Satellite images from last year (left) and earlier this month (right) give an indication of the extent of this year's Pakistan Floods. Terrible though they are, are they just a taste of things to come?

Really, you’d have to be living in a complete news vacuum to have missed the awful disaster which this year’s monsoon floods have caused in Pakistan; The UN has now declared that the scale of the crisis is greater than the combined effects of the Haiti earthquake (Jan ‘10), the Kashmir earthquake (Oct ‘05) & the Asian tsunami (Dec ‘04) and has left over 14,000,000 without food or shelter and at risk of falling victim to the host of diseases which commonly occur in the aftermath of major flooding.
One bright note is that this disaster has seen an unprecedented response from the public, with donations actually increasing as the crisis entered it’s second, then third week; very different from the usual pattern seen in these kinds of cases, where “donor fatigue” tends to kick in after the first week irregardless of how well the effects of the disaster are being dealt with at that stage.
However, for all that the response, both in the UK and internationally, has been amazingly generous so far there is still much work for the aid agencies to do, and many, many flood victims who still need the help of the international community if they’re to have any hope of returning to a normal way of life any time in the foreseeable future!
Unfortunately there are many despicable scammers in this world, and in particular on the internet, who’ll take any chance to profit from the misery of others, so if you’re planning on making a donation it’s best to go through the DEC, or one of their well known, reputable members such as Oxfam who, like most of the major UK charities, now have a page dedicated to the Pakistan Flood appeal.

Anyway, that was all a bit of an aside, an incredibly important aside, but a tangent none the less.
The real question I wanted to ask in this blog post was whether these floods, described as a “once in a century” event, are another sign that Climate Change is indeed a real and pressing problem which should concern the whole global community?

I understand the principle that climate is a long term pattern, and that it can’t judged by single isolated events, no matter how catastrophic, but it seems to me that we’ve been getting more and more of these “once in century” type of weather events over the past decade or so, and I truly wonder how much longer the climate change deniers will be able to keep their heads in the sand and continue to refute that there is a shift occuring in the planet’s weather patterns?
I can accept that there’s still a lot of debate to be had over the extent of anthropogenic climate change, and, in turn, how much humanity can do to mitigate the global climate change, but surely we’re now getting to a stage where denying the existance of a pattern of climate change is a thoroughly asinine position, and one which is only likely to be held by either the woefully gullible or those who are motivated by profound self-interest.

It turns out that eBAM (electronic Bank Account Management) is indeed a banking product, and one which will certainly make the life’s of banks and big companies’ finance departments easier, although how much difference it will make to us “little people” is debatable; it’s most likely that any benefits which we do experience will be knock-on effects that aren’t exactly likely to revolutionise banking from the perspective of the man in the street.

It appears that eBAM is a new addendum to Corporate Treasury Management Systems (TMS, another acronym I was previously unfamiliar with,) which basically seems to be an impressive sounding name for the software systems which most any decent sized business is likely to be using to look after their finances and banking. However, eBAM apparently gives businesses a greater ability to keep an eye on the current state of their finances and banking facilities. Whereas previously a great deal of important information was transferred around businesses on paper or via emails, both of which can be all too easily misplaced, lost, or forgotten about, eBAM consolidates much of a business’ important banking information into one secure system which allows the information to be retreived electronically, at a moments notice, by anyone with the appropriate access rights.

The big difference with eBAM is that businesses will now have the capability to be far more aware of the exact state of their finances at any given point, which should make it far easier to spot potential financial problems as they emerge, as well as generally allowing a greater awareness of the exact state of their finances.

So, will it make a big difference to the majority of the population? The answer is, that as a product largely aimed at business, not really. However it does sound like this system has the potential to allow financial problems to be spotted easier, & earlier, than was previously the case, and should therefore help companies avoid becoming financially over-exposed to the point where collapse is a real danger, as happened to some very big names during the 2008 economic crash.
Unlike some writers, I wouldn’t go so far as to call any banking product “sexy”, but on the whole eBAM seems like it’s going to reduce the chances of another financial collapse or, if it does happen, at least negate the ignorance excuse on the part of bosses, and if that means there’s less chance of tax payers being forced to bail out the financial sector again that can only be a good thing!

Of course it does vary from company to company and while some are charging little more than a tenner a week others have cranked their car seat hire charge up to nearly £70, almost as much as it costs to hire a car in the first place!
The piece also claims that, not surprisingly, prices vary largely from location to location, with the research pointing to some prices at Majorca’s Palma airport being the highest, while it found the cheapest prices at Nice’s Cote d’Azur airport in France.

Obviously, as with any purchasing decision, the wisest course is to remember the caveat emptor principle, and always do your research thoroughly so you can ensure that you get the car hire deal which best suites your means, and your needs! Apart from anything else it looks as if taking the time to look before you book could save you up to £60 a week, which while not an earth shattering amount is still extra holiday spending money you could have in your pocket!

Flowering only very rarely the Corpse Plant is guarenteed to cause a stink in the botanical world whenever it blooms.

However, amongst botany geeks the Corpse Flower appears to be quite a hit; There aren’t many of them to be found outside the plant’s natural habitat, the rainforests of Indonesia, and they rarely flower in the wild, let alone in cultivation, so maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that whenever one of these bizarre organisms blooms in captivity flora-philes come flocking to see the unusual sight, and “experience” its unique scent.

On this occasion it’s the specimen held at the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) which is due to flower, and such has been the buzz it’s created that not only have the HMNS set up a webcam, & a “Corpse Flower Watch” on their blog, complete with daily updates on the plant’s progress and measurements of its growth, but, with the fragrant flower due to open its petals any time this week, they’re also planning on opening the museum 24hrs a day while it’s in bloom.

The plant, named Lois, has also become a bit of a celebrity on Twitter, so if you’re a would-be botanist, but not based within travelling distance of the HMNS you can still keep up to date with its progress minute to minute.

Still, as the lesser partner in the coalition it’s only realistic that the Lib Dems will have to accept a large chunk of compromise, and will have to, no doubt, support policies which they wouldn’t naturally be inclined to put in their own manifestos. At least that’s what my inner pragmatist has to keep telling the part of me which is a little upset about my vote ending up shoring up a party who I didn’t want in power. Ho hum, it’s an imperfect system, although the possibility of electoral reform before the next election is a consolation, and I’m very glad that the Lib Dems (mostly) stuck to their guns on that point.

The other Lib Dem policy which I’m pleased to see survive the horse trading was the increase in the income tax allowances. OK, so it’s likely to be trickled out over several years (& I certainly won’t be holding my breath to wait for the allowance to hit 10k) but I really believe that this is one of the best moves, in terms of relieving poverty, which any govt could make; forget the Tax Credit scheme, that was a dishonest PR scam from the get go, its main purpose seemingly to be that it allowed Mr Brown to crow about how he was helping the poorest in society, while actually making a system of such byzantine complexity that many who were eligible for payments never bothered to try and claim!

I’ll be interested to see how the overall tax burden shifts under this new Govt, and, for anyone else who’s interested, Coutts bank have a pretty useful resource on their site which provides a clear and concise breakdown of the UK’s main tax rates, although their income tax section is probably the most useful for the average person in the street.

Anyway, we’ll have to wait for Osborne’s emergency budget on the 22_nd June to find out exactly how the financial future of this country is likely to look. There’s been a lot of talk about cost cutting, the tightening of belts, and times of austerity, so we’re obviously being prepared for the worst, and the internal governmental cost cutting measures which have already been widely reported are surely more about fostering the Tory campaign mantra of “all being in this together” than actually making any significant dent in the national debt.
Still, govt certainly got pretty bloated under New Labour, so it’s probably a sensible move, even if I’m not convinced by the over-arching Tory strategy of starting to make cuts while our recovery from the recession is still so potentially fragile.

Of course the news, from the Office of National Statistics, that the Govt spent £7bn less last year than predicted might make Osborne’s first budget a little less stark than it would otherwise be, but if, as chancellor, you have to put tough measures in place the best time has surely got to be just after an election, so the electorate will have time to forget, and calm down, before the next election. Guess we’ll find out in about a months time…

Spanish Festivals

It would be easy to point at some of the annual Spanish traditions and poke fun at their eccentricity, and I must admit I was tempted, but then I remembered that I come from the country which has brought the world Cheese Rolling and Morris Dancing; I think most countrys have their little quirks and oddities and, although from a 21_st century perspective it can be easy to be derisive of these quaint old traditions, it’s important to remember that, almost universally these strange old customs sprang up for reason, which presumably seemed good at the time, and that their preservation gives us a glimpse into a past.

Moros y Cristianos
These go back to the battles between the Christians and the Moors during the days of the reconquista, and are actually observed, in some form or another, in lots of Spanish towns. The most famous of these takes place in Alcoy, Alicante, and, from what I’ve heard, is well worth checking out. The event commemorates the Battle of Alcoy (1275) in which the Moors, led by Al Azraq, were defeated, and forced to lift their siege of Alcoy, when, according to the legends, St George miraculously appeared to aid the Christian defenders. From the research I’ve done it sounds like the best way to take in this one is to sort out a hotel and car hire in Alicante, and then travel to Alcoy rather than base oneself in the town itself.
Unfortunately it doesn’t look like I’m likely to catch it this year, what with it taking place between the 21_st & 24_th of April. Still, it’s one to put on my “one day” list.

Las Hogueras de San Juan
Although this festival’s name translates as “the Bonfires of St John”, it actually pre-dates christianty, being a celebration of the Summer Solstice. Although the festival is celebrated throughout Spain it is especially well observed in coastal regions where it is traditional to head to a beach, light a bonfire, & party through the night. Alicante is particularly well known for its lavish celebrations on St John’s day (June 24_th), which include spectacular fireworks displays followed by the burning of large, wood and paper mache, figures in the city’s main squares and plazas. Although the 24_th is the focal point of the festivities Alicante’s celebrations actually run from 20_th to the 29_th of June with drinking, dancing and fireworks forming the core of each night’s revelries. This one sounds like a huge amount of fun, and is definitely something I want to experience, if not this year then certainly before I get too much older!

La Tomatina Tomato Festival
This event which takes place in the village of Bunol, near Valancia, in the last week of August each year, is basically a massive free-for-all food fight (tomatos obviously). The tomato fight happens on the Wednesday lunch time in the town centre and surrounding streets, such are the number of revelers, but the celebrations themselves actually start several days earlier. Unlike a lot of quirky traditions this one isn’t that old, and has only been around since the 1940s, when some youngsters started throwing tomatoes during an entirely unconnected parade. The following year they repeated the tomato fight, despite the local council’s best efforts to prevent it, and over the years it became an accepted event in its own right. These days the population of Bunol swells from ~9,000 to ~30,000 each year during the festival, making it a strong contender for the title of World’s biggest food fight.

Baby Jumping Festival
Yes, really, a baby Jumping festival! this is actually the town of Castillo de Murcia’s own variation on the catholic festival of Corpus Christi. The event involves men dressed as the Devil leaping over babies which have been placed upon the ground, a process which supposedly protects the newborns from the evil. Maybe I’m not being fair, or am missing something, but this one doesn’t really appeal to me that much, and I honestly can’t see myself bothering with it, it just sounds like an extremely unpleasant accident waiting to happen, but then maybe that’s because I’m old and boring.

I have to say that the first two are the ones which most appeal to me, and as I’ve missed Moros y Cristianos (this year) it’s looking like if I do visit Spain this year it’s going to be around mid-summer to catch the Las Hogueras de San Juan, that really does sound like my kind of party, and from the sounds of it Alicante is the place to be for that one. I haven’t made any solid plans yet (I guess I should get around to doing that at some point soon or it will be a mid-winter break, rather than a summer holiday, by the time I get my act together.)

If you’ve been following the UK news you’ll know that the FCO have closed their embassy in Bangkok today. Although the majority of the mainstream news is superficially doing its best to make the move sound like an extreme reaction to an extreme situation, the current reality is (as the Independent points out) that the embassy is being closed as a temporary measure because of it’s proximity to the ongoing protests in central Bangkok; from some of the news headlines floating around you’d think that the embassy’s closure was almost a breaking off of diplomatic relations between the UK and Thailand, but then I suppose good news never sells as well.

Still, despite the media games the situation over in Thailand is pretty severe at the moment, with tensions between the Govt supporters and the Red Shirts at an all time high. The troubles go back to 2006 when Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted by a military coup only weeks before an election was due. Although an election was later held, in 2007, the country’s constitution had been rewritten by the Junta in the mean time, and charges that the Thailand’s current political system pays only lip service to democracy are at the root of the troubles we’re currently seeing.

As someone from a country with a well established (if quirky in its own right) democracy where a military coup is pretty much unthinkable, it can be all too easy to pre-judge what is a complicated, and very different, culture. Thailand’s govt was an absolute monarchy up until 1932, and, although the exact form of govt has changed several times since, it has retained a constitutional monarchy throughout. Indeed, the Thai monarchs seem to have remained a far more important and respected part of Thai life than our own constitutional monarch.

My point is that, although superficially there may be similarities between the UK and Thailand’s systems of  Govt, we’re talking about a very different culture with very different traditions, and one which is relatively new to the ideal of democracy; as such it could be all too easy to see those who enacted the military coup as the bad guys of the piece, and while I’m not condoning coup d’etat as a method of forming a govt, it must also be noted that some serious charges of corruption and abuse of power were made against Thaksin Shinawatra, and used as the excuse to remove him from power.

So, were the coup-masters patriots serving the best interests of their country, or power hungry generals overthrowing a benevolent, democratically elected PM? Unfortunately the answer seems to depend on who you ask; even four years on Thaksin Shinawatra remains an incredibly divisive figure in Thai politics with large portions of the country’s populace polarised, either supporting their former PM, or the men who overthrew him.

The question is that with the Thai people, and popular opinion, so divided how will it be possible to find a lasting, peaceful solution to the troubles which currently plague not only Bangkok, but many of Thailand’s other provinces? It’s hard to see an answer, even yesterday both journalists and Major General Khattiya Sawasdiphol, a prominent figure amongst the Red Shirts, were shot, alledgedly by Govt forces; developments which are almost certain to fan the flames!

In the end it’s likely to be the ordinary Thai people who suffer most from these troubles, regardless of the side they’ve taken; if nothing else the tourism industry is worth a substantial amount to the Thai economy and it’s hard to see this unrest not dissuading people from visiting the country. Even our own FCO is now advising against all but necessary travel to the country, and although Bangkok doesn’t sound like the ideal holiday destination at this very moment, it appears that the troubles are mainly effecting the central and northern regions of Thailand rather than the southern peninsula which has been unaffected so far, and is a destination of choice for many tourists seeking a relaxing beach holiday.

So, while flights to Thailand continue, one has to wonder how empty they are at the moment; most people will (wisely) take notice of official govt advice, but in these days of over-accountability and media witch-hunts you can see why the FCO would feel obliged to issue a warning for the whole country, rather than risk the bad press which would come if they said the country’s south was pretty safe, only for a UK tourist to later come to some harm.

Hardly a gardener's favourite, will the dandelion, and other wild flowers, soon be nostalgic memories?

Still, with most of the countryside given over to agriculture, the nation’s verges are one of the more common refuges left for the Britain’s wildflowers, and there are concerns that we may see some species disappear altogether if the Danish rampage continues.

If it was just the dandelion I doubt anyone would mind, but it would be a shame if, in the future, the only way to see some of the nation’s flowers was to order them from a florist.

Wrong sort of red shirts, apparently this type don't need to steal vans, what with living in space and all.

The news piece is actually about Thailand’s United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) movement, who are known as red shirts. It would seem that things are quite tense over there at the moment, with recent clashes between UDD protestors and soldiers at rallies held by the movement.
This obviously begs the question of why UDD members would be hassling reporters, generally, if you’re trying to be a popular movement you’d think it might be wise not to antagonise the media too much.
Actually though, that is exactly the source of some UDD members’ anger, claims that major news stations are being biased in their reporting of the UDD’s activities & heavily favouring the Thai govt’s position.

Anyway things boiled over at a UDD protest on Saturday and the media were asked to leave, but some of the protestors followed the media, and forced at least one crew to abandon their van.
However it seems that no-one was too badly hurt, and calmer heads soon prevailed amongst the UDD, with one of the movement’s leaders asking the media to continue covering UDD events, & urging UDD members to let the media get on with their jobs in peace.

So, sadly, there’s no point running to the Thai version of the Exchange and Mart to look for high tech bargains in the Used Vans section.

There certainly doesn’t seem to be any doubt as to the need to role out 4G mobile access as soon as possible; there are plenty of articles around which are talking about how the popularity of both smart phones and dongles are putting strains on the country’s current mobile broadband capacity! And although deals like being able to get hold of free sims, which themselves allow unlimited free Skype conversations, are absolutely great for consumers looking to save on call charges, it would appear that the popularity of the new technology has wrong footed some providers.

Although it does definitely have its uses, both business and pleasure, mobile broadband is only part of the country’s broadband dilemma, some would say that the establishment of decent high speed internet infrastructure is a bigger and more important challenge for the future, and that’s possibly why we’ve recently seen all the main parties come out with their ideas for how this can be achieved.
This article gives a pretty good overview of the positions of the main parties, and in my opinion is well worth a look if you want to get a quick, at a glance, summary of what each is proposing.
Of course, promises are easily made, and all the more so in the run up to an election, but are not always so easy to deliver on. There’s also the chance that they may suddenly become less urgent in the minds of our political masters once the next Govt is securely in power, and doesn’t have to bother with annoying little details like serving the electorate, or keeping election pledges, but we’ll see.
They certainly all seem to have plenty of ideas of how to skim more money out of us to fund these changes. The Tories would like to take BBC funding to bank roll their super fast broadband plans, while Labour and the Lib Dems are behind the idea of a land line tax, although it seems that the Lib Dems have thought a little more about the equitability of such a levy.
There are also differing approaches as to how to get the more remote areas of the country hooked up with super fast broadband; here the problem is that everyone’s agreed that it’s a good idea but no one really wants to pay for laying the cables.
Personally I’m not sure why the whole country should be clubbing together to pay for people who live in the arse end of nowhere to get a fast internet connection; If it was likely to make a significant impact on the country’s economy I’d understand, but if that were the case it would also likely follow that it would be a viable business move for some comms company to lay the pipes.
As it is, it seems to me that the whole country is going to be left subsidising a few, for no real good reason. Living anywhere has its plusses and negatives, that’s the nature of life; in the countryside you get clean air, beautiful views, less idiots and what would generally be considered a better, and more peaceful, quality of life compared to city dwellers. If people want to live there that’s great, good luck to them (I’m kind of jealous) but they should also accept that their choice to live in such a locale is also going to have downsides, like they might not have such a great internet connection, or may have to pay more to obtain one; I don’t see why that’s such a big deal, & I certainly don’t buy into this ridiculous idea that highspeed internet is now an essential utility, Christ! how soft is this country becoming?

In any case, although all the parties seem dead set on wasting an absolute fortune laying cables to the boondocks, it may be that decent 4G mobile broadband is actually a far more sensible option for the more remote regions of the country; sure it still requires its own infrastructure, and the speed aren’t likely to match the super fast connections which the politicians currently aspire to provide, but it’s surely going to be a hell of a lot cheaper for everyone, and perfectly sufficient for most home use. Ok, so maybe high tech businesses might not be able to operate out of remote areas, but maybe that should just be one of those facts of life, like inner cities not being the best site for a farm, or the Pennines not being such a great place to base a fishing fleet.