apparently died because she abruptly stopped drinking. That’s what some family members claim, although the police toxicology report ain’t out yet. Sounds like an advertisement for vodka or so. Drink more, live longer. Stop drinking can seriously harm your health. Anyway, Amy didn’t reach her 3 decades on planet earth because of 1 person only: herself. Sad but true.

Out of the limelight. A ferry sinks in Congo. Many dead. Crocodiles’ paradise. 80 Bodies found. 100 Passengers rescued. 20 Or so still missing.

Libyans are fleeing their country but some drown in te Mediterranean as they were trying to reach Italy. Flee a revolution to let your life been taken away by the swells of the high seas. Sad. Killed by Gaddafi’s soldiers. Killed by Nato bombs. Killed by rebel mortars. Or killed while fleeing war. Roll of the dice.

Some Libyan rebels have been killed in a government counter attack not too far from the capital Tripoli. The civil war is stuck in the dessert. Divided nation. Politics of hate.

Pakistan seems never at peace with itself. If it ain’t religious fools going on a killing spree or sending out a suicide bomber, it’s political violence. More than 30 people were killed in Karachi amidst political warfare. Armed groups supporting one or the other political party go out and battle it out. Madness to the next level. And it seems a merry go round and round because last month some 200 people were killed during deadly games of political insanity.

Human behavior is a speed train to the morgue.

Leaving the blood stains aside for a while. Chinese authorities have discovered – and closed down – fake Ikea and Apple stores. So we’re not talking about some alleway secret store or backroom handlings, these were shops with the ‘real’ Ikea and Apple signs on main streets. Copyrights have never been an important issue in China. Copy, fake, steal.

Stealing.

A crime syndicate in a town in South Africa has been ‘buying’ criminal dockets to attempt to get cases thrown out of court. Nice one. Land of opportunities. Wondering how the syndicate adverstises its services. Ads in the paper? Website? Call us and pay us cash,…. and your court records will vanish into space. No more trial dates thanks to us. We are the judicial exterminators.

It’s one way of clearing the courts’ backlogs.

Human behavior can be criminal and inventive at the same time.

So the US is financially alive it seems. Far from healthy but alive. The debt figure is so high most of us just can’t even grasp it. Millions, trillions,… Sounds like mad monopoly. The amazing thing is that when intern-loving-Clinton left office the budget was balanced. Then came Bush and his business pals. Then came the mad bankers going over the edge. Then came a housing crisis. Then came a recession. And amidst all that wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that keep chewing money faster than the speed of light. Memories of Clinton feels nice at once. Cigars and all.

Maybe, just like with Amy and her booze, cigar smoking is good for you and thus stopping lighting a Cuban might cause your health to fail. Maybe a whiskey and a cigar will become the new healthkick for the Hollywood plastic surgery stars (and lesser ones). Forget the veggies and therapeutic sessions with oils and candles, give them a J. W. black label – make it a double – and a smoke. Spa retreats with free booze and a joint! Who said the future is f*cked?

Chill, relax, enjoy…. while out there in that distant world the morgue labourers are doing overtime.

Throw out. Singer and bassist Dan Andriano from Alkaline Trio fame has released a fine album under his side-project’s name Dan Andriano In The Emergency Room. “Hurricane Season” brings 10 well-crafted songs with strong lyrics.

C -Ya

collateral – August 2011