K.R.A.P Obituary; The Death Of Democracy
OBITUARY: The death of democracy.
We sadly announce the passing of a much loved friend, colleague and family member, underestimated to the very end and died with a smile on her face.
Democracy was born into humble beginnings, the offspring of right and good moral values in a small town way back when...
Growing up, democracy gathered strength through friends they made despite a tumultuous childhood where nothing, for this family, ever seemed to follow a smooth path.
Democracy suffered many setbacks in its formative years and was almost lost several times as the result of many tight squeezes. An only child, democracy, as one might expect, did not find it difficult to make friends but even easier to somehow draw in many, many enemies.
Many childhood ailments weakened democracy’s resolve but somehow it healed itself and continued on, defiantly standing up against the bullies that marred their life. And despite the often posed obstacles, such as the neighbours thug child, corruption, an ancient bully who felt untouched and innocent, democracy won the parents over and corruption was exiled only to return some years later stronger and despite held in contempt by a united neighbourhood, created a seemingly unstoppable pandemic.
Democracy was not to be beaten and set out to nail corruption, dictatorship, once a fellow pupil expelled at an early age and bigotry otherwise known as “talk to the hand cos the face ain’t listening”, just one of its nicknames.
The years passed and democracy became very well educated and widely heard. Democracy fought many battles on several fronts and was always there for fellow compatriots tho’ often treated with disdain by the richer and more powerful neighbours whose sons and daughters were all totally useless quangos. But democracy endured to lift the hearts and minds of much pilloried society.
Its death came amidst a collaboration of avaricial descendants and heirs of unrelenting profiteering and land-lubbing pirates but will be remembered with great fondness by all those touched by this humble and caring individual.
Democracy’s name will live on in history and future generations can adopt the nostalgia that their forebears and ancestors lived in a time that was once filled with fairness, equality, peace and tolerance.
The family request no flowers at the internment, the date of which is yet to be set, but would ask for an X in the box prepared to show, willingly, the concept of democracy’s life and work.
Democracy will be sadly missed by family, friends and a misled and lied to general public of this great septic isle. R.I.P.
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HEALTHCARE – OPTIONS;
Health is NOT a commodity to be bandied around stocks and bonds et al. Just as the National Health service (NHS) is not a business where targets have to be reached, profits have to be made and quotas filled.
Nor should it be treated as such, a quantitative saleable commodity is how the consequent governments see and treat it as such. (no pun intended).
The health service of the United Kingdom should, and in some cases, is, playing two major roles. Duties. One is as a responsibility to the ongoing health of the nation who pay for the service by way of National Insurance stamps, the whole reason why the tax was initiated. The NHS claims there is no money. Less managers. Less astronomical salaries and a proper “back to basics” not yer Tony Blair adage that floundered. At present it’s all about grading and numbers and finance.
The health of UK citizens should be first and foremost and those people should not herded into investment stables in order to make up numbers to ingratiate directors and cosmetically appear to government.
Secondly and just as importantly, the NHS should be the major employer in this sceptred isle.
With many unemployed, a lot of them could be employed in the running of hospitals and residential homes with care facilities. People with the vocational nouse and skills that can be honed. Get rid of all the ‘suits’ who do nothing but badger overworked doctors and inspect every facet with a view on costing. And people are dying every day because of this. They don’t need more managers, they need more doctors and nurses who get the job done. An all-seeing matrons! The scope of necessary skills amongst the general public would probably surprise you but these people should be given the chance to do what they think is their best ability; caring. It is in that respect that the NHS should be employing people with an attitude to working in caring for others; those who wouldn’t see such a post as ‘just a job’ or a way to earn more money.
There are those types obviously, but overall, and I have met a few, those committed to healthcare of their peers, their fellow citizens, who have THE vocation.
Students and adult nurses/carers/doctors come to Britain to train in our health service because it, in a word, the best, despite the obvious failings. These people stay and help while gaining more experience that they can take back to their, more often than not, less fortunate nations and work on easing their country’s health care problems. We need to get back the spectral image the NHS held and some cases, still holds, across the globe.
Many foreigners stay in the UK and continue to work out much of their career, eventually settling, marrying etc. that can only be good for the face of health care in the UK especially in the light of the immigration problems being highlighted of late where foreign workers are being given skilled positions that Britons should be getting. Looking at the health service the same way, it’s easy to see that Britons don’t like the work involved and not of all it is very nice, for obvious reasons, again the reasoning of a vocational outlook is needed. Some Britons are too proud to do such jobs but in the current climate I think more should look deeper into themselves, look at the bigger picture and make an effort. It could be your family that needs urgent or long term treatment in the future...
People who work for charities in some of the godforsaken parts of the world where disease is rife, where days are fraught with danger of injury or even death, where some sights would churn the stomachs of the strongest men, don’t do it because ‘it’s something to do’, they do it because their lives have a purpose. Their existences are fore-planned to help others, many are volunteers. That says everything you need to know.
In the health service, it isn’t much different. Doctors are salary paid. This basically means, extra hours they put in to save the life of your child, your spouse, sibling, parents, doesn’t always mean extra pay for extra hours worked. Yes, they complain about long hours BUT they don’t walk away and the government stops the cash flow into the system because prisons need decorating, alleged terrorists need comfort and safety from would be vigilantes and Europe dictate to the UK a bigger portion of tax which outweighs every other member state.
It is for that reason alone that the government injects more funds, one, to keep the service free to residents of the UK and two, to ensure more doctors and nurses are trained to keep the service going, while saving lives. The entire contributions of National Insurance should be fed directly into the health service. It doesn’t need quango committees to decide where the money is spent, they know where it should be spent which means big corporate committees are no longer necessary. If those involved on committees have no other skills, the health service also needs dedicated cleaning staff.
It’s make a change for them to get their hands dirty (or not).
We need to get a proper set of rules drawn up that will dictate the entire service from doctors right down to the chap who picks up litter in the car parks. (which should be free -car parks that is) I omitted to mention managers/directors etc because the majority are really NOT needed! There are already too many pen pushers in this country, all employed by the brain dead government who are watching their own pockets rather than the nations.
As I stated, this kind of work is not a job. You’d be wasting your time if you think you can just go in, do the work and pick up the pay packet. That’s what wrong with this country, too many people, employers included, just look at the cost effectiveness of their part in industry, the cheapest way to get the job done. A pre-cursor to disaster...
Healthcare is a vocation. I see if first hand on a daily basis. My wife works in a care home for the elderly and sick. She was a late starter after bringing up the kids but has thrown herself into it now. It was something she’d always wanted to do and is now climbing the ladder. But she doesn’t grade it as a job. I don’t see it as a job. One HAS to be something special to enter such employment.
One has to care, be caring. Those being looked after deserve to be cared for.
Furthermore, the health service is NOT an industry. It seems to have been categorised as one under subsequent inept governments in the last two decades, who see ££’s instead of people. Who draw up targets of how many people can have surgery. And when. How long waiting lists are down to, how long people should wait in accident and emergency departments to ensure the staff, doctors, nurses, etc don’t go over the recommended quota of hours. Doctors are dedicated. Most nurses are dedicated. Yet the suits upstairs are playing these staff as marionettes, are being paid so handsomely for sitting on their fat arses it makes one want to retch. Is there a doctor in the house?
Basically, the country doesn’t need millions of new cars, an industry now counting the cost and reducing output, but it does need doctors, nurses, staff prepared to care. The training these people go through is hard enough. It’s not an easy set up to learn but learn they do. Some doctors spend years in university to learn as much as they can to be able to do a job that saves lives. They wouldn’t waste those years of education to take a posting to be pushed from pillar to post by numpties from upstairs, clip boards in hand, hustling the medical staff like they are directing traffic. I’ve see that too. I cannot fault doctors and nurses, they work to the best of their ability, their main intention, to cure, to save lives, to treat everyone with same disposition of care whether it be a baby, a toddler, teenager, adults up to pensioners. All mostly are and should be treated as best as treatment or ailment dictates/allows.
This of course, takes nothing away from health care trusts such as BUPA. They run on contributions and can offer the best of everything. This road is a lifestyle choice. If one can afford it and is able to be treated with immediate effect, fair enough but paying into such a concept is, as I said, a matter of choice and no-one should be condemned for doing so. We know the NHS cannot compete but then, health care is NOT a competition.
These Trusts offer something to patients. If patients choose that option, no-one should have any qualms about it.
People should never be or feel forced to pay for treatment. In the world, we are probably the only nation with a free health service. It was set up by an astute politician to ensure the health of the nation was always paramount. It was giving back to the nation, the camaraderie, the spirit shown by the general public in two world wars. Just look at the shambles it has become.
The health care Trusts have their sector. The NHS has theirs. But all in all, patients should be entitled to much the same treatment from diagnosis, to admittance down to cure or surgery. THAT is a human right. Not everyone is in and is ever likely to be in, a position where they can opt for private treatment which is why the government, a government responsible for its citizens who put them into power, should be ensuring that every patient is treated with the greatest respect and time. Everything in the way of health care, should be offered. And all for free. No-one should die of ignorance or lack of ‘wealth’. We have some of the best doctors and nurses the world over and yet they are being abused by the system. That has to stop. These people are total professionals (in most cases) and should be treated as such. They should be given the tools necessary to help them to save lives. And they should have enough colleagues to call upon for help in situations. The government has duty to its citizens.
And I reiterate the necessaries, in my opinion, needed to ensure the life and workability of the service.
Train more doctors and nurses.
Pay them a decent wage.
Raise the standard of care and cleanliness in all hospitals. And make people looking for employment display the correct criterion to take on such a task. That being they care, they don’t see looking after the sick, the frail, the elderly and the dying, as a job but as a vocation.
In recent times we’ve seen, from TV news and newspapers, rare cases of physical abuse against patients. This is because the people employed aren’t of the ‘correct ilk’, wanted or forced to get a job, they chose the health profession but it really is vocational. I cannot stress that enough. Ask any doctor or nurse working at a hospital how they feel about their employment. 9 times out of 10 the answer will be something along the lines of ‘caring for others, saving lives’.
The only way for the nation to be sated on health care, is to follow these and some other, graded guidelines. I’m not saying I’m right but I’m pretty sure I’ve covered most avenues. People deserve to be cared for in their dotage. They deserve to have their lives saved when and where it is humanly possible.
Their deserve to not be afraid to go to hospital carrying the fear that that will be the last time anyone will see of them. That fear is agitatingly real amongst many older generations. It is also prevalent amongst the young who see day by day, reports about how people are treated, how people die from minor complaints etc. etc.
The NHS is caught up in some kind of ‘quid pro quo’ situation where the scale is lower to facilitate a healthy fiscal overview while healthcare in many cases, is either overlooked or deliberately misled to an extent that people die for the sake of the targets I spoke of earlier and misrepresentation of funds. Yes, there should be a budget across the entire spectrum, but only as such to ensure everything that is needed is implemented. Only this function can ensure a good working practice on all levels on a daily basis. Those in charge want it all their own way, cake and eat it syndrome. This cannot, must not, be allowed to happen again. Steps must taken now to bring about the massive changes needed to bring the health service back onto an even keel. The service has always, it seems, run at a loss. Now I would see this service as implicitly more important than bankers trying to make a few quid by sending everyone’s monies to Iceland. Then losing it. Double standards? This country is awash with double
standards.
The health service should be the most important institution in the entire nation. If it doesn’t work properly, the people suffer. The same can be said for every other kind of business such as banks. And government! A shake up is needed, on a colossal scale. The right people should be put into place to bring the health ‘ship’ back to port and re-launched in complete honesty and efficiency. And these people also need to find their vocation and not be led with a million pound carrot incentives to do the job. That’s part of the problem. Too many greedy f*****s running everything!
If the NHS is run as a constitution and not as an industry or business venture, there will not be the need to streamline everything and look to make a profit. Nor will it be run as a nationalised concern. The government have proved time and again over the last decade that they are completely inept with every pie they’ve stuck their little Hanselised chubby fingers into. But all the funding WILL come from National Insurance which means government MUST, WILL pay it all into the new system without adding one of 50 of their sticky fingered stealth taxes on it. And furthermore, if there isn’t enough money during one fiscal period, the government will also pay up from the other stealth taxes they’ve grabbed from an earning citizenship.
Will it work? We have no way of knowing. It’s a risk yes, but heck, not as bloody risky as those inept clowns in the banking system or those idiots in Cabinet!
© tcmoon 2011
If You're An Elvis Fan, Read This...
In the 30 years since the passing of possibly or arguably, the greatest musical icon to have ever lived, we have seen a change in popular music tho’ perhaps Elvis would never have envisaged let alone touted alongside. But then again….
As each generation grew and matured somewhat, tastes often changed and gave rise to many new genres. Just as Elvis was a completely new concept in the mid-50’s, so we see and have seen, similar ground breaking acts dotted in and around the global music charts.
Just as Elvis shocked and stunned an unsuspecting world, so too have some modern performers, which can only be good with the diversity of the music purchasing young.
Elvis did, in effect, bridge the divides of society. He brought together the chasm of race with his own style of gospel and blues, which at that time was resonant only within the realms of Afro-American artists. And he instilled and implemented rock and roll, making fans from all corners of society, the younger members at least. Elvis awoke a ‘sleeping giant’ and then became synonymous within it. Parents of the day with all their, what they believed, generalist misgivings, were appalled. Maybe rightly or wrongly, but the kids loved it!
And nothing much has changed in all reality. Today we see and hear artists such as Eminem, who for the most part, may seem coarse, rude even with defamatory lyrics littered with profane expletives and rightly so, not palatable to today’s parents, the adults of yesteryear. But Eminem has also bridged that same race gap by performing what is, primarily at least, black cultural music. In a different era he has struck out just as Elvis did all those years before.
My parents, just as many of yours were probably, teenagers or early twenty-somethings when Elvis boarded the bus to world musical history. Just as I was a parent moreorless force-fed the wily talents of Eminem and other artists like Ice T and Puff Daddy as he was once known, now just Diddy. So, to that effect I wasn’t really any different to my grandparents with the onslaught of a new conceptualised form of popular music.
But, one supposes, we of a certain generation, or even such a generation, have seen so many changes since Elvis first stepped into limelight and altered the face of rock and popular music for all time, that it was, and is somehow, now, more easily accepted. Now we see so many differing genres of music vying for the mantel of success and it seems we are now, really, spoiled for choice.
And no matter your opinion, bigoted or whatever, it WAS Elvis, the King, the Legend, who has made it ALL possible. And I don’t say that just because I am a fan…
John Lennon was famously quoted (and again and again now) as saying “before Elvis, there was nothing…” no-one can really discount that claim, hard as some have tried. The fact remains that Elvis WAS the catalyst to most of what we hear today.
The Fifties had it’s own styles. The Sixties created a, somewhat new, concept. The Seventies defied logic (and fashion it is said) brought it’s very own culture. As a teenager of the Seventies, that was, to all intents and purposes, MY decade.
The Eighties diversified and the Nineties struck out with a brand new trail. The onset of the 21st century sees shoulder to shoulder jostling, many styles, different genres, almost all successful. But, just like Elvis in the Fifties, new artists are making their play, the only difference being, almost all are acceptable to one or more regions of society. Elvis appealed to the young. The elder generation didn’t like it. Music today appeals to young and old. Is that such a bad thing.
But, no matter what, just like the word ‘Blackpool’ in a stick of candy rock, Elvis’ name, achievements, social standing, music and persona, remains an ever present constant running through the candy rock stick of life. And he was so loved and still loved.
Since Elvis’ much, much too early release in 1977, the Elvis fan base continues to grow insurgently, blossoming with older fans and brand new fans alike. It’s probably true that, since his demise, more have bought into the Elvis phenomenon, inquisitive enough to find out what the ‘spark’ is, what draws so many people together across the
airwaves. And, once an Elvis fan, ALWAYS an Elvis fan. No Elvis fan has ever been guilty of ‘signing out’ or giving up their ‘season ticket’. One doesn’t simply ‘go off’ Elvis, you just die.
In todays popular culture, music artists rise and fall, many never heard of again. Elvis was a lasting adoration. You didn't have to love Elvis to love his music, but mostly, in general, it always came down to that. For many, once an Elvis song has been auralated to your brain, there was never any going back. You were 'hooked'. It has been said that everyone, that's everyone, has a favourite song. There are enough to go round and none of us mind sharing...
We have all witnessed the rise of new artists. We’ve been unfortunate enough to have witnessed their demise too, a fall in popularity, loss of the talent someone was persuaded they had. I believe Elvis would have been appalled by some of the rock star attitudes personified by wannabe celebrities and what they get up to in the name of fame. Fair to say, Elvis wasn’t totally innocent but he always had humility, honour, humanity and honesty. He didn’t need to BE a headline, he WAS a headline. Just for breathing. For opening his eyes in the morning. And for all of his foibles and problems, we as fans loved him. We STILL love him. I guess that’s something that will never change. All say aye.
Elvis wasn’t nor isn’t just special, extraordinary, a legendic icon poring star quality, ultimate performer. He was and is much more. Everything.
We outside of the USA weren’t privileged to have had Elvis perform for us on our home soil. I think we’re all aware of the reasons why. But for those in America and those who managed to travel to see his performances, were privileged. I myself had arranged a trip for the spring/summer of 1978. irony has nasty edge when alerted.
Nor was Elvis was of those ‘phone in sick’ performers as we have seen with modern ‘stars’, or to me, minor celebs looking for a meal ticket, those who believe their over hyped agency publicity, craw about.
Elvis was undoubtedly, a people person. Aside from his family, no-one but no-one was more important to Elvis than the fans. Fans who went to see him perform. Fans who stood at the music gates of Graceland hoping to catch a glimpse and often did. Fans who parted with their hard earned to take a piece of Elvis home with and keep forever more.
Elvis knew who made him a star and instead of acting like some performers do today, he was humble in appreciation.
Some of today’s performers would do well to adopt some of Elvis’ values. I mean, who do some of them think they are? Drunk or drugged up on stage? What’s that all about? Elvis was never happier than when he was performing. Performing was his drug. And that’s why we as fans love him.
And he never whinged about fans invading his space. Not ever as far as I know. And even when he really was so ill, he STILL performed, as in the Indianapolis* concerts of May or June of 1977. a few weeks before his death. The ultimate performer!*(Correct me if I’m wrong).
In today’s political climate and run around that sees and has seen music artists, actors and sports stars getting involved in politics, serving as Governors and even a President as well as wannabe presidents, Elvis would easily have achieved that goal, had he so wished. The election result would be unanimous.
Today it pleases me to see more and more youngsters enlisting in the Elvis army of fans. He was and remains so, extra-special. I hear, on occasion, those who feel they have some right to put down Elvis and all he stood for as well as his music, forget that even some of the mediocre music they feel is far and above anything Elvis ever did, would probably never have evolved had Elvis not come along when he did. Elvis broke away from the regimented normalcy and brought out what every kid had ever dreamt about in secret.
As I said about youngsters coming to the fore now, kids of 9, 10,12 15. They have no real idea of Elvis, just the concept and yet they have taken Elvis to their hearts. I thinks that is brilliant and we should nurture these upcoming fans because when we've all shaken the mortal coil, it will be these kids that will keep Elvis alive. As long as he is loved he will never be dead.
As music has evolved, in most genres, Elvis led and Elvis leads. Always. Don’t mourn that Elvis had died, celebrate that he lived. I’m sure that’s how he want us to remember him, our King, our legend. Our Elvis.
I love Elvis. There is no defining option, it just is. And don’t criticise me for my opinion. Although there is very little music I don’t like, I wouldn’t tell you not to listen….
Besides, criticising Elvis would be like telling the farmer whose cows give you milk not to milk them anymore…
Elvis gave YOU music.
© tcmoon 2011
OZONE
At this present time, I am looking for to recruit people who can hang wallpaper. Anyone who has redecorated their homes recently, are urged to contact me at their earliest convenience [not the public one in sheep street] with a view to saving the world in one fell swoop.
This will be a purely voluntary enterprise and you undertake the venture in the knowledge you won't be paid because, very simply, I can't afford it, but you will have the knowledge and be proud to have contributed greatly to the saving of this planet, thus saving yourself, simple logistics really, however, I would ask that you bring along with you a few handy items; a pasting brush, the biggest you can find, oh, and some sandwiches and a flask of unsweetened tea, I'm starving, but not shrimp paste tho, urgh! And last but by no means least, all the paper you can possibly lay your hands on. Look in your attics. Ask your neighbours, if they decline, look in their attics. Raid the newspaper offices and newsagents and then the DIY store,they got loads. Bring as much paper as you can, this is a big big project, even waste paper is good, raid your neighbours trash cans and the local recycling plant, just bring paper...
Why? Well, for some time now, we have all been told to collect all our paper and not just to dispose of it in the normal formal manner just because it is biodegradable (for thickies that means it will break down under a natural process and become coal or oil in 20 million years) For thicker thickies, see yer Ma!!
As you probably know, paper is made from trees (you didn't know? Oh!) Well, the paper is being produced and wasted which then causes holes to appear and form in the ozone layer (and for thickies,that's not the multiplex In Oxford) in the sky and those holes are getting bigger with every page you wipe your a****, with every page you read with bad news on it each morning over your cornflakes. So, me being the hero I am, have hit on the idea of solving three problems at once. (Yes, I KNOW, I'm a bloody genius).One, is how to use up all the waste paper now being collected by men in frocks, sorry, trucks, which is then taken to a place and piled up in big piles of paper that no-one seems to know what to do with because there is just too much of it now. And two, how to ease the ecological problem and halting the ultra violet rays of the sun that now infiltrate our atmosphere, by simply filling in the holes that have appeared in the ozone layer, (yes, it's still in the sky). Oh, and three? Don't worry about that, saw my GP today and he gave me some cream for it...
So, what I intend, if I can get this project off the ground but judging by all that paper, it's gonna be a tall order, mind, if it's tall enough, perhaps we can stand on the order and do it that way. Anyway,the premise is to get all this paper and paste it up then stick it all in some gargantuan bowl with paste and create a humongous papier mache curtain. Then I intend to give all the volunteers a jolly good pasting, um, brush for those who have forgotten theirs or their Mum's needed a note to allow them to bring one, and a large bucket of paste each.
We will then fly them with the corresponding sections of the curtain to predestined parts of the world that have become deficient of ozone. All they have to do when they arrive, after a cuppa of course, is to paste their part of the curtain to the sky thus filling in the holes with a completely natural product that was probably the causation of the problem in the first place.
Anyway, lo! and behold! The world will have been saved and the mountains of unused paper will have been put to a far greater use than sitting there producing little bugs.
Yes, damn, I AM a genius!!!!!
© tcmoon 2011
IS PEACE OVERRATED ?
Everyday we hear people, me included, oh yes, banging on about peace and how we should have it in our time, well, not just our time, but our children’s and theirs!
But we have to ask ourselves the question, is such a commodity feasible? Is it really possible and could it be achieved in real terms?
The stumbling blocks are always there but, the fascinating yet intriguing part about creating, if that is the correct word to use, is to adjudge and recognise it, absolutely. You know as well as I do, to have peace we must first have conflict, or else why would we be asking for peace in the first place? Without conflict, war, violence or whatever, to know the concept of what peace IS and what it means, would not be relevant. After major wars in past years of history, yes, there are and have been many, a lull in hostilities is quickly proclaimed as peace, but is it? A ceasefire, for whatever reason, cannot be termed as “peace”, it is, as I said, a lull in hostilities, nothing more. Peace itself is really so fragile, cracks will and do appear almost at once and is easily shattered.
Why? It goes back so far, none of us really know about it and despite historians telling us how the world was shaped and mankind designed, how do they know, you know, really? They weren’t there. Neither were we, yet we believe what they tell us. That Mankind has always been violent, has always instigated war against his neighbour, that it’s a tribal thing and we will never be rid of that label. So. Who’s looking at labels?
Has there then, ever been a time when mankind, in human history where peace, on a global scale that we could honestly concur with, has been a constant? And as humans taking part in the new annals of history, do you believe there ever could be?
Mankind, like most of life, is a tribal animal. Adversity is burnt deep into our psyche, our very make up of life. Man is territorial and seems never to be sated. That’s what sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom, we always want more, want what the other guy has, whether it leaves him with nothing, we don’t particularly care.
We own a piece of land next to another guy who also owns a piece of land. Your piece of land has green grass, some flowers, one tree and a pond. The guy next door has greener grass, more than you, many flowers, several trees and a lake. So guy one simply invades and kills. No more peace. And one piece of land overall. Why?
The need to conquer ranks high in a lot of peoples minds, especially despotic tyrannical sorts of people. They will protect their piece of land while all the time plotting to steal someone else’s because they just want piece and not peace. They want the power that will come with that land and perhaps the people who live within or upon it.
Sad;
But some people ARE different and, while I don’t claim sainthood or any kind of super angelic type of clamouring and glory, I do believe and would like to see, in my lifetime, a peaceful realm within that timeframe and a knowing that, the world I live in can say I have helped in some small way to create, which will be a safe haven in which my grandchildren and their children, can grow up in and into, to continue living a harmonious existence where violence and adversity are very definitely, consigned to the history books whilst learning that they can go on living a peaceful life and ensuring that war and murder, terrorism and a such, remain far away as possible, in history.
There are bigger problems on the Earth that threaten our daily survival without everyone taking up arms against another and simply continuing to commit mass murder.
So, before you all disregard my every word and poo-poo my dreams and ideals, imagine if you, yes you too, followed me or my ideal and then the guy or gal next to you did the same until the room was filled with people with the same ideals, the same wishes, ambitions, could it not then be achieved?
Because you might believe what I say could NEVER be achieved and everyone else is saying exactly the same, then obviously, nothing gets done. The people are the ones with the power. The people are the ones who elect those with the resources, the powers to do what YOU want, it ISN’T the other way around as they would have you believe. With complete and utter lateral thinking, everything is subject to change, whether you harbour dreams like I do or simply feel it wouldn’t work, aren’t you even willing to try?
Imagine a General Election. The candidates are all canvassing around but because your father or grandfather voted for a particular party that these days aren’t doing as good, do you look at another party? I doubt it. Do you also say and have been heard to say “they’ll never get in because nobody votes for them”. And if all the people who made such a statement changed their vote, what do you think would happen then? It bears thinking about.
So just because most people wouldn’t listen to what I’ve said, and I’m not forcing anyone, it is STILL a free world, does it really mean then, that I am not right?
Think seriously before you answer, even to yourself. Whatever road you choose to follow, you WILL, make no mistake make a difference, one way of the other. Instead of condemning me and others like me, who are, after all, only vying for a better world for ALL of us, you included, no matter which road you choose to take, think of what you could offer.
We need to attain a certain level of consciousness, after all, we only get this chance ONCE at life, and baby, this is it!
Bugger this up and that’s yer lot, death comes and sweeps you up and everyone forgets about you. We share this planet, we need to ensure we can share it peaceably, and remember, we’re only tenants here….
Make a difference – today….
Thank you.
© tcmoon 2011
My Train Crash
The train crash hasn’t deterred me about trains in future as it might have done most human beings with any sense of foreboding, but surely now, my sense of adventure is heightened, especially after the 12th train crash I’d had some involvement in.
I suppose I could’ve been called something of a jinx, dunno, but when one person is cited in major involvement in TWELVE train crashes, questions are often and very likely to be asked; dilemma’s often posed, but not by me.
After the first crash, I steeled my resolve. Myself. There were no injuries fortunately, not as such, just wounded pride on the face of it I guess and denial of that fear factor. But I remember thinking to myself as the carriage rolled, “don’t ignite, please don’t ignite”. There’s no real way back after a fire of any magnitude but one of that involving electricity and hi-grade fuel, a full tank too, well, you know….
It wasn’t as if I’d lost control, not exactly in any case; and the carriages were empty. The coal truck was chocka but amazingly, in the first crash at least, it stayed together. A few windows were broken, shards of glass and plastic ejected into the surrounding scenery just a short distance from a tunnel. Heaven forbid, as I imagined what could have happened if the derailment had occurred under the tunnel! And speed WAS a factor. I now believe we were actually travelling too fast given the gauge of rail.
But, as I said, I was undeterred. In only a few days, myself and another train became acquainted. Survival was the key and my nerve had survived so much so that I am able to use another train, even, as I already said, after the twelfth train crash I had the misfortune to be involved in.
Being superstitious, (13 could be a very unlucky forecast; I decided to leave the trains alone for now, you know, just in case.
But my new pursuit is as dangerous really, if not more. I’ve already written off 10 racing cars and it’s still Monday, dunno, maybe I should stick to Mario Bros and Nintendo!
© tcmoon 2011 (2006)
As A Child. Q & A.
As a child, like most children, I loved fluffy little animal’s, sunny skies and smiling faces.
As a child, like most children, I wanted everyone to share the same experience of childhood happiness I did and learn to ignore any negative attributes, in truth, hoping that no-one endured the pain I suffered or saw others suffer.
As a child, like most children, I wanted to sing every day, to dance like I was happy, to be thankful for the goodness I had and meals everyday which I know many others forfeited, unfortunately as a matter of society’s global positioning.
As a child, like most children, I always knew my mother loved me unconditionally and would do her utmost to protect me despite the upsets we’d have tho’ they would be forgotten quickly and that, no matter what, my mother would always be the best mother in the whole wide world!
As a child, like most children, I never wanted to grow up and leave behind all those childhood dreams and perfections of play, when imagination didn’t exceed the boundaries beyond which reality was ready to strike us all down and shatter all illusions I had envisaged ‘real’ life to be.
And, as a child, like most children, I knew there was always someone special waiting for me, just as mother told us. I didn’t know who she was and wasn’t certain I’d meet any time soon, if indeed at all. And whether I’d know who she is.
And her too.
As a child, like most children, happiness wasn’t something to chase, it was always there and as a child, I, like most children, was the only one qualified to recognise it because it wasn’t dressed up in perfume, flowers, love and conditions.
As a child, like most children, I believed life would be like childhood, tho’ somehow, I would never actually grow up. Nor need to.
As a child, like most children, I saw Grandad smoking cigarettes and nicked a puff, swearing then never to smoke myself.
No matter what.
As a child, like most children, that “love” thing was always taboo and a bit ‘icky’ and the thought of kissing girls when football could be played was a no-no. And even when football wasn’t to be played, the very thought abhorred us all. (boys anyway).
As a child, like most children, war was just a game that everyone played, much like cowboys and indians, where nobody actually died or was hurt.
As a child, like most children, the “love” thing amounted as far as the sharing of bubble gum. “Real” love of course meant the bubble gum had only been chewed a few times...
As a child, like most children, going for a walk to local woods or the river or through country lanes was an adventure and never dangerous. And those ‘funny men in raincoats’ that mother always warned us about were never a real danger because, as children, we never went anywhere alone. And if we did, the ‘war cry and SOS’ were the same one call and could be heard in secret code, invisible to adults, the world over and the child would soon be rescued.
And, as a child, like most children, the end of the world was something we read in comic books. It would never actually happen. And why did we think that? Because we were children and still had our own lives to lead.
As a child, like most children, we always “fell in love” with our babysitter who was usually pretty and ten years older. We always had fun with them and laughed a lot. (I did!)
And, as a child, like most children, the world was, very simply, perfect and a delight to be a part of. We were aware there were bad people, bad things that happened but we always saw past the sadness, the devastation, the humanity and the broken hearts and lived happy existences.
And finally, as a child, like most children, although we didn’t always seem to be caring, we cared about other people without ever actually admitting it. (We were ONLY kids for goodness sake!)...
But, I DID grow up!
And as an adult, I’m glad it isn’t Christmas everyday. Not for the spiritual or humanity reasons but because by today’s standards, I’d be a very poor man because Christmas has lost its original message and has become totally commercialised, which is a real shame. I would, of course, welcome the former concept.
As an adult, I still love fluffy animals, sunny skies and faces upon faces of smiles. Luckily we still have most of all.
As an adult, I still like to share my happiness, and avoid any of the pain being passed along. Unfortunately, life simply isn’t like that. And I still see suffering tho’ now as an adult, I feel more responsible about it, even if totally detached. I don’t think we can do much other what we do, to avoid it or change it. If only...
As an adult, I do still sing every day. Dancing is now a thing of the past but I am thankful for what I have even if sometimes we seem to be ungrateful, deep inside, we rarely are. I hate to waste anything because of knowing that, someone, somewhere in the world would be eternally grateful for whatever I might consign to the garbage, knowing too that, through no fault of their own, they suffer because of where they live.
As an adult, I am fully aware of how much my mother loved us, moreso now that she has passed away. Growing up we see and feel things differently, even with mothers, there are arguments that you never hold any score by, until you grow older and remember the things you said that could have been so hurtful to her and yet, she never let on and loved you just as much. Tho’ she has gone, I know she’s around watching over No 1 son. And she was, and is, the best mother in the world simply because, she was my mum!
As an adult, I, we, remember most of the things we dreamed about, what we’d be when we grew up into adults. And now we’re here, childhood seems a far off place we once frequented, but it isn’t. We remain children, it’s just our outlook that alters and we learn different aspects of life, alternative applications to bring into our live. Our imagination will always remain childlike to a degree, as adults we see the points we couldn’t see as children, those that, as a child, would have been difficult to achieve.
As adults, those same dreams and obstacles are somewhat easier to tackle, simply because our outlook has altered and we are able to apply different logic.
That special someone is always waiting for all of us, no matter how unlucky we may feel. One will know which is the “soulmate” but may choose to overlook it simply because of other things in life that, at the time, seem more important. It has been posed whether any one person could possibly have more than the one soulmate. Logically speaking, I don’t think there is that option because a soulmate basically means, friend to your soul, to share heaven and life. In that respect, in my opinion, there can be just the one. Although, it’s possible to believe one does have more than one. It’s then a case of deciding which is it. We all go through life, tasting different menus tho’ hardly ever settling on one delicacy simply because of the varied choice. Love can be like that. As children we see things in black and white. If we had chosen then, as a child, we’d probably pick the ‘right’ one first time of asking and for some, maybe that is, indeed the case. I believe I know who my soulmate is. And it was one I ‘dreamt’ of as child without actually meeting in the physical until much later in life. If it’s meant to be, it will be.
As an adult, most children can look back with fondness. Others are, and have not been, as lucky. There are things in my childhood that will remain unsaid. I have dealt with them. But I can also look back with a fondness that some people find difficult to comprehend considering the other things. But happiness isn’t just about things like Christmas or birthdays or parties, happiness isn’t an option you can choose to ignore, tho’ many do. Happiness is a physical being, albeit unseen as such. Happiness is about being able to be happy while the world burns around you. It’s about fluffy rabbits, soft kittens, ice cream, laughing, smiles, friends, family, love and sense of being. Happiness doesn’t have to be chased, it will come naturally, no-one is exempt. Sometimes one does need to open their eyes and their hearts to see and receive it. Apart from that, it’s there. Always;
As an adult I guess, to a certain degree, I have grown up. But growing up is about accepting responsibility, to guiding your children should you be lucky enough to have them, to looking at the world and seeing what you can offer it. By the same token, you don’t have to have grown up, not just to be an adult. There is no written constitution to adhere to, no formal guidelines to follow, it’s how you apply yourself to your own life and the lives of other. And if you can still remember running through open fields in the sunshine as a Spitfire pilot or some other sense of imagination, you haven’t forgotten childhood and you haven’t grown up because not only have you remembered those sun drenched fields, it made you smile to recall it. Growing up is something done by someone who forgot how to smile...
Seeing one’s Grandfather smoking a cigarette back then in our childhood was one, to begin with, of admiration. Strange how times change. But, it is different now and had we been furnished with the information our children were given, it would have been a habit to avoid. However, one still sneaked a puff on Grandad’s Woodbine, and, hated it! You swore then and there, you would never take up smoking. Of course, life doesn’t always mimic memory and attitudes change too.
Smoking, at least for me, was a social choice. It was a form of rebellion and one that we should have grown out of. But as we grew and got older, it became a second nature. Now many years later, I am taking the decision to stop. Not because I’ve grown up, children don’t really entertain the idea of cigarettes, no, it’s now once more, a social choice. It’s a health choice. Simple really. That is a part of me that pulled away from the child in me. Had all of me remained a child, y’know, skipping adolescence, maybe the smoking option would have been avoided. Who knows...
The opposite sex, in my case then, girls, were just other children who joined in our games. We hardly ever excluded girls from our ‘adventures’ mainly because they didn’t want that. (the equality reforms began young). They were included to play football, climb trees, wade through swamps, go fishing and lots of other things. We only omitted their inclusions in cowboys and indians because they said we were silly. And because they used to come up with stuff like “you’re a hero when you play Jesse James, I think I love you”. Oh yuk! That was the only time it was mentioned at about age 6 to 8 or so.
As adults, we looked back at the things girls used to say and if we did really like them. Well of course we did, after all, they shared their bubble gum. And if we really liked them, we gave them a bit back, after we’d chewed the flavour out of course, I mean, this was bubble gum we’re talking here, serious stuff. Best of all tho’, was them running off to tell their girly chums we’d given them a bit of bubble gum and they’d all huddle together giggling and pointing at me or us. That was the end of the love thing!
As adults, we are far more aware of the dangers that lurk on every corner. These days, unfortunately, society has become paranoid because of the dangerous people that now frequent our neighbourhoods. It is sad that life and community has come to the point it has, especially when I recall times we met the ‘old man of the woods’ that mother had told us to stay away from. But we were children and didn’t really digest how dangerous a situation could be, besides which, we had a secret code and were protected by our network which stretched all the way from our garden to, um, next door’s garden. But we were only a couple of miles away, so it wasn’t too bad should we need to call on our comrades. But the old man of the woods was an enigma, he didn’t seem to hurt anyone although a lot of adults at the times had tried to drive him from his shack in the woods. But to us boys and a couple of girls, he was an adventurous hero.
He told us stories of lands in the sky built on clouds and dressed in gold; of adventures in deserts in far off lands, and wild animals in dense jungles. He let us watch him cook rabbits he’d trapped, skinning it and putting over a small fire. We were in awe of him. But he never did us any harm and these days, there is so much prejudice to people who don’t look like what some see as harmless. Stereotyping has taken over and not all books should be judged by their covers. It’s the same with the elderly. Kids today forget that the elderly folks in our society are walking history books. They’ve seen it all, many have done it all and kids could learn so much from them. We did. We loved the stories about fierce battles, horse races on windswept beaches, sailing boats and loads of other things. These are things that, to a child, remain magical. And now as an adult, I try to do the same while at the same time, denying growing up!
As an adult, the pending end of the world became such a real factor in one’s thoughts. A lot of adults put a lot score by the facts in scientific terms concerning asteroids and other outer worldly objects that could, we’re reliably informed, catastrophically destroy the Earth in one, practically, fell swoop by crashing to Earth and creating death on a mammoth scale, wiping out all life on the planet.
We have no template to guide us only what archaeologists and historians have surmised that which has occurred in the past. Many people take heart from what they believe to be pure conjecture by these fraternities and yet others firmly believe, and hang on every word. When you are a child it becomes just a passing thought, to most anyway. I have to admit to thinking deeper about such things, actually imagining what I would do should the end come. My first thought being for my football and my family next and survival being the utmost emotions, inbuilt in every one of us. How odd that after so many years of studying such anomalies, I am less afraid of any impending doom than many others. I cannot explain why except to say that, perhaps, instead of worrying what might happen, concentrate on what I can make happen and through that, to make others happy, after all, my life may probably last this age and time again (fingers crossed eh) and as a mid-elder, I should be laying the foundations for the generations to come, remembered then as a pioneer of sorts that removed the fear of a quite probable occurrence to end history.
As an adult, oh yes, I remember my babysitter(s). At aged about 8, maybe 9, I fell in love with one, a girl who lived at the end of the street, she being about 16 then. And why? Because of the attention, because of the hugs one received that was apart from family members, although she was seen as part of our extended family. The other was around the same age grouping tho’ I remember little about her maybe because she didn’t mind us all that much as the first had. She was a good family friend and grew up, got married and had kids of her own. And I babysat her boys when I was 16. I was, still am, very fond of her. But both girls had some effect on my life in many respects, tho’ maybe a little hard to explain. So I won’t try...
As adults, we are, not only expected to but also do, look at the world with adult eyes although still have a yearning to ignore the sadness and badness and treat the world as what we see, have seen, as a child. That’s one part of growing up none of us really want nor expect to envisage.The perfection we revelled in has gone. The magic of Christmas now dissipated. The excitement of holidays, thronging with friends and dashing through life, seemingly, without a single care.
Unfortunately, reality does not allow such frivolity. Everything has to be serious, everything has to have a fine cutting edge that we have to respect to ensure not being cut. But we still have those moments we can slip back into a time we once enjoyed without fear, without pain and in general, without rules. The world really was our oyster and ours to do with as we will.
That has been demolished now. I think if more people viewed life as a journey rather than a task, the world could be such a better place. We could and should include more people, forget their colour, their language, creed or religion, they have become wanton obstacles, created barriers by people who refuse to integrate, turn away from those in need and prefer to make everything a conflict. That is sad testament to mankind, indeed, to humanity itself. I’m not saying everyone should follow the same credo, that wouldn’t work. The diversity of language and faith is what makes it appealing top those who choose to follow. But a sense of tolerance would make things so much better.
You see, as children, there was an innocence that couldn’t be measured, couldn’t be priced. In communities around the world, caste was often ignored or at least, overlooked, by children. I had many friends of several denominations, several nationalities. None of us were abusive to each other. None of us ridiculed which faith we were nurtured in and even if sometimes, some of us took stick for some things we did, it was soon forgotten. I joined a choir because I wanted to sing and because I was encouraged to by relatives. It wasn’t about attending church. That might sound awful but that’s how it was. I was respected because I sang and because I sang in church, no-one ridiculed me for that.
The church is one of the biggest factors in communities for bringing a community together. The other is probably pubs. But, for a few hours every week, people of varying nationalities came together, either to pray or sing and then join together in the pub. No prejudice. I’m talking about Anglican and Catholics who attended separate services but came together in the pub after and talked about football et al.
Children are like that, not the pub bit (well, not all of us hee hee) but put aside what children see as unnecessary differences, and join together as one band of kids. In the village I was raised in, we had football tournaments. Myself and two others organised the meetings and it was street versus street. A real mixed bag. But we enjoyed it and most of all, we enjoyed the fact that we could come together when some people in the village still saw the differences between families and people in general, because of colour mostly. It seemed puerile to fight when we knew we could have so much fun. And we did.
If only the world could adopt such a concept and put it into practice instead of all the bickering and killing because of caste, colour or religion. I know that might sound somewhat superfluous inasmuch it is a childlike vision, but then, that’s the entire thinking behind all of this, the childlike element, the innocence and the dismay that it cannot be implemented.
As an adult I still have such dreams. As a child those dreams began, only now I see the higher responsibilities of childlike thoughts but continue to think about the day that those dreams, mine and yours, could become reality.
And finally, now, as an adult, I see the world as it really is. As a child, to some extent, I saw the world through rose coloured glasses. Didn’t we all? But the world would do well to listen to the children. It is their innocence, as ours was, who nurture the greatest dreams, the best inventions as silly as they sometimes were and the ‘glue’ that could hold the world together.
I have always maintained, to a lot of people when I was ‘counselling’, especially concerning children, to listen to your child. It’s an easy concept, it’s acceptable and comprehensible. Far-fetched ideas are not as left field as we once might have imagined and we must also remember, no matter what we do, or how we envisage the world and its future, the children ARE that future. We will pass on the future to our young. We should listen to them, find out what they want, how they want to live their lives. We must do it before it’s too late and they have no world to inherit.
As a child, like most children, I believed there was good in everyone and those inherently blighted by badness, could be helped (converted).
As an adult, like most adults, I believe still, there is good in everyone and those inherently bad were just given the wrong road to follow and they can be helped if they so wish and return to the human race, welcomed as friends.
As a child I didn’t really believe in myself. As an adult I believe in myself as I was when I was a child.
Here endeth the message.
© tcmoon 2011 (2009)
Brushes, Scrubbers, Dead Planets and Brillo Pads…
Devon N. Whyte was like any other, ordinary, travelling salesman except when it came to the travelling bit. Devon travelled far and wide, thin and fat, long and short. But moreover, it was what his ‘selling commodity’ was that captured the true spirit of a marketeer, a travellin’ salesman in the truest sense or form, and he was on form. Devon, like any other salesman on the road, had a briefcase, a laptop and samples; loads of samples. He also carried the ‘real McCoy’, that is the jen-you-whine artickle.
Brushes that swept the unseen dust, non-abrasive pan scourers that left the kitchen utensils complemented with an image of the user, 23rd century Vim that regarded a shine harder than diamonds and brighter than an Alpha Centaur-an caustic supernova. As well as a mop or two; he’d be yer guy, yer man, yer very own tickety-bob-boo, non-raffelic, unimposing but a prefect perfect salesman all the same.
But, what did Devon sell?
Dead planets.
Dead planets? Not much call for them is what I immediately hear you thinking by way of Devon’s mop looking telepathic contorting Brillo pad. Of course, you’d be right. I mean, whom who wants to own an ackjewel defunct derided deceased no more dead planet? Something with absolutely nothing going for it, no future, no growth, definitely not an investment for anyone with an ounce of nouse, yeah, sell it to a Frenchman, but I digest, gress, wouldn’t it, tho’ be a great topic of debate, a talking point on a drunken Friday night in Molly Malone’s dry bar on IO, Jupiter’s second moon, halfway between here and kingdom come. OK, Pluto to the unwashed, uninitiated and slovenly idiotic, all of which, I might add, might I add, have purchased Pluto from Devon, all fifty three thousand, seven hundred and forty nine of them! Devon coolly purloined ninety three pulsar ceptiks (equal to about a zillion billion trillion earth dollars back in 1922) EACH! And Pluto isn’t even a planet, it’s an ice nodule and due to universal warming, no doubt caused by the onset of Dubya’s 21st century plans of dumping all the exhausts from the Earth into the space just outside that atmos’, it’s a whole charabanc lot smaller, put it this way, Jenna Bush would need a few for her liquor now….
So what do ya think of Devon now? Bit of a ladies man, bit of can man perhaps, gift of the gab, kissed the blarney an’ all that stuff but overcharging not just someone but a host of peeps for something that is, to all intents and porpoises, dead as a Monty parrot pre-wrapped by a python….
I first met Devon on Nizxy42b in the 44th quadrant, third left of Alpha Centauri supernova and straight on till morning for those in the buff over Star Trek which, televised in the late 20th century, projecting life in the 23rd century, which was wholly wrong as we’ve now passed that corden, (I know he's a big fella but...) and we’ve arrived and there isn’t a damn Vulcan to be seen which just goes to prove how well Devon does his work and why he takes it all so seriously. I knew him when he started out. Just a tea boy with acme, no, not a misspelling, his poppa left him acme after the coyote dyed and Devon built on it. He was still a gimpy pimply undimply geek and many condemned his start, said it couldn’t be dun, that no-one could pull it off, Devon pulled it off, hence why the coyote was dyed and Devon then sold sand and oil to the Arabs, not only that, he sold them the service stations and fire buckets that went with it on the old Derbyshire road in east Lothian, Hampshire, that’s new 2 Hampshire, not to be confused with Hampshire in England or new Hants in the states or Hampshire 47th quadrant, 15th moon of GK12 in the sillisossage section outside the go no zone of beta blocker A, which, it just so happens, occupies a place in the federation of united states where hales a us male and Devon has done a bit of cushti business….
Devon, it has to be said, was a bit of a Momma’s boy. It has to be said that breast feeding usually halts after a few months but Devon kept producing and Momma kept biting. Devon had no idea who his father was, is or has been. He was, allegedly, a short pull for a tenor into a plastic Beatle while viewing a pawn magazine featuring none other than the three headed siren Mzzzzzzz Herzegovnina 2227 also known as miss knock three times I’ll come when you’re ready from Kentucky blood river blue, outer Mongolia where, it has to be said, Devon sold a rather large and unfamiliar (for these ‘ere parts) seafaring vehicle to a desert nomadic hoarseman who tried to re-enact a 20th century paradigm to do with the Jamaica oblong later to become the Bermuda triangle after Atlantis, the eastern corner, sank without Trace (or Sharon for that matter). Trace being sister to Mzzzzzzz H and also known as Big Trace with whom this journalist had a mad passionate 93 year fantasy affair with our song sung Dan wotsit’s ‘sometimes when we touch’, the word somehow being substituted with ‘if only’ but enuff about me tho’ I would like to add, to let you all know that I run a formidably trustworthy taxi service from here to the edge of eternity and back if you’re not unlucky like 2 guys initialled G and T who floated off on the cosmos ( didn’t even know that airline was still flying) someplace far from here and are probably shuffling papers and building birthing pools with Lego.
“So what we gonna call da baba” Devon’s Dada who wasn’t actually there in body (or spirit either really, just a plastic Beatle). “Not Alfred” came a farting, sorry, furtive reply from Momma in almost a Wispa. “Da what? Da van?” called back da Dada “Yeaheeee. Nor Bert” the Momma croaked in reply. And so Devon Norbert Whyte was born, or at least, made up which was quite amazing that a sap full of seamen could da speaka dat way. Someone should come again but da Momma was mortuarised and so Devon N became an only child, which is where I came in and decided to do this article on the whys and wherefores of Devon Norbert Whyte’s successful career up to and including, today, today being his very last day as a practising salesman or even a qualified one, but his totally and very last sale was just made. I was the purchaser, I own it.
Planet Earth. Thank you and goodnight/bye…..
© tcmoon 2011 (2007)
IS A SENSE OF HUMOUR NOW ILLEGAL?
What has occurred in the world where smiling is almost been outlawed? And having a joke with next guy is to be banished into history, something that our leaders seem intent on doing.
We know what happened in history. We know now it was wrong. Maybe if we, the people of today, had been around back then, many of those “crimes” would never have been committed, though I think that’s hardly likely as our voices are barely heard these days let alone in the days when only the rich, landed gentry, noblemen and royalty were running the whole caboodle.
But, in this, the 21st Century, haven’t we kinda let everything runaway from us. People are demanding compensation for this, that and anything they think they can get away with.
On British TV screens, we actually have big time commercial’s, ENCOURAGING people to claim compensation for everything from slipping on a pavement to taking on corporations because their windows are dirty from the dust of industry.
One commercial in particular irks me. A woman is walking through a lobby of a hotel or building complex and slips on a damp patch not cleared away totally, I’m guessing by the early morning shift cleaners. She proudly announces she was paid more than five thousand pounds for her trouble.
Excuse me but, what happened to watching where you are going?!!!
Another ad shows a chap climbing a ladder which consequently collapsed beneath him and he hurt his wrist. He said he had been given the WRONG TYPE OF LADDER yet he is an alleged tradesman, NO tradesman worth his salt would climb the WRONG type of ladder. If I have been judge; case dismissed, no award. Good bye!
This is the state of play in the 21st Century. Everyone wants to screw somebody else. Someone else ALWAYS has to pay!
I have seen and heard about several incidents where people have been upset by others telling jokes that involve certain words. OK, so pertaining to laughing at some people, it is time we grew up but is really necessary to cause carnage, start mini-wars and burn cities to the ground because someone, whether inadvertently or not, said something someone else didn’t like? Grow up!
It seems now, whenever anyone undertakes some things, the lawyers are beady eyed and waiting for the carrion to fall, then in they go, guns blazing and taking out the money. Some of these same lawyers defend criminals in court for a varied number of crimes and get their client freed, some of whom then go on to commit yet more crime or worse, actually kill someone.
Is that justice for the innocent victims? The lawyers get a hefty fee and they’re happy. Do they care if they’ve defended a known murderer or rapist and got them off? Of course not, they did it for the money. And that is what has happened to the world we live in. Money! Money speaks louder than anything else. Money creates power tho’ power corrupts – ultimately). So long as those with money get more, they will continue to abuse their positions of power. Tho', whether they'll live long enough to spend is another matter. Idiots!
When we were ‘allowed’ to have fun, even if it meant poking fun at other people, the world was a better place but a few and it is just a few, people, do-gooders, decided that the trend cannot continue and set out to abuse the Human Rights charter by taking some of the rules and distorting them. Now, as a result, people dare not even speak to some people of ethnic birth because there could be a crime in the making. People watch TV programmes and then complaint it's content was offensive right after. What's wrong with the off button. Or switching stations. Again. Idiots!
The British sense of humour is dry and sardonic. Get used to it. We ain’t gonna change it, it IS us.
Religion has had it’s troubles over many centuries. It has been the complete cause of loss of life on major scales. What happened to harmony and dog eat dog? Recently the Pope read from an ancient holy text and world war three almost began. Because one party was offended by what was written ABOUT THEM centuries before, it wasn’t something new or invented. An Irish comedian named Dave Allen made religion his watchword and joked about it incessantly. I don’t recall seeing thousands of Roman Catholics demonstrating and burning effigies of him after one of his funny shows. Everyone saw it for what it was, fun. He meant no harm, not at all, he was able to joke about because the followers of that religion allowed him to. And I could name so many comedians who are funny but offensive to some. If you don't like their form of comedy, don't watch them. Don't buy tickets to their shows or their DVD's. But people do so who are the idiots? Not the comics, they're getting revenue...
Political correctness has become an industry all of it’s own. People are not allowed to live their lives in their adopted countries because of age old beliefs. OK, so that’s OK to a degree but if the individual in question wants to live by the rules of the adopted country. They should be allowed to. They should not have to live in fear of reprisals pertaining to age old literature that demands they live in a particular manner. And they should not murdered because they can and want to be allowed to think for themselves. There is nothing humane about things like that. If a Westerner goes to live in say, an Arab state, they are expected to live strictly by their rules and traditions. Well, in Western countries, those who come to live should be allowed the same choices, to live as Westerners do, even if it may not be right or traditional. You cannot have one rule for one and another set for others. That’s why there’s no integration in communities. That’s why there’s so much discord.
Hatred is a sin in ANY religion so what’s going on? And comedy is a way of life. Dave Allen (and others) glued the two together. Comics don't set out to be offensive, OK, some do but in the main it isn't the comics who are offending but how their material is received and interpreted. Some like it. Some don't. That's life...
© tcmoon 2011 (2007)
An Historical And Truly Indomitable Revelation
Hot news. And, a very frightening discovery;
Bird song; beautiful isn’t it? But hold that thought. The way we look at our feathered friends has been, alarmingly, thrown into question. Once you have read this, you will never look at birds in the same light. EVER again!
I have this on good authority. Let me give a synopsis. Or an outline for those who don’t know what a synopsis is;
Bird song is subliminally hypnotic and now, surprisingly, according to a leading palaeontologist along with high ranking scientists who wish to remain anonymous, claim that, because most of you know (or should do if you 1) paid more f*****g attention in school lessons. 3) you’ve missed some of the best programmes about history and such and 3). Oh, there is no two.
Anyway, birds are direct descendants of dinosaurs. Yes, it’s true! Hard to believe I know and if you thought your neighbour was a bit loopy because he called his African Grey, Rex, now you’ll know why.
But I digress. The dinosaur world or, as is, the world we inherited, or, um, the bit ruled by dinosaurs, um, oh bugger….new paragraph…
But I digress. The… oh, did that bit, OK, well, we were or are told that, the dinosaur population was wiped out in one hit, by an errant asteroid that collided with the planet (Earth) about, well, some million years ago, no, more millions than that, probably before we were born, hee, hee, oh yeah, silly! Anyway, the dinosaurs were allegedly extinct-ed by this huge chunk of rock (from Blackpool?) that came from somewhere else I’ve never heard of (so, not Blackpool then). But my friends, new evidence proves beyond reasonable doubt that, there is more to this allegation that meets the eye, well, one of mine at least. (not the glass one!)
The dinosaurs, as some other leading scientists who do have public persona's but I’ve forgotten who they are and I can’t a***d to research them, claim that all of the dinosaurs did not perish and further to that hypothesis, there wasn’t even an asteroid, despite claims that the big hole found someplace in the world was in fact dug by Paddy Gregorian and his gang, commissioned by King George the 18th of French letters, near Swindon, who wanted a swimming pool and one of those hot tub things where jets of water shoot out and do, oooh, oooooh, oooooooh things to ya. Sorry. Back to the dinosaurs. The fire in the sky witnessed by our predecessors, the apes who wrote an account in “Adam's Times” 300 million BC so that we would know what really happened. Anyway, and I know a lot of you will be shocked. Or then again, maybe not, but, the alleged ‘asteroid’ was in fact, a spaceship. Yes I know, amazing news isn’t. Who said no?
The aliens aboard the spaceship, which had a femalien driving (omg!), actually crashed landed on Earth because she hadn’t pulled into the services east of Alpha Centauri, as advised, I HAVE to add, and, as a consequence, ran out of fuel and bounced off the moon, redirected then to Earth and came down somewhere now known as The Alien Spacecraft Mis-Landing Site. Get tickets by emailing someone who has them and go see this marvel.
I seem to have tangently strayed somewhat, just like the femalien one supposes…
Anyway, the crew of seven women and 28.000 other gender, decided to make the most of the trip and, fortunately for them, it was Bank Holiday Monday and everyone was by the seaside. They took the dinosaurs and enacted a gene that would remain in the jeanealogy of this species and subsequently eventually reappear and, through the magic of birdsong (I spoke of that earlier. Were you taking notice?) and bring power that would see a particular species of the future (as it would have been from then you understand) (why?) (cos we’re chatting in the past at present… duh!), allowing the commandeer to command these species like puppets and have them believe every word thus destroying the fabric of Mankind’s dominance and wanton abuse of the world. The precursor to these commandeers are, in fact, these aliens.
Their “heirs” are now known as – “politicians”. Remember that word, there may well be questions later. At my house!
Precursors to our feathered friends?
So when you hear birdsong on the cracking of dawn, be aware and alert, try not to listen too intently, close your minds so the messages cannot get through. Do not be fooled. Birds are pretty but they are dinosaurs in sheep’s clothing, well, no, that’s not quite right but it’s a cliché and I like clichés. Oh, I’m sorry, my wife says it isn’t spelt like that, that which I like.. (So long as it isn't made with liquid German eggs...)
Over to you sergeant…
© tcmoon 2011 (2007)
Management
How do you get on with your work colleagues? Do you feel a part of any team? Are you working where you are at present
simply to “bring home the bacon” as it were? Do you have enough confidence to be a part of a working team and be able to bring something to that “table” and be a cog? Do you feel you contribute enough or if not, know how you could contribute more?
Perhaps you entered by a different door and see yourself as something ‘better’ than those around you. Are you a “brown noser”, y’know, a sneak, someone that, should another of your ‘team’ make an error, you run off to tell teacher or matron or whom-so-ever is the designated leader? Are you someone who constantly needs to score points over your colleagues and find any excuse to get them into strife? Do you find you have a generous streak of jealousy that has discarded any scruples or morals that you may once have harboured? The points you “may” score will, in the final analysis, see you outside the window looking back in at the running of a well oiled machine that works just as well whether you were included in the team or not.
If you ticked ‘yes’ to any or all of those boxes, wouldn’t it just be simpler, easier, to dump whatever misguided pride and sense of ephemeral duty you seem to think is important, or, at least, more important in your consequential rise to the top of some imaginary ladder you feel you might be ascending, to join the team. To make yourself a worthy colleague and respected for your input not your constant sniping? Or would you rather ride the precipitation to the bottom of the heap and sacrifice what little you may have gathered to now? If any of this pertains to you in whatever shape or form then I’ve already second guessed you and the guilt you feel hurts and you blame me. So sue me!
This isn’t a vehicle for getting at anyone, it’s simply an exercise to open the doors that remain closed despite being able to see past them, and never reaching that other side. To do that, it’s better done as a collective and a being part of a collective means being part of a team and if you cannot adjudge to be just a team member then you need to be in employment that will pay you to do a job, to encourage spying on colleagues and be single minded about usurping any guv’nor you have and sitting in their seat!
The purpose of my involvement here is to maybe help negotiate a tricky path that mayhap you might have missed or taken a wrong fork. To perhaps point out the benefits of working in close proximity with others and be an integral part of the team with a good working mentality. Remember, you chose this job or profession, it wasn’t forced upon you. If you feel nonvocational, perhaps you should look where your talents are better suited but naturally and, as a matter of course, this isn’t my intention in writing this. I don’t know you, any of you so it could be my view is warped. However, as a person with managerial experience and shop floor working practices, including unions, I know how it feels on both tiers. But even as a manager, I never delegated a task I would not have readily done myself or had already done. I had people working for me. We worked together and were successful. That’s teamwork.
It doesn’t mean stepping down a level, it means bringing others up to a level but without patronisation. Teamwork is about everyone bringing to the table, their particular form, brand or skill or experience or sense that will endeavour to benefit all who come under that ‘umbrella’ of teamwork.
Being IN a team has its own benefits. Maybe you are a shy person, someone who finds it hard to mix. You’re new and don’t know anyone, or because it’s a new job, you’re not quite aux fait with all the working practices. You won’t be blamed for that, at least, so long as you confront it and ask. It doesn’t demean you if you don’t know and if you are prepared to ask, you will be learning. But you MUST be prepared to take that step. Overall, that in itself will win both respect and friends. Overall, you will have helped and be helping, the team. That’s teamwork.
Teamwork also means depending on each other to ensure good results. If one of the team decides to go AWOL at a crucial time, the entire team will either fail or be reprimanded for some reason or another. So that implies ‘pulling your own weight’. A team can only succeed on the strength of its entire team. But by usurping the team by some of the aforementioned reasons, doesn’t do your team any good and you don’t do yourself any favours in the long run. This is because of the ‘crying wolf’ tactic. You probably know the story of the girl who cried wolf too many times and when the wolf really came, no-one believed her.
That tale highlights the simplistic criterion of being honest giving your colleagues the option of supporting you and you applying reciprocation. Teamwork will only succeed if all involved are prepared to fulfill their part in the scheme. It matters little which industry you are in, the same factor can be applied across the entire spectrum but I’d like to draw attention in particular, to one section a societal factor, healthcare.
I choose healthcare as an example in this exercise because my wife works in a care/nursing home. Nothing is more dangerous in such a place when a member of a team fails to do their duty to full capacity because it is the team that is let down, but moreover, the “product”, the people in their care. So for this purpose I shall attempt to cover this particular field of healthcare and people. And the care thereof.
In the healthcare profession, teamwork is important because it saves lives. Firstly and ultimately, lives are at stake and any indiscretion can lead to someone’s demise, more especially in such an environment and remember also, in this day and age, when several diseases are so virulent, it could be so easy to cross that line and bring about problems. Don’t forget also, that one day, you might well depend on a team working together that may have your own life in their hands, albeit at different stages and degree of importance, you might well be depending on teamwork. Be the catalyst now and maybe you could be helping yourself by whatever precedent you set now.
So, you’ve taken a job. In healthcare. You are learning, studying too, to further your qualifications. Did you apply for the job because there was nothing else you felt you could do? Did you take the job because you felt you had something to offer the professions, that you see yourself as someone with a caring nature and you want to pass that on? Or did you sign up because it seems like easy money and doesn’t seem to be too difficult a job? A job! A job?
This kind of work is not just a job. You have to have mettle and I’ll be honest, I couldn’t do it. Not for any particular reason or that I don’t care, I do, but this kind of work doesn’t appeal to me. And that’s why it is vocational. One cannot do this job simply for money, if that’s the case, then you are a wee bit on the callous side. Employment of this nature requires, demands even , an attitude of calm and caring. Remember, if you will, the elderly, or some of them, are babies in decline. They make the same demands but are at the opposite end of the spectrum. You certainly wouldn’t lose patience with a baby, a baby doesn’t know what it’s all about. They are unable help themselves.
Members of the older generation have reverted to that aeon. As their lives near the end, their faculties are derided. They find it difficult to help themselves. That’s why they have been put in your charge. Just as if they were a baby.
I know you see an older person and your sense of logic narrates constantly that these people have done their life and should be able to help themselves, they know more about life than you. But, it’s not so simple, but moreover, just like children, these elderly folk are still people, they comprehend everything you say, every action is logged into those fading memory banks. They should be treated with absolute kindness and the utmost level of care. You have become their surrogate parents. You must act accordingly.
Every so often we read of physical abuse against members of the elder generation, both outside and within the confines of places where these people lay their trust, usually carried out by singular persons who are just ‘doing a job’.
I cannot reiterate enough that this kind of employment is not just a job, you need to want it. You need some kind of vocational attitude, a sense of caring and a real desire to want to help those who are, for whatever reason, now unable to help themselves. You have been charged with that request. As have your colleagues. Your teammates.
If there happens to be an error, don’t run off to matron to spill the beans, roll your sleeves up and get on in and help. The opposite person would most probably do the same for you if you found yourself in a similar situation, whether they like you or not, it is their sense of fairness and determination to see their charges (or yours) are treated with the utmost levels of care.
In most cases in these situations (i.e. care/nursing homes) the general workforce will all know their places and tasks. If one person decides to call time on someone else and makes it difficult to work with them , the equilibrium will be warped out of shape and the whole side gets let down. But more importantly, the resident is let down and as the residents are the basic quotient of this form of industry, you’ve lost already.
These ‘jobs’ are hands on, full attention always and demands a high level of care. It doesn’t matter if they’ve paid to stay there or not, that isn’t your problem, that’s what management and admin is for. Your task is the ‘shop floor’ and assisting each other to ensure the best possible care for those people who are under your care. That’s what should be upper in your minds at all time. As well as ways of helping each other within your team. Working to the same directive, singing to the same tune as it were. The elderly folks deserve that. The elderly deserve respect.
These people may and some, will have been involved in a war. They will have worked for most of their lives to ensure that your country is free and sensible and can endure a proper sense of camaraderie. I don’t think that’s too difficult a task.
These people have lived and seen all that life can either have thrown at them or in the interim, enjoyed. These people DESERVE to be cared for in their twilight years. If you are in the charge of such persons, don’t have an overview that seems to dictate “must we”, see it as a privilege. OK, some of them might well be cantankerous and sometimes obscenely rude. ‘getting back’ at them creates only more problems, for you both. Be patient, it isn’t always their own fault these people have such an attitude. They haven’t lived through the permissive or outgoing society you will have been raised in. Rules, and attitude, were so much different when these people were young. Bear that in mind. It might be difficult. THEY might be difficult. But, if it were a child, would you get angry and ‘throw a wobbly’? course not. You would be understanding, one would hope at least, and try to discover the problem or cause for such behaviour.
Older persons may have afflictions that deny them the personal freedoms they once had, the mind to think, the comprehension to understand. Diseases and conditions that greatly affect older people do NOT show that person in a real light, as you might have been led to believe. It means their normal faculties and functions have been warped out of synch’ and frustration is the result, simply because, they know they could ‘do it’ before but do not understand why they cannot now.
That’s where your care and understanding comes in. You can play a huge part in the ongoing life and endurance of these persons. But you cannot do it alone. So you have to be a team player and no team is about one person, no matter who tells you it might be. If you have a leader, they will be leader for a reason. Experience. If you are willing to learn, experience will help. But you cannot teach UNTIL you have the same level of experience, and, all in all, competence to carry out duties that are second nature to those in the profession because they have the qualities to do so and want to
be.
You won’t learn it all from a book. You cannot learn HOW to care, that is something you must already have and are willing to expand on it. If you don’t have that care I’m afraid you are in the wrong profession.
Ask yourself a question; if asked, would any of you answer a plea and travel to Africa or India or China or any disaster zone an help care for victims? It’s a big ask but it is NOT an adventure! Do you care enough? Could you care enough?
If you answered no, it isn’t a problem. It doesn’t lessen your character but when thinking of that then reviewing what you are currently doing, do you have any of those caring qualities necessary to do the job you are currently employed to do?
And back to the profession you are in now, caring, that’s CARING for the elderly and/or sick. I reiterate, the elderly will have lived full lives. They will have worked very hard in their younger days. Many may have endured, suffered or served in a war. You can NEVER imagine what that feels like although for those of you from various parts of the world, may have been involved and/or seen conflicts that have occurred in modern days. But for the people you currently care for in what is, primarily THEIR home, you are so able because of and not in spite of, the sacrifices THEIR generation will have made. Or the personal attributions they themselves endured in order to secure YOU the freedom to complain about them, if that is the case.
In tribal outlets, throughout history, the elders were ALWAYS seen as the ‘sages’, the wise ones. Nothing happened unless the ‘elders’ approved it. Society has forgotten how that works. People are not aware of such criterion. How do you think the elderly feel when they constantly disrespected by the younger generation. And, when you yourself reach such an age, should you be lucky enough to do so, how will YOU feel if the next young generation rain insult upon you, filling your world with trepidation and fear.
Should you have to live the remainder of your years in an institution such as the one you are employed by, how would you like to be treated?
Treat others as you would like to be treated. It’s a lesson worth learning. And then you will have the experience, to teach.
This is not an attack on any person or persons or department or section of society. It’s an overview. If you feel bad after reading, maybe you should be looking deeper within yourself. Deep inside you have the capability to care. Everyone does.
It’s how we choose to conduct ourselves that make all the difference. Not just to oneself but to the entire spectrum of society.
Thank you reading.
© tcmoon 2011
We Must Change...
The world, not just the planet, is evolving and we, and by we, I mean mankind, have to evolve or at least, change with it or be left behind in some unsolicited void of under achievement and a wastrel's existence.
All the lessons are there for us to be educated with, by and we must take hold with both hands. If we are to exist further in this place we call life, we must accept the changes, run with them and ensure everyone, EVERYONE takes advantage.
The future is and remains so, unseen, no matter what psychics and others of their ilk say. We can predict the future but only if we are there alongside ensuring the roads we follow are the roads we have chosen.
That the choices we make have indeed been, our choices. Everyone must be educated. Not just the so called three 'R's but in every aspect of life, moreso the simple condiment of society and the integration, acceptance and ongoing fellowship of society in it's entirety.
Mankind and Mother Nature are transient opposites. We, colloquially, have the notion that the planet and indeed Mother nature, have all the resources needed to ensure that mankind survives as the prominent 'intelligence' on the planet Earth.
How many agree? I would hazard a guess at, not that many. We look at global warming from two aspects on the spectrum, one being that is 'we' who have, and are creating the warming of the planet, while on the other hand, there are others who say the planet warming is a matter of course in the evolutionary cycle of life itself.
In my own opinion, both are right. The evolutionary cycle will continue to evolve, as it has done for billions of years, a time that despite all the scientific approaches and resolutions, we can never imagine, nor grasp such a concept in or one such a time scale.
By blaming ourselves we go someway to creating a guilt complex across the board in which mankind pledges to change their concept of living and as thus, lessens mankind's impact on the warming issue and therefore resolve some of that self guilt.
Would it make any difference if everyone stopped using cars or electricity, in fact, all power energy? Would it make a difference if we all ensured not to create so much waste? Who can answer? All we can do is hazard a guess and we'd probably still be wrong.
But, the energy issue won't happen overnight. People have become dependent on energy. I'm no different nor claim to be. I'm using electricity by writing this on my computer...
Mother Nature is in a destructive cycle. We cannot alter that, we don't have either the power or the knowledge.
Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, floods, drought are all ensuing and killing mankind indiscriminately. I say this because, like it or not, these disasters seem to occur in the more densely populated areas of the planet. In that concept, mankind can and must change. To save lives.
But mankind, in his torrential thirst for progress continues to build in areas subject to regular earthquakes. To hurricanes and tornadoes, for goodness sake; We build and live beneath volcanoes, somehow assured that there'll be no eruptions this side of the new millennium. Perhaps good sales talk but certainly not true simply because, we just don't know.
It is now I come to the part for which I originally began to write; teaching our children, for the future.
I read in one weekend's newspapers that, in Afghanistan, girls are prone to acid attacks and sometimes death because they wish to go to school or in the very least, be educated. Now while I'm not telling nations how they should be ongoing in there respective cultures, I do see a problem with the education of children. And that ALL children have a distinct and utter human right to be educated. If they don't then the future of the world, indeed, the survival of mankind is simply scattered to the winds.
To be able to build a certain future for our children, ALL our children, those children need to be educated, not, as I said earlier, on just the three 'R's but in life itself.
The Afghanistan example is exactly that, just an example but to a modern world, that kind of treatment is no longer acceptable, mostly because of communication. Or non-communication as it stands.
When we were all young, children, not many of us cared for much about what went on around the world just as long as it didn't interfere in ours, encroach our borders of relative safety, our 'cocoon' if you like.
There was no internet, no mobile phones, no computers. The only news we ever saw was what was allowed to be broadcast on TV and even then it seemed unreal when we saw some events in the world. But that would have been, in most families, how the parents wanted it to be, to keep their children unafraid and live their lives, as children do, in a proper and deserved childhood.
That doesn't happen now. Children grow up far too quickly. They are exposed to the world they live in and ride on the cusp of the oblivion that could befall them, and us, at any moment.
I remember learning about the two World Wars as a child. I never envisaged it ever occurring again because my parents and grandparents said it wouldn't happen again. They would, that was their job. And as children we knew they'd always be there to help us and keep us safe.
I was a child with an avid imagination and learning about the world fascinated me. But I was always fearful whenever the word 'nuclear' was used and in whatever concept.
This was a real fear and all we were taught or gleaned information about it, was that it would end the world and killing everyone in one fell swoop. As I grew I learned and understood more and accepted it easier.
Children these days seem oblivious to what could happen. That's not always a bad thing, but they still need to be educated on, for example, a nuclear war, because of how to avoid it and, anything leading up to it as the Cold War will have taught a lot of us.
We don't trust each other. We don't trust anyone, sometimes with damned good reasoning but we, mankind, should all take a step back and look at what we are doing to ourselves. The end of the world scenario isn't such a fantasy in which Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger will jump to our defence and be all time heroes, real world champions. Hollywood takes care of that but has no bearing on the real outcome is such a conflict should ever rise.
As the planet begins it's natural changes, mankind will, to some extent, fall foul or see the change. It's not happening in a few days, months or possibly even years, it is a progression. But, a lot of our children, and theirs, will see the changes and maybe even fall foul of them.
That's why today, children NEED to be educated. It isn't a whimsy or even a storm in a teacup, it is a reality that none of us can escape from, as real as life itself, our lives...
In what is titled 'The Third World', there is real cause for concern inasmuch as the Third World has practically all of the victims and almost every disaster that occurs around the planet.
Floods and earthquakes occur regularly and add to the already abject poverty by which these people are stricken. Sure, charities are there, digging in, trying to help while we all at home, chuck a few quid or dollars their way and ease our consciences by insisting to ourselves that we have, done our bit.
But it is never enough nor will it ever be. These places are some the most afflicted places on the planet and with all the riches that corporations and governments have piled up in bank vaults, no let up is in sight.
Charities are, mostly working alone. And suffering too. People, volunteers mostly have gone into these stricken areas and end up losing their lives, just for wanting to a bit to ease the suffering of million souls who have never had the opportunity to help themselves.
Notes:
Your child could be the genius that changes the future for the better. To achieve such a status, maybe, parents today should be setting out their stalls to which the children will roll on from and create a new prospective AND prospectus which will enable the future generation(s) to, to use a cliche, 'save the world from ourselves'...
I leave the rest up to you...
© tcmoon 2011
