Dystopia

What a calamitous dilemma now faces Tory Party members in voting between Hunt and Johnson. Although perhaps Tory Party members are not as appalled as I am by this choice over who becomes our national figurehead. UK (and let’s just say world) politics are so chaotic at the moment that it feels like the dystopia described in the Handmaid’s Tale, which I finished reading today, might not be such a stretch from reality. Certainly there are some parallels with the puritanical ‘utopia’ that is being created in the book with the grip on American politics by the far religious right, and what that may lead to. The description of Boris Johnson as a ‘coke-addled honey monster’ in a meme I saw today made me chuckle at its accuracy.

It’s World Giraffe Day, which celebrates the longest-necked creature on the longest day of the year (northern hemisphere only). In Mozambique the days are fairly short in June. By 5pm the sun is well on its way to setting.

A friend of mine who is the British Deputy High Commissioner here is leaving soon for his new posting in Addis Ababa. The High Commissioner had a farewell party in the garden of her residence. She is a trailblazer; the first black female High Commissioner the British have posted anywhere. There was a karaoke machine and many of us were coerced into it. I was a reluctant 5th member of an ageing Backstreet Boys lineup to perform I Want It That Way. We threw in some classic boyband moves that were received well by the crowd: straddling chairs the wrong way and a dramatic standing up moment for the key change. The High Commissioner proved to be a talented rapper, so if the diplomatic career stutters, she has a good fallback.

Talking earlier about coke-addled Brits, I was accused of being one of them at the party some of us went onto after karaoke in the garden. I had the audacity to spend approximately 60 seconds in the bathroom, relieving myself. I then stepped out.

Partygoer: ‘Were you having some?’
Me: ‘You what?’
Partygoer: ‘‘You know a little skiing on the Swiss Alps?’
Me: *indignant look expressing that I’d simply been attending to a call of nature, not snorting anything off the toilet seat*