Jade Goody: Rest In Public

There is a massive divide in our society.

Two days ago I joined the G20 protest. As far as I was concerned it was important to show the world's elite that the people are angry for the way our future has been gambled away; angry for the treatment of the biosphere; angry that banks have been bailed out while factories and shops close; angry that billions of pounds of taxpayers money will be lining the pockets of the very people who fucked up our economy in the first place.

Today, people with very different passions and priorities have taken to the streets.

"Thousands gathered to say farewell to Jade Goody today, carpeting the route to her funeral with flowers and applause.

Fans and well-wishers travelled from across the country to stand outside the St John the Baptist Church in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, to pay tribute to the reality TV star who died from cervical cancer."

I cannot understand why people would do this. Some had pink hoodies printed up. A group had yellow sashes with "In loving memory of Jade" printed on them. Hundreds of flowers, probably thousands of pounds spent. For what? Firstly, she's dead. She could maybe have done with some of the support while she was alive. Secondly - these people didn't know her. She wasn't a great artist, wasn't a charity worker or philanthropist or sportsperson or even an actress. She was a celebrity and absolutely nothing more. In a society where people don't know their neighbours, where old people die alone and remain undiscovered for days, where people are incredibly apathetic about political issues that directly affect them, this seem like a massive waste of energy.

I wonder if these people care about the people who die each day in Iraq or Palestine or Zimbabwe? Maybe they do. Maybe they take to the streets about that. Somehow I doubt it. We live in a society where celebrity is all and deaths in foreign lands are ignorable.

God I hate people.