Just imagine you've had enough. Had enough of getting up early in the morning, getting washed and dressed, gulping down some carb filled 'not good for you' cereal and spending a good portion of your unpaid time, commuting to some place where you spend your day dealing with irate customers, grumpy colleagues, unreasonable demands from superiors only to face that commute back again. That is it! You up sticks, find a wide open space that suits your soul and down sticks. How long you think you got before someone lets you know, you cannot stay there? Lets you know that you can't drink water from the clear stream that runs past nor eat the fruits from the trees around you? Other people have done it, so why can't you?
Read More ...Something sinister is happening to the Social Benefit Services in the UK. As Government officials' rhetoric and public opinion guided by sensational tabloid newspaper headlines and 'benefit' porn on television has vilified and even criminalised those who find themselves at the bottom of the social system, the services have lost the reason for their existence. Instead of helping, the system seems now geared to stopping as many people accessing help, a lot of times in a cruel and uncaring manner.
Read More ...Have you been worried about all the tax policies of the potential new Labour Government? Well, for most of us, we don't need to be. For example, the truth is that if you are now nowhere near earning £80K a year, you are very unlikely to join ever join the 5% of the population that earns more than that and that includes the millionaires and billionaires! If you are a student, look at the salaries for your chosen profession on job sites to see just how you would fare getting to the salary.
Read More ...There they are, the memes, the statuses and the quotes; “Only the truth comes out my mouth”, “I tell it like it is”, “You can't handle the truth” and all that other mambo jumbo. Here is a truth, most of those people are lying. I'll tell you why.
Read More ...The most famous Buddhist, His Holiness the Dalai Lama whose famous quotes litter social media time lines, is the public face of the peacefulness of Buddhism. If you were looking to 'find yourself', you might have considered following the thousands of people from the West who head for Buddhist monasteries in the Far East particularly Nepal, Thailand and even Myanmar (formerly Burma). If you were to be converted, if such a thing exists in Buddhism, you would be joining the hundreds of famous people who have become Buddhists.
Read More ...Capita, somewhat unlovingly called C*apita by mostly ex-employees of whom I am one (ex-employee that is), reports a 33 per cent drop in pre-tax profits as it loses its chief executive Andy Parker. After 3 years in charge, Mr Parker joins the additional 2,000 job losses announced in December after the second profits warning. To further cut Capita’s 69,000 staff headcount by about 3 per cent, plans are afoot to send some jobs to India - not the 1st time – and “introduce robotics and automation to parts of the business” amid another restructure.
Read More ...♫♪♫♪♫Bitter-sweet memories, that's all I have, and all I'm taking with me. Good-bye, oh, please don't cry, cause we both know that I'm not what you need and … I will always love you...♫♪♫♪♫
Read More ...Since I am now over the age of 50, I am now part of the army of grumpy old men and bear my responsibility to complain with all that great British fortitude. Several incidents in the last few weeks have left me feeling that I need to have have a word about British customer care, so don't scroll past. I know that dealing with the public can be trying at the best of times – see this post Nightmare Clients And Customers about the matter but I digress.
Read More ...Politicians are good at deflection – when they want us to get mad, they tell us its our money – as in immigrants are claiming your money – and when they want us not to take notice they say the government's money – as in the 'government' owned bank RBS – Royal Bank of Scotland. Working as a civil servant many years ago in Zimbabwe, one lesson I learnt was that the government does not have any money, we, the people or specifically the tax payers, trust the government to spend our money.
Read More ...Well that is not exactly true. Religion, as most know it, that I lost many, many years ago. What I am actually talking about is my spirituality. Confused? I will elaborate.
Read More ...No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made. Destiny is made known silently. - Agnes de Mille (1909 – 1993)
Read More ...One of the hardest lessons my colleagues and I learnt when we were running our small business was that it was a mistake to have one of your customers provide most of your income. This meant that we bent over backwards, sometimes to our own detriment, to ensure we kept their business.
Read More ...My local Tesco supermarket in their wisdom no longer provide plastic carrier bag recycling facilities. Facilities were removed 'since the 5 pence bag charge was introduced'. Following the example of many other countries, on 5th October 2015, England introduced 5 pence charges for single-use plastic carrier bags. Now maybe I should have taken more notice when the the charge was introduced but I assumed that the charge would go into 'plastic carrier bag' recycling facilities considering that only retailers with more than 250 employees are obliged to charge for bags. This leaves tens of thousands of shops – many in inner city areas – that still do not charge for carrier bags.
Read More ...Isn't funny that societies that historically measured the level of their 'civilisation' based on their artistic appreciation and artistic creation, that in this day and age most all types of artists in the developed world have to hold down day jobs to make ends meet? Only a small fraction actually make any real money. The picture is what my second eldest child and daughter bought me as my present for my 50th birthday. I'm not sure but I may have inspired her choice of present by discussing my writing and other artistic issues at some point.
Read More ...This week's big new story is Oxfam's report on how the eight people own same wealth as half the world. Last year it was 62 people! The principle of 'Universal Basic Income' appears to be the idea that appears to be able to provide a workable solution against widespread poverty especially in countries where the 'extended family' support structures, important in poorer societies, have been eroded over the recent past generations.
Read More ..."That's it, I'm done, from now on I will look after number one, me and mine."
Read More ...Many years ago, at least over 25 years ago, my mother who was a 60 a day smoker at the time decided to stop smoking on New Year's day. I had never known my Mum to make a resolution before nor I cannot remember her doing it since. Many people will discourage you from making resolutions by saying why wait for New Year's day to make a change that you should make at the time you decide you need the change. I would argue that there is something memorable about the date – the 1st of January - that makes it special.
Read More ...Recently I have been trying to get all the photographs I have taken over the last few years organised and shared on the web. The need to easily share the photographs led me to develop a simple PHP web based photo gallery browser which you can find here.
Read More ...I want to let you in on something. My new project that has been keeping me from posting here as often as I should and want is called 'Mixed In Different Shades' and is about the history of inter-cultural relationships and mixed heritage people around the world. How are these two things related you might ask, a blog dealing with trying to find happiness and a history of various small populations around the world? Let me explain.
Read More ...A recent study by Leeds University that spawned a score of news stories (BBC, Guardian) estimated that numbers of ethnic minorities in the UK will grow from 8 to 20 per cent of the population in 2051. Apart from the 'other white' ethnic group which will be the fuelled by expected high levels of immigration from Europe, Australasia and the US, the percentage of people identifying themselves as being of 'mixed race' is expected to grow substantially.
Read More ..."The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970).
Read More ...My daughter just came back from her old college where she had been asked by them to attend to request a letter confirming her leaving date. The letter is required by the Job Centre and you would expect it is a common request by ex-college students. She was told it would take up to 2 weeks to have the letter issued. Considering that fact that the letter is usually required by other bureaucrats to allow some to for example, sign on as unemployed, you would think they would have their act together.
Read More ...Apparently Zimbabwe's President Mugabe's health is deteriorating and now the analysts are predicting a chaotic handover to whoever follows him. You don't need to be an analyst to work that one out! Any chance that the ZANU-PF factions would resolve the issue internally and relatively peacefully is no longer possible with MDC in the picture. The army is likely to be the king-maker.
Read More ..."The current financial crisis could bring about a change in the international economic order with countries like China and India becoming the dominant global economic powers." The Chief Economist of one of the world's biggest banks, HSBC, believes Asia's rise poses a threat to prosperity in the West.
Read More ...Fast food outlets should hand out a statin pill, a cholesterol-lowering drug, to customers to combat the effects of fatty food, say an Imperial College London team.
Read More ...When you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance. [Lee Ann Womack - I Hope You Dance*]
Read More ...“I am available on most weeknights, not degree educated but well versed in matters of politics, economics, religion and the like. Personal disasters like career disappointments and failed romantic encounters can be discussed and I am not too averse to bouncing balls, kicking balls and hitting balls with a bat but much prefer the kind of play available at the local night club. I can hold my liquor quite well and am unlikely to return any curries eaten under the influence. Being a little on the large side enables me to fireman lift any friend to whom the excitement becomes too much. All this for the price of a taxi ride home! Bookings being take now, form an orderly queue please, we’re British.”
Read More ...My 60 year plus mother holds some very set view about certain sections of society that may have some basis in experience but most likely does not. Since she comes for the generation of the great –isms, I assumed that my siblings and I just brushed off these prejudices, sometimes with argument. Imagine my surprise when discussing a certain serious family issue with one of my siblings when they strongly expressed an opinion consistent with one of my mother’s which I know is not based in their experience.
Read More ...Single parent charity Gingerbread recently published a nationwide league table of child maintenance debt showing a child maintenance ‘debt mountain’ of £3,761 million owed to children by non-resident parents, mostly fathers, across the country. Gingerbread’s Chief Executive Fiona Weir urged the ‘Child Support Agency has to do its job too in collecting debts and enforcing payment’.
Read More ...We do not need to look for statistics to prove that the rate of marriage breakdowns is growing. Many of us have many have experienced it ourselves or have close family and friends who have and those of us with children will know that a significant proportion of their classmates come from ‘broken homes’. Some of those classmates will come from ‘single parent’ families where a marriage was never entered into in the first place but may have been a co-habitation or ‘break-up before marriage’ scenarios.
Read More ...“Set me free so that I may do to others what you did to me.”
Read More ...Here is one man's view of how the simple, not necessarily the easy, can make you happy. Though written from the sense of the simple home in the Brazilian favelas compared to the high life in the USA, it is the emphasis on simplicity, difficulty and community that the sense of wellbeing is being found - What is Home?
Read More ...A "big budget" pornographic film was shot in a London hospital when it hired out one of its wards to a film company. The movie generated "substantial income" for the hospital, Conservative MP Penny Mordaunt said BBC News - 'Big budget' porn film shot in London hospital.
Read More ..."MPs in Kenya have voted to boost their own salaries, making them among the world’s best paid politicians." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/10476388.stm. Apparently 'the vote has provoked anger from the general public and the media, correspondents say'. Well I’m not surprised. The Kenyan PM will earn more than the Uk Premier and the US President and this is a third world country with much lower costs of living.
Read More ...Nairobi has made it into the list of the worlds most expensive cities for expatriates, according to a new survey. The continued slide in the Nairobis ranking, experts warn, could make the East Africas hub less attractive to international workers.The cost of living index compiled by Mercer, an international human resource consultancy, has ranked the city at position 88 of the most expensive cities in the world-- the first time it has made it to the list of the top 100. It was ranked at no. 114 last year, meaning it has dropped 26 places to edge closer to the most costly city among the 214 polled. (allAfrica.com: Kenya: Nairobi Ranked Among Most Expensive Cities).
Read More ...On Father’s Day (at least in most parts of the world) , one of the popular hashtags on Twitter was #FuckFathersDay and a search of the words ‘hate’ and ‘father’ or ‘daddy’ would have displayed a frighteningly growing results list.
Read More ...A Mozambican man, Macamelo Antonio, 28, was sentenced to 1 year for destroying state property after he used a hammer and crowbar to break back into prison. Mr Antonio had just been released for good behaviour from a 10 year sentence.
Read More ..."To be blunt, it is the job of the convener to ensure his committee is running smoothly and efficiently - not to ogle members of the audience." Brian Taylor,Political editor, BBC Scotland BBC News - Frank McAveety quits over 'attractive girl' remark.
Read More ..."Allowing people to take time out to watch football during working hours is simply too costly, untimely, and unfair," so says Willem Smit, a researcher at the Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland. Smit has reckoned that if just half the workforce in contending nations knocks off to cheer their side on during the World Cup games, the cost to the global economy could be $10.4 billion in lost production time alone - Soccer’s Bad Influence on Brazil (notice the soccer reference in the title).
Read More ...Exactly who are these people? Who are these analysts, forecasters and experts that come up with this kind of talk that dominates our news stories?
Read More ...If you walked into one of the most successful people in the world's home or office, would you expect to find row after row of self help DVDs/CDs and books? Have you seen any on MTV's ‘Cribs’ and 'Who lives in house like this?' Thought not.
Read More ...In exactly one month’s time, I will change my status once again from employed to self employed. Since it has been a long time since I have took stock of where I am, now would seem to be an appropriate time to do so.
Read More ...As Swansea council have decided to switch off around 1,500 street lights in in search of savings up to £100,000 a year (BBC News - Swansea Council begins street light cut backs), Cape Town in South Africa’s city bosses are to keep the lights on round the clock to deter thieves of a surging crime wave involving the theft of electricity cables blighting the city (Cape Town lights stay on in daylight to deter theft)
Read More ...Namibia’s Bishop Zephania Kameeta recently said "the poor and unemployed, who make up half of the Namibian population, still cannot believe that President Pohamba said we cannot dish out money for free to people who do nothing." The bishop was commenting on Namibia’s President's comments on the Basic Income Grant (see allAfrica.com: Namibia: A Way Forward for Big Initiative).
Read More ..."Brazil, the world's fourth largest beer consumer, has slashed imported beer duties to avoid shortages during the World Cup, after local brewers warned they would be unable to meet surging demand despite sharply increasing production."
Read More ...Apparently Naomi Campbell goes on the maple syrup diet – syrup mixed with cayenne pepper, lemon juice and water – three times a year. Beyoncé is said to have done that one as well adding laxative tea every night and a sea-salt water in the morning. Jennifer Aniston is, allegedly, on a new baby food diet and Liz Hurley once lived on a bowl of cabbage soup a day. These tit-bits cam to me courtesy of Naomi Campbells maple madness and my favourite quote in the article is “The awful thing about these diets is the joylessness of them. The sheer, sapping unhappiness they must involve.”
Read More ..."This disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and powerful, and to despise, or, at least neglect persons of poor and mean conditions, though necessary both to establish and to maintain the distinction of ranks and the order of society, is, at the same time, the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments." (Theory of Moral Sentiments 1759)
Read More ...Someone told me in the recent past that Brazil and in particular Rio, wished to clean up their 'sexy' reputation as it gave foriegners the impression that Brazil is full of sex crazed people, especially the women. Not sure that President Lula'sreinforcement of theBrazil Health minister's call to have sex for better health (http://en.mercopress.com/2010/04/29/more-sex-to-combat-high-blood-pressure-recommends-brazilian-minister) will help that reputation much. Couple that with my earlier post 'Sexy Brazilian Males Need Help!', this is a country where sex appears to be a national obsession.
Read More ...A bus driver has been suspended after a passenger filmed him reading while driving.The West Midlands Travel driver steering with his elbows while holding a small boook. (BBC News - Bus driver filmed reading while driving in Birmingham).
Read More ...Immigration, the world over, causes no end of unjustified hysteria and problems. Our politicians and newspapers in the UK love to take a swipe at immigrants every time they need someone to blame or just to give a good kick.
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