Taking sides, sharing and playing nicely
I'm afraid this is all going to be highly metaphorical and abstract - I haven't been watching the news recently, and my sources for this range from anecdotes on international politics outside Europe to a popular children's movie.
This afternoon I was watching Muppet Treasure Island. Without ruining the plot for anyone who hasn't seen it but still wants to, there is a "Good side" and a "Bad side" in the film, and Kermit is on the good side. There's a point when they get to the island where the band is playing and one musician asks the other "Hey, are we on the pirate's side or the captain's side?". The other replies "Don't get involved in the politics, just play the gig".
In Singapore I heard a bit about South East Asian politics, and the well-educated and informed people I was dining with at the time made the various political factions in the region sound like bickering children. And it didn't take long for me to realise that this doesn't apply to just South East Asia, it applies to the whole world. The people who make the best politicians, and the people who rise to the top in the various parties around the world are the people who are best at bickering. Blair, Bush, John Howard over here in Oz, the opposition leaders (or whatever you call them) in the US and UK, Ms Clinton and Cameron - they were probably all little fuckers when they were children, the sort of child that makes you wish they hadn't banned smacking kids or the cane. You know, the sort that lie about something with a big grin on their face, like they're getting away with something. And they don't get any more mature about it when they grow up, they just get better at hiding it (in most cases).
When kids bicker and there's no obvious solution, the parents normally send them to bed. The problem is, there are no parents to do this, and no bed to send them to. Either that, or there's only one parent, and it's the same age as everyone else, it's just built like a brick-shithouse. Or further, the one parent we have is really a collective of children, and a handful of the kids seem to ignore the parent half the time anyway. Anyone who has read Lord of the Flies knows what happens when there are no parents.
So, to continue a metaphor too far, how do we stop Piggy from being killed? How do we stop Ralph and Jack going off to different sides of the island and putting on warpaint? When do the grown-ups arrive? And when two countries are in dispute, should we send in one of the parents we have, or just play the gig? What I'm trying to say, in as flowery and roundabout a way as possible, is how do we solve problems between two countries when the leaders of those countries are invariably both smug little bastards who won't ever back down, and who deserve a good slap?
I have no idea what this cartoon means, by the way, it just had a reference to Southeast Asia in it.
This afternoon I was watching Muppet Treasure Island. Without ruining the plot for anyone who hasn't seen it but still wants to, there is a "Good side" and a "Bad side" in the film, and Kermit is on the good side. There's a point when they get to the island where the band is playing and one musician asks the other "Hey, are we on the pirate's side or the captain's side?". The other replies "Don't get involved in the politics, just play the gig".In Singapore I heard a bit about South East Asian politics, and the well-educated and informed people I was dining with at the time made the various political factions in the region sound like bickering children. And it didn't take long for me to realise that this doesn't apply to just South East Asia, it applies to the whole world. The people who make the best politicians, and the people who rise to the top in the various parties around the world are the people who are best at bickering. Blair, Bush, John Howard over here in Oz, the opposition leaders (or whatever you call them) in the US and UK, Ms Clinton and Cameron - they were probably all little fuckers when they were children, the sort of child that makes you wish they hadn't banned smacking kids or the cane. You know, the sort that lie about something with a big grin on their face, like they're getting away with something. And they don't get any more mature about it when they grow up, they just get better at hiding it (in most cases).
When kids bicker and there's no obvious solution, the parents normally send them to bed. The problem is, there are no parents to do this, and no bed to send them to. Either that, or there's only one parent, and it's the same age as everyone else, it's just built like a brick-shithouse. Or further, the one parent we have is really a collective of children, and a handful of the kids seem to ignore the parent half the time anyway. Anyone who has read Lord of the Flies knows what happens when there are no parents.
So, to continue a metaphor too far, how do we stop Piggy from being killed? How do we stop Ralph and Jack going off to different sides of the island and putting on warpaint? When do the grown-ups arrive? And when two countries are in dispute, should we send in one of the parents we have, or just play the gig? What I'm trying to say, in as flowery and roundabout a way as possible, is how do we solve problems between two countries when the leaders of those countries are invariably both smug little bastards who won't ever back down, and who deserve a good slap?
I have no idea what this cartoon means, by the way, it just had a reference to Southeast Asia in it.
