‘Earth Hour’ NYC: Couldn’t Be Bothered
After all, we have burned "so very, very brightly…", haven’t we? And so, I switched off the lights last night at 8:30 sharp, and waited expectantly to see all the windows outside go dark. And continued to wait….8:31…..32…..33…as they continued to blaze merrily, obliviously, light flooding onto the pavements from the mostly empty rooms on the opposite side of the street. In other words, "Lights on, nobody’s home". How apt that this catchphrase - connoting stupidity - comes from a country which last night, for just one hour, was asked to join the rest of the world in a symbolic gesture, for ‘Earth Hour’ - and couldn’t be bothered.
I felt a bit foolish after that, there in the gloom, a pointless Earth Day martyr with my candle and my book. Perhaps I should have donned my hair shirt? And then I thought, because I couldn’t help it: No wonder they hate us. Isn’t that what they say? About Al Qaeda, I mean? Except the dirty little secret is it’s not just the "terrrrrsts" - it’s everyone. Oh, yes. Look, there’s President Obama in D.C. earlier this month with his ever so "thoughtful" gift to Prime minister Gordon Brown, of 25 DVD’s. And now look, over here…
…in New York, where I used to think people came to escape the ignorant, intolerant, "Ugly American" attitudes found across the Hudson. New York, where people cycle, re-use, and recycle endless discussions about climate change and tut-tut - as I just did - about "the rest of America" and its gas guzzling ve-hicles. New York, where I still believed that Manhattan Island was like a magnificent ship moored just off the Eastern Seaboard - and not really America at all.
By 8:33pm, I realized that though it may once have been true, I now live in Vegas on the Hudson, in all its cheesy, blazing, money-grabbing, selfish, pig ignorant, lard-arsed glory.
I would imagine the bright lights seemed to burn even a little brighter last night for those very few who cared enough to snuff out theirs. I am sure people have their excuses. Et tu, New York…