A step into the dark for Britain

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The EU represents 7% of the world’s population, approximtely 23% of global GDP and 50% of global public spending. Even without Britain almost all the nations of the EU have the highest life expectancy at birth, the best access to education and the highest GDP per capita. The crude capitalism that is typical of China and the United States is made more gentle and people-orientated by the very rules and directives that critics constantly beef about, but which ensure equal treatment in courts of law, time off for women having babies, reasonable holidays, sick pay, safety at work, safe cars, food that doesn’t make you sick, intelligent healthcare, clean air, an improving environment and a host other safeguards for human rights.

No one (except some Brits) wants to leave the EU, they only want to enter. To those of us who lived through the Second World War, the EU is the means whereby we stand together with our (more or less) common values against the illiberal, anti-democratic forces in full throttle : China, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, the list goes on and on. To be in a small country by itself (and 60 million people is now a small country) is a perilous proposition looking forward, and those who say otherwise have little vision. The Rome declaration adopted on the EU’s 60th anniversary said, I quote, “Taken individually, we would be sidelined by global dynamics. Standing together is our best chance to influence them”.

The EU was (is) an Epicurean venture, offering more peace of mind to more people than ever before in history. It needs reforms, yes; leaving? No!
(I owe some of the above to an article in the Guardian Weekly by Natalie Nougayrede, 7th April, 2017)

Thoughts on Brexit

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The scale of the impending disaster is becoming clear”, says Will Hutton in The Observer. Unless May changes her position quite substantially, the gulf between the UK and the EU is simply too wide for a deal to be possible. Britain is “certain to go over a cliff; the only question is how great the fall”. Like most loveless marriages, this one is ending in “screaming rows about the money”, said Dominic Lawson in The Sunday Times. The EU’s initial demand for a divorce bill of some €60bn seems to have shot up, to €100bn-plus. This isn’t just Juncker making trouble; it comes from the member states. The UK pays 12% of the EU budget, so Brexit will create a funding “chasm” that terrifies European leaders. Quite apart from dealing with the nitty-gritty, the Government needs to “prepare for the propaganda war”, said Juliet Samuel in The Daily Telegraph. The Commission will try to portray the UK’s leaders as “inept fantasists”, as it did with Greece. So Britain needs to come across as “eminently reasonable”; and it must, at all costs, rein in the xenophobic rhetoric. “If Britons and Europeans start to see one another fundamentally as enemies, a deal will become impossible.” (The Week)

From Martin Dean, Taunton, Somerset:

“I sense that there is an overwhelming sense of apprehension within the country because we don’t know what will be debated/agreed at the Brexit talks but more importantly, we don’t feel the Government can negotiate effectively. The Budget showed their incompetence (as well as the opposition’s) as the Government’s blunder was not spotted by the politicians and their party machines but by the BBC’s political correspondent. If we fail delivering our routine domestic policies, what hope have we at the complicated issues over leaving the EU?
We must recognise that most people in the UK are not political animals. Some can cope with domestic events, very few are interested in European issues, let alone wider world wide affairs. Interest is only taken when it hits home and confronts them. The Times in 1896… ‘Fog in Channel, Europe isolated’. Things really haven’t changed a great deal, so no wonder we are more than concerned”.

There is little hope of peace of mind anytime soon. The i pending train wreck loks pretty certain from the perspective of anyone living across the Atlantic.

A purpose in life

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A gerontologist who has researched old age had an interesting experience with a group of young students. They had read books about career strategies and success, many of which emphasised purpose. They had heard motivational speakers exhort them to find a single life passion, without which they were sure to drift, rudderless, through a disappointing career. But one all-consuming life goal in life eluded them.

One student asked him, “This really worries me. Do I really need a purpose in life? That’s what the books say, but I don’t have one. Is there something wrong with me? And how do I get a purpose if I need one?”

My answer is: relax. You are likely to have a number of purposes, which will change as you progress through life. Your focus should not be on a purpose, but on purposes, which change as your life situation, interests, and priorities shift. Don’t be railroaded in the direction of a single purpose, or remain on one train track because the train will change. The trick is to broaden your mind; that is your priority as a young person. Keep flexible, with your strengths, try everything to see what your aptitudes and talents are.

Then determine a general direction and pursue it. Determining a direction, an orientation in life (say, technical, or mathematical or artistic) is easier, more spontaneous, more flexible, and less laden with overtones than some mystical revelation that sets you on an immutable life path. Times change, circumstances change – indeed, change itself is the norm rather than the exception. A grand purpose is unnecessary and can actually get in the way of a fulfilling career. An attractive orientation is what you need.

My wife, an economist, and I, a businessman and amateur actor and painter, found in mid- life a joint aptitude for writing music. Neither of us had a background in music at all (My father told me I hadn’t a musical bone in my body!). You can’t make money out of composing, but that wasn’t the point. We found it a truly joyful experience, almost a mini-miracle that allowed us to work on something creative together, snd have it played by professional musicians. Early in my life I had established is an orientation towards the arts, and this was a great help. I simply decided to spend the money-making part of it in the business world (which can be creative ss well). You never do know where life will lead you, and that is part of the excitement of it.

Letting out illegally obtained homes on illegally obtained land.

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“Is what Airbnb doing internationally illegal, or simply a disgrace?

“Imagine a gorgeous home for your next getaway: a well-stocked kitchen, pool out the patio doors, nice linens, flowers on the bedside table. Sounds great, right?

“Here’s the problem:

“That house: stolen.

“That land: stolen.

“The roads on that stolen land to take you to the stolen house: segregated.

“The borders and checkpoints and airports you took to get there: closed to the very people whose homes they are.

“Airbnb, the global tourism giant, is profiting from vacation rentals in Israeli settlements, built on stolen Palestinian land and illegal under international law. Every time someone rents an Airbnb house in a Palestinian settlement, Airbnb takes a cut.

“Airbnb’s anti-discrimination policy states that they prohibit listings that promote racism, discrimination, or harm to individuals or groups, and require all users to comply with local laws. But their listings in settlements are just another example of a trend we’ve seen time and again: corporations turning a blind eye to flagrant violations of international law so they can profit from Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestine.

“This isn’t the first time that Israel has used tourism as both a means and an end: expropriating more Palestinian land and resources in the name of tourism, while also using those tourist images to distract from its human rights abuses. Beach scenes beckon gay men to Tel Aviv — never mind that Palestinian fishermen less than 40 miles away in Gaza can’t work for fear of being shot. Images of fancy wineries promise idyllic getaways — just ignore the illegal settlement outpost beyond the visitor center. And archeological digs offer riveting history lessons — but don’t ask about the Palestinian villages they’re digging under.

“Settlers know as well as Israeli politicians that tourism is a way to legitimise their illegal prescence. By allowing settlement “hosts” Airbnb is doing Israel’s dirty work”. (Jewish Voice for Peace Jan 2016, as composed by them).

The above was written by concerned Jewish activists, not by me.

Airbnb should be comprehensively boycotted until they stop renting these houses. The trouble is that the Western media refuses to broadcast the facts for fear of being branded “anti-semitic”. Therefore the public are quite unaware of the problem. Israel spends a fortune on public relations, and tourists are treated as VIPs, never seeing the other side of the story. Decent, kindly people who have been to Israel and rented houses, instead of staying at hotels, will quite likely excoriate me for even raising the matter, so thorough and comprehensive is the PR produced by Israel. We are all easily persuaded by smiling, happy faces in magazines and on TV, but content not to look too closely at the real situation, comfortable in our denial.

How well parented are the young?

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Is this fair?

A YouGov explored Brotosh public attitudes towards 48 groups, categorised by gender, age, ethnicity and religion. They found that people considered white British men in their 20s to be the most lazy, rude and promiscuous people in the country; the most likely to get drunk; and, along with black Caribbean men in their 20s, the most likely to take drugs. The most popular group was white women in their 60s.

I think to damn a whole age group of a single gender is ridiculous. There are many nice, cheerful, polite and considerate young men in Britain. People, make these wild generalisations, often with a particular person in mind, extrapolating from the particular and applying it to the general; but it isn’t fair or reasonable.

What is worrying is that, with two parents working, discipline takes a dive, because the adults are probably just too exhausted to keep nagging their children. Some sre therefore growing up self-centered and lacking respect for anyone, which I think is the fault of parents (not schools ; schools cannot make up for the failures of parenting). A small example: for countless centuries, even before the invention of writing, children were expected to thank grandparents, for instance, for birthday presents, aunts for days out, and family friends for holiday presents. They always needed a nudge or a nag from Mum or Dad, mind you. Now too many young men don’t even bother to return a text message, let alone send a thank you for a birthday gift. All deeply alienating. Thank goodness for the civilised young men – let them not give in to being boors.