Where shall we go for our vacation?

With Summer firmly upon us people are looking forward to spending their vacations abroad. With ever more problems afflicting the world, we were talking about safety being a factor when considering where to go. Tourists have come to grief in Egypt where they were specifically attacked; they have died and suffered as a result of being on a cruise ship; and they have been seriously inconvenienced due to strikes and political upheaval in various places.

Last week we were reacting to the barbaric action of a monster who took the lives of nine gentle people who were in prayer and bible study. Since then I have been concentrating on the role of the gun. It is the only article that is available for purchase by members of the public, the purpose for which is to kill living animals and people. A knife has many uses. It can be used to slice and to butter bread, and to do many things of a domestic nature. It can also be used to kill, but that would be extending its use beyond its principal purpose.

A gun has only one objective: to extinguish life. Everything else is leading up to that ultimate end. I have heard people say as part of the debates that inevitably follow gun outrageous that they do own a gun, but that they are responsible gun owners. What's that? You own a gun presumably so as to kill something or someone. In far too many cases, those responsible gun owners end up killing their own family members, by accident.

I also said in my blog from last week, the gun has killed people not only in prayer, but in many other walks of life where people were simply going about their daily live in peace. This week, June 26th, 2015, we have to reckon with the deaths of 39 people who were simply sunning themselves on a beach in Sousse, Tunisia. They were practically naked. You don't get less threatening than that. They were thirty-nine people who were visiting the resort area  in Tunisia, bringing trade to the country to make it possible for the country to thrive. They reacted to the invitation of the Tourist Council to come and enjoy our country. For that they were gunned down in absolute cold blood.

On the 18th March, 2015, an attack was also launched on tourists in Tunisia who were visiting the Bardo National Musuem. It was said that the attackers were part of an element who do not want visitors in Tunisia.  They killed 21 people in that incident, but yet the 39 people came to Tunisia anyway. Many people will wonder why they did that, having such a recent horrid example to think about.

I think that it's common thinking, following some tragic event, that the situation will be greatly tightened and now will be the safest time of all to go while security forces are on full alert.

 It may be time to discard that trend of thought.

With the world in such turmoil answering the question as to where to holiday has become a real crap shoot.

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael

FORGIVENESS ???

The Oxford Dictionary defines "to forgive" as, cease to feel angry or resentful towards; pardon an offender or offense; (forgive us our mistakes); remit or let off  ( a debt or debtor).

This past week (June 14th-June 20th, 2015) in the United States, a 21 year old monster walked into a church and joined a bible study group and spent a hour with the group in study; then he stood and declared I'm here to kill you. With that he systematically shot and killed nine gentle people in worship, leaving one person alive to act as witness to his atrocity.

In committing these acts he laid bare to the world a new level of  human barbarity previously unseen and unknown, except as practised by the nazis. His actions were carried out as a result of hatred, and his objective was to start a race war in America. That is just not going to happen, in spite of the fact that America has many more monsters just like him. It is not going to happen because family spokesmen have done the most incredible thing while face to face with the monster: they have declared that they forgive him his actions and that they hope he will repent before God.

I believe they mean what they say! I just don't understand how on earth they could find the feelings necessary to pardon the monster for his deliberate and hateful actions that have taken the lives of their family members. He has not asked for their pardon, nor has he done anything at all to even suggest that he regrets his actions.

Although he is a white man and his victims are all black, that alone does not make his crimes any worse than a white man who shot white chilrdren, or any of the many other unspeakable gun crimes against innocent victims in America. For some reason America just doesn´t get it. They insist on their right to own as many guns as they want, and practically any type that they want. Meanwhile, people around the world all look on at such events taking place in America, supposedly the leading nation of the world, and we shake our heads in complete bewilderment. We fully expect more and more outrageous events committed with guns, but we don´t understand why Americans react with such surprise when they happen.

If Americans insist on the right to bear arms, especially in unlimited numbers and varieties, then so be it. They should simply expect that from time to time those guns will be brought out to kill other Americans while they are having a hamburger, or watching a movie, or studying at the library, or shopping for groceries, and, while they are simply in worship in the House of the Lord.

I have observed these events in horror, but were it not for the fact that surviving family members have expressed forgiveness face to face with the monster, I would not have been surprised at all. I expect more atrocities, and much worse because it seems to me to be some kind of perverse race. The next one, that is probably being planned right now will eclipse in horror the last one.

America, you have met the enemy, and the enemy is You!

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael  

Bad luck or no luck at all?

I was having a conversation with a friend about playing the lottery. I said that I have been playing for about ten years, and that if I didn't have bad luck I would not have any luck at all. It's true that I have not won anything of significane during that time, but when I do win the Euro Millions I will probably just about get all the money I have paid in it returned to me, even if I win millions.

That, of course, is a bad joke. The moment my words left my mouth I regretted uttering them. I am a positive thinker, so I was surprised I would and could say that I am unlucky. What I need to do is stop and count the ways in which good luck has been firmly on my side.

The most obvious example is that, when I was born I was given a maximum life expectancy of 47 years. That was common to all males born in my year in Bermuda. As the group of us approaced our 39th year we started dropping like flies. This was partly due to lifestyle. That ole devil rum got many of them, and a variety of costums got others. Unfortunately, my wife at the time met her premature death in her 42nd year due to complications of an illness and its treatment.

I chose to change my lifestyle completely, but still it took a massive dose of very good luck to allow me to have recently celebrated my 75th birthday.

In 2012 our house stood in the middle of a five county-wide fire that took 800 firefighters on the ground, aided by 47 air water bombers to extinguish. The fire ran right over and around our house, but never actually touched the house. That exceeds good luck and can be called a modern miracle.

I sit at the head of a clan of three children, two daughters and a son; three grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. All of them are a part of the solution to the world's problems, and that too adds to my growing good luck portfolio.

Good luck is something to be hoped for, but by its very nature is not something that can be engineered. If I am so fortunate as to win the present Euro Millions jackpot of 119 million euros, a lot of people will be very happy. I certainly don't need that much money for myself, but through a constructive social program I would use such a pot of gold to better the lives of people who could really use a break to simply be put in the position that I am in at the moment.

I am a happy, healthy, and a very lucky man indeed. I wish everyone was!

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael  

You, Me, and Mr. Al (zheimer)

Growing old is both wonderful and very frightening. On the one hand you only get to be an old person if you have extremely good luck. You are living through, and making history. I tell my children and grandchildren, and my great grandchildren that I lived life during a time when the world did not have even one computer, or smart phone, and worst of all, there was no facebook. They all answer in unison with the question: How? That, young ones is a good question.

There are so many things waiting to kill us. A simple drive to the supermarket is fraught with danger, and once there the things we put in our shopping cart are out to get us. Butter or margarine, eggs or not, killer cigarette suspects, etc, etc, etc. If what we put into our own bodies don't cut our lives short, then there are the terrorists who want to use us to try and make their very bizarre points. There are so many barriers to old age that it is one of life's modern miracles that more and more of us are crossing the 100 year line, and in good health.

There is one thing, however, that gives me real cause for worry, and that is the possibility of losing my mental faculties to Alzheimer's disease. As our bodies age parts begin to suffer as a result of wear and tear. It should be no surprise that the brain will start to lose its operating sharpness. I have been told that the memory is the first thing to lose its edge, and once that starts there is no way to slow down the process, let alone to reverse the slippage. I suppose that once we use our minds less we lose the sharpness. Perhaps a case of use it or lose it.

During my working years as an insurance accountant I held a head full of numbers. I had instant recall with telephone numbers. I calculated sums in my head without effort, whether plus, minus divide or percentages. I was my own computer. Now, I have to stop and think hard, and usually I resort to my handheld calculator and computer.

I don't know if it is true or not that the slippery slope into Alzheimer's syndrome is something without control, but a long time ago I noticed that certain people who had reached an advanced age, but who remained busy using their minds seemed wonderfully healthy. People such as musicians, particularly classical concert performers were outstanding in their control over their faculties at eighty and ninety years of age. Clearly they were constantly using their brains, so I am following their examples by, among other activities challenging myself to write these blogs to put my opinions in written form. I am astonished by the number of followers I have. Each and every one of you are so precious to me, but I do this principally for my own personal mental health. 

My late mother-in-law, who was a delightful woman, spent much of her time doing crossword puzzles to the extent of professional level. Her mind remained sharp to the end, which is more evidence that by using her mind she held off Mr. Alzheimer and remained in control.

I suppose that I could do all sorts of research to see what the scientists have to say but I do not set myself up as any kind of expert or guide in matters of this sort, but the common sense angle appeals to me, and so I have deliberately set myself on a course of physical fitness by attending the gym twice weekly, and Pilateus once a week. I read, write, and I pay attention to images; I live in a land that is foreign to me so I study the language every say, and I am determined to fight on.

Use it or lose it!

There's hope for us all.

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael 

Eurovision that I love/hate!

Our first full year in Spain was the year 2000. That was the year we first heard of and experienced Fallas. As May rolled around we were still in shock over Fallas when there arose an excitement and expectation over something called Eurovision. The first two run-offs had been held and it was time for the final event. All the buzz was over where would you be to observe the show because it was going to be something to see.

In fact, Eurovision celebrated its 60th anniversary this year. It is a big event, in the same league as football's World Cup, Baseball's World Series, and, in my opinion it stands above all of the talent shows. This is the real event between countries that try to send their absolute best.

I have come to hate the event at the same time as I love it because of the intrusion of politics. tThat becomes evident in the voting process, yet it is still wonderful to see such diverse countries finally come together to choose a winner.

As everybody now knows, Sweden was the overall winner for 2015. I don't feel strongly against them, but my personal choice was Italy, the very last country to present their song. My reasoning is that they did not rely on special stage effects as part of their presentation, but rather it was all about the music. Three males, in the style of the Three Sopranos, sang their hearts out in an absolute splendid performances that was strong, inspired, and fabulous. They made magic, but the voting placed them third, behind Sweden and Russia. I did agree that the Russian song was splendid, but for me, Putin and the Ukraine kept getting in the way of my enjoyment of it. Politics do matter, but this was one case where politics was overcome.

Spain's Edurne presented a very serious competitive song that belonged in the first five, or at least the first ten final places, but instead it finished in 21st place. It is a memorable song performed by a highly talented young woman who will go far, but without the political support it had to settle for what it got. Having said

 that Austria was the host country because of Conchita, a man in drag who aced the competition last year by signing a flawless song, as a woman. This year, Austria didn't get one point, which suggests that their entry would have been disqualified had not Austria been the host country. Worse than that, Germany also failed to get one point. We have no excuse for that.

I have come to the conculsion that in order to win you must present a grade AAA song in a manner that will stick in the voters minds. Last year it was Conchita, the bearded lady that no-one could forget. This year it was Sweden with a song that was delightful, but that I no longer remember the tune, but I do remember the cartoon that accompanied it. I will probably still remember that by the time next year's Eurovision comes around, so clever was it.

Perhaps the award should have gone to the creator of the cartoon.

Eurovision. Love it or hate it, but it is not to be ignored.

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael 

Unequal pay for equal work

The year is 2015. In this year people rely on sixth generation smartphones; wearable communication devices, self-drive cars that can even race themselves, and worldwide connections at the touch of a button. In other words, we are living in a smart,connected world, but those of us who live in the leading edge nations continue to do some really stupid things. There are many practices that have been carried over from the darker ages of our ignorance. Today, I focus on only one that is long overdue for radical change because there is no logical reason why it remains solidly in place.

Approximately 55 years ago I recall having a conversation in a sports club with a man who was the personnel officer of the electrical monopolyin my country. He said that he was receiving a constant stream of applications from females who wanted to do man's work as linesman, etc. To his mind this was an unhealthly trend where women no longer seemed to know their place.

I said that I thought it was probably driven by the need for such women to earn a realistic wage to look after their children that had been fathered by men who had moved on without financially looking after them.

That was 55 years ago, at a time when we didn't even have a jail for females in my country who society thought incapable of committing crimes. Times have changed drastically. Now women have shown that they are capable of  working alongside men in every way. They also make capable world leaders, but yet their compensation packages are routinely set below those paid to men. Why?

White men seem to think that the role of captain of industry is a role reserved for them. A white man will more likely receive the support of his bank than anyone else. That propels him into the managing director's seat, and from there he gets to make decisions that affect a lot of people's lives. One of those decisions is that he should pay other white men more in compensation than any other staff members because that props up the myth of white male superiorty. He sees a woman's place as being in the home. She should have a husband who is the head of family, and the principal breadwinner, so if she insists on working she only needs enough of an income to assist him.

In 2015, the truth of the matter is that in many societies we humans decide whether we even want to go the family route. We are independent thinkers and decide for ourselves what lifestyle we want. Our private lives are our own. Our professional lives are another matter. If a woman brings equal skills to the table then surely she should be paid the scale equal to a man for that skillset. A company that imposes other social related considerations upon her that are antiquated is itself a fossil. It also hurts its own bottom line because if you can get the level of work required for a lower compensation, why on earth would you pay more?

We probably all make the mistake of thinking that the boardroom is a place where serious, advanced, and adult thinking takes place. Not necessarily! Maybe it will take the old farts departure into retirement and the grave before more modern thinking can prevail.

 It would be wonderful if such modern and sensible thinking came from a woman CEO!

Copyright (c) 2015   Eugene Carmichael

A Taste of Global Warming!

Ever since time began the earth's weather has been cyclical. There has been an Ice Age, followed by periods of dry, hot, arid temperatures, with the in-betweens signifying the transitions. We are warned that the earth has entered into a period of global warming, yet there are those who steadfastly refuse to believe it. Perhaps that is because it really is one of those truths that are inconvenient.

This past week, the Valencian Comunity got a taste of what is to come. Fortunately it only lasted for one terrifying day, and what a day it was.

The forecast warned that a frontal system was moving up from the Sahara bringing with it a dust storm and intense heat. We expected the system to descend upon us on Thursday, May 14th. Probably most people closed up their homes tightly upon going out in the morning. I went to work in the market place in LLiria, and fortunately I had a secluded and shaded spot, but just after twelve the wind got up, the heat suddenly rose, and in the sky, there hung a grey/brown pall which was a combination of smoke from fires that had broke out and the dust fog, a smog, in fact.

The effect on the crowds in the market was the same as if it had started to rain. We gathered up our stuff and headed for the hills. If you can think of a giant turbine that throws out intense wind and heat, being in the midst of the system on Thursday afternoon would have been like just standing behind the turbine and sucking it up.

By the time I arrived home my dog and one of my cats were quite disturbed. They had no idea what was going on. I scooped them up and took them inside and turned on the A/C. I suspect my other cat had taken refuge in the downstairs apartment, where he lives on his own. I spent the afternoon with the two animals watching, and in their case, listening and sleeping through movies.

If you did not have A/C I find it difficult to imagine how you got through it. The official temperature for Valencia was 41.5 degrees centigrade, however, one prominent spot registered 50 degrees; another 48, others 42, 44, and 46. Deaths of humans were recorded, especially of homeless people that were suspected to have been because of the overwhelming heat.

It seems that the streets were unusually free of traffic, and for good reason: it actually hurt to be exposed as though you were experiencing direct fire. I never did take note as to whether there were any people at the beach lying naked in the sun.

This was just a one-day taste of things to come. During the height of the day in Summer it gets hot enough to send all who can, to have a siesta. But, we are not yet in Summer. This is Spring!

 Vaya!

Copyright (c) 2015   Eugene Carmichael

Beautiful People

I sometimes get to thinking about the lives of super beautiful and handsome people, and how different those lives could be from my own. I would describe myself as never having been more than average, although I also never had trouble pulling females. I have been guilty of thinking I was God's gift to women of the world, but in reality I was never model material. My son is; and does model clothing and is a part-time actor in television commercials. I'm happy for him and hope it will lead him to success.

What got me thinking about Beautiful/Handsome people is the question: is it a blessing or a curse to be a man, admired by your fellow males and desired by women; and a woman so strikingly perfect that you just know that probably every man (and some women)  coming towards you wants to get their hands on you?

I think that if you are a person who can ignore the attributes you have and keep your feet planted solidly on the ground so that you live an ordinary life, then I imagine it would neither be blessing or curse. The fact of the matter is that in The United States of America and Canada, where beauty is an art form, there are lots of people who fall into that special class.

There are opportunities for beautiful people to take advantage of their looks to advertise stuff, or to get themselves in the movies because beauty and good looks are real saleable commodities. The most obvious place to sell oneself is the movies, but being good eye candy is not enough, you must be a good actor.

My two all-time favourite actors are Hallie Berry, and John Travolta. They both have been featured in some great films, as well as some failures. While their looks and personalities added greatly to their successful works, their flops were not saved in any way because they looked good.

Is it even possible for a hot personality to have a normal life? A normal life would be described as one where a person can have a relationship with a person who truly loves you, and whom you love with all your heart. In such a relationship you both want children, and you trust each other to be true to one another. At least that's the traditional definition. I'm sure people have written different descriptions. There are many relationships between professional people where they don't enter into marriage because they just know that a marriage cannot survive. The problem is simply self-discipline which is difficult enough for all of us ordinary people.

The other thing that many people do with their superb looks is become porn actors. It's not for me to judge, but once you are out there you cannot take it all back if your life takes a turn for the better. Something to think about before the director calls: Action!

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael

  

Is Homosexuality a free Choice ?????

I have recently heard opinions from two influential persons who have said that, (a) to be gay is a free choice; and (b), being gay is a curable condition. What worries me is that they have followers who are impressionable, so I am responding with an opposite view.

Firstly, there is a very good reason why we live in a world so full of organised chaos: it is because life would be unbearably boring for humans if we had no differences to challenge us. Life is also about balance, where beauty is the opposite balance to ugly, and kindness to cruelty, etc, etc, etc.

When a child is born he/she develops with certain attributes. Some will come as a result of the heritage of the parents, such as skin colour, hair texture, eye colouring, perhaps potential height, and sexual perference will also be factored at that time. The gender of the child is not something that can be chosen with any certainty, and normally the child's sexual preference will only develop over time.

I can only speak to the matter from personal experience as a male, which should suffice as this was what the two individuals were speaking about. If we take history into consideration we have lived through a terrible period when young men discovered what the nature of their sexual preference was, and they chose to live in the closet with it because society, in its collective ignorance,  rejected that people could be wired in such a way that it was something that was completely out of their power to control.   Surely, if it was something that a person  could freely choose, would they not choose the path of least resistance?

If being homosexual or lesbian is an aberration to the normal hetrosexual, is it a condition that can  be cured? I think you might have better success in changing a person's choice of breakfast cereal than making any difference at all to sexual preference.

I put this question to the two men who have made their controversial statements: Are you absolutely certain that you do not have latent homosexual tendencies? And if you answer is yes, how do you know? There have been cases in the past where men have been hugely outspoken against one thing or another, only to find out later that very person was a practioner of the thing he spoke out against.

I am a 100% hetrosexual! I know this because as a young man I have been challenged on more than one occasion by some bug-eyed, horny man who wanted my body for his pleasure. I have had to fight my way out of situations that I could simply not be a participant to, but the easier option, if it were an option would have been to just say yes. I know my sexuality, and I have the bruises to prove it. Do you?

Here's the point: If you are gay or lesbian, than that's who you are and you must live your live for yourself, not for society as a whole, so long as you do not hurt others. If you are a person who believes in one religion, but you fall in love with someone who is outside your faith, if you follow your heart that is to be expected. If you are a person from one racial group and you fall in love with someone from another group, if you follow your heart that is reasonable and is to be expected. If your personal politics are those of one political party and you fall in love with someone from the opposing party, perhaps you should be pitied, but it would be perfectly acceptable to follow your heart.  I have deliberately grouped all of these situations within one section because they are all driven by the same thing: Honesty!

There is nothing to be cured or changed in who as person is, except as the participating persons deem necessary. For you and I, we simply need to mind our own business because our own lives are complicated enough.

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael 

A Tsunami of Immigrants

I became a resident of Spain officially in the year 2000, but I am not considered an immigrant because I hold a British passport. Spain has many invisible immigrants who blend in, including the English, even though the United Kindom is not a party to the Schengan Treaty. I arrived by air and I have been allowed to live in peace. I am privileged.

It was not too long after I arrived that I became aware of people who were arriving illegally from North Africa, and even from countries below the Sahara. A program was presented on television that showed where some of those people came from. In one African village a collection was made to buy one of the local lads passage with people smugglers to get to Europe. The sums of money that is paid is astounding, and in more cases than anyone is aware, the hopeful person dies along the way.

I remember seeing that program and thinking I wish they wouldn't do that because there was nothing here for them. Even the Spanish were struggling.

Then came the Arab Spring and everything changed. Rolling unhappiness with the usual way of life brought on terrible strife in a number of countries that has led to untold deaths and torture and injuries and incarcerations, that people are running for their lives. Countries closest have become overrun with refugees, and now desperate people are looking to Europe. People have a lot to run from, including extremist groups or brutal dictators. I find it really impossible to imagine a person leaving his or her home south of the Sahara to make the trip across that vast desert heading north. I think you must be well equipped to survive such a challenge, but if you do survive that is only the first stage.

Now you are in countries full of turmoil, such as Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisa. None of these countries are welcoming of South Sahara immigrants, in fact their own citizens are fleeing  across the Medditerranean sea. The Paradigm has now completely shifted. It's no longer a matter of simple choice to better one's life in an economic sense, but rather a choice to live or die trying.

They set off to cross the Meditterranean sea in flimsy craft suitable only for drifting along the beach. There are no records so no one has any idea of how many set sail and reached European soil. We can be sure that more than we can bear to know about have drowned along the way. For those who do reach dry land they can only say that they are still alive, and everday brings hope that things will improve. Coming from such humble beginnings the very smallest progress is to be celebrated.

The challenge is overwhelming, but the greatest journey starts with the first step. I need to win a lottery of at least 100 million euros. I know exactly how I would put it to use.

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael

This is a Tsunami of immigrants from north and south of the Sahara who are asking for life. They need help from all of Europe, but also from the Western countries such as the United States and Canada. There was a time when Africans were plucked from their home countries and forcibly brought out to be slaves. Many first families made their wealth on the backs of those early reluctant immigrants.

Now their lives depend on the help that is offered them. Consider it, if you will, a repayment of the debt.

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael  

A Prime example of Convoluted Thinking!

The following happened in Afghanistan and is an absolutely true story.

The Villian of the Peace:

I will call the villan Abdul. He is a married man with children.

The most unfortunate victim who belongs in The Guinness Book of Records:

I am calling her Fatima.

Fatima is the unmarried cousin to Abdul's wife. Abdul is besotted with Fatima and decides he has to have her, so he forces himself on her and rapes her. She complains to the police and Abdul is tried and sent to prison for one year. So far I think we can all understand this chain of events.

The Twist:

Fatima is arrested for having had (non-consensual) sex with Abdul, therefore under Afghanistan law she has been an (unwilling) participant to an adulterous act. She is sent to prison where she finds out that she is pregnant from having been raped. She delivers her baby in prison and serves her time.

Fatima's family scorn her for having had (forced) sex with a married man. She is an embarrassment to them. They want her to go far, far away, never to have any further contact with them. However, she is dirt poor and has no means to do this, so she stays put.

Fatima's society see her as a fallen woman and she is an outcast. There is only one way she can be brought back into society and that is to marry the man whose action put them both in prison. In order to do this she becomes Abdul's number two wife. She now has a second child by him. Her society now considers her to be a respectable married woman who nobody ever sees, but her family think of her as being dead.

Presumably, Fatima's cousin, Abdul's number one wife, has no comment on any of this.

This is not your average romantic story which ends with the words: "They lived happily ever after!"

A whole society who think along these lines is not only nuts, they are also dangerous.

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael 

Luxury Orgies

I turned on the television to see if there was something interesting to watch. I turned to the Odessy channel where a slide announced, "Up Next: Luxury Orgies."  WTF?

I sat up straight as the program began to roll. Sure enough, the program took us through a number of events hosted by various people in the U.K. and America, where it seems that as part of the lifestyles of some of the rich and famous, people are getting together, mostly on weekends to screw each other to their hearts content.

There are all sorts of parties, some very expensive indeed where the very top rated champagne is drunk along with fine food. All sorts of rules as well, including giving up your mobile phones so that there is no photography; to one party where no man may hit on a woman. At that party women are in charge. They are the aggressors with the men playing the passive, cute roll. Attendance is by strict invitation after a process of vetting takes place, and acceptance of an application means you have to fit into a rigid criteria.

It seems that this quiet movement has been taking place for some time. However, I would not call it a revolution, but rather it is simply part of the sexual cycle where we go through times of high and very loose sexual action, usually followed by some kind of limiting period of war or horrid disease as a result of rampant sexual activity. That is followed by a reigning in of behaviour and very conservative behaviour.

For some examples of that we could focus on the time of ancient Rome, the time of Caligula, to reflect on sexual libertinism. However, the 60's was a time of real sexual revolution. That was driven by the introduction of "The Pill."  This meant that women became freed up to have sex without pregnancy, and also, they were now free to be open and honest to the fact that women have always enjoyed sex as much as men, and perhaps even more so. The problem was that they have always been concerned about the protection of their own bodies and safeguarding themselves against untimely pregancies. The Pill changed all that.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that I had never made a conquest in my life. It was also a pleasent surprise to realise that women can be as horny as men, and apparently show up in large groups at these sex parties to get well and truly screwed.

AIDS brought the sex of the sixties to a screeching halt. We all retreated into our shells and were horrified to hear that the incubation period for AIDS might be as long as ten years.

We are talking about consenting behaviour between adults, so at face value there is nothing wrong, if safe sex is practised. (How do you do that in an orgy?)  For a group of women friends in attendance I can see no obvious problems. However, men generally must bring a woman. This is where I see things getting complicated. Now let me say that I am being naive because I have never attended such a party. I suppose I wish I had. I can only use my imagination, and what I imagine is that if you are a young guy who really likes sex, you could have the time of your life. However, who would you bring to such a party? It just isn't done to invite a prostitute, so what kind of friend do you bring? Clearly it would'nt be someone you cared deeply for because once there, each of you would go your own way.

I have heard from two couples who swear they are very much in love with one another, but they are swingers and they attend parties at least once a month where they get seriously active. All four people agree that what they are doing is open and honest and should avoid one of the pitfalls that wreck marriages. I can understand that thought process, but this is the most intimate of intimate acts there is. Done between a married couple you are bringing each other inside a zone where all others are locked out. It is the one thing that sets you apart from the world outside and gives your relationship special value because you touch each other in that certain way. It is why it hurts so much when a betrayal takes place by letting another person into the special place.

I just don't understand how a couple, who care for one another, and say that they love one another could participate in such activity without long-term serious damage to their relationship.

Also, from a man's point of view, I think once you have gone once over the top you start thinking about sleep. To go twice over the top you must start thinking about heading for home. Your wife however, may just be warming up. I hope they have a room set aside for men who just want to sleep. That would be nice.

As two young women said, they would hate to meet the man who became the love of their lives and their husband and father of their children at an orgy.

Enough said!

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael 

Spring in Valencia

In the past I have always answered that Summer is my favourite season, when asked. I love Summer in Spain, even if it does get a little too hot in the height of the day, but that's what Siesta Time is for. Everybody does it, not just we old folks, and it's called siesta, not naptime. Siesta time is to die for, and the principal reason I came to Spain.

However, I have been doing some thinking about this subject because I realise I have been selling Springtime in Spain short. To get to the joys of Summer we have to experience the wonders of Spring. How could I have missed it? In my country we have Summer, and the next thing we know we have Winter. If there are Autumn and Spring periods in Bermuda we don't notice because everything is always green there, but here autumn sees plants turn brown, and this year the country, except Valencia, has been well and truly snowed in. So, it is with great joy that the country has welcomed back the sun in all its glory, and people are able to sit out in the sunshine and feel warmth about themselves.

In Valencia, Spring means that the province awakens from its Winter hibernation with a great big bang. I mean that literally. March madness means the Festival of Fallas when for three full weeks we make so much noise with fireworks, both daytime and at night. Children go around with petardos and lighters to see how high grandparents can jump. At the City Hall in Valencia City there is a daily 2pm firework display that grows in intensity every day. We fool ourselves into thinking that those big bangs are fireworks, but in Iraq and Syria they are called ordanance. The shows usually lasts between five and seven minutes, but it is the most violent five/seven minutes one could ever ask for.

Why do we make so much noise, twenty-four hours a day? We say that we are chasing old man Winter away. The thing is, it always works, so no need to change that then!

There is singing, concerts, dancing, parades, a band might follow you into the Metro and then play loudly and you would dance if there was room. We eat too much, drink far too much booze, and there are bullfights, both the kind where the bull is killed for the supermarket, and where only the skill of the humans is the main thing. They try to keep the incidence of the bullfighter getting killed to a minimum as there is not a lot to do with a human dead body.

The culmination of the celebrations is the destruction of monuments that have taken a year to create at costs that average a fullscale house, by blowing them up and burning them down where they stand in the street. So far, after so many years of doing the same thing the town is still standing. Also, it's no coincidence that on that day, March 19th, we celebrate Father's Day. Apparently, Valencia fathers don't do sedate lunch celebrations with the kids.

I have changed my answer to Springtime in Valencia as my most favourite time because it's when orange trees hang heavy with golden orbs and are harvested; it's when my garden burst forth in flowers, and my spirit actually takes a leap towards the sun. Its the time of year when hope comes alive with the warmth of the sun.

Springtime in Valencia; all's well with the world. Happiness has returned, and that is good!

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael

Flight AU 9525: A Betrayal of Faith!

I'm not sure whether to be more shocked that a 28 year old young man would commit suicide and choose to take 149 other people with him; or that over the past fifteen years there have been ten other such incidents resulting in the total loss of more than 500 innocent lives.

That does not include all those incidents where light, single pilot planes have been deliberately flown into the homes of wives, ex-wives and ex-girlfriends by jilted pilots.

It is clear that we do not live in a perfect world, and we will never reach that level of Nirvana. In fact, the world goes around based on Trust. It will never be otherwise.

We start the day by listening to the news. We trust what the news reader is saying is the truth, which is ridiculous because not even the reader knows that to be true. He, or she simply believes it to be so.

If we take mass transport we trust that the operator is sane, sober, responsible and does not have a death wish that day.

If we have surgery scheduled for that day we place our total faith in the surgeon. In all cases where general anaesthesia is involved we close our eyes while gazing at a person who is wearing a mask and we submit totally. Will we reopen our eyes? Only time will tell.

I'm sure that the families of the victims of a very twisted mind, including the co-pilot's parents and relatives, have the sympathy of the world at large. In particular, I cannot even begin to fathom what his parents and family are going through at the moment. Clearly, what he did is not the fault of his family. Evidently he had been planning to do what he did for a long time. Every passenger that flew on a plane in which he was co-pilot was unknowingly playing Russian Roulette.

That is a very scary thought. What can be done about it? There is only so much that we can do. Beyond that we take our chances. The elderly are living longer and in good health, but there are a lot of very screwed up people trying to kill each and every person they can. We are like baby turtles scrambling towards the sea. Some of us will make it, and others will not.

It is important for us to continue to have Faith that we will always experience good luck!

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael  

 

Dumping the Parents. A very bad idea!

In the news this week was a story of a community that is accusing itself of having resorted to a controversial practise of dumping its elders in care homes, rather than having them live out their lives in their own homes. As senior citizens we are living longer, much longer, but many don't have the luxury of good health to be able to care for themselves.

Having arrived here in Spain to take up permanent residence in 1999 I immediately observed some cultural aspects that I really grew to love. Two were, (a) parents took their children everywhere they went, including to the bar, and, (b) that parents lived out their days at home with one or other of heir offspring.

That was then, but great negative changes have taken place that have placed significant pressures on the average family around the world. First, here in Spain fantastic growth was enjoyed during what we now know was the bubble period. That's when offspring worked very hard and many of their parents had to take up residence in care homes. However, the question is, once they were put there did they continue to have a close relationship with their children through regular visits, or were they simply forgotten? If that was the case they would have been dumped.

"Growing old is ugly!" So said Michael Jackson. He was absolutely correct. We go from young, vital, perhaps beautiful or handsome to the effects of age-creep. The effect gets more severe day-by-day, and  generally, it's not a pretty sight.

Young people are responsible for a number of actions that are taken against older people, and apparently they do so completely forgetting that they too are headed in that same direction. One of those actions is the dumping of their parents. Meanwhile, their own young children observe the treatment accorded to their grandparents, and so of course, when the time comes they will do the same thing to their own parents. They will dump them and forget them because they got the model from their mom and dad, so it must be alright.

The irony is that mom and dad will surely moan and complain about all the sacrifices they made for their children, and now they dump us here and never come to visit.

Also, there is one other class of parent who will complain bitterly: that is those fathers who were careless where they spilled their sperm as young men. They never took responsibility, and in their old age, although they fathered the equivalent of a football team, nobody comes to visit. 

I hope they complain to the wall!

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael

I have finally got to know Mr Grey with his 50 Shades!

To me, the headline I have given this is funny, because in my country we call your sunglasses your shades.

I have been a long time getting to know what all the fuss was about. When the three books were released by author, E.L. James, "The 50 Shades of Grey," a great stir was caused among women, particularly of middle age, so I thought it was some kind of idealised love story. I bought the series for my wife so that she might read through them to satisfy herself, but she didn't explain much to me, nor was I particularly interested.

Now a movie has been released, so I got to watch it and I had an Ah Ha! moment. If you have not read the books or seen the movie I am not going to spoil the story line for you, but it is fair to say that the movie appears under the classification of BD, DS, and S&M. That's Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, Sadism and Masochisim. This is where in a relationship between two people one is the dominant and the other the submissive. I have no doubt that there are cases where the woman is the dominant one, but we seem to be dealing with cases where the man is dominant and the woman is submissive.

I wateched the movie and immediately concluded that the movie must be a pale version of the books as it was apparent to me that care was being exercised to avoid a triple XXX rating.

It occurred to me that a very long time ago I had sat through a similar film with a strong male character, also named Mr Grey, and his relationship with his secretary. The film was called simply, "Secretary."

When we enter into subjects under the above-noted headings we enter into a very strange world indeed where people like me might jump to the conclusion that this is all some sick shit, but I am reigned in by the number of serious scholary papers on the subject. Basically we see one set of people who have the need to control others exercise that control over, hopefully, willing subjects, and probably even better would be to control unwilling individuals. Men pay women to beat them up, and women go back time and again to subject themselves to thoroughly sadistic men to be physically degraded and seriously hurt.

Here is where I have a problem: on the one hand women of the world are calling for men to stop violence against women. yet, a whole cult following of women seem to exist for subject matter of this kind. If you want to know how many films of this type for general release there are you need only Google the subject S&M films. I found thirty-three titles. However, these will all be sanitized entertainment films, for the real thing you need to go to a sex store. A "friend" offered to show me one such film and after only a few minutes I said, sorry, I have to go.

I consider myself to be a strong and robust man but images of what people do to get off sexually I find so disturbing, that I simply don't want to know. I suppose the thing that would make it alright would be if it all takes place between willing adult participants who exercise free will.

I somehow doubt that in every case. Where there is one person who is drawn into such activity against their own free will the experience must be so horrific to supersede regular-style torture. That cannot be acceptable by any standards.

Copyright (c) 2015   Eugene Carmichael 

A Bitter Disappointment!

I was so hoping that on this day, Sunday March 8th, 2015, the one year anniversary of the sudden disappearence of flight MH370, the Malaysia flight that so completely vanished, that the plane complete with those persons on board would magically re-appear. Why on earth would I think such a thing possible?

Flight MH 370 changed course from its pre-set flight pattern in a deliberate manner and its contact system was shut down to avoid detection because, presumably it was intended to take the plane to a specific unauthorized destination. My thinking was that this was a well thought out action on the part of Al Queada. I saw it as the follow-up action to their 9-11 show piece, an action that would have to be stunning. To do something in the United States, that was a country on high alert was probably impossible, but in the part of the world of Malaysia, where security was at a lower state of being, something could be possible.

The pilot was Muslim, and he had a simulator in his home. He also possibly had some difficulty in his family, if you believe reports, which would have been likely if he was practising how to land a large airplane in glider mode so as to avoid detection due to the sound of the motors. If the plane had landed deliberately in a pre-determined spot and then hidden, that would have taken a small army that was well chosen and trained. One thing that seems to be certain, judging by the movements of the plane that has been tracked, it appears to have been deliberately flown towards a definite destination.

Let me be clear: I am not saying that the pilot did anything of his own accord to have participated in the disappearence of the plane. We simply don't know what happened. However, I was hoping that in spite of how ludicrous my idea might sound, it would have been fantastic if all passengers and crew re-appeared on this first anniversary, but it wasn't to be.

There is another possibility: we may still be seeing an Al Queada PR action. To make an aircraft completely disappear as if by magic, and to create the world's greatest mystery. That is certainly what we are presently grappling with, but until they take credit and explain how they did it, and what happened, it has come to an abrupt end.

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael

On Standby awaiting explosive Breaking News on Sunday, March 8th!

I anticipate that on Sunday, March 8th some absolutely amazing news will be released.

Please Standby!

copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael

How Precious is our Sight and all our other senses?

As a natural part of aging, which is not a pretty process, I found that my sight in my left eye was deteriorating due to a cataract. In 2011 I had the operation by a very competant surgeon and all was fine. However, gradually the eye needed more and more attention, including rubbing and lots of drops. Two Sundays ago I awoke lying on my front with my head  resting on my right side. In order to see what time it was I opened my left eye and realised, to my absolute horror that I was completely blind in that eye.

How long had this condition existed?

It had not occurred to me to simply close my right eye to test my left vision, so perhaps I have been operating for some time in that condition, although recently I have noticed a more advanced deterioration. For instance I am having major problems with my sense of depth perception.

I took myself off to the doctor the very next day and when he did an examination he discovered that the eye had become clouded over from a build-up of dust. In other words, I am blind in that eye due to common dirt! Good Heavens! I now have an appointment for a cleaning by laser.

Firstly, the human body is an amazing construct with built-in redundancies. We have two ears, eyes, nostrils and a mouth to take in and expell air, without which we cannot survive for more than a few minutes. We have our two arms and two hands, and legs and feet, and our internal organs. However, just to add an element of grave danger to our design we have only one heart.

We take so much for granted that when we come into contact with people with no sight or loss of other senses we have no way of fully understanding what they must be experiencing. We must walk in their shoes in order to know how deprived their lives are.

My hope is that after the cleaning process I will be returned to a like-new state. However, I wonder why I have been given this experience? I must open my mind for a revaluation of something that I can do to be of assistance, because surely, to have lost at least part of my sight, and then to be given it back must have some significant meaning.

One thing is certain: I am eternally grateful for my sight and other senses, and my good health in general!

Copyright (c) 2015   Eugene Carmichael  

We're Racists and that's how we like it!

This refers to the news item from France this week wherein some English football supporters chanted this as they prevented a black man from boarding a train in Paris.

Well, finally a racist freely acknowledged that he was just that. Normally, people act or say things that stamps them as being racist, or men who hate women, or people who hate Jews, or gays and lesbians, and they are adamant that they are not prejudiced, even going so far as they say they have friends from the particular grouping.

Well, if you are a person with a perverted point of view at least recognise your sickness, because until you do there is nothing that can be done if you want to be a part of decent society.

Do we have a right to hate people? Nowhere is it written that we have such rights and privileges to hate, and to practise hate. Hatred is a sickness because it divides society. We live by laws and rules that promote the peace. Also, public opinion stands in favour of common sense, decency, and conducting our lives in peace and harmony. In other words whatever we feel in our hearts, in public we have to respect one another, and we have to treat members of the public equally, and we absolutely must allow others their own free movement. When it comes to the use of public transportation, no member of the public has any right whatsoever to impede the progress of another if that other person is behaving themselves in a proper, non-threatening manner.

Those men who were seen acting as they did must be guilty of action that broke the law and should be punished under the law, and hopefully severely so. Also, I have news for them: by proudly chanting:"We're racists and that's the way we like it," they were also saying we are some of the most stupid people on earth, and we're proud.

Now we all know!

We don't have to love each other, we only have to respect one another.

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael

   

Too Beautiful Two: The Follow-up.

I enjoyed the response to my blog in which I asked the question: Is it possible to be to beautiful?  It caused a lively debate down at the local bar, and I had a response by e-mail which hit the nail on the head.

A debate consists of people both for and against the question, but we were all ordinary citizens, none of whom were blessed or cursed by being overly handsome or beautiful, in the general sense. But my e-mail fascinated me.

It was from someone who fits the profile of being super attractive, although she didn't put it quite like that. She is a woman who says she has been around for a while, been there and done all the things that she could have dreamed of, and now she was facing her greatest challenge. How to choose the right man to settle down with and have a family.

I have said before that in my opinion the woman who gets my vote as "Most Beautiful Woman in the World," is Halle Berry. She is naturally beautiful and fascinating as a woman, and when she puts on her best face she just blows me away. Have I ever fantasied about being her lover or husband? Absolutely not! She is a prime example of being totally too much of a woman. As if to underscore that, she is rich and acomplished to boot.

A woman like that could, without intending to, drive a man insane with jealousy. He would know that every man she encounters wants her for his own. Everything she did by way of daily routine would, or could be shadowed with suspicion by her man. 

That might be the problem from her man's standpoint, but from her view the question becomes whether she should marry a super handsome guy who does not suffer from a lack of self-confidence, which could also lead to unwelcome problems; or should she choose an ordinay man who would likely be overwhelmed by who and what she is, and is more likely to stay at home and count his blessings.

These are also questions for us lucky ordinary looking folks, but let's face it there really is a difference.

From my standpoint I am not overly impressed when I see a really beautiful woman or a handsome guy. I have never wished that I was in the shoes of such a person, nor will I ever do so. Except my hero, Sidney Poiter, but that's because he's Sidney. And Sidney is Super Sidney! Enough said!

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael

BREAKING NEWS !!!!!!!!!!!!

It seems that I will have to continue last week's post, "Is it possible to be too beautiful?" Your response is really interesting. However, this week I want to focus on another topic: What is truly Breakin News worthy?

I am a habitual viewer of CNN. They say I can rely on having news up to date, whether I think I need it or not. On Friday February 6th they broke into scheduled programming, even interuppting a guest who was in the midst of answering a question, to tell us that acording to ISIL, who Jordan are engaged in bombing over the savage killing of a Jordanian pilot by ISIL, that due to that bombing an American female hostage who ISIL had been holding had been killed.

The interruption to programming went on for quite a long time as more and more people became involved in discussing the report by ISIL, and in the process everybody was agreed that they were sceptical of the entire report, although it was known that they held a woman prisoner.

So, my question is, was that really worthy of breaking into regular programming under way. From this viewer's standpoint, absolutely not! It is assumed that there will be collateral damage from the bombing campaign, including a number of innocents, perhaps this hostage, who ISIL would probably have killed themselves. That is what they seem to do. 

It's true that I am not in charge of deciding what is urgent to broadcast, or not, and I accept that this could be a never ending argument. However, for viewer's like me, if my viewing is disturbed without adequate cause I get really pissed off, especially as it happens so often.

Here's what I do when I become really annoyed: I simply switch to another channel, or worse, I simply turn the damn thing of and go and do something else.

So, be careful CNN of turning your viewers off. You work too hard to get us in the first place.

By the way, congratulations on placing Robyn Curnow in an anchor's chair. She was born to it!

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael

Is it possible to be too beautiful? The view from male eye.

During my young wild days when I was constantly attracted by all women, I walked into a cocktail lounge and saw a vison of pure beauty in a young woman who was sitting alone at a table. There were three men sitting at the bar and some other people sitting at tables. I immediately presumed that she was waiting for someone, but it soon became clear to me that she was simply passing the time of day.

For whatever their reasons none of the other men ventured anywhere near her. I plucked up the courage to make that long and dreadful journey to her table, where I fully expected to de rebuffed. I excused myself and apologised if I was being a bother, but I said I had a question that I thought she was the perfect person to ask.

My question was as follows: I wondered if she agreed with me that it is possible to be entirely too beautiful. That is to say, that I thought that while such immense beauty can be a true blessing in some ways, it can also be a curse.

Her reply was, "Would you care to have a seat, and a drink as you must be thirsty after such a hard journey to get here."

That was the start of a very long chat that lasted past the cocktail hour, and continued over dinner.

I learnt from her that policemen routinely gave her a break, while just wondering if she might have some free time to have a drink with them. She said that she usually gets anything she wants, which actually made her sad because no-one stood up to her. Wheneever she had to compete for something she usually got the role, even when there were others better qualified. She had been pampered all her life, and while it was nice to be treated as though she were royalty it did make her feel uncomfortable and sad. She was there in Bermuda, deliberately travelling alone, and had I said anything other than what I did she would have sent me packing. However, I had asked the question which was the key to the very thing she needed to talk about, and I had proved to be a good listener.

I spent some quality time with her during her visit and we became very good friends. Because her worst problem was that everyone wanted something from her, especially men, not once did I attempt to start anything romantic with her. I think had I done so I would have spoiled what became a long-term valuable friendship.

I keep telling myself that the value of our friendship was far greater than a night of steamy sex. I think I have finally, actually come to believe that.

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael 

Life with Sickness

For my New Year wishes for my family and friends I chose good health as my number one desire for each and everyone of them. I even did that for business colleagues. However, I never got to wish the same thing for myself, so I got sick. It seems like every second person in Spain, is currently suffering with the flu, or as it is known here, El Gripe, probably because once you are within its grip, you simply have to go along with whatever it demands.

As I noted in a previous blog, I came down with it on Christmas Day, as some kind of perverted gift, and I have now suffered through for one solid month. Having ventured out into society I am discovering that we are in the midst of a pandemic of flu. I also discovered that this time last year the country was undergoing the same thing. I sailed past all that, but not this time.

At first you put up a bit of a fight. You try to carry-on and keep up with your routine, and you keep smiling, but the time comes when you have to admit to everyone that you can do no more, and hopefully you have a nice warm bed to crawl into where you'll perhaps do as I did, just sleep for the next forty or fifty hours. That part was quite pleasent for me. I hope you all were as comfortable as I was. I occasionally heard that it was cold outdoors. The only thing I had to do, because no-one was going to help me otherwise, was to get up and go pee. Other than that you get to feel like you are on vacation.

The flu is the great common denominator. It seems in the midst of such illnesses such as the Big C, or Ebola, to be something small, but the flu does kill, and if it doesn't actually do that you can be made to wish for the sweet sting of death.

I was actually one of those persons who tried to guard against it by maintaining good hand health, and quickly covering my nose in enclosed spaces where people might have sneezed or coughed. But, it got me anyway, and as the original thing gone viral, it has got everyone else as well.

So, for next year I will remember to wish myself good health, but I had better do that in November.

Copyright (c) 2015

Eugene Carmichael   

No Pants Day! Where have I been?

Sorry!

I can't download a picture

Ahhhh!

For fourteen years, twice annually, January and May, a day is set aside for anyone who cares to do so, to go through the day without pants, slacks, or skirts, wearing only under pants. It only came to my attention this year, in spite of the fact that my own city is one of the sixty around the world engaging in the practise.

What has the world come to?

This, of course, is a young person's game whereby they choose to shock their parents. I was once part of that game as I tried to make an impression on my parents, without getting my head slapped off. Like the time I was running and I fell onto an upturned tin can and cut my nose open. Instead of yelling and crying I quietly walked into the kitchen where my mother had her back to me, and I walked up to her and tugged on her dress. She turned, took one look at me and screamed. Oh wow! That was good. She got the dettol bottle and a cloth and drenched the wound with pure dettol. The pain was so intense I simply passed out. That was not what I had in mind.

A No-Pants day is the sort of thing I expect of my city, Valencia, where, once a year, the local cycling club apply for permission to ride around the city completely naked. That's what they did to protest the cost to the city of the Pope's visit. So, I think had I happened onto the subway on that day and found myself surprised by a car full of pantsless people, I think I would have simply dropped my pants and simply stood there with my pants around my ankles for the ride.

Now, let's be clear about this from a man's point of view. To be in the company of a lot of other guys wearing only under pants would be no big deal. But to have lots of girls in their panties would be absolutely fabulous! However, having said that, apart from the fun of it all, it does not tend to be sexy. It's like being at the beach in the midst of all those uncovered pert, and not-so-pert boobies. After the first two minutes we all settle down and relax.

One thing is not in dispute: beats standing and staring at the trees!

Copyright (c) 2015   Eugene Carmichael

Who is the Pet?

I was reviewing my routine with our animals: We have two cats and a dog, none of whom we deliberately decided we wanted to care for. Blanca, our pure white cat is a beautiful cat to behold, but she is absolutely anti-social. She wants to be fed when she is hungry and thereafter she just wants to be left in peace.

Lnyx is a rescued male who would have been torn to pieces by some dogs had our son not picked it up and saved it. However, our son has gone to live elsewhere, so for the time being I look after Lnyx. He is my idea of a cat. Very affectinate and purrs wonderfully. The problem is that he keeps himself to the downstairs  apartment while he awaits the return of our son. Blanca keeps herself to the upstairs living acommodation, so we have an upstairs cat and a downstairs cat. When they do meet they usually have a short fight before going their seperate ways.

Then there is Max, a very small type of dog. Max just showed up one day, completely out of breath, pleading with me to feed him. He has been here ever since.

So, I was thinking about my routine with these animals. Feeding times I usually start with Blanca upstairs. I give her half an envelope of food in a gel substance, then I go downstairs and likewise feed Lnyx.Lately, I have been treating Max, who is suffering with Leishmaniosis, a deadly virus introduced by mosquitos. The treatment is quite complicated, and by the time I have finished with Max, Lnyx is calling for the rest of his envelope, and from upstairs I can hear Blanca doing the same thing.

I attend to each when they are hungry or sick. Blanca is our bulimic, sometimes throwing up her meal. I come along behind her and clean it up. I make sure they have clean water and a warm place to sleep.

I talk about them as our pets as though I were their proud father, especially when they do something cute. Hearing myself speaking about them in that manner it suddenly dawned on me, what if I have things completely the wrong way round?

Do they boast about how well trained I am? Do they say that I am always there with whatever they need, and that I am cute and manageable? Lnyx can even say that he has a large double bed in which to sleep and he never has to worry about where his next meal is coming from.

At the end of the day I am rewarded by Max and Lnyx with a show of love and appreciation. Blanca just gives me a look that says, Yea. thanks, but I'm going to nap now, so leave me in peace.

They say that animals choose us, rather than the other way round. I might have said to Max when he showed up, Max, I don't want a dog. However, Max would have said to me, Man, I need someone to feed me and give me a warm place to sleep, and to take care of me when I get ill. You'll do nicely, so get on with it.

No wonder the cat in the picture is having such a good laugh. I would too if I were in their place!

Copyright (c) 2015   Eugene Carmichael

It's a New Year Everyone! Happiness and Good Health for All!

A New Year, but I got the most unwanted, non-returnable Christmas Gift of all.

I got, on Christmas Day, when the British community usually exchanges presents, a case of influenza. I should say, a case of the flu, but I don't think it makes any difference. Once the virus decides to take up residence you will give in to its wishes. Fortunately, it just eased it way in on Christmas Day, not interrupting our celebrations at all. However, after a couple of days I just collapsed into bed where I happily stayed for a continuous period of more than 40 hours, sleeping away the worries of the world.

New Year's Eve found me in bed and New Years night I was still there, nicely wrapped up in my warm blanket. Fortunately, there was none of the real nasty stuff that the flu can bring. I just had to contend with shaking as though I was freezing in the cold north one minute, then suddenly sweating as though I was in the midday sun of the desert the next minute.

Today, its just a memory and it's time to look forward with moderate expectations from 2015. I intend to continue my usual practices toward my neighbours, treating them with courtesy and respect. That seems to have worked well over my 75 years, so no need to change now.

I hope to make some people happy this year by helping them to return to work by becoming new product promoters with FGXpress, a new career option. I will continue to work on keeping my health in order. For the first time in my life, I joined a gym last year and I am sticking to a routine and feeling pretty good about it. I became a Great Grandfather for the second time in December of 2014, so one of the must do things for 2015 will be for me to get to meet my newest great joy.

All of these things I will do in this current year, but none are resolutions, because resolutions are breakable.

My wish for you, dear readers is that this year will be kind and agreeable in everything that you intend to accomplish.If you do have any surprises let's hope that they are of the very best kind!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael 

Kim Jong Un - Uh Oh!

This guy is too dangerous to play games with!


First and foremost, it was a very bad idea to make a film that directly focuses on this man. Always, those two little words, Uh Oh, go before something that got way out of hand and ends horribly.

The Interview is a B class movie, which should stand for Bad, and in my opinion should be classed as  F B, or fucking bad. It has been asserted that Kim tried to discourage people from seeing the movie. If that was so, he was right.

I was a believer from the start when Sony said it had been hacked, and pulled the film. I could see the anger in Americans that a foreign power would even dare to suggest that Americans not go to see a movie, because it bothered The Supreme Leader. But then, with encouragement from none other than the President of the United States, Sony caved in and released the film on the day it had intended anyway. It brought in $1,000,000 on the first day's limited release. People thought it was their patriotic duty to go and see something they otherwise would not have been caught dead anywhere near it, just to flip the bird to North Korea.

 I am not an American, nor do I live in America, so I was not overwhelmed by the hype. I could think straight. My thoughts strayed away from the herd and I started to think, wait a minute. Am I watching one of the smartest merchandising tricks ever played on the American people?

The North Koreans have denied they hacked Sony. Perhaps Kim couldn't care less about this stupid movie. The result is that the film has more publicity than any other movie in living memory. I haven't heard anyone, even the super patriots, say that the movie is great. I suspect that the penny is beginning to drop and people may be starting to think they have been punked.

What the hell has been set in motion? Over a dumb movie? The Dictator , as everybody knows, is an emotional person, with nuclear weapons, and a pressing desire to use them. Simply by making the movie might indeed have been a provocation too far. The world may have to pay for the indiscretion of producers who failed to realise that freedom of speech comes with a high level of responsibility that says, you may be free to say something, but should you?

Copyright (c) 2014   Eugene Carmichael  

The Bermuda Triangle Christmas Tree

Christmas in The Bermuda Triangle is very different!

My two favourite Jamacians, Clyde and Dudley were smoking their daily gigantic spliff, when as usual, one of them started with, "you know mon, I been tinking." These two genuises come up with all manner of bizarre ideas, including the one about Jamaica sending a Toboggan team to the Winter olympics.

It was Clyde who said to Dudley that he was thinking that they should gatheer together a great big shipment of marijuana, because as he put it, "It God's own Herb, mon, and we could ship it to Bermuda 'n sell it fer top dollar." "Good idea Clyde, mon, but how ve ship it?" "In one of dem dere ocean going fancy yachts in the bay tied only wif a piece of string."

And that's exactly what our two heroes did. They slipped out to sea in the still of a moonless night aboard a luxury yacht that they had borrowed, headed due north, destined for Bermuda. However, predictably, after only three days at sea a storm arose. A really big storm that whipped up waves three, four, five stories high. Suddenly the yacht rose upon a rogue wave that carried it ten stories high, then the wave rolled and broke leaving the yacht with nothing under her, so she dove by her nose, straight down into the trough where she hesitated only for a short momnt before continuing straight down.

Clyde and Dudley were astounded as they lay in the fetus position in the cabin with their mouths open, forgetting to breathe. All was quiet until they felt a gentle bump as the yacht settled on the bottom.

"Dudley, what hoppened, man?" "Me no know, Clyde!" "Come, let we go outside and see what happening."

It didn't occur to either man that they were speaking and breathing normally at the bottom of the sea. They had landed in the Bubble at the Bottom of The Bermuda Triangle Sea.

Suddenly, Clyde spotted a light off in the distance. "Dudley, vat dat dere light, you see it mon?" "Seen, mon. Come let ve go and investigate!"

As they drew nearer the light they could see humans, one looked very much like King Neptune with a crown on his head and a Trident in his hand, and all. King said, "Welcome boys, how much ganja you bring me?"

"Eh, eh!" both of our heroes said at the same time. "Never mind," said King, "my men are offloading her right now."

It was then that Clyde spotted the oddest thing. It appeared to be a huge christmas tree off in the distance. It was so colourful and really big. "Vat dat, Mr King, mon, vat a christmas tree doing down ere?

"Well that is the answer to the greatest mystery the world has ever known, and it's here in the Bermuda Triangle for anyone who wants to drop in for a chat. That, my lads, is a mountain made up of every sock that ever went missing from washing machines around the world. It looks like a tree so I call it my Bermuda Triangle perpeptual  Christmas Tree. Beautiful, don't you think?

"Rastafari" yelled Clyde. "Rastafari, indeed," said Dudley. "Mon, I no smoke de ganja no more. It making life too veird!"

From Clyde, Dudley and myself, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and prosperity throughout 2015. If Christmas is not your ting then we hope that you celebrate the end of 2014 in good health, and may good health bless us all for many more years to come.

"Ya Mon!"

Copyright (c) 2014  Eugene Carmichael 

What the world needs more of is Goodwill

As a place to live this is a very small neighbourhood.

So, here we are with Christmas celebrations and the end of yet another year fast approaching. My memory seems to remind me that when I was young a magical spell fell over the world at this time of year during which we were all nice to one another. This was taken to such an extent that during World War II a cease fire was entered into by both sides on Christmas Day, not necessarily because of christian values, but just because people simply felt the need.

Well, the world is an ever changing place. These days, in many countries the season seems to start with Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Stores open their doors at ungodly hours of the night to people who have been waiting in line for days, all to be able to buy things at supposedly deep discounts. Are these discounts real, or did the store raise the prices for a week or so, and now they can say these are great discounts.? That's like shopping at the Duty-Free shops at the airport. If there is really such a place it does not automatically follow that savings will be passed along to the customer. Duty-Free does not necessarily mean cheaper.

We have all seen what happens when the doors open. You had better be sure and fast or you will be trampled upon. Once in the shop the fights begin. I saw this first! Get your hands off my 100" curved screen TV or I will shoot you! Let go of the bra, bitch or I will put your eyes out. Oops, it came apart. Can  anyone use a one cup DD. Maybe as a birds nest or a hat.

What is happening to us? Have we all lost our collective minds, or at least our humanity Somewhere it is questioned, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, but to lose his very soul? What indeed!

All around the world there are examples of how deep we have fallen as human beings. We say whatever comes to mind to one another without thinking about the pushback. The Boko Haram boys in Nigeria complained of feeling alone at night in the jungle as they had no women. So, what did they do? They simply went out and stole some. Other groups simply abduct people for ransom, and if nobody will pay they just chop off their heads while the camera is running.

Humans? Not from my tribe, or at lest I would like to think not.  This makes for very heavy thoughts, but still we send Season's Greetings and best wishes for happiness throughout the coming year. We can hope and cross our everything that things will turn out well for our families and friends.

I will say no more than if miracles do happen, now would be a good time to have one affect the entire world of humans. That is all that I want for Christmas!

Copyright (c) 2014  Eugene Carmichael

Bill Cosby: They want you to drink that special Kool-Aid

Dr. Bill Cosby
Standup Comedian extraordinary; actor, author, TV producer, educator, musician, and activist

Cosby is 77 and I am 75, so we are of the same generation. I absolutely revere this man and am eternally grateful for all that he has achieved for the black race.

We are of the generation that was told over and over again that because of our race we could never amount to anything, nor could we hope to achieve anything special in our lives. We believed it! But Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the president said that we had to give our complete cooperation to believe such rubbish, and both Cosby and I sat up straight and concluded that she was right.

Cosby went on to prove that he, a black man could do anything he wanted to, and even rise to the very top of his profession. In doing so he took along with him all of us in his tribe. He was the Barack Obama of his times.

And now, it has all come to a very sad period in his life with people tarnishing his name with all sorts of allegations of behaviour that are way out of date and beyond the Statute of Limitations. Considering the nature of the allegations I'm surprised that people are able to make them without simply being charged for publishing them in public.

America is a peculiar place when it comes to the freedom to say anything you want in public.

Those of us who are prepared to take the half hour to read the Wikipedia account of all that he has done over his life, including what he is allegded to have done, we see that from an early age he was an outstanding personality. He attracted my attention and I don't even live in the same country as him. He very quickly became my idol, at a time when black people needed other blacks who were positive role models to look up to. It follows that if men were drawn to him, so were women. My life, compared to his was very low key indeed, but when it came to having women to sexually play with I had my fill. I wanted to play and they wanted to play. It was a simple as that. But Cosby was a rising star, and male stars of the movies and television will tell you that they have to sometimes fight off groupies.

I am having immense problems in believing that Cosby would have had to drug women to get with them. Why on earth would he have had to do that? I never did, not even with alcohol. In fact, if a woman was so tanked up with booze I would usually pass on her. I think I assumed she would throw up on me, but I always thought it better not to take advantage of her. They always expressed appreciation later, but I didn't think it would have been an interesting encounter while she was in that condition.

Male stars all have one problem in common. They are men with success, and that attracts women with perhaps boring lives who would love to have bragging rights that they laid this star, or that star. Men also have to protect themselves against paternity suits if they are percieved to have deep pockets. It seems to be the price of being rich and famous.

Getting back to a parralell in my own life: For a period I lived alone in a lovely house. From time to time I would hold parties there, but I quickly learnt to take a tour of the house with the last guests to leave to ensure that there were no women hiding to pounce when everybody else had left. I stopped having parties because this was such a problem, even to the extent that one time we discovered three women hiding in various rooms of the house, including the broom closet.

So, I know I'm being biased when I say that I just don't believe that the things the women say happened, way beyond the Statute of Limitations, did happen. If they did, they should have been dealt with at the time. There is a very good reason for a Statute of Limitations, and this is a prime example why it is in place.

Someone made the ridiculous suggestion that Cosby should voluntarily waive his right to the Statute. I think that suggestion has arrived still-born. Also, because there is a rising number of women coming forward with their stories we are supposed to accept that as some kind of proof of authenticity. I say just the reverse is the case. They seem to be circling like buzzards smelling blood. After all, you only have to say that something happened. Well, simply saying it happened doesn't make it so. I fully expect the number to rise to 2000, and perhaps beyond for this reason.

Bill Cosby is an icon who has done a tremendous amount of good on behalf of his people, and The United States of America itself. He is a man with very deep pockets, with an estimated fortune of $350 million. Don't tell me that isn't attractive to those who think they might have a shot at getting some. I can't say that Cosby is and has always been a saint because I was not there, but if he did do something that was illegal and egregious it should have been dealt with at the time.

To wait untl now to tarnish the reputation of an old man who has given so much of positive value seems to me to be worse than any of the allegations that are so easily being thrown about.

Lastly, my enduring memory of Cosby goes back to 1987. I was driving at the time the local radio station decided to play his album, "Those of you, with or without children; You'll understand." This was such a funny album I was forced to pull my car off the road and behind a bush to relieve myself. Now, that's talent!

Copyright (c) 2014  Eugene Carmichael