The World According To Booker

* I remember watching a film once called The World According To Garp, an early offering starring the legendary Robin Williams. Borrowing the title and changing it a little , I will from time to time this year just write free on something that enters my head and just go for it. It is not my intention to offend anyone, they are just random thoughts, observations and reflections on the world we all have to share, as I see them on that particular day.

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I try to keep up with what is going on in the world on a daily basis. I remember sometimes asking Leon why he went out every weekend and why he didn't take a break from it.
' I might miss out on something ' he would say.
I guess I could offer the same excuse as to why I bother with the news.
My main sources are RTE, Sky News and I prefer CNN over Fox. I'd be a fan of Christiane Amanpour and Larry King. I can't stand Bill O'Reilly who I find obnoxious and rude. A man who loves the sound of his own voice and unlike David Letterman, who prefers to make love to his staff, there is more than enough evidence out there that O'Reilly treats his appallingly.

RTE ( Who? , I hear some say) is the primary TV network in Ireland. I watch it once a day , again just to see what's going on in the country. It's a pathetic network , no originality it the programming it commissions , and runs itself at tax payers expense much like our government do. For the benefit of a few. The programming it does offer is either bought off UK and US networks. The majority of their original programming are dismal rip offs of shows seen elsewhere with slight tweaking. The same people getting commissioned time and time again.

Sky News is my source in the UK. It's hard to put great faith in a channel which gives top billing to the passing of celebrities when the injustices of this planet go largely unreported.
I tuned in last night for a half an hour.
In the UK this year there will be a general election, most probably in May. Many commentators and opinion polls suggest that the Conservative Party will return to power under the stewardship of David Cameron. Yesterday Cameron announced that should they get into power he will invite opposition leaders to war cabinet meetings on a regular basis. In a small way it is progressive politics, and definitely a move away from the sleeze that was associated with the Tories at the end of their previous tenure.
Might have been a positive thing if their collapse did not make way for a war monger like Tony Blair.
I'm totally anti-war. It's the greatest stain on our entire civilisation since Day 1. Bar none. It's horrible to watch bodies of service people come home to their families in caskets, streets lined in mourning against the backdrop of an ever growing feeling that the wars that rage right now go against public approval.
Hundreds of thousands of civilian victims, many women and children, totally innocent of this sort of fate paying the ultimate sacrifice . It is solving nothing. It only breeds more contempt in factions. The world is not a safer place. I honestly believe government is failing everywhere. My research into the move toward a New World Order only confirms that belief. I often wonder as we 'evolve' as an entity will something else come to the fore in the way of thinking that can surpass democracy with all it's failings that may unite all of humanity. Looking around now I can't see it.
Some will remember Live Aid . The day the world came together for the good of Ethiopia which was being ravaged by famine back in the 1980's. That was a great day. I can't help but still carry thoughts that if the world concentrated on matters like this and tackled them in ways that brought the people of the planet together , we may have a chance of a better world. I'd be pretty confident in thinking that most of the world's people would want that.

Ireland maintains neutrality on the world stage. But how can you be neutral when you allow planes to re-fuel at Shannon on their way to Iraq? How can you be neutral when you confirm your allegiance to a European superstate when ratifying the recent Lisbon Treaty, be it at the second attempt. My thinking is you would be far more honest as a nation if you took a stand on issues whole heartily instead of this half hearted effort at neutrality.
But Ireland has long had the reputation of scattering their citizens to the corners of the globe. And although the romantic notion of an old country lies in the heart of any generational Irish person that has affection for the island I can't help feel if they were still around here today we, as a people, would not be putting up with what has gone on over the past year here.

But what is democracy really when you read articles like this one , especially here in Ireland?
Do we really have a choice? Why are more and more people deciding to turn their back on voting? What happens when people sicken at the wastage of tax payers money? What happens when more and more people decide, enough is enough? When they decide that they are not going out to work to pay taxes for wars to rage and the world gets no better? When they decide what's the point of it all when the governments of the world continue to squeeze everything out of us with no sense of equality?
I hope we can find a way without ripping ourselves apart even further. Or maybe I'll just throw out my TV someday and imagine a better place.
I may be better off in the long run.