It has been a while since I have posted here, and I thought I would start up again with the recent bombings on the London Underground. As a whole, it was a shock to all in Britain when we switched on our televisions first thing in the morning to hear of the news. I particularly noticed an overview of the mood after the news of the attacks whilst in college; a collective depression almost. Everywhere I looked there were people frantically on mobile phones to check up on friends and relatives living and staying in London, praying for their safety?

After the full effects of the aftermath, it was interesting to look at the media as a whole, particularly the newspapers. Headlines of 80 Reported Dead and such. When I had found out that the actual death toll was reported at somewhere around fifty, I began to question why the news media had invented and printed such unjustified figures. Why, when so many people across the country were in a constant state of panic about the terrorism had occurred and the search for friends and loved ones? Why, as soon as a disaster has been heard of, television channels are competing for coverage and who can get the most updated information first?

My conclusion? We are living in a society that thrives on disaster. The news media is obsessed with the death toll; death sells and the higher the death toll the better. If there's any way to make things seems worse than they are, they'll do it. This trigger happy media that surrounds us is just another way to turn us into a paranoid nation, a nation following in the footsteps of America. Soon enough the immigration issue that arose at the general elections will arise again, everyone coming into this country for a better life will probably immediately be suspect in some way, planning the downfall of our "great nation". These events will power Blair and Bush on their little pretence of a "War on Terrorism" and a spree of campaigns and directives that with either have no effect or restrict our civil liberties. A vicious circle.

Don't think I am not shocked and appalled by the recent events, or that I am not sympathetic to those affected by such events, I am. But in terms of the operation of government and media, I remain cynical. I am not professing some universal "conspiracy theory", I am disollusioned by conspiracy theorists of any kind. But what gives the right of the media to publish unjustified "facts and figures" or the government to mould us around a position of fear and an obsession with terrorism? I think that it's now time that we all shut up about this event for a while and concentrated on other things, for instance, that little thing called G8

0.15%

That is the percentage of the US' Gross Domestic Product that goes towards aid in Africa. Proportionally, that may be a larger amount of money than any other country, but that's because they are economically the strongest and most developed country around. Compared to other countries and the G8 summit targets of 0.75% of a developed country's GDP towards such aid, the effort by the Americans is dismal.

So, what has been negotiated? Well, like here in the UK, the Bush says that aid from the US is set to be increased, but minimally.  Apparently the scheme to increase aid and cancel debt is not "part of America's budget aims". So tell me, Mr. Bush, what is? How about all the tens of billions of dollars that are going towards the Star Wars programme, a programme that should be long dead? Is there any need to be spending any money on this rather than helping the developing world actually develop?

The point of all this is that America needs to get its priorities straight. To be seen as the largest economy that actually gives a damn, rather than pouring money into its own stomach. The Bush Administration needs to wake up to this fact, needs to wake up to the realities that African countries are still plunged into debt, a debt that western countries don't rely on for gross income. And if we aren't so bothered about these massive debts that are still inflicted on people, then why are we still making people suffer.

This issue is here now, it's not waiting for anyone and it needs to be sorted.