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.

Racism: It’s not just a case of black and white

The world has been privy in recent times to mass marches around the globe, sparked by the truly appalling live film coverage of George Floyd’s ignominious death at the hands of over-zealous police officers in the US. Mr Floyd’s last words “I can’t breathe” have become a symbol for the overall stifling oppression many people have felt over the years, and continue to feel. However, in this global march towards fairness and equality, far too many on the left side of the political spectrum are seemingly ignorant of history.

Racism works both ways- and all too often your skin colour is secondary to what faith or nationality you may belong to.

We humans are tribal creatures. Ever since God decided to bust up our ambitious plans at Babel, we have been diversified and scattered into various tribes and nations across the planet, each one somehow convincing themselves they were superior or more entitled to resources than other tribes or nations around them. There are many people of various nationalities who will all too readily share with you tales of abuse and contempt they have encountered if travelling overseas. I know of at least one white person who was openly spat upon while on an innocent tour of China not that long ago, and if you have been following media accounts, many black Africans currently working in Asia have been openly shunned, vilified and downright barred from malls and public facilities.

The gravest danger of the BLM movement is that they seem to be claiming the monopoly for all human injustice and suffering. While no-one can deny their cause is just, there is a convenient lapse among their leadership and the media when it comes to their knowledge of history – and the century just gone has provided us with all too many cases where skin colour was secondary to one’s tribe, beliefs and nationhood.

1900s – Muslim Ottoman Turkey launches a ruthless and unprovoked assault against the Christian Armenians, stripping them of their livelihoods, goods, homes and massacring tens of thousands. Over a million are estimated to have died, including a score of women and children on a forced death march. This is acknowledged by many as the last century’s first real case of attempted genocide.

1920s-1930s – The reign of Terror under Fascism. While the unhappy stateless Jews bore the brunt of this assault of vicious and baseless fabrications based on ignorance and blind prejudice steeped in historical hatred and jealousy, we cannot forget the countless Gypsies, Slavs, Christian clergy and homosexuals who also perished in that ghastly climax of hatred, the Holocaust. Six million Jews perished, but an estimated eight million non Jews (including Russian POWS and political prisoners) also died. For the main part, skin colour had nothing to do with it. Your racial affiliation was enough, and plenty of blond, blue eyed Jews and Slavs paid the ultimate price for that.

1940s – the Division of India. As the great subcontinent was split into India and Pakistan, so began one of the biggest mass exoduses in history as Muslims and Hindus, unable to reconcile their differences, claimed separate countries. Over a million people are estimated to have been killed in the violence that accompanied the huge shift of population, and even today these two powers harbour a deep distrust and dislike for each other.

1950s to present day – Communist China invades Tibet, forces them into the role of second class citizens in their own country (many Tibetans also being forced into exile) and also begins its oppression of other ethnic minorities. Again, if you know anything about the indignities heaped upon the Christians in China and the Moslem Uighur population of late, you may also know that in Asia this is not exactly new. Japan has traditionally held its southern neighbours on Okinawa in contempt, and we are currently witness to the baseless persecution and discrimination of the Rohingya people in Myanmar (Burma).

Historical times to present day – The Kurds. No matter that the Kurds gave the Islamic world one of its greatest leaders and thinkers in the great Sultan Saladin. For centuries this strong minded, dispossessed people have fought for the right to a homeland, only to be shoved back on all fronts. Serious injury followed insult in the early 1990s when the late unlamented Saddam Hussein tested a highly toxic poison gas on a large Kurdish region, killing hundreds if not thousands of Kurdish civilians. It just goes to show what he and his regime thought of the Kurds as human beings.

1990s – Rwandan genocide. This highlighted all too clearly that black will very readily turn on black without any assistance and without skin colour having any bearing. Fired up by old tribal hatreds and whipped up by biased media that referred to the Tutsi population as ‘cockroaches’, the Hutu majority on the country turned on their neighbours. Over a million men, women and children were massacred in the ensuing bloodbath.

In this politically correct world, it is all too easy for many on the left to conveniently brush over the past as an unpleasantness to be forgotten. However, it is when we forget the past that the same mistakes are repeated in all their horrible forms. We may not like history – after all, it is filled with many grave errors, is riddled with injustice and stomach churning barbarity – but to ignore such facts as not being ‘nice’ or ‘correct’or not being politically convenient is to do so at society’s peril. And ultimately at the end of the day, skin tone is only one portion of the root cause of the trouble.

We are all God’s children. And contrary to what some radicals may say, all lives matter!

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!

Tit for Tat – just what IS it with the Tattoo trend?

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In recent years I have become away of the global trend for people to tattoo themselves. This is nothing new. From the dawn of human society, we have felt the need to imprint our thoughts and deeds visibly on ourselves, and among many primitive societies it was a way to distinguish oneself among the tribe. For most people over the centuries, tattoos have been used to commemorate a special landmark in one’s life, such as a particular feat in a battle, taking on a certain leadership role, the birth of a long awaited child, or some other such noteworthy event in one’s life. While some societies did see tattoos as a means of personal beautification, for the main part tattoos, no matter how small, held some deep personal or religious significance and were not inscribed into one’s flesh lightly. In short, tattoos were something that you earned or merited, not just acquired on a whim.

Not that that seems to stop anyone today. You see some individuals trot around looking like an advertising poster for a graphic art expo, a load of seemingly meaningless gunk scrawled all over their visible extremities (what lies beneath their clothing is the stuff of wild conjecture!) I suppose one good thing about all the indigo paint etc is that if you have a skin problem such as acne no-one would be able to tell. But somehow there is something dark and problematic with all these so-called individuals trying to look different, and yet with the growing numbers of tattoo groupies on the streets, they all look as though they belong to some primeval tribe or gang screaming out for recognition or deliverance. Men especially like to have totems such as screaming eagles, dragons and rampant snakes entwined around their arms and faces, hinting at a macho toughness they most likely never possess in reality, while many women just seem to go for whatever they think is ‘cool’ at the time -without thinking that trends change very often and they don’t think any further than how they will next appear on the beach in their swimwear. Even sadder than these would-bes-if-they-could-bes are those who have items such as punctured love hearts plastered everywhere as if they are the only ones who have ever suffered the loss of a loved one or a broken relationship. It is even sadder when the name of the loved one is scrawled willy nilly everywhere on the epidermis, and this is as stupid as it is futile. Point one – Mary Sue (or whoever it is) is not very likely to come back into your life and point two, you are stuck with that name for the rest of your mortal life, and any new girlfriend/boyfriend isn’t about to be too impressed with this proof of past infatuation shoved before their eyes day in and day out. And point three – your piece of body art may look fab when you are twenty, but as time passes and skin sags, your flawless facade will become marred by wrinkles, age spots, moles, freckles, hairs and heaven knows what else until it becomes a hideous travesty, and you wind up covering it all with your clothes after all. Imagine yourself in the rest home sixty or so years later, a drooling, doddering senior citizen who lives permanently within ten or so paces of the WC. All those screaming dragons, swooping eagles, death head emblems, bleeding hearts and swirling snakes that once looked cool in your twenties now look sad and distinctly pathetic now you are over eighty. And all those glamour girls who once flaunted their body booty on the beaches? Well, drooping tits and shrivelled buttocks covered in a sea of flowers, love hearts, skulls, arrows etc sure don’t look impressive anymore, especially when you’re so reliant on incontinence panties and thermal underwear.

So why do we all do it? In this era of stickable body art, why can’t people merely use transfers if they really need to express themselves this way, and when the times or circumstances change they too can change without being saddled with a sorry, permanent reminder of some passing whim. I suppose many tattoo artists would march forth in massed protest if people did this as this would no doubt put many of them out of work, but surely they can find a better outlook for their artistic talents, which are not inconsiderable.

We were not born inscribed in ink. We were not designed to be transcribed in ink. We humans chose this artificial path for ourselves, and contrary to what many people hope to achieve by plastering themselves this way, it does not impress most people but does just the opposite. It conveys a status or ability that in reality most people do not have, and diminishes the meaning of the distinctive tattoos that their ancestors of old acquired, often after much sacrifice and effort. And it sure doesn’t improve your career prospects either. In fact, all the evidence shows that it does just the opposite.

Like to know more about me and my writing? Check out more via 

https://www.amazon.com/author/ajdormaar

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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/