The Axe of Austerity Falls

So Wednesday the 20^th day of October in the year 2010, or 20-10-2010 in simple numbers was the day that the axe of Austerity swung on the British Economy and literally chopped every limb from our able bodied national existence.

Yes, it don’t really matter who you are, or who you work for, if you live, work or learn in the UK then you can pretty much guarantee that the next four years will suck big time. Hell its something we’ve all known has been coming since the election that saw Labour’s landslide victory of 1997 when the man I personally hold responsible for this calamity came marching into power with a quirky smile, a silver spoon in his gob and a wet handshake for every willing wimp to shake, be trashed on the side walk as a nation went to the polls not quite sure who the hell to choose.

Well here we have it folks, and it’s of our own making that we are in the boat we find ourselves in, so its no use complaining. When the British public had a chance to democratically put its foot down and demand more from its politicians, they simple sat back and got confused. Yes admittedly even I found myself in a quandary over who to choose, but in such times, a choice must be made and the consequences of those choices accepted.

For many selfish reasons, people close to me supported Labour and Gordon Brown in his fool hardy attempt to run for office once more. Truth be told for many of those, the support of Gordon Brown was folly as they believed that Labour would go easy on Zimbabwean Immigrants, and put a stop on deportations. How misguided that assumption must now look as we see the truth of how deeply Labour and its two chief goons lead us up the garden path.

Let’s be completely frank with each other. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown did not have the average man in the forefront of their minds as they spent for the sake of spending. Even towards the end of the game, when the truth was coming out from the leaking holes in the government infrastructure, Gordon Brown still remained steadfastly stuck on his spending mantra. As a result of this irresponsibility and complete lack of leadership, we now face one of the toughest periods in living memory in the UK.

This is not something that we face alone. The whole developed world has had to look long and hard at itself, and come to the realisation that greed and wilful neglect of duty do not make up for reality. You cannot borrow yourself out of debt. Japan tried that one and nearly failed on numerous occasions. Gordon Brown lead the nation to believe that our economy could recover enough to pay off the debt that he’d amassed in his quantative easing measures designed to stabilise the economy from sinking further into recession. Of all the billions of tax payers pounds that were sunk into the banking sector to stimulate lending and ease the intra bank lending rates, what benefit did the economy or any small business see?

It is common knowledge that industry in the UK is a dying art. The bulk of our economy revolves around service industries, call centres, banking and white collar trade models. We don’t have any world renowned steel mills anymore. Our automotive industry belongs to any other country but Britain. Our ability to build ships, undertake construction or even provide the very service structure our economy thrives on is slowly ebbed from our shores. Just about all forms of heavy industry is undertaken abroad. Call centre and service support industries have farmed out to developing nations where work forces do the job at half the cost. As more and more centres of excellence like Dubai in the UAE and Energy City in Qatar become more appealing as they gear up to become the banking Mecca’s as we move into the second decade of the twenty first century. Don’t tell me for a moment that companies the size of Barclays Bank or HSBC won’t think twice about relocation if suddenly faced with the prospect of massive levies applied by the British Government.

In every way we possibly can we have made it near impossible for our economy to rise up from the ashes of this devastating blow and recover itself. How then could we have possibly paid our way out of recession as Gordon Brown assured us we would? No people, the reality of it was simple. Gordon had realised that he’d never be re-elected to office in the UK. The reality was that Gordon had seen the light at the end of the tunnel was being extinguished by debt, and yet failing to have a spin and lead our proud nation as a man, he failed to call time on Labour’s folly, and instead pulled the plug, spending everything he could just to make sure that who ever took over would look even worse than he.

My anger is not aimed at the Coalition who has had to face a disaster and try to remain positive. No, I do not despise David Cameron for his government’s wide stretching raft of austerity measures. That feeling I harbour only towards the evil men that went before him. I can only hope that for every old person that dies a lonely, hungry, miserable death as a result of these cuts will play on the mind of our esteemed Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and they ponder the folly of their time in office. I can only pray that the blood of all the victims of the crime wave to come will drip loudly in their ears at night as they fight for sleep. I can only hope that the starving child, beaten and abused at the hands of parents driven to depression beyond their abilities will remain vivid in their minds eye each time they pause for thought.

Yes it is at your feet that responsibility lies. No, not completely, as it takes many men to create such mayhem and chaos in modern society. But it was on your watch that the wolf played havoc in the chicken run, and it is time for men to be men and stand up for their lack of leadership, it is time for men to be men and accept the burden of guilt, aye it is time for men to be men and prove that there are still fine gentlemen among us.

My heart cries out for every single genuine person, man, woman and child who’s life is going to be made hell over the next ten years as a result of these measures. I do honestly believe that our government have been bold and brave. Would any one of you liked to have won an election knowing you were going to become the most unpopular government in the last 70 years of British history at no fault of your own? Would any one of you have wanted to walk into government and take over knowing that Gordon Brown was your predecessor and having an inkling of what exactly was to come as you began to get to grips with the shambles you’d been left? Do any of us truly believe that anyone else could have or would have done the job any differently? Let’s be real people. Before today we were living every day in the UK to pay £120 million in interest to service our debt. What else could our government do?

In all honesty as I listen to economists from around the world, every major power is going to have to face a day like today. The US is servicing a debt of several Trillion dollars. Austerity will fall on the shoulders of every American in just the way today it did for British folk. Four years of pain and six years of recovery are far better than ten years of uncertainty and potential bankruptcy.

If you’ve read this and you’re a rich person, or somewhat well off in society, my only message or calling to you is to each day as you survive the effects of the cuts announced today, remember those below you struggling to make ends meet. We are all affected by these measures, others more so than others, and if we are to survive then many of us will never to lend a helping hand to those in desperate need. This is the measure of a true community. This is the mark of a real society, and these are the actions of real people.

The Good, The Bad and the God Damn Ugly!

What does it take to make honourable men act honourably? When will our leaders learn to act more like leaders and not thieves in Little Red Riding Hood costumes? When will politics become about the people and not the private investment funds of the rich and powerful?

A bunch of questions that ring out from the mouths of hard working middle class people around the world. The lower class have in time learnt to accept their place in society and seem to be the forgotten trouble of this generation, and every generation to come, until the trouble comes knocking on your door, and the crimes of survival are brought unwelcomingly back to our memories as we realise that we’ve been done over by some fool on a bender to score their next fix.

This is my society. This is the reality of the world in which I live. Trying to survive against all odds, trying not to draw any attention to ourselves lest we become the target of the shadows of the night. This is the legacy that I’ve been left and the legacy I know I’ll pass on. Bankers in charge of my money earning more than many of the Small and Medium businesses listed on the balance sheet in their banks turn over in ten years.

This is the world that I wake up to each morning, where the politicians that rule in a grey cloud of diplomacy that makes their work appear out of focus, in their desperate efforts to be as corrupt as possible while chanting an all too familiar mantra about how incapable the opposition really is of doing the job correctly, while our national debt spirals out of control, and credit lines once extended freely, now act as the rope around the throat of the very people who’s money keeps the system afloat.

Spin is the reality of the truth I am expected to swallow no matter how I may choke on the blatant lies of the bureaucracy spinning the yarn. As our communities have learnt that our leaders hide behind fire screens, pointing in any way possible to create a diversion from the original issues, it has become the norm for society to accept that lying is a way of life, and if you tell the truth you are regarded as being as dishonest as anyone else so What I ask is the point of standing out from the crowd, and trying to be honest.

I have come to the realisation that crime is what really pays in life today, and living by the book, trying to make it in this world without resorting to some sort of dodgy activity is really just not worth it. You know the more I look at society around me today the more I realise that I live in one really messed up world. Morality, respect, justice, chivalry and common decency are things of a bi gone era.

What a depressing thought. What has our world come to? Is this all society can show off for itself after 2000 years of mankind here on earth. Yes that would seem to be the case. It is a harsh reminder that life is not all it’s cracked up to be. But the moral of the story is that no matter how hard life is you can still enjoy it, and it’s up to us to find the things in life that make it enjoyable and cherish those moments in our life.

The older I get and the more I begin to understand this life of mine, the more I realise that friendship is one of the most important relationships that we’ll ever develop in our lives. And when I use the term friendship, you find that most adults can count on one hand the people that they value as their real friends. You see friendship is not all about what you can get out of someone, it’s probably more importantly about what you can give to someone. Selfishness aside not many people know how to be a real friend to someone they cannot understand, do not have respect for, and don’t really rate as an individual. In these circumstances I believe it is far better to be honest with yourself and the other person about where your relationship stands and focus your energy on those friendships that really mean something, rather than waist time being friendly when you don’t mean it.

I have also come to accept that unless you are born exceptionally rich, or land with your bum in the proverbial butter, that hard work is a fact of life. Good things don’t come to those that don’t get up and commit themselves to getting what they want. As a society we need to get out of the daydream that fame and celebrity will be the answer to all our woes. An understanding that hard work and focus on a realistic goal is what is going to make life more comfortable for you, unless living in a council flat on the dole is what makes you happy. Get some ambition, and wake up to the challenge of life before it passes you by.

As the world gets smaller, and its more and more easy to keep up with an international spectrum of friends, relatives, acquaintances, business colleagues and others that fill the gaps, it almost seems that you have to reduce the size of the world around you and keep your near and dear close to you in an isolated bubble of protection that allows you all to thrive in your own little environment. We meet and speak with people on a global scale, but like most other people out there, the world as a whole is desperate to make it, and will climb over any obstacle to get there, even if that obstacle is you.

I’ve also learnt that in life to be in the centre of attention, to aim to be the hero, or seeking for celebrity status is only going to set you up for a fall. People are only admired for an instant in life, and then torn apart as the truth about their lives comes out behind the scenes. How often it is that I meet people who are yearning for attention only to hear rumour after rumour behind their back as the reality is that in order to attain their popularity most celebrities have hurt and trodden all over someone on the way up, and I’ve also come to learn that it’s a long lonely fall coming down too.

It is a human instinct to want to be credited for the things we do. It is only natural to want acknowledgment for the things we do. But in this life it is sometimes better to do quietly, without seeking credit, and reap a reward far greater than man’s praise. More is done by those who quietly pass by in the night, changing people’s lives without recognition for their great deeds, than those that cling to their fragile pillar of the spot light. I tell you now, those people come and go and amount to nothing in your life. Those that are quietly there for you, encouraging you to be all you can, listening and saying nothing when you are rabbeting on about nothing, those who quietly pick up the pieces when you crash and burn and stand back holding them till your ready to return and accept their help to put your life back together. Those are the real treasures of your life. Learn to tell the difference between the light hoggers and the light bringers, and give of your time wisely.

Much of what we do in life is judged by others. And having watched our leaders, read the business success stories, and learnt from experience, I’ve come to the conclusion that it matters not what the world thinks of you. What is really important is what you think of yourself. Are you able to sleep at night without the nightmares keeping you awake? Is your conscious clear and most of all are you proud of what you’ve achieved in life? Forget trying to impress the world, stop hanging around with people whose sole ambition in life is to be famous, and learn to enjoy life around those that are important, make you smile, make you feel special, and keep you on the right road of sanity. In doing this the depression of the realities of the world we live in start to fade off into the distance, and while we have to accept that this is part of the world that we call home, we learn and ability to survive and make our survival tolerable with moments of pure happiness and enjoyment and lots of treasures to be thankful for.

Tollerance – A farce of Humanity.

I often ask myself if as human beings we really can live life without being prejudicial. It would seem impossible to be honest with myself and say that I am not prejudicial towards certain classes of people, or certain cultures for that matter. Does that make me a bad person just because I am honest enough to admit that I struggle with being prejudicial even though I know it is wrong? I think if I was able to force everyone to be honest with themselves for a moment, and then honest enough to be able to confess, that I’d find I am not alone.

We are told that we live in one of the most multi cultural accepting and tolerant countries in the modern world. I often wonder whether the spin doctors that come up with this shit have ever left Downing Street and the inner sanctum of Greater London. I wonder if a visit to the colonies would wake them up to the fact that right here within this wonderful home we call Great Britain it is difficult to find a Welshman, Scott or Irish person that does not hate the English. I wonder if they’ve ever realised that the English are frequently subject of discussions about how intolerant they really are. It is even subject of comedy as the likes of Dara O’briain and Rhod Gilbert make fun of the bitter rivalry between the nations of the Union Jack.

The biggest double standard comes from our oh so very political correct establishment in Whitehall. For if we are to follow the instruction of the government and community leaders, who preach tolerance and acceptance on the widest scale, then why is it that when it comes to accepting Neo Nazism, Communism, the fascists, Klansman or any form of extremist they are subject to immediate exclusion, ridicule and fall subject to persecution based on prejudice. Admittedly many of these groups are founded on the principal of intolerance or hate in the first place, and there is a social angle at the root of the treatment they receive. However my point is that if we expect these people to be tolerant and to lay aside their prejudices then shouldn’t we be leading by example. Double standards and hypocrisy are not the way to win a war of words.
When we examine history, especially the subject of religion we are faced with what I believe is the starting blocks of most prejudices. Islam will in no way at all accept that Christianity is a parallel religion, and Christians won’t accept that people are capable of making their own choice. Hindu’s will not for one moment agree that the Buddhists, Sikhs or Jainist’s are acceptable religions within their own sphere of influence. Then you have the pagans who won’t accept witchcraft, and Muslims that won’t accept Judaism. Within the walls of religion there is the greatest forms of prejudices and intolerance that society can point too, yet it is something that as society we are far too scared to even begin to debate or seek for a common ground that could lead to a peace accord.

On a personal level I find that I struggle with prejudice. If there is one thing that I have come to find intolerable it’s the whole class system that is so evident in modern society, especially evident here in Britain. I know and perfectly understand that it is an entrenched part of British culture, yet I find it so demeaning and irritating. The fact that a whole class of people look down their noses at people who are perfectly within their right to be where they are, doing what they are doing, and living the life they choose really makes me angry. In many ways, the so called upper class are infact a bunch of hypocritical, lazy, uncouth individuals who take their place in society to mean that they are entitled to be treated special. And we as the working or so called lower class seem happily to allow them to do so. It is a system that I fail to understand, and one that I defiantly seek not to become a part of.

Class systems exist all over the world, and you will always find the privileged at the head of the snake taking advantage of a hard working middle class and turning up their noses at the poor lower class. This through history again can be a pointer at a cause of prejudice. Class systems have certainly been at the root of racism. I know that through my experiences growing up in an African country where in many situations the white colonialists and indeed many people that chose to continue to settle in Africa after colonialism, looked upon the indigenous population as an intolerable mass to be segregated and kept out of society. This is unacceptable in any modern standard, and society pays the price for this intolerance even today. It will take many generations to forget the hurt of colonialism, even though it has a fact of history gone and unchangeable. The sad fact is that this class system which kept a majority in poverty for so long has caused one of the biggest issues of modern society. Racism in so many circumstances has become a trump card that a minority can now play over a majority anywhere around the world. For many years the world did not wake up to racism, did not see its effect on a marginalised people, and by the time it found itself ready to deal with the cause and effect, the flames of hatred had taken hold and raged in a insurmountable bush fire. The lessons that we should draw from this struggle should be learnt today before we have a total role reversal and reverse racism is allowed to destroy another whole millennium of potential here on earth.

Woman have for so long fought for their rights as human beings, that we can look back at another classic form of prejudice and the track it has followed. Any woman who reads this paragraph might find it irritating, and if you do I welcome your thoughts, but I write this thinking of a portion of the population that I see every weekend, and compare that in my mind to my life back in Africa. It is a funny thing to me that woman have struggled so long to become equal in recognition yet are the first to expect a traditional role in terms of dating and relationships. Of course this is not always the case, and there are woman out there today that seem to be perfectly happy to be the one to take the lead in the courting process. For the most part I don’t deny that woman should be given their rightful place in society. They are certainly not slaves of men nor should they be treated badly by testosterone fuelled bullies that prey on vulnerable women. However, if a woman wishes to be treated as the farer sex then in my opinion they should learn to be the farer sex. There is nothing attractive about a woman on an imaginary testosterone high. Having worked the night club industry for so long I have watched how modern woman have changed, and I miss my humble Africa where a woman was a thing of beauty to be admired and courted and charmed and respected and loved. How can you feel those things for woman who flaunt themselves as mutton dressed as lamb, drink copious amounts of alcohol, smoke, fight, use language that a trooper would blush at, crawl home along the pavement unable to walk after an alcohol fuelled night out, with little regard for their appearance, behaviour or safety. “How do you respect that?” I wonder to myself night after night as I leave the club and drive home watching this sad story play out. How are you able to not form a prejudice towards that kind of person, jump to conclusions about any woman that you might meet, wondering in the back of your mind if that is what they are going to turn out to be like. The most amazing thing to me is that it is not just the teens and twenty something’s that do it. I have happened to work for some classy establishments in my time and find that even mature, respectable woman seem to find it acceptable to carry on in this way. If that is woman’s lib then frankly you can stick it.

So I come back to my original thought. How on earth are we meant to live a life without prejudice? In this wonderfully PC world of ours, we are meant to teach the generation of tomorrow about acceptance and tolerance and learning to live side by side. Yet we carry out our daily lives showing our intolerance in our actions. Not only does this make it uncomfortable for the people around whom you display your prejudice, but children learn more from actions than they do from words. Take for example a gay person. Imagine a child growing up and realising as it does that its gay. First of all its probably learnt through its own experience in its family that gay is a totally uncool thing. So not only does the child have to go through the realisation that, “hell I have gay feelings!” but it also has to go through the mental trauma of trying to figure out how it is going to tell society that its gay. This is just one example of how we make it difficult right within our own homes to live without prejudice. Personally I don’t believe that we are ever going to be this wonderfully accepting race that we dream of being. Maybe in realising this fact and becoming more tolerant of ourselves as humble human beings with faults and imperfections then we might begin to make some sort of progress in learning to accept each other.