Obama a Racist? Get a Grip Beck

Glen Beck a conservative talk show host on Fox has been getting into increasing trouble over his accusations that President Obama is a racist. Beck claims that Obama hates white people.
A lot of white people just don’t get it.

Do they ever wonder how come black people don’t just rise up and kill the lot of them considering what white people have done to back people collectively? Part of the reason why I suspect they don’t is ignorance. I asked a colleague the other day who was educated in the UK to degree level what history he learned and he said he learned about World War II. I had heard rumours of this but couldn’t believe it was true. With all the things that were done through empire, the British do not teach any of it to their kids – they just teach a period of 5 years. Why? Because they must know that their own history is a litany of shameful acts of thievery and brutality to people who did nothing to them, so they prefer to focus on a period of history where thy shined. This limits them to the five years between 1939 and 1945. So the British are largely ignorant of their own history. I imagine it is possible that the same thing pertains for the Americans.

As this is very likely the case white people ware probably oblivious to the fact that most black people in the west have a significant chunk of their family who are white. You cannot hate white people without hating large numbers of your extended family – it is unthinkable.

If I hated white people I couldn’t sit in a room with some of my relatives without wanting to kill them. But when I sit in a room with them I see relative – not colour.

Most intelligent back people I know abhor the actions of white people as a whole but this doesn’t’ translate into everyday interactions with your white colleagues or family members.

If white people were more versed in their own history, which is tangled up with ours they would realise that a significant chunk of their families are black too.

For President Obama to hate white people he would have to hate his mother and his grandparents who raised him. In order to hate your mother and grandparents, you’d have to be a pretty bitter hollowed out shell of a person – he doesn’t strike me as such. When his grandmother died a day before the election result he looked pretty sad to me.

People who listen to Beck and many white people in general need to educate themselves about themselves – and they need to start thinking. For centuries this notion of demonising people who don’t look like them (for no reason other than they are different) has been nothing but harmful to both parties – both white people and non-white people. It’s time to stop this vastly unproductive habit of prejudice.

Mi Mooma Blouse and Skirt!

9.58!!!!!!

Can you believe it?

Man what a race - poor Tyson Gaye - he ran extremely well and was so far being Usain! Tyson had to get a good start to have had a chance (he didn't get a good start in the hear with Asafa and had to fight Asafa off for most of it) and he did get one but Bwoy - didn't make a difference eh?

Very, very happy with that result. Can't wait to see him in 2012.

Leave Hillary Alone

Hilary Clinton has worked hard to get the prominent jobs she has had and currently has. She decided to marry her husband and decided to stay with him in spite of what appears to have multiple instances of infidelity – this was her choice,

She ran for president and lost – must have really sucked but she has taken on her job and by all accounts has been doing very well at it.

So no wonder she was pissed off by the question in Kenya (even if it was inaccurately translated). Heck, I was mad as hell when I heard it and it wasn’t even me! Some jackasses have been making various demented comments about her being upset because it hit home that she isn’t sh** and has been living off of her husband’s glory. Rubbish! Those folks need to get a grip.

It’s the same as when she said she’d rather have a career than stay home and bake cookies – well so would I, Marks sells a lovely butter chocolate chip cookie – very reasonable at £2.50. After I pick up a batch I’ll be off to earn a crust, hopefully doing something stimulating.

The status quo has changed – women have been capable of holding high office for centuries, they have actually been doing it for decades. The world needs to catch up with reality. And they need to give Mrs. Clinton a damn break.

The ideal working arrangement

I’ve been thinking about what that would be and I’m clear on it now. It would a situation where you would be measured by the relevance of your contribution. Where you would be rewarded for the quality of your work. Where you would be able to be as comfortable as you are in social situations. Where you could deliver what has been bought in whatever time is feasible for both buyer and seller. It would enable you to go outdoors often. It would enable to interact or not interact with many interesting people (depending on your personality).

The ideal working situation would free you up to use your experience, education and ingenuity to provide a sought after service or product for the right price. The only thing you would have to worry about would be delivering high quality on time and all the buyer would be concerned with is getting that high quality on time.

Why can’t it be like this?

Too many people in charge of working places have so many ridiculous agendas – often at the expense of making money. Their main aim often seems to be to make employees miserable and disrespected – it seems this is the only way many people can feel superior.

Those who have managed to eke out a living freelance and those who have found places to work where they allow people to feel comfortable enough to produce (Google comes to mind) are indeed fortunate. Let’s hope that we can use the credit crunch as a time for us to change the labour market for the better. Where people can have a much better work experience and where companies can reap the awesome benefits of a skilled, comfortable and well connected workforce.

Government should extend the scrappage scheme

I wonder if the government will extend the scrappage scheme? It seems to have worked for the most part. Apparently, some car makers are screwing around with the intent and raising the price of cars – what is wrong with them?

It seems to have worked in the States too and they are extending it.

On Channel 4 news last night the relevant government official insisted it would not be extended. He also insisted that VAT would go up again at the end of the year.

Both seem ridiculous to me. By all accounts and purposes the UK has been hit the hardest by the recession – why would the government scrap schemes that are helping (albeit in the case of VAT a little)? Can you imagine what’s going to happen to retailers (and of course the people who work in them) if VAT goes up again in December – during the Christmas shopping time government? Hello!!!!

Our lot have been too slow to enforce a whole bunch of things which is why we here in Blighty are suffering so much more and seemingly for so much longer. Let’s hope good sense prevails.

We Must Encourage Girls to Stretch

Recently there has been a lot of conversation about the place of women in business and about unequal pay. Now I know there is discrimination from men but what I want to discuss here is how we prepare girls for life.

From my observation we aren’t equipping girls to adopt the traits and interests to be successful – not according to men’s standards, but according to successful standards.

I’ve noticed the behaviour of many of my female colleagues at work and it’s not good. There are hour-long conversations about mascara – vacillation when making decisions, an unwillingness to speak up or take charge and a seeming willingness to sigh, say ‘ah men’ and then smilingly do some clerical task for some man who claims he can’t do it (usually binding something or printing a document).

We need to develop interests in the subjects that are useful – mascara doesn’t warrant a conversation much less an hour-long one. There are plenty of relevant things to discuss at work. When projects come up we should take charge or volunteer for leadership roles. We should chase them and support each other so that leadership can be done on our terms. Trust me, from what I’ve seen women at work are more than capable of managing things – they just don’t step up for it. And when your male colleagues comes over to ask you to bind a document for him because he doesn’t know how to do it (cue sickening grin) and you are much more smarter than him, please pretty please, tell him to bugger off.

We must also demand much much better of our husbands. Disabuse yourself of the notion that they are ‘helping’ with the house or kids. ‘Helping’ infers that it is our task and they are giving a hand. No, they must do their part. Also, stop being so damn picky about things. If hubby is to do something and he employs the age old masculine ploy of doing it badly so that the wife will do it from now on – let him do it badly and then LEAVE THE MESS ALONE!!! Eventually he will get the message that you will not take on his responsibilities and if he takes too long to realise it – call him on it and shame him. If he’s a decent man he will see the sense in what you say.

Let’s encourage our daughters to go for the top – inculcate in them a strong belief in their abilities and give them courageous spirits. And remember, only discuss mascara at length if you are the CEO of a cosmetic company and you are discussing a fantastic strategy to shift the stuff.

Leave Barclays Alone

People just don’t get it do they?

One of the major problems with the banking crisis has not been the fact that people have earned large bonuses. It is that many people were paid large bonuses when they had not done anything to generate the funds needed to do so and had even done things to evaporate the funds to run those very banks.

In other works – people were rewarded for failing, and failing dismally.

What has happened today with Barclays is success. They didn’t (as far as I know) take government money and they have managed to make a profit. Good on them. There is therefore no problem whatsoever with their employees taking bonuses.

This country needs to become acquainted with the language and mechanics of success. You get (or should get) rewarded when you do well – not when some backra master feels like tossing you a few crumbs.

Too many people in the British workplace who add spades of value and work damn hard make next to nothing and cannot earn more in proportion to their contribution to the bottom line. At the same time thousands of ignorant, stupid, vile and downright lazy SOBs earn hundreds of thousands of pounds for doing sod all – in fact they earn their lavish lifestyles on the back of the work done by the people at the coalface. Many companies who made more profit than they had forecast but made a lot less than they did last year – used this fact to not pay profit sharing bonuses to the rank and file while senior executives continue to get hidden, expensive perks – like brand new X5s etc.

So I am happy for the Barclays staff – I wish other companies would do likewise. In order for us all to do better and earn more we need to ensure that people are rightfully rewarded for their efforts. Monetary incentives should be down to merit, not down to some monstrous class creation whereby often crass and uncultured people are deemed worthy of bonuses just because they say so and the hardworking employee with ingenuity is not.

Largesse should go to the hardworking, those who use their heads and those who take educated risk. Not to people based on some cloudy and secretive criteria.

Slackness in the Highest Degree! - Smaller Chocolate Bars

Can you imagine, there is a call to reduce the size of chocolate bars. See this link http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8173936.stm.

I must protest in the strongest terms and HRH agrees with me. What kind of slackness is this eeeh? Look man, if people are undisciplined and nyam too much sweetie and get fat and unfit that is their issue there is no call to punish decent hardworking chocolate loving citizens by reducing (sob - let me compose myself) the size of the goodly chocolate bar.

I am ready to march on Westminster about this. Anyone willing to join me?

Excitement in the House

You’ve got to hand it to the South Koreans. It’s highly unlikely that broadcasts of of parliamentary proceedings aren’t eagerly watched by the populace – unlike poor old BBC Parliament over here.

Check out any of the news sites you like and you can see some footage of the fist fights that took place recently during the attempt to pass a media bill. I believe the Taiwanese parliament likes to settle their differences the old fashioned way too. Amazing!

Check out this link from the Guardian to some famous legislative brawls http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/jul/22/south-korea-brawl-parliament

Aspiration is up to us not the government

There’s a lot of talk today about the gap between the privileged and the less privileged in relation to education and how that can lead to well paying professions. A study has concluded that certain professions exclude people from disadvantaged backgrounds. The news has been full of this and person after person has come on saying the government needs to do something about it.

This is ridiculous. Aspirations do not need to have anything to do with money and it’s certainly not up to the government to create aspiration in people.

There are thousands of people throughout the world, often in what’s called the developing world by ignorant people (but that’s another argument) who come from extremely deprived backgrounds who have no problem with having very high aspirations. These poor people know that education is the way to attain their goals and they pursue education wholeheartedly. Their lack of money and lack of an entré into elevated society does not hold them back. Why then do people here in Blighty have this ridiculous notion that deprived people’s lack of aspiration is somehow the fault of those who are wealthy?

At no point have I heard any of the pundits talk about personal responsibility.

I am not naïve. I know some people are born into advantageous circumstances and some are not. I know it is easier to get ahead if your parents support you and you don’t have to worry about paying the bills. But I also know that in a country like the UK where education is FREE there is no reason why someone cannot work hard to get ahead. In many of the countries in the developing world education is most definitely not free.

There was talk about university and the cost and loans not being available etc. The student loan scheme doesn’t discriminate according to the wealth of someone’s parents and the information is freely available for those interested in looking for it.

The fact of the matter is that too many people from ‘deprived’ backgrounds are deprived in their attitude and not when it comes to money.

The study mentioned that many people in high level professions were privately educated and talk about this as a sign of inequality. Now how can the country collude in the dumbing down in our education system and then say that there is inequality because some parents who want their kids to be properly educated are forced to send them to public school?

Over the years, foreign languages have become optional, some jackass thought it would be a good idea to stop teaching grammar so millions of us are unable to speak our own language much less write competently in it, the concept of failure has become anathema, kids aren’t taught to reason and memorising times tables also seems to have become unpopular over the years. Teachers have been stripped of the power to enforce anything so homework is optional and forget about doing any extra work. And then people want to complain about the social divide and equality?

Look, we all know what it takes for kids to do well. Once our society grows up and agrees that we get back to basics then there will be more than enough opportunity for most. There are indeed inequalities and there is an old boys’ club old school tie thing going on but so what? That’s how the world works – if you went to school with someone and they are in a position of power of course you will use your connections to get ahead but not ALL positions can be filled in this way and companies wouldn’t want to. In the final analysis, most successful companies do want the best qualified and the most able candidate. Anyone can achieve this – it might be harder for some but it can be done.

I read something the other day that President Obama said. He was talking about the need for black people to have a new attitude and not blame racism on not achieving. I get what he meant. There is still massive racism but what he said was that if you are black and you break into a shop and rob it you can’t blame racism for that. He said that it is up to black people to do their best in whatever endeavour they undertake and at the same time tackle racism when it comes up.

The same goes for the ‘disadvantaged.’ There are some barriers, but those barriers don’t stop you from joining the local library and using the books. They don’t stop you from paying attention to your teachers; they don’t stop you from working hard. That’s down to you. So get on with it- keep and cultivate an enquiring mind and then when you encounter obstacles, formulate a plan to overcome them. Don’t do sod all and then complain that you are at a disadvantage.

The Slackness of the Parent/Teacher/School dinner lady tax

The government should make it illegal for travel firms to double and sometimes triple their prices during school holidays. It is tantamount to an added tax on families , teachers and the poor people who work as support staff in schools.

A plane flying from here to the Caribbean uses the same amount of fuel in the end of February that it uses in the middle of August – it’s the same damn distance. The only reason these thieves charge more in the holidays is because they know that parents etc. have no choice but to holiday then. It is wicked and a disgrace.

I really think this issue should be taken up by parents and seriously lobbied for.

Also, an enterprising travel agent or holiday company willing to charge reasonable rates during the holidays could seriously command a massive chunk of the market and then force the other companies to behave decently. Any enterprising business people out there willing to take up the challenge?

I have been remiss

I don’t take back my sentiments from yesterday’s post – but after watching the memorial service yesterday for MJ I was struck by one thing I had shamefully forgotten – On June 25th somebody’s daddy died and that is incredibly sad.

When MJ’s daughter said her piece it was a reminder that in the middle of all this there is a human tragedy and great loss.

As I said yesterday, the media and the public should not deify the man or gloss over things that were wrong but the family should also be comforted. Perhaps it is time for those who aren’t family to leave this all alone. And in that fashion . . .

MJ is dead but many are mourning the wrong departure

I don’t usually agree with much in the Daily Mail but take a look at this article. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1197860/U-S-congressman-brands-Michael-Jackson-pervert-child-molester-paedophile-eve-funeral.html Basically this guy is saying that MJ was very likely a paedophile and people should not be lauding him to this degree while forgetting the real achievements and contributions of people like teachers and firemen.

Some may say why bring this up now he’s dead – it’s uncharitable and may hurt his loved ones. I say it needs to be brought up because people seem to have forgotten and seem to be saying, ‘yeah well, he may have molested a few kids but it’s alright because he was a great artist.’ This is dangerous thinking. Wrong is wrong – it doesn’t change just because someone dies.

Use his death to reflect on the problem of molested kids and the equally large problem of people ignoring this issue.

The departure of decency and god sense that the collective amnesia about child molestation is what should be mourned and it should lead us to act to prevent these crimes from being committed.

The argument for a republic

I am in favour of a republic for the UK.

People say we ‘only’ pay about 69p per person for the royal family. My point is why should we be paying anything at all? Here are the facts. All taxpayers – many of whom can barely make ends meet, contribute money towards a family who by the accident of birth are deemed royal. This family doesn’t work and they are given palaces and mansions to live in and lucrative estates which earn massive incomes. They are lauded as the cream of society and don’t ever have to worry about feeding themselves or having a roof over their heads.

This is not right in any circumstances but even more so in a recession.

Some argue that they are of tourist value. So they are – but are you telling me that if the UK became a republic then the royal family wouldn’t still be a tourist attraction?

I say get rid of their official status – make the lot of them earn a living by contributing to the economy. Lord knows it would probably allow them to have healthier family lives. And let us all eat by the sweat of our brows and be citizens of the country we contribute to instead of subjects to a family that contributes nothing.

Oh – and let us have a proper national anthem as well – something rousing about what our country means to us and how we will contribute to it. Not an entreaty for God to save the Queen who as head of the COE should already be saved in the Christian sense and certainly doesn’t need saving in any other

The Mentality of a Winner

In the Independent the other day (June 23) Dominic Lawson spoke about the spirit of a winner. He was talking about Andy Murray and how some people say he’s not the most genial of men. Dominic’s position was so what – In order to be a winner in anything, you have to have a single mindedness of purpose. He also mentioned a very successful cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan, and how even though he is go great he still practices religiously.

It got me thinking about the winning mentality and he is right. If you want to do extremely well in anything you have to be focused, and willing to put in some hard graft – and be mentally strong enough that setbacks don’t cripple you.

So, if you are striving to achieve a particular goal I think this is very worth keeping in mind.

Make Sport Count For Our Kids

There have been a few stories in the Gleaner lately about Jamaica’s success in Athletics and what can be behind it. The consensus is (and I agree) that it is the special emphasis placed on sports in school and the healthy competitive atmosphere that is created in Jamaica.

It got me and HRH talking – why doesn’t the UK do likewise? In the States too they have a very successful system whereby kids who take part in sports and do well can earn scholarships to university – this helps them to get an education so that when or if the body gives out they have a profession for which they are qualified.

Here in the UK the most popular sport in terms of young people wanting to get into it is football. It seems as though extremely young, not particularly well educated boys are taken into this very fast world and then if they are good, get millions of pounds thrown at them. Surely it would be more helpful if they got to the top by moving up through a system that supported them and educated them?

Also, this ridiculous notion that some official and people seem to have that competition is unhealthy is exactly the opposite. Life is competitive – the best win the best get the best. Failing to train out kids to have a healthy competitive advantage does them a great disservice when they go out into the world and does the country an even greater disservice by lumping us with low aspiration, low achievers.

If we want to be the best at anything it’s time to look at others who are successful and learn some key lessons. Let’s face it, the UK is not successful when it comes to sport by design – this is the key point - by design. Those that have done well have done so through their own hard work but I am sure we could have more doing even better if there was a sensible system. Also, we would end up with young people who are educated enough to deal with the massive sums of money they will earn and who will be able to be effective in other areas once their sporting careers are over. Also, with a healthy competitive spirit we would all be the better. Being stretched and challenged to do your best is extremely healthy.

It is worth investigation.

Please Take Care

What has happened today in Ireland is a disgrace. Sadly it is not too surprising.

What many Brits take to be tolerance and progress in areas of what they call race relations and what I call basic decency - has largely been a joke.

Here's what's happened over the past twenty or thirty years:

Non-white people have become sick of racist attacks - often after particulaly traumatic events. They have then been pushed to fight back and through this fight legislation has been enacted - under duress mind - so that white people cannot discriminate - let me correct myself, so that white people cannot be caught discriminating.

There has been no heart change - no introspection about the evil nature of being a racist in the hearts of white people as a whole - it's just the cultural climate and laws that have kept them in the closet.

Now, with the resurgence of the racists by getting elected under the guise of people being unhappy with the mainstream parties they are coming back out - hence events like what happened to those 20 Romanian families in Ireland.

People, the legislation has been enacted what is needed now is heart change but only white people can do this!

Non-white people, sadly that means we're screwed as far as I can see.

But we can do our part. It is our duty to call white people on being racist and stop keeping quiet and sucking it up. And I'm not talking about prosecutions and suing I'm talking about reason and 'drawing a crowd.' So when they make racist comments no mater how unobtrusive they might seem call them on it publicly. When they are silent on issues like those in Ireland, bring them up and force them out into the open. Sadly though, it is over to them. We cannot change their hearts for them.

Stop the Assault on Reason

I highly recommend a book called ‘The Assault on Reason” by former US Vice President Al Gore. In it he intelligently presents the case that without reason democracies cannot function.

One of the arguments he gives is that if the electorate is more concerned with the minutiae of ZZ list celebrities than they are about issues that affect them, then corrupt governments can continue to exploit the electorate.

This is exactly what happens in the UK. The last election, (the one w few weeks ago) the turnout was less that 40% I believe – it was definitely less than 50%. That means that a minority of the British electorate has decided who is in power. That is not what democracy is supposed to be about! I get the impression that most people believe democracy is a one way street – with governments supposed to do all and the public nothing. But we the public are the ones who have the power to put politicians in charge and the keep them there. If you don’t exercise that right and responsibility to vote then how can you expect things to function in a way that is beneficial to the electorate?

It is time for British people to wake up and take an interest in the things that affect us. Which cretinous idiot is doing what mind bogglingly stupid activity on a brain dead watching show like Big Brother is of now consequence. Indeed, if the electorate was doing and being what they should – there would be no market for Big Brother-like shows. Now, we need to be concerned with and knowledgeable about the issues that affect us and our families. And people that will take some effort. This will mean reading stuff and extrapolating from it and asking questions and taking part – like getting off your arse and voting.

Let’s get it together shall we?

Stop Lying

There are a number of political parties in existence in the UK. There are the three majors and more than five minors. Let me list the parties (apart from the majors and the BNP) that were on the ballot in my neighbourhood:

1) The Christian Party
2) The English Democrat Party
3) Jury Team
4) No2EU Yes to Democracy
5) Pro Democracy Libertas:eu
6) Socialist Labour Party]
7) The Green Party
8) UKIP


That means if you were disaffected with the three majors –apart from the racist BNP voters had a choice of 8 parties.

If out of the total 12 party choices you had, you decided to go for the racist party – you are a racist – not a disaffected voter. Full stop. Stop lying.

White British voters should really stop and take stock and ask themselves ‘What does it say about us when people who claim to be disaffected with the major parties decide to vote for the racists?’ This is a very dangerous state of affairs. If we as a human race insist of failing to learn from past mistakes we will be doomed to repeat them. How many times in the past have evil and stupid people used disaffection with the status quo as an excuse to enact all manner of barbaric racist acts?

If you really aren’t a racist there needs to be some introspection and some honest debate and some gathering of facts. Too many times I hear these people who have decided to vote BNP and claim not to be racists, spouting information that is incorrect and it’s quite obvious they haven’t bothered to source any facts.

People, running a country involves a wide range of very important issues – if you think that the UK can be run solely on the premise than anyone not white shouldn’t be here – you make a sad mistake.

If you vote BNP you are a racist. If you say otherwise you are a racist and a liar.

If Only They Would All Do It . . .

Got a letter today from a bank I owe money to. They offered to take £200 off of the debt if I paid £20 a month more than I am and so clear the debt within 12 months.

Previously, they had sent a letter saying they would take a certain percentage off if I would clear the debt immediately. I am in debt to them because of all that goes with the credit crunch (not willing to divulge details here) and so of course their offer was meaningless too me. Now the offer I got today was very usable - I need a reduction in the overall bill, a cessation of interest and a monthly payment I can manage in my reduced circumstances. Now we both win - they get some, well most of their money, I reduce my debt and pay it off within a year and am able to live. Now if all other institutions were reasonable they would stay in business, get their money and people would be able to keep their stuff.

I hope circumstances will prompt other companies to act accordingly. In the meantime I encourage you to make offers to your creditors along these lines.

On another note - I have found the magic formula for losing weight - you ready? Here it goes.

Step 1: Eat only the calories you need (about 2100 for women and 3100 for men but check according to your lifestyle). Eat when hungry and stop when full.
Step 2: Exercise at least 30 minutes a day for 5 days a week.

Aim to lose 2lbs a week and it will stay off.

See - magic isn't it?

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong

What Hazel Blears did today was wrong.

Imagine, on the face of it she is upset that the Prime Minsiter took her to task for not paying capital gains tax. Firstly she shouldn't be upset about that, she ought to be ashamed as should everyone else who claimed when they shouldn't. Secondly, how immature and destructive to the party and the public is it to resign in this way just to (as it seems) thumb her nose at the PM.

Voters, don't let these types of shenanigans distract you from the serious matter of voting and voting intelligently.

Make it count tomorrow.

It Must Stop

If you are a christian (and I am) then certain things are extremely clear. For instance, sex outside of marriage is wrong. If all who call themselves christians kept within the paramters of this one law then a great deal of suffering would be avoided.

God's intention for christians is unity and our guide the Bible is pretty straightforward on the important matters. This is why I am angry at certain groups calling themselves christians who continue to sin by careful design. Once you have made the decision to accept Jesus as your lord and saviour then certain behaviour change needs to take place. How can it be then that so many leaders in the Roman Catholic church knew about the sexual abuse of kids in Ireland (and other instances across the world) and facilitated it by not reporting the perpetrators?

This is unspeakable, sinful and a terrible witness. At no point at all did the suffering of these children ever seem to concern these people in authority.

This is most certailny not what God wants of us at all - this is sin and God cannot look upon sin in any way. When will so many Roman Catholics who seem to put their denomination and all the 'add on rules' they have come up with before Christ, repent? And when will the abuse of children by men who call themselves men of God cease?

It is a multi faceted problem but a major part has to be down to one of those 'add on' rules the RCs like to make up - that of celibacy. God does not call on people to be celibate for life. There is a healthy place for sexual relations - within marriage and people are more than capable of ministering to other Christians if they have a family. Imposing celibacy is obviously useless - many of these men are finding a terrible outlet for their urges. As Paul said, better to marry than burn so why on earth do they not marry?

Because it isn't that simple is it? These priests are slipping sexually but they could just as easily slip by having affiars with women. The fact that they are choosing to molest children is a sign of a deeply embedded sin. We must be careful not to pervert ourselves and our natures in the name of God. The RC church needs to realise they are God's church and get down to Christian basics - including hauling any child molester in front of the police as soon as they are found out! They must stop facilitating sin - there is no excuse for it.

Scapegoating

So they have got rid of the speaker.

Yes, he should have gone but my feeling is that MPs bayed for his blood as a diversionary tactic. I believe they think that by piling the blame on the Speaker, it will be diverted from them. But the fact is that anyone who defrauded the taxpayer of money needs to be dealt with within the parameters of the law. It remains to be seen if this will happen.

Watched ‘Dispatches’ on channel four last night. It was on British bankers. It seems that in spite of the crash, they are still earning unbelievable salaries, bonuses and pensions in spite of there being no wealth created from which these salaries etc. can come from.

That my friend, is the crux of the matter.

A person should be able to earn, yes earn their living and if able, to earn a pretty hefty one. If wealth was created by these banks, then the bankers, along with the employees of those banks, and shareholders, should benefit. What seemed to have happened and amazingly seems to still be happening, is that bankers are not earning anything – they are just taking large sums regardless of the performance of their banks, in many cases while they have been responsible for the dismal performance of their banks. Some of the figures quoted on ‘Dispatches’ last night were astronomical sums being paid to replacement bankers of banks now controlled by the taxpayers i.e. people who were put in place after the robber barons were booted out by the government!

Non-executive members of the banks who were supposed to be the internal watchdogs, and the official watchdogs didn’t do anything. The government didn’t – it has now been revealed that they were basically doing the same thing but with tax payers money.

It is a colossal mess and a disgrace.

One of the men on last night’s programme used to work at one of the banks that the governments now control. His pension after 30 years amounts to £14 per week. That former CEO’s pension (which he can get from age 51) amounts to £5,800 per week according to the programme. If this is true this is heartbreakingly wrong.

I believe that you must be rewarded in proportion to your contribution but are you convinced that the CEO’s contribution was that much more valuable than the middle manager? Especially when the bank went pretty much bust?

There is a serious class problem in the UK and it is not the one the working class are always on about. It is one in which a certain echelon of society, in their heart of heart believes that people like them deserve to be given vast sums of money for doing precious little and for contributing precious little in the way of ideas and innovation while those that do the work and add the value should be satisfied with nothing. It has little to do with the background you were born into. I know people with that attitude who were born into working class backgrounds. Additionally this greedy class believes that those who are educated and use that education and have morals and are willing to work hard, owe it to them to give their services for very very little and dare you not ask to be remunerated in keeping with your obvious contribution – it makes them apoplectic and it makes you mysteriously redundant.

There is going to be trouble because lessons have not been learned.

Going After Your Dreams

This has been on my mind lately. And I now realise something. If there’s something you want to do – you need to start putting in the work NOW and not later. And it doesn’t matter how old you are. There’s still time – until you’re dead.

The road many of us travel – go to school get a decent degree, get an office job and for many of us – ‘then stagnate until you die’ is not helpful to put it mildly.

I never really put much thought into what I really wanted to do and I am paying for it now.

If I had thought about it or had been encouraged by teachers and parents to do something specific then I would have had a lot longer to work on it. Now, at 37 for many areas, the ideal time frame has gone – not to say you can’t blaze trails, but it is more difficult to become say a world renowned pop singer when you are pushing 40.


So, if there’s something you want to do, research it, work at it and get on with it. And if you have kids, see what their inclinations are and guide them into areas that can develop them – they will thank you for it.

It's Something . . .

So, the tories are going to give some of the money back or be expelled. A good move. Let's see what happens next . . .

They Just Don’t Get it.

We’ve heard them all doing the rounds these last few days and what horrifies me is that MPs don’t get that they have done something wrong.

They keep saying that what they did was within the rules. So what? If I run a company and I institute a rule that says you can buy anything you want, claim for it and not show any receipts and take the money from people who are not fully benefiting from their contribution does that make it right?

Any way you look at this, the situation and behaviour is a disgrace. I am thoroughly disgusted. We need to show them how we feel at the polls. People, we must come out in our millions next elections and vote – and not for the BNP either. The next election will require serious work for us all.

We need to scrutinise the information that has come out – and if they put out the rest, we need to scrutinise it. We need to take note of which MPs have not been making merry with our money and vote for them. We also need to look at independent candidates because we really need to send a message. Look into your independents and if they are worthy, give them your vote. Ultimately, if there aren’t any viable candidates, perhaps we need to start running ourselves.

We can’t let this state of affairs continue.

People – your vote counts – turn off the telly for a couple of hours and get plugged in so you can make an intelligent decision. Our kids deserve much better.

Why can’t they use their salaries?

A simple question really. If you or I want to subscribe to Sky TV, or buy some furniture, or some food, or feminine hygiene products – we go to the relevant shop, take money from our bank accounts in the guise of a debit card, credit card, or cash from our purse or wallet and buy these items. Where doe this money come from? In all cases but the credit card, our salaries, wages or earnings from running our businesses.

I don’t know about you, but when I go to the supermarket, I don’t fill my trolley, get to the checkout and then demand that someone else cough up. If I did I’d quickly be dealt with.

Why then, do some MPs feel that their everyday items must be paid for by other people? They get paid to do their job, they know what the pay is like before they go for the job and so once they have it they should be satisfied and use their salary to live.

By all means, if their constituency office is too far from Westminster to be able to get home, then they should be given someplace near work to stay – but that sure as hell shouldn’t mean they can stay in a £200 a night hotel. Far from Westminster while waiting for one London residence to be sold and another to be bought.

This is obscene. It’s bad enough that people are suffering while this goes on but to focus on that would be to miss the point. What some of these MPS are doing (and yes, I know it is only some, doesn’t make it any better though) is stealing taxpayers’ money. Just because what they have been doing is within ‘the rules’ as some of them keep shamefully bleating on about – doesn’t mean it’s right. Anyone can see that defence is disgraceful – who the hell made these rules? The same people who are using them to their great advantage.

In any other job, this type of behaviour would be unspeakable and the perpetrators would be fired and probably prosecuted for theft or misuse of funds or something of that ilk. Well like it or not, MPs are doing a job and they are accountable to us the electorate who put them there. We really need to demand much better – all of us, not just that brave lady who took the government to task through the Freedom of Information act to get this information out.

Given this climate, if the disgusting defence of this continues there will be social unrest. I hope the powers that be see sense and I hope the electorate takes this as a cue to become more concerned with politics and less with Z list celebrities.

What Makes You Laugh?

I just had a look at the ‘Put a Ring on it’ spoof video on You Tube. It has Justin Timberlake and a couple of other guys behind Beyonce, in the black leotard and heels, valiantly trying to keep up with the steps. Go to You Tube and look it up – it is hilarious!

Various Matters

Twitter only on Vodafone - Not Right
Just signed up on Twitter. How bad does it suck that you can only use Twitter on your phone in the UK if you are signed up to Vodafone (which I am not). What a grand waste of time signing up.

People Need to Damn Well Stay Home!
Serious business now. If someone is sick as in it seems like they have the flu or a cold, they need to keep their sorry arses home and not ‘valiantly’ come into the office to infect the rest of us. Management needs to be firm on this and not reward people for infecting the populace. Also, I’ve had it – I am now going to start shaming those nasty bastards who go to the bathroom and don’t wash their hands, and those who sneeze and cough without covering their mouths. Enough already – nastiness must cease to backside!

Older Folk Need Help Too
The budget is making provision for people under 25 who are out of work. No offence but how many under 25s have a mortgage and kids to feed? I think help needs to be given first and foremost to people with kids to feed – perhaps I’m being unfair and they already are but all the talk of helping the young people makes me doubtful.

Take Care on the Road Usain
Seems that Usain Bolt was in a car accident. According to the Gleaner, he and his passenger are OK. Keep safe on the roads Usain!

We must Help Each Other in These Times

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8020944.stm

This is so sad. This couple lost their jobs and then their house. They rented a garage for £10 a week to store their stuff and then ended up living in it when they lost their house. They have been found out by the landlord and will now have to move.

There but for the grace of God. . .

In these times we will all need to take much better care of each other – and some of us will have to stop being so proud and ask for help. I don't know if they had family or friends who could have helped or if they were too ashamed to ask for the help. I can understand and sympathise with this.

I call upon all Christians especially to be on the lookout for help that you can give. No one should have to live in the garage – not when there are other people around. We should help each other out.

Information Security – Mine or Theirs?

When you get a phone call from someone you don’t know and the first thing out of their mouth is ‘Can you confirm your date of birth please?’ doesn’t it drive you nuts? It happened again the other day and I refused and the agent on the phone behaved as if I had done something wrong. Madness. I asked them what they wanted and they said they couldn’t tell me until I confirmed by address and date of birth. Along with my name, which they seemed to already have wouldn’t that mean passing my security details to a complete stranger? Of course I’m not going to do it.

***

Remember Dorothy on Golden Girls? She died today at the age of 86. She was a good comedienne – I remember her on another show, something or other by the sea which I am told was a US version of Fawlty Towers. She will be missed.

What a Backward Country England Can Be Sometimes!

Can you imagine the sorry state of affairs we are in? A young boy has a talent for diving – he practices, his parents support him and he becomes good enough to go to the Olympics and represent his country. He does all this by the tender age of 14. And then what? Do his friends admire the hard work that led to this success and try and learn from it? Nope. They taunt him for his success so much he has to leave his school. Read the following story in today’s Independent for more information on Tom Daley, the boy in question. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/i-cannot-stand-the-bullying-any-longer-says-diver-tom-1673403.html

What kind of society looks down on hard work and the success that follows? A pretty sorry one I can tell you.

Citizens of England – don’t we want better than this? This is one incident, but throughout life in the UK there are many more. Up and down the country kids and adults too are making people suffer because they have worked hard and done well. It’s incredibly stupid. It helps no-one. The hard worker is incredibly distressed and in many incidents (especially with kids) stops trying in order to stop the bullying. The idiots doing the bullying stay in their idiocy and don’t find their own area of greatness or how they can contribute to society. Will it ever change here? Or will people who want to achieve something and not be penalized for it have to continue to migrate to the States?

You Cannot Control Another Person

In a story today on the BBC website, Health Secretary Alan Johnson says the Prime Minister does not have to apologise for the emails sent by his advisor Damien McBride.

I strongly agree with this. There is a pernicious notion in England today that empty gestures are worthier than relevant action. How on earth could the Prime Minister be responsible for McBride’s actions? Now, if he had done something like this before, or if his actions had signposted the PM to the likelihood he’d do this then fair enough – you could say that is bad judgement on the part of McBride’s ‘line manager’ so to say. But for heaven’s sake – you cannot control what another person does!

As a British taxpayer I would gain no solace from the PM apologising for this tawdry incident. And what to do from here? Well the party in question has resigned and as far as I can see that’s the end of it. The most that can be done is to tell relevant staff not do indulge in such stupid activities – but to be honest, if they don’t already know this they are in a sorry state indeed.

On another related note, when are people going to wake up to the fact that emails and much correspondence sent over the net is not private? For goodness sake people, remember that and if you have something private to discuss do it in person. In terms of the nature of the emails in the McBride situation – that is a symptom of our culture which is sadly geared towards Z-list celebrity worship and gossip. It’s a pity that someone engaged in what I consider to be the serious business of government is interested in that world too. As I’ve often said – if England doesn’t wake up to the fact that our culture as it now exists is destroying us as a nation we will be - well destroyed won’t we?

A Shame

What happened after the Australia grand prix was not good. I hope that Lewis does not get penalised to the point that he cannot compete this year, as this would be a blow to the team, him and the fans. I understand he considers himself to be part of a team – even if his public see him as a star but I guess what this incident has hopefully taught him is that when it comes to telling the truth – that is a solo activity and not something you can leave up to the team to decide.

Slackness of the highest degree.

It is appalling what many bankers have done – been incompetent at best and criminally dishonest at worst and have been paid magnificently for it but what our politicians is doing is symptomatic of the problem at the heart of this crisis. Even after this massive fallout all anyone in power can seem to be concerned with is continuing to feather their nest. Why are MPs claiming for all of the stuff they are claiming for? They are paid; surely they should be expected to pay their bills with their salary? And if they live in London then why are they not staying in the capital at their own expense at least and if not then having a reasonable stipend? Why don’t they just build a giant hostel or commandeer some of the London council houses for the MPs? Indeed some have grace and favour (free housing to you and me) housing and are still claiming for all kinds of things.

People must be paid a fair salary for their job – no problem with that, it is right and proper. And if you are incurring expenses to do your job you should be able to claim them back. But come on – many of the things that have been revealed do not fall into these categories. People who are working hard – some of whom are suffering badly - are being made to pay for the luxurious lifestyle of others. It is not right and we must demand that it stop – instead of hoping we can jump on the gravy train too and benefit from the nasty attitude.

Third World?

A hospital in the UK has been found to have had terrible conditions and incompetent management. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/patients-die-in-thirdworld-hospital-1646950.html

I hear a lot of this crap in the UK. People again speaking out of their behinds. ‘Third World’ hospital indeed! People who live in the ‘first world’ need to stop this crap. Have there been any news stories about people keeling over from incompetence and general nastiness in third world countries? And ‘third world countries’ don’t have any money – what’s the wealthy west’s excuse? Time to stop the foolishness and talking out of one’s arse. If you don’t have any knowledge or experience of something don’t make comments, especially derogatory comments about them. People from the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand love to throw comments around about third world conditions that they know nothing about. If they bothered to get some information they would be surprised that many so called third world facilities are more advanced than their own.

Be intelligent people. Gain some knowledge and make comments from a position of knowledge – not from lies told to you by racists/idiots/morons.

Madness - Jackson Should Not be Treated This Way

Like the writer of a piece in today’s Daily Mail by Amanda Platell I too am flabbergasted at the attitude in the UK, even worldwide, towards Michael Jackson. Make no mistake – he admitted himself on TV that he sleeps with young boys and thinks there’s nothing wrong with it. This alone is enough to make him someone you wouldn’t admire. Add in all the evidence produced during his trial in 2005 and basic common sense and deductive reasoning and you have to ask if the world has gone absolutely mad to be lauding this man?

Get a grip. Just because someone is famous, does not mean that wrongdoing is to be ignored.

As the columnist said too – the only reason he’s doing shows is because he’s broke and he’s broke because he has spent recklessly. We shouldn’t be supporting that – any more. God help his kids.

We need to do better - striking because times are hard is counterproductive

I was talking to my mum today about the shameful price of public transport versus using your car. It costs more to get a bus pass than it does to use your car. But the most shameful thing is train tickets. I ordered a train ticket from Leeds to London - three weeks in advance, off peak (leaving at 15:00 and returning at 21:30). Guess how much? £132. For that money I could have gone to Europe to rhaatid.

I also checked out a ticket to Bolton. Journey takes 1hr and a half hours, a half hour longer than the London trip. Price?£11. It's about demand which should play some part in pricing but not in something so important to the environment for goodness' sake! Mum said we should protest and boycott the trains until the prices are reasonable.

I agree. But I can't see the British public doing any such thing. We've reached a level of comfort that we can't be bothered. Trouble is the way things are going I think the pain will reach the point that there will be a great deal of civil unrest soon unless the powers that be step up to the plate. The fact that banks etc. STILL gave out bonuses for 2008 though and the fact the govt. won't force the banks to behave makes me pessimistic. More and more stories in the press are speaking about the fact that our population is under skilled and has serious social problems - there's a fatal sickness in our culture and if it isn't fixed we won't be able to compete with the rest of the world. I mean look at those idiots WITH JOBS striking over the Italian workers. It is an embarrassment. A tender was issued and the business was duly and fairly won by this company. They (like us) are part of the EU and so there's no problem with Italian and Portuguese workers doing what they're were contracted to. It is a shame that we are in a recession and jobs are scarce but these companies haven't taken jobs away from any British person - it's just how things go sometimes. But instead of looking for fairly won work of their own, British idiots seem to think they are entitled to work fairly won by others just because they are British and the work is being done here. They cannot grasp the concept of a global economy. I mean they can go to Italy and work too if they like and there are jobs. (But this would probably mean learning another language, not something our lot are keen on eh? I mean the rest of the world should bloody well learn English right?) But they lack the intelligence and the knowledge about basic business and our membership of the EU to process this information. We are sorely paying the price for encouraging our people to be ignorant and stupid (i.e unable to reason and think things out). If this isn't fixed quickly the UK will not even be what someone I know calls 'a third world country with a strong currency' - because the currency is screwed, we will be a third world country period.

Come on people - up your game. Give Big Brother a miss and pick up a newspaper, talk to some people, google a few current affairs that affect you and most importantly, haul your ass out of bed on election day and vote - either for someone you admire or against someone you don't.

We can do so much better than this. We must.

White Working Class - Victims or Not?

Check out this interesting article in today's Independent by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/yasmin-alibhai-brown/yasmin-alibhaibrown-spare-me-the-tears-over-the-white-working-class-1225824.html.

She makes an interesting point, namely that the apologists who believe that the white working class are a) all important and b) should be indulged in their racism should quit.

She's right that not only white working class should be considered working class.

My own opinion is this - shouldn't the label 'working class' be dispensed with? Those of us who don't come under what this label really means do work and many who come under the label don't and don't want to.

In the past there was a clear divide between people who had to work for a living and those who didn't and there was animosity on both sides. This is not the case now. Sadly, working class now means, white, uneducated, base, lazy and criminal both here and in the States.

As this type of person is who is referred to when using the term I agree with the writer. From my observations, reading and the observations of others who are in the position to know, people of this ilk generally have themselves to call to account for their perceived lowly position. They often apparently fail to see that behaving in the extremely anti-social way they often do is what keeps them on the fringe - not the sweat, brain power and effort of someone who strives to support themselves and improve their family's lot.

Funny thing is, there are many poor uneducated people in Jamaica who don't behave like white working class. Poverty and lack of education should not mean baseness and an unwillingness to better yourself. You know what I think the defining difference here is? In the white western word of the UK and the US there is easily available (at least in the UK's case) free money - often with few or no strings attached. It is acceptable to live indoors and to eat without earning the right to by working. In Jamaica if you don't earn money to support yourself you're on your own mate.

A lesson to be learned here I think. Many have cried down the government's and Iain Duncan Smith's proposals to drastically cut back on benefits and only provide them for people who really need them and not to provide them indefinitely and without conditions but they shouldn't. We are all better off when people have pride in themselves and can see the fruits of their efforts.

There's so much help available for those who won't work while those who do can get no assistance (practically all government economic assistance in these harsh times is for those on benefits).

If working class means what I outlined above no-one should be proud of being so. We should all aspire to at least wanting and actively seeking to support ourselves and out families.

'low the shopping people

We all know that we are in a recession right? We also all know it's quite likely that a lot of companies have waited to lay people off until the New Year which is in a few days' time right? Why then are people lining up in the early hours of the morning to plonk down their hard earned for handbags and jumping plastic robots? I keep seeing people on TV pushing and shoving in post Christmas sales to buy stuff. Unless these people are independently wealthy that doesn't seem smart at all.

This type of behaviour just encourages the government to indulge in useless activities (like lowering VAT by 2.5%) that they think will stimulate the economy. People are losing jobs ergo they are losing their ability to pay for things. There are also now fewer jobs out there. Surely, some mechanisms that protect jobs and protect the payments people have to make will be more useful that making it easier to buy stuff?!!!

How about forcing the banks to pass on the interest rate drops? Some are waiting up to 2 months to pass them on and some won't pass them on at all.

How about making the power companies pass on the drop in oil prices?

How about making mortgage companies work out sensible deals with customers in financial difficulty so that they can pay what they can instead of re-possessing houses they will not be able to sell?

Any by 'making I mean legally forcing them to. This method whereby the British government hopes that the banking industry will do the right thing has been proved to be wrong - they aren't and I believe they won't. It's time to give the ordinary person a bailout now and stop coddling those who don't have any morals.

Shameful

I haven't blogged for ages and it is shameful. But I hope to be back. Been too busy with writing assignments - which is a god thing. Folks, keep praying for President elect Obama. Pray that:

his relationship with God remains strong
no-one shoots him or his family
he does an excellent job for his people
his relationship with his wife is protected
his relationship with his kids is protected

Peace.

Praying for the best

We’re approaching the end now. Polls keep saying the gap between McCain and Obama has tightened. I fervently hope that in spite of all the factors raised that on Tuesday the right man will win. Right in the sense that the one who is better able to lead the US and therefore by extension influence the world – for the better. Here’s praying that this is what happens.

The Evil Nature of the World's Thieving Wealthy

Today the BBC online posted a story in which the Archbishops of Canterbury and York spoke out abut the greed of the city. They made an interesting point that ‘The US Treasury has proposed a fund worth up to $700bn (£382bn) to buy back much of the bad debt held by banks and other financial institutions.’ Dr. Sentamu the Archbishop of York noted that ‘"One of the ironies about this financial crisis is that it makes action on poverty look utterly achievable. It would cost $5bn to save six million children's lives.

The story went on to state:

"World leaders could find 140 times that amount for the banking system in a week. How can they tell us that action for the poorest is too expensive?"

This stinks! People, we are all going to be held accountable for our actions. Imagine – there is no real practical reason why anyone should be going hungry or without water. There are more than enough resources to go around. But in spite of this fact those that have the most just don’t want to share with those that have the least. And I’m not talking about handouts either. I’m talking about using money to put in place a fair and equitable system whereby those who’s labour and resources have been pillaged over the centuries are able to conduct their affairs in a free market in addition to real and immediate help being given on the spot to those who need it until they can catch up. But this isn’t done. Money, it seems, can always be found for things people want to spend it on. When it comes down to it, the wealthy nations just don’t want to spend it on their fellow man.

Sickening.

Why is the Gap so Small?

You have to ask yourself the question: Why, if the majority of Americans feel that the Republicans have made such a pig's dinner of things - is there such a small gap between the candidates when it comes to points?

A poll in today's issue of USA Today has the sad answer. It says that what it calls 'deep rooted racial issues' could cause the Democrats to lose the White House. What they mean is so many people in the US are so racist that they would rather vote for their ideological enemy than for a black man who agrees with them on almost all the important issues.

That this is the case has been proven on many occasions sadly - many so-called democrats have freely said that if Obama won the primaries they would vote for McCain. Be honest. How many times in past elections have you heard democrats say they would rather vote for the republican candidate - even if they aren't particularly happy with their own?

This is disgusting and anyone who says that racism isn't so bad now is a moron. If racism wins and we end up with McCain in the White House (and Palin God help us) the world is screwed. Anyone with a brain can see that. Racist have made millions suffer for centuries. Are they going to continue to make the world suffer just because they are mad enough to determine that our future and the future of our kids should be decided not by policy positions but by an imagined negative connotation they have attached to black skin?

Time will tell.

Stewards are Wrong

The stewards are wrong. Lewis Hamilton followed the rules on Sunday. He let Kimi take the lead after he went off the edge and then using skill regained that lead. Why on earth should he therefore be penalised?

Even Ferrari agrees. Let's hope the appeal goes through in his favour - but it's a shame to have it hanging over his head. I hear the appeal may not be heard for a month - meanwhile there are other races. Well it's not like Lewis to be distracted by this kind of thing - he had to deal with worse with the *****bwoy Alonzo.

Here's a story on the penalty issue. What do you think? http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/sep/08/formulaone.lewishamilton

Big Up Jamaica!

First Usain and then the ladies today - what a triumph!

A word of condolence for my brethern and sistren in the States. I understand that the 100 m men's final was not shown live in the States. The US coverage of the Olympics is disgusting! I was in the States during the Atlanta Olympics and you couldn't see any part of the winner unless they were American. I imagine that once Tyson was out of the final they decided it wasn't worth showing. How ridiculous! People interested in sport want to see great performances no matter what country they come from.

But like I said at the beginning, big respect to Jamaica and many congrats to the ladies and Usain. Asafa - come again and re-group, and dust them later. Keep you spirits up.

RIP Bernie Mac

Really sorry to hear that Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes have died. Bernie Mac in particular shocked me. He was so young and I loved his comedy. That man was really funny - swore too much but was really funny.

Rest in peace both of you.

Bigging Up Caribbean Teachers

Check out this story on Dr. Carolyn Cooper.

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080804/flair/flair1.html

She was one of my lecturers when I did my BA in Literature at UWI Mona campus in the early 90s. She was (and probably is) one of the nicest and best teachers I have had. Her classes were fun bwoy! And often quite rude (benz bonnet as a phallic symbol – anyone remember that one?) And she used to host the best parties at her house in college commons – good food, good music and some interesting art. But apart from that I learned a lot in her classes. I learned the importance of observation – on many levels and the importance of bigging up yourself as a dark skinned, afro centric looking woman. That was and is important.

There were other fantastic teachers at UWI, Professor Baugh, Dr (now Prof Chang), and Mr. Smith, my Shakespeare lecturer. Now he was something else. He (and the others mentioned here) truly educated me in that they taught me to think and to appreciate the finer things in life and to consider the human experience. They made it clear that my education was an edifying experience, not a few years during which I could cram in as much information so that I could pass a few exams. I’m reminded of one of Prof’s (Professor Rex Nettleford’s) comments to Mr. Noel Dexter (who was the musical director of the University Singers when I was with them). He said, it that wonderful accent of his, ‘but Mr. Dexter, a butu is a boogooyagga!’;. Hilarious. But I recall that to say that the education I got at UWI ensured that neither butu nor boogooyagga was the result of my time there but a woman with an appreciation for people, literature, science and the arts and an appreciation for the efforts of educators like those mentioned here and elsewhere was the result. Some used to say when you said you were reading for a degree in Literature ‘den lawd missis, yu ah go dead fi hungry!’ but I’ve done alright on the salary front and I don’t regret the lit degree at all. I learned a lot and was privileged to be around some Caribbean giants. You can’t put a price on that.

Private Practice

Been getting into Private Practice – the spin-off from Grey’s Anatomy by Shondra Rhimes. It’s really good – in fact for the more mature viewer it is better that Grey’s – much less soap and more storytelling. Check it out if you haven’t already.

Think before you make decisions on your children’s behalf

Just saw a documentary on channel 4 on the vaccine for cervical cancer. It has been tested for five years and this year will be given to 12 year olds I believe followed by all girls between 12 and 18. The documentary was pretty well rounded – asking pertinent questions about cost, etc. but what shocked the living daylights out of me was the incredibly stupid response of two Catholic mothers and a Muslim father. The father said he wouldn’t give his daughters the vaccine because it would encourage them to be promiscuous. The mothers said basically the same crap. But one of the mothers added the gem that she didn’t think it was appropriate to discuss STDs with her 12 year old daughter.

What a load of rubbish! Fist of all, do you really think a young person considers the possibility of getting cervical cancer when they decide to have sex or not? I am a Christian and this point of view mystifies me. Christians (and I would imagine Muslims too) work hard to instil their respective values into their kids which means no sex outside of marriage. This should be the major focus of teaching which you would imagine would have greater sway than the removal of the possibility of getting some strains of cervical cancer. And as for the mothers – a young girl of 12 should have had the facts of life explained to her by then – it is possible to begin menstruating at 10. There is no reason why STDs shouldn’t be explained to a 12 year old girl. These people are remiss and seemingly don’t have much faith in heir faiths if they think that being told about cervical cancer and how it comes about is gong to override years of upbringing and make their kids jump into bend with any and anyone.

It’s a crying shame parents who claim to have faith can’t do a whole lot better than this.

Giving kids the facts – and making sure the facts are age appropriate – helps equip kids for life. And by facts I don’t just mean he mechanics of sex, I mean the spiritual, emotional and health aspects. So many Christian parents forget, or weren’t told of all of these aspects. God is God and in charge of all things including sex; better you explain it to your kids within these parameters than leave it up to the devil to explain it – in practical and often tragic circumstances.

As to whether or not to give your daughter the vaccine? Get as much information you can and then make an informed decision. The programme mentioned the thousands of idiotic parents who didn’t give their kids their MMR vaccine because that doctor said there was a link with autism. What makes people arbitrarily believe one doctor without checking the facts and then put their kid at risk for measles? Some of the parents on the cervical vaccine programme were talking in the same way. If an expert makes a comment like this, check it out, get it corroborated, get background on that person and then weigh up all the facts and then make a decision. Damn, for all the free education available in the so called developed world there sure are a lot of dumb people – scary thing is they are reproducing.

Hamilton Mash Up Di Place!

Did y’all see how mi bwoy Hamilton jus coof Massa outa di way – twice? This man has balls the size of footballs and can he drive. Can’t wait to see the next race.

The Dearth of Black People on UK TV

I tend to do a sweep of the UK papers online and I caught sight of a headline that said that black people and Asians say that UK TV is too white. Now that headline was in a racist paper – the Mirror but the headline has a point.

Do you know that on sketch comedy shows in the UK, when they want to depict a black celebrity a white person puts on black face – because there are no black people in their casts. This is 2008. Now the US is racist but this would never happen.

It’s true that in most UK TV programme the cast is either totally or nearly totally white. There has been an unhealthy tradition of having black people segregated in shows with just black people in them. It’s sad. Look at Law and Order – sometimes there are three black people in one scene (the Lieutenant, Green and that chick who always brings the messages in though she may be Latino). This would be unheard of in the UK.

I notice a lot of black British actors flash to the states for work (Idris Elba, that guy off of Hustle who was in Primary Colors). Will things change here? Not unless the same thing that made things change in the States happen – i.e. heavy lobbying and a refusal to accept the status quo. Learning from past behaviour in the UK I don’t hold out much hope.

Time for a Change

Well Dr. Phillips has declared his intention to run for the PNP leadership. I never thought I’d say this but good luck to him. I am bitterly disappointed with Portia. I had such hopes for her when she became the leader of the PNP but she messed it up big time. It’s not helpful to the country or the sisterhood that she hasn’t done well for the country and by extension for herself. Here’s hoping Peter Philips can do better.

I Want to be High! (I Want Drugs During Labour)

I read today about some mad women who want to have their kids at home with (get this) NO midwife and NO doctor - just their husbands. Dem mad to rhaatid! I and I want nuff nuff drugs.

Why on earth if pain relief is available , would you NOT take it? There's a documentary on TV about these women. I wait to see if any of them bawl for drugs half way through.

Madness.

What dem waiting fah???

My Goodness - what are the regional leaders waiting for to publicly and private denounce Mugabe and run him out of office?

I know that half of them are probably no better than him and are probably defending their own right to tief elections but lawd man. Full time the see how bad things have got and take action. I wait with baited breath to see what happens. The Kenyan leader has spoken up but - well - nuff said eh?

Here's a link to a good story on he pitfalls of modern parenting and the dangerous tendency to make he kids the centre of attention. http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article4212440.ece

A Black Prime Minister?

Checkout this story in today’s Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/19/race.uselections2008

The commentator asks if it’s possible for there to be a British Prime Minister in the near future. They pose some interesting questions. The funny thing is – it’s always been said that the US is more racist than the UK. It may have been in the past but this can’t be the case now. Black people in the US have real chances to better themselves and to take influential positions – through the political process and through wealth generation. That isn’t the case here. Some of that though is to do with the way things work here politically too – I mean where’s the space in our political system for an equivalent to the Black caucus in the States? Black people in the UK haven’t and don’t band together for our common good. Most home grown Black Brits seem (to me) to be eager to fade into the background. They seem embarrassed when issues of race are discussed. But they should be discussed. You can’t tell me that the US isn’t a better place for people like Oprah, the Johnsons (OK, OK BET sucks but they did start a viable business), the other Johnsons (Ebony), Magic (plenty Johnsons eeeh?) and of course Obama – and many others. Creating a society where all people are able to reach for the skies makes things better for all.

I’m not saying it can’t be done here but from my experience it is incredibly hard. There’s an unspoken and deeply held belief amongst many white people I have encountered – that black people are less competent and no matter how much you prove otherwise they just won’t see it. I’ve worked with people for several month, and years and they will still ask me questions that show they think I am a moron. This is troubling because it means you can’t appeal to these people with reason and if you can’t do that it doesn’t leave many options. Which is why many of us have given up and resort to legal measures, where in the past we would have let things slide. But then isn’t that what happened in the States in the 60s which is why black people there have better chances. Maybe the UK is just many years behind in this area. Heck , it’s behind in so many others (just instituted chip and pin so you can use your debit card in a shop a few years ago; live liver transplants available for 15 years, first one done on the NHS last year – there are many examples).

Full Time We Run Out Mugabe

Saw a story on www.thefirstpost.com today here's the link. http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/42894,opinion,zimbabwe-its-time-for-the-west-to-go-in.

I agree with the sentiment that the time has long passed for taking drastic measures. We must go in and forcibly remove Mugabe or things will get worse. Can you imagine it worse in Zimbabwe? I thought it was as bad as it can get. No. He must go. But it won't be easy. It must be done in such a way that we don't swap black dog for monkey i.e. after you remove him the only likely replacement is the MDC. This is fine for the time being but they can't stay in power with no viable opposition and Zanu-PF isn't a viable opposition.

Be that as it may - my point still stands - he must be removed.


On a lighter note here's a story on Grace Jones - apparently still going strong. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/grace-jones-still-a-slave-to-the-rhythm-849054.html

The 9 Most Racist Disney Characters

Check out this article by Ben Joseph that someone sent me the link for. Thought provoking and funny in the way it is written. http://www.cracked.com/article_15833_9-most-racist-disney-characters.html

Mugabe Must Go!

It's time for desperate measures. The international community must now throw caution to the winds and descend upon Zimbabwe and forcefuly remove Mugabe. And by international community I mean an African international community. It is important that no white western countries are involved as this will just smack of colnialism and will give Mugabe and his supporters fire to mount a come-back.

The African comunity has been pitiful and criminal in their willingness to let Mugabe continue. There is no reason why they cannot remember and respect his freedom fighting past without condemning present tyrannical and evil actions on his part. They must see sense. Their own people are suffering. Is Mugabe's freedom fighting past more important that the well being of his countrymen? Hell no! Time to stop the foolishness man!

Improving the Skills of the British.

In a recent documentary about immigration, Rageh Omar came to the conclusion that what British people need to be concerned with is not the influx of foreigners, but the increasing inability of British people to complete in the global marketplace.

Many Brits still bring up the old complaint – foreigners are coming over here to steal our jobs and take our benefits. Trouble is they aren’t. Foreigners are often extremely well educated, well trained, have a lot of experience, a good work ethic and are intelligent and know how to solve problems.

On the other hand British workers – especially the ones we are churning out of our education system now – are not. And instead of whining about foreigners ‘stealing our jobs’ we should be upping the ante by increasing our skills and mending our attitudes.

You see the truth is – the world has changed – radically. When you look for a job now, you can look for one in any part of the world – and you have as much chance as anyone of getting that job. That applies not only for jobs in the UK but also jobs in other parts of the world. As a man in Rageh’s documentary said, there’s no reason why Brits can’t look for and get jobs in other countries.

Instead what are we doing and what have we done over the past 20 years? Set up our own people to fail massively by under educating them and making a thirst for knowledge a culturally abhorrent thing. Apparently, some bright spark some years ago decided that teaching English grammar was a bad idea. So there are millions of people who are unable to speak their own language. Now English is the international language of business. Not smart. Then another bright spark (the same one?) decided that taking a foreign language would no longer be compulsory. So not only can Brits not speak English – they can’t speak any other language either! Fantastic! And then people complain about the inequality in education because private schools have the sense to teach these things. Also, I have heard from many people that British high school students’ history consists of a bit of medieval history and the 2nd World War. I cannot believe this – I went to school in Jamaica (left the UK at 10) and we did hundreds of years of European and Caribbean history at high school. Not learning about yourself and the world you inhabit is another dumb move.

Also, British kids are coddled so much that they aren’t required to be accountable and aren’t required to solve problems.

None of this is helpful.

Whining about foreigners ‘stealing’ jobs is pointless. It’s about 15 years past the time we should have woken up and smelled the stupidity.

For such a wealth country it’s a crying shame how wilfully dumb and ignorant so many people are.

Time will tell

Well it looks as though Obama has done it. Yet some Clinton supporters seem to still be holding a grudge – saying derogatory things about him. If he wins the nomination – and it pretty much looks like it – all democrats need to get behind the democratic nominee. If they don’t it will be telling won’t it?

Ode to the Unappreciated Worker

To the unappreciated worker:

Forget the idiots who haven’t appreciated you. Try and forget all the heartache caused by people who are stupid, lack vision and have ignoble aims. We all know you are excellent at what you do and now that you will be putting your brains to work for only you and your family, we wish you the best and we will miss you.

What is the Generals’ Problem?

I can’t for the life of me understand why the ruling junta of Burma is so desperate for power that they have sacrificed their humanity? They care so little for their own people they are willing to have them die and suffer – rather than lose their grip on absolute power (I guess they think letting aid in will lead to them losing power).

And now they have extended Aung Sang Sui’s house arrest for a further year.

It’s funny – there are so many places in this world (Burma, Zimbabwe) where invasion and war if necessary (though one with an exit strategy) is advisable, nay necessary yet the world won’t ‘go there’ but they’re willing to go to war over oil.

There are some evil bastards out there. We need to stamp them out.

Speaking for Christians

(Sigh) There was just a programme on channel four on ‘Christians.’ Why is it that when the media profiles Christians they choose to talk ONLY to nutters who want appropriate the Christian name or those who might be well meaning but seem to be unable to read and comprehend their Bibles and don’t seem to spend much time in prayer and meditation? Because if they did they would realise that Christianity isn’t about picketing immoral theatrical productions and abortion issues or homosexual events. Guess the answer is that the nutters make better TV.

I am a Christian. And as one, Christ is my guide through his life, prayer and the Bible. There are very clear things that a Christian must adhere to and the Bible is very clear on what is or isn’t sin. Homosexual practices are sin – ‘ain’t no doubt about that. So are many other activities sin. Any sex outside of marriage, lying, idolatry. Check the good book or your nearest Christian if you’re interested in the others. There are also many things we are exhorted to do as Christians – things that can be done in the affirmative and can be done in everyday life. Yes, there are occasions when taking a stand is important but for the most part we are to follow Christ’s example and the only time he got mad was at people within the circle of the church who were making a mockery of God’s house. Christians are held up to a higher standard (by Christians) than non-Christians. You can’t judge a non-Christian by the same rules as you do a Christian – so expecting them to abide by Godly rules is ludicrous.

When Jesus came up close and personal with sin – his reaction was of compassion for the sinner and hatred for the sin. Sinners should make our hearts bleed as Christians. If we love Christ and other people as we have been directed to, seeing someone live a life of sin should cause us distress and should lead us to want them not be living a life of sin. (You all know the wages of THAT - it ‘aint pretty). Only God himself can turn a sinner into a Christian. We as Christians can and should tell people about the gospel and Christ’s love and provide support and guidance for people who decide they want to follow Christ. Anyone who hears the gospel and rejects it? - that’s between God and them come judgement day – in the meantime we can pray for them. Reprimands need to be saved for Christians who sin and there is a framework for that.

Following Christ is a choice. We have free will. You choose to follow Him or you don’t. Someone isn’t going to make the decision to follow Christ as a result of public humiliation, browbeating and insulting. Sadly the people profiled on this programme resorted to these methods. If these are the methods you’re interested in I say you’re not interested in loving sinners but interested in how superior you can seem next to them.

Man – I’m sick of Christians being mis-represented – but I’m not sure our mission is to be up in the media at the expense of making a difference in people’s everyday lives. In the meantime I pray for guidance as to how to answer questions resulting from programmes like the one that aired tonight.

Peace.

Paradise

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Jamaica could offer its citizens (all of them) a realistic chance to prosper economically and to do so without risk of being shot? That would truly make Jamaica paradise and would enable many of us to come home. Sigh . . . if only . . .

Racists are the Problem, Not Black People

In the US Democratic elections one point keeps coming up, namely that Obama does not have the support of racists – otherwise known as white blue collar workers without a university education.*

Yet when this issue is discussed, it is discussed along the terms of Obama having this problem of not being able to attract these voters. Not once do any of the media pundits call it as it is – that the problem is that so many white people are racists. It is so bad that in exit polls many of these racists freely admit that race plays a significant part in their voting decision and many say they will either not vote or will vote for McCain if Obama wins. Can you understand the depths of their racism? These are democrats – people involved enough to be voting in the primaries – who say they will vote for the other side rather than for a black man (half black actually) who is a democrat – supposedly someone who shares their political views. [All of unu mixed race people who feel your white side is as valid as your black – learn the lesson from this, white people see you as what you look like – do you hear me Tiger?]

I am disgusted that the status quo is being maintained STILL. When are white people as a race going to at least even aspire to start behaving as decent human beings? All those white people who claim they aren’t racists need to be shaming these voters and harshly speaking out against their attitude. But what do we hear? Bloody well nothing. Which goes to prove my point – that many, many, white people who claim they aren’t racists are flippin’ liars – they are racist.

Let me re-state my position. Historically non-white people have had neither the power nor the desire to hate white people en masse. However, from the beginning of their association with non-white people, whites have consistently hated and harmed non-whites [I still ask why the hell do they – can anyone provide the answer?] The fact that white people are racist against non-whites is evidence of a deep evil and depravity of spirit. With the hundreds and hundreds of years of terrible treatment at the hand of whites – non-whites who loathe whites are well within their rights to do so – in fact to loathe the white race – for a black person – is rational – and yet we don’t as an entire race systematically hate white people, because on the whole we recognise them as individuals and treat them as such. This is treatment that we still cannot get from the majority of white people.

Racists are wrong and if you aren’t one you need to be outraged enough to speak up and take action. This automatically excludes millions of so-called non-racist whites because they do and say nothing.

With the rise of the non-white world i.e. Asia – things will change – the power base is shifting. What are white people going to do then?

*There are many stereotypes out there and sadly some are true. In my experience in Jamaica – being poor and uneducated does not preclude you from being civilised, well informed and interested in all kinds of people. Many poor and uneducated people from the country, my father being one, work hard and educate themselves in heir own way and work hard and become cosmopolitan and intelligent members of society – able to and eager to get on with all kinds of different types of people.

Why is it that the stereotype of the blue collar or working class white person – as being bigots and therefore ignorant seems to be proved to be true? Come on people – being poor and not having a university education does not mean you have to be a moron. Elevate your minds – if you’re interested. To me the sign of a beastly, evil and moronic person is having the freedom and facilities to elevate themselves – for free or for little money – and choosing not to. White working class people have a hell of a lot more opportunities to educate themselves, to seek out information and to mix with a wide variety of people than poor black people in the Caribbean do. Yet Caribbean people manage to educate themselves. You see the difference between the two? It is telling isn’t it?

The ‘Commoditisation’ of Women . . .by Women!

What do you feel your worth is as a woman? Are you intrinsically valuable? Or do you feel your value exists only in relation to a man?

I ask this question as I ponder the issue of relationships, marriage and sadly divorce. I recently read an interesting article in the Jamaican Gleaner on pre-nuptials. It mentioned a case whereby a couple were married and had a pre-nup. The woman had stated her worth at US 18 million, he at about US 40 million. They agreed that if they split, they would take only what they brought into the marriage. After about two years the wife divorced the husband and went after half of his money on the basis that he had lied about his worth (he admitted this, he was indeed worth about US 6o million at the marriage).

She lost her case – apparently she was a ‘professional divorcee’ her 18 million had been obtained by divorcing several wealthy men.

This led me to think of women and their attitude to their worth even now. Many women still seem to believe they are entitled to alimony – to be financially supported by their ex-husbands should they divorce. Now child support is a given – men must support their kids. But why should someone else support you just because you are married, or just because you used to be married to them? I don’t get it. Times have changed – women are no longer unable to earn a living and we certainly aren’t helpless little flowers. Why is it then that many women devalue themselves by expecting to be taken care of in this way? And it’s often wealthy women with professions who are the ones chasing their ex-husband’s money.

I don’t have much patience for the other excuse give for being entitled to alimony – ‘we agreed I would take care of the house and he would earn the money.’ As a woman you need to be a hell of a lot smarter than that. You don’t know what the future will hold, so you need to make sure you can support yourself – your husband could die then what? And don’t tell me about insurance – it won’t support you and your kids forever.

If you go into business with your husband – be smart and do it as a business. Have papers drawn up that clearly state who owns what and who has contributed what. Business is business. But you certainly shouldn’t make cash off of being married. Turn it around. I for one know that if I worked hard for years, struggled and put up the necessary risk to run a successful business I would not want to have to hand half of it over to someone else just because I was married to them. That’s wrong. And if it’s wrong for a woman, it’s wrong for a man.

Have a thankful heart

Recently, things have not gone well, money problems, bereavements, health problems, more money problems. But in all of it while I was having my umpteenth ‘why me’ moment I was hit with a thought. Things could have been and could be a whole lot worse but for the grace of God. Repent and be grateful for what God has done, is doing and will do for you.

So have a thankful heart – God is in charge and he knows what he’s doing.

Obama and Clinton
Is it possible we will have a definitive winner today? I wait with baited breath.