List of Previous Titles

Sunday, May 25, 2008

The End of the World ?











A captivating headline, but is it justified and not just dramatic?

We seem to be watching the slow-motion meltdown of large economies. The cost of food is rising at an alarming rate. Natural disasters of extraordinary significance are happening with such regularity so as to become commonplace. Unnecessary wars are ongoing all around the globe to the extent that we have become numb. Terrorists are trying to kill us just because we go about our daily business, and individuals are committing some of the most mind-boggling anti-social acts.

The cost of oil has stood at a reasonable level for many years after once having climbed to unaffordable heights in the 1970’s. At a cost of between 50 to 60 dollars a barrel the world could cope. I remember $25 a barrel not such a long time ago. Now, the cost of oil on the futures market has hit $135 a barrel, and climbing. (I have had to revise the figure twice).

Meanwhile, in Europe, the euro, that once stood at par with the US dollar now costs $1.55 to buy one euro. Simply put, European manufacturers are finding it harder, or actually impossible to export their goods to one of the greatest consumer markets in the world. To make matters worse, even that economy, The United States of America, is in recession. That means unemployment on a grand scale for European workers is just down the road.

For the moment I want to focus on the effects of exorbitant oil prices. Oil is fuel, and here is a partial list of what is affected when oil is in short supply; is withheld from the market; and/or is just too expensive.

Start with the farmer producing our food. If he is not able to work the machinery to grow the lettuce and potatoes and corn, we will have a food shortage. The food that does get produced has to be brought to market, but if the same factors apply to transportation it won’t even be brought to the supermarket. That which does get through will be amazingly expensive and available only to a select few who can afford it.

Unemployed people will most likely not be able to afford to purchase food, so that will lead to theft and food fights.

Unemployed people will also not be able to afford to run their vehicles or to afford medical care. Even those people who are lucky enough to have jobs will have to car pool to get to work. The same scenes that we see in Africa of vastly over crowded trucks with people hanging on just to get a lift can become the norm in the large cities of the developed world. Is this so impossible to imagine? Think again!

The other thing that unemployed people cannot do is to afford to pay their mortgages. If you have never had your home repossessed there is no way that you, or I can imagine the horror of all that that entails. This must surely be the ultimate in personal tragedy other than the loss of life of a loved one.

All of the above constitute the set-up for the perfect economic storm of depression and simultaneous hyperinflation.

Oil companies’ profits can no longer be called profits. I think that the results that they are reporting fall outside the ambit of profits, and can probably be more properly compared to grand theft. But, this is the effect of the free market. The free market works along the base of supply and demand. Short supply and big demand equal high prices. Falling demand and high inventory equal falling prices. But, the catch here is that there is no real shortage of oil, simply a perception of runaway demand coming from emerging nations such as China and India, or so they say.

I must reiterate that the trading in oil futures takes place on the open commodity markets, and it is in the hands of such traders that the bidding up of prices into the stratosphere is being done, but, the sooner that bubble bursts, the better.

I am trying my best to imagine the ramifications of oil when the price hits $200 a barrel, as so many people expect it to do. We must also remember that so many of our everyday use products are oil based as well, such as plastics. Even families with both adults working are finding themselves just staying afloat. How will they cope in the coming disaster, possibly born of greed?

The cause of such high prices for oil can be debated forever, but the fact is that the consumer can only pay just so much before having to scale back or do without. I may be naive, but without sparking a round of hyper-inflation the cost of oil will have to come back down to earth before too long. The problem is that in the meantime the disruption to normal life will be severe.


Well, perhaps we had all better sit up and take note of what is happening on the world’s commodity markets because, as always, what happens there affects us all. Our only response under the circumstances at present is to reduce demand. We have to somehow turn our backs on the product. If we can reduce demand sufficiently, those who would see civilization turn on itself simply in the name of their own greed should instead take a bloodbath and lose their money. That would be justice.

Whatever little we can do, we should, because if we each do a little we all do a lot.

Copyright © 2008 Eugene Carmichael

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Love Games



An Intimate Discussion about a very Personal Subject

In the process of making love, there is a step that is called Foreplay. For we guys, we know when we are into this step because for so many of us this is the part where we try to get through it as fast as possible. In this phase we are supposed to concentrate solely on our woman’s pleasure. It’s supposed to get her into the mood so we usually think its best not to skip it entirely.

But here’s a suggestion: I know its radical, but what if instead of making it a part of the scenery on the way, we made it the destination. What might happen if we spent all our time and energy focussed entirely on our love interest’s pleasure, putting our own needs on the back burner? For one thing, our lovemaking sessions would certainly last longer than five minutes.

It’s a man thing to be single minded and goal-oriented. We focus on our own climax, and like a horse with blinders on, we gallop on to the end, and then we fall asleep. When we awake we wonder why there is a disgusted look on our partner’s face. Sorry, but that’s the way we are wired to propagate the species, so it will take a deliberate turn away from the normal to follow my suggestion.

So far, I have been speaking to the male, and I have been making the assumption that this is a heterosexual couple. However, the same philosophy applies to all combinations, because it invites both partners to assume the same attitude of care. Here’s where it gets interesting. When you give you get, and the more you give, perhaps the more you get. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

I bring this up because one of the major problems of long-term relationships is boredom. To be more precise, the problem is the perception of boredom. We tend to think it’s the same old -same old. You’ve known each other since you were in high school, and there’s nothing new to be discovered about each other.

This must surely be incorrect because when the break-up comes and you each go off into the arms of someone new, you discover all sorts of exciting things about yourself. The fundamental flaw could be that we think in too narrow terms about each other, and fail to recognize that time changes us. Firstly, a wife is a whole person. A husband is a whole complicated person who hardly knows himself. Sure, our equipment doesn’t change that much, but it’s the same as everybody else’s’, more or less. I think that the key must surely be to keep an open mind and to trust one another. Accept that as we grow we will have fantasies, some of which might be worth acting out. To be able to do so within the secure and exclusive relationship that exists between the two of you would be a very special thing.

I’m not the expert. For that we need to turn to those couples celebrating their 50th and 60th wedding anniversary. How did they manage to make it to those milestones together? I suspect that somewhere along the way they discovered a formula something like that which is being recommended here. I may be making an over simplification, but it couldn’t hurt, could it?

As they used to say in the old TV commercial: “Try it, you’ll like it!”


Copyright © 2008 Eugene Carmichael

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Integrity!



Integrity: moral uprightness; honesty; wholeness; soundness.
It's what seperates humans from the animals



In God’s view, human beings are simply one of many species placed on earth as part of the Big Picture. We are driven in large measure by instinct, as are the other species, however; we tend to think that as human beings we are at the top of the chain. That we have Dominion over all things. We think we are superior over all in the animal and plant kingdom because we have the power to reason, and we have the triad of intellect, integrity, and morality to guide us.

I’m not so certain that we are entitled to our lofty assessment of ourselves, especially when we take a close look at many in the animal kingdom. In their world the worst of human behaviour is non-existent, and much of our best is even better represented.

I want to focus on this question of the conduct of male behaviour in the context of morality and integrity because this is one area where we need a lot of help. As an example, let’s say that the girl is angry with her boyfriend or husband, so to get back at him she uses his brother by offering her body to him. The amazing thing is that in probably the majority of these examples the brother will accept.

Where is his sense of integrity? How is he able to so easily set aside his moral sense? Of course it’s wrong! He knows it’s wrong, so why not just say no and walk away in disgust?

I have a theory when it comes to establishing a criteria to govern whom I may, or may not sleep with: If I allow a man to call me his friend, under no circumstances would I even consider making a move on his woman. Certainly, any man to whom I am blood related as brother, cousin, or uncle, puts his woman off-limits, even if they have split up.

If your woman is beautiful, charming, alluring and seductive, I can recognize all those things, but my sense of integrity and morality tell me to stay away. I owe the man, who I call my friend a debt of honour, and the momentary enjoyment I might get from being intimate with his woman is simply not enough to soothe my conscience. I have to live with that for life.

I’m not saying that it is easy to make such decisions when you have a woman saying “come hither big boy, I’m yours!” But integrity is at its best when under pressure. We get our sense of self-esteem when we are put to the test and we pass. We can dine out on stories of the time when the temptation was so great, but we successfully resisted. We tell no one if we caved in to it.

How important is self-esteem? That’s the element in our lives from which we decide whether we like ourselves the way we are, or whether we feel that we don’t deserve happiness and respect. There are many among us who lead double lives. On the one hand they hold themselves out as paragons of virtue while at the same time hiding a very shadowy other life. Such people are set up for a fall when the truth comes out. They must surely know that the day will come.




Copyright © 2008 Eugene Carmichael