Miracle in Cokeville, Wyoming

I watched a film this week called the Cokeville Miracle. It's really about Guardian Angels and Guiding Spirits, something I really do believe in.

Guardian Angels are apparently spirits that never ever lived as human beings. We all are assigned one whose job it is to protect us, to the best of their ability, from harm. However, if we choose to ignore their urgings, then we are on our own. We see examples of such activity everyday from people who take really stupid chances, intent on hurting themselves for a laugh.

Guiding Spirits are the spirits of those who have lived and died, but who linger and live vicariously through us with the intention of helping us to make the right decisions, and to bring comfort to us. They are most active after they have died as a human in giving comfort and assistance to their next of kin. They are also free to attach themselves to anyone they choose if they see that such a person needs help.

My present Guiding Spirit is my Cousin Margery who I find to be very helpful.

The story of the Cokeville Miracle is that a lunatic held all the children of the local school hostage and threatened to blow them up with a crude bomb he had made. To make a long story short the bomb did actually go off and in doing so everyone in the building were at risk of having been killed. The bomb was surrounded by children and their teachers yet, instead of the blast going outwards it went straight up.

Some of the children suffered none life threatening burns, but the only two lives lost were those of the bomber and his wife.

In the instant that the bomb went off children reported seeing angels surround the blast and they were led to safety by people they had either never seen before, or by a family member who had died.

The bomb did detonate; the children and their teachers are all alive; and the damage did occur to the building.

Perhaps anyone who is a sceptic might like to explain that.

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael 

Love at first sight: Truth or fiction?

Firstly, falling in love is a most personal subject, so let's not get into an argument with one another. If a person says that they fell in love at first sight, and especially  if they are still together after any significant period of time the point goes to them

I can only express my views and opinions which are mine alone.

As a man I have only ever known lust at first sight. That is the way I am wired. I have seen women in the past and I have immediately fallen in lust with them. Being super beautiful or sexy was not always the criteria, rather it was something about the person that  moved me to want her. All colours, shapes, nationalities,  every one of them appealed on their own merit.

I have been in love. I have experienced what it feels like to give my all to a woman, and to feel her love in return. Wow! That is simply fabulous. However, I have never fallen in love at first sight. I wouldn't even know how to do that.

At first sight I can only know that she has something that I like about her. From a distance I will likely be attracted to her body. The best angle for me to first see her is from directly behind. From that angle I will see her head of hair, her shoulders and the line of her image. Perhaps she will be tall or medium or short. She may be shapely or homely. Her legs may be well developed or stocky. The most sexy thing about her at this point may be her buns.

A woman with well developed buns that move in that special way as she walks is a major turn-on to me. Her buns need not be oversize, but if they are firm and shapely, so much the better. Now if she turns sideway she will reveal her facial profile and her bust size. Her buttocks will also be highlighted. Finally, when I am facing her directly her frontal beauty will be revealed to me.

From this encounter I most likely will have concluded that she is someone I should try to meet. However, the rule is "never judge a book by its cover." Men do that all the time. We think, judged on what we see that we want this woman, meaning we just have to bed her. For all we know she might be a witch.

In my younger years when I did all my thinking with my lower head, if I did get an introduction to her I would have had no greater ambition than to fornicate. If that realisation was arrived at without too much delay and difficulty the relationship would not have progressed beyond that point.

Often lust progresses onto the "Like" stage as we get to know one another a little better. Love runs deep. I have only arrived at that stage once I get to know the person quite well. Once I learned of her philosophy of life, her humanity, integrity, potential loyalty; her kindness, her ability to focus, and her scope of intelligence can I open up my heart to let this person into my inner self.

I believe it when people say they fell in love with him/her the first time they laid eyes on them, but I believe it for reasons that most people probably wouldn't. I am a firm believer  that we have lived before. I think that when we fall in love with someone we think we have never met before, that in reality this is the recognition and continuance of a relationship that existed in our past lives. Since our energy does not die it reincarnates into the body of a new born. Thus these two spirits recognize one another and the story continues.

I pass a man in our cars on my estate a couple of times a week who I have never met. I have no idea who he is; I have never seen him outside his car, and I have never spoken to him. He has never done anything wrong to me, yet I have an intense dislike of him, and I sense he doesn't like me either.

Again, I think this is something that is a carryover from our past lives.

This may seem strange to readers but I suggest that you Google "Reincarnation" for some eye opening facts about what really happens when we are born and when we die.

It's a good news story that you can also follow in my book: "Death is Not the End." Available from Amazon and Kindle.

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

Birthdays & other anniversaries

I awoke this morning to the realisation that I had reached the 77th anniversary of the day I was born. Was I excited? No. After having celebrated 76 of these things you get kind of jaded. That is definitely not how it should be.

When I was a young person when another birthday came around it was celebrated in style. There had to be a party with friends and family gathered around, and it was a big deal. But why? The continuation of life was taken for granted. We were young and indestructible. However, looking back on some of the things we did to celebrate it really wasn't so guaranteed after all.  Especially judging by the next day, or even the next week's hangover I at least wished I were dead.

Now, when birthdays are getting ever more difficult to attain I am laid back and relaxed to the point where I have to be reminded of the coming of the big day. I have concluded that in a sense birthdays are like our own skyscraper. I can relate  to a tall building with 77 floors. Each floor represents one year in my life and is a living museum. Once in a while I return to certain floors for a visit.

  The ground floor contains the front door through which I entered the world. The second, third and fourth floors were vast playgrounds and adventure lands. The fifth floor contained kindergarten. That was a big step up into an all together different world which was scary. That was when I came face-to-face with an introduction to real life.

It is not my intention here to pass individually through each floor, although on certain floors the visit would be more enjoyable than on others, but it is all there to be remembered and accounted for as "My Life." A similar structure exists for each and everyone, and always has although before high rises we could have used the analogy of one long continuous ground level building.

As I write this, through the magic of Facebook my wife is calling out a long list of friends and family who are sending love and best wishes from around the world. The world as it was is moving out of its shell as a place where we all lived in our own compartments, to a world that is truly global. The Internet is responsible for that in one way or another, and English is the language of the Internet. We are all inter-connected through the simple touch of a button so that whatever happens on the other side of the globe can be shared with everybody on this side and in between.

I would have to try extra hard to imagine our world in one hundred years from now. It will undoubtedly be a vastly different place from what it is today. There may be remnants of our culture and customs left, but very hard to recognize.

On the other hand, one hundred years from now there may be nothing at all, as mankind will have succeeded in making a total mess and it will all be gone.

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

Trigger-Happy Police

First, let me say that as a black man I am so happy that I don't live in the United States of America. If I did I think I would be far more afraid of the police than I would be of the criminals.

Shootings of black men, most of whom turned out not to be armed has become a rallying cry for Black Lives Matter, because it seems to the police that they don't. America, I know you like to think you are a great country, and there are many things about your country of which you can be justifiably proud. Race relations is not one of them. Your greatest weak point is your widespread ownership of guns, which will lead to your downfall.

During 2015, there were about 1200 people killed by police. So far this year your police have killed between 790 and 844, depending on who you listen to, and if all deaths have been recorded.

Let's acknowledge that the police in America have a tough job. The policeman on lone traffic patrol needs to pull over a car at night. He approaches the car not knowing what he will find, including a possible gun in his ribs. In most other civilised countries he doesn't have to worry. So, perhaps its no wonder the American policeman is trigger happy because in America the citizen may not hesitate to shoot.

The media make much of the fact that another white policeman has shot another unarmed black man. The image that we get from that is that the police are infiltrated by a bunch of racist and depraved killer thugs in uniform. This may be the case to a certain extent, but then came September 20th and Charlotte, North Carolina and the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott by a black policeman. What are we to make of that?

The police say that he held a pistol in his hands as he held them over his head, and that he refused to drop it. That would be an act of suicide by police. Members of the public and his family say he held a book in his hand that he had been reading. That might be an unlawful death by police.

Whichever, the media are playing down the fact that the policeman was black. Should this continue it would lessen the stigma of racism and strengthen the perception that all police are probably too trigger happy.

On September 16th, the media informed us that a white female officer, Betty Shelby,  shot and killed unarmed Terence Crutcher unnecessarily. She has been charged with first degree manslaughter. Even her fellow officers witnessed the shooting, however, during 2015 there were 1200 people killed by police, some under extremely depraved conditions, and although twelve police were charged not one was convicted. The chances that Betty Shelby will spoil that record seem minimal.

The police can do anything they want to do with immunity. Or so it seems.

Although it certainly seems like it, blacks are not the only chosen race in the U.S. in this regard. This year it has been reported that 5.49 Native Americans per million population have been killed; 4.86 Blacks; 2.3 Hispanics, 1.95 Whites; and  0.72 Asian / Pacific Islanders. (Dylan Petrohilas/Think progress)

Confidence in the police is at an all time low, although whites strongly support them while I think most blacks would prefer to simply do away with police departments all together because they seem to be more trouble than they are worth.

America, you have to do better. Refugees from America has already started as a few families have found excuses for moving to Canada.  In time I think it reasonable to expect this to become a torrent

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael.

Crime and Punishment

The way our system works is that a person commits a crime and the police bring him to justice. Once found guilty the judge will pronounce sentence of say, ten years in prison. The victims of the crime all nod in satisfaction that he was put inside for a significant period of time.

However, what the judge has said, in effect is that for the next ten years you are hereby declared exempt from the normal costs of life. You will have a roof over your head, and we will provide you with three meals a day. You will not have to worry about water, gas, heating, electricity or telephone bills. You may not even have to do any work.

As an added bonus you will get to live with horrible people like yourself.

So, where's the punishment in all this? I don't know. Where the judge adds the extra words: "at hard labour," this might actually mean some hard graft. You may get to feel the pinch of paying for your sins. Without the hard labour the rest is a vacation.

In some countries if you are poor and unable to pay your bills, for the sin of owing people money you get sent to prison. For such people I imagine they find prison horrifying, difficult and painful. It's also pointless! If some of the silly people who commit others to prison for this crime of not being able to pay their bills should end up in similar situations, I think the practice would soon stop.

Being male and a homosexual has been a heavy burden to bear. Depending on the country a man might be killed, or beaten, or discriminated against. Many men, in the more understanding countries have been sent to prison for sex related activities as the State have invaded their bedrooms. So, in addition to the above list of freebies these guys land in a kind of heaven where men who are so starved for sexual release will not think too hard about finding it with a man who is already gay. The problem here may be sentences that are too lenient and short.

For those criminals who hurt people I think they should at least be flogged. Rape a woman, go to jail and be flogged. Feel the pain you have inflicted on another person. The damn Nazis did unspeakable horrid things to their prisoners, including beating them and ending their lives and the best that society could retaliate with is holiday camp-like conditions in jail? The guilty Nazis should have been flogged often and hard. It should have been made so terrible that they would have started crying two days in advance of their next punishment.

True, I haven't spent any time behind bars. That's because I haven't done anything to merit such treatment, nor do I ever intend to do so. That's the secret: Don't do the crime and you won't have to do the time.

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

Statin Drugs

Friday, 9th of September, 2016 it was reported by a medical association that the beneficial effects of statins are greatly understated, and the negative effects are grossly overstated.

These are the experts speaking so I had better not get myself into an argument with them, however, I do have to wonder.

For all my life I have struggled with elevated blood pressure and high cholesterol readings. I was put on tablets to lower my blood pressure, but when the doctor suggested a statin to regulate my cholesterol I hesitated. I had read enough press to make me wary of creating more harm than good by taking statins. My doctor cautioned that I should try the pill and if I had adverse effects I should then immediately cease.

Reluctantly I agreed. To begin with I could not feel any negative impact, and to the credit of the pill my readings fell to within the desired range quite quickly. The trouble is that I have been taking them for five years. During that period I have advanced from age 72 to age 77 and I have noticed what I thought were the effects of growing old.

My muscles have grown weak, especially in my legs. It had become a real chore to walk any distance, particularly uphill. At the gym, where I attend twice weekly, and at Pilates, where I attend once a week, I was struggling. The weight settings I have been using have been quite low and uncomfortable.

While walking an observer might well have thought I was drunk as my balance seemed to be getting worse. My problem was that I would feel dizzy, so much so that at times I would have to stop what I was doing to rest. The rest was also welcome because I seemed to be feeling constantly tired. During the Summer months everybody is tired from the extreme heat. Siesta if King! However, I would sometimes need a siesta during the morning.

I had been developing another problem that was almost un-noticed. I am an even tempered person by nature. Everyday I wake up with the same outlook on life, and I go through the day without being predisposed by ill-will towards my fellow man. Well, I found myself changing and turning into a grumpy old man. When I took stock of that situation I simply put it down to getting old syndrome.

Another most unwelcome development has been a reoccurring blurring of my vision. For my age I am proud that I go through each day without having to use my glasses very much. I do use my glasses for distance when driving at night, especially if I need to read signs. I have reading glasses but usually I make do without them. However, there are times when I have to rely on both pairs because my vision becomes so blurred. Getting old really is ugly.

The last straw was back pain that almost crippled me. It has happened to me twice over the past five years, and the crazy thing is that the pain has come on while I was not doing anything out of the ordinary. This last time I had been washing my face and when I straightened up the pain struck like a thunderbolt. It struck on my left side leaving me very reluctant to straighten that side. As a consequence I was lopsided. Eventually I just sucked up the pain and straightened myself and went and  visited my doctor, who prescribed pain relief tablets and sent me for an x-ray.

I had the presence of mind to review the prospectus for the statins I have been taking for these past five years, including side effects that are common to those that are rare.

Dear Medical Association:

The prospectus indicates the following may be applicable: Weak muscles. (check) Tiredness (check).
Dizziness (check). Depression (check). Blurring of vision (check). Spasmodic muscle pain (check). Neck pain, which had gone almost un-noticed (check).

I stopped taking the pill immediately and the following has occurred: I feel lighter and have more spring in my step. I definitely have much more energy leading me to raise the weight limits at the gym. My balance has improved tremendously. When I walk I do not have the gait of a drunk, and although I could walk a straight line with difficulty, I'm almost there with that. Best of all, I am completely pain-free as I write this!

Other than a pill-a-day for blood pressure, and a pill which is aspirin-like to keep my blood reasonably thin, I am not on any other medication.

I don't think I can be accused of exaggerating the negatives that I have experienced, if indeed all that I have listed are exclusively associated with the statin, but the prospectus list of things to beware of takes up a full column that is 34 cm  long.

That's a lot of possibilities!

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

Neigh-Bores

Realistically, we cannot choose all of our neighbours. In practise we don't choose any of the people who live next to us. We can choose a neighbourhood for its social class. Our economic means will be the guiding light, but the neighbourhood is made up of individuals.

A family moved into a house and within three months their next door neighbour moved away stating his reason as the fact that the people who had moved in were black.

The only thing that we can deduce from the black family is that they are black. We can  make the following fairly safe assumptions about the family who moved: they are white ignorant bigots who would add nothing to the lifestyle of anyone who had half a brain. They are people who consider themselves white supremists, whose principal emotion is hate. Rather than contributing anything to the white race they are seen as an embarrassment and are deemed to be white trash.

Perhaps the best situation is to simply have no real connection with the neighbours. If we are left alone to live our lives with consideration for those who live next door, but without any social interaction then there is no relationship to go wrong and complicate our existence. Sometimes the people next door seem to be nice and friendly but perhaps they have expectations of us, or vice versa. Should there be a disappointment in those expectations we then have to live with that.

Having said all that I remember growing up in a community of people who lived by a mutual code of caring and sharing. Our house was not lockable, and we children were subject to the same discipline everywhere within the community as we were at home. One day my mother fell ill and was unable to produce an evening meal for us. As if by magic one of the neighbours showed up with a full meal for us. How she even knew I have no idea because we didn't have a telephone.

If there was ever any bad blood between neighbours in our community I never heard of it. Human nature being what it is we could have expected something to go wrong, but our little world seemed to be idyllic.

So, neighbourhoods are potlucks. Once we choose the social level of living the rest becomes like a potluck draw. If you are living in a quiet and secure area with people who share respect and consideration for one another you are one of the very lucky ones. However, if you are finding yourself living in the jaws of hell I do sympathise with you. You need to win the lottery real big so that you can buy a house that you can surround with high walls so that you can create your own bubble.

If only we all had that choice.

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael 

The Beautiful Birkini

Firstly, it is human nature to move from country to country. We have always done that and we will always do so. One benefit is that we spread culture and we learn from our travels, much like the pollination of bees and birds.

Secondly, when we travel we take with us what we know best: our own customs and culture. This is not always a good thing, but on balance it does work. One example where it does not work is the full cover, including the face burqa. In those native lands where it is the custom for the woman to completely cover up that is the way it is. However, in countries outside of that small circle it is not acceptable and it should be banned and enforced. This is mostly a security measure which requires that the population, without exception must show their faces.

Now we move to modesty. In the Arab world it is the custom that women cover themselves, either totally or 99%. I believe this is done for the purpose of promoting a society free from the temptation of the flesh. In Western societies women have the right to wear whatsoever they wish, within the norms of decency. That allows a very wide latitude of choice for women and in the process has the very opposite effect in that a man's attention is fixed on things sexual.

From the Western world we look at the Arabic customs and all that we see is oppression of women. However, when we talk to the women we find that they are comfortable in covering themselves to hold their beauty only for their husbands. Certainly their customs do seem unnecessarily draconian on women, but then their society is not plagued by so many of our own problems.

Enter Summertime at the beach. We have been living with Arabic women entering the sea fully clothed in their street wear. We have tutted and said how ridiculous but they were left alone to bathe in public as they saw fit. Now someone has designed a very beautiful and charming garment that adheres to all of the criteria of Islamic dress, but it is a bathing suit. It is only marginally more conservative than bathing suits of yesterday that protected the modesty of white women.

The mayors of 31 French seaside towns have decided, in their lack of common sense to ban the Birkini. They are in fact telling women they must take off more of their clothes to swim from their beaches. Not surprisingly the Supreme Court of France has struck down these banns, probably because they are unconstitutional, but really because they are stupid and provocative. 

I don't want to be too hard on France as they have had a lot of problems as a result of hardline Muslims and a lot of people have lost their lives. However, this is making problems where none exists. Muslim women want to at least cover their hair, and at the extreme they want to completely disappear behind the cloth. Except for uncovering their face they should be left in peace to wear whatever they want, as are all other women in France.

At one time or another Frenchmen have invaded so many countries that belonged to other people. They carried with them their own customs and culture, somethings have been retained by the locals, and some other parts the locals found to be disgusting and insulting and have been rejected. The Birkini is simply a  statement of the Muslim woman's modesty and conservatism. Intelligent people would celebrate that and stand with the woman and defend it as her right. 

It's not broke so it does not need to be fixed!

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

The Launch of my book: "Death is Not the End."

This week's column is unusual in that I have written and published a serious work of non-fiction which is now available for sale on Amazon.co.uk and Kindle.

Down through the years I have always questioned life as presented to me, especially the things we take for granted through customary use. I think its healthy to ask ourselves why do we do things the way we do? Can we do ordinary things any better? Answers to questions such as those is what has led the world to improve itself constantly.

I found myself observing people very keenly, especially people from countries where traditionally they have been short of stature, but now in those countries can be found some very tall folk. What happened to suddenly change that? It does indicate that everything is changing.

Then, someone close to me died and that got me thinking about the end process; and at the same time I considered the beginning sequence of life. Does Mother Nature really discard the talent of the deceased; and is all that accumulated knowledge simply lost? Perhaps there is a correlation between the end of a person's life and the beginning of a newborn's life.

In following those lines of thinking I have discovered ample and persuasive evidence that we are living permanent lives in successive stages. When we are finished with this life we shall simply transition through the portal of death onto our next life.

There is also a practical use for this book: that is to help us better manage our bereavement grief. If we know that the person whom we have lost to death has actually gone on to his or her next life we have cause to celebrate both their life with us, and the beginning of their new adventure.

The book is an easy read. I have deliberately kept it short for the comfort of those people who don't even want to think about death. 

All I ask is that readers take the subject seriously and keep an open mind. There is a worthwhile reward in store if you can get your head around the transition concept. Unrestrained grief can be one of the most intense and destructive emotions a human being can endure. If you can bring any sense of management to that it would surely be a good thing.

Once again, the title of the book is "Death is Not the End" by Eugene W Carmichael. On Kindle there are two other books by the same name.

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

British Toilets

I agree that this is a ridiculous  title to a column that describes a wonderful two weeks in Britain, but the fact is that I was only able to flush one toilet on the first try, and that was in the home of a millionaire. What's with British toilets?

I'll return to that question, but I love Britain in the  Summer because where I live it becomes too hot. When temperatures rise over 40 degrees it is no longer comfortable. I had been saying that I thought this Summer in Spain would be too dry and too hot, and so it is. We left for Britain at the end of July. By that time I was done. Stick a fork in me and take me out of the oven.

Brexit or no, Britain and the United Kingdom is always green, which is a welcome sight if you have been away from it for any length of time. We were back to do the same thing we did last year at the same time, and that was to give our support at a wedding; this time for my wife's niece. People are still getting married but what awaits them is a life of struggle, which is no different than in the past, but how young people get on the housing ladder is difficult to see. If you are an only child and your parents have their own home you can only hope that one day, when they pass, it will come to you. However, as parents we are living longer so you will likely have to wait for some time.

This was a very pleasant journey for us as we did a tour of friends homes to  renew and nurture valuable relationships. We touched base with about forty people, several at the wedding, and in some cases one or two at a time. They were scattered over eight locations which meant a lot of driving for us in so much traffic, but our little rented Peugeot served us well.

Having family that you have a harmonious relationship with means that you have a thing of great value. They live their own lives and we live ours, but when we get together we realise how much value is added to our existence. In this case the family was on my wife's side. For me, I must try to visit my family at least every other year as there are many miles that separate us. Social media does offer something of an intermediate solution, but there is nothing like being there.

So, what's up with British toilets? You push the handle and a little water comes down and I think, here we go, only for it to stop. In most cases I never did get a steady flow going.

My next scientific quest is for the technique and the touch to make a British toilet flush on demand. It is the strangest lingering memory from a visit to the country when I  carry with me so many other totally pleasant thoughts.

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

Global Warm

Let's face it! Whether it's convenient for you or not, the earth has grown warmer. It's so warm that I really wonder how much warmer before we mere mortals will simply shrivel up and blow away like dry leaves.

Here in Spain, this is the time of year when traditionally it has become so warm that during the afternoon hours people all but disappear indoors to get away from the sun. Usually, as is said,  only mad dogs and Englishmen are to be found wandering around and doing our shopping when the stores are empty.

There is a phenomenon here where when the winds blow from one side of the country to the other, heat is collected from the earth as it goes and by the time it reaches the other side it feels like standing in front of a massive blowtorch. Generally it's called a Poniente, signifying that the wind is blowing from the west. The first time I experienced it  I had stepped out of my car only to get a full frontal blast. I thought I had parked in front of the exhaust of a massive machine, but no, it was just the wind. I got back into my car and turned on the air-conditiong.

There are times when I come back to my car after it has been sitting in the sun, only to open the door
and have to stand back to give the heat time to escape. The door handle is hot and the steering wheel unbearable to the touch.

So how much more can we tolerate? Five more degrees max; ten?

Then I think of all those people down at the beach who lay out in the open to get a tan. I used to pass a beach that was located below road level. You could actually smell the pungent aroma of people cooking.

For those people who deny that global warming is taking place I can only say that your faith in believing that is exceedingly naïve, especially as you feel it as I do. I simply urge you to go to the beach and strip off all your clothes, no-one will mind, and lay out in the sun for as long as you like.

You will get the point!

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

The Police vs The People

There are two types of people who are drawn to join police forces all over the world. The first type are those public spirited individuals who want to genuinely serve and protect their fellow citizens. These are people who look forward to joining their local force, to learn as much as they can in their police academy, and then they want to go out into the community to uphold the law in a fair and human manner.

These will be those officers who are given respect and cooperation by the public and they become pillars of the community to whom people look up to for guidance and wisdom. Ideally, such officers will never have to fire their weapons in anger.

Unfortunately, the other type of recruit is a person who is probably mentally sick as he is a control freak. This type of person should be turned away at the beginning as he will be the source of many problems in the community and a pain in the ass for the force itself. Generally he is welcomed with open arms.

He is a cancer within the force. His style of policing will be abrasive and aggressive and embarrassing, but when a moderate policeman says something to challenge him that person gets dumped upon by all the officers of a similar persuasion. The facts are that such controlists  are likely to be a majority because the police are in charge as they go about their daily tasks and they must exercise control.

Fundamentally, when we are confronted by the police we should be respectful and cooperative. When a policemen tells us to do something we should follow his instruction immediately. If he demands that we do something that is unlawful, or that is harmful to us we can challenge that in a court of law. To make matters worse he is also an officer of the court, but there are times when the court will turn against him and even send him to jail for having acted unlawfully.

Such a person is in fact a dictator who becomes accustomed to having his every word obeyed, both by members of the public and his own family. If he is a person who is a racist, which is very likely, that adds an element that is extremely explosive.

Then comes the final element that completes the description of a walking time bomb: he is given a gun.

In the United States it appears that there is a strategy against the black man to place as many behind bars as is possible, or to simply gun them down in the street at the hands of the police. It would appear that all certain policemen needs is the least resistance to their own barbaric behaviour and they shoot first and expect to be vindicated by more senior officers who are a part of the same mindset.

These things are done in the face of America's first black president, seemingly as a form of showing him the finger.

So, blacks are starting to push back by shooting policemen in cold blood. Perhaps that can be understood, but not only will the controlists police not back down, they will likely step up their game. They have more guns and ammo, and they have authority.

Focus needs to be placed upon those who control the policemen in the street to reign them in. If they are unable to do so then they should be removed until people are found to control the controlists.

Policemen in America shoot and kill white people as well as blacks, but the situation is so bad for blacks that people have had to come forward to remind America that Black Lives Matter as well as white lives.

The police against the public is normal: We can only hope we don't have the misfortune to run into the very sick one. A war against the police can only have dire consequences, and unfortunately that war has already begun.

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

BreakTime

I have just taken a week away from my computer, my television, and my phone to go to the mountains and to let in the pure air and the unlimited beautiful scenery, and to relax. It feels really good to do that every once in a while. Mankind was not made to always be on alert, or to constantly absorb so much information. Considering that most of the information we receive is bad news I worry about my capacity to take on such data.

With our beloved electronic devices they usually tell us that they can not handle any more because they are full. That would be like our stomachs telling us that we don't need to eat any more, but as for our minds warning us that we have had enough bad news and that we are now in danger mode and should simply shut down; I think we just have to use our judgement. I'm finding that point is growing smaller and smaller because the news is so bad.

We now seem to be in a world where evil men are trying to outdo one another in the total number of innocent people they kill.

One week where everything was switched off has done me a world of good. Of course I have come back to where things are even worse than where I left them, but at least I gave myself a little holiday.

I think of my friends in the mountains of Cameroon who aren't even aware that the terrorist group Boka Haram are operating nearby and they live in splendid ignorance.

Oh, how I envy them!


Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael  

The Chilcot Report and Tony Blair

I watched as Colin Powell set out the reasons for war against Iraq's Saddam Hussein and I immediately concluded, as a non-expert, that this would be a war simply because the Chief wanted it, and it was being persecuted on the very shaky grounds of a pretext. My sense was that General Powell was not himself convinced this was necessary, but as the good soldier that he was, when the Commander-in-Chief says jump, all that remains is how high.

We have no real idea of why Mr Bush decided he would remove Saddam from power and send him to his death, although there are many theories, but in general there is a school of thought that held that it was not a good idea. American commentators are now very strident in their criticisms of that war, and for those British forces that fought and died, it is no small wonder that the families are unforgiving.

Having declared war, then Mr Bush went looking for people to join with him in that ill conceived adventure. He picked on Tony Blair and Jose Maria Aznar of Spain. Tony bought into the idea fully, but Jose, while confirming he felt he was a friend of the president did not commit Spain to go to war.

With that as the background we examine the role of Mr Blair which seemed to be even more enthused than the president himself. He was unrestrained in his selling of the war, and the reasons why Britain should be involved. It even seemed that Mr Bush was a bit embarrassed by Mr Blair's activism.

The Chilcot Report was based upon information gathered in the cold light of day, long after the events have taken place, and with the benefit of hindsight. This is always the way it is. There is no heat of the moment to be taken into consideration, so if we didn't  get it right at the moment this exercise will highlight all your mistakes in an unforgiving spirit.

Saddam Hussein and his sons were truly evil people who should have been wiped from the face of the earth. I think that idea has a huge degree of support. However, if you are going to do something like that it will involve such complex reactions that will follow that there has to be a comprehensive follow up plan in anticipation. That is what appears to have been missing, so failures or mistakes in the execution are laid even larger by what has followed. That is the rub.

A lot can be forgiven if an action ends in complete success across the board. Even then you will not please everybody and people will find reasons to criticise.

Nobody ever said being a leader is easy. It did seem that Mr Blair was on his way to finding himself in a tight spot. However, when the head of a government makes mistakes like those highlighted in The Chilcot Report they are usually made at the expense of people's loss of life. Usually the only redeeming quality of mistakes are the lessons we learn from them.

Lessons learned too late for the dead!

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

2016 - The Year of Stupid

The world welcomed in 2016 in the usual fashion because it represented the arrival of new hope. If we knew then what we know now we need not have bothered.

It began in a big way with the political primary season in the United States. The long list of hopefuls lined up and mercifully and quickly they dropped out, one by one to reduce the field down to the one person who should not have even been in the mix to begin with. At the beginning the country said that Donald Trump had no chance whatsoever and he was thought of as a big joke.

Because this is the Year of the Stupid the world is now waiting and watching and holding its breath because The Donald is the Republican presumptive nominee for the office of President of the United States. Even the Republicans don't want him, and to make sure he doesn't get in there may be a new party called Republicans for Hillary.

How on earth did that happen?

Throughout the year other things have happened involving terrorism that is straight out of the lunatic asylum. People gathered together for an evening of entertainment only to meet their death. Perhaps they were at a football stadium, or at a restaurant or a rock concert and some people  showed up bearing guns with bullets to end their lives.

This is called the slaughter of the innocents, but perhaps it means that none of us can be called innocent. We are all engaged in the war against terror. None of us are bystanders any longer.  We should not simply go along meekly with whatever we are ordered to do by the terrorists. We have to fight back. What have we got to lose if they are going to kill us anyway. Don't be silly and just sit there.

That brings us to the Brexit in the U.K. I predicted that the vote would come down on the Leave side because the whole thing was so emotional. The Leave side spread such utter nonsense and whipped people into a frenzy under the heading: Let's take back our Country! We have all seen British Hooligans in action. What has happened is that a bunch of people have gone mad and voted to Leave, and now they are saying oops! Should not have done that! Can we repeat the referendum? Well, no!

It's the Silly Season! The Leave decision is so complex and suggests such an uncertain future for Britain that no-one even has any idea of how silly this is.

To add to the confusion Scotland voted in a referendum of their own a couple of years ago to remain with Britain, and by extension, to remain with the EU. Now that Britain has voted to Leave, Scotland now wants to leave Britain and remain with the EU. Don't think they can do that. Also, Northern Ireland are thinking about exiting Britain for the same reason. I wonder if Her Majesty knows any swear words?

Meanwhile, the British government has lost both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. (He just doesn't know it yet). To put the cherry on top of the cake, the man who led the charge to Leave, and the person who most wanted the role of Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has now stepped down. He doesn't want those things after all. WTF?

I told you it was silly!

Down under the Aussies have held a general election that ended in no decisive result, so Australia is without a government, and Spain has held its second general election to try and form a government, again without result, or even a likely chance of resolving the issue.

It's that  Silly Season thing in full swing.

We now have the whole Summer ahead of us when we will all be on vacation at some point or other. That means enhanced use of airports and sea ports and trains and planes. See you when you get back.....hopefully.

Then comes November when the chance will be offered to commit the most silly act of all. I have been telling people to relax because there is no way that The Donald will become the next president. In fact, I have said that the system is designed to avoid just such a thing happening. If the people bring forth someone who is clearly a bad choice the super-delegates step in and make the intelligent call.

However, this is 2016, the Year of the Silly.

Mr President!

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

Uh! Oh!

It was the Summer Solstice coupled with a full moon that drove the animal kingdom wild. Our house was plagued by flying ants and bugs of various kinds. They were all over the ceilings and covering the lights, and they were in our hair and our eyes and noses. They seemed to have gone mad.

The effect was still with us on June 23rd when the U.K. went to vote whether to stay where they were or to take a giant leap into the abyss. I have to say that I was not shocked or surprised with the outcome, although traditionally conservative Britain that does not like change found incredible courage to go for the biggest change of all, even though they have no idea what's in store with their decision.

This may indeed turn out to be a classic case of:" Be careful what you wish for!"

In a conversation I had with a friend of similar age, we were commenting on the fact that our lives were all about change. We were reflecting on how we went from one change to another, and the speed and depth of change. Especially when it comes to electronic and digital change, you pick up a gizmo, turn around once and that thing is redundant.

Well, it seems that we really hadn't seen anything. It appears that everything as we know it is now in play. The European Union is on the brink of no longer being a Union; the United Kingdom is no longer United, and the Great United States of America may have its days being counted as the Number One nation of the world. Our challenge, as citizens of the world, is that we have to open our minds and be ready to be flexible for whatever is coming.  Decisions will be made in the near future that were unthinkable only a year ago.  Some things will change for the worse that will leave us stunned, wondering how on earth did we arrive at this place.

The world is revolving so fast, and change is coming so rapidly that it seems that the world is about to go off the rails. I said I was not shocked nor surprised with the way the U.K. voted because for the common man it was an emotive issue, and I was fairly sure that emotion would carry the day. Today, there are a lot of people who are broadly smiling. I just hope they are still smiling a year from now.

There is one thing that deeply disturbs me, and that is the degree of emotional separation that the decision has caused. Families are struck by the bitterness; friends and companions have cooled their relationships; and here in Spain people in the streets seem to have a hostile attitude that you Brits have voted to leave the club, so why don't you just bugger off!

The British Prime Minister took the step to stand down to turn the leadership over to someone who believes in the Out decision. Many people have expressed disappointment and shock with his decision. In my opinion, if you voted for the U.K. to leave the EU but you didn't expect the Prime Minister to step down, that is pretty raw data that you had no idea, none at all in the gravity of the step you took.

But cheer up, it will get worse!

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

By this Time Next Week

On hind sight the Referendum being held in the United Kingdom on whether to leave or stay is a mistake. No matter what the outcome the other side will be unhappy and claim that a mistake has been made. And what a Mistake it will be!

If the majority are for staying within the EU, then Brussels will be able to say, alright, now shut up and stop complaining!

On the other hand, if it's to leave, no one has any real idea of what that will mean.

The Stay group, which are the political, security and economic interests make a valid point.

The Leave group are more emotive in their concerns. They are sick and tired of being told what they can and cannot do. Brussels imposes rules and dictates upon the British way of life to the extent that traditionalists no longer recognize their own customs and culture. Many of the older Brits are over here in Spain impacting the Spanish way of life to the negative because they have lost the plot back home in Britain. I think that were I in their shoes I might understand what drives their frustration.

We are all living in a changing world, even conservative Britain, but I will be very surprised if the vote favors the biggest change of all. Britain does not generally favor change but it is possible that this time around the populace will vote for a change that no-one has any real idea of what the consequence will mean.

I think it's reasonable to expect a grand turnout of voters on Thursday. I hope all the bars will be closed until after the vote is completed. It would be horrible to be drunk when you voted, only to wake up the next day and realised you did what?

Stay tuned!

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

The Greatest

Today is the 10th day of June, 2016, and the time is 6 pm Spanish time, and High Noon in Louisville, Kentucky in America. Today is the day when The Greatest is being gently and lovingly laid to rest.

I offer the following as my way of saying, Goodbye Champ!

Mohammed Ali has, as he said himself, lived a life of ten men and is larger than life. I must admit that I am not a fan of boxing but even I  have to recognise that he was the best at what he did. He was great in the ring, but he was also great in everyday life.

The greatest thing that he did, in my opinion was done quietly in a conversation with Michael Parkinson, the well respected British talk show host. The interview lasted one hour and this selected excerpt formed part of it.

Michael Parkinson (MP)- When is your first recollection, as a child, of being a second class citizen?

MA: "Second class? Oh no, sixteenth class. They used to always say I was a second class citizen. I would say to my mother: Momma?
How come the Chinese can go where I can't go in America? Englishmen can come and set up a business in white America and do things I can't do. The Puerto Ricans, Hawaiians, just about everybody can do more than black people and are respected.

Oh man, if we were second-class citizens we'd be driving old Cadillacs and living good.

I always asked my mother, how come is everything white? Why is Jesus white with blond hair and blue eyes? Why is the Lord's supper all white men? Why is Santa Claus and Superman white? Why are the angels white; and the Pope white, and Mary. When we die are we going to Heaven?"

She said, of course were going to Heaven.

"Well, what happened to all the black angels?"

The took the pictures:

" I know, they were in the kitchen making the milk and honey."

With that he outlined the crux of the problem of the black tribe. There was nothing wrong with the creation of those symbols for the white tribe, but we black children grew up with nothing of our own to look up to so that we would feel good about ourselves.

So Mohammed Ali followed that up by giving the black tribe a hero that we could believe in. A real one, not one that was fake such as Santa Claus and Superman. He managed to conduct his life throughout without embarrassing his believers.

When he declared himself a conscientious objector to the war in Vietnam we all took a deep breath. However, we must remember that this was America at a time when the struggle for black civil rights was in full swing. Had he gone to Vietnam and been captured, his captors should have slapped him for being there to kill them when back home he did not even have the most basic of human rights.

In fact, there were apparently cases of black men in uniform being killed on the streets of America simply for wearing the uniform of the armed forces. Was he right? Absolutely! On this day there will be many who denounced him at the time for his stand, but who now see clearly what a giant the man was.

Unfortunately, there was only one Mohammed Ali. That was so that he would stand tall above all others as one to be emulated but probably never to be equalled.

I say, on this day, to you personally Mohammed Ali, I thank you so much for what you gave us; and especially for what it personally cost you. You have lived a life that was a glowing example that will never be forgotten.   You are a positive influence for my son and my great grand daughters.

You once stood before an audience, in the grip of Parkinson's disease; shaking and with trembling voice you announced that you would come back. Your audience politely laughed, but the good news is that you will indeed be back through reincarnation in the body of some very lucky new born.

You were too good for only one round. I'm looking forward to Round Two!

Good bye for now, my friend!

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

The three-year old and Harambe the Gorilla

I was not going to touch the incident at the Cincinnati Zoo, but there is so much material in the incident that I feel compelled to put my oar in.

I'm talking about the fact that a three-year old boy slipped away from his parents and fell down a fifteen foot embankment into Harambe, the gorilla's enclosure.

The fact that it happened at all means that responsibility must be shared between the parents and the zoo, as it was something that was supposedly guarded against. However, I am not about criticizing a family with four children or the zoo where that fencing has been adequate for 37 years. What I want to do is look at human responses that prove that there is no such thing as a consensus of opinion; on anything. It just doesn't exist.

Harambe was a beautiful gorilla and it is a real shame that he had to be sacrificed. However, there will be a school of thought that will hold that he was "just" an animal so what's the fuss all about? In the wild gorillas are routinely hunted and killed to  the point of near extinction, yet there is very little in the way of public outrage as this goes on every day. These same people might even fantasize about hunting gorillas themselves.

Then there is the group who feel that the animal should not have been killed, no matter what. They say that Harambe seemed to be protecting the boy, but he could not have known how delicate this young human was. In his hands the boy was like a rag doll, and it is a miracle that in ten minutes in the enclosure the boy was not accidentally killed or even seriously harmed.

There have been a couple of cases lately where mature humans have entered into the enclosures of dangerous  animals with the apparent intention of suffering suicide. Zoo officials have intervened to get the person out, sometimes at a cost to the animals. I know that officials cannot just stand by while the person realises his goal, but I certainly wish that they would go have a coffee while the man gets to know the animals a bit better.

It is important to remember that this was not a scene from King Kong. That was a movie with a script where it was known how the make-believe screen gorilla would act. This was real life where the people who were watching inadvertently further agitated the animal through their panic. It was a highly emotional ten minutes that could have so easily ended in the death of the child.

There are people who have been quick to condemn the parents for their failure to have kept absolute control over all four of their children. However, something like a simple incoming phone call would have been enough of a distraction, thereby reducing vigilance of four children onto one parent. A curious and adventurous child of three needs even less space to get into trouble.

This has to simply be chalked up to one of those extraordinary things that no-one ever wanted to see happen, but since it did all must learn the obvious lessons on offer.

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

June: The Month of major decisions

This June will see three momentous decisions taken by voters. June the 23rd will see voters in a referendum in the United Kingdom decide whether they want to remain in the EU club, or whether they prefer to leave and go it alone.

This is a highly extraordinary consideration for a country that prefers tradition to change. There are people in Britain who still prefer to conduct all their communications through the snail mail of the Post Office. They are being asked to vote their opinion on whether to continue life as it is, or whether to jump off a cliff  to see what happens after that.

Scotland recently went through a referendum on whether to remain part of the United Kingdom or to stand alone. That country decided that tradition ruled. At this point there simply is no way for anyone to have confidence in a prediction of how it will turn out. Fundamentally, there are two sides to the question, and both sides are entirely reasonable. On the one hand there is the economic and security case that states that Britain is much better off in staying where it is.

As members of a club, presumably there are benefits to be had for being a club member in the first place. In Britain's case there are. The club consists of 500 million people with whom to trade. Britain is an important member of the club and enjoys preferential treatment. It seems that the cost of membership must be worth it, otherwise I would have expected Britain to have quit a long time ago, were it not so. The people who take the position to stay in are mainly the elite ruling class.

The other position is social and personal. Britain continuously finds Brussels interfering in it's affairs. Unelected officials constantly stand in the way of the British way of life causing outrage throughout the country. What we see is a clash of cultures and complete, and some say, deliberate  misunderstanding of how the British prefer to do things. This comes at the same time as Britain has to absorb immigrants from the former colonies which is placing enough strain on the English man and woman in the street. Voters in this group find the whole question highly emotive and may not be thinking all that clearly if they are being guided by their emotions.

One of the very big questions is should Britain decide to elect the Out option, what will happen to those people from the Continent who are in Britain at the moment, and, of course what will happen to the millions of Brits who are on the Continent. For those countries that host British pensioners who receive money from Britain, I imagine they will not be so keen to see them return to Britain, nor will they want to see their own nationals sent back.

One prediction that will most likely come true is that voting will see a very high turn out.

On June 26th, voting will take place again in Spain to try and form a government. We tried that last November and it ended with a hung system. The old system of interchange of the two dominant parties was broken because of corruption within the system that seems to have been ever present. That led to a disastrous situation for the country, and gave rise to the young warriors who want the old guard gone. The court system is clogged with so many political cases of corruption it is easy to see what they mean.

The country has been without an active government since it first tried to put in place a governing party, and in spite of several attempts to form a  coalition that has not been possible. So, if at first we didn't succeed, we need to try again; and if not then, we will try yet again.

The third important vote will take place in my own country of Bermuda on June 23rd, where the referendum will decide whether to respect the right of gay people to happiness by being married to one another, either in church ceremonies or in civil unions. This is just as important as the other two decisions to be made as we live in a modern world  of live, and let live.

There are some countries where gay people are killed. That says nothing about the gay person but a whole lot about the killers, nothing of which is good.  Bermuda is, in so many ways a country to be envied. The literacy rate is near 100% and a great number of people live very well. A lot of people argue the case against gays and lesbians by citing the bible, but if God is responsible for creating mankind, if some of mankind have a sexual orientation toward one another, then that's the way God made them. Enough said!

The reason I'm thinking about these three significant voter exercises is that for one reason or another I either cannot, or am not allowed to vote in any of the exercises, but at least in two of the three the outcome will have a direct impact on my life.

That's sort of like having taxation without representation.

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

What all immigrants really think.

I overheard a British man at the next table telling his friends that he had left Britain and come to Spain because he could no longer  abide the fact that the country was becoming overrun by Muslim immigrants. They had come into the country in droves, and they insisted on carrying on their way of life, instead of  integrating into the English way.

He felt that it was just too much that they insisted on speaking in Arabic; they did not socially mix with  English society, and that in fact they were a nation within a nation.

I thought, if only you could hear what the Spanish are saying about the British impact in Spain.

The man did have a point. He was describing how the world has always worked to cross pollinate cultures around the world. Stronger nations deliberately invaded other weaker nations and colonised and exploited them. The weaker nations even benefited by learning of new ways to do things. Britain was the country who boasted that they had invaded so many countries that the sun never set on their empire, and India was the jewel in the crown.

It didn't seem to occur to Britain that in invading a country that belonged to other people was wrong in principle. The only thing that made it right was might. The problem with that was once having taken over someone's country the population became awakened and aware of the existence of what was referred to as the Mother Land. It was only natural that in the fullness of time people would want to visit the invader's home.

Just as British invaders spoke their own language and practised their own customs and religion,  so it is with even mere tourists. Very few people deliberately make the effort to change their own customs to adopt those of the host country. A person's way of life is what they know and is who they are. Also, we tend to think that our way is best, so why change.

British Muslims appear to find life in England more to their liking as they are able to practise their religion freely, which is not always the case in their homelands. However, they don't want to be Englishmen and Englishwomen. Some have arrived in England due to escape from persecution, and having had their lives interrupted they now simply want to continue on as before.

I am one of the few people I know who consciously make the effort to integrate totally into the culture of Spain. That is because I freely made to decision to move here because I fell in love with Spain and her people. I think the Spanish way of life is wonderful and I have chosen to adopt it for myself. It also helps that a Spanish explorer first discovered Bermuda, which is where the name comes from: Juan de Bermudez. The Spanish crown decided it did not have an interest in maintaining its claim to the island, and so it left Bermuda to be re-discovered by someone else. That person was Sir George Somers who claimed it for the British Throne.

I always wondered what life would have been like for me had Spain retained its right to the territory. I'm here finding out, and I'm not disappointed.

Meanwhile, life goes on in the United Kingdom as a rainbow of immigrants continue to come and go, and the country becomes more diversified as a result. Old-time Brits may indeed take umbrage with the changes, but it is the way of the world.

Nothing stands absolutely still. We are moving ahead or falling behind but change is relentless!

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

Eurovision Time Again

More and more people are turning off to Eurovision for one reason or another, but I also suspect that the programme is drawing far more people than it repulses. It started as a contest between the nations of Europe but now, Russia, Australia and The Ukraine have become involved. In my house I was keen to watch and my wife was not. Just as well we have two televisions and they are not within sound of one another.

The contest is between twenty-six contestants, so we sit through 26 songs. It becomes immediately clear that most singers have lost the plot because they present  songs that are nice, and album ready, but in order to be in  the running your song has to be different than something average and has to incorporate a few highly essential elements: It has to have visual appeal other than what the technicians produce. The favorite to win last night was Russia because the stagecraft and special effects were absolutely superb. I have never seen anything like it, and if there were a special category for that it would have won. However, the song itself, sung without the special effects was ordinary.

A good example was the year that the man who presented himself as a woman, complete with beard was an image that drew our attention and never let go.

The song must be intelligent, passionate, and have a clear message.The rest is completely up to the singer in the presentation of the song. A singer who has been trained for the opera and who has power to reach the high notes in crystal clear fashion is bound to impress. That was the case with the afore-mentioned man, which is why he won that year.

I sat through the songs, and to be honest I enjoyed each one, but then I turned off as I chose not to sit through the tedious voting. They say that Eurovision is not political, but it is with countries giving their biggest vote to their neighbours, and nobody voting for Britain.

As I turned away from the programme my projections and opinions were as follows: Russia would probably win, but it shouldn't for the reasons given above.

My home country of Spain produced a lively and world-class entry that had the audience bouncing in the aisles, and I was proud of  the presentation, however, it was unlikely we would win.

The very last song was that from Armenia and it was the most original. It certainly took my attention and I would like to hear it again. Kudos to the singer and her team. It should have been the one to beat and therefore should have rated high on points.

The one song that totally moved me was the song from The Ukraine. The staging was superb but the song itself embodied the heart of a hurt nation that had been invaded by Russia which has inflicted serious pain on its people, simply because they wanted to turn away from their brutal neighbour and to move closer to the West. I knew the history, as we all do, and I heard the cry of an oppressed people, loud and clear.

I declared that was the song that would have my vote to win because it had it all.

And the winner was: Ukraine ! Bravo!

The Eurovision song contest! Long may it continue!

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

On writing a book

I have chosen this topic because I have written a book which is now going through the publishing phase.  It is my first book and I hope to hold a big launch for it soon. I have learnt many things about such an undertaking, and the most important lesson learnt is: the easiest thing to do is to write the book. Now comes the hard part.

Firstly, I wouldn't like to guess the number of titles in English that exist. A person, such as myself has a book in my head and I decide to sit down and put my thoughts in written form. When that is completed I sit back and am well pleased with myself that the project is done. This will be a subjective work that usually involves immense research and effort, so it's not difficult to see that the author will be proud of himself. However, will anyone at all have any interest in what has been produced? Will anybody actually pay a farthing to buy your tome?

This is where things start to really get complicated!

Our first thoughts are to submit our precious manuscript to literary agents who, we hope will see the merit in what we have writ, and of course they will want to represent our submission as the next great work of written art.

JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, submitted her first manuscript to twelve agencies. Harry Potter is a children's fictional story and most agencies used to say that they had no interest in either fiction or children's stories, or both. On her thirteenth try the agent had a young daughter to whom he passed the manuscript. The child wouldn't put it down.

The rest of that story is that JK Rowling has sold more than 400 million of the books. To put that into perspective she has sold one to absolutely everybody in The United States of America and Canada, combined. The world's most successful writer was sent away by twelve of the very same people who are supposed to be on the lookout for just such a talent. I hope those people are doing something else for a living now.

Not only did she get children all around the word to actually read, each book has been turned into a movie, and now the Harry Potter concept has been made into a Theme Park.

To be a literary agent must be the most difficult form of work there is. Firstly most agencies receive so many submissions that they aren't even able to send out rejection letters. It takes them ages to even get to what you have sent, and they get annoyed to know that you have sent out several submissions to every agent there is. "We don't like to think we are part of a beauty parade," they say.

I received one rejection letter that I appreciated from an agent who said that she was sorry but that they had elected not to represent me as they have to absolutely love the books they choose. It is a highly subjective business to be in, and I understand that, but there will be some books that no-one will actually love, but because of their message they will be commercial successes.

My book will fall into that category. I have been forced into self-publishing, which means I get to keep the agent's 20%, so wish me luck and watch this space. I hope and expect to hold a Launch Announcement in the very near future.

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

Sins of the Sons

It's usually the poor children who have to live under the shadow of the misdeeds of the parents. A child grows up with his father in jail for having done this or that. The other school children learn of this and the child becomes the focus of bullying. There have been many fathers who have been executed for murdering others, and you wonder how that affects the life of a child.

I once knew a young man who was simply the nephew of a notorious killer. He once told me that he was thinking of changing his last name, although he never actually did it because it was kind of common. Still, he felt that people always wondered whether he was related.

Times have changed and the world has been shocked by some over the top horrible events committed by young people. Now, the shoe is on the other foot. Traditionally, parents stand by their children and hope to be made proud by their achievements. Instead, in far too many cases the child goes off and does something that is so horrible as to defy logic.

I'm thinking of the child who took his mother's guns and went to school and shot and killed a number of fellow students who were very young, and their teachers. We never hear how the parent copes with that. Then there was that absolute cretin who was a co-pilot of a passenger plane who decided that he would end his life, and deliberately took everyone on board with him. His parents were perfectly ordinary people, but he leaves them to cope with that. How!

Another young man walked into a black church and joined in bible study and prayer with the group  before opening fire and killing everybody. Why? His parents are left to explain the actions of their son. The strange thing about that was that the relatives of those killed declared that they forgave the killer. I know they meant well but that seemed to me to make a bad situation worse.

There are far too many cases of young people from good families who leave home to make their way to Syria to fight with ISIL. They engage in killings in the most barbaric manner while back home parents and relatives no longer can bring themselves to watch the news for fear of what they may see.

Two young men in the heart of London, in broad daylight while the public looked on, attacked and savagely killed a man who was a band member of a military brigade, simply because they wanted to make some insane comment. They have parents. Do those parents agree with their actions or are they hiding their faces in shame. They should be!

If you are parents and your children are making you proud, count your blessings. There are some parents who are unable to do that because of the actions of their offspring.

I include in that statement the many parents, and brothers and sisters who have been killed by one of their own. What the hell has this world descended into?


Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

Toastmasters

I have attended a Divisional Contest between most of the Toastmaster's clubs in Spain. Firstly I should say that Toastmaster clubs are groups of people who are dedicated to developing and refining our communication skills, between each other and in front of a larger audience. To do this we practise delivering speeches for the public.

The people who participated in the contest had worked their way to the top. Presentations were contested in Spanish, which I got the gist of but I can't say that I completely understood what was said. That can be generally said about my experience of living in Spain. I get the point through the gist of what is being said.

The most helpful thing that we do is to listen carefully to a person's speech, and then we point out the things we think that person did well, and then we focus on how we think, in our own opinion the speech could be made even better. That we call doing an evaluation. When a speech is really good it is extremely difficult to accomplish this.

A speech was given in Spanish and four people evaluated that, and one was given in English and four people evaluated it.

Then speeches were given by individuals on any topic the person wished. Seven contestants competed in both languages, so a lot of talking throughout the day. I took a keen interest in the English contests, of course, and I was very relieved not to be a judge because the speeches were so good.

One woman spoke about making a difference through small actions, and one of those actions taken by her saved a man's life.

Another woman spoke about celebrating our differences of personality and the importance of reaffirming the worth to yourself of the person you have chosen to spend your life with. It's just too easy to complain about the things that our partners do that irritate us.

A young woman focused on the achievements of her friends and weighed those things against the fact that her own claim to fame was that she had collected all 150 Pokémon characters. What should she do now?  She developed this question brilliantly with the theme song from Cabaret.

A young man, speaking in a similar genre posed the question: "What is your song?" He articulated his own development and led us to a place where we finally understood what his song was, but never actually sang a note.

The most touching story of the day was told by a young man originally from Brazil who began with the words, "when I opened my eyes the muzzle of the burglar's gun was touching my forehead." He then told how his dog saved his life, and he went on to share with us the story of his life experience with his dog. Eventually he had to put the dog to sleep and now he is trying to cope with super grief.

There were no dry eyes in the room.

I know it's difficult to appreciate my summary if you weren't there, but I'm so pumped up I just can't think of anything else I would rather write about at the moment.

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

Those Panama Papers

There are any number of perfectly good and legitimate reasons for doing business with law firms in Panama, so to even suggest that everybody with an account with such law firms are up to no good is just simply wrong. For the media to have released the names of clients of a private firm is totally irresponsible, in my view, and I imagine that there will follow some lawsuits as a result. And so there should be so!

However, just to say that a list of clients of one company encompasses politicians, government leaders, wealthy businessmen, oil sheiks, and so on from around the world suggests that these are the one percenters with a lot of something that might be worth holding in Panama away from the prying eyes of spouses and the tax man, among others.

I have been studying Panama as a place to live as a retired person. I was expecting two particular problems: the fact that there is not a national health program, and I was told that I will have to come with impeccable references in order to open a bank account. Once living there I would not be taxed by Panama on my foreign earned income, which is a real draw for me. That and the fact that it is always warm.

In fact, Panama is especially inviting to foreigners from America and Canada to retire to the country. We are made very welcome and the pace and style of life sounds ideal. Nowhere in the information about Panama is it suggested that the legal community there can remedy the problems of the rich and famous.

The thing I think most people suspect is that account holders are primarily concerned about is the evasion of taxes. Why do people seek to evade paying their lawful taxes to the government? One reason is greed. They earn money from this or that venture, including those people who actually steal money and they secret it away by either using outright evasive tactics such as arriving at the bank with a couple of suitcases, or by paying clever lawyers and accountants to find ways and means to evade the payment of taxes. T
he other principal reason is to hide assets from a spouse so that when the divorce takes place she, it's usually the she, will not be able to get her hands on half of it. You would have to hide it from both the taxman and the wife.

The irony of it all is that when you die, and you will die sooner or later, if you have hidden your assets well they will remain hidden until someone figures out a way to simply walk off with the bundle for their own benefit. Also, accountants and lawyers don't come cheaply so it was probably just as well to have paid the taxes in the first place and to have had peace of mind, except there's always the wife, but you could have avoided that by simply not having married in the first place.

Another reason that people hate paying taxes to governments is because they see corruption, incompetence, wastage of tax payers money, and in some cases, just plain theft by politicians. However, when lawful taxes aren't paid the government is denied the funds that are necessary to solve the many and ongoing social problems of the community. When those funds are made available to the government and they are wasted or stolen, both the government and the person who didn't pay his taxes have committed offenses against society.

Had I moved my application for residence in Panama further ahead it's quite possible that I might have become a client of that particular law firm and the world might now be looking at me askance as though I was trying to hide something.

How would that have made me feel?

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael

Some people do the strangest things

A husband and wife set off on a luxury cruise that didn't go well for them. They argued and fought every day, especially on the last day ashore before the ship was due to return. The wife declared, "if that's how you feel leave me alone!" With that she walked off on her own leaving her husband with no idea where she was.

He returned to the ship and assumed that she had come on board and was somewhere within the ship sulking on her own. She wasn't. She was sitting on the beach thinking what a terrible man he was and feeling sorry for herself. As she sat there she noticed a huge cruise ship leaving the island and realised, to her horror that it was the ship she was supposed to be on. What she did next comes under the heading: "Some people do the strangest things!"

There was no-one else on the beach, they were all on the ship. So, she started shouting wait for me, and waving her arms, which people on the ship took to be very friendly gestures, so they waved back. The ship continued on and eventually sailed out of her sight. By this time she was desperate. She was yelling to her "awful" husband to come back. Don't leave me! Then, she jumped into the water while holding on to her handbag.

She swan after the ship and was in the water for four hours as the sun was going down. Two fishermen, returning from a fruitless day at sea happened to be travelling directly for where she was and almost ran her over. She was exhausted by then, but in one last desperate effort to be heard yelled at the top of her lungs, Help! The captain had to throw the engine in reverse as there was not space and time to avoid running over her.

WTF!

"Lady, what are you doing out here? Did you fall off the cruise ship? You say you were swimming to try and catch it. Ah, I see."

Among that fishing fraternity this counts as the very strangest catch in history. In the annals of that island community there is nothing that tops that story when it comes to strange behaviour.

The only thing that saved her life was her handbag that acted as an improvised life preserver as it filled with air to keep her afloat.

Presumably husband and wife were reunited at some point, although for how long is anybody's guess.

Copyright (c) 2016

Eugene Carmichael

Well, How about That?

There's no real significance to this story. It's simply one of those "How About That" stories.

The social history of Bermuda is in many ways just as awful as that of The United States of America, our giant neighbour to the West. Their treatment of black people has been as shameful as our own. It seems that our white tribe felt that they should show solidarity with American practises. Therefore, black people were considered as part of the barnyard group. Our country practised apartheid as much as South Africa did. Foreigners would come to my country and be told that here blacks know their place.

As a young black man growing up under this nasty umbrella of white privilege, discrimination and prejudice I was definitely not amused. I was very limited in what I could do and say. I could work in hotels and fine restaurants, but I was not allowed to take my own leisure in those places. In particular, there were two golf clubs which were for whites only. I could work there in some support position, such as a caddie. This I did and I earned good money. By taking careful note of the clubs that golfers used for each hole I grew to be able to advise my clients, and I got a good feel for my own game, except that I couldn't play on that course.

The problem with apartheid in a small living space was that the two racial groups would be brought into confrontation on a daily basis in all sorts of situations. Young black men took on a growing resentment against white supremacy, and once we started to fight, even only  with words, we had to fight every day. As a white person who insisted that you were superior you were a superior fool for trusting what you put in your mouth.

The RBG&CC was the principal golf course that I caddied at. It enjoyed  a long waiting list for new members and they charged extortionate fees to be one of the select. They were not embarrassed to lord it over us lowly blacks, especially when they held their gala dinners and other grand events with blacks in attendance as servants. That just served to fire us up and to drive us on to the day of revolt.

Well, that day came and was handled peacefully enough. We were fed up and we were simply not going to take it anymore.

On the surface, everything changed. Apartheid died and all of society was opened up leading me to be able to finally play the RBG&CC course.  I played that course about a dozen times until one day I came to the conclusion that golf is a stupid game where you hit a little ball and then go find it, and you hit it again.

Between then and now the old membership have died off, foreign workers left the island in droves due to the economic crisis and consequently were no longer club members, and young people just don't want to know. That beautiful property that once stood as a bastion of privilege has now gone into bankruptcy. We have come full circle.

It would make a fabulous site for a first class hotel. This is a good bet for a hotel chain, as the golf course is renown and up and functioning.  The property itself is a gold mine. I have no doubt that it will continue, but I do have mixed feelings for the place as it was the venue that served for so much of my pain.

I just have to remember that as a property it has no responsibility for what I was put through.

Copyright (c) 2016

Eugene Carmichael

Petra and Alexis

Although I have given them fictitious names Petra and Alexis are mother and daughter and this is a true story.

Petra was born in a North American mid-sized town and, according to her she had a perfectly normal upbringing, except for one small thing: she grew into a super beauty and that had people saying yes even though she did not ask the questions. The most eligible bachelor asked her to marry him, and she said, "yes, of course I'll be your trophy wife." They lived in a perfect house on a perfect housing estate, and they gave birth to their perfect daughter, Alexis, who grew up to be even more lovely than her mom.  Petra was on all the right committees and they all lived perfect lives.

Her husband went on to become the most important banker to the medium sized town, and they had a housekeeper, a nanny for Alexis, and a gardener. All was just super until the day husband came home from work to find a note from Petra which stated that he should not wait up for her as she had gone to

search for a real life.

She ended up on the island of Bermuda, and with secretarial skills she had learned to help her with her committee work she took a job working for, ironically, a bank. Every man dreamed of taking her home and every woman was jealous of her exquisite beauty. She caught the eye on one man in particular who decided that he just had to have her. He was a married man living at home, but that was a minor detail. Petra, who could have had any man of her choice allowed herself to be this man's "bit on the side." Worse than that, he was an abuser who would beat her because she had no right to be so beautiful.

I was introduced to her by a friend who had tried unsuccessfully to turn her away from her abuser. I was just as awed as everybody else, but I was also very patient, plus I genuinely liked her. "Turn your back on that horrible man and give me your sweet loving," I would urge her.

Meanwhile, her daughter had come to Bermuda to be near her mom. She was given a job at a bar/restaurant by the owner who wanted her for himself. She opened herself to him and they lived and worked together.

After several years of my persuasion, one night while embracing her, Petra whispered in my ear that tonight's the night. She said that she was ready for me and that I should take her and do whatsoever I wished to do. I had a heart attack, but I didn't let that stop me. We became lovers and I was so very happy right until the day she returned to North America, and I later lost touch with her.

I was at work when the phone rang. It was Alexis saying that her mother had suggested she call me. Alexis had fallen out with her lover/boss, owing $3000. She had nowhere to stay, could I possibly help her as she had no-one else to turn to. I lived alone and did not have a fixed relation at the time, so sure, I could help.

That evening I took her home and showed her the house. There was only one bed in the whole house because when I brought a woman home it was so that we could sleep together. I was not going to sleep on the couch and neither was she. Did she have a problem with that? She whispered, unhappily, that she did not. I said, "you have come to me in desperation for me to take care of you, and you need to pay off the $3000. I could lend her the money, but did she expect that I would fully take advantage of the situation?" Again, unhappily she said she guessed that would have to be the price she would have to pay.

"Well, I'm not going to abuse you and take you against your will. We will live here for as long as you need to, and I will leave your dignity intact. If I were to do anything else your mother would have my guts for garters!"

She stayed for three months until she found a job at a hotel that had staff dormitories. On the morning of the day she left, over breakfast she said that I had promised not to interfere with her and that I had kept my promise. She said that she knew she aroused me because several nights she was awakened by my erection poking her in the back. She said that on a couple of nights she had the feeling that she should have made the first move, (Oh man!) but she didn't because there must have been something serious that made me honour my promise.

I said that if I had taken her at a time when she really didn't have free choice it would have amounted to rape in my mind, and no-one would ever have cause to accuse me of such a thing. However, had she taken the first move that would have been just fine. Although we thought about it we didn't finish breakfast with a quickie.

She repaid me the $3,000, part of which she had to send me from abroad as she left the island at the end of the Summer season. 

From time to time I reflect on my life and the things I have done that make me proud, and the things I am not so proud of. This was one of the things of which I am super proud. For three months I slept with the most beautiful woman on the planet, who I could have taken at will, and who I came to really like. I never touched her sexually because of my principles.

Sometimes principles can be a real pain in the ass!

(c) Copyright 2016

Eugene Carmichael 

Other People's Lives

The conventional wisdom is that we should all mind our own business and leave the details of other people's lives to them.  This is very good advice but it is seldom followed. This is probably because we live in such a small world, one that is getting smaller by the day with the discovery of even more communicating technologies.

It starts when we are born with our arrival being of intense interest to our parents and our brothers and sisters. Our family of aunts and uncles and cousins all take an interest in our development through the early period of our lives, and when we grow up to the point where we choose a friend who may become our husband or wife the buzz picks up speed. The circle is completed when we bring our own offspring into the world, and it begins anew.

Every time our son or daughter reaches a new milestone it is shared with the family at large. When they do good the family celebrates and takes pride. When they do something criminal and go to prison we all hang our heads in shame.

Acclaimed success in business or politics can be a real occasion for uplifting the whole family. For instance when a family member becomes part of the ruling party's cabinet, or especially when that member becomes the chief  executive officer of a major company or bank, or the leader of a political party, or even the country. All of the family and their friends take great interest in everything that is happening as they believe that it is all a part of their business.

As a child grows his or her choice of career is noted and commented upon. Advice, that was not asked for is given and even persuasion may be used to try and steer the child in a different direction. Given that the child's life is his own this is clearly an invasion of his space, but the Relations seem to think its all a part of their business.

The most controversial aspect of all is when our now grown up child brings home the friend who is most special of all. Regardless of who that person is they are unlikely to pass muster from all the family. They are the one who is the outsider, and who expects to be good enough for our family member. We have all been through it, and we never forget. Whichever way it goes we can't win. If the relationship goes all the way, those against just wait for a misstep. Those in favour take joy in the happiness of the couple, but if they do stumble and fall everybody's heart will be broken, except for those who said, I told you so.

The worst case scenario is perhaps when father and mother come to an impasse in their relationship and they have to go their separate ways. The fallout from that is so huge it's like a nuclear blast, starting with the children and it spreads like the waves of a tsunami. Yes, it is the business of the couple in question but the people and institutions and societies that are impacted is just amazing.

They may be other people's lives indeed, but somehow all of our lives are intertwined and that brings us joy or consternation, as the case may be. Mind your own business indeed, but that is much easier to say than to know what is our own business or not.

(c) Copyright 2016

Eugene Carmichael