Sunday 5 September 1999
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Pic of the day: Look! I've not shaved since ... Thursday? And not
combed my hair either, it seems. (Actually I have combed. At least
twice.) I better shine up tomorrow morning!
Tomorrow my train leaves for Oslo and hopefully a few relaxing days with
the most interesting human I know (myself included). We expect light
shopping, with possible dinners in the afternoon.
Until Thursday my online presence will be spotty at best, quite possibly
none at all.
E-mail will not be lost - if I live, I will reply. (If somebody is
suddenly going to write me...)
What's with Brazil? I looked at the stats at Hungersite.com, which has a nice list of their donations by country. (Norway is still ahead of Sweden, though the difference is slowly getting smaller.) But the strange thing is the first countries on the list. USA as a supreme No 1 is no surprise. This is an Internet thing, and the US have a huge population with a high degree of Internet penetration. Unlike many other civilized countries, free local calls and cheap computers have put Net access in the hands of the middle class. But Brazil as an undisputed No 2? Far ahead of a packed field of European countries? I know Brazil is big. Like, not only does it cover quite a bit of South America, but it is pretty well populated too. But honestly, I wasn't aware that there were 5000 people with Internet access there. OK, perhaps that much, but not more than in the largest European countries put together. Brazil is supposed to be a developing country, yes? Third world, poor, beggars in the street. Not where I'd expect a strong Internet presence. At least not on the level of big European countries. Obviously even I can be wrong sometimes. :)
Funny how the press (with the notable exception of
The Economist
portrays most of the world in the same manner. Unless there is
starvation, it is simply not of interest to us. Well, that or war.
These things often go together. First a war, preferably a "civil war".
(As if any war could be civil...) Then starvation. Spot the pattern.
Hmm... perhaps any country that stops engaging in wars will eventually
lose its third world status? It would not surprise me. Things were
pretty bad here too during the war, if old folks are to be believed.
Tonight I dreamt something symbolic, I guess. I dreamt that a young girl was walking up the side of a large pile of sand. Boys were walking after her, but they were as small as large ants. And the feet of the girl caused sandslides, just because she walked, not because she wanted to. And the boys were buried by the sandslides and drowned. She did not want that, but she had not asked them to follow her.
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