Infrastructure....

At least another view on the earthquake.

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Hmm.... Etna erupted again...8th time this year

Memory trigger! Peter took me to Taormina once for a week to celebrate his birfday... He was more than extravagant when it came to things like that. It isn't far from Mt. Etna. As in... within spitting distance. And while there, it sort of smoked lazily like someone enjoying a really good cigar outside a restaurant out on the street.

Wherever we went, it was there.... smokin' hot.

It sort of worried me at various times of the day, mostly because of the hotel we were in. It was built into a cliff over a cove, so of course I would think, 'if that thing erupts, there's gonna be an earthquake, and we are gonna slide into the sea.... at BEST...'

Don't get me wrong, it was idyllic, gorgeous tiled rooms with balconies looking down onto the cove, and birds I'd never imagined or seen before. The only problem with the hotel was that it was full of US tourists who were true 'Murkins. Loud can't define it. Ear-splitting oldies.

But I learned sneakrets. Like sitting on the café balcony while the oldies inside were discussing their remedies for digestive problems and what worked for them. Oblivious to the great beauty of the place. And why they never dress up abroad if they go to a cultural event. They were going to a concert or something and one exchange gave me the key to a massive mystery for me...

'You going out tonight?'

'Yes.'

'Are you dressing up?'

'No.'

'Why?'

'Because we're on vacation. ....... And we're not dolls!' My cappuccino flew out of my nose. Thank you Bubble-headed old Barbie and Ken.

Peter had always bugged me about why some US tourists went places looking rag-tag, taking back-packs to the Vienna State Opera, for instance. Hell, I'd worn a suit to watch the famous Salzburg marionette theater , and everyone was dressed formally for that. I hadn't known... So it was a revelation... or something. It became a huge joke with us... 'We're not dolls...' Uh-huh...

But when they were out on their day trips, the place was so quiet, and so beautiful, and would see steam pouring out of the ground less than a mile away, and look up, and there Etna was, smoking thoughtfully, or so I thought.

We had an incredible week there. I took a trip to Syracuse alone, because Peter had gotten a 24 hour bug. Guided tour. It was awesome. Met incredibly interesting people.

My favourite thing was to go up to the ruins of the amphitheater early in the morning which still had a proscenium, and through the arch, Etna was smoking away.

It felt like being transported back in time and into history.

The locals referred to it as 'the benevolent mountain', but seemed very wary of it.

I'd been to Pompeii years before, which was so impressive, I can't find the words. And Vesuvius was looming above it. Scientists are convinced that it might erupt again, although it has been dormant since the end of WWII. And are trying to get the people of 'New Pompeii' next door to sell their lands and leave. Which they refuse to do, because the farming land is so rich. Among other things...

I sampled orange juice from those places which knocked me out, and I HATE orange juice... or red wines that were so full, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Who would want to give up producing that, I ask you?

Let's face it... if Etna had erupted while I was there, I'd have been thrilled. Frightened, but thrilled. As long as I could live to tell about it...

As Mark Twain said after seeing an uncovered woman's face in palestine and realising he finally knew why the men there kiss... 'you have to travel to learn'. You can unlock secrets which have been a mystery to you. You can experience incredible things which go way beyond what you ever imagined.

But I DO know... I really wouldn't want to live near the foot of a volcano. Or on the San Andreas Fault, for that matter... I never understand why some people are so foolish that they re-build, and think it won't happen again. Cocked-up optimism???

Here's why...

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Well, at least I know I'm not alone in my opinion....

Read THIS.

It is important.

I have been looking for this all afternoon...

This is the most heart-breaking photo I have seen out of the Gulf this far It is a brown pelican, the state bird of Louisiana. I know, the PEOPLE are losing their livelihoods, their eco-system, and it makes me so sick to my stomach, I can and do cry over this. I found it so emblematic about everyone and everything down there. And it enrages me.

There are worse ones you can see here. I wanted to show Peter this one this afternoon.

Stories are coming out... There are blockades, reporters and photographers aren't usually allowed into the areas where this is occurring. And Billy Nungesser had his hands tied by BP. The coast guard wouldn't allow access, the Coast Guard backed BP up, and all this shit is going on.

Nungesser even let the cat out of the bag yesterday. They have a tiny local airport. Small planes that fly low over the Gulf. If reporters charter a local flight, to fly low over there, BP has the say, and refuse to let them take off if they are on the planes.

Since the fuck WHEN did the US have to take second seat to a British foreign company or power? Or did the Reaganistas and Bushistas re-write history again?

Thank goodness some courageous photographers got in there. The pictures are horrendous.

But the picture above is so iconic. For me, it represents the struggle that peope have as well, getting dragged down in the mire of a handful of greedy horrible people. And then everything suffers.

And you have to 'lurv' you some idjits who want to 'nuke' the leak. Riiiiiight.

I guess they never learned about Three Mile Island, or what Tschernobyl did.

Well, good luck with that one. Wanna destroy the whole damned planet hey?

Assinine.

But keep the above picture in mind. Because there are enough people and forces that will keep you down.

Update: the inimitable Annti just caught me up to date on 'Mr.' Nungesser. Oh-oh. Plays the media well, but not what he seems, so when he appears on your tee-vees, take a much closer look at what he says. It only goes to show I should write what I know, and that perceptions deceive. Won't make a public smear, but hoo-boy!!!

A message for Tony Hayward....... CEO of BAD PRODUCT

You want to get your bloody LIFE back? (That's what you said in a whiny self-pitying tone, you git...) Do us all a favor, Tony... Do it in hell. Because THOUSANDS of people have lost their livlihoods and existences thanks to your 'swell' mismanagement and grasping greed. You inflicted it on them, and the true impact has yet to be seen. Not to mention that a pristine ecological area won't come back for decades, probably. So you just go there, and get your life back, and I hope you suffer forever. Because you have given a new dimension to the concept of spoiled, snivelling, self-pitying prig. Not to mention a new definition of colossal incompetence.

Hat tip to Scott of Bill in Exile for posting the photo. Speaks from my heart, hey.

I really like this photo... the top hat for Congress...

BP's solution to their ever-growing disastrous machinations. Found it on Crooks and Liars. Can someone please tell me where the accountability is? Money for oil, big bragging about how they, Bad Product, can handle anything whatsoever, no problem???

Why, after nearly a month since this disaster began, is BP still calling the shots? Why aren't environmental experts being allowed full access? Because maybe it is worse than already being reported???

If anyone thinks that this news is only interesting and totally dismaying to people in the US... Well, I had an interesting encounter with a taxi driver yesterday. And she had on the news, taking me to the train station, because I was running way late. Nice lady, probably late thirties. And all of a sudden, she turned off the radio and sighed deeply. So I said, 'What?'

'Only 15%???!!!' That pipe they put down there where they were 'confident' that it would get 85% of the spill was reportedly only getting a fraction of it. "If they keep this up, mankind is going to kill itself, and we 'little people' have no say whatsoever as usual , we're just the marionettes...." Smart lady, hey....

Why does this remind me of something? Errrrm.... the aftermath of Tschernobyl, and how it affected the area I live in, for instance? I know a lot of people will say, 'oh, but that was far away from where you live, it couldn't have been that bad...' 'Far' is a relative thing, however....

There is this thing called the wind, you see, and it dumps things 'far away', it really does. You would think you are living in times of a biblical curse. Like the day I woke up, and everything was covered in fine red sand, and I thought, WTF???? Turned out it was from a storm in the Sahara desert, got caught in a high-wind air stream, and dumped on us. Weird things can happen.

So the wind dumped a mess of radioactiveness on us in Austria, back then. It impacted almost everything in daily life, way back then. Even today, I will not eat certain sorts of mushrooms from certain areas, and it will take about 200 more years to get rid of their cesium poison.

This disaster is more tangible, however. It is visible. Although one will NOT see the stuff affected by the dispersants BP has spilt into the Gulf in any way, or know how far those chemicals spread if they get into the so-called loop and then the Gulf Stream. Why, it could go all the way up the eastern coast, what a comfy feeling.

And it will be just like after Tschernobyl, because no one will see it, smell it, be able to taste it, and it will be deadly in some cases.

Some people will accuse me of hyperbole here. And no, am not a scientist. But I am not dumb either. People tend to grow and learn with age, if they are curious about their world....

So why the fuck hell are they letting BP run the show, and not call in experts?

Sigh, yeah, I know. It's always about money, and screw the poor. Way to go....