There have been two articles in LinkedIn in the last couple of days complaining about the difficulty companies are having finding people to fill positions in IT related areas.
They both seem to have one focus. Where do we find the students or graduates to fill these positions?
OK - you have to have young people to take on the positions, try internationalising your outlook. In Spain at the moment 26% of the population is unemployed. The number in Greece is similar.
You want to offer me a small bet that there are not a sizable number of IT graduates in that lot? It isn't only construction workers that are paying the price of the economic collapse in both countries - it goes right across the board. Set up an office in Barcelona or Piraeus, offer the work to all the talent that you can find there. I bet that you will not be disappointed!
And then there is the second question that I can raise at this point. Why students? Why graduates? The rest is verbatim what I wrote in my own response to one of these articles. I think that the point is extremely relevant.
Why not check out (across Europe) the large number
of experienced IT personnel who are currently unemployed and could easily learn
the new skills required?
Why not check out in particular the large number of
people over 50 who are in that category and have a proven grasp of maths and
computer science? A lot of talent is available if you look in the right places.
Older people will need training? So do the graduates you cannot find! And will
learn and will contribute and will commit themselves to what is required.
And
given the fact that people live longer they will may well be prepared to work
past the statutory retirement age (I personally have no interest in retiring!).
It is not that the talent is not available, it is just that people responsible
for hiring do not have the imagination to look in the right places, and have
some silly misconceptions about older working personnel when they do!
Postscript. In December last year I had an interview with the HR Manager and the Systems Manager of an international software development organisation. They were impressed. they also promised me that my details would be passed on to the Technical Manager involved in the project that they working upon and I could expect an interview with that individual within six weeks. Eight months later - I have heard nothing.
I have seen them advertising this position again or summat similar since February. There is one particular skillset (working on an Axway platform) that I did not possess. If they had hired me in February, I would have learned all the prerequisite skills and be more than fully competent to carry out the role. Last week they readvertised the position. With unimaginative thinking like that ....
Wednesday, 31 July 2013
Sunday, 28 July 2013
Crime and punishment, dealing with misfits, and mistakenly blaming the usual suspects - Part 2
Ever heard of the European Court of Human Rights?
Ever heard of the Council of Europe?
And no doubt you will have heard of the European Union, or in its previous existences AKA the European Common Market and the the European Economic Community.
But they are all part of the same thing, right?
NO!
They are part of the same political argument, particularly by the usually very silly (and not always, indeed not very often, well-informed) Europe-bashers in the UK, but they are not the same thing at all.
The Council of Europe comprises 47 members (19 more than the EU) and was founded in 1949, 8 years before the Common Market appeared.
Its best known offspring is the European Court of Human Rights, which in turn enforces something called the European Convention on Human Rights. It is independent from the EU (again), though to note - all EU members are signatories to it. But note also - that way round and not the reverse.
There is currently an ongoing dispute between the UK over a very nasty bit of Muslim work called Abu Qatada whom the UK wants to deport and allegedly the workings of the European Court of Human Rights.
Read the attached article, but also please note the ruling of the British High Court and the decision that it took, which suggests that much of the argument is the typical red herring of which the Tories and their idiot friends in the nauseous tabloid press are so fond on the "never let the facts get in the way of a good story" principle:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2013/jun/04/uk-european-human-rights-convention
The guy is in jail anyway and if he stays there forever he is not going to do a great deal of harm. Leaving him to rot there will hardly be the end of the world.
Meanwhile the tabloid press might start reminding themselves of the old Clinton-ism "it's the economy, stupid" and start looking at ways to get unemployment down and removing poverty. As they have almost got the government that they want already (actually most of them would probably prefer the anarcho-capitalism of the EXP/UKIP and the even greater unemployment and poverty that would ensue) things should already be improving (cough, splutter ..... ).
Ever heard of the Council of Europe?
And no doubt you will have heard of the European Union, or in its previous existences AKA the European Common Market and the the European Economic Community.
But they are all part of the same thing, right?
NO!
They are part of the same political argument, particularly by the usually very silly (and not always, indeed not very often, well-informed) Europe-bashers in the UK, but they are not the same thing at all.
The Council of Europe comprises 47 members (19 more than the EU) and was founded in 1949, 8 years before the Common Market appeared.
Its best known offspring is the European Court of Human Rights, which in turn enforces something called the European Convention on Human Rights. It is independent from the EU (again), though to note - all EU members are signatories to it. But note also - that way round and not the reverse.
There is currently an ongoing dispute between the UK over a very nasty bit of Muslim work called Abu Qatada whom the UK wants to deport and allegedly the workings of the European Court of Human Rights.
Read the attached article, but also please note the ruling of the British High Court and the decision that it took, which suggests that much of the argument is the typical red herring of which the Tories and their idiot friends in the nauseous tabloid press are so fond on the "never let the facts get in the way of a good story" principle:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2013/jun/04/uk-european-human-rights-convention
The guy is in jail anyway and if he stays there forever he is not going to do a great deal of harm. Leaving him to rot there will hardly be the end of the world.
Meanwhile the tabloid press might start reminding themselves of the old Clinton-ism "it's the economy, stupid" and start looking at ways to get unemployment down and removing poverty. As they have almost got the government that they want already (actually most of them would probably prefer the anarcho-capitalism of the EXP/UKIP and the even greater unemployment and poverty that would ensue) things should already be improving (cough, splutter ..... ).
Saturday, 27 July 2013
Health check
As I hit my 65th birthday last week and I ought to be on the point of senility and geriatrica, it is time for a quick (?) health check.
From the top downwards:
1. Hair. A success story - mainly. I can still grow it extremely long given the opportunity. Two negatives. It needs hair dye to look impressive (it was originally never black, but it is now!). And it needs me not to be married to an otherwise nice lady who possesses the crazy notion that men look better with short hair.
2. Skull - given the number of times I have banged into things with it over the years, it seems extremely resilient.
3. Brain - the real success story. Totally in gear, fully capable of all the necessary logical thinking to blow apart the nonsense from conservative politicians (and ultraconservative idiots like Nigel Farage & co), nationalists (except the wise ones in Scotland), advocates of neo-liberal economics (including debt and speculation and more debt and trickle down economics and "the poor only have themselves to blame and "anyone who wants a job can find one" and other trash thinking) and religious fanatics usw ..... Given some of the gunge that I was reading the other day about the fact that we all have to make sacrifices (why don't the people who caused the problems in the first place have to make all the sacrifices? That would be logical .....). And on the subject of reading -
4. Eyes. After being told a few years ago that my eyes were deteriorating with age, there has been summat of a rebound. I still need spectacles for reading, and if you are a committed computer freak like myself, reading is important. But I can walk around everywhere without needing them, which isn't the way I was told it should be a few years ago .....
5. Nose - I can still smell my wife's often exotic cooking, so it must be OK.
6. Ears. A bit nasty. Despite fierce attempts to clear the gunge out (see also above for gunge), blockages tend to occur which need clearing out professionally. There are occasions when your hearing does waiver, but that is not consistent. The worst though was when a fly decided to make a kamikaze attack in there last year and getting its corpse out was a serious problem (and also left me partially deaf for 2 days). Now you were saying? Sorry, could you repeat that. Oh, it's summat else that can make you deaf? Mmmmm - I thought that was supposed to be "blind". See "eyes" above.
7. Lips. No problems.
8. Mouth, teeth and throat. Well I open the mouth when I have to - talking for the sake of it seems unnecessary. The teeth are still natural if none too nice to look at (both my parents did not have natural teeth at this point of their lives, which means we can offer thanks to fluoride toothpaste and staying away from dentists!). The throat is usually alright. Of all parts of the anatomy it is the one that tells you most often that you are not healthy when it isn't working properly.
9. Beard and moustache. Living with my wife, I will never find out how well they might grow if allowed. Generally hair is not her favourite human feature on men. Some old photos of me with an impressive full growth in this area adorn the room. Those were the days!
10. Rest of face. Unimportant, I am not a film star.
11. Neck. Hardly know it is there.
12. Arms. Work well enough.
13. Shoulders. A weak point. pains in both keep me awake at night. My good lady puts it down to excessive computer usage, but if that is the case .....
14. Hands and fingers. In good shape (excessive computer use is not affecting them). I never was that dexterous, that said.
15. Chest - well see the next two items.
16. Lungs. Nearly killed me in 2008. You have an operation during which your lungs fill up with liquid and the second operation to clear them goes badly wrong .... As a life-long non-smoker I will never understand the story completely here. Breathing is causing no problem at the moment, so ....
17. Heart. Well after its major workover in 2008, it is doing its job untroubled.
18. Stomach and intestines. I have developed a weight problem despite not eating excessively, not eating rubbish food and getting plenty of exercise. Quite why then? No idea. Meanwhile the body waste facility (Mark 1, for Mark 2 see below) is strangely inconsistent. Some days it does not work at all, some days it needs using three or even four times.
19. Body waste facility Mark 2 and sex drive. In winter the first of these always seems to suggest that it is getting old and prone to overuse. Since the summer and the warm weather arrived though, usage has diminished. Dehydration? As for its second usage - it may be our generation which was obsessed with sex. I tend to think that people of my age who are obsessed with it are in a sad state. Mine works adequately on an occasional basis, no obsession, no need for further comment.
20. Legs (including thighs and knees). After the brain (see 3) probably the most successful story. I still walk a lot, and very quickly and never hardly notice any problems, even after 10 kilometres without a rest. That said I do not try running much.
21. Feet (including ankles and toes). No noticeable problems.
22. Overall - skin. A bit of a disaster area. Peeling on the skull, the back of the ears, the navel, both groins and even odd bits on the genitalia (ugh ....). Everything you try works for a short time and it then recurs. Not particularly painful, but summat of a nuisance. Sounds like a vitamin problem, but what exactly .....
That is about it really. So my enemies can whine that I am not dead yet, my friends (and the lovely lady to whom I am married) have more reason to be concerned about my economic health than my physical health - all donations welcome usw!
From the top downwards:
1. Hair. A success story - mainly. I can still grow it extremely long given the opportunity. Two negatives. It needs hair dye to look impressive (it was originally never black, but it is now!). And it needs me not to be married to an otherwise nice lady who possesses the crazy notion that men look better with short hair.
2. Skull - given the number of times I have banged into things with it over the years, it seems extremely resilient.
3. Brain - the real success story. Totally in gear, fully capable of all the necessary logical thinking to blow apart the nonsense from conservative politicians (and ultraconservative idiots like Nigel Farage & co), nationalists (except the wise ones in Scotland), advocates of neo-liberal economics (including debt and speculation and more debt and trickle down economics and "the poor only have themselves to blame and "anyone who wants a job can find one" and other trash thinking) and religious fanatics usw ..... Given some of the gunge that I was reading the other day about the fact that we all have to make sacrifices (why don't the people who caused the problems in the first place have to make all the sacrifices? That would be logical .....). And on the subject of reading -
4. Eyes. After being told a few years ago that my eyes were deteriorating with age, there has been summat of a rebound. I still need spectacles for reading, and if you are a committed computer freak like myself, reading is important. But I can walk around everywhere without needing them, which isn't the way I was told it should be a few years ago .....
5. Nose - I can still smell my wife's often exotic cooking, so it must be OK.
6. Ears. A bit nasty. Despite fierce attempts to clear the gunge out (see also above for gunge), blockages tend to occur which need clearing out professionally. There are occasions when your hearing does waiver, but that is not consistent. The worst though was when a fly decided to make a kamikaze attack in there last year and getting its corpse out was a serious problem (and also left me partially deaf for 2 days). Now you were saying? Sorry, could you repeat that. Oh, it's summat else that can make you deaf? Mmmmm - I thought that was supposed to be "blind". See "eyes" above.
7. Lips. No problems.
8. Mouth, teeth and throat. Well I open the mouth when I have to - talking for the sake of it seems unnecessary. The teeth are still natural if none too nice to look at (both my parents did not have natural teeth at this point of their lives, which means we can offer thanks to fluoride toothpaste and staying away from dentists!). The throat is usually alright. Of all parts of the anatomy it is the one that tells you most often that you are not healthy when it isn't working properly.
9. Beard and moustache. Living with my wife, I will never find out how well they might grow if allowed. Generally hair is not her favourite human feature on men. Some old photos of me with an impressive full growth in this area adorn the room. Those were the days!
10. Rest of face. Unimportant, I am not a film star.
11. Neck. Hardly know it is there.
12. Arms. Work well enough.
13. Shoulders. A weak point. pains in both keep me awake at night. My good lady puts it down to excessive computer usage, but if that is the case .....
14. Hands and fingers. In good shape (excessive computer use is not affecting them). I never was that dexterous, that said.
15. Chest - well see the next two items.
16. Lungs. Nearly killed me in 2008. You have an operation during which your lungs fill up with liquid and the second operation to clear them goes badly wrong .... As a life-long non-smoker I will never understand the story completely here. Breathing is causing no problem at the moment, so ....
17. Heart. Well after its major workover in 2008, it is doing its job untroubled.
18. Stomach and intestines. I have developed a weight problem despite not eating excessively, not eating rubbish food and getting plenty of exercise. Quite why then? No idea. Meanwhile the body waste facility (Mark 1, for Mark 2 see below) is strangely inconsistent. Some days it does not work at all, some days it needs using three or even four times.
19. Body waste facility Mark 2 and sex drive. In winter the first of these always seems to suggest that it is getting old and prone to overuse. Since the summer and the warm weather arrived though, usage has diminished. Dehydration? As for its second usage - it may be our generation which was obsessed with sex. I tend to think that people of my age who are obsessed with it are in a sad state. Mine works adequately on an occasional basis, no obsession, no need for further comment.
20. Legs (including thighs and knees). After the brain (see 3) probably the most successful story. I still walk a lot, and very quickly and never hardly notice any problems, even after 10 kilometres without a rest. That said I do not try running much.
21. Feet (including ankles and toes). No noticeable problems.
22. Overall - skin. A bit of a disaster area. Peeling on the skull, the back of the ears, the navel, both groins and even odd bits on the genitalia (ugh ....). Everything you try works for a short time and it then recurs. Not particularly painful, but summat of a nuisance. Sounds like a vitamin problem, but what exactly .....
That is about it really. So my enemies can whine that I am not dead yet, my friends (and the lovely lady to whom I am married) have more reason to be concerned about my economic health than my physical health - all donations welcome usw!
Sunday, 21 July 2013
Crime and punishment, dealing with misfits, and mistakenly blaming the usual suspects - Part 1
I first came to work in Germany in 1994. In Munich (München, if you want the German name). My boss, an American for whom I still have enormous respect (well he could recognise talent for one thing!) remarked of the city:
"I am amazed how safe it is here".
It is a general impression that you get of the country as a whole. Once in a while there is a significant crime reported and sensationalised by the press but not that often.
And as often as not it tends to be foreigners who tend to be at the forefront when such cases hit the headlines. I recall back in 1994 that the first murder that I heard of in Munich was committed by a young man who had been a member of the Bosnian Serb "mafia" (be careful with that word - the German press tends to overuse it and use it incorrectly for that matter) turned police informant, turned double agent who shot a policeman dead on a local railway station.
Later I learned of the existence of the Croatian "mafia" in Munich (this was incidentally the time of the Bosnian War, so matters involved with the Balkans got a lot of coverage), the Russian "mafia" all over Germany but particularly in Berlin, the Albanian "mafia" in Hamburg in a turf war with the Russian "mafia" on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg.
And the most recent notorious case of significance involving foreign nationals was when the Neapolitan camorra (not "mafia" NB) indulged in some internecine bloodletting in Duisburg (of all places?) in 2007 - much to the surprise and initial confusion of the German authorities.
But generally you would not have thought that there was a lot of dangerous crime happens here. I was a bit surprised when checking on Wikipedia (for lack of anywhere else to go) this afternoon to discover that there were as many as 690 murders in the country last year. Population, out of interest, app. 82 million. The UK (more on which later) had 722 (population app. 60 million). This 690 seems to me a lot, particularly when you read so little about it (who were these people, and even if you consider the numbers for individual cities in the US (2012 number samples - Houston 209, Detroit 411, New York City 414, Chicago 506) you have to remember those victims were an important loss to someone close).
No German criminals meanwhile? Apart from the murderous fanatics of the neo-Nazi NSU anyway? Not altogether true, when some dangerous villain breaks out of jail, you can rate the chances upon the individual in question having a German sounding name! Ar least the three breakouts that I can recall since 1994 involved such people. All sinister sounding people with sinister sounding records, and none of them on the loose for long enough to be a problem.
Anyway one thing you will note here is the fact that the death penalty has not existed since 1949 and nobody much is calling for its restoration except for the neo-Fascist parties like the NDP who have little substantial support. There is an increasing number of people locked up for life meaning life and I can believe that people are happy with that.
I cannot recall ever seeing the argument about a waste of taxpayers' money being involved (a good legal and incarceration system does not come cheap and it is what you would expect in a democratic society). Dangerous people need to be taken out of circulation and not released early to cause any further damage. As for religious fanatics without German nationality, they are liable to be deported if they overstep the lines of criminality. Again that makes sense.
There is an ordered society. People expect to be safe, people expect miscreants to be punished, they expect the rules to be obeyed, they expect the misfits not to cause problems. Conservative, but humane. Acceptable methods within an international framework which works for the good of the society and keeps its villains locked away in conditions which satisfy international standards. Firm but without excess and not too much by way of cosseting or complaint.
So far, so good. More to follow in Part 2.
"I am amazed how safe it is here".
It is a general impression that you get of the country as a whole. Once in a while there is a significant crime reported and sensationalised by the press but not that often.
And as often as not it tends to be foreigners who tend to be at the forefront when such cases hit the headlines. I recall back in 1994 that the first murder that I heard of in Munich was committed by a young man who had been a member of the Bosnian Serb "mafia" (be careful with that word - the German press tends to overuse it and use it incorrectly for that matter) turned police informant, turned double agent who shot a policeman dead on a local railway station.
Later I learned of the existence of the Croatian "mafia" in Munich (this was incidentally the time of the Bosnian War, so matters involved with the Balkans got a lot of coverage), the Russian "mafia" all over Germany but particularly in Berlin, the Albanian "mafia" in Hamburg in a turf war with the Russian "mafia" on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg.
And the most recent notorious case of significance involving foreign nationals was when the Neapolitan camorra (not "mafia" NB) indulged in some internecine bloodletting in Duisburg (of all places?) in 2007 - much to the surprise and initial confusion of the German authorities.
But generally you would not have thought that there was a lot of dangerous crime happens here. I was a bit surprised when checking on Wikipedia (for lack of anywhere else to go) this afternoon to discover that there were as many as 690 murders in the country last year. Population, out of interest, app. 82 million. The UK (more on which later) had 722 (population app. 60 million). This 690 seems to me a lot, particularly when you read so little about it (who were these people, and even if you consider the numbers for individual cities in the US (2012 number samples - Houston 209, Detroit 411, New York City 414, Chicago 506) you have to remember those victims were an important loss to someone close).
No German criminals meanwhile? Apart from the murderous fanatics of the neo-Nazi NSU anyway? Not altogether true, when some dangerous villain breaks out of jail, you can rate the chances upon the individual in question having a German sounding name! Ar least the three breakouts that I can recall since 1994 involved such people. All sinister sounding people with sinister sounding records, and none of them on the loose for long enough to be a problem.
Anyway one thing you will note here is the fact that the death penalty has not existed since 1949 and nobody much is calling for its restoration except for the neo-Fascist parties like the NDP who have little substantial support. There is an increasing number of people locked up for life meaning life and I can believe that people are happy with that.
I cannot recall ever seeing the argument about a waste of taxpayers' money being involved (a good legal and incarceration system does not come cheap and it is what you would expect in a democratic society). Dangerous people need to be taken out of circulation and not released early to cause any further damage. As for religious fanatics without German nationality, they are liable to be deported if they overstep the lines of criminality. Again that makes sense.
There is an ordered society. People expect to be safe, people expect miscreants to be punished, they expect the rules to be obeyed, they expect the misfits not to cause problems. Conservative, but humane. Acceptable methods within an international framework which works for the good of the society and keeps its villains locked away in conditions which satisfy international standards. Firm but without excess and not too much by way of cosseting or complaint.
So far, so good. More to follow in Part 2.
Thursday, 18 July 2013
My life summed up in two sentences . Part 2
If you are born poor, the classic introvert, are not prone to speculation and hate selling, and despite the fact that you prefer saving to spending and have an aversion to debt, you are not going to make it in this world no matter how intelligent, hardworking, and committed you are, no matter what you have by way of a spirit of adventure or a willingness to try new things, nor how willing you are to move or how hard you try to adapt and keep learning.
Wednesday, 17 July 2013
My life summed up in two sentences . Part 1
The other one will follow.
"Men can make me do nothing, women can persuade me to do nearly anything".
"Men can make me do nothing, women can persuade me to do nearly anything".
Monday, 15 July 2013
What the world needs now
An old Bacharach-David song.
The line that follows is "love, sweet love".
All well and good - at that time.
For now, it needs jobs and more jobs. Worthwhile, rewarding (not necessarily excessively rewarding) jobs. Creating a situation where there are more jobs than there are people available (which has never been the case in my adult life). Creating a situation where people only get into debt when they choose to, not because they are forced into it as insufficient income is available.
And not letting nationalism, national boundaries, religion or ageism get in the way.
And governments using their funds wisely so that they do not run up debt piles for future generations.
And an end to the nauseating propaganda like "we can all make it in this world" and "the poor only have themselves to blame", and the ridiculous theory that everyone has selling or gambling skills that they can use to get them out of the problem, so only people who can sell or gamble get rewarded in this world.
And banks working on sound money business principles and not becoming substitute casinos. If you want to gamble, then fine, but let us not have economies dependent upon gambling.
And politicians finally earning their money by solving the problems of the population at large, and not just serving the interests of their backers.
Or to use the title of another Bacharach-David song - "Wishing and Hoping".
The line that follows is "love, sweet love".
All well and good - at that time.
For now, it needs jobs and more jobs. Worthwhile, rewarding (not necessarily excessively rewarding) jobs. Creating a situation where there are more jobs than there are people available (which has never been the case in my adult life). Creating a situation where people only get into debt when they choose to, not because they are forced into it as insufficient income is available.
And not letting nationalism, national boundaries, religion or ageism get in the way.
And governments using their funds wisely so that they do not run up debt piles for future generations.
And an end to the nauseating propaganda like "we can all make it in this world" and "the poor only have themselves to blame", and the ridiculous theory that everyone has selling or gambling skills that they can use to get them out of the problem, so only people who can sell or gamble get rewarded in this world.
And banks working on sound money business principles and not becoming substitute casinos. If you want to gamble, then fine, but let us not have economies dependent upon gambling.
And politicians finally earning their money by solving the problems of the population at large, and not just serving the interests of their backers.
Or to use the title of another Bacharach-David song - "Wishing and Hoping".
Tuesday, 9 July 2013
The failure of neoliberalism in 2008 and what caused it
The following is an excellent piece that I discovered in the Web this morning. Totally convincing and IMHO totally accurate. I would not find anything in it with which I would disagree!
It deals principally with the United States, but it has international ramifications.
Not light reading - not stuff to read before going to bed at night. If you want that stick to the Brothers Grimm. And for the record, I have not heard of one conservative party anywhere which has yet rejected neoliberal economic thinking, and "new alternatives" (like the awful EXP, also known as the UKIP, in the UK) have uncritically embraced it - be warned if permanent poverty is your preference.
http://people.umass.edu/dmkotz/Fin_Cr_and_NL_08_12.pdf
It deals principally with the United States, but it has international ramifications.
Not light reading - not stuff to read before going to bed at night. If you want that stick to the Brothers Grimm. And for the record, I have not heard of one conservative party anywhere which has yet rejected neoliberal economic thinking, and "new alternatives" (like the awful EXP, also known as the UKIP, in the UK) have uncritically embraced it - be warned if permanent poverty is your preference.
http://people.umass.edu/dmkotz/Fin_Cr_and_NL_08_12.pdf
Sunday, 7 July 2013
On memory powers, the Marx Brothers, and being politically progressive
About the one time I ever gained any recognition in the public sphere was in 1979 when I won a national sports quiz on BBC radio in England. Attach excellent memory powers to an interest in sport and training yourself in picking up obscure facts - the perfect combination.
Memory powers are though curiously inconsistent and selective. I quit teaching in January 1980. I sometimes try to remember the name of some of the kids that I taught during the six years that I was teaching (all of whom will now be adults in their 40s and 50s ....). Only a few names stick. A lot of the brightest kids that I ever taught (two girls called Gabriella and Juliet and a boy called Chris stick particularly in mind) and unfortunately most of the villains .....
There are also a number of quotes that you would like to remember, but cannot recall exactly. There was a quote, for instance from former American talk show host and noted liberal, Dick Cavett, on the Marx Brothers. The exact words I cannot recall sadly, but it ran on the lines:
"Groucho was a liberal, Harpo was a liberal, and Chico bet on the Chicago White Sox" ....
Nice, concise way of taking a sly dig at so-called "conservatism" being essentially based on gambling and not always that straight either!
Which brings me on to the Marx Brothers. I have stopped visiting YouTube so much recently - the powers that be in Germany seem to enjoy enforcing copyright powers on just about everything - but last night I spent watching snippets from Marx Brothers movies. The first question arises as to whether this is timeless comedy, or whether they were simply a product of their period. Could they have appeared in similar fashion in the second decade of the 21st century, as brilliant as they were?
No answer from me, I am afraid. Successful pundit I am not.
All sorts of other questions arise - did Italian children in the 1930s dress like they did in "A Night At The Opera" for example?
And then there was Chico's piano playing. I watched a 12-minute compilation today and asked myself whether behind the brilliant comedy, did people appreciate just how good a pianist he was. Could he have played Chopin or Liszt at Carnegie Hall for example, when he wasn't gambling his money away?
Different times, different places. At a time when being a "liberal" - in the American, not the European sense - seems to be endlessly subject to sneers and derogatory comment (a recent Pew Global Attitudes survey suggests that Europe is getting even worse than the US in that respect) having a Groucho Marx around would be more than a bit useful to blow most of the usual nonsensical conservative theories and attitudes out of the water .
Certainly comedy has its place. We need some way though of exposing the ridiculous mixture of austerity, gambling and greed that drives conservative thinking for the nonsense that it is and the mass unemployment and increasing debt and poverty that it provokes.
But given the collective lack of memory powers we even seem to have forgotten the history of what brought about the 2008 crash for starters. And the fact that most of the people on the receiving end of the resulting fallout were not the people who caused it in the first place!
Memory powers are though curiously inconsistent and selective. I quit teaching in January 1980. I sometimes try to remember the name of some of the kids that I taught during the six years that I was teaching (all of whom will now be adults in their 40s and 50s ....). Only a few names stick. A lot of the brightest kids that I ever taught (two girls called Gabriella and Juliet and a boy called Chris stick particularly in mind) and unfortunately most of the villains .....
There are also a number of quotes that you would like to remember, but cannot recall exactly. There was a quote, for instance from former American talk show host and noted liberal, Dick Cavett, on the Marx Brothers. The exact words I cannot recall sadly, but it ran on the lines:
"Groucho was a liberal, Harpo was a liberal, and Chico bet on the Chicago White Sox" ....
Nice, concise way of taking a sly dig at so-called "conservatism" being essentially based on gambling and not always that straight either!
Which brings me on to the Marx Brothers. I have stopped visiting YouTube so much recently - the powers that be in Germany seem to enjoy enforcing copyright powers on just about everything - but last night I spent watching snippets from Marx Brothers movies. The first question arises as to whether this is timeless comedy, or whether they were simply a product of their period. Could they have appeared in similar fashion in the second decade of the 21st century, as brilliant as they were?
No answer from me, I am afraid. Successful pundit I am not.
All sorts of other questions arise - did Italian children in the 1930s dress like they did in "A Night At The Opera" for example?
And then there was Chico's piano playing. I watched a 12-minute compilation today and asked myself whether behind the brilliant comedy, did people appreciate just how good a pianist he was. Could he have played Chopin or Liszt at Carnegie Hall for example, when he wasn't gambling his money away?
Different times, different places. At a time when being a "liberal" - in the American, not the European sense - seems to be endlessly subject to sneers and derogatory comment (a recent Pew Global Attitudes survey suggests that Europe is getting even worse than the US in that respect) having a Groucho Marx around would be more than a bit useful to blow most of the usual nonsensical conservative theories and attitudes out of the water .
Certainly comedy has its place. We need some way though of exposing the ridiculous mixture of austerity, gambling and greed that drives conservative thinking for the nonsense that it is and the mass unemployment and increasing debt and poverty that it provokes.
But given the collective lack of memory powers we even seem to have forgotten the history of what brought about the 2008 crash for starters. And the fact that most of the people on the receiving end of the resulting fallout were not the people who caused it in the first place!
Friday, 5 July 2013
The strange fears some people have
From this item that I read on the Internet today
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/computer-virus-much-threat-105505768.html
I discovered the fears that Americans have with relation to the Internet:
"Fear of a virus ranks as the fourth most identified fear of online life of both men and women. Child pornography, credit card theft and organized terrorism ranks as the top three in given order".
The first two I understand.
"Organised terrorism"? Jihadists are sitting out there planning to blow you up using your computer? Or are using the Web to plan crashing a plane into your local mall? You are there on a games site playing summat amusing when a strange figure in Middle Eastern garb starts chanting summat in Urdu or Arabic, and the next thing you know you are being sprayed with the output from a Kalashnikov or a Glock?
That is more a concern than a virus getting on your PC?
Strange and crazy world.
I have had to deal with viruses five or six times. Even with my anti-virus software (and the two backup AV tools that I have at my disposal) and my many years worth of working in IT, I still cannot block them entirely. In fact they can be incredibly nasty.
They are a confounded nuisance in a practical way. On a day to day basis the threat is there. They may not wreck the computer, I may be able to restore my environment as it was, but they are still a confounded nuisance.
And I should be more concerned about "organised terrorism"? Huh? HUH?????
As I have pointed out enough times before, the chance of being killed by a terrorist bomb is massively smaller than the percentage chance of dying in an automobile accident.
Don't get in that car, some maniac might ram you!!!!
You don't think like that every time that you are going to drive somewhere?
OK - I am not American. But even so it is time for some perspective on this terrorism issue. And some sense!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Late addendum to this piece - this is not imply that ALL Americans sit and worry irrationally about organised terrorism. I would never stereotype an entire people like that. The comments refer only to those that do, and sadly there appear to be plenty of them.
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/computer-virus-much-threat-105505768.html
I discovered the fears that Americans have with relation to the Internet:
"Fear of a virus ranks as the fourth most identified fear of online life of both men and women. Child pornography, credit card theft and organized terrorism ranks as the top three in given order".
The first two I understand.
"Organised terrorism"? Jihadists are sitting out there planning to blow you up using your computer? Or are using the Web to plan crashing a plane into your local mall? You are there on a games site playing summat amusing when a strange figure in Middle Eastern garb starts chanting summat in Urdu or Arabic, and the next thing you know you are being sprayed with the output from a Kalashnikov or a Glock?
That is more a concern than a virus getting on your PC?
Strange and crazy world.
I have had to deal with viruses five or six times. Even with my anti-virus software (and the two backup AV tools that I have at my disposal) and my many years worth of working in IT, I still cannot block them entirely. In fact they can be incredibly nasty.
They are a confounded nuisance in a practical way. On a day to day basis the threat is there. They may not wreck the computer, I may be able to restore my environment as it was, but they are still a confounded nuisance.
And I should be more concerned about "organised terrorism"? Huh? HUH?????
As I have pointed out enough times before, the chance of being killed by a terrorist bomb is massively smaller than the percentage chance of dying in an automobile accident.
Don't get in that car, some maniac might ram you!!!!
You don't think like that every time that you are going to drive somewhere?
OK - I am not American. But even so it is time for some perspective on this terrorism issue. And some sense!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Late addendum to this piece - this is not imply that ALL Americans sit and worry irrationally about organised terrorism. I would never stereotype an entire people like that. The comments refer only to those that do, and sadly there appear to be plenty of them.
Thursday, 4 July 2013
Trusting the armed forces rather than democratically elected governments
It hardly comes as a surprise that Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood government has been driven out of power. The army had been the power broker in the country since the days of Nasser in the 1950s until Mubarak's overthrow in 2011.
That the people as a whole had stability and not much else seems to have been the principle. That Mubarak was as corrupt as they come and enriched himself while the citizenry got poorer .... Not good, and if the army in Egypt is to put in power someone else who follows the same philosophy, it does not augur well.
In a working democracy bad leaders should face the electorate and get voted out. I used that argument when Augusto Pinochet replaced Salvador Allende in a coup d'état back in Chile in 1973 and in theory that should still apply. Allende was incompetent and there were riots on the street. Pinochet was a murderous thug who used torture to get his way.
But the country was stable.
Democracy is not always a success story - that is an often forgotten fact! Check out the standings of the (Social Democrat) President of France, François Hollande, and the (Conservative) Prime Minister of the UK, David Caneron. Neither is popular at the moment, and given an election tomorrow both would very likely be shown the door - no doubt to be replaced by someone equally inept.
The plus side for France and the UK, in comparison with Egypt, is that despite all the problems which do not seem to be anywhere near to resolution, there are no rioters on the street. Or at least not very often.
The problem that Chile faced in the 1970s was that many people were impoverished and would still have voted for Allende as the conservative alternative would not have helped improve their situation. A similar sort of situation arises in Egypt in that many voters also live in extreme poverty. Many though live under the illusion that Islam will offer them a way out of this (or salvage their souls while they suffer under poverty) and accordingly vote the religious card. Some 60-odd percent of them.
Both countries split in two. The democratic alternatives could not resolve the situation - in walked the army. Chile has recovered from this and is now a significant democracy with alternatives, and a great degree of stability - so there maybe is hope for Egypt yet, but maybe another 40 years may be needed!
The history of the armed forces taking over though is at best mixed - see Thailand, Pakistan and Nigeria if you want some more significant examples. If stability is the only criterion, then a military dictatorship will provide that for a time. Whether it will bring about increased prosperity for the people at large is another matter entirely - in fact across the African continent military dictatorships have been notoriously corrupt. Egypt is not the only example of this.
Eventually though we have to look at democracy across the world and see how it can be made to work to the benefit of people as a whole. It surely has to be a better alternative that being run by a military junta, but the record for ineptitude of the democratic political class across the world hardly suggests better times ahead either - virtually anywhere.
That the people as a whole had stability and not much else seems to have been the principle. That Mubarak was as corrupt as they come and enriched himself while the citizenry got poorer .... Not good, and if the army in Egypt is to put in power someone else who follows the same philosophy, it does not augur well.
In a working democracy bad leaders should face the electorate and get voted out. I used that argument when Augusto Pinochet replaced Salvador Allende in a coup d'état back in Chile in 1973 and in theory that should still apply. Allende was incompetent and there were riots on the street. Pinochet was a murderous thug who used torture to get his way.
But the country was stable.
Democracy is not always a success story - that is an often forgotten fact! Check out the standings of the (Social Democrat) President of France, François Hollande, and the (Conservative) Prime Minister of the UK, David Caneron. Neither is popular at the moment, and given an election tomorrow both would very likely be shown the door - no doubt to be replaced by someone equally inept.
The plus side for France and the UK, in comparison with Egypt, is that despite all the problems which do not seem to be anywhere near to resolution, there are no rioters on the street. Or at least not very often.
The problem that Chile faced in the 1970s was that many people were impoverished and would still have voted for Allende as the conservative alternative would not have helped improve their situation. A similar sort of situation arises in Egypt in that many voters also live in extreme poverty. Many though live under the illusion that Islam will offer them a way out of this (or salvage their souls while they suffer under poverty) and accordingly vote the religious card. Some 60-odd percent of them.
Both countries split in two. The democratic alternatives could not resolve the situation - in walked the army. Chile has recovered from this and is now a significant democracy with alternatives, and a great degree of stability - so there maybe is hope for Egypt yet, but maybe another 40 years may be needed!
The history of the armed forces taking over though is at best mixed - see Thailand, Pakistan and Nigeria if you want some more significant examples. If stability is the only criterion, then a military dictatorship will provide that for a time. Whether it will bring about increased prosperity for the people at large is another matter entirely - in fact across the African continent military dictatorships have been notoriously corrupt. Egypt is not the only example of this.
Eventually though we have to look at democracy across the world and see how it can be made to work to the benefit of people as a whole. It surely has to be a better alternative that being run by a military junta, but the record for ineptitude of the democratic political class across the world hardly suggests better times ahead either - virtually anywhere.
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