Diary – 19 August 2005

I’ve taken to calling myself Lady Black of No Fixed Address while I spend the summer betwixt and between houses. Floating happily in a semi-weightless state, I stay in touch wherever I am by watching BBC World News.

The BBC addiction to anti-Americanism is getting more acute and can only end in delirium tremens. Every second story has a negative take on America. Last week the ratio seemed higher. Every 20 minutes an anonymous voice promoted the upcoming news stories to the accompaniment of agitated music. Cue announcer: ‘Sixty years after the US dropped the atomic bomb on Japan, how do you feel about that attack?’ Cut to faces of youngish Japanese answering while blankly contemplating this barbarous American act which took place 40 years before they were born at a time when all non-Japanese were subhuman in Japanese eyes. Perhaps the newsroom had a bet on how many answers of ‘Never again’ before some young Nipponite said, ‘Well, you know, if any group of people deserved it, it was the generation of my ancestors.