A story has come to my attention that makes me want to laugh because of the ridiculousness and cry because of the ‘is that the way the world is now?’-ness of it.

Basically, in Sweden a young boy has not been invited to a birthday party being held by another boy in his class… and this, apparently, violates his human rights. Apparently. He invited everyone in his class EXCEPT two lads - one who didn’t invite him to his birthday party and one who he doesn’t like anyway.

I was, obviously, the most popular girl in school and got invited to everything… Obviously. But if I had known that by not being invited my human rights were being violated I would have chained myself to the railings in protest.

Unbelievable.

In other news, though, it turns out that men are happy after one night stands and women are not. Well, that was research money well spent.

And no I’m not talking about the Monkey Wedding in India. Although, seriously?! 3,000 people showing up?! That’s a hell of a lot of sugared almonds…

Or even the story about German police dogs being trained to wear shoes so that they don’t damage their feet on broken glass.

Neither is about our Government’s announcement that instead of one big ’super-casino’ in Manchester there will be 16 smaller ones dotted around the country… but not in Manchester at all. Yes, people are pissed.

Nope, the news I’m talking about is this.

Apparently, according to a new study, there is no point in taking medication if you are mildly depressed. You may as well just take a placebo for all the good it’ll do you. This plus other stupid and sensationalist bollocks was on the front cover of the Guardian (as above) and The Times - the freakin’ Times! Now I am very VERY sceptical about this study as it comes shortly before our government (well known for getting things laughably wrong) announces plans to treat people with depression with pretty much anything but drugs.

As someone who attributes the only reason she is still around to the medication she took in the past this winds me up. Yes, I’m all for sorting your problems out and alternatives to drugs (and, yes, I am probably reacting before I think but there again I am quite tired) but as there is currently an average 12 week wait for psycho-therapy on the NHS - what are you supposed to do until then? I was lucky - the drug I was on wiped me out so bad that I didn’t have the energy to do anything ’stupid’, and even though the thoughts were running through my head I just didn’t care enough… Prozac. Nope. Just made me feel sick. Numb… but sick.

But numb was good. Numb made me detach from all the insanity out there and gave me the emotional rest I needed before I ‘coped’ and ‘processed’. Had I still had the energy who knows what I would have done?

You see? This is why I need to blog earlier in the day. i had it all in my head and now… Just fuzzy cotton wool nonsense. For a much better post about depression and anti-depressants go see Miss Britt. I needs my sleep now!

Today was one of those days I hoped I would open Wordpress and see a half finished post or at least something written in the Ideas draft that I always keep around, but no… nothing… My brain and I drifted apart for a little while and brainstormed (well, I brainstormed - my brain just… stormed…), came up with nothing and together (after a glass of wine) pottered over to the BBC News site in search of inspiration. But, the main thing on there (Gillian Gibbons and the insanity of the Teddy Bear’s name) was the only thing I didn’t really want to read about. From the sublime to the ridiculous to the outstanding back to the ridiculous to now, this story just makes me angry. I know I’m just overlaying my Western views on another culture and I really shouldn’t do that becasue I don’t understand where they are coming from and all that but, well, I don’t care. I’m pissed off. She went there to be a teacher - to my mind one of the most giving professions there is - she listened to her students, and tried to make learning fun. Yes, what she did was naive and ignorance is not a defence but come on enough is enough.

I am trying desperately hard not to make this all political but I can’t help it. I’m trying to be as PC as I can but right now I am coming over all George ‘kick the ever living crap out of them’ Bush. Send her home, slap on the wrist, deny her the right to teach in Sudan, anything but jail and protests and calls for execution! Had it happened here and she had named the teddy bear Jesus (I know it’s not the same thing but just go with it) she would have received a suspension from her job, a public humiliation in the form of a tabloid newspapering and maybe community service working with groups of faith until at the end of it, there was a photo opportunity of her smiling as her ‘tell all’ book came out. But that’s just how we roll.

It has, however, become one of those things where everyone (except for the usual suspects) seems to be on the same page here and she will probably be welcomed home as a hero. Speaking of women being welcomed as heroes…

The new Miss World is Zi Lin Zhang, of the People’s Republic of China. Shocking, since that’s where the event was held. Anyway, she is 23, has a Degree in Business Administration, and her personal motto is “Where there’s a will there’s a way”.

Oh and she looks like this:

not that I am in anyway suggesting that looks were the only thing she won on.

It was however this story that reminded me it was World Aids Day - and this made me feel superficial. I mean, a beauty pageant reminding a person of this is like a can of Coke reminding you that Christmas is coming… Or something…

On a day when the biggest news in the UK is yet another almighty cock-up by our illustrious leaders, I have to say this - God, I am proud to be British.

For those of you who haven’t watched the news, or who don’t live in the ‘best country ever’ this is a brief summary of what happened.

To apply for benefits/welfare/whatever you want to call it - you have to fill in a form that is about 4000 pages thick and asks for every piece of information about yourself that you can think of (Question 962 - where did you go on holiday when you were 4, and what flavour, if any, ice cream did you eat?) including your name, address, date of birth and, oh yeah, your bank details.  You know all that info you protect so that nasty identity thieves don’t get there hands on it and rip you off.  If you are applying for benefits for your children all their information goes on the forms - you know the information that you wouldn’t want any bad men getting their hands on like their names, addresses and dates of birth.

All of this is recorded and kept on huge databases by the HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) who dole out (usually the wrong amount of) money and don’t check facts (this links to a video). These databases now contain the details of 25million people, approximately 7.25million families…

They were put onto a disk (well, presumably series of disks) and sent to another office by ‘normal’ post - not recorded in any way.  They never arrived.  They are in fact, what’s the word?

Lost. 

Genius.

Oh, it gets worse.  So the details of 25million of your public are out there (granted on password protected disks but, oh, come on!) so what do you do?

You say nothing for 10 days…

Not a bloody word.

Great.

And they want to bring in ID Cards?!  Most people, right now, are thinking that their government is crazy…  We want a bloody election and we want it now!

In other news -  Billie Piper (yes, Rose from Doctor Who) is up for a porn award!

And I leave you on that note…