exile. a while

this afternoon i emptied out the bottom drawer of my filing cabinet, & consigned about a third of the contents to the recycling bin. i decided i could live without numerous rejection letters, payslips for columns i wrote in 2002, copies of my CV from the last century, statements of rates & insurance payments for the house i sold in 1995, & paperwork for my time(s) on the unemployment benefit in the 1980s.

i know what you're thinking - you're aghast that i've kept all this stuff for this long; you're amazed that rusty paperclips, silverfish and rising damp haven't dealt to the accumulation already (actually i only suffer from the first of those blights); & you're laughing because you know that the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet is only the tip of this hoarder's iceberg ... but hey, it's a start! i've been ruthless! (by my standards anyway). & i feel good - lighter - slightly ... & not too daunted by all the other drawers, cupboards, and boxes under the bed ...

i was pretty surprised when i heard that obama had been awarded the nobel peace prize - when he hasn't yet had the chance to do anything significantly noteworthy towards peace - but to hear him use his acceptance speech as a justification of war convinced me that the prize has gone to the wrong person. if obama had any humility, and any real understanding of peace, he would have declined the prize. he would have said, wait until i have achieved something; wait until i prove myself to be of the same calibre as previous recipients of the nobel peace prize. because he most certainly has not yet done that, and he may never.

he - or his speech-writers - are very good with words, & one could almost accept his arguments and justifications. but it's all a bit too convenient. he just happens to have inherited a country already embroiled in two never-ending conflicts, with an economy that is heavily dependent on those conflicts continuing, and such circumstances allow him to justify the ongoing use of violence, the deaths of civilians and human rights abuses (people are still being held without trial in guantanamo bay)

if war is so justifiable, then surely peace must come as a result - so why not wait until he has got there and THEN give him the prize?