Heart breaking news?
Speaker of the House Michael Martin will announce his resignation at 14.30. I think he is not the only one who should go. This country needs an election.
G20, will they really listen?
The G20 summit is right at my doorstep, well just a few miles away, and I am urged by my friends to go and have a look. It is a historic moment where twenty world leaders will gather to talk about our economic future. I wonder if they are going to save us? And who will be the leader? Naturally it would be Obama, he is the new messiah so sure he will take the lead in saving us. But Gordon Brown who aspired to save the world the first moment he came to office will challenge him. This is his BIG chance so Obama should be kind and give Brown the credits. But Gordon will find some serious challenge in Nicolas Sarkozy. This little bulldog has shown his teeth even before the summit has started. He and his big German friend Angela just won’t have anything of this Anglo-Saxon let’s-save-the-world-party. No, it has to be done their way or they go home. So reassuring, the world is falling apart and our political leaders treat the summit as a playground for their own egos. Or am I being to negative?
Feeling watery
When I got up this morning I walked for three hours to collect water. The heavy bucket on my head made my back hurt but when I got back home I was happy to give my husband some water. We have to be careful with the water because I am too tired to walk back for more. I hope he will be fine because the water was brown and dirty. Our neighbour’s daughter has fallen ill last week. They say it is cholera. Let’s hope everything will be fine with us…
This was of course not my start of the day. I had a shower this morning, after I spend some time in the steam room and the jacuzzi in the gym. I had a cup of tea and boiled an egg for breakfast. After that I turned on the dishwasher and the washing machine. This was a regular morning apart from the jacuzzi and steam room.
I know it is a bit cheap to get your attention this way but think about the difference for a second.
Meanwhile in Westminster…
The Tories have been asked by the Libdems to clarify their flirt with the homophobic Polish Law and Justice party in the European parliament. Does David Cameron really want to join a party who saw Obama’s election as “the end of white men’s civilisation?” How much do the Tories really dislike Europe that they consider this? Read more about it here
Ken Livingstone is still dreaming of a glorious return to city hall…and in the mean time joyriding his way around London
Nick Clegg has a new haircut and a plan to get into power
Gordon Brown is a phoney, or may be not…
And 2 million unemployed won’t keep Brown from being optimistic about Britain ’cause other countries are doing much worse. Ahum. Get a reality check please!
I am a princess, really
I sometimes believe that I was meant to be a princess of a small tropical island destined to lie on a white beach, to be pampered by beautiful men and to lead a good but simple life. Ending up in London was just a mistake of destiny. Do you know that feeling?
This idea usually comes up when I am stuck and don’t know what to do with my writing or life in general.
Give your GP five stars
Gordon Brown has announced that he, at the end of his term in government, wants to reform public service. Better late then never, he must have thought. What is he proposing? Brown wants to give people in England more online powers to rate their GP’s, police, councils and childcare. So from this summer patients can leave their comments about their GP’s on the NHS Choices website. A bit like the toptable and tripadvisor sites do for restaurants and hotels. Labour believes that this democratising power of information will give patients and parents the chance to make informed choices about which GP or childcare centre they can go to. The idea behind it is probably that GP’s and childcare centres will perform better. I have a problem with that concept.
Dutch double standards towards religious conservatism
The Dutch radio host Arie Boomsma is suspended for three months because he posed with his bare chest for a photo shoot for the gay magazine L’Homo. The state-funded Dutch Evangelical Broadcaster (EO) took this disciplinary action against the popular Christian presenter last week. It is the second incident with the evangelical TV and radio channel. Last month they reprimanded their well known anchorman, Andries Knevel, because he questioned the creation of the earth in six days, something that seemed highly unlikely to him. His exact quote was: “On second thought, I don’t believe that the earth was created in six days” (Yee, welcome to real world!). All the Darwin hating Christians were shocked for weeks by this news and asked for repercussions. So the good man had to apologise on national television for a quote he obviously supported. The mainstream press is laughing about it. Those silly christians’ with their mediocre problems. But what if it had been an Islamic TV channel?
The Brits
Preventing littering own responsibility or not?
Recently Freek wrote in response to my blog about littering:
This is another example of an overinstitutionalised world. I think that many of the problems we have in today’s society stem from the institutionalisation of tasks that used to be performed by families, friends and the neighboorhoud. If we would just do a little bit more ourselves and not expect the government (WHO is the government anyway??) to do it, we would have less problems and have to pay less taxes and hence enjoy more freedom.
I have been thinking about this remark about personal responsibility a lot. It reminds me of this quote made by Thatcher in 1987 in Womens Own magazine:
The actress, the chocolate cake and me
I am sitting in my local cafe drinking my coffee and enjoying the view. Next to me an actress is reading her script. Her delicate skin, long red hair and perfectly shaped face make that she stands out from the usual crowd. She is still very young but she will definitely turn into a striking beauty when she grows up. I observe her from the corner of my eye. While she rehearses her lines she plays with her salad and sips on her herbal tea.
Model behaviour?
It’s Fashion Week in London. Models fill the streets of Kensington with their long, high-heeled legs and trendy outfits. Beautiful fashion-addicts have come to London to watch the shows, play with their food and fill up on champagne in the fancy restaurants and bars all over town. It is the week of the super skinny people. And I hate it!
Beatpolitics is created by me, Beatrijs Overdijkink. I am a writer, originally from Amsterdam, lived in London for a while and just moved to Prague. I write about political subjects big and small. Feel free to comment on anything I say. I love a good debate!