Several of you have queried my statement last month where I put most police officers among the preditors of the human race. Why not regard them as sheepdogs who guard the flock against preditors? If this is your opinion I believe that you have knowledge of neither the police nor sheepdogs. Dogs are basically wolves, and in a wolf pack the dominant wolf delivers the killing blow, while the rest of the pack rounds up the intended prey for the leader to dispose of. Sheepdogs do the same, rounding up the sheep for the dominant pack leader, the shepherd, to kill. (Which of course, in the end he will.) But a feral sheepdog is one of the worst stock-killers there is.
A lot of police officers have an us/them mentality. While they are mostly decent people doing a neccessary and often dangerous job, they will react badly to any challenge to their authority, and a rogue copper is very much like a feral sheepdog; the public at large will be seen as prey to be shaken down at any opportunity.
A pharmaccist in a local city was recently beaten unconcious by a customer in his shop, but was able to give the police the name, adress and picture of the thug from his computer records. If you have been reading the View for some time you will probably have already guessed the outcome. The culprit is still free, but the pharmacist is facing prosecution for breaching the data protection laws.
Treun passed this on to me, and I found it too good not to share.
All of us who feel only the deepest love and
affection for the way computers have enhanced our
lives, read on.
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates
reportedly compared the computer industry with
the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up
with technology like the computer industry has,
we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got
1,000 miles to the gallon".
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors
issued a press release stating: If GM had
developed technology like! Microsoft, we would
all be driving cars with the following
characteristics (and I just love this part):
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash
twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the
road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway
for no reason. You would have to p! ull over to the
side of the road, close all of the windows, shut
off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows
before you could continue. For some reason you
would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a
left turn would cause your car to shut down and
refuse to restart, in which case you would have
to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by
the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and
twice as easy to drive - but would run on only
five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator
warning lights would all be replaced by a single
"This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation"
warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?"
before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your
car would lock you out and refuse to let you in
until you simultaneously lifted the door handle,
turned the ! key and grabbed hold of the radio
antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers
would have to learn how to drive all over again
because none of the controls would operate in the
same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to
turn the engine off.
I spent most of the month back in Japan on a combined family and business trip. The weather varied from freezing to roasting; we got got sunshine, snow, hail, torrential rain and thunderstorms, but most of the time it was rather pleasant. I did a lot of walking in the mountains, and my Stav training at the local Buddhist temple.
Kiyoko and I was also invited for dinner at the Shinto shrine of her family, and the priest confirmed that if a Stav group would make it over to Japan this autumn, we would all be welcome to stay at the shrine. The priest, (or rather his wife) has family connections to the Yagyu clan, which used to run the Shoguns' Secret Service, (read real ninjas) and is still one of the major sword schools in Japan.
One of the few people who have entered Parliament with an intent to benefit everyone living in the UK was a Yorkshireman: Guido Fawkes.
Yorkshire has been found to be one of the unhealthiest regions in the country with a large portion of the population smoking, drinking to much, living on junk food and not taking any exercise. The Regional Director of Public Health was asked the other day what was his top tip for impoving health. One might have expected he would suggest a brisk walk with the dog, or perhaps a gentle jog, or giving up cigarettes or cutting down on the booze; eating more fruit and vegetables perhaps. Instead he recommended more partnership working. I have to admit I didn't have a clue what the man was talking about. But I was soon enlightened. We evidently need more co-operation between the 5-a-day Co-ordinator (5 a day what? Fags, pints of lager, heroin injections?), the Regional Teenage Pregnancy Co-ordinator (What is he doing? Maybe I just have a dirty mind.), the Health Policy and Partnership Manager and the Health Improvement Team Co-ordinator. I swear, I'm not making this up.
The above mentioned Director also informed us that Yorkshire has the second lowest proportion of people eating enough fruit and vegetables and that only 28,3% of adults take regular exercise. How does he know? Are our waste bins being checked to see who have not eaten their greens? Are all our movements followed on CCTV and then analysed to see how many calories we burn?
One of the mysteries of the modern age is our reaction to perceived danger. Millions of us die each year from malaria, Aids and the flu; no-one knows how many are victims of various wars world-wide, though smoking probably kills even more, and the toll from car accidents should be enough to make you want to curl up in bed for the duration. Still, no-one seems to take any of this serious.
But then you get someting like SARS last year and Avian flu this year and there is universal panic. SARS killed around 200 people and the bird flu a tenth of that. So borders are closed, airlines go bust as flights are cancelled, and all other items of news disappear from the media.
Fewer than 10 children a year in the UK get abducted by strangers, but because of one or two highly publicized murders a whole generation of children are now growing up who never play outside, never walk to school or anywhere else, and as a result become obese and suffering from heartproblems and diabetes, which will kill them long before their normally alotted time.
Even 9.11. only killed around 4.000 people, which of cause is bad enough, but as a result a large part of our civil rights has been taken away from us, effectively turning us into the kind of society that al-Qu'ida wanted to create in the first place.
Now, if you really wants something to worry about go to this website: www.greenpeace.org/international_en and click on the link beside the words "Climate Armageddon"
This is a report commissioned by the U.S. government on world climate changes, but somehow they didn't see the need to publish it. However, it seems that available figures was run through a super-computer which came up with the following scenario. By 2005 low-lying Pacific islands will be flooded by new storm patterns, by 2007 the ocean will break through levees in the Netherlands, making cities like the Hague unlivable. Failure of delta levees in the Sacramento River region will create an inland sea and disrupt the transprt of drinking water from Northern to Southern California. By 2010 the floating ice in the Arctic region will all melt during summer stopping the flow of the Gulf stream. There will be an average drop in temperature of 3C in Northern Asia, North America and Nortern Europe. The rest of the world will see a similar rise in temperature. The Scandinavians will be driven South by Siberian style storms and snow, and nations with resources will become virtual fortresses, while wars will be fought over access to drinking water.
Come back chicken flu; all is forgiven.
If you have been reading the View you will probably remember that Heimbu has been involved in setting up a local residents assosiation with its own office, a composting scheme and building a soccer and a handball pitch for the local kids. Dispite the council doing its best to discourage us all, the last piece in the jigsaw is now in place; the other day we moved into our own office where we will host a mutual saving society, a cop shop and a drop-in centre.
The East Yorkshire councillors have also been busy while I was away. They have now flogged the Picture Playhouse, the oldest cinema theatre in Britain, to a restaurant chain, despite a almost universal wish among Beverlonians to keep it as a theatre. Then they have put one of the biggest parking lots in town on the market to be developed, and at the same time they have doubled the price of parking in town to recoup the loss of income from the carpark. Oh, dear.
Though it is not only the council. Just at the entrance to Beverley we have some really nice parkland that a developer wanted to build lots of houses on. For once the council did the right thing and refused planning permission which was upheld on appeal. The developer then put in an application for a drive-in MacDonald style fastfood outlet which of course was refused, but this time he won his appeal to the Government. So now he has the council over a barrel; either approve a new planning application for a housing estate or get a real blight on the landscape.
Two things that are lacking today are respect and trust. Politicians do not respect the electorate, and the electorate does not trust the politicians. Teachers are not trusted to teach, so the students do not respect the teachers. The media does not respect the truth, so the public does not trust the media. Parents are not trusted to raise their children properly, so children have little respect for parents. Religious leaders have no repect for their religion, so the congregations (at least the ones with any semblance to brains) do not trust the priests.
The People's Party are at it again. They are proposing to change the name of the Crown Procecution to the Public Procecution; it is no longer seen neccessary to have any reference to the Queen in any official business of this country. They didn't even have the decency to inform Her Majesty, who only learnt about it through reading her morning paper.
The presidential election in America looks like it might be fought on three fronts. First we have Bush versus Kerry, but where are the Clintons standing? The rumour has it that they first backed Dean, because they knew he would lose against Bush, while if Kerry wins he might well get two terms in office, possibly followed by his Vice-president, which would mean that Hillary will be 70 by the time the Democrats will next be looking for a candidate.
With Morrison finally taking over Safeway the supermarket wars are really hotting up with consumers expecting great bargains. But I'm not so sure if the dominance of the big chains have brought as much benefits as we are being told. It is true that prices at the check-out counter will be cheaper than at the old mom-and-pop store that we used to have, and that only us old-timers now remember.
But somehow I have a feeling we are comparing apples and oranges. Fifty years ago my mother used to phone her daily shopping list to our local store, and the groceries were then delivered in the afternoon, when the shopkeeper did his delivery round to his customers, who all lived within a 15 minutes radius of the shop. Once a month he collected the money having in the meantime given interest-free credit.
Now let's look at the efficient supermarkets. Efficient for whom? Is your time of no value? Because you will be spending a lot of it doing work that the old-time shopkeeper was doing for you. You have to organize your own transport, and you have to do select all your purchases yourself. You will also be tempted through very clever merchandizing, to buy a lot of things that you had no intention of buying. And the interest on store-cards are close to 25% in most cases, so beware.
Mentioning transport in the item above I recently had a discussion with my son about the fastest way to travel down to London. He wasn't sure whether the train or the flight from the local airport would be the way to go. I suggested walking, which he couldn't understand. But think about it. It's about 200 miles from Beverley to London. At a steady 5 miles an hour we're only looking at 40 hours with let's say another 10 hours for rest and sleep. Now the train (if nothing goes wrong, and that is a big if) takes two hours and a half. But the train ticket costs £65.- which at £5.- an hours will take you thirteen hours to earn; but wait, half your salary goes to the Chancellor so to earn £65.- you have to work for twenty-six hours. Still, it seems to be twice as fast as walking, but wait, there are a few more things to consider. How much time have you spent on getting a job; how much time on getting an education in order to get a job, how much wasted time working for someone else? Anyway we agreed that if he could borrow a bicycle from a friend that was probably as fast as it was possible to go.