Bees

I have just read a thriller, "Coffin Road", by Peter May, an author I really enjoy. The title works on several levels, not least the coffin mankind is creating for itself by deceminating bee populations all over the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_May_(writer)

I wondered if May was exaggerating the science - but unfortunately not.

The thread of the story is the part "Big Pharma" is playing in "Colony Collapse Disorder",(CCD), of bees due to memory damage caused by mono culture agribusinesses use of pesticides & insecticides containing Neurotoxins like Neonicotinoids.
https://www.epa.gov/pollinator-protection/colony-collapse-disorder

Neonicotinoids damage bee brains & memory so they can no longer communicate to other bees the whereabouts of nectar sources from flowers. Pollination is a by product of the bees gathering nectar.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/27/eu-agrees-total-ban-on-bee-harming-pesticides

 

Insecticides & pesticides cause destruction of habitat & floral diversity & also cause water contamination. Lobbying by the hugely powerful & wealthy Agrochemical businesses means that these dangerous chemicals are not universally banned.

http://sos-bees.org/causes/

http://sos-bees.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/BeesInDecline.pdf

The situation in the USA is particularly bad - between 30 - 50% of bee populations are dying every year.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/40-decline-honey-bee-population-winter-unsustainable-experts/story?id=64191609

On top of all of this the poor bees have to cope with parasites like Varroa Mite. No wonder bee populations are suffering.
Parasites - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varroa_destructor

The thing is if we don't do something about all of this we are the ones who are going to be under threat. Our species depends on bees pollinating every single fruit, vegetable & plant. The very real danger is that bees will become extinct & so will we. All animals, including us, depend on plants.

Actually it isn't just bees. We have presided over the plummeting loss of insect species worldwide.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/10/plummeting-insect-numbers-threaten-collapse-of-nature

Our meddling in the balance of the worlds ecology is really coming home to roost. The trouble is it has already happened - on our watch & we are sleepwalking towards real destruction. No one knows when the tipping point is.

Divorce, Death, Disagreements, Drunkenness & Desperation = Christmas

My lovely estate agent said that there is always an upturn in the property market after Christmas because so many people decide to Divorce. They realise that they just can't stand to be together, so they have to sell up.

In the 2017 to 2018 winter period, there were an estimated 50,100 excess winter Deaths in England and Wales. The excess winter deaths were the highest recorded since winter 1975 to 1976. Above average mortality is routinely seen between December & March. Most people die between 3 - 4 am.

We are holed up at home, with people we don't normally spend huge amounts of time with, & with no work exit. A week or two, with high expectations and sometimes frustrated hopes, can lead to things can coming to a head & Disagreements ensue.

We drink to be jolly & to cope with all of this. The average Briton consumed an average of 26 units per day last Christmas, with the nation collectively  drinking almost six billion units of alcohol between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day in 2018. Men in the UK have roughly one and a half more drinks than women on Christmas day, according to new research.(The women are too busy getting the Christmas lunch on the table!) There is huge pressure to drink far more than normal, with the usual resulting hangovers & worse. Apparently Champagne & Port make you drunk quicker. Drunkenness is not a pretty sight.

What is the point of it all? Why do we repeat the same behaviour patterns annually? For many people, Christmas is not a time of "good cheer". It is a time of lonliness & Desperation. A time when the pressure to spend what you don't have is enormous. The expectation of presents that will surprise & delight, the expectation of plentiful food & drink, the expectation of fun & enjoyment with friends & relatives - How can it fulfill all of this for everyone? 

It can't, it simply isn't possible.

Audiences & how they Behave - Oh no they Don't!

I am a volunteer usher at a local theatre. This week I have ushered for a small studio venue we have & for the main theatre. The former was a delightful production for toddlers & young children, the latter was the Panto for everyone from babies to Grandparents. They couldn't have been more different in every possible way.

This is a "Rant" warning - so look away now if you don't want to read it. Wrap a present or write a card maybe.

I am truly appalled at the behaviour of the audience for the Panto, (& in fact for many of the non Panto performances throughout the year). Frankly I find it inexplicable.

We volunteer ushers clear up after every performance. It is routine to fill several black bags after each performance with;- coffee cups & lids, water bottles, plastic cups, ice cream tubs & lids, tissues, tickets, flyers, sweet bags & papers, sweets, crisp bags....Then there is all the spilled ice cream, coffee, wine....One usher told me yesterday that she had to clear up after an Asian family who had brought a curry in & left everything on the floor!

We go up and down the aisles in the interval with our black sacks. Some people are great & do put their rubbish in. But this year I have been shocked at how much is just dumped on the floor for someone else to clean up.

Why is it that people don't feel able to go for approximately 50 minutes without eating & drinking? Shows usually have 2 Acts of about 50 minutes with a 20 minute interval when you can eat & drink to your hearts content if you wish. You can eat before you come or afterwards. Frankly I think it is "cinema" behaviour. Cinema audiences are used to having popcorn, hot dogs, coke & God knows what else. Cinemas don't rely on volunteers to clean up afterwards & the performers aren't live!

Then there is the unbelievable, to me, idea that it's fine to walk in & out whilst the performance is on going - Regardless of whether one is seated at the end of a row. Disturbing everyone in the same row & all the people behind seems to be OK - Twice - Out & back again. Are they all so desperate for something to eat or drink that they couldn't have bought it before or wait until the interval? It isn't surprising that they may need to go to the toilet, given that they are drinking continuously. Obviously bladder control is weak.

Lateness is similarly ill mannered. Yes I know parking can be difficult & the traffic can be bad. But the Staff & the Volunteers manage to get there in plenty of time. It's just an excuse. Leave home in plenty of time & allow for delays. Personally I wouldn't let them in until the interval.

Mobile phones are similarly annoying. The people around you do not want the disturbance of the very bright light as you check your emails & texts mid performance. The actors definitely don't. People certainly don't want to listen to your ringtone or alerts. Why on earth audiences think they have the right to take photos or worse still videos of a performance is completely beyond my comprehension. For most productions it is a definite "no no" & we are supposed to stop it.

I have been physically & verbally abused by members of an audience, only a couple of times fortunately. Most people are very friendly thank goodness.

It's all very selfish & bad mannered. How on earth have people been brought up? The theatre was completely refurbished a while back at great cost. Do people behave like this in their own homes? Hopefully not. So why do they think it's OK in the theatre.

I know of at least one actor in the West End who stopped the show because of audience bad behaviour. Good for him! I can't imagine how you can give a good performance if you are distracted.

Interestingly I went to the RSC last week & there was no such behaviour at all. Not a sign of rubbish at the end & we were in the circle & could see the stalls.

So - the questions are - Why is it happening at all? - What should we do about it? I know what I would do - but I'm not in charge.

Give us this Day.....

I'm not a fan of any established church or religion. Buddhism comes closest to what I believe. But I think the "Lords Prayer" has fundamental truths within it.

We all need to think about the line "Give us this day our daily bread". Not just at the time of obscene Christmas consumerism, but literally in our "daily lives". In this current time of instant gratification, landfill, built in obsolescence, huge food waste & a rise in homelessness, self harm, suicide & mental illness, we need to go back to basics. We all need to be satisfied with less.

I'm tired of the constant advertising push to get us to think that changing our kitchens, bathrooms & sitting rooms every 10 years or so is normal. I'm tired of fashion outlets changing stock every 6 - 8 weeks & ditching perfectly reasonable clothing. I'm tired of designer fashion literally "costing the earth" - Oscar de la Renta, Gucci & Louis Vuitton are apparently proud to be the most expensive "brands".

What I'm most tired of & indeed sickened by, is the complete mismatch between not just people who can afford to shop at M&S or Waitrose & those who have to go to foodbanks or school breakfast clubs. But the arrogant rich who treat "fine dining" & drinking Laurent Perrier, Dom Perignon or Armand de Brignac champagne like bottled water, as reasonable behaviour.

We all need to wake up & understand what we are doing. If we don't we have no right to "celebrate" Christmas. In fact we should probably cancel it. God, if he exists, must be wondering what the hell he has done. Or will he just blame it all on Satan?

Bulshit, Boris & Voting - What is Democracy?

Tomorrow I will vote. There have been very few times when I haven't in my 56 years of being eligible. I will vote with my heart, my conscience & my intellect. Not with tribal loyalties, or for the person who I like most or dislike least.

When I use public transport I don't choose the bus or train on the basis of which vehicle I like the most. I choose on the basis of which vehicle will get me nearest to where I want to go. Similarly in a Democracy we should be voting for the party which, on balance, offers the manifesto nearest to what our beliefs are.

We are not voting for the face fronting the Party. We have a Parliamentary Democracy with a Cabinet. No one person is anything other than a titular head. Personally I don't want either Boris or Corbyn as my Prime Minister. But that is all that either of them would be - the Prime minister. Not God, or anything approaching that. They are just the leader of a Party. They have power, but that can be held in check by the Cabinet & Parliament, as the last 3 years have shown.

Disraeli supposedly said "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics". Disraeli would have been shocked had he listened to the campaign we have just undergone. Lying, misinformation & bulshit have all reached unprecidented heights. What makes matters worse is that we have a media & newsprint business which seemingly struggles to tell the difference between those 3 & the truth.

So, forget Brexit if you can. There are much more important things at stake here.

Vote for something, for the party who you really believe will do their best for the country & everyone who lives here. If you hold things like the NHS, the Education of our children, Justice, Transport & Infastructure, Housing & Homelessness, Poverty; dear, then think very carefully whose hands you want controlling the purse strings. We all need all of these at some point in our lives.

I'm lucky. I'm relatively comfortably off. I have a home I own, enough food to eat, heating & lighting, medication to control my health conditions. I want the basics for everyone. I want to feel confident that my 14 year old grandsons will grow up in a world which truly cares about people & the environment.

I'm not confident that I'm going to get that tomorrow.

The Importance of Breathing

"Take a deep breath". "Inhale the future, exhale the past". "Breathe & don't try to be perfect".....

I'm getting very breathless, so I am very aware of how I breathe. Bending down, walking up inclines, climbing stairs, trying to rush....I find myself panting & struggling a bit. I thought a new pacemaker would make me bionic again, but it doesn't seem to have worked. I don't suppose complete heart block, atrial fibrullation & a floppy mitral valve help much.

The last two weekends have been spent working on a craft stall in a local market. My daughter & one of her friends are very creative & decided to give it a try. One is a ceramicist the other works in multi media. It was an absolute joy despite the cold. The thing is that the stall was on the side of the busy Banbury Road. Both weekends I ended up with a very sore throat & tickly cough overnight after doing it. I thought I had a bug, but it only lasted 24 hours. I now realise that it was probably exposure to the traffic pollution.

We take the air that we breathe for granted. We take breathing itself for granted. It is what keeps us alive, but we don't think about that.

The statistics for chronic COPD & Asthma don't make good reading.
https://statistics.blf.org.uk/
Someone in the UK dies from chronic lung disease every 5 minutes. 1 in 5 people in the UK has ever developed COPD or Asthma. It costs the NHS & the economy a fortune.

We should all take the importance of being able to breathe clean air much more seriously.