With all the Twitter and Facebook hysteria surrounding the numerical coincidence of the date (which shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise, we’ve seen it coming since, oooo, the beginning of recorded time) you might have missed the fact that 12/12/12 also began the official 9-day countdown to the end of the world.
My obsession with the end of days, in an otherwise fairly rational human being, began when I made the mistake of watching some ‘behind the news’ conspiracy videos on YouTube showing ‘abnormal’ patterns of earthquakes, floods and hurricanes this year.
It was all very alarming, not least because there is nothing ‘normal’ about watching an invisible force ripping a house apart.
The paranoia started to get out of control. I was finding that I would flip several times a day between BBC news, NASA’s website, and Asos (I also needed some shoes as well).
Admittedly, some predictions were quite optimistic, presenting the kind of advice friends give when you split up with someone: ‘think of it as a new beginning’, ‘that cycle wasn’t good enough for you anyway’, and ‘time to get out of the nuclear bunker now’.
So, from December 12th, I didn’t know whether to expect a build up to the apocalypse, to a new spiritual dawn, or to the realisation that I’d been so preoccupied with monitoring strange animal behaviour that I’d forgotten to feed my cat, whose behaviour had become limited to decomposing.
To keep my panic under control (or make it worse) I decided to keep a diary during the 9-day countdown to see whether any early doors culprit for potential devastation might emerge. Not that I’d want to survive in a zombie wasteland, but I at least wanted to put some money on it before the bookies were all smashed up by monsters looking for brains (good luck to them).
Now that we’re all aware that we’re not dead, it’s easy to dismiss the end of the Mayan calendar as a non-event. But, looking back over the stories over those 9 days, maybe we did go through something after all…
12/12/12 – 9 Days til Doomsday
Every news stand screams hysterically at me about the beginnings of the new world order: Bradford City have beaten Arsenal at Valley Parade.
Reports are also coming in of stockpiling in Russia so extreme that the Russian Prime Minister has issued a statement telling people the world is not going to end “at least, not this year” (note to self: If we’re still around in 2013, keep an eye on him).
Today the Pope has signed up to Twitter. Any other time, I’d be disappointed that this is a genuine account rather than one which would mock papal infallibility by reporting every time the Pope trips on the edge of a rug and spills his tea a bit. But it is quite comforting to see him tweeting hello to Jesus, rather than screaming in caps that we are all going to Hell.
In a properly huge development, the state collusion in the murder of Pat Finucane in 1989 is out. British agents gave his murderers the information, and even the weapon. David Cameron calls it “shocking” but that there was “no overarching state collusion”, which Pat’s widows insists is “whitewash” and not the truth.
13/12/12 – 8 Days til Doomsday
Today’s top story is a normally silent and polite old lady dropping into the Bank of England, trailed by cameras, to bollock a load of bankers for the banking crisis on our behalf.
Another headline that grabs me today is the story of Sami al-Saadi, the Libyan dissident who was illegally kidnapped and handed to Gaddafi by MI6 to be imprisoned and tortured. He’s just won a £2m payout from the UK government who – despite insisting this isn’t an admission of guilt – are not usually so generous to foreigners, whatever the Daily Mail might think. Think about it, that’s your government, accused of kidnap, and then paying out.
This already has commentators calling for a stop to the seemingly limitless power of the secret services. It also has implications for the planned expansion of the secret courts, which is where this case would have been fought if it had gone ahead. But it didn’t go ahead, because Mr al-Saadi understandably wanted an end to it. So, The Foreign Office’s statement that “there has been no admission of liability and no finding by any court of liability” is a bit like me defending myself by saying that the Queen has never called me a prick.
14/12/12 – 7 Days til Doomsday
When I started this diary I expected to be documenting nothing at all, that I’d just take the piss a bit until Dec 21st, when I’d post pictures of anti climactic scenes at a French mountain as foil-hatted pilgrims realise they just look silly.
But, instead, today brings the unthinkable news of the Sandy Hook shootings. The first I know of this is turning on the TV to see live footage of the normally stoic president choking up in front of a room full of journalists. Whatever happens in the next few days, this is a monumental tragedy, the worst school shooting in American history, and one thing that will be remembered from this period of time.
Maybe it’s because I’m looking for it, but a theme is already emerging from my obsessive raking over the news, and it’s one of accountability, of not taking any more shit, and of things coming home to roost.
15/12/12 – 6 Days til Doomsday
More news emerges about Sandy Hook today – Adam Lanza’s weapons were legally purchased, the community was previously considered one of the safest and most idyllic in America, and the victims were 20 defenceless little children and 6 of their teachers.
If this doesn’t change the country’s attitude to the legal sale of items with the sole purpose of killing people, nothing will – Constitution schmonstitution. You can legally shoot a Welshman with a bow and arrow from the walls of York, but we’re not clinging doggedly to our right to do that. Maybe that’s because bows and arrows aren’t doing such a roaring trade anymore.
16/12/12 – 5 Days til Doomsday
I’m becoming more and more convinced that some kind of monumental shift could be occurring. The news coverage is focussing on Obama’s promise of ‘meaningful action’. If this means a change in gun law, then this has huge repercussions for a country that makes a lot of money producing and selling weapons, both inside and outside the US.
There’s a lot of anger, but in the middle of it, there is also this statement from one of the victim’s devastated fathers: “As we move on from what happened here, what happened to so many people, let it not turn into something the defines us, but something that inspires us to be better, to be more compassionate, and more humble people.”
17/12/12 – 4 Days til Doomsday
Sandy Hook is still dominating the headlines, and Obama is still calling, so far unopposed, for change.
For a bit of variety, Plebgate is back, and now it’s getting interesting. Like many people, I found it completely believable and quite funny that a Tory MP had supposedly called a police officer a ‘pleb’ and had to resign over the consequences. So far, so Peter Mannion.
But today a police officer has been arrested over the credibility of his statement against Andrew Mitchell. This casts a whole new light on the matter, and, if it does turn out to be bullshit, this is another story which could have massive implications for the future.
18/12/12 – 3 Days til Doomsday
More on Plebgate and it’s looking like the game is up for the PCs Bullshit. They’re making me feel a bit sorry for a Tory, which is a personal Armageddon.
The daily update on Sandy Hook keeps up the momentum, with two former NRA supporters speaking out in support of new measures.
Aid workers have been killed in Pakistan whilst trying to vaccinate children against polio – sadly nothing new. But this time blame is laid at the door of the CIA for having previously planted doctors as spies during the hunt for Bin Laden. Marc DuBois from Medecins Sans Frontieres UK today called this “a dangerous abuse of medical personnel, of the idea of humanitarian aid… that kind of abuse puts the crosshairs on our back”.
19/12/12 – 2 Days til Doomsday
More all-out war on bullshit in the headlines today.
Across India, women are taking to the streets in their tens of thousands, finally grabbing the world’s attention by protesting about the country’s commonplace sexual violence after the latest gang rape in Delhi.
The newest home story is that the inquest verdict of ‘accidental death’ for the victims of Hillsborough has been quashed – after over 20 years. The new police investigation that will follow could lead to prosecutions, and hopefully to justice at last.
Meanwhile, Plebgate continues. The Met are denying a conspiracy, but today they said: “The allegation that a serving police officer fabricated evidence is extremely serious, it goes to the very heart of the public’s trust in the police service.”
Savile is back on the agenda, with the decision to drop the Newsnight investigation into him deemed flawed in a new report. Two resignations so far, and the report contains a clear message to the BBC to sort out its management, which they say will happen within the next few months.
20/12/12 – 1 Day til Doomsday
Best get comfy, because Plebgate could be the Iannucci void-filler you’ve been waiting for, with a second arrest today.
Equally amusingly, Channel 4 are so sick of free speech champion Julian Assange avoiding their interviewers that they turn up to his weird royal balcony speech with a megaphone to try and talk to him. Maybe it’s overexposure or the creepiness of knowing he has sex with people in their sleep, but I’m finding him a bit tedious as a media personality now. I’m hoping that he’ll just let Wikileaks’ promised million new documents speak for themselves.
Overseas, another aid worker killed in Pakistan and culprits still sought. The 22-year-old student who gave out polio vaccine in his spare time is mourned by hundreds of people in Pakistan. With polio almost beaten, and these aid workers just local people trying to save children’s lives, the anger and frustration is tangible: “We work for our country, and we are rewarded with death”, one woman tells reporters.
China is in the news today in some significant and promising ways. Firstly with the police complaining about corruption in their government. And by brilliant coincidence, today is also the day that V for Vendetta has been shown in China for the first time to a surprised but appreciative audience.
21/12/12 – 0 Days til Doomsday
The NRA appropriately shoot themselves in the foot today by marking the one week anniversary of the Sandy Hook murders by gifting Obama some solid gold moronity as opposition to new gun laws.
NRA’s top twat Wayne LaPierre adopts a phoney concern for little kids by suggesting armed guards at every school, before inexplicably outlining the plot of Die Hard: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun”. He has a point though, does anyone know where he lives?
The world still hasn’t ended as midnight strikes, but I challenge anyone to look back over those 9 days of news and deny that it’s been a deeply transformative time across the world, with status quo upheaval that can never be reversed, and with the potential for a new start. Is this the new dawn?
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