What's on my mind today?
The country's running out of flu vaccine, and pretty obviously it's being blamed on scared people thinking the jab will protect them from the dreaded bird flu.
Excuse me, but how thick are these people? Have the people asking for the jab not considered tht if bird flu was susceptible to a normal flu vaccine, that dozens of people in China may not have already died? Do the GP's have no clue why they're constantly having to order more phials, when usually they can't give them away?
No, something's fucked up about that, really. We need a definitive advertising campaign telling people to lay off the normal vaccine if they want protection from bird flu. It might help if they stayed away from Essex animal quarantine centres because that's the only place where bird flu's turned up in the UK.
As a small aside, Roman Abramovitch, owner of Chelsea Football Club has been granted special permission to take his parrot to New Zealand. So if the bird flu does surface in the wild over here, blame Chelsea.
* * *
Parents are calling for guidelines on how much help they're allowed to give their kids with their coursework.
This comes back to my favourite pet soapbox subject.
Here's a really easy thing to understand: If your kid can't do the coursework, if everyone is needing help to complete it, then it's either genuinely too hard, or they're not being equipped to complete it either mentally or physically by the schools.
The solution? (long-term readers will recognise this) Stop pissing around with the syllabus. Let the teachers alone long enough for them to get a grip on the criteria neded and to come up with workable, non-baffling courswork assignments that the kids can actually have a hope of completing.
The outcome of this request from parents? Education secretary Ruth Kelly is calling for a widespread reassessment of the syllabus.
AARGH!
* * *
Gary Glitter is being accused of fucking a 12 year old girl in Cambodia - by the 12 year old girl.
Good.
Someone on the radio made an excellent point that might not have occurred to many people. In the countries in question - Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, etc, sex tourism is big BIG business and corruption is rife. Despite all efforts to cease the sick trade in young children's bodies, it continues relentlessly. The obvious conclusion one must reach? That the economies of these countries actually rely on the sex trade. And that's just sick. Continentally sick.
* * *
OK, I'm never going to make the 50,000 WriMo target by Nov 30th, but I am going to keep going with Tapestry because it's all mapped out in my head.
The reasons I'm citing in defense of my faliure are 1) 20 days of writer's block and 2) having just too many other things to do.
I really did want to do it, too. Damn.
* * *
Coming soon - A day in pictures, as inspired by Mark's recent spate of atmospheric urban landscapes, pregnant chavs and commuting endangered species . Now all I need is a nice day and something interesting to do.
And now...to bed.
