Whistle blowers

Whistle blowers are sadly needed these days to bring corporations to book when they begin to feed their bottom line, with little respect for the stated aims of the organisation. Sadly the whistle blower becomes a pariah in the company and their life made a living hell for speaking out of turn irrespective of the validity of the whistle blowers case. 
The power of the powerful to close ranks and protect their own when threatened, in turn, threatening not only the whistle blower but other staff who might be tempted to support the blowers claim. Important things are hidden and bad, even dangerous practice allowed to continue.


Should there be legislation brought in to make it a duty to report things which in the organisation are deemed wrong and perhaps against the law. The Stafford Hospital was full of terrible practice, the Residential Home that allowed old people to be manhandled are two cases where a whistle blowing, whether mandatory or voluntary, would have eradicated the harm being done. But of course these events are at the far end of a spectrum and the danger that vindictive claims made by employees, would have a platform to launch all kind of claim and counter claim. 
There is also the emotional fact that it can create a subculture within the organisation that values litigation over communication and we know the damage to the greater society that the lawyers have created in offering the spectre of ambulance chasing. The legal profession are well versed in padding their income stream, to allow them another opportunity to fleece us once again seems a retrograde step.

What is needed is better protection for the whistle blower who perhaps, in the initial stage, be allowed anonymity whilst an independent body investigate the claim and if judged valid and a case is made, then the whistle blower as a witness, becomes known, they must be granted legal protection against vindictive action within the firm.          

The badge of being civilised

Having lost our credit rating from Moodeys, the credit agency on the basis that growth will continue to be inhibited, for at least a decade whilst our indebtedness will continue to remain high.
Growth is effected by the confidence which leaders of business  commit funds, which they hold on their balance sheets, to invest.
The other major factor is an overall lack of confidence in our main market, Europe.   In the private market, companies can not be forced to invest and our Government has no money to kick start the economy without raising our indebtedness to the sovereign fund market.
Well that's it then, game and match.
The money men through the guise of the banking industry developed a methodology that couldn't fail. Debt could be traded and therefore should be allowed, even encouraged, to grow so that ever greater profits could be made by the banks.
The bubble burst and we are where we are.
The money that had been pumped into the banks to build up their balance sheets, (money that came from us the tax payer), is not released to much of business' and then only on the most stringent terms.  The money held by the larger business organisations will not to be reinvested until there is a favourable upturn and is rather hoarded on their balance sheet. 
This only leaves the National indebtedness. 
How much easer to trim the Welfare State, reduce the "handout" and, low and behold, the books will balance. 
Of course there is a snag. "Business" now depends on these "handouts", (in the form of "benefits") paid to the poor  to bolster the low wages economy and continue the myth of self sufficiency that this ideologue, Capitalism, post Thatcher has created.

How deep will they hack into the fabric of the underlying safety net which we have become to accustomed to claim, is a badge of being civilised !!          

The Gay lobby

Watching the interrogation of a Catholic Bishop answering questions to a Select Committee of Parliament on a bill going through Parliament on Same Sex Marriage. I was disgusted at the sarcasm and thinly veiled contempt which the parliamentarians showed this translucent faith held by the Bishop.   
I am not a supporter of the Catholic Church but I hate bulling.
Gay people seem to be everywhere, when I say everywhere, I haven't met many on the "building site" but they seem to fill many rolls in the media and are a noisy segment in Parliament. This Secular lobby is quite brutish and its this brutishness that gets my blood to rise.
The Catholic Church has a chequered history but putting these aberrations  to one side for a moment, their belief in God and the word of God as passed down in the bible, is resolute. In this world of passing fashions and immediate gratification, the church stands like a lighthouse to the customs and beliefs  which people in a past, (not long ago), held with the surety that the sun rise.
There is now a growing secular movement which, because of their position and their power to postulate their views, makes then become the lead voice in the debate. They brook no opposition and are snarlingly indifferent to the views of the believers.
The issue of homosexuality has been steamrollered into our conscience and we have been made afraid to voice our opinion if deemed to run against the gay lobby.
There was a time when our views were just our views. We could hold them, we could voice them, so long as there was no malice or hurt involved. We now have reached the stage where the reason for protecting the homosexual lobby has succeeded to such an extent that it is now the non-homosexual that needs protection.
It is extremely difficult for me to accept that homosexuality is "normal", which is what we are asked to believe. There has been the smokescreen of love.  this has become the basis of understanding that people of the same sex can love each other and therefore this makes the union normal.
I think that evolution has shown that the animal kingdom has done a pretty good job of developing the structure and design, of the male and the female, to carry out their very necessary ability to procreate and ensure the continuance the species.  Gays in  mimicking  the sexual act have to resort to what I would consider an abnormal act and in doing so can only be described as abnormal.
The Catholic Church seems to be the only Christian church which stands firm on this matter whilst their fellow churches seem keen to follow the crowd, although I would contend that the actual "crowd", not the crowd projected by a biased media, has a lot of the catholic sensibility on this matter.                 

A complex society

The poster boy Oscar Pistorius has come to the end of his athletic career in a very sad way even more so his girl friend who paid the ultimate price with her life.
 Oscar Pistorius was a guy who, although tense, was always careful to project an image of equanimity towards his fellow athletes given the unusual situation he was in, competing against whole bodied people. The controversy as to whether it was fair for him to compete with those special blades and whether they gave him an advantage must have been difficult, considering the mountain he had climbed to compete at all. I suppose his drive and single mindedness must have driven him close to being obsessive. In life, his fame, had drawn a beautiful women towards him (she was remarkably beautiful and physically very attractive)  deep down he must have found a conflict in being physically abnormal,  with a need to feel "secure" in maintaining "his" attractiveness.

Who knows what was said in the bedroom. It is suggested she had had a fling whilst he was away and in this case the human psyche can destroy the rational side of our nature in seconds.  A crime of passion is often accepted as mitigating the circumstances of the crime and we can all remember when we lost it for a few seconds under severe duress.
South Africa has had some marvellous champions, especially Rugby and Cricket although Hansie Cronje rather spoilt some of that image.  

Athletics had the unusual image of Zola Budd running barefoot like a slight built nymph running in the open veldt, transposed to the nike running track and the self cantered aggression of Mary Peters. The other image is of the cross sexualisation question raised by Caster Semenya, was she a man or a women ? 

These controversial figures are unusual. They all emanate from the same society, does it say something of the complexity of that society ?    

Enough from Dr John.

Ethical subsoil

When I listen to CNCB and the squawking columnists trading verbal punches about the trade and the movement in the market, one is reminded of the soulless phenomena of the trade in volatility, regardless. Behind these movements, which seem to be orchestrated as they swing back and forth, each swing backed like a filly in the race for profit. Not the profit that underlays the companies that are effected by these trades but a profit in a tier of trading that has no place in the business of business. 
Not only companies but countries and their currencies are all fair game for these piranhas, a trading environment which to my mind is immoral given that the enormous sums of money are used to create the trade. Talk about the ability to print money !!
The effect of the much vaunted Global Economy is all around us laying waste any sense of national identity. The Markets have us in their grip and we were told it was all for our good. Economies of scale they told us was what the future holds, size would allow synergies of scale. Labour markets needed to be flexible (easy to hire and fire). Funny how the instigators of this project to internationalise everything protect their own earnings with watertight contracts on payout, irrespective of what happens. 

Now of course we see the scale and the impact of the Global reach. The food industry and the retailers within that industry in their never ending drive to stay competitive with low prices,(which invariably means screwing their suppliers down to borderline bankruptcy) have outsourced and further outsourced until the food chain is now so corrupted that no one knows where the food we eat comes from, only that its cheap !! People are now so corrupted in their thinking, they are so gullible and willing to believe what ever information (propaganda) they are fed by the Government bureaucracy along with the leaders of the financial empire to whom all Governments are beholden and who, through a media machine, feed us all and build a trust that knows little about the ethical subsoil we all used to feed on.              

Something to say.

Written language is a funny old game, full of contradictions and rules based on structure called grammar. The invention of the rules is often unearthed in what could be termed antiquated languages such as Latin, language that is rarely used other than by certain professions (medical and law) to confuse the layman and ensure that the sanctity of the profession is enhanced along with the bill when their services are required.
To most of us we learn by making the sounds, usually vowels, and linking visual pictures to simple words (bat, cat). Over time we develop a vocabulary and increase our understanding as we learn the words that express our feelings and describe our surroundings. Its a non stop event as we read more and try to understand writers who each have a story to tell. Our childhood which once needed a story teller is still with us as we open a book and begin to read.
Some children find difficulty with reading. It was often thought that a child who was a slow reader was backward and often the child was made to feel miserable by the sarcasm of the teacher and the jibes of the peer group.
The difficulty the child experiences is now recognised as their being dyslectic. The brain somehow reverses letters on a page and makes gobbly gook of the sentence, destroying its meaning. Only with effort can the process be unscrambled. Its a life long experience but over time as the vocabulary grows and the sentence structure becomes more recognisable the process of reading changes, from acknowledging each word,  to anticipating the drift of what is being written and establishing an understanding, relying on subliminal  memory to fill the gaps in the written sentence.
Spelling is a great stumbling block. Spelling knows no failure, each letter has its exact place and it is this requirement that defeats the dyslectic. There is no way they can find order or organisation when most letters and numbers are reversed when presented in the brain.
When driving and one is given a directive, "turn left" the dyslectic has to rationalise the whole process. On the instruction, turn left one instinctively feels that the turn is to the right and there has to be a whole internal rationalisation within ones head to force the hands to turn wheel towards the left.    Counting backwards in a game of darts is a nightmare, finding words to fit a crossword equally so. There is no spacial background to build upon, only individual numbers or letters.
So when the Professor of linguistics demands correctness in every nuance I have to point out that perhaps the overall meaning is a greater achievement,   if of course, one has something to say.

Avoid the litigation of a cut knee

Its snowing again ! How we used to delight in waking up, when young, to sense that overnight something special had happened. It was quiet somehow the normal surround sounds at the start of our day were muffled. We pulled back the curtain, yes,yes,yes its been snowing we were full of excitement to go out and play in it, to touch, to shape, to have games with it and of course the special one, would school be closed !!


I remember the severe winter of 1947 when everything came to a standstill. Being only seven I wasn't aware of the drama to livestock and transport. Of food and fuel supplies being in danger. Of all of us being in danger !!   I, and my pals had our sledges we had the fields even the roads were perfect as a toboggan course, from the main road down into the village it was compacted snow. Short pants brought chapped knees which certainly hurt as the blood forced its way back through the capillaries. 
There was a field, very steep, which meant we could get up quite a turn of speed before arriving in the stream that boarded the field. No Health & Safety, no worried mothers, no bureaucracy to lend a heavy hand with a new reel of laws to corset the people and protect them from themselves. We went out as soon as we could escape our parents and we stayed out until the light failed. What freedom we had in those days, especially if one were fortunate to live as I did in a village surrounded by fields and woodland. Trees to climb, animals to move around, farmers to help in their farm (we knew the children of the farmer) cleaning out the pig sty's, helping organise the cows into position at milking time, cleaning, feeding, forking the hay bales, following the threshing machine and gathering the hay into bundles, we were engrossed in a centuries old profession and we learned by being exposed to all aspects of rural living what living is all about.  Pity the poor kids today who would have to have a "risk assessment" before opening the gate. Experts to point out all the "cons" and not a word about the pros.    Avoid the litigation of a cut knee !!!                 

The art of deceiving

Politics is the art of deceiving with a panache born of self righteousness.
We have listened this week to a series of issues voiced in parliament and through the parliamentarians to the public. Terrible patient treatment at Stafford Hospital,our food chain containing horse meat,the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry,and the British reluctance to go along with a call for an increased EU budget allocation.
I am also reading a detailed history of the Spanish Civil War and of the myriad political elements, each at each others throats, each willing,wanting to kill their fellow countryman for a political ideology. The detail is also revealed in a book written by Victor Serg, a book is about the evolution of the Bolshevistic revolution in Russia and the lengths Stalin went to kill the opposition.
Reading of the past and the present one is struck by how far we have travelled in 80 years.
I listened to a speech from President Hollande to the representatives in the European Parliament and the persuasive responses that flowed from the wide and disparate groups that make up that body. Conservatives, Socialists, Liberals, Greens, Communist, The Far Right, The Far Left people from all human view points, each engaged in the social experiment that is Europe.         
The whole event was conducted with restrained passion, expressed by the tolerance to listen. These nations who would have been intolerant of each other before the EU now seemed willing to understanding and consider other points of view whist passionately expressing their own view.     
The one fly in the ointment were the British. Crude, sarcastic, sanctimonious, they revealed that British intolerance of others, particularly Johnny Foreigner, I was embarrassed. Each of the other nations had a positive viewpoint of what was important to the community they serve, the British were like skin heads mindlessly putting the boot in regardless of the human issues at stake. The adversarial despatch box, a verbal slinging match which we are brought up to admire in our so called Mother of Parliaments, has in my opinion, had its sell by date.  We have to learn to seek consensus, to understand the other persons point of view to collaborate towards a better way !!!      

Parenting

Its strange the inherent meaning we conjure and bequeath to groups with a descriptive name, virtually sealing any further thought about them.
The scientist. The vicar. The doctor. The sergeant major.The film actor.The jockey. The parent. They are sealed in aspic with their full meaning and the role they perform set in stone. The vicar can't be anything but kind and understanding.The sergeant major, a tough loud disciplinarian. We know that our attempt to pigeon hole people in this way is lazy since the badge of office doesn't describe the badge holder. We hope that the vicar is kind and the the sergeant major understands the meaning of discipline but we can't be sure. We also can't be sure how to fully describe a good effective parent.
Parenting is a life skill for which we invariably sit no exam, and are required to, drive by the seat of our pants, into all kinds of unimaginable quirky corners. We sit on the side of common sense, we worry and create the worst kind of nightmares for ourselves. We await the dawn when all our good work will be repaid, the children grown happy to assume their own role in this helter skelter called parenthood.
I suppose the first thing we must dispose of is that the child's view of us is the same as ours is of the child. We the parent were the propagators of the child rearing experiment, the child was the ingredient in the cake, temperature too hot or cold and one had a failure on ones hands. In a way it was all experimental, the child could be looked on as some sort of experiment, lets try this and see what happens !!! 
Being outside any sort of consultation process the child begins to realise they been given at least one, maybe two "defectives", the grown ups are just not up to it. Eventually they find voice, usually in their teens and if ever you wanted to know just how short changed you were, now is the time.  
You may or may not recover their affection but don't assume any of those late night, two hourly, back rubbing, getting the wind up procedures, hold any bonus points in their eyes. All the things we did and of course, ones wife did a million more, seem to have been "a duty" nothing more, nothing less, the doctor to his patient,the vicar to his flock, the sergeant major to the men under his care they were all just doing a job as we were and you will not get any further acknowledgement, sad eh !