No More Guns

Just to say that each time I tried to write a post today - Monday as usual - my phone pinged again with more news from the Las Vegas shootings.  And I just could not seem to find the right thing to whitter about in the light of the awful news.

So I am not posting fully this week.  But I am going to add my small voice to the pleas for gun controls in America.  I just do not understand how anyone can want to live in a place where it is legal to carry a gun openly, where anyone can own a machine gun or worse, where no real checks are carried out on those who own guns.  I understand that you cannot stop people who are very determined.  But I don't think there is any reason to make it easy for people to get hold of whatever they feel like having in their gun cabinets.  

It would take a mighty federal effort now to change the US and it would take a long, long time to change the culture.  But someone needs to be brave and take the initiative.  And I am not sure it is Trump, if you look at his supporters' priorities, backgrounds, etc...

In San Diego last year, we went to a 'sporting goods' superstore, looking for particular trainers for my son.  To our amazement, there was an enormous area devoted to guns and their accoutrements.  Just there, in full view.  Never seen anything like it in the UK and hope never to do so either.  I would not like my children to think such display of killing machines was normal.

As someone said on Twitter today, 'less thoughts and prayers and more action needed this time'.

The Curious Case of Kim K

In a world where thousands of people are dying everyday in unnecessary wars, where the resources of the planet are far from equally shared and where we seem to have a major leadership crisis, apparently one rich (mainly naked) woman being held up and robbed at gunpoint is worthy of major news items on all media sources this morning.

Kim Kardashian.  That juggernaut of celebrity for celebrity's sake has been robbed - but not harmed - in her hotel room in Paris.  Twitter is divided between her fans saying 'she is a mother, wife and daughter' like anyone else and many from the US pointing out how many black people are being shot on a daily basis in the States.  Interestingly for a UK person, many US tweeters are also saying how they too have experience of gunpoint robberies and feel sorry for it to happen to Ms Kardashian/Mrs Kardashian-West (or whatever she calls herself).

How have we reached this point?  The woman has been in Paris for 'fashion week', although wearing less and less clothes every day.  Her every move is followed by an enormous press pack and millions on social media.  But I just don't understand what she 'does'.  She became famous for a 'reality' TV programme and a sex tape but has accumulated vast wealth.  But she makes no attempt to use her 'power' for good.  Other than a brief self-interested dabble in Armenian politics and history (funnily enough for this blog, her family tree is Armenian connected), she does not seem to comment on anything contentious. Let alone encourage her millions of followers to help society in any way.

In the days before social media, Princess Diana made a conscious decision that if she was to be followed by a massive press pack for the rest of her days, she would at least give them some issues to think about while they were trailing after her.  Via their coverage, she was able to raise world issues such as the landmines crisis by barely uttering a word.  Of course, the irony is that she died trying to escape the press pack.  In Paris.

But that sad fact aside, I think we should now hope that this experience will cause Kim Kardashian to finally say something of use to the world.  She could now properly make a statement about the effects of gun crime.  Apparently she is traumatised - as you would be - by the experience.  Her cameras (and where were they at the time...?) should record the effects of the trauma.  And then she should begin to strongly campaign for gun controls in the US and put her influence to good use for once.  Rather than to sell stuff or show off her quite bizarre backside.

And if she wants to perform a service to the world rather than just the US, she should link her gun control campaign to a plea for people not to vote for Donald Trump.  

Imagine.  Kim Kardashian saves the world.  Now that would be a headline.