The peace we all yearn

How important is communication.
We take the ability to communicate for granted. We discuss things with our partners and  friends with our workmates and the shop assistant and from each we get a dialog which is different but provides us with psychological sustenance, mental nourishment which helps keep us sane.
Some people are always entertaining, always engrossed in arranging contact with friends, and family. It brings them great happiness a feeling of being joined up, sharing not only of their lives but the journey each other person is making.
Isolation is supposed to be bad for anyone. The solitary isolation cell in a prison is a form of punishment over and above having your Liberty taken away from you since the idea of being on your own is deemed punishment.
People throughout their lives are usually in constant contact, the busy person is usually the one in greatest demand like a bee drawn to honey, the sheer activity of the busy person makes them attractive if for no other reason than we are attracted by their frenetic lifestyle seeing in it, some sort of glamour in being busy and needed.
Life's stages takes one eventually through to a shakedown period when you retire and whilst many people not only retain their lifestyle they even increase the things they do on the basis that now they can, they feel they should. The clock after all is running.
I was watching a program of a woman somewhere in South Africa who takes in orphaned animals and try's to rehabilitate them for release into the wild. She had a menagerie of intriguing animals but the one closest to her heart was a young sloth which seemed even more exposed to danger simply because it was so slow to react and seemed so vulnerable.

Slow and vulnerable is a good description of the average over 80 year old, coping as best they can in a diminishing circle of friends and opportunities.

This lack of meaningful contact is a condition we all have to cope with, unless of course we get knocked down by a number 95 bus. One begins with old age to evaluate your own ability to entertain and keep yourself not only occupied but mentally on top of things so that you are, happy with the company you keep, yourself. 

Our lives are made up of minuets in and hour, hours in a day and days in a year and what we choose to do with that "time" is up to us and is personal. It's not the same for everyone but there is often criticism of the way we independently choose to spend our time. 

There are those who view time as precious and those for whom time is a drag. The importance we attach to our lives and the way we choose to live them describes our sense of self being and the value we put on our actions is graded as if more action was in some way more desirable since it was a measure of how we valued ourselves within society. The 'do nothing' is inferior to the 'do everything' and throughout our lives we have been pressed into believing that a busy life was a successful life. 

Not having 'any contact' has its own attraction of course. There is no deceit in dealing with yourself, no play acting, no dressing up. The silence is only broken by your own 'thoughts' and if you are the only one actually interested enough to try to understand them perhaps it's better to be alone. 

Anyone who has been there knows that the silence of the desert is delicious. It is almost felt even tasted and the impression it creates stays for a lifetime. It heightens the senses and sharpens the instincts, it focuses your attention on 'yourself in relation to your surroundings', it brings things into focus. The noise is turned down, the jangling is stilled aa you get nearer to the peace we all yearn.

The Referendum gets closer

What is the latest state of play regarding the European Referendum negotiations in Europe by the Prime Minister with the other European Statesmen regarding what he see as, both the burdens imposed on us financially and the inherent interference that Europe can impose on virtually all of our decisions in law, human rights and employment decisions which then effect business.
Now that's a big mouthful and our natural default position would be, "I don't need any bloody foreigner to tell me how to run my affairs". 

The only problem it seems to me is that we are ourselves a 'two tier' country and whilst we hate Johnny Foreigner we must also recognise that the "Establishment" in this country are often as foreign to the man in the streets best interests as are the people sitting in Brussels. In fact I would go so far as to suggest that our Business Orientated, Capitalistic, Elitist, Etonian Establishment are more like the Americans with their neo-capitalistic program of excluding the human element in their pursuit of profit.

Far from following the humanitarian approach posited by Europe with an agenda for fair wages and proper working conditions, plus a legal system which also considers the poor, not just the wealthy, Europe reflects many aspects of behaving in a civilised fashion, governed by the concept of 'human rights' (possibly over governed). Instead we seem hell bent on following the Washington Consensus which, at its root proclaims "everyone for themselves", the rest can go to hell.
Of course every nation, every individual has problems in accepting directives which emanate from others who they feel are interfering and with whom there is no common bond. But isn't that what we do every day, in this country, governed by a specific section of society, a cabal, united in their own special interests, a tiny minority who time and time again are placed in positions of power by birth.

How far has true democracy progressed. 

The voting system is skewed to minimise that large constituency of voters in the cities, giving the leafy shires just as much say with a much smaller electorate. 

A schooling system which differentiates, at birth as how affluent and powerful you will be, irrespective of talent. 

It's no different to living in a foreign land if you live in the North and you might as well join forces with the people in Brussels who actually  have your interests at heart, not just a set of words in a party election manifesto.

To seed powers to Europe would, for the majority in this country be no bad thing, once you put the jingoism aside. Does a German or an Italian feel the need to wear his national identity on his chest or has he progressed to a more advanced stage in his search for Liberty,Equality,Fraternity 

No more Kitcheners pointing a finger at the masses and declaring "Your country needs you" and then sending them to die in their millions for a series of diplomatic blunders.

No more George Osborn's or Iain Duncan Smith's riding roughshod over those sections of society they think don't matter.  The rules are conceptualised by a broader section of humanity coming from many backgrounds other than those schooled in the segregated, antediluvian, elitist, hot house of Eaton College, situated by no quirk of coincidence, not a couple of cricket fields away from Windsor Castle, that other seat of English idiosyncratic custom.

Culture and custom are useful in seeing where we have come from but are not a necessary yardstick for the future !!

Referendum issues

We the British are largely an emotional lot and whilst there are those who are pragmatic about most things, the sight of Martin Schutz the German President of the EU dictating to us if the EU will or will not help in David Cameron's mission to wring some changes to the benefits which incoming refugees can expect from our Benefit System is a bitter pill to swallow.

There is a lingering resentment in our psychology, (at least amongst the older generation), that we don't like having to acknowledge a German calling the shots. Who won the war and all that !!

Of course, in part, that horse, the proud industrious Brit, has bolted since many of our traditional symbols of British workmanship are now fully owned and amalgamated into foreign companies.  

Rolls Royce and Bentley are examples, E-on the utility group and the iconic London bus, all German. 50% of British Business is owned by foreigners. Boots the Chemist is Italian, ICI is Dutch, Cadbury American, the Steel Industry Indian, our Nuclear Industry France and recently China, Asda USA, P&O Dubai, British Airports Spain,even the Lottery owner is Canadian. All the major Hotels in London are foreign owned, our flagship shops such as Harrods and Debenhams, Selfridges even the Dorchester is foreign.  

And so as we continue to flog off the 'silver' to balance the books we fail to recognise that the ex British companies, now registered overseas, have their profits taxed overseas which minimises our tax revenue, we loose millions which further encourages more silver to be sold to balance the books. Any Benefit claimant will describe the process. The only beneficiaries are the Banks who handle each financial sale and of course our Establishment are slave to the banks in our indebtedness to the financial markets who accept or reject our ability to borrow. 

So what is it that this "hollowed out nation" has to loose in being amalgamated with some of its owners. Jingoism, flag waving, xenophobia are all traits which are not attractive.
Can we grow up and understand the world in which we proudly played such an important role and which I believe we should be rightly proud, has changed or at least our part in it has.
We are no longer the sheriff out to right the wrongs and protect the weak. We are a medium sized economic entity with a dodgy record regarding our role of protecting our own weak and vulnerable. If we calm our hubris and take a reality check, maybe the 'nationalism' that is projected by those least likely to fight, can be set aside for a larger role alongside the nations of Europe, many of whom we can identify with better than other global powerhouses.
This is the era of the global powerhouse.
Those on the other side of the pond, the US, for whom I would suggest we have little in common, other than the language.
The Chinese who are impenetrable.
The rest of Asia, who's cultural disparity makes us poor bedfellows.
And Russia, who as always defy any sort of categorisation other than their ability to suffer for a Slavic ideal.
The historical conflict within Europe has largely succumbed to a collective economic will which our proximity and also our own history, makes them the only family from which we can expect a bed and some comfort. All families squabble but a squabble is not the same as a divorce and we should stay and make the best we can in our own chastised circumstance.

The magic of good lyrics

Watching the film "A Hard Days Night" on Netflix took my back into the 60s and Sydney in Australia where I first saw it. The film made in 1964 is a zany depiction of a day in the bands life interspersed with the memorable tracks that had set the world of Pop Music alive. 

Living in Sydney and experiencing the ups and downs of being a single chap far away from home I well remember not only seeing the film but how certain tracks seemed to capture my mood.

The film opens with 'Its Been a Hard Days Night' a lively upbeat song something in the mould of the opening tension of Bill Haley's, Rock Around the Clock in the film 'Blackboard Jungle'.  Hayley's staccato drum rap as the film starts, the screen is black, "One two three o'clock four o'clock rock", the background music hit the kids I was one. It set the rebellious pace for the outburst of teenage angst across the country, there was no turning back.

The Beatles were a Anglicised Rock Band, their image manufactured by Brian Epstein but their music and lyrics live on to this day. "If I fell in love with you and I promise to be true" we're the words and the emotions which struck a cord in that relatively naive time when innocence was still to play for. If you had been dumped and were walking home feeling lost and despondent, its lyric seemed to be in tune with your feelings. "I should have known better with a girl like you", the driving sound of the Lennon's harmonica was more upbeat but still expressed that male yearning to find a girl who he could respect and go steady with.

The ritual of courtship amongst all but a fringe group "the players" was slow and ponderous. The time scale for taking a girl out was controlled by the "last bus" or a long walk home if and when you missed it. The fervour in the bus shelter and that last kiss was the most we could ask for since everyone knew 'the limits' in a time where pregnancy meant an early marriage, and no argument. There was no pill, no clinic no option since "society" expected both parties to do the honourable thing.

It seems such a far off time, so different from today's, single parenting, sex on demand society where respect is measured in how many times you do it not the converse.

The music of that era lives on because it was good and spoke then to the youngsters. The same people who today, even with their arthritis, still remember with fondness the partners we took out when the world was a much simpler place.

A homily

If you lie on your back all day in bed reading, that's very bad.
If you lie fully dressed on top of your bed reading all day, that's bad.
If you sit in a chair reading all day, that's ok.
If you sit in a chair all day at a desk reading, that's good.
 
What contrary beasts we are.
We practice and believe myths. We accept conventions and follow routines which are chosen by others as if they were passed down written on stone by you know who !!
Is it any wonder we are a mess of contradictions hardly knowing what to do without prior reference to the people around or the implicit trail which the tort "good breeding" desires.
We are caged animals, taught tricks by our masters for their amusement and profit and we seldom have the wit to see it ourselves. We contrive to be free and independent but in name only. We don't have the courage to find ourselves and throw our own dice. Too afraid of condemnation and the curse of failure, we 'condemn ourselves' to seek favour in the hope of a good word and a pat on the head.

What ever you do, own it.
What ever you say, believe it.
What ever you are, accept it.
What ever life throws at you, try to understand it.
And more than anything, when in doubt sustain yourself in the knowledge that you are not alone.

Knowledge in the wrong hands

Knowledge is power. Without doubt this is true but is knowledge good for us as a society.

Can too much knowledge damage that fragile fabric of stability which we weave around ourselves by not knowing everything !!

Take virtually any issue. We are largely in the dark about the in's and out's, the details, the down side. If we knew of the statistical dangers in any action we undertake, from driving a car into London or undertaking a hike in the Lakes would we leave the security of the couch. Would we pack our ski's away because of what happened to Michael Schumacher or stop swimming in the sea because of Jaws. Each event has a statistical downside just as we now learn, does drinking a cup of coffee from Starbucks.

Our bodies are the greatest centre of interest not only to us but to the industries which benefit from selling us stuff. The fashion industry is concerned with our size. The antacid paddlers are concerned with what we eat. From shoes to protect our feet to balm to protect our skin we are assailed by facts and figures, trends and advice which seems to change with the need to revitalise our flagging concern. 

Manufacturing concern is the name of the game. Religion is a past master at prodding us to become, worried and then, like the snake oil salesmen, sell us redemption. 

Our knowledge of the human body and its complexity has come on in leaps and bounds over the last hundred years and with it the pills and medicines to make us better. Along with medicine, an industry has grown which purports to have the answers to our lifestyle including, fitness and what we put in our mouths as a way to extend our lives by a year or two.

As I stood in front of the fridge this morning contemplating the last two sausages, half a packet of bacon only three eggs and no bread, I wondered why I hadn't stayed in bed. Here I was, still  half hour on the cycle machine and all those smoothies to drink before evening. That vegetable stew looks less appetising than when I cooked it a couple of days ago.

Do we deserve to flagellate ourselves with the good intentions of the knowledgable  people who constantly remind us of the harm our past habits cause us. 

The food we ate and gave up because we were told it was bad for us, is now back in favour. 

The food we were told was essential is now bad for us !

The stress (a more insidious killer) we have laid on ourselves with the discovery and later rejection of knowledge, makes us realise how knowledge, in the wrong hands, is dangerous !!

What history doesn't teach us

There is nothing worse than war. History books often depict war, in which the nation consuming the history, was part of a great event an emotional uprising against a dreadful enemy and fittingly a romantic ending with scenes of victorious troops marching through the deviated ruins of the enemy cities.

As children we are brought up on the heroics of people who had fought a battle, often dying  in the battle standing their ground shooting until the ammunition ran out and then, through hand to hand combat being killed by overwhelming forces. My history books were full of jingoistic tales right across the globe of our victorious troops "winning".

The reality of war is different and one sees it played out in Syria today. That convenient term, 'collateral damage' doesn't do justice to what happens to unarmed civilians caught up in conflict.
The women and children, their lives snuffed out in an instant, as high explosives obliterate  a building but what we don't see are the people in those buildings blasted apart.
It reminds me of the 9/11 Twin Towers as we watched the buildings collapse little realising what it was like for the 3000 people in the building as it shuttered into the ground.
Nations who have experienced war on their home territory have a different perspective from those who sent army's thousands of miles away to fight.
The worst conflagration has to be civil war where people who ordinarily would be fellow countrymen turn against each other in conflict. Some of the worst sectarian massacres are perpetrated by neighbouring people who, virtually moments before, were in harmony but fed the propaganda, turn and instigate despicable horror on each other.
Bosnia and the Serbs, the Hutus in Central Africa and now the Assad Dynasty and his Alawite Shia followers with no love lost for the Sunni.
With the break up of the Ottoman Empire and the French colonisation of Lebanon and Syria, in the 1920s, the segregation, or semi partition of Syria into regions which reflected the religious make up, cemented the disregard that certain groups have for each other today. The areas and cities most under bombardment by the Alawite Shia are Sunni and so this bitter religious feud continues all over the Middle East with no end in sight.
Of course the exodus of people from the various conflicts in the Middle East into the nearest stable area, Europe have frightened us. Not solely because of the logistics of resettling the millions who may come, but the cultural impact of establishing a large religious group with its religious laws and who at their heart have an ongoing feud established on the death of Mohammed in 632.
Taking a difficult brother or sister into your family is hard enough but when they are not of your kin then you have to be a very very Good Samaritan.
Of course being a 'Samaritan' opens up a whole new biblical can of worms !!!