azdak

I see Mr Orban has finally nailed his true colours to the mast and made himself dictator-for-life. Perhaps the EU will now seize the chance to fill some of the financial hole left by Brexit by ceasing all payments to Hungary until actual democracy - as opposed to the "illiberal" pseudo-democracy that was in place before the coup - is restored.

On a wholly different note, I have finally found a way to give my life some structure and meaning (it turns out garden projects do not suffice for adding meaning to life) by making very short English videos for kindergarten kids and posting them on Facebook. I try to post them by 10am, and since I need to leave plenty of time for the inevitable struggle with technology, this gets me up and dressed with my hair brushed and my teeth clean at a sensible hour of the day. Then afterwards I can go out and bang a few clods of earth without feeling resentful that this is the most meaningful activity I'll be engaged in all day.

Tashi has been quarantined until the results of a coworker's test for coronavirus come through in 4-6 days. I'm trying not to worry because she's young and fit and the nature of her work means she will inevitably come down with it at some point, so better now when there are still ventilators available, but there are so many people in the world who don't have that reassurance and I swing between depression and raging fury when I think about how we've forced more and more people into conditions of appalling stress and poverty because it suits the rich.

I have some sympathy for the young people defying the lockdown regs - they've been marching for Fridays for Future of a couple of years now and not a bloody thing has been done because "the economy" comes first. The older generations don't care much about the planet because they calculate that they'll be dead by the time the shit really hits the fan. And now suddenly there's a threat to the old and not the young, and voila, it turns out you can in fact shut down practically the entire world economy to protect them. Young people are expected to sacrifice their jobs, their freedom, their friendships and almost all of the things that give pleasure, not for themselves, but to keep the very people alive who have given sod all about the future of the young.