Guns, Politics and Perfume

My mother recently got described as a hippy by a friend of mine. I laughed in her face – a little bit and then thought about it. She wasn’t a hippy. Granted sometimes the colour co-ordinations were slightly off centre, but then you could ask, off whose centre? And she does have small lapses when mixing crocs and stripy socks – but not enough to be described as a hippy. My mother and I, due to her, do embody all things green. We recycle, we buy organic, biological and if we could we’d be plucking things from the earth – and by ‘we’ I mean ‘she’. I draw the line in certain places and depending on who’s looking…
We’d be slightly sick in the head if we weren’t ‘all for’ world peace, of course we are, we just don’t spend the day toting the ‘love, peace and multi-colour’ sign, nor do we mirror the Asian tourists waving the two fingered peace sign (and camera). And though my mother does eat, wash and sleep all products eco-friendly/good for you and the world, I must admit I let the side down with cosmetics, perfumes, body washes, toxic waste deodorants (you use them too…) but heavens, I love smelling good and perhaps your last whiff of the world to be your very expensive, favourite perfume (which your mother described as smelling like toilet air freshener) wouldn’t be such a bad thing? What is bad on the other hand, is to discover that the good smelling world I inhabit has affected my already very sleepy brain cells. The perfume has gotten to me. Years of wearing more perfume than clothes has finally addled my brain and left me nearly permanently in a bubble filled of nice smells that draw a smile (and make one look a tad special perhaps.) Therefore I have decided that maybe I should step outside of my warm, fuzzy, pleasant on the nostrils bubble. So I read the news. Not the celebrity news, give me some credit – I save that for bedtime reading. I mean, hard hitting, private world destroying, nightmare creating news.
At the end of the day, by the way isn’t that such a silly saying? In the middle of the day, actually, our world is horrific. Everyone is always dying and bombs are going off, and we’re all going to be poor and living under bridges next time we blink, and don’t have kids and bring them into this world, and don’t pay your parking fine because you’re probably contributing to some sort of corruption, and if you’re not dying of old age already, you are bound to die tomorrow because the world is going down the very loo you’ve been told to sit on to not retain liquids or clean out your toxic colon- goodness gracious me. Why oh why would you not want to live in a perfumed world?? Even if it does smell of toilet air freshener. Why? Because of the power of politics, that’s why. Yes, I know, for all those close to me this last sentence has either left you reeling or you are sitting there wondering what stupid thing I am about to come out with. This is the girl who once said the crummy thing about communism was that sharing mascara was unhygienic and when asked whether she had an opinion about Obama having just been elected answered, I did, hang on, but I can’t remember it now. So yes, deep breath and read on. Politics, our choices and information or lack of- regarding both, can have quite impacting results.
Apparently I can vote already. Apparently I could already have been voting for 3 years. And in two countries. The fact I haven’t voted does not mean I see myself as politically atheist, I’d say it mixes in with geography and the end result would be ignorance. Plain and simple. Thus, upon informing myself a little bit, I quickly wished I hadn’t and realized why I live quite happily knowing N-O-T-H-I-N-G. What I did find out was that Spain is breaking the law a little bit; the country that’s known for its ‘siestas’ and ‘fiestas’ and ‘sangria’ and royal family in the Hello magazine every other week, is breaking a serious law, with seemingly no repercussions. Spain is 6th in the long list where (Hello Britons, you’re dodgy too) the biggest exporters of Arms are listed worldwide. Spain didn’t used to proudly occupy the 6th position, but like a socialite, it has climbed its way up the ladder and perhaps is the only thing it has achieved this year. Rumour has it - remember, I live wrapped in Lacoste smelling cotton wool. But through this cotton wool I have learnt that there is a law (that came about in 2007, about the Selling of Defense Materials and their Double Usage) stating that Arms should not be sold to countries where there exist feasible reasons that they could be used to perturb the peace, used in a manner opposite for which they were sold etc… (http://www.soitu.es/soitu/losdesastresdelaguerra.html). Following this, the somewhat extensive list of Guns and Stuff clientele are indeed countries that have rap-sheets longer than my already discussed very big foot, regarding Human Rights Violations and GBH in the style of Guns, Bombs and Hurt. Not good I hear you all chorus, no, not good. It is all happening under our noses and the frustrating thing is that no matter what perfume you wear, little can be resolved by us, the people. So from the safe vantage point of my good smellin’ bubble, I can only presume that what Spain did was vote for a President that said he would make sure the country would bump itself up in some kind of ranking, be it best tasting dog food or otherwise. And dammit it did. And it got aired on National TV. Ooops.
From this I have learnt that my stance of Ignoramus Maximus re. all things political is perhaps better. It appears that the other option would be a whopping headache. Don’t vote for this one, vote for the other one, but make sure he’s not lying or looks like he could sport the ‘guilty’ look well or actually just make up your own political party and hope your extended family supports you to make up numbers. Politics is another world with a language I do not speak and quite frankly think with the way my mind is wired, better not to try and learn. I have been shocked out of my comfort shell, my eyes opened that little bit more and slowly I gain a better view of our world. Guns, politics, human rights, perfume, chocolate, unveiling on national TV and somewhere in between a good old ‘Friends’ episodes to make it all easier to swallow. Short of getting up and ranting at some politician, who no doubt would have us tasered in seconds, I see the next best thing as becoming informed. Information is gold, it will make the world go ‘round and help us make better informed decisions. Not just about choice of perfume for the day.