Pushing the 666 Button

As I write this at 9pm on Thursday 16/4/09 AEST an amazing figure is about to flash past on the counter to the right. Soon the US will have spent a mind-boggling $666,666,666,666 on the war in Iraq. What an achievement!

I'm not the least superstitious- at least not in my saner moments- but the line up of multiple 666's and the war in Iraq seems to have a certain apocalyptic symmetry.

You could argue that this money would have been far better spent on hospitals, schools, combatting the War on Warming (the real war we need to fight and win) and a myriad of other more socially responsible initiatives but this would deny the Boys with Toys (the military) their once a decade chance to test their new playthings in real life (and death) situations.

There seems to be something about the human psyche that means we feel compelled to hit the destruct/self-destruct button every now and then.

Don't bother reading on if you are expecting me to come up with a rational explanation for this bizarre behaviour. I don't understand it either. All I can do is comment on it and depair over it like many millions of others with a firmer grip on the reality of everyday life than the pollies and Generals who have their fingers on the triggers and red buttons of the World.

Speaking of nutters with their fingers on the trigger, Commodore Frank Bainimarama seems to be following the script in leading his country down the self destruct path. Frank's beef seems to be that the indigenous population have been or are likely to be overun by the Fijian Indian community.

Well Frank it's like this. The Fijian Indians are a hard working, commercially astute people who don't see their prosperity flowing from a life of navel gazing and drinking kava. In a perfect world we'd all like the indulgence of the latter lifestyle but the realities of the 21st Century mean that the only way you are likely to achieve it as a full-time pursuit is at the point of a gun. History shows that this situation will not endure. The pointees resent it and eventually hit back.

So instead of swimming against the tide of history, Frank would be doing his people a bigger favour by attempting to bring the two Fijian communities together, instead of pushing them apart. If not, then as if joined by an invisible elastic band, at some point the tension between them will mean they will be pulled back inwards towards a violent collision.

Perhaps in a decade or so this particlar button will be pushed.

Lest we Forget.