DIARY - Panic in Detroit....... Searching for Serenity in Sidcup and Blocked out in Blackheath
Date: 2009-04-29 15:18:17
Author: Pat Kent
Well, as the world, and not just Detroit, heads towards another media led panic, this time over swine flu, you have to look at the mess we've got ourselves into as a species. No doubt like many other viral and other outbreaks, BSE, CJD, foot and mouth, blue tongue etc it'll all turn out to be down to us, the human race; not nature or the poor old humble pig.
It'll be down to someone or other mucking about with viruses behind not-so-closed doors or some company deciding that in these times of recession they need to bolster their drug sales and profits by inducing a bit of fear and panic in the general populace.
I love a conspiracy theory, and this one looks like it's got all the right sub-plots. financial turmoil, poor country being targeted, spreading like wildfire, only one supplier of the anti-virus treatment, and links to a lot of well known names who can benefit financially out of all this.
I watched a "private" medical practitioner being interviewed last night on the TV news; he was issuing private prescriptions for the supposed anti-virus tablets. He was charging £50 per prescription and in many cases was not even seeing the patiient, since the requests wre coming in by fax. This is criminal! The man should be struck off the medical register for malpractice.
To make matters worse, the "impartial" BBC report actually publicised his name and the name and location of his company, no doubt fuelling the lemming like masses to increase their knee jerking need for treatment and through this media induced public demand swell this charlatan's coffers even more........Responsible journalism? it seems there is no such thing these days.
Another bugbear of mine is Transport for London [TfL] and local Councils who can't get their act together. Over recent months I've popped over to see a mate of mine for lunch in Sidcup once a week and my simple journey has been made more a trek because of the shambles in managing some quite simple road works in Sidcup town centre. It has been farcical watching two clowns operating traffic stop-go boards without any reference to the length of queues building up in either direction, the queues have extended back so far on occassions that traffic signals and roundabouts have locked up with no movement possible for ten to fifteen minutes. It's lucky I like listening to long songs! The real joke is that this work has been taking place almost right outside Bexley Council's offices and no-one has had the sense to take control and sort it out. Anyway, it looks like after several weeks the work is nearing completion and some "serenity" may return to my journeys through Sidcup.
Now TfL, what on earth possesses this bunch of idiots to close a load of other roads or undertake work in the area when they have the A2, one of south London's principal routes across Blackheath also shut for several months. They wouldn't allow anyone else to do it so why are they allowed to get away with it and screw up south London....They want us to get out of our cars, maybe they should get off of their arses and out of their offices and then they might just understand what they are doing to frustrate a quarter of London. The sooner TfL gets "slimmed" down the better.
Rant over
Pat K
© Pat Kent 2009 – All rights reserved. Pat Kent exercises his right to be identified as the author 2009