The grossly rich or simply gross

In a world of enormous disparity, the sickeningly sycophant display put on for the rich and famous staying at the Burj Al Arab in Dubai made one want to vomit.It was the ultimate example of how money distorts everything. 

Ostentation, ostentation, ostentation, from the gold leaf chairs to the gold leaf iPad (£10.000), from shimmering white Rolls to the beach party where the beach is carpeted with the most expensive Persians rugs to impress the Arab oil sheik, the Russian oligarch or perhaps Wayne Rooney. 
To work in a place like this requires you to continually demean yourself in the face of such overt wealth, individuals with massive egos who demand constant massaging. How can you subvert your self to the constant pressure to be subservient, bowing and scraping to these princes who a generation ago before the oil was discovered were camel traders or the oligarch with a standard 6 education but knows how to steal a countries assets. At least Rooney has skill of sorts ?
I'm never sure of the intention in making these sort of films. I also deplore the film makers who's theme is the fat, the disfigured, or the sadistic. "Back then" in the funfair there were booths, peep shows where, for half crown you could gawk at some poor deformed person as part "entertainment".
I never had any desire to do so, my conscience is clear, but today certain popular TV channels show a series dedicated to revealing the sordid and the sad aspects of modern life.
What possible value is there in seeing grossly overweight people unable to get out of bed and take care of themselves laying there like stranded whales, or men and women so coarsened with drink and drugs they can barely stand up let alone behave with any sense of dignity and finally the ruthless exploitation, by Jeremy Kyle, of barely functioning human beings slagging each other off in a parody on marriage.
The grossly rich or the simply gross, it's the money that counts. !!

The same old same old

The working of Parliament is strange to behold. This evening a debate followed by a vote was held on selling of land assets by London Transport to cover the shortfall in revenue and government subsidy. 

The debate was to amend the fire sale of extremely valuable land in London to a range of developers who wish to increase the long list of expensive accommodation for the rich, often from overseas, to invest their ill gotten gains, especially the hot money flowing into a poorly scrutinised financial empire which is the City of London. There are billions of pounds up for grabs and the initial debate simply asked for a list and a valuation of all these assets which London Transport prepare to sell so that proper public scrutiny could be made and adjudicated.
The decentralisation of power to the London Mayor secures power in the hand of the Mayor (Boris Johnson) who in my observation of his his performance in the Mayors chamber seems ill fitted for the role.
One gets the impression that the support for these assets, sold at knock down prices comes from the usual places, it comes from the pals of those hungry developers who sit on and behind the Government benches.
Parliament represents a closed shop and with it a closed mind.
Parliament these days ill represents the interest of the people and clearly, with a total lack of proper opposition, as New Labour, the brain child of Tony Blair (who has been described as son of Margaret Thatcher) does not hold the Conservative government to task in matters like this.
Is it a lack of interest or is it a result of the parliamentary Labour Party drawing its members from a university educated middle class have ditched the working class for the middle ground where it believes the floating vote comes.
Only Jeremy Corbyn and George Galloway had any fight in them and only Galloway mouthed the contempt he felt for the coterie of self interest that the cosy benches of parliament have, over the years produced. Galloway reminds me of those stalwarts of the first Socialist Labour Party Government under Clement Attlee. Members such as Aneurin Bevan, Ernest Bevin, Herbert Morrison, men who didn't mix their metaphors and argued the case against the Establishment with vigour and commitment. It must be so disheartening for their ghosts to see the dismemberment of valuable public assets to the same old faces by the same old people !!!

Thou shalt

It's interesting how morality, a way to live ones life, changed from its conception.
I suppose it's important to realise that it is a concept born of rational need, as society drew together and interpersonal rules and the values you placed on your fellow man developed.
The Greeks held the view that morality and ethics were of this world, a philosophical expression of thought which lived alongside the sciences being discovered and codified.
Mankind had a responsibility to consider his own life and improve upon it for no other reason than for the betterment of society and his fellow man. The gods that he acknowledged, were totems of the physical world and the things he felt he had no control over.  A God of war, a God of love a God of the sea and all its mysteries, these gods were not integrated with him but stayed apart and separate.
It was only from the stories which make up Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, did the concept of an authoritarian God who was prescriptive and laid down the rules of behaviour for mankind, that religion came into its own.
Gods interaction with Abraham in the story of the burning bush and, much later, Gods revelation through Moses of the prescriptive Ten Commandments which were handed to mankind through Moses  and became the crucible of Christianity and the Muslim faith, where discretion was taken out of man's hands and became, "the will of God".  
In Christianity, what fundamentally altered from the Jewish adherence to the teachings of the Old Testament was that the "means", the attitude and the consideration one gave to the way one lived ones life was an "end" in its self, (much as in Buddhism).  In the Jewish teaching the "means" had only one end, "Gods acceptance".

 It is interesting to see the difference of emphasis in the teachings of Christ which come to us by the books of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John themselves written quite a while after the crucifixion.

Christ seems to have led by example and left no actual written record and so we are left with interpretation, consolidated by Paul who came on the scene even later to publish through his letters his distinctive entreaty to the believers to reach out and preach the word according to the stories of Christ's life and his message as interpreted by the New Testament
The fundamental difference between the prescriptive path followed by the Commandments of the Old Testament and the realisation of Christ that mankind is weak and that religion is a journey in which one endeavours to abide by the Commandments. That in the end you will be judged for effort as much as the success.

A super day of rugby

What a superb day of rugby.
I thought it hard to surpass the titanic battle two weeks earlier waged between Wales and Ireland (23 to 16) where the two teams slugged it out like prizefighters. It was too much to comprehend the sheer energy sapping assault and defence as both teams tried to force their way over the try line. Over 30 passages of play without infringement only 5 metres from the line and then another 23 uninterrupted bone shacking tackles as these huge men went toe to toe. It was like the spectacle of watching Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali in both their memorable battles, two supremely fit courageous men each unable to be cowed and so it was with each of the teams trying to grind the other down.

I thought that was the best we were going to see from this Severn Nation Tournament but I was wrong. Whilst the Welsh, Irish game was a battle of guts and gore, this Saturday was magnificent for its open running rugby. 211 points scored in a day, more then the English cricketing side can score with the bat and considering one flashy struck can rack up 4 runs, it puts the point score in perspective. 
With the three teams Ireland, England and Wales poised to win so long as they won their match on Saturday but crucially dependent on the number of points they won by, it was edge of your seat stuff all day. England had the hardest task since they played France which, no disrespect to Scotland and Italy, France have always been a top rugby playing nation and could therefore present who ever they were playing, a tougher challenge.
It was a day of 'what ifs'. If Italy hadn't gone over for that last minute try thereby narrowing the gap of Wales win, what if Scotland had been allowed a disputed try to narrow Ireland's winning margin, and what if England in the last minute of the game had gone over when they were camped on the French try line with only a converted try 7 points needed to win the tournament by 1 point.
First up was Wales against Italy away in Rome. They had to win by a huge margin and turning at half time just about equal on points it seemed well beyond them. They came out in the second half a new team and for forty minutes proceeded to ravage the Italians with red shirted attack after attack to rack up 61 points to Italy's 20. The commentators especially the Welsh were sure it old be enough to win the title.
The second match started 15 miners later in Scotland with Ireland taking the field as the pre favourites having played the better rugby throughout the tournament only being beaten by Wales in another tremendous display by the Dragons. Given the number of points scored by Wales they now had to win by a large margin against Scotland, a side who promise to do well but somehow season after season fail. They scored 40 points to Scotland's 10 and so had a margin of 30.
It overhauled the magnificent effort made by Wales earlier but would it be enough to beat England.
Tough international don't usually produce large numbers of points since it's the win that's important and a good defence is as valuable as a good attack but in this unusual set of circumstances points were the important thing and in both previous games open attacking rugby had been the thing we witnessed and enjoyed. How would England a side of undoubted talent but who sometimes seemed to confuse the training field with a real match, where the opposition also have something to bring to the table.
Of all the games this was a match of equals where there would be no runaway point scoring and the English side had it all to do just to secure a win !
As the game progressed England playing out of their skins and the French pinning them back with a try or two it all seemed too much. And then the points stated to come as England threw the ball around probing here and there searching for a weakness. The try's were coming, was there enough time, one more try one more mighty effort 30 men pitched against each other, 5 metres from the try line, one minute to go, 2 metres, 1 metre, had they got over. Yes, no, surly yes, maybe no.
Well we now know the answer, 55 points to Frances 35, a Herculean effort by England but short by 6 and Ireland are the Severn Nations Champions for the second year running.
A truly great day of rugby and a day when sport came out on top epitomised by the praise the great Irish skipper Paul O'Connell had for England's attempt.
 

Statistics bloody statistics

What value do we place on the stories which are propped up by statistical information.
Numbers are a mathematical method of securing a scientific fact or providing a comparison one thing with another. The way we use statistics which are a set of numbers to extrapolate a position, usually a political one is constantly employed to such an extent that we often disregard the stat as creative nonsense. The use of numbers, this time presented as percentages is another misuse of a perfectly valid comparator but when used in political real time is downright misleading. 

We have just been provided with a lot of pre-budget information. I'm not sure what George Osborn still has to announce to parliament since most of the information has been leaked. 
This is unheard of a few years back when a leak of budget information was deemed a serious thing and whilst it was no longer indictable with a trip to the Tower for a beheading ( imagine if ISIS come into power they will resurrect the practice ) it is still frowned on if only for disrespect to Parliament.
The Chancellors proposed 23% increase in the "minimum wage" is in fact an increase of 57p an hour.
When a ordinary wage earner such as a postman or a nurse gets an increase of 2.5% this means an extra £58 pm.
When the boss of a large company gets a 2.5% increase it equates to £1666 pm but of course he doesn't get such a puny increase his remuneration committee vote him a 15 to. 20%, increase £10.000 pm to an astonishing £14.000pm equivalent to £150.000 pa. This is an increase of nearly 7 x the annual pay packet of the average worker which again statistically is seriously inflated by the inclusion of senior managerial pay. A more realistic figure given that so many people are on the minimum wage or part time employment would, I estimate be closer to £14000 per annum nearly 11 x the annual pay in what is his "increase".
No one talks in this way, the air waves are littered with astronomically high earners and everyone is too embarrassed to highlight "the great rip off" in pounds shillings and pence !!!

The envelope

It's a funny thing to see your life like an envelope, an envelope which contains all the years, hours and minutes all the laughter and the tears, all the hopes and desires that you yourself believed were personal and part of an inevitable journey. It's only when you look back and concern yourself with the time left that you realise the importance of time.

As a youngster the immediacy of experiencing the new things you were learning and the excitement of every day and it's revelation absorbed you totally. As a young man or women released from the constraint of parental guidance there was the release of opportunity to express yourself as a person, through educational attainment or travel, through relationships and the planning that became part of your life with another person leading to children and the totality of bringing children up. As you progress into the later stages of the envelope there is a realisation of the fixed time span we all have to work with.
Of course if we were made aware of the encapsulated period of our existence then we would distort our lives to such an extent that we would find difficulty in coping, since one of the drives we have is our belief in our invincibility or at least a great expectancy to attain our goals.
Looking back, those goals seem somewhat flimsy but as we absorbed ourselves in immortality there was always time for something more meaningful. Imagine the terror of being fixated on every minute, continually ticking boxes, squeezing every ounce out of everything because the clock was ticking !!
But wait a minute isn't the shortage of time simply a factor in the totality of our unique envelope the envelope is our three score years and ten and that "time" as it relates to us is nearly spent. We are but flotsam floating on a vast sea with little or no importance in the greater scheme of things.

The locked door

The danger of punditry. The latest news from the downed aircraft investigation is that the co pilot was locked out of the cabin and the pilot, piloting the plane was refusing or unable to answer the repeated knocking of the chap outside. Was this a suicide or had the pilot passed out ?

Planes cost many millions. This particular aeroplane was, although 20 years old when built the state of the art in automatic controls, in fact some pilots complained that the aircraft was boring to fly since so much was automated. With a plane costing millions how come there was no over ride on unlocking the door ? It's a common occurrence for a pilot to leave the flight deck to visit the toilet and with inboard security protecting the flight deck from terrorists the door is always locked. Apparently when the pilot leaves on a call of nature, they sometimes leave the drinks trolley blocking the entrance !!! What sort of Micky Mouse management / design is that. Are we to believe that these very highly paid executives and designers at Air Bus couldn't come up with something better. What else have they left off the menu ?