It is raining again and i am waiting for a student to arrive. This is the last week for them as their exams begin in earnest next week and I will miss them. I will miss them for a number of reasons, but mainly because they are young and they remind me of times when I felt worthwhile and had a useful role in the world. Nowadays I am to all intents and purposes rudderless and adrift with no aims, ambitions and aspirations. That is not to say that I am miserable; I am not, and there are a number of things in life that I look forward to and some things even make me smile now and then.
Having no students will leave a big hole in my week however, and I will have to find something to take their place. Ok i can blog more often, but then I need to have things to talk about. I cannot forever ramble on about my feelings, after all, who cares about those?
I have put in an application to become a volunteer photographer for the National Trust. Whether my efforts will be considered good enough is another matter, but if i am successful, it will get me out and about and will give me free access to Trust Properties all over Britain. All I need now is a free bus pass and the world is my oyster, or at least part of it will be.
So anyway, today i am filling in time, and have nothing controversial to say. It has been good to get a response from Canada, especially as I was quite nice to them. So far my dig at the Kiwis has not produced a response, but then, it is unlikely that any New Zealanders will have read my blog. Readership is very limited and i have only given direct access to people I know and trust.
Wednesday 28 May 2008
Tuesday 27 May 2008
Nostalgia ain't what it used to be
I feel completely drained.
I have had an interesting weekend, with visitors from the past descending one after the other, and as a result I am talked out and numb with nostalgia.
It is always risky to go back, and to spend time with people with whom you grew up but lost touch with years ago, has elements of risk, especially when they come to stay in your house. any trepidation I may have felt evaporated when Martin and his wife appeared. Talking to Martin seemed as natural as it did all those years ago when I was alive. It was as if we had picked up a conversation that abruptly ended in 1970. Ok we both look old and past it, but inside we are still the same people and the weekend was a timely reminder of the good times that we had as late teens. He was able to remind me of so many events and people that i have long since forgotten, and some that I have no recollection of even now and that is pretty scary. I always maintain that I don't ever forget people that come into my life, but clearly there are those who lacked the ability to stay in my head.
We talked almost without stopping for three days, interspersing with food and liquid refreshments, but the time went very quickly and now they have gone again and I am winding down after what has clearly been a stressful time albeit a pleasant one. I seem to have lost the habit of talking to real people and spend too much time alone. Hence the overwhelming sense of fatigue that has washed over me.
Now that the ball has been set in motion, it is possible that more contacts may be established, and who know? maybe a reunion of the lads may come to pass. It is more likely however that we may never meet again and that this weekend was more like the final twitches of something that has taken a long time to die.
I have had an interesting weekend, with visitors from the past descending one after the other, and as a result I am talked out and numb with nostalgia.
It is always risky to go back, and to spend time with people with whom you grew up but lost touch with years ago, has elements of risk, especially when they come to stay in your house. any trepidation I may have felt evaporated when Martin and his wife appeared. Talking to Martin seemed as natural as it did all those years ago when I was alive. It was as if we had picked up a conversation that abruptly ended in 1970. Ok we both look old and past it, but inside we are still the same people and the weekend was a timely reminder of the good times that we had as late teens. He was able to remind me of so many events and people that i have long since forgotten, and some that I have no recollection of even now and that is pretty scary. I always maintain that I don't ever forget people that come into my life, but clearly there are those who lacked the ability to stay in my head.
We talked almost without stopping for three days, interspersing with food and liquid refreshments, but the time went very quickly and now they have gone again and I am winding down after what has clearly been a stressful time albeit a pleasant one. I seem to have lost the habit of talking to real people and spend too much time alone. Hence the overwhelming sense of fatigue that has washed over me.
Now that the ball has been set in motion, it is possible that more contacts may be established, and who know? maybe a reunion of the lads may come to pass. It is more likely however that we may never meet again and that this weekend was more like the final twitches of something that has taken a long time to die.
Monday 26 May 2008
More stereotypes - Oh Canada!
The best way to upset a Canadian, in fact the only way that I know that CAN upset a Canadian, is to mistake them for Americans. (OK there are other ways too!)
Now, please, I do not set out to be offensive to anyone, and if any of my readers take umbrage at this then i am sincerely apologetic. I am not talking about ALL Canadians but more so of the stereotype. Canada is a huge country, much of which is unpopulated and some of which is unihabitable. It has a harsh climate, with hot short summers and bitterly cold long winters. Centres of populations are few and far between and between them good roads wrecked by pathetically low speed limits. There are parts of Canada that are utterly beautiful and parts that are, in the words of Marge Simpson, so very bland.
The Maple leaf flag is on display wherever there are people; i have never seen a country where there are so many flags reminding you of where you are. Maybe they are there to remind Canadians of there THEY are, or is it just a statement of - I am not American.
Some Canadians are afraid that they may become yet another American state and see a risk of being subsumed into that culture, and yet there seems little difference to the outsider between the American and Canadian ways of life. Canadians often drive American cars, the towns and cities are very much like those in the US, and they talk alike ............ Oh there is a way of distinguishing a Canook from a Yank - Listen carefully to the way they say "out".
Ok the pace of life in Canada may be slower, but that may have something to do with the long winters and the need to thaw out slowly. I cannot speak with any authority on this (or much else I know!) but I'd guess that the first flowers of spring will be the Maple leaves sprouting on the flagpoles.
I wonder what percentage of Canadians have Maple leaf logos on their underwear, just in case they get run over by a bus?
Canadian travellers all over the world are festooned with the flags, ranging in size from the tiny buttonhole variety to the full size jobs draped around shoulders or stitched carefully and lovingly to rucksacks. They are shouting to the world that they are Canadians and NOT Americans and yet maybe deep down they know that they are a part of North America and that by and large the rest of the world doesn't make much distinction and that few actually care.
Even though I will never visit again, I like Canada and most of the Canadians that I have met. They are open and warm (once they have thawed out!) and i hope that should any of them read this, that they will not take my words as a personal affront. They are just words after all and from such an inconsequential source too.
Now, please, I do not set out to be offensive to anyone, and if any of my readers take umbrage at this then i am sincerely apologetic. I am not talking about ALL Canadians but more so of the stereotype. Canada is a huge country, much of which is unpopulated and some of which is unihabitable. It has a harsh climate, with hot short summers and bitterly cold long winters. Centres of populations are few and far between and between them good roads wrecked by pathetically low speed limits. There are parts of Canada that are utterly beautiful and parts that are, in the words of Marge Simpson, so very bland.
The Maple leaf flag is on display wherever there are people; i have never seen a country where there are so many flags reminding you of where you are. Maybe they are there to remind Canadians of there THEY are, or is it just a statement of - I am not American.
Some Canadians are afraid that they may become yet another American state and see a risk of being subsumed into that culture, and yet there seems little difference to the outsider between the American and Canadian ways of life. Canadians often drive American cars, the towns and cities are very much like those in the US, and they talk alike ............ Oh there is a way of distinguishing a Canook from a Yank - Listen carefully to the way they say "out".
Ok the pace of life in Canada may be slower, but that may have something to do with the long winters and the need to thaw out slowly. I cannot speak with any authority on this (or much else I know!) but I'd guess that the first flowers of spring will be the Maple leaves sprouting on the flagpoles.
I wonder what percentage of Canadians have Maple leaf logos on their underwear, just in case they get run over by a bus?
Canadian travellers all over the world are festooned with the flags, ranging in size from the tiny buttonhole variety to the full size jobs draped around shoulders or stitched carefully and lovingly to rucksacks. They are shouting to the world that they are Canadians and NOT Americans and yet maybe deep down they know that they are a part of North America and that by and large the rest of the world doesn't make much distinction and that few actually care.
Even though I will never visit again, I like Canada and most of the Canadians that I have met. They are open and warm (once they have thawed out!) and i hope that should any of them read this, that they will not take my words as a personal affront. They are just words after all and from such an inconsequential source too.
Friday 23 May 2008
Stereotypes
A while ago I wrote about the English. I claim no expertise in anything, and all i can do is speak from my mind, which some might say is not necessarily a good thing. I have been thinking about Nationality and national characteristics, and the more I do so, the more I realise where these stereotypes come from.
I have a niece, who, though born in this country, lived in New Zealand for much of her life. She cam back here a number of years ago however, and has lived and worked in London along with most of the rest of new Zealand youth, for years. She is a lovely girl but, there is always a but is there not?........... she has become a New Zealander, and by that I mean that she is arrogant and utterly insensitive to the feelings of people from other countries. Most New Zealanders consider themselves to be superior in every way to the rest of us, and i wonder why that is the case? They come from a small, remote, beautiful and utterly insignificant country, where nothing much happens that doesn't involve a rugby ball, and their participation in world events goes unrecorded, largely because there is little to record.
It is a country that lives in the past, it is a country with huge racial issues, few roads, less railways, lots of scenery, and an aging population because all the intelligent youth leave to come to London, New York, Paris etc. They call it God's own country, and yet they seem only too eager to leave it in their droves and then sit around in London pubs in the winter saying how awful London is and how wonderful it is back home. They go on ad nauseam about how they really want to go back but they never do. The temptation of the big money that they can earn here seems more powerful than the lure of the unmade road and the culture of 1950s Britain.
Their TV is appalling, radio stations not much better, and the Cultural scene is pretty backward. I attended a performance of a Midsummer Night's Dream in the National Theatre in Wellington, expecting something quite special. It wasn't, it was dire and probably the worst production of a Shakespeare play that I have ever seen.
Why am I slating New Zealand? I guess i am trying to establish the cause of the arrogance. Is it that underneath it all, they know that they come from the ass end of the world and rather than try to defend the indefensible, they feel the need to impress? For goodness sake, all they have is scenery- Oh and sheep, i forgot the sheep.
So whenever you hear a Kiwi, whining about how bad things are here, and that they would rather live anywhere else, ask them, why they are here and why indeed they are not sitting around in pubs over there whining about something else.
ps I forgot that they once had a good Rugby team, but they spent so much time telling everyone how wonderful New Zealand was, that they didn't notice the other sides scoring!
I have a niece, who, though born in this country, lived in New Zealand for much of her life. She cam back here a number of years ago however, and has lived and worked in London along with most of the rest of new Zealand youth, for years. She is a lovely girl but, there is always a but is there not?........... she has become a New Zealander, and by that I mean that she is arrogant and utterly insensitive to the feelings of people from other countries. Most New Zealanders consider themselves to be superior in every way to the rest of us, and i wonder why that is the case? They come from a small, remote, beautiful and utterly insignificant country, where nothing much happens that doesn't involve a rugby ball, and their participation in world events goes unrecorded, largely because there is little to record.
It is a country that lives in the past, it is a country with huge racial issues, few roads, less railways, lots of scenery, and an aging population because all the intelligent youth leave to come to London, New York, Paris etc. They call it God's own country, and yet they seem only too eager to leave it in their droves and then sit around in London pubs in the winter saying how awful London is and how wonderful it is back home. They go on ad nauseam about how they really want to go back but they never do. The temptation of the big money that they can earn here seems more powerful than the lure of the unmade road and the culture of 1950s Britain.
Their TV is appalling, radio stations not much better, and the Cultural scene is pretty backward. I attended a performance of a Midsummer Night's Dream in the National Theatre in Wellington, expecting something quite special. It wasn't, it was dire and probably the worst production of a Shakespeare play that I have ever seen.
Why am I slating New Zealand? I guess i am trying to establish the cause of the arrogance. Is it that underneath it all, they know that they come from the ass end of the world and rather than try to defend the indefensible, they feel the need to impress? For goodness sake, all they have is scenery- Oh and sheep, i forgot the sheep.
So whenever you hear a Kiwi, whining about how bad things are here, and that they would rather live anywhere else, ask them, why they are here and why indeed they are not sitting around in pubs over there whining about something else.
ps I forgot that they once had a good Rugby team, but they spent so much time telling everyone how wonderful New Zealand was, that they didn't notice the other sides scoring!
Wednesday 21 May 2008
Bloody politics
I am getting tired of so many things. I know that it is largely my current state of mind, and i am aware of some of the triggers, but it doesn't really help to have that awareness. There are some things which I can write about and others that I can't, and not being able to vent is very frustrating.
So I will stick to what is safe and empty at least a part of my spleen through this vehicle.
One thing that I am really tired of right now is Party Politics. We are looking at the last throes of a weary government, who, battered by the media and savaged by virtually everyone have fallen to rock bottom in the opinion polls. The opposition, are of course in the ascendant, and that is of course because the press are demanding change. As soon as things begin to turn sour, regardless of world events that have created the problems, the media bay for the heads of those in charge, and so we continue the swinging backwards and forwards between the only two political parties that make any difference. The minor parties have no voice at all and they may as well not exist. The liberal democrats only chance of power lies in a hung parliament and maybe, just maybe that could happen in an election one day. Until that time, they will carry on collecting their salaries and murmering their complaints about a system that never sees their party elected to government. How cosy they must be to know that they will never be accountable for anything.
The public are stupid! No I will not listen to the MPs who say that the voters are intelligent. I have worked with the public long enough to know that the vast majority out there are extremely thick. The best selling tabloid newspapers that cater to the majority are little more than comics with content aimed at low reading ages. The editors of these rags, have power, they can tell their readers what to think, and that makes it so much easier than getting them to think for themselves. And so it is the time to hang the current leaders out to dry, and the press has already begun the process. They rely on the fact that the electorate has the attention span and memory of a mayfly, so they forget what the last lot were like, and they imagine that a turn around will be a step towards Utopia, when everyone will be so much better off.
What people fail to realise is that in a Capitalist system, there is no way that everyone can be better off. Sure, some will be better off in any system, but if some gain then others will lose. The wealthy always gain because they have the power, and so the poor and weak will always be the ones to pay. It would be so refreshing if a politician of any persuasion, would for once tell the truth about how it all works. I suspect that if they did, then their career would also be very short. People don't want the truth, in the words of Jack Nicholson - They can't handle the truth!
The system stinks and is built on lies and skulduggery. All parties are bad and some worse than others. Whatever happens in the next election is of little consequence to anyone but the rich lists, so why do we even bother to vote? I guess we are brainwashed into thinking that we can make a difference - we can't.
So I will stick to what is safe and empty at least a part of my spleen through this vehicle.
One thing that I am really tired of right now is Party Politics. We are looking at the last throes of a weary government, who, battered by the media and savaged by virtually everyone have fallen to rock bottom in the opinion polls. The opposition, are of course in the ascendant, and that is of course because the press are demanding change. As soon as things begin to turn sour, regardless of world events that have created the problems, the media bay for the heads of those in charge, and so we continue the swinging backwards and forwards between the only two political parties that make any difference. The minor parties have no voice at all and they may as well not exist. The liberal democrats only chance of power lies in a hung parliament and maybe, just maybe that could happen in an election one day. Until that time, they will carry on collecting their salaries and murmering their complaints about a system that never sees their party elected to government. How cosy they must be to know that they will never be accountable for anything.
The public are stupid! No I will not listen to the MPs who say that the voters are intelligent. I have worked with the public long enough to know that the vast majority out there are extremely thick. The best selling tabloid newspapers that cater to the majority are little more than comics with content aimed at low reading ages. The editors of these rags, have power, they can tell their readers what to think, and that makes it so much easier than getting them to think for themselves. And so it is the time to hang the current leaders out to dry, and the press has already begun the process. They rely on the fact that the electorate has the attention span and memory of a mayfly, so they forget what the last lot were like, and they imagine that a turn around will be a step towards Utopia, when everyone will be so much better off.
What people fail to realise is that in a Capitalist system, there is no way that everyone can be better off. Sure, some will be better off in any system, but if some gain then others will lose. The wealthy always gain because they have the power, and so the poor and weak will always be the ones to pay. It would be so refreshing if a politician of any persuasion, would for once tell the truth about how it all works. I suspect that if they did, then their career would also be very short. People don't want the truth, in the words of Jack Nicholson - They can't handle the truth!
The system stinks and is built on lies and skulduggery. All parties are bad and some worse than others. Whatever happens in the next election is of little consequence to anyone but the rich lists, so why do we even bother to vote? I guess we are brainwashed into thinking that we can make a difference - we can't.
Tuesday 20 May 2008
Embryology
The government seem to have made a sensible decision in supporting the new human embryological bill, that will allow a possible surge in our knowledge of stem cells, their production and application. There is of course considerable opposition to the whole notion of embryo research, the least convincing has come from the Roman Catholic lobby who have described it as immoral. Coming from Rome, accusations of immorality smacks of people living in glass houses throwing stones!
Monday 19 May 2008
blank
For a while now I have been feeling low. Not actually in a black hole but sort of detached from the world and in a little microcosm of my own. I find that it is a safe place to be and although it is not exciting, I keep coming back and have to force myself to leave.
I have been making a conscious effort of late to leave the past behind me and try to live for the present. I don't look to the future much either, as that way lies disappointment.
I was reading about the art of predicting the other day. Predictions are so hard to make much of the time, because nothing exists in isolation, everything is connected and so dependent upon an almost incalculable number of variables. We try to predict all sorts of things, and our efforts are based on observations or maybe just whims of faith. Mostly though we base predictions on extrapolations of known behaviours and sometimes we get things right, and of course we also get things wrong too. I have got all sorts wrong in my life and no doubt will continue so to do.
I predict that i will soon emerge from this slump and will begin to write again. I hope so, I miss it like so many good things.
I have been making a conscious effort of late to leave the past behind me and try to live for the present. I don't look to the future much either, as that way lies disappointment.
I was reading about the art of predicting the other day. Predictions are so hard to make much of the time, because nothing exists in isolation, everything is connected and so dependent upon an almost incalculable number of variables. We try to predict all sorts of things, and our efforts are based on observations or maybe just whims of faith. Mostly though we base predictions on extrapolations of known behaviours and sometimes we get things right, and of course we also get things wrong too. I have got all sorts wrong in my life and no doubt will continue so to do.
I predict that i will soon emerge from this slump and will begin to write again. I hope so, I miss it like so many good things.
Saturday 17 May 2008
Sent to me by a friend
What is a friend? I will tell you.
It is a person with whom you dare to be yourself. Your soul can be naked with him. He seems to ask of you to put on nothing, only to be what you are. He does not ant you to be better or worse. When you are with him you feel as a prisoner feels who has been declared innocent. You do not have to be on your guard. You can say what you think, so long as it is genuinely you. He understands those contradictions in your nature that lead others to misjudge you. With him you breathe freely. You can avow your little vanities and envies and hates and vicious sparks, your meannesses and absurdities and, in opening them up to him, they are lost, dissolved on the white ocean of his loyalty. He understands. You do not have to be careful. You can abuse him, neglect him, tolerate him. Best of all, you can keep still with him. It makes no matter. He likes you - he is like the fire that purges to the bone. He understands, he understands. You can weep with him, sin with him, laugh with him, pray with him. Through it all - and underneath - he sees, knows, and loves you. A friend? What is a friend? Just one, I repeat, with whom you dare to be yourself.
C Raymand Beran
It is a person with whom you dare to be yourself. Your soul can be naked with him. He seems to ask of you to put on nothing, only to be what you are. He does not ant you to be better or worse. When you are with him you feel as a prisoner feels who has been declared innocent. You do not have to be on your guard. You can say what you think, so long as it is genuinely you. He understands those contradictions in your nature that lead others to misjudge you. With him you breathe freely. You can avow your little vanities and envies and hates and vicious sparks, your meannesses and absurdities and, in opening them up to him, they are lost, dissolved on the white ocean of his loyalty. He understands. You do not have to be careful. You can abuse him, neglect him, tolerate him. Best of all, you can keep still with him. It makes no matter. He likes you - he is like the fire that purges to the bone. He understands, he understands. You can weep with him, sin with him, laugh with him, pray with him. Through it all - and underneath - he sees, knows, and loves you. A friend? What is a friend? Just one, I repeat, with whom you dare to be yourself.
C Raymand Beran
Monday 12 May 2008
Led Zeppelin on Horlicks
I just got back from a weekend away, essentially to attend a concert in Cardiff. We got tickets to see Robert Plant and Alison Krauss and decided to make a long weekend of it.
The hotel was a stone's throw from the Millenium Stadium and apart from the fact that the room overlooked a railway yard, it was perfectly satisfactory for a single night stopover. The drive to Cardiff was fine and the city itself really very nice indeed. An afternoon in the sunshine was followed by a late afternoon in a "New Orleans" bar with a pleasant light meal and several pints of Welsh Bitter Beer. We could see the stadium from the bar so there was no urgency about getting there, and so fully sated and less than fully sober, we headed for the venue. Five minutes later we were outside the gates, and they were closed. The whole place was empty and tumbleweed rolled past us in the ominous silence.
A quick check on the tickets told us that the date was right, and then the truth dawned. Printed clearly on the tickets, which I had not actually seen up to this point, were the words - International Centre! It should have added in brackets, "not to be confused with the Millenium Stadium," however it didn't and we were in the wrong place. Fortunately Cardiff is not a huge place, and equally fortunate was the fact that the International centre was only a half mile away, and so we did make it with ample time to spare.
The several pints did take their toll however, and you know how it is, once the seal has broken, visits to the toilets before more and more frequent. At big events like this the toilets are always busy and a full bladder has a way of distracting one from anything else, so in the run up to the off, the route to the watering hole became quite familiar. Not to self - before next gig, no drinking. That one IS at the Millenium Stadium and we could be miles from relief!
Anyway, the warm up band, were i am sure very good, but unknown and no-one seemed to pay them much attention. In fact the bars seemed pretty full throughout their performance. Eventually - much much later, bladder nicely empty, the concert started.
A word first about Alison Krauss. She has an amazing voice and is very talented on the violin. She commands the stage through her music, but seems to have no stage presence. I am sure that she has personality, but it does not shine through and she seemed to have no real connection to the audience. That was left to Robert Plant. The old Rocker has lost nothing apart from his mobility. It was a little like Led Zeppelin on Horlicks. He had the moves, but they were a little slow and tentative, while his voice was maintained in 2nd gear most of the evening. He seemed very restrained and I felt that he was itching to burst out. No I am not referring to his trousers, though they were of course as tight as ever. Glad to say that his shirt was ample and loose.
The performance was wonderful, and the band exceptional and the standing ovation was well deserved.
We emerged, lifted and inspired, into the night and were immediately soaked by the predictable Welsh downpour. However, it was worth it and i look forward to next month and Bruce Springsteen.
Wednesday 7 May 2008
Bleakness
The balance of life is very fragile. One minute, someone that you know well is here and next minute they are gone. We have all loved and lost and watched the mortal remains go through the rigmarole of funerals and interment or cremation. Human life in total hangs in the balance of an enormously complex structure that we call society.
The trouble is that the complexity is exponentially increasing and the biggest enemy of the machine is greed. There are those in society who are creaming off what they need regardless of the effect on the mechanism as a whole. Few people give real regard for the good of the whole and most are content to grab what they can while they can with scant thought for anything else.
Stock market crashes are artificial disasters brought about by extreme wealth wanting to become more extreme, the effects on their fiddling and tweaking can have consequences that are far reaching and devastating on the rest of the popluation, who have no control over the finances in their lives. Major financial crises could easily derail society as a whole; look at Zimbabwe with its galloping inflation; that country hovers on the edge of anarchy and unless something is done, catastophe is almost a certainty.
So many aspects of the modern world can easily break down and any one of them could precipitate the end of civilization. The electronic revolution has made us dependent upon computer technology and networks that are all so vulnerable to deliberate and/or accidental damage. Food supply is stretched to breaking point and while we now take for granted fully stocked supermarket shelves, that may not always be there. All it takes is a small climate change or a new virus to change all that in a very short space of time. HIV is not an infectious disease. What happens if it mutates into one that is? What happens if Ebola escapes from Zaire, and reaches a population centre?
Fuel is becoming very expensive and one day will run out. Who can imagine the powerful western states, sitting back and letting the OPEC countries hold them to ransom over the last drops?
We are living in a house of cards that is growing faster and faster, spreading in all directions. Sooner or later the wind will blow.
The trouble is that the complexity is exponentially increasing and the biggest enemy of the machine is greed. There are those in society who are creaming off what they need regardless of the effect on the mechanism as a whole. Few people give real regard for the good of the whole and most are content to grab what they can while they can with scant thought for anything else.
Stock market crashes are artificial disasters brought about by extreme wealth wanting to become more extreme, the effects on their fiddling and tweaking can have consequences that are far reaching and devastating on the rest of the popluation, who have no control over the finances in their lives. Major financial crises could easily derail society as a whole; look at Zimbabwe with its galloping inflation; that country hovers on the edge of anarchy and unless something is done, catastophe is almost a certainty.
So many aspects of the modern world can easily break down and any one of them could precipitate the end of civilization. The electronic revolution has made us dependent upon computer technology and networks that are all so vulnerable to deliberate and/or accidental damage. Food supply is stretched to breaking point and while we now take for granted fully stocked supermarket shelves, that may not always be there. All it takes is a small climate change or a new virus to change all that in a very short space of time. HIV is not an infectious disease. What happens if it mutates into one that is? What happens if Ebola escapes from Zaire, and reaches a population centre?
Fuel is becoming very expensive and one day will run out. Who can imagine the powerful western states, sitting back and letting the OPEC countries hold them to ransom over the last drops?
We are living in a house of cards that is growing faster and faster, spreading in all directions. Sooner or later the wind will blow.
Thursday 1 May 2008
The English
We English, probably have much to be proud of, but we also have more in our history that we should be ashamed of. There are few nations that look up to the Brits anymore, if ever they did in the first place, and many nations despise us and for good reason.
Robert Mugabe is one example of a man who has a real hatred for Britain. We are seen as a nation who wish to return Zimbabwe to British rule, to suppress his people and turn back the clock to a time when the country was at least stable.
Africa has for centuries been colonised, recolonised, fought over, and intrinsically ruined by non Africans. It has become a huge and desperate money pit with aid pouring in from all over the world to try to support a desperate and impoverished people. Nothing ever changes, and the probably reason for that is the inherent corruption that enables those in power to syphon off the wealth of their people in order to fill their own bank accounts. Africans want to govern themselves, quite rightly, but so few of the countries seem able to do that.
Paul Theroux in one of his books, describes his return journey from Cairo to Capetown, and in that he makes the point that giving money to Africa has been a total failure, and that all that it achieves is providing arms to the many tribes that still make up that Nation, so that they can kill each other with increasing efficiency. Hospitals and schools that were built using aid have declined and crumbled because the people fail to maintain them properly, or because the educated minorities move away in order to escape the burgeoning chaos of a country that is trying to grow, but lacks the direction to do so. He infers that aid should be stopped, and that the hand out expectations of many Africans should no longer be met.
Africa has been forced through western exploitation, to attempt to grow up too fast. It is still a tribal society and if the west were to withdraw totally, which it won't because of vested interests, the whole country would probably revert to what it is at heart. Maybe then the countries would support themselves and the land would be able to sustain a more realistic population.
Robert Mugabe is at best a thug who has no interest in his own people. The country is a mess, their inflation rate is like that of pre-war Germany, he has been defeated in an election and refuses to budge. I wonder why the Americans are keeping out of this one?
I guess that we can hold our hands up and admit that many of Africa's problems date back to colonial times when the world map was mainly pink. We tried to exploit the Africans, through slavery and by stealing their land, and then we try to suppress their people, the way that the British people were suppressed, by indoctrination with Christianity, and then we wonder why nothing seems to have worked.
I must confess that all that I say is opinion and that I have never been to Africa, nor do i want to.
Robert Mugabe is one example of a man who has a real hatred for Britain. We are seen as a nation who wish to return Zimbabwe to British rule, to suppress his people and turn back the clock to a time when the country was at least stable.
Africa has for centuries been colonised, recolonised, fought over, and intrinsically ruined by non Africans. It has become a huge and desperate money pit with aid pouring in from all over the world to try to support a desperate and impoverished people. Nothing ever changes, and the probably reason for that is the inherent corruption that enables those in power to syphon off the wealth of their people in order to fill their own bank accounts. Africans want to govern themselves, quite rightly, but so few of the countries seem able to do that.
Paul Theroux in one of his books, describes his return journey from Cairo to Capetown, and in that he makes the point that giving money to Africa has been a total failure, and that all that it achieves is providing arms to the many tribes that still make up that Nation, so that they can kill each other with increasing efficiency. Hospitals and schools that were built using aid have declined and crumbled because the people fail to maintain them properly, or because the educated minorities move away in order to escape the burgeoning chaos of a country that is trying to grow, but lacks the direction to do so. He infers that aid should be stopped, and that the hand out expectations of many Africans should no longer be met.
Africa has been forced through western exploitation, to attempt to grow up too fast. It is still a tribal society and if the west were to withdraw totally, which it won't because of vested interests, the whole country would probably revert to what it is at heart. Maybe then the countries would support themselves and the land would be able to sustain a more realistic population.
Robert Mugabe is at best a thug who has no interest in his own people. The country is a mess, their inflation rate is like that of pre-war Germany, he has been defeated in an election and refuses to budge. I wonder why the Americans are keeping out of this one?
I guess that we can hold our hands up and admit that many of Africa's problems date back to colonial times when the world map was mainly pink. We tried to exploit the Africans, through slavery and by stealing their land, and then we try to suppress their people, the way that the British people were suppressed, by indoctrination with Christianity, and then we wonder why nothing seems to have worked.
I must confess that all that I say is opinion and that I have never been to Africa, nor do i want to.
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