the long zoom

According to the New York Times today, our generation sees through a 'long zoom' - whether google earth allowing you to see your garden two clicks after the birds eye view of the city, or cameras taking photos of license plates (or obscene hand gestures at the cameras, which upset some of our more traditional fellow residents). My own little moment of perspective this morning was listening to Nanette on the radio talking about being taught nuclear drills at school - we called them duck and dive drills - which were basically built around the premise that if a nuclear bomb went off, you must dive underneath your desk and wait there. You wonder why they bothered, she was talking about being at school in the 70's - I went through duck and dive in our american school in KSA in the 80s - though that was probably more a reaction to the Iran Iraq conflict - we also had lessons on what not to pick up on the beach, in case it was a bomb disguised as a toy. But I still don't get whether this was a complicated psychological manoever designed to make people feel protected, even when they clearly weren't at all, or whether it was really driven from ignorance. Obviously, our security status in Saudi in the 80s with the largest refinery in the world at the end of our main street, was rather different from a village school in Rutland in the 70s, and so the drivers were probably different, but it was the similarities that struck me.

Slow week - getting used to ramadan, fighting off the first ticklings of the evil cold that seems to be attacking many friends and colleagues - I shall turn orange soon with the amount of vitamin C I'm swallowing on a daily basis. Off to a ladies club iftar tonight to hear one of the Sheikh Mo Center for Cultural Understanding guys talk about the real meaning of Ramadan, should be interesting, though I think i might have heard it before. Still, good to go and be reminded.