APPRENTICE: week 1

Comparatively photogenic bunch this time around, arne't they? No real mingers so it seems. I'm sure, of course, being relatively easy on the eye had nothing to do with the vetting process for the twenty thousand I-will-kill-to-get-my-own-way Apprentice auditionees.

They certainly managed to select a somewhat sociopathic bunsh of wannabess, this year. I'm not sure which guy says 'I will cut from my life anyone who stops me getting what I want' in the opening title sequence, but I really don't wouldn't want to get a sneak glimpse of his dark fantasies. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if he's got a Jamie Gumb styled basement someplace where he's quietly fashioning a woman-suit from tattered strips of human skin.

Anyway.....

...a promising opening with bitchiness on the go from the very start. Fun watching Alex, the first project manager for the fellas, working on his blame gameplan after only the first couple of hours. Okay...maybe £5 for a lobster does sound a bit on the cheap side, but full credit for barrister Nick, being the one to go and figure out they were taking a beating on that front, and then report back promptly.

This week...I think he was the wrong guy to go. Peronsallu, I'd have picked Raef, who's already getting on my nerves with his pompous Brian Sewell, mouth-full-of-plums accent.

WHAT DOES THE END OF THE WORLD LOOK LIKE?

...well, I guess it starts out looking like this.

If you can't be arsed to read the article in the Independent, the gist is this....even though the world is turning out bumper crops of grain, mass starvation is on the horizon principally because a growing Chinese and Indian middle class have enough money to consume meat, which is rapidly hoovering grain harvests (it takes 8lbs of wheat to 'make' 1lb of meat). That and the demand for bioethanol, mean food staples will become increasingly scarce and increasingly expensive.

I read an essay by an economist a while back that stated that, according to his calculations, a population of 2 billion could be sustained indefinately on this planet, at a living standard comparable to that enjoyed in the west. We're now approaching 7 billion...and every one of them wants that lavish western lifestyle.

It doesn't take a genious to realise, we're on a path to someplace very ugly. Putting Peak Oil aside for one moment, we face a whole load of other 'Peaks'...Peak Uranium, Peak Food....Peak Water for crissakes. The bottom line is we're exhausting every resource, and we're doing it horrendously quickly.

What can we look forward to? A war between the 1st and the 3rd world? A war between China, Russia, Europe and America over dwindling supplies of available food? Food rationing...food rioting?....that's just a look at the availability of one type of food stuff. It gets worse when we fold in issues such as energy security, political, racial and religious differences.

Bottom line...too many people for one planet. But we knew that. It's just one of those things that one doesn't say in polite company, because it elicits further awkward questions such as....if there's too many people around, how are we going to lessen the number? Which bunch of people most deserve to be removed? Which bunch most deserve to stay?

Awkward....very awkward.