The end of another year and - in my world, at least - a crazy one. Let's see. Strange illnesses for both myself and my partner that, over the course of the year and with numerous visits to various doctors and specialists, still only received partial diagnoses. A mysterious one for the cat now too. She has been losing her fur rapidly over the last five weeks and, so far, three vets and (several hundred dollars) have failed to give any satisfactory diagnosis, other than guesswork. We're waiting to see if antibiotics help but, in the meantime, she's looking like the zombie cat from hell and is acting fairly dejected, despite having a normal appetite. Oh, and yes. My job (of 10 years and 2 months) was "migrated" to Malaysia. 2 months of unemployment so far and, with savings already being dipped into, it's looking as if Xmas will be a relatively lean affair. Such is life, I guess.
And with the world? Australia went to the polls in August and we received a hung federal parliament, with the incumbent Labour party returning by a mere nudge - through the backing of key independents. Voters no longer seem to understand the differences between parties and what they stand for. People protest vote. They vote against parties and not for anyone. A general indifference pervades, as well as an alarming adherence to the sound bite-style opinions espoused by the tabloid media. Does anyone actually read any more? Somehow, I'm feeling vulnerable and more than a little unnerved about what might prevail in the future. A new totalitarianism? Shudder....
While I have never believed that the internet would necessarily make us all dumber, the way we receive information these days is very fragmented and it's more of a challenge to get to the truth. The question worth asking here is: Are we bothering?
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