4 Day Weekend

As you can see, I'm at home again in the middle of the day, not through any illegitimate fault of my own, but because administrative error at the temping agency has intervened again. Another early start wasted (I've been back to bed since), another day not on the wageroll, all because they had overbooked a vacancy at a greetings card warehouse. Two unqualified people (myself included) amongst more experienced temp hands turned up, only one unqualified person was needed. It came down to me and this big, black guy called Shaun (or Sean) who was wearing a smart shirt that was probably not that suitable for such work (I always try to wear clothes I don't mind being damaged for temp work). When the floor manager told our bus driver that one of us had to go home, I wasn't motivated to do so, having even clocked on with the help of one of the permanent staff, but I didn't know the situation of Shaun/Sean and all he said was "I don't want to go home." So I bit the bullet. I didn't know if Shaun/Sean needed the money or not, but strictly I didn't and there didn't seem any way out of the impasse as the driver was saying she couldn't wait around forever. So fifty minutes travelling there from 6.05am, five minutes being there and another fifty minutes travelling back. I've had more productive mornings. A little shame as well, as I had started my myth-making about the place. When we got into the place, the entrance to the warehouse floor was locked with a security code which no-one knew (being temps). After some hesitation one of us knocked on the door and, presently, the door slowly opened and through the ever-expanding crack, I could see this tattooed arm push it open, though I was unaware of the arm's owner. Any storytelling didn't get much further, curtailed by my electing to go home. As I left my house, it was interesting to see mist and probably a touch of frost shimmering above the sports ground opposite my parents' house. It had rolled right up the hill from the river valley to perch itself on the near apex.
Liberal voices in Europe and America are being ever more critical of Israel's actions. I had thought to myself, why doesn't Israel use commando raids against Hizbullah instead of punitively smashing whole suburbs of Beirut - to use a scapel instaed of a bludgeon? And then I recalled an old politics lecture I had about the politics of force. The Soviet Union had to show itself implacable to its satellite states to squash any notion that they could choose their own path, hence Russian tanks in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. Once the Soviets stopped being implacable (the lecturer argued when they opted for an internal military coup in Poland rather than outright invasion in 1981 in response to Solidarity), their reputation for crushing all East European opposition at any cost was gone and the slow slide to the fall of the Iron Curtain began. Israel's military has to show its implacability to terrorism and to Arabs otherwise it believes it will show a chink in its armour to those who would wish an end to Zionism and all that that entails. That is why Israel has gone way over the top in response to really low-key issues. They believe that if it starts with the kidnapping of soldiers, who knows where it will end. Israel does not want to find out. Trouble is, Israel's actions too often affect the innocent; more Arab women and children die than do Israeli, far more. Think how child killers are viewed in Britain and then try to imagine the feelings of Arabs towards Israel. An eye for ten eyes, a tooth for ten teeth. It's a ruinous policy for everyone.