Crash - by Kevin Rushby - backstory
There's an election coming soon and it could be significant, not only for the voters themselves of course, but the world. We are in volatile and chaotic times, the climate catastrophe is self-evident to anyone whose house has blown down or been flooded, but unfortunately to hardly anyone else; there are sinister billionaires and autocrats creeping up behind us, and trade wars are looming that could bust us back to the 1950s, a time you will probably not remember, and neither don't I, but I've seen enough documentaries to know I don't want to go there.
In such uncertain times one would hope that the electorate in significant countries might choose their leader wisely and that is why one particular election is gripping my attention. Iceland. Put the date in your diary: November 30.
I always think that the character of a nation can be divined by the people's reaction to common occurrences like a road accident. Over the years I've had a few, but no one ever got seriously hurt, fortunately. The nearest I came to real disaster was on a bus in India which was hit by a speeding truck going in the opposite direction. I was asleep, halfway down the vehicle, and by good luck I'd moved into the aisle seat. Suddenly the entire side of the bus was ripped clean off. I found myself on the floor covered in glass with an agonising pain in my right elbow. I think I had smacked it very hard on a metal stanchion, but there was no long-term damage. In fact, we were all lucky: a few nasty cuts and bruises, but no fatalities. The reaction of the passengers, however, was interesting. No one showed any interest in contracting the emergency services, finding medical attention, or even handling the immediate and massive traffic snarl-up. What they wanted was revenge. The lorry driver, however, had already made a run for it, so they turned on the bus driver. Had he fallen asleep? I felt sorry for him: he looked as baffled and shaken up as the rest of us. If not for another bus pulling up and offering to take everyone on, I don't know what might have happened.
