On their minds (2)

With the torturous tooth no longer uppermost in my thoughts after the antibiotics had done their temporary work, I was soon among a different set of local inhabitants, thousands of miles away from those concerned about the Wellington ‘spy car’. So what was on their minds? Now it was gun laws, taxes on the rich and the so-called ‘trickle down’ effect, whether or not poverty is a prime cause of poor educational results, obesity, the proposed Californian high-speed rail project, healthcare and banning outdoor smoking in public areas, that drove readers to make their views known in the press. “It’s not guns but people that kill,” stated a staunch supporter of the National Rifle Association after yet another rampage shooting – which sounded bizarre to someone who has always believed that if you haven’t got a gun you can’t shoot anybody. “California has one of the strictest gun laws in the country,” it was averred, yet at the same time it was revealed that semi-automatic weapons are not banned! Back in Sweden, mercifully not part of the Eurozone, minds are concentrating on the all-too-brief, but intense, summer season despite its exceptionally damp start. Last month was the wettest on record in the Stockholm area and parts of the country are suffering from severe flooding. July is the main holiday month in these parts and we still have faint hopes of better weather to come, though it has yet to make an appearance on the weather maps. Meanwhile the politicians were gathered last week on the offshore island of Gotland, along with an army of lobbyists, PR consultants, media hordes and many more for the annual jamboree in which most of them are busily employed seeking publicity for themselves or those they represent or aim to promote, while 8.1 per cent of the rest of the work force have no employment at all, with the figure for young people some three times as high. However, holiday time it is and even my dental problems, after flaring up again for a time, are taking a much-needed rest after being calmed in my trusted tooth-soother’s lie-flat chair.