Bank Holiday

Here we go again, another wet and miserable August Bank Holiday Monday. It is almost a tradition that the weather will ruin the day for so many, who were probably looking forward to their day by the seaside or maybe just a day out from the daily drudgery of work.
Public holidays are seen by some as a burden on their businesses and I am sure that there are many who would like to see them abolished altogether, especially as the number of days off that everyone is entitled to, seems to increase, and if the ethnic minority groups get their way, then pretty soon there will be more.
Maybe each ethic or religious group should nominate their own public holiday choices; I am sure that if they did, then there would be at least 365 public holidays a year and surely it cannot rain on every one of them.

"If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people."

I had a visit from the Jehova's witnesses yesterday, I do wish that they would give advance notice so that I could be better prepared.  They were two nice old ladies and utterly indoctrinated into their faith. We had a pleasant discussion, though a pretty pointless one, ands we parted company each wishing the other a nice day.
The recent atrocities in the middle east came to mind, where religious zealotry is the driving force and leads to various religious groups seem linked only by their hatred for each other and by a mutual hatred of the west.  How can discussion and debate bring about change? Total intransigence and reliance on the writings of one self proclaimed prophet are a recipe for disaster and we are witnessing disasters day after day. We have in our own country, radical clerics preaching their hatred from mosques and young impressionable youths dragged into this culture and fighting against the country that they may well have been born into.
Our government signally fails to address the problems at ground level, afraid of offending the Muslim community, which seems to take offence as a matter of course. Any criticism of their behaviour is seen as racist or anti Islamic, and so few people are willing to speak out.
I do not live in a predominantly Islamic community and have no wish to do so, but it is easy to understand the discomfort of minority non Muslim groups in places like Walthamstow, who seem subjected to the ludicrous posturing of radical groups pushing for Sharia law in their area.
I am sure that there are plenty of Muslims out there doing their best to integrate and become part of the communities in which they have chosen to live, but as Richards Dawkins says, there are no moderate Muslims; but its very nature, Islam is an extreme form of religion that fundamentally needs to spread, which it is doing very successfully, and just like any pernicious virus, take over its host and destroy it from within.

Fussy eaters

One of my overwhelming memories of childhood was that of always being hungry. Food was very much a necessity and was often in short supply. Fruit and vegetables were always seasonal and choice very limited. The garden was a producer of vegetables all the year round and the garden shed used for storing sacks of potatoes and bags of onions as well as boxes of apples individually wrapped in newspaper.  Groceries came from the village shop, and were limited to the bare essentials.  Milk was delivered daily and I remember that frequently the foil tops would be broken open by birds hungry for the cream. In winter the cream would often freeze solid and rise from the bottles pushing the tops off. Skimmed milk was unheard of and it always tasted rich and creamy.
Each week, probably on a monday but I do not remember, there was a mobile fish and chip van that came to the village. It was a huge brown and cream van that moved very slowly. It would stop in strategic spots in the village and the owner would ring a handbell to attract attention. He probably had no need as the smell was wonderful and could be detected miles away. We coveted those fish and chips but never tasted them as they were too expensive. I envied those who queued for them each week while we went home for whatever food there was.
Breakfast was usually corn flakes or toast, rarely both, and we drank water or tea, unless a backlog of milk had developed.  Lunch was generally a sandwich, especially on school days as we could not afford to pay for school meals, and evening meal was a family event, usually some sort of meat and potatoes with whatever vegetables were available.  There were no snacks, though sometimes a packet of biscuits would appear and just as suddenly vanish again.
We were very active by and large and spent most of the time outside, often miles away from home, but we instinctively knew when it was time to go home.  There were rules at meal times. Good manners were expected and enforced, clean hands and faces were essential, and if you didn't eat what was presented then you went hungry. There was little quarter given to finicky eating and you stayed at the table until everyone had finished, even then you asked permission to leave.
There were of course foods that I did not particularly enjoy, but then I didn't enjoy being hungry either and so I ate whatever I was given, as it seems did most people. There is truth in the saying that if you are hungry enough, that you will eat anything.
Whilst out and about we were always on the lookout for food, whether it was fruit from orchards or vegetables from the fields. We'd make fires and cook potatoes in the embers and anything else that came to hand.
Whilst not starving we were very skinny and would be seen these days as anorexic. Our physical activities probably maintained a balance in our metabolisms and there was no such thing as junk food then. McDonalds was still a farm and kebabs were unheard of.
Even today I find it odd that people can be so fussy about their food. No doubt this is the product of a wasteful world where there is too much choice. I don't recall anyone being lactose intolerant or unable to handle gluten. If there were allergies, we were unaware of them or maybe I am just forgetful.
I am sure that in modern Britain, thanks to the careless nature of the government, that some people do not have enough to eat, and yet there will be others who spend whatever money they have on things other than food and rely on others to look after them. I do find it strange that there are people out  there who claim poverty and yet can still own and use a smart phone.

A week like any other

What troubled times we live in.  The world is awash with hatred and violence, Ebola is spreading at an unprecedented rate, and Robin Williams has left.

It struck me this week, what real heroes are.  For me, the people we train to kill and send to foreign lands, do not compare with those who risk their lives every day treating people with deadly diseases, in the knowledge that they face an invisible enemy that can kill at any time. Health workers who face such situations in all corners of the earth, do so willingly and with little in the way of remuneration or even thanks.  Doctors and nurses will die from ebola and I am sure that the streets will not be lined with flag waving jingoists, if and when their bodies are ever returned.

Ebola is a terrifying disease and at present it is contagious, but we are led to believe that it can be eliminated with soap and water. Most viruses are not so easily dealt with and we can be grateful that it is not infectious as so many diseases are.  Contact with an ebola carrier though can easily result in the disease being passed on, and in the African countries where it seems to be spreading, personal hygiene is limited by water supply as much as by custom or tradition. It will, if it has not already done so, spread wider than the African continent, and the more people that become infected, the greater is the risk that the virus will mutate into a form that is infectious. Should that happen, the world faces a threat probably worse than the bubonic plague of the seventeenth century.

Ebola is just one of a number of haemorrhagic diseased that have so far been confined to equatorial regions and are though to have originated in other primate species.  The prognosis for an ebola sufferer is pretty bleak, though some people seem to have immunity, while others recover. There is no vaccine as yet, probably because of the rarity of the disease and the huge cost of  producing a vaccine.

While this is going on, the Jews are pounding the Palestinians and the Palestinians are killing a few Jews, Muslims are murdering their own people in Iraq and in Syria, and Russia is fuelling a deep conflict that borders on civil war in Croatia, and the Pope continues to pray for world peace.

Such prayers have probably been offered  throughout the history of organised religion by people who believe in a higher power. The fact that prayer does not work seems to elude them, and their beliefs are still used as an excuse for the mindless killing of their fellow human beings, all of whom, if a god existed, would be seen as equals. Clearly some are more equal than others.