Tuesday 1 March 2011

In the Black Stuff

Colonel Gaddafi has been the centre of attention recently for his eccentric fashion sense, his deranged ranting, and his, er, flagrant human rights abuses. Most people only "achieve" one of those, so I am simultaneously humoured and appalled by him. The humour comes from comparing his rants to Charlie Sheen's and creating my own Gaddafi-esque speech, the "appalled" comes from, well, this place.


The wider Arab world is also in a state of unrest at present, which has lead to an increase in oil prices. Something I would be interested to find out is what the response of the West would be if these protests spread to a regime where women are deprived of all civil rights and homosexuals stoned to death. A regime such as Saudi Arabia, with the world's largest conventional oil reserves. I somehow suspect that keeping motorcades moving will be the priority and our leaders will blithly ignore the suppression of political groups in order to keep cars moving, ideally on the way to homes with raised thermostats in a futile attempt to emulate Saudi desert heat on a cold February morning. Apparently Chris Huhne is saying we need to wean ourselves off oil, which is why the Transport Secretary is proposing raising motorway speed limits so we can get rid of it faster.

You also need oil to fuel helicopters to launch a bungled SAS mission and fly Prince Andrew around. A more sensible and economical use could be to ride around on scooters like you're in a folk rock group.

No comments:

Post a Comment