The Dark Perspective

Giving you social commentry with a twist of comedy, reviews and downloads. Its commentry about the things that I come across in my life. We all take different journeys in life and this is my journey.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

When sharing becomes a burden?

Well I always thought most of the time sharing was good that is until the cell phone industry though it was a great idea to combine a phone with an mp3 player. The logic was simple no need for two devices during your daily commute all you needed was your phone. What this has led to though is a new toy for idle kids to create a nuisance on the daily commute. No longer is one just exposed to the loud music screaming out of headphones and irritating ring tones but now we have to contend with kids putting phones on loud blast playing uncensored song wherever they are. This not even limited to kids but even adults that should know better have headphones on full volume. To add insult to injury Samsung one of the first to put mp3 players on phones have now released an mp3 player the K5 (see photo) that has a built in speaker. Why MR Samsung? Why make the daily commute for us much more of a misery that it is? Must say though that the K5 does look really good.

Starving...ah but at least I can have coke

So Afghanistan has been in the news once again as the both NATO and the British troops are suffering loses even though there are claims they have killed over 500 Taliban fighters in the past week or so. Some newspapers are claiming that the Taliban (thought to be long gone) have regrouped and is coming out guns blazing.

The reality in Afghanistan's is that all is not rosy as some would like us to think. It is still the worlds largest supplier (around 92% UNODC) of opium because the local farmers have no incentives to grow anything else. According to UNODC this is increasing year on year. The warlords still rule most of the country making money of the opium trade and garnering loyalty as a result of this. In the south the coalition troops are battling the Taliban fighters and in the north innocent Afghans are starving as a result of the lack of harvest due to lack of rain last winter and spring. Water, food and livestock are in short supply and so it would seem the likely candidate for aid to be delivered to assist the situation so it doesn't become much worse.
In the capital, The western backed government of Hamid Karzai, delivers speeches of fighting "holy wars" against the opium trade but his rule doesn't extent much out of the capital and so one wonders how he is to wage this war. Then again he is influenced by Tony Blair and George Bush who think that the war against an ideology the so called 'war on terror' is being won. So imagine my utter surprise when there was news that a major business was to open in Karbul. A £13 million business that would inject some needed aid to communities I thought. Oh no my friends it turned out to be a franchise for the production of Coke taken out by one of the country richest men. This factory will produce coke, fanta and sprite to supply to the population that have no food to eat or livestock to support. How much of the population will be able to afford the drink? virtually none. Whereas the rich expatriates will be able to afford this, those with few possessions will be forced to try as apsire to lifestyle of drinking and buying things they cant afford. The rich will be getting richer and the poor poorer.Hamid Karzai was of course on hand to open this bottling factory. Is this the best way to spend £13 million to support a country that is one of the poorest in the world?

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Vocal Assassin back......

The vocal assassin has been away for a while but he's back and rearing to go dispensing his opinion on events.

This week in London, a rival free newspaper the London paper joined the rebranded mid afternoon freebie by the standard the london lite. On really wonders if this will spell the end of the morning paid for newspapers. A lot of us watch the news in the morning so don't buy the paper however because the metro is free we pick up a copy. After work if there are two free newspapers why pick up a copy of the evening standard for 50p?

On other news Tony Blair's future looks bleak. According to the BBC,17 labour MPs including a minister signed a letter that urged him to quit. There is a famous saying "Quit whilst you are ahead" but it seems the control and power is proving a hard addiction for Blair. Whereas he has refused to give a time for his departure in order to be able to finish his legacy on a high, he is so far removed from the electorate to understand that his policies are not working in most cases and have not lead us anywhere. His blind following of George Bush in foreign policy has left not only Afghanistan and Iraq but now Lebanon in a serious mess and local policies at home are faltering. Both the Torys and Liberal democrats have surged forward in opinion polls. When he finally departs his legacy will be remembered for the lame duck that he was rather than the hero he claims to be. Steve 'Crikey' Irwin passed away after being stung by a deadly stingray. He was know as the croc hunter for his love of animals whether be they crocs, snakes or other dangerous animals. What a shame that he was the one that passed away an not soham killer Ian Huntley whose live was spared by prison offers after taking a massive overdose. Then again after all the suffering that the family of his victims have gone through it seems fitting enough that he live in shame for the rest of his natural life.