…… as you are, no doubt, aware.
Go here for a particular take on it.
Go, on. Read it. It’s really good for a laugh.
Italy is downgraded ……..
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Tag Archives: Politics
It’s a drag
There are so many things to do.
Instead, I am at work, doing nothing of importance since most people are on holiday or we are waiting for some answers (which never seem to come).
And, so, I sit here, waiting for the time to go. To go and do some useful things.
I have a couple of things to iron. And I really should pack (and NOT leave it until the last minute – like tomorrow night at about 8 p.m.) and get stuff ready for the dogs and things like that.
I have one telephone lesson tonight – but that’s only about half an hour.
And, again, I feel like I can’t hurry this along enough.
This blog will be slightly closed for a couple of weeks since I am not taking a computer and do not intend to go to an Internet café. Obviously, I will be writing stuff – in long hand – like the olden days – and then some of them may be transferred here as posts when I’m back.
If you’re going away, then have a good holiday. If not then have a good fortnight.
p.s. there won’t be enough posts to post my 1000th post before I go and so it will wait until I get back although I have written it already.
p.p.s. I suppose I might come back to a land of disarray, if Italy gets dragged into the same boat as Portugal, Greece and Ireland.
p.p.p.s I see that our marvelous British tabloid papers are getting all excited about the thought of the MPs debating capital punishment because it’s ‘what the people want’. I’d just like to say that when there was a lot of rumpus about paedophilia, a paediatrician’s house got attacked by a mob of upstanding British subjects. Apparently that’s what ‘the people’ wanted. Just ‘cos they want something doesn’t make it right. People! Bloody dangerous, if you ask me, especially when their thoughts are stoked by the tabloid press.
Head in the sand or super-intelligent?
Now that the USA have managed to agree to borrow a whole lot more money, the speculators have, once again, turned their attention to Europe.
As a result, yesterday, according to the reports, the borrowing of both Spain and Italy came under renewed pressure and their interest rates (for the government borrowing) went up a bit. Well, I know that isn’t quite right but it amounts to the same thing.
This, apparently, puts them in the same position as Portugal and Greece were in just before having to have a bailout. Let’s be honest, the markets are sure the Euro will fail or one or more countries will default on their debts – meaning that they can make a killing on betting that the Euro will, instead of being quite a strong currency, fail or fall dramatically.
Who gives a shit about the people who actually live and work there? It appears not these guys.
But, the people around me (well the few who talk to me about it) are convinced that, in spite of everything, Italy is perfectly safe. This is either crass stupidity or they’re really knowledgeable. One guy says that there won’t be any problem because the taxes will rise to pay for it and the Italians always pay up. Another said that, because of the uniqueness of the Italian mentality and the fact that they have so much in savings, the reality is that it won’t be a problem and that actually, Italy is in a much better position than Germany or France – with a better productivity than any other country – mainly because they don’t finish work at 5 p.m. but, rather, stay until 8 or 9.
Hmmmm.
For what it’s worth (which isn’t much) my opinion is that both Italy and Spain will be forced to ask for help being, as it is, more important that the speculators make their money from the fall or demotion of the Euro. Until one or more countries default on their debt, they won’t be happy.
Of course, the most sensible thing is to get rid of this model and try something different. But that will only be forced through by ‘the people’ who won’t do anything.
The people with money have the power and, whilst they have the power they will always have the money. Such is life.
In the meantime, the countdown is on until Spain and Italy are dragged into making a cry for help that is neither necessary nor prudent.
And for me it will mean that the belt must be tightened and luxuries will be forgone. Probably. Let’s see.
When hacks become hackers it will all end in tears.
Well, I suppose I should mention it, shouldn’t I?
The end of the world. The end of the News of the World, that is. A lot of people are gloating about it. 250 people, who are about to lose their jobs aren’t really gloating though.
Of course, there are now the calls that ‘It’s a different paper now’. Ah yes, that old chestnut – it was terrible before but now we’re really good. The soon-to-be ex journalists of the NOTW are saying that it’s not fair. But, then, they’ve hardly been very fair on the people they’ve been hounding all these years; the people who have had their phone messages read; their emails read, etc. Of course, they had to ‘earn a living’, didn’t they? Ah well, what goes around comes around as the old saying goes.
Of course, for the readership of the NOTW, they need to find another Sunday paper that can give them all the tittle-tattle and gossip. It’s like a drug, I guess. However, they may be OK with the Sun on Sunday – supposedly due out soon. In any event, there’ll be some some rag to fill the space.
The MPs, who could have taken some action years ago (or at any time up till recently); the police – these people should also be losing their jobs but I guess that won’t be happening any time soon.
Which newspaper will be next, I wonder?
Teachers murder girl!
As one parent quite rightly said on Twitter, apparently:
‘she should have been safe at school, she was just sat on a bench talking with friends….it could have been my daughter.’
After all, on school days, the parents have no responsibility for their children.
And, in addition, there is no such thing any more as ‘an accident’ but, rather, there is always some person to blame.
I suppose that if it had been a Saturday or a Sunday the headline could have read something like:
Park keepers guilty of manslaughter
or
Council killing children!
The actual headline of this article didn’t really say that teachers had murdered the girl but only implied it.
Girl, 13, crushed to death by a branch as she sat on a park bench after teachers went out on strike
But, then, this is the Daily Hate Mail so, I suppose, what can you expect!
Does the future exist?
Well, it’s not like I didn’t warn you.
OK it’s typically sensationalist, as one would expect from the Daily Hate Mail but, if their facts are anything like correct, be assured, this is just the start.
After the Second World War, when the state pension age was set at 65 for men, their life expectancy was 66.4 years and women’s was 72.5 years. These figures have risen to 77 years for a man and 82 years for a woman.
Now, unless there is a huge increase in the number of people working (and, therefore, paying) to enable the ‘system’ to support many more pensioners, something has got to change. Either we start dying off earlier or we must work later. Obviously, the ‘working later’ bit is preferable.
The comments by the Daily Hate Mail readers make me laugh though. It seems that it’s all the previous (Labour) government’s fault. Of course it is! How stupid of me?
Apart from the fact that their spelling is really atrocious, their ideas seemed so warped as to be really quite scary (the readers/commentators – about the Labour government I couldn’t possibly comment). Sometimes it makes you think that there should be a rule only allowing people of a certain intelligence to be permitted to vote or have children, etc.
However, in reality, it was not any government’s ‘fault’. Well, they could have seen this coming and done something about it earlier, of course. But it’s hardly a ‘vote winner’ now, is it?
I mean to say, ‘Vote for us and we’ll make you work longer’. Not really catchy.
But, if you think about it, what else is to be done? Either work longer or get paid much, much less. I know which I’d prefer.
People on the newspaper site are complaining that the government are ‘making you work ’till you drop’. Well ….. erm ….. yes – but then, they are also the government that, should you live a long time in retirement, will be paying you something. These same people would complain if the government said ‘OK, you don’t have to pay so much tax but, after you retire, you’re on your own’.
It’s the stupidity that gets to me. It’s the lack of an overall awareness. It’s a lack of the basic understanding of how such a system as this is supposed to work.
I despair.
But, as I’ve said for years, I expect that I will never retire – dropping dead prior to retirement almost certainly. But I’m not blaming anyone except myself and, if I had really wanted to retire with lots of money, I should have saved more. Much, much more. But it’s OK since life should be about living now not living sometime in the future. We know about now. The future is uncertain and may not even exist.
Good and bad
What would you like first, the good news or the bad news?
Obviously, that’s a rhetorical questions since a) it’s my blog and b) I’m writing this rather than asking you in person.
OK so I’ve decided that you shall get the good news first.
The weather is getting a tad warmer. As my regular readers will know, this makes me much happier.
Also, F comes back tomorrow night. But not late, I think. I think he lands at about 6 or 6.30. I will, as usual, pick him up from the airport. Again, I am so much looking forward to him being back – almost excited – like a child! 
The third bit of good news is that I have decided to take the first three days of next week as holiday. Actually this is, in some way, being forced upon me. Some stupid rule in this company has been made up that means that any ‘left over’ holiday from last year has to be taken by 31st March. It’s stupid because I would prefer to take it sometime in May or June when the weather is really nice.
You may ask why I am only taking 3 days when I have over 6 days left? Well, Thursday and Friday are ‘forced’ holidays. Thursday because they have decided to celebrate Unification Day. Apparently it’s 150 years on Tuesday since Italy was first unified as Italy and for this year only they have declared the day a ‘bank’ holiday. Then Friday is a holiday because of this thing called a ‘bridge day’ – bridge days occuring when the holiday is on a Tuesday or Thursday, where the bridge is so that the company doesn’t open for just 1 day.
Actually, I had a student last night who is from Veneto (i.e. somewhere near Venice). He said that Venice won’t be celebrating because they didn’t join the union until a couple of years afterwards so, for them, it’s not yet 150 years. In fact, doing a bit of reading up it seems that 1870 would be a better reflection since it was only during that year that Rome became part of the union!
Anyway, they’ve decided on March 17th as that was the day that the first ‘parliament’ was held in the capital – which was, then, Turin.
OK – enough history. The effect of all this history being that I will be on holiday all next week.
This is an end to the good things.
The bad things are that, although it’s getting warmer, it is also going to start with the rain thing. That’s from tomorrow. Worse still, it’s going to continue raining all through the weekend and at least until next Thursday.
The other bad thing is that I am on holiday all next week ……………………….. when it is going to be raining. Exactly why I don’t want to be taking holidays now, ffs!
Move along. Nothing to see here.
There’s a disturbing thing about polls. The results will depend on the question asked.
There’s also a disturbing thing about the media. The headline will not necessarily reflect the actual truth. After all, it is a headline and they want you to read it.
There’s another disturbing thing about the media. Or is it about people, in general? It seems that the media, far from reflecting public (or even popular opinion), seem to have taken on a role that was, at one time, the role of the church. They ‘encourage’ certain thinking in their readers.
Take the Daily Mail. Sometimes called the Daily Hate Mail. If you can stay above the overall hatred that is not reserved for anyone in particular but is directed at all people at some time or another, it makes for an interesting read. They hate ‘benefit scroungers’, ‘gay people’, non-white people, white people, Christians, non-Christians. In fact, they hate everyone at some time or another. However, apart from those people who ‘cost the taxpayer’ they seem to hate Muslims most of all.
So, it would be fair to suppose that most of their readers (I say most as I am one of their readers – who disagrees with most, if not all, of their ‘reports’) also hate Muslims.
And so, their article about the latest ‘poll’ has a headline that is quite astounding. Half of people would support a right-wing party if it gave up violence. Except, if you actually read the article and look at the question posed, the headline should read ‘The majority of people don’t want an English parliament, don’t want more controls on immigration and don’t want to challenge Islamic extremism’. Of course, that wouldn’t make you read the article, would it? The reality is that 48% of people said they would support a right-wing, fascist party that didn’t use violence. But, history has shown that they do use violence, since that is part of the fascist make-up. And so, the result is that MOST people wouldn’t support the normal fascist party.
And, anyway, it’s the Daily Hate Mail that is always banging on about how it’s terrible how English people are treated in England; how there is never enough controls on immigration; how Islamic extremism is in every British city whereas, in fact, none of these things is true for the MAJORITY of people. In the same way that MOST people who clam benefits are not low-life, work-shy, scroungers – but every day they have an article about someone that they have found who is like this and readers would think that EVERYONE on benefits is like this.
It disturbs me that so many people can believe the headlines without thinking about the reality.
So, move along now. Nothing to see here.
The Internet and democracy.
There’s been a lot of ‘talk’ about how the Internet (and, in particular Twitter and Facebook) have helped bring about the move to democracy in the middle east/North Africa.
I think we should hesitate for a moment before passing judgement on either the Internet role or whether there is a real move to democracy.
It’s all to do with perception and we should be careful that what we perceive turns out to be the reality.
Let us first take ‘democracy’. Democracy for us is one thing. But, much like beauty, it is in the eye of the beholder. If a foreign country’s democracy doesn’t fit our picture, then we consider it not to be democracy. But democracy is different, even between countries in Europe. The idea is sound, the reality something different. Many voters in the UK, for certain, often feel disenfranchised, feeling that ‘their vote’ is worth nothing.
More importantly is that these uprisings in Egypt and elsewhere leave a vacuum. Take Egypt specifically. The army has run the country for years. The army are running it now. Sure, the top man may have gone and some of his cronies but, much like in the UK, the Government isn’t actually run by the Government but by the people in the civil service (or, for Egypt, the army) and regardless of the top figures, they are the people who decide what actually happens and, more importantly, how it is implemented. In other countries, we are equally likely to see one dictator replaced by someone similar even if his/her views are slightly different. We should be careful what we wish for. Change may not bring about the change that we actually want.
I’m sure, when books were printed for the first time, there was a feeling by those in power, that this was ‘dangerous’. This meant that the people get to know too much. And people knowing things is always bad – at least for the people in power. Then there was the telephone. It was said the the loss of Vietnam by the Americans was down to television and how quickly things were beamed into people’s home, showing the reality of the war. And now there is the Internet.
Did you know, for example, that in spite of our headlines in the West about how China restricts access to sites they don’t like the US does it too! OK, so that was a ‘mistake’ but it does show how easily they can do it. More importantly, they DO do it. It may be for good reason but how do we really know? To whom are they accountable? And the Wikileaks thing, where they advised that no governmentaly employed person, nor their families should access Wikileaks?
As usual, it all comes down to fear. It’s not the Internet that’s really the problem but that the Internet allows things to be distributed to a larger audience faster, even, than television. It’s better than a phone call because it includes video. It is proof of a terrible thing (even if, in reality, it is not actual proof at all, since it can be faked).
And have you noticed what most of these uprisings seem to be based upon? It is the young people who say they have no work, no chance of bettering themselves.
And, in the West, we think we’re immune from this? Why? We don’t have young people? We don’t have huge amounts of unemployed young people? We don’t have these young people with little sign of things improving soon?
The student protests was one thing. The tax evasion protests another. I predict there will be more. I predict that, sooner or later someone getting beaten by the police when on a peaceful march, will die. Sorry, just in case there is doubt, I mean in the UK. It has already happened in Egypt and Bahrain. Fro the UK, remember the video footage of the guy in the wheelchair getting dragged across the street by the thugs? Ooops, sorry, the police. And the guy that was badly beaten and ended up in hospital? You may think it’s a far cry from Egypt or any of those other countries but it’s the same really.
If we continue to pound the young people with this unemployment or, when they are employed, we tax them so high as to make life too hard for them, you think they won’t, at some time, rise up against the ‘regime’?
Coming soon to a town centre near you – rioting and unrest!
The rain in Italy falls mainly ……..; Then and now – who’d of thunk it?
As I write this post (although you will be reading it sometime later this evening), it is raining.
Raining as it does here. Not like the UK at all, even if everyone comes and says:
“Andrew! The weather! It’s like the UK!”
To which I always reply, “Yes, which is why I don’t live there any more”.
As I say, it’s not like the UK at all. There’s no sign of a shower here, just rain, rain, rain.
Anyway, just in case you didn’t know, it seems that Buzz Lightyear will be tried in court after all. Although I have read that he won’t have to actually appear, which will make it less of a spectacle, I suppose.
Sooner or later, surely, he will have to resign. Even now, there is really no one who can fill his shoes. I find it a bit disheartening – that no one person has stepped forward to show how strong they are and how much support they have.
But who would have known that this charmer
would have ended up being this woman-charmer all those years later?
p.s. yes, I know it’s not good English in the title, thank you for pointing it out 