Former President George H. Bush

Former President George H. Bush - An American Icon

I watched an interesting interview between the former president, his wife Barbara and Larry King recently. I was delighted to see that both the President and Mrs. Bush seemed to have their health and were in full control of their faculties, and in particular they retain their sense of humour.

This was a president that I liked a lot. I should qualify that by saying that I am not a republican, nor am I a Democrat, for I am not even an American. These are important qualifications because when it comes to American political commentary you can never get a straight answer. It all depends on who you talk to. This is just to let you know that my comments will be as centre of the road as they can be.

George the father Bush always came over as a very likeable guy, although a little goofy at times, but I never had an issue with any of his policies as president. He was vice –president to Ronald Reagan, the man Republicans just loved, except of course the man who shot him, and I’m not so sure that he was a Democrat. I’m not entirely certain why Ronnie was so loved, except that the one thing he was good at was communicating.

He was a Hollywood actor turned politician who ended up playing the most important role of his life as President of The United States of America. His training in acting came in very handy, and if it were possible for him to have been elected for a third term the voters would have done so.

In a sense that is just what they did by electing his vice-president, and in his term in office George H. Bush gave the country a clear win in a war over Saddamn Hussein. Why the electorate then chose to throw him out of office is hard to fathom.

The last time that I saw him was at the commencement of Barak Obama’s presidency. He was not looking all that well, and I understand that Mrs. Bush has not been well either, so to see them both looking well and sounding feisty and funny was wonderful.

During the interview they covered a lot of ground, including their son’s presidency and some of the things that he did. Quite naturally they defended his time in office and the decisions that were taken, and there were comments from their other children and grandchildren as well.

I’m writing this not so much because of the President, but particularly because of Barbara Bush. I feel we should pay a lot more attention to this most amazing of women who was at the head of a household that produced a president in her husband, and a president in one of her sons; and a governor of the State of Texas in one son, and the governor of The State of Florida in another son.

I’m not sure of the accomplishments of her other children, and I was thinking of doing research to find out, but I have decided that’s enough already. What a lady! We need to know a lot more about her and how she turned her family into an authentic American Dynasty.

Stay tuned for the Barbara Bush story.

Copyright © 2011 Eugene Carmichael

Footnote of the Father of The Girl next Door

Footnote of the Father of The Girl next Door

In a startling development during this past week, the father of the girl at the centre of my last blog collapsed in the bar that he spent every day, and all day at. He was rushed by ambulance to hospital, and as I write this the prognosis is very grim indeed. He is not expected to recover.

I do not know what the problem is exactly, but I’m betting that it has something to do with his liver

In spite of his maltreatment of his daughter I had hoped for a turn around of fortunes for him. He was a man who was suddenly faced with the sole responsibility of something that overwhelmed him, and he simply was not able to cope adequately. Sure, we can judge him harshly, but if we were in his situation could we have done any better.

It may be difficult to feel sorry for this man, but I can only hope that Heaven will be kind to him.

Copyright © 2011 Eugene Carmichael

The Girl Next Door -Final Chapter

The Girl Next Door -Final Chapter

I predicted that it would end in tears, and it did end that way, but that does not make me any kind of genius. Most people would have called it the same way. If you are just tuning in, here’s a little background:

The girl next door was one of my neighbours who is about 34 years old, but has the understanding of a person aged about seven. She has a number of problems and her mother was her greatest supporter, but the mother died about three or four years ago. What made the girl her own worst enemy was that she had a tendency of breaking out into a prolonged crying state during which she would vomit. It certainly sounded awful and nothing that anyone tried could help her.

I often thought that she was crying for the loss of a normal life that was being denied her. After all, she was a woman on the outside, but a little girl trapped in a woman’s body.

She was a very difficult person to manage, but her mother was always there for her with patience and understanding. Once the mother died she was left in the care of her father who had limited intelligence and was completely out of his depth with her. The rest of the family decided to get on with their lives and leave it to daddy, but he was so frustrated that he took it out on her. The abuse was horrible and the crying more frequent and intense.

None of the family came to her help, nor any of the other neighbours would step forward. It fell on me, the foreigner to report the matter to the police and the City Hall. Investigations were held and everyone agreed that the situation was just not right and that something had to be done. Time went on, and the abuse continued through the first anniversary of the initial intervention; and the second anniversary came and went, and I was certain that he would strike her and kill her in a drunken rage.

If that happened there would be tears all around, and much shaking of heads and shrugging of shoulders, and then everybody would go back to their lives except the girl next door. She would simply be gone, failed by the system and everyone within it.

And then, out of the blue the Nuns came for her. They took her to their Convent and introduced her to other young people with similar living problems. She cried copious tears in separating from her father as they spent every minute of every day together, most of that time living in terror for her. At least she knew her life with her father, and all these people were strangers to her. This was even more terrifying, but with the help of her new friends she quickly settled down and came to realise that she was making a quantum leap forward.

Now, she is a completely new person. She no longer cries, and she has proven that she can learn. She can reach out to her relatives; she can make decisions on her own, and she can complete ordinary living tasks and be responsible for herself to a certain extent. She has put on weight as she is eating properly and has found a new sense of self worth.

Perhaps that was what she had been crying for all those many years. I am so very happy for her. This story could not have a happier ending, even for her father who could possibly meet a widow and have something of a life for himself.

Copyright © 2011 Eugene Carmichael

Smokers, and smoking in Spain

Smokers, and smoking in Spain

New Year’s Resolution for smokers in Spain:
“ I will not smoke in my workplace nor in bars and restaurants, etc in Spain from January 1, 2011.”

When I came to Spain eleven years ago, I had come from a country that had already turned its back on smoking in public and at work. One of the first things I noticed here was a young mother nursing her baby while smoking and I concluded that people here must be rabid smokers, and that Spain would never change its smoking habits.

From the beginning of 2011 smoking has been banned in all places serving the public; in places of employment, as well as certain outdoors areas. That order replaces the failed attempt that made a fool of the government by simply allowing owners of certain establishments to choose to allow smoking. That was what they did in the first place. This is an amazing turnabout, and one I am personally happy to see.

However, I must say that I have sympathy with addicted smokers, and that means about 99% of them. I am a recovering smoker, having given up the habit 48 years ago. After all this time the best I can say is that I’m still recovering. I am one cigarette away from starting again, and there are times when if my companion lights up I lean a little closer to the action. My position as an ex-smoker is: love the smoker; hate the habit.

Consider the poor person who is a committed smoker. When his body yearns for nicotine he simply lights up a cigarette. Because of weather complications, some smokers entered an airport, and didn’t exit until 12 hours later. All that time he is not allowed to smoke. That must really be difficult.

I take serious issue with the CEOs of the tobacco companies who took an oath to tell the truth, then stated that they did not believe that cigarette smoking was addictive.

Lying, dishonest bastards!

I believe, as all smokers do that cigarette smoking is addictive and that those Chief Executive Officers of their cigarette producing companies lead the charge to make them more or less addictive. If they really do not believe smoking is addictive then we have the situation that they don’t know what they are doing, and that is really, really scary.

The things that smokers do to non-smokers are truly horrible, and most seem to have no remorse. Have you ever dressed up in your finest clothing and found yourself in the midst of a gang of smokers. You have to smoke whether you want to or not. It’s called passive smoking. Passive, my ass! They force you to do so. They also make you stink, and your nice expensive clothes are ready to be thrown in the trash bin when you get home. I have heard of people who actually undress outside where they leave their clothes for days to lose the smell.

When you have smokers to your house they leave their tell-tale foul aroma. Because our house is a non-smoking area, our smoker visitors go outside to have a fag. They crunch out the butts in the ashtray (which I later handle like a stool sample) and come inside, where they exude the smell of tar through their veins. It’s a smell uncomfortably close to vomit.

I smoked during a period when smoking was Cooooool! It was advertised especially during PrimeTime television, but then The Marlboro Man died of cancer. Ooops! Back then we considered it was our right to smoke and we gave it no more thought than that. If somebody said yea, but what about my right not to have to smoke your second hand discharge; and my right to work in a smokeless environment; and all my other rights that you smokers trample on? I’m fairly sure our response as smokers would not have been very kind.

So, what can we non-smokers do to get even with smokers? To copy the disagreeable smell we could belch the used smell of garlic, or fart the smell of day old boiled eggs.
To copy the crunched up cigarette butts that smokers don’t seem to think is litter, I could drop chewing gum on your patio or carpet. (If I let you smoke in my house, then I’m the dummy.) I could do those things, but they are so disgusting that I simply would not. (At least not in the company of someone.)

Instead, you are now simply being thrown out, exiled to the great outdoors to form a ghetto. I’m sorry for you because you probably got started because the cigarette pushers gave you freebies when you were in college, or you thought the adverts were so wonderful, or like so many you simply carried on the great family tradition because your mom and dad smoked. Now that you are beginning to feel like a leper you are simply unable to stop.

But, the people who make the products say they are not addictive. What would you like to say to them?

Footnote: Now that the law has been in place for about a week and that compliance is ruthless, it is beginning to become apparent that life-long smokers are making a determined effort to quit by any means possible. Some are even admitting that this is probably the move they needed. While cigarette smoking does not kill all smokers, smoking is definitely not a healthy option. Any practice that adds costs to the medical health bill eventually is a cost to us all.

Copyright © 2011 Eugene Carmichael

Not a Perfect Ten , But…..

Not a Perfect Ten , But…..

Adiós 2010..Bienvenido 2011

As the year 2010 has come to an end I take a personal look back and give the year a grade. It was not a perfect 10, but it was not a year that for my family and myself was one that we are glad to see the back of. In my opinion there were two events that come at the top for inspiration. They were FIFA’s World Football Cup that was hosted by South Africa. This was the first time an African country had the opportunity to act as host and they seemed to have satisfied those attending and proved their capabilities. I must also mention that Spain won the cup, as though there is even one person on the planet who does not already know that.

Secondly, the successful rescue of 33 miners from the depths of hell in Chile was nothing short of a miracle. Not such a long time ago the lives of those men would have been lost to a very slow death due to a lack of facilities to get them out. It was a textbook case of everybody involved doing the exact correct thing when required that led to ultimate success. What we saw as each man was brought up into the fresh air was a person being born again, quite literally.

There were no shortages of things to choose from on the downside, but my number one sad occurrence was the loss of the 29 miners in the blow-out of the New Zealand mine in November. I choose this event because it is in such stark contrast with the Chile rescue. The circumstances were so different as to disallow a duplicate of the successful event, and it would not appear that anyone made a bad judgement. What it does highlight is the incredibly dangerous circumstance in which people work on a daily basis to bring energy to you and to me. We really should be aware of such efforts and not take things so much for granted.

Another downside event is the actions of North Korea in their provocations against South Korea. These two countries have existed in a state of suspended war since their cease-fire more than fifty years ago. They have admirably held their fire, even going so far as to find areas of mutual cooperation. Now, it seems that the North are hell-bent on resuming war against the South, and by implication this could be the start of World War Three. What the hell is going through the mind of the dictator?

I must also mention the very sad case of Haiti, an island that has never experienced good luck in its existence. Every bad thing that could happen will have as its destination Haiti. Why Haiti?

What is 2011 likely to bring to the world? I fear that we will see matters go from bad to worse regarding most things. The U.S. Dollar will likely suffer a great setback, and that will have a very serious impact on the economy of that country. The euro also will be greatly affected by certain of its member states and that will severely test the virtue of the concept upon which it is based.

Unfortunately, unemployment will likely get worse, rather than better, and that may lead to more militancy among labour unions. Unfortunately, I just don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel; in fact I cannot even see the end of the tunnel. The capitalist system, like the Communist system is broke, and what is needed are new systems to replace the old.

These are very trying times, but if we take the optimist view it is also a time for opportunity. Necessity is usually the Mother of Invention so hopefully this will bring forth exciting new ways of doing things.

I wish us all positive experiences during this year. I may not be able to see how such positive things will come about, but if we all think positively that will be a start.

Copyright © 2011 Eugene Carmichael