I’ve been fascinated by news and current events/politics for a long time. Dinner time as a child was ALWAYS spent in front of the news. Dad was (actually still is) addicted to the SBS World News, ABC News double feature every night and now, as an adult, I read the paper any way I can, whether it be hard copy, on the Blackberry on the way into work, or on the net. It’s usually the first thing I do in the morning.
It’s probably boring but if I was addicted to anything, it’d probably be that.
I remember my school teacher saying ‘Remember this day, you’ll be able to tell your kids you were watching it’ when talking about the Berlin War being pulled down. I remember being in Melbourne on holidays with my parents and watching their worried faces as the first Gulf war started. I remember well the call I got from a friend at midnight the night the twin towers came down, as it happened. I was up all night that night glued to the TV.
There have been so many events that have happened and thousands more still to come in my lifetime that will no doubt have me glued to whatever medium I’m using at the time. It would be a great industry to work in, irrespective of the left wing/right wing stations and arguments of bias and journalists selling out. At the end of the day, there would be so many reasons to get up in the morning. Imagine being the first to know, getting the information straight off the wire.
But I digress, this is not where this was headed.
As I mentioned above, my fascination is only escalating, and politics, both global and local, is a developing passion. I found this article yesterday and, when you see the words nurses and prostitutes in the same headline, well you just have to read.
So what the hell is this all about? Reading about the problems nurses face, and thinking about the $38billion dollars Brumby has promised to spend in Victoria on transport, putting roads in places that annoy some groups and please others, the balancing act of trying to keep the automotive industry afloat both here and in the US, the constant struggle Governments face winning or keeping world class events like the F1 GP, the FIFA World Cup and many others, mining uranium, dumping uranium, spending money on education, solving the problem with Melbourne’s CBD drinking problems the list just goes on and on and on.
It dawned on me. The planet is just one gigantic game of Sim City!
I’m quick to criticize, and to be honest Bush and Howard are practically criminals, but some of the decisions they’ve made have probably been hard for them, and obviously hard (or harder) for those most affected. But seriously, as a politician (major decision maker) how the hell do you make them? You’re guaranteed to annoy a large percentage of the population because it’s basically impossible to please everyone.
Of course, Sim City never had war. (Only alien invasions!)
And when you stuffed something up and annoyed your citizens, you could always start over.
