Bankrupt Nation

The huff and puff of finding, naming and persecuting the source of the leaked diplomatic cables misses the point by many a mile. We simply cannot live by dual standards, a private life separate from and to a public life. They are simply the one and the same, cross feeding and influencing one to the other. What you say and think in private must be no different to what you say in public. Otherwise you are living a lie that always has and will come out. This is a lifestyle of a high calibre that requires integrity and high moral standards.

Nations, and big corporations if it comes to that, are but people except that their characteristics are hugely simplified, coalesced to the centre middle ground and losing all subtly and nuances along the way. The bigger the Nation, or corporation, the less subtly and the grosser the reactions and responses. That is just how it is. A Nation that positions itself as of world class and claims to lead the world, must, to justify those claims, set itself to exceed the highest of standards and exhibit the conduct of an exemplary citizen. Not on occasional high profile events but in its every day in day out mundane conduct.

To even attempt to justify water-boarding is intolerable. It is self-evidently beyond any acceptable code of conduct to contemplate let alone implement such actions on another human being. There are no justification. Period. Any more than there are not any justification whatever for assuming rights to seize and lock up persons of the world, deprive them of all decency, humane care, deny them a trial, refuse to specify the laws by which they are held against their wishes so others may challenge, and continue to do so for multiple years. Not just an interim short period whilst a collective view is taken, no consigned to a limbo beyond reach.

Utterly, totally deplorable. These are the actions of a bankrupt nation. One that has lost its integrity, lost any sense of values and without a single moral fibre left, bereft and clueless. So the news that it holds views in private that it tries to conceal from the world whilst pretending to promote some other false vision comes as no shock or surprise. The only surprise is that any other Nations cares. A bankrupt is down and out and any pleadings not worth a moments notice.

Conundrum

As a government initiative, I, like most men over the age of 60, have been prescribed Simvastatins to take for the rest of my life inorder to reduce the levels of the 'wrong' cholesterol and thus reduce the risk of heart attack or a stroke. After considering a number of side issues which are not relevant here and inview of my position, see philosophy of death, it will come as no surprise that I have stopped taking them.

As the official health policy is to safeguard the health of all males over the age of sixty by reducing their risks of heart attack or stroke, by this action, I am now acting and choosing to live a style of life contrary to good practice and advice. I therefore, following on from my position on the allocation of resources, see An aside - Born Equal, have put myself where the care resources allocated to me, have to be scaled back and reduced below my otherwise full entitlement. I have become a victim of my own policies. Fair do's, my Advance Directive excludes expensive resuscitation and recovery operations in the aftermath of a stroke or heart attack. That my care entitlement for other non-life threatening minor coughs and wheezes or even general support in the community might also have to be scaled back, becomes the price I have to pay to choose to live outside of society accepted norms. No matter how wrong I may think that particular norm is. You either choose to live with and go along with the grain or not. It not, then you just have to accept that one consequence is that you might end up as an outsider. Hey that's democracy at work.

Revolution - addendum

Kate and William came across as a nice sincere level-headed couple and I wish them well, as ordinary citizens. Having already been sold a sham marriage at least twice before (Margaret then Charles) by the royal firm I am not prepared to buy into this one. I do ooze sympathy at their plight in having to plan a bean feast in time of economic hardship. Perhaps if his Dad was to fore go claiming all the Euro money intended for small struggling farmers my sincerity might be more palpable. The biggest lesson the royals need right now is for the British public to turn their united backs on their celebrations and just ignore it. It is over time the royals woke up and realised that have to treat their 'subjects' with respect and actually earn the trust they seem to think they can take as a birth right.

Philosophy of Death

You do eventually reach a point in your life when death is no longer that distant abstraction but a reality coming up over the horizon. It make you think and you take time to reflect on this and that aspect of life, it meaning, purpose and for this particular blog the manner of death. I have written an advance directive as to the how and what of my care in the event that I am incapable of agreeing to any planned treatments. What we as a Society are struggling to come to terms with is our technical skills are keeping people alive for much longer. One consequence is that more and more people are experiencing a lingering, distressing, humiliating and undignified existence before death finally relieves them. A gradual loss of physical control is one end and the other end is a loss of almost all conscious control. Even the gradual creeping infirmity of old age is so badly handled in this society of ours, robbing them of any self-respect and side-lining them into oblivion. An inconsequential shell that has to be serviced to a minima 'quality of life' until it expires. Not a very flattering view of the end game ahead.

Until the twentieth century the older generation were held in respect. They had carved out a way of life that enabled their genes to pass on, and provided sufficient shelter and sustenance for those gene in tum, to make their own way. All the while they were the depository of the collective and received wisdom and experience of their own life but also the life of the genes that bore them. They were a point of stability and a continuum that could provide assurance and direction in all of life's hurlyburly. Nowadays the role is reversed. Having provided the initial resources to enable the genes to be passed on, their continuing life is now a draining and diverting of resources away that would be better placed with the successor genes. Their cumulative wisdom and experience can longer keep up with rate of change and progress of the society around them, so as to be irrelevant. Any residual possible common ground of a deeper insight into the ways of man gets tossed aside along with all the other 'so called' outmoded insights.

So the older generation is left to reverie to its own age group about the past and how it was and have nothing to offer about what might be that anyone considers worth giving any attention. It is only a matter of perspective and creating time to assimilate, but as it happens those are the two missing ingredient in today's headlong rush. Robbed of the historic role in society, what is the point of living on? It terms of contribution into the family and society, nothing in reality. An offer of a historical viewpoint when the preoccupation is grasping and managing the change all around? The old really do not have a role to play. Sure, if they are lucky they are familiar worn fixtures, a cosy habit to accommodated, enjoyed for old times sake, providing they don't get to be too demanding. Not really significant.

What I see ahead is a gradual decline in my faculties and nothing ahead to make the increasing struggle worth the contemplation. One horror scenario for me would be to live to be one hundred. Why, what for? The only reason is the absence of options. Yet this is the fate ahead for increasing numbers of the present baby-boomers, like me. So the question I am circling around is, if we cannot choose the manner and timing of our death, why accept remedial medical interventions? The interventions offered are the 'easy cures' to reduce the risk of mortality. Take way death by causes that can be easily cured and you are left with death, because that is inescapable, by some incurable, hard to treat cause. A cause more likely to rob you of that dignity we all want in the final stages of our life. Until such times as assisted suicide becomes the norm and accepted, for me, the answer is to refuse all interventions and let life roll whatever dice is my lot. I am not looking for it, not seeking it, more than content to continue as things are but I don't want mankind trying to play God and intercept death dice rolls, even if it is nice and easily preventable with minimal consequences. I'll take my chances. Any one got spare tickets for Switzerland?

Disposable crutches

In a caring society we help and look after those amongst us that get into difficulties and we support the weak that are unable to look after themselves. That's the minimum. Of course what we do not want to do is for these self same people to become dependant on us for ever more, and there is the rub. It is a fact of life that when offered a crutch we quickly adapt to it and become dependant on it and fearful if there is any suggestion they are going to be taken away. As a Nation we just cannot afford to provide comfortable reassuring crutches to who so ever needs them. But we do want to be caring.

There are no simple answers and several aspects to this particular conundrum. First we all have to accept that a utopia where everyone can have their expected three bedroom detached house in the countryside, yet close to family and friends, and free of pollution just is not attainable. As a bottom live we have to come to terms that as a constrained Nation, as we are, without a vibrant growing commerce or industry, we just cannot afford anything like that utopia as a minimum standard for all our citizens. A more realistic scenario has to prevail, shelter from the weather extremes, basic sanitation perhaps short of a personal bath or shower, basic cooking facilities perhaps no more than a microwave and a sink, a room where families can keep together again short of separate bedrooms and maybe having to share in communal living spaces. Grim compared to the vision of what we expect as our birth right but sufficient to keep us together, warm safe and hygienic.

The difficulty is in giving generous support for sufficient time to let a person or family in crisis recoup and recover yet not undermine the need for them to take stock of their new circumstance and find a path out of their difficulties for themselves. No reliance on those crutches so easily given. First off the support has to be immediate and untainted with labels of scroungers, cheats or fraudsters, so loved of government departments. Given but implicit of payback of any assistance given in cash or kind. We help you so you can help others is the deal. Given but with the support, encouragement and finally judge and jury of a mentor, to coax, advise, offer special training or group sessions, whatever to assist during that recovery period. A period that does have a finite future end date, but constantly adjusted and redefined according to the mentors assessment of the efforts being made.

Yes our citizens must stand on their own two feet, be confident and independent and not constantly nagged, bullied and harassed into submission by government policy. However that is true for those successfully finding their own way, when you have to ask for help, help is ring fenced and bring some loss of personal freedom and other compliance with others jurisdictions. So the mentor is an individual volunteer not some anonymous official concerned with throughput, formal procedural documentation and statistical targets. As individuals there will be great variety in the way mentors see their role and the support their people need. So mentors must be subject to monitoring and receive day to day updates in best practises and comparators from their local patch. I have greater faith in any citizen to see through a bleeding heart pitch than some official having the sense to understand the blatantly obvious. That is the safety net for me. On a one to one mentor to person in need basis, better targeted necessary help and an living overview of all the ups and downs progress made. Mentors making life or death judgements to scale down the help if recovery falters or is not happening, extend it if the prospects are bright or there is a temproary setback to be overcome and a slowing taper off after when recovery is in place to let the person/family recover before the claw back begins.

Not perfect, open to abuse, yes, but that person on top of the clapham common bus has a lot more nounce about try-ons, tales of woe and unfairness than all the official organisations put together.The stumbling block for all persons in crisis comes down to employment. If only they could get an appropriate job, there would be income to buy answers and their self-esteem would shoot up. Employers have a right to expect self-discipline and performance. Employees have aspirations to sustain a life-style, follow a particular skill or interest and to hang on until that cushy job everyone else has turns up for them. The employment market is rife with mismatched expectations. A mentor is better placed than any other organisation to best see and understand the opportunities and needs for those they are directly involved with. If there is no employment to be had, full stop, there are no options left. Then the bottom line is, if they do not, cannot help themselves out of the crisis then bit by bit their claims on 'normal' living standards are whittled away until they are left with just the bottom line. We as a society still need to care for them and we still need to help them as best as can with the utmost skill we can bring to bear. No person is beyond hope but it may be a long and costly road to retrain a broken life lived over many many years back into a useful citizen. That is our ultimate challenge as a society. To care enough to make it happen.

If there is no employment then this Nation is broken and there is no help available to anyone no matter how needy. I doubt this is or ever will be the case. More usually it is a matter of coming to terms with the adjustments necessary before that only job that is on offer is acceptable and is better than other options. But any job without hidden claw-back penalties where it is better to take state aid than to work, we have to move well away from that. Employers also have to face up to their social responsibilities too. Paying the minimum wage or less may get them cheap labour but that is only short term gain. They need to invest into people, not just as grunts to perform on command but really motivated to help the industry they are working in to grow and prosper, as a partnership, not some archaic lord and servant relationship. Ah well Nirvana come tomorrow.

News Propoganda

It worries me more than just a little that months after the event, having absorbed all the various media reports on an event and having formed a considered opinion about the course and substance of those events from the media reports, drip by drip a more truthful account appears. All the warty misjudgements come to light, changing entirely the summation of cause and justification. Need for secrecy or National interest or delicate negotiations could be derailed, or some such are rolled out as justification as to why the public should be mislead, misinformed at the time.

By my reckoning, to set out to mislead, misdirect, to encourage a false assumption to be arrived at, is tantamount to lying. I know by the strict definition it is not a lie. But to set out to leave a person with a wrong impression and not to take steps to limit or correct that false impression, an impression that you are fully aware will be formed from the limited and coached words you have used to convey the information, is a lie. What can be worse for a country than to be routinely lied to by their leaders? Nothing destroys trust or being prepared to over look an occasional transgression faster and more completely, than being lied to.

We are told that it is an essential and inescapable facet of modern life. Inorder to complete complicated and delicate negotiations and to arrive at a solutions which best benefits out Nation it is unavoidable. The Nation cannot be told the whole truth at the time, it might costs lives, we might lose an important deal, our competitors will gain a commercial advantage, our enemy will be forewarned as to our moves and have time to thwart them or any number of other very persuasive and compelling reasons. Except we are left with this sour taste in our mouths, we are being lied to by our leaders.

In a wheely dealy commercial world, getting one over your adversary, is the name of the game, it kind of makes sense and certainly has become the daily yardstick of judgement. Except this is not how I want to be ranked, I really do not want the esteem I am held in to be based on how clever I have been to outsmart, out bluff, out perform in some brinkmanship game, how I managed to beat a weaker opponent down by a couple of points. These are not the principles of my life and certainly not for the country I want to stand proud of and promote.

There really is an alternative manner to conduct our everyday lives. It harks back to the old professional qualities we, as English, used to be world renowned for. Honesty, integrity, men of their word who would rather stand by their word than break it just make a deal or win a profit. Being prepared to set aside robust codes of conduct for a short-term goal can only have one conclusion. Sacrificing decency inorder curry favour with an evil dictator so to bolster your position against a mutual 'enemy' can only have one inevitable conclusion. The evil dictator will only gain strength from your support and in the end you will be mired and what is even worse, your own standards will become corrupted, by association. The short-terms gains are never worth it. A sales deal stolen at the last minute from a competitor, by nefarious, means will not win long term support or loyalty of your customer, that in the long-term you need to survive. Better by far to win a contract straight on quality, delivery and service even if you 'lose' out to competitors who are prepared to cut more corners than just a discount price. In a dog eat dog world, we should all learn to eat dog? No of course not, better to live a poorer life but proud of your standards than to root in the gutter. Not a universally supported position but without doubt the only position that has any long-term prospect for trust and growth.

So lets start here and now, no more lying, no more concealing to the public on any issue by our political leaders. Tell the public and the rest of the world exactly how it is. Accept that we might lose ground to rival Nations in the short-term but our stature in the longer lasting term will be so much greater and at least we will be able to live with each other in trust and respect.