With the recent purchase of my iPhone I am never away from the internet. I can even surf whilst on the toilet. It’s the best cr-app there is. I’d purposely held off from getting an internet enabled phone precisely for the reason you’d get one – to be permanently switched on, the world at your fingertips, a flood of data streams and content 24-7. Sometimes it’s nice to have a break from all this technology. Not anymore. Now after staring at a screen all day in my ‘office’ I can retire to the sofa and check Twitter and Facebook via my phone.

I sometimes wonder if technology does really increase our quality of life. It’s meant to make things easier and quicker – so we have more free time. Machines do the work for us. I think it’s the other way around. It takes me 2-3 hours a day to wade through my emails. The permanently ‘on’ culture of the last decade means people expect answers to emails quickly – many instantly. It’s a flood of data to the point of it being meaningless. Yes, I am communicating with people from every corner of the globe and I know what’s going on anywhere and anytime – but it takes up all my time!

This ‘permanently on’ culture has pervaded all areas of society and culture. Especially with regards to the media and 24 hour rolling news channels – that’s a lot of hours to fill. So the life cycle of a story is often very short before the next media storm appears on the fast moving horizon, to quickly dissipate after a few hours. It’s the Twitterfication of the media, a rolling news feed – hungry consumers, eager for the next tit byte. This means there is a serious lack of depth to most journalism. But that’s probably a response to the fact that there’s a total lack of depth in the consumer. We just want to hear about celebrities. We wanted it yesterday. Consume. Consume. 

It is evident in my own habits. I no longer have the patience for lengthy book reviews – or reviews of any kind for that matter. It’s not a new thing to say the critic is dead (we are all critics now). But I really don’t have the time to hear how good a writer they are or how much they know about this and that. The whole ‘aren’t I’m clever this newspaper pays me solely to listen to music and distill my wisdom to you mere mortal readers’ notion is irritating. The critic in his ivory tower. Not any more. Can’t you just give it marks out of ten and, if it’s music, link to it so I can hear the album for myself without even having to pay for it?

Morocco North Africa Photography by Martin Worster, originally uploaded by MartinWorster.

Taken just outside the Kasbah in Marrakech – to avoid posed shots I hold my camera low and take shots of locals as I walk past. I think it offers a more naturalistic look to the shots as you catch people going about their everyday business. Plus they don’t get annoyed by irritating Westerners pushing lenses into their faces, as if part of a human zoo.

This man was a carpet seller and the shot turned out great…

London Eye Photography by Martin Worster, originally uploaded by MartinWorster.

A lovely view of the Houses of Parliament in London taken from the London Eye. It’s a magical view – I half expected to see Peter Pan fly across the roofs…

Mexico, Cancun, Yucatan – Travel Photography by Martin Worster , originally uploaded by MartinWorster.

Chickin Itza – in the sweaty, humid interior of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Three hour drive from Cancun – and a million miles away culturally. One of the capitals of ancient Mayan culture – well preserved and utterly spellbinding…

Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain – Travel Photography by Martin Worster , originally uploaded by MartinWorster.

Main baroque masterpiece in the main plaza in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, NW Spain. The city is a medieval gem – the surrounding countryside exquisite and far from the normal image of Spain.

Very green and verdant with Celtic undertones – rainy climate and a fresh Atlantic bashing the hilly coastline. Beautiful…

London Eye Photography by Martin Worster, originally uploaded by MartinWorster.

Oh London, my city, I miss you. Taken from the base of the London Eye across the River Thames.

Japan – Tokyo, Kyoto, Shibuya – Travel Photography by Martin Worster , originally uploaded by MartinWorster.

Tokyo 2007 with Jose – what a trip…we checked out the cosplay girls – a weird Japanese youth cult where the girls dress up as various characters – goth, burlesque, tart, – etc and stand outside the main park in Tokyo waiting for you to take their photos…

Japan – Tokyo, Kyoto, Shibuya – Travel Photography by Martin Worster , originally uploaded by MartinWorster.

Tokyo 2007 with Jose – what a trip…

I read that the government’s drug advisor Professor David Nutt has been sacked after claiming that ecstasy, cannabis and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol. It’s a shame that the scientist Nutt, who used evidence and reason to back up his claims, has been ousted like this. I am constantly baffled at where the moral double standards and the chasm between reality (what the public thinks and does) and policy comes from when it comes to the drugs debate.

Taken out of context his comments are probably quite shocking to many people. But when you add up the figures – deaths and illness caused by alcohol against comparative user figures in other drugs – alcohol is a far greater problem and risk. They don’t even mention smoking. Why is tobacco legal and other drugs aren’t?

In broader terms I am baffled by where the ethical hypocrisy comes from with regards to certain drugs being illegal. I am a firm believer that being occasionally intoxicated is a basic human need. Not quite as basic as food, water, shelter and sex. But it comes in as an important second tier ‘need’. Anthropologists have studied different cultures and many involve rituals with intoxication as central to the ceremony. Whether it’s the shaman communing with the spirit worlds after consuming pyote. Mushrooms, herbs, leaves – anything that can produce an altered state – has been ground up, smoked, drunk or snorted for spiritual and therapeutic purposes. Amongst citizens of various countries and societies intoxication has also played an important bonding purpose. Amongst the heavier drinking Northern European cultures alcohol oiled the Protestant work ethic – by making the humdrum existence more bareable and hence maintaining productivity amongst the workers. 

 

As it is a basic human need humans will always pursue it. Even if it is illegal. Prohibition doesn’t work. Anything in extreme can become addictive. There are lots of legal prescription drugs with harmful side affects which are also very addictive. Particularly in the USA as people are prescribed pills for everything and hence the prescription drugs industry is worth so much money. Double standards. Why can I take one drug for one thing – anxiety, depression, tiredness, sexual problems – legally? But not other drugs – cocaine, cannabis, ecstacy, psychedelics – for other medicinal, emotional or spiritual reasons? Where does this stem from? 

Why is it illegal for a plant that grows on a tree – the cannabis leaf – to be grown, picked and smoked? I am not saying cannibis isn’t harmful amongst certain users, just like anything it can have adverse side affects. But there are probably hundreds of millions of ordinary people who lead normal lives who are made to be criminals due to outdated and pointless laws. It costs around $80,000 a year to keep someone in prison. How many millions are wasted each year on imprisoning people who shouldn’t be there?

It is only a matter of time before the pointless pursuit of drugs prohibition is ended. More taxes can be made by governments through controlling the market. The drugs black market and all it’s nascent criminality will be stopped. Drug use will probably go down as the illicitness of the pursuit is ended. Wake up and smell the caffeine (another drug).

I haven’t talked about where we’d be without the positive effect of drug taking on music and other cultural pursuits. I will leave that for another post.

Kenya Africa Travel Photography by Martin Worster, originally uploaded by MartinWorster.

A giraffe on the East African savannah.. Kenya 1993