End of a momentous year

Here we are at the end of 2008. All round it has been a momentous year and looks as if it will end on a ‘high’ note with the Israelis threatening the Palestinians with all out war in Gaza and killing over 400 assorted Hamas militants and civilians by way of a warning.
Just thought I would wish everyone a Happy, Peaceful and Prosperous 2009.
Cheers.
Enjoy tonight.

The Gaza strip

What a mess and what a tragedy. The events transpiring in the Gaza Strip at this moment are the result of injustices going back to 1947 when the victorious Allies (mainly Britain) ‘gave’ a large portion of Palestine to the unfortunate survivors of the Nazi Death Camps, to form the state of Israel. The current problems stem from that time. I do not believe the Palestinians were asked if they had any objections. Everyone hoped that any problems would just go away.

Well, four wars later and incessant skirmishes and the various ‘Intifadas’ have made this the most dangerous zone on earth. With over one million displaced Palestinians crammed into Gaza, seething about the injustice (it is immaterial whether it is perceived or actual – the end result is the same), and wanting to return to ‘their’ land, something is going to happen. What astonishes me, and I know that I do not live there, is the attitude of the Israelis. They have suffered injustice in varying degrees for centuries; they suffered appalling atrocities in the 1930s and 1940s. Those with some knowledge of history will recall the Warsaw Ghetto, when a number of Jews were forced into a small area of Warsaw – they had some arms and they expected help from the British and others (which did not really eventuate, even though the Royal Air Force did air drop a few crates of weapons) – and they fought the Germans but were annihilated. The difference between Warsaw and Gaza is only a matter of degree, but it appears that the Israelis cannot see it (or will not see it).
And the wall they have built between the East and the West bank, isn’t this a ‘Berlin’ wall, isn’t this a version of apartheid? Which is discrimination, which in turn results in injustice, which in turn causes more anger, which results in more acts of revenge (against the injustices) and the sorry cycle is repeated, again and again, to no one’s advantage.

Killing people; destroying their means of livelihood; trying to starve them into submission will never work. Have such practices, perpetrated against them, ever stopped the Jews? Of course not – they are a proud and intelligent people with a long history. Did such activity stop the British after London and Coventry were bombed? Of course not they are a proud and intelligent people with a long history. Did such activities stop the Germans or the Japanese after their cities were destroyed by fire and atomic bombs? Their military capabilities may have been curtailed but they are now the power houses of the world economy – they are a proud and intelligent people with a long history.

The Palestinians will not give in to Israel – until the injustices of the past are at least acknowledges and some restitution made they will continue to seethe and plot revenge. Why should they not – they are of the same ‘stock’ as the Israelis? They are a proud and intelligent people with a long history. What one thinks the other will think and all each wants is their own patch of land.
For God’s sake just negotiate! As Sir Winston Churchill once said, “there should be more jaw, jaw and less war, war”. Please that the Palestinians and Israelis will do just that – talk and not fight!

What bothers me most, and I am sure it is exercising the minds of strategic thinkers every where, is what happens if the Israelis do engage in a ground campaign in Gaza? The Israelis normally go in boots and all this will cause a great deal of soul searching within the Arab world. If they unite against Israel – and remember that they have oil and other financial ‘weapons’ they could use against anyone they feel has wronged them, then Israel will be in real trouble. The West cannot afford another war – it has neither the will nor the man power to prosecute another war. If a war it is then the Israelis will be alone.

It is all so unnecessary – one would hope that after five million years of Human evolution we would have learned to settle our differences without resorting to killing each other!!

Examining your life

First up, a happy festive season and prosperous New Year in 2009, to all.

It was Socrates who claimed that “....the unexamined life is not worth living” (Dialogues of Plato – Apology). While I am still not very good at this – examining my life I mean, being somewhat nervous about what I might discover, there are some real advantages in doing so.

Writing about what I want to say comes easier to me than talking about it. One of the spin-offs from writing these blogs is that I am really learning a great deal about myself. Things that I like, what I don’t like, what I am quite good at, what I should not write about – a whole range of things. And that is good. Life is always a process, a journey from birth to death. I say a journey but really there is no need to travel at all – it is an “inner” journey, a journey of self discovery. There is no need for me to move one centimetre from where I am now to start, progress and finish my ‘journey’.

We are all a great deal more than the water tight skin bag, filled with flesh blood and bones, that we call our body. It is made of all the common elements of the universe but, as I say, there is more to each of us than that. This skin bag contains what we are made of, but who we are, our emotions, our thoughts, our hopes and aspirations, is another matter. One moment our body is alive, the next it may be dead. The life “essence” that enlivened it has now abandoned the body and what is left is a pile of inanimate elements that will dissipate back into nature. The heat of the body, the water, and the earth elements all return back to be, in due course, recycled.

So, apart from our body, what about the rest of what makes us human? What do we do? What are our thoughts and in our private moments what are our true hopes and aspirations? What is the guiding principle behind our emotions? Some of these are unknowable, in that each person has to experience whatever is needed for themselves and this cannot be replicated in any formal sense.

What started me of on this ‘inner quest’, if that is what it can be called, was many years ago at Rhodes University, in Grahamstown, South Africa. I had been working for four years before I enrolled, so I was, I suppose a mature student. Anyway, the first year exams came around and I was very nervous. To calm my nerves I did what I still do now – I sat at my desk turned off the lights in my room, closed my eyes, quietened my mind and was still. All of a sudden the hairs at the back of my neck rose up, my breath and pulse quickened and a scene appeared ‘behind my eyes’. The scene was of a beautiful orange and red sunset over a lake, or a body of water – very peaceful. It then suddenly changed to a beautiful cold early dawn scene at some marsh – I could see the reeds and other water plants growing in clumps in the water. The sky was a clear eggshell blue and across my vision there appeared a flight of geese, flying in a V formation, from left to right. Everything was at peace. The beauty of the scenes is really indescribable.

Immediately my breathing and pulse returned to normal and I ‘awoke’ with an unshakeable belief, a knowledge, that ‘all will be well’. The scenes and emotions from that evening, so long ago, are with me still. I just have to close my eyes and I am back there in my little cubicle of a room reliving those same emotions. All was well. I passed all my exams and got my degree. And all is still ‘well’ in my life – what I felt then I still feel now.

How I ‘received’ that knowledge, that belief, and where it came from I don’t know. I have my ideas about this of course, but I cannot prove a thing. But it gives me comfort and brings peace of mind and this will remain with me till the end of my days.

Many others have ‘witnessed’ similar scenes or even had near death experiences. I know that my late mother did with the very difficult birth of my brother. My wife also had a near death experience when she suffered her first kidney failure. It cannot be that uncommon as even in my small circle I know of three instances, myself, my wife and my mother.

All this gives another dimension to ‘Life’ and I think, enriches it. As I say it has certainly brought me comfort and peace of mind. That is why I am still searching, to see what more there is to learn, if that is the correct word. I sometimes think that this knowledge is innate, within us all and all we have to do is to ‘discover’ it. That is why I love Philosophy and why I like writing. It gives me the opportunity to share what I have learned and what I believe is of vital importance, with others.

Mea Culpa

It is now Christmas Eve. That most treasured of times; the one time in the year when differences are, if not forgotten or forgiven, at least considered in a more favourable mood. This is the season for spreading good cheer; for meeting family and friends and enjoying the break from work; for going on holiday and making (and breaking) resolutions.

Here is mine: unless I think more carefully about what I choose to write about I should keep quiet! I made a statement at the end of my last blog – about homeless people and that their plight is often one of choice. Now I know, I have always known, that many are homeless not from choice but by circumstances beyond their control. I consider myself to be an interested observer of life and I read widely so I am fully aware of the many and various events that occur to render a person or a family, homeless.

Therefore if I offended anyone, or gave the wrong impression, I unreservedly apologise.

Mindless actions

Two unrelated but equally unfortunate incidents have occurred to people close to my wife and I. Two nights ago my daughter’s car was broken into. The thieves obviously thought there was an ipod in the car. There was a cable used to attach the ipod to the car’s speaker system dangling from the radio. That was all – just a USB cable – maybe $5 worth. But no, they smashed a window and took the cable. I just don’t know what to think. The repairs, using a window from a wrecker’s yard will cost $70 plus my son-in-law’s time.

The second incident, the following morning, was rather more serious. A woman, from East Timor, who my wife has been helping, had her handbag snatched from her shoulder, in a shopping centre, by three youths. Because of her traumatic experiences in East Timor this woman suffers from panic attacks (which for those who suffer them are the worst experiences imaginable). The woman had some hundreds of dollars in her bag (part of the Federal Government’s handout to stimulate the economy) to buy Christmas presents and food.

Justice was served in a fashion, in that the youths, when running away from this woman did not have enough time to properly search her bag, took $200 which was right on top, and then ran straight into the arms of a security guard who was having a smoke outside. Two were caught but the third got such a fright that he threw the bag away with such force that it smashed the window of a car setting off the alarm. That third youth got away with the $200. They are either close friends or brothers so he will eventually be caught – though the woman will never get the money back.
This woman is a very gentle, timorous little thing; speaks only Portuguese (which is how she met my wife who translates for her and generally helps out) and is married with three children. Unfortunately the youngest, a little boy of just three years old witnessed the entire affair. He obviously was shocked and started crying, which did not help his mother’s panic attack, and is himself now traumatised and will not leave his mother’s side.

The youths involved are from a disadvantaged minority. Their parents would most certainly also have received the Federal Government’s handout. But no, greed and possibly a desire for drugs or other substance abuse would have prompted their actions. If they were not already known to the police, they certainly will be now, which stuffs up their future. The spin off from such events just keep rolling on – you can never see the end – I suppose there is no ‘end’. The whole of society will be affected in some way.

And now something else has happened since I started writing this piece - a third thing - my home delivered newspaper has been pinched!! I only get one delivery a week – the Weekend Australian. My wife and I like to read it with our breakfast on Saturday mornings. I phoned the delivery man and he assured me that he delivered it quite early on this morning. Well it has gone, which is irritating but not serious.
All these events are so unnecessary. They do not bring peace and goodwill to anyone. In Australia there is no need for anyone to starve or be without shelter, unless it is by choice because the alternative is too unpleasant to contemplate – continuing violence and abuse, for instance. But there are still (relatively) generous social security payments available to help those who find themselves in difficulty – so there is no NEED to steal.

I can understand how the victims feel (my newspaper is nothing) but the perpetrators have diminished themselves as human beings; they will not have peace of mind – which is what we are all ultimately striving for. They think they have gained something but really they have lost more. This is sad and as I said before, all of us, all Society is diminished by such actions.

It must be the silly season!

It has to be the silly season – otherwise how can the extraordinary antics of so many ‘reputable’ people and companies be explained and how can they go so awry?

What on earth is going on in the financial world? How can anyone embezzle, defraud, steal – whatever, $75 billion dollars? $75 billion!! I am absolutely staggered. The mind boggles at the audacity, the effrontery of the person – Bernard Madoff. And more importantly why did the authorities not detect this man’s activities earlier. They first had warnings in 1999!

“ The chairman of the SEC, Christopher Cox, has issued a statement saying the commission has learned that "credible and specific allegations" regarding Mr Madoff's financial wrongdoing were repeatedly brought to the attention of SEC staff at least as early as 1999.
But no action was ever recommended to the SEC.
Mr Cox says he is gravely concerned by the apparent multiple failures to thoroughly look into the claims.”

Then there is the ongoing saga of James Hardie. How can the former chairwoman of James Hardie, Meredith Hellicar, claim that she never knew that the company could not meet all future payments to asbestos victims. I mean, what sort of leader is that? It was her job to know! That is what she was employed to do. To actually run the company – know what was going on in the company and make the appropriate decisions! She has appeared at a New South Wales Supreme Court hearing on charges that she and other company directors broke corporations law.

Meredith Hellicar is obviously in a state of denial about the lack of funding, to protect her backside. Despite the release (about the lack of funding) being the subject of media reports and James Hardie discussion papers, she denied any knowledge of the release until it appeared in a special commission report late in 2004.

Now, today, we have news of the Commonwealth Bank's handling of a $2 billion capital raising which has been labelled a debacle. The CBA has blamed the brokers Merrill Lynch for failing to correctly communicate the information. Australia’s second biggest bank and biggest mortgage lender no less. Oh dear, dear me!!

Last but certainly least is this beauty, from the press – “At a banquet in the Danish capital of Copenhagen late last month, accounting firm Ernst & Young feted a Danish software company for runaway growth under Stein Bagger, its dynamic chief executive.

About a thousand guests, including Denmark's tax minister and leading business people, were there to applaud.But Mr Bagger, the night's big winner, wasn't there to pick up the Entrepreneur of the Year accolade and two other awards. He was busy fleeing from what investigators now describe as Denmark's biggest business scam in decades.

Shortly before the banquet began, Mr Bagger, 41, vanished from a hotel in Dubai. He flew to New York, drove across the US and surrendered to police in Los Angeles. In the meantime, his award-winning company, IT Factory, declared bankruptcy.
A liquidator has taken over IT Factory and is sifting through its affairs.
Sent back to Denmark yesterday, Mr Bagger cried and pleaded guilty before a Danish court to charges of aggravated fraud and forgery, crimes that could land him in jail for eight years.

The gist of the allegations is that Mr Bagger used a web of phantom firms to get money from banks and then used these same companies to place big purchase orders for IT Factory software and services. He was buying from himself using other people's money.”

What do these people think they were doing? The web of deceit, of greed, gross ineptitude and of corruption in high places is almost beyond belief. Ethics, morals, virtue, values – treating others the way they would like to be treated – and just plain ordinary common sense is totally, totally absent. As is any concept of the law of cause and effect.

Then there are the accountants and auditors that would (should?) have prepared the financial records and had them checked! What were they doing? And the regulatory authorities, what were they doing?

These are just the one's the authorities know about - how many others scandals and frauds are out there, still to be discovered?

I think I will keep what money I have in a box under my bed!!

AFL good sense

At last there has been some sense knocked into the collective heads of the Australian Football League hierarchy. A highly talented footballer, with fragile emotional strength has at the fifty-ninth minute of the eleventh hour been accepted back by the AFL community, back into the game he loves and was very obviously born to play. I am of course talking about Ben Cousins. All the more power to the Richmond Football Club for choosing him as their new player for 2009 – with all his many talents and many faults.
Ben is a magnificent athlete but he needs a very good mentor to guide him in everyday life skills. He does not pick his friends very well, obviously has a very low tolerance for alcohol and drugs. And I suspect has a low self esteem, hence the ‘need’ for substance abuse and the company of the people he associates with. Very sad.
At least Ben now has a second chance and I for one wish him well in his new club. I hope to see this superb athlete grace the football fields for quite a few years yet (who knows I might even change my allegiance to Richmond and follow a code that I do not really understand – I prefer rugby union!).
Good luck Ben.

Illinois Governor update

The latest on the Illinois Governor case is that the Illinois House of Representatives has voted to begin an impeachment inquiry into Governor Rod Blagojevich, who is accused of trying to sell the US Senate seat vacated by president-elect Barack Obama.
The inquiry, approved 113-0, will be placed in the hands of a special committee.
If it determines that impeachment is warranted, the House would vote on whether to impeach, to be followed by a trial in the state senate.
If convicted at trial the governor could be forced from office.
It seems that no one wants to be seen to ‘like’ this bloke any more!!

Consequences

I know that I tend to be a bit repetitive about the importance of ethics and rabbiting on about why ignoring the effects of unethical behaviour and actions will have unforseen and generally negative effects on a person’s life but as I keep on repeating, what is the viable alternative?

Now with all my ‘knowledge’ of ethics and my supposed expertise in the subject please don’t think that I have a ‘holier than thou’ attitude and that I am better then you. I do not have that attitude and I am fully aware of my failings as a human being (after all I have a wife of nearly thirty years and she brings me back down to earth regularly!). I have fantasies that if acted out would land me in gaol; I have done things that I am not proud of, that people do not know about and I would rather they stayed that way. But that is life. We learn from the lessons our experiences – good and bad - teach us. As I say that is life, and I love life; I love beauty in all its forms – nature, music, art, poetry, literature, the study of philosophy – all these give me joy. But I know that there are times when my appreciation of beauty is dulled and cloyed with ‘earthy’ and mundane thoughts and desires. I have learned to recognise when these thoughts arise; I have techniques which I use to change any particular thought pattern to be more positive and appreciative.
But this is me, not you. I have my way of dealing with me and my understanding of life and its effects. What I do would not suit everyone which is why I am very careful when I coach, because everyone has their view of life and what it means – for them.

All this brings me back to ethics and its importance in everyday life. Open any newspaper or news website and just for a moment contemplate the contents. All the good news is because people have done the right thing – they have been ethical in their relationships with others – they have either not harmed anyone or they have achieved some milestone in personal growth (i.e. rowing across the Pacific Ocean, or some Aboriginal community has stopped the sale of alcohol etc.). All the bad news (apart from some natural disasters or personal tragedies like someone falling off a mountain) is brought about by unethical conduct – person greed, harm to others for personal gain etc, etc. Do these people experience joy? Are they happy?

Just think about it. The antics of the corrupt governor of Illinois are going to have unforseen and unanticipated consequences on Barack Obama’s presidency – he was Illinois’ former senator. Contaminated milk in China; cholera in Zimbabwe; the continuing actions of that dislocated organisation called the Victorian Police; Qantas caught out and fined for price fixing; the total lack of thought for and REAL concern (much hand wringing and tut-tuts) about the plight of the first Australians; political corruption and astonishing ineptitude in New South Wales and Western Australia and ... what state or country should not be listed??
All because people refuse to at least TRY to treat others the way they would like to be treated. Sometimes I feel I am trying to push water uphill but I am persistent and this is something I really feel very strongly about and I am not going to go away. So expect more of the same!!

Illinois Governor's Corruption

Okay! “The governor of Illinois has been arrested on charges of conspiring to sell Barack Obama's recently vacated US Senate seat.

The news that Illinois Governor Blagojevich was taken into custody complicates the matter of filling the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
Governor Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were also accused to trying to "induce purge of newspaper editorial writers," critical of him at the Tribune Company, the US attorney's office said in a statement.

"The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering," US attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said in a statement...” (From ‘The Australian’ web site 10 December 2008).

I know that politics is often considered a ‘dirty’ game and I am no great respecter of politicians, of any persuasion. Just because they hold the positions they do does not mean that I respect them – they have to earn my respect. They can say what they like, it is what they do that counts and which may, or may not, earn my respect.
In this case I am just amazed at the audacity of someone like the governor. Does he (or did he) believe that as governor he is (was) above the law? He is just a man of straw – not worthy of the office of governor. He is just a common felon and a con-man to boot. He fooled the electorate of Illinois into electing him. But what staggers me more than anything is the lack of moral understanding; the lack of the appreciation of values and that any conception of ethics seems to be totally wanting from his psyche, from his understanding as to what it is to be a human being. Maybe he now has an appreciation of the law of cause and effect!

As governor he is obviously not short of money. He has one of only fifty such positions, so he is already in somewhat rarefied atmosphere in American politics – he is head honcho in the state - he has authority, he has power. Very obviously that was not enough.

He must believe that his sole reason for existence is to make money – and the more the better. Now I am the last person to say that having a desire to make money is wrong, because I like money as much as the next person, but not at any cost. Does this bloke actually LIKE himself? When he looks at himself in his bathroom mirror in the morning when he shaves, what does he see? Can he honestly say to himself, if positions were reversed, “ I would like to be governed by me?”

What also alarms me is the is the possible answer to the question, “Is this what unbridled capitalism breeds?” Laws, no matter how tightly enforced will never cover all human failings. There has to be self regulation (self discipline) there has to be trust; there has to be respect not only for yourself but for others. Laws are essential but unless they are applied and followed from the bottom up (and not just enforced from the top down) anarchy will prevail and the ‘rule of law’ will not be worth the paper it’s printed on.

I am going to watch this one with great interest. I hope and trust that my respect for politicians generally is not reduced any further and that he gets what he deserves.

First Lines

There are some wonderful first lines in books. Two of the best that I recall are, “The Frenchman beside me had been dead since dawn.” – from, “Martin Conisby’s Vengence” by Jeffrey Farnol. Then there is the one I like best which is from “The Arches of the Years” by Halliday Sutherland. The book opens with, “Wanted – a detective to arrest the flight of time.” Wow! It is always an advantage to open a book with a good ‘punch line’, people remember it long after the contents are forgotten. In fact in this instance I don’t believe I ever read the book, I just remember the title and the opening sentence.

But why arrest the flight of time? That would mean to have things and events stay as they were and not to move on, not to grow, not to develop. That would lead to a very poor life outcome indeed. To keep things as they are at present would mean to deny the dynamic that is Life. Life is always present and must always be expressed. That is why there are so many life forms on the planet – all expressing Life. And every life form has its purpose, its reason for existence, all growing in different ways, in different environments. All are threaded together in an amazingly complex web or pattern that we, mere mortals, cannot hope to fully comprehend. Yet without any deep knowledge of Life and its complexity, we are quite prepared to kill Life forms and destroy habitats that support those selfsame Life forms.

All Life forms are interrelated and have a symbiotic relationship in that the sum is greater than the individual parts. We are all, all of us, guilty of the same lack of real concern, of the same propensity to consume – regardless of the ‘cost’; of the same desire to keep things as they were (i.e. we all want job security, don’t we?). No one people are any better than any other. Take for instance the Japanese. They have an ancient culture, they have a wonderful history of poetry, of art, a highly developed appreciation of beauty – their gardens, their bonsai trees, their calligraphy, and yet they slaughter whales and dolphins because of ‘tradition’! The British go fox hunting, because of ‘tradition’. We as children are often ‘expected’ to enter the same form of employment as our parents. We often vote for a particular political party because of the family ‘tradition’ – we have always voted that way!!

Many, many patterns of behaviour are followed in families and communities because that is the way ‘we’ have always behaved. There is little or no thought as to the ‘why’ and whether there are any advantages to be gained by trying to keep things as they were. I mean the Amish in America – refusing to allow TV into their communities and still using horse and buggies – trying to keep things as they always were - are fighting a losing battle. It is quaint and cute in a way (actually I suppose horses and buggies aren’t such a bad idea with today’s high fuel prices), but very limiting. To wish for the ‘old times’ because they have some romantic appeal is to believe in something unreal – wishful thinking. It may be comforting to try to maintain what was. No one really likes the unknown, which is what Life throws up at us on a daily basis. We like to be in our comfort zone, the unknown can be very scary, very confronting. Yet we have to live and life is dynamic and always changing.

What was, is history, and can never be brought back. This present moment is the only ‘time’ that we can actually experience anything and live ‘in’. We cannot live in the past – it has gone. We cannot live in the future – it has not yet arrived. We have no other option than to live NOW and now is always changing, it is always becoming the past (or the future). We cannot ‘arrest the flight of time’.

Rest and Repose

The other day I read some lines which resonated with me, “Every being that acts, acts for the sake of its end, that in its end it may find rest and repose.” Meister Eckhart (1260-1328) a German born philosopher quotes the words.

If you think about those words they are true. We study to learn, we learn so that we can work to earn money to do what? To end up in a position where we “may find rest and repose” – i.e. leisure time, holidays or retirement, either at the end of each day, each week or each year or at the end of our working life. This is what life is for. Anything that gets in the way of this is not only conducive to stress and unhappiness but is really unethical. We are all ‘acting for the sake of our end’, and it is not only us humans. The quote say ‘every being that acts’ – animals, birds – every being, and every being acts for the same end, ‘that it may find rest and repose’. A cow ruminatively chewing the cud, dolphins, a pet dog at the end of a long day playing with children, birds flying home as the evening draws in, all head home from their ‘work’, as do we.

Now this is not to say that we do not find pleasure and fulfilment in helping or giving pleasure to others, doctors, nurses, carers and social workers immediately come to mind as do artists and sportsmen and women. But ultimately we will all find rest and repose at the end of our day.

Anything that gets in the way of this must then be questionable. This is why ethics is so important. Ethics teaches us that anything which is not based on the principle of treating others the way we would like to be treated is not a good idea. Any exploitative action by others which affects the well-being of any life form needs to be questioned and reviewed. All unethical conduct will have the effect of upsetting or preventing a person’s or other being’s rest and repose. Why should we wish to do this? It will only ever be for the purpose of some perceived personal gain – financial or power. But what is generally overlooked in the immediate ‘excitement’ of the perceived gain is that this will immediately trigger the law of cause and effect, the law of consequences, the law that states there is no such thing as a ‘free lunch’. Someone has to pay and ultimately it is always the person who perpetrates the unethical conduct who will pay in some way or another. This law is not codified in that any breach of Sect 4 (b) sub sect 22, para 8 will mean a penalty of X, Y or Z. But the Fates in the guise of Nemesis always work their will in some form or other. It has to be that way – I did not invent it – it just is. It must be so, life being common to all beings ( and we do not know what the Life ‘essence’ actually is). Our genes – many of which we share with all life forms – also tell us of our shared heritage.

Therefore let us so order our lives that we interfere as little as possible and bear as lightly as we can on the lives of all other beings so allowing them to reach their rightful state of ‘rest and repose’ at the end each day.

Injustice at root of Mumbai terror

Two things get up my nose. One is cruelty in any guise and the other is injustice. Nothing hurts like injustice. Nothing rankles like injustice. It sears into the soul and will fester – for generations. Yet nothing is so unnecessary as injustice (and also intolerance, which is the flip side of injustice).

What gives you (or anyone for that matter) the right to think, or believe that you are better than anyone else? That your religious beliefs are better? That you believe, because you were born into money, or born with a name held, historically, in high esteem, that you belong to a ‘privileged’ class and are therefore ‘worth’ more (as a human being) than me? How dare you! What right have you to assume such things? The thing is that you will most probably have never thought about why you think the way you do, or hold the beliefs you do.

In most cases you have chosen to accept someone else’s decisions. A Mullah in some religious school somewhere says that a particular verse of the Koran must be interpreted in a particular way – that all ‘non-believers’ must be killed. Your parents tell you, as a child, not to play with that ruffian crowd across the road, because their grand-father did something very bad to your grand-father. You are brought up with the belief that coloured people are ‘different’ and therefore to be avoided – that they are not of your class. As a Palestinian you are told that all Jews are bad – just look at what they have done in Palestine; that Americans are bad because they are helping the Jews. As a Jew you are told that Palestinians want to obliterate Israel.

More often than not you have accepted the decision of someone who came before and who, presumably, must know better. Otherwise why accept their decision? Very few of the judgements you make on a daily basis, about what is “right” or “wrong” are made by you, based on your true understanding of the situation as presented. It often seems that the more important the decision, the less likely you are to use your own thoughts and ideas, based on your own experiences. Just doing what others tell you to do will not got you very far – in fact it will most probably get you into a great deal of trouble!

We cannot view the world as others see it. They have had their experiences of life which have influenced their views on all sorts of matters, and you have your views based on your experiences. I will stick my neck out here and say that injustice is the major influence in most of the problems besetting the World at this time.
The latest terrorist attack on Mumbai, with some two hundred killed and many hundreds injured, as tragic as it is just emphasises my case against injustice. Muslims in India, since the partition in 1947, have been treated abominably, in many cases worse than the ‘untouchables’ (the lowest caste in India). Why?
Disadvantaged people will align themselves with anyone who can show them some hope. Why wouldn’t they? I would.

If young Muslim hot heads are told – brainwashed into believing – that American and British people are anti-Muslim (after all the British gave Palestine to the Jews after World War II and the Americans help Jews), then in any attack you are going to single them out, with any Jews, for special treatment, as apparently happened in Mumbai.

Now I do not for a moment condone any action which leads to the death or injury of innocent people. I am just trying to understand why it happened and to suggest a course of action, a change in mind set which may prevent such events happening again.

Education is what is needed - to give these young hot heads (Muslim, Jew, Hindu, whatever) some idea of the opportunities that await them – if only they would think for themselves. To conform with what some Mullah, Rabbi, teacher, or elder says, means to go with the rest. But to go with the rest means to lose your identity. By conforming with what others consider normal behaviour you give up a great deal, and risk becoming a dumbed down version of who you really are. It means approval by others to be part of the ‘team’. It means being considered as one of the ‘boys’ or ‘girls’. It means being led by others; to do what the majority do; to think the way the majority think, whether or not this is a comfortable situation. Behaviour is adjusted to the accepted needs of the group, or other person or persons in the pursuit of a common aim or aims.

We now come to the nub of the issue of injustice which is ethics. To be ethical you must always remember two things:
(1) to always treat others as you would like to be treated, and
(2) to ask yourself, “if EVERYONE did what you are doing (or propose to do) would the world be a better place”?

There is no other viable option. We are all members of the species Homo Sapiens (reasoning man). Use that reason; use the innate ability to think for yourself. And for those leaders and people of influence, for God’s sake don’t just think short term, don’t just think for today; think for the future – what sort of a world would you choose to leave as a legacy for those who will come after you?

This leads on to the fact that most have forgotten, or never been told, that there is an unwritten law of Cause and Effect. No one can know the full effects of a cause (some word, action or task), but of a certainty there will be an effect, on someone or something, somehow, somewhere and at sometime, and it will always affect you. We have no means of knowing the ultimate outcome. People try to control one thread without knowing the pattern, which is not very clever and can cause a great deal of injustice with severe long term effects.

Pain

Pain has the effect of concentrating the mind in no uncertain fashion. It has the tendency to make one very self-centred. The rest of the world can go hang – nothing matters except the pain. And I do not just mean physical pain – emotional pain has the same effect. The strange thing about the pain is that it is not until it subsides or is alleviated that this effect is recognised. Pain is a warning that the body (for physical pain), or mind (emotional pain), is in some sort of trouble. In my case it is the physical pain brought about by my knee operation.
Generally I have plenty of thoughts about all sorts of topics for me to write about. I have never found myself short of words, as it were, that is until now. There is still no shortage of things to write about and comment on, but I feel tired and couldn’t be bothered – “I will do it tomorrow” sort of thing.
Energy, then sleep, then eat, then sleep, then energy, seems to be the cycle. Very odd. It has taken me nearly two days to write this little piece! Now I feel tired again. See you later.

Modern piracy

There are many instances of sad and failed States in the world. Somalia is one of them. While I certainly do not condone piracy and the hijacking of ships the Arab countries and the West (particularly Britain, Italy and the USA) have to look at their records in the area and remember the old adage, “You reap what you sow”. Much of the poverty and lawlessness in Somalia is because of previous injustice. I know that the Italians (before the Second World War) treated the Somalis in an appalling manner; Britain’s treatment of ‘their’ subjects (until 1960) would have been more humane – but still typically colonialist. The Arabs generally have ignored a major humanitarian crisis on the doorstep, as it were.
So now a desperately poor nation has some of its citizens resorting to piracy to live. Not a good idea as this will bring the wrath of the wealthier countries down upon their heads in no uncertain fashion.
But what can the West and the affected Arab nations (i.e. Saudi Arabia) do about the pirates (seems strange to be writing about pirates in the 21st century)? In my view it needs a four pronged approach:
1. Immediately set up a joint naval task force to seek out and attack any pirate vessels in the area. Not an easy task but necessary to protect ships using the trade route, unsettle the pirates and keep them guessing.
2. Use ‘Q’ ships as bait. ‘Q’ ships were used with some success by the Royal Navy in the past. These are seemingly innocent merchant ships travelling lawfully on the ocean, but in actual fact are heavily armed converted ships. Once the pirates appear the ‘Q’ship pretends to panic so as to entice the pirate's ship (or ships) closer, then specially designed deck cargo containers etc, are hydraulically dismantled to expose sophisticated weaponry, which are then used to destroy the pirate vessel now at point blank range.
3. Use unmanned, armed drone surveillance aircraft to monitor the ships in the area. These would report any suspicious vessels and attack them if necessary.
4. Use diplomacy to encourage trade, education, literacy, modern health facilities and law and order in Somalia. This would have to come under the United Nations as I do not believe the Somalis would welcome ‘interference’ by any individual Western country.
It will take many years and a lot of money to restore Somalia to some sort of normality but it is the only way piracy will be reduced. It will never be eliminated entirely as there are always criminal elements involved somewhere down the line.
Unless we do something the problem will only get worse and we will all suffer because of higher shipping prices (which is all the world needs at this time!). But it requires a unified approach – individual nations doing their own thing in a piece-meal manner is not going to solve the problem.

Being back

Will someone remind me why we have such things as a computer virus? What is the point? This one cost me both time and money to clean up. What has been achieved and by whom? Some nerds somewhere in darkened rooms devise these programmes to both damage computers and irritate the hell out of innocent users. The mind boggles at the mentality of such people.
The whole computer had to be cleaned up so I am slowly re-activating, upgrading and generally finding out what is missing, just to satisfy some idiot’s ego! Hah!
I believe that I have now sorted out my problems and all seems to be going well.

I'm back

I am back. I have some issues with both my computer and my health, so as soon as one or the other gets better I will be up to speed and commenting on all and sundry. The computer is the worst issue - I lost over a week because of a virus attack and the fact that the people who 'repaired' my computer caused me more grief that you would ever believe.
Anyway thank you for your patience.

Off line for a while

All being well I will be off line for a week or so while I have a new, replacement, knee inserted. Whether I can use a lap-top in hospital - and whether I will be able to connect to some wireless broadband I have yet to find out.

As soon as I am able I will recommence my writing, which I must say I have thoroughly enjoyed. I enjoy reading the various comments - they give me an insight into what people think and this is good.

So hospital Monday 3rd November. See you later.

Is Judicial Killing right?

Why kill someone? What makes judicially sanctioned killing ‘better’ than normal (if that is the correct term) killing? What brought this to mind is the immanent execution of the people known as the Bali Bombers. No one can offer any excuse for the abominable deed that they carried out – killing over 200 innocent people – but does executing them help anyone?

Not having followed very closely the trial which led to the conviction and sentencing of these people I cannot comment on the detail. All I know is that they were motivated by religious conviction and believed that what they were doing was ‘right’. Right in that they would please Allah, because they were removing ‘unbelievers’ from the earth. Now being a relatively straight forward thinking man I find this difficult to understand – killing something God made will please Him?

This is where I tread on thin ice – religion and spirituality are not the same thing (vide priestly paedophilia). A religious person may well be very spiritual but just because one can recite the Koran or the Bible or the Bhagavad-Gita from memory does not make you a spiritual person. In my understanding a religious text gives guide lines for living a ‘good’ life. These texts are stepping stones to union with God, Allah, Vishnu, Krishna, the Absolute or whatever your name for God is. 

All these texts tell us that union with God is the purpose of Life – after all He made us for some purpose. But they all stress that followers need to actually live the way the texts show – not just to memorise them and then do something else. To do that is being hypocritical – “I believe in God, but I know better.”

To be religious is to follow the letter of the texts – this is the dogma. This is what various interpreters of the texts say it means. In other words you are told what to do – don’t think for yourself – just do as you are told. This sort of mentality is very common and leads to all sorts of problems and misery and unhappiness. Quite the reverse of what it is supposed to do.

This is why I say that religion and spirituality are not necessarily the same thing.

To be religious you follow a creed; without thought on your part, you just follow and do what you are told. This leads to differences – “My religion tells me that I am right and you are wrong.” This mentality gives rise to entrenched attitudes, to wars and death and destruction.

Spirituality in inclusive and unifies. Religion is exclusive and divides.

Spirituality is not dogmatic – there are no rules. Religion is dogmatic – there are rules.

Spirituality recognises that ALL life arose from the one source. Religion teaches differently.

Spirituality loves all sentient beings. Religion loves only those that follow the same texts.

Spirituality encourages thoughtful reflection. Religion does not.

Spirituality is Love. Religion espouses love but doesn’t always show it.

So, while I am desperately sorry for those that lost loved ones ( I lost my only brother in Zimbabwe – killed on his farm by armed insurgents). I am also sorry for the bombers. In their ignorance they thought they were doing the right thing – for their religion.

In this case everyone loses.

Respect

All of us need to be respected and would like to be respected. To be respected as human beings; to be acknowledged for what we are. Respect has to be earned, but first of all we must respect ourselves, if we don’t how can we expect others to show respect? Someone in a high position may be entitled to respect – the President of the US, for example, certainly deserves respect, but has the incumbent earned it? A company CEO may be entitled to respect, the position indicates that this should be so, but is this so, has he (or she) earned it?

A former High Court Judge may, normally, be entitled to respect but when he arrogantly believes he is above the law and lies to the Court to avoid a $77.00 speeding fine and is then subsequently charged with attempting to pervert the course of Justice - does he deserve respect?

So how does one earn respect? In fact what is respect? Respect is the deference, honour or esteem felt or shown towards a person. It is a quality that is difficult to define because of its subtlety. We all have different ideas about this and may respect someone that others do not. All animals defer to the dominant, or Alpha male in a herd, troop or group of animals or flight of birds. This is a natural and useful attribute to maintain the strength of the gene pool and for the general safety of the group. The Alpha male has t he attributes which the others accept as the ‘best’, in that it may be the biggest, strongest, fastest or it display some other factor which gives it the ability to rise to the top of the ‘pecking order’.

Human beings are much more complicated than this. Many in positions of influence or power – dictators in their own way - are feared and force their followers or subjects to ‘show respect’ by abasing themselves when in their presence. All dictators demand this subservience and abasement, i.e. Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and many others, some in the corporate field. To be truly respected, however, a human being needs to have many attributes, some of them very subtle. This ‘respected’ person must have human qualities of the highest order. These qualities are ones we have all met before – the qualities of Honesty, Justice, Courage, Temperance, Compassion, Kindness, Humility and Love for one’s fellow beings - in other words all the old fashioned virtues! Someone who has these qualities is trusted to keep their word; can be relied on to do the job to the best of their ability; can be called on for help in a dire situation. Anyone who has these qualities to a high degree is revered – think Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa and those with long memories may remember the late Dr. Albert Schweitzer.

These qualities are the essence of good relationships with all Life’s forms; they are the essence of ethics, of virtue and of morality. People with these qualities lift the human spirit; by their actions they lead us to greater understanding of what it is to be Human; that Humanity has a grandeur and a nobility that in our wiser moments we may come to acknowledge; that we are all capable of greatness in our own way, given our circumstances; that we must respect ourselves for what we truly are; that we all are better than we believe or think we are.

This is respect. This is what all people honour. This is what we all hope to aspire to.

The Company we keep

The other day, while driving my mother-in-law’s old car, to keep it running while she is away, I tried to pull out of a service station. Well, a young bloke in a high powered V8 cut in front of me and gave me such a withering look of utter distain, “Just look at that heap of junk! How dare you try to get in front of ME??” he seemed to be saying. I just had to laugh but it set me thinking about road rage and the seemingly random attacks on individuals or small groups, when death and severe injury have occurred, that are reported daily in the media. What is the trigger; what is the motivation?

All people, particularly the young, have over the ages been encouraged to keep ‘good’ company, or at the very least, advised to avoid ‘bad’ company. The reason is that the company we keep influence our thoughts and therefore our actions. The effects of the company we keep may be temporary or longer term, depending on the duration of the association with that ‘company’ and the strength of the emotional attachment to the company. In this context, it should be emphasized that ‘company’ includes music, books and magazines, pictures, movies as well as human companions. Many of us have experienced the effect of ‘bad company’, either personally, or have witnessed it through the effect it has had on our friends or family, particularly children.

We, all of us, will behave in a socially unacceptable manner when with certain other people, who we may consider ‘good blokes just having some fun’ – particularly if fuelled by alcohol. And yet away from that company, and in a different environment, we would not dream of behaving in that same manner. All of us will ‘pick up’ patterns of behaviour when in the company of certain others, that, on reflection, we are ashamed of, and would not like to be widely known. Normally decent people are often enticed, pressured or encouraged to engage in degrading, foolish or generally unacceptable behaviour, again particularly if alcohol is involved. Positions of power or influence often have the effect of deluding the incumbent into believing that they are either above the law or that they will not be discovered, and because of this erroneous belief, they may then be tempted into engaging in criminal acts (physical abuse, abuse of financial trust and sexual abuse are not unknown in these situations).

A well known and more public example of unacceptable behaviour is the violence induced by ‘mob rule’ at some football matches, or at any other place where emotions are highly charged. Anyone who has ever attended a ‘rock concert’ knows well the power of lyrics or words, combined with music, drugs and alcohol; how the crowd gets in the mood, as it were.

If we ask, “Why should this be?” and follow this through, we will find, if we examine our normal reaction to any given situation, it will be a certainty that in most cases our reaction seems to occur without thought. It appears to arise from habit. And what is habit, but a many times reinforced action or re-action? For instance if we are shouted at in anger, our normal reaction is to shout back with equal vigour and anger. How many people have reacted angrily when hooted at, or given a rude gesture when driving in traffic? If we are slighted or injured in any way, even if the injury is only a perceived injury, the general normal reaction is to retaliate. Extreme examples of this are vendettas and the feuds that prevail within families or between families, sometimes for generations, and the relatively new phenomena of “road rage” and “air rage”. Much of this comes from arrogance – I am better than you; therefore you must be worse than me; therefore because I am better than you I can do what I like. Sound familiar?

On the other hand if we are greeted with a smile, the natural reaction is to smile back. Likewise, the natural reaction to a kind, generous or compassionate action is to respond in like manner. What are these if not conditioned responses?

So it is with life and ethics. We need to try and be ethical in all our dealings with our fellow beings; to ‘condition’ ourselves to behave with courtesy and excellence at all times. This is not easy – but what is the alternative? Isn’t it better to love one’s fellow man rather than experience fear or hate?

Why Good Thoughts are Important

On many occasions I have jabbered on about the importance of our thoughts and how they affect our actions and by default our own well being and that of people around us. What follows is some of the reasoning behind this.

Consider now the effects on the populace when a politician, just before an election, makes promises to his electorate that he knows, and the electorate know, and he knows they know, will never be kept? Cynicism? Lack of trust? What effect will this have on young developing minds? – “if a politician can lie and get away with it (or appear to get away with it) why can’t I?” And so a lowering of moral and ethical standards becomes accepted as normal behaviour. An interesting example of this was highlighted by a onetime ‘power broker’ in the Australian Labor Party, former Senator Graham Richardson when speaking at the Harry Sorenson Business Ethics Lecture at Curtin University (Perth, Western Australia) in 1997, when he said, “Politicians lie to the public because they want to win elections and the public expects a certain level of dishonesty from their politicians”. This extraordinary admission was made by a leader! Leaders in politics and business set the standards. After all, leaders are supposed to lead and we generally follow. (Notice the recent events, reported in the media, which have dogged Graham Richardson!!)

If we further examine the concept, from a different aspect, of the importance of thoughts it will become clear why the effect of a thought will always be felt somewhere. First let’s examine why thoughts are so important and where they get their power.

Using the old classical definitions of the elements (for the sake of explanation and simplicity), if we proceed from the grossest to the finest matter, in relation to Human Beings, there is a certain inescapable logic. For instance, in extreme circumstances a person may be able to survive without food (grossest matter, as it is of the earth) for a considerable time, before death occurs (well over a month, as witnessed in hunger strikes). Survival without water (matter that is finer than food), is possible for only about three days. Deprived of air (finer matter than water) a human being may survive some three or four minutes. Yet without thoughts or impressions (the finest ‘matter’ of all), death is instantaneous. If a person is unable to think, hear, see, experience the sense of taste, touch, or smell, that person is dead. This last statement may be better understood if it is recalled that sensory deprivation has always been considered as the most severe punishment that can be meted out. People incarcerated in solitary confinement have been known to go insane, or to commit suicide. Thoughts should therefore be understood to be the most important things in our lives.

Thoughts are the basis for every action. Thought – word – deed or action, this is the flow. Thoughts are formulated in the mind and transformed into words (vocalised or not). From these words, vocalised or spoken in the mind, come deeds or actions.

It is evident then that thoughts and impressions are paramount and we should, therefore, be very careful about what we think about. Generally little or nothing is done to expect or encourage people to think only the finest thoughts. Most schools today (schools with religious studies, excepted), no longer offer moral instruction, or attempt to educate the young in the concepts of the virtues, or in ethics. There is therefore no correlation in the minds of most people between their thoughts and their actions and the effects of such actions. Most of us have no idea of the full effect of our thoughts, which may take years to develop, but which are eventually translated into actions and often material forms, and which will always effect someone, especially the thinker, in one way or another.

This is clearly expressed by a wonderful passage in the Dhamapada, (the sayings of the Buddha):

We are what we think,

All that we are arises with our thoughts,

With our thoughts we make the world.

Speak or act with an impure mind

And trouble will follow you

As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart.

Speak or act with a Pure Mind

And happiness will follow you

As your Shadow, unshakeable.

Why Genetically Modified Foods are Dangerous

The prospect of the large scale production of genetically modified (GM) foods rears its ugly head every now and again and I feel very strongly about it - I am very strongly against the use of any GM foods. I sincerely believe that the moratorium on GM crops, currently in place in some countries and in Western Australia, should remain for many years. There needs to be a great deal more research into and greater understanding regarding the long term effects of genetically modifying food crops and the ramifications such genetic engineering will have on the ecosystem and humans.

As a ‘non-scientist’, but someone who has read extensively on the subject I have grave reservations about the validity of much of the ‘science’ behind GM and the wisdom of such modifications to the food we eat which will, undoubtedly, affect our well being and that of our children and grandchildren. I am aware, for instance, that genetic engineers have never taken the reality of gene transfers into consideration when they have introduced genetically modified organisms into the environment. Genetic scientists generally have a ‘silo’ mentality and still consider each species to be unique, to stand alone and remain unaffected by other species. This limited thinking is not only naive but highly dangerous to Life as we know it.

We, as Human Beings are part of nature. The chemical makeup of the universe is in every one of us as it is in every living organism. It has to be so – there is no other source of chemicals! Therefore, logically, every living organism is linked to every other one. In other words every living organism is related to us. They must be – after all we eat them don’t we? We are all so closely linked that “... we can no longer comfortably say what is a species anymore.” [Pennisi, E. (2001) “Sequences Reveal Borrowed Genes.” Science 294: 294: 1634-1635]. We humans are at the top of the food chain and we are what we eat. Tinkering with the genes of a tomato, for example, may not stop at the tomato, but could alter the entire biosphere in ways that we cannot see and may transfer into, and alter the character of the beneficial bacteria in the intestine. [Lipton, B. (2005) “The Biology of Belief.”]. And then what about the growth, which has actually happened, of highly resistant “super weeds”?

Genetic scientists either have no idea about the interconnectedness of all species, of their relationship one to another or of their ‘co-operation’ to create an environment that is suitable for all, or if they do they ignore it. We NEED the plants to absorb carbon dioxide and to provide food; we NEED the bacteria to break down the dead plants to fertilise the soil to grow the plants to feed us humans and all living creatures – those that don’t eat plants eat those that do; we NEED the animals to eat the plants and spread the seeds; we NEED the birds and the insects to pollinate the plants ... and on it goes. Altering one part of one “pattern” in Nature will have unforeseen consequences – pull one ‘thread’ here and something will unravel somewhere else and ‘spoil’ the pattern.

Messing around with all this is fraught. Our technical skills are out of step with ability to wisely use that technology. In this context it may be useful to recall the words of the old cautionary tale about the “Horse-shoe Nail” –

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.

For want of a shoe the horse was lost.

For want of a horse the battle was lost.

For want of a battle the Kingdom was lost,

and all for the want of a horse-shoe nail.

In other words we can never know the outcome or implications of anything we do (or fail to do).

It has been said that one of the great social ills of our time is that we have ‘Science without Humanity’ (Mohandas – Mahatma – Ghandi). Because ‘scientific’ experimentation will continue to deliver results and outcomes which will affect generations still to come (vide the cane toad, DDT and CFC’s to name but a few), I respectfully suggest that Genetic Scientists determine, after very, very careful consideration, whether any project, any bottom-line, any “economic advantage” is more important than the well being of this Planet Earth which over millions of years has given us what we are - Humanity.

Now for the blame game

I see that the “Wall Street Blame Game” has really started in earnest. The rating agencies – Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s are in the firing line. These are the people who are supposed to have misled the world by rating the repackaged, sliced and diced, sub-prime mortgages and derivatives, as AAA investments, and so allegedly misleading all the world’s bankers and all the world’s financial houses into investing in these shonky deals. These agencies have been treated as if they were the oracles of all financial knowledge, which they are not, nor I believe have they ever claimed to be.

Ok, the rating agencies may have misunderstood the complexity of the issues involved, or they may have relied too heavily on badly designed computer modelling, or whatever, but the world’s bankers and financial houses have their experts too. They could have taken a drive round a suburb or two and looked at some of their ‘investments’, or just to think, “These are sub-prime (meaning poor risk) so how can they possibly be AAA?” It used to be called ‘powers of reason’ or simply ‘nous’. I mean, we are all members of the species “Homo Sapiens” – reasoning man - so why did they not use their reason; use their nous?

I know it is easy with 20/20 hindsight to criticize but, they, the world’s bankers and financial houses, must bear some of the responsibility for the financial turmoil. They are supposed to have their own prudential checks and balances; they are supposed to be cautious. They are, after all, using other people’s money!! So to blame the rating agencies, who merely issue guidelines which are there for others to accept or not, is a cheap shot. It was their choice to accept the veracity of the agencies guidance! To blame another party for something, which happens to turn out bad, but which they chose to accept – after, presumably, due diligence – is a bit rich.

Now we also read that the rating agencies may have been paid to promote particular products by some of the people who devised them. If this is true it is a really shocking indictment, and reflects very badly on the original mortgage providers, on their ethics, or lack thereof and their moral standards, and of course on the agencies which accepted such payments. It would then be a case of money at all costs and damn the consequences. Well I have news for them. The consequences have arrived and are here for all to see. What you sow, you also reap. They sowed the wind and now are reaping the whirlwind. It may be tough but that is the law of Cause and Effect – it always works that way. You do something and it will always have an effect, maybe not what was expected, but always an effect. Positive brings positive and negative will bring negative – that is just the way it works.

But don’t lay all the blame at the doors of the two rating agencies. Greed was the actual cause, and ignorance of what was being ‘packaged’ and therefore rated, and the banks and finance houses for accepting the junk that was sold as ‘good’, and us all for going along for the ‘free’ ride!!

Guilt

Guilt is one of the most debilitating human conditions. Guilt can make us feel miserable and may affect the way we relate to people. It really is the most useless of feelings – why feel guilty and flagellate ourselves over something we have done, should have done but didn’t, or should not have done but did! What is done cannot be undone. These thoughts of guilt keep circling around in our mind – we can’t seem to get rid of them!! “If only I had phoned.” “If only I had remembered.” “If only ....” “If only ....” We allow the feelings to build up inside us and this is really stressful. And stress is bad for our health.

Maybe we should write to our old ‘Aunt Jane’ who is eighty five years old, to thank her for the birthday present she sent us. But we keep putting it off until it becomes such an embarrassment that we hope it will just go away and she will forget about it. We feel guilty for not writing to her, yet we do nothing about it. Why? Is it because we can only offer some embarrassingly lame excuse?

How many of us have borrowed something – money, or a book, from someone and either forgotten to pay them back, or deliberately not paid them back because we are short of funds (or we like the book!). Then by chance we happen to see them walking down the sidewalk towards us so, hoping they have not noticed us, we immediately duck into the nearest shop to avoid eye contact and having to speak to them. Sound familiar? Why?

Feelings of guilt arise because we allow them to. We are more often than not guided by what we think will be someone’s opinion of us. But so what! What he (or she) thinks of us is their problem not ours. And how do we actually KNOW that is what they are thinking? We cannot possibly know! It is what we think they will be thinking. We are so certain about this that there are no maybes, ifs or buts about it. That is what they WILL be thinking. So our immediate life, our happiness and well being is being coloured by what we think someone else is thinking! Does that really make sense?

And for goodness sake why take it so personally? No one ever does, or says anything because of us. They do and say what they do because of their view of the world – their reality and their dreams. This we cannot alter. They think that their view of the world, coloured as it will be by their experiences gives them the right to be judgemental about us. They do not actually KNOW us. They may have met us once or twice, even socialised quite often. However, they have no idea what our life was like up to the time they met us nor have they any idea of what we have done since we last met. So they have based their judgements and opinion of us on possibly a few hours of our life!

And why make assumptions – why assume someone thinks a certain way about us? It will be difficult but important to have the gumption to ask questions. Ask them why they are saying what they are about us. We need to talk to others; to communicate with others as clearly as we can to avoid misunderstandings. This will not be easy but it will certainly clear up many issues and can completely transform our life.

Guilt will disappear and a big load will be lifted.

Spring Cleaning

In the southern hemisphere it is spring; a time of renewal; a time for change. Spring time used to have both a spiritual and a practical meaning. I am not sure that it does anymore. With the seasons the ‘wrong’ way round down-under, there is no equivalent to the Easter ‘spring’ awakening and the associated festival.

The northern spring festivals are very ancient and predate Christianity by a long way. They have their origins in sun worship and the acknowledgement that a deity or deities are the source of all nature’s bounty. The return of the sun and warmer weather signalled the new growth of plants, the availability of food and the fecundity of Nature.

From a spiritual point of view there was an urgency to cast off the past and adopt the new; a sort of internal renewal. Clean up the mind and let go of old ideas and beliefs and then to vow to not make the same mistakes, nor to continue with old behaviour patterns. And with the notion that ‘cleanliness is next to Godliness’, the custom developed to spring clean ones dwelling; to have a general clean up and to cast out unwanted items, brick-a-brack and the detritus that accumulates over time. Often this junk was burned in a bonfire – burned in the fire of redemption – or something! Bonfires are no longer politically correct, more is the pity – they we good fun. I can remember, as a child, helping my mother clean up and move things. I suppose it was in spring, I didn’t really pay much attention to the season, just the fun of it all.

No one seems to spring clean any more I suppose because we have all become so attached to the various items that we now identify ourselves with what we own. What we own gives us status and a position in the world. To get rid of the ‘stuff’ means that we are diminished by what was discarded. We, in our own eyes, consider ourselves to be reduced and a lesser person through this process. But do we really want to be identified with junk? Aren’t we better than that? Getting rid of stuff also signals change, and today we are scared of change. This is the big unknown. We no longer recall the need for spiritual renewal so we all like to scurry back to our home with all its stuff. This is our security blanket, our comfort. Lose this and we lose ourselves and that is scary!!

This spring cleaning notion came to mind when we decided that we (my wife and I) should sell our house and get something smaller and more suited to our age. Now I am VERY attached to my books and my CDs so getting rid of some of those, and I will have to, is going to be painful. That is not all, I am due to get a new knee joint in November. I am pretty attached to that knee, my left one – it has been with me through thick and thin for longer than I have been on this earth (by about nine months). After some twelve years of increasing pain I am about to experience a great deal of pain for a relatively short period (I hope and trust) with a longer period of recuperation with the pain reducing as I exercise to get the new knee joint back to full working order.

So there is definitely change in the air, and it is spring. In a strange indescribable way I am looking forward to it. Something new and fresh. That is the future, all shiny, new and fresh.

Why, Why, Why?

I have been caught out!! This is a sort of confession – I followed a politically correct course of action and not only disappointed a customer, but in effect lied to him! I did it to cover my backside and to avoid an (expected) unpleasant confrontation with a third party – money being the crux of the entire episode.

This matter, in fact rather pretty – except for the person lied to – has left an unpleasant taste which lingers. It cannot be washed away. It has shown me, to me, for what I am and I am disappointed with my actions, also humiliated and somehow diminished in my own eyes.

Here am I through this blog, my articles written for Evan Carmichael, and the messages of guidance and help offered on my website, trying to encourage and disseminate an ethical approach to Life and I go and trip myself up!! I know that this is not a huge deal, nor is the sky going to fall in but it is just surprising how quickly and how easily years of study and years of practice can turn to dust. I now find myself having to eat my own words. They don’t taste very nice!

As to why I did it? Well I suppose it was because I saw some advantage, to me, in doing what I did. I avoided what I thought to myself would be an unpleasant confrontation. Also it was a split second thing – nothing premeditated. That was the cause. Now I have to live with the effect, the consequences of not telling the truth, of not accepting responsibility for my actions. The other person can think what he likes – that is his problem, but I have to live with myself, with my thoughts.

‘Hoisted by my own petard’, I think the saying goes! This has shown me that I can never let my guard down; that in dealing with people I can never be too careful.

This leads quite naturally on to what I really wanted to write about – why we resort to anger and violence when our ideas of how ‘our’ world should be, are opposed by others.

No matter how you determine the age of the world, or how long humans have existed, we have been around now for quite a while. Why is it then that we have such great difficulty in living peaceably with each other, as individuals and as nations? One would hope (in vain it seems) that after 5 million years of human existence (from an evolutionary view), we would have worked out a better way of settling our differences than killing each other. But no, not a hope. I am baffled as to what people hope to achieve when they kill someone – what long term benefit. From an ethical point of view it just does not make any sense. It is completely outside my way of thinking. It seems that we always take the easy option whether or not it is the best one. It is often quicker and easier to kill someone than to reason with them.

It has been a repeated refrain of mine that we only ever do anything if we see some advantage to us. Otherwise why do it? So, following this assumption, someone will be killed or injured to gain some advantage for the perpetrator, whereas talking it over or negotiating a ‘settlement’ may be perceived as weak or unsatisfactory.

I am thinking particularly about the current fracas between Thailand and Cambodia over a tiny sliver of land on their common border, which each claims as theirs. The supreme irony is that on this land is an ancient temple; a place of worship; a place of God. Yet armies have been mobilised, shots fired and people have died. All this to claim ‘ownership’ of a structure built to honour God!

Fortunately good sense has prevailed (I suspect because Thailand’s revered King has ‘lent’ on someone) and the opposing military leaders are now talking to each other. Good on them.

Would that such good sense had prevailed before the Iraq war; before the troubles in East Timor; before the tragedy in Darfur; in fact before any conflict you can think of. No one gains anything. The innocent always lose in any conflict. Ultimately, because of the (unwritten) law of cause and effect, even the instigators of any conflict lose. So why start in the first place?

People have forgotten about the importance of ethical behaviour. Without ethics greed and power take over and we all suffer. People forget the absolute necessity of treating other people the way you would like to be treated. This may be difficult to always carry out (see my opening comments!!) but it is necessary to always try.

A new dawning

The definition of dawn used by the old desert Arabs (the Bedouin) – that dawn is that moment in time when there is sufficient light to distinguish between a white and a black thread – has a romantic appeal about it. There is a vagueness which opens up many trains of thought. One determination of dawn will be different from another. There are inevitable shades of grey implicit in the definition as is the quality of the eyesight and judgement of the observer. Also implicit is a tolerance and an acceptance that there will be differences in interpretation – that the beginning of the day – the beginning of anything is never finite. This level of tolerance and acceptance of differences of opinion is needed today, particularly when the ‘blame’ game begins.

This is not to say that the Bedouin were particularly tolerant or intolerant, students of Arab history will be able to shed light on this topic – it is the human quality of the definition that appeals. We each have our own views of the world as seen through the filters of our particular circumstance; our education; our life experiences; our society and culture but above all based on the view we have of ourselves and our position in ‘our’ world.

No one, repeat, no one, ever does anything to deliberately disadvantage themselves. Any action taken by anyone will always be because of some perceived benefit or advantage. Poor judgement may be evident as when a politician tells an ‘untruth’ and is instrumental in losing an ‘unlosable’ election; it is evident when a financier engages in corrupt dealings; it is evident when someone deliberately kills another. But the fact remains that at the moment the decision was made to carry out the action, it would never have been carried out if not for some perceived advantage – to try and cover up a mistake, to make more money or to eliminate a rival.

It is always a matter of choice – to carry out the deed or not to carry out the deed. To then deliberately seek punishment for the perpetrator is a natural reaction, but is it the best course of action? Remember that shades of grey exist and there is no absolute black or white.

Surely a new dawn in the treatment of criminals is called for – to educate them to have at least some understanding, that all humanity is related, would be better? We all have our strengths and weaknesses and no one can claim to be ‘better’ than anyone else. According to our understanding of life, we all do the best we can. To ‘blame’ someone for an error of judgement is a bit harsh. Society should be ‘blamed’; you and I should be ‘blamed’ because we make up the society that gave a particular person a view of the world that happens to differ from ours.

Educate the perpetrators so they may understand that there is a law or cause and effect. Teach them ethics. That treating others as they would like to be treated is the only viable option. That what goes around, comes around. That if you hit someone with a stick often enough they will sooner or later turn around and hit you back. This means in effect, you are hitting yourself. Not very clever!

We need some harmony and order in the world.

Nothing is permanent in Life. Nature is dynamic. Life is dynamic. It must be so, because everything that is alive, either moves, grows or in some way changes with time. Nothing stays as it was and trying to keep something as it was is similar to chasing rainbows. This is the order of Nature. The order that dictates that a salmon shall return to the river of its birth; the order inherent in the cycle of the seasons, in the ebb and flow of the tides; in the spiral galaxies, in the stars and their courses, the order can be sensed in the regularity of all turning things.

We may not appreciate it but the universe is unfolding as it should – there is order and harmony in the way things happen. Nature is harmonious in its entirety. When order is absent and chaos reigns then there are problems. And have you noticed something – we humans are the only creatures on the face of the earth that can actually create disharmony? An ant cannot create disharmony, because an ant will always behave as an ant should; it is in its nature to do so; likewise with parrots or any other creature that you care to name. They cannot be anything other than the way nature (evolution, creation?) has dictated they shall be. Human beings on the other hand can and often do behave in strange and violent ways that cause havoc with the natural order of things.

The natural world is in our genes, we are all from the earth; when we die we return to the earth. We need order, we need harmony – chaos disturbs us, we become afraid and then panic sets. We cannot, as a species abide disorder and lack of harmony in our lives. Disharmony creates fear of the unknown and unhappiness is the result. Just look around at the world.

But we cannot expect harmony and order in the world outside, if there is no order or harmony within each of us, within ourselves. I cannot be happy and have harmony and order in my life if I know that my wife, or my children are unhappy, because of some emotional ‘disorder’ or ‘dis-ease’. It disturbs me greatly that there are others who are unhappy; who lack harmony within themselves and therefore are instrumental in creating disharmony amongst others.

Harmony between people can only come about when we treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves. Harmony and internal peace and order will only be evident when we remember the Law of Cause and Effect. That what we do will affect not only our families but also many others. Remember the ‘six degrees of separation’? Knowing six people is alleged to give us a link to everyone in the world. So we must treat all sentient beings in an ethical way because we are all interconnected – it is in our genes. To do anything else is to invite chaos and unhappiness.

Where is the Leader ?

The world is in desperate need of Leadership to calm the panic and allay the fears that have crippled the normal flow of commerce. We need someone we can respect, who has the stature, the intellect and the ability to give the world confidence that, at last - at long last, there is now a leader who has the personality and the moral authority, to do what is best for the world. There is a need for statesmanship, high statesmanship. There is an urgent need to energize people, to activate latent human creativity and to give direction and hope to the world. A true World Leader, someone who can give us back some control over events in our lives. Once we lose even the perception of control, we tend to lose hope.

Such a leader must rise above tawdry party politics, and what he, or she, wants for their particular country. This leader must have a broader vision and to look to the needs of the world at large, for humanity. Because this is a human problem, it needs a human solution. It is people who are suffering – not money. People have attached themselves to money; they have made a statement that money identifies their position in the world and thus who they are. This is a tragedy. Human beings have the ability to rise above such limiting ideas when they come to realise that they are more than possessions. There is a grandeur and a greatness attached to the Human Psyche that transcends materiality. Once realised, it lifts the spirits of those who are weighed down by their fears; it shines a light in the dark corners of the mind and the fearsome shadows lurking there are shown to be what they are – just shadows.

This leader, and from the melting pot that is the current chaos and despair, a person of real stature will surely arise, will be someone who has a unique opportunity to show true statesmanship and bring unity to the world. At this time we all face the same trials and tribulations, the same loss of confidence; we have the same fears and doubts. There is a real concern about whether we will be able to make the next mortgage payment, or possibly where the next meal will come from. At this time any particular person’s best interests are the world’s best interests.

The current travesty, called ‘leadership’ in America, will soon come to an end. My hope and the World’s best hope is that whoever becomes the next President of the USA will be a person with the strength of character, the intellect, the courage, the moral fibre and wisdom to lift the world out of the recession, or even the depression, that now appears to be the situation. This will be a Herculean task.

This person will have to be the next American President because there is no other country with the strength, the regenerative powers or the inherent creativity to do what is necessary to firstly, solving its own problems and then secondly, applying its latent goodwill and moral authority – now gravely tarnished – to the task of curing the world’s current malaise.

Good luck to whom-so-ever it is.

Don't panic or be afraid

Debt is a fearsome prospect. The fear of debt numbs the brain; it reduces your ability to think rationally; it seems to diminish the range of choices available; it colours all thoughts and stifles initiative; it hangs like a dark cloud over your life. I know, because, as the saying goes, “I have been there and done that”.

Some twenty odd years ago in 1987, I was caught up in the crisis when interest rates hit 18%. What I did was to talk to people. I spoke to the bank and told them what I was trying to do. I spoke to my creditors and told them the same thing. I spoke to my debtors to let them know that I was in the same boat, caught up in the same whirlpool. We all helped each other. This experience taught me that communication is the most important business tool – talk to people. Never stop talking. Phone them every day to let them know how you are going and what you are doing. Believe me, they may have rolled their eyes when I phoned - again, but they appreciated my concern and the fact that I was keeping them informed about my situation. Also, and most important of all, I kept control of the events in my life. Nothing happened without my knowledge – I was never taken by surprise.

We eventually had to sell our house, but we sold it – not the bank. We sold it at a reasonable price and not as a ‘fire’ sale.

The other vital fact I learned at the time, and I have never forgotten it, is the importance of having a good, strong, honest and trusting relationship with someone, in my case, my wife. I learned that we had a symbiotic relationship, that we were stronger together, rather than as two individuals. She was my partner in every sense of the word and my best friend. This was such a comfort. Our home was a refuge, a welcome oasis at the end of the day. By the time the crisis was over I knew that I was a better and stronger person than I was before – I had learned a great deal about myself.

There are certainly going to be difficult days ahead for many people – mortgagees and borrowers of money generally, but there is no need to panic, everything comes to pass and ‘even the weariest river winds somewhere safe to sea’.

Of a certainty the sun will arise the morrow morn. Every dawning is the beginning of a new day – for new Life experiences, new roads to travel and new friends to meet. Keep happy!

Remember:

“It matters not how strait the gate;

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate;

I am the captain of my soul.” (Invictus by W. E. Henley)

Honour Killing

As a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, living in Australia, the practice of ‘honour killings’ is something I cannot get my head around. Some girl, who, if she besmirches the family honour (whatever that is), by being seen with a man not approved by the family, or involved in some activity not authorised by the family, is then stoned, shot, or killed in some way. This is supposed to somehow restore the family’s honour? To my way of thinking it does the reverse – it both diminishes the perpetrator(s) and dishonours the family.

I can understand, but not accept, that this is a carryover from tribal days, when a woman may have been “sleeping with the enemy” and thus betraying tribal secrets. But it is a very patriarchal attitude, with women considered as chattels, especially when a man can do the same but is never accused of anything. In fact there are cases on record where a girl was raped and then accused of dishonouring the family! This has nothing to do with religion or spirituality.

There have been cases recorded in Australia, with fathers severely mistreating their daughters for not obeying them, by being seen with a man of their own choice – not the father’s. And even worse cases such as when a girl is lured back from Australia, or some other country, to the tribal homeland and then killed. All for family ‘honour’!! It is as always women who “dishonour” the family.

A similar situation arises in parts of India when a girl whose dowry does not satisfy the new ‘in-laws’ is either killed or disfigured in some way (often by fire), in any event, if still alive, she is returned to her parent’s home, as ‘used goods’. She is no longer a virgin and so no longer considered marriageable. Her fate is uncertain and disfigurement, being buried alive or in some way severely injured or killed is her likely lot. Again this has nothing to do with religion or spirituality.

There is no indication of love – in the broader sense of love for one’s fellow beings, and certainly no parental love for the children, at least not as I understand it. Honour comes first – these are barbarous customs and practices; they are immoral and without virtue. There is no acknowledgement of the nobility of women (comprising some 50% of the human race); and seemingly no recognition by these very people, both men and women, who carry out, or are complicit in these vile acts, that they were themselves born of women – their own mothers! They were fed on mother’s milk – where now is their “milk of human kindness”?

Fortunately there are a few courageous women who are prepared to take a stand against these customs and fight for morality, virtue and human dignity.

Long live whistleblowers

It is an unfortunate indictment against businesses, governments and their agencies generally, that whistleblowers exist at all. In fact, sometimes it has become necessary to rely on ‘whistleblowers’ for the truth. They are the ones who risk a great deal to expose the corruption, fraud or other criminal or unethical activity that is present in some form or another.

It is also an unfortunate trait of the human condition, that any activity in relation to the receipt of money, or to the acquisition of power, or positions of influence, are the most frequent targets for unethical and criminal conduct. This is where whistleblowers come into their own.

But why are ‘whistle blowers’ always treated harshly by those upon whom the whistle has been blown? It is because people in positions of authority, in business or government, will justify (to themselves) their questionable actions in any way possible, rather than face the consequences of a straight forward acceptance of their activities. They do not want to accept that what may be divulged is actually a reflection of who they are. Such people will blame their, alleged, abuse as a child; or poverty; or diminished responsibility brought about by the effects of alcohol, or drugs; or peer pressure, anything, rather than accept personal responsibility. Businesses or governments caught out often blame the media for misrepresentation; or being quoted out of context.

It is, however, natural to tell the truth. It is a relief to tell the truth. When we admit our actions to ourselves, or family, or friends, or business associates and we ‘come clean’ regarding something we have done; something we are not very proud about, we feel relief. Non-acceptance of personal responsibility is stressful.

It is a fact that ethics applies to every situation relating to human conduct, every walk of life, and as with all aspects of life and human conduct, there are rules which apply. The basis of all rules is the application of certain (usually minimum) standards. These are to ensure fairness between opposing views; to ensure that no one obtains unfair advantage by using illegal or under hand means, such as when a stockbroker uses privileged information to gain unfair personal advantage.

We need to be totally familiar with the subject and the Rules and Regulations which apply. We have to live them. The rules or regulations must be applied and practised until they become second nature. This is proven time and again.

So it is with ethics.

All corruption, all fraud, all criminal and unethical behaviour is behaviour that should not, indeed need never occur, if we, all of us, took some time to reflect on our actions and the motives which prompted them. The thing is we all know what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’; it is an inherent faculty. It is, however, very often so overlaid with habits and ideas about ourselves that it is difficult to discriminate or to correctly choose a course of action. We are, however, all uncomfortable when we have made a ‘wrong’ choice and contented when we have made a ‘right’ choice. It is also a fact that we are all more comfortable dealing with ethical people, and are less prone to stress when we ourselves behave in an ethical manner. Ethics seems right.

Long live whistleblowers – they hold the torch of honesty, integrity and ethical conduct.

William Shakespeare has many quotable passages, and this one from Hamlet (Act 1, Sc. III) is certainly apt, when Polonius says:

“This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.”