new year, old news

Mr McMuffin is sitting with Babycake, so I've had a chance to read yesterday's papers and find out a little bit about the world outside McMuffin Mansions. I was interested to learn that at midnight last night, we finally paid off the loan made to us by the US after the war in 1946. Mortgaged to the Yanks is on BBC4 on Wednesday at 9pm and it looks like an interesting financial analysis of just how much our 'special relationship' was worth back then.

I was also shocked to learn that 900 children have been killed in the Israel/Palestine conflict. The number of Palestinian children killed by the actions of the IDF is 771 and the number of Israeli children killed by Palestinian acts of violence is 119. The number of US soldiers killed in the Iraq mess is 3000. Children in a settlement camp in Zimbabwe, one of the most fertile countries in Africa are being helped to eat two meals a day rather than one. Darfur, Burma, I shan't go on, but I am sick of hearing about it all and I intend to do something this year. I'm not sure what, but I can't keep doing nothing and then explain to Babycake when he asks the inevitable questions about my part in it all, that I was just too busy to do anything and it wasn't my fault anyway. I think if I want him to be the kind of man who gives a toss about others, I'm going to have to care a bit myself. That's my resolution sorted out then, world peace and an end to hunger in 12 months.