One arm bandit
Trying to live life with one arm - incredibly difficult and at last bringing proper understanding of living with a disability. The arm isn't there to hold things while you open them, to help lift anything, including the cat, or to touch type. This means that this is a one right forefinger message, and is going to be very short. Maybe someone knows how to touch type with one hand.
Injured arm now starting to hurt so will have to rest it. Must get some voicemail equipment which can transcribe. Will be the only hope.
Friday, 15 July 2016
Thursday, 23 June 2016
Wednesday, 13 April 2016
Private lives
The comedy of manners by Noel Coward, "Private Lives" was among his most popular productions, demonstrating that there can be no such thing as a truly private life, And this view is being supported now as a high-pitched public discussion of a politician's relationship with a female sex worker is carried out.
With modern surveillance techniques now being used by so many, from the government to large companies and individuals, no one can hope for a completely private life. When I was in Russia in the old Soviet days it was generally agreed, though not talked about openly,that all your phone calls and room conversations would be heard and noted by KGB agents or simply hotel workers hired by them. The only safe place to have a conversation about where you were going or what you were doing was on a crowded metro platform or somewhere outside at night.
I remember my case being left prominently in the middle of the station platform where I was about to board a train to leave Moscow, instead of being in the luggage van, just to show me that they had searched it and my room before I left. The KGB operators tried to take me off that train, until rejected by angry Norwegians who had been on the anti-nuclear weapons march I was covering. All that has changed now ( or nearly all). But, sad to say, we seem to have picked up some of the old Soviet spying habits. No more privacy. and what will that achieve? Nothing, except to drive us all underground, including the politicians who govern us.
With modern surveillance techniques now being used by so many, from the government to large companies and individuals, no one can hope for a completely private life. When I was in Russia in the old Soviet days it was generally agreed, though not talked about openly,that all your phone calls and room conversations would be heard and noted by KGB agents or simply hotel workers hired by them. The only safe place to have a conversation about where you were going or what you were doing was on a crowded metro platform or somewhere outside at night.
I remember my case being left prominently in the middle of the station platform where I was about to board a train to leave Moscow, instead of being in the luggage van, just to show me that they had searched it and my room before I left. The KGB operators tried to take me off that train, until rejected by angry Norwegians who had been on the anti-nuclear weapons march I was covering. All that has changed now ( or nearly all). But, sad to say, we seem to have picked up some of the old Soviet spying habits. No more privacy. and what will that achieve? Nothing, except to drive us all underground, including the politicians who govern us.
Saturday, 20 February 2016
Cameron and the EU
David Cameron's views on the reasons why Britain should stay in the EU, while having been
lengthily debated with Cabinet colleagues and government department officials, have probably
been too hard for most of the country to grasp, and though truthful, too esoteric for his
audience. On the whole, I think the coming referendum will show a majority, however small, in
favour of staying in. The initial doubt about joining the EU was basically a hangover from a
distrust of Europe which was the legacy of the war years. Now, new generations, broadened travel
and a crisscross of employment between Britain and the Continent has made this country welded
into Europe in a way it has not been since the early 19th century, even though we are not prepared to
share the currency. But that may come. And meanwhile, hopefully, Brexit will be discovered for
the fake patriotism that it is. We can be brothers and sisters with the Germans and the east
Europeans and not see the English Channel as a moat protecting us from the outsiders. We are
there already - now we just need to confirm it.
lengthily debated with Cabinet colleagues and government department officials, have probably
been too hard for most of the country to grasp, and though truthful, too esoteric for his
audience. On the whole, I think the coming referendum will show a majority, however small, in
favour of staying in. The initial doubt about joining the EU was basically a hangover from a
distrust of Europe which was the legacy of the war years. Now, new generations, broadened travel
and a crisscross of employment between Britain and the Continent has made this country welded
into Europe in a way it has not been since the early 19th century, even though we are not prepared to
share the currency. But that may come. And meanwhile, hopefully, Brexit will be discovered for
the fake patriotism that it is. We can be brothers and sisters with the Germans and the east
Europeans and not see the English Channel as a moat protecting us from the outsiders. We are
there already - now we just need to confirm it.
Wednesday, 11 November 2015
Backs turned on the refugees.
1
As Winston Churchill once told us, this was our proudest moment. It was when hundreds of little boats went to rescue the British army stranded on the French coast, dodging the Nazi gunships to bring them back to defend their homeland.
We are again in a critical moment of Europe history, but this time it has not been our proudest moment. There are threequarters of a million refugees from the Syrian dictatorship, the Afghan Taliban terror troops and other areas. On the Greek island of Lesbos the nearest accessible port of entry, 40,000 arrived in the last week of October and have continued to stumble out of the boats in their thousands every day since.
What has happened to them? We know, because dedicated reporters and photographers are there to tell us. Sometimes they cannot hide their shock at the indifference shown to the refugees crowded on to whatever bit of land they can reach, asking for, and not getting, food and shelter. There are thousands of children involved, a big proportion having lost their parents.
The Germans have rightly asked for a sharing of the numbers of refugees among other European countries. David Cameron offered to take 20,000 over the next five years, but it was not clear where these were going to lay their heads while waiting.
Giles Duley, an experienced photographer for the UN Refugee Commission, said: "I have never been so overwhelmed as by the human drama unfolding on the beaches of Lesbos. In its sheer scale, it is hard to comprehend; the lack of response impossible to explain or excuse."
As he knows, there can be no excuse. So, as a nation, have we changed? Are we now wanting to close our doors and forget about this massive human disaster? Are we going to let them starve and die of cold this winter? Are we going to have to acknowledge that Germany has now become the leader in humanitarian effort and we are stony-hearted islanders isolated and wanting to remain so?
In fact, people are volunteering with rescue food and clothes to take to the rough refugee camps in Calais and are offering to take them into their homes, putting together various rescue plans. What we are lacking are leaders capable of harvesting this goodwill into a nationally organised effort to bring over refugees now, not later, with homes and shelters available for them. The refugee crisis is starting to come bottom of the schedule on the media, in Parliament and in everyday conversation.
The goodwill and the individual efforts will go on, in spite of this. But it seems that this is not one of Britain's proudest moments but one of its most shaming.
As Winston Churchill once told us, this was our proudest moment. It was when hundreds of little boats went to rescue the British army stranded on the French coast, dodging the Nazi gunships to bring them back to defend their homeland.
We are again in a critical moment of Europe history, but this time it has not been our proudest moment. There are threequarters of a million refugees from the Syrian dictatorship, the Afghan Taliban terror troops and other areas. On the Greek island of Lesbos the nearest accessible port of entry, 40,000 arrived in the last week of October and have continued to stumble out of the boats in their thousands every day since.
What has happened to them? We know, because dedicated reporters and photographers are there to tell us. Sometimes they cannot hide their shock at the indifference shown to the refugees crowded on to whatever bit of land they can reach, asking for, and not getting, food and shelter. There are thousands of children involved, a big proportion having lost their parents.
The Germans have rightly asked for a sharing of the numbers of refugees among other European countries. David Cameron offered to take 20,000 over the next five years, but it was not clear where these were going to lay their heads while waiting.
Giles Duley, an experienced photographer for the UN Refugee Commission, said: "I have never been so overwhelmed as by the human drama unfolding on the beaches of Lesbos. In its sheer scale, it is hard to comprehend; the lack of response impossible to explain or excuse."
As he knows, there can be no excuse. So, as a nation, have we changed? Are we now wanting to close our doors and forget about this massive human disaster? Are we going to let them starve and die of cold this winter? Are we going to have to acknowledge that Germany has now become the leader in humanitarian effort and we are stony-hearted islanders isolated and wanting to remain so?
In fact, people are volunteering with rescue food and clothes to take to the rough refugee camps in Calais and are offering to take them into their homes, putting together various rescue plans. What we are lacking are leaders capable of harvesting this goodwill into a nationally organised effort to bring over refugees now, not later, with homes and shelters available for them. The refugee crisis is starting to come bottom of the schedule on the media, in Parliament and in everyday conversation.
The goodwill and the individual efforts will go on, in spite of this. But it seems that this is not one of Britain's proudest moments but one of its most shaming.
Wednesday, 28 October 2015
The nineties
You can look on it as an achievement to reach ninety, or as a mistake. In any case, it's likely to be not so much of an achievement as a matter of luck. You didn't, in the end, drink or smoke too much, you weren't struck down by disease, maybe your family were generally long-lived. Whatever the reason, here you are, at ninety - if you can walk, if you can talk, if you can hear and see, there's nothing to stop you getting on with your life. But there isn't much of it left to get on with, is there? You're on death row, in spite of diligent efforts by friends and family to suggest you might go on forever.
So what to do with that time? If you have enough money, you can enjoy it and go on holiday wherever you want. If you are feeling useless, you could try to get work. But who will have you? There are charities calling out for much-needed helpers, but you might not be accepted because of your age, and certainly you are no good at going round knocking on doors anymore.
We have one shining example, even for republicans, and that is the Queen. Ninety next spring, she has already stated an intention to hold a 90th birthday party for all in the Mall, leading to Buckingham Palace.
There she is, dressed in the formal clothes with a hat (which for some reason she feels she has to wear though we know she prefers riding clothes) going round from one formal event to another, giving charities and good works her gracious patronage, standing for far longer than most of her age could manage, banquets and speeches which even the young find tiring. Yes, she has expert medical help at the ready - we suppose - and bands of dressers and helpers and food supplies without the worries of shopping and cooking. But all that assistance requires her overall supervision. Having help can actually be demanding, and dressing up every day certainly is.
The rest of us have a drawback - with the retirement age set at the far too early 'sixties, we often have an uneasy place in society and go looking for charity work, though age does not usually stop artists and writers, working independently. Isolation can bring loneliness. In some other societies, the nineties are valued, not discouraged. They can be useful with their experience of life. It's hard for those in the middle, but it could be harder later.
So what to do with that time? If you have enough money, you can enjoy it and go on holiday wherever you want. If you are feeling useless, you could try to get work. But who will have you? There are charities calling out for much-needed helpers, but you might not be accepted because of your age, and certainly you are no good at going round knocking on doors anymore.
We have one shining example, even for republicans, and that is the Queen. Ninety next spring, she has already stated an intention to hold a 90th birthday party for all in the Mall, leading to Buckingham Palace.
There she is, dressed in the formal clothes with a hat (which for some reason she feels she has to wear though we know she prefers riding clothes) going round from one formal event to another, giving charities and good works her gracious patronage, standing for far longer than most of her age could manage, banquets and speeches which even the young find tiring. Yes, she has expert medical help at the ready - we suppose - and bands of dressers and helpers and food supplies without the worries of shopping and cooking. But all that assistance requires her overall supervision. Having help can actually be demanding, and dressing up every day certainly is.
The rest of us have a drawback - with the retirement age set at the far too early 'sixties, we often have an uneasy place in society and go looking for charity work, though age does not usually stop artists and writers, working independently. Isolation can bring loneliness. In some other societies, the nineties are valued, not discouraged. They can be useful with their experience of life. It's hard for those in the middle, but it could be harder later.
Friday, 16 October 2015
Help for the helpless?
The needs of the many thousands fleeing from Syria are huge. Food and clothing provide only temporary relief for those queueing on the borders in Austria, struggling to get to permanent safety. They are providing a problem for the European Union it has not met before and so far seems unable to handle effectively.
Some 18,000 refugees were recognised as a minimum quota for the UK, by EU leaders, though David Cameron, after a long delay, has said 20,000 will be admitted. It can't be denied that this undertaking seems to be in line with general opinion in the UK, which has not been offering an open-handed welcome to the refugees. Maybe, as some claim, we have a fine tradition of helping those fleeing from persecution abroad. Or maybe not.
If there has been this tradition from the past, the historic record of the fate of the refugees now fleeing to western Europe is likely to be different, with the UK this time showing a disregard for the cold and hunger and lack of shelter of those seeking a place where they can be safe. And the government's attitude as well as that of the UKIP MEP Nigel Farage, seems to be sympathetically shared by large numbers of the public. "They should stay and sort out their own country themselves," said one Cornishman to me. Efforts to raise funds were meeting with no success in this Cornish village and nor were suggestions that Britain might take in refugees. "How do we know that there aren't some IS terrorists among them?" asked one.
No, it is not proving a popular charitable cause in many parts of the country, even though others are putting in huge efforts to raise funds and provide temporary homes for refugees. This is not going to be our proudest moment - that distinction is this time going to Germany.
ends
Some 18,000 refugees were recognised as a minimum quota for the UK, by EU leaders, though David Cameron, after a long delay, has said 20,000 will be admitted. It can't be denied that this undertaking seems to be in line with general opinion in the UK, which has not been offering an open-handed welcome to the refugees. Maybe, as some claim, we have a fine tradition of helping those fleeing from persecution abroad. Or maybe not.
If there has been this tradition from the past, the historic record of the fate of the refugees now fleeing to western Europe is likely to be different, with the UK this time showing a disregard for the cold and hunger and lack of shelter of those seeking a place where they can be safe. And the government's attitude as well as that of the UKIP MEP Nigel Farage, seems to be sympathetically shared by large numbers of the public. "They should stay and sort out their own country themselves," said one Cornishman to me. Efforts to raise funds were meeting with no success in this Cornish village and nor were suggestions that Britain might take in refugees. "How do we know that there aren't some IS terrorists among them?" asked one.
No, it is not proving a popular charitable cause in many parts of the country, even though others are putting in huge efforts to raise funds and provide temporary homes for refugees. This is not going to be our proudest moment - that distinction is this time going to Germany.
ends
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