Coronavirus streets in Manchester - LXVI

Breaking my stride

The fear of abandonment was palpable during a chance encounter with a lady I met on one of my walks late at night. Our conversation began on the note of her acknowledging that I was working hard at my fitness, if only it showed that well, I’ll be a happier man.

As I responded to the compliment, she intimated that she was a victim of some sort of domestic violence which I then learnt was an orchestrated gang rape in a sheltered setting for which the main protagonist had been sentenced to 11 years in prison.

She obviously needed help and I slowed down so she could walk with me, it felt she needed someone to talk to and I was quite disposed to listen and see what I could do to help. I could not give her money as most transactions are cashless, but I offered that we might be able to find a place that takes contactless payments to get her a few essentials.

And we talked

The back-and-forth conversation included my revealing I am gay, I have a partner and our domestic situation when we are together. She made saucy and cheeky comments about what might make me attractive to my partner and much else, she was funny and quite lucid, very aware of the dangers on the street.

She apologised for slowing me down as she was still recovering from the 87 stitches that she received for her injuries. I learnt she was a grandmother, she had had some nasty relationships and been with some rather notorious and violent partners, some of whom had negatively coloured her view of life and survival.

Along the way, she called out to a couple of men who were huddled in a doorway, she volunteered that they were on spice, a synthetic cannabinoid with debilitating side effects sometimes leading to fatalities, and this is on the streets around us to which many of us are totally oblivious.

Trust is scarce

We were planning on going to a night shop, but as I realised we were only about half a kilometre from my home, I would rush home to pick up a few things for her and get my bank card to withdraw some money for her. I have never tried to second-guess what people might do with the money I give them, nor do I want to police what they do with it. It is for them to decide what their immediate need is and to either wisely or unwisely attend to that.

When I told her, I can run home to get a few things, she began to cry thinking I was about to abandon her. I could understand, yet I would only give her assurances that I would return apart from the fact that I did not really want to reveal where I lived. Besides, some people are so desperately in need of help and support beyond the immediacy of what we can do for them in that moment.

Completely worn down

On one occasion, in attending to someone in desperate need, I made the mistake of giving him my phone number, first, he said, he had lost the money I had given him to get shelter for the night, and when I still engaged and secured the shelter, through the night, I was bombarded with calls and pleas, more than 40 of them and it continued to the next day.

I happened to see him a few days after and by then I had been so worn down that there was not a scimitar of empathy left in me as I shouted at him and told him how he made me regret ever meeting him at all. He was never ever to contact me ever again and if he approached me, I would tackle him as a mugger. It was the kind of thing that could sear your conscience against having the milk of human kindness, then again, every person’s circumstance is different.

In the readiness to help, the helped, despite their situation, circumstances, and history should be careful and that is difficult, to not frustrate their helpers with untrammelled demands, we all have limited capacity to address issues that are essentially endemic and in need of more professionally coordinated approaches for long term benefit to those that require it.

Willing to angel

I ran home and got a coat, a scarf, pairs of socks, and the thermal underwear that I bought for my sister when she was in Iceland, but I never got to post, and a few snacks packed into a bag, not forgetting my bank card, and rushed out again.

She was still waiting for me, as I took to one side and showed her everything I had brought before giving her some money. She asked if I was sure I wanted to give her what I had already given her, I guess this thought comes with the concept that the generosity from strangers could be in short supply for those in desperate need. I do wonder if giving them a lot of money can do a perverse thing of changing the concept of value, in terms of what they need.

That is probably something for social scientists, psychologists, or anthropologists to study, I can only do my bit in within the means that I have. What could I do when she started crying at what I had been given the opportunity to do? I embraced her and told her, to think of it as if her had just met an angel. Even on the streets of Manchester, there is goodness, kindness, and mercy for all, those who have and many more who do not have much at all.

The Big Short on my life and those of others

The patterns I see

When it comes to financial matters, I have always said my father is a brilliant accountant, but it did not come down through the genes. Successful as he was in his profession which he still practices on behalf of the Anglican diocese in which he resides, only one of my siblings took a career path that had any financial component.

However, I somehow have an affinity for noticing patterns, things that align and things that seem to be out of place, unfortunately, I have never exploited that knowledge to the full as over time I have watched things that were once an inkling become an industry where if I had been more driven by my deepest premonitions, I would have been one of the pioneers. No regrets.

In March 2000, I travelled to Munich for an interview with the now defunct Compaq Inc., I decided to spend a week there and during my visit I met with a futures trader who was heavily leveraged in dot.com stocks. My reading of the situation then was things were about to collapse, simply because I noticed a pattern.

My advice to him was to reduce his exposure, he looked at me with incredulity, within weeks the dot.com bubble burst and the rest is history.

As it touched me

I have a more personal story about how I was affected by the markets, just less than a decade later. I bought my apartment in Amsterdam 2001, having given my estate agent 6 weeks to complete the deal to pick up my keys on the 1^st of November 2001.

It was a 105m², 7th-floor apartment with large windows overlooking two old Amsterdam harbours, a wonderful place by any standards. My mortgage was at inception the same as paid for rent in another part of Amsterdam for about 18 months.

The trajectory as it then was, whilst the housing market seemed overheated, the interest rates were going down, and this happened progressively every two years until about 45% was shaved off my mortgage in 6 years.

That other marker

Meanwhile, there was an underlying current that should have sent alarm bells ringing that I ignored until it was too late. My mortgage was undergirded by a life insurance policy that I paid a hefty sum to every year and in the mortgage term of 25 years, it was supposed to have accumulated enough to pay off my mortgage.

Each year, accounting for administration costs and much else, nothing was being compounded into the policy, rather, I was seeing less of what I put in that I had to ask for a review of the conditions of my mortgage to ensure I had not been defrauded.

Everyone who had worked on my mortgage had already walked away with their commissions as the signs of a financial crisis appeared on the horizon with the sub-prime mortgage defaults in the United States.

The tsunami I could not outrun

I could not ignore what was happening, yet I felt like there was an earthquake somewhere far away and the water was receding from the beach in anticipation of a tsunami I could not escape, it was scary.

As so I wrote in August 2007:

Blog - Dishonest lending clue to market tremors

Then casually in October 2007:

Blog - Local situations in global straits

The tsunami had already come in and swept me away from my apparent comfort zone, a revision of my biennial fixed term mortgage saw a rise of 50 basis points, some consequent outgoings of about €550 a month in addition to what I was already paying.

No particular fault of ours, only the banks shoring up their books having messed up and gotten bailed out, with none of the people in charge of this debacle going to jail for anything, if any even got to be questioned for their atrocity.

Swept away

By then, it had become a case of Fixing Capitalist Errors with Socialist Favours which I wrote in December 2007.

Within two years of that, I was diagnosed with cancer, got treated, recovered, but the markets had dealt a blow to our livelihoods, the job markets also began to introduce unfavourable filters to eliminate foreigners from consideration where we once freely had access.

In the end, I sold my apartment at a loss after 10 and a half wonderful years, though barely covered by the insurance and eventually returned home to the UK to rebuild my life.

The Big Short

Earlier today, I went to watch The Big Short which is described as a biographical comedy-drama, and whilst I will agree it is biographical and it is a drama, it was no comedy when we look at the disaster it caused in millions of lives whilst those who found out what was wrong with the system walked away laughing to the bank.

At worst, the banks have been fined billions by the regulatory bodies, but there have been no major indictments, the legislative framework that was to help avoid a similar collapse of the banking system has been watered down and the banks have more or less returned to their brand of casino banking with new banksters slinging guns of dubious provenance as products of the highest quality.

We’re back on that merry-go-round of atrocity for which the generality of the populace has been made to pay dearly for in austerity and worse, whilst the politicians and the banks waltz away in illicit copulation.

Yet, in understanding this rotten and corrupt enterprise a bit more, history is probably going to repeat itself worse than before and the criminals will once again walk free.

Woe betide them.

Editorial: Governor Jang personifies vain jangling

Hands clapping or hands lifted up

There have been many times I have wanted to throw up my hands, rarely in resignation or under duress but in ululation and praise, it is a sign of adoration that is on a higher level of adulation than clapping in applause of activity or people.

More and more, I am coming to the idea than clapping for Jesus is the lowest form of appreciation that gets given to almost anyone, however, the lifting up of hands is different, rarely can that be in the praise of man for the boosting of their egos.

However, I seem to have digressed long before I have entered into the reason why I am blogging, it is about the throwing up of hands; this time in resignation, exasperation, cluelessness and rank incompetence.

This sometimes is figurative but it can also be seen in the gesticulations of the people concerned or expressed in the words of their mouths.

The Jos of my childhood gone

I have childhood memories of Jos in Nigeria; they are wonderful and as idyllic as one can ever get about a place in Nigerian in terms of weather, people, landscape, culture and much more.

Over the last decade it has been overrun with crises of religious and inter-tribal conflict leaving many dead and bringing back into common parlance the language of savagery; cannibalism has been mentioned; that is just a new low that is beyond comprehension that men could feast literally on other men and boast about it.

Plateau State of which Jos is the capital is not necessarily a state in anarchy, it has an executive governor and institutions of government that one would hope have the wherewithal to address the pressing issues of the people and bring pressure and mediation to bear on all concerned that peace might reign again in the state.

In the most recent outbreak of violence, Governor Jonah Jang was abroad literally indifferent and oblivious of his backyard in turmoil, then yesterday he had a meeting with the President to as it were brief the President on the issues concerning his state – one wonders if he had anything to share if he was not there to witness the problems.

Vain jangling and incomprehensibility

Meanwhile, the President had sent the military into Jos to quell the problems and after the meeting; Governor Jang was accosted by the press and asked a number of questions regarding the problems in Jos and it went thus.

Press: “Don’t you think the presidential directive was a subtle way of imposing the state of emergency?”

Governor Jang: “Well, go and read your constitution. I am not God to end Jos crisis.”

Press: “Was it not an indication that you have failed?”

Governor Jang: “Already the task force has been under the command of the president, therefore it is not an indication that the security has been taken over from the state. We hope to end the crisis.

Press: “People are saying that the crisis is out of control.”

Governor Jang: “Is Plateau the only place that has security problem? Security situation is all over the country, so why are you so particular about Plateau state.”

Press: “Do you trust him?”

Governor Jang: “Yes I trust him.”

The height of ungodly irresponsibility

This is a revelation if not a microcosm of what is wrong with wrong with those conferred with the honour of leadership in Nigeria, their inability to take on the responsibilities they have and make the best of their talents and resources to bring about change.

To the first question, by implication, the Governor who has executive responsibility for the state in terms said only God can end the crisis. This is a man who has been in power since 2007 who should by now know what the real problems are and if he were a tad competent should have been putting plans in place to resolve this recurrent crisis and make it history.

Now, there is a need for God in any situation depending on your religious persuasion but God uses people, people who are ready to assume the responsibilities they have and lead as they are supposed to bring to bear wisdom, knowledge, insight and ideas to solve thorny problems.

It would be absurd for a driver of a car on a seemingly dangerous road to expect God to take over the steering whilst he sits on his hands. It is more likely the driver with have a good grip on the steering and mutter a prayer to God to help ensure that he safely negotiates that road and is delivered safely to the end of that journey.

Pointedly a failure

To the second question, it probably should have been read has a statement because there is no doubt that Governor Jang has failed to grapple with the problem and basically he is completely out of his depth and he is probably standing in the way of more progressive people who probably are much more clever and able to address the problems Jos is facing.

In answering the third question, the governor went on the defensive; the perception by many is that the Jos crisis is out of control and beyond the control of the bench-warmers who sit in office but are powerless and overcome with paralysis of thought and reason.

Plateau State might not be the only place with security problems in Nigeria, in fact, it is not the only place with security problems but the press cannot be asking the Plateau State governor about problems in other places when he is the first citizen and the person in charge of the state under focus from whom one would expect answers that portray a man in his element with the ability to perform.

Shirking responsibility hoping for respite

What this exchange reveals is the usual cynical ploy of politicians to call on God’s name in vain and when out of their depth rather than own up to their inadequacies they foist the responsibilities for which they get paid handsomely unto God hoping to deflect further inquiry with the thinking that the mention of God will scare people into deference and a vague dread of the supernatural.

Well, it is just not good enough, there is a need for God to be completely removed from the Nigerian political space so we can clearly identify people who have the innate ability essential to be used by God or maybe we can have people who have the ability to use intellect and reason to approach seemingly insurmountable problems and begin to offer solutions that dissolve conflict and begins the path to reconciliation.

The unfortunate extension to this saga might well be the many other Nigerian politicians who like Governor Jang have resigned, are out of their depth being completely clueless and readily defensive using God as the bogeyman whilst the responsibilities they have been given are left without action and application but they shamelessly draw overly generous remuneration for doing nothing.

We cannot continue to tolerate such people in leadership, enough is really enough of these atrocious idiots in office.

This acknowledges that the Nigerian Vanguard Online published the news story of this interview with the title - Only God can end Jos crises – Gov Jang.

When the customer needs you, you need help

The Visit

A regional director was pulled over the coals for the sluggish performance of his region. No manager wants to have to give excuses for not performing because of intransigent IT problems that recur and never seem to be solved.

In the technical Ivory Tower, ever customer problem is easily discounted with the simple credo... "The customer is always right, only when you are selling tomatoes".

This has served me well when on average many customers do not know if they have a problem, are probably confused, need education or are just a vexatious nuisance.

However, customers do have genuine problems, the context of which gets lost in the processing from the helpdesk - read "Helldesk", through second line support to any other level of tertiary support.

Poorly documented problems

If a problem is not properly logged capturing the necessary and essential detail and scenario, it gets stuck in a quagmire of clarifications of intention, detail, context and validity. By which time, there is an escalation and you have a priority without a purpose. Suddenly, it is at the highest priority and the clogged up communication channels open like floodgates. You get all the information you need because the intervention of some bigwig has put aside the absurd organisational practice that stops the techies speaking to the customer.

A resolution then materialises because the thinking man's thinking man has been able to think with the thinking but frustrated customer to find out what the problem is and sort it out. The resolution then has pride of place in the... wait for it... PowerPoint of the week.

Crisis Averted!

However, the solution really lies in employing properly educated and knowledgeable helpdesk personnel whose skills can overlap into second-line support. Logging intelligent calls that need little further clarification between teams would go a long way to providing resolutions without using the classic "Problem solving by escalation" - in a perfect world it should be "Problem solving by understanding, analysis and final resolution"

Furthermore, you wonder about the names that certain companies give their products that it becomes virtually impossible to search for decent support because of ambiguity.

Application/Service	Comments
Microsoft WINS	Windows Internet Naming Service A method for identifying computers on a local network. Ask the techies, there is nothing winning about WINS apart from winning the battle that creates some of the biggest headaches.
AmDocs Clarify	This is possibly the most common CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool for managing customer related events and procedures. You cannot search the internet for Clarify and get anything that relates to this tool. There are a number of modules within this tool as ClearSupport, ClearHelpdesk, and ClearQuality; however, one's view is we are missing the mostly important module in a customer support tool - ClearThought.
AIMS	This is another CRM tool with its accompanying application called ASAP. One aims to get rid of such silly application acronyms ASAP.
Wise Solutions' Wise	A utility used to repackage an application for automated installation on computers. The wisdom in choosing this name escapes one. Other products that are probably as wise at doing the same job better.
Microsoft Windows	From the 13th Century until the beginning of the 20th Century, windows had only 6 meanings. With the explosion of knowledge in the last century, we had a few more meanings until 1990 when a growing company called Microsoft launched Microsoft Windows 3.0 - the rest is history.

So today, we challenged one absurd organisational practice and visited the customer to find out that they had real problems that require immediate solutions. The Regional Director must be relieved he would get Christmas pay for the problems have nothing to do with his management skills.

The visit came about because the Regional Director lodged a formal complaint with the CEO and we are now working on a resolution.

One needs a holiday.