Several days after the disappearence of the 15-year-old English schoolgirl, Megan (author's note - December 27th, 2002 - legally I am not allowed to publish the girl's full name though it was widely already known at the time), and her 30-year-old Maths teacher, Jeremy Forrest, the story came to an end in Bordeaux last Friday. She has returned to her parents, he is eventually going to face various charges for abduction, maybe having sex with a minor usw, usw.
Read some of the commenters in the British press and their various websites this morning. He is such a nice young man, their fairy tale has come to an end, they are victims of the draconian British laws on sex usw usw.
Behind this romantic little tale, there remains one seemingly unimportant series of questions that for the moment remains unanswered, although the tabloid press with their sordid chequebooks may try to resolve this over the next few days.
The guy was married!!!!
1. What does his wife think about him simply leaving like that?
2. If he is such a charming person, why did he choose to leave his wife for an immature 15-year-old?
3. If his marriage was in trouble (with such a nice guy involved, is that possible?), why not break it off first before going off with someone else?
4. What does his wife think about him stealing her passport for his new girlfriend to use (and given her age to give them cover)?
5. Is this the first time that the marriage has known such problems?
6. Does his wife count for nothing in all this? She is simply the wicked old witch in this fairy tale?
Or is she possibly the third, and most significant victim!!!!
Sunday, 30 September 2012
Saturday, 29 September 2012
Christmas already?
After the most hectic week that I can recall for a long time, you would imagine that sleep would finally win the argument. So waking up at 0430 today feeling wide awake looks like another victory for insomnia (partial insomnia at least).
Since she started working split shifts at the airport, my wife has also been prone to erratic sleeping patterns (quite how they expect people to perform efficiently on these split shifts never fails to amaze me), but this morning at 0430 even an erupting volcano might not have disturbed her. Good to see people sleep at times.
Emerging into the pitch black morning, finally elucidated with a couple of light switches and the silence interrupted by the sudden gurgling of the coffee percolator, the first part of the latest translation was despatched in all of 47 minutes (47 - the number of the month, usually followed by the % sign).
My wife having decided yesterday that we should raid the local supermarket at opening time (0700 for those of you in parts of the world where they stay open all night), emerged 40 minutes later than schedule. Whereas her husband is prone to being instantly alert upon awakening, she hates mornings (particularly those when she has for professional reasons to emerge at 0320 - see above). Not the best of times to practise your sense of humour, never mind indulge in some mock Muay Thai (well it is her national sport, and she should know where the left foot is coming from ....).
The usual miscommunication in 3 languages, followed by a gentle 10-minute stroll down to the preferred supermarket. Some good signs out there this morning. The local raven population seems to be back to its old level, not seen as many sparrows in years (definitely a good sign), a couple of very shy wood pigeons almost hiding from view - only the local magpies were missing from the usual avian crowd.
Supermarkets are often an indication of the way the world is going. More bargain prices than ever - they obviously need the custom. And there was the sign (in German - translated):
CHRISTMAS STARTS HERE!
Stared at my watch. Couldn't recall immediately whether it was September 28th or 29th (my watch indicated the latter). December it definitely isn't though!
My atheist's view on Christmas I have already explained elsewhere on this blog (and the strange need for artificially enforced enjoyment in the company of people you would happily avoid all year if you could). I realise that it is now a mainly commercial event, but do we really need it being imposed upon us this early? Is there nothing else to think about in the mean time?
Perhaps my one thought this year will go my to cousin, Paul. It will be the first time for end of the year celebrations since he died. I hadn't seen much of him in years (though we hung round together all the time in our teenage years), but he was always the archetypal good guy, the person that you would always have wanted to know.
Leaving school at the age of 15, working shifts on the shop-floor of a dirty factory at the age of 16, getting an HGV licence and becoming a long-distance lorry driver, then training as a paramedic and driving an ambulance, becoming a first-aid officer on an oil rig, and finally driving a car for the local social services to take invalids to hospital appointments - his career in a nutshell.
Always there for people, always helpful, possessing a gentle sense of humour, committed, dedicated, no obsessive need to chase wealth or get over-ambitious (and getting into outrageous amounts of debt as a result). In many ways the epitome of the best that working people can be. You can also note that he worked in both the private and the public sector. Frankly I should not think that he was overly concerned which it was - as long as he was working! Being responsible for his own life, his self-respect intact.
Among the last of a breed? Sadly so. He was more of a giver than a taker, and that is definitely a style that has gone out of fashion. To the detriment of us all.
Since she started working split shifts at the airport, my wife has also been prone to erratic sleeping patterns (quite how they expect people to perform efficiently on these split shifts never fails to amaze me), but this morning at 0430 even an erupting volcano might not have disturbed her. Good to see people sleep at times.
Emerging into the pitch black morning, finally elucidated with a couple of light switches and the silence interrupted by the sudden gurgling of the coffee percolator, the first part of the latest translation was despatched in all of 47 minutes (47 - the number of the month, usually followed by the % sign).
My wife having decided yesterday that we should raid the local supermarket at opening time (0700 for those of you in parts of the world where they stay open all night), emerged 40 minutes later than schedule. Whereas her husband is prone to being instantly alert upon awakening, she hates mornings (particularly those when she has for professional reasons to emerge at 0320 - see above). Not the best of times to practise your sense of humour, never mind indulge in some mock Muay Thai (well it is her national sport, and she should know where the left foot is coming from ....).
The usual miscommunication in 3 languages, followed by a gentle 10-minute stroll down to the preferred supermarket. Some good signs out there this morning. The local raven population seems to be back to its old level, not seen as many sparrows in years (definitely a good sign), a couple of very shy wood pigeons almost hiding from view - only the local magpies were missing from the usual avian crowd.
Supermarkets are often an indication of the way the world is going. More bargain prices than ever - they obviously need the custom. And there was the sign (in German - translated):
CHRISTMAS STARTS HERE!
Stared at my watch. Couldn't recall immediately whether it was September 28th or 29th (my watch indicated the latter). December it definitely isn't though!
My atheist's view on Christmas I have already explained elsewhere on this blog (and the strange need for artificially enforced enjoyment in the company of people you would happily avoid all year if you could). I realise that it is now a mainly commercial event, but do we really need it being imposed upon us this early? Is there nothing else to think about in the mean time?
Perhaps my one thought this year will go my to cousin, Paul. It will be the first time for end of the year celebrations since he died. I hadn't seen much of him in years (though we hung round together all the time in our teenage years), but he was always the archetypal good guy, the person that you would always have wanted to know.
Leaving school at the age of 15, working shifts on the shop-floor of a dirty factory at the age of 16, getting an HGV licence and becoming a long-distance lorry driver, then training as a paramedic and driving an ambulance, becoming a first-aid officer on an oil rig, and finally driving a car for the local social services to take invalids to hospital appointments - his career in a nutshell.
Always there for people, always helpful, possessing a gentle sense of humour, committed, dedicated, no obsessive need to chase wealth or get over-ambitious (and getting into outrageous amounts of debt as a result). In many ways the epitome of the best that working people can be. You can also note that he worked in both the private and the public sector. Frankly I should not think that he was overly concerned which it was - as long as he was working! Being responsible for his own life, his self-respect intact.
Among the last of a breed? Sadly so. He was more of a giver than a taker, and that is definitely a style that has gone out of fashion. To the detriment of us all.
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Reading half the article
When stuck for summat to do in Frankfurt, often when waiting for the local train service home, I often drift into book/magazine stores and take a look round.
In the days when my finances were in better shape, I might have bought a magazine. These days I am prone to only browse through one or two (never for too long, they tend to complain!). Yesterday the front cover of the current affairs magazine, Focus, caught my eye. Focus is a bit more conservative than its two major rivals, Spiegel and Stern (both of which I read on my too frequent trips to the doctor's surgery these days), so maybe it would have summat to challenge my brain cells - never get too dogmatic, alternative views must be considered before being rejected.
The (translated) article header was "Obama or Romney, which choice would be better for Germany?". A no-brainer, obviously Obama (not just for Germany but IMHO for the US as well!), but consider the arguments anyway.
This of course caused logistical problems - like how do you read a six page article in depth without paying the €3.70 you cannot afford for the magazine? Which meant three separate visits to read the relevant bits, and skipping the bits that you already know (given my masochist tendencies, as I follow American politics more closely than even most Americans, quite a lot of the article could fall into that category).
It started with the interesting punchline that 90% of Germans would prefer Obama (as only 85% of Germans turn out to vote in elections, that seems a bit high, the last time I saw such a stat here was the number of Germans who opposed involvement in the Iraq War - and the figure must include most German conservatives who are usually very pro-American). "This is maybe based upon a misconception", it continued.
Ignore the humorous references to Obama being "Mister Cool" and Romney being "Mister Pannenmann" (Panne - slip, glitch, mishap) and get to the meat.
Rather like the German government embarked upon government savings programmes (= cutting spending on things, interestingly including defence!) in 2009 and 2010, so Romney would do for the US. This of course is the proverbial "good thing". More stability in the world economy usw.
All well and good. Not reading the article in full, I didn't catch the bit where his tax plans (according to neutral economists) would add 5 trillion dollars to the US Debt .... Savings elsewhere will not cover anything like that. Looked for Bill Clinton's comment about "arithmetic" - didn't find that either.
Then at the end there were the traditional bits that Romney would be better for the markets (the Dow Jones has risen 5,000 points since Obama replaced Bush, so I do not quite see that), the Dollar (yesterday the "crisis hit" (????) Euro hit a 4-month high against the US$, the strong dollar though disappeared with the end of the Clinton administration - its decline is into its 13th year). And .... Anyone who checks recent history will see that all the economic stats which supposedly work well with the Republicans in power actually work far better with the Democrats running things (unemployment under Obama is too high, but given the crisis in 2008, it could have been a lot higher - and while you are there check where it was throughout the Reagan years, pretty much where it is now).
Interestingly the article concluded with a load of hedging. Reading the (complete) Washington Post article by the always excellent E. J. Dionne yesterday, it is obvious that an Obama win would still leave difficulties with a GOP dominated congress, so things will not change that much. But relationships would remain pretty much intact. Things are far better in that respect than during the Bush years, and as Romney on economic and foreign policy comes across as "Bush on steroids" (to slightly misquote Bill Clinton), change would hardly seem to be in Germany's interest - for once majority opinion is correct!
In the days when my finances were in better shape, I might have bought a magazine. These days I am prone to only browse through one or two (never for too long, they tend to complain!). Yesterday the front cover of the current affairs magazine, Focus, caught my eye. Focus is a bit more conservative than its two major rivals, Spiegel and Stern (both of which I read on my too frequent trips to the doctor's surgery these days), so maybe it would have summat to challenge my brain cells - never get too dogmatic, alternative views must be considered before being rejected.
The (translated) article header was "Obama or Romney, which choice would be better for Germany?". A no-brainer, obviously Obama (not just for Germany but IMHO for the US as well!), but consider the arguments anyway.
This of course caused logistical problems - like how do you read a six page article in depth without paying the €3.70 you cannot afford for the magazine? Which meant three separate visits to read the relevant bits, and skipping the bits that you already know (given my masochist tendencies, as I follow American politics more closely than even most Americans, quite a lot of the article could fall into that category).
It started with the interesting punchline that 90% of Germans would prefer Obama (as only 85% of Germans turn out to vote in elections, that seems a bit high, the last time I saw such a stat here was the number of Germans who opposed involvement in the Iraq War - and the figure must include most German conservatives who are usually very pro-American). "This is maybe based upon a misconception", it continued.
Ignore the humorous references to Obama being "Mister Cool" and Romney being "Mister Pannenmann" (Panne - slip, glitch, mishap) and get to the meat.
Rather like the German government embarked upon government savings programmes (= cutting spending on things, interestingly including defence!) in 2009 and 2010, so Romney would do for the US. This of course is the proverbial "good thing". More stability in the world economy usw.
All well and good. Not reading the article in full, I didn't catch the bit where his tax plans (according to neutral economists) would add 5 trillion dollars to the US Debt .... Savings elsewhere will not cover anything like that. Looked for Bill Clinton's comment about "arithmetic" - didn't find that either.
Then at the end there were the traditional bits that Romney would be better for the markets (the Dow Jones has risen 5,000 points since Obama replaced Bush, so I do not quite see that), the Dollar (yesterday the "crisis hit" (????) Euro hit a 4-month high against the US$, the strong dollar though disappeared with the end of the Clinton administration - its decline is into its 13th year). And .... Anyone who checks recent history will see that all the economic stats which supposedly work well with the Republicans in power actually work far better with the Democrats running things (unemployment under Obama is too high, but given the crisis in 2008, it could have been a lot higher - and while you are there check where it was throughout the Reagan years, pretty much where it is now).
Interestingly the article concluded with a load of hedging. Reading the (complete) Washington Post article by the always excellent E. J. Dionne yesterday, it is obvious that an Obama win would still leave difficulties with a GOP dominated congress, so things will not change that much. But relationships would remain pretty much intact. Things are far better in that respect than during the Bush years, and as Romney on economic and foreign policy comes across as "Bush on steroids" (to slightly misquote Bill Clinton), change would hardly seem to be in Germany's interest - for once majority opinion is correct!
Sunday, 23 September 2012
Facing the crowd
Once in a while my mind drifts back to Paris.
It was always one of my favourite places on earth, and one of the last remaining desires that I have is to go back and see it for one last time. There is also the need to exorcise my proverbial demons (being an atheist, I am not going to be persuaded that real demons exist!). The demons? Standing in front of the Montparnasse station with a pain suddenly hammering away in my chest on a Monday evening at the start of May 2008 - strange place to have a heart attack.
Not my last impression of Paris, of course - I went to work in Saint-Ouen for the next two days (heart attack or no heart attack, that was what mattered most at the time!) and caught a train back to Frankfurt on the Thursday morning, which was a public holiday.
Not the way I would want to remember Paris though. There were some great times ....
My taste in French language music showing my age (if I want anything recent, it is invariably Italian!), I went to YouTube and looked for the video of Charles Trenet singing "La Mer". He wrote the words for this on a train in 1943, and recorded it in 1946. The dates are relatively significant. He was Gay, and persecution of such people was commonplace at the time - though whether in France (occupied or unoccupied), I am not certain. Surviving the war cannot have been that easy for him.
Easier these days? Surviving shouldn't be so difficult. Admitting to it? That in much of Europe (including Germany) depends upon the trade or profession. Politicians of different stripes seem to have no problem with it. The ultraconservative German Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle is openly so, as is the Social Democrat mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit.
Professional sports persons on the other hand?
The German women's football (North American =soccer) national team goalkeeper, Nadine Angerer, has admitted to being bisexual. Her male counterparts though are prone to be more circumspect.
A couple of weeks ago a player in the German football league, the Bundesliga, gave an interview to a magazine in which he admitted to being Gay. The first outing in German professional soccer? Not exactly - the interview was given anonymously and nobody (except the magazine involved, who promised not to reveal their source) knows who this player is!
Other media outlets, maybe jealous that they did not get the story themselves, went out to try and find out more. Philipp Lahm, captain of Bayern München and the German national team (and predictably straight) was asked why no professional player would admit to such in the public arena, to which came the reply along the lines of "would you if you had to appear in front of crowds of 80,000 every week?". A slight exaggeration - only Borussia Dortmund, among Bundesliga clubs, have a stadium that is quite that large. 30,000 to 60,000 is more likely!
Football crowds in Europe have traditionally come from working-class, blue-collar backgrounds, although prices charged for entry to the games in recent years have led to some extent to something of a bourgeoisification in that regard.
I am reminded though of a survey I saw in the "Guardian" in the UK in the 1980s which indicated that working-class communities in the North of England (traditional Labour voting areas) looked less favourably upon Gays than people did in the "stockbroker belt" (Surrey, Buckinghamshire etc.) in the South-East - traditional Conservative voting areas.
The rowdier element of the support at games are known to unleash their venom in no uncertain terms (and not in very polite language) upon opposing players, referees and any player on their own team who is falling short of expectations. Players who are admittedly Gay may find their personal orientations further stoking the fire.
Unfair, unpleasant? Yes. It doesn't happen to politicians? No, but how many times do they appear before crowds of 30,000+.
It actually says more about the crowd than the player. There are enough distractions out there at big games though. There is also the knowledge that some sensitive players live under stress that many of us might not appreciate. In many respects they are already subject to a degree of scrutiny in their personal lives when really our attention span would best be left with regard only to their professional activities.
In which case their personal activities, straight or gay should be their business, not ours!
It was always one of my favourite places on earth, and one of the last remaining desires that I have is to go back and see it for one last time. There is also the need to exorcise my proverbial demons (being an atheist, I am not going to be persuaded that real demons exist!). The demons? Standing in front of the Montparnasse station with a pain suddenly hammering away in my chest on a Monday evening at the start of May 2008 - strange place to have a heart attack.
Not my last impression of Paris, of course - I went to work in Saint-Ouen for the next two days (heart attack or no heart attack, that was what mattered most at the time!) and caught a train back to Frankfurt on the Thursday morning, which was a public holiday.
Not the way I would want to remember Paris though. There were some great times ....
My taste in French language music showing my age (if I want anything recent, it is invariably Italian!), I went to YouTube and looked for the video of Charles Trenet singing "La Mer". He wrote the words for this on a train in 1943, and recorded it in 1946. The dates are relatively significant. He was Gay, and persecution of such people was commonplace at the time - though whether in France (occupied or unoccupied), I am not certain. Surviving the war cannot have been that easy for him.
Easier these days? Surviving shouldn't be so difficult. Admitting to it? That in much of Europe (including Germany) depends upon the trade or profession. Politicians of different stripes seem to have no problem with it. The ultraconservative German Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle is openly so, as is the Social Democrat mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit.
Professional sports persons on the other hand?
The German women's football (North American =soccer) national team goalkeeper, Nadine Angerer, has admitted to being bisexual. Her male counterparts though are prone to be more circumspect.
A couple of weeks ago a player in the German football league, the Bundesliga, gave an interview to a magazine in which he admitted to being Gay. The first outing in German professional soccer? Not exactly - the interview was given anonymously and nobody (except the magazine involved, who promised not to reveal their source) knows who this player is!
Other media outlets, maybe jealous that they did not get the story themselves, went out to try and find out more. Philipp Lahm, captain of Bayern München and the German national team (and predictably straight) was asked why no professional player would admit to such in the public arena, to which came the reply along the lines of "would you if you had to appear in front of crowds of 80,000 every week?". A slight exaggeration - only Borussia Dortmund, among Bundesliga clubs, have a stadium that is quite that large. 30,000 to 60,000 is more likely!
Football crowds in Europe have traditionally come from working-class, blue-collar backgrounds, although prices charged for entry to the games in recent years have led to some extent to something of a bourgeoisification in that regard.
I am reminded though of a survey I saw in the "Guardian" in the UK in the 1980s which indicated that working-class communities in the North of England (traditional Labour voting areas) looked less favourably upon Gays than people did in the "stockbroker belt" (Surrey, Buckinghamshire etc.) in the South-East - traditional Conservative voting areas.
The rowdier element of the support at games are known to unleash their venom in no uncertain terms (and not in very polite language) upon opposing players, referees and any player on their own team who is falling short of expectations. Players who are admittedly Gay may find their personal orientations further stoking the fire.
Unfair, unpleasant? Yes. It doesn't happen to politicians? No, but how many times do they appear before crowds of 30,000+.
It actually says more about the crowd than the player. There are enough distractions out there at big games though. There is also the knowledge that some sensitive players live under stress that many of us might not appreciate. In many respects they are already subject to a degree of scrutiny in their personal lives when really our attention span would best be left with regard only to their professional activities.
In which case their personal activities, straight or gay should be their business, not ours!
Friday, 21 September 2012
Risk takers never lose, do they?
It could have been 1980. All over again.
A television programme.
Some entrepreneur had got tired of the restrictions in Europe and gone off to lead his life in Hong Kong.
We were about 14 seconds into this item, when it produces the old chestnut:
"He likes to take risks".
I had seen 16 seconds or so of this, enough was enough.
Back to 1980.
Risk takers. They never get it wrong, do they?
They always succeed, they never make a mistake.
They go on getting richer and richer, don't they, and they never ever lose their shirts (and shoes and trousers and underwear ....).
Back to the 1980s. This thinking was in the tabloid press in the UK every day. They made a huge number of adverts on television stressing the theme. They were out on their own carving opportunities for themselves in the capitalist wilderness.
And the millions on the dole queue were all losers who didn't try hard enough. Think of all the opportunities out there. They were there to be taken, if only you were willing to take the risks. AND NOBODY EVER LOSES, THE RISKS ALWAYS SUCCEED!
Don't they?
And governments were just faceless bureaucrats who only got in the way of this thrusting, vibrant entrepreneurial spirit! Who needs them anyway?
......
Interesting, isn't it? An interesting piece of hogwash!
I know a lot of people would prefer to forget what happened in 2008, and how many of these people came running to governments when the whole theory above turned out to be the one huge very expensive joke!
And the risk takers got handouts. Usually a far larger handout than any of us can hope to get in total from governments in out entire lives. And in the recent words of one well-known American politician we are the "moochers"????
And if the guy in now Hong Kong does take risk after risk after risk and eventually he is left standing only in his socks if they all fail? Should anyone care, never mind bail him out?
It is 2012 now, not 1980. There are lessons to be learned from what happened in 2008.
But to repeat what I said to a good friend this week - if you do not learn the lessons, you do not pass the exam!
A television programme.
Some entrepreneur had got tired of the restrictions in Europe and gone off to lead his life in Hong Kong.
We were about 14 seconds into this item, when it produces the old chestnut:
"He likes to take risks".
I had seen 16 seconds or so of this, enough was enough.
Back to 1980.
Risk takers. They never get it wrong, do they?
They always succeed, they never make a mistake.
They go on getting richer and richer, don't they, and they never ever lose their shirts (and shoes and trousers and underwear ....).
Back to the 1980s. This thinking was in the tabloid press in the UK every day. They made a huge number of adverts on television stressing the theme. They were out on their own carving opportunities for themselves in the capitalist wilderness.
And the millions on the dole queue were all losers who didn't try hard enough. Think of all the opportunities out there. They were there to be taken, if only you were willing to take the risks. AND NOBODY EVER LOSES, THE RISKS ALWAYS SUCCEED!
Don't they?
And governments were just faceless bureaucrats who only got in the way of this thrusting, vibrant entrepreneurial spirit! Who needs them anyway?
......
Interesting, isn't it? An interesting piece of hogwash!
I know a lot of people would prefer to forget what happened in 2008, and how many of these people came running to governments when the whole theory above turned out to be the one huge very expensive joke!
And the risk takers got handouts. Usually a far larger handout than any of us can hope to get in total from governments in out entire lives. And in the recent words of one well-known American politician we are the "moochers"????
And if the guy in now Hong Kong does take risk after risk after risk and eventually he is left standing only in his socks if they all fail? Should anyone care, never mind bail him out?
It is 2012 now, not 1980. There are lessons to be learned from what happened in 2008.
But to repeat what I said to a good friend this week - if you do not learn the lessons, you do not pass the exam!
Thursday, 20 September 2012
For the Christians out there who don't like my opinions
A couple of whom have crossed my electronic path today (and as usual do not seem to understand the tenets of their belief system). And also for the next potential "Christian crusaders" like Anders Breivik.
A couple of quotes from your book of beliefs quoted from the teacher upon whom your belief is based (none of the Old Testament stuff which is more Judaism than Christianity):
Matthew ch 5 vv 38 to 40
38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.
That is YOUR belief system - try it some time if you claim to be a true believer.
Matthew ch 7 vv 3 to 5
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
In other words, if you are a true believer, practise what you preach.
And yes, I did grow up as a Christian. Even if I gave upon the dogma 40-odd years ago.
I find it interesting that atheists like myself are often more capable of tolerance (and of observing the above) than so-called believers.
And for those of you who think material possessions are the only things that matter in this world and those who haven't got them can go and ....
Try Matthew ch 19 vv 20-24
20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.
24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Good stuff. I wonder how many of the Christian critics of the usually honest, law-abiding atheist community live by that interesting bit of teaching ....
A couple of quotes from your book of beliefs quoted from the teacher upon whom your belief is based (none of the Old Testament stuff which is more Judaism than Christianity):
Matthew ch 5 vv 38 to 40
38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.
That is YOUR belief system - try it some time if you claim to be a true believer.
Matthew ch 7 vv 3 to 5
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
In other words, if you are a true believer, practise what you preach.
And yes, I did grow up as a Christian. Even if I gave upon the dogma 40-odd years ago.
I find it interesting that atheists like myself are often more capable of tolerance (and of observing the above) than so-called believers.
And for those of you who think material possessions are the only things that matter in this world and those who haven't got them can go and ....
Try Matthew ch 19 vv 20-24
20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.
24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Good stuff. I wonder how many of the Christian critics of the usually honest, law-abiding atheist community live by that interesting bit of teaching ....
Wednesday, 19 September 2012
Charlie Hebdo - a perspective
In 1969, at the end of my second year at university, I went off to France for my intercalary year.
I learned a lot, not always the easy way. Developing a taste for Cognac and Ricard required also some lessons in self-control. I also learned a lot about red wine, what was good, what wasn't.
And then I learned a lot about French humour.
Pierre, one of my newly acquired French friends, introduced me to a magazine called "Hara-Kiri". Actually it had two versions, the weekly (Hebdo), and the monthly (Mensuel).
The weekly edition was heavily into politics and current affairs. If we must use the awful phrases "left" and "right", it was very much on the "left", but used humour (with some great cartoonists like Wolinski and Reiser) to make its point. One article I recall to this day, and I have always attributed to the editor, François Cavanna - my apologies after all these years if I am wrong.
He wrote here about a new Fascist movement called "Ordre Nouveau" whose symbol, accompanied by some typical grafitti, he had seen on "un beau mur dans un beau quartier" ("a finely built wall in an upper-class neighbourhood"). The article was full of mock pieces of grafitti ("Rejouez Stalingrad" - "Replay Stalingrad" for example), and he totally tore the whole idea of the movement to shreds with humorous logic that can scarcely have been matched elsewhere.
Irreverence can often win arguments, and if nothing else it was funny, even if France's conservative government of the time was no friend. Following the death of Charles de Gaulle in November 1970 it produced a typically humorous front cover (which was also by any standards in very bad taste) and was banned by the government as a result (so much for freedom of the press in France in 1970!).
From the ashes of "Hara-Kiri (Hebdo)" though arose "Charlie Hebdo" - exactly the same magazine with a different name.
It survived until 1981 and was reborn in 1992, and is still going strong - and living controversially. The writers have changed, the cartoonists have changed (as age requires), but the irreverence lives on.
France has had a history of defying religion and religious orthodoxy for generations. To its immense credit, it is no bad country in which to be either an atheist or an agnostic.
Charlie Hebdo steps straight out of this tradition. The phrase "nothing is sacred" may have developed non-religious connotations, but here it can also apply literally.
In the aftermath of the Danish cartoons furore in 2006, Charlie Hebdo not only reproduced the cartoons, but produced a whole new series of cartoons - mocking all religions! Freedom of speech (and note their political orientation has not changed, even if they are aligned with no party), and the attitude that you do not have to read the magazine, so go **** if you don't like it.
Getting any devout religious believers to laugh at themselves and their religion is not easy (maybe Buddhists manage that better than the others, but that is a personal bias). Getting fanatical Muslims to laugh at themselves and their religion? Good luck!
France has a large so-called Muslim population, although a survey by the Pew Global attitudes project a few years ago found that between 20 and 30 per cent of French Muslims were either non-practising, or had renounced their beliefs entirely. Even so there is there a fanatical element and some maniacs who will happily commit mayhem in the name of their (silly, antiquated) beliefs.
Last November after producing an edition called "Charia Hebdo", the magazine offices were fire-bombed by what the editor regarded as a fanatical fringe.
In the aftermath of the film that has appeared in the USA (which essentially might be seen as produced by a pro-Israeli anti-Muslim conservative - a strange bedfellow, to say the least), Charlie Hebdo has again this week produced more "satire" on the prophet Mohammad. So if they were to learn any lessons or live in fear, that certainly is not obvious in their response.
But you might wish that their timing had been better.
And you might also wish that they might realise that when a joke has been told once too often it ceases to be funny.
I learned a lot, not always the easy way. Developing a taste for Cognac and Ricard required also some lessons in self-control. I also learned a lot about red wine, what was good, what wasn't.
And then I learned a lot about French humour.
Pierre, one of my newly acquired French friends, introduced me to a magazine called "Hara-Kiri". Actually it had two versions, the weekly (Hebdo), and the monthly (Mensuel).
The weekly edition was heavily into politics and current affairs. If we must use the awful phrases "left" and "right", it was very much on the "left", but used humour (with some great cartoonists like Wolinski and Reiser) to make its point. One article I recall to this day, and I have always attributed to the editor, François Cavanna - my apologies after all these years if I am wrong.
He wrote here about a new Fascist movement called "Ordre Nouveau" whose symbol, accompanied by some typical grafitti, he had seen on "un beau mur dans un beau quartier" ("a finely built wall in an upper-class neighbourhood"). The article was full of mock pieces of grafitti ("Rejouez Stalingrad" - "Replay Stalingrad" for example), and he totally tore the whole idea of the movement to shreds with humorous logic that can scarcely have been matched elsewhere.
Irreverence can often win arguments, and if nothing else it was funny, even if France's conservative government of the time was no friend. Following the death of Charles de Gaulle in November 1970 it produced a typically humorous front cover (which was also by any standards in very bad taste) and was banned by the government as a result (so much for freedom of the press in France in 1970!).
From the ashes of "Hara-Kiri (Hebdo)" though arose "Charlie Hebdo" - exactly the same magazine with a different name.
It survived until 1981 and was reborn in 1992, and is still going strong - and living controversially. The writers have changed, the cartoonists have changed (as age requires), but the irreverence lives on.
France has had a history of defying religion and religious orthodoxy for generations. To its immense credit, it is no bad country in which to be either an atheist or an agnostic.
Charlie Hebdo steps straight out of this tradition. The phrase "nothing is sacred" may have developed non-religious connotations, but here it can also apply literally.
In the aftermath of the Danish cartoons furore in 2006, Charlie Hebdo not only reproduced the cartoons, but produced a whole new series of cartoons - mocking all religions! Freedom of speech (and note their political orientation has not changed, even if they are aligned with no party), and the attitude that you do not have to read the magazine, so go **** if you don't like it.
Getting any devout religious believers to laugh at themselves and their religion is not easy (maybe Buddhists manage that better than the others, but that is a personal bias). Getting fanatical Muslims to laugh at themselves and their religion? Good luck!
France has a large so-called Muslim population, although a survey by the Pew Global attitudes project a few years ago found that between 20 and 30 per cent of French Muslims were either non-practising, or had renounced their beliefs entirely. Even so there is there a fanatical element and some maniacs who will happily commit mayhem in the name of their (silly, antiquated) beliefs.
Last November after producing an edition called "Charia Hebdo", the magazine offices were fire-bombed by what the editor regarded as a fanatical fringe.
In the aftermath of the film that has appeared in the USA (which essentially might be seen as produced by a pro-Israeli anti-Muslim conservative - a strange bedfellow, to say the least), Charlie Hebdo has again this week produced more "satire" on the prophet Mohammad. So if they were to learn any lessons or live in fear, that certainly is not obvious in their response.
But you might wish that their timing had been better.
And you might also wish that they might realise that when a joke has been told once too often it ceases to be funny.
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
A simple life turned complex, climbing the Matterhorn and not trusting Wikipedia
1. A simple life
I am never quite sure what my great-grandfather would have made of it.
For him life was just about as simple as it got. He was a farm labourer in the North of England. This meant living in a small cottage (no idea what facilities these had, but I would imagine that they were pretty basic) on the landowner's estate, getting up at sunrise, going to bed at sunset, and working on the land and with, I would expect, the chickens, pigs and sheep (more sheep country than cattle country, more Australia than the USA if you like) throughout the day.
No fancy holidays, no amazing ambition, a routine predictable experience every day.
He apparently could not read or write (he was born before the advent of public education in the UK) and, according to the family legend, died in a ditch at the age of 47. My sister, who has studied the family genealogy, sent me a copy of his death certificate - nothing remarkable. Could he have lived longer if there had been better health care available? Who can tell now, this was the 1880s!
In three generations we have gone through basic education and moving from a rural environment to an urban one (my grandfather), consolidation (my father) to me and my university degree, command of four languages, and living in a completely different country. Take my sister as an example, it is nearly as complicated. I have no children, my sister has three - all adults in their 30s none of whom have any children - so this side of the line at least ends here maybe. There are of course my cousins and their offspring, but that requires too much time and research to go into here.
The point here though, and it needs taking seriously, is that societies change, as do economic environments. In the 1980s when the arguments were going on in the UK (and similar events were occurring with less noise in the German industrial heartlands) about the closure of coal mines and steel works in the North of England, my concern was not so much the style of the job (if I had ever had a son, would I have wanted him to work down a pit, or in a noisy dirty steel mill? No!), but rather the fact that jobs were disappearing and not being replaced!
And it is also to be emphasised that thanks to negotiations over many years these jobs provided a living wage as their reward (and given the conditions under which these people worked, that was more than deserved IMHO). Working hard doing lengthy shifts in a coal mine is just that. It is not like sitting on the end of a 'phone ringing your stockbroker for a couple of hours a day.
Eventually expecting coal miners to become estate agents or steelworkers to become stockbrokers? Some may have done, but not many. They are more likely to have been offered insulting low-paid jobs as McLackeys or Burger Klods if the economy we have these days is anything to go by. And could you blame anyone for turning such jobs down? In my home town where the fishing industry, once a major staple job supplier, has collapsed, many older people are forced into taking jobs filling supermarket shelves. Badly paid, uninspiring work! 8 to 10 hours a day of that? No thanks!
Times have changed to the point across the western world where you can no longer learn a skill, get a job using it, build your life round it, live within your means, work industriously for years, save for the future and eventually retire on the proceeds - with a few solitary exceptions - lawyers for example (cough, cough, splutter, splutter).
Given the world that we now live in, the chances are that in a not too distant period of time your skills will be regarded as redundant and your wage demands (simply "a living wage") will make you too expensive. At which point life gets extremely simple (into unemployment and poverty) or extremely complex - into the heart of the debt and speculation of the gamblers' economy!
My father's ashes will be turning in their urn at the thought of the latter. He managed to work over 40 years for the same company. He wouldn't be able to do that now - for one thing that company has since, like many others, gone out of business!
2. Climbing the Matterhorn.
OK - readers, shock, horror, a picture (a second picture in 340 items on this blog, the world will be coming to an end next!):
That wonderful piece of Alpine rock suitably covered in the best weather the Swiss winter can offer (satire!) is the Matterhorn. Apparently this was the last mountain in the Alps to be climbed - in 1865. My interest in it really started with a tacky old movie of the first successful ascent that I saw when I was about seven years old. The descent is (tragically) as historically interesting, as 4 of the 7 who made the ascent fell to their deaths on the way back down (three Britons, Hadow, Douglas and Hudson, and a French guide, Michel Croz). The three survivors (Whymper of whom more later) and the Swiss guides Taugwalder, father and son, only survived as the rope connecting them to the others broke.
Hadow, who was still only 18 and probably far too inexperienced to be climbing a mountain of that calibre, had slipped, and dragged the others with him as he fell. Remember though the fact that Douglas was scarcely more than a year older, but was a much more experienced climber, so age should not have been the crucial factor.
Whymper's is an interesting story. I have always remembered his name as Edmond (or Edmund) Whymper - more on this later. I probably have to research more about his background, how affluent usw it was or was not. He was though a Londoner (we will have to forgive him for that, maybe they were not all arrogant conniving thieves, rogues, liars and villains in the 19th century!), 2nd of 11 children, and an engraver and an artist. In 1860 he got one of those offers you cannot refuse - a publisher wanted some sketches made of the Alps, so off he went at the age of 20, suitably armed with his sketching gear.
Whether he could speak German or French, I have no idea. If he learned them while there, ditto. It is an interesting thought being stuck in central Europe with a sketch pad not being able to speak the language, and this before the days when American commercialism had brought the English language to the whole of Europe, like it or not.
Apart from sketching though, he also made a name for himself climbing mountains. Mainly successful elsewhere in the Alps, the Matterhorn became an obsession. But eight unsuccessful attempts followed, mainly on the South-Western face on the Italian side. He then attempted the South-Eastern side with Croz, after which he flew in the face of theory and decided that the allegedly most difficult Eastern face offered the best opportunity, as so it proved for the ascent at least.
Despite the tragedy on the descent, and accusations that he and the Taugwalders had to face about them cutting the rope (to save their own skins?), he was to set several more first climbs in other parts of the world - notably in the Andes and in Canada where Mount Lefroy was renamed Mount Whymper after him after he had scaled it with four Canadian guides.
He was highly respected in much of continental Europe (see, the British were not always stay at home xenophobes!), has a statue erected in the Hautes-Alpes département in France, died shortly after undertaking a climb in the Alps at the age of 71 - and was subsequently buried in Chamonix.
Interesting character and someone who carried his love and passion across the world, even if his name will always be mainly associated with the Matterhorn.
And no, my friends, I have no intention to follow his lead and head off to the Alps tomorrow! But there must be some great photo opportunities up there.
3. Not trusting Wikipedia
Not the first time that I have spotted mistakes upon Wikipedia, but while I was searching round for information on Edmund Whymper the other day, I also tried Wikipedia. Edmund, Edmond - tried both. Not there - one of the party that first climbed the Matterhorn and not mentioned? Surely not.
Discovered eventually that he is listed as "Edward Whymper"! I am absolutely convinced that that is wrong!
I am never quite sure what my great-grandfather would have made of it.
For him life was just about as simple as it got. He was a farm labourer in the North of England. This meant living in a small cottage (no idea what facilities these had, but I would imagine that they were pretty basic) on the landowner's estate, getting up at sunrise, going to bed at sunset, and working on the land and with, I would expect, the chickens, pigs and sheep (more sheep country than cattle country, more Australia than the USA if you like) throughout the day.
No fancy holidays, no amazing ambition, a routine predictable experience every day.
He apparently could not read or write (he was born before the advent of public education in the UK) and, according to the family legend, died in a ditch at the age of 47. My sister, who has studied the family genealogy, sent me a copy of his death certificate - nothing remarkable. Could he have lived longer if there had been better health care available? Who can tell now, this was the 1880s!
In three generations we have gone through basic education and moving from a rural environment to an urban one (my grandfather), consolidation (my father) to me and my university degree, command of four languages, and living in a completely different country. Take my sister as an example, it is nearly as complicated. I have no children, my sister has three - all adults in their 30s none of whom have any children - so this side of the line at least ends here maybe. There are of course my cousins and their offspring, but that requires too much time and research to go into here.
The point here though, and it needs taking seriously, is that societies change, as do economic environments. In the 1980s when the arguments were going on in the UK (and similar events were occurring with less noise in the German industrial heartlands) about the closure of coal mines and steel works in the North of England, my concern was not so much the style of the job (if I had ever had a son, would I have wanted him to work down a pit, or in a noisy dirty steel mill? No!), but rather the fact that jobs were disappearing and not being replaced!
And it is also to be emphasised that thanks to negotiations over many years these jobs provided a living wage as their reward (and given the conditions under which these people worked, that was more than deserved IMHO). Working hard doing lengthy shifts in a coal mine is just that. It is not like sitting on the end of a 'phone ringing your stockbroker for a couple of hours a day.
Eventually expecting coal miners to become estate agents or steelworkers to become stockbrokers? Some may have done, but not many. They are more likely to have been offered insulting low-paid jobs as McLackeys or Burger Klods if the economy we have these days is anything to go by. And could you blame anyone for turning such jobs down? In my home town where the fishing industry, once a major staple job supplier, has collapsed, many older people are forced into taking jobs filling supermarket shelves. Badly paid, uninspiring work! 8 to 10 hours a day of that? No thanks!
Times have changed to the point across the western world where you can no longer learn a skill, get a job using it, build your life round it, live within your means, work industriously for years, save for the future and eventually retire on the proceeds - with a few solitary exceptions - lawyers for example (cough, cough, splutter, splutter).
Given the world that we now live in, the chances are that in a not too distant period of time your skills will be regarded as redundant and your wage demands (simply "a living wage") will make you too expensive. At which point life gets extremely simple (into unemployment and poverty) or extremely complex - into the heart of the debt and speculation of the gamblers' economy!
My father's ashes will be turning in their urn at the thought of the latter. He managed to work over 40 years for the same company. He wouldn't be able to do that now - for one thing that company has since, like many others, gone out of business!
2. Climbing the Matterhorn.
OK - readers, shock, horror, a picture (a second picture in 340 items on this blog, the world will be coming to an end next!):
That wonderful piece of Alpine rock suitably covered in the best weather the Swiss winter can offer (satire!) is the Matterhorn. Apparently this was the last mountain in the Alps to be climbed - in 1865. My interest in it really started with a tacky old movie of the first successful ascent that I saw when I was about seven years old. The descent is (tragically) as historically interesting, as 4 of the 7 who made the ascent fell to their deaths on the way back down (three Britons, Hadow, Douglas and Hudson, and a French guide, Michel Croz). The three survivors (Whymper of whom more later) and the Swiss guides Taugwalder, father and son, only survived as the rope connecting them to the others broke.
Hadow, who was still only 18 and probably far too inexperienced to be climbing a mountain of that calibre, had slipped, and dragged the others with him as he fell. Remember though the fact that Douglas was scarcely more than a year older, but was a much more experienced climber, so age should not have been the crucial factor.
Whymper's is an interesting story. I have always remembered his name as Edmond (or Edmund) Whymper - more on this later. I probably have to research more about his background, how affluent usw it was or was not. He was though a Londoner (we will have to forgive him for that, maybe they were not all arrogant conniving thieves, rogues, liars and villains in the 19th century!), 2nd of 11 children, and an engraver and an artist. In 1860 he got one of those offers you cannot refuse - a publisher wanted some sketches made of the Alps, so off he went at the age of 20, suitably armed with his sketching gear.
Whether he could speak German or French, I have no idea. If he learned them while there, ditto. It is an interesting thought being stuck in central Europe with a sketch pad not being able to speak the language, and this before the days when American commercialism had brought the English language to the whole of Europe, like it or not.
Apart from sketching though, he also made a name for himself climbing mountains. Mainly successful elsewhere in the Alps, the Matterhorn became an obsession. But eight unsuccessful attempts followed, mainly on the South-Western face on the Italian side. He then attempted the South-Eastern side with Croz, after which he flew in the face of theory and decided that the allegedly most difficult Eastern face offered the best opportunity, as so it proved for the ascent at least.
Despite the tragedy on the descent, and accusations that he and the Taugwalders had to face about them cutting the rope (to save their own skins?), he was to set several more first climbs in other parts of the world - notably in the Andes and in Canada where Mount Lefroy was renamed Mount Whymper after him after he had scaled it with four Canadian guides.
He was highly respected in much of continental Europe (see, the British were not always stay at home xenophobes!), has a statue erected in the Hautes-Alpes département in France, died shortly after undertaking a climb in the Alps at the age of 71 - and was subsequently buried in Chamonix.
Interesting character and someone who carried his love and passion across the world, even if his name will always be mainly associated with the Matterhorn.
And no, my friends, I have no intention to follow his lead and head off to the Alps tomorrow! But there must be some great photo opportunities up there.
3. Not trusting Wikipedia
Not the first time that I have spotted mistakes upon Wikipedia, but while I was searching round for information on Edmund Whymper the other day, I also tried Wikipedia. Edmund, Edmond - tried both. Not there - one of the party that first climbed the Matterhorn and not mentioned? Surely not.
Discovered eventually that he is listed as "Edward Whymper"! I am absolutely convinced that that is wrong!
Monday, 17 September 2012
A quote from Karlheinz Deschner
And appropriate on a day when 19 people have died while rioting over a mediocre film/movie of which the producer is unknown:
German:
Jeder hat zunächst den Gottesglauben, den man ihm aufgeschwatzt hat; aber allmählich hat er den, den er verdient.
English:
At first your religious beliefs are those which were foisted upon you; but gradually your religious beliefs become those you deserve.
Courtesy of wikiquote (quoted without permission).
German:
Jeder hat zunächst den Gottesglauben, den man ihm aufgeschwatzt hat; aber allmählich hat er den, den er verdient.
English:
At first your religious beliefs are those which were foisted upon you; but gradually your religious beliefs become those you deserve.
Courtesy of wikiquote (quoted without permission).
Sunday, 16 September 2012
My audience, languages, and future political directions
Another esoteric title. OK, on with the motley.
1. My audience
Yesterday a strange thing happened. Ever since they started sending me statistics about what is happening on this blog (how many page views per day/week/month, which posts are being read, in which countries the readers live usw), there had never previously been a day when the list of countries was not led by the USA. Yesterday was for the first time Germany.
Not quite sure what to make of that. Young Germans are always being told that they need to learn English if they are going to get on in this world (do I find that sad? Why not Mandarin Chinese or Spanish, or ... OK, maybe it isn't! But the more languages that you have at your command the better) so maybe this blog helps.
I welcome all my readership (so willkommen!), even if you hate my opinions (and I will accept polite criticism). Notably also in the past week since I started unleashing my barbs at the EXP (known in their own country as the UKIP, see previous items as to why that title is inappropriate) my readership from the UK has noticeably increased - whether that means jaundiced EXP supporters or sane people who want to see this ridiculous phenomenon stopped in its tracks and want the input of some logical criticism which will help, I do not know. One hint - satire and ridicule help!
2. Languages
So maybe I should start writing the blog in German. I do speak German, and French, and can read Dutch fluently. The problem with Dutch is that you have to sound like you are gargling and eating celery sticks at one and the same time to get the pronunciation correct. Any non-native who manages to get the Dutch "g" and "sch" sounding correct deserves the grade of Grade A+ linguist. Do not think that you can get away without them either. The Dutch word for "canal" is "gracht" - try going to Amsterdam and not taking notice of the canals? And the airport where you land is frustratingly, from a pronunciation point of view, called "Schiphol".
Back in the 1980s I remember trying to talk to a Dutch girlfriend in Dutch. After two sentences she could not stop laughing - which was quite humiliating (for a linguist at least!).
As my audience is international, I will be sticking to English, though more German might start appearing. What type of English though?
I had a 'phone call from a language agency in Berlin on Friday. They wanted a translation doing, and it had to be into UK, not US English. Never too sure what comprises US English at times, leave out the odd "u" in words ending "our", change the "s" to a "z" in words ending "ise", remember that a "pavement" is a "sidewalk" and then?
UK English, no problem. I offered (humorously) to translate it into Yorkshire dialect if she wanted! Not exactly what she wanted (pity, it might have been a challenge ....).
Meanwhile my blog is slowly but surely developing an audience and I am looking at ways to enhance that. While I was sitting in an Internet cafe 'tother day I discovered that they had a facility that could translate it immediately into German for me (I cannot do this at home, incidentally).
Never, ever, trust automatic translators! Not sure whether I was reduced to hysterical laughter or tears or both at once! All the work that goes into finding "le mot juste" and then they do this to my masterpieces! I must try it with Shakespeare some time. "Hamlet" on an automatic translator .... I wonder how "forsooth", "zounds", "prithee" usw come out in German!
3. Future political directions
The leading German opposition party, the SDP, seems to have developed a situation over the years where it doesn't have a single leader but three at once - none of whom agree with the others! Not many years ago it was Gerhard Schröder / Oskar Lafontaine / Rudolf Scharping. Now it is Frank-Walter Steinmeier / Sigmar Gabriel / Peer Steinbrück. How quite they expect to win elections when they cannot agree with each other, but anyway.
Anyway they occasionally come up with some interesting ideas. A report from yahoo.de on Sigmar Gabriel yesterday had the following opening paragraphs:
German -
Eine Befreiung der Politik vom Diktat der Finanzmärkte hat SPD-Chef Sigmar Gabriel gefordert.
"Wir haben zu oft akzeptiert, wenn uns gesagt wurde, wie wir leben müssen", wandte sich Gabriel beim SPD-Zukunftskongress in Berlin gegen eine von "selbsternannten Eliten" behauptete "angebliche Alternativlosigkeit" politischen Handelns. Stattdessen wolle die SPD "den Alltag der normalen Menschen wieder zum Mittelpunkt der Politik machen".
English (translation done rapidly, as I am not being paid to do it, I rushed it off and have not refined it) -
SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel has called for liberation from the policy dictates of the financial markets.
"We have simply accepted it too many times when we were told how we must live", Gabriel stated at the SPD Congress for the Future in Berlin in opposition to the alleged "purported inevitability" of political action by the "self-appointed elites". Instead, the SPD wanted to "make the everyday life of ordinary people once more the focal point of politics".
-----
From my perspective that sounds the right way to go. And before 1980 it was the route that politics tended to follow. Rather than the markets dictating, they should be made to follow. There are simply too many unelected people running all our lives (and even worse speculating for profit on this). Getting there may be difficult, but it seems to me a laudable objective.
My problem with the SDP over the years has not been policy or objective - it is competence. Talking the talk is one thing, walking the walk is another! The Schröder years for example were not the most amazing years that Germany ever knew (remember the levels of unemployment? Far too high!).
And for American conservatives reading this with their over-simplified view of Capitalism vs Socialism (which of 57 varieties of Capitalism, and which of 200 varieties of Socialism?), a victory for the SDP in elections will not mean the end of the private sector in Germany, so your shares in Siemens, VW and Commerzbank usw are safe (at least as safe as the gamblers in the world's financial centres will let them be, anyway!).
1. My audience
Yesterday a strange thing happened. Ever since they started sending me statistics about what is happening on this blog (how many page views per day/week/month, which posts are being read, in which countries the readers live usw), there had never previously been a day when the list of countries was not led by the USA. Yesterday was for the first time Germany.
Not quite sure what to make of that. Young Germans are always being told that they need to learn English if they are going to get on in this world (do I find that sad? Why not Mandarin Chinese or Spanish, or ... OK, maybe it isn't! But the more languages that you have at your command the better) so maybe this blog helps.
I welcome all my readership (so willkommen!), even if you hate my opinions (and I will accept polite criticism). Notably also in the past week since I started unleashing my barbs at the EXP (known in their own country as the UKIP, see previous items as to why that title is inappropriate) my readership from the UK has noticeably increased - whether that means jaundiced EXP supporters or sane people who want to see this ridiculous phenomenon stopped in its tracks and want the input of some logical criticism which will help, I do not know. One hint - satire and ridicule help!
2. Languages
So maybe I should start writing the blog in German. I do speak German, and French, and can read Dutch fluently. The problem with Dutch is that you have to sound like you are gargling and eating celery sticks at one and the same time to get the pronunciation correct. Any non-native who manages to get the Dutch "g" and "sch" sounding correct deserves the grade of Grade A+ linguist. Do not think that you can get away without them either. The Dutch word for "canal" is "gracht" - try going to Amsterdam and not taking notice of the canals? And the airport where you land is frustratingly, from a pronunciation point of view, called "Schiphol".
Back in the 1980s I remember trying to talk to a Dutch girlfriend in Dutch. After two sentences she could not stop laughing - which was quite humiliating (for a linguist at least!).
As my audience is international, I will be sticking to English, though more German might start appearing. What type of English though?
I had a 'phone call from a language agency in Berlin on Friday. They wanted a translation doing, and it had to be into UK, not US English. Never too sure what comprises US English at times, leave out the odd "u" in words ending "our", change the "s" to a "z" in words ending "ise", remember that a "pavement" is a "sidewalk" and then?
UK English, no problem. I offered (humorously) to translate it into Yorkshire dialect if she wanted! Not exactly what she wanted (pity, it might have been a challenge ....).
Meanwhile my blog is slowly but surely developing an audience and I am looking at ways to enhance that. While I was sitting in an Internet cafe 'tother day I discovered that they had a facility that could translate it immediately into German for me (I cannot do this at home, incidentally).
Never, ever, trust automatic translators! Not sure whether I was reduced to hysterical laughter or tears or both at once! All the work that goes into finding "le mot juste" and then they do this to my masterpieces! I must try it with Shakespeare some time. "Hamlet" on an automatic translator .... I wonder how "forsooth", "zounds", "prithee" usw come out in German!
3. Future political directions
The leading German opposition party, the SDP, seems to have developed a situation over the years where it doesn't have a single leader but three at once - none of whom agree with the others! Not many years ago it was Gerhard Schröder / Oskar Lafontaine / Rudolf Scharping. Now it is Frank-Walter Steinmeier / Sigmar Gabriel / Peer Steinbrück. How quite they expect to win elections when they cannot agree with each other, but anyway.
Anyway they occasionally come up with some interesting ideas. A report from yahoo.de on Sigmar Gabriel yesterday had the following opening paragraphs:
German -
Eine Befreiung der Politik vom Diktat der Finanzmärkte hat SPD-Chef Sigmar Gabriel gefordert.
"Wir haben zu oft akzeptiert, wenn uns gesagt wurde, wie wir leben müssen", wandte sich Gabriel beim SPD-Zukunftskongress in Berlin gegen eine von "selbsternannten Eliten" behauptete "angebliche Alternativlosigkeit" politischen Handelns. Stattdessen wolle die SPD "den Alltag der normalen Menschen wieder zum Mittelpunkt der Politik machen".
English (translation done rapidly, as I am not being paid to do it, I rushed it off and have not refined it) -
SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel has called for liberation from the policy dictates of the financial markets.
"We have simply accepted it too many times when we were told how we must live", Gabriel stated at the SPD Congress for the Future in Berlin in opposition to the alleged "purported inevitability" of political action by the "self-appointed elites". Instead, the SPD wanted to "make the everyday life of ordinary people once more the focal point of politics".
-----
From my perspective that sounds the right way to go. And before 1980 it was the route that politics tended to follow. Rather than the markets dictating, they should be made to follow. There are simply too many unelected people running all our lives (and even worse speculating for profit on this). Getting there may be difficult, but it seems to me a laudable objective.
My problem with the SDP over the years has not been policy or objective - it is competence. Talking the talk is one thing, walking the walk is another! The Schröder years for example were not the most amazing years that Germany ever knew (remember the levels of unemployment? Far too high!).
And for American conservatives reading this with their over-simplified view of Capitalism vs Socialism (which of 57 varieties of Capitalism, and which of 200 varieties of Socialism?), a victory for the SDP in elections will not mean the end of the private sector in Germany, so your shares in Siemens, VW and Commerzbank usw are safe (at least as safe as the gamblers in the world's financial centres will let them be, anyway!).
Saturday, 15 September 2012
Land of their fathers or on the Celtic fringe
I was walking past the university library in Bockenheim this afternoon when the thought went through my mind - "I wonder whether they offer a degree in Welsh here?". I am given once in a while (well maybe a bit more often than that) to such esoteric thoughts.
Nothing so strange about a university offering that - I went to one that did! (That sounds like a Romneyism of course, on the principle "I had no difficulty making a fortune, so nobody else should have any problems doing so" - though maybe he has since changed his mind about that, in fact substitute "probably" for "maybe".... It possibly needed a couple of hours of non-reflection!).
Actually I would wonder how many young Germans realise that Wales has a separate language? Parts of it anyway. They haven't had a separate state for some 800 years (since Edward I took it over and filled it with Anglo-Norman nobility), but they have managed to retain bits of their separate culture to this day. Park yourself up in the (very scenic) North-West part of Wales some time. There are places where English is not the chosen language.
How I ended up going to Swansea to do my degree is far too complicated a story and not that interesting really, but it was essentially a great choice, provided that you came armed with an umbrella! When I first went, I arrived suitably armed with the fact that there were 26,000 people in Wales who could not speak English (this was the late 60s, I doubt whether this is the case now, and isn't 26,000 rather than a more obvious 25,000 an interesting number?). Also a quarter of the population (that takes you up to somewhere around 600,000 at the time) who were Welsh speakers altogether.
Although I was studying for a degree in Modern Languages, I never really made much effort to pick up much Welsh, which is rather sad really. I can still quote the University motto ("Gweddw crefft heb ei dawn"), the name of the university in Welsh and that is about it.
Not that there was much chance to practise it anyway. Of the university population only 40% were from Wales, the rest were "foreigners" (yes, the English made up 90% of the foreign contingent!). Most of my contacts in the first year there were fellow transplants from the North of England, two of them the sons of coal miners (those were the days!).
I did though in the second year have a flat mate who came from Pontardulais in the Swansea valley - a great guy called Alun, whose native language was Welsh, and was having to do all his Engineering course work in his second language (English)! That must have been a challenge. At the time we were living up near Cwmdonkin Park (note the importance of the letter "w" in Welsh, incidentally) and as a cultural digression, every day you could walk past the house where one of Swansea's favourite sons, Dylan Thomas, had lived.
Advice to those with a plaque on the house where somebody famous has lived - make sure you have a solid gate people cannot get past. This was a private house, and the number of people who tried to go in and have a look round ....
Attempts were being made to either revive the Celtic languages or at least ensure that they did not become extinct like Cornish in the 19th century (check out the progress being made with Scottish Gaelic in the past few years for more on this). Eventually though Welsh seems to be doing quite well. It is taught in schools in the non-Welsh speaking areas, it has its own television channel, and there is of course the annual arts festival called the Eisteddfod, where two different bards receive awards in significant colourful ceremonies.
If interested check out http://www.eisteddfod.org.uk/english/content.php?nID=421
You can read this in either English or Welsh!
Apparently Welsh is also a co-official language of the EU (the extra costs of translation being borne apparently by the Welsh Assembly Government) and so it will remain until the English (sorry UK) government decides to leave the EU.
And then to finish there is the Welsh national anthem. I have known a number of people from Wales over the years who cannot speak much Welsh (mainly from Cardiff, which is pretty much an English speaking enclave), but all could manage this in Welsh. I do not normally like national anthems, but this is quite rousing (particular the bit going "Gwlad Gwlad"!).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtCOprRDUm8
Nothing so strange about a university offering that - I went to one that did! (That sounds like a Romneyism of course, on the principle "I had no difficulty making a fortune, so nobody else should have any problems doing so" - though maybe he has since changed his mind about that, in fact substitute "probably" for "maybe".... It possibly needed a couple of hours of non-reflection!).
Actually I would wonder how many young Germans realise that Wales has a separate language? Parts of it anyway. They haven't had a separate state for some 800 years (since Edward I took it over and filled it with Anglo-Norman nobility), but they have managed to retain bits of their separate culture to this day. Park yourself up in the (very scenic) North-West part of Wales some time. There are places where English is not the chosen language.
How I ended up going to Swansea to do my degree is far too complicated a story and not that interesting really, but it was essentially a great choice, provided that you came armed with an umbrella! When I first went, I arrived suitably armed with the fact that there were 26,000 people in Wales who could not speak English (this was the late 60s, I doubt whether this is the case now, and isn't 26,000 rather than a more obvious 25,000 an interesting number?). Also a quarter of the population (that takes you up to somewhere around 600,000 at the time) who were Welsh speakers altogether.
Although I was studying for a degree in Modern Languages, I never really made much effort to pick up much Welsh, which is rather sad really. I can still quote the University motto ("Gweddw crefft heb ei dawn"), the name of the university in Welsh and that is about it.
Not that there was much chance to practise it anyway. Of the university population only 40% were from Wales, the rest were "foreigners" (yes, the English made up 90% of the foreign contingent!). Most of my contacts in the first year there were fellow transplants from the North of England, two of them the sons of coal miners (those were the days!).
I did though in the second year have a flat mate who came from Pontardulais in the Swansea valley - a great guy called Alun, whose native language was Welsh, and was having to do all his Engineering course work in his second language (English)! That must have been a challenge. At the time we were living up near Cwmdonkin Park (note the importance of the letter "w" in Welsh, incidentally) and as a cultural digression, every day you could walk past the house where one of Swansea's favourite sons, Dylan Thomas, had lived.
Advice to those with a plaque on the house where somebody famous has lived - make sure you have a solid gate people cannot get past. This was a private house, and the number of people who tried to go in and have a look round ....
Attempts were being made to either revive the Celtic languages or at least ensure that they did not become extinct like Cornish in the 19th century (check out the progress being made with Scottish Gaelic in the past few years for more on this). Eventually though Welsh seems to be doing quite well. It is taught in schools in the non-Welsh speaking areas, it has its own television channel, and there is of course the annual arts festival called the Eisteddfod, where two different bards receive awards in significant colourful ceremonies.
If interested check out http://www.eisteddfod.org.uk/english/content.php?nID=421
You can read this in either English or Welsh!
Apparently Welsh is also a co-official language of the EU (the extra costs of translation being borne apparently by the Welsh Assembly Government) and so it will remain until the English (sorry UK) government decides to leave the EU.
And then to finish there is the Welsh national anthem. I have known a number of people from Wales over the years who cannot speak much Welsh (mainly from Cardiff, which is pretty much an English speaking enclave), but all could manage this in Welsh. I do not normally like national anthems, but this is quite rousing (particular the bit going "Gwlad Gwlad"!).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtCOprRDUm8
Friday, 14 September 2012
The Arab autumn, the continued saga of the Euro, the Dutch and US elections usw
1. Syria, Islamic Riots and the return of Al Qaeda
Those in the media who were touting the "Arab Spring" must have woken up to a cold shower this week. The never-ending brutal civil war in Syria continues unabated with the continued incomprehension in the West. For those unaware a quick point - Syria is not an Islamic country with a fundamentalist régime, it is a secular country where there is a range of belief systems (Sunni and Shia Islam, 10% Christian, usw) and is run as a personal fiefdom by the Assad family.
President Assad has claimed that the uprising is driven by Al-Qaeda, whom he needs to crush (sound familiar?). True or not, Al-Qaeda this week called for Assad's overthrow, pretty much what the US and Europe want as well. Not since Reagan and the Afghan Arabs (see Osama Bin Laden) has such an alliance been in place!
Meanwhile an obscure film has appeared about the life of Mohammad, which depicts him as a pedophile, Gay, you name it. I have said enough times that I think that Islam is a load of superstitious junk (as are Judaism, Christianity usw), but I do not see the need for this sort of film, which is only provocative. That riots arose among the unsophisticated fanatical believers in parts of the world should not be surprising after what happened with the Danish Mohammad cartoons in 2006. That the US government was not involved in producing this is no more important to the rioters than the fact that the Danish government had nothing to do with the cartoons. Consequently embassies are attacked. Wharrever the positive developments of the "Arab Spring", some things do not change, as here.
In passing if in the glorious name of freedom of speech and freedom of communication, some offshoot of the NPD in Germany decided to produce a remake of "Jud Süss" (a favourite film of the Nazis in 1940) would that be OK? Personally having had a close friend in the 1980s who was the daughter of an Auschwitz survivor, I would find it offensive. I also suspect that the German government would, wisely, stamp on it! And if such a film were produced in, say, Iran? Beware double-standards, my friends!
Maybe as a result of this movie, maybe as a symbolic gesture from Al-Qaeda on September 11th, the US Ambassador to Libya and three other diplomats were killed. Our sympathies should go to their families, and the murderers need to rounded up and tried as the villains that they are regardless of any other motives. Heroes they are not!
2. The Euro saga - continued
The German Constitutional Court this week decided that Germany can support Italy and Spain with funds in order to support the bail out in those countries. Mixed reaction here (but not from me, I was relieved), as some people here think that Germany has enough problems of its own.
Spain and Italy though are different cases entirely from one another. Without the 2008 crash and the ensuing banking crisis (which happened late there), Spain would not have needed the bail-out. Italy meanwhile after years of the Berlusconi administration (for American readers a sort of cross between Donald Trump and George W. Bush - a flamboyant Conservative who couldn't balance the budget if he tried) had only itself to blame. Given that its current technocrat leader, former EU Commissioner Mario Monti, has made some improvements to the situation and needs encouragement to stay on, this might help.
The Euro would not have failed if the decision in Karlsruhe had turned out differently, but the zone would gave shrunk, which would have led to reduced business across the EU, yet more unemployment, more chaos, and more days of rejoicing for the **** speculators who already have far too much say in running our economies for their own benefit (think of all the juicy profits to be had with all those extra currencies to attack), as well as the grotesque rip-offs at exchange bureaux when going to / coming from Italy, Spain usw!
And as for those who wish to make propaganda out of this by using totally phoney misinformation (check out the EXP - the English Xenophobe Party, a better name IMHO than UKIP - which has all sorts of references on its site to the plummetting or plunging or dying Euro), the Pound Euro rate is as of this morning 1 GBP = 1.24 EUR, the last time that I quoted a rate (see "European economics - a quick quiz" dated 28/6/12 on this blog) it was 1 GBP = 1.25 EUR. Which means over 11 weeks of the "Euro crisis" the Pound has fallen 1 Eurocent against the Euro! The plummetting Pound!!!! And it is now 38 Eurocents down against the Euro over the past 3 years!
3. Dutch Elections
The principle driving forces behind the Dutch elections were the austerity plans resulting from the 2008 crash and from the state of the Euro, and what role the Netherlands should play in the current course of events. The government had fallen when the allegedly charismatic Geert Wilders, famed for his "kick all the Muslims out of Europe" stance, withdrew his party's support of the coalition because of differences on the austerity programme of the government.
For weeks it looked like a strange event was going to occur - the Dutch Socialist Party (not to be confused with the Dutch Labour Party - the more famous PvdA), which had started out life as the Communist Party of the Netherlands/Marxist-Leninist but has moderated somewhat over the years, looked the likely winner. Not that it likes the EU much and was hostile at least to all belt-tightening measures.
Eventually the vote was almost a text book result, the two major parties (the VVD who have in recent years replaced the fast fading Christian Democrats as the Netherlands' major conservative party, and the PvdA, led by a former Greenpeace activist (!)) won the majority of the seats and the likely outcome looks like what the Germans call a "grand coalition". The two parties did, despite their obvious differences, combine in a very successful coalition in the boom years of the mid-late 1990s, which offers some hope - those though were better times for the world economy.
Wilders's party in the meantime, having converted itself from an anti-Islamic party to an anti-EU and anti-Euro party (and is allegedly the favourite European party of EXP members, surprise, surprise!) lost heavily. And curiously ended up tied with the Socialist Party for third place, which given the mutual loathing the parties have for each other, is interesting!
It appears that the Dutch are none too eager to follow the path of austerity, but as they mainly tend to pragmatism (without that practical streak the Netherlands would be under water by now and not just economically!), the result is not surprising. Europe needs more jobs, more growth, more currency stability, more investment, far lower unemployment, far less debt and the removal of the threat of ensuing poverty and ruin, AND A BANKING SYSTEM THAT WILL BEHAVE ITSELF IN THE FUTURE! Which means investment not speculation! And planning for the future not trying to gain instant profit all the time! And intelligent use of resources (including human resources)! And an end to the supply of cheaply produced Chinese junk at overly-competitive prices due to a ludicrously low fixed exchange rate (which all European countries should insist on being floated in the same way as all other currencies are!)!
The objectives are clear. Getting there? Well - veel succes!
4. US Elections
This week I saw a stat that 90% of the people in Europe who were asked wanted to see Obama re-elected. Not sure what the basis was (people following what was going on, if not had they ever heard of Romney or did they know what he stands for?). The memories of Bush here are so bad though, you can understand the logic and what people here know of Romney is that he sounds like something of a Bush clone.
I also saw consecutive clips of Romney supporting parts of Obama's Health Care Act and a few hours later denying supporting any of it. This is not the first similar instant volte-face on various issues either.
All well and good if the voters do not care one way and the other, but assume that he does get elected and declares war on Iran. Changing his mind on that after 4 to 5 hours, how dumb will that look?
It isn't our business? In certain areas it isn't - try healthcare for example. In others though it is or will be (see other items on this blog where I explain this in detail), and the prospects of this indecisiveness are disturbing to say the least.
Those in the media who were touting the "Arab Spring" must have woken up to a cold shower this week. The never-ending brutal civil war in Syria continues unabated with the continued incomprehension in the West. For those unaware a quick point - Syria is not an Islamic country with a fundamentalist régime, it is a secular country where there is a range of belief systems (Sunni and Shia Islam, 10% Christian, usw) and is run as a personal fiefdom by the Assad family.
President Assad has claimed that the uprising is driven by Al-Qaeda, whom he needs to crush (sound familiar?). True or not, Al-Qaeda this week called for Assad's overthrow, pretty much what the US and Europe want as well. Not since Reagan and the Afghan Arabs (see Osama Bin Laden) has such an alliance been in place!
Meanwhile an obscure film has appeared about the life of Mohammad, which depicts him as a pedophile, Gay, you name it. I have said enough times that I think that Islam is a load of superstitious junk (as are Judaism, Christianity usw), but I do not see the need for this sort of film, which is only provocative. That riots arose among the unsophisticated fanatical believers in parts of the world should not be surprising after what happened with the Danish Mohammad cartoons in 2006. That the US government was not involved in producing this is no more important to the rioters than the fact that the Danish government had nothing to do with the cartoons. Consequently embassies are attacked. Wharrever the positive developments of the "Arab Spring", some things do not change, as here.
In passing if in the glorious name of freedom of speech and freedom of communication, some offshoot of the NPD in Germany decided to produce a remake of "Jud Süss" (a favourite film of the Nazis in 1940) would that be OK? Personally having had a close friend in the 1980s who was the daughter of an Auschwitz survivor, I would find it offensive. I also suspect that the German government would, wisely, stamp on it! And if such a film were produced in, say, Iran? Beware double-standards, my friends!
Maybe as a result of this movie, maybe as a symbolic gesture from Al-Qaeda on September 11th, the US Ambassador to Libya and three other diplomats were killed. Our sympathies should go to their families, and the murderers need to rounded up and tried as the villains that they are regardless of any other motives. Heroes they are not!
2. The Euro saga - continued
The German Constitutional Court this week decided that Germany can support Italy and Spain with funds in order to support the bail out in those countries. Mixed reaction here (but not from me, I was relieved), as some people here think that Germany has enough problems of its own.
Spain and Italy though are different cases entirely from one another. Without the 2008 crash and the ensuing banking crisis (which happened late there), Spain would not have needed the bail-out. Italy meanwhile after years of the Berlusconi administration (for American readers a sort of cross between Donald Trump and George W. Bush - a flamboyant Conservative who couldn't balance the budget if he tried) had only itself to blame. Given that its current technocrat leader, former EU Commissioner Mario Monti, has made some improvements to the situation and needs encouragement to stay on, this might help.
The Euro would not have failed if the decision in Karlsruhe had turned out differently, but the zone would gave shrunk, which would have led to reduced business across the EU, yet more unemployment, more chaos, and more days of rejoicing for the **** speculators who already have far too much say in running our economies for their own benefit (think of all the juicy profits to be had with all those extra currencies to attack), as well as the grotesque rip-offs at exchange bureaux when going to / coming from Italy, Spain usw!
And as for those who wish to make propaganda out of this by using totally phoney misinformation (check out the EXP - the English Xenophobe Party, a better name IMHO than UKIP - which has all sorts of references on its site to the plummetting or plunging or dying Euro), the Pound Euro rate is as of this morning 1 GBP = 1.24 EUR, the last time that I quoted a rate (see "European economics - a quick quiz" dated 28/6/12 on this blog) it was 1 GBP = 1.25 EUR. Which means over 11 weeks of the "Euro crisis" the Pound has fallen 1 Eurocent against the Euro! The plummetting Pound!!!! And it is now 38 Eurocents down against the Euro over the past 3 years!
3. Dutch Elections
The principle driving forces behind the Dutch elections were the austerity plans resulting from the 2008 crash and from the state of the Euro, and what role the Netherlands should play in the current course of events. The government had fallen when the allegedly charismatic Geert Wilders, famed for his "kick all the Muslims out of Europe" stance, withdrew his party's support of the coalition because of differences on the austerity programme of the government.
For weeks it looked like a strange event was going to occur - the Dutch Socialist Party (not to be confused with the Dutch Labour Party - the more famous PvdA), which had started out life as the Communist Party of the Netherlands/Marxist-Leninist but has moderated somewhat over the years, looked the likely winner. Not that it likes the EU much and was hostile at least to all belt-tightening measures.
Eventually the vote was almost a text book result, the two major parties (the VVD who have in recent years replaced the fast fading Christian Democrats as the Netherlands' major conservative party, and the PvdA, led by a former Greenpeace activist (!)) won the majority of the seats and the likely outcome looks like what the Germans call a "grand coalition". The two parties did, despite their obvious differences, combine in a very successful coalition in the boom years of the mid-late 1990s, which offers some hope - those though were better times for the world economy.
Wilders's party in the meantime, having converted itself from an anti-Islamic party to an anti-EU and anti-Euro party (and is allegedly the favourite European party of EXP members, surprise, surprise!) lost heavily. And curiously ended up tied with the Socialist Party for third place, which given the mutual loathing the parties have for each other, is interesting!
It appears that the Dutch are none too eager to follow the path of austerity, but as they mainly tend to pragmatism (without that practical streak the Netherlands would be under water by now and not just economically!), the result is not surprising. Europe needs more jobs, more growth, more currency stability, more investment, far lower unemployment, far less debt and the removal of the threat of ensuing poverty and ruin, AND A BANKING SYSTEM THAT WILL BEHAVE ITSELF IN THE FUTURE! Which means investment not speculation! And planning for the future not trying to gain instant profit all the time! And intelligent use of resources (including human resources)! And an end to the supply of cheaply produced Chinese junk at overly-competitive prices due to a ludicrously low fixed exchange rate (which all European countries should insist on being floated in the same way as all other currencies are!)!
The objectives are clear. Getting there? Well - veel succes!
4. US Elections
This week I saw a stat that 90% of the people in Europe who were asked wanted to see Obama re-elected. Not sure what the basis was (people following what was going on, if not had they ever heard of Romney or did they know what he stands for?). The memories of Bush here are so bad though, you can understand the logic and what people here know of Romney is that he sounds like something of a Bush clone.
I also saw consecutive clips of Romney supporting parts of Obama's Health Care Act and a few hours later denying supporting any of it. This is not the first similar instant volte-face on various issues either.
All well and good if the voters do not care one way and the other, but assume that he does get elected and declares war on Iran. Changing his mind on that after 4 to 5 hours, how dumb will that look?
It isn't our business? In certain areas it isn't - try healthcare for example. In others though it is or will be (see other items on this blog where I explain this in detail), and the prospects of this indecisiveness are disturbing to say the least.
Thursday, 13 September 2012
Renewing passports, changing nationalities, and bad timing
As regular readers will know I have been deciding whether to give up British nationality and apply for German citizenship. A friend in Amsterdam recently gave up his UK passport and became a Dutch citizen (I must ask him how his vote went yesterday's national elections), so there are precedents.
There has been though something of an impasse. Previously there was no hurry, but I had left the situation also as the UK government led by the awful British Conservative Party has not yet decided to leave the EU, so accordingly my rights as a EU citizen in another EU country, applicable under the various treaties, are not affected.
Things though are suddenly coming to a head for the following reasons:
1. My wife has decided, even if we have no money for anything else for the next 12 months, that we are visiting her family in Thailand for 3 weeks from the start of November. I have said "no" enough times, I have repeated the fact that I do not want to go several times - without success. Before October 1st we can get the money back in full on the tickets (or at least on my ticket), and it could be used for other (much!) more important things! I am still hoping that sense will prevail.
2. My passport expired in July. My travelling days being over almost and having a permanent residence permit for Germany, it has not seemed that important. The quick and easy solution (despite the fact that I would not want the same passport as anyone belonging to the wretched BNP or the xenophobic UKIP, though given that the UK is in their eyes "Heaven on Earth" why would anyone in the UKIP need a passport????) would be to get it renewed as a one-off.
That suddenly is not as easy as it used to be. The British Consulate in Düsseldorf has closed the passport issuing office. Accordingly now you have to fill out a load of documents, send them to Düsseldorf, they send them to the UK and weeks later your passport arrives.
In 2002, when I was still living in Amsterdam, I walked down to the British consulate there (20 minutes from my apartment), filled out everything as required and had everything back within a week. No chance of that any more. 6 weeks is not out of the question! (How do you spell incompetence????). For that matter in 1972 I was able to take the old passport for renewal to the office concerned at 9 o'clock in the morning and pick it up later the same afternoon!
And if you want an additional bit of nonsense - I cannot recall the exact price that it cost me in 2002, but in the back of my mind is the sum of €65 (the then equivalent of 40 pounds). This may be wrong - memories can play tricks on you. This time they want €170!!!! I do not have €170 spare (we have enough financial problems already - see also above). Period! It strikes me as a ridiculously high sum. Definitely so for a one-off!
3. Applying for German nationality will take more than a few weeks. Also the cost of application is some €255, and again the money is not available currently. Probably well worth it in the long run, but that does not resolve my current issues.
Timing is really a serious issue now. The possibility exists that I will get my way and not make this trip, purely by accident - which means that we lose the money on the ticket. Which at any time would be a waste, but particularly now. You wonder why governments seem to be making things increasingly more difficult and less efficient. Or maybe there is a subtle message that you are not supposed to look beyond the country's borders and never leave. That is if there isn't a nice juicy war that needs fighting somewhere!
There has been though something of an impasse. Previously there was no hurry, but I had left the situation also as the UK government led by the awful British Conservative Party has not yet decided to leave the EU, so accordingly my rights as a EU citizen in another EU country, applicable under the various treaties, are not affected.
Things though are suddenly coming to a head for the following reasons:
1. My wife has decided, even if we have no money for anything else for the next 12 months, that we are visiting her family in Thailand for 3 weeks from the start of November. I have said "no" enough times, I have repeated the fact that I do not want to go several times - without success. Before October 1st we can get the money back in full on the tickets (or at least on my ticket), and it could be used for other (much!) more important things! I am still hoping that sense will prevail.
2. My passport expired in July. My travelling days being over almost and having a permanent residence permit for Germany, it has not seemed that important. The quick and easy solution (despite the fact that I would not want the same passport as anyone belonging to the wretched BNP or the xenophobic UKIP, though given that the UK is in their eyes "Heaven on Earth" why would anyone in the UKIP need a passport????) would be to get it renewed as a one-off.
That suddenly is not as easy as it used to be. The British Consulate in Düsseldorf has closed the passport issuing office. Accordingly now you have to fill out a load of documents, send them to Düsseldorf, they send them to the UK and weeks later your passport arrives.
In 2002, when I was still living in Amsterdam, I walked down to the British consulate there (20 minutes from my apartment), filled out everything as required and had everything back within a week. No chance of that any more. 6 weeks is not out of the question! (How do you spell incompetence????). For that matter in 1972 I was able to take the old passport for renewal to the office concerned at 9 o'clock in the morning and pick it up later the same afternoon!
And if you want an additional bit of nonsense - I cannot recall the exact price that it cost me in 2002, but in the back of my mind is the sum of €65 (the then equivalent of 40 pounds). This may be wrong - memories can play tricks on you. This time they want €170!!!! I do not have €170 spare (we have enough financial problems already - see also above). Period! It strikes me as a ridiculously high sum. Definitely so for a one-off!
3. Applying for German nationality will take more than a few weeks. Also the cost of application is some €255, and again the money is not available currently. Probably well worth it in the long run, but that does not resolve my current issues.
Timing is really a serious issue now. The possibility exists that I will get my way and not make this trip, purely by accident - which means that we lose the money on the ticket. Which at any time would be a waste, but particularly now. You wonder why governments seem to be making things increasingly more difficult and less efficient. Or maybe there is a subtle message that you are not supposed to look beyond the country's borders and never leave. That is if there isn't a nice juicy war that needs fighting somewhere!
Wednesday, 12 September 2012
Chile - a memorial 39 years later
Mention September 13th to someone (of my generation at least) in Chile and they will remember the overthrow of a democratic régime and the coup d'état led by Augusto Pinochet in 1973.
I would personally place Pinochet as fifth on the list of the worst villains in the world in the 20th century (behind 1. Hitler, 2. Stalin, 3. Mao-Tse-Dung, 4.Pol Pot and possibly level with the leaders of the Argentinian junta of the late 1970s and early 80s).
The democratic régime was led by Salvador Allende, a Marxist, theoretically an economist, and by no stretch of the imagination a commanding personality. And as economists go, he did not prove very competent!
I have spoken to people on both sides of the political divide in Chile about this over the years. On one side the argument was that the country was in disarray and something had to be done to save it. On the other hand the argument was that the riots were staged (paid for by American money and organised by the CIA at Nixon's behest). Who is right? Does anyone even now really know?
What I would say is that in a democracy elections should always hold sway. If Allende was incompetent, he should have been subjected to elections and voted in or out according to the will of the people. If that in the short term proved impossible, the armed forces should have taken control of the country and ensured that stability had returned. Then elections should have followed.
A military dictatorship should not have been an option!
A régime where thousands were arrested, tortured and killed (without due process) should not have been an option!
A régime where young women were taken away two days after giving birth, tortured (apparently by fitting clamps to their breasts and sending electric currents through them) .... and killed????
NO WAY! NOT IN ANY CIVILISED PLACE ON EARTH!
Their babies were given instead to army officers and other supporters of the régime to raise incidentally. Wharrever you think about that is your choice.
And then there were the dozens of people who disappeared never to be heard of again and have never been accounted for. Imagine one of your relatives disappearing like that?
Well they were all dangerous revolutionaries!
A great excuse, but if you examine all the case histories, this is not exactly the case. Among them were Catholic priests. Among them (one of the survivors who lived to tell the tale) was Michelle Bachelet, democratically elected President of Chile between 2006 and 2010. A relatively moderate Social Democrat (think Willi Brandt or Gerhard Schröder) - hardly a revolutionary.
If someone is a dangerous person who has taken actions (or has threatened to take such actions) as a result of which they are consequently potentially culpable, they should face trials in a proper court of law following appropriate internationally accepted interrogation procedures.
Arrest without trial, torture, execution (not following due process), or simply just removing someone from circulation, killing them and dumping their bodies in the Pacific Ocean? Frankly this IMHO makes the régime worse that the people that they refused to prosecute!
Democracies live by and under the law (see the actions of France with Carlos "the Jackal", if you want an example of how this should be done). Dictatorships live according to the words, actions and methods adopted by the dictator, but there is also a standard in international law to which they must also be held. Let us never forget that. Let the dictators never forget that!
To the memory of all who died at the hands of the villain Pinochet and his brutal henchmen - you are not forgotten, and neither will be the crimes of the perpetrators!
Author's note and apology - when I first wrote this article I gave the date of September 11th as that of the Chilean coup. I have since researched this and discovered that the information that I first had was incorrect and the date should have been September 13th. I have consequently revised the opening to this piece. My profound apologies for the mistake. I should have checked my facts in depth first (as should all writers, politicians usw) - I will, unlike many others, openly admit to making a mistake when it obviously is one.
I would personally place Pinochet as fifth on the list of the worst villains in the world in the 20th century (behind 1. Hitler, 2. Stalin, 3. Mao-Tse-Dung, 4.Pol Pot and possibly level with the leaders of the Argentinian junta of the late 1970s and early 80s).
The democratic régime was led by Salvador Allende, a Marxist, theoretically an economist, and by no stretch of the imagination a commanding personality. And as economists go, he did not prove very competent!
I have spoken to people on both sides of the political divide in Chile about this over the years. On one side the argument was that the country was in disarray and something had to be done to save it. On the other hand the argument was that the riots were staged (paid for by American money and organised by the CIA at Nixon's behest). Who is right? Does anyone even now really know?
What I would say is that in a democracy elections should always hold sway. If Allende was incompetent, he should have been subjected to elections and voted in or out according to the will of the people. If that in the short term proved impossible, the armed forces should have taken control of the country and ensured that stability had returned. Then elections should have followed.
A military dictatorship should not have been an option!
A régime where thousands were arrested, tortured and killed (without due process) should not have been an option!
A régime where young women were taken away two days after giving birth, tortured (apparently by fitting clamps to their breasts and sending electric currents through them) .... and killed????
NO WAY! NOT IN ANY CIVILISED PLACE ON EARTH!
Their babies were given instead to army officers and other supporters of the régime to raise incidentally. Wharrever you think about that is your choice.
And then there were the dozens of people who disappeared never to be heard of again and have never been accounted for. Imagine one of your relatives disappearing like that?
Well they were all dangerous revolutionaries!
A great excuse, but if you examine all the case histories, this is not exactly the case. Among them were Catholic priests. Among them (one of the survivors who lived to tell the tale) was Michelle Bachelet, democratically elected President of Chile between 2006 and 2010. A relatively moderate Social Democrat (think Willi Brandt or Gerhard Schröder) - hardly a revolutionary.
If someone is a dangerous person who has taken actions (or has threatened to take such actions) as a result of which they are consequently potentially culpable, they should face trials in a proper court of law following appropriate internationally accepted interrogation procedures.
Arrest without trial, torture, execution (not following due process), or simply just removing someone from circulation, killing them and dumping their bodies in the Pacific Ocean? Frankly this IMHO makes the régime worse that the people that they refused to prosecute!
Democracies live by and under the law (see the actions of France with Carlos "the Jackal", if you want an example of how this should be done). Dictatorships live according to the words, actions and methods adopted by the dictator, but there is also a standard in international law to which they must also be held. Let us never forget that. Let the dictators never forget that!
To the memory of all who died at the hands of the villain Pinochet and his brutal henchmen - you are not forgotten, and neither will be the crimes of the perpetrators!
Author's note and apology - when I first wrote this article I gave the date of September 11th as that of the Chilean coup. I have since researched this and discovered that the information that I first had was incorrect and the date should have been September 13th. I have consequently revised the opening to this piece. My profound apologies for the mistake. I should have checked my facts in depth first (as should all writers, politicians usw) - I will, unlike many others, openly admit to making a mistake when it obviously is one.
This morning's prayer
Sat down this morning in front of the computer, looked out of the window and up at the sky, contemplated more desperate problems and uttered the following words:
"Dear God,
things are desperate, please send me a ton of money".
I remain, however, certain that the "prayer" will not be answered. For one very important reason - there is no God out there to answer it! And you are best recommended not to talk to yourself, people will think that you are crazy!
"Dear God,
things are desperate, please send me a ton of money".
I remain, however, certain that the "prayer" will not be answered. For one very important reason - there is no God out there to answer it! And you are best recommended not to talk to yourself, people will think that you are crazy!
Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Understanding the political systems of other countries and the undesirable ones in my own
I have said enough times what I think of two party systems (or how does a sane person choose between "not good" and "so bad that you cannot understand why anyone would ever support them"?).
The advent of a third party, or fourth or fifth for that matter, in such situations is difficult though, because these countries also use the "first past the post system" where the big parties always win, and money also plays a near corrupting part.
Germany does not have these problems of course, thanks to the glories of proportional representation. The down side being that even the alternatives are often not enough (you cannot pick from 5 alternatives from ultraconservative to neo-Marxist?) and 7% of the voters now support the Pirate Party, which has virtually no clear policies to speak of! Nor wants to be in power. Nor wants to form a coalition with anyone.
"Doof" to quote my third-favourite German word! Not worth 0.7% of my time supporting such nonsense!
Move on.
Anyway I discovered on YouTube an Australian who wished everyone to know that the UK has actually got a 3rd party (about which he sounded enthusiastic - he must be exiled to a very small corner of the affluent South of England) called the UKIP.
More on this shower of pig's droppings in a minute.
For the information of my Australian friend, the UK has had a 3rd party for quite some time. It is called the Liberal Democrats. They sold their souls to the proverbial Devil (there being no literal Devil, of course), by forming a coalition with the UK Conservative Party. A party which is sensibly (rather than excessively) pro-EU with a bunch of Neanderthal Euro-sceptics. A party which showed the intelligence to oppose the Iraq War allied to a party that enabled Blair to participate in the Iraq War despite 30% opposition in his own Labour Party!
Yes, well that establishes the existence of the 3rd Party for now (before they get totally annihilated by the "first past the post system" at the next election).
Then there is the UK Green Party, which has 1 member of parliament, which is one more than the UKIP can manage, which I think that puts them 4th in England.
And in the Bradford West by-election this year, Respect (who are not that far from being a Marxist party that also appeals to Muslims) also won a seat in Parliament, while the UKIP candidate won all of 3% of the vote.
As for Scotland, the "UK" part of the UKIP's title almost is without relevance, as they are a non-factor. Probably the sanest party left in the UK (the Scottish National Party, a moderate organisation despite the "National" in their title), holds sway. Taking Scotland out of the UK would be in my opinion, the best thing that could happen to show that other parts of the UK deserve attention rather than just the South-East. Only 40% of Scots seem to want that though, but if it ever happened, I would be checking round to seeing if I had some Scottish blood that would make me eligible to take out Scottish nationality (as an alternative to becoming German). Start learning to play the bagpipes.
Meanwhile the UKIP. They are to all intents and purposes nothing more than the Conservative Party with a Euro-xenophobic rather than Euro-sceptic tendency, blame the EU, ridiculously, for absolutely everything and want out. They are otherwise committed Thatcherites economically (which explains their strength in the South-East - the Conservative heartlands). And while not endorsing the tactics and implied need for violence of the neo-Fascist BNP, the "talk" (rather than the "walk") on immigration is the same load of phoney inventions that come straight of the BNP playbook - rumour rather than facts.
And try finding anywhere on the Internet the UKIP's position in 2003 (not after the event!) on the Iraq War. Not easy to find, I will tell you! As the EU did not start it, does the "I" as in "Independence" matter here? I suspect not - at least not until after the event!
If they are the fastest rising party in the UK ..... Enough said. I am glad that I no longer live there. As an internationalist, living in a country with a rapidly increasing number of parochial xenophobes is definitely a non-starter! And I am fully aware that the Euro has serious problems (which could get a lot worse tomorrow) - see the other items on this blog for more details.
When I comment on other countries (which I do quite frequently), I make sure that I have read up the information and studied the situation. You will never hear me comment on the American Health Service and the politics involved for example - I do not really understand in depth how it works, and how it could be improved.
Meanwhile I am often saddened by what I see elsewhere, but given the global economy it can be worked out how difficult situations are going to be, what will work and what will not.
So predicting that François Hollande would have difficulties turning things round is proving, sadly, to be correct. In the same way that looking at the arithmetic, I will tell people (strictly based upon the facts) that Romney's budget proposals will massively increase the deficit (and that will have ongoing repercussions for the rest of the world economy unfortunately). Both sides of the political divide proved wrong in one paragraph.
And get rid of the global economy and go back to some nationalist model - vote UKIP and see what you will get. I will, as one who saw the drastic impact that Thatcherite economics and the associated mass unemployment had on the well-being of thousands of people in the North of England in the 1980s, advise you that you will simply get a repeat of that. And don't start producing myths that the EU (or its predecessor) was responsible for that any more than it was for the international financial crisis of 2008 or the Iraq War. It wasn't!
The advent of a third party, or fourth or fifth for that matter, in such situations is difficult though, because these countries also use the "first past the post system" where the big parties always win, and money also plays a near corrupting part.
Germany does not have these problems of course, thanks to the glories of proportional representation. The down side being that even the alternatives are often not enough (you cannot pick from 5 alternatives from ultraconservative to neo-Marxist?) and 7% of the voters now support the Pirate Party, which has virtually no clear policies to speak of! Nor wants to be in power. Nor wants to form a coalition with anyone.
"Doof" to quote my third-favourite German word! Not worth 0.7% of my time supporting such nonsense!
Move on.
Anyway I discovered on YouTube an Australian who wished everyone to know that the UK has actually got a 3rd party (about which he sounded enthusiastic - he must be exiled to a very small corner of the affluent South of England) called the UKIP.
More on this shower of pig's droppings in a minute.
For the information of my Australian friend, the UK has had a 3rd party for quite some time. It is called the Liberal Democrats. They sold their souls to the proverbial Devil (there being no literal Devil, of course), by forming a coalition with the UK Conservative Party. A party which is sensibly (rather than excessively) pro-EU with a bunch of Neanderthal Euro-sceptics. A party which showed the intelligence to oppose the Iraq War allied to a party that enabled Blair to participate in the Iraq War despite 30% opposition in his own Labour Party!
Yes, well that establishes the existence of the 3rd Party for now (before they get totally annihilated by the "first past the post system" at the next election).
Then there is the UK Green Party, which has 1 member of parliament, which is one more than the UKIP can manage, which I think that puts them 4th in England.
And in the Bradford West by-election this year, Respect (who are not that far from being a Marxist party that also appeals to Muslims) also won a seat in Parliament, while the UKIP candidate won all of 3% of the vote.
As for Scotland, the "UK" part of the UKIP's title almost is without relevance, as they are a non-factor. Probably the sanest party left in the UK (the Scottish National Party, a moderate organisation despite the "National" in their title), holds sway. Taking Scotland out of the UK would be in my opinion, the best thing that could happen to show that other parts of the UK deserve attention rather than just the South-East. Only 40% of Scots seem to want that though, but if it ever happened, I would be checking round to seeing if I had some Scottish blood that would make me eligible to take out Scottish nationality (as an alternative to becoming German). Start learning to play the bagpipes.
Meanwhile the UKIP. They are to all intents and purposes nothing more than the Conservative Party with a Euro-xenophobic rather than Euro-sceptic tendency, blame the EU, ridiculously, for absolutely everything and want out. They are otherwise committed Thatcherites economically (which explains their strength in the South-East - the Conservative heartlands). And while not endorsing the tactics and implied need for violence of the neo-Fascist BNP, the "talk" (rather than the "walk") on immigration is the same load of phoney inventions that come straight of the BNP playbook - rumour rather than facts.
And try finding anywhere on the Internet the UKIP's position in 2003 (not after the event!) on the Iraq War. Not easy to find, I will tell you! As the EU did not start it, does the "I" as in "Independence" matter here? I suspect not - at least not until after the event!
If they are the fastest rising party in the UK ..... Enough said. I am glad that I no longer live there. As an internationalist, living in a country with a rapidly increasing number of parochial xenophobes is definitely a non-starter! And I am fully aware that the Euro has serious problems (which could get a lot worse tomorrow) - see the other items on this blog for more details.
When I comment on other countries (which I do quite frequently), I make sure that I have read up the information and studied the situation. You will never hear me comment on the American Health Service and the politics involved for example - I do not really understand in depth how it works, and how it could be improved.
Meanwhile I am often saddened by what I see elsewhere, but given the global economy it can be worked out how difficult situations are going to be, what will work and what will not.
So predicting that François Hollande would have difficulties turning things round is proving, sadly, to be correct. In the same way that looking at the arithmetic, I will tell people (strictly based upon the facts) that Romney's budget proposals will massively increase the deficit (and that will have ongoing repercussions for the rest of the world economy unfortunately). Both sides of the political divide proved wrong in one paragraph.
And get rid of the global economy and go back to some nationalist model - vote UKIP and see what you will get. I will, as one who saw the drastic impact that Thatcherite economics and the associated mass unemployment had on the well-being of thousands of people in the North of England in the 1980s, advise you that you will simply get a repeat of that. And don't start producing myths that the EU (or its predecessor) was responsible for that any more than it was for the international financial crisis of 2008 or the Iraq War. It wasn't!
Monday, 10 September 2012
Quote of the day
Freedom is incomplete if it is exercised in poverty
- Harry Schwarz, South African lawyer and politician, anti-Apartheid campaigner and his country's ambassador to the United States from March 1991 to January 1995.
- Harry Schwarz, South African lawyer and politician, anti-Apartheid campaigner and his country's ambassador to the United States from March 1991 to January 1995.
Sunday, 9 September 2012
The awful wretched world of Islamic justice
I ran into some good news from Iran last night, albeit "good" is still an extremely limited word in this context or for that matter in any respect where Iran is concerned
According to Amnesty International, Iran has, as of 2012, placed a limit of 18 as the minimum age at which the death penalty can be applied to its "criminals". You may wonder what the age was before? Apparently it could be 15 for boys and, get this (!!!!) 9 !!!! for girls. A product of some pre-medieval interpretation of the Koran (a real book of goodies, right?).
I saw a list a few years ago somewhere on the web of the girls on Death Row at the time in Iran. One was 13! Sorry I cannot find that list any more so that will have to go unsubstantiated.
I used to teach kids of that age. Some 13-year-olds can be quite difficult. There is no reason, as angry as I might get with them at times, why I would ever have wanted to kill any of them though! That girl is misbehaving in my class, right get the noose ready? I don't think so!
And why execute these kids? 13-year-old serial killers? 15-year-old drug racketeers? The best-known case of a hanging of an adolescent in Iran in recent years was that of Atefeh Sahaaleh. She was 16, and hanged publicly from a crane in the town of Neka in 2004.
And the offence? Murder? No. Drug based offences? No.
BREAKING THE CHASTITY LAWS!
It is too long and complicated for me to go into full detail, so checking out the story yourself is advised, but she had had an affair with a 51-year-old married man (a former Iranian Revolutionary Guard). To be said that this was a local decision and not approved in Teheran, but that it could even get that far and for such an offence says far too much about the way legal procedures are carried out in that country.
If you had the same régime established in the UK, if the latest stats are anything to go by, 1 out of every 3 or 4 16-year-old girls would be hanged in public! Stick up a gallows in Albert Square, or maybe on Chorlton Green as the regulars are coming out at closing time (after a couple of glasses of lemonade - no alcohol, of course!), and string up the latest offenders to be called out by the local populace and show that justice is being done?
UGH!
And do not think that Iran has been alone in the Islamic world in the execution of minors. In 2009 two 17-year-old boys were beheaded in Saudi Arabia. Juvenile delinquents they may well have been, and long prison sentences justified. And that, my friends, should have been the story. Saudi has also moved its death penalty forward in line with the age restriction imposed in Iran. The question remains why it took so long to get even this far.
According to Amnesty International, Iran has, as of 2012, placed a limit of 18 as the minimum age at which the death penalty can be applied to its "criminals". You may wonder what the age was before? Apparently it could be 15 for boys and, get this (!!!!) 9 !!!! for girls. A product of some pre-medieval interpretation of the Koran (a real book of goodies, right?).
I saw a list a few years ago somewhere on the web of the girls on Death Row at the time in Iran. One was 13! Sorry I cannot find that list any more so that will have to go unsubstantiated.
I used to teach kids of that age. Some 13-year-olds can be quite difficult. There is no reason, as angry as I might get with them at times, why I would ever have wanted to kill any of them though! That girl is misbehaving in my class, right get the noose ready? I don't think so!
And why execute these kids? 13-year-old serial killers? 15-year-old drug racketeers? The best-known case of a hanging of an adolescent in Iran in recent years was that of Atefeh Sahaaleh. She was 16, and hanged publicly from a crane in the town of Neka in 2004.
And the offence? Murder? No. Drug based offences? No.
BREAKING THE CHASTITY LAWS!
It is too long and complicated for me to go into full detail, so checking out the story yourself is advised, but she had had an affair with a 51-year-old married man (a former Iranian Revolutionary Guard). To be said that this was a local decision and not approved in Teheran, but that it could even get that far and for such an offence says far too much about the way legal procedures are carried out in that country.
If you had the same régime established in the UK, if the latest stats are anything to go by, 1 out of every 3 or 4 16-year-old girls would be hanged in public! Stick up a gallows in Albert Square, or maybe on Chorlton Green as the regulars are coming out at closing time (after a couple of glasses of lemonade - no alcohol, of course!), and string up the latest offenders to be called out by the local populace and show that justice is being done?
UGH!
And do not think that Iran has been alone in the Islamic world in the execution of minors. In 2009 two 17-year-old boys were beheaded in Saudi Arabia. Juvenile delinquents they may well have been, and long prison sentences justified. And that, my friends, should have been the story. Saudi has also moved its death penalty forward in line with the age restriction imposed in Iran. The question remains why it took so long to get even this far.
Postscript (December 27th, 2021). I noted a few months ago a comment that a large number of people in the UK want hanging brought back and for that reason more than any other voted for Brexit as the EU is totally opposed to the death penalty). One comment from a correspondent in the local newspaper in my home town also indicated that he wanted Shamima Begum (one of the silly girls who ran away to join ISIS/ISIL/IS and found out how much of a paradise it wasn't, had three babies die due to malnourishment and is now stuck in a pretty desperate prison camp run by the Kurds) brought back to the UK and hanged. As she was 15 when she committed the offence of joining a terrorist organisation, essentially this involves reintroducing the death penalty for minors! Well 200 years ago they used to hang 13-year-old kids for stealing, so there is a precedent, I suppose.
Meanwhile the clown (who would be better off working in a circus than running a country) who is now the British PM is talking about removing the British commitment to international Human Rights treaties and replacing it with something which reflects "Britishness" - whatever nonsense that involves. Interesting the company it wants to keep. Take note of the countries around the world who have (or want to introduce) their own definition of Human Rights. Saudi Arabia, China, Iran, the newly established Taliban regime in Afghanistan ..... Great company to keep, eh?
And as for "Britishness" - apart from the accident of being born in the same approximate geographical area (a fact over which I had absolutely no say or control), I have absolutely nothing in common with buffoons like the aforementioned Johnson, and his great friend and ally, Farage (who, despite having wealthy parents and a far more advantaged education than I had, can speak 3 languages fewer than I can)! So what exact what this "Britishness" involves? Great question, but I do not expect any reasoned or sensible answer to the question.
The interestingly colourful world of the German blogosphere
As with all users of the blogger.com facility I get a regular list of stats upon how many visitors the blog has had, which countries they come from (for those interested the highest numbers currently come from 1. USA, 2. Germany, 3. Sweden), which sites they use to get here usw.
I am always interested in my readership, who they are, where they are usw, and if they have their own blog, you will often find me visiting at least once - using Google's often awful translator when necessary (for Russian for example).
One of the sites that has turned up frequently is www.blog-zug.com which is an interesting German site whích bloggers frequent, leave their blogs for anyone who wants to read them, and meet in the forums usw. Seems very friendly and a great idea. Not sure who placed my blog on there, but thanks / danke!
To remember before accessing a site is that you have to weed out the potential rubbish, the maybe poisoned links (those attached to viruses usw). Normally simply copy the website name and go and check it on google. There is also an Australian site that I found - www.avg.com.au/resources/web-page-scanner/ where you see if the site is a known virus distributor (but it misses "parking sites" like pregolom.com).
blog-zug passed all the tests. "Zug" is the German word for "train" and there all sorts of plays on words on rail services. Press "Reisende Passagiere" (travelling passengers) and you get the list of all the blogs on the site. 248 pages worth of blogs (not sure how many per page). The latest page from the blog only of course, but still a taster.
What impressed me was the artwork, the graphics, the photography, the sheer creativity that was so abundantly present. The level of the design skills and the imagination that has gone into it, and that was merely a first impression. I had no time to examine the text, but that will come another day.
Look at the personal photographs and you realise that these are mainly young adults. Here as elsewhere in the developed world this is a group that has an uncertain future, fewer job opportunities than we need to move the world forward, and limited prospects for getting the openings and recognition that is needed.
All that talent going to waste? Come on, we must have an answer! I hope that these blogs provide it, or lead to a road that will take them where they want to go.
And does that mean that I shall be moving to a more graphically oriented style of presentation? No. I am Zola not Cézanne. In the words of the old Bee Gees song "words are all I have to take your heart away", or rather to appeal to your brain and make you think. My strengths are logic and the use of words, and all the facts that I carry in my head (including why life-long friends Zola and Cézanne fell out with each other!).
Graphical concepts I can admire enormously though, particularly as I do not possess them in the abundance that many of these young people obviously have. They deserve the chance to use them professionally.
I am always interested in my readership, who they are, where they are usw, and if they have their own blog, you will often find me visiting at least once - using Google's often awful translator when necessary (for Russian for example).
One of the sites that has turned up frequently is www.blog-zug.com which is an interesting German site whích bloggers frequent, leave their blogs for anyone who wants to read them, and meet in the forums usw. Seems very friendly and a great idea. Not sure who placed my blog on there, but thanks / danke!
To remember before accessing a site is that you have to weed out the potential rubbish, the maybe poisoned links (those attached to viruses usw). Normally simply copy the website name and go and check it on google. There is also an Australian site that I found - www.avg.com.au/resources/web-page-scanner/ where you see if the site is a known virus distributor (but it misses "parking sites" like pregolom.com).
blog-zug passed all the tests. "Zug" is the German word for "train" and there all sorts of plays on words on rail services. Press "Reisende Passagiere" (travelling passengers) and you get the list of all the blogs on the site. 248 pages worth of blogs (not sure how many per page). The latest page from the blog only of course, but still a taster.
What impressed me was the artwork, the graphics, the photography, the sheer creativity that was so abundantly present. The level of the design skills and the imagination that has gone into it, and that was merely a first impression. I had no time to examine the text, but that will come another day.
Look at the personal photographs and you realise that these are mainly young adults. Here as elsewhere in the developed world this is a group that has an uncertain future, fewer job opportunities than we need to move the world forward, and limited prospects for getting the openings and recognition that is needed.
All that talent going to waste? Come on, we must have an answer! I hope that these blogs provide it, or lead to a road that will take them where they want to go.
And does that mean that I shall be moving to a more graphically oriented style of presentation? No. I am Zola not Cézanne. In the words of the old Bee Gees song "words are all I have to take your heart away", or rather to appeal to your brain and make you think. My strengths are logic and the use of words, and all the facts that I carry in my head (including why life-long friends Zola and Cézanne fell out with each other!).
Graphical concepts I can admire enormously though, particularly as I do not possess them in the abundance that many of these young people obviously have. They deserve the chance to use them professionally.
Saturday, 8 September 2012
Frankfurt transport - in, to and from the city
It has come as a shock to many people whom I have known over the years that I have never learned to drive. Which may explain why I choose to live in major cities with good public transport systems (since 1994 München / Munich, Amsterdam, Köln / Cologne and Frankfurt).
The city of Frankfurt is relatively small (try Berlin if you want a comparison). The combination of the local S-Bahn services (run by the German national railway company), U-Bahn (local railway), trams and buses (all run by the city of Frankfurt) means that anywhere you wish to go is easily reached reasonably quickly. So when I was working in the north-western suburb of Schwalbach-am-Taunus, getting there and back did not absorb too much of my day (far less than if I had been sitting in a traffic jam on the Autobahn, I may add).
From where we now live it is a mere 5 minutes to the main railway station, 10 minutes to the city centre, 20-25 minutes to the university area of Bockenheim and 25-30 minutes to the airport. The S-Bahn service is well provided for with modern rolling stock and providing four trains an hour from here for most of the day either East or West (more during the rush hour and on Saturdays, fewer late in the evenings and on Sunday mornings).
Tickets? For the tourist or person on business go to the Frankfurt Tourist Information office at either the airport or the main railway station and get the appropriate period tickets. For residents to be, get to know the zone system. This can be something of an exercise. Frankfurt central area is zone 50, the neighbouring zones though are among others 51, 37 and 66! Then working out how long you need a ticket for usw ....
Then try using the potentially user hostile ticket machines on any station (easy for buying single tickets and hideously complicated, if you are not used to them, for anything else) for the ticket that you think that you require (it also gets interesting if you have a period ticket and need an additional ticket to go out of the zone). Best solution in not so busy hours is to go the RMV ticket centre on Hauptwache station in the centre of the city, and get them to sort out what you need.
The airport is one of Europe's busiest and there are controversial plans to expand it (good for business, bad for the people who live under the flight path - that includes the newly elected mayor, so maybe the expansion will not happen!). Frankfurt may not be Germany's major city, but it is the financial centre. Which may explain why having the major airport in the country makes some sense. There are of course historical reasons why Berlin does not have that honour, and as the plans to complete the brand new super-dooper airport in Berlin have hit the wall with the company responsible for the construction going bankrupt, it will still not rival Frankfurt for a few years.
As might be expected, the national railway service is excellent. The ICE trains can get you very quickly to other parts of the country (and back again!) very quickly and in comfort from both the main railway station and the airport, but advanced reservations are always advised as the demand is usually high. The international services are also excellent. Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam can be reached in under 4 hours for example, most destinations in Switzerland and Austria also have regular services. When I was working in Paris in 2008, it never crossed my mind to fly there, the train service saves a lot of hassle.
Around Frankfurt's main railway station there are a host of bus companies that serve a multitude of destinations in Europe, particularly in Eastern Europe (notably Poland and the Balkans).
So anyway (apart from some initial hitches with ticketing!) getting round is remarkably easy. And who needs a car anyway?
The city of Frankfurt is relatively small (try Berlin if you want a comparison). The combination of the local S-Bahn services (run by the German national railway company), U-Bahn (local railway), trams and buses (all run by the city of Frankfurt) means that anywhere you wish to go is easily reached reasonably quickly. So when I was working in the north-western suburb of Schwalbach-am-Taunus, getting there and back did not absorb too much of my day (far less than if I had been sitting in a traffic jam on the Autobahn, I may add).
From where we now live it is a mere 5 minutes to the main railway station, 10 minutes to the city centre, 20-25 minutes to the university area of Bockenheim and 25-30 minutes to the airport. The S-Bahn service is well provided for with modern rolling stock and providing four trains an hour from here for most of the day either East or West (more during the rush hour and on Saturdays, fewer late in the evenings and on Sunday mornings).
Tickets? For the tourist or person on business go to the Frankfurt Tourist Information office at either the airport or the main railway station and get the appropriate period tickets. For residents to be, get to know the zone system. This can be something of an exercise. Frankfurt central area is zone 50, the neighbouring zones though are among others 51, 37 and 66! Then working out how long you need a ticket for usw ....
Then try using the potentially user hostile ticket machines on any station (easy for buying single tickets and hideously complicated, if you are not used to them, for anything else) for the ticket that you think that you require (it also gets interesting if you have a period ticket and need an additional ticket to go out of the zone). Best solution in not so busy hours is to go the RMV ticket centre on Hauptwache station in the centre of the city, and get them to sort out what you need.
The airport is one of Europe's busiest and there are controversial plans to expand it (good for business, bad for the people who live under the flight path - that includes the newly elected mayor, so maybe the expansion will not happen!). Frankfurt may not be Germany's major city, but it is the financial centre. Which may explain why having the major airport in the country makes some sense. There are of course historical reasons why Berlin does not have that honour, and as the plans to complete the brand new super-dooper airport in Berlin have hit the wall with the company responsible for the construction going bankrupt, it will still not rival Frankfurt for a few years.
As might be expected, the national railway service is excellent. The ICE trains can get you very quickly to other parts of the country (and back again!) very quickly and in comfort from both the main railway station and the airport, but advanced reservations are always advised as the demand is usually high. The international services are also excellent. Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam can be reached in under 4 hours for example, most destinations in Switzerland and Austria also have regular services. When I was working in Paris in 2008, it never crossed my mind to fly there, the train service saves a lot of hassle.
Around Frankfurt's main railway station there are a host of bus companies that serve a multitude of destinations in Europe, particularly in Eastern Europe (notably Poland and the Balkans).
So anyway (apart from some initial hitches with ticketing!) getting round is remarkably easy. And who needs a car anyway?
Friday, 7 September 2012
Psychic predictions
Want to know what is going to happen in 2012?
But it's already September 2012 (yes, I know, today would have been my father's 91st birthday had he lived this long, so it must be September).
Anyway in the days of the Internet it is possible to read a psychic's predictions after the events have occurred. Of course there may be the illusion that things did happen and you just didn't notice them! Otherwise you would imagine that they would have covered their tracks and removed the phoney stuff.
Or do you just treat it like a joke anyway? But don't these people get tons of money for doing this? And getting things wrong? Maybe this is the job that I need?
I was told this morning on another site that I do not have a clue what I am talking about (well, that is the polite expression of what I was told!!!!), so maybe this IS what I should be doing.
One other thing - please read this before December 21st this year (2012), as apparently (for the fifth time in past three years) the world is going to end on that date. Amazing how many times the world ends, isn't it?
Anyway for your interest and maybe amusement, read this lot. One or two (like the conflict between Japan and China) have actually happened!
http://paranormal.about.com/od/prophetsandprophecies/tp/Psychic-Predictions-For-2012.htm
But it's already September 2012 (yes, I know, today would have been my father's 91st birthday had he lived this long, so it must be September).
Anyway in the days of the Internet it is possible to read a psychic's predictions after the events have occurred. Of course there may be the illusion that things did happen and you just didn't notice them! Otherwise you would imagine that they would have covered their tracks and removed the phoney stuff.
Or do you just treat it like a joke anyway? But don't these people get tons of money for doing this? And getting things wrong? Maybe this is the job that I need?
I was told this morning on another site that I do not have a clue what I am talking about (well, that is the polite expression of what I was told!!!!), so maybe this IS what I should be doing.
One other thing - please read this before December 21st this year (2012), as apparently (for the fifth time in past three years) the world is going to end on that date. Amazing how many times the world ends, isn't it?
Anyway for your interest and maybe amusement, read this lot. One or two (like the conflict between Japan and China) have actually happened!
http://paranormal.about.com/od/prophetsandprophecies/tp/Psychic-Predictions-For-2012.htm
Postscript: The website link still exists, although whether that particular article has disappeared without trace may be another matter.
Thursday, 6 September 2012
The case against inherited wealth
1. George W. Bush
2. Mitt Romney
3. Paul Ryan
4. Gina Rinehart
5. The Koch Brothers
6. Rupert Murdoch
7. Warren Buffett, who should know a thing or two about wealth and is someone I respect, has also stated that it makes no sense to leave too much to your offspring. I believe that his logic was based upon the fact that inherited wealth removes the incentive to work hard yourself and be productive (but don't quote me on that). Looking at the examples above, it also appears to remove intelligent analysis from, and introduces condescension into, the intellectual process. And of course encourages economical use of the truth!
This article is incomplete, I shall be changing it and adding to it over the course of the months (the current lack of British examples is an obvious flaw).
I will also consider any suggestions for inclusion - serious examples (with justification!) only!
2. Mitt Romney
3. Paul Ryan
4. Gina Rinehart
5. The Koch Brothers
6. Rupert Murdoch
7. Warren Buffett, who should know a thing or two about wealth and is someone I respect, has also stated that it makes no sense to leave too much to your offspring. I believe that his logic was based upon the fact that inherited wealth removes the incentive to work hard yourself and be productive (but don't quote me on that). Looking at the examples above, it also appears to remove intelligent analysis from, and introduces condescension into, the intellectual process. And of course encourages economical use of the truth!
This article is incomplete, I shall be changing it and adding to it over the course of the months (the current lack of British examples is an obvious flaw).
I will also consider any suggestions for inclusion - serious examples (with justification!) only!
Wednesday, 5 September 2012
The choice
In a simple form many elections come down to a straightforward choice between someone you would like to see push through the ideas that you think are important, but never deliver when they have the chance (people who talk the talk, but don't walk the walk) and people who would never do anything that you would see as being of benefit in the first place (people who do not even talk the talk, so the walk is irrelevant) - even if they effectively deliver for their own side while making your life (and that of people in similar circumstances) worse.
In Germany given the multiplicity of parties, the choice is more complicated. You have the same two possibilities as above, and then others that you might like more, but will never get a majority, so they have to ally themselves with one of the above and water down their ideas, so again you do not get close to what you want to see happen.
Or expressed another way, there are two chances of thing improving - next to none and none! But as a person committed to democracy, you have to support someone - usually the non-deliverers in the sadly futile hope that finally this time they might be a bit more successful, because the prospects of what will happen if the other side wins are so horrendous .....
In Germany given the multiplicity of parties, the choice is more complicated. You have the same two possibilities as above, and then others that you might like more, but will never get a majority, so they have to ally themselves with one of the above and water down their ideas, so again you do not get close to what you want to see happen.
Or expressed another way, there are two chances of thing improving - next to none and none! But as a person committed to democracy, you have to support someone - usually the non-deliverers in the sadly futile hope that finally this time they might be a bit more successful, because the prospects of what will happen if the other side wins are so horrendous .....
Tuesday, 4 September 2012
Desmond Tutu, Tony Blair and Iraq
I do not share Desmond Tutu's religious convictions but I will state also an admiration for his role in opposing Apartheid in South Africa, and his continued commitment to human rights across the globe.
His contentious views on Bush, Blair and the Iraq War are controversial if interesting. Blair's response is typical (if as ever short-sighted, see later): First recommended article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/sep/02/tony-blair-iraq-war-desmond-tutu
To get a clearer picture of what is more the near current state of play in Iraq (article produced in 2011):
http://www.slate.com/blogs/scocca/2011/05/06/freedom_in_iraq_now_with_rampant_assassinations.html
Additional reminders to Mr Blair:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Usn7nXGZUO8&feature=related
His contentious views on Bush, Blair and the Iraq War are controversial if interesting. Blair's response is typical (if as ever short-sighted, see later): First recommended article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/sep/02/tony-blair-iraq-war-desmond-tutu
To get a clearer picture of what is more the near current state of play in Iraq (article produced in 2011):
http://www.slate.com/blogs/scocca/2011/05/06/freedom_in_iraq_now_with_rampant_assassinations.html
Additional reminders to Mr Blair:
- The stated objective of the Iraq War was not regime change. It was to prevent Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction. None were ever found (and for the conspiracy theorists who would have had Saddam move them to neighbouring Syria or Saudi Arabia - extremely unlikely anyway as the Assad family were sworn enemies of Saddam and the Saudis, not always tacitly, supported Saddam's overthrow - they have never been found there either).
- No-one will deny that Saddam was a thug, murderous bully and potentially a war criminal, but starting a war under false pretences was not under international law an acceptable way to remove him. If like myself (and unlike Desmond Tutu) you state that the intelligence was simply mistaken not falsified, a full wholescale apology should be forthcoming. To date it has not been.
- Thousands of innocent civilians were killed in the mistaken Iraq War itself. Between a quarter and a half-million were killed in the aftermath following the end of the war, the guerilla war, the civil war, the ethnic cleansing usw. The invading powers were either inept at securing the peace or had not even considered the obvious consequences of dismantling a dictatorship (if you had watched the break-up of the Soviet Union in the early 90s, it was obvious that there would be similar disruptions in Iraq. And did nobody understand the relationship between the Sunni and the Shia and how dangerous that was?). The invading parties cannot simply wash their hands of the blood of those people. But then there is definitely a double standard here isn't there? 2,700 Americans die in the World Trade Center (actually 700 of those came from 59 other countries, but US Republican Party myth has conveniently changed their nationalities!) and it is a tragedy, but when a quarter of a million Iraqis die it is simply sad but maybe an unfortunate, necessary sacrifice?
- Some 2 million people were forced to become refugees as a result of the invasion. People whose lives were potentially damaged forever. And would you like to remind us what the policy of the UK was as regards accepting those people into the UK? Reluctance if not downright opposition! We can go to their country and do what suits us, but the reverse does not apply?
- Al-Qaeda, an undoubtedly dangerous fanatical movement, had no presence in Iraq before the invasion (except maybe for some prisoners being tortured in Abu Ghraib - Saddam saw them as a threat, not an ally!). They definitely did have for years after the invasion!
- Many women's organisations have pointed out the fact that women were relatively emancipated under Saddam (even dictatorships offer some positive aspects!). With the imposition of theocratic power across much of the country many of their rights have been removed, and it has become positively dangerous for many of them to go out with their heads uncovered. This is progress?
- Economically the country is moving forward? Sounds like good news. For the good of the country as a whole or on the 1%/99% principle or merely for the benefit of foreign oil companies only? Basra is doing well? Basra is the centre of the Iraqi oil industry! You get my point? Please expand the argument. I see far too much of this "the country is doing well but the standard of living of the ordinary citizen is not improving at all" elsewhere (well just about everywhere in the capitalist world) to be convinced!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Usn7nXGZUO8&feature=related
Update (December 27th, 2021). I am not sure that the Slate link still exists. The other two do though and are still well worth visiting. And as for Iraq, we have since had them having to deal with ISIL/ISIS/IS with all that involved!
Monday, 3 September 2012
Working hard will not make you rich in most cases!
Every millionaire and billionaire reading this column (welcome! As a true democrat I welcome readers from everywhere) - please read that and repeat it one hundred times!
Next.
"Most people who are poor are not lazy. Most of them spend much of their lives doing awful, very badly-paid jobs that need doing".
Every millionaire and billionaire reading this column please read that and repeat it one hundred times.
Next.
"Every business is not successful. Only 6% of businesses are profitable while 60% of businesses fail outright leaving substantial amounts of unpayable debt behind them - so starting your own business is absolutely not the way out of poverty for most people".
Every millionaire and billionaire reading this column please read that and repeat it one hundred times.
Next.
"People who have inherited large amounts of wealth need to understand most people do not inherit huge sums and do not have it easy from day one of their lives".
Every millionaire and billionaire (who has inherited a fortune) reading this column please read that and repeat it one hundred times.
Next.
"Many people do not want to take out debt or live by speculation. They simply want find a decent-paying job which will offer them a decent, debt-free and not extravagant lifestyle".
Every millionaire and billionaire reading this column please read that and repeat it one hundred times.
Next.
"A large number of people people hate selling and will not gamble - whether on sports results or stocks and shares. So if people are to avoid the poverty trap, there has to be a way for people who fit that category to make a reasonable living somehow - and people who have worked hard to earn qualifications and gain experience should be given the chance to use them".
Every millionaire and billionaire reading this column please read that and repeat it one hundred times.
Next.
"The fact that you are past 50 does not mean that you are brain dead!".
Every millionaire and billionaire and potential employer reading this column please read that and repeat it one hundred times.
Next.
I was going to dedicate this article to Gina Rinehart, the world's richest woman and Australian mining tycoon and owner of an inherited fortune, but after reading a column by Andrew Bolt in the Herald Sun (isn't the the Internet wonderful, you can pick up relevant articles in the Australian media!) stating that she was misquoted, or at least words were taken out of context, I will offer this piece for her and others to contemplate as a response.
Actual words if you have not read them:
"If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain. Do something to make more yourselves, less drinking and social time and more work time".
Apart from the obvious flaws in the logic (like there are far more unemployed than jobs available - though that may not be the case in Australia, I do not know for certain what is happening there), it makes a load of phoney assumptions. And would you think that working four extra hours a day as a McLackey or as a Burger Klod would improve things at all?
I am not, however, jealous!
I do not want millions or billions!
If someone offers me a job in line with my talents in IT at 35,000 to 45,000 Euro per annum tomorrow (and every day in line with national working codes - I will also happily work on Christmas Day! - for at least the next five years), they can have me - tomorrow. I enjoy working, I hate sitting round (which I don't do anyway). And while I can quote a few people who are unemployed, none of them just sit around drinking beer and socialising. But try persuading the idiot mega-rich that that is the case!
Next.
"Most people who are poor are not lazy. Most of them spend much of their lives doing awful, very badly-paid jobs that need doing".
Every millionaire and billionaire reading this column please read that and repeat it one hundred times.
Next.
"Every business is not successful. Only 6% of businesses are profitable while 60% of businesses fail outright leaving substantial amounts of unpayable debt behind them - so starting your own business is absolutely not the way out of poverty for most people".
Every millionaire and billionaire reading this column please read that and repeat it one hundred times.
Next.
"People who have inherited large amounts of wealth need to understand most people do not inherit huge sums and do not have it easy from day one of their lives".
Every millionaire and billionaire (who has inherited a fortune) reading this column please read that and repeat it one hundred times.
Next.
"Many people do not want to take out debt or live by speculation. They simply want find a decent-paying job which will offer them a decent, debt-free and not extravagant lifestyle".
Every millionaire and billionaire reading this column please read that and repeat it one hundred times.
Next.
"A large number of people people hate selling and will not gamble - whether on sports results or stocks and shares. So if people are to avoid the poverty trap, there has to be a way for people who fit that category to make a reasonable living somehow - and people who have worked hard to earn qualifications and gain experience should be given the chance to use them".
Every millionaire and billionaire reading this column please read that and repeat it one hundred times.
Next.
"The fact that you are past 50 does not mean that you are brain dead!".
Every millionaire and billionaire and potential employer reading this column please read that and repeat it one hundred times.
Next.
I was going to dedicate this article to Gina Rinehart, the world's richest woman and Australian mining tycoon and owner of an inherited fortune, but after reading a column by Andrew Bolt in the Herald Sun (isn't the the Internet wonderful, you can pick up relevant articles in the Australian media!) stating that she was misquoted, or at least words were taken out of context, I will offer this piece for her and others to contemplate as a response.
Actual words if you have not read them:
"If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain. Do something to make more yourselves, less drinking and social time and more work time".
Apart from the obvious flaws in the logic (like there are far more unemployed than jobs available - though that may not be the case in Australia, I do not know for certain what is happening there), it makes a load of phoney assumptions. And would you think that working four extra hours a day as a McLackey or as a Burger Klod would improve things at all?
I am not, however, jealous!
I do not want millions or billions!
If someone offers me a job in line with my talents in IT at 35,000 to 45,000 Euro per annum tomorrow (and every day in line with national working codes - I will also happily work on Christmas Day! - for at least the next five years), they can have me - tomorrow. I enjoy working, I hate sitting round (which I don't do anyway). And while I can quote a few people who are unemployed, none of them just sit around drinking beer and socialising. But try persuading the idiot mega-rich that that is the case!
Sunday, 2 September 2012
All the friends I need?
From one of my Internet contacts came the question:
"You don't have a Facebook account, do you?".
You cannot live in the modern digital world without a Facebook account? My wife wants one but we need to resolve the issues of having a Thai keyboard first, as mostly it would be a way of keeping touch with people she knows there - her sister and former university friends usw.
I had a Facebook account for about 3 months a few years ago. I dropped it for 3 reasons:
Don't get me wrong - I am fully appreciative of the good Internet friends that I have made around the world through sites like MyLot, and at times they help keep me sane (and remind me occasionally that I do get things wrong!), but the urgent problems are financial and with the next international financial crisis that future President Romney and his party are absolutely certainly going to bring the rest of the world sooner rather than later (plus a very expensive war with Iran that, as with his mentor Bush and Iraq, will probably not be paid for!), I need to get some financial resolutions now.
I cannot recall whether it was a Charles Schulz quote, or a MAD magazine spoof on Peanuts, but I remember the quote attributed to Charlie Brown being: "I need all the friends that I can get".
When you are younger success is counting just how many friends you have. When you get older, quality is the important factor. Two of the closest friends that I had in my life have died in recent years for example and they were quality people - people whose loss you simply cannot replace. 20 more acquaintances on an international website - how much quality will that bring? Maybe there is someone out there who can provide something really positive though.
I still for the moment see summat like LinkedIn being more the solution than Facebook. But then how many friends do I really need?
"You don't have a Facebook account, do you?".
You cannot live in the modern digital world without a Facebook account? My wife wants one but we need to resolve the issues of having a Thai keyboard first, as mostly it would be a way of keeping touch with people she knows there - her sister and former university friends usw.
I had a Facebook account for about 3 months a few years ago. I dropped it for 3 reasons:
- People were starting to put "poisoned links" (links attached to viruses) on it. The IT specialist (that I still want to be) objected to the mediocre security that the site had, at least at the time.
- I was tired of running into recruitment "groups" (or wharrever Facebook calls them) for Fascist and neo-Fascist organisations. Freedom of speech may be one thing, the active recruitment of neo-Nazis is summat that I find extremely distasteful, however.
- The strange friend requests, like the dark-skinned Australian woman whose request I reluctantly accepted and who had turned into a Caucasian male by the following morning. Some people may find the joke funny, for me it is a complete waste of time.
Don't get me wrong - I am fully appreciative of the good Internet friends that I have made around the world through sites like MyLot, and at times they help keep me sane (and remind me occasionally that I do get things wrong!), but the urgent problems are financial and with the next international financial crisis that future President Romney and his party are absolutely certainly going to bring the rest of the world sooner rather than later (plus a very expensive war with Iran that, as with his mentor Bush and Iraq, will probably not be paid for!), I need to get some financial resolutions now.
I cannot recall whether it was a Charles Schulz quote, or a MAD magazine spoof on Peanuts, but I remember the quote attributed to Charlie Brown being: "I need all the friends that I can get".
When you are younger success is counting just how many friends you have. When you get older, quality is the important factor. Two of the closest friends that I had in my life have died in recent years for example and they were quality people - people whose loss you simply cannot replace. 20 more acquaintances on an international website - how much quality will that bring? Maybe there is someone out there who can provide something really positive though.
I still for the moment see summat like LinkedIn being more the solution than Facebook. But then how many friends do I really need?
Postscript (December 27th, 2021), of course we didn't get Romney as President, so the forecasts proved inaccurate - but they still reflected what possibly have gone wrong if that had occurred.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)