Global Recession and Metal Attraction

While Britain suffers from this present recession, with a forecast of at least 3 million unemployed before it bottoms out, other countries worldwide are feeling the pinch as well. In China, exports of clothing, shoes, and toys have plummeted, mainly due to America’s difficulties. This has led to a closure of around 65,000 factories, forcing 20,000,000 workers to return to their homes in rural areas. Japan has the highest number of people on Welfare since 1965, a total of 1,600,000. This is largely due to the downturn in the electronic and automotive industries, and, as the work has dried up, many who used to stay in specially built dormitories find themselves homeless. Some sleep in parks, or if they can afford it, in all-night internet cafes. Others, ironically, pass the time in McDonalds Japan, who announced record sales of $4,440,000 in 2008. In India, some resort to sharing a coffee between two (by-two), or splitting a tea between three (cutting chai). In Canada, over 129,000 jobs were lost in January, the worst one month figure for decades. As 80% of Canadian exports go to the US, it seems likely that they will have to wait for that country’s economy to recover before they can hope for an upturn. South Africa will see 10,000 workers in its platinum mines laid off, mainly because of the slump in the global car industry, as the metal is used in catalytic converters.

 

 Amongst all this suffering and pain, I suppose we should spare a thought for Joe Lewis, a currency speculator based in a Bahamas tax haven. He had built up nearly a 10% stake in Bear Stearns, just before that institution went bust in May 2008. He subsequently lost a billion dollars of loose change, poor man.

 

This seems to have been a rare old month for Metal Attraction. By that, I’m not referring to Valentine’s Day, and the exchange of rings. No, I’m talking about collisions, and near collisions. Last midweek, we had two satellites smashing each other up in space, then today, we see video footage of a VERY near miss between a Tornado and a Tucano whilst on training exercises above the Vale of York. Not to be outdone, our mariners are at it as well. HMS Vanguard of the Royal Navy and the French Navy’s Le Triomphant scraped each other deep under the Atlantic Ocean. With both being nuclear powered and armed, along with having a total of 250 sailors on board, the possible consequences could have been disastrous. Vanguard has dents and scrapes on her hull, with Le Troimphant having damage to her sonar dome, suggesting that the British sub passed above the other one. We haven’t been told at this stage of any dialogue that passed between the two vessels, although the British might have started it off with something on the lines of, “Stop feeling my bottom, you …………!”    

 

Coffee, Ghosts, Bush, and Birds

After a year of being told that just about everything that we eat is bad for us, I see that coffee has now been added to the list of dangerous substances. A new study suggests that people who take in the caffeine equivalent of three cups of brewed coffee (or seven cups of instant) are more likely to hallucinate. I usually have about twenty cups of instant a day, so, assuming that I’m supposed to see a ghost, or something similar, after eight cups, I should be in contact with two and a half of those spectres per day. I’ve already had my daily chat with two of them, and I think I saw the half disappearing into a bedroom — I’m not sure if it was the upper or lower half, as I was so confused. Of course, maybe this study sheds some light on what George W. Bush was drinking when he saw the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

No hallucinations with my next gripe, though. A year last summer, I painted my garden wall coping slabs a nice brick red colour, and by the time May 2008 had arrived, they were in a mess with bird droppings of a white hue. I thought that this could easily be remedied, so last summer I was in Picasso mode again, and painted them white. However, they are in a mess again, this time with mostly black deposits. I feed those birds really well throughout the winter, and this is how they repay me! In spite of that, I am very fond of our feathered friends, and there is no truth in the rumour that I’m about to buy a couple of snakes in order to solve the problem, as happened on an island in the western Pacific. 

In the mid-1940s, the brown tree snake was accidentally introduced to what was then snake-free Guam. This snake became Guam's new top predator and ate its way through a buffet of the island's bird community. As a result, 10 of the island's 12 forest bird species are now extinct on Guam and the two surviving forest bird species remain only in tiny, localized populations where snakes are controlled. Guam's now silent forests currently hold about 13,000 snakes per square mile.

I vaguely recall that there are sayings about "a bird in the hand is worth two in the Bush", and "a snake in the grass", but I cannot seem to make a connection at the moment. Confusion reigns – I really do have to cut down on the caffeine.