On 2009: International Year of Escapism*

*OOPS! Reposted. Acccidentally posted it unfinished.

Today, while i was ploughing through Russian magzines at the hairdressers pretending to look leisurely in the hope that i might feel it for an afternoon, the entire salon and everything around me suddenly quietened.

Hair salon apparatus in motion is unpleasantly symphonic; the snipping of scissors, the wheezing gust of blow dryers, the swoosh of the sweeping, the thrumming of the sink, the chirping of the chatter--everyone doing their little bit in a one giant orchestra of noise pollution. But today, a sudden diminuendo, rallentando, and then, silence.

Someone turned on a TV. Israeli news.

"What do you think of the war?", the Morroccan-Israeli hairdresser casually asked as he combed out my wet hair.

Even at the hairdressers, which is pretty much a mythological fantasia-esque place celebrated by women the world over for its can-do quick-fix approach to pick-me-ups, leisureliness and nonchalance, is, apparently, impossible. Day 2 of 2009, and it is becoming clear that this year will not be brought to you by escapism.

On a related note, the United Nations has designated 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy (IYA), marking the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope.

Related cos, as cool as that is (considering i use to want to be an astronaut from about age 9 - 13), on the issue of anti-escapism, it appears the United Nations would disagree. The celebration of astronomy amidst a crumbling world order seems curiously escapist to me. Especially when you compare it to 2008, the soberly deemed, "International Year of Sanitation".