List of Previous Titles

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

The Bankruptcy of United Airlines



Terms and Conditions of use of Service

This is otherwise referred to as The Fine Print and is a carefully worded document covering several pages with one clear objective, and that is to protect the Service Provider against the customer/client.

It is smothered in a blanket of legalese, is many pages long, it is useless as an agreement as the member of the public cannot understand it; usually has no time to read it, and if we could we would not agree to it, but we are obliged to tick "Agreed" if we need the service. It is an agreement that is not an agreement, except between the Service Provider and his lawyer.

Even though the customer apparently agrees in The Agreement to step off the plane when requested by the airline most will not realise they have "agreed" to do so nor, given a fair chance would not agree to do so However, if the airline has invited a person onto the plane, and that person is seated they now have possession, and that is generally recognised as being  nine-tenth's of the law, and bloody well overrules any thing else. Now I am on your plane and you have agreed to get me to my destination,  damn well get on with it!

I have never felt this angry when sitting down to write about something, but it gives me hope that for once, everybody in the world is United about one thing: this is no way to run an airline.

Memo to United Airlines:

Who do you people think you are?  More to the point, who do you think we, your customers are?

Shame on you!

Here's how you properly handle a situation where you have to make room on board the plane for people you would like to give priority: Make your request for people to voluntarily give up their seat by offering compensation for the inconvenience you are putting them through. If that doesn't clear as many seats as you would like, then select anyone you wish and go and ask the person sitting next to them to let you use their seat while you talk to the person next to you. Quietly discuss the urgency for that person to make this flight. If they have room to negotiate make them offers that would be sweet enough to accept. If they would rather not accept, repeat the same process until success is achieved.

Here's what not to do: Do not threaten to place a person in handcuffs, as you have allegedly done before to get them off, and do not drag a person off the flight.

Everybody in the world is now aware that your sense of public relations is crap, so there would seem to be only one thing left to do. Sack all your staff and sell all your plant and equipment and get the hell out of the business.

Anyone who continues to book flights with you will deserve everything they get! Don't come crying to me!

Copyright (c) 2017
Eugene Carmichael



Saturday, April 8, 2017

Who, What, and Where is God?



I was about ten years old when I became fully aware of several issues. As a black youth I came to realise I was being educated for a life of service to white people as an hotel worker. It was true that there was not much else in my country at the time but my school system put me in a separate and unequal place.

I was also told outright, over and over again that I was only four fifths of a white boy my age. That mirrored the attitude that existed in The United States and it caused me much pain from prejudice and discrimination.

I was also encouraged to worship, pray and to believe in God. I was told that God was male, and that He was white.  That last bit struck me between the eyes and caused me to scratch my head. God was sold to me as a good and wonderful God, full of love and caring for me. Yet, this white Man, who could control the whole world and to make it whatever He wanted still allowed the type of treatment to me from white people. This was just not computing very well at all.

Over the years I dropped out of organised religion because of man's hypocritical behaviour. I have also formed certain controversial thoughts and views surrounding all religions, and of God. My principal view of God is that God has no gender. As a bit of humour I have said to friends that I think God must be female because one time I had hair and then it all fell out. My fellow men do awful things to each other but we wouldn't do that.

Recently I was introduced to a three-part series of books with the title of: Conversations with God; parts one, two and three. The author is Neale Donald Walsch, and the book is based on him having asked aloud one of those frustrating questions that so many of us do, but God made him collect a pen and paper to record God's actual answer. That grew into a long conversation between the two.

I started to read the book which quickly captivated my interest, but the burning question persisted as to whether this all happened as the author says it did, or was this simply a case of the author exercising a super rich imagination. I decided it would be the same thing and I eagerly continued to read.

As I read, page after page revealed my own radical thoughts from out of the mouth of God. It will therefore not surprise anyone to hear me say that this is the most interesting book I have ever read, bar none.

So far it has been confirmed to me that God has no gender or both genders. God is everything and everywhere and no where. God is everything we can see and everything that we cannot see. God is in everything there is and everything there is not. God is in the plants, the oceans, the mountains and the stars, and in you and me. Therefore I am part God as are you.

God has conversations with all that exists in the Universe, including all people. The sound of God's voice is the sound of the wind in all it's various nuances. It is the sound of the rain and thunder and cracking lightning; the sound of the ocean and the sound of silence.

As I read the words that come from God I try to imagine what God looks like as God speaks. I keep being drawn to an image of a wise man but that's not correct, so I have now substituted any object I need, including a bush, as in the case of Moses talking to God, or a grand old oak tree. In fact God is everything and God is nothing, so take your pick.

Most importantly for me, I finally know what colour God is; God is the colour of the Rainbow...of course!

I also unlearnt those bitter lessons I had been taught all those long years ago and I am a fully confident person today. I better understand Who, What and Where God is and in understanding that I have a much better understanding of life in general. I had been very close to understanding who I am for a long time but I needed one last barrier to come down, and now I know exactly Who I Am. That is a beautiful last part of the puzzle to now finally have. Hooray!

I am in the middle of book One so there are many things ahead of me to learn and to confirm, so I will share some of that as I go along,

Copyright (c) 2017
Eugene Carmichael

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Do Not Call their Name



Yet another person has committed an act of unspeakable horror by cutting down perfectly innocent people who he did not know and cared nought for in the interest of his own agenda. We know him as a terrorist and a criminal and a murderer.

For a long moment I thought British authorities had got it right as some time elapsed before releasing his name. I have now read a two page spread in The Sunday Times about this man and now we all know his name. To me I have already forgotten it as it does not mean anything to me. I didn't know him or his family before and I don't care about him now. To me he is just another terrorist, criminal and murderer. However, to him in deciding to carry out his heinous acts he would have been well pleased to have known that his name would be infamous and known around the world. Maybe he was a loser before but now" they shall know me by my deeds."

Every famous person who has ever been assassinated has attached to his name the name of his assassin in perpetuity. That is a powerful incentive for a person who feels his life has amounted to nothing, and in order to get famous and make something of himself he decides to murder a famous person or to kill a number of people because he could.

What if the police and the news media placed a black-out on the announcement of his name? If no-one would ever learn the identity of who committed such a horrible act, that would surely remove at least one of the main incentives for the murderer, and quite possibly might not happen at all as there might not be anything to gain.

We do not have to cooperate with the assassin. We can do this now, by simply refusing to give notoriety to those who would do such horrid things. Spanish practise does meet this objective already by giving out only the first names of people being convicted in court (except politicians) and no-one complains that they have the right to know the last names. That is because we don't have that right; it's only idle curiosity to the public and once we hear the name we let it go. It's only important to the criminal.

Those of you who control the media I appeal to you not to reveal the identity nor the photo of those who are so callous against their fellow man. Those of us with mobile cameras can act responsibly by not passing any photos we may have of such assailants across the internet. By acting in this manner you may be surprised by the number of lives you save, including possibly your own.



Copyright (c) 2017
Eugene Carmichael