Peak Oil and the UK's first green MP

For a couple of years I have been hearing about "peak oil" - mainly from environmentalists who slightly surprising often quote reports and studies from their "enemies" in the oil / petrol-chemical industries.

I used to partly believe the stereotype that the green party was largely made of "left wing eccentrics", with passionate ideas but not always the most well-balanced and happy people (tree-huggers as Jeremy Clarkson or my brother would say). To my slight surprise, over my 6 years in Brighton, I have got to know several of our green activists, attended meetings, been to a House of Commons Select Committee (on Carbon charging) and I found the greens to be intelligent, realistic and surprisingly happy and balanced in their personal lives. Like a folk musician explained recently in an interview (Dick Gaughan on Mike Harding's Radio 2 show) - "I want to create a historical record ... to leave a foot-print in the sand ... that there those who fought against what was wrong". Going on there is an understanding that it is going to be very difficult to change the "majority tabloid driven" views however it is important to stand-up and say what you believe in and to start to make the difficult changes which it is human nature to resist. History has shown collectively we have a tendency to ignore tough problems until it is too late. Hard chance is going to be forced on us all in a "post-peek oil world", the general public may not accept this yet but the environmentalist and right-wing oil industry already know this.

One of the side effects of the current labour party collapse is to make the UK's first green MP in Brighton Pavilion a real possibility, the last general election (2005) was close

Labour 15427
Green Party 9530
Liberal Democrat 7171
Conservative 10397

in local elections since 2005, the green party have done stunning well. Caroline Lucas is a very impressive candidate, clear, well-spoken and stylish. She could well now become the UK's first green MP. Caroline was on the World Tonight (Radio 4) this evening - talking sense but it was not easy listening - we are going to have get used to a world with less and less cheap fuel and increasing oil production in the short term will (a) not solve the fundamental problem of peak oil and (b) not going help with CO2 emissions ...

Highlight of my day - bumping into an old friend :)

The highlight of my day was bumping into Michael from the Rainbow Chorus, walking along the Charing Cross Rd!

This photo (currently on the front of rainbow chorus web-site at rainbowchorus.org.uk) has both Michael and myself on it (both in green) and is from our totally amazing trip to Paris last summer! Although this photo doesn't really show it, Simon rather stole the day in terms of photos with the most incredible outfit ;-)

I really miss Brighton and although London is exciting, has fantastic galleries and restaurants and the best IT user groups - I want to move back to Brighton!

I've been in London for nearly a year now and I virtually never bump into people casually, and on the rare occasion I do, they are old friends from Brighton.

Still London is great for Nadjib's career - he is going to overtake me before very long! Mind you this is great by me :)

I also went to London Linux group tonight (www.lonix.org.uk). Some very interesting and colourful techies & eccentrics - a good night but I got out at the right time (i.e. before I got too drunk). This is doubled by the fact that I then bumped into Michael!

At the "Lonix meet" amongst other things I learnt about CP/M:

CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers) is an operating system originally created for Intel 8080/85 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. Initially confined to single tasking on 8-bit processors and no more than 64 kilobytes (64 KiB) of memory, later versions of CP/M added multi-user variations, and were migrated to 16-bit processors. ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/M)

All good techie stuff! Very nice and smart people but after two hours it was time to escape before I got too drunk - I do find London is too boozy!

Japanese in Brixton

Personally although I like Brixton, I also find it a bit intimating. It is extremely colourful and one of many things which surprises me about Brixton is the quality of Japanese restaurants! My favourite is Ichiban Sushi (quite simply superb food and pretty cheap as well), but this was shut today (Bank Holiday Monday) and so we went to Fujirama - another good Japanese! Both restaurant are great and are on Atlantic Road (near Electric Avenue)

Persepolis

I went to see Persepolis for a 2nd time today - the autobiographical "bande dessinée" by Marjane Satrapi, an Iranian, from a communist family but also with ties to an old Iranian Prince and fortunately educate in a French school in Tehran.

The 1st time I saw this film, was in Paris in May 2007, in a cinema next to the Centre Pompidou. Despite missing some of the detail the first time, I think I enjoyed the film even more the 1st time in French!

The film pushed all the right button for a left of centre, liberal audience but is also a great story. Highlighting how oppressive regimes operate, the casual violence of petty officials and the stupidity of such regimes and the frustration for intelligent people who must suddenly act in a subservient way to religious fanatic window cleaners... Unfortunately unlike our heroine manner of the characters to do not survive - many are tortured and/or executed!

The film also tells a lot about life in the West too, from apathy to teenage nihilism.

Everyone favourite character, is her grandmother, who is full of wisdom. Every-time she opens her mouth, she says something intelligent and insightful. My favourite is her counsel to a very frustrated Marjane, that she is "going to meet a lot of jerks in her life" (i.e. get used to it!). In another scene, she stresses the importance of integrity (Marjane has escaped trouble by dropping an innocent man into deep trouble) .

I couldn't help feeling lucky in life when I saw how tough her life was! But I still have to watch out too; for those jerks out there "waiting to trip you up" ...

There is much more to this film, I have seen it twice now but I know this is a film I am going to watch many more times :)

integrity |inˈtegritē|

noun

1 the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness : he is known to be a man of integrity.

2 the state of being whole and undivided : upholding territorial integrity and national sovereignty.

• the condition of being unified, unimpaired, or sound in construction : the structural integrity of the novel.

• internal consistency or lack of corruption in electronic data : [as adj. ] integrity checking.

ORIGIN late Middle English (sense 2) : from French intégrité or Latin integritas, from integer ‘intact’ (see integer ). Compare with entirety , integral , and integrate .

Dawit is back!

This morning I woke up early, suffering from:

(a) Drinking too much with my brother and sister. My sister (+ husband and two year old daughter) visit London a couple of times a year and we have traditional family get togethers at my brother's place where Charlotte (my brother's wife) cook fantastic food (the baked pink trout last night was superb) and we drink heartily. Unfortunately last night, we got a little carried away and I missed the last tube home (by a whisker) and had to catch the night bus to Elephant & Castle and then walked the last mile home at 1am - dooh!

(b) Yesterday I started some weight training - I've been doing a little too much aerobic exercise recently which is good for the health but I want to build-up a bit now. In the past, I've not been very good at weight training - I'll do it for a while and then get bored (fortunately I love aerobic exercise).

(c) Psychologically, I'm a bit sad about the Tory rout of Labour and in particular by Ken (who I liked) being beaten by Boris ...

The good news is that Dawit is back from Africa! And that he is fit and well :) Dawit's he is an old friend of Nadjib's. A great guy, but we have been concerned when he went to Africa to visit his family and didn't appear to be coming back? Anyway while my family where arguing about politics and getting drunk, Dawit's and Nadjib were having pizza and messing up my rubik cube.

Recently at work I have been on a "management / accelerated development" training programme (running over 12 month), this is mostly good health stuff: some management theory, a little psychology, lots of team exercises, the odd assault course ... Anyway one of the modules was about "selling you brand" (glorified CVs) and not surprisingly we had to describe "our greatest every achievement". Now my 8+ year relationship with my boyfriend may be my greatest achievement but that is not really suitable for "selling your brand" as IT technology specialist. Having solved the rubik cube, developing my very own solution from scratch (I didn't read the solution from a book!) at the age of 11 seems ideal. It was not the most elegant solution, a bit slow (typically 30 minutes to 1 hour) but it was my own solution and I was still at middle school!

Last year I picked up a rubik cube again and I was a bit sad when I couldn't remember how to solve it. However the rubik cube is ideal for the tube (I can even block out being packed into the jubilee line during rush hour - a rubik cube is a lot small than a newspaper and rush hour is too distracting for me to read a proper book). Anyway after a couple of weeks of enjoyable struggle, I finally solved it again - for the first time in roughly 25 years! This was quite a rush of excitement. I went on to complete my rubik cube 14 times in total (over a six week period) - and by the end I had the time down to about 1 or 1.5 hours.

Anyway I'm now studying my SAP notes everyday on the way to work (I may have to find a new job if my company want me to move back to Brighton / Worthing - officially I'm currently only in London on a temporary basis) and so I have put my rubik cube aside and go through my notebook (typically I learn a few interesting / useful new things about SAP and/or IT in general every day at work) . This is very effective for making sure I don't forget all the good stuff I learnt a few weeks / months before.

This morning while making an early morning cup of tea, I found my rubik cube undone, beside some pizza remains (young children and adults after a few drinks, can't resist a completed rubik cube). I was delighted when I solved it while making a cup of tea (under 10 minutes?). I'm sure there is an element of luck here but I am definitely getting better at the corner pieces (the difficult part). Last month after a visit by Nathan and his two year old daughter, it took my about half an hour to complete the cube. This is only the 2nd time I solved the cube this year but I am still getting better :)

The New London Mayor: Boris vs Ken

Let’s dive straight in - I don't like Boris.

Why does Boris Johnson get under my skin? Why is he the sort of politician that I don't trust and have a strong aversion too?

Firstly to be fair, Boris is a very talented guy: extremely clever, hard working, an excellent speaker, youthful, enthusiastic, funny and well educated (actually these last two are more debatable).

However the are a lot of highly talented people in London and let’s get to some of negative images / ideas I have about Boris:

1) His politics

On numerous occasions I have heard Boris speak (mostly on radio4) and he says things which make me want to shout and scream at my radio ;-) A few ‘which really stick in mind’ are his attacks on the smoking ban, congestion charging and the Kyoto accord. The first two are in my view are excellent policies making city living cleaner, safer and greener. Over the years Boris has tuned down his opposition to these broadly popular policies. To be kind, Boris does like to play the devils advocate sometimes on these debating programs. However he has shown his true colours – an upper class fool who has little idea about inner-city and/or metropolitan life for the less affluent?

2) An old fashioned racist?

Some very disturbing headlines:

"How can the Conservative party seek to gain credibility among black people while referring to them, as Boris Johnson has done, as 'picaninnies', and Africans as having 'watermelon smiles'?”

“Boris Johnson apologised again over race issues today after he was accused of condoning an article that claimed black people have a lower IQ.”

3) Attack on Liverpool

What more I can add …

Boris Johnson has been ordered to visit Liverpool to apologise in person for his magazine article that criticised the city's grief over Ken Bigley.

The Tory MP wrote in an editorial in The Spectator that the city was wallowing in "disproportionate" grief for Mr Bigley, who was killed in Iraq.

4) Private life

In France affairs are tolerated and private life is kept private. However here in the UK, we splash sensational stories and pictures from people private lives and past misdemeanours, all over the press. I’m uncomfortable with this practice but on the other hand French politicians are notoriously corrupt and have it too easy. Clearly there is a difficult balancing act here. However I am not convinced that Boris is a decent man?

So what about Ken?

Quite simply: a good guy with good ideas for London. A very decent man …

There is one area I would like to discuss, I think Ken gets a lot of unfair press: there are a lot of conservatives who will say anything to mock him. One case of this was Ken’s comments about the paparazzi and the practice of door-stepping being like “nazi concentration camp guards”. OK nazi is a taboo word and as a seasoned politician Ken should have known not to used it (although the right-wing press who have hounded Ken on this comment also hate ‘political correctness’ – now that’s duplicity!). But basically, Ken is right, the paparazzi behave like scum.

Anyway now the votes are nearly all cast and I’m a little sad as the polls suggest that Ken will lose…

NB Tragically in the mid 90s, about year before Diana death I started predicting that the daily press houndine and car-chases around London would lead to a tragic accident. Everyday I would see the press pictures and I knew what was going on was deeply wrong and it made me sad, angry, frustrated that it was so obviously wrong and dangerous but no one was able to stop the press witch hunt - until it would be too late …

NB2 Under French privacy law, not only does this protect immoral politicians but if Diana had been French and lived in France, it could have stopped the press harassment?