Food for thought on a rainy day

It's been raining for two days non-stop and we have ordered out for lunch today because we don't want to venture out in the near-horizontal downpour. I am very much affected by the weather - on days like this I find myself moodily brooding over things. It appears that there is much going on in the world to brood over.

1. Sweden voted against the Euro despite the recent tragic death of Anna Lindh, a popular pro-Euro politician. I thought this would be the result, mainly because most of my Swedish colleagues at the Swedish bank were against it. Now, if bankers are against the Euro...

2. The world trade talks in Cancun collapse. If anything to me this signifies my belief that the world is increasingly polarising into the haves and the have-nots rather than a equalisation of the proceeds of development. If the developed countries carry on subsidising their farmers into producing mountains of unwanted produce which is then dumped onto the developing markets there will be no question about it, any attempts to assist development will be what I see it to be - a pretext which is used as a tool to blackmail weaker economies. If the main issues aren't addressed what's the point of carrying on giving small amounts of aid on the periphery? It just makes the weaker countries easier to manipulate.

3. Is the world becoming more sciences-friendly? I always thought this was the case - it seems that these days, if you want to argue for anything you need 'scientific' evidence. If you want to be vaguely 'mainstream' you need to have an MP3 player, surf the Web, or be good at other 'techie' stuff. Or am I twisting the arguments of The New Humanists? I sometimes wish I had more training in the sciences, at least to the point where I wouldn't be intimidated by it, and just enough to make me capable of evaluating the mountain of data I am subjected to everyday by the mass media. It would have been helpful during the SARS epidemic to know exactly how much risk was 'risky' to the point of fatal. Then I might have reconsidered taking my job so seriously and I could have ended up in the Red Sea working as a dive master instead.

4. Alizée is releasing her new album in Hong Kong - Mes Courants Electriques. HK Magazine votes her as better than Britney and Christina - "at least she looks demurely ladylike and doesn't try to imitate the 'Freak Me' posturing". Clearly this guy has not seen her music video for the song 'Lolita'. Demure? Ladylike? Why is the world now filled with teeny boppers? Why didn't I become a teeny bopper when I was a teenager? (I know why - don't tell me).

5. What has happened to all of my socks? None of them match. Maybe I should buy numbered socks to stop it from happening. But wouldn't that just make matters worse? I'd feel like an idiot if I was wearing a number 3 on my left foot while sporting an 8 on the other.

I try to set out to think about things other than me but it appears that introspection is the order of the day (together with won ton noodles). Maybe it's the effect of listening to yet another pop album - Michelle Branch's Hotel Paper. I really should get another CD to listen to.

On days like this all we need is to see robots having tea.