Japan (Shelterbox Appeal)

I’m asking everyone to support Shelterbox who are providing urgent aid to Japan.  Shelterbox emergency kits have tents that can sleep 10 people and also contain vital supplies.  Teams and supplies are already en-route to some of the worst stricken areas even passing through the exclusion zone according to TV reports. There are up to half a million people homeless and in urgent need in freezing conditions so please do what you can to help.    www.shelterbox.org/

Gaddafi Duck

Colonel Gaddafi has stated that his is fighting Al Qaeda and the West had better watch out or there will be trouble.  This is an implication that we should let him get on with breaching his own ceasefire to destroy purported terrorists holding half his country instead of protecting the innocent civillians who he is massacring.     Gaddafi states that the United Nations has no right to interfere in the internal affairs of Libya somehow forgetting that the UN has a mandate to enforce international law and protect human rights and top of that list being the right to life and justice.

We get all  somewhat insane rhetoric from a man who trained and supplied the IRA enabling them to  bomb Britain for decades and blew up an American airliner over Scotland.     Of course there may be  crowds cheering for Gaddafi in Tripoli but you have to wonder how many are in his employ or being coerced especially when you can view his plain clothes secret police at the rear of the crowd and men with machine guns surrounding them!  The news reporters are not permitted to move around Tripoli and speak to people outside the centre.   How convenient that cars are driving by the reporters cheering “We love you Gaddafi” in a co-ordinated PR exercise.

They say the first casualty of war is the truth but personally I think it’s fashion.   It’s really hard to look good in a war zone, although wearing a Typhoon is not always bad for ones image!

Nuclear Cheddar

The focus of  World attention has quickly shifted from the savage brutality of  Libyan government to disaster in Japan.

This story has itself evolved from Earthquake focus to Tsunami and now to the nuclear plants that holding the worlds attention. Experts have repeatedly stated that there is no risk of  repeat of the Chenobyl  accident as the containment vessels appear to be holding.  Well, they certainly do seem to be holding for the moment surrounded by what one expert described as Lego bricks.   I’m sure that has to instil the people of Japan with confidence knowing if they have to dismantle the reactors they can make a space ship, house, or  new Lego car.

One might call the Japanese  a little crazy to place nuclear plants on a major fault line.  They obviously felt they could build in sufficient safeguards.  History teaches us that there will always be the unexpected.   The Japanese did not expect their backup systems to fail  and are now locked in a battle to regain control.    The outcome is still uncertain however at this point the risk of a nuclear cloud floating over the region is unlikely.  That is a situation that could of course change.

The containment we hope will hold but when you consider that countries such as France derive 80 percent of their power from nuclear energy then it is understandable why every country that produces nuclear power is a little nervous.  France and indeed other nuclear producers may not sit on tectonic fault lines and be as vulnerable to the same seismic shocks, but then again Chenobyl and Three Mile Island were not exposed to these factors either.

No country in the World was better prepared for earthquake than Japan yet their system and precautions to protect their reactors failed.     As the international effort continues to contain the situation the World needs to ask whether we can continue to take such huge risks with nuclear energy or has time come to pull the plug.

My sympathies and thoughts are with  the people of Japan.

Spend till you drop?

Possibly one of the worst things anyone can do is believe their own publicity.   This situation seems to be endemic in the UK at the moment as the UK population is totally convinced that savage  and immediate cuts are totally necessary.   The problem is that almost nobody puts this the debt in to proper perspective.   During 2009/10  government borrowing was around about 11.4 percent of GDP    While it is true that by the end of March 2010 the borrowing was equivalent to 71.3 percent of  GDP this was not the highest in the World and less than half the level the country had managed 60 years earlier.

Indeed during World War 2 the debt level exceeded 200 percent and yet the country not only managed to cope with this level of debt but actually managed to thrive in the post war years, creating the NHS and developing the Welfare State and creating full employment in the years following.      It took a long time to pay off the debt but the UK  being a strong wealthy nation and did not need to cripple its industry, impoverish and cripple its population in a rush to pay back the USA and other creditors who had imposed extortionate  interest rates upon us.

British people don’t like to complain although it’s been said any society is only 3 meals from revolution.  The true effects of these government cuts have not begun to hit home yet but as more businesses file for bankruptcy, more people become jobless, more people become homeless, the country shall reach a tipping point.  That will be a sad day and completely avoidable if people were to wake up now and smell the coffee.  That’s not likely to happen as they have bought the line that cuts have to made and until they can’t afford to put a roof over their head or food on the table they will continue to procrastinate.

Technology's Impact on Families

Baupaume Billy, a famous army carrier pigeon now used for breeding

Technology has shrunk the World and made communication possible in ways that people could not have imagined 50 years or even 30 years ago. Although some of us with very active imaginations and perhaps a slightly utopianistic vision of the future could foresee. Ok I watched a lot of Star Trek and Dr Who in the 60's and believed it was all real!

Certainly within the home TV kills social interaction and many of us spend far to much time on our personal devices , etc. However we are also able to communicate across the globe with anyone instantly and bring families and entire communities together in ways never before seen. The text and twitter generation has brought about revolutions in the Middle East and today when the Tsunami hit it helped get information to people around the Pacific Basin.

It allowed us to contact family members on the other side of the globe to ensure their safety. However, having said all that come the cascade or a suitably large solar flare and we'll be back to using carrier pigeons.

Profits before profanity

The BBC reported that a Man United fan had her car bumper sticker censored after someone complained to the police that they considered it “offensive”.   Sarah Webb-Lee a 39 year old from Stockport had a bumper sticker that read “On the first day God created United then completely F*cked up and created City.”   She was compelled to remove one of the letters from the ‘F’ word.

What bothers me about this is that a couple of years ago I and a few others in our neighbourhood complained about a local card shop displaying a card in their front window which had on the front the ‘C’ word.    Could we get the authorities to take the matter seriously.   It would seem that when it comes to individuals there is censure but when it comes to business profits come first.

Homeless Stew

In London the government want to stop the free street kitchens giving soup and food to the homeless in Westminster as they say it encourages homeless people to congregate and stay on the streets.   What is most troubling about this is that the governments financial rescue plans are set to increase the number of homeless people drastically in the coming year.     The right wing, as confirmed by recent reports unfairly target the most vulnerable members of society, the poor the weak the elderly  and the disabled.

Of course the conspiracy theorist could see here a plot to remove these people from the system.  If you remove the weak, (cull) the poor and vulnerable from the community then you reduce your overheads.  Depriving the sick and vulnerable of care, nutrition and decent shelter could save the government millions of pounds.   Just raising VAT 3% will have a significant impact on the poorest members of society and fuel prices will deprive many vulnerable people of warmth.   The word ‘austere’ hardly covers the situation.

My Worst Date Ever

Car crash

My date with destiny, it's some time in the future and I'm trying not to get there quite so fast but it keeps rushing toward me with large inanimate objects, usually those driven by crazy people without insurance!

Supermarket Profits

Just watching the BBC news and in a time of austerity like for like sales are up 4 percent Waitrose announce they are doing well so it’s good to know that rich people shopping at the luxury supermarket are hoarding food the same way as poor people as rumours of a massive fuel hike are set to send food costs through the roof. In some places in the UK petrol (gas) now costs over £1.40 per litre $2.26 (£6.30 per gallon $10.19).   The UK has always had the highest rate of fuel duty in Europe and there is just a hint that in current circumstances, with the coming budget,  the government may not increase it by the further anticipated penny.

As I pay 70 pence for an apple or £2 two pounds for a loaf of bread that extra penny saving will make all the difference at the supermarket.  Meanwhile Waitrose will discount some lines to compete with supermarket giant Tesco but as inflation bites and hits the poorest they won’t be able to afford the fuel to drive out of town to buy what little cheap  food is left on the shelves and that’s stuff that Waitrose would never grace its shelves with because it doesn’t sell cheap unhealthy rubbish.

So what does this all mean?   It means that poor people will be forced to eat junk to survive and the nations health will deteriorate putting greater pressure on the health system where government is trying to make huge savings by bringing about swinging changes.