Gifts

It's New Years Eve, a time to reflect on not just last year, which was possibly one of the worst I can remember worldwide. It's also a time to reflect personally on achievements & failures. However, the past is simply that. Gone. Impossible to change. But there are lessons to be learned if we are open to change ourselves.

I find myself thinking about gifts, both tangible & experiential. I was remembering childhood postwar Christmasses with a friend. We both came from very ordinary homes with very little money. Christmas was far simpler, but there was still huge anticipation. There were not many presents in our stockings or under the tree, but we don't feel that we were deprived. 

Christmas today is a totally different celebration. It is undoubtedly far more commercialised & starts much earlier. There is constant advertising pressure to spend, which raises expectations. Retail makes a huge percentage of annual profit over the Christmas period. There is a massive amount of money involved, even in the current financial situation. https://www.finder.com/uk/christmas-shopping-statistics

We humans have always been given gifts that we didn't value. There are the unwanted presents that go now to the "present drawer" or the charity shop. At least they aren't thrown out, but there is a huge amount of waste - Christmas food is a prime example.

Modern communications have made us well aware that we have been given environmental gifts which are priceless & we have unthinkingly squandered them. We have been like children at Christmas - we have torn the wrapping off, used the gift briefly & then discarded it instead of recognising it's worth.

We have been given the supreme gift of intelligence. We are aware of the consequences to the world we inhabit of our greedy & thoughtless actions. We have to stop thinking of ourselves as special & entitled. We do not have the right to continue using up the finite resouces we have been given. We do not have the right to destroy habitats & everything in them to satisfy our own rampant greed.

There is a price to pay for gifts. They do not come free. We need to change our actions, attitudes & expectations. We have been profligate & selfish & created the Climate Emergency. We are clever & inventive. We have the capacity to rectify the mistakes of the past. The time to put that right is now, before it's too late. 

If we don't I can't bear to think of the gift we are leaving to our grandchildren.

 

Freedom

We are fortunate to live in a free democracy, however imperfect it is. UK citizens can speak their mind publicly, travel wherever they want, wear what they choose, are franchised, can withdraw their labour, are not conscripted into the armed forces, have access to a free press, internet & media for information, & are protected by law from discrimination.... to name just a few.

We are so used to freedom we feel entitled to it & take it for granted, unlike so many countries in the world today. In theory we only imprison people who have committed crimes which warrant such punishment. In theory, if someone seriously wrongs us, we have access to the Law & Justice. We are also free to decide what action to take if behaviour is unacceptable.

However such freedom has responsibility. In basic terms it is the responsibility to "do no harm". We should be bound by a moral code not to harm others by our words, actions or inactions. Harm can be physical or emotional. Freedom does not mean that anyone is entitled to denigrate or belittle another. Words are powerful & can be very hurtful. Human beings are like fragile flowers & can be crushed, especially the young.

On the other hand we must be careful not to curtail freedom too much. The right to free speech is important. On balance I don't agree with "no platforming". We are free to challenge hate speech, fake news & other forms of unacceptable speech & we should. That is a valuable freedom in itself.

A modern problem is the proliferation of fake news & misinformation. Many politicians & people with huge influence don't seem to value truth. They mostly value continuing power & income. We have not yet devised a way to hold these people to account effectively. We must.

It is often much easier not to challenge people who abuse freedom. That is the route to a loss of freedom. Each individual has to decide what behaviour is tolerable & what is not. We must stand up for freedom or we are lost. Too many brave people have been punished, abused or died to defend freedom to just let it be eroded away because we don't have the courage to defend it.

 

Christmas Hypocrisy?

Carols are everywhere at Christmas - on the street, TV, Radio, in shops, in our homes, in churches. They provide the background soundtrack to what has become a consumer driven, largely secular, reason to eat & drink too much & overspend  money many don't have. I suspect we have stopped actually listening to the words most of us know. We mostly certainly ignore their meaning.

Away In a Manger - "no crib for His bed"....."Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care"

Do You Hear What I Hear - "A Child, a Child shivers in the cold".....Pray for peace, people everywhere!"

Angels From The Realm Of Glory - "God with man is now residing" (very hard to believe)

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen - "Save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray....And with true love and brotherhood each other now embrace"

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing - "Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled. Joyful, all ye nations rise"

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day - "Peace on earth, good will to men....There is no peace on earth, I said, For hate is strong and mocks the song. The wrong shall fail, the right prevail" 

It Came Upon The Midnight Clear - "Peace on the earth, good will to men....with the woes of sin and strife the world has suffered long. Two thousand years of wrong; And man at war with man hears not The love-song which they bring; O! hush the noise, ye men of strife, And hear the Angels sing" (drowned out by the clamour of the disposessed & marginalised)

Joy To The World - "No more will sin and sorrow grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He rules the world with truth and grace."

O Holy Night - "Long lay the world in sin and error pining, Till He appeared. The weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. His law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break for the slave is our brother and in his name all opression shall cease"( A difficult message in this Winter of Discontent)

O Little Town of Bethlehem - "Peace to men on earth. In this world of sin meek souls will receive Him still. Misery cries out to thee, charity stands watching"

Once In Royal David's City - "With the poor and meek and lowly, lived on earth our Savior holy"

The repeating message is clear. We just have to hear it and act accordingly, whether we are religious or not. If we don't each work for peace, love & brotherhood, if we don't each work towards redemption & forgiveness rather than judgement, if we opress & hate & treat people as of less value than we are, how can we sing the Carols & celebrate Christmas?

More importantly how can we break the cycle & bring our children up to be kind & loving human beings? It isn't all about what's under the Christmas tree. Our very humanity is at stake.

 

Let There be Light.

I've spent a lifetime turning lights off in rooms I'm not using. Years ago it was because there was no spare money to waste. I was born at the end of the war - Frugality was built in. It became a habit & I actually felt slightly uncomfortable if I was in homes where people left all the lights on all the time - Even when they weren't at home.

If you have lived on a very fixed income with no savings you are mindful of every penny. Even though I don't have money worries now I can't bear waste or profligate spending. It's ingrained in my DNA.

Bearing that in mind I don't understand & am a little irritated by the targeting the public to save energy by switching everything off apart from routers, fridge freezers & printers. Why not the bigger wasters of electricity like office & public buildings, advertising lighting in places like Piccadilly Circus & street lighting on motorways at night.......? There are huge energy savings to be made. 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1107502/Energy_Trends_September_2022.pdf

Individually we do all need to do our bit for the benefit of everyone & the world we live in. It is in our own interest & there are a lot of us. But it must be a drop in the ocean in comparison to what could be achieved by commercial & industrial organisations. It is in their interest too, to  reduce costs & increase profits. Obviously transport & agriculture also use huge amounts of electricity & could probably make savings too.

We need to look at the whole picture in order to meet targets for the Climate Emergency. There isn't much time to achieve sustainability & stop using fossil fuels. Just flying at night shows the whole world lit up. An added bonus would be the end of light pollution. We could actually see the stars & the natural world would benefit too.

 

Refugees - Truth & Propaganda

Yesterday the crew of the fishing boat, "Raymond", spent two hours pulling 31 people from the freezing waters of the Channel. 4 people died. More than 40 were eventually rescued altogether. They included adults & children from Iraq, Afghanistan, India and Senegal. They had paid £5,000 to be on the boat. The refugees had nothing to bail out the boat & some were in t shirts.

Refugee Action said that "these tragedies are predictable and inevitable, and caused by hostile government policies – such as those announced yesterday by the prime minister – which are designed to keep people out, and not keep people safe.”

Please look at this website.  https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/about/facts-about-refugees/

Does anyone truly think that refugees, asylum seekers or even economic migrants go through everything that they do if they have any other choice? Just think about one aspect only. Would you get into an overcrowded, inflatable, boat in winter & cross the Dover Strait, the busiest shipping lane in the world? Even worse, would you do it with your children? 

No, of course you wouldn't. It isn't a choice any sane person would voluntarily make. It is largely born out of desperation & a life that is intolerable. 

There is a lot of misinformation & propaganda around this whole issue. Our current government pursue policies they think we support that will keep them in power.

Isn't it time that we had  "Good Samaritan Law" & attitude to this whole problem? Currently there is no criminal liability in the UK for failing to act in the event of another person being in danger. The Social Action, Responsibility & Heroism Act 2015 does protect people attempting rescue, to reduce bystanders' hesitation to assist, for fear of being sued or prosecuted for unintentional injury or wrongful death.

I realise that this is a worldwide problem & that it will probably worsen as a result of climate change, war & bad regimes. We need an effective United Nations to negotiate a humane & effective solution. But frankly I can't see that happening. What we need to do is put our own house in order & recognise that human life is too important for any country not to do everything in their power to give aid to people less fortunate. 

If we want to be members of the human race we have to behave humanely. Currently UK policy is not humane. 

Perception, Human Fallibility & the Royal Family

Perception is the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted. In simple terms it's what an individual thinks. We become aware through our senses, then we go through a process of selection, organization, and interpretation. We are rarely conscious of this process but it determines how we develop images of the world around us. What is real / unreal, what is right / wrong, what we believe / don't believe.

I may be correct in my perceptions or completely wrong, but what matters is that it's what I believe. My brain is the filter through which all my perceptions pass. The problem is my brain is not infallible. It is affected by my emotions & previous experience. Again, in simple terms, I am biased.

The royal family are no exception to this. They are human beings just like us. Unlike us, almost everything they do happens in the glare of worldwide publicity. Whilst professing to loathe the Paparazzi & desire privacy, the major royals have well oiled public relations people & some seemingly actually court, (excuse the pun), as much publicity as possible. 

In the case of Harry & Meghan, today this has turned into a sad media fest, seemingly in order to make shedloads of money & hugely embarrass their immediate family. It's hard to see how the release of the Netflix documentary "Harry & Meghan" can in any way be beneficial, other than to keep them in the luxury they are used to.

I have no idea whether the things they say are actually true. Their perceptions are presumably what they genuinely believe is true. If not they are very destructive & manipulative. My guess would be that there is fault on both sides. That isn't the real question though. The real issue is what is achieved by this very public, ongoing, washing of "dirty linen"? Would the majority of "ordinary" people make so public what should be a private family rift. I really doubt it.

The royal family is not ordinary. They are constrained in ways we really cannot imagine. It's the price they pay for being enormously privileged. The press & media is not always reliable. I cannot imagine what it must be like to be in the spotlight all the time. But Harry & Meghan cannot "have their cake & eat it". They cannot say they want to avoid the publicity & scrutiny of a royal life & also give interviews & make documentaries about their grievances. 

There is no balance, no recognition that there is always a different point of view. It's all very subjective, emotive & ultimately destructive. It's a clash of cultures on many levels. The royals v celebrities, America v the UK, the establishment v the woke, the young v the elderly.....

They really need to stop & sort this out through dialogue & probably impartial mediation. It's an unpleasant festering sore.

 

Strikes

I remember the "3 Day Week" & the Miners Strike in 1973 - 1974. I remember the lights going out & cooking on a wood burning stove. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Day_Week  The Conservatives under Ted Heath called a general election resulting in a "hung parliament".

I remember the "Winter of Discontent" between November 1978 and February 1979. There were widespread strikes by the private, and later the public sector. A Labour government were trying to control inflation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_Discontent  It resulted in the Conservatives gaining power under Maggie Thatcher. 

I remember the race riots in British cities in 1981 & 1985. They were exacerbated by the disproportionate use of 'stop and search' ('sus') powers against young black men and the increasing economic decline of inner city areas. https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/studying/docs/racism/1980s/

I thought they were the worst periods possible in my lifetime.

There is now, in my opinion , a "perfect storm" of circumstances, which could lead to widespread civil unrest not seen in the UK ever. 

• The Global financial crisis of 2007–2008 led to years of austerity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932008
• Then the Brexit referendum in 2016 led to a consensus this year, shared by most researchers, policy institutions and businesses, that Brexit will have a negative long-run effect on the UK economy by raising barriers to trade, migration and investment between the UK and EU'. https://www.briefingsforbritain.co.uk/what-impact-is-brexit-having-on-the-uk-economy/  
• That was followed by Covid in December 2019  https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/covid-and-the-uk-economy-speech-by-clare-lombardelli-chief-economic-advisor-hm-treasury
• Finally we had the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February this year https://www.eib.org/en/stories/ukraine-trade-inflation
  

Thousands of workers in many different areas are striking, balloting to strike or threatening to ballot. Royal Mail, Teachers & Lecturers, Security workers, Bus & Train drivers, Signalling staff, Ambulance crews, Nurses, Midwives, Civil Servants, Cleaners...The list is endless. If these strikes go ahead everyones lives will be seriously impacted. Apparently, currently there is a rise in excess deaths unrelated to Covid. The inference is that it's because of the dire situation in the NHS.

 

Add to that the fact that millions of people do not have sufficient income for food, heating & decent living accommodation. The basic necessities of life - not luxuries. People are becoming desperate. I can remember regularly running out of money towards the end of the week in the early years of my marriage & having egg & chips because it was very cheap. But my family never went hungry. Adults in the UK are going without meals & going to food banks regularly.

 

This is a political problem & it's really serious. Currently we seem to have a government that not only caused some of these problems, but also can't agree among themselves what the solutions are. People will not remain patient. They will take the law into their own hands, history has shown that. 

 

The only solution I can see is for us to have a Coalition government like the one in the second world war. We need a government of the best people from across all parties. The most talented & experienced people who will make long term decisions in the interest of the whole UK. Not people thinking of their own political careers or short term, knee jerk, policies. 

 

I don't have any faith that it will happen. The old ways of our "democracy" & tribalism are too entrenched.

 

But, if I am still around, I will hold this shambolic government accountable for what happens.

 

Immortality

I don't want to live to a hundred & I certainly don't want to be immortal. I would quite like to think that I would remain in the memories of family & friends for a while after the part of me that matters, my brain & soul, has departed this body. Dying isn't a problem really. The possible problem is how you die & the legacy you leave behind.

In living for 77 years I must have impacted in some way on a huge number of people. Not least all the children I taught. Looking back & comparing education then & now I realise that I didn't always get it right, either in teaching or running schools. Everything is in a state of change & over years they do improve. Human beings can learn to do things better.

I've made mistakes as a parent & as a friend too. The thing about ageing is that if you have the capacity to reflect, honestly, you do know you could have been a better person. When the responsibilities of managing a family, a home & a job lessen you have the time to observe & reflect more. It isn't possible to change the past. All you can do is try to be the best you can be now. 

Old people are no different to young people really. Although they may not be as conversant with technological change & modern thinking, they do have more experience. Society needs a balanced age mix where every voice can be heard & valued. I don't think that is actually the case though. The old criticise the young for their naivety, the young criticise the old for being out of touch.

Interestingly this Blog will possibly make me immortal. I never set out with that aim in mind. It was my way of coping with the awful events in my life in 2009. It has helped me cope with the huge adjustments  in the last 13 years. In the absence of my husband & friend it allowed me to externalise the day to day things that impacted on me. It has become far more political & philosophical & less personal over time.

But my immortality will depend on there still being people reading it. So my thanks to the thousands of readers over the years.

 

Artificial Intelligence, Robotics & Virtual Reality

A I is transforming our lives & businesses worldwide. Already algorithms are used everywhere, supposedly overcoming human subjectivity, bias, and prejudice. The danger is that algorithms replicate and embed the biases that already exist in our society. Computers learn & understand language & behaviour & adapt & predict. A I not only learns but also makes decisions. Humans are becoming unnecessary in processes. A I replaces them. A I systems are already being used to improve business strategies, customer service, market research, advertising, predictive maintenance, autonomous cars, video surveillance, medicine and more.

There are 3 major areas of ethical concern for society: privacy and surveillance, bias and discrimination, and perhaps the most difficult philosophical question of the era, the role of human judgment. Michael Sandel a Harvard philosopher and many others raise important questions about the direction A I is taking the world in. 

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/10/ethical-concerns-mount-as-ai-takes-bigger-decision-making-role/

Automation is here to stay. It's impact on jobs & manufacturing will become ever more obvious. This changes the skill sets needed to be employable. The benefit may be that the routine, boring, mundane, unskilled jobs can be done by machines or software. The downside is what becomes of unskilled people who don't have the capacity to be upskilled?

Our lives are generally overseen & regulated to ensure compliance with some sort of ethical code. Who is regulating the huge Tech monolith? No one. Companies that develop or use AI systems largely self-police, relying on existing laws and market forces. They also rely on shareholders & highly-prized AI technical talent to keep them in line. How naive is that considering the risks?

Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) are all considered under the umbrella of Extended Reality 'XR' - The development of increasingly realistic virtual worlds is used in training, education, psychotherapy, physical and mental rehabilitation, marketing, entertainment, and for further applications in research. This definitely needs to be regulated. Researchers, content creators, and distributors of XR systems need to determine what should be within a code of conduct. At the very least it should be, like Hippocrates, "First, do no harm”. 

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frvir.2020.00001/full

The potential for harm to people & the planet is enormous, as well as possibly very beneficial. These developments in the wrong, unscrupulous, profit driven, hands could literally mean the end of life as we know it. Or it could lead to Nirvana.

 

The problem is human beings are not infallible. They make mistakes. Mistakes with this technology could be catastrophic. No Governments seem to have a plan for technological development, oversight & legislation enforcement. 

We have opened Pandoras Box & we haven't got a clue. 

 

 

COP 27 - 30 Years of Lobbying & Greenwashing

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992. COP = Conference of the Parties. In diplomatic language “the parties” refers to the 197 nations that agreed to the new environmental pact.

Thirty years of talking about Climate Change. Thirty years of empty promises, agreements & resolutions not fulfilled. Thirty years of increasing scientific evidence of just how much we are destroying the world we live in. 

The Paris Agreement is the legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was a landmark in the multilateral climate change process because, for the first time, a binding agreement brings all nations into a common cause, to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, adopted by 196 Parties at COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015 and entered into force on 4 November 2016. Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels. https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement

Iran and Libya – both among the 14-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) – as well as Yemen and Eritrea have not ratified the agreement. The US withdrew under Trump, from November 2020. Biden rejoined the pact on his first day in office, 20 January 2021, and formally re-entered the global treaty 30 days later.

Inside Climte News reports “Our results indicate that the framework of the agreement is working pretty well. The Paris Agreement is getting countries to make ambitious pledges; last year nearly all countries updated those pledges and made them even more ambitious. What’s needed next is better systems for checking to see whether countries are actually delivering what they promise.”

We have to continue to hold countries & politicians to account. Greta Thunberg notably isn't going to COP27. She reckons it’s just a chance for the powerful to get away with “greenwashing, lying and cheating”, and that the annual summits of national governments, policy experts, spruikers and hangers-on aren’t working. At COP26 Countries agreed to limit global temperatures to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – an advancement on the landmark 2015 Paris agreement – and acknowledged that meant immediately considering how to ratchet up action this decade. But 2022 has not delivered on that promise. Only 24 countries have updated their voluntary pledges to the UN, and only India and Australia have taken noteworthy strides forward, the latter from a very low base.

 

An estimated 35,000 people from government, Indigenous nations, climate groups and fossil-fuel multinationals will be getting on planes to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in the hopes of hastening (or hindering) the global movement to net zero. “It’s like a giant trade fair with Greenpeace at one kiosk and Exxon at the next,” said one lifelong environmentalist who stayed home. 

My cynical brain asks what the Carbon cost of that will be.