Back After a Long Lay-Off

Who says lecturers don't do any work? Mind you I'm not saying we are always very busy-this is work time, and I am blogging, but September-December was hell, and then came the long awaited holiday.

Plenty has changed since I last blogged-bit like Billy Joel's 'we didn't start the fire' song....Bhutto's gone, Kenya's in strife, election campaigning in Malaysia, Pakistan and now the USA (and within my school...), Howard's gone (!!!) and of course, Benitez and Hicks managing to take Liverpool down the drain. All in all, more bad than good so far, but variety is the spice of life.

While the fire continues burning, we seem to be ready, as usual, to jump out of the frying pan and into the, well, fire. Bickering politicians have led Kenya to the brink of no return, even if Odinga is right in saying Kibaki manipulated the election results. At moments like this, perhaps he is right in not backing down to a dictator wannabe, but at what cost? In Pakistan, Benazir's son takes over the PPP, and promptly returns to England to finish his studies-once again proving that the PPP is no solution to Pakistan's woes. Dictatorial the Bhutto's might not be, but nepotistic they sure are. Woe to democracy, and more blood will be spilt after Musharraf no doubt manages to do a Kibaki and hang on to power.

Yeah, and did I mention Howard is gone...? YEAH!!! The last remnants of the White Australia Policy have been put in the rubbish bin, where it deserves to be. Rudd will no doubt prove to be an incarnation of Tony Blair so expect a honeymoon period to last longer than normal, but he will at least apologise for the Stolen Generation (but compensate them exactly $0). Otherwise, business as usual as we suck up to China, though at least the Kyoto protocol has been signed. He can't be totally useless though, having used and abused Peter Garrett. Word to the wise, Peter dear boy-sell your soul to the devil and....well, you know....Rudd may look like Tintin, but his heart beats a Thatcherite beat.

Hindraf did Malaysia both a service and a disservice-they seem mightily mad; no one in their right mind can accuse the Malaysian government of genocide. The federal government is many negative things, but let's not get carried away boys!!! Nonetheless, they forced the issue of minority marginalisation to the fore, yet showed the limitations of how they themselves can help the Indian minority out of their poor state. Perhaps once the community itself decides that strongman characters (i.e. Samy Vellu) should make way for proper representation, they'll be better off. As it stands, one can bitch and cry as much as one wants, yet the truth remains that the biggest obstacle to prosperity for the marginalised Indians in their community remain their own community, and how it sees itself, rather than Badawi and Co., who mind you, should do something to help rubber tappers at least earn a monthly salary!!!

Now the election beckons, and as usual the opposition continue to squabble-the fact is that Keadilan and DAP are as bad as the BN coalition-power crazy bastards. When the opposition is just as corrupt, why vote for the imitation? Mind you, their populist message (keeping it simple-we'll reduce the cost of living, no worries) might get them some votes, as will BN excesses the last few years. Pity the opposition in Sabah is even more useless.

Obama, Clinton, McCain, Romney-for once we have a different election campaign; choose between a black man (black-white-indonesian really), a woman (who might well have been president between 1992-2000 already), a Vietnam war POW with a quite liberal streak and a Mormon. Really, what happened to the Christian fundamentalists? Anyway, it's these fundamentalist who might still vote in a block for one of these candidates, and that spells trouble for the Democrats as Obama is pro-abortion, Hillary is well, Hillary....The Republicans might be at a low ebb, but don't be surprised to see President McCain (with vice-president Lieberman!!!!) come into office. Aaah, all this talk of blacks, women and Mormons-watch the Jew sneak into the White House....at least Al-Qaeda and the KKK will be happy with their increased membership when that occurs...

And Liverpool? Well, deary me....for once I am totally speechless.....