Maxwell Woodger Esq.
Thursday, 07 September 2006
What do you do between 8.43 and 10.28 in the morning?
I’m usually in my cotton pyjamas, splitting a grapefruit in half and straining some French Breakfast tea. Five years ago I was chilling in the wilderness with a wide brimmed sun hat and a pool table, potting the stripes as the Experimental Jet Set Trash and No Star played softly out of the stereo. For relaxing times, make it Santorini times, eh?
Where were you?
Over the next few weeks you’ll remember exactly what you were doing, where you were, who you were with and which socks you were wearing. September 11th looms on the horizon like the Four Horsemen and Monday will be the fifth anniversary to a deep rift in society, history and geo-politics. Two planes, Two Towers and thousands of shattered lives.
In one hour and 45 minutes everything changed.
Whilst people suffer and try to find closure, one man won’t let the ashes rest. Like a perverted blessing from the Devil, George W. Bush preaches the worth of such an awful moment in history as something that validates violence, oppression and war. This pseudo political puppet hides the faces of warlords and evangelism as he smokes out the invisible threats of terror. If someone needed the definition of Fear and Loathing (HST R.I.P.), the technique with which the American Government handles business is about as close as you’ll get.
You can enjoy your new season of Lost, or take the kids to the pantomime this weekend, but that won’t rid us of the fact that Iran is waving nuclear weapons in the face of the impotent United Nations; thousands of civilians are dying in Iraq because of a battle for Oil reserves; Lebanese nationals refuse to return home because the war between the Israeli Army and Hezbollah is far from over; the British Prime Minister Tony Blair refuses to give up his position despite public and private outcries of change. He is delusional and dreams of resigning to a fanfare of a golden trumpets and tea with the Queen. His belligerence has taken his country down a dark passage that hasn’t seen so much deceit, death and doom since the dark Ages.
So, five years ago I was bathing in the late summer sun and unwinding to the voice of Kim Gordon. Today I am hunkered down with grey clouds overhead. The 24 Hour news channels prophesize about Peace in the Middle East, whilst unconfirmed sightings of the Four Horsemen on the Western Horizon scroll across the bottom of the screen.
Sorry if this diatribe has brought you down, but times are a-changing. It only took one hour and forty-five minutes for the tables to turn. That’s like stepping into the cinema for the Monday Morning matinee to work your imagination for a couple of hours, except this is reality and no-one knows when the story’s going to end…