Discretion still matters

Follow the money to the gossip

The press is agog with the news that the Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne [1] met with a Russian oligarch and solicited funds for the Tory Party.

The Tory leader in defending his Chancellor made use of the word judgement a couple of times and one can well say that is what this whole episode is about.

To go to the heart of the matter, none of this should have made the news at all if George Osborne in all his privileged schooling and background and imbued the unspoken qualities of belonging to that clique of people.

Earlier this year, George Osborne was a guest of Nat Rothschild and got introduced to Oleg Deripaska [2], reputedly the richest Russian businessman who is banned from visiting the United States.

Private whispers, public bellows

Somehow, George Osborne met with Peter, now Baron Mandelson [3] at Mr. Rothschild’s family villa in Corfu and Peter supposedly said the most dastardly things about Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of Great Britain.

Mr. Rothschild [4] is an heir to the Rothschild banking fortune but he probably has made a personal fortune that surpasses his inheritance and he was brought up in aristocratic and privileged circles – he has known George Osborne from his time at Oxford University.

A few weeks ago, Gordon Brown called Peter Mandelson into his cabinet [5] from his posting as the European commissioner for trade; this gave the press opportunity for sensation, scheming and tittle-tattle along with the general political banter that accompanies the appointment of a rather controversial figure.

Unfortunately, George Osborne broke the cardinal gentleman’s rule of discretion; he revealed details of the private conversation with Peter Mandelson at Mr. Rothschild’s villa to the press.

Telling tales creates gales

It would appear Nat Rothschild was none too pleased about this indiscretion that he wrote a letter to the Times [6] revealing a number of meetings with the Russian and the solicitation of political donations which seems to be buttressed by the fact that Mr. Osborne met the Russian in the company of the Tory Party’s chief executive and fund raiser.

The legalities of those meetings are subject to inquiry and it might well spell the end of Mr. Osborne’s fledgling political career.

Mr. Rothschild’s patrician use of English shows that he is both piqued and quite annoyed. This letter is understated but devastating in its effect; a man whose mother’s donations furnished the offices of Mr. Osborne first opined with an archaic expression that it ill behoves that political parties to make capital at the expense of another in those circumstances and damningly strikes the mortal blow, “Perhaps in future it would be better if all involved accepted the age-old adage that private parties are just that.”

The matter of discretion

Now, that is a real telling off, simply put, when I invite guests to my house, I expect them to be properly behaved; but it highlights that people of “substance” should not gossip, they should hold their counsel, be trusted to be privy to conversation without blabbing out to others and recognise that when they are guests, it betrays their hosts if events in company are published without the consent of the host.

The press would suggest that Baroness Mandelson has served her revenge as a stone cold dish, methinks, Nat just felt that the whole story be told and basically, he was not going to stand for seemingly schooled by rather uncouth behaviour from a friend who should have known better.

The moral of the tale is that public school can produce people who attain positions of great authority but it does not guarantee they would be of integrity – Discretion really does still matter - gentlemen are expected to be gentlemen, else they are good for the dogs.

Sources

[1] George Osborne fighting for his political life - Telegraph

[2] Oleg Deripaska - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[3] Peter Mandelson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[4] Nat Rothschild profile - Telegraph

[5] BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | 'Proud' Mandelson back in cabinet

[6] Nathaniel Rothschild's letter about Oleg Deripaska's party - Telegraph

Rising from the Ashes of the Bushes

More than hilarity with Hillary

I must have been way behind the curve when I heard Hillary Clinton campaign with Barack Obama early this morning.

Something the presidential campaign seems to offers us a number of perspectives expressed in fetching words that one cannot ignore the import of what is being said.

Little did I know, when Hillary Clinton said, “America will rise again from the Ashes of the Bushes” [1], she had said this a few times before [2], and it gets to the heart of the matter.

In the cases of Bush 41 [3] and Bush 43 [4], their tenure might well be recorded in history as that of poor stewardship – of the economy, of opportunity and of American prospects. They have made a bonfire of every fabric of what exudes American supremacy, status and independence.

They may well go down in history as instigators of change, not so much because they advocated change, but because they created the circumstances in which the people could no more abide the continuation of their policies, the time for radical change had come.

The Republican approach

What I found most striking about Hillary Clinton’s speech was that she moved beyond the context of making John McCain a personification of George W. Bush and simply used the more effective blanket coverage of Republican policies.

John McCain might well have the fine defence of saying that he is not George W, Bush but it would be apostasy to declare that he is not Republican.

As I have hoped, a few more people are voicing an opinion about John McCain’s judgement [5] in selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate and there have been no more a damning assessment of the lady than from General Colin Powell [6] to suggest that she is not ready to be President because that is what a Vice President is supposed to be.

The voice of reason gets aired

The voice of reason seems to be getting louder and clearer to hear within the cacophony of negativity and distractions that pervade every organ of interaction and communication.

It is comforting to hear that Senator Obama is by no means a terrorist, that being a Muslim does not make you a un-American or unpatriotic, that taxes should be reviewed and the issue of redistribution as propounded by some is disingenuous and if Obama were a socialist, one wonders what would be said of the $700 billion government bailout of private enterprise banks.

Reason should and must prevail, this starts from the top at the White House and this allows me to end this piece with Hillary Clinton’s words again – sending the Republicans back to Washington to clean up the economic mess was like “sending a bull to clean up the china closet” [2] – that does not need any further explanation.

Sources

[1] Hillary Clinton: US will 'rise from the ashes of Bush' if Obama is elected - US Election, World news - Belfasttelegraph.co.uk

[2] Hillary: America Will Rise Again "From The Ashes Of The Bushes" – Huffington Post

[3] George H. W. Bush - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[4] George W. Bush - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[5] Im-Palin-g McCain's picket [akin.blog-city.com]

[6] Powell endorses Obama for president - Meet the Press, online at MSNBC- msnbc.com

Preventing bicycle rage

The ride of note

Bicycles are the main mode of transport around the city of Amsterdam and I once had a good few. In fact, when my uncle and aunt visited years ago and heard I was going to pick up my bicycle as I collected them from the airport, little did I know that my uncle felt I was living a pauper’s life – after 13 or so years in Europe, I was riding bicycles.

By the time we walked past the 3-storey bicycle storage rank and they saw bicycles being put to such ingenious use, they realised that there were better practicalities for bicycles than the ostentation of cars and outrageously exorbitant parking charges.

Flattened from movement

One late night I rode into town and got a puncture, the regular public transport had closed and I did not have enough to get me home by taxi so I half rode the bicycle as close as possible to my bike repairer’s shop and then got a taxi back home.

I had the feeling that I might have damaged the tyre rim much as I was quite embarrassed that riding a bike making such a flat tyre racket was not the dome thing.

Meanwhile there were people riding bikes past me which were more ramshackle than a bone shaker or a rusty penny-farthing.

Note that bad at all

In fact, I thought the bicycle was a write-off, I visited the repairs shop to get a new bicycle – I had before purchased the owner’s mother’s old bike many years before and then the one I had parked just about a kilometre away with a puncture.

When I told him of it, he insisted on repairing the bike than my purchasing a new one, so I went to get it and left it for repairs over the week.

When I collected it on Saturday, the whole cost of repairs came to a might 10 Euros, along with the advice that one could really right bikes with punctured tyres for quite a distance before the tyre of rim became irreparable – but the discomfort and embarrassment was enough for me not to want to ride any further.

Locking up my bicycle

The use of bicycles does leave me a candidate for an extreme anger management course, one of my pet hates is with bicycle locks.

The received wisdom is to have good locks that probably cost more than the bicycle and then attach the bicycle to some rigid and firm supporting frame, the idea being, if bikes get stolen, your would be the last to be taken because the others have easier to break locks.

However, you should never have your bicycle outside in the weeks running up to the Queen’s Day celebrations because thieves prowl the streets with trucks picking up bicycles to sell at that the flea markets that have become representative of that day.

Locking up my anger

Dotted all around the city are bicycle ranks in which to place and lock bicycles to the frame, a lock of ample length allows you to set the bicycle in its section an allow space for adjacent bicycles taking account for the handle bars and other attachments.

The accepted generalisation about the Dutch is that they could be a bit miserly and that translates in this case into smaller bicycle locks that make it difficult to place in adjacent bicycles – the inconsiderate import of this is the first bicycle is secure and no care is given for the community spirit of allowing other bicycles to be properly secured.

Stop anywhere and ignore others

This lack of community spirit extends to people who could very well get off the bicycle path at junctions or intersection if they have to converse before parting – people just have a tendency to stop in the middle of the path – very much like stopping your car in the middle of the road and popping out for some emergency shopping.

My anger is aggravated by those who do not stop at the traffic lights, having wheeled themselves forward but yet unable to cross the road are then beyond being able to notice when the lights turn.

What then happens is those who have been patiently waiting to go now have to ring their bells to get the impatient people out of the way.

Traffic violations in a lawless town

More anger points are those who ride up the wrong way or ride on the pedestrian pathways, I am beginning to think Amsterdam is as lawless as the Wild West of old, apart from the occasional fines for not having lights for night riding, I have not seen the police come down tough of poor bicycle conduct.

This is frustrating considering it is the most prevalent form of transport in Amsterdam.

Now, this explains the animosity between drivers of powered vehicles and pedal-powered vehicles, the ones on bicycles seem to be as daring as super-human people who can come to no harm as they risk life and limb to cars, buses or even trams.

Considerate road usage

However, when it comes to the tussle between cars and bicycles, the road markings are important, sometimes, the cyclist does have right-of-way, it does not matter if the cyclist is coming at speed or slowly, once observed, the car driver has to stop and give way – no road or passage is the exclusive reserve of the vehicle.

Pedestrians, cyclists and drivers all have to be aware of the other, respect traffic rules and be considerate of other road users – maybe then; I do not have to go on an anger management course after all.

Nigeria: Divorce mentions adulterous incest

The son of a gun

Far be it from me to profess I have the gift for prescience, but did I not write about the brood of African leaders and their antics a few days ago?

In that blog, I talked about an unguarded interview given a few years ago by Olugbenga Obasanjo the first son of the erstwhile President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo and that had its fireworks.

That seems to have been the tip of the iceberg of a saga that is almost too unscriptable for words or unspeakable to the hearing.

Mr. Gbenga Obasanjo has been involved in a lengthy divorce from his wife of seven years and had filed a 50-paragraph affidavit stating a number of salacious, embarrassing, reprehensible and corrupt allegations – they are explosive to say the least.

Adultery and Adulterous Incest

Obviously, if a divorce petition includes other parties, the moral implications of adultery are somewhat muted, but for an affidavit to cite the petitioner’s father for adultery with his wife and his father-in-law for adulterous incest with his daughter leaves other mentioned affairs lying in the dust.

This affidavit would most likely be sworn to and presented as a valid legal document in this divorce; it makes it difficult to challenge the veracity of the claims – they must either be true or outrageous to the extreme.

If this were not fiery enough, the petitioner claims his marriage foundered because he tried to put a stop to the adulterous relationships. For these sexual favours, his wife was won numerous oil contracts and business deal for her chain of companies.

The petitioner exposes a network of enterprises that could only have existed through influence peddling, corrupt liaisons, patronage, nepotism and name recognition.

My grandfather is my father

There appears to be two children in the marriage and their supposed father casts doubt on their paternity by seeking a DNA test that brings in his father and father-in-law – how reprobate can this get?

Some matters need to handled with discretion especially where children are involved though this matter of a seemingly seriously wronged man by his wife, his father and his father-in-law is a powder-keg ready to shake Nigerian societal values to its core – this case cannot be an exception.

But this can almost be too reckless on the part of the petitioner, representing the very ugly face of acrimonious divorces – if the children were to find out that their father is either of their grandfathers rather than the husband of their mother – how damaging would that be for the children and to what end?

Worse still if both children were fathered by each of the grandfathers – my head hurts already – this is just as vindictive as anyone can get and it is a shame. It is however reminiscent of the acclaimed vindictiveness of the ex-President; that his son can be just as nasty is no surprise.

Sex abuse in Nigeria

Now, these are the issues I want to address that get no airing within Nigeria and in particular within Yorubaland; the rotten practice of paedophilia, child sexual abuse, incest and the patriarchal domination of women for use as objects of sexual gratification.

Literally a year ago, I was invited through blog-tagging to talk about my first sexual experience, it was interesting to read stories of people who only tasted the forbidden fruit in their late teens when they could decide, consent and willingly participate in the sexual activity that some religiously bound would call fornication.

Within that orgasmic excitement was another set of voiceless people damaged by experiences before they reached the age of 10 by trusted family members, relations, neighbours, teachers or servants – boys and girls abused for the sexual fulfilment of godless and evil adults – I was 7.

The lack of family support

The need to shed more light of these evils in Nigeria is pertinent because abused children never seem to get heard when they speak and never get justice when the abuse is exposed – too many families are too embarrassed to deal with what is essentially criminal in the extreme and usually psychologically damaging to the child that the scars may never heal into adulthood.

If, and I say, if Gbenga Obasanjo’s wife ever had an incestuous relationship with her father, one can only assume that she had been abused by the same man since she was a child. It is a difficult thing to contemplate let alone visualize – words fail me.

The other issue here is the family dynamic, we get brought up in homes where we not only respect our parents, and we fear them sometimes to the point of trembling such that very personal matters like this never get discussed.

The focus of the parents is so much on provision – food, shelter and education that other social aspects of development are left un-catered for, we are already in the School of Hard Knocks from what is supposed to be the safety of home – it probably makes us stronger but leaves scars deeper than can be healed over time for some.

Any boy or girl abused at home should be able to call on the protection of either of their parents or close family members and the hope that their ordeal is addressed with concern, sensitivity, empathy and fairness – for crying out loud – this is supposed to be your family.

Big-man sexual industry

The other matter is curtailing the untrammelled propensity for men to see every woman as an object of sexual gratification with the excuse that the woman was attracting the sexual violence meted out on her person.

It is unconscionable that there are men in authority who use their genitalia to acquire sexual favours so as to offer women positions they could and should be able to obtain by merit.

Unfortunately, for some women, they are left with no choice in the matters of survival because these “respected” patriarchs who have no scruples, self-respect or moral compass.

Society does have to take a stand against the sexual terrorisation of women from rape, through abuse to sexual favours to offer opportunity, it is unacceptable that this kind of behaviour be tolerated – and for all the respect and admiration I have for Bill Clinton, this topic does leave me particularly disappointed in his lapse in judgment with regards to Monica Lewinsky – it did little to free women from the sexual domination of men in power in both the West and everywhere else.

As for the paternity of children in a marriage, if that needs to be questioned – we have reached the epoch of depravity from which there is no redemption.

The whole matter is disgraceful for all concerned by commission, by omission or indifference.

References

Perspectives on the battered child syndrome in Nigeria – Citation

Credit crunch: Lazarus comes forth

A difficult case

The man was flailing, the doctors saw his condition and some diagnosed somewhere between the trivial and the critical; it could become terminal, but no one knew what was wrong.

Between a twitching eye and a radical emergency yet unforeseen, the sceptics gathered and simply said the man was faking it, it could never be that serious, don’t waste precious medicine on him.

Meanwhile the experts were conducting all sorts of tests on him but no one could afford the cost of treatment that he fell into a cardiac arrest – rather than do something in the private hospitals, they were looking at the bill and the insurance costs of reviving the man as they allowed themselves to be stunned by the fact that they were losing him faster than they could think.

A global contagion

There were similar cases all around the world but no one thought the vector was the same, each medical team everywhere was prescribing their treatments without comparing notes as each and every one of the affected relapsed into a state that warranted a quarantine that roped in countries.

He was moved out of the hospital with gold-trimmings into the state hospital where doctors who had done serious inner-city medicine had other plans and ideas; rather than the finesse of cosmetic surgery effete they brought in the defibrillator.

Stand Back! A charge of $700 billion was applied as the pads hit the chest, a beep, but he was still flat-lining; this thing was looking like haemorrhaging fever of Ebola virus proportions, somebody had to do something - pretty damn quick, none of the medicine was working – yet, we were assured the shock would revive the man.

In another room, some were praying, some were swooning and probably more had resigned themselves to the last rites – the man was as good as dead.

Treatments from the land of penicillin

In the land of penicillin, the doctor who had been a house officer for 10 years was thinking about a new kind of treatment just as the man in Iceland had already been wheeled into the refrigeration of the mortuary and the stone rolled over in front of the cave – we learnt that the house officer whilst tending his patients realised that strain in Iceland had a similar DNA profile to some of the ailing patients around Europe and he pulled their supply line of adrenaline - the man died.

He then put forward a drug regime that had chemicals pumped into the men in a concoction that would have made a 1930s hospital look like a cosy kindergarten; the men still did not seem to revive, they were all terminal, if not fatal.

He kept the regime up and he must have felt like Jesus felt as he loved the free market capitalist system and its trappings so dearly, we had been buoyed by his humour, his camaraderie, his ability to make us feel so good even when we have been so bad and we were in quite a bad way already.

We wept as the grand palace of the most magnificent illusions and mirages that were thought we were living in suddenly disappeared without a souvenir to show for living the good life.

Lazarus rises from the dead

Over the weekend, the doctors compared notes and advocated regimes of treatment that looked like the regime that the man from the land of penicillin had instituted.

Roll away the stone, he said and he bellowed – Lazarus! Come forth! A man came out of the cave having been dead for days and the bandages were removed and he was given food.

Men are reviving everywhere now, the stock markets are gaining their highest ever rallies, meanwhile we are sure we would find out what was responsible for that bout of severe illness, the men were probably poisoned, there would be a strict regime of diet and freedom, the drugs are still being administered to avoid rejection where some men have had to have heart transplants - cash injection of trillions seems to have done the job, so far.

Those men who as cannibals had craved and eaten Dutch flesh have been throwing up without respite, somehow, the third did not get Spanish flu, what a strong constitution he must have - say I. Those up North would now never be able to get away scot free and be alone from the land of penicillin.

What a long day of harrowing weeks and troublesome months of foreboding at the hospital, we are not sure we have a cure yet.

Notes on the idea

This wraps the story of the resurrection of Lazarus round a serious medical contagion baffling the experts describing the bailouts and rescues of the banking systems around the world and falling stock markets.

The land of penicillin as you know is the United Kingdom where penicillin was discovered, everything else is simply the workings of a crazy imagination.

Credit crunch: No man is an island ... it tolls for thee

The times are troubled

In these troubled times when the markets have gone into irrational freefall such that the first principles of free marketeering have failed to contain the excesses and fear rules like the darkest pall of an approaching tornado; one is left to reflect.

When the storm started brewing last year, there must have been many who thought their savings were secure, their pensions were fine, the stock markets had just reached their highest peaks and the values of their homes were in the stratosphere.

I first got hit by the fallout of the occurrences in the United States in November when my mortgage interest rate got a 50% hike which in monetary terms was a good whack on the goolies.

It affects us all

I have been fine, but a lot more has been going on and it has come closer to home than one finds comfortable.

If ever we thought the credit crunch as a distant rumour we know reality now; if ever we thought our savings were safe as in they were put in Fort Knox, there are many who cannot enter to get their money now; if ever we thought the bailout would quench the fire like a tsunami would wipe out everything, we only have to see how the markets tumble like an avalanche at Mount Everest.

The Titanic and the free market

There was a time when a great ocean liner [1] was built that many touted as unsinkable, so was the great free market economy that brought prosperity to many.

As it went through the waters of the Arctic Ocean someone spotted a large iceberg just as some saw that the debts and mortgages cannot been sustained but no one did anything about it and ripped into the hull of the ocean liner.

There was an emergency which has been called a credit crunch and all the experts and crew gathered to find ways to either keep the boat afloat or save the souls from perishing.

When they finally got the life boats out the women and children were allowed on first, these for the US Treasury were the banks – the men had to stay behind – men and women, families, people struggling with high prices, unaffordable mortgages, astronomical energy bills and so on.

Bale out or bail out

As we have been told, if the women and children in the eyes of the US Treasury were safe, they might just end up helping the men – bunkum.

There was no way they could bail out the water fast enough to stop the boat from taking on more water and sinking – this is no funny situation we are bailing out like mice from a sinking ship – they say this financial situation is as bad as the Depression of the 1930s, I can go back to 1912 as see a great human disaster of Titanic proportions.

It tolls for thee

But we pray as we have baled out in the cold icy waters that we might just be able to hold out till when Carpathia arrives; for this affects all rather than the few, it is global in its ramifications and local in its effects, no man is an island adrift from these times and troubles – it brings us to the quietest contemplation of realities of life and death for in the words of John Donne [2] we did ask for whom the bell tolls long ago as the financial turmoil began to unravel – Alas, as he went on to say – it tolls for thee.

And so suddenly we have to heed the words of our leaders, we are all in this together and all countries should coordinate their plans together to get out of this rather humongous mess.

The abridged version of For whom the bell tolls [3] appears below but the fuller version of the sonnet appears here from Devotions upon Emergent Occasions [4].

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manner of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

Sources

[1] RMS Titanic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[2] John Donne - Poetry Foundation: The online home of the Poetry Foundation

[3] Home -> Inspirations -> Poems -> For Whom the Bell Tolls - John Donne

[4] John Donne - For whom the Bell Tolls

Bale out/Bail out - World Wide Words