Econopolypse

This current economic crisis has seen the governments of Iceland and Latvia already fall to pressure from their people and the Left and many more stand on the brink. In general I feel inclined to agree with Naomi Klein in that there is a sense of injustice about the whole thing.

1) Kyshera once sang, "Economies are not forces of nature, they're man made and when they f*ck up, it's man's doing". Hence the feeling I get and see in protests is that it was the frivolous attitude of the City boys that made this mess in the first place.

2)The reason for a great deal of the outrage in Latvia and Iceland was the conservative governments giving aid to the Banks but not others who were consequently hit harder by this.

3)UK and US governments in particular were able to access and distribute VAST amounts of money almost instantly to attempt to shore up their economies. Yet, these kinds of bailouts cannot be used to help MAKE POVERTY HISTORY or get rid of all those diseases we have a cure for.

4)The global financial crisis is (like many global events) being used to smokescreen new initiatives and policies that are dangerous to civil liberties. I could write a whole book on these so I shan't discuss them all here.

Latest news however shows Lord Mandelson unveil his plan to sell off 30% of Royal Mail, an unpopular move both with the Unions and with his own party. Lord Mandelson justifies this in the strangest way, he says that the postal "network is under threat as people increasingly switch to digital technology as their preferred way of communicating" (www.news.bbc.co.uk).

I would have expected him to have justified it through the economic crisis, not the dangers of the internet and email destroying our beloved heritage.

"But in a letter to the Guardian, the leaders of Labour's eight largest affiliated unions attacked the plans as "electorally unpopular, politically unwise and damaging to the concept of universal service provision". Unions also claim this breaks an agreement made in 2008 to keep the service in public ownership (www.news.bbc.co.uk).

So we find that, like in 'Network' 'no one seems to know what to do about it!' I suppose that is why it is an econopolypse and not simply a recession like the numerous other ones this country has weathered.