A welcome alternative

A year on, where did the time go ?They are holding the Anniversary Games in the Olympic Stadium with a high quality meeting but of course, there can be no comparison with the Olympic event.
The Olympics kicked off with a fantastic opening ceremony, we were all gob smacked after worrying about following the Beijing Games. The Chinese had produced a massive opening event with what seemed like a million automatons performing intricate choreographed movements to the oohs and aahs of the world audience watching on TV. 
Would we trundle out the London bus and people dressed as Beefeaters.
Well we succeeded in linking our past with the present using clever technology to present an equally impressive ooh and aah moment which had us feeling proud to belong to this small island.
For me although the athletes were the winners and rightly so, an equal and magnificent winner were the spectators who brought the Olympics alive. Wherever one looked, from the athletics stadium to the cycling velodrome,  from the rowing, to the streets, watching the marathon. The spectators ignited each event with an atmosphere that was contagious.
Today we had Usain Bolt proving he is really from another planet whilst our local (imported) Martian, Mo Farah was soon striding away from the ordinary mortals and showing everyone he is far from a flash in the pan.The spectators were very enthusiastic and cheered their heads off, it wasn't quite the Olympics,  I don't think there will ever be a repeat of that, but the sight of sexy, Samba gyrating Brazilian maidens in full view might be a welcome alternative. 

Nurturing tallent

In my last blog I talked about choice or the lack of it.
My claim was that we usually don't feature in a hall of fame because we haven't been given or we haven't taken the gift when it arrived.
Listening to the "Proms" one is struck by  gifted people who have honed their talent to become team players in a large orchestra. The massively intricate fingering of the violin, the sensitive mouthing of the flute, the thrusting notes of the horn are all tied together in the harmony of the orchestral setting. The conductor, often an eccentric chap (I have never seen a women conductor) leans across the dais coxing, gesticulating, urging, demanding a sound, a tension between the instruments reflecting the composers imagery.  The individuals have practised each individual part, coming together as an ensemble they encapsulate "team work" of the highest order. A young man barely 17 years old is striking the keyboard with total confidence, the notes tumbling out in a torrent of sound  which makes one simply wonder at the skill and virtuosity of one so young. Where did he obtain the sensitivity to interpret the composers music in such a way. When most of his age are down at the pub or smoking a spliff. One wonders at the childhood of this young man who has dedicated every hour to perfecting his art. One has to contrast ones own loose, laissez-faire upbringing with its massive freedom to do what ever one wanted, and the early years discipline of a concert musician.
Its in the genes of course but its also in the parental environment and the foresightedness of the parent to recognise and nurture talent    

So little choice

If you spend time analysing your actions, for there value or worth one soon moves onto a tricky subject. How do we evaluate what we do as perhaps, purposeful or of value.
When I look at my day it is not a very meaningful period of time from when I open my eyes in the morning to shutting them in the evening. Perhaps if I were a surgeon and had saved the lives of ten peoples today I could return home and feel satisfied, job done. Perhaps if I had found the missing link in some new discovery, or had won a gold medal in athletics I could say to myself, well done !!  But to most of us ordinary mortals there have been no winning line to cross, no eureka moment, no quiet pat on the back to signal our effort.
We are in the large scheme of things, non-enteritises polishing our cricket ball to make it swerve but not actually getting in the team. Its getting in the team that counts, a collective who's efforts will be noticed even if we are not. Our Cricket team becomes a part of us, the football side that we follow slavishly week in week out has allowed us membership of something greater than we ourselves. But what of us ?
When we were young, getting a dance with that pretty girl on the other side of the room was achievement enough. Doing a reasonable time in the cycling club 25m  was satisfying. As we advanced in age we took on much of what was expected of us. Society programmed our enlistment into the ranks of husband and fatherhood, we learnt on the way and made as good a fist of it as we could. There were no medals no accolade only the daily enterprise of doing our best and making do when our best wasn't good enough.
As we enter the final furlong and do a book on how we have performed debit and credit it only occurs to us that so much was not of our choice in the true sense of the word choice and that so little of choice was ever open to us !!     

Misuse of power

On the practical matter of the historical misuse of power by the Unions. Many in a position of power misuse this power. The Bankers, the Politicians, The Police, Mayors, Presidents and Prime Ministers they all have a tendency to misuse power. The wages in Detroit were too high and as you pointed out who would invest in the place under those conditions. But the trend to move ones factories to Bangladesh or China where people work for penny's is no solution either.  Germany hasn't broken the back of the unions, they have drawn them into a collaboration within the business, opened the books and negotiated a fair deal. It can be done. Train the high paid workers to add value to what they do, make them in essence partners in the business of profit and don't develop the idea, which we have in this country that the workers are inferior, they are fundamental.  The elephant in the room is the concept of a global economy. Everywhere is your market and everywhere your workshop. Only a minority will prosper from this concept, the majority are but pawns in a game. It doesn't have to be this way and maybe the democracy of the people taking to the street and pushing out the entrenched ways will be a start.  

Somewhere in this conundrum of how to evaluate a fair deal, one has the capitalistic philosophy of winner takes all and the socialistic philosophy that there are many parties in the labour of profit.  A way has to be found to be more equitable, more human in the way we treat our fellow man. We are clearly not born equal but in some ways we should have an innate opportunity to live a life within the law which provides for a modicum of security. If we have it in our mind to give everyone a reasonable chance and to respect people around us, we are on the way to finding not only an inner peace but an overall peace amongst men.     

Their time is running out

Detroit.

It's an interesting social moment in the American story. Detroit has proclaimed its self bankrupt and the African-American people are turning out onto the streets, unhappy about the the case of the black teenager Trayvon Martin who was killed by the neighbourhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman. The link between these stories, I believe lays the problem America and in fact, all Western societies have. The economies of these old school capitalist nations is that the economy which underpins jobs and provides the low skill workers with an opportunity to earn a living, has moved off shore. The Race issue in much of America and this country is exacerbated by the unemployment issue. Without a job without money in your pocket you are without self esteem and the option to turn to crime which is an option for all of us, is too attractive, in fact one could say is virtually inevitable !! The situation which then arises is that stereotyping begins in earnest whereby young black men are seen as potential criminals, a view substantiated by the statistics of those arrested. When Zimmerman saw the young black youngster he interpreted the scene and pronounced Martin a criminal. The Civic authorities who are middle class and white, create a judicial situation whereby the jurors are white and the judge leads them to pronounce in favour of Zimmerman. Stereotyping, cause and effect has led to a mass turnout on the streets with the potential of serious disturbance and a Luthar King moment.

In Detroit they have accepted the inevitable, so many bills to pay, so many pension cheques to pay but with an "income base" that has been deteriorating for years with the run down of low-skilled employment. They are insolvent!

America like the UK and Europe have witnessed and even enabled, through short term thinking the dismantling of our manufacturing base. Unable to understand the fabric of the society into which they were born, the decision makers plumped for the cheap manufacturing offered in China and were able to make the short term profit.
The legacy is the broken disillusioned society which will be with us for generations. Only the forward thinkers in the likes of Germany, Holland, Scandinavia have they produced industries that beat anyone, anywhere. Without resorting to cheap labour they have developed large industrial businesses that produce high quality products. They invested in not only the machinery but in the labour force to ensure they had the skills to carry the game. 

Interesting that the Americans found 80 billion dollars to support the motor industry in Detroit but couldn't stump up the 18 billion needed to keep a city running but of course one has to understand the Detroit is manifestly an Afro American city and therefore unlike the Bankers and the Auto Investors they were of less a consequence, at least for now but their time is coming !!!                 

Left on empty

So much hope rested on his shoulders. We are having a terrific run of success in the sporting arena, the latest Chris Froome having won the Tour de France following from last years Bradley Wiggins. 
The applause was polite/enthusiastic as our man, Lee Westwood walked down the 18th after leading the tournament each day, putting up our hopes that he would win the Claret Jug this year. It was not to be, one of those pesky Americans overtook Westwood on the final day and we had to concede that the better man won. Phil Mickelson is a nice chap. In the past I have felt he carried his emotions to much and seemed to plunge into despair when things went wrong but in victory, was an accomplished champion and there was lovely scenes as his family of young daughters hugged him and his wife recently recovered from cancer cast a beautiful American smile to all and sundry. Watching the game unfold is a drama that unfolds like slow torture as shots that yesterday made us smile as we identified with our man, today they drifted away and we were left on empty !! 

Corralling society

I am watching a game of women's soccer Norway v Spain. The  women from Norway are clearly Norwegian, blond hair, fair skin, stocky build. Their opponents from Spain equally recognisable coming from the Iberian Peninsular their dark hair and olive skin, the aquiline nose and slight body. These are the characteristics of a race, of interbreeding, the development over millennium. Since relatively recently, 70 years, there has been a racial mixing unheard of prior to the Second World War and the result has made a mockery of our stereotypical past.
In the need to both welcome strangers into the tribal mix, sometimes for purely economic reasons the definitions, which I use to describe the two European tribes or nations is no longer acceptable because newcomers have to be included. The use of stereotyping is frowned upon, it doesn't fit the purpose which is to homogenise society and make it forget its origins. Compatibility is a requisite for social harmony and the more we integrate without reflecting on what our eyes tell us the better the community will perform.
But of course, as I have mentioned in previous blogs, our minds are made up of millions of images gathered from birth. These images are linked to the stereotyping which our backgrounds have developed, different background different stereotype. The race laws, phobic laws, even health and safety laws are there to corral us into a different direction no matter how uncomfortable. We are constantly assuaged and made to feel that our old ideas are wrong, out of tune with modern thinking.
These thoughts don't disappear they don't melt away under the heat of a campaign they sit and ponder the new, they try to come to terms with what the new "ism" is all about and under pressure they bubble and bubble away.

I find it strange that only in Western countries are these pressures applied to the people. Countries in Africa, and Asia continue in the way their forefathers have, the teachings and the beliefs are largely in place.  

 No "Political Correctness" for them !!                       

All or nothing

Who needs the Riviera, who needs the long journey south in search of the sun, we have it

in bucketfuls. The temperature, in the 30s is hot enough for me, it drives me to search for the amber fluid and the shade of a parasol in the pub garden. I remember the heat of Joburg, the parties we had, mostly centred around the briaa, we glugged our beer, our brandy and cokes, slowly dissolving into happy, tongue tied mumbling replicas of who we used to be. A chicken leg in the one hand and a glass of something in the other we were the centre of our universe and unconcerned about anything else. There was of course the issue of the "Commissar" who's restless obsession to limit the amount one enjoyed ones-self was off-set by an equal and opposite obsession to ignore the the call to behave. There was always a penalty to be paid but through the blearily eyes of the party it was lost in translation. The extra hype of being amongst fuelled-up friends was contagious and we had a sense of the empowerment to belong.
So we are experiencing a heat wave. Next week there is more of the same and the TV is full of warnings about the problems that too much heat brings.  In some ways it is a pity that a good thing has to be cast in the phraseology of Health & Safety.   "Be careful".   It's a default condition, the control condition, which through the media we pick up and accept as a norm. There is no happy medium its all or nothing, conform or be demonised !!                      

Mankind

The cliff tumbling down to the sea in a series of ledges and steep loose rocks, the waves pounding the rhythmic immemorial pattern that has captivated generations in an hypnotic trance. The thought that it has been like this for thousands / millions of years puts our three score and ten into perspective. As we look, we involve our very being in the scene as if we are an integral part of what we observe. We convince ourselves that the world we observe is personal to us, and we arrange our thoughts to integrate everything we see with our emotions and desires. Of course "our" world is a concoction of our mind which its self, is a concoction of our memory and the trillions of images we have received over our lifetime to make sense of the world outside our head. Mankind is probably unique in extrapolating ideas about nature that are not the actual substance of nature. The ability to romanticize and mentally interact with what we see and hear is probably the greatest gift we have. It allows us to develop throughout our life as we add incrementally to the sense of who we feel we are, whilst at  the same time, because our minds are implicitly merged with our surroundings, we become technically schizophrenic, unable to come to terms with our short life span (70years) whilst acknowledging that this scene will continue to run and run without us         

Camden market

Leaning over the balcony the flotsam and jetsom passed below like tumble weed, drifting on the wind, humanity  aimlessly moving up and down the Camden High Street. Short ones, fat ones, tall ones, all colours, the typical multicultural society, on the move, doing its thing on a hot Sunday afternoon.
We had been to a Permaculture event which was not my normal cup of tea but I went along to make up the numbers and meet a lot of tree huggers. The life of the "worm" and the importance of breeding the little guys was dealt with in some detail, including how to drain their wee !!    Growing foodstuff in "containers" on the balcony seemed a good idea, much neared than Tesco but, as always, when it comes to out-thinking nature one has to balance the soil with this and that,  not too much of this and a little more of that. The people were engrossed, the questions flowed but apparently this was low level stuff and my warders hurried me off to do some shopping.
Camden a trinket Mecca, the smells of spice, the exotic Indian silk fabrics tumbling in colourful folds from the rolls of cloth, hand made this and that, its all there, a magnet for the casual shopper.
The Northern Line was closed for maintenance, and we had to rely on the bus service which had been laid on.
Being on the surface instead of being underground is much more problematic. The contest for road and the pavement, on going, and very tiring. Where to get on and where to get off is not as simple. The buildings hem one in and other than the Post Office Tower you soon become confused.
The simplicity of the tube, hop on and your there,with its famous directional map is like magic, and very comforting, 

Soon we began to hanker after sleepy,secure Bishop's Stortford, a pub meal and civilisation !!!                 

Golf

There is no doubt that some people have a masochistic streak. Most sporting endeavour is a question of fitness and balance. The footballer uses his feet and soon can kick the ball roughly in the direction he wants it to go, the runner, the rugby player, the snooker player, the cyclist all these games are conducted using the body largely as it was designed to operate. Not so in golf.
Was there ever a game designed to frustrate and embarrass more than golf. The ball is small and therefore difficult to hit. Add, that you are required to hit it with the end of a 4' stick, flattened and angled at the end so there is only one spot, on the surface of the angled bit at which, coming into contact with the ball can you be sure the ball will be flighted in the direction you want it to go. To hit the ball the stick has to be propelled through an arc starting behind your right shoulder sweeping down in front of you and continuing to finish behind the left shoulder.
Never satisfied, they strew the ground ahead with obstacles to prevent the ball from advancing towards its goal, a small hole in the floor down which you manoeuvre the ball to drop.
You need a lot of sticks and quite a few balls to play the game and so on a hot day as you climb up and down the hills in search of a hole you drag a large heavy bag from point to point selecting, with much false optimism the right stick for the next shot.
Like life, the game is built on optimism but optimism isn't enough and disillusionment is the attendant bedfellow. Why when I go through the same routine, the legs positioned, head rigid, three practice swings just like last time but this time the ball veers off to left or right or more embarrassing, you miss it all together.  Par for the course, they count it as a shot !!    
Only the thought of the 19th hole keeps the golfer going. A cold pint and the rueful explanation of how such and such a shot went so disastrously wrong, makes the day complete.
 

Giving ?

Is "giving" an elementary part of the human condition ?
Is it natural to give money, ones time, ones emotional commitment to a cause or an individual. Have we lost our appetite to give as the giving industry steps up its efforts to draw from us the issue of our innate responsibility towards society as a whole and to do what is required to make things better.
I had a conversation yesterday with someone who feels responsible for, not only his mother but all the other members of the family.  He foregoes the opportunity to move and reward himself with a nicer place for the benefit he provides to others in his family by staying in close proximity, to be on hand with his time and money when needed.

It all seemed a far cry from the modern British nuclear family, of leaving home and travelling far away in search of independence.

I was a perfect example of the modern trend. I left home with few thoughts towards my Mum and Dad. I left home to see for myself what life in different parts of the world was like and as I

travelled further afield I became more immersed in my own needs. I took it for granted that my parents would be ok that they wouldn't miss me because, in the reality of "new things happening every day", I forgot them !!
How far I was from my friend who has his eye in the needs of his birth family.
Perhaps being an "only child" is one reason.  There is a natural gap between parent and child, a gap which can be narrowed by the child having a sister or brother to bind them more fully into the family. Another factor was the "distance" and the substantially different surroundings which removed one from the the daily, psychological connection but this is a poor excuse, I simply did not match up to this man's commitment to his parents when in truth my parents had done everything "and more", to protect me as I grew up.      
Yes, I communicated through letters, (no Skype in those days), and the telephone but my sense of responsibility was simply not there.  I feel there was something missing in my make up. Religion plays a part, it teaches the importance of family and the hierarchy of family relationships. Perhaps being a none religious person I missed this teaching, it never crossed my mind !!!          

Apathy / Empathy

Its not apathy, its not indifference, but given the choice of sitting at home with an onion sandwich and a hot mug of tea or, venturing out to a party with a load of semi strangers.  The onion sandwich wins out every time.
After the onion, any mixing is out of the question anyway !!

Where does this, "can't be bothered" attitude come from all of a sudden. I am naturally gregarious. Talking to strangers has never been a problem, probably an ability crafted when I wandered in various countries alone for months if not years.
Looking out of the window its a beautiful day, there's a pub not far away that sells independently brewed beer from the barrel. On a day like this they often have a barbecue and sometimes a jazz band. The people are an intelligent, successful, mature lot, the conversation flows around every subject under the sun, so why aren't I there with them ?
Well on the one hand Marie doesn't want to go and and it isn't an easy choice to go alone, there is usually a whiff of resentment if I do go.  Strange as you may think the psychological equivalent of a thick skin is not an attribute I would claim to have (although some of you would contest this).

Being in ones own surroundings is "a cop out", since no effort is required, nothing to conjure up, or appear to be what ever the group your with, require of you. You run to the beat of your own agenda which might be just simply, to do nothing !! 
Of course I have my blog to keep me company, to offload my empathy. My thoughts can be captured, my emotions set out in the hope that someone out there is listening and hopefully, marginally, interested  ?????  

Lost in translation

The interviews needed translation, so many Welshmen so many heroes but what was it they were saying ? Mrs Jones boy had performed marvels in the dark art of the scrummage, turning the tables on last weeks performance of the scrum against the Aussies. It was a strange game in that a lead was quickly built due to getting the fundamentals right and playing the game in their opponents, half waiting for the whistle to blow and 3 points on the board for the asking. The possession in the early part of the game was all Lions, nearly 30 passing moves in one consecutive session but little ground gained. The Australian back line looked to me the more dangerous with their darting, probing runs and with a try on half time they drew up to within a score.
The game was shown on Sky and so I had to drag myself to the nearest pub to watch it. How we suffer to become as spectator. The pub had to get a special licence to open earlier, 11am to show the game and a cooked breakfast was also on sale as we settled down to watch the contest. Pubs have a special place in the lifeblood of this country. They have changed over the years I was away, the prices have selected a different type of clientèle and many pubs have closed because of affordability. The supermarkets offer huge discounts on booze and many of the younger end buy their drink from the supermarket and pre-load before they go out. Its always a sad aspect  attached to a British night out, they seem to think that half drunk is a waste of time and are a scourge in the town centres and worse when on holiday on the Continent.
The game resumed with the points gap drastically reduced, who would take up the cudgel. The Aussies were first to score and the gap was further reduced, would this be a turnover after the elation of the first part of the first half would those pesky Aussies do it again. Suddenly gaps opened up and the Lions threaded through to score, the game was won and we cheered as we ordered another pint !!              

Tour de France

Daryl Impey is the  first South African to wear the Yellow Jersey on the Tour de France. This race probably the most gruelling sporting event, played out under blue sky's in the beautiful French countryside is an interesting, photogenic three week extravaganza. 

The raw speed of the sprinters as they position themselves, the team lead-out-man, burying himself with his last bit of energy to present the sprint specialist with a clear run to the line. The impossibly gruelling climbs, gradients that normal people would find difficult to walk up, and yet these icons of the cycling world, speed up the mountains, round the hair pin bends, pulling on the handle bars as they drive on through the spectators crowding the road. 
These spectators are a spectacle in themselves having camped for a couple of days to find a position to view the race they are hyper by the time the riders arrive. Some dressed in pantomime costumes run alongside the riders for a few yds, eager to capture the limelight as the cyclists peddle by. The climbers carry the names of the gods of past races, it is the climb that sets the mortal from the immortal and it is the climb that ones jaw drops open as the leader finds more energy to slowly draw away to stamp a mark on their opponents.
Dropping down the other side of the mountain, hairpin bends, as on the assent, now are a stamp of the courage of the man who can descend in a way that makes one truly fear for their lives. A drop that would lead to awful injury or death if he misjudges anything, makes a fast decent only for the very brave or very stupid. 

Impey carries on his shoulders the South African dream.   A dream, which in another context is dying as your most famous person begins his own final journey. 

Would the outcome of the Rainbow nation have been different if Mandela had been a younger man and contested the longer race ?         

The Fourth Estate

Debate is rising about the release of the killers of James Bulger, the little lad who was led away from a shopping centre to be tortured and killed by two 11 year old boys,Robert Thomson and Jon Venables. The parole board gave permission for their early release and although Venables was rearrested and served another two years for another offence he is again due for release. 
The media and sections of the public still want what they view as justice and the pair are still vilified. 

My interest was raised because of a similar event in Denmark at about the same time. This time it was two
6 year old boys who killed a little girl. Instead of an uproar and a hang em at all costs frenzy, as it was here the Danes accepted the fact of their age and did not vilify the kids. Their sentence was commensurate with their needs.

It could be argued what about the victim what about the loss to the parents and so on and of course these arguments are equally valid. My interest though was in the way the general population responded and since the response was so different, why.
Of course we are very susceptible in this country to what our media say and the way they present a story. I am sure it is true in all countries, that many people buy the same paper and watch the same TV channels for their news and events. We are all therefore, prone to being influenced by the same people and rarely step outside the bubble to think and form our own opinions.
In Denmark story received a balanced report and more importantly the killing took place in a village where the people knew the victim and the perpetrators. They knew them as children and found it difficult to judge them as anything else. Thomson and Venables were older but importantly they came from a city background where no one really takes time to know anyone, other than family. If the media demonised them then they were demons.

A case study in the power of the Fourth Estate      

Teenage suicide

A report has just been published where it is suggested that 1/3 of all teenagers/adolescents have contemplated suicide If I cast my mind back to my own adolescent years I can not recall ever having come across anyone who had mentioned to me or was reported in the media of having thought about suicide. It was simply not on the agenda.
We all felt times when we were unhappy, a girlfriend who had told us she no longer cared would cause us to plunge into deep despondency but we recovered fairly quickly. Perhaps the main element in all this was that we were not so self focused,  we didn't have dreams beyond our status. We were not fed with the contrast of what we had and what others had, our friends and acquaintance were from our own background and not contaminated with the feed of visual media.

There has been, over the last decade an influential movement to inform young people, not only of their rights but of their importance. When I was an adolescent it was not a question of knowing our place, we were happy in that place, living out our youth doing things that young people do without the overweening pressure that adults carry. If we promulgate from primary school onwards the child's rights alongside the rights of an adult, if we educate them to see themselves as younger versions of an adult then we must not be surprised if they begin to behave like one, with all the attendant consequences.             

Irrespective of cost.

Now you can hear the marionette controllers. The people who pull the political strings and the plethora of reporters who report and influence the public on how to think and digest the events as they unfold, are in disarray.

CNN have their top faces in place with their commentators on the streets feeding the network with a mixture of fact and opinion. Yesterday they were hammering on about the legitimacy of elected government and the fear that Morsi, the President would be thrown out by "people power".
My god how can this have come about "people power" who !!! The "people", oh you mean the plebs.  In many Western countries the people are quashed under the financial debt of cheap credit and in the pocket of the financial industry. The employees of the CNN are singing from a hymn sheet that is based in big business and the influence of Congress.

Yesterday the media were for the rule of an elected parliament irrespective, since this was the rule of a game through which power is dispensed. Today they have woken to a new game and they don't like it. They feed the airwaves with news of an Army coup and fund the situation with memories of Hosni Mubarak and the old dictatorship. They continually called the unseating of Morsi an undemocratic event, not willing to acknowledge that democracy is under revision as the public become aware of the events around them, not any more presented through an opaque
diplomatic prism but through the interactive reporting of the mobile phone camera and the brave whistle blowers, who reveal the unpleasant facts that our elected leaders would like to keep from us.

So we have the hesitant media moguls having to bite their tongue and consider that this event was the "will of the people", the Army there to facilitated whilst a transition takes place. Perhaps the worlds, military power base, the USA, will have to take note. 
How shocking that the Americans with their Guantanamo Bay legacy can talk about the rights of the people and their democratic institutions whilst continuing to deny even the most basic rights to the internees of that infamous camp.

Look how they manipulated the sovereign states of Europe to prevent the plane that they thought the whistle blower Edward Snowden was travelling on. It was as if he were carrying an atomic weapon in his brief case, not that he had alerted the world to the despicable practices of the US, the so called, free worlds protector of freedom and they wished to punish him irrespective of the cost !!            

Democracy and where power resides ?

What is this thing called democracy. Is it a concept where the forces within a country are made more equitable and the powerful are called to authenticate their actions every four years in an election.
Where does true power reside, is it in the ballot box or is that just a charade.

In centuries gone by, power resided in the Mon achy with a hereditary system of interlocking family support which ensured that the heir's to power would always come from a small clique.
The powerful landowning aristocracy were guaranteed their lands and rewarded with more if they lent their support to the crown. Beneath them came the merchant class with money to expand their privileges as and when required. At the bottom of the pile came the workers, people who did a job, be it with a skill, such as the Blacksmith or work on the land. This arrangement, this hierarchy was set in stone for generations and only as the concept of a Parliament came into being was the Joker introduced.
Parliament of course was not representative of the people, its representative body was made up of the rich and the powerful. With Emancipation the power has been wrested from the few and now, through the ballot box, in part rests potentially with the voter.
We also know that to some degree it is still a charade and that power still resides with the hereditary class. 
Private Schooling where contacts are forged for life, the Boardroom selection system made up of friends of friends, the  school tie and a memory locker full of patronage.
Still we believe in our hard won right to vote and we go along with what the political class tell us in their manifesto how things will change for the better - just vote for me sir !!

Tehrir Square is yet another way of producing a democratic outcome. "People power" which by-passed the rich and the powerful, went straight for the jugular by overtly saying that the people in power were not representative.
They shifted the game onto another platform.   I wonder how  many leaders today are waking up with a sick feeling in their stomach, does this herald a new dawn where the Hirachy can be bypassed ??              

Protest !!

Watching the events unfurl in Egypt one is struck by the immense size of the crowds gathering in different parts of the city. Those in support of President Morsi and those who wish to overthrow him, gathering in there thousands, millions, to show support. It is a remarkable scene to see people out on the streets day after day protesting.

In this country perhaps a thousand or two would be a significant demonstration and it would have to be organised so as not to disrupt the need for our people to turn up for work the following day. It might be argued that we don't have much to protest about and anyway we are too pragmatic and have the soft underbelly of debt to service. 
 Of course the people in this country who are due to feel the withdrawal of benefits in the coming months, the unemployed, the cast off's from the armed forces who will be turned out onto the street after fighting "our cause" in Afghanistan. These and others just might feel a little miffed but for many cultural reasons, we will not protest on the streets.

The underlying problem in Egypt is that the democratic elections, fought a couple of years ago, were in a sense skewed. The Muslim Brotherhood used the religious contrivance of "faith" to support the election of their political party.
If the politics had been "inclusive" and not seen as an opportunity to change society, along Muslim lines, accompanied by the slow crack down on liberal attitudes such as the proposed introduction of Sharia Law, was the final straw.

It seems to me that here we have the nub of the problem.  Any Muslim based party must follow a religious, Islamic agenda which is seen by many none Muslims, as a return to a way of life, out of touch with modern society. Without a religious covenant, the beliefs and the fervor are alien to most people. It produces a schism, a divide that is unbridgeable.
There is the fear of religious thought which can become, in some peoples eyes, unreasonable and dogmatic. 

Democracy

If you can imagine the scene. People with massive egos and not a little personal bile, opposing their ideological enemy, each side seething with contempt for the other, ignited by caustic and abusive comments from the leadership.  



This is not a Tahrir Square stand off where people with deep concern for what they see as a "sectarian" take over of the democratic achievement won, just over a year ago. 

It seems, given the petulance of Prime Ministers Question Time and the shallow content of the questions and rebuttals, the Egyptians might give pause for thought before placing too much hope in formal democracy.

The problem within any philosophical concept of how to organise the human condition, is that human beings get in the way.
Are we not our own worst enemy, not being able to see beyond, first and foremost, our own self interest.
A country is stronger when it can identify a common interest and draw on the strength of political leadership that collectively can put aside ideology, for the common good. We have so many problems in the society but these problems become the playthings of the political class. These problems are clothed in party prejudice, a prejudice which stops creative solutions, ideas that are rejected because they might have come from the Opposition.             

Emancipation

Is it for "Real"   The pictures coming out of Brazil of street protests, people taking to the streets questioning, in the only way they can, the spending of Billions of Real on next year’s  soccer World Cup and in another three years, the Olympics.
These events become the focus of huge spending sprees, funded by the taxpayer, handing enormous profits to the usual claimants, the global "construction company's" that these events attract.
On the one hand the expenditure is explained in terms of, national prestige with the caveat that there will be substantial improvements to services around the sporting event sites and the so called, "legacy" which can mean homes and the sporting venues themselves.
The politician of course herald the benefits that the spending will supposedly bring the people, yet they never answer the question, why couldn't this money (taxpayers money) be spent anyway if the projects are to benefit the taxpayers who have to cough up the cash anyway ?
When the Olympics or the Soccer World Cup come to town, government seem able to find the cash, even when "austerity" is on everyone's lips, to fund the event.   FIFA or the Olympic Committee strides the stage setting the agenda and demanding the standards. We have to comply otherwise they will literally take their ball somewhere else.

In what is called the west, Europe/US/Australasia we have built up, through years of democracy, fairly equitable societies in which inequality is not as "in your face", as it is in other parts of the world. The slums, the sectors of ramshackle housing, the blight of human beings living in appalling circumstances belong to other parts of the world.

Brazil is one of these nations. Cheek by jowl stands the absurd. 
Rio de Janeiro with its Copacabana Beach and Sugar Loaf Mountain jewels for the rich and famous whilst, around the hills and suburbs, in the Favelas the Cariocas exist.  6% of a total population of 190 million are Cariocas, a sub specious of economic life that the Brazilian Government would like to air brush out of the picture whilst they are world stage, engaged in the business of extravaganza!!   No wonder the people are on the streets, held back by the force of Police and the Army (institutions that are there to protect the people but often used to oppress them) whilst the well-heeled soccer fans watch the game. Thank god Brazil won and the nation went home happy but what of tomorrow and the day after. 

Brazil one of the BRIC (Brazil Russia India China) countries which our financial pages speak of as financial miracles with stupendous growth and money to burn - but not on the Cariocas. 

How reminiscent of our own history when only through emancipation has the constipation of the Capitalistic System been ameliorated.                 

A Morsi moment

Is this a Morsi moment as the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, IPSA have unveiled their deliberations on MPs pay. 

At the height of the MPs expenses scandal, one of the important reforms was to make "independent" the awarding body who would recommend the extent of MPs pay increases. Having read their report I am amazed at the gulf between the public and the Executive, in this case our MPs and the mind set that those in the corridors of power have when their own interests are involved. 
The Public Sector have been under the cosh for some time and rightly so. There is no doubt the feather bedding of the conditions of employment by people who work in the Public Services, especially the very generous pension arrangement have to be brought into line with the situation the general public find themselves. The MPs are part of the Public Service, paid by taxpayers money. During the expenses scandal we found it difficult to equate what they do and everyone was shocked by the willingness to cream the expenses for all they were worth. 
MPs claim that their work is complex and vital and virtually impossible to quantify in terms of remuneration.
Do these people stand for Parliament as if it were a job and do they consider the pay before putting their name forward to the electorate. Would the millions of people who get by on the average salary (£24,000) and the many millions who earn far less, feel sympathy for the MP who claims his salary of £65,738 (another 14,000 if a committee chair and much more if a Minister), needs another £10,000 pa to meet their living costs.
The salary is of course only the tip of the iceberg.
Final Salary pensions (virtually unheard of these days), generous housing arrangements, resettlement payments, £56,250 winding up costs, benefits that include a "salary sacrifice" element, "child care", "substantial meals", and "office expenses" that are rail-roaded through the system.
Much of course depends on how we "value" the work an MP does and more to the point, what they do !!  What are these special circumstances that makes the work they do so special ? We see them debating in the House of Commons. They read a speech to an often near empty House, other MPs sitting around engrossed on their mobile phones, the Minister at work on paperwork seeming to pay little or no attention to the MP now speaking.
The MP also has their constituency work but one has to question what actually they can do, other than add weight to a constituents claim for justice with a letter with the House of Commons letterhead.  In fact they have no power and no responsibility and it is this fact that sets them apart from the professions they feel they should emulate with a comparative pay scale. The people they would like to mirror, (GPs,  Senior Management within the Public Services , Partners in a legal service),  all carry a great deal of responsibility for which they are judged, on a case by case, day by day performance which the MPs seem to have no comparable influence. 
In the survey carried out amongst MPs, the 1922 Committee and the Parliamentary Labour Party seem to be strange bedfellows although the percentages show the Tory's well ahead of the other parties in their rapacious claim for more money, this, even when one accepts that people in the Labour Party come from backgrounds of far lower financial security.     
The claim that one needs to pay higher salaries to substantiate drawing people in from the professions misses the point that the peoples representatives in Parliament do not reflect the People !!   We need people who would find £65.738, plus the superb benefits, more than enough. They would lend a voice in Parliament that is, with a very few exceptions missing in the public school event that is Parliament these days.
We miss the raucous oratory of the Attlee years when people entered Parliament through the Trade Union movement, knowing first hand the needs of the ordinary voter. This is sadly missing with the current intake of the professional political student having studied politics at University and joined the political class without having got their hands dirty. They have no concept of the ordinary concerns that "we" have. 

To add injury to injustice is the rise in the Queens purse of two million pounds now and another two million next year.  Have we gone mad, wrestling pennies from the poor, we are blind to their plight and are led to think that the Queen and her household, should be excluded from the effects of belt tightening which we now all are beginning to experience