Knowledge can improve the world we live in

Last week 27 migrants drowned in a single incident on the English Channel. The family if one of the dead migrants said: ”she wanted to make a better life for herself and she chose the UK”…

I find that statement baffling.

she chose the UK? well, the point of entry into the UK is not via an inflatable boat sneaking in via the English Channel is it? Such an needless waste of a promising life!

If you’re not fleeing persecution or war etc., and you choose the UK as a country where you want to live, just fill in the forms and apply for a visa. if the application is rejected, try again, while carrying on with your life as best as you can where you are. The grass isn’t always greener, and falling victim to people-smugglers and ending up at the bottom of the English Channel is an awful way to go…

For the sake of refugees fleeing persecution and other folks genuinely seeking asylum, governments must put an urgent stop to the criminal enterprise of gangs charging unfortunate victims thousands of pounds with the promise of getting them through Europe to the UK or whichever destination. 27 human beings drowning is so terrible that one can only wonder why we are still arguing about whether or not it is Brexit to blame or France – for letting them access the channel so freely. Does it matter???? it doesnt matter who’s at fault, it just needs to be stopped! The UK government, France, the EU must all come together now! to end this madness. Anyone looking to make a better life in the UK, Europe etc., should be able to apply via legal means and those fleeing persecution and seeking refuge, should surely not be ending up at the bottom of the English Channel….

The onus is on us to shut down these illegal points of entry to end these deaths and then facilitate timely processing to end the lure of attempting these risky attempts

Seriously, what is wrong with people these days??!!!!

YES, some will argue we were never any better. But surely, there must be a minimum standard at least in so-called developed countries right?

I was reading about the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse this morning and although the acquittal itself is not surprising to me, what has really got on my nerves this morning, is the stuff being said by elected members of the US Congress – these are politicians elected by the people, supposedly representing the people and being paid by the taxpayer!!! I do not have any issues with the verdict of a jury – right or wrong, that is the system we have and it is what it is. I have no interest in reading the background to the Rittenhouse story BUT two human beings were killed – shot dead by a guy who came from out of town to supposedly protect property from rioting looters – we must assume that the said property is more precious than human life? As it would appear that loss of human life was ok? If we look at the investment that the parents of the two that were killed have made: education, feeding, drives to baseball games etc., love & care… Is this how that investment should end?
I am not interested in whether or not Rittenhouse is guilty or not, the fact is that I am sure there were many others carrying guns that day, who chose not to use it. When will America ban the bringing of guns to gatherings? They can keep their guns and carry it around, BUT surely, there can be a law making it illegal to bring guns to any gathering where there are more than 10 people. Or something along those lines. But the main issue I have, is the fact that sitting members of congress can come out in public and congratulate Rittenhouse and offer him jobs – even if in jest – that really is reprehensible! Two Americans were shot dead. Whether or not it was in self defence and whether or not they were chasing Rittenhouse is beside the point. He shot and killed them. They are dead. Yes, a jury has decided to find him not guilty, that is fine. BUT, what is a US Congressman or Woman doing revelling in this???

Rittenhouse himself will soon find out that it is not a bed of roses being a killer – be it a legal or illegal killing – once you have taken a human life, you will bear that burden for life – regardless of a jury’s verdict. He should be at home, reflecting. Not doing TV interviews, regardless of what he is saying.

It appears American politicians have forgotten that ONCE ELECTED, they are paid from taxes of ALL Americans, not just those who voted for them or just those who agree with them. A congress man or woman represents the congress of the united states of america, not just americans they agree with or who agree with them. Donald Trump coming out to congratulate Rittenhouse is no surprise, he is also an individual who has failed to understand that when you are a president, you represent every American.

This is not even about being partisan or not, what is presently happening in America and happened between 2016 and 2020 is a disgrace to democracy and what democracy stands for. They now have a totally dysfunctional system where their elected politicians are only interested in what they need to do to win the next election and to keep those who vote for them happy. Forgetting that once elected, they should stand for all Americans!

If human life hadn’t become so cheap, Rittenhouse himself would offer to do community service and any human that takes another person’s life should reflect on it, not swan around doing TV interviews or allowing some politicians to turn him into their new emblem. Two people are dead for goodness sake!

It is beyond reprehensible that politicians would come out to start glorying in the verdict of not guilty. Even just out of respect for the dead, this should be a period of quiet reflection for America, followed by the enactment of laws that ban guns from any large gathering.

The world is in such dire straits!

Freedom of speech is not the same as Freedom from consequences!

I just read an article about 2 kayaks washed-up on the English Channel, which means 2 or 3 illegal immigrants have drowned. 99% of the comments by members of the public celebrated this and rejoiced. How vicious can we be?

Ok, blocking them from posting such horrible views won’t make them better individuals, BUT what exactly is the benefit derived from allowing these horrible, inhumane comments and views online?

At the very least, allowing those abhorrent comments and postings makes them mainstream and many now see it as an acceptable way to converse in public.

I am against illegal immigration and these incessant forceful entry, because in the long run, nobody stands to benefit (apart from the people smugglers) as the locals hate on them, the illegal immigrants then start bottling up hate too. if the facilities are not there and they’re not likely to be, it will end in tears for most – but in many cases, the folks caught up in all this, have already experienced worse and as such, are undeterred.

But to rejoice and celebrate the loss of human life is despicable and it shows that our society has now lost all moral values and the only thing keeping us safe is our laws & enforcement. Without that, I dread to see what society would be like, with such reprehensible human beings who think celebrating someone’s death is ok

Comment options should be disabled for articles that would attract reprehensible posts… i don think that takes genius and should be urgently implemented by the various online news outlets. Enough is indeed Enough!!!

Has she done anything that many others before her haven‘t? The simple answer is: NO.

So, why is there so much ire?

There is nothing complicated about the Meghan Markle story or saga. Yes, some sad twists and turns concerning her father and half-siblings going on ’celebrity’ shows and the people who continue to exploit them to get bizarre stories and rants out of them. All very bizarre, given they claim she had blanked them for years – so, how are they credible sources? But then, credibility is no longer an issue these days right?

Would Markle have gone for Harry if he was just your everyday brit? we all know the answer to that question, but it should not lead to the concentrated public vilification she now faces, as what she did has been done several times before. Her audacity, in trying to ’sort our royal family out’ is what quickly became unacceptable and it didn’t matter much, how she went about it.

We are in a society today, where people leak sex tapes and the publicity propels the supposed victim to superstardom and £billions. You can put anything out there and you’ll become a social media infuencer, and having a crowd behind you, for whatever reason, is now a huge money-spinner as the morals of advertising has never been about reasons but numbers.

It is such an unfortunate situation and its conclusion is inevitable as Prince Harry will be back in the royal family fold sooner or later and the only question is whether Meghan comes back with him, eat some humble pie, accept her role is to fit in with what she chose to get involved with – an institution that has been there for centuries and imperfect or not, it won’t be Meghan Markle sorting it out! Whoever Markle’s advisors are, they couldn’t have done a worse job of it! Even if she is just headstrong and ignoring their advice. This notion of leaks or intentional leaks or letters drafted with or without the knowledge that it may or will be leaked etc., is a worn-out episode and the entire sorry saga is just awful. Now, children are involved, and although it is safe to say that those kids are always going to be well-provided-for, this is all so avoidable.

I am not sure what people call ”black” these days or how it is defined, but personally, I do not see how Meghan Markle is black? she is not. She is a product of a black mother and a white father. Any un-royal-like behaviour exhibited by her, is also not due to her supposedly being black. She simply isn’t from within those circles and no matter how hard they train her, some of these things are not taught, they are ingrained and if you aint got it, you aint got it.

The question of whether or not the royal family should modernise or whether or not the whole arrangement has passed it’s use by date is a very separate matter, and one that regardless of which side you’re on, majority are agreed that we (brits) do not want it addressed in this manner and certainly not while Queen Elizabeth II is on the throne. It cannot possibly be social media via a girl who chose to sign-up for the trappings to sort our royal family out.

But the daily articles trying to paint Markle as an opportunist and all that, is just tiring: is it not an opportunity for anyone to get hitched to Prince William or Harry? of course it is – regardless of who you are – rich, poor or even if a member of any other royal family, it still takes you to a different level. So, it is indeed stating the obvious, in trying to continually make markle out as some desperado who was only after a meal-ticket.

I do not see any half-way house here. Harry & Meghan only have one source of income, which is entirely tied to them being part of the royal family – whether that income comes from netflix deals or Oprah Winfrey exposes, it is still all down to the same thing. So, even if they renounce their royal titles and say they are now just every day citizens, the only paycheque they will get from any source will still only be tied to their past – even if it is a tv deal to provide commentary of a football game. So, this is all just a pointless saga.

Has irreparable damage been done? I don’t think so. As stated above, there’s nothing Meghan’s done that’s not been done before. And if you’re one of those who claim she is black and all that, well, her being in or out of the royal family won’t change any of that. There’s a footballer in the UK right now, who gets racist chants cast at him because his granddad was black. The chap himself is as white as Wayne Rooney, but someone dug up the fact that his granddad was black and now, he (the footballer) is black, even though physically white! what a laughable world we live in. Almost as laughable as the incident I read this morning of an American Olympian of Asian descent who recently won a gold medal for America at the olympics, being pepper-sprayed and racist slurs hurled at her by a white American (guess what? a descendant of immigrants himself – as majority of America).

There will be no quiet, if we continue to enable these ludicrous sagas…

There is never going to be an ideal world with no issues. Bullies thrive when you show them they are hurting you. People need to toughen up…

Take a look at countries that claim to oppose western culture and you’ll find a large section of their population quietly overdosing on hollywood movies…

Many claim to loath elitism but if you offer their kids a place at Cambridge or Oxford they’ll snap it up and later conjure up reasons why it makes sense….

…. amass billions and then promise to give it all away? why not simply amass less…?

….. well, what a mouthful!

For starters, have they asked the other side if they are prepared to reconcile? perhaps just a national day of TRUTH would have been a better idea? afterall those folks have waited decades foe such truth….

and then perhaps next year, one can then suggest a national day of reconciliation if the truth has indeed finally found its way out?

in any case, whose truth? I am sure most if the folks who would need to provide such truth are long gone…

as someone said to me last week: if we look away for a moment and let our guard down holocaust will be repeated (and worse), slavery can be back with ease – and you will see keen participants – i mean, there are still people out there who do not believe women should be allowed to vote – the world is not a better place today – you only have to spend 10mins in online forums or on the street to know that – history has taught us nothing!

So, i hope Canadian first nations get something out of this national day of truth and reconciliation – they deserve better. the issues are of course very complex, diverse and far-reaching, but I am not at all convinced that these kinds of national day type solutions will yield anything tangible…

Picture this: an individual has just crossed the Atlantic in a tiny inflatable boat, after weeks of perilous treks and in company of people who would cut your throat without any second thought, and we think making it difficult for them to get access to benefits or healthcare is an effective deterrent? Some of these individuals have faced situations (including those that are just economic migrants trying to pass themselves off as refugees) and hardship that we could never even imagine. Yet, we think hateful words or verbal abuse such as ”go home” will stop them from coming here? Our government speaks of creating a ”hostile environment”; laughable isn’t it? Some of these people are fleeing gunshots and bombings and famine etc. And even those who are economic migrants or opportunists have spent weeks in horrible conditions at the mercy of people-smugglers. So, I’m afraid, putting their children in cages like they did in America or our ”hostile environment” here, is just pandering to hate and populism, it is not curbing illegal migration or any other type of migration!

What needs to be done, is to improve our immigration infrastructure, educate our communities, address poverty here – so that all poor, suffering locals get enough help (benefits, healthcare, social housing etc) so that they do not feel neglected at the expense of immigrants (yes, a few numpties will remain intolerant regardless, but they will be a small minority), mandate adoption if our basic norms & behaviour etc.

So much money is being wasted on these clearly ineffective methods such as ’hostile environments’ – utter rubbish! Use that money to fund a robust process and you won’t need to create hostile environments. There’s so much decent cultural experiences that can be shared e.g. cuisines. BUT littering, attempts to practice sharia law in the UK, forced marriage or wearing trousers so low that your underwear is on full display, is not acceptable behaviour in the UK and our laws and norms should be respected and followed by everyone wishing to live here, without exception..

…. proves nothing other than the fact that she is a fantastic tennis player who took the opportunity she had in front of her and also, that we can learn to pronounce surnames that are not ”smith” or ”porter” when we wish to..

Other than that, the long line of hasty commentators rushing in to point at this supposed example of the goodness of migration are just clutching at straws as always. China is hardly an awful place is it? (not only do they have a wonderful history and a long list of inventions, today – and regardless of some of the negative press – they are leading in technology and production) and Romania is hardly Yemen! So, would the fanfare and circumstances be the same had Emma Raducanu been born in Honduras to a Ghanaian dad and Iraqi mom and then move to/represent England in tennis? I shall rest my case….

More importantly, it is abundantly clear, that WE WILL NEVER GET IT! conflicting cultures and way of life is the problem, not really differences in race or colour (used to be), it is about BEHAVIOURS! Nobody had/has much of an issue with Helen Mirren (daughter of a Russian) or other immigrants who moved to the UK, accepted the UK way of life and got on with it. The problem is around people coming in and looking to impose their own way of living here. Coupled with the fact that we have now created a toxic, unfriendly, unwelcome environment that gives them no chance to want to integrate or accept our way of life. it is a catch-22 situation. Those elected to sort it out (politicians) have found out that it is more profitable (to secure easy votes) to leave it as it is, as they can rile people up with this topic, to secure easy votes. The solution is very simple, but we will not even try, because we choose not to. If politicians want to end intolerance & hate, they can easily do so, but they choose not to. The solution is there: tone down the hateful rhetoric, educate people – so that they understand that it is more costly if we bring migrants in and do not welcome them and help them settle in, help the natives who have fallen on hard times – so that they no longer see incoming migrants as a threat or perceive they are receiving preferential treatment, ensure the infrastructure is in place – to process migrants promptly and expel those who are simply trying to exploit the charity and end illegal forced entry as it makes a total mockery of legal immigration and refuge-seeking. Society would win all round. Yes, there will remain a handful of hateful individuals, but they would be heavily outnumbered.

People wonder why it is usually the semi-literates, the poor and downtrodden who flock to support hate-speeches and anti-migrant agenda? It is very simple: if you strip privilege from the privileged, they will become exactly the same as these folks. The privileged speak favourably of reckless migration because they know they do not have to put up with it – the migrants are hardly going to move in next door – and if they do, the privileged will be out on a yacht in Monaco. The rich have no reason to listen to the worry of the poor who fear migrants could take their jobs or reduce their access to benefits such as assisted-housing. The rich and our politicians (including those exploiting the anger out there) have several houses and their jobs are not on the line. If you end poverty (or at least try to address it), set-up the infrastructure to bring migrants in properly (without any perceived detriment to native poor) and mandate all incoming people (be it migrants or refugees) adopt the norms of the country accepting them, the current levels of intolerance and hate would melt away. BUT then, politicians such as many of those we have seen in recent years will have nothing left to get their rallies going or get their voters out – so, they want to retain, maintain and promote the current toxic environment so that indigenous poor, working class people continue to feel threatened, continue to feel nobody is listening to them and as such, continue to spread hate and intolerance.

Watching children grow is fascinating. You ask a child to draw a person and they will try to do so, without any thought on fat, slim, redhead, blonde, black or white as topical features; they will simply try to draw a person (perhaps someone they see often, who may be slim and blonde or chubby and brunette …) as a person.. PERIOD

At some point in their development (and teachers play a huge part in this – but they tend to manage to avoid scrutiny as parents are usually under that spotlight) they begin to learn to be biased and today’s society is an easy accelerant

It’s so easy to point fingers these days BUT the truth is: WE ALL HAVE A TENDENCY TO BE BIASED and we all have one -ism or the other in us. The only difference is that some of us continue to educate ourselves and ensure we never allow our bias to creep to the surface or play a part in the decisions we make concerning others. Access to such education and poise, is not widely available and in particular, to the poorly educated in low-skill jobs and those that society place in the lower-classes or working class; leading to the rampant public outbursts we see today, amplified by the internet and usually under that illiterate heading: ”free speech”. Speech has never been free of consequences…

It is so easy to point the point finger at others. We expect clergymen & women to be sinless and faultless – forgetting they are human. Yes, if you take an oath of office to serve & protect for example, you should try to keep that oath and such situations cannot be watered/down or likened to how ordinary citizens behave, as the consequences are much more severe as in the cases of miscarriage of justice

But the simple truth is that we are all hopelessly stuck with the physical. we take one look at someone and the only impression that register is whether they are black, white or whatever other colour. And we begin making up our assumptions straight away: what kind of neighbourhood have we just entered? what’s the likely danger? all based on a mix of news, hearsay etc. When we look for Chinese people, we are automatically looking for that picture we have in our head of what we think a Chinese person looks like, forgetting there are hundreds of thousands of Chinese people who do not look anything like that – you have the Uyghurs for instance. But we all have a mental barrier that is quite frankly, impossible to shift!

You hear phrases such as: ”that is so British”, which is usually linked to what we assume to be British, from TV shows or exposure to a Brit, which is never representative of the very very different types of Brits, which of course include the Scottish, Welsh, English and Northern Irish and in England alone, the mannerism and accent and appearance of those from the South East is indeed very different from the North East or elsewhere for that matter, before you even begin factoring in 2, 3 generations on non-white brits who may or may not fit into that TV-based expectation of what’s British

But we have that mental block. We look for rosy cheeks or yellowy skin (in the case of jaundice) but forget those are not generally applicable. But we remain stock in that mental block. We have been brainwashed regarding what’s beautiful and what’s ugly – the fashion industry is of course now trying to adjust a little and TV commercials are now trying to be a little more representative of the reality of society – with not so skinny folks finally getting a chance to be on telly, but we still decide some accents from the north of England for instance, are not TV-worthy. We’ve laid out that mental grade of where we draw the boundary: may be good enough for Coronation Street but not for the news at 10!

Elocution. One would think we’re still in the 1800s with finishing schools..

Add on the poverty line and you have the full picture.

But we sit at home and blame a policeman or policewoman for their behaviour. Yes, perhaps they swore an oath and we haven’t, but the same logic applies: they push around those who do not have the means to make them accountable. You think if those shoved face-down on the concrete and stopped/searched in America were wealthy, with ample access to lawyers and legal muscle that cops will continue pushing them around? of course not. They ate soft targets and will always be soft targets until they dust themselves up, get educated, create jobs, make money, gain ample access to lawyers, lobbyists etc. It is all circumstantial.

It has taken me decades of trying to look at people and ignoring their physical appearance: I avoid the ”where are you from?” or ”where are you from originally?” or ”where are your ancestors from?” question, which used to form in my mind the minute I see someone that one would automatically assume to be out of place? —- why else would one think to ask those set of questions?

Nowadays, I keep my mind blank when I see someone. Does it matter what colour they are? how cheap their clothes are? The moment you begin with those physical assessment, you cannot control your bias. It may begin with just an opinion and wanting to explore, but I now let people tell me – should they wish to – where they’re from or what their ancestry is, but whether out of general interest or not, I curtail my enthusiasm and retain a blank view of the physical. it is of course easier said than done…..

I recently had some of these items explained to me in great detail:

(1). Majority if not all of the developing or 3rd world countries are less than 100 years old and are still on a learning curve

(2). We often say they are corrupt and their leaders embezzle funds, BUT most if not all of such embezzled funds are not kept nor invested in 3rd world countries – they are sat in Swiss bank accounts or other banks in the so-called developed countries; so, a bit of complicity there right?

(3). Most of these countries are exactly where developed countries were at the same stage. In any case, you only have to look at the supposed ”united states of america” where the present division and partisan wrangling means truth and facts no longer exist. And the United Kingdom? (with Scotland ever so keen to quit the union). Compared to majority of the so-called 3rd world countries who only came out of colonial rule few decades ago (70, 80 years ago?), inheriting forced union of tribes and people who were bundled together sole for colonial convenience. It is a wonder that there haven’t been many other Rwanda-style genocide in many of these post-colonialism countries

(4). We left them with a system of government (democracy) that took centuries to work in the so-called developed countries, but expect the 3rd world countries to miraculously make it work in just a few decades and when they struggle with coup after coup, we call them savages, forgetting our own history…

(5). Instead of helping them to industrialise and develop, we put a noose around their neck with IMF and World Bank loans, unlike the freebies handed to Japan and Germany post-World War 2. The intention is all too clear: you only have to look at the colour of inhabitants of every 3rd world/under-developed country and that of every so-called developed country and those who think the idiots that yell abuse or throw bananas at football games are the threat? Nope. it is decades of our policies that’s the threat and kept these countries in the pitiful state they are in, so we can call them shit-hole countries and tell visitors to ”go back where you’re from”…

(6). We have continued to manipulate and destabilise these countries for a number of awful reasons. People ask where some of those warring in 3rd world countries get their weapons from? These are countries where we watch TV clips of children starving to death but shiny machettes and AK-47 assault rifles are somehow affordable?

(7). The best talents from 3rd world countries are left with little choice but to move over to developed countries (even if they face double standards there)

It took most developed countries several centuries (ignoring benefits of the forced labour (slavery) they enjoyed for centuries and additional decades of colonialism) to develop – and even after that stretch of time, you only have to look at ongoing economic struggles in Greece and depressions in Ireland and other countries at the turn of the last millennium, to see that the expectation that these less than 100 year old 3rd world countries can emerge from colonialisation to become super-powers? Where they are today, is exactly where any country under the same circumstances will be! They are not corrupt savages.

Unfortunately, in a free enterprise system, it’s like the Olympic games: all have to compete regardless of circumstances and we award medals: ”developed”, ”developing” and ”3rd world”….

Just watching BBC’s Last Night of the Proms and you see why Great Britain is indeed great. We just need to help others; our greatness is not diminished when we help 3rd world countries get to a level of development too. We must hush-up those who seek to divide, spread hate etc. Mistakes of the past are what they are – nobody can undo that, but we can enable a better future, but we haven’t yet….

Unarguably it is necessary to fix a lot of the issues being flagged up; be it racism, other forms of bias & intolerance or distribution of wealth and opportunities etc. But, you only have to spend 10 minutes driving on our roads, to see the hopelessness of humanity. One reckless driver decides he or she is late for an appointment and off they go…. surely, others may wish to get home or to work too?

You look at LINKEDIN, the professional networking site set-up for people to discuss jobs, work opportunities etc. it is now cluttered with posts on weddings, wedding anniversaries etc., and each time one of those posts come up, the person uploading the posts starts with: “I don’t usually upload personal stuff….”, surely, the minute you type those opening words, you would resist the temptation to upload those wedding pictures on LINKEDIN and head off to FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, TWITTER and tens of other sites made specifically for such posts? But oh no, they believe they love their wives better than others or their personal stories are worth sharing more than others. Imagine if everyone on LINKEDIN decide to upload just 1 x personal story? with the same selfish attitude, it will take hours of scrolling before one can get to a job advert or work-related post that the site was specifically created for. That, in a nutshell is the human failing… Simplistic analogy, but it does represent rather accurately, why society is in such dire straits

Look at Liberia. Look at Sierra Leone. Someone thought it was a splendid idea to go and resettle freed slaves in Africa. Now, they are divided by accents after a couple of generations since. The American-sounding descendants of slaves versus the indigenous folks. Look at Haiti and other places, with light-skinned blacks versus darker blacks. Today I read a newspaper article by Fast & Furious actor Tyrese Gibson saying he was passed over for several Hollywood roles as Terence Howard, a lighter-skinned black chap being the preferred black. Ha ha. Perhaps not funny, but one really must laugh. Tyrese added that this was the same experience he had growing up in the hood. Ok. But surely, he may or may not have heard of several actresses dying their hair blonde over the years right!? And just look at the roles Anthony Quinn played: a basque, Mexican outlaw, Greek soldier etc. he was stereotyped for decades, same for Yul Bryner and they got on with it, made the best of it. I am not for a moment saying it is right, but these pampered, entitled actors and actresses of today, like Tyrese, after $millions (while nurses work tirelessly on low wages as they save lives), will still continue to moan about the disadvantages they supposedly face for being black! What a joke!

You can solve every form of -ISM out there and there will still be bias and preferences. Making sure there are processes that are not systemically put in place, to disadvantage one type of human against the other, sorting some of the needless violence etc., is where society needs to focus, but we are currently distracted by silliness . No race is made-up of saints; we’re all as bad as each other! given the opportunity, I doubt many would perform differently to what’s been seen so far in human history . You only have to travel across Africa, Asia and other parts of the world, to see that racism and bias is not the sole preserve of white on black/brown/others engagement.

The world is messed up because human beings are messed up and those that get it, largely tend to stay out of it and as such, it goes on and on…..

In movies you see people giving it all up to be monks and give back to society etc. That is quite practicable and many in society do indeed do that. But what really is privilege?

There is no notion dumber than thinking people will give up their privilege!

Even if they try, they can’t. Why? Because PRIVILEGE is not something you can give up

Spreading it round and trying to create privilege for others is perhaps achievable

You take for example, kids born into poverty, they get to schools where the teachers have low expectations of them, they get a lot less exposure to other natural means of learning e.g. travelling. They most likely have friends who are in the same situation and are likely to be in a network of later CEOs who can offer them opportunities. You see children of working-class folks in the Western Hemisphere taking a year University exchange in third-world countries, rubbing shoulders with children of the elite in those countries – that’s privilege. You won’t see children of working class nor even the elite of third world countries studying in the UK rubbing shoulders with our elite would you? At best, they will be expected to hangout with working class kids here.

Privilege is when you get up one morning in the UK, US or elsewhere in the developed world and decide it’s time to spread your wings to go and work in Australia, Sweden, Japan or any other developed country and you saunter across.. Do we then expect those with these privileges to give them up in the name of equality? Don’t be obtuse! Why would they?

When people yell to others on the street: “go back where you’re from!” It is solely because they believe those countries are in a dire strait or as a infamous politician was said to have said “shit holes”. So, what happens if we industrialise those countries and develop them? What happens if we end the need for people to risk losing their lives and those of their children on rubber boats crossing the Atlantic? I doubt anyone would yell “go back to where you’re from” if they can see that those countries are better or at worst, as developed and pleasant as over here would they?

But therein lies the dilemma

Even if an individual decides to give-up his or her privilege, it is not achievable as such action will still be in the knowledge that’s should things get sticky, there is a network of privileged friends and acquaintances (you can’t delete old schoolmates etc.) to fall back on. The underprivileged do not have that safeguard.

Even though a class of “old money” folks will still try to look down on those they would describe as “new money” and many still look down on footballers, basketball rich folks etc., compared to centuries ago when only children of certain privileged families got access to education and travel, the opportunities are slightly more open today, but society still has some work to do, but we will choose not to. Instead, we have mechanisms such as loans and penalties to continue to keep many down in the gutters. The map of global wealth is cleverly arranged and countries such as China, who have, through hard work, managed to get out of poverty, face negative press and criticism from countries such as the USA, where’s millions are incarcerated and many are afraid to drive on their roads as a stop by their police for a broken rear light or hanging an air-freshener on a rear-view mirror usually ends up fatal for those demographics. I am not a supporter of China as I do not know enough about their country to be a supporter, neither do I know enough about them to criticise them and in any case, I am sure they have positives and negatives and may also be out to rule the world like others have tried to, over the years. But they have worked hard and have innovated and developed their nation and if Africa, South America, South-East Asia and other under-developed parts of the world can do the same, sustain themselves, industrialise like China have, some of the delusions of grandeur by the types who feel “go back where you’re from” is an insult, will quickly change. Imagine shouting “go back where you’re from” to a Chinese person? the response would be: GLADLY! 35 years ago, China had 0km of high speed railway. Today, they have more kilometres of high speed railway than the rest of the world combined. Yes, they are criticised for human rights issues and other issues, but the “Land of the free” (our dear USA) is the country that has more prisoners than any other country in the world and a country where a past president tells other immigrants like himself (noting almost every American is an immigrant) to go back to where they’re from, but still, 74 million Americans (nearly half of the country) decided he is the leader they want? Similar to China, I have a limited knowledge of America and no reason to have any issues with them, there remains a lot of positives about America and the 80 million+ who decided they needed to have a different president and a less intolerant direction. In any case, there’s not much difference in America, compared to other developed countries. We all need to do better: China, America, US, Canada, Australia, African countries etc., the current state of the planet is a collective failing, be it in terms of human rights, poverty, immigration, you name it. It is a collective fiasco..

We are hell bent on repeating past mistakes.

Can America drastically reduce its mass-incarceration, train its police force to serve & protect instead of doing the stuff we see in the news (whipping out a gun regardless of a situation is not a demonstration of serving and protecting)? YES. Will they do so? probably not

Can China improve its human rights record and stop trying to take over the world to become the new America? They can, but will they? probably not

Is the US a good country? YES. If not, why would so many tried so hard to get there? Same for the UK and others. But there is good & bad everywhere. The world saw Iraq invade Kuwait, tried to do good there; are they better off? Look at Afghanistan today. Libya, list goes on. There must be other ways and methods to do good….

Can the privileged give up their privilege? Not really. Should they? No (in any case, they can’t even if they tried). But can we achieve equality by providing privilege to others? Yes we can, even if total equality can never be achieved. As Confucius said: THE FIVE FINGERS ARE BROTHERS BUT NOT EQUALS.

There’s an old saying: “when you live in Rome, act like Romans ”

A mix of cultures: cuisine, sports etc. is great. Where there are conflicting cultures, local norms should apply

The world got it horribly wrong and this is where right-wingers blame liberals. But pointing fingers now, isn’t going to resolve anything. The horse has bolted out of the stable…

Travel is awesome; you experience different cultures etc. Would that be possible, if those cultures had been suppressed?

What we should have had in the mid-1900s is each country clearly defining their norms, laws, religion, societal values etc., and made those sacrosanct for anyone looking to live in each country, you come in and live by those rules and if not to your liking, you select the best suited country to go and live in.

There would be no problems with immigration or accepting refugees as everyone would come in, behave the same way and integrate. But it would require laws and norms to be set in a manner that do not target newcomers or target some races as was done in America where they deliberately crafted legislation designed to keep their black population in chains (from slavery to jails) or countries where sentencing for crimes committed is a lot harsher for some. It would be naive to assume this could all have been a very straightforward arrangement. It isn’t. You have complications in the form of religious freedom and other complex aspects, but it is clear that if each country had defined those rules, all must comply to live there and can practice their religions provided they do not attempt to impose forcefully on others or seek to subvert. There will always be a suitable country matching each and every preference and people can migrate across to locations that cater for what they believe in, how they want to live and the values they want to hold dear.

It is a failure to do this, that has fatally pitched conservatives against liberals. Reality has been set aside and replaced with hate, intolerance, open racism, hurtful slogans with meaningless promises such as “America First” – of course it is America First, but the people you’re saying it to, are also Americans. So, kind of pointless really. Each country should put itself first , in the situation we are in right now, where nobody wants to put humanity first. There is nothing wrong with America First (without the hateful rhetorics and overt racism – almost all Americans are migrants and descendants of migrants). Unfortunately, it is probably impossible to implement this now as it would mean suppressing the views of some. But as we are in a DEMOCRACY, I do not see why we don’t just put it to a vote? We did with BREXIT in the UK, even though it wasn’t a perfect process and many feel they were lied to and misled, and there certainly wasn’t enough detail made available or known at the time, making it difficult to judge, BUT one thing is certain, as a Brit, I want British laws and not dictates from a European group who have a very limited understanding of how we want to live our lives in Britain. Being able to trade freely and engage with Europe should never be at the expense of losing our way of life to German-French dictates. So, YES, exiting the EU was the correct decision, but the way it was done and the lack of care for those to be impacted harshly, is what has left a foul taste in many mouths and the full implication may still be yet to come.

But yes, each democratic country can still today, use democratic means to restructure and set new rules relating to societal norms, afterall we have that in our laws. Ignorance is not an acceptable defence in law. So, we can mandate that anyone coming to live in each country needs to accept how things are done there (as opposed to granting liberties that anger the locals because people coming in are coming in to form their own enclaves and carrying on with certain practices e.g. forced marriage, and instead of integration, we’re left with conflicting cultures, leading to more hate and intolerance across the board). There can then be a variety of options. A migrant or refugee looking to practice arranged marriages or corporal punishment for instance, can migrate to countries that allow that as opposed to moving to countries that do not normally do that, but seeking to exploit civil liberties in those countries to circumvent their norms

I believe there is a democratic way to redress this and set each country up, so that the views of the majority creates an environment where the values of each country is maintained by all-comers, with full integration. It is the only way to avoid intolerance and hate brewing..

This will be a very short article…

So, now, the UK say we will take in 20,000 fleeing Afghans and one can assume the USA will take in as many or s bit more, Canada will take some, perhaps France, Germany and Australia will take some too?

So, WHY DIDN’T WE JUST DO THAT in 2001 or 2006 or 2011 or 2015?…..

Instead of a 20 year war with those folks caught in the middle!!

When this latest war in Afghanistan started in 2001, or for argument’s sake, let’s say it took a few years for some Afghans (i.e. the ones who are now fleeing) to make a choice to turn their backs on the Taliban and embrace the west, why didn’t we invite those folks to move over then? Would that not have been a better organised, properly vetted move, with them bringing their belongings and being settled without chaos. THEN, you know everyone left back in Afghanistan want to be there and most likely will support the Taliban. But most importantly, you are able to avoid leaving those who helped the allies behind to face certain persecution and death (which is what all the veterans of this war are finding so hard to take, and it is the reason they are all so angry now and feel their sacrifices may have been for nothing).

Imagine how many thousands of allied (and mainly American) lives could have been saved.

After 5 years of this war, in 2006, the allies were in control of most parts of Afghanistan and with a little bit of foresight, the offer could have been made to relocate Afghans who want a western-style life or simply want something different. It all could have been done in civility instead of people now having to cling to airplanes on a runway

War solves nothing. And a 20 year war solves even less! But most importantly, if the need for a show of force was the only option (and may well have been, in 2001), a clear plan should have been put in place, with a humanitarian objective in mind, instead of an endless sojourn, ending in chaos, with very little achieved in the end. Imagine what kids born in 2002, now 19years old and perhaps in university could add to society?

The world has a penchant for looking away from the readily achievable, to focus on what we cannot achieve and we continue to waste resources as others suffer:

Achievable: condemning hate and intolerance in all formats (be it clever tailored formats by some news channels or less subtle abuse on our streets) and standing up for human decency

Unachievable: a wonderful world where we all love each other, re-write history, undo past evils such as slavery, genocide etc., remove every statue relating to past evils etc.

Majority of human endeavour start with a noble intention before it either gets hijacked by others with less noble intent or gets exploited. A good example is FACEBOOK. I am sure that when the idea popped up, it would have been with the intention of providing people with a tool to stay in touch, share photos etc. as opposed to creating a behemoth that has now become a tool that people seek to use to spread disinformation, impact elections etc. That is the sad reality of humankind. People say: what do you need nuclear deterrent for? Well, it is because there are people out there who will hurt others in their quest to rule the world or force their own ideas or religion or ideology on everyone else, if they are not deterred. And that leads to the word I dread most: VALUES.

VALUES

Few days ago, I wrote an article about the Olympics and how some athletes or nations see the use of enhancement drugs simply as a part of competing and they do not see it as cheating. Given the fact that there are so many other forms of advantages that some athletes and some nations have over others e.g. access to funding, training facilities etc., those are conveniently ignored, but when Russians are allegedly caught out using drugs, that is supposedly an advantage they cannot be allowed to utilise. But when athletes from wealthy countries who do not have to keep full-time jobs on the side, who can concentrate solely on their sport and practice round the clock, step out to compete against athletes from poor countries who have to work full-time jobs and hardly get opportunities to practice, we believe that is fair competition? I am not in support of cheating nor the use of performance enhancing drugs, but how do you redress the years of fame, publicity and positivity that Lance Armstrong for instance, generated for the United States? Can we take all that back?

Whenever people who say they are CONSERVATIVES talk about VALUES, they get shut down by those who say they are PROGRESSIVES, but do any of us think we can survive in a society taken over by rules we cannot relate to?

The problem is alway down to where I began above: good intentions of those who say they are right-leaning, hijacked by the Marjorie Taylor Greens of this world, who are ill-equipped to be the face of any sane movement. Take religious tolerance as an example. We have our laws in the west and it is not based on what a holy book states. But there are countries that practice religious laws and we must not condemn them, but that is not what we want to do here in the western world. If we briefly look at the matter of the Windrush generation in the UK: West Indians/Afro Caribbean folks who moved over to the UK in the 50s and 60s, seeking a better life, but arriving to find a very hostile environment, where they are only offered menial jobs, where their children – already afraid to go to school as they are suddenly in an unfamiliar environment- got to school only to be told by the teachers they are no good and will never do well – so, they drop out and largely turned to crime, we’re exploited and fulfilled those predictions and we now wonder why our prisons are filled with children and grandchildren of that generation? The intention was noble, but the result is two to three generations now, of suffering, intolerance and few opportunities to break that vicious cycle. Since the recent Black Lives Matter protests in the UK, every time a black person commits a crime, society say: well, see what we mean? they are criminals. They are no good. Well, who ever said there are no black criminals?

It would be interesting to see what the reaction would be, if every non-white person in the UK was offered £5million to leave the country. Afterall, the generation of black people who moved to the UK seeking a better life and rarely finding it, can surely head back to their ancestor’s country of origin, with the funds to perhaps start a better life? The problem with that, is of course the appearance of promoting segregation – afterall, all children born in the UK, white and non-whites alike, just happened to be born there and did not have a say in the matter, and as such, should be treated equally right? But when a set head to school and are treated differently, and perhaps also behave differently (not to just lay the blame on teachers) due to the harsh environment they grow up in, instead of going the extra step to help them, we give up on them and many fall into the hands of criminals and end up in jail. It really is a vicious cycle, and one that some now protest as being very deliberate. You lift the lid and you can’t find conservatism nor values, what you find is one race trying to exert dominance and superiority over the other (and this applies to all, be it white, black, brown etc.) as it is never an issue for a Helen Mirenovsky to blend in, become Helen Mirren (no disrespect to her; she is a wonderful lady), play the Queen on telly acceptably, but an Iris Elba must only play Mandela ofcourse and even a fictional character such as James Bond, cannot possibly be an Idris Elba, as we cannot lift that mental block and will table every excuse possible. The problem remains a complex one because society lack the courage and conviction to separate true values from personal hatred and biases. At some point, it may be well worth trying something different. It is near on impossible to reverse some of the issues but there has to be a way. If some people do not wish to live we live I never the west, no point trying to force them is there? But are we to blame for trucking people in, in their time of need, without preparing them for how they will need to live, helping them integrate; the simple answer is YES. Part of that process has to involve educating the local population to understand that when we bring people in, they need more help and support (and urgently) or the consequences down the road, will be for all to bear.

This is why the notion of migration and just carting people around when they flee wars or persecution is NOT the right thing to do. I would love to see a world with no borders, no races except a single human race etc. BUT our values are not the same across the board are they? This is what conservatives go on and on about, and the dismissal of those concerns, is what has led to the recent rise of populism and intolerance. Those on the left will say: yeah, bring all those refugees in, we have to me kind and human. BUT they do not ensure there are facilities in place, to ensure those people come in, into an environment they are not familiar with (with crowds of angry people who do not want them there) are not then turned into a breeding-ground of hate themselves, seeking to harm their host. Again, another vicious cycle.

The world needs to come together to find a better way.

Is there ever going to be an era of NO WARS, NO DISPLACEMENT, NO PERSECUTION or no economic migrants seeking to exploit the charity put in place to help those in distress? I don’t think so. So, why don’t we try to rewrite the rules and make things clear, so that the needless loss of lives (a society desperate people try to get to the west by all means, falling prey to people-traffickers along the way) can end? If we must have borders, then make them secure! To deter people getting on rotten boxes to cross oceans and lose their lives. Avoid wars at all cost! Help as many parts of the world as possible, to create safe havens, to avoid having to ship people enmass to countries where they are not wanted and will only face hatred and intolerance, which then ends in them being angry themselves and hating and seeking to harm their hosts.

The current view-point is too narrow, but unfortunately, those who have tried to widen the discussion have largely done so in a hateful manner, leading to the current stalemate we have today, with neither side standing to gain. We bring people in, have no facilities ready to help them, pitch them up where they are seen as resource-sappers by poor locals, leading to intolerance and it goes on from there, to lack of opportunities, with many turning to crime and the rest is history

Neither side or neither position (left or right) is helping and those that suffer and will continue to suffer, are the people caught in this vicious cycle

The UK is a wonderful country (well, people won’t be prepared to die to get here if it wasn’t) and we get a fair bit right, but we also get a fair bit wrong too. The world needs change. Sorting the climate is urgent, but so is sorting the current mess of lack of humanity: we are no longer in the 1950s, we need to be better!!!

This week has been dominated by goings on in Afghanistan and opinions are flying in from all corners of the world

I do not believe anyone has got it right or wrong

We all continue to make the same mistakes over and over again

There should never be an acceptable reason for war. If all other forms of engagement or pressure fail, try again. War cannot and must not EVER be on the table.

The folks manufacturing weapons of war should have no fear, carry on doing so. Countries wishing to buy these weapons can continue to do so. Keep stockpiling them, but only as deterrent or bragging right, we should never resort to actual war

On the other side of this equation is religion, interpretation of religious beliefs, religious tolerance and impact of religion on the wider society. I am a strong believer in the existence of God, but I do not believe in religion. Religion and what we say religion demand is largely open to interpretation and has been a very challenging aspect of life. We all have to promote tolerance.

Who stands to gain from the mass displacement of Afghans? NOBODY. Afghanistan is a country where clearly, a majority of the population support the Talibans, otherwise, they wouldn’t be in a position to do what they have done this week. So, shipping thousands of fleeing Afghans over to the US, UK, Canada or where ever else, is not helpful to those Afghans unless majority of people in those countries (i.e. US, UK, Canada etc) want them there and accept that we will have to help them settle and integrate into society. How has that worked out in the last 50+ years? If incumbent natives of those countries do not accept that these unfortunate (fleeing Afghans) folks will have to skip the queue for housing and social care and that we cannot later hate on them for that, DONT BRING THEM IN! To bring them in, to face hate and hardship will only lead to them and their children despising those countries and few years down the road, we’re back to where we are today, with the Windrush crisis in the UK or intolerance between those seen to be foreign (even after 2, 3 generations) and those who believe they have sole right to those countries as natives (which is a little laughable in the case of Americans, Australians and a few other countries formed largely through immigration).

Regardless of the argument, migration CANNOT be via charging down a border or showing up in a canoe across the English Channel or crossing the Mediterranean via inflatable boats and barging in. Whether or not one agrees with the current world order, it is what it is and one or few countries CANNOT take in the population of another country (what of those left behind?). Not every Afghan who disagree with the Taliban will be able to flee right?

I am not going to sit in judgement of the pain and anguish that drives people to risk crossing oceans in bathtubs BUT the world needs to redefine and restructure an approach to refugees to ensure we help desperate people in a manner that avoids them falling into the hands of people-traffickers or exposure to perils such as death in transit vans etc. New rules with international acceptance is urgently needed as the hardship faced by those heading to western nations, where they are seen as a problem, is not worth the trip and illegal migration has led to increase in intolerance and denies help to those truly in need of refuge. But all that is a separate topic on its own, how can we make all parts of the globe worthwhile, so people stop embarking on these perilous trips?

Was America, Britain and others right to withdraw from Afghanistan? YES

Should they have gone there in the first place? NO

Could they have exited in a less chaotic manner? PERHAPS, but this was never ever destined to have a fairytale ending

Those criticising the withdrawal are hypocrites

Could there ever be a time when the Talibans would have been totally defeated and Afghanistan becomes a very bubbly westernised nation? NO. Unless they suddenly found billions of tons of oil in their mountains of course.

If Afghans overwhelmingly do not want the Taliban to rule them, they will make that decision sooner or later

With gun crimes in America, knives in the UK, prisons filled with black people and ongoing discovery of murdered and brutalised native children in Canada, these are hardly examples that countries like Afghanistan should be asked to emulate are they?

If the Talibans takeover Afghanistan as it appears they have, the next reasonable step for the rest of the world is to look at options to engage in dialogue and ways to incentivise them to consider some aspects of western life that honestly do not limit their zeal for their religious beliefs e.g. allow for equality between men & women, allow women to seek education and decide their own destiny, try to allow for other opinions, even if not what they believe in and also avoid harbouring individuals who seek to inflict harm on others (e.g. the west) – that was what started the last war (the world will only be at peace, if nobody is actively trying to harm others) . With time, a great deal can be achieved through engagement and incentives. I am not sure much has been achieved through war to date. Years and years of bloodshed to no avail, and now, possibly years of finger pointing when commonsense is needed. I keep reading about people saying: “is this what we fought for?”, well, sorry, what exactly has the war achieved?

The coming months will undoubtedly be tough for many, but dropping the blame-game to focus on dialogue and incentivisation will yield better results than war or displacement

Mass relocation of fleeing Afghans isn’t going to solve anything either. Will more likely put those folks in harms way and years of putting up with intolerance and hate

Yikes!

It appears many Americans have forgotten how and why America was formed and what America should stand for….

The woman (Rapinoe) is now said to be “anti-America”. All she did was try to stand for the rights of the LGBTQ community and demand equal pay for women. If that is now anti-America, god help us all!! The issue is not about being for or against LGBTQ, it is surely about being against any form of prejudice or oppression. I have no interest in the debate and be it religion versus or otherwise, all human beings are first and foremost, human beings and we all need to respect that

I watched a video last week of an American soldier, in the uniform, with the American flag on his uniform, being pepper-sprayed by a policeman in Virginia (Lt. Caron Nazario) as they dragged him out of his vehicle. Where was respect for the American flag? Even if they no longer respect the army uniform and what it represents surely, the American flag clearly visible on his uniform should have commanded some respect? So, to attack Megan Rapinoe or anyone else taking a knee or trying to make a statement to highlight an issue dear to them is an indictment of where society is today

Thank goodness for the sensible policing we have here in the UK, where our police understand they are there to SERVE & PROTECT, and that every taxpayer in this country effectively pay their wages and must be treated decently. In the Virginia situation with Lt. Nazario, the two policemen were barking instructions at him, with their guns drawn: PICTURE THIS: put your hands where we can see it. So, he has both hands hanging out, through the driver-side window right? Ok, so, he still had his seat-belt on,right? Now, get out of the vehicle: how? He has clearly seen and read about this situation over the years in America. The minute he moves his hands back in, either to undo his seat-belt or to reach for the door handle, they will spray him with 100 bullets and claim they thought he was reaching for a concealed weapon. So, he does nothing and keeps his hands out the window, next thing is the chubby cop spraying him with pepper-spray, like he was applying after-shave. How can anyone treat a taxpayer, and especially one wearing a military uniform in such a horrifically callous manner? They say he drove a long way before pulling up? would any sane person not find a well-lit area before pulling up in America? When you can already see what happens in broad daylight, his chances would have been zero, coming out of that situation alive. They need to get guns off the streets in America and that includes taking guns off the police: if a police unit spot a suspicious driver, tail the car and call an armed unit in. Going to attend domestic bickering, routine traffic stops (of drivers for a broken tail-light or hanging air freshener on the rear view mirror) and whipping out guns that can fire tens of bullets, is such a recipe for disaster and innocent Americans continue to lose their lives at the hands of the people paid to SERVE & PROTECT them….

But in a country formed largely through immigration and a diversity of ideas by the founding fathers, this new definition of “anti-America” is worrying and it is being promoted by those who seek to continue dividing America. Over here across the pond in the UK, it is saddening to see what’s happening with America

Essentially, if you can look at another human being (be they black, white, brown or whatever colour really..) and feel ok with harming them or abusing them just for reasons of what they look like, then we really are in a deplorable position

Yes, the world was never better and today’s technology is what’s getting this out into the public domain, but the situation is so grave in America that they really need to step back and try hard to stamp a position as the world needs America (a 300 million plus population nation) to try to lead by example and calling one of their own (a lady who has done more to promote America than many) anti-American and boycotting a product she advertised, is awful. To think this is the behaviour of a few, is why things have continued to head in the wrong direction and not only in America..

I am sick to my teeth of hearing or reading about people complaining about being called this or that. Well, Jews have put up with horrendous abuse for decades, so have women, fat people, black people, the Irish etc.

Yes, abuse is abhorrent and needs challenging BUT jeez! We are fast losing focus on the real evil out there: discriminatory policies. Policies that continue to allow and promote voter suppression, harsh sentencing for some (filling our jails with specific types), inequality – keeping poor people in poverty and driving divisiveness. Policies that ensure certain folks remain downtrodden. Employment practices, even distribution of lottery wins

Might be the boarding-school boy in me, but you can never deter a bully by showing them they are hurting you! The more people continue to cry about like babies about use of abusive words, the more those occurrences will pile up. Abusers are bullies, especially cowardly keyboard (online) abusers and the more you cry about it, the bolder they will get, as they will see the success of their intent, which is to hurt others.

POLICY is what we need to focus on getting changed…

Been watching the Olympic Games in Tokyo and can’t help but wonder why athletes or countries they represent, stack up the medals or consider victory as prowess. You only have to look at the mismatch in funding, training facilities and incentives across some of the participants and the whole thing becomes quite laughable.

The Russians were recently banned (and are still only just allowed to participate under a bizarre arrangement) because they were accused of doping. And I presume that was supposed to have given their athletes undue advantages? But we have countries without any funding or facilities competing against athletes from countries with ample funding, facilities etc. and that is not an advantage? (undeniably punctuated by the odd fairytale of the likes of poor Brazilian kids doing well in football or the like..)

Laughable…

It is exactly what is wrong with the world today. Some define these convenient rules (same reason American jails are filled with supposed drug dealers while the people who buy and consume the drugs are free and living a great life). We create sports, come up with rules, the Russians supposedly find a way to tilt the scale their way, but hey, that’s not acceptable, but when an athlete from a poor country who has to keep a full time job to feed his family and can only afford to practice at the weekend competes against an athlete from a wealthy country who practices full time and has huge funding, special kit etc., oh, that’s ok. It’s a level playing field as long as the same wealthy folks win all the medals and hey, that is a demonstration of their superiority and apparently, the countries they represent are as such, awesome at those sports

Put athletes under the same conditions, same facilities, same level of stress (I.e. without some worrying about how to feed their families) and you will find a very different medal table before you.

So, what really is the purpose of these events?

Look at football: some teams buy the best footballers on earth, pay them huge sums, provide excellent facilities to train, and then we adulate them for their success… DAFT ain’t it?

But it really is, a very accurate representation of life, our societies and the world we live in and I don’t mean just today. Since time immemorial. We must have winners and losers, rich and poor, celebrities and their groupies etc. So, why do we pretend we wish for equality or an equal society, where there is no discrimination and we’re all living happy and peaceful lives?

There are thousands participating in all sorts of sports globally; golfers, tennis players etc. If you enjoy a sport, you get into it. You don’t have to be world number 1 (defeating folks who could be a lot better than you, had they the same facilities etc.). It’s like recent billionaire space explorers (Bezos, Branson..), they can afford it, so, why not? it only becomes a little strange, when the same people start waxing lyrical about climate change and saving the planet while burning tank-loads of fuel to hang out in space, on trips that are not necessarily about saving the planet – but, do these billionaires owe the world anything? probably not, and they do have a bunch of charities they fund and do more than I could ever do for the world- but still, what a colossal waste of money that could feed every kid on some continents and we do also have hungry children even here in the UK right?. As for sports, it was in existence well before these farcical global events and will most likely be there if we don’t have footballers on £500,000 a week wages or Olympic Games where some feel they need world domination to underline their love for their chosen sport….

People want to go on holidays and have others scrub-up after them…. (would the scrubbers not be on holiday themselves if they weren’t disadvantaged?)

It is very easy to industrialise all parts of the world, educate everyone, level-up society etc. The only reason it has not been done and will never be done is the same reason we cheer as these ill-matched athletes win medals at events such as the Olympics….

But we will never admit it. Not even to ourselves…

The reaction, when Qatar’s high jump star proposed sharing gold with his Italian competitor tells it all….

There will always be those having to fight for equality and it will remain so till doomsday…

Past few days we’ve all been watching the Olympics in Tokyo. To hear and read about people saying winning or securing gold is what it’s all about is so puzzling. How pathetic are we going to get as a society before we all wake up and say enough is enough! Just getting to the Olympics is such a massive achievement and you don’t need to be an athlete to understand the devotion, commitment and dedication required to get anywhere near being good enough to get to an Olympics

The attention-seeking, social-media dependent vipers who have never achieved anything but seek to rubbish the achievement of those finishing 2nd, 3rd or just even making it to the games really needs a robust and ceaseless challenge from decent members of the public

Competition is great and seeking to put one’s country at the helm is also great, but a great deal of perspective is now required. Gold, silver or bronze, when we die, we all take nothing with us…..

…those are the empty, hollow words set to dominate the rest of 2021…

I am not sure what people are looking for? You cannot stop racist abuse by attempting to track & arrest all perpetrators. It won’t work.

Racist abuse online or anywhere else should be dealt with in the same manner as any other form of abuse. Giving it this bizarre extra weighting simply encourages the abusers. What needs clarifying is that sending someone a monkey emoji or whatever else, doesn’t add any extra impetus to it.

We feign disgust, but how many really care about it?

There’s nothing extra-special or spectacular about racist abuse. Abuse is abuse and nobody should have to put up with abuse, be it racist or non-racist. But seriously! Stop the pretence!

Day after day we hear about how vile and disgusting it is, but no real action (almost like climate change…)

Even if social media companies find a way to end online racist abuse, does that mean the abusers have been rehabilitated? Obviously not. They will move on to graffiti and other options and if those avenues are shut, they will find others. So, is it not simpler to just show them they are not hurting anyone by just ignoring them? Yes, track them down, arrest them, name & shame etc., but a more permanent way to shut this down is to face reality. Their actions are only impactful, if people continue to be impacted by them….

Following on from my last article, just over 15 years ago, from my UK office, we were looking at a major engineering project in a South East Asian country that has a lot of its people in the UK – many are second generation Brits – and we thought it would be an excellent idea to get some of those Brits with heritage from that country (they speak the native language, look very much like the folks over there etc.) to lead our proposed engineering team and head back to their country of heritage as it were, to lead such an exiting project. Shockingly, the head of the project in the said South East Asian country told us they will only pay high rates if we sent white engineers. We explained to him that the non-white engineers we proposed are British, born in the UK, attended the same universities as the white engineers, have the same years of experience and have achieved the same levels of distinction and then, on top of all that, they already speak the local language, have relatives there – so, are happy to be relocated for the duration of the project – he said, that’s all well and good, but I will only pay the top hourly rates to white engineers, so, if you want to charge the highest rates, give me white engineers.

That, in a nutshell, is where the problem lies. Hoping white people will solve racism and begin loving non-whites more than themselves is an idiotic notion and isn’t right anyway (after all, they were at each other’s throat for decades, two recent world wars, countless wars in Europe over several centuries etc. There’s not such thing as unconditional love between nations or peoples, regardless of colour – we are naturally adversarial). The best the world can and should hope for, is for everyone to love themselves first and then quit hating on others for their differences – not necessarily love them more – that is too much to ask

In my example above, what was the conclusion? of course I gave them a bunch of less experienced white engineers for very high rates, which they were happy to pay and the experienced non-white engineers stayed on my UK projects where they were paid at the same hourly rates as their white colleagues as I simply couldn’t put them through that horrible experience of heading to a country they see as where their descendants came from, but they were about to be handed second class treatment.

We are looking in the wrong places in search of a solution to racism.

People protest and drag statues down: how dare they? Animals we say…

Then they take a knee: how dare they?

What on earth should they do? I know…..: society expect them to do what they have done for centuries: shut up and take it

The most popular phrase of 2021 will be: ….”and I don’t care what colour he or she is…”. Well, you clearly do, or that statement wouldn’t be uttered.

Personally, I couldn’t give a hoot. Racial abuse is not worse or more potent than any other kind of abuse and non-whites just need to see it that way. A white guy calls you a black bastard, you call him a white bastard. He makes monkey noises (funny really) and sends you monkey emojis, well, you can make piggy noise back at him and send him piggy emojis. YES, numbers are on the side of racists and usually that’s how bullying works, but continuing to show a bully they are hurting you will never deter them. When the rest of us CASUAL OBSERVERS finally decide to step up and step in, that is when bullies see they are up against it, and that is when things will change

We have seen the aftermath of the recent England v Italy footie match. I would like to ask why on earth we took 3 awful penalty kicks but I can’t, as the discourse has been taken over by the moronic behaviour of idiots who hurled online racist abuse at the penalty takers. Mad world!!

Today I coincidentally read a CNN article on child-slavery on the major lake in Ghana. Some fisherman roam the country to find parents who are struggling to feed their children and offer them some money (typically as little as $250) to practically buy one of their children. Once bought, the children (some as young as 12) are taken off to make dives in treacherous conditions to free fishing nets in the lake. This heinous act is ongoing today. No Europeans to blame on this occasion I’m afraid. No transatlantic slave masters, just awful, greedy adults doing this to helpless children…

In today’s social media-driven society, where facts count for very little and nobody wants to do any real research. Both sides (those for a campaign as well as those against) caring very little about facts. Those looking to promote hate for financial gain going hard at it, and those on the other side doing pretty much the same (i.e. seeking financial gain).

Africa is not filled with people who just naturally love each other as they’re all black and one. Same as Europe is not and never was filled with harmony across all borders due to all being white – quite the contrary; they were at each other’s throats for centuries and in the case of Africa, add on the extra complexity of tribes that have been forced together recklessly by colonialists without any understanding of tribal differences etc. Just forced together out of convenience and in many instances, to promote strife and tribal wars, which generated additional sources of bolstering the transatlantic slave trade.

Young activists today, who have not bothered to read up on the sale of largely West African slaves – afterall, it was largely sales i.e. they were sold by fellow Africans to the Europeans – albeit, the buyers are not faultless and as with all enterprise, demand is what drives supply but we conveniently ignore those making the demand as is in the case of Class A drugs; the folks consuming it do not get any mention, while US prisons are packed full of black people who are petty-sellers of the drugs (the rich, university students who buy the drugs and give rise to the demand are never mentioned as we conveniently focus on the scum selling the drugs)

Ok, it is highly unlikely that a fair price was ever paid for transatlantic slaves decades ago – as there is never a fair price for buying a human being and enforcing their offspring into automatic slavery – but some folks did get paid at the point of purchase right? I am equally certain the price paid by settlers for Manhattan was way below its value, but such is life. What could the excuse be, for the ongoing trade of children sold into slave-labour in the year 2021???

Black people of all tribe, background, location, MUST decide when it is time to love themselves FIRST, before expecting a miraculous turnaround for others to love them. It has to begin with Africa. YES, the far-reaching impact of colonialism- and in particular, the lumping together of incompatible tribes – is still the primary challenge today and that manifests in various formats including corruption. BUT, it is now time (and well over-due) for Africans to sort Africa out.

Yes, shame on the west (and in particular Europe) for how immigration of non-whites have been handled for decades, with deliberate disadvantaging of certain immigrants – forgetting that their failure hurt us all ultimately and while we can continue to fill our prisons in the west, with black & brown people, I am sure such cost could have gone to other aspects of society. BUT, current situations in Africa that drives young, able-bodied folks to prefer likely death at sea, while trying to get to the west cannot practically be blamed on Europeans

Look at China today. They sat up, decided to love themselves for a bit and have turned their country around. Africa as a continent must do the same. There will be attempts to frustrate and sabotage such awakening but ultimately it can be achieved if Africans choose to save their continent. It won’t be others coming in to do it for Africans.

I can’t honestly say I know what being “woke” means, but it has become very clear that attacking “woke” culture is the new way the exact same individuals with questionable disposition to bias (based on their feeling of superiority usually via class, race, privilege etc.) now seek to continue unchallenged.

This week some university students decided to remove the Queen’s picture from their student union room and are being condemned for being “woke” because their reason for removing the picture is apparently because they allege the Queen is linked to colonialism. Andy Burnham a former Member of Parliament who lost his seat and is now currently Mayor of Greater Manchester but has huge ambitions of one day becoming UK Prime Minister, rushed in to criticise the students and another MP stood up in Parliament to condemn “lefties”, with another government minister stating England’s football team taking the knee is divisive. What isn’t divisive these days? We’ve had Brexit, Scotland wanting out of the union etc. Divisiveness is how today’s society and that before it, is wired to work: why else would a senior MP talk about “lefties” in Parliament? We are constantly finding ways to cause division and foster divisiveness. We have a govt and the opposition sitting across from each other in Parliament; is that not divisive?

We cannot eternally apologise for sins of years gone by! Yes, people sold other humans (slavery) and many nations profited from it. Yes, brutal repression and worse occurred during the colonial era, but do we have to continue to apologise for the past? What is more concerning today, is the fact that ALL of those past evils can very easily recur: people are still openly carrying confederate flags in the US (and brazenly marched through the US capitol with those emblems and worse, with the then sitting US president saying he loved them and they are nice people). Nazis are still operating across Europe and there are several openly bigoted politicians all over the world, operating with impunity

People hide behind terms such as “conservatism”, “make America great again” etc. Can we not be proud of our past (or some aspects of it) while condemning past ills and making sure we avoid a repeat?

Personally, I am always very proud to be British and I have gladly promoted Britishness everywhere I have lived or visited. I am extremely proud of the history of the British naval exploits even if some British merchant ships were used to trade human beings some years back. I can condemn that aspect of our history, while retaining my pride in a huge chunk of British history. But right-wing politicians would have us believe that we must blindly applaud every aspect of our past or we are not patriots! Asking for the removal of the statue of a slave trader is labelled “woke”. One side feels aggrieved and brutalised and any attempt to listen to their concerns is labelled “woke”

The same types condemn the so-called “woke” culture. You list those folks, from “junior” to those other folk, and you begin to see a very consistent pattern of nativist zeal and a certain kind of supremacy.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with trying to achieve a better society for all.

Whatever “woke” may be, society must continue to strive to be better. Condemning and trying to avoid a repeat of evils of the past does not make one less proud of our history or less patriotic. Some of us simply want to see an end to some of the glaringly obvious horrible stuff going on.

What’s bad’s bad. It doesn’t matter whether George Floyd used to be a drug dealer or wife-beater, nobody should die the way he did. Children should not be in cages in the name of immigration control, nobody (white, black or any other colour) should suffer as a result of bias, these should all be basic tenets that have nothing to do with politics. Taking the knee, not taking the knee, defund the police, statues or no statues etc. I couldn’t give a monkeys about any of all that and none will achieve any lasting result, if as it were, basic decency is nowhere to be found…

The world is just so messed up!

I do not follow French politics and personally neither for nor against the French President. But for a citizen to reach out and slap an individual who is the representation of your country just shows how self-destructive some of the young folks of today are. It is tantamount to fouling your own living room!

But what I found quite impressive was how President Macron refused getting rushed off by his security detail. He wanted to carry on chatting to the small group of people there, even though they were probably of a similar conviction to the idiot who slapped him. Think what you may of Macron, he showed some guts there and bravo to him

To slap a guy who is the global face and representation of your country is such counterproductive move as it belittles the very country you claim to defend. To do it in public, with whole world gazing on, is reprehensible

Stratification of society comes in several modes or formats. Some are manufactured e.g. we get an average joe on television and begin calling them “celebrities” and soon they have millions of followers and their jokes are funnier, their tweets more impactful etc. Nothing new and all that’s fine. It is what it is.

But when it comes to housing and the stigma that comes with homelessness, there are major issues at play, that needs to be addressed. It is not just about building affordable homes. In the UK, we experimented with legislation mandating developers of new housing to provide a number of affordable housing on each project they develop, to avoid over-concentration of so-called affordable housing in certain locations leading ultimately to future deprivation and stigma. So, imagine a development in which you have 100 buildings, each at a selling price of £5m and then you have 5 of them completed with cheaper finishing/spec and sold for £200k each as “affordable” housing. What ensues? There was an incident that made the news headlines a couple of years ago, at one of such developments, the £5m homes had access to the playgrounds and other facilities, while the affordable homes had a locked gate blocking them off and their children could only watch the kid s from the £5m houses side of the development playing away in the playground. Society condemned the developer, but he explained that upkeep of the play facility was at a cost of an annual fee of £1000 paid each year by those that bought the £5m each homes. HOW DO YOU SOLVE SUCH A COMPLEX PROBLEM?

It is easy to rush to judgment and condemn the developer, but is that not a representation of the problem of human society? If you build a group of affordable housing in a cluster, stigma is attached and inhabitants are treated differently and labelled, with those areas receiving poor services and the kids born there immediately labelled and subjected to an early sense of hopelessness and many become intolerant and feed right into the conveyor belt of exploitation and manipulation. But the attempt to integrate affordable housing into affluent areas or neighbourhoods can only work if those in those affordable homes are not left to stick out like a sore thumb – now, how do you do that? they are already in cheaper versions of posh homes, on the side watching their kids barred from playgrounds they can’t afford to pay £1000 a year to maintain, living in close proximity to those driving better cars, eating healthily etc, can either motivate you or turn you bitter. The latter appears to be the more prevalent outcome and to date, each and every solution put forward has not been successful.

It is clear that in order to improve society, you have to tackle problems at the root-cause. Hand £1m to a rich man or woman and chances are, they will soon turn it into £10m as they have the network, access, connections etc. Hand the same amount to a poor man or woman and chances are, they will end up penniless in a few years and not necessarily because they blew it on ferraris or expensive holidays, but mainly because they wouldn’t have the wherewithal to sustain that new found wealth. It is a vicious cycle and a very complex societal problem that is being tackled in a disjointed manner that leaves the poor where they are and more resentful than ever, leading to the massive growth of intolerance, hate and populism that is currently threatening all aspects of life. But this plays right into the hands of those seeking to manipulate and exploit divisiveness as a potent tool to grow a loyal base, United by intolerance that has grown out of a sense of being left behind by society in “affordable housing” dotted across the world. We can end this helplessness and end hate and intolerance through the creation of jobs, levelling up of society, creating hope. The only question is: are we prepared to lose the advantages derived from keeping large portions of society poor? poor and hungry people are easier to control and manipulate right? Those with full bellies talk about fixing climate issues and carbon emissions, while the poor and hungry worry about immigration and those manipulating them use those topics to whip them into a frenzy – to get their votes. In conclusion, we have the means to end poverty and divisiveness in our society but we choose not to.

We want to build affordable homes instead of levelling up society so that everyone can afford a home as opposed to living in affordable houses and remaining in a vicious cycle…..

The late Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel once said, “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.”Wiesel said that to the indifferent person, “his or her neighbor are of no consequence… Their hidden or even visible anguish is of no interest. Indifference reduces the Other to an abstraction.”

We can all do so much more to demand a world in which we address the continued suffering of others. We can afford to industrialise all corners of the earth, using natural resources that are local to each part of the world e.g. solar energy in the tropics…

….. or we just retain and maintain our indifference?…

Just before we all heard of something called Covid-19, we were obsessing with what material straws (for our drinks) are made of? Paper straws started showing up – after all, we have to save our planet right?

Now we hear that discarded Covid-19 PPE (largely made of plastic and certainly bigger than straws) are now filling up landfill sites and clogging up the oceans. Price of human survival? But that indeed, is the reality of life. If you’ve ever had your back against the wall in a life or death situation and you’re not suicidal, that is when you see what human beings are prepared to do, to survive.

While the Greta Thunbergs and David Attenboroughs of today go around stressing the need to save the climate (and rightly so), millions of children are dying from lack of access to basic provisions such as food, in poor countries and even here in the UK and other supposedly developed countries, many are living in poverty, some are getting killed on our streets etc. So, are we really looking at the most urgent priorities? Because when it comes to it, we were very prepared to get plastic masks and gloves etc. out there in huge quantities to stay alive. But I am sure in a few month’s time, we’ll be back to the most critical subject of paper straws, as millions of children in Africa and South East Asia die of hunger – but I suppose that’s not our problem, it’s their corrupt leadership etc., we’ll leave them to it, while we concentrate on the more noble and tv-worthy task of saving the planet from plastic straws, till the next pandemic demand we clog landfills and oceans with discarded plastic PPE.

None of us truly understand what hunger and hopelessness is, unless you have experienced it. I am not talking about hunger-strike or religious fasting, which are situations of choice and you know food is available if needed. I am talking about hunger of a kind that you do not know where or when the next meal will come from. It takes a full belly to worry about melting iceberg.

We really are laughable!

Yes, the wider implication of changes to the climate results in some of the situations that lead to hunger e.g. floods. But I am sure hunger’s been around well before fossil fuels… and we continue to look the other way…

Climate change and sustainability are big issues BUT the world needs some frigging perspective!!!!!!

If a teacher works for an hour in Kenya, China, USA, England, India or anywhere else on earth and gets paid 20-globotokens (a currency that holds the same value across the globe) that has the exact same purchasing power anywhere on earth and if we standardise across all professions and all forms of work, we will be taking the first step in human history, towards addressing all problems currently facing humanity.

You cannot address poverty, migration, intolerance or any of the key issues society is presently grappling with, if we do not first establish parity and a level playing field…

Obviously never going to happen. We would rather hand out loans to poor countries (same as we do with the poor in society) with no chance of them ever getting out from under that burden..

Nobody truly want equality, we just talk about it and utter empty words….

If you don’t want a caravan of migrants heading to the US, help make their lives worthwhile where they are… create a global standard of remuneration that will level up the world and create a new outlook to life..

I can see economists falling out of their seats, yelling: IMPOSSIBLE! But, surely, there was a time when the dollar, pound, euro etc. weren’t in existence right?

Anyway, life goes on..

My short book entitled “Perfection in an imperfect world” now available as an e-book on kindle and also in paperback on amazon…….

Capturing humankind’s history and recording events as they occur is essential and as such, we continue to document our history. However, if lessons can be learnt from history, the world today, would not be as messed-up as it is, would it?

We conveniently choose which history is relevant and what is to be taught

Tracing one’s history (genealogy) has recently become a favourite pastime for the retired. And they all conveniently trace their ancestry to ancient kings and queens. One can only conclude that serial killers and child molesters are all single folks with no children and as such, no lineage. You hear of people tracing their lineage back to war heroes. Where are the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of deserters and war criminals?

If you tell people we all descended from apes and that Africa was the cradle of humanity and we all hail from there, people turn religious and want to opt for biblical ancestry, but when you point out that if we are, according to the bible, all descended from just Adam & Eve (who by the way, couldn’t have been much different from folks currently in the Middle East) and as such, why are we so keen to see some live in squalor around the world today, while we carve out arbitrary borders and treat each other with such disdain, they quickly find another more convenient history to opt for

Today’s history classes would make us believe everything starts and ends in Europe and the European conquest of South America, South-East Asia or Africa (and what followed). Few care that the Chinese invented paper ages prior or that Mongols laid out spectacular means of governance or that ancient Egypt built pyramids and ruled huge swathes of the world and so did the Turks. If history cannot be taught accurately then we end up with lessons of convenience and decades after some of the worst atrocities in history, we find ourselves at the cusps of a repeat…..

We sing and believe “rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves, Britons shall never, never be slaves”, but we have been slaves. Britain has been conquered by the Romans and Vikings and many others over centuries and been enslaved by Normans and others. But we draw the line rather conveniently on the history that gets taught. We want to teach about conquests and we go back as far as convenient and stop. Then we want to teach about slavery but choose not to go as far back as galley slaves and barbary slaves but conveniently pitch it as we wish, for the effect we seek.

History has been the most potent, most efficient tool of manipulation this civilisation and those in control of how history is disseminated, will continue to have the upper hand

For decades, many have ducked behind the principle of ‘freedom of speech’ to profit from hate and peddle hate, be it for profit (usually is; directly or indirectly) or other more sinister reasons.

Now there are organisations out there, actively digging up past tweets and statements, it never surprises me when you look at certain individuals who get found out. Rarely ever those you would think unlikely to have made such comments.

Horrible people hide in plain site. We (society) are their shield and sometimes enablers, when we stay silent or giggle along with them.

When people say, “there goes freedom of speech”! what they conveniently forget, is the fact that nobody gagged them when they made such speech, the consequences of those speeches is what may well come to roost later on in life, when they seek public office or respectable positions in a respectable society – well, of which there are very few remaining…..

Just think about this for a minute: we have a judicial system that utilises jurors that are expected to be as impartial as possible right? But when that system was created, nobody thought there would be social media and the current speed at which unregulated opinion can be cast out there into the public domain. When mobile phones came along, we thought it was just a simple case of asking people to turn their phones off, but now…..

So, what changes need to be made?

Some people want the world to reset back to a time they felt they had it good. OK, but did others have it good? I cannot think of a past era where everyone or even a majority had it good, and one can go as far back as you want, even to biblical days.

Perhaps one can then conclude that we need a reset to an era we have not yet had? An era where human beings have learnt to be human? An era where we seek peace, joy and happiness for all or at least for the majority of the inhabitants of our planet and not just for a few. An era where none of us is satisfied until all or most of us are satisfied

I can already hear the responses to that: what a socialist bore! what a naive fool! why should everyone have it good? they don’t deserve it! they’re not smart enough! their leaders are too corrupt! it’s not our problem!

Therein lies the dilemma……

Our laws, our processes, our institutions are all struggling to keep up. Technology and uncontrolled innovation was not taken into account when they were created and nobody wants to modernise or take on that challenge of making them fit-for-purpose

We have just witnessed what a pandemic can do. The world watched on idly, when we thought Covid-19 wasn’t our business or our problem. Millions of needless deaths later and NOTHING is going to change. No lessons have been learnt. We will simply find vaccines and carry on

We hold each other in disdain.

I think some urgent perspective is needed regarding the Harry & Meghan saga and last weekend’s Oprah Winfrey interview

While race remains a very complex subject, we cannot go back in time to undo Roman or Greek conquest of half the world or the Moors (who we’re largely black by the way) conquest of large parts of Europe or the Ottoman Empire’s rule over half the world (and they weren’t white either). Same goes for the British Empire who ruled a good chunk of the world and yes, each of these empires did some really awful things, BUT it is what it is and none of all that makes today’s royal family racist or solely responsible for the past.

When so-called celebrities find themselves at the receiving end of stuff that every-day folk receive routinely, they lash out and suddenly wish to champion change.

The Harry & Meghan situation has become an absolute bore!

How anyone can supposedly flee racism in Britain and then move to the United States of America (perhaps they missed all of last summer and George Floyd?) is simply laughable

Yes, there are things we all have to keep working at, to make the world a better place, BUT, no, we cannot be expected to believe institutions will change overnight. Meghan is a mixed-race lady who needs a lesson in how Brits operate. Things are complex out here as we do have some rules to observe when it comes to royalty. Meghan is both white and black, so this notion of racism and non-stop cackling is becoming stale.

I am not a royalist as I believe everyone should be equal BUT, even as I type this, there are kids being born into families in parts of the world where they will struggle to find food, while others are born in other locations where they will have a pleasant life. But for an individual to waltz in thinking they can modernise or reform an institution such as the British monarchy, is either stupid or arrogant. You either take it as it is and live by its rules (same rules others follow) or don’t join in. The royal family didn’t put out a search to bring Meghan in, she chose to come and play. And when you do that, you play by the existing rules, not come in thinking you are going to change those rules. The Queen is the head of that household, not Harry or Meghan!

It’s like telling Americans their constitution is rubbish and they cannot carry guns. That’ll go down well….

Love it or hate it, the British Monarchy is not there to be scrubbed up or pushed about by individuals regardless of how many twitter followers they have or which press interviews they think they can put out there. What exactly is there to gain from these TV interview exposes? Embarrass the Queen? Reform? This is no way to do things. Harry & Meghan’s situation is not that of civil liberties or anything like that. These are two people telling tales that may well be true, but for what purpose exactly? The Queen is 90+, for goodness sake, leave her be!!! It is clear that Meghan got carried away, thought she was walking into some huge position of power and affluence – well, perhaps she should have come sooner and married the elder brother? But even so, would have found out that even William has his limits. They all do. There are rules and etiquette e.g. sitting arrangements- she probably got irritated by always having to sit behind William & Kate. I am not one for those outdated stiff stuff either, but that is what it is. You have to comply.

There is however no need to hate on Harry & Meghan, they are just deluded and got carried away by the hype of the celebrity status they thought they have. What they need to do, is just go quiet for a few years, raise their kids and stay out of the limelight. But then, perhaps staying in the limelight is their only source of income….

Last week a co-worker said to me: “why are we (human beings) like this???”.

I wish I could answer her question but I don’t have the foggiest idea how or why we are the way we are? Possibly tied to greed…

As the Covid-19 vaccination programme rolled forward in the UK, with politicians trying to take credit as usual, we all appear to have briskly closed the chapter on the 100,000+ deaths and some employers – and in particular, those whose businesses benefit from crowded trains – have been out in force this week, to signal a premature end to Covid-19 and have started campaigning for a speedy return to how the world was before Covid-19. Out goes any notion of us learning from Covid-19 to emerge into a better world….

I do not have any problems whatsoever with people trying to get their businesses moving again, BUT, why do we have to turn everything into a Brexit-style “us” versus “them”?

I would have no issues whatsoever with a train operation saying: “once the vaccine kicks in and it is safe, please be assured we will keep you safe on our trains, please get back out and let us help with your commute to work” or something along those lines. Instead, what we are starting to see and hear are snide, offensive comments such as: “people need to get ready to get off their backsides and go back to working from offices” or “the sad ones who think staying at home and using zoom is going to cut it need to get a life”. Nobody significant has come out to thank the workforce for the sacrifices they have made over the past 11 months, with some people working from their kitchens and tight corners (not everyone has a home office).

What we are beginning to see is a pathetic and cowardly attempt to bully and stigmatise those who would wish to continue working from home, which is very pathetic indeed, given the fact that working from home did not begin with Covid-19 and indeed, Covid-19 has exposed the fact that a lot of jobs can be successfully delivered via working from home and what leaders and employers should be doing right now, is working out aspects of what their workers do, that can be done from home whether full time or part time and coming up with future arrangements that will enable that and facilitate it. There is never going to be a shortage of people who still prefer going into the office or those with jobs that can only be done away from home etc. But instead of taking the time to explore that, where we are heading is another era of divisiveness and ultimatums.

Fortunately, I believe there are now enough employers who will embrace new ways of working, to provide employees with an option to switch to, if their employers attempt to force a mindless return to pre-Covid commuting to offices enmass, ignoring the appalling condition on trains (with commuters paying hefty sums only to be packed on like cattle, sweating into each other’s faces as we do in London) and the avoidable impact on the environment, climate etc.

We create them, we place them on a pedestal, we make them feel superior, we line their pockets and then we expect them to behave like the rest of us….

Woke up this morning to read about yet another so-called celebrity in the UK – Amanda Holden – another manufactured darling of reality TV bingers, who claim to have received a distressing call from her parents who live in lovely Cornwall, over 100 miles from her home in London, ignoring Covid-19 rules, she drove off to see them, BUT wait for it… her 50th birthday just happens to be on Tuesday. So, this supposed ‘distressing call’ wouldn’t just happen to be: “would be good to see you before your 50th”?

We blame politicians for breaking rules and dishonesty, but Covid-19 has shown that very few in this country, would act any better. At least, with politician this is a group of individuals we have had to put on a pedestal so they can rule – someone has to, or the mobs will take over – so, one can excuse their ‘mightier than thou’ attitude as they are indeed mightier than the common citizen, even if such might was not intended to hand them open-ended privilege

It really is pathetic when we beat politicians up in the same manner as we forget priests are also human – nobody can be perfectly faultless – and then you read about these so-called celebrities (a group consisting of individuals who entertain us, but get carried-away with their self-importance) day after day, breaking rules in such pathetic fashion….

Although Britain left the UK for the wrong reasons, it will soon become very clear that exiting the EU was never a bad idea, for the right reasons. Either way, exiting the EU is indeed the only sensible thing to do

You have a bunch of European officials, many with a chequered past in their previous positions within their own governments, now playing at being EU leaders, rolling out one awful legislation after the next.

The recent fracas between the UK and the EU relating to the EU’s attempt at controlling the movement of life-saving vaccines is clearly reprehensible and further highlights the pointlessness of many of the moves made by the EU.

As I have repeatedly stated, the concept of a united Europe under a union, is a brilliant and noble concept BUT the execution of that concept has been absolutely shambolic.

The world will see the UK thrive outside the EU, even as the EU will work tirelessly to frustrate that in order to prevent others seeking to leave the EU. I hope that instead, the EU will clean up its act and try to show the UK we left something good, instead of wasting time acting like a bunny-boiler ex!

Google ‘sheku kanneh-mason’ and you will discover a talented cellist that few can match.

Simone Biles blew gymnastics out of the water!

Lewis Hamilton….

Tiger Woods…..

Neil deGrasse Tyson….

These folks are myth-busters….(they’ve gone where their kind isn’t supposed to go…; how dare they?!). Michael Jordan, LeBron James… ah, that’s okay… basketball, football, … sure, they can have those….

With half a chance, huge barriers….

Just imagine a free world with no barriers or bias….. yes, that insecurity starts to creep in…..

But it really shouldn’t. Human achievement is a credit to all humanity, regardless of the individual and who/what they represent. We should simply be proud of them, their achievements and wish to see others of any background achieve the same and more….

Anyone can be anything, given the opportunity (and as we can see above, even with half a chance and with huge obstacles and against bias, you can still get a Simone Biles….). No achievement is the preserve of any type or specific types. Create the environment and opportunity, ALL can achieve…..

Good grief! that chap is a hell of a cellist!!!

Len Goodman…….

J.K. Rowling….

Jim Carrey…..

Dared to go where their kind (paupers) ain’t expected to go. Dancer Len? how dare he? but, dance he did, and brilliantly too

Given a chance, anyone can achieve anything others can……

It is now abundantly clear that focusing all effort on defeating Covid-19 is foolhardy. Latest predictions now assume circa 2024 before we witness significant demise of this virus and its variants. So, it is time for thinkers out there to begin popping out suggestions around how society can coexist with this and future pandemics, without the mass-cowering (lockdowns) that have been the only recourse to date, with very patchy success in reducing the spread and certainly not had much of an impact on the tragic death toll!

After 9+ months of “working from home” in 2020, many closed that year feeling hopeful and thinking 2021 will open a new chapter, but by mid January, despondency has set in. Unlikely we will have some semblance of normalcy till summer

So, is it not time for governments to deploy measures that will focus on accommodating this virus, with clever changes to how we live, instead of the current ‘all or nothing’ approach?

Permanent spacing (drastic reduction of number of allowable passengers) on mass transit (planes, trains, buses etc.), indefinite continuation of social distancing, mandatory use of masks etc., effective testing and ‘track & trace’, quarantine of international travellers (except for those with confirmed negative tests ahead of each flight) and other measures so we can get back out there and end this unsustainable cowering! We cannot keep locking down society as there is as yet no definitive date for this virus to disappear

We’ve spent the past couple of weeks watching numerous officials place their hand on a bible and swear oaths in America. The new House of Representatives just did it (even as over a hundred of those members continue to contest the 2020 election) and various members of the new administration have been shown with their hands on the bible, taking the same oaths of office as those from the previous administration. So, is it time to drop these pointless swear-sessions? Given that it doesn’t appear to be a deterrent anymore….

where is the “swearing of oaths” and “placing of hands on the bible” when elected officials like Senator Josh Hawley say: “I am objecting to the count of electors because the people of Missouri whom I represent have issues with the election”? Did he swear an oath to people? Was the placing of his hand on the bible an oath to people? If at the end of the day, decisions will be in accordance with what we say “people” want and not what an oath that we swore means we should do, what is the point of taking these oaths? You might as well stand there and place your hands in your pocket (not on a bible) and say your decisions will not be about the constitution nor convictions, but just based on what your electorate tell you (so that you can retain their vote)!

Fortunately, the days of instant biblical retribution, where you get struck by lightning if you forsake an oath are gone and people know they can place hands on bibles, swear whatever they are asked to swear, walk off and instantly forget about that oath and what it actually means to swear an oath.

The time to object to how an election is conducted is months and years before the election, if you claim your purpose is to improve election integrity. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz should be working hard now, asking for changes ahead of the next election. You don’t wait till votes have been cast and sense you are going to lose, to begin challenging ballot by mail and how many days after elections you can still count ballots and what date must be on the stamp etc. You want change, go after the roles now. Lobby each state now. Feel free to take a stand on the senate floor now. Because to do so AFTER an election, is simply sacrilegious!

Each state in America have their rules and that is what makes America: AUTONOMY! If anyone wants a state to alter their laws or approach to an election, you challenge them now. You challenge them AHEAD of an election. You don’t praise them when it worked for you in 2016 and then attack them when it doesn’t work for you in 2020 or we begin to make an absolute mockery of the principles of democracy. What just happened in America is an absolute embarrassment to the entire democratic world and will embolden those against freedom and democracy as they can now see how fragile democracy truly is. It relies too much on gentlemanly behaviour (or gentlewomanly if I may) and when you lack that virtue, you left hanging by a prayer..

But seriously, the pantomime of taking oaths and swearing on a bible has become as ridiculous as a 6-time divorcee saying the traditional words “till death do us part” at his 7th wedding ceremony!

What a farce!!!!

Just watched the Joe Biden inauguration.

The entire world heaves a massive sigh of relief!

No matter how much we all try to pretend, most of us know (deep down) what is decent and what is indecent. The minute someone begins to make excuses such as ‘America First’, to lock helpless children up in cages, we all know decency is out the window. Of course there is nothing wrong with ‘America First’ or ‘Britain First’ or any other country wanting to put their people first, BUT it can never become an excuse for inhumanity. No American president will put America second ever, but only a mischief-maker will try to turn it into a battle-cry.

Around the world, we saw a bunch of apologists. People who try to make excuses for indecency. Shame on you all

Now that decency has returned. Even if Biden is ineffectual or his plans handicapped by others, at least we will now see some decency, absence of lies and incitement of divisiveness. The very basic minimum in terms of expected behaviour from an elected official supposedly in position or rather, in office, to represent THE PEOPLE

America’s biggest challenge will come in 2024, when the Democratic Party will have to decide whether to risk Kamala Harris as their presidential candidate for 2024 after what happened to Hilary Clinton (with women deciding not to vote for a woman). 4 years will not be enough to fully reset America and it will be absolutely necessary for the current administration to last for at least two terms in office

This morning I shared an excellent article from the Guardian Newspaper in which John La Carre and George Orwell’s quotes were use to make some difficult to dispute points

The poor and poorly educated seek to show disdain towards the elite, but when the opportunity arises for them to act on that disdain, they are instead mesmerised and roll over as the latest UK general election aptly demonstrated. People complain about the Etonian grip (for those not familiar with Eton, it is an esteemed private school (what we call public schools in the UK, which bizarrely imply posh private schools) that has produced majority of UK Prime Ministers compared to any other school in England) on power and the league of private schoolboys running the country, but who put them there? the same people who claim they can’t stand them right? Indeed.

Fortunately, I only spent 5 very early years of my infant education in an English private school before continuing the rest of my education abroad and only wrapped up with university back in the UK, thankfully avoiding the English private schoolboy drawl (accent) and forever thankful for my more guttural accent that only occasionally lapses into a posh drawl, which I have spent years effectively suppressing. While a private education is indeed not a recipe for elitism and entitled attitudes, our history (very well defined in comedy shows such as upstairs & downstairs, which is the fore-runner to Downton Abbey) and they seeming impossibility of moving on, and the fact that the world remain fascinated by that aspect of British life, has meant that elitism has continued to breed.

You sit in meetings where individuals rail against elitism but the minute someone with a public school drawl pop up, they are again mesmerised and bamboozzled and the chap with the thick northern or east London (common) accent is cast aside.

Personally, with government, I couldn’t care less who is in power, provided they made sound decisions and govern equally. Etonians can continue as PM till doomsday as long as they deliver for the country. But the truth of that, is what the Guardian article examined and the conclusion wouldn’t make for comfortable reading for our elite. What I find continually frustrating, is the moaning of the masses, only to turn their backs on their own, on Election Day as they turn up in their droves to cast their ballot for the polished elite who drop in a word of Latin here and there with bluster!

Perhaps it finally time for us to up the funding of non-private education in the UK, to provide the exact same quality of education for all? Making it unnecessary and of no advantage to send children to private schools. Those who have previously called for an end to private schooling make a very dubious case – I couldn’t disagree more. My position is that you leave private schools be. Let them continue to flourish, but get the funding in, to all schools, recruit top tutors and make that excellent level of education available to all, at whatever cost – it is sound investment. And if some folks still wish to continue sending their kids to fee-paying schools, when all schools offer matching excellence without fees, why not….

The “love to hate” or “pretend-hate” relationship between the masses and the elite will no doubt rumble on till kingdom come….

I must start by admitting to knowing very little about politics (I have never been political) and perhaps even less about the EU. However, when you listen to the thoughts of the impressive German leader, Angela Merkel about her motivation and expectations of Europe, with free movement within EU member states at its core, it is clear that those who truly believe in the European Project that is the EU, and noble thinkers such as Merkel, do indeed mean well, BUT the execution of their project is what has let them down so badly

I am not a Brexiteer but it is very clear that the EU went from being a noble idea to a control-freak, mindless arrangement that the founders can no longer control effectively and focus has gone from the founding principles to triviality and needless interference and control. Unless you form a United States, and noting that even in the United States of America, each state has enough autonomy and the principle of self-determination still exist to an extent, many where reminded of that principle very recently when the Supreme Court of the US (SCOTUS) promptly ruled against the case brought by Texas and a handful of states in challenge of the 2020 presidential election result (and methodology applied by some other states). The excellent principles behind the formation of the EU later fell into the hands of bureaucrats, which has led to the calamity that is Brexit.

Yes, for any union to work, there must be commitment and there will always have to be rules, BUT to go from a needs-based scenario, to a situation where some mindless bureaucrats sit about in offices in Brussels and start churning out endless rules that gravely affect million’s needlessly and to no tangible benefit whatsoever other than to feed the mindless thirst for control, made a mockery of the EU project and it was only a matter of time for countries that pride themselves on self-determination, to want out! What has gone on, in the years since the UK voted to exit the UK has been a total indictment of the EU! Yes, the UK should not be leaving, BUT their people have voted to leave and that should have been respected! Early efforts should have been made by both the EU and past UK governments to address some of the blatant issues that riled some sections of the British people, to preempt the referendum, but majority assumed the ‘stay’ vote would exceed the Brexiteer vote. We were wrong, the ‘leave’ vote won and there should not have been any unpleasantness. We are in a democracy. Both sides should have shaken hands and got on with it. It is not the result many of us wanted, but it is nevertheless the result and the attitude of the French in particular (although not surprisingly) has been absolutely pathetic and I am not sure how such an approach is helping the unity of the remaining members of the EU? Ok, it shows an initial forcefulness and a determination to make Britain pay for her decision to quit the EU, but surely, if the EU was such a wonderful thing to be a part of, they should have just waved good riddance to the UK and got on with their wonderful lives? What is the need for the all the backbiting? A nation has had a referendum and majority of its people have forced a decision; surely it is undemocratically dangerous to attempt to circumvent that decision, even if some think it is a grave error. The democratic thing to do is to work together to get it done and afterwards, if the UK struggle and come begging to be readmitted, THEN, is when France and others can object or do whatever it is they wish to.

The EU project should have been limited to trade plus a few additional fringe principles and NOT. the ridiculous attempt to centralise power and begin dictating how each country is run and what type of light bulb people are allowed to use etc. SOME PEOPLE CLEARLY GOT CARRIED AWAY! What began as a truly noble project and in the minds of well-meaning individuals such as Angela Merkel, was hijacked by unelected bureaucrats and paper-pushers, leading to what the EU is today; a ballooning organisation attempting bizarre and needless control that has led to animosity feeding Brexiteers and ultimately led to that slim majority in the UK successfully forcing our exit

Nothing wrong with a United Europe, BUT a single, mindless Europe is what the British majority wanted no part of. Truly unfortunate and totally avoidable if both sides (EU and past British leaders) had listened.

I was an early supporters of the clearly essential Covid-19 lockdown and the need for much sooner introduction of lockdown globally, to curtail the spread of the virus. Such early sacrifice would have proved critically worthwhile in limiting the spread and lessening the overall duration of this unfortunate pandemic. Now, if history has taught us anything, the “temporary” income tax introduced by then Prime Minister, William Pitt the younger, in 1799, to aid Britain’s Napoleonic war efforts is still here in 2020 and has become the government’s mainstay.

So, much as I am all for needful practicality, I can see where Piers Corbyn and those weary of what could suddenly become a normal situation with governments seeking to control the population’s movement and lockdowns of this nature stealthily becoming a regular occurrence!

There needs to be an urgent commissioning of a review of other practical and more effective measures that must be in place in future, to keep the population safe, without having to resort to these draconian measures that seek to forcefully control freedom of movement. It is however unfortunate that we live in times where people can no longer be expected to act reasonably – love him or loath him, Boris Johnson was very hesitant to exert such control over the population, but his incessant pleas for voluntary reasonableness fell on deaf ears, albeit perhaps not helped by what appeared to be a situation where some senior members of his government and other affluent people flagrantly flaunted the rules – so, imposing these draconian measures quickly became unavoidable BUT, future planning must now be explored, to ensure governments do not assume locking the population down or imposing ‘1984’ (the novel) – esque controls can become a normal arrangement. The people will revolt!

The worryingly high number of Covid-19 related deaths and the lack of global and coordinated strategies has exposed a crack that is even wider than one could have imagined. The world started with a lackadaisical approach to what was seen as a Wuhan/Chinese problem that China should be left to resolve and then went on to an even more alarming episode of allowing travel to continue, with the virus spreading rapidly and uncontrollably. This has also called into question, the effectiveness of a blanket lockdown after the horse had already bolted from the stable!

Contingency plans need to be developed NOW, to ensure future pandemics are handled differently and more effectively, without resorting to the need for governments to exert these kinds or levels of control, given we do not live in a military dictatorship

A friend shared a very interesting thought in an email and I find it very difficult to disagree with it, even though she does often go a bit hard on tradition

The FATHER walking the bride down the aisle during weddings for instance. Laughable isn’t it? Given how much mothers have to put up with. But it is tradition? Probably women would kick harder against changing it as you still hear phrases such as “cannot wait for my dad to give me away”; so, one chap hands her over to another chap.. Tradition is great but the mindset needs reassessing. Thankfully at some more modern weddings today, you see both parents walking the bride down the aisle and the “giving her away” bit is now more subtle.

Surnames. In this day and age, every child should have both parent’s names combined as their surname: why should the mother’s name automatically pave the way for the father’s? Biblical? Ok. But it always seem to sway conveniently in favour of men and tradition is always the acceptable reason and we all go along with it in the name of keeping with tradition. Some will even call it “values”. But when we look around us today, where exactly are those “values”? We treat each other with disdain. Half the global population is in poverty and are stuck in darkness (literally) – I saw a very interesting satellite image of the world online, showing where there’s electricity and one can only shake one’s head. It really is unfortunate

Nothing wrong with tradition (and values), but where it remains bizarrely biased towards men, we all need to wake up and get real. I am a man and I am happy to enjoy a bunch of perks, but seriously, we need to stop hiding behind these ill-conceived traditions…..

There is no period in human existence that is worthy of revisiting in its entirety. But there are some basic principles that we should collectively fight darn hard to re-establish:

1. Basic truth – this has become an impossibility. As a global community we need to reset and demand honesty and demonstrable fact, not just any fact.
2. Beliefs – what do we believe in? Personally I am not religious. I an a deist – I believe in God but not in a particular religion. Over the years I have stopped talking to or associating with many friends and family members who wish to exert their beliefs: I do not blame them for what they choose to believe and many of their take on life, which was developed when they grew up during the Enoch Powell days in Britain where leading politicians spoke of rivers of blood and warned that the Afro-Caribbean influx will lead to bloodshed and erosion of British values, values that indeed disavow their approach and disavow such attempts at spreading hatred, but they persisted. So, I can totally relate to what they must have suffered and why they simply cannot now get themselves to see things in a different light. We have given up trying to convince each other and simply agree to go our separate ways and some of them I have not spoken to in over 20 years. Each to their own. My personal take on life is to evaluate as I go along as opposed to holding unchangeable views. Some of those folks had religious views from direct interpretation of religious books written in a very different era e.g. arguments that heterosexuality is the only Godly relationship etc. Again, it is impossible to have a rational discussion with these folks and I have simply left them to my past (no hard feelings whatsoever. They lead their lives and I lead mine) and it is the way society should operate: if you believe your religion is the best and only true religion, then enjoy that privilege. No need to try to force others to accept that. I don’t see many billionaires forcefully handing money to the poor just so we can all share in that religion and be rich! So, why do it with religion?
3. Basic decency – this has never been universal. Over the years it has been gradually eroded. When someone kneels on the neck of another till dead or drives a vehicle into another human being, does it really matter what colour or race they are or which union they belong to or whether a civil or criminal case is brought? We need to find the strength to be decent: it simply cannot be right can it? We shouldn’t need protests on the street or amendments to law, society has the power to come together and condemn this inhumanity. This is not about righting wrongs but totally and solely about the direction in which today’s society must head. If someone could have come up with the Magna Carta in 1215, how on earth can we struggle with equality and decency in 2020?

We must level societies globally and NO, that is not a socialist agenda!

Basic decency is where it starts. It is an individual challenge. If we can each take a stand for decency, we will slowly reverse the current trend

As time finally runs out on the protracted charade that is Brexit and we have to pretend we are surprised by the no-deal ending, history tells us ALL WILL BE WELL!

We are a tiny, tiny island that went on to rule a quarter of the world and have a financial system that props up half the globe.

Belonging to a club (EU) that rounds on you when you ask to leave (a decision made by the majority through a democratic process, albeit one that was thoughtless as the outcome should have required at least a 10% margin for what really is such a massive decision) is clearly distasteful. I am one of millions of Brits who did not vote for Brexit but regardless of how ludicrous and shoddy the entire process was, we are in a democracy and the Brexiteers won the referendum and that is that. Yes, the premise on which the decision was made and the misleading information, doom-mongering etc. was awful, but we must get on with it and we will.

There is bound to be several months of chaos and confusion, but that will not be limited to Britain. The ingenuity of the British people will once again rise to the fore and the world will again witness our resilience. We no longer have the robust politicians and thinkers we used to have, BUT again, that is a global pattern and not limited to the UK.

All will be well. Rule Britannia….

I was watching the supposedly award-winning series depicting the nuclear incident in the former Soviet town of Chernobyl, with the roles played by British actors with no attempt whatsoever at authenticity. It also reminded me of various productions over the years where British actors play the role of detectives in series set in France (e.g. Maigret) or the Netherlands (e.g. Van der Valk), with many of these series so popular that they are now being remade.

The audience is treated to some authenticity in terms of the set and the usual dash of French or Dutch as the case may be. The programmes are still enjoyable as we see them for what they are and viewers are expected to show some intelligence in flowing along with that concept. But the minute there is a suggestion of a woman playing James Bond (or Idris Elba playing James Bond), there’s an outcry and oh no! it simply cannot be authentic! Surely that’s not in keeping with what Ian Fleming had in mind!

The Santa story states he is a big burly man and given he’s from Lapland he can only be….. Aaah, NO! Go and take a look at what the indigenous people from Lapland look like. Also, just how difficult is it to imagine a fairy flew over one day and decided to change Santa into a woman, a black or Chinese man etc.? But oh no!!!!! it has to be authentic? (funny isn’t it??). Even a made-up story comes with a requirement for a skewed authenticity…..

I remember those good old movies with Yul Bryner cast as a mongol, Punjab, Arab, you name it and whenever he’s not available, Anthony Quinn is there to the rescue!

We are heading to another Christmas and that European chap (Jesus) who hails from the Middle East but somehow defies had a makeup crew back then who ensured he got the European transformation will resurface, with no interest nor attempts at authenticity in this case, provided nobody claims he may have been dark or middle-eastern. We dare not impact all that merchandise that’s got to be sold, given the majority of those set to buy them are, and expect a figure they can relate to.

Education is key.

The pathetic and oftentimes lopsided fixation is truly laughable.

Right now in the UK, we can’t get enough of ‘period drama’ as they represent an era that many would wish to see return, even if it meant a return of the ruling class and peasants to serve them, as long as it maintained authenticity? And not surprisingly, the rest of the world also can’t get enough of our period dramas as it is a novelty to them (which is the reason tourism continue to boom in the UK, with people from around the world coming to see our unique castles etc.). So, can one ask a nation to forget or expunge it’s history in order to pave the way to what exactly? Unfortunately, with the booming period drama market, all our non-white actors and actresses have headed off to America for work as the only roles available to them in the period dramas, for the sake of authenticity is that of servants or handmen.

We now have the technology and infrastructure (make-up etc) to transform actors and actresses of any race to play any race but the lopsided court of public opinion will either cry out against cultural misappropriation or blackface (both deplorable if in jest of course. or done to belittle or misrepresent other stuff or to attend fact dress events) or lack of authenticity? Laughable if you have watched Chernobyl or any of those other shows. Eddie Murphy got it right in the 90s when he played multiple characters in his films: white, black, any….

Authenticity should be in the ability to pull it off! And when that fails, surely, the audience should be asked/expected to simply apply some imagination as we were expected to, in watching Chernobyl or enjoying those years and years of seeing the wonderful European Jesus plastered everywhere, from church walls, to stained glass and Christmas cards etc. It isn’t that difficult to convince so many of such a massively flawed concept, when convenient?

As the stage show, Hamilton has demonstrated, show business should be show business! If it’s good, it should be applauded. Authenticity is not defined by convenience and applied selectively. You can either be brazen about it or use the tech and makeup now available. Feel free to stick with period dramas, it is our heritage and we will not change that, but use any actor or actress in any role and if authenticity demands they appear one way or the other, use the blooming technology and get on with it!!!!!!!

In conclusion: if a white female actress is able to remember her lines and wants to play Barack Obama, why not? If a black female actress wants to play Winston Churchill, why not? AUTHENTICITY? well, refer any idiot who has an issue to go and watch Jesus Christ of Nazareth or Chernobyl or any of those other hits! or, use tech and makeup as need be. ANYONE CAN AND SHOULD BE ABLE TO PLAY ANYONE: IT’S CALLED ACTING for crying out loud!!!! Let’s get a grip world!!!!!

Jeremy Corbyn.

Probably the most honest, decent MP (Member of UK Parliament) that will ever be, and even more importantly, probably one of the most decent, caring human beings left on earth. But he failed woefully in his bid to become UK Prime Minister. Why?

We all know exactly why.

The office of Prime Minister in the UK, similar to other leaders in the democratic world has become so toxic that it needs someone who can survive in such a toxic environment to hold that office. We have allowed for such toxicity and lack of empathy, that the question: “will you press the red button to protect Britain” is asked so flippantly as if the red button refers to a button to release a cookie as opposed to what it is: the release of nuclear weapons that will destroy thousands of lives. While there is absolutely no argument that if the lives of Britons are threatened, we need to know that our elected leader will press the red button to protect us, to assume that the pass mark goes only to a Prime Ministerial candidate that immediately gives an unqualified YES, is the sad reality of where we are today as human beings and this is why someone like Jeremy Corbyn was never going to be electable in today’s world.

Jeremy’s response would be: yes, I will press the red button, but my focus would be on working hard to ensure we never get to the point where I would need to consider pressing the red button. But to the majority, that is not an acceptable response. We must have a Prime Minister that just blurts out: HELL YES! If to protect British lives, I will press the red button, the green, blue and any other coloured button! Even if the reality is that he/she will do exactly the same as Jeremy (as thankfully, we are not brutes!). But the majority no longer want thoughtfulness, just immediate responses that sound like what they want to hear, and whoever gives them that, will get their vote

Immigration is a big issue in the UK and right across Europe and it is clear that there is no short-term solution in which you would not have to be cruel to be kind. Anyone who thinks otherwise is just being naive. We can’t continue to watch the bodies of children being washed up on our shores and tougher measure will have to be taken to dissuade illegal attempts to enter the country and deterrents have to be in place. But the long term solution is a lot more complicated but the minute decent politicians such as Jeremy say that (and it is indeed the truth or the problem would have been addressed decades ago) it is not the response the masses want. They want empty words and rhetoric. Jeremy won’t offer that. So, what on earth was he thinking running for office? That’s a bloody good question!

Decency is gone and highly unlikely to ever return

And NO, it is not our politicians to blame, it is us THE PEOPLE, THE ELECTORATE, SOCIETY. We are the ones that need to change. Beginning with each individual. Can we be decent? Can we call out indecency? It starts with you & I.