danieru in tokyo: SaturdaySundayMonday blended into one

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

SaturdaySundayMonday blended into one

Party at Zajac's. Young swings by on a motorbike, afer destroying yet another Lotus. I welcome him into the Vauxhall Council Estate with a simple "This is how the other half live." His retort "Yes, i'm a bit concerned about the bike getting nicked. Let's keep it well within sight." Here, I met a lot of antipodes. The flat was crammed with them, with people living in all the rooms, in true visiting-london style. I had some interesting conversations at and with people, but this time, mainly with. I got lots of names for books that I "really _have_ to read" rather than names of places that I "really _have_ to visit", in contrast to most parties invloving pikeies. I was granted a reason as to why most antipodean men are rarely more cerebral than troglodites, disinterested in art, culture, politics, favouring instead plaid shirts and red meat. The rationale was simple. NZ is a large country, with few people. Urban dwellers follow arts, Country Folk shoot and hunt. Chicks love the latter. I sneer at the latter. Lucky them.

Later that weekend: Shifting a bed across town, through a park, does not make for your average Sunday afernoon. We attracted attention of the police, twice, and were subjected to several witless self satisified comments. It was a long, arduous and unanticipated journey.

The Smart burst a tyre. This is particularly irrirating, as I never seem to use the car, and have therefore resigned to sell it as soon as possible, with the intention of replacing it with a Ducati. Less weight, more power. No rollcage. McEntee has already decided two wheels are better than four. Pearson tells me this is foolhardy, fearing not for me, but that her beloved to do the same. More fool him for having someone to answer to, and only now wishing to stare down the side of a mountain. Time for me to feel some adrenelin, and enjoy these days of zero responsibility. And that was Saturday night, along with my first night in the Small Flat, over a month after official move-in.

My flight to London this morning had Gordon Brown onboard. He flew business class too, which in some way irritated me, because I knew I was paying for him to sit slightly ahead of me. I guess he should be grateful that he didnt fly privately, despite surely being one of the worlds 50 most powerful men. I hate flying business class. With one noteable exception, I am yet to meet a personality next to me. In economy, people are more ever so slightly more excited about the journey, the trip, the holiday, the visit, the weekend - or whatever it may be - and their mood spills out to a conversation. And I love talking to random people. No need to befriend, pretend to want to see each other again, cut just exchange a banter that will dissolve the tedious journey into stories and jokes, with a fresh face to convey.

G8. I am going to be condescending here, because this is something that I feel I actually know slightly more about than the average protester. I can't see why debt relief would change a thing. From a fiscal perspective, the debt has been accrued through more out and less in. Surely, the only real correction can be achieved by increasing output? Which means going to Tesco, and saying "Oi, no more buying EU subsidized food, except fresh produce. We want foreign food. Let Kenyan farmers get our money." The cynic would argue that the kenyan farmer would be some already-rich-polygamous-expat-DelMonte-type-dude who doesn't need our money. But market forces mean that he would invest more in Kenya, and develop the export economy. Taxable economy. Debt relief would help, sure, but can it even be placed in the Top 5 Priorities? Big business would argue YES. Rationale: More to lend again, squander on ridiculous engineering projects, and make the loaning countries companies' rich. I'd like to what Mark Thomas thinks of all this.

Dinner with the parents yesterday. Lots of intense stories about things I didnt really relate to, now that I feel so out of touch with the daily events in their life. Throughout the conversation, I was haunted by the same feelin that has been growing inside me for some days now. I am whittling into nothing more than a money hungry smug insecure failure. Everything i've ever hated, and more. I met Campbell after 2 or 3 months yesterday, and I didn't particularly care. He's always despised me, and I really don't care that he does. He has genuine reason to - he represents a large insecurity in my laziness, and ordinarily I am quite vicious toward him. Then enter Fong into the equation, and it leaves me feeling no guilt about having no time for people whose social interactions rely so firmly on derogation and humiliation in a hideously sincere way. Campbell is, of course, convinced that I am already everything I fear I am becoming. And for that, I will not forgive him, or myself.

- posted by Daniel @ Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Comments:

Oh dear
> I feel I actually know slightly more about than the average protester
Obviously not, I think the simplistic 'debt relief' issue was covered weeks ago, even in the popular press. Important though debt relief is, the focus has moved on towards lifting trade barriers, which is only the next thing to cover in a long list. The long walk to justice will cover a whole lot of steps
I can paraphrase you though....
"I feel that any approach which has the potential to visibly cost me money is doomed to failure."

Regards,
Bob

# posted by

Anonymous : 5:05 PM

Interesting Bob - but, who are you?

Trade barriers are a symptom, not a cause. The cause is large businesses having enough leverage to be able to call the shots. If Tesco started buying from non-EU sources, which they can do TODAY, without flying up to Gleneagles to discuss it, things would change very very quickly. The people should be taking their demands to UK businesses instead of the government, as the government is merely a vehicle designed to protect large investors.

A simpler system to marching in Edinburgh is to call for everyone to boycott Tesco, on the grounds that it should buy its food from African farms, not EU subsidized farms. The legal greyness of this is not an issue - money changes everything. Sure, Sainsbury's doesn't buy from Africa as much as it should, but it doesn't matter, as Tesco will be forced to change. Then consumers can return, and Sainsbury's will be forced to follow suit, as they can be boycotted too. The EU will be sitting on a mountain of food, rotting which they will dump on the African market. This effectively translates to us buying food from them, and giving them free food back later. Traders will ship it straight back, but that's ok, it is the very beauty of capitalism.

# posted by

Daniel : 7:26 PM

Now you're starting to get the idea.
If we look a little deeper into the discussion, we ask why it is that Tesco chooses to buy from EU sources, and come up with the answer that it's because it's cheaper. There are a couple of fundamental reasons for this
1 - EU subsidies
2 - High taxes on non-EU products, in particular where processing occurs.
These are essentially what is meant by trade barriers. Africa doesn't need companies to be forced to buy from them, they need a legitimate, level playing field on which to compete.
These are political issues, not commercial, and can only be addressed through those channels.
As a sidenote, the co-op has been pushing Fair Trade goods for a number of years now, with the increased cost. Who is to say that Tesco, if it were to do the same, would force others to follow suit? Would Tesco perhaps fall to the level of the co-op with small branches in a few remote areas, leaving WalMart to rule the known universe due to their low, low prices?

# posted by

Anonymous : 8:27 PM

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