Luther Blissett » Fri Sep 04, 2015 3:32 pm wrote:Stupid question but my query is all keyword-hijacked. What is the state of the drought in Syria now? Did agriculture ever recover at all? I don't imagine that it's in the state it was pre-Civil War, but I imagine it's still bad.
It's an interesting question. I don't know, based on my 5 mins of internet web searches.
I thought this link had some interesting things to say, in an oblique manner
http://runesoup.com/2015/08/a-london-afternoon/Her 85-year-old father lives four kilometres from the border of Ukraine.
Can you guess what the summer weather has been like the last -oh, I don’t know, let’s say- two summers? Not. A. Drop. Of. Rain. “James, let me tell you…” she tells me. She calls me James because it turns out fat Anglo gays (fanglo gays?) look identical in the eyes of Slovakian women of a certain age and so she has never been able to distinguish between myself and my partner. In her defence, he’s the one who always calls her and I’m usually the one who’s home of a Friday. This has been going on for just over three years and it has gotten to the point that James and I hope that at least one of the three of us dies before/rather than having to explain what has been going on. For further information on such extreme levels of social awkwardness, see this twitter account.
“James let me tell you… everyone has…ahh, English… in the yard” (makes very obvious sign for a well or masturbating an enormous penis). A well? I ask. “Well, yes. All dry. Never before. No rain. In summer in Slovakia it is 25 degrees but feels like 35 because we have no…” (waves arms around my kitchen) “…ocean. This year and last year. It is Africa. Nothing grow in my father’s yard. I plant for him many things, beans, tomatoes. Nothing grow.”
My mind goes immediately to that theatre of war everyone in mainstream media has not been talking about. My mind goes to the former Japanese minister who said the Americans caused their most recent tsunami with a geo-engineering weapon. My mind goes to the string of highly suspicious earthquakes and droughts in Iran. My mind goes to the 1970s admission of both the CIA and American Air Force that their goal is to ‘own the weather’. My mind goes to the World Economic Forum agendas of recent years that discuss rogue geoengineering. My mind goes to this complete asshole, who is the home-grown, home-brand Australian equivalent of skinny former-defence-contractors-in-bow-ties who show up on controlled media to dispense teh scienze.
“I’m suspicious, [cleaner’s name], of these weather patterns. I find them suspicious. The same thing happens everywhere the Americans want to go to war.” My cleaner pauses. She unshoulders her bag. “James, let me tell you… growing up… I have seen everything. I no like Russia but I like Russians. I no like America but I like Americans. Of course they do this. I have seen everything. I have seen spies from this side and that side. I have seen alien spies who look like human spies (Gordon: told you we would have been mates!). I have seen everything. Everyone at father’s party know… this is not normal. This is Americans. Everyone say.”
I didn't know there was unseasonal, extended dry weather in Central Eastern Europe this past couple of years. It piqued my interest because I was thinking of Syria when I read it. And I live in Southern California where we've enjoyed the most historical of dry periods (since records began). Climate Change could be a useful cover to bullshit certain topics out of further discussion.
