I think I'll Just Go On Strike

I don't know about you guys but I really can't keep up anymore with what's happening. With all these endless statutory declarations, police report after police report, statements hither and thither, I can't get any of it straight anymore. Who did what to whom? Who has been plotting to do what to whom? Who hates who, who loves who? Sorry, I don't know anymore. I'd rather watch CSI frankly (or rather, right now, Wimbledon, which has just as much drama. Go Zheng Jie! )

While everyone bickers, admits, gossips, analyses, rumourmongers (the latest I heard today was that I was the last to hear that my Dad had had a heart attack...), I have a life to lead. I have a daughter who's turning 9 tomorrow and who has very set ideas about how she intends to celebrate it. I have columns and papers to write, a conference and a fundraiser to organise, people I need to talk to and decisions to make. At the same time, I have a home to run, kids whose studies I need to keep a watchful eye over, a husband who also needs attention and a small circle of friends I run to for support. I am just busy. With a capital B.

So I don't have time to keep up with all these shenanigans. The other day I went to fill up my car's petrol tank and thought there was something wrong with the counter showing the price at the petrol pump because it kept going on and on and didn't stop until it got to a ridiculous sum. Even the petrol pump attendant looked apologetic but it wasn't his fault. That is the price of petrol these days.

At home I find myself doling out money more frequently for my cook to buy groceries. Are we eating more or do things just cost more? I find myself rushing by the windows of boutiques so that I won't be tempted to go in and buy anything unnecessary. The only indulgence I allowed myself recently was lip gloss which somehow cheers me up.

I have to buy air tickets often because we are a two-country family and I also have to travel for work. These days what you pay for the surcharges and taxes would have bought you a seat on a pretty long flight not too long ago. I feel guilty about my carbon footprint but unfortunately I can neither sail nor bicycle to where I need to go. What to do?

So I think I will just go on strike. From reading the news. From being interested in what politicians are up to. From the so-called analyses of what's happening by people who don't really know anything. From the unceasing speculation. I don't know anything at all and I'm quite happy to admit that. And I don't care to offer an opinion either. I just have more important things to do in my life. And I will blog about things that I hope will make us smarter, not stupider.

Today the one thing that made me feel good was this: I went to eat at a restaurant in the basement of one of our big malls. The waiter asked me if I was who he thought I was. I admitted tis was me. And he said, "I know you because my cousin has HIV."

I'm not happy because his cousin has HIV but because he felt he could tell me that. And also because, as hubby pointed out, him acknowledging his cousin must mean he hasn't rejected him. One small victory against stigma and discrimination. I count these little blessings in our bleak landscape.