Original title of this piece "We are all mortal and we should recognise it" - that will be used another day.
I am about to be controversial. If you come here looking for fun and jokes and offbeat humour, maybe this is not the piece to be reading. So go and read some of my other stuff.
Louis Prima was a very talented Italian-American musician who managed to adapt to the times. He went through the jazz of the 1930s, Big Bands in the 1940s and Rock 'n' Roll in the 1950s, ever with an ear for what his audience wanted. A man of great humour and showmanship as well - there is plenty of his stuff on YouTube, check it out, it is well worth it IMHO.
The end of his life though is a tragic tale. In 1975 he found that he had a tumour on the brain, suffered a cerebral haemorrhage, and went into a coma from which he never emerged.
He was in a coma for something like three years.
I cannot imagine what being in a coma involves. Peaceful sleep? Occasional nightmares resulting in trauma? Apparently there is brain deterioration, so if you do emerge conscious from it, it affects your ability to think and move and react, wharrever.
Not something I would wish upon my worst enemy.
To the point where I would say here and now that if I ever fall into that state, you have my full permission to switch the machine off and remove any feeding tube - and do not take forever to do it. I have complete faith in medical science, the professionals out there should agree with what is hopeless. You may be alive, but it is not LIVING! LIVING involves doing something positive, being able to move, think, react usw, even people in wheelchairs can do positive things (check out Stephen Hawking some time and see what he has to combat and how positive he is).
But being kept alive in a vegetative state from which the very very great possibility is you will not emerge? Sorry, no.
I actually believe that we should when fully healthy and conscious be able to state this in writing as well (or not if you want to be kept alive no matter what!), so if it should happen people will know the right action to take.
Your decision, nobody else imposing an agenda, nobody deciding for you when they do not understand what you should have chosen if you could have.
And for non-regular readers - yes, I am an atheist, so any religious agendas should not apply in my case. I will speak for nobody else on this though.
DISCLAIMER: this is absolutely NOT a comment on the Prima family or any decision that they took.
Wednesday, 30 May 2012
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
On becoming stateless
On the 18th of next month, my passport expires.
I shall then face one of three choices -
The second is complicated. It is the option that I would most like to follow, but it will take time, involve getting past several layers of bureaucracy (Willkommen in Deutschland!), and could also be expensive, and at the moment I have less than no money available!
The third looks the most likely. It is cheap. I still have my permanent residence permit, so there would be no problem with the authorities, but there are potential difficulties should I ever cross the borders of the country. I would be quasi stateless - I would still be in theory a British national, but have no current valid documents to prove it, and while telling some official in say France or the Netherlands that nationality is no big deal as far as I am concerned may cause the odd laugh, it might also cause unlimited hassle.
Still we are in Schengen, so that should not be a problem? Unfortunately given the rise of neo-Fascism in Europe at the moment, people are installing more and more silly unofficial checks on trains that cross borders.
Anyway I have less than no money available at the moment, so these problems cannot arise as we cannot afford to travel anyway? My wife is getting increasingly strident about wanting to visit the UK again (for an intelligent lady, at times she is prone to absurdity) to visit my family (my mother was the only member of my family I ever used to visit regularly and as she died in 2000, for the rest ....), who you can just as easily telephone or email. It takes so much effort to get through some times that being close to one's family is not that important - to me at least.
Then WE (not SHE) are (not "is") supposed to be going to Thailand in November. We cannot afford this, that and the other, but we can afford to visit Thailand in November???? Priorities - we are still living in near poverty and our own recession! She can save by cutting my airfare for starters (the joys of international flights are definitely a thing of the past!), but that for some illogical reason does not seem acceptable.
Anyway I cannot travel to Thailand as a stateless person, so maybe there is an issue here?
I shall then face one of three choices -
- renew it
- apply for German nationality and eventually get a German passport
- do nothing
The second is complicated. It is the option that I would most like to follow, but it will take time, involve getting past several layers of bureaucracy (Willkommen in Deutschland!), and could also be expensive, and at the moment I have less than no money available!
The third looks the most likely. It is cheap. I still have my permanent residence permit, so there would be no problem with the authorities, but there are potential difficulties should I ever cross the borders of the country. I would be quasi stateless - I would still be in theory a British national, but have no current valid documents to prove it, and while telling some official in say France or the Netherlands that nationality is no big deal as far as I am concerned may cause the odd laugh, it might also cause unlimited hassle.
Still we are in Schengen, so that should not be a problem? Unfortunately given the rise of neo-Fascism in Europe at the moment, people are installing more and more silly unofficial checks on trains that cross borders.
Anyway I have less than no money available at the moment, so these problems cannot arise as we cannot afford to travel anyway? My wife is getting increasingly strident about wanting to visit the UK again (for an intelligent lady, at times she is prone to absurdity) to visit my family (my mother was the only member of my family I ever used to visit regularly and as she died in 2000, for the rest ....), who you can just as easily telephone or email. It takes so much effort to get through some times that being close to one's family is not that important - to me at least.
Then WE (not SHE) are (not "is") supposed to be going to Thailand in November. We cannot afford this, that and the other, but we can afford to visit Thailand in November???? Priorities - we are still living in near poverty and our own recession! She can save by cutting my airfare for starters (the joys of international flights are definitely a thing of the past!), but that for some illogical reason does not seem acceptable.
Anyway I cannot travel to Thailand as a stateless person, so maybe there is an issue here?
Monday, 28 May 2012
Definitely time for some protectionism
I shaved again this morning. The usual problem getting at hairs under the nose (the male anatomy and hair growth were definitely not a divine creation) aside, this was not a trying experience.
This though brought me back again as to how I bought this electric razor. For the uninitiated, we went to a specialist electronics shop last year, and checked out 12 different models.
What I checked mainly was the origin of the product.
What I wanted first of all was a product made in Germany (almost certain to be good quality, given the regulations here, and in the process I would be helping the local economy - keeping people somewhere in the country in work).
Second choice would have been a product from another European country, so at least we could help keep down the scourge of unemployment across the continent. I believe in the EU strongly anyway, and the circulation of European goods should help the people of Europe generally.
I checked all 12 products. None made in Germany, none made elsewhere in the EU (and none made in non-EU Norway or Switzerland either, in case you asked).
All - ALL - were made in the People's Republic (i.e. chronic dictatorship) of China!
Made no doubt by cheap labour (i.e. the people making them would hardly earn anything) in conditions that would never be accepted by people in Europe, in cities with air pollution levels that are banned in Europe, and where people are not allowed to organise to complain about the conditions under which they work (unlike in Europe).
Why do we allow this and support this? There is unemployment of over 20% in Spain and Greece. They cannot build a factory that manufactures electric razors in Oviedo or Thessaloniki? They are threatening again to close down the Opel works in Bochum. Cannot they build a factory that manufactures electric razors in Bochum?
People will only buy "cheap"? If we do not start rebuilding and regenerating European industry things will never improve and all anyone will be able to afford will be cheap garbage (manufactured under grossly unsatisfactory conditions) from China! The vicious circle will be fully completed.
It is time to reverse the trend. It is time to look at the goods imported, where they come from, and the conditions under which they are manufactured. Essentially then tariffs should be imposed so the values are equalled out, and companies in Europe can at least compete on the basis of quality not price (they would probably win hands down in that respect).
And I would apply outright protectionism against goods from any country that is without question a chronic dictatorship where human rights play no part in the way the country is run!
This though brought me back again as to how I bought this electric razor. For the uninitiated, we went to a specialist electronics shop last year, and checked out 12 different models.
What I checked mainly was the origin of the product.
What I wanted first of all was a product made in Germany (almost certain to be good quality, given the regulations here, and in the process I would be helping the local economy - keeping people somewhere in the country in work).
Second choice would have been a product from another European country, so at least we could help keep down the scourge of unemployment across the continent. I believe in the EU strongly anyway, and the circulation of European goods should help the people of Europe generally.
I checked all 12 products. None made in Germany, none made elsewhere in the EU (and none made in non-EU Norway or Switzerland either, in case you asked).
All - ALL - were made in the People's Republic (i.e. chronic dictatorship) of China!
Made no doubt by cheap labour (i.e. the people making them would hardly earn anything) in conditions that would never be accepted by people in Europe, in cities with air pollution levels that are banned in Europe, and where people are not allowed to organise to complain about the conditions under which they work (unlike in Europe).
Why do we allow this and support this? There is unemployment of over 20% in Spain and Greece. They cannot build a factory that manufactures electric razors in Oviedo or Thessaloniki? They are threatening again to close down the Opel works in Bochum. Cannot they build a factory that manufactures electric razors in Bochum?
People will only buy "cheap"? If we do not start rebuilding and regenerating European industry things will never improve and all anyone will be able to afford will be cheap garbage (manufactured under grossly unsatisfactory conditions) from China! The vicious circle will be fully completed.
It is time to reverse the trend. It is time to look at the goods imported, where they come from, and the conditions under which they are manufactured. Essentially then tariffs should be imposed so the values are equalled out, and companies in Europe can at least compete on the basis of quality not price (they would probably win hands down in that respect).
And I would apply outright protectionism against goods from any country that is without question a chronic dictatorship where human rights play no part in the way the country is run!
Sunday, 27 May 2012
And to the idiots out there who want to steal my online banking details
Apparently someone managed to place a Trojan called Banker on my PC yesterday. As I now run Malwarebytes anti-malware every day (a process recommended to all my readers), it has been erased.
Where did it come from? An excellent question (these freaks are now obviously attaching their trash to some very legitimate websites)!
Anyway for the record: I do not bank online. I am old, I am permanently broke, and you are not gonna find anything worth stealing. If you raided my non-online bank account (where I can unbook any phoney transactions, so don't bother trying!), you would currently find less than €100.
Which must be a total waste of your time. You want to get rich by raiding the pockets of the poor? Who do you think you are anyway, the US Republican party, the British Conservative party usw?
So you would be advised instead to try and break into JP Morgan's banking accounts. Apparently they will not miss 3 billion US Dollars, so there are much richer pickings to be had there!
Where did it come from? An excellent question (these freaks are now obviously attaching their trash to some very legitimate websites)!
Anyway for the record: I do not bank online. I am old, I am permanently broke, and you are not gonna find anything worth stealing. If you raided my non-online bank account (where I can unbook any phoney transactions, so don't bother trying!), you would currently find less than €100.
Which must be a total waste of your time. You want to get rich by raiding the pockets of the poor? Who do you think you are anyway, the US Republican party, the British Conservative party usw?
So you would be advised instead to try and break into JP Morgan's banking accounts. Apparently they will not miss 3 billion US Dollars, so there are much richer pickings to be had there!
Emotionalism and belief
At the end of a curious Saturday I was almost prone to give up hope entirely, but then I asked myself what else should I do? Just fade away .... wither away like a Dutch tulip at the end of May (ask yourself some time why the tulips in the Dutch bulb fields only flower between March and May - isn't nature interesting?)? Or simply wake up tomorrow as challenged as ever and with most of any hope disappearing across the proverbial distant horizon?
I spent some part of yesterday evening watching a football (soccer to North American readers) international between Switzerland and Germany (my adopted country). Switzerland, a useful but not amazing team, won 5-3. Every time they got near the German goal, they seemed to score. It was only a friendly game, nothing too serious involved and there was a lot of experimentation in the teams - but we (Germany) looked bad, and my emotions were winning the arguments over my reasoning.
Well you cannot live your entire life in a totally rational sphere, there are times when you have got to give your emotions time to .... well do what they have to do, enjoy, lust, get angry, cry, wharrever.
As long as you know how to respond to them positively and not get carried away.
It ought to be amazing though how powerful the forces of emotion are and how much curbing reason is required in order to win arguments in this world, and it is sadly to our permanent detriment that we allow reason to take the proverbial back seat. The issues that affect us all should be solvable, but they need reasoned approaches and pragmatic solutions. The more that we step away from that thinking, the less things are likely to improve.
You will not for instance wish away cancer (and crying because someone close to you has it will not improve the situation), you rather need to find a cure that works. At the same time, you must prepare yourself for the worst and live with the consequences of what is to come, should one not be found.
What I would repeat is "beware propaganda". I am getting into the unfortunate habit of checking out YouTube when there is nothing better to do. As I have subscribed to a number of channels on the subject of atheism, it should not surprise me that I keep running into the same silly arguments, particularly from religious believers, who are particularly fond of using propaganda for lack of any more convincing arguments available to them.
So last night came the argument from a Muslim (based in the US - sounds weird, but they exist) with all the Allah will take revenge on you in the next life garbage.
This morning from a Christian (of sorts), an item on atheism being in decline worldwide (stats in Germany suggest that that is not the case here, but I digress), highlighting the phrase "the thrill has gone".
Is "bored" an emotional word? That was my response to both of them. I could go and argue but why? Both are using stock emotional, not rational, techniques. Fear of what might happen when you die (I have no fear of permanent void and peaceful, permanent sleep), and belief being an instant fun thing.
I am not an atheist because I get a kick from being so. I am an atheist because I have scientifically weighed up cause and effect and logically reached the conclusions that I have reached. Cold reasoning may sound very unemotional, but that is exactly where we need to be IMHO. I would like to see it applied outside the realms of religion (politics could do to have a large dose of it applied for example), but given that much of humanity is still unclear as to how to free the power of logic and reasoning, and is still far too tuned to trying to meet the needs of its often flawed emotional requirements, it will not happen in my lifetime.
I spent some part of yesterday evening watching a football (soccer to North American readers) international between Switzerland and Germany (my adopted country). Switzerland, a useful but not amazing team, won 5-3. Every time they got near the German goal, they seemed to score. It was only a friendly game, nothing too serious involved and there was a lot of experimentation in the teams - but we (Germany) looked bad, and my emotions were winning the arguments over my reasoning.
Well you cannot live your entire life in a totally rational sphere, there are times when you have got to give your emotions time to .... well do what they have to do, enjoy, lust, get angry, cry, wharrever.
As long as you know how to respond to them positively and not get carried away.
It ought to be amazing though how powerful the forces of emotion are and how much curbing reason is required in order to win arguments in this world, and it is sadly to our permanent detriment that we allow reason to take the proverbial back seat. The issues that affect us all should be solvable, but they need reasoned approaches and pragmatic solutions. The more that we step away from that thinking, the less things are likely to improve.
You will not for instance wish away cancer (and crying because someone close to you has it will not improve the situation), you rather need to find a cure that works. At the same time, you must prepare yourself for the worst and live with the consequences of what is to come, should one not be found.
What I would repeat is "beware propaganda". I am getting into the unfortunate habit of checking out YouTube when there is nothing better to do. As I have subscribed to a number of channels on the subject of atheism, it should not surprise me that I keep running into the same silly arguments, particularly from religious believers, who are particularly fond of using propaganda for lack of any more convincing arguments available to them.
So last night came the argument from a Muslim (based in the US - sounds weird, but they exist) with all the Allah will take revenge on you in the next life garbage.
This morning from a Christian (of sorts), an item on atheism being in decline worldwide (stats in Germany suggest that that is not the case here, but I digress), highlighting the phrase "the thrill has gone".
Is "bored" an emotional word? That was my response to both of them. I could go and argue but why? Both are using stock emotional, not rational, techniques. Fear of what might happen when you die (I have no fear of permanent void and peaceful, permanent sleep), and belief being an instant fun thing.
I am not an atheist because I get a kick from being so. I am an atheist because I have scientifically weighed up cause and effect and logically reached the conclusions that I have reached. Cold reasoning may sound very unemotional, but that is exactly where we need to be IMHO. I would like to see it applied outside the realms of religion (politics could do to have a large dose of it applied for example), but given that much of humanity is still unclear as to how to free the power of logic and reasoning, and is still far too tuned to trying to meet the needs of its often flawed emotional requirements, it will not happen in my lifetime.
Saturday, 26 May 2012
YouTube copyright and European popular music
Tonight will be the Eurovision Song Contest. As ever I will not be watching. If we had a load of artists producing some interesting material sung in their own language rather than a load of none-too-significant performers trying to prove what crappy songs can be produced in English, then I might just be tempted to listen.
Even then it is not guaranteed.
In many ways it is no improvement on the whole range of awful talent shows that seem to dominate German television output these days. One wonders whether anyone can write music in German these days, let alone sing using the language.
It was not always so. Way back when in the Eurovision Song Contest people sang in their own languages, some great songs emerged. I realise that it is 48 years ago, but my favourite example of this was the Italian winner in 1964 "Non ho l'età" sung by Gigliola Cinquetti. 16 years old at the time with a song that still sends shivers up my spine and some wonderful antiquated lyrics about a girl of her age being too young to date and have a love affair. Those were the days (a survey in recent years indicated that 40% of kids in the UK and 25% in Germany were sexually active before their 16th birthdays!).
Anyway at least two live (at the time - i.e. in 1964) performances are available on YouTube. For an old man like myself it is wonderful to be able to go and revisit things like that. There are, for example, also a lot of old recordings of Jacques Brel, taken from television productions in the 1960s. Brel, as you may realise, remains one of my premier influences.
The irritations that you get with YouTube here though take some believing. If you have not got the appropriate licence the recording cannot appear on the Internet. If it were recent stuff that all the kids want to hear, I could understand - that is the way companies and artists make a living - selling their music.
A lot of the stuff which is banned from use for copyright reasons, though, is often old and even relatively obscure. There does not seem to be any consistency in this either. Choose to find Lotte Lenya singing "Mackie Messer" from Brecht's "Dreigroschenoper", sorry not allowed. But if you want to watch the entire 1931 movie containing this clip. Fine!
There are ways around this, when they work, incidentally - on Mozilla, not on Explorer.
That people might be suffering a financial loss from these free downloads is not always true, though. They can serve as samplers for new business. In my attempts to find interesting European music in languages other than English, I have found a whole range of new artists or new material from artists whom I vaguely knew.
Taking Italy as an example, I had heard some material from Gianna Nannini in the past, knew the name, Laura Pausini, but had not heard any of her material, and the names Giorgia and Elisa were unknown to me. No more. Thanks to YouTube I know far more about them and their material.
There was a concert held in 2009 at the San Siro football stadium in Milan called "Amiche per l'Abruzzo" - many leading Italian female artists performed in a charity event for the victims of the earthquake in the Abruzzo area that year. Suitably impressed I tried to purchase the DVD of the event (even given my shortage of money usw). Not available on Amazon.de and as I do not have an international credit card, it has to be purchased in Germany, but I am still looking.
I also discovered the wonderful Dutch chansonnière, Wende Snijders, through YouTube. A previously unknown name to me whose material (on CD, DVD) will be of interest if my finances ever improve.
Like this YouTube creates business. Strict imposition of copyright rules may actually be bad for business. It is certainly an area that needs closer examination and a more imaginative approach - the current system only blocks out access to material about which you would have known nothing anyway!
Even then it is not guaranteed.
In many ways it is no improvement on the whole range of awful talent shows that seem to dominate German television output these days. One wonders whether anyone can write music in German these days, let alone sing using the language.
It was not always so. Way back when in the Eurovision Song Contest people sang in their own languages, some great songs emerged. I realise that it is 48 years ago, but my favourite example of this was the Italian winner in 1964 "Non ho l'età" sung by Gigliola Cinquetti. 16 years old at the time with a song that still sends shivers up my spine and some wonderful antiquated lyrics about a girl of her age being too young to date and have a love affair. Those were the days (a survey in recent years indicated that 40% of kids in the UK and 25% in Germany were sexually active before their 16th birthdays!).
Anyway at least two live (at the time - i.e. in 1964) performances are available on YouTube. For an old man like myself it is wonderful to be able to go and revisit things like that. There are, for example, also a lot of old recordings of Jacques Brel, taken from television productions in the 1960s. Brel, as you may realise, remains one of my premier influences.
The irritations that you get with YouTube here though take some believing. If you have not got the appropriate licence the recording cannot appear on the Internet. If it were recent stuff that all the kids want to hear, I could understand - that is the way companies and artists make a living - selling their music.
A lot of the stuff which is banned from use for copyright reasons, though, is often old and even relatively obscure. There does not seem to be any consistency in this either. Choose to find Lotte Lenya singing "Mackie Messer" from Brecht's "Dreigroschenoper", sorry not allowed. But if you want to watch the entire 1931 movie containing this clip. Fine!
There are ways around this, when they work, incidentally - on Mozilla, not on Explorer.
That people might be suffering a financial loss from these free downloads is not always true, though. They can serve as samplers for new business. In my attempts to find interesting European music in languages other than English, I have found a whole range of new artists or new material from artists whom I vaguely knew.
Taking Italy as an example, I had heard some material from Gianna Nannini in the past, knew the name, Laura Pausini, but had not heard any of her material, and the names Giorgia and Elisa were unknown to me. No more. Thanks to YouTube I know far more about them and their material.
There was a concert held in 2009 at the San Siro football stadium in Milan called "Amiche per l'Abruzzo" - many leading Italian female artists performed in a charity event for the victims of the earthquake in the Abruzzo area that year. Suitably impressed I tried to purchase the DVD of the event (even given my shortage of money usw). Not available on Amazon.de and as I do not have an international credit card, it has to be purchased in Germany, but I am still looking.
I also discovered the wonderful Dutch chansonnière, Wende Snijders, through YouTube. A previously unknown name to me whose material (on CD, DVD) will be of interest if my finances ever improve.
Like this YouTube creates business. Strict imposition of copyright rules may actually be bad for business. It is certainly an area that needs closer examination and a more imaginative approach - the current system only blocks out access to material about which you would have known nothing anyway!
Postscript (December 10, 2021) - I did eventually buy the "Amiche per l'Abruzzo" DVD on Amazon. It cost somewhere in the region of 79 Euro, which was very expensive by my standards, but the whole concert was very enjoyable, showcasing a whole range of Italian female singing talent from different periods dating back to 1980 and maybe previously). If these snippets had never appeared on YouTube I would never have known anything about it. Nor about a whole range of excellent Dutch language music to which I spend a lot of time listening these days)!
Friday, 25 May 2012
Any regrets?
Coming to the final chapter of my life, is there anything upon which I can look back and I say that I regret anything?
Basically, logically usw, no - BECAUSE YOU CANNOT CHANGE ANYTHING NOW; SO WHAT POINT DOES IT SERVE? Away with wishful thinking, accept what happened, happened. So is the history of your life.
One step back from that. My life would have been better if there had been more sex, if there had been job security, if the woman of my dreams had come along when I was younger, if I had been born in Germany or Holland and not the UK, if the Internet had been around 25 years earlier, if I hadn't had the stupid idea of becoming a teacher and wasting 6 years of my life, if there hadn't been so many crap politicians elected to power (particularly Thatcher and Bush junior), if intelligence was appreciated and selling wasn't ..... usw, usw, usw!
What I don't regret - moving to Holland, Germany, working in Paris, finally getting married, and not having kids (far too much like hard work - adults are easier to understand, if not appreciate). And some of the girlfriends (way before I got married - no regrets about them, even if the relationships did not work out long term). I also don't regret my commitments and beliefs either. And I don't regret the fact that I am not going to be round much longer, because the world in 20 years is going to be even worse than it is now (in fact when the Americans elect Romney President, the process of things getting worse will accelerate) !
Basically, logically usw, no - BECAUSE YOU CANNOT CHANGE ANYTHING NOW; SO WHAT POINT DOES IT SERVE? Away with wishful thinking, accept what happened, happened. So is the history of your life.
One step back from that. My life would have been better if there had been more sex, if there had been job security, if the woman of my dreams had come along when I was younger, if I had been born in Germany or Holland and not the UK, if the Internet had been around 25 years earlier, if I hadn't had the stupid idea of becoming a teacher and wasting 6 years of my life, if there hadn't been so many crap politicians elected to power (particularly Thatcher and Bush junior), if intelligence was appreciated and selling wasn't ..... usw, usw, usw!
What I don't regret - moving to Holland, Germany, working in Paris, finally getting married, and not having kids (far too much like hard work - adults are easier to understand, if not appreciate). And some of the girlfriends (way before I got married - no regrets about them, even if the relationships did not work out long term). I also don't regret my commitments and beliefs either. And I don't regret the fact that I am not going to be round much longer, because the world in 20 years is going to be even worse than it is now (in fact when the Americans elect Romney President, the process of things getting worse will accelerate) !
Thursday, 24 May 2012
Want to start a war? Maybe a musical biopic will help?
I must admit that I am not always a hard-nosed, cynical, sceptical pragmatist. Once in a while a sloppy, sentimental side to my nature emerges - and is culled as quickly as I can manage it. No emotions - FACTS, FACTS, FACTS! There, I feel better already!
Anyway yesterday evening I ran out of work for the first time in a fortnight. Short of ideas, I went down to the cellar and dug out a video (yes, not a DVD - our video recorder just about still works). Plenty of good stuff still down there, British anti-Thatcher satire from the 1980s, sports coverage from the same era, tons of wildlife programs, and some old, even ancient (!!!!) Hollywood classics. Dug out one of the latter - James Cagney in "Yankee Doodle Dandy".
Allowing for its era it is a fun movie, in which Cagney plays the part of Vaudeville star turned Broadway star and producer, George M. Cohan. Some of the stuff is interestingly quite accurate. Some of it, on the other hand, is a typical Hollywood biopic of the period. Put the two together - for example his sister, Josie, did die quite young (mentioned in passing in the movie and not that important), but was older than him, not younger.
Conveniently excluded are mentions of his first wife (Cohan married twice) and the fact that he had four children! In the movie he never had kids - given how sentimental people (though not me personally) get about kids at times that seems a weird omission. Check out the later biopic of Al Jolson - you will find that the number of marriages and the presence of children in the star's life also are different in fact from in the movie - wonder why Hollywood in the 40s had this thing about not showing kids in biopics?
The movie is heavy on patriotism. Given the time that is not surprising. Cohan had written "Over There" in the First World War, and the patriotic anthem "Grand Old Flag" earlier than that, and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor (American spelling - deliberate!) for his contribution to the American spirit. This was though in 1936, before the Second World War started. The movie conveniently moved this to the start of 1942.
The point to bear in mind though is something lost in history. Americans had been very reluctant to participate in the war, and even with Pearl Harbor (see previous note), selling it was still an exercise to be carried out. Films like "Yankee Doodle Dandy" showing a great patriotic composer and performer like Cohan (brilliantly portrayed by Cagney at his peak, for this he won an Oscar), all helped in this exercise. If some convenient changes of history were needed in the name of entertainment, then so what?
So the significance is? Few can fail to justify the entry of the United States into the Second World War, and all of us (including most people in Germany) can be thankful for the massive sacrifices that Americans made at that time. To remember the war was already well underway, the conflict needed to be resolved and the source of evil removed.
Similar to Bosnia and similar to Afghanistan!
But not similar to Iraq, nor Iran! The source of evil in those countries may have needed or need to be removed, but there was/is no existing conflict, and the potential to use harsh peaceful means to (have) resolve(d) them existed/exists.
Anyway convinced as I am that the world is going to get stuck with US President Romney from 2013 (which will lead to the US going into recession, higher unemployment, increased public debt - check this out with any neutral economist, and also see what his sort of policy is doing to the UK) and there will be a war with Iran, there is also the fact that this will need selling.
Even given the alleged "liberal bias" in Hollywood, I am sure that a biopic might prove a great selling point. Quite who could be the subject is a great question, but I am sure there will be no trouble finding people to help with the movie - Chuck Norris, Bruce Willis, Sly Stallone, Jon Voight .... Of course personally I will not be going to go and see it myself, but then the sloppy sentimental side of my nature is hoping that we do not end up with a President Romney. For that matter the hard-nosed cynic in my nature tells me that economically the world does not need that either, but given the US Presidents that I have had to watch in action from over here in my life time (Nixon, Reagan, Bush jnr) ....
Anyway yesterday evening I ran out of work for the first time in a fortnight. Short of ideas, I went down to the cellar and dug out a video (yes, not a DVD - our video recorder just about still works). Plenty of good stuff still down there, British anti-Thatcher satire from the 1980s, sports coverage from the same era, tons of wildlife programs, and some old, even ancient (!!!!) Hollywood classics. Dug out one of the latter - James Cagney in "Yankee Doodle Dandy".
Allowing for its era it is a fun movie, in which Cagney plays the part of Vaudeville star turned Broadway star and producer, George M. Cohan. Some of the stuff is interestingly quite accurate. Some of it, on the other hand, is a typical Hollywood biopic of the period. Put the two together - for example his sister, Josie, did die quite young (mentioned in passing in the movie and not that important), but was older than him, not younger.
Conveniently excluded are mentions of his first wife (Cohan married twice) and the fact that he had four children! In the movie he never had kids - given how sentimental people (though not me personally) get about kids at times that seems a weird omission. Check out the later biopic of Al Jolson - you will find that the number of marriages and the presence of children in the star's life also are different in fact from in the movie - wonder why Hollywood in the 40s had this thing about not showing kids in biopics?
The movie is heavy on patriotism. Given the time that is not surprising. Cohan had written "Over There" in the First World War, and the patriotic anthem "Grand Old Flag" earlier than that, and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor (American spelling - deliberate!) for his contribution to the American spirit. This was though in 1936, before the Second World War started. The movie conveniently moved this to the start of 1942.
The point to bear in mind though is something lost in history. Americans had been very reluctant to participate in the war, and even with Pearl Harbor (see previous note), selling it was still an exercise to be carried out. Films like "Yankee Doodle Dandy" showing a great patriotic composer and performer like Cohan (brilliantly portrayed by Cagney at his peak, for this he won an Oscar), all helped in this exercise. If some convenient changes of history were needed in the name of entertainment, then so what?
So the significance is? Few can fail to justify the entry of the United States into the Second World War, and all of us (including most people in Germany) can be thankful for the massive sacrifices that Americans made at that time. To remember the war was already well underway, the conflict needed to be resolved and the source of evil removed.
Similar to Bosnia and similar to Afghanistan!
But not similar to Iraq, nor Iran! The source of evil in those countries may have needed or need to be removed, but there was/is no existing conflict, and the potential to use harsh peaceful means to (have) resolve(d) them existed/exists.
Anyway convinced as I am that the world is going to get stuck with US President Romney from 2013 (which will lead to the US going into recession, higher unemployment, increased public debt - check this out with any neutral economist, and also see what his sort of policy is doing to the UK) and there will be a war with Iran, there is also the fact that this will need selling.
Even given the alleged "liberal bias" in Hollywood, I am sure that a biopic might prove a great selling point. Quite who could be the subject is a great question, but I am sure there will be no trouble finding people to help with the movie - Chuck Norris, Bruce Willis, Sly Stallone, Jon Voight .... Of course personally I will not be going to go and see it myself, but then the sloppy sentimental side of my nature is hoping that we do not end up with a President Romney. For that matter the hard-nosed cynic in my nature tells me that economically the world does not need that either, but given the US Presidents that I have had to watch in action from over here in my life time (Nixon, Reagan, Bush jnr) ....
Postscript (December 10th, 2021). Of course I was wrong in expecting that Romney would win the election (thankfully!). Now if they had tried that idea, who knows?
Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Dating a total foreign stranger
Every day on the Internet there seem to be more and more dating sites.
Invariably young women.
From many different parts of the world, though Asia and Eastern Europe figure prominently.
In the developed world the adverts are aimed internally within the country concerned, I do not know how many electronic dating agencies I have seen in Germany where finding an "élite" partner seems to be the objective for example.
But internationally, the advertisers come from mainly less developed countries where potential husbands may not offer much - economically. There are possible exceptions - South Korea for example, you would imagine being fairly prosperous.
But why would a woman from the Ukraine or the Philippines, for example, hope to find someone like this? Even ruling out the scam sites, and saying these people are genuine?
How can dating like this really work?
You spend a lot of time communicating by email, possibly the odd telephone call, and then ....
It is a long way to go to meet someone, or for someone to come and meet you.
And then you would want to spend your entire life with them, live, eat, sleep, make love usw with them? Even being touched by a total stranger sounds a little bit on the naive side to me.
How do you know they are genuine, never mind special, fascinating, caring, interested - you name it?
And would you realise that this is extremely risky at times, and you might find yourself far away from home where nobody can help you?
There must be better ways to resolve your lifestyle choices, I would have thought. In a world where scams and scammers abound (and the Internet is very fertile ground for such people), an extremely important choice like this should not be thrown to the electronic wolves.
Invariably young women.
From many different parts of the world, though Asia and Eastern Europe figure prominently.
In the developed world the adverts are aimed internally within the country concerned, I do not know how many electronic dating agencies I have seen in Germany where finding an "élite" partner seems to be the objective for example.
But internationally, the advertisers come from mainly less developed countries where potential husbands may not offer much - economically. There are possible exceptions - South Korea for example, you would imagine being fairly prosperous.
But why would a woman from the Ukraine or the Philippines, for example, hope to find someone like this? Even ruling out the scam sites, and saying these people are genuine?
How can dating like this really work?
You spend a lot of time communicating by email, possibly the odd telephone call, and then ....
It is a long way to go to meet someone, or for someone to come and meet you.
And then you would want to spend your entire life with them, live, eat, sleep, make love usw with them? Even being touched by a total stranger sounds a little bit on the naive side to me.
How do you know they are genuine, never mind special, fascinating, caring, interested - you name it?
And would you realise that this is extremely risky at times, and you might find yourself far away from home where nobody can help you?
There must be better ways to resolve your lifestyle choices, I would have thought. In a world where scams and scammers abound (and the Internet is very fertile ground for such people), an extremely important choice like this should not be thrown to the electronic wolves.
Tuesday, 22 May 2012
A view on the United States
or out of the mouths of babes and sucklings .... well not exactly that they were about 11 years old.
I was sitting on the S-Bahn coming home 'tother day. On the seat opposite two girls (ages - see above) were having a joyful, very loud, if reasonably intelligent conversation.
There was among the things discussed the subject of poverty in Africa and what "we" could or should do about it. Good - I'm impressed!
Which led in turn, logically (????) to the United States. Which in turn led to the comment from one of them (translated into English from the original German):
"EVERYONE'S RICH IN AMERICA!!!!".
Everyone? I felt (like the good former teacher that I am) like leaning across and correcting her, but honourable men of my age don't speak to strange children, for obvious reasons!
Well it had been such an interesting and intelligent conversation up to that point, why should I correct her? Maybe she is right and I am the one who is mistaken - although I would be interested to know her sources.
Anyway, my American readers in particular, have a nice day and continue to enjoy your immense prosperity! And if you have any spare currency (I do take the Euro you are trying to unload!), please let me know!
I was sitting on the S-Bahn coming home 'tother day. On the seat opposite two girls (ages - see above) were having a joyful, very loud, if reasonably intelligent conversation.
There was among the things discussed the subject of poverty in Africa and what "we" could or should do about it. Good - I'm impressed!
Which led in turn, logically (????) to the United States. Which in turn led to the comment from one of them (translated into English from the original German):
"EVERYONE'S RICH IN AMERICA!!!!".
Everyone? I felt (like the good former teacher that I am) like leaning across and correcting her, but honourable men of my age don't speak to strange children, for obvious reasons!
Well it had been such an interesting and intelligent conversation up to that point, why should I correct her? Maybe she is right and I am the one who is mistaken - although I would be interested to know her sources.
Anyway, my American readers in particular, have a nice day and continue to enjoy your immense prosperity! And if you have any spare currency (I do take the Euro you are trying to unload!), please let me know!
Monday, 21 May 2012
Turning conservative in my old age?
It is just over a week since my wife did the equivalent of taking the garden shears to my hair.
I grew up in the generation that always had its hair long, and I still prefer myself like that.
I went in the bathroom this morning and snarled at the mirror. It didn't look too happy either. Maybe it's time to get a new, happier mirror.
Curious days. As regular readers will know, I do not like the political terms left and right - they are utterly meaningless concepts that do not cover the range of possibilities.
Lacking any other way to express it for the moment though (loss of hair has reduced my IQ to about 157, so I cannot think straight today), I will go down that silly road to explain my problem.
Most Americans have me tagged as being on the "left" - a liberal (not in the European sense, liberals here are ultraconservative at least where money is concerned). Not too easy to tie down on that though as I think things through and do not give standard answers.
"You're a Socialist!", I was once told. My reply:
"I would be if I thought that Socialism worked!".
The same is true of any -ism though except Fascism, which needs widescale slaughter of people whose ethnic background you despise, and I cannot even remotely accept that.
Anyway, twice now in the past week I have been faced with a situation with people to the "left" of me. Firstly the Blockupy protest in Frankfurt last week. "All well and good, I see why you are angry, but it won't achieve anything, will it?". Cynical sneers come back ....
Then yesterday on YouTube I ran into a guy who was really angry (you get a lot of them who are, on YouTube, but he (?) was exceptionally so).
I had remarked that I had little time for Mitt Romney (yes, American cousins, like most Europeans I am hoping for a second-term for Obama, even if only as the lesser of two evils). But at the same time you cannot treat this story about Romney being a bully at the age if 18 and still consider it relevant. People do mature, even if they do not turn into anything desirable.
The guy who replied was so angry he answered the post twice!I was wrong, period, period, PERIOD!!!!
He also missed my point that there are far more important reasons for exposing Romney as being inadequate for the job on what he is now, not what he was 45 years ago. I can come up with six excellent reasons without trying too hard.
Maybe I am turning into a conservative. That could be the reason. I won't shout and jeer at their nasty candidates and their past misdeeds. I try instead to reason out their thinking and behaviour. I also agree that you cannot share wealth if you do not create it (no not all of it, just enough to keep people out of debt and out of poverty!).
So am I turning into a conservative?
I don't think so, I still think that they are invariably wrong (most of them don't seem interested in sharing wealth when they have created it for one thing). The days of the great conservative politicians like Adenauer and MacMillan seem so long ago and far away. Maybe I should go and tell the mirror that, it might even smile back at me.
I grew up in the generation that always had its hair long, and I still prefer myself like that.
I went in the bathroom this morning and snarled at the mirror. It didn't look too happy either. Maybe it's time to get a new, happier mirror.
Curious days. As regular readers will know, I do not like the political terms left and right - they are utterly meaningless concepts that do not cover the range of possibilities.
Lacking any other way to express it for the moment though (loss of hair has reduced my IQ to about 157, so I cannot think straight today), I will go down that silly road to explain my problem.
Most Americans have me tagged as being on the "left" - a liberal (not in the European sense, liberals here are ultraconservative at least where money is concerned). Not too easy to tie down on that though as I think things through and do not give standard answers.
"You're a Socialist!", I was once told. My reply:
"I would be if I thought that Socialism worked!".
The same is true of any -ism though except Fascism, which needs widescale slaughter of people whose ethnic background you despise, and I cannot even remotely accept that.
Anyway, twice now in the past week I have been faced with a situation with people to the "left" of me. Firstly the Blockupy protest in Frankfurt last week. "All well and good, I see why you are angry, but it won't achieve anything, will it?". Cynical sneers come back ....
Then yesterday on YouTube I ran into a guy who was really angry (you get a lot of them who are, on YouTube, but he (?) was exceptionally so).
I had remarked that I had little time for Mitt Romney (yes, American cousins, like most Europeans I am hoping for a second-term for Obama, even if only as the lesser of two evils). But at the same time you cannot treat this story about Romney being a bully at the age if 18 and still consider it relevant. People do mature, even if they do not turn into anything desirable.
The guy who replied was so angry he answered the post twice!I was wrong, period, period, PERIOD!!!!
He also missed my point that there are far more important reasons for exposing Romney as being inadequate for the job on what he is now, not what he was 45 years ago. I can come up with six excellent reasons without trying too hard.
Maybe I am turning into a conservative. That could be the reason. I won't shout and jeer at their nasty candidates and their past misdeeds. I try instead to reason out their thinking and behaviour. I also agree that you cannot share wealth if you do not create it (no not all of it, just enough to keep people out of debt and out of poverty!).
So am I turning into a conservative?
I don't think so, I still think that they are invariably wrong (most of them don't seem interested in sharing wealth when they have created it for one thing). The days of the great conservative politicians like Adenauer and MacMillan seem so long ago and far away. Maybe I should go and tell the mirror that, it might even smile back at me.
Friday, 18 May 2012
Brainless idiots, virus creators et al
Last weekend the laptop was hit with a string of 14 viruses that my anti-virus software missed the first time (but not on restart the following time) or the backup that I use failed to grab.
As I tend rarely to vary my choice of websites (a fairly standard set of mainstream non-controversial sites for language work, IT recruitment sites, sports news, current affairs, Yahoo, Google, YouTube, Blogger and the like) and my wife uses one site from her native country, it is difficult to see where these attacks came from.
It was a pain in the neck clearing them, but we are finally there and all discussions about spending money we do not have on a replacement laptop or PC have ceased for now.
This morning, bright and early (my wife needing to get up early for her morning shift at the airport, waking me up in the process and then insomnia setting in), I embarked upon checking round google on virus creation and the like.
There are a seemingly astonishing number of places where people can get instructions on how to write a virus, how to store a virus, how to load a stored virus usw.
If these were being used to attack mega-corporations and the like (a sort of Internet version of the Occupy movement), I could understand the logic - even if I do not agree with the method.
As it is though, the thinking seems to be pretty much on the brainless idiot, criminal approach to these things. Let's cause as much havoc to all the suckers out there usw. Even if we don't know the individuals involved .... This is fun? For brainless idiots, maybe, end of story.
One point that I would raise is that if I can find this information on google without trying too hard, why are the anti-criminal organisations that we pay round the world to protect us not doing more to counter this nonsense? Last time that I checked it is a criminal offence to cause damage using a virus. Getting at the point of creation should not be that difficult for a trained observer. And making it a very expensive hobby might help curb the practice!
As I tend rarely to vary my choice of websites (a fairly standard set of mainstream non-controversial sites for language work, IT recruitment sites, sports news, current affairs, Yahoo, Google, YouTube, Blogger and the like) and my wife uses one site from her native country, it is difficult to see where these attacks came from.
It was a pain in the neck clearing them, but we are finally there and all discussions about spending money we do not have on a replacement laptop or PC have ceased for now.
This morning, bright and early (my wife needing to get up early for her morning shift at the airport, waking me up in the process and then insomnia setting in), I embarked upon checking round google on virus creation and the like.
There are a seemingly astonishing number of places where people can get instructions on how to write a virus, how to store a virus, how to load a stored virus usw.
If these were being used to attack mega-corporations and the like (a sort of Internet version of the Occupy movement), I could understand the logic - even if I do not agree with the method.
As it is though, the thinking seems to be pretty much on the brainless idiot, criminal approach to these things. Let's cause as much havoc to all the suckers out there usw. Even if we don't know the individuals involved .... This is fun? For brainless idiots, maybe, end of story.
One point that I would raise is that if I can find this information on google without trying too hard, why are the anti-criminal organisations that we pay round the world to protect us not doing more to counter this nonsense? Last time that I checked it is a criminal offence to cause damage using a virus. Getting at the point of creation should not be that difficult for a trained observer. And making it a very expensive hobby might help curb the practice!
Thursday, 17 May 2012
Do you really want the facts?
Fascinating really how much wishful thinking guides us.
1) The Marxist who leads the party that is likely to win the next round of the Greek elections has apparently persuaded the people that they can throw away the bailout package and stay in the Euro (leave the Euro and get stuck with a junk currency that would even make the Rouble under Yeltsin look a worthwhile bet? Of course we don't want that!). Sorry, folks it ain't gonna happen!
2) Mitt Romney will have Americans believe that with his policies (including massive government cutbacks equalling mass layoffs in the public sector, massive tax cuts for the wealthy and huge increase in defence spending) will create half-a-million new jobs a month (well if he is talking burger flippers only, he might get halfway there) and cut the deficit as well. Check anyone with an understanding of basic arithmetic and a neutral perspective on economics. It ain't gonna happen in either case (see the UK if you want an example of reality at work).
3) Many people will go to work tomorrow convinced that they are doing a brilliant job and the firm that they work for could never get rid of them. Meanwhile the firm is checking out how that job could be done for 5% of the money in China. Job security? Even if you are doing a brilliant job (check the company bottom line, and don't think that company loyalty counts for anything either), it does not exist!
4) Well I could always start my own company and become a millionaire in no time at all. Yes, I am deeply intellectual and I absolutely hate selling! Deeply intellectual and you believe that? Only 6% of new business start-ups ever become profitable, so start checking up how bankruptcy works. Even people who like selling rarely make millions, the success stories are the exception that prove the rule. Next.
5) If we protest and riot non-stop outside the banking institutions, the banks will collapse (possible), the evils of capitalism will disappear (possible), and a better, fairer world will follow. Dream on - explain to me please how this will work. What I see in this case is the rich reduced to poverty - ALONG WITH EVERYONE ELSE! I dislike the way things work at the moment, but resolution of the issues by simply destroying wealth seems so far removed from reality of how things work ....
6) Well I hate the current government (fair enough), so I will vote for the opposition - things are bound to get better (ask anyone in Greece how that works, or maybe in the UK for that matter). Two times bad equals bad either way!
7) Well this life has been ****, and it is never going to get any better (yeah, well for once I can understand what you are saying), but at least the next life will be better. Huh? Well I hate to disappoint you, but this is the one chance that you get. The next life may exist in your imagination, and that unfortunately is where it belongs. There are absolutely no rational grounds to believe that anything will follow. Your imagination, remember, is merely a part of your mortal physical body, it does not exist outside it!
1) The Marxist who leads the party that is likely to win the next round of the Greek elections has apparently persuaded the people that they can throw away the bailout package and stay in the Euro (leave the Euro and get stuck with a junk currency that would even make the Rouble under Yeltsin look a worthwhile bet? Of course we don't want that!). Sorry, folks it ain't gonna happen!
2) Mitt Romney will have Americans believe that with his policies (including massive government cutbacks equalling mass layoffs in the public sector, massive tax cuts for the wealthy and huge increase in defence spending) will create half-a-million new jobs a month (well if he is talking burger flippers only, he might get halfway there) and cut the deficit as well. Check anyone with an understanding of basic arithmetic and a neutral perspective on economics. It ain't gonna happen in either case (see the UK if you want an example of reality at work).
3) Many people will go to work tomorrow convinced that they are doing a brilliant job and the firm that they work for could never get rid of them. Meanwhile the firm is checking out how that job could be done for 5% of the money in China. Job security? Even if you are doing a brilliant job (check the company bottom line, and don't think that company loyalty counts for anything either), it does not exist!
4) Well I could always start my own company and become a millionaire in no time at all. Yes, I am deeply intellectual and I absolutely hate selling! Deeply intellectual and you believe that? Only 6% of new business start-ups ever become profitable, so start checking up how bankruptcy works. Even people who like selling rarely make millions, the success stories are the exception that prove the rule. Next.
5) If we protest and riot non-stop outside the banking institutions, the banks will collapse (possible), the evils of capitalism will disappear (possible), and a better, fairer world will follow. Dream on - explain to me please how this will work. What I see in this case is the rich reduced to poverty - ALONG WITH EVERYONE ELSE! I dislike the way things work at the moment, but resolution of the issues by simply destroying wealth seems so far removed from reality of how things work ....
6) Well I hate the current government (fair enough), so I will vote for the opposition - things are bound to get better (ask anyone in Greece how that works, or maybe in the UK for that matter). Two times bad equals bad either way!
7) Well this life has been ****, and it is never going to get any better (yeah, well for once I can understand what you are saying), but at least the next life will be better. Huh? Well I hate to disappoint you, but this is the one chance that you get. The next life may exist in your imagination, and that unfortunately is where it belongs. There are absolutely no rational grounds to believe that anything will follow. Your imagination, remember, is merely a part of your mortal physical body, it does not exist outside it!
Tuesday, 15 May 2012
So we should get rid of the Euro?
OK seen from the point of view of the man in the Straße.
An experiment. We will provide the transportation (OK a witch's broom - it's cheap and it is all we can afford) and the hospitality (well maybe we can find you a tent and a sleeping bag). We will for the sake of this experiment give you one 100 Euro note.
Right you leave Frankfurt and go in order to Amsterdam, then Athens, then Madrid, then Rome, then Paris, then Brussels, then Lisbon, then Luxemburg. In each of those cities you go into a bank and ask them to change the 100 Euro note for local currency. Finally you return to Frankfurt. You change the money back You give me back the money that you have changed. How much money do I get back? Answer 100 Euro.
Stage 2 - we now send you to London and change the 100 Euro note for local currency, and come back to Frankfurt and change that back. How much money do I get back? 81-82 Euro!!!!
Try it from Madrid rather than Frankfurt if you want - same answer!
Does anyone want to tell me how I benefit in Stage 2 of the operation, and if I do not who does????
Stage 3 - we now send you to London, Zurich, Oslo, Moscow, Copenhagen and Stockholm where you do exactly the same thing. Then you return to Frankfurt (or Madrid) and change the money back. How much money do I get back? I do not know exactly, but I will lay odds that it is less than 50!
That is in my interest????
The buying and selling rates used on currencies has risen so much, it is like a sort of taxation. The speculators and bankers may be only too happy to see the Euro fail. I will tell you from the point of view of the man in the Straße it is because they want to be able to rip off as many people as possible!
Postscript for anyone who doesn't get it (particularly people in the UK who have difficulty working these things out) - if the Dutch, Greeks, Spaniards, Italians, Portuguese, Belgians etc have their own currencies then Stage 1 becomes like Stage 3 - i.e. banks making money for nothing and the rest of us ending up out of pocket!
An experiment. We will provide the transportation (OK a witch's broom - it's cheap and it is all we can afford) and the hospitality (well maybe we can find you a tent and a sleeping bag). We will for the sake of this experiment give you one 100 Euro note.
Right you leave Frankfurt and go in order to Amsterdam, then Athens, then Madrid, then Rome, then Paris, then Brussels, then Lisbon, then Luxemburg. In each of those cities you go into a bank and ask them to change the 100 Euro note for local currency. Finally you return to Frankfurt. You change the money back You give me back the money that you have changed. How much money do I get back? Answer 100 Euro.
Stage 2 - we now send you to London and change the 100 Euro note for local currency, and come back to Frankfurt and change that back. How much money do I get back? 81-82 Euro!!!!
Try it from Madrid rather than Frankfurt if you want - same answer!
Does anyone want to tell me how I benefit in Stage 2 of the operation, and if I do not who does????
Stage 3 - we now send you to London, Zurich, Oslo, Moscow, Copenhagen and Stockholm where you do exactly the same thing. Then you return to Frankfurt (or Madrid) and change the money back. How much money do I get back? I do not know exactly, but I will lay odds that it is less than 50!
That is in my interest????
The buying and selling rates used on currencies has risen so much, it is like a sort of taxation. The speculators and bankers may be only too happy to see the Euro fail. I will tell you from the point of view of the man in the Straße it is because they want to be able to rip off as many people as possible!
Postscript for anyone who doesn't get it (particularly people in the UK who have difficulty working these things out) - if the Dutch, Greeks, Spaniards, Italians, Portuguese, Belgians etc have their own currencies then Stage 1 becomes like Stage 3 - i.e. banks making money for nothing and the rest of us ending up out of pocket!
Monday, 14 May 2012
Clearing the mind of rubbish and the not-to-be-discussed problems of adolescent males
Let me take you back to ancient history.
October 1968. University College, Swansea, Wales.
I was 20 at the time, just embarking upon my second-year of my degree course, intelligent but unworldly and desperately shy - still.
One morning, I cannot remember where, I caught sight of a girl who struck me as being the most beautiful girl that I had ever seen. New, first-year student.
That might have been the end of it, that might have become a mere obsession, this might become the great love of my life. You could never tell.
Over the next couple of weeks, as people were signing up for the various clubs that you do at the start of the academic year, she ended up in one of the same sports clubs as Bryan, one of my flat mates.
He was nothing like as shy as I was, a perfectly normal guy in most respects, did not consider her beautiful at all (no accounting for taste), and he had had enough of my nonsense and, with a lot of encouragement, introduced me to her (including her name - Susan, surname I will, for the sake of discretion, not mention).
So started two years and eight months of unfulfilled platonic love (Du Bellay rather than Baudelaire sadly). We would meet occasionally, talk politely, be very friendly and well .... that was about it really. In the last few months that I knew her she was wearing a very expensive engagement diamond ring that her boyfriend back in Somerset had given her.
June 27th or 28th, 1971. Both older, both more mature, both graduates of the university, I watched her for the last time walking out of the university building and out of my life forever. I wanted to dash up, say goodbye, wish her luck, but the immature trappings of adolescence (even at 22?) held me back.
The pragmatist in me did not hang on. George, the bad gangster (Humphrey Bogart) berates Eddie, the good gangster (James Cagney) in the last part of the classic Warner Brothers movie "The Roaring Twenties" with the line: "still carrying a torch for that dame!".
Pragmatists don't carry torches, except in the dark.
Dreams, I explain time and again to people, serve a purpose. The brain fills up with all sorts of rubbish, in total disorder, and this has to be cleared out. In a dream the subconscious grabs all sorts of bits and pieces and throws them together, and throws them out. Don't read too much into meanings etc, IMHO that is not their purpose.
So last night's rubbish to be thrown out. There, some 41 years since we last saw each other, were Susan and I. Together. Friendly. Well somewhat more than friendly. I was far more positive than I had ever been and yes, we did get intimate together. Clearly her, no question. A voice then started beating out that she will be 62 years old now (destroys the intimacy a bit), and off my dream went on the tangents that they normally take to the great Catalan opera singers, Jose Carreras and Montserrat Caballe singing "Brindisi" from Verdi's "La Traviata", at which point I woke up.
My wife's left arm was hanging tightly on to me. Meanwhile the voice in my head repeated, she will be 62 by now - if she is still alive. Not so silly a comment, two of the best friends that I ever had in my university days have died in recent years (for that matter I wonder where Bryan is these days!). And as clear as her face was in my dream, in my conscious state I could not picture her clearly any more. As for the intimacy, it was (strongly) suggested rather than graphic.
This was not always the case. When I was 14 or 15 (even further back in ancient history), I used to get some extremely graphic images in my dreams of intimacy with women. I would wake up, messy (covered with gunge) and embarrassed. I was not the atheist that I have since become, I was strongly Christian living in a committed Methodist family. I would pray at night for this to stop - it didn't. For months it was a problem and would not go away.
There was nobody with whom I could discuss the problem. "Messy and embarrassed" you can change using the Christian terminology of the time as "dirty and disgusting". It was a stage, like Christianity it was something I grew out of. By the time of my 16th birthday it had thankfully stopped happening.
I recall discussing this two years later with a friend who had not had my Christian leanings. He had also gone through this, and the more I checked round, the more I came to realise that it is not an isolated phenomenon. Your adolescent body is awakening, the sexual urges are growing, and much as your conscious mind might try to control them, your pesky subconscious is not so willing to play along.
Take religion out of the frame, you can learn to handle the problem - though even that is not easy. Given the Christian and Muslim puritans out there, I wonder how young men handle this problem when subjected to religious dogma even now. It is not a problem that you can comfortably discuss, and the element of a guilty conscience cannot be precluded. In a secular world, you can get advice, but don't look to religious zealots to understand.
I also wonder at times whether teenage girls who are still virgins go through anything similar. Interestingly I don't know. If boys cannot discuss this sort of thing, can girls? And if they don't you will never find out, will you?
To recall though - adolescence is a difficult stage to go through, and the impact of not handling problems correctly can have an unfortunate impact down the road.
October 1968. University College, Swansea, Wales.
I was 20 at the time, just embarking upon my second-year of my degree course, intelligent but unworldly and desperately shy - still.
One morning, I cannot remember where, I caught sight of a girl who struck me as being the most beautiful girl that I had ever seen. New, first-year student.
That might have been the end of it, that might have become a mere obsession, this might become the great love of my life. You could never tell.
Over the next couple of weeks, as people were signing up for the various clubs that you do at the start of the academic year, she ended up in one of the same sports clubs as Bryan, one of my flat mates.
He was nothing like as shy as I was, a perfectly normal guy in most respects, did not consider her beautiful at all (no accounting for taste), and he had had enough of my nonsense and, with a lot of encouragement, introduced me to her (including her name - Susan, surname I will, for the sake of discretion, not mention).
So started two years and eight months of unfulfilled platonic love (Du Bellay rather than Baudelaire sadly). We would meet occasionally, talk politely, be very friendly and well .... that was about it really. In the last few months that I knew her she was wearing a very expensive engagement diamond ring that her boyfriend back in Somerset had given her.
June 27th or 28th, 1971. Both older, both more mature, both graduates of the university, I watched her for the last time walking out of the university building and out of my life forever. I wanted to dash up, say goodbye, wish her luck, but the immature trappings of adolescence (even at 22?) held me back.
The pragmatist in me did not hang on. George, the bad gangster (Humphrey Bogart) berates Eddie, the good gangster (James Cagney) in the last part of the classic Warner Brothers movie "The Roaring Twenties" with the line: "still carrying a torch for that dame!".
Pragmatists don't carry torches, except in the dark.
Dreams, I explain time and again to people, serve a purpose. The brain fills up with all sorts of rubbish, in total disorder, and this has to be cleared out. In a dream the subconscious grabs all sorts of bits and pieces and throws them together, and throws them out. Don't read too much into meanings etc, IMHO that is not their purpose.
So last night's rubbish to be thrown out. There, some 41 years since we last saw each other, were Susan and I. Together. Friendly. Well somewhat more than friendly. I was far more positive than I had ever been and yes, we did get intimate together. Clearly her, no question. A voice then started beating out that she will be 62 years old now (destroys the intimacy a bit), and off my dream went on the tangents that they normally take to the great Catalan opera singers, Jose Carreras and Montserrat Caballe singing "Brindisi" from Verdi's "La Traviata", at which point I woke up.
My wife's left arm was hanging tightly on to me. Meanwhile the voice in my head repeated, she will be 62 by now - if she is still alive. Not so silly a comment, two of the best friends that I ever had in my university days have died in recent years (for that matter I wonder where Bryan is these days!). And as clear as her face was in my dream, in my conscious state I could not picture her clearly any more. As for the intimacy, it was (strongly) suggested rather than graphic.
This was not always the case. When I was 14 or 15 (even further back in ancient history), I used to get some extremely graphic images in my dreams of intimacy with women. I would wake up, messy (covered with gunge) and embarrassed. I was not the atheist that I have since become, I was strongly Christian living in a committed Methodist family. I would pray at night for this to stop - it didn't. For months it was a problem and would not go away.
There was nobody with whom I could discuss the problem. "Messy and embarrassed" you can change using the Christian terminology of the time as "dirty and disgusting". It was a stage, like Christianity it was something I grew out of. By the time of my 16th birthday it had thankfully stopped happening.
I recall discussing this two years later with a friend who had not had my Christian leanings. He had also gone through this, and the more I checked round, the more I came to realise that it is not an isolated phenomenon. Your adolescent body is awakening, the sexual urges are growing, and much as your conscious mind might try to control them, your pesky subconscious is not so willing to play along.
Take religion out of the frame, you can learn to handle the problem - though even that is not easy. Given the Christian and Muslim puritans out there, I wonder how young men handle this problem when subjected to religious dogma even now. It is not a problem that you can comfortably discuss, and the element of a guilty conscience cannot be precluded. In a secular world, you can get advice, but don't look to religious zealots to understand.
I also wonder at times whether teenage girls who are still virgins go through anything similar. Interestingly I don't know. If boys cannot discuss this sort of thing, can girls? And if they don't you will never find out, will you?
To recall though - adolescence is a difficult stage to go through, and the impact of not handling problems correctly can have an unfortunate impact down the road.
Postscript (December 25th, 2021). I remember being told that Bryan became a drama correspondent for a newspaper in Winnipeg, Canada. If still there I would be very pleased to hear from him).
Sunday, 13 May 2012
A solution for Afghanistan, and maybe the rest of the Muslim world
It is Mother's Day in the US today, and I think that also applies in Germany. Not in the UK though - that was already March 18th.
I do not really notice it these days. My mother died in 2000 (that long ago already - sadly missed though for her kind heart and her perennial belief in the good in people). My wife and I have no children, so nobody is round fussing about her.
As I have made clear on here enough times though I appreciate the opposite sex as much as any man living. My head still turns when an attractive young woman walks past (old wolves can still dream! In vain, of course!!!), and I appreciate them for their brains as well! (Good job my wife is at work at the moment, I might attract some unwanted attention for the first part of that comment!).
There are more women in just about every country in the world who make it to higher education than men, and the percentage is rising in their favour as the years go by. This is talent that the world cannot afford to waste and it should be developed in a proper context.
And on contexts - I just watched an item from Euronews on YouTube about Afghanistan. Yet another person who has been trying to negotiate peace with the Taliban has been murdered. It is a country almost without hope, but there was another Euronews item last week indicating that they have risen from being the poorest country in the world by a couple of notches. One of the reasons being the increased number of women playing an economic role in the country (and the advanced educational opportunities that girls are getting should help this momentum, the number in schools has risen from zero to some 2,500,000 since the Taliban were driven out!).
What I would really like to see for Afghanistan would be -
the country run completely by women for five years at least! Men would be forced to stay home, cover their entire anatomies so nothing could be seen, and they could spend their time bringing up their kids! Education would be given as a priority to girls (they tend to do better in schools - see above - so the limited resources available for education would not be wasted!).
If this proved successful, the experiment could be tried across the rest of the Muslim world. It would also have the distinct advantage that people in parts of the West (I won't upset my American friends by naming which countries in particular....) would not need to have the irrational fear of attack coming from that part of the world, as women tend to be less belligerent (there are exceptions - think of the wretched Margaret Thatcher in the UK in the 1980s!).
I think that this is a brilliant idea. Like many brilliant ideas it sadly will go nowhere, but it is at least worth trying!
I do not really notice it these days. My mother died in 2000 (that long ago already - sadly missed though for her kind heart and her perennial belief in the good in people). My wife and I have no children, so nobody is round fussing about her.
As I have made clear on here enough times though I appreciate the opposite sex as much as any man living. My head still turns when an attractive young woman walks past (old wolves can still dream! In vain, of course!!!), and I appreciate them for their brains as well! (Good job my wife is at work at the moment, I might attract some unwanted attention for the first part of that comment!).
There are more women in just about every country in the world who make it to higher education than men, and the percentage is rising in their favour as the years go by. This is talent that the world cannot afford to waste and it should be developed in a proper context.
And on contexts - I just watched an item from Euronews on YouTube about Afghanistan. Yet another person who has been trying to negotiate peace with the Taliban has been murdered. It is a country almost without hope, but there was another Euronews item last week indicating that they have risen from being the poorest country in the world by a couple of notches. One of the reasons being the increased number of women playing an economic role in the country (and the advanced educational opportunities that girls are getting should help this momentum, the number in schools has risen from zero to some 2,500,000 since the Taliban were driven out!).
What I would really like to see for Afghanistan would be -
the country run completely by women for five years at least! Men would be forced to stay home, cover their entire anatomies so nothing could be seen, and they could spend their time bringing up their kids! Education would be given as a priority to girls (they tend to do better in schools - see above - so the limited resources available for education would not be wasted!).
If this proved successful, the experiment could be tried across the rest of the Muslim world. It would also have the distinct advantage that people in parts of the West (I won't upset my American friends by naming which countries in particular....) would not need to have the irrational fear of attack coming from that part of the world, as women tend to be less belligerent (there are exceptions - think of the wretched Margaret Thatcher in the UK in the 1980s!).
I think that this is a brilliant idea. Like many brilliant ideas it sadly will go nowhere, but it is at least worth trying!
Saturday, 12 May 2012
Quick bit of arithmetic
I calculated that the $2 billion that JP Morgan lost the other day actually comes out at something like €1.55 billion.
My lifestyle in a good year costs some €30,000 (not had a good year in the past few, I would add).
Which means with that money I could have lived for 51,670 years approximately.
Or put another way, how many schools, colleges and hospitals could you have built with the money?
How many wildlife habitats could you have saved for the next century?
How many starving children could you have fed?
Just a thought or series of thoughts ....
My lifestyle in a good year costs some €30,000 (not had a good year in the past few, I would add).
Which means with that money I could have lived for 51,670 years approximately.
Or put another way, how many schools, colleges and hospitals could you have built with the money?
How many wildlife habitats could you have saved for the next century?
How many starving children could you have fed?
Just a thought or series of thoughts ....
Friday, 11 May 2012
Three additional comments
1. To the members of the 1%. I have no problems with you being very rich. None at all. I would not want that much myself (what would I do with it?), but that point is irrelevant.
I do though have a problem with people being poor, unemployed (and underemployed!) and in debt, and priority should be given to eliminating poverty and ALL debt, and ensuring that good jobs exist for everyone. If to get there we have to take more from you, the 1%, so be it. And if we don't, show us how it can be done - AND QUICKLY! And make it believable, the examples to date are not credible and all I am hearing at the moment is a repeat of what went before.
2. To the Marxist whose party finished second in the recent Greek elections. If you participate in government, you have a responsibility to pay off the debts that the government has built up, like it or not. You cannot simply shrug your shoulders and say "no mas", if that is your intention (not sure that it is). The repayment schedule is too steep and is actually exacerbating the situation? I tend to agree, but that has to be renegotiated.
And think for a second what would happen if a conservative government ran up huge debts handing out massive payments from public funds to its supporters and then refused to repay (and yes, there are countries in which it has happened), wouldn't you be angry?
3. Mainly to Greek businessmen, but applies absolutely elsewhere in the world. There are substantial rumours in the German press that you are hiding large sums of money in Swiss bank accounts. You are also claiming to be patriotic?
A person who is committed to his/her country will do what is best for that country - which includes paying taxes (and that also should be understood in any agreement when setting up the business in the first place).
If you want to renounce your nationality and give up your passport and move to Monaco or Berne, then so be it, but cut the double-talk on patriotism (I personally have left the UK and, as a citizen of the world, patriotism is not a disease from which I personally suffer). Being proud of your country (for the people who, unlike me, think that that is important) should not stop when your bank account is involved!
I do though have a problem with people being poor, unemployed (and underemployed!) and in debt, and priority should be given to eliminating poverty and ALL debt, and ensuring that good jobs exist for everyone. If to get there we have to take more from you, the 1%, so be it. And if we don't, show us how it can be done - AND QUICKLY! And make it believable, the examples to date are not credible and all I am hearing at the moment is a repeat of what went before.
2. To the Marxist whose party finished second in the recent Greek elections. If you participate in government, you have a responsibility to pay off the debts that the government has built up, like it or not. You cannot simply shrug your shoulders and say "no mas", if that is your intention (not sure that it is). The repayment schedule is too steep and is actually exacerbating the situation? I tend to agree, but that has to be renegotiated.
And think for a second what would happen if a conservative government ran up huge debts handing out massive payments from public funds to its supporters and then refused to repay (and yes, there are countries in which it has happened), wouldn't you be angry?
3. Mainly to Greek businessmen, but applies absolutely elsewhere in the world. There are substantial rumours in the German press that you are hiding large sums of money in Swiss bank accounts. You are also claiming to be patriotic?
A person who is committed to his/her country will do what is best for that country - which includes paying taxes (and that also should be understood in any agreement when setting up the business in the first place).
If you want to renounce your nationality and give up your passport and move to Monaco or Berne, then so be it, but cut the double-talk on patriotism (I personally have left the UK and, as a citizen of the world, patriotism is not a disease from which I personally suffer). Being proud of your country (for the people who, unlike me, think that that is important) should not stop when your bank account is involved!
And where has the private sector got to?
I was reading yesterday that the unemployment rate in Greece has risen to 21%. In Spain it is something like 20%. In the UK it hit a 17-year high recently (Conservative-led government, should anyone be surprised? The Thatcher tradition is alive and well and has the unemployment stats to match!).
Government coffers are empty, so government employees are being laid off. Given the current debt crisis, this sounds logical ("acceptable" is not a word I could or would use in this context, though).
Eventually though successful capitalist economies should be driven by wealth creating private companies - or so the conservatives tell me.
So why is the private sector not rushing out to sign up all this available talent, and expand their operations - and when unemployment is at this level, you can be certain that there are a lot of very talented people available (and people filling in in temporary self-employed roles like myself would fit the"very talented" label as well)?
Maybe the story yesterday that JP Morgan has lost massive sums of money gambling unwisely will help to explain it. The lessons of 2008 have not been learned (large numbers of people in the US think Romney would be a good President, and he will not even acknowledge that the 2008 crisis occurred!).
We shouldn't look to governments to provide solutions?
Well as it seems that we cannot look to the private sector either - whether to provide worthwhile jobs for talented people or to conduct their own businesses sensibly with a long-term view - then where do we turn? And when you realise that only 6% of all new businesses are profitable, avoid giving me the old chestnut about self-employment, that is more often than not the road to personal ruin!
Government coffers are empty, so government employees are being laid off. Given the current debt crisis, this sounds logical ("acceptable" is not a word I could or would use in this context, though).
Eventually though successful capitalist economies should be driven by wealth creating private companies - or so the conservatives tell me.
So why is the private sector not rushing out to sign up all this available talent, and expand their operations - and when unemployment is at this level, you can be certain that there are a lot of very talented people available (and people filling in in temporary self-employed roles like myself would fit the"very talented" label as well)?
Maybe the story yesterday that JP Morgan has lost massive sums of money gambling unwisely will help to explain it. The lessons of 2008 have not been learned (large numbers of people in the US think Romney would be a good President, and he will not even acknowledge that the 2008 crisis occurred!).
We shouldn't look to governments to provide solutions?
Well as it seems that we cannot look to the private sector either - whether to provide worthwhile jobs for talented people or to conduct their own businesses sensibly with a long-term view - then where do we turn? And when you realise that only 6% of all new businesses are profitable, avoid giving me the old chestnut about self-employment, that is more often than not the road to personal ruin!
Thursday, 10 May 2012
Marriage and other confusing matters
2230 (10.30 PM if you insist). Wednesday May 9th, 2012. Frankfurt.
This end of the world was falling to sleep, and but for the fact that Blogger had a problem and I (along with many other people) could not access my blog and I was waiting for them to resolve the issue, I would have been in bed. My wife needing to be on the early morning shift at the airport had already been asleep for some time.
An email arrived from one of my favourite Internet contacts in the UK. A reply to the mail that I had sent to her the previous day about correspondents on Yahoo news US electronically foaming at the mouth about how a war with Iran was necessary (????) and the new Israeli government needed help (maybe a couple of extra nukes to add to the 300 or so they already have?).
Apparently a day later they were still electronically foaming at the mouth. This time though as Obama had come out in favour of Gay marriage. She didn't say whether this was going to lead to any legislation (I expect not) - just a confirmation of the way things have been heading for some time.
Shook my head, wondered why he would be silly enough to do this at this time (support it quietly by all means, just don't stir the pot), particularly only 24 hours after Romney had changed the history of what he had said on another important issue yet again (Pravda in the days of the USSR had nothing on the 2012 version of Mitt Romney).
Then I started to wonder. Is Gay marriage legal here? I know that it is in the Netherlands, as they legalised it when I was living in Amsterdam - some 6,000 couples (more all-female than all-male, I remember) took their vows within days.
But in Germany?
The strange answer from this fount of all wisdom was: I DON'T KNOW!
But does it matter anyway? I am not Gay, I do not know anyone who is, and if it is legal it is surely the concern of the couples involved - otherwise it is none of my business one way or the other.
All the more curious in its way is that I came from that generation in the 1960s who started to renounce marriage and started just living together instead. I have been there at one point of my life. You talk about getting married, but it is no big deal. You'll still be together if you want to be. And all the old taboos about sex outside marriage are long since forgotten usw. Marriage? Yawn.
I would add that I have now been happily married for 10 years and 3 months so there is a positive side to it.
Anyway that has risen to the surface in European news this week. The new French President, François Hollande, used to live with the previous PS Presidential candidate, Ségolène Royale, had four children with her, but they never married. That broke up, he now lives with someone else, again they are not married.
Is this so important?
No, move on. So two guys want to get married, or two ladies? Fine - their choice, move on, let them live their own lives.
2250. (10.50 PM if you insist). Wednesday May 9th, 2012. Frankfurt.
My (female) wife, who should be asleep by now, sticks her head drowsily round the door and wonders where I have got to. "10 minutes", I tell her. Blogger had still not fixed my issue (nor that of a load of other people apparently). Not that it would affect our relationship that much - she little understands why I spend so much time on here, she just tolerates it.
I suppose some people would start foaming at the mouth about her and me being married if I thought about it for long (white - well sort of - European male, yellow - well sort of - Asian female), but why is it their business? IMHO it isn't .....
This end of the world was falling to sleep, and but for the fact that Blogger had a problem and I (along with many other people) could not access my blog and I was waiting for them to resolve the issue, I would have been in bed. My wife needing to be on the early morning shift at the airport had already been asleep for some time.
An email arrived from one of my favourite Internet contacts in the UK. A reply to the mail that I had sent to her the previous day about correspondents on Yahoo news US electronically foaming at the mouth about how a war with Iran was necessary (????) and the new Israeli government needed help (maybe a couple of extra nukes to add to the 300 or so they already have?).
Apparently a day later they were still electronically foaming at the mouth. This time though as Obama had come out in favour of Gay marriage. She didn't say whether this was going to lead to any legislation (I expect not) - just a confirmation of the way things have been heading for some time.
Shook my head, wondered why he would be silly enough to do this at this time (support it quietly by all means, just don't stir the pot), particularly only 24 hours after Romney had changed the history of what he had said on another important issue yet again (Pravda in the days of the USSR had nothing on the 2012 version of Mitt Romney).
Then I started to wonder. Is Gay marriage legal here? I know that it is in the Netherlands, as they legalised it when I was living in Amsterdam - some 6,000 couples (more all-female than all-male, I remember) took their vows within days.
But in Germany?
The strange answer from this fount of all wisdom was: I DON'T KNOW!
But does it matter anyway? I am not Gay, I do not know anyone who is, and if it is legal it is surely the concern of the couples involved - otherwise it is none of my business one way or the other.
All the more curious in its way is that I came from that generation in the 1960s who started to renounce marriage and started just living together instead. I have been there at one point of my life. You talk about getting married, but it is no big deal. You'll still be together if you want to be. And all the old taboos about sex outside marriage are long since forgotten usw. Marriage? Yawn.
I would add that I have now been happily married for 10 years and 3 months so there is a positive side to it.
Anyway that has risen to the surface in European news this week. The new French President, François Hollande, used to live with the previous PS Presidential candidate, Ségolène Royale, had four children with her, but they never married. That broke up, he now lives with someone else, again they are not married.
Is this so important?
No, move on. So two guys want to get married, or two ladies? Fine - their choice, move on, let them live their own lives.
2250. (10.50 PM if you insist). Wednesday May 9th, 2012. Frankfurt.
My (female) wife, who should be asleep by now, sticks her head drowsily round the door and wonders where I have got to. "10 minutes", I tell her. Blogger had still not fixed my issue (nor that of a load of other people apparently). Not that it would affect our relationship that much - she little understands why I spend so much time on here, she just tolerates it.
I suppose some people would start foaming at the mouth about her and me being married if I thought about it for long (white - well sort of - European male, yellow - well sort of - Asian female), but why is it their business? IMHO it isn't .....
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
We are all greedy?
accordingly Socialism won't work.
Socialism might not work still for structural reasons, I will kick that part of the argument into touch for now.
We are all greedy?
We might be born with our survival needs forcing us to be greedy.
By the time you are an adult though, if you are still greedy I will politely suggest to you - you were not the recipient of good parenting!
The art of good parenting often involves the parent sacrificing his or her desires (and hence his or her personal greed factor) for the good of his or her child(ren). I can recall more occasions than I would choose to remember when my father in particular sacrificed his personal wants so that my sister and I did not go without what we needed.
And good parenting also requires that the parents offer object lessons to their child(ren) so that they in turn understand the concept of giving to the generation that follows.
If a child wants everything and gets everything that he or she wants? Perish the thought! What sort of society do you get when the spoilt brat generation of children all become adults?
What he or she needs - that is another matter.
I recall one lesson that my father taught me at the age of 8 or 9. We all were to help ourselves to what limited food we had at a meal one evening. When I had taken enough for my needs (and shared out among the family accordingly), I decided to help myself to more. My father's response was to give me his entire meal as well and made sure that I ate it - though it was far too much.
If I wanted to be greedy, I could be and at his expense. An object lesson, and one that I never forgot! For an intelligent child, watching your father go without food for an act of selfishness on your own part was embarrassing and humbling.
Good parenting though - and it involved self-sacrifice.
I often wonder in the world that we have how much that spirit of self-sacrifice remains. I am not that pessimistic, though. Among many good people there will thankfully always be examples.
But nobody is going to convince me that greed is laudable and acceptable, and the only motivation that can make societies work. Lauding our worst instincts, refusing to acknowledge our positive qualities and being unwilling to learn from our mistakes - that surely cannot be to our benefit.
Socialism might not work still for structural reasons, I will kick that part of the argument into touch for now.
We are all greedy?
We might be born with our survival needs forcing us to be greedy.
By the time you are an adult though, if you are still greedy I will politely suggest to you - you were not the recipient of good parenting!
The art of good parenting often involves the parent sacrificing his or her desires (and hence his or her personal greed factor) for the good of his or her child(ren). I can recall more occasions than I would choose to remember when my father in particular sacrificed his personal wants so that my sister and I did not go without what we needed.
And good parenting also requires that the parents offer object lessons to their child(ren) so that they in turn understand the concept of giving to the generation that follows.
If a child wants everything and gets everything that he or she wants? Perish the thought! What sort of society do you get when the spoilt brat generation of children all become adults?
What he or she needs - that is another matter.
I recall one lesson that my father taught me at the age of 8 or 9. We all were to help ourselves to what limited food we had at a meal one evening. When I had taken enough for my needs (and shared out among the family accordingly), I decided to help myself to more. My father's response was to give me his entire meal as well and made sure that I ate it - though it was far too much.
If I wanted to be greedy, I could be and at his expense. An object lesson, and one that I never forgot! For an intelligent child, watching your father go without food for an act of selfishness on your own part was embarrassing and humbling.
Good parenting though - and it involved self-sacrifice.
I often wonder in the world that we have how much that spirit of self-sacrifice remains. I am not that pessimistic, though. Among many good people there will thankfully always be examples.
But nobody is going to convince me that greed is laudable and acceptable, and the only motivation that can make societies work. Lauding our worst instincts, refusing to acknowledge our positive qualities and being unwilling to learn from our mistakes - that surely cannot be to our benefit.
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Never underestimate the potential stupidity of people
I should be aware of this - after all I did teach kids in England for six years back in the 1970s.
Even if some of them did seem pretty stupid at the time, you always have this hope that as they mature they will turn into solid enough, reasonable citizens.
Even watching the political process in action in various countries, and you become increasingly sceptical, you hope that finally commonsense somehow will hit home.
And then again ....
I suddenly became aware today that people are visiting one item on this blog, because I made a reference to male potency drugs in this one article that I wrote. From the search enquiries (that I can list thanks to Blogger's excellent new interface), I came to realise that people are coming on here to buy these products. At least one or two, anyway!
Now does it get more stupid than that? All my witty, serious, thought-provoking material is a cover for sales of male potency drugs?
I ought to feel insulted - after all the time that I put in, that is all they want from me?
Exit almost irrationally, muttering weird oaths in four different languages!
Even if some of them did seem pretty stupid at the time, you always have this hope that as they mature they will turn into solid enough, reasonable citizens.
Even watching the political process in action in various countries, and you become increasingly sceptical, you hope that finally commonsense somehow will hit home.
And then again ....
I suddenly became aware today that people are visiting one item on this blog, because I made a reference to male potency drugs in this one article that I wrote. From the search enquiries (that I can list thanks to Blogger's excellent new interface), I came to realise that people are coming on here to buy these products. At least one or two, anyway!
Now does it get more stupid than that? All my witty, serious, thought-provoking material is a cover for sales of male potency drugs?
I ought to feel insulted - after all the time that I put in, that is all they want from me?
Exit almost irrationally, muttering weird oaths in four different languages!
Monday, 7 May 2012
I can understand people being angry
I can understand people having nowhere to turn - the 2008 crisis was definitely caused by some very greedy people a long way away over whom you and I had no control, who gambled away a fortune and left us to pay for it.
I can understand your anger with the inability and incompetence of governments to deal with matters.
I can understand you being bitter that they took away your jobs, your commitments, your savings and gave you back nothing back but misery.
And I can understand that you want things to change sooner rather than later.
But don't look to nationalists, Fascists, neo-Fascists and the like to resolve anything.
They will only turn on other people who are in exactly the same state that you are in, offer false promises and false solutions. The people responsible for the mess will get away scot-free while other innocent victims are simply being persecuted!
I can understand your anger with the inability and incompetence of governments to deal with matters.
I can understand you being bitter that they took away your jobs, your commitments, your savings and gave you back nothing back but misery.
And I can understand that you want things to change sooner rather than later.
But don't look to nationalists, Fascists, neo-Fascists and the like to resolve anything.
They will only turn on other people who are in exactly the same state that you are in, offer false promises and false solutions. The people responsible for the mess will get away scot-free while other innocent victims are simply being persecuted!
Kindly take an electronic shovel
and go bury yourself.
That comment is aimed purely at a number of spammers (apparently from Russia, though the servers they are using are registered in Luxemburg).
I was wondering why this blog was attracting so many page views, especially as the number of reads per post was not increasing at the same rate.
The hope that I was attracting new and interesting readership having been dashed, I then investigated the source of the sites from where the page views were coming.
The points that I will make:
- I never click strange websites without checking them, wherever they are!
- I don't need your sort of traffic!
- I have next to no money, I am permanently broke, I am an old man without assets, so stop thinking that you can get anything from me!
- I wasn't born yesterday.
- I keep no financial details online, nor will I ever.
SO STOP WASTING YOUR TIME AND MINE!!!!
That comment is aimed purely at a number of spammers (apparently from Russia, though the servers they are using are registered in Luxemburg).
I was wondering why this blog was attracting so many page views, especially as the number of reads per post was not increasing at the same rate.
The hope that I was attracting new and interesting readership having been dashed, I then investigated the source of the sites from where the page views were coming.
The points that I will make:
- I never click strange websites without checking them, wherever they are!
- I don't need your sort of traffic!
- I have next to no money, I am permanently broke, I am an old man without assets, so stop thinking that you can get anything from me!
- I wasn't born yesterday.
- I keep no financial details online, nor will I ever.
SO STOP WASTING YOUR TIME AND MINE!!!!
Sunday, 6 May 2012
My congratulations to François Hollande
Being President of France is never easy, and in the European context that role will be all the more significant.
In days gone by, the Franc would have been hammered when a Socialist was elected to power - in the days of the Euro that cannot happen, so these will be interesting times.
Given the high unemployment plaguing the country, the high debt pile, and the sense of decline that has been affecting all of us in Europe since the crash of 2008 (including the non-Euro UK!), there is a lot that needs doing.
As an atheist I will write off the possibility of any "miracle", but hope that someone finally finds an answer that will have huge benefits to all the people of France, and by extension beyond.
It was fascinating for me personally as the English language assistant at the lycée de garçons in Tulle (Corrèze) in 1969-70 to discover his ties to both the town and the département, and that he actually cast his vote there today. One more reason for me to wish him well.
In days gone by, the Franc would have been hammered when a Socialist was elected to power - in the days of the Euro that cannot happen, so these will be interesting times.
Given the high unemployment plaguing the country, the high debt pile, and the sense of decline that has been affecting all of us in Europe since the crash of 2008 (including the non-Euro UK!), there is a lot that needs doing.
As an atheist I will write off the possibility of any "miracle", but hope that someone finally finds an answer that will have huge benefits to all the people of France, and by extension beyond.
It was fascinating for me personally as the English language assistant at the lycée de garçons in Tulle (Corrèze) in 1969-70 to discover his ties to both the town and the département, and that he actually cast his vote there today. One more reason for me to wish him well.
Well apparently the earth is flat!
Further to yesterday's posting, I have been investigating this possibility (which sounds like I need to "get a life"!).
The Flat Earth Society does exist and even has a website: theflatearthsociety.org.
One particularly interesting document in their library is:
http://www.earthnotaglobe.com/library/Truth%20-%20The%20Earth%20Is%20Flat.pdf
Here you get a graphic and a sort of explanation.
Ridiculous? No more ridiculous than most of the stuff you get from apologists for most religions IMHO!
This is obviously worth investigating more fully - though I will leave that for others to undertake. I will happily follow the ensuing debate though!
The Flat Earth Society does exist and even has a website: theflatearthsociety.org.
One particularly interesting document in their library is:
http://www.earthnotaglobe.com/library/Truth%20-%20The%20Earth%20Is%20Flat.pdf
Here you get a graphic and a sort of explanation.
Ridiculous? No more ridiculous than most of the stuff you get from apologists for most religions IMHO!
This is obviously worth investigating more fully - though I will leave that for others to undertake. I will happily follow the ensuing debate though!
Author's note (December 8th, 2021) - another link which has disappeared, though this one surprises me!
I would have thought that this would be a permanent document.
Saturday, 5 May 2012
Majorities are always right ....
In 1492 Columbus set off from Lisbon with the intention of getting to India in a westward direction, or at least wanted to.
Getting sponsorship was a problem. The earth was flat. His fleet would fall off the edge of the map. This was the majority opinion at the time, it could not be wrong.
Years ago, during my university days in Swansea, I met a fascinating character who belonged to the Flat Earth Society (universities have their eccentrics even to this day) who had a map that proved that the world was flat and proved that you could get to India in a westward direction, and all this circumnavigation of the inhabited world - not the globe NB - was possible. A minority opinion that flies in the face of science, but I digress. I would love to have a copy of that map, as an artistic creation it was really quite special.
Thousands of other theories that were held by minority opinions that have been discounted over the years have since been proved wrong. Thousands have been proved right (usually scientifically of course! Unless it comes to government and politics!).
Eventually though I see no problem being in a minority on issues. Even being in a minority by a massive margin on issues. Because eventually the minority could well be right.
In some areas being proved right is merely a matter of time, particularly where science and the natural world is involved. On others (see politics and government again) it is far more difficult.
When I am told that the majority of people believe in a God, I shrug my shoulders, let them believe what they want to believe as long as their opinions are not culturally and/or politically imposed (the "Muslim world" please note!) convinced as I am that my minority held opinion is correct.
As for those who believe that the election of a certain politician of wharrever stripe (be it François Hollande in France this weekend or Mitt Romney in the US in November) will improve things, I reserve the right to be sceptical. The French this weekend have an awful choice (though not as bad as the one the Greeks are facing). Will it lead anywhere? An end to poverty, full employment, the end of debt as we know it? Even in five years?
Sarkozy has not delivered (though he ran into the 2008 international financial crisis, so that should be taken into account). I would not support him personally, but I have serious doubts that Hollande will be much or any better.
As for Romney - no thanks. See previous postings for the reasoning. Not my place to get too involved in American politics, but the rest of the world does not need any more unnecessary war-mongering from over there.
And so I return to my proverbial burrow as a minority of one. I want to see a better world, not just for me. I know what the issues are and we should cut the rhetoric and concentrate upon achieving the objectives. Issues, not propaganda in other words.
So in a way, even as an old man I hold on to the idealism of youth. Given that most of the youth here seem more hooked on the sort of nihilism embodied by the Pirate party ("No idea - we'll let you know when we have worked it out"), maybe only the old can afford to be idealistic. We are, after all, the ones who have lived through the era of mistaken majority opinions, and paid a heavy price for them!
Getting sponsorship was a problem. The earth was flat. His fleet would fall off the edge of the map. This was the majority opinion at the time, it could not be wrong.
Years ago, during my university days in Swansea, I met a fascinating character who belonged to the Flat Earth Society (universities have their eccentrics even to this day) who had a map that proved that the world was flat and proved that you could get to India in a westward direction, and all this circumnavigation of the inhabited world - not the globe NB - was possible. A minority opinion that flies in the face of science, but I digress. I would love to have a copy of that map, as an artistic creation it was really quite special.
Thousands of other theories that were held by minority opinions that have been discounted over the years have since been proved wrong. Thousands have been proved right (usually scientifically of course! Unless it comes to government and politics!).
Eventually though I see no problem being in a minority on issues. Even being in a minority by a massive margin on issues. Because eventually the minority could well be right.
In some areas being proved right is merely a matter of time, particularly where science and the natural world is involved. On others (see politics and government again) it is far more difficult.
When I am told that the majority of people believe in a God, I shrug my shoulders, let them believe what they want to believe as long as their opinions are not culturally and/or politically imposed (the "Muslim world" please note!) convinced as I am that my minority held opinion is correct.
As for those who believe that the election of a certain politician of wharrever stripe (be it François Hollande in France this weekend or Mitt Romney in the US in November) will improve things, I reserve the right to be sceptical. The French this weekend have an awful choice (though not as bad as the one the Greeks are facing). Will it lead anywhere? An end to poverty, full employment, the end of debt as we know it? Even in five years?
Sarkozy has not delivered (though he ran into the 2008 international financial crisis, so that should be taken into account). I would not support him personally, but I have serious doubts that Hollande will be much or any better.
As for Romney - no thanks. See previous postings for the reasoning. Not my place to get too involved in American politics, but the rest of the world does not need any more unnecessary war-mongering from over there.
And so I return to my proverbial burrow as a minority of one. I want to see a better world, not just for me. I know what the issues are and we should cut the rhetoric and concentrate upon achieving the objectives. Issues, not propaganda in other words.
So in a way, even as an old man I hold on to the idealism of youth. Given that most of the youth here seem more hooked on the sort of nihilism embodied by the Pirate party ("No idea - we'll let you know when we have worked it out"), maybe only the old can afford to be idealistic. We are, after all, the ones who have lived through the era of mistaken majority opinions, and paid a heavy price for them!
Friday, 4 May 2012
Quotes from Carl Sagan
For those who have accused me of disliking Americans two quotes from an American whom I admired enormously - Carl Sagan (and stolen directly from Wikipedia):
"Some people think God is an outsized, light-skinned male with a long white beard, sitting on a throne somewhere up there in the sky, busily tallying the fall of every sparrow. Others—for example Baruch Spinoza and Albert Einstein—considered God to be essentially the sum total of the physical laws which describe the universe. I do not know of any compelling evidence for anthropomorphic patriarchs controlling human destiny from some hidden celestial vantage point, but it would be madness to deny the existence of physical laws.".
and
"The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous. But if by God one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying... it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity."
And from his third wife (and ultimately his widow), Anne:
"When my husband died, because he was so famous and known for not being a believer, many people would come up to me—it still sometimes happens—and ask me if Carl changed at the end and converted to a belief in an afterlife. They also frequently ask me if I think I will see him again. Carl faced his death with unflagging courage and never sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other again. I don't ever expect to be reunited with Carl".
Like his logical inheritor, Neil deGrasse Tyson (a living American whom I also admire), he was an agnostic rather than an atheist. Technically I do not think the difference here is all that important, though I will humbly disagree on this with these two great men.
"Some people think God is an outsized, light-skinned male with a long white beard, sitting on a throne somewhere up there in the sky, busily tallying the fall of every sparrow. Others—for example Baruch Spinoza and Albert Einstein—considered God to be essentially the sum total of the physical laws which describe the universe. I do not know of any compelling evidence for anthropomorphic patriarchs controlling human destiny from some hidden celestial vantage point, but it would be madness to deny the existence of physical laws.".
and
"The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous. But if by God one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying... it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity."
And from his third wife (and ultimately his widow), Anne:
"When my husband died, because he was so famous and known for not being a believer, many people would come up to me—it still sometimes happens—and ask me if Carl changed at the end and converted to a belief in an afterlife. They also frequently ask me if I think I will see him again. Carl faced his death with unflagging courage and never sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other again. I don't ever expect to be reunited with Carl".
Like his logical inheritor, Neil deGrasse Tyson (a living American whom I also admire), he was an agnostic rather than an atheist. Technically I do not think the difference here is all that important, though I will humbly disagree on this with these two great men.
Thursday, 3 May 2012
The devil's work
OK, I am an atheist who does not accept the existence of the devil, but for those who might vaguely believe in the possibility, this could be relevant!
http://de.nachrichten.yahoo.com/religi%C3%B6se-seiten-web-virusgef%C3%A4hrdeter-sexseiten-181523437.html
Yes, you have to be able to read German to understand it.
What it explains though is the fact that you are three times as likely pick up a virus from a "religious" website as from a "sex" website.
Which I suppose says more about the people who plant viruses on the Web than anything else (not my favourite people - I tend to get viruses off news sites (usually planted by people with different political leanings?), or more accurately the advertising feeds on news sites). Advertising feeds, or phoney advertising feeds are one of the most difficult areas to police on the Internet, and they tend to be regionalised (what good would advertising in Spanish do in Germany for example). And as such they are fertile ground for malicious minds.
And for those who do get a virus that your supposedly infallible anti-Virus software (Avira, Symantec, Kapersky usw) failed to detect, try downloading Malwarebytes anti-malware. Even the free stuff they provide is pretty effective.
To note though, some of this stuff when it gets in (often masked by something your AV software stops), the damage can be near fatal. Even with all my IT knowledge, it was only possible to partly rescue my old PC for example.
http://de.nachrichten.yahoo.com/religi%C3%B6se-seiten-web-virusgef%C3%A4hrdeter-sexseiten-181523437.html
Yes, you have to be able to read German to understand it.
What it explains though is the fact that you are three times as likely pick up a virus from a "religious" website as from a "sex" website.
Which I suppose says more about the people who plant viruses on the Web than anything else (not my favourite people - I tend to get viruses off news sites (usually planted by people with different political leanings?), or more accurately the advertising feeds on news sites). Advertising feeds, or phoney advertising feeds are one of the most difficult areas to police on the Internet, and they tend to be regionalised (what good would advertising in Spanish do in Germany for example). And as such they are fertile ground for malicious minds.
And for those who do get a virus that your supposedly infallible anti-Virus software (Avira, Symantec, Kapersky usw) failed to detect, try downloading Malwarebytes anti-malware. Even the free stuff they provide is pretty effective.
To note though, some of this stuff when it gets in (often masked by something your AV software stops), the damage can be near fatal. Even with all my IT knowledge, it was only possible to partly rescue my old PC for example.
Author's note (December 8th, 2021) - the link no longer exists.
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
See you in my dreams
It was like the foyer of a quiet hotel.
There were brown mahogany panels, bedecked with white lace curtains. The lighting was mellow, even dimmed, coming from lamps that were not obviously placed.
The furniture was modern, usually beige in colour and there seemed to be quite a lot of it round the room.
There were other people sitting round the room, but when I wandered in, I seemed to know nobody. I was alone. I staggered almost to a very large sofa and sat down. Everything seemed strange and remote, but not totally uninviting. I was though increasingly conscious of being in pain, in fact the need to stretch out on the nearest of the sofas was overpowering. The people remained in the room, but nobody spoke to me, there was an enomous sense of being alone .....
At this moment I woke up. As your subconscious often clears out the rubbish from your brain in the form of a dream immediately before you wake up, at this moment it was doing so again. Usually the dreams are there and gone before you know it. This one I remember still.
It was the end of May or the start of June 2008. I was in a hospital bed in the Uniklinik in Frankfurt. They had operated on me for the second time. I had been unconscious for two days. It had been so dark, and so peaceful, and so painless. I was there awake and suddenly aware of excruciating pain and the sense that I could not breathe. I realised that my mouth was blocked out with something and reached inside with two fingers from my right hand. I moved the object, blood started pouring out, two nurses and a doctor were on top of me before two seconds had passed.
And then it was dark and peaceful and painless again.
What that thing in my mouth had been (obviously to aid breathing - apparently I had nearly died on the operating table) I never did find out, but it did not seem too clever. When I awoke again, it had gone. There was merely a surgeon telling me (in German) that they were going to operate again, and that my wife had okayed the operation.
That dream I always will remember. It was definitely a dream, something from inside my head, not delivered by an outside force. It was extremely vivid though.
But as I have pointed out to enough people over the years since, when you are that close to death, your brain is also affected. Your rational control is weakened, your ability to assess and work things through clearly is definitely affected (the brain lacking oxygen maybe?). The subconscious mind is all powerful, its illusions can even scare you.
And it gives some people IMHO the illusion that they think that they have seen the after-life! The dream is reality, the illusion actuality. At this point, without the ability to assess the difference between the two states an illusion of God might become apparent.
But illusion it is! When you start to recover, and your brain feeds more and more conscious information into your mind, you are again aware that all this stems from you - internally, not from some force external to your body. It is your illusion, your dream, your subconscious at work.
Which is why I will politely inform any believer of any faith who wishes to go on about the death bed conversions of atheists, that they do not understand the circumstances in which very sick, dying people find themselves. At the end your awareness, the conscious part of the brain, is not fully operative, illusions take over, and you are not thinking clearly. It is not proof of any conversion, it is merely an indication that your dying anatomy (including the brain) is no longer operating normally.
And if I should eventually die like that, do not for a second believe that I have abandoned my atheistic commitment. Rather put it down to the illness that is killing me. There is no God, there will be no after-life, and on my death bed I would hope that people respect that that is my conviction and no illusory statements to the contrary will be valid.
There were brown mahogany panels, bedecked with white lace curtains. The lighting was mellow, even dimmed, coming from lamps that were not obviously placed.
The furniture was modern, usually beige in colour and there seemed to be quite a lot of it round the room.
There were other people sitting round the room, but when I wandered in, I seemed to know nobody. I was alone. I staggered almost to a very large sofa and sat down. Everything seemed strange and remote, but not totally uninviting. I was though increasingly conscious of being in pain, in fact the need to stretch out on the nearest of the sofas was overpowering. The people remained in the room, but nobody spoke to me, there was an enomous sense of being alone .....
At this moment I woke up. As your subconscious often clears out the rubbish from your brain in the form of a dream immediately before you wake up, at this moment it was doing so again. Usually the dreams are there and gone before you know it. This one I remember still.
It was the end of May or the start of June 2008. I was in a hospital bed in the Uniklinik in Frankfurt. They had operated on me for the second time. I had been unconscious for two days. It had been so dark, and so peaceful, and so painless. I was there awake and suddenly aware of excruciating pain and the sense that I could not breathe. I realised that my mouth was blocked out with something and reached inside with two fingers from my right hand. I moved the object, blood started pouring out, two nurses and a doctor were on top of me before two seconds had passed.
And then it was dark and peaceful and painless again.
What that thing in my mouth had been (obviously to aid breathing - apparently I had nearly died on the operating table) I never did find out, but it did not seem too clever. When I awoke again, it had gone. There was merely a surgeon telling me (in German) that they were going to operate again, and that my wife had okayed the operation.
That dream I always will remember. It was definitely a dream, something from inside my head, not delivered by an outside force. It was extremely vivid though.
But as I have pointed out to enough people over the years since, when you are that close to death, your brain is also affected. Your rational control is weakened, your ability to assess and work things through clearly is definitely affected (the brain lacking oxygen maybe?). The subconscious mind is all powerful, its illusions can even scare you.
And it gives some people IMHO the illusion that they think that they have seen the after-life! The dream is reality, the illusion actuality. At this point, without the ability to assess the difference between the two states an illusion of God might become apparent.
But illusion it is! When you start to recover, and your brain feeds more and more conscious information into your mind, you are again aware that all this stems from you - internally, not from some force external to your body. It is your illusion, your dream, your subconscious at work.
Which is why I will politely inform any believer of any faith who wishes to go on about the death bed conversions of atheists, that they do not understand the circumstances in which very sick, dying people find themselves. At the end your awareness, the conscious part of the brain, is not fully operative, illusions take over, and you are not thinking clearly. It is not proof of any conversion, it is merely an indication that your dying anatomy (including the brain) is no longer operating normally.
And if I should eventually die like that, do not for a second believe that I have abandoned my atheistic commitment. Rather put it down to the illness that is killing me. There is no God, there will be no after-life, and on my death bed I would hope that people respect that that is my conviction and no illusory statements to the contrary will be valid.
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
A quick guide to silly European stereotypes and Europe's ladies of the night - Part 5
One of my occasional correspondents has been reading my blog (good, hopefully more will follow). From this individual came the question what had happened to this series. We had been to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, the UK, and that is it?
Not exactly, I had forgotten, or appropriately for today's entry - je l'avais oublié.
OK, bof - en route. La France.
Sorry I have to remember that my readership, as cosmopolitan as it is (the article I wrote on Denmark is one of my most read pieces, so I suspect that there are some Danes out there reading this - welcome, I hope everything's fine and the Tuborg tastes good tonight) will not speak much French.
Stereotypes on France. You mean that they all smell of garlic, eat frog's legs and snails, wear striped jumpers, run all the world's fashion shows, their unions are always on strike, their women all buy the latest styles from Dior, and they are thoroughly disorganised and volatile and ridiculously excitable? And if you are American you also don't have a very high opinion of their military prowess (the country that produced Napoleon Bonaparte - huh?).
I did eat snails there a couple of times when I was there as a student 40-odd years ago, frog's legs I never encountered (nor did I ever see anyone wearing a striped jersey as per "tradition" either).
The rest may have some truth (the strikes can be infuriating), but most of Frenchwomen that I ever knew (including another wonderful lady from my "scurrilous years" - she will be frighteningly some 46 years old now; "Ah Sophie, chérie, je t'aime encore!") would never have been able to afford designer clothes. And the people with whom I worked seemed the calm, intellectual, hardly volatile type. A few years ago France produced the highest percentage of IT graduates in Europe - yes higher than Germany! - and IT is definitely a thinker's discipline, as I will tell you from experience.
I did not mention French cuisine (except the for the frivolous elements) above. Another stereotype of course is the quality of the food - a deserved reputation where I am concerned, and I have never managed to go to anywhere too expensive. And then there are the excellent wines, Cognac, various liqueurs, I was for years a great fan of Pernod and Ricard.
So at times the cap (or should that be the beret?) fits. But not always and not in every respect. As the recent election indicates though, diversity is one of the undercurrents that is both delightful and frustrating about the country. From the excellent railway service to the awful people who vote neo-Fascist in frightening numbers .... Predictability? Less here than most anywhere else I could name.
And the ladies of the night? Back in the 30s when it was legal this was a thriving industry. De Gaulle made sure that it did not stay that way, and it has existed in the shadows ever since, unofficially raising its ugly head occasionally in incidents such as that involving the soccer player Franck Ribéry a couple of years back.
Most major cities have their dubious "quartiers" though. In Paris the area round the Place Pigalle still is infamous for it - getting round the rules by simply charging for drinks for entertainment while the girls work apparently on a freelance basis. Nicolas Sarkozy did threaten to close the industry down. It is a bit difficult to do so when the "putains" are not employed in the bars where they work.
And then there are those in the more up-market areas like the ones on the Champs-Elysées (see Franck Ribéry again). I recall when working in Paris in 1993 meeting a very attractive young woman who informed me that she was making some ridiculous sum of money in those establishments to pay for her studies at the Sorbonne!
A weird mix, and she could not understand my "Anglo-Saxon reserve" on the subject, and my tut-tutting her for doing so. It did seem a sad waste, but then I did not understand the mentality - maybe. Money has to come from somewhere, Paris is an amazing city but expensive to say the least, and the education costs for students have gone through the roof in recent years.
Paris is not France (or the whole of France) of course, and my encounters with the French provinces in recent years have not been that numerous (Toulouse in 1991 I think was the last example). Attitudes there tend to be different, often less liberal, often less understanding and more "traditional", not always in the best sense of the word. This contrast between Paris and the provinces is as marked as that between London and the provinces in the UK (where my sympathies lie in the reverse direction - pro-province anti-capital city!), so you have to be ready for the differences in attitudes and expectations.
It remains though a country that has IMHO something that will always be a bit special, and I can always imagine it rising phoenix like from the occasional ashes. With flair and style and savoir-faire and .... what were the other stereotypes?
Dedicated with affection (but no great relevance) to François Cavanna, Georges Wolinski, Professeur Choron and all the others associated with Hara-Kiri magazine which I used to read in my student days in Corrèze. Not always happy days, but I learned so much for which I am still very appreciative.
Not exactly, I had forgotten, or appropriately for today's entry - je l'avais oublié.
OK, bof - en route. La France.
Sorry I have to remember that my readership, as cosmopolitan as it is (the article I wrote on Denmark is one of my most read pieces, so I suspect that there are some Danes out there reading this - welcome, I hope everything's fine and the Tuborg tastes good tonight) will not speak much French.
Stereotypes on France. You mean that they all smell of garlic, eat frog's legs and snails, wear striped jumpers, run all the world's fashion shows, their unions are always on strike, their women all buy the latest styles from Dior, and they are thoroughly disorganised and volatile and ridiculously excitable? And if you are American you also don't have a very high opinion of their military prowess (the country that produced Napoleon Bonaparte - huh?).
I did eat snails there a couple of times when I was there as a student 40-odd years ago, frog's legs I never encountered (nor did I ever see anyone wearing a striped jersey as per "tradition" either).
The rest may have some truth (the strikes can be infuriating), but most of Frenchwomen that I ever knew (including another wonderful lady from my "scurrilous years" - she will be frighteningly some 46 years old now; "Ah Sophie, chérie, je t'aime encore!") would never have been able to afford designer clothes. And the people with whom I worked seemed the calm, intellectual, hardly volatile type. A few years ago France produced the highest percentage of IT graduates in Europe - yes higher than Germany! - and IT is definitely a thinker's discipline, as I will tell you from experience.
I did not mention French cuisine (except the for the frivolous elements) above. Another stereotype of course is the quality of the food - a deserved reputation where I am concerned, and I have never managed to go to anywhere too expensive. And then there are the excellent wines, Cognac, various liqueurs, I was for years a great fan of Pernod and Ricard.
So at times the cap (or should that be the beret?) fits. But not always and not in every respect. As the recent election indicates though, diversity is one of the undercurrents that is both delightful and frustrating about the country. From the excellent railway service to the awful people who vote neo-Fascist in frightening numbers .... Predictability? Less here than most anywhere else I could name.
And the ladies of the night? Back in the 30s when it was legal this was a thriving industry. De Gaulle made sure that it did not stay that way, and it has existed in the shadows ever since, unofficially raising its ugly head occasionally in incidents such as that involving the soccer player Franck Ribéry a couple of years back.
Most major cities have their dubious "quartiers" though. In Paris the area round the Place Pigalle still is infamous for it - getting round the rules by simply charging for drinks for entertainment while the girls work apparently on a freelance basis. Nicolas Sarkozy did threaten to close the industry down. It is a bit difficult to do so when the "putains" are not employed in the bars where they work.
And then there are those in the more up-market areas like the ones on the Champs-Elysées (see Franck Ribéry again). I recall when working in Paris in 1993 meeting a very attractive young woman who informed me that she was making some ridiculous sum of money in those establishments to pay for her studies at the Sorbonne!
A weird mix, and she could not understand my "Anglo-Saxon reserve" on the subject, and my tut-tutting her for doing so. It did seem a sad waste, but then I did not understand the mentality - maybe. Money has to come from somewhere, Paris is an amazing city but expensive to say the least, and the education costs for students have gone through the roof in recent years.
Paris is not France (or the whole of France) of course, and my encounters with the French provinces in recent years have not been that numerous (Toulouse in 1991 I think was the last example). Attitudes there tend to be different, often less liberal, often less understanding and more "traditional", not always in the best sense of the word. This contrast between Paris and the provinces is as marked as that between London and the provinces in the UK (where my sympathies lie in the reverse direction - pro-province anti-capital city!), so you have to be ready for the differences in attitudes and expectations.
It remains though a country that has IMHO something that will always be a bit special, and I can always imagine it rising phoenix like from the occasional ashes. With flair and style and savoir-faire and .... what were the other stereotypes?
Dedicated with affection (but no great relevance) to François Cavanna, Georges Wolinski, Professeur Choron and all the others associated with Hara-Kiri magazine which I used to read in my student days in Corrèze. Not always happy days, but I learned so much for which I am still very appreciative.
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