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.
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
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 !!
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.
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 !!!
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 !!
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 !!
