Category Archives: Crazy World

End of the World?

Posted on by

I wasn’t sure whether or not to do a blog this Friday since, as I’m sure you’ve heard, the world, according to ancient Mayan predictions, is due to come to an end today. It seemed pointless to go to the effort of writing something for the benefit of my readers, few though you are, when  there might not be any left!

The Mayans were an extremely intelligent and advanced Central American civilization who, thousands of years ago and well before the birth of Jesus Christ, were charting the movements of the planets and calculating their effect on humanity at a time when ancient Britons were still painting their faces and throwing rocks at one another. Come to think of it, observing  the behaviour of a good many modern Britons on a typical Friday night out, not a lot of progress seems to have been made in the interim! In fairness though, at least we have had the benefit of longevity since the poor old Mayans were wiped out by the Spanish Conquistadors  in the 16th century. So they can’t have been that clever can they?
I digress; the reason why the Mayans calculated Earth’s demise to December 21st, 2012 is something to do with a reversal of the Earth’s magnetic poles causing the creation of a huge tsunami the like of which has never been witnessed before, or at least not since the days of Noah’s Ark!  Apparently, unless you are above a height of 2,000 metres (that’s about 700 metres higher than the highest part of Britain) or are lucky enough to have shares in a huge modern day ark, you’ve had it.
As for me, I’m currently in Tenerife, gazing out at the ocean trying to imagine a 2,000 meter tsunami heading for me and wondering how quickly I can get to my car and head for the mountains which, in this part of the Canaries, climb to 4,000 meters and thus well above the danger zone! It won’t happen though will it? Nah,  I don’t believe it and I’m sure we’ll all wake up tomorrow same as any other day……….hang on a minute, what’s that noise…………………………??

A Tragic Telephone Call

Posted on by
The prank telephone call by two young Australian DJs, pretending to be the Queen and Prince Charles, to the hospital treating the Duchess of Cambridge was an idiotic caper with unforeseen tragic consequences. Unbelievably, their laughable attempts at a Royal accent were enough to fool two nurses at the King Edward VII Hospital, so that one nurse was persuaded to disclose confidential information regarding the health of the Duchess. The other nurse, who answered the phone call and passed it over to her colleague, was evidently so distressed by the subsequent uproar that she was driven to take her own life. Predictably there have been demands in both the UK and Australia for the two DJs to face the full wrath of the law but is this fair?

So-called prank calls by clowning DJs have been with us for years. Sometimes amusing, occasionally offensive but often just plain tiresome they have a certain appeal to audiences the world over. On this occasion the prank went horribly and fatally wrong and as ever, in the midst of all the outrage, there has been a clamour for retribution. The attention has largely been focussed on the DJs who in actual fact are probably  the players in this tragedy least worthy of our attention.

In their wildest nightmares they could never, for a moment, have considered or foreseen that their juvenile behaviour might lead to somebody’s suicide and, in all honesty, who could? No, the real cause of the tragedy lies elsewhere. Firstly, these DJs have producers and bosses who decide on what goes out or doesn’t go out on air. Even more significantly it has been reported that this particular broadcast was vetted and passed fit for broadcast by the radio station’s lawyers. So how can the DJs be held responsible? If you give your 5 year old child a carving knife and he carves up your furniture is the child to blame or is it you, the supervising and consenting adult?

Secondly, following the theme of responsibility, who is responsible for the employment of staff at the hospital? Who made the decision to appoint the poor nurse, an Indian immigrant with possibly not the greatest command of the English language, as telephonist in a hospital famous for treating members of the Royal Family and other well-known public figures. Such patients need considerably more protection and security than us ordinary folk and common sense would indicate the need to employ staff of the highest quality. It was surely foreseeable that a hospital such as this was always likely to attract prank or crank calls so therefore the appointment of intelligent, confident, no-nonsense staff to properly screen and vet telephone calls should have been a top priority.

The higher levels of management at the hospital most certainly need to be held to account and questioned in detail as to why their high profile patients were not provided with adequate protection and screening. They and the radio station’s management (and lawyers) are the main culprits in this case, not the hapless DJs.

In Defence of the Indefensible

Posted on by

On Sunday we saw all that is finest in English football when we were treated to a wonderful spectacle in a full blooded Manchester derby where no quarter was asked for or given and the excitement and passion was unrelenting from start to finish. As a neutral it didn’t particularly bother me who won but what a shame that such a splendid advertisement for the game was overshadowed by the behaviour of some so-called fans.

.

As the game reached its climax the excitement was clearly too much for some feeble minded cretins amongst the Manchester City ranks who threw coins at the celebrating Manchester United players causing a nasty, bloody cut next to the eye of a United player. Another idiot invaded the pitch in an attempt to cause further mayhem only to be stopped by Manchester City’s goalkeeper.
Manchester City, as the host club, will probably be punished for these incidents and their fans, most of whom are as decent as any of us, will be vilified. Is this fair, because, make no mistake, these incidents could have occurred in almost any ground in the country. Every club has an unsavoury element amongst its following and what happened at Manchester City could just as easily have occurred at Chelsea, Liverpool, West Ham or Manchester United.
I’ve been a football fan for nearly 50 years and I have been witness, particularly in the 70s and 80s to some of the worst excesses of football fans’ behaviour. Of course, it’s not as bad now as it was then but violence and the threat of violence is never far away in many football stadiums. If you don’t believe me just watch a televised game when a player is taking a corner in front of a great phalanx of opposition fans. You will see the player, often as not, being subjected to a barrage of insults, general abuse and obscene hand gestures. Look at the faces of some of the fans and all you can see is anger, vitriol and bile. They are so contorted with rage that you can almost feel their hatred.
That, for some people is football and I don’t think we can ever eradicate such behaviour. Football is a tribal game, it is almost primeval in its intensity and at its best it is a great release of passion, pent-up frustration and at times an explosion of happiness – how do you feel when your team scores a goal? It is a shame that some “fans” behave the way they do but a thug is a thug no matter who he supports and no matter the colour of his shirt. All we can do is attempt to keep the lid firmly down by proper policing and control and hope that their behaviour doesn’t spoil the game for the rest of us. Don’t blame Manchester City for what occurred yesterday, it just happened to be their turn that’s all. Next week it will be somebody else’s.

Snow Chaos

Posted on by

Well, it’s that time of year again, the first snowfall of winter and our roads are blocked, our trains cease to function and flights are cancelled as our airports shudder to a halt, paralysed, evidently by less than two inches  of snow. It happens every year and every year it seems that our public services and transport systems are taken by surprise. Why?

Why is it that winter snowfall is such a shock? Why is it that this country suffers more disruption and cancelled flights than Sweden, for example, a country which regularly has snowfalls of several feet over a period of four to five months?  Yet, bar the odd blip, they manage to keep things moving along quite nicely and airport closures and flight cancellations are something of a rarity for the Swedes.
I hate knocking this country, I really do, but why on earth can’t our transport system perform better than it does? Compared to many countries we, in the UK, are very lucky with our climate. I know we’ve had some recent floods, which were certainly dreadful  for those affected, but we don’t have the hurricanes, tornadoes and other extremes of weather suffered by many other nations who, in spite of those extremes, still manage to get on with daily life without excessive disruption.
It can’t be that hard to get it right, can it? Surely, it’s just a matter of planning and preparation, preparing for the inevitable changes in weather that the seasons bring and stockpiling enough salt and sand together with the equipment and manpower to deliver it. Common sense tells you that snow falls in winter and sometimes that snow can be quite heavy, it’s just a shame that common sense isn’t that common after all as far as our public authorities are concerned.

Airline Weight Penalty

Posted on by
Last week it was reported that Delta, one of the biggest airlines in the USA, are being sued because they refused to allow a 30 stone woman to board one of their aircraft. Delta have since claimed that they did try to allow the woman to board but she was so fat, sorry, obese, that she was physically unable to take her seat.

It got me thinking. I fly a lot and much of that is long haul and, as anybody who regularly takes flights of six or more hours knows only too well, comfort is not always easy to find particularly if, like me, you fly cattle class, there I go again, sorry, economy! If you are lucky enough to have nobody or somebody of slim build sat in the seat next to you then, in the absence of screaming infants (another scourge!), the journey will probably pass pleasantly enough with no harm done.

On occasion however, I have sat next to somebody of a larger build and have spent most of the time pushed up against the wall of the cabin or the person on my other side, consuming my meal and refreshments at a 60 degree angle and, once the ordeal has ended, have emerged from the aircraft with my head resting limply against my shoulder.

Airlines need to do something about this, particularly since obesity is quite clearly a worldwide problem (at least in the West) with this country apparently leading the fatty charts. Two things stand out to me. Firstly, nobody should be denied the right to board an aircraft on account of their body shape or size but if they are clearly too big to sit on a normal seat (without crushing the poor b***er next to them) they should have to pay for two seats or alternatively a special large seat should be available at double the cost of a single seat.

Secondly, all airlines, but particularly budget airlines, are now getting very keen to whittle down the weight of hand luggage and if you are carrying a bag weighing 11kg instead of 10kg you will be compelled to check it in as hold luggage usually for an extra £30 or so. This really does irritate me, particularly when I see someone twice my size taking on their 9kg bag without a problem. Clearly, in the interests of safety, airlines have to carefully monitor the weight of the load carried by their aircraft but wouldn’t it be fairer to base their charges on the combined weight of each passenger and his or her luggage? Of course it would but there’s fat chance of it happening!

Pawns in a Deadly Game

Posted on by

Another exchange of rocket fire, another flattening of a frontier town, another period of killing and, finally (following the usual voicing of concern by the UN) another ceasefire. To be followed in a short while, no doubt, by a repeat performance. Such is the reality of life in the Middle East.

The latest ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas ruling party of Gaza, announced a couple of days ago, is yet another in a near constant struggle following the creation of the new state of Israel, and subsequent displacement of Palestinians, back in 1948. No matter who is to blame, and whatever the views of many western politicians, the problem is deep-rooted, extremely complicated and is unlikely to be solved without a great deal of compromise and sacrifice from all concerned.

The tragedy of Israel and Palestine is that, as always in struggles for power and control, the victims are the same. Those who suffer most are never the politicians, the religious leaders, the generals and the men of power. No, the people who shed their blood and who lose their homes and meagre possessions are the poor, the weak , the vulnerable and (such an irony) those who want peace the most, the women, the children and the fathers and husbands working hard to support them.

Jew, Arab or Christian, it makes no difference. Most people in the world wish only to be left alone to get on with making the best of what, for many, is a short and often difficult time on this planet. The tragedy is that, for many, it is a wish that will never come true. They remain pawns locked in a deadly power game over which they have no control.

We’re all Americans Now

Posted on by
Isn’t this a lovely time of year? We may have lost an hour of daylight and there’s a definite chill in the air but how beautiful the countryside looks with the leaves of Autumn showing their colours of copper, bronze, auburn and gold. There’s a mist in the morning and frost on the ground and soon it will be time for bonfires, fireworks, parkin and the celebration of Guy Fawkes. Guy who?
There’s a celebration in the air, that’s for sure but it certainly doesn’t have anything to do with Guido Fawkes and his Gunpowder Plot comrades, those brave, reckless young men who decided that they’d had enough and planned to burn down the Houses of Parliament back in 1605 – now there’s an idea! (memo to Thought Police – it’s a joke!). No, if you look around you, in the supermarkets, shops, hairdressers, cafes and pubs all you can see are large orange pumpkins, witches on broomsticks, skeletons in black capes and cobwebs hanging from the walls and ceilings. All that seems to matter is the great American festival of Halloween.

Halloween, another celebration of consumerism, excess and bad taste far removed from the pagan festival of All Hallows Eve established, incidentally, about two thousand years before America even existed as a nation! Still, it doesn’t matter, we’re all Americans now, totally enraptured and in love with everything they put on our television and cinema screens. Penny for the Guy? You must be joking!

Screaming Infants

Posted on by
Air Asia announced yesterday that, as from February next year, adult passengers will be provided with a “quiet zone” on their planes free of charge. This, of course, is due to the epidemic of noisy babies and/or badly behaved children who disrupt the flights of others. Anybody, who has been awoken from their in-flight slumbers by the banshee-like howl of a distressed infant or been bashed on the back of the head by an out-of-control brat in the seat behind you will welcome this news.

After a couple of weeks working away, I, like many travellers, crave the rest that a long haul flight can bring and am delighted that, at last, something is being done about this problem. I don’t take issue with anybody who takes their infants on long journeys (but why anybody would take a 6 month old baby half way across the world on holiday is beyond me) and I accept that people have the right to travel where and with whom they like. That right does not extend however to making the lives of the people around them a complete misery. It happens a lot and I once endured a transatlantic flight (and believe me, that’s the right word) where a baby, who was evidently not ill, but who simply required some attention, cried the whole time.

Much of the problem is down to bad parenting and a lack of common sense. If an infant is distressed then the poor child should be comforted and not left alone to scream to the heavens. If the child still requires comfort then surely it should be given a bottle or a dummy. Some parents don’t believe in giving their children dummies and clearly don’t give a monkey’s about the concerns of their fellow travellers.

This move by Air Asia is a good one and long overdue. On every flight, worldwide, there should either be a baby and child-free zone or a separate area, like a crèche, purely for occupation by parents with babies and children. For busy routes maybe they could even have their own plane where they can exercise their right to scream and run around to their hearts content. The rest of us can then exercise our right to some peace and quiet – if only.

Abuse of the System

Posted on by

US Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney put his foot in it this week – for speaking the truth. He stated that a sizeable proportion of the American electorate can be written off or discounted as possible Republican voters because they rely on government handouts. He was referring to those Americans who, he said, do not pay income tax, who believe that the state’s job is to redistribute wealth and who believe that they are victims. It sounds familiar doesn’t it?
In the USA the Republican Party like the Conservative Party in this country (well traditional Conservatives at any rate) believe that people should be encouraged to stand on their own two feet and should be rewarded for their honest endeavours free of unnecessary interference from the state. Conversely the Democrats like the Labour Party in the UK believe in big government and state control and thus are the favoured parties of those (among others of course) who prefer to claim benefits rather than work for a living.
Perhaps it was a truth that was best unspoken except in the privacy of his own home or at Republican Party HQ but it was still the truth. As long as Romney’s Republicans, and the Conservatives  here,  remember that there are those who genuinely cannot work and who need and deserve our support – people such as the infirm, disabled, elderly and those who through no fault of their own are genuinely  unable to find work then what he said is fine.

Praise for Burglars

Posted on by
There are many reasons why a guilty defendant may receive a light sentence. It could be that he is a man of previous good character who uncharacteristically fell foul of the law, it could be due to the skill, eloquence and persuasive argument of his lawyer or occasionally it could be that the judge in his case was completely bonkers. Such a case arose in Cleveland last week.

Whilst sentencing convicted burglar and serial offender, Richard Rochford,  His Honour Judge Peter Bowers stated that “It takes a huge amount of courage, as far as I can see, to burgle someone’s home. I wouldn’t have the nerve”. He then declined to impose upon Rochford the prison sentence his behaviour merited (and which any rational judge would have ordered) and instead gave the former jailbird a community service order.

Of course, there has been uproar following this ludricous pronouncement and it is to be hoped that when His Honour is tracked down on the Planet Zog, or wherever it is he resides, his superiors ensure that he no longer graces the Bench with his presence.

It’s sometimes difficult not to despair of our legal system. Our demoralised and poorly led police force, suffocating under the weight of unnecessary bureaucracy and form filling, often struggle to bring criminals to justice and even when they do, they find themselves hampered by a system that often favours the criminal over the victim. They find their good work torn to pieces by smart-alec defence lawyers and even if they manage to obtain a conviction they watch defendants walk away relatively free, openly  laughing at the weakness of the courts.

This country seems to be a defendant’s paradise, unless, of course,  you happen to be a motorist.