The shameful culture of geriatric cash cows

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I don’t know about many of you out there, but if there is one thing that is really starting to annoy the bejasus out of me across all media, it is the open attack on the welfare and wallets of the over 65s. You must have all seen the ads plashed across prime time TV. “Get health insurance”, “think of your family”, “invest in life insurance today” and a never ending litany of visual begging letters cloaked in an air of genuine benevolence.

It all amounts to the same thing – we want your money. We don’t care really how you live or die, but please, pleeeeese leave us all your money. After all, you’re only going to leave it to your children…nooooo! WE want it! Make us a bequest in your will! Invest in a retirement village! Move into OUR rest home – we won’t tell you about the real cost of all the hidden extras that will ensure you’re left a pauper in no time. Corporations don’t care. The elderly have become the cash cow of the modern world.

Three years ago I lost my own father to Alzheimers. A horrible, slow and miserable way for anyone to die, especially the heavy emotional toll placed on my mother who watched her husband deteriorate into a gaping mouthed vegetable before her eyes. It was even worse for her when each month she received a huge bill from the rest home, to be paid in full by the date, no excuses accepted. A lifetime of hard earned savings being systematically drained into the ravening maw of a rest home. Even with all of the ongoing expenses they incur, these places are making an absolute fortune, which is why so many businesspeople are investing in them. Why not? Guaranteed high returns. No complaints at the end of the day as your plucked pigeons are guaranteed to die before much longer. And the wider population is ageing all the time.

By the time my father died, he literally had nothing left he could call his own. All of his original clothes and shoes had disappeared, (we know his brand new underwear we bought him when he moved in was stolen by light fingered staff) and we dared not even bring so much as a chocolate to him lest it be snatched away. And this is endemic across the entire care sector, although they will openly deny it. But far too many people with relatives in care know all too well the demeaning and rapacious theft that takes place. But hey, who cares? They are just old. Has-beens. Useless mouths to feed.

What a way to treat past generations that have survived world wars, depressions, economic hardships many of us can only imagine and who, like my father, spent over 10 hours a day, six days a week slaving at thankless jobs so the new generations could benefit. All we can see now is that they have hard-earned savings we want, and too bad about the living, breathing person. Just keep ’em alive until we’ve milked the last of their money from them. That is the modern world’s motto.

One point here. The world is ageing rapidly. Uncertainty now across the highly unstable job market and the growing concern over climate change means that many of us are delaying or not having families. Technology is devouring our earning power, gobbling jobs and closing as many avenues as it claims to open as what jobs there are becoming ever more highly demanding and fiercely competed. Many analysts talk now of a BMI (Base Universal Income) as they can foresee a day coming all too soon where most of us will not have any other guaranteed income. So once this current old generation has passed and all their assets have been swept into the purses of rest homes and government agencies, thus eliminating any inheritance to pass onto newer generations to help cushion the blows they are facing, this will leave younger people facing a very bleak future. Many people now cannot adequately save, and paying mortgages and rents is becoming a regular ordeal for many. Upon retirement, they will have no real assets for governments and rest homes to prey on, and so the current old age cash cow they have all depended on will be dried up and obsolete. What then? Will all those TV ads begging for bequests and so forth still be on air?

Remember the bible adage; Treat others as you yourself would wish to be treated. With this in mind, I can foresee that as a society we are facing a very poor future – unless we change our short term rapacious thinking.

The sooner the better!

The Caboose that Got Loose; Political Correctness derails common sense

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Okay, which joyless imbecile or group has banned Dr Seuss???

In this sick, oh so sensitive world we live in, this cancerous cult is shutting far more mouths than any Covid mask ever can. I was always taught that even if you don’t like something you see, read or hear, you certainly had the right to speak your mind about it – but you DID NOT have the God given right from forcibly preventing anyone else from expressing and exercising their own rights on those matters. And anyway, who or what expressly states or endorses that YOU are the great supreme authority on what is right and wrong anyway?

There is a very sad and sorry clique out there that is determined to make what is wrong right and what is right wrong. Incredible isn’t it? They shut down the writings of a man who for decades strove to help children of all backgrounds, whose writings have delighted and inspired millions. Like so many others, I found my first true awareness of environmental issues through that timeless classic ‘The Lorax’ and the rapacious Oncelers, I learned about the futility of war via ‘The Butter Battle Book’ and laughed at the Cat in the Hat and Things One and Two. And now, because of a few simple illustrations that were innocent and certainly not to be taken too seriously, this great educator and writer is now to be all but persona non grata.

And yet the amount of profanity, blasphemy, immorality and down right porn on our TVs via increasingly sick reality shows continues to spiral upwards virtually unchecked. As many despots have known down throughout the ages, in order to conquer a society you attack them at the grass roots. First you entice them with with a bag of candy (promises, sweet sounding ideology etc) and then you totally corrupt them until they are so compliant, so dissolute and so unquestioning you can do whatever you like to them. So to all those who embrace PC, please stop and consider who and what is driving all this, and what they stand to gain by turning you into mindless robots.

This is happening right now, right in your workplace, living room and on your devices.

Let us consider the origins of political correctness, as they are far from innocent. According to academics, you can blame the early communist ideologies of the nineteenth century, who decided that in order to achieve their New World Order all traces of the old world had to be done away with via ‘critical theory’. This was embraced avidly by the murderous despots of the twentieth century such as Stalin, Mao Tse Tung and Pol Pot, who under the guise of ‘social cleansing’ all but completely exterminated anyone with any smidgeon of decent education and slaughtered countless millions for ‘incorrect’ and ‘improper thinking’.

Okay, so Dr Seuss portayed some racial stereotypes. These are pretty fleeting in the wider context of his books, and the far left does not care to mention that there are many other stereotypes, such as Russians and Eskimos etc, but they choose to focus almost exclusively on Asian and Blacks. Ohhhh, shock, horror! How TERRIBLE! Er, excuse me. Stereotypes do have their origins in some degree of historical fact, that is how you get a stereotype after all. We often see cartoons of big, mean Vikings with horned helmets (in reality this was not the case) and English businessmen in snobby tweed suits and derby hats (to name just a couple of examples) but the PC brigade does not mention this as to them anything and everything white is BAD and deserves everything rotten they can say or hurl at them. Most children when seeing these cartoons will laugh and brush them aside as just cartoons and silly images (my generation mostly did), but then some dark minded insecure adults start telling them what and how to think about such things, upsetting them terribly and making a mountain out of a molehill. I was equally appalled when I heard that the once acclaimed Little House on the Prairie books were being banned as some groups viewed them as being “expressions of stereotypical attitudes inconsistent with core values.” Laura Ingalls Wilder could only write about what she saw and experienced in her own time, over one hundred and fifty years ago. We can hardly condemn her for the state of the world back then, which was already changing very rapidly. Besides, in order to go forwards, we have to often look backwards to learn from past mistakes in order not to repeat them in the future.

We cannot rewrite or ignore history. Over the twentieth century many have tried, with often hideous and disastrous results. To do so leads to massive ignorance, oppression, lack of understanding and perspective and unprecedented inhumanity. When books are banned and burned, when people are told what to think, when mouths are silenced and any critics are forced into exile, imprisoned or murdered (look at the Nazis with their brave new Reich and China’s ‘little red book’ which was touted as divine gospel, ignoring centuries of invaluable Chinese culture and wisdom) you head for complete disaster. Or in more recent times Pol Pot’s insane Year Zero project in Cambodia, eliminating all hints of education and thought and reducing everyone into grovelling, abject obedience and blind ignorance.

I reiterate to the lefties out there; who ultimately stands to gain from this state of affairs? What kind of society do you really want? People come in all skin tones and with all manner of opinions, right and wrong. Just because one is black or brown does not make them any more right or justified to use heavy handed censorship to achieve their aims than someone who is Asian or white, and vice versa. Please think this over very hard.

Instead of banning books, look on them as a creative exercise. Draw comparisons between books of all genres and perspectives, and let children make up their own minds and reach sensible conclusions without interference. Let them see the world for the diverse, wondrous, colourful and often error-ridden place that it is without the sanitised approach. Please, give them the right to exercise their God given intellect, and to develop common sense and an appreciation of common decency. Regardless of what you may think, most children do have it.

Unlike it seems, many adults!

Conspiracies everywhere…without any common sense in sight

We live in a brave new world of trivia. Or, to be less polite about it, bulls**t. And the really scary part about it, most of us are taking the latest wacky theories and speculations that abound on social media very seriously.

I’ve never been a great fan (partially) of excessive use of social media. I have always tried to regard any doings on the web as good business practice mostly, and kept interactions with others to what is mostly necessary rather than as a major lifestyle like some people. Too much interaction on the web acts like a a powerful force that can foster hypersensitivity, neurotic behaviour and many other symptoms that one sees from users of hard line drugs. We have people out there obsessed with aliens, others obsessed with the next plague, individuals screeching about various fears and phobias, and perhaps the most common of all, the great public panic over Global Warming.

Okay, let’s get some perspective folks. We have trashed the environment for decades and Mama Earth is fighting back. She’s losing her cool and, while humanity is certainly not helping, we live in an incredibly diverse and complex universal system that has been at play for millennia, long before Man stuck his nervously twitching nose out of his first cave. There have been multiple mass extinctions and global warming events long before this one – take the Permian extinction around 250 million years ago. This wiped out 90% of life on earth as the planet warmed up to become mostly desert, but Life, as it always does, finds a way. In more recent times, roughly between 1250 to 1840 was an event known as the Little Ice Age, a period where earth shivered with mostly low temperatures – and this was an era when the population was at most around two billion with hardly a carbon emitting device in sight. Scientists now believe this originated with the eruption of a massive volcano in Lombok, Indonesia, called Sumulu – and when this lady blew her top it was with a force that made Tambora in 1812 and Krakatoa in 1883 look decidedly feeble – imagine the debris polluting the world from this, not to mention the devastation from the resulting tsunami that repeatedly circled the globe! In this modern era, I certainly do not endorse pollution in any form, but we do need to get a better grip on the true facts. With us or without us, the earth will keep changing and have her hot flashes like any woman will. At heart, we are slow to admit we are far more scared for ourselves than we are for the planet – we certainly need to clean up our act, but causing mass paranoia will not help progress but will hinder it.

Another panic button out there concerns vaccines. With Covid 19 crawling into every nook and cranny, suspicion abounds about the validity and ulterior motives of the medicines scientists are now frantic to create. Sadly, many have not had sufficient time to test things to their satisfaction, but ultimately, in the race to save lives, it would be totally naive to believe mistakes would not be made. And to be quite honest, looking at the exhausted state of many in the medical profession right now, any plans they may have had to copy the likes of Dr Mengele are certainly null and void for some time.

Then there are those who say we are just a mass experiment created by aliens intent on conquering the planet. There are those who claim that Trump is the new Antichrist and others who are convinced that the US election was rigged from start to finish, all part of a larger, diabolical plan etc etc. We allow private opinion to overrule reason and rationality and believe what we want to believe. Think of all the horror and sci fi movies that humans love to get cheap thrills from, but we are now playing out those thrills on a global stage – and through our paranoia we are feeding the chaos abounding across the world.

And who, if anyone, is all this helping?

I am no religious expert. But I do have a powerful sense that there is another, cool, calm and calculating silent force in this world who is just lapping up all the fear and phobia driven panic that is leaving us like lambs to the slaughter. And I believe that we all know, regardless of what faith we each belong to, who that force is.

Please, folks. Don’t give him that satisfaction. Look for the truth before grasping at those feeble straws of speculation. Respect one another. Be sensible. Be kind and considerate. And just because something is popular or fashionable, don’t just follow the herd but do what is right. Don’t let yourself get talked into something you know instinctively is wrong.

Over three thousand years ago an eternal list of Do’s and Don’ts was published, carved to last for the ages in stone. This was not just for the ragged tribe of Hebrews roaming the wilds of Sinai but for us all. They are simple rules, designed to help us lead successful lives no matter how rich or poor we are or what faith or skin tone we have. For some mad reason, too many of us debunk them constantly, seeking alternative rules to please ourselves – and those rules of doing and believing whatever we want to are simply not working.

Time to revise these time honoured truths rather than the modern day theories, don’t you think?

Technology: the hidden tyrant in our lives

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I used to think that I coped reasonably well with technology. Given that I am a Gen X, bridging the culture gap between the older generations and the new, I adapted more or less to the rapidly changing world of cellphones, PCs and e-readers without too much hassle – or so I thought.

Just the other day I tried to connect to a Zoom meeting. Simple, many of you might say. Child’s play. First of all, the date settings were all wrong, and try as I might I could not pinpoint the error there. Then my audio began playing up, and so on and so on, until I discovered they had sent me the wrong link altogether which was for a whole different meeting. Needless to say, this leaves one feeling somewhat foolish, and I was so able to identify with my poor bewildered parents many years ago when they had me explain to them how their new VCR worked. I felt so smug back then, so adult, so so – in control! After all, I was a child of the early 80s. A Go-getter, capitalism driven, and to my generation the square shoulder pads, scientific calculators, Walkman stereos and brick cell phones were the ultimate of sophistication. On the game front, Pac Man ruled the day along with Space Invaders. The IBM computer bay at school (complete with huge desk sized modules and rattling dot printers) was a hallowed sanctuary for the Chosen Few.

But ohhh how times have changed, and technology with it, at an ever increasing breathtaking speed. And not necessarily for the better.

Advances are meant to simplify our lives. As the 20th century dawned, people eagerly embraced back breaking labour saving devices such as washing machines, tractors, petrol lawn mowers and vacuum cleaners. We thrilled to the advent of picture theatres, listened with baited breath to the radio, and planes and motor cars rapidly became accessible to almost everyone. We were better informed, travelled further than ever before, and thanks to our labour saving devices even had the time to pursue other interests outside of just trying to eke out a living.

Since when did we start to spend all our time just trying to eke out an understanding of the all consuming web of chaos we have created?

Nowadays we live in a whirlwind of dub dub dub dot com this and that, URL this and that, friend and unfriend. Since when did Tweet mean contacting someone rather than a bird call, and Cookie some connection enhancement device rather than a crunchy treat? An acquaintance of mine remarked just the other day that by the time he has signed into umpteen programs at work alone, he has wasted at least fifteen minutes of worktime. Then he faces at least another half hour combing through the avalanche of emails received overnight, and systematically deleting and unsubscribing from the horde of howling messages wanting his attention – and most of these are trivial at best. He is supposed to start work at 8.30 but usually does not manage to tackle anything serious until morning tea time.

If you too feel that trivia is ruling the day, look to the abbreviated and often crude nature of texting. It may be handy as a quick means of contact, but many people under a certain age are now rapidly losing their general literacy and ability to understand more complex written information. Many universities are reporting that the academic calibre of new students has dropped considerably as a result. Too many people can no longer think for themselves – it is far easier to turn to Google or Wiki for the answers, and whatever their mates say about issues on Facebook is taken as gospel rather than the emotional and public opinion driving trivia that it mostly is.

We cannot move without our smart phones now. It is our identity, our soul, our everything. Go into any shopping mall or public place and you see people walking or sitting around, glued to their screens, oblivious to the world around them , totally consumed by the bright twinkly lights and social media platforms offering up trivial nothings. Some social workers even report young people suffering withdraw when devices are taken away as they have lost the ability to look and observe the real world and see what it has to offer around them. A world of mindless social drivel, of fluttery promises and self promoting videos and selfie pics is what now intrigues them most.

Since when did our society become so shallow, so self absorbed? At what point did the tables turn and our tools become our master? But unlike humanity, technology has no soul.

I have been reminded in recent times of the Terminator film series, when Skynet, the world wide system of military defence, became self aware and decided humans were superfluous to its needs. Prophetic isn’t it? As the technological tyrant in our midst grows ever more rapacious for our time and our resources, it consumes greedily, constantly and remorselessly. A recent TV panel of experts predicted that within the next 20 year over 40% of all jobs, regardless of how well educated or skilled you are, will disappear. I know from my own experience that for each job advertised now, at least 200 people will apply. Hours of employment are now often up for negotiation, you see more short term or casual work advertised, and you wonder how anyone will make a half decent living once we have kowtowed to the computer gods and given them all our livelihoods as well as our souls. And if our earning capacity is so drastically reduced, how will the global economy survive if no-one can afford to buy or sell? I don’t think the latest cute cat pic will put food on the table, fix the car or find a doctor. Nor will your new selfie solve the growing social unrest, the riots or the growing poverty in so many nations, including the so-called developed world.

Forget Covid-19, folks! The true pandemic is all around us. And its casualty rate is now in the billions.

Covid 19 – A contagion or a correction?

Coronavirus has certainly caused a major shudder around the globe. We see the very real advent of a potential global depression, mass unemployment, civil unrest and overall economic and social meltdown. Not good by anyone’s standards – and yet, I cannot help but have the sense that all this has happened for some very good reason. This is cold comfort to all those who had so far died and their families and communities, but prior to the crisis many people were cautiously voicing their underlying sense that there was something truly sick and wrong with the world on the path it was heading. I for one had that sense very strongly, but like so many others was unable to put my finger on the momentous event I sensed would bring it all to a head.

Covid 19 could well be IT.

Within the space of a couple of months lockdown has halted the rampant spread of a globalist obsessed culture. It has made us all sit up and take notice that all nations are different, that we do all have different needs and aspirations and that the one size policy so dearly beloved by the United Nations and their neoliberal lunatic friends does not fit all. There are also other lessons that I do believe can be had from the global meltdown:

1. Halting the dependence on Chinese trade China has played a decidedly insidious role in the world for some years, and Covid has certainly made this clear. It is worthy to note that even when they were fully aware of the virus’s voracity, they were lightning quick in shutting up any potential whistleblowers who wanted to warn the outside world, and allowed their own citizens to travel freely abroad regardless of the contagion risk to anyone else. The communist regime’s desire to be World Number One at any cost has been exposed. For too long the western world in particular has been hypnotised by their ploys in worming their way into every developed nation in the world, undercutting local business by flooding the local labour markets with cheap (and often slave labour produced) goods, thus creating major dependence and cutting local jobs for local people.

2. Some degree of national Protectionism Globalisation weakens us all. If one major nation should catch cold, that means everyone suffers. Much unemployment can be alleviated if countries start utilising the abilities of their own citizens and resources instead of depending so much on cheap migrant labour and cheap (and often tacky) goods. Some degree of self reliance has to be rediscovered.

3. Stop the neoliberal agenda This has not and never will work. Covid has shown just how flawed this system is, and always will be when it favours the wealthy few at the expense of the many. Human history and human nature always dictate that the money hardly ever flows down to the common people when big business has too much of a say.

4. Easing the pressure on the environment Within a few short weeks the pollution levels around the world plummeted due to lockdown measures. It just goes to show we can do it if we really want to. Let’s hope this will teach us a few lessons going forward.

5. The world will go on regardless of we pesky humans Humanity has a colossal ego. We seem to think that everything will wither and die depending on our input, but in the face of Mother Nature’s moods we are so often proven to be quite powerless. I say to Greta Tonberg and friends, global warming is nothing new! The world has a habit of healing itself from major global catastrophes going back over 4 billion years. The real question is, can we humans survive ourselves?

6. A greater appreciation of what really matters in life Many of us have rediscovered the love and warmth of good friends, our pets and family during this lockdown period. Fame, fortune, fashion and worldly vanity have been highlighted for the featherweight fancies that they are.

7. The discovery of true superheroes No, these are not the guys and gals in sexy spandex costumes or the movie, sports and rock stars so beloved by the lefty lunatics in the shallow popular media. These are the quiet, unglamorous, and often poorly paid and unrecognised souls who trudge away day after day in thankless frontline jobs – healthcare, supermarkets, social workers and so forth. The recent portrait by Banksy showing a child holding up a nurse doll says it all.

I do believe that perhaps God, although He no doubt did not cause this, nonetheless has allowed this crisis to happen. Perhaps this is His way of reminding us all that a greater measure of national self reliance, brotherly love, humility and a greater appreciation of the world around us is needed in order to go forward. Humanity places too much faith in science and technology to solve our ills. These are soulless, uncaring, unsparing monsters that devour jobs, economies and lives.

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. (Daniel 12:4 King James bible)

So much for knowledge…but at what cost to simple wisdom?

Looking for some light relief during these times? Check out the link below

Party Poopers – literally

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The Covid-19 crisis has certainly made many of us sit up and re-evaluate our true priorities in recent times. If nothing else, the lightning fire spread of this insidious and determined disease has made us realise just how shallow and fragile our monetary values really are. Overnight the global economy (especially the much vaulted EU) has collapsed like a house of cards and we are all scrambling to secure the true riches of food, family and comfortable shelter during self isolation.

I would love to know what exactly is the driving force behind the global toilet paper obsession. Maybe it stems from an underlying psychological fear that people don’t want to be left in even deeper crap than what they are in already. I am especially amused by the individual on recent news bulletins who stole hundreds of toilet paper rolls, probably with two objects in mind; one, he was not going to be caught with his pants down with nothing to fall back on, and two, he would make a black market killing. I can see it now – advertised on e-bay or Amazon, packs of eight premium extra long three ply rolls, ten bucks a roll! Either way you choose to look at it, this is one chap determined to make a clean wipe of things. Perhaps this is the new drug of choice in our rapidly changing world, destined to eclipse the like of P and cocaine. I want to know how Afghan poppy farmers and South American drug barons will cope with this earth shaking business transition i.e. how they are going to get on harvesting/producing the stuff and smuggling it across international borders unseen. I suppose there is no way they can conceal rolls stuffed up one’s backside – you may argue this is where loo paper belongs, but the average anus can only accommodate so much, after all. Apart from that, the average walk of the would be smugglers would be a dead give away to even the most casual official observer.

Another point to consider – we’d have to retrain all the sniffer dogs. Poor creatures, their noses are attuned to somewhat more refined chemicals after all, and now they have to go back to everyday ordure. Does this mean in the future at Customs we will all have furry muzzles shoved into our unmentionables or produce samples upon request by Customs officers? Can you imagine customs officers dissecting these (mostly used) loo paper samples in the lab to see which are legal and which are not? Can you imagine the declaration question on the arrival cards e.g. “Any non government approved hygiene products?” And does the black market in hygiene products extend to items in the feminine and incontinence realms as well? Companies such as Stayfree and Tena, be alert!

So how on earth did our ancestors cope? Over thousands of years, before finely scented, soft ply (often decorated) rolls hanging in pristine perfection in sterilised toilet cubicles around the world. humanity has had to make do with items such as banana leaves, bits of old cloth and sacking, and sheets of old newspaper hung by a nail onto the outhouse wall. And there were no infusions of aloe vera, eucalyptus or jojoba in sight. With all this in mind, I am certainly eyeing the flax cuttings from the garden in a new light. Hmmm. Biodegradable, non polluting and certainly green…every eco warrior’s dream!

Looking to ease the doom and gloom of the COVID 19 pandemic? Look no further than this fantastic feline themed romantic comedy that will have your fur tingling!

Its all about ME! Or is it?

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Thanks to modern technology advances over the past thirty years in particular, we live now in perhaps the most self absorbed society of all time. Wherever one looks, be it on your smart phone, tablet, PC and countless other devices and applications, the message is very clear – get out there, promote yourself, show the world how awesome you are, make all others envious! GO GET ‘EM !

The only thing is, just how true is all the hype?

We are constantly messaged via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many other social media platforms about how the other half lives. We are treated to numerous selfies showing people striking false poses at parties, sticking out tongues, waving ‘Hi Mom!’ at the camera, waving wine or beer glasses aimlessly in the air to convey the idea that they are having a good time (even if they aren’t), drooling inanely at friends and cuddling cute animals as if to say ‘I am such a cool dude! Look at ME!’ However, many social experts agree that the visual hype we are all treated to nowadays often conceals the fact that despite all the window dressing, most of us still share the same routine lives – we all eat, sleep, go to work or study, have household chores to do, have bills to pay and have families to care for. The hype does not show us things like taking out the garbage cans, fixing punctured tyres, changing lightbulbs or cursing over the latest burned offering on the stove. Every day, regular, normal activity in other words. Nothing major, nothing mind blowing.

So why are we all so desperate to be noticed?

In the modern world, self promotion is unfortunately an essential component to career progression. Technological advances over the last few decades means that jobs are far more competitive and far harder to come by, especially in the higher pay grades. If you are born after around 1980, you will be far more comfortable in this ‘me me me’ environment, but those of us born prior to this (Gen X and older) come from an era where ‘me me me’ was seen as the height of conceit – in fact, many of your schoolfriends would turn away from you, as the word would get around that you were somewhat ‘stuck up’. The same can be said for the modern job interview. You are now fully expected to walk into the interview room brimming confidence, bonhomie and total assurance, even if the reality again is very different. You are expected to peddle the skills of a first rate secondhand car salesman in order to make the hard sell to the interview panel that you are simply the BEST (shades of Tina Turner here!) I come from an era where a little modesty went a long way. While confidence was certainly a good asset to have, the prospective boss also wanted to see if you were willing to learn and blend in, that you were genuine and truthful about both your shortcomings and successes. This was not seen as a fail but as a positive, as one must always learn from ones’ mistakes in order to move forward. In short, they wanted a well adjusted, genuine person, not some self styled Superman or Wonder Woman, who sweeps into a room with a superhero sized ego that in my day would get anyone’s back up. In short, the modern workplace has become very shallow, very fickle and very impermanent, and we are all scrambling like demented ants to somehow grab the best remaining grains in the ant colony. However, there can only ever be one Queen at any time.

True happiness comes not from social or business status, but from loving and being loved. It comes from the genuine people in our lives who see us for what we truly are and who accept us warts and all, not how we try so hard to portray ourselves to others in order to satisfy a fickle society’s demands. It can never be found in the latest party pictures you’ve snapped, the latest cruise you’ve gone one, the latest car you’ve bought or the latest wacky video you’ve posted online. It comes from finding your genuine worth and accepting all that you are and all that you can and cannot change. Let us forget all the posturing, the posing, the window dresssing of our lives that conveys more desperation rather than true determination.

If only our bosses could see and appreciate this more…

Interested in more of A J Dormaar’s writing? Check out https://www.amazon.com/author/ajdormaar for her published works!

Global economic reality – a follow up

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Recently I published a blog about the frustrations of the modern labour force, especially for those of us over 45. I feel compelled to share a first rate article that many of you out there may wish to share and read in addition to what I have already written.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2018/06/12/they-are-not-telling-us-the-truth-about-the-job-market-here-is-what-they-dont-want-you-to-know/

Juggling for a Job – the modern Lotto

 

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Writing is a volatile field financially. We authors all dream of hitting ‘the big time’ but as with so many things in life, this is often not too realistic and thus the vast majority of us have to work in the conventional world to earn the bulk of our living. Nor are we alone. It is estimated that in this world of over rapid technological expansion and globalisation and corporate downsizing that almost half of the workforce are currently engaged to some degree in surfing job websites, even if they are currently in employment. Far too many of us can feel the shifting sands beneath out feet, especially if you receive a whiff of potential company ‘downsizing’, ‘disestablishment’ or ‘outsourcing’ in the not too distant future – a fancy, polite way of saying that your job could be the next to get the axe or that someone in some Third World state can do it far cheaper with very few, if any, union or human rights advocates in sight to complicate things for the bosses. Okay, so just pop down the road and get another job, right?

Easier said than done.

For one thing, there are so many others out there looking. While recently checking my own job search results on the website SEEK, I noticed that the statistics stated that one job I had just applied for had received over 118 applications to date, and the official application expiry date was at least another week away. I noted another position that already had over 384 applications listed and was still counting. There is every chance therefore that your own application – and yes, you will have slaved over making sure all the i’s and t’s are dotted and crossed on your cover letter, that your CV is up to date and in the best possible format – is not even going to be seen by human eyes. Nowadays there are several online applications that select CVs etc via keyword searches without an employer having to so much as check their e-mail box, thereby eliminating over half of all applications, including some potentially very desirable candidates in the process. If by some miracle you make it through the technological terrors, you are often asked now for a selfie video (let’s face it, most of us are not supermodel material), possibly a voice recording, and you have to fill out a long list of some very invasive questions that leave me for one bridling. And then there are the job advertisements themselves that can leave you with a dreadful inferiority complex – “passionate”, “driven’, “able to hit the ground running”, “multi tasker”, “superstar” and “team player” are among the more mild descriptions of the Superman or Wonder Woman sought for the “desirable” position in question. They don’t want much (so they say: you just have to know every aspect of Office inside out, be a technological whiz even if you have to empty dustbins, remain cheerful while being abused on all sides and be able to jump buildings with a single bound at the drop of a hat. And if, by some miracle, you make it to the final round of the selection process, you find yourself sitting in a chair before a panel who assess you in much the same way a farmer does a prized bull, searching for any defects and putting you through your paces on the auction block. And you have to sit there, cap in hand or tugging at your forelock; “Oooh arrrr sorr, sooo good to meet you sorr/ma’am, I’ll lick your arse any time you wish sorr/ma’am, like a good dog…” Well, maybe I exaggerate, but you are left with that distinct feeling.

The other disturbing aspect of job hunting nowadays is the casualisation of labour. Let’s face it, your bills are hauntingly regular, rather like death and taxes, but there are far more jobs out there now advertising casual/on call positions that provide no guarantee whatsoever from week to week of reliable earnings, and an ever rising torrent of part time positions that all too often barely offer enough paid hours for you to meet your rent or mortgage obligations, let alone think of paying for anything else. And yet we are constantly bombarded with government pressures to ‘save for your old age’, ‘invest in the future’ and so forth, when for so many people – especially if you are over 45 and not considered desirable material anymore by the gurus of the modern workplace – living week to week has become such a juggling act.

In the 1990s the demolition of the unions paved the way for consequences the younger generations are now starting to realise. They trumpeted the emergence of flexible terms and conditions and one to one bargaining without realising that unless you are an A grade rocket scientist or the like that is in super high demand, not to mention having an encyclopaedic knowledge of your legal rights and employment law, you have no real bargaining power at all. With the stroke of a pen some starry eyed fools have signed away decades of hard strife and toil on the part of union workers who fought tooth and nail, and even died to secure basic rights for everyone, not just the privileged few. Through this sorry betrayal of our forefathers, the essential right to earn a stable, respectable living has been replaced by a mad lolly scramble where there are definite losers and not too many winners – rather like Lotto in far too many respects.

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The Fruitless Search for Succulence

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I love nice fruit. Bear in mind, I said NICE fruit. I still harbour fond memories of childhood holidays, roaming in warmer climes of the country, the sun warm and bright on my face, pushing my way through dense orchard rows and batting ripe berries, apricots and plums into my pail – or rather, it was one for me, one for the bucket, one for me, one for the bucket…I still remember the wonderful audible crack as I bit into a tree ripened apple, the almost sugary sweet juice dripping down my chin and the sensory explosion as I peeled a succulent orange and got a full ripe whiff of that citric tang.

Well, as they say, good things never last. Cruise the supermarkets and market stalls now and you find those squelchy, spongy travesties that simply pass at fruit, wrapped in a skin that proclaims it to be a sorry clone of the real thing. One can pick up an apple or pear and feel the clammy coldness pervading it, betraying its sorry sojourn in some chiller compartment. Any berries have to eaten ASAP, or they dissolve almost before your eyes into a blood coloured morass of gungy mould. And to add insult to injury, one sees those posters everywhere proclaiming the sacred 5 plus a day for general health (fruit and veg combined). They would have far better results from these if the produce was indeed fit for human consumption – and all too often these days, it aint.

Some people blame export volumes for the lack of truly fresh fruit. Myself, I blame a system that is so greedy and impatient for the hard cash that it picks the fruit far too green and then hothouses it in some warehouse or chiller for a period before fobbing it off on the public at export level prices. A nectarine, peach or plum used to fill the cupped hand, dewy, heavy and ripe with tasteful promise. Nowadays you can fill your marble bag with the wretched things and no-one would be any the wiser. Some time ago I saw an advert at some stall for ‘crunchy pears”‘ Since when have pears been supposed to be crunchy, may I ask? And while we are on the subject of produce, why on earth are some potato varieties promoted as ‘gourmet’? To the best of my knowledge, all potatoes grow from exactly the same kind of dirt and there is no class distinction whatsoever. I very much doubt if the original potato grubbing peasants of Peru where spuds come from would have made any distinction. If the powers that be have any genuine concern for public health, and if they really want people to switch over from their convenience/fast food fixes, for heavens sake make genuine food more affordable and fit to savour again. The general public -and the health system – will thank you.

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