Britain Say Something Relevent Shocker!

As it is the basket in which the US has put all it's eggs the me, Rihanna, Chris Brown love triangle is still going on. The happy couple are currently together in Germany and Rihanna is using Twitter to invoke possibly every rumour you've ever heard about her. So in the interests of openness and fairness I should give a quick review of Rihanna's "Diamonds" video. The references to drug use and the invocation of the riot imagery from the "Run This Town" video are quite obvious. However the duelling horses are supposed to be a metaphor for me and Brown - a comparison I only find 50% offensive. I suppose at a stretch you could use this to discuss Stalin's attitude to the Stakhanvoite miners using the Boxer character from the George Orwell novel "Animal Farm" but let's be honest it's hardly Wagner.

For their part Britain's Health Protection Agency (HPA) today published it's annual report into HIV/AIDS which according to media reports shows an 'alarming' rise in infection rates. As I'm sure you're all aware it is the fact that I am drunken, drug addicted, schizophrenic, AIDS-riddled, Islamic extremist who sends people to stalk hairdressers in revenge for bad haircut that means I have to endure all the restrictions placed on me. It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the Brits want me to work for them without them even paying me a piece-rate or allowing me the freedom to earn my own money. However if you get into the HPA report you'll find that the reason why HIV infection rates are rising in Britain is because people with HIV are simply not going on to develop AIDS or die meaning that there are simply more of them walking around. The situation in less developed nations (I think the term 'third world' is still relevant) such as sub-Saharan Africa is wildly different though. There poverty means that a lack of access to anti-HIV drugs, condoms and well food means that HIV infection is still most certainly a death sentence and the fact that a large number of people are dying in what should the prime of their professional careers is making that poverty much worse.

With major players including the Qatari hosts intent of making the whole thing about the so-called 'Arab Spring' especially Syria there is absolutely no expectation that the COP18/CMP8 will result in some big agreement to tackle global warming/climate change. In fact the time scale that everybody is working towards doesn't expect a deal on cutting greenhouse gas emissions to be reached until 2015. However there is some hope that some faint progress can be made on the areas of green development and adaptation covered by things like Nairobi Work Program, the Green Climate Fund and the Clean Development Mechanism. This is an area where the differences between the economically developed world and the less economically developed world seen in the HIV/AIDS issue are repeated. For example when a hurricane hits somewhere like New York in the USA the government can afford to house the homeless, give out free food and clothes and rely on generous charitable donations. However when the same hurricane hits a place like Haiti all that happens is their crops get destroyed and they starve. So adaption to climate hazards does need to be a priority especially as the expiry of Kyoto means that the frequency of climate hazards is going to increase and the collapse in the price of carbon credits means that one of the main mechanisms to help less economically developed nations adapt to those climate hazards is in danger of bankruptcy. However I think it would be much easier to reach an agreement by discussing the problem in terms of adaption to climate hazards rather then in terms of HIV/AIDS.

I should also mention the new twist in love triangle is that after been alluded to in yesterday's conviction of Melrose Place actress Amy Locane-Bovenizer in the US for vehicular homicide US actress Lindsay Lohan was yesterday arrested on an assault charge in New York following a fight in a nightclub. Today she has been charged in Los Angles over a car crash that occurred six months ago. This all relates to an incident in May 2007 when Lohan was arrested after a car crash during an alcohol and cocaine fuelled rampage. In order to make someone laugh on the Internet I may have said something along the lines of "Well we've all been there." Sadly the Judge in the case took this seriously and gave Lohan an incredibly lenient sentence. This led to Lohan believing that she was somehow above the law and since then it's been one disaster after another with the last I heard being she's now having to take charity off Charlie Sheen. So it says something worrying about the LA Court system that when I make an off the cuff remark they take it as gospel yet when I give them a carefully considered opinion backed up by evidence and they simply ignore it. Or to put it another way it looks like I'm going to have to keep my hand in on this one but the rest of the international community can feel free to ignore it. That's because Brown's tour ends in Paris, France on December 7th (7/12/12) and will be returning the the US shortly after so we can judge them by their actions then.


20:25 on 29/11/12.