Lek’s Darkside Car Services*

Mobi-Babble

Normal Service has been resumed…

Yes, I know more unexplained breaks .

Please bear with me, I am going through some difficult and trying times and they are far from over.

I did have some small hopes that my house might be sold last week, but it was not to be. Not all is lost however, as the potential buyer is still on board, but completion date has now been put back to next week.

These things have a propensity to go pear-shaped at the last moment so I will believe it when I see it, and in the meantime I just live in hope.

To make matters worse, the latest update reports from the administrators who are investigating the fund where all my savings have been invested, makes very bad reading. I had thought that there was a reasonable chance that in the course of time – maybe 2 or 3 years – I stood reasonable chance of getting at least half my money back and that the sale of my house would tide me over in the meantime.

I now know that this is a forlorn hope and that hundreds of millions of dollars of investors’ hard earned money has as good as disappeared. Frankly I will be extremely fortunate to get back even 10% of my investment, and that will only happen, if at all, after many years of legal process and lengthy litigation. The most likely result is that I will get nothing and that any current residual value in the investment will be eaten up by administration and liquidation fees.

Shades of Dickens’ Bleak House

In other words I have been well and truly fucked. My savings are gone and I am on my own, at the age of 67, (just turned… what happy birthday that was…..), with little or no means of generating any new income.

But things could be worse.

I have a small sum left in the bank, we own two, nearly-new vehicles and there is a reasonable chance that my house may get sold some time soon. Most of all, I have the loyal, loving Noo who I know will stick by me and take care of me.

Maybe Noo’s love and loyalty makes me richer than if I were a lonely, unloved multi-millionaire, which at one time I used to be.

So we will do what we can do.  We will try to rent out the pick-up and Noo will try to do occasional work as a private taxi driver for local expats. These projects are both in their initial stages and we have no idea whether they will prove to be good money earners.

The business cards are in the process of being printed (see above *),  and we shall see how it goes.It is now low tourist season and business everywhere is slow right now. I have another idea or two, but they are just thoughts at the moment and may prove unworkable.

All in all, I have tried to remain as cheerful as possible but it is difficult. Most of my waking thoughts are consumed by the fact that I have lost all my money, whether the deal will go through on my house and WTF I am going to do when the money is all gone?

Depression is always hovering and I have some very dark moments. I suppose I could consider going back on anti-depressant mediation, but for the time being I think I will soldier on without.

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A Lust For Life

In the meantime, I have started work on restructuring my novel – ‘A Lust for Life’. Following several rounds of correspondence with a London-based literary agent, I am doing doing some re structural work based on her suggestions. I am still a million miles away from doing a deal with her, but at least she has shown a genuine interest, has read the book in its entirety, and has made some quite complimentary comments.

I have accepted her comments and suggestions, as they make much sense, and I have been busy restructuring the novel along the lines suggested. The work is not too time consuming and I have already made considerable progress. Depending upon on my mood and the amount of time I allocate to this task, I anticipate that it will be finished within the next month.

There are no promises that the restructure will lead to the agent taking me on as a client, but merely that she will read it again, when completed. She has warned me that the restructure may actually ruin the novel, so I have to proceed with much care.

If and when I have completed this task, I will publish the revised version in my blog and explain the changes for those who have already read it, as is. There is absolutely no change in the story lines, but simply a re-working of the way and order the events are presented in the text.

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Mobi-Bytes

The Royal Shower and their showering Babies

It was as a young and naïve Englishman, growing up in sheltered East London that I remember first coming across the term ‘Baby Shower’ when reading some stupid American contemporary novel. I couldn’t for the life of me understand what such a strange term could mean, and visions of babies being bathed in some specially designed hot water shower sprung to mind.

Later, I came across this strange phenomenon in American movies, although I still struggled to understand quite what a baby shower was all about. However, scenes of young women getting together in someone’s house for what appeared to be an afternoon party and presenting presents to a heavily pregnant woman did give me a few strong clues.

Through the years I came across ‘baby showers’ more and more in American literature and movies, and I eventually realised that baby showers were as much an American ‘rite of passage’ for young, pregnant, usually married  American  women as was the ubiquitous graduation ball for American teenagers when they finished high school.

Stupid as I am, it was only relatively recently that I realised the term ‘shower’ referred to the act of metaphorically ‘showering’ the expectant mother with presents for her baby. You all probably knew that already …..

 I am the first to admit that during the past hundred years or so, the world, and especially Britain, has adopted huge chunks of American culture and language and assimilated them into our own parochial cultures. The list is endless and I won’t even attempt to start such a list here. Much of what we and the world have taken to our hearts from our Yankee cousins has enriched us and give us tremendous joy and satisfaction.

There are those who say that the Soviet block would never have crumbled if it hadn’t been for the soviet citizens’ craving for all things American, especially jeans (which were almost impossible to obtain in the Soviet Union), fast food, Coca Cola  and American  pop music culture.

But surely there has to be a limit to the amount of Americana that we, foreigners have to assimilate?  After all we do have our own British way of doing things – don’t we???

I don’t know about you, but events like ‘Graduation Balls’ , (yes folks, the practice is rapidly spreading throughout British secondary schools), and in particular, ‘Baby Showers’ are simply an outrage.

It is so puerile and pathetic. We watch these stupid events on a succession of inane, American ‘rom-com’ and ‘rite of passage’ movies, and before you can say ‘Elvis the Pelvis’ we have decided to ape them.

I have nothing against the Yanks, and in many ways I love them dearly, but surely us Brits can maintain our own traditions and customs without resorting to adopting vulgar American imports which offer the worst of Hallmark consumerism.   Are we so devoid of imagination that we have to copy the latest American crap that we have just seen in some third rate Yankee movie!

If anyone ever invited me to a ‘Graduation Ball’, or heaven forbid a ‘Baby Shower’ in the UK ,I think I would probably have a heart attack. Thank God the likelihood of this happening is minimal.

It has been estimated that 28% of British mothers now have at least one of these ghastly ‘Baby Showers’. I wonder if all the attendees speak in phoney American accents?

These baby shower parties often turn out to be worse than ‘hen nights’ and more than one mother-to-be has admitted to being bullied by friends into holding Baby Showers, when all they wished to do was be alone and out of the public eye until their babies were born.

Grasping consumerism is fuelling the Baby Shower boom. John Lewis now offers a baby shower gift list and a Mothercare’s survey coincides with the launch of its royal range, including a romper suit bearing the words “Prince in Training”.

And to top it all – that bunch of wastrels – our beloved ‘Royal Shower’ have announced plans for ‘Kiss me Kate’ to hold a ‘Royal Baby Shower.’

I mean I ask you! It was bad enough when young ‘Arry played strip poker in Las Vegas with a bunch of hookers; but that pales into insignificance when compared to this pathetic decision to hold an ‘all American event’ for a someone who is clearly in no need of any gifts to clothe, feed and entertain her forthcoming royal brat.

There’s already plenty of government funded royal millions swirling around to pay for the brat’s upbringing, private education and  provide him/her with a livelihood.

So just WTF is the Baby Shower for?

All it will do is encourage hundreds of thousands of Kate-besotted  mums-to-be, to persuade their friends to fork out money for unneeded presents that in these hard times, many can ill afford to buy.

What a load of right royal crap!

 

The Great Gatsby – A Review

I had been waiting with bated breath for many months for the cinematic  release of the latest attempt to put the ‘great American novel’ on the silver screen. This time, strangely, it was an Aussie who was handed the poisoned chalice by the Hollywood moguls.

There were several reasons for my eager anticipation.

Firstly, I am a great admirer of  F. Scott Fitzgerald, and while I personally prefer his inspirational ‘Tender is the Night’, (which amongst other things, relates the rise and inevitable fall of an alcoholic), I do nevertheless hold ‘the Great Gatsby’ in very high regard. Fitzgerald was so naturally talented and was a beautiful writer of the English language that frankly everything that he has ever written is just fine by me.

I can see why Gatsby is considered as one of the finest American novels. Apart from it being beautifully written, it also tells the story of the ‘American Dream’ – in a country where you can totally reinvent yourself and become unbelievably rich and successful.

Although there is much dark stuff in Gatsby, it is nowhere near as dark as ‘Tender is the Night’ and maybe Americans prefer to exalt ‘Gatsby’, which they have clearly taken to their hearts rather than the complex and troublesome ‘Tender’.

Secondly, I saw the 70’s version of Gatsby, shortly after reading the novel, and while it was okay-ish, on the whole I found it somewhat disappointing. Considering the great cast, headed up by Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, I felt that they could have made a better fist of it.

Thirdly, I have long been a fan of Aussie film director, Baz Luhrmann. In particular I loved ‘Strictly Ballroom’ and the magical ‘Moulin Rouge’ although I was quite disappointed with ‘Australia’, (especially Nicole Kidman’s ridiculous upper class English accent – almost as bad as poor Dick Van Dykes cockney accent). So after the somewhat poor reception of ‘Australia’ I wondered whether he could rediscover his directorial touch with Gatsby.

Did He?

To be honest I’m still not 100% sure, two long weeks after watching it.

It certainly divided the critics; it seems they either loved it or hated it.

I’m not in either camp. I enjoyed watching the film and never got bored despite its 2 hours 20 minutes length. Much of it was great stuff and it was certainly a huge improvement on the 1974 version, but somehow the movie as a whole stopped short of being really great.

The actors, with the possible exception of Toby Maguire were brilliant – particularly Leonardo as Jay Gatsby and Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan– and there is no doubt that the movie told the story quite faithfully and used much of Fitzgerald’s original dialogue.

The grossly over-the-top scenes of the parties at Gatsby’s mansion and the scenes of drunken, drug-taking debauchery in downtown New York were fascinating and highly entertaining to watch. But I suppose I fall into the camp that feels that with such a great novel, the director owed some kind of duty to the spirit of the novel and should not have taken us into such surrealistic flights of fancy.

I believe the movie would have been truly great if these scenes had been portrayed in a more realistic manner; maybe with a gritty, 1930’s feel to them. After all, surely they were wild enough as originally written without having to undergo the ‘Luhrmann treatment’

It was almost as though that in these fantastical scenes, Moulin Rouge met Moulin Gatsby. Great fun – a feast of voyeurism – but somewhat out of place in one of the greatest ever American novels.

I also feel that the scenes at the motor garage were rushed and  could have been longer and more developed, as they are so integral to the story; but maybe I am being a bit picky.

The device of Nick, (Toby Maguire), telling the whole story from a sanatorium was somewhat contrived, (by Lurhmann), and in my opinion, unnecessary. Maybe the pointless, Lurrhmann-invented scenes at the sanatorium should have been sacrificed and replaced with extended scenes in the ‘valley of Ashes’. I am sure it is all there in the rushes. A Director’s cut?

While I still believe that 3D is largely a gimmick which will probably disappear from main-stream movies, the use of 3D in Gatsby probably enhanced my enjoyment, and I have no complaints on that front.

Don’t get me wrong – this is a fine movie; but whether or not it will reap any prestigious awards, or go down as the definitive Gatsby film remains to be seen.

If you have a chance, I recommend that you go and see it. There’s not too much on at the cinemas these days that are worth the effort of getting up from your sofa, but Baz Lurhrmann’s Great Gatsby is certainly one of them.

Click here for this week’s collection of  Mobi-Pics

Mobi-Snaps: Kanchanburi – Death Railway

Mobi-Babble

I think I am in better shape than I was a week ago and my depression has definitely lifted a little.

There are a number of reasons for this.

I have been talking very frankly to Noo about my situation and that has helped a lot. We have been discussing what we can do to generate a bit of income and also how we can economize, and generally, what precisely are our options.

She has told me that if push comes to shove and I have to go back to the UK for a while until my financial situation improves, (i.e. until some of my frozen funds get released or my house gets sold), then she can live very cheaply and will wait for me.

Going back to the UK is very much a last resort and I am at least a year away from having to make that kind of decision. Hopefully things will improve before that fateful day comes to pass.

The lease on my rented house expires in October, and while I have an extremely good deal – a spacious, fully furnished,  3- bedroom villa with a decent sized pool for 20k Baht per month, I will have to find much more modest accommodation if my financial situation hasn’t improved in three to four months’ time.

I have spoken to my ex-wife about the sale of our house and I feel slightly more positive that she is willing to sell, if we can find a buyer. I will only know for sure if and when I find a serious buyer. I may know this quite soon.

If she is playing games, I will tell her that I will move back into the house, which is my legal right under the ‘usufruct’ that I hold. (A Thai usufruct is a legal document which grants me a lifetime lease or right of residence.)  The threat may be enough to shake her out of her lethargy and persuade her that she had better cooperate with plans to sell.

We have been investigating the ‘why’s and wherefores’ about renting out my pick-up out to generate some income. Clearly, the first thing I need to do is get it installed with a GPS tracker device, which will not only tell us where it is all the time, but it also has a device which will enable me to demobilize it, if I think the customer is trying to steal it. Obviously it won’t be 100% full-proof but will probably work in most situations.

We spoke to a rental outfit in downtown Pattaya, and they inoformed us that even now, in the low season, there is a very high demand for modern, 4-door pick-ups so there seems little doubt we can rent it out. But we won’t know for sure until we try. It does seem that we can make a minimum of 20K Baht a month – maybe more – out of such a venture, and that would certainly help.

I am very appreciative of the comments I have received during the week and I am taking your thoughts and advice on board.

Sven, I have not published your comment, as suggested, and I will be replying to you by email.

I really don’t want to go into the minutiae of my financial situation in the blog, because I think it will only create disagreement. I have read so many times about ‘A’ being able to live on X amount of money in Pattaya and ‘B’ saying it’s impossible, and ‘Y’ saying he can live on even less! And so on…..

Maybe some people can live cheaper than others; maybe some people’s needs are different to others. Of course we can all adjust our living standards to our income, as I have done in past times in my life when I was really struggling to survive.

But in a few days’ time I will be 67 and I am not in good health. If I end up having to exist in some tiny, hot, single room, with no money to go anywhere or do anything and with barely enough money to put food on the table then I might as well go back to the UK.

At least in England I have a brother and two daughters, all of whom have their own homes and could probably put me up indefinitely, if necessary – even if I have to move around from home to home. If and when I get back some of my frozen funds, I can return to Pattaya and Noo… if she is still waiting for me.

I mentioned last week that I have a small state pension, but it is much less than some of you seem to think and barely covers the cost of my monthly medications and doctor’s bills. If nothing changes, this is the only money I will have in a year or so, when my bank accounts run dry, and it is definitely not enough for me to live alone to live on, let alone support Noo and her kids. That is why I was so depressed.

Yes, there is a reasonable expectation that things might – and – should – improve. If I can get the house sold, or even if I can start a little truck rental business, it should be enough to keep us going. But who can say for sure? It’s still not a good situation.

I reiterate that I do appreciate the advice and concerns and I thank you for caring. I do feel much better and feel more positive about things so let’s see how it all plays out over the coming weeks and months.

 

Mobi Bytes

Obama’s Scandal-Gate

A number of scandals are starting to envelope Obama’s second term in office. It struck me that it might be an interesting exercise to study the capricious nature of  the American media and public and to see how they are reacting to these various, unsavoury events.

Benghazi.

Recent revelations at congressional hearings now confirm that there was criminal incompetence by the State Department and there was a subsequent cover up by the Obama administration, just prior to last year’s US general election.

In spite of this, the mainstream media, (with the exception of Fox News), and the public at large continue to show very little interest in the despicable killing of four American citizens – including a United States Ambassador.

Department of Justice                      

The Attorney General ordered mass seizure of phone records and emails from AP reporters and their families, yet it would seem that the public at large is pretty apathetic about it all and shows little, if any interest.

But for once, all sections of the media – including the liberal left – are outraged. I wonder why?

IRS

It has been admitted by the IRS that they did indeed operate a deliberate and illegal policy to target conservative groups’ applications for tax exempt status.

Who is outraged about this?

Everyone of course!

After all, the IRS is feared and hated by the whole country, and they are the one organization who can seriously affect the lives of individual citizens, if left to its own devices.

So it would seem that Americans are only concerned with government ‘overreach’ if it affects their own livelihoods. To hell with the four poor muts murdered in Libya – what does it matter? (As Hilary famously screamed at the congressional committee)

In the UK we have the NIMBY syndrome -‘Not In My Back Yard’. (i.e. rich, influential folk will vociferously object to any government project that happens to be near to their own homes, or in their own precious part of the English countryside).

In the USA they seem to have something akin to NOIMBY – No Overreach In My Back Yard….

 

 

The Fall and Fall of a Great News Service

Long-time readers will be well aware that the poor standards of BBC TV World News Service is one of my hobby horses, so please permit me a few sentences of indignation.

In my younger days, when I first set out to conquer the far flung corners of the world, we struggled to listen to the BBC World radio service on short wave radio, as it was our only contact with the outside world and the only reliable way to find out what was going on.

It wasn’t only us Brits that tuned in to hear the BBC news, but almost everywhere I went, and particularly in the trouble spots – from the Biafra conflict – to the Arab/ Israeli wars and even during the succession of coups in Thailand –the local populace would tune in the trusty BBC World service to hear accurate accounts of what was actually going on around them.

Although it is a long way from what it used to be, and so many of the local radio relays have now been shut down, the World service on BBC radio is still pretty good.

So it would have been reasonable to expect that the BBC’s sister service on television – a news service that is broadcast to the world at large, would go some way to carrying on that proud tradition of providing reliable, accurate, well presented news.

I know…. I am a naïve, self-deluded dreamer…

I never thought the day would come when I would say this, but:

‘Come back Nik Gowing – all is forgiven!’

I was never a great fan of the now abandoned ‘The Hub’, but its successor in that time slot, World Global News, is the most fatuous, washed out garbage that I have ever had the misfortune to watch. It’s presenter, Jon Sopel has to be the most dithering, exasperating and utterly ineffective presenter that I have ever had to watch.

Sopel and his cohort, Ros Atkins, (who has a voice that is so high-pitched that it is totally unsuitable for a news reader), seem to believe that the world news consists mainly in presenting a single item and then seeking the views on it from a cross section of the world community who call in on bad quality, shaking, web cam hook-ups, offering home-spun opinions in barely decipherable, pidgin English.

It really is total madness. We turn to the BBC to give us professional, well presented summaries of the main news events of the day all we get is these spluttering, idiotic news presenters who spend about 10 minutes on one item, mainly discussing it with a ‘United Nations’ of viewers from across the globe.

One night, the main news item was the incredible, scientific revelation that if two people are in a happy, loving relationship then they have tendency to put on weight.

Honestly, it is the truth! That was the top news item. Soper and his cohorts dragged in so-called medical experts to discuss at length why loving couples get fatter. I don’t know about you, but I could think of a few reasons – not that I give a toss, one way or another.

Then last week, the BBC’s coverage of the Pakistan elections was greater than the coverage of the British and America elections combined. They had reporters in almost every Pakistan city and it went on for hour after hour, day after day. You would think you were watching the English language version of Pakistani TV.

Well I suppose it was a change from watching BBC ‘Indian TV’ which normally benefits from the grossly disproportionate coverage of India by our friends at Broadcasting House.

A friend explained to me the other day that I see so much coverage on events on the Indian subcontinent because I happen to be watching during Indian peak viewing times, so naturally the news is targeted at Indian viewers.

Really? I may be wrong but I do believe there are few other countries in the same time zone. How about a little country known as China, or Indonesia, or Malaysia, or even Thailand?  I would guess that if any research was carried out into the allocation of news coverage in this part of the world, you would find that the Indian sub-continent gets about 80%, with the rest of the region – including China and the whole of SE Asia, is lucky to get 20%.

I wonder why that is? It wouldn’t by any chance have anything to do with the fact that so many of the BBC producers and presenters hail from – or are ethnically connected to – the Indian sub-continent would it?

Nah! Never! How dare I suggest such a thing!!!

Oh, I forgot – we did get a news item on China the other day. It was the mind –blowing, sensational news that the famous Chinese dissident, Ai Weiwei, had just released the first song on YouTube off his planned heavy metal album.

Very interesting…. The only problem is that during the entire length of the 10 minute news item, they didn’t even show us 5 seconds of the video itself. Even BBC’s flagship ‘Today’ programme on radio 4 treated us to about 10 seconds of Ai Weiwei’s dulcet tones. But on BBC World news – nothing – just a load of old waffle about God knows what!

And my friends wonder why I watch so much Fox news… well at least it is entertaining.

 

Randy Andy – What a fellow!!

You do remember Randy Andy, don’t you?

You know, Queen Lizzie’s second son who married that stupid royal scrounger Fergie, and then got rid of her a few years later when he saw that she could no longer fit into any of her expensive, haute couture rags – sorry… dresses….

Yes, you can find much about Andy’s chequered career in the annals of  Mobi’s blogs, so I will just briefly summarise some of the high points of his illustrious life so far:

• Andy agreed to a scheme with his ex-wife Fergie whereby she would receive a bribe of £500,000, and in return, the Prince would meet the donor and pass on useful top-level business contacts. She was filmed receiving, in cash, $40,000 as a down payment.
• Kazakhstan President’s billionaire son-in-law paid Andy’s representatives £15m via offshore companies, for the Duke’s Surrey mansion, Sunninghill Park.  This was £3m over the asking price.

It was subsequently reported by Swiss and Italian police, who were investigating “international corruption” that a trust which charges “multi-million pound fees” to energy companies wishing to deal with Kazakhstan, had paid £6m towards the purchase of Sunninghill, which strangely, remained derelict after the sale

• Andy had a close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, a man who is a convicted sex offender in the State of Florida for soliciting an underage girl for prostitution.
• During his 10 years role as Trade envoy for the British government, it was revealed that Andy spent hundreds of thousands of pounds, jet-setting around the world. In one year alone he spent over 600, 000 pounds on hotels, food and ‘hospitality.’
• An American ambassador criticised the prince’s boorish remarks to businessmen during a lunch in Kyrgyzstan, during which he attacked a British Serious Fraud Office investigation into corruption and the investigation into a corrupt Saudi arms deal. Andy was referring to alleged kickbacks to a senior Saudi royal in exchange for a lucrative BAE Systems contract.

He then went on to say: ‘these fucking journalists, especially from the National Guardian [sic], who poke their noses everywhere’ make it harder for British businessmen to do business.”

There is more… but you know… my hard disk, and all that jazz.

So why am I reminding you about all these misdeeds?

The Royal Society, Britain’s pre-eminent scientific institution which has enjoyed more than 350 years of happy association with royalty, and has had  such luminaries as Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and currently Stephen Hawking amongst its exalted ranks, now faces unprecedented dissent from its members.

Why is this?

Wait for it folks….yes, you’ve guessed it – that favourite royal of the  gossip columnists; England’s Royal wastrel in Chief -  that scientific genius – the one and only Randy Andy – was recently elected to become a ‘fellow’ of the Royal Society.

While the objections to Randy Andy joining the ranks of geniuses centre mainly on his chequered career as a royal, members of the Royal Society are also asking the wider question of whether it is time for an institution based on science to end the practice of honouring people on the basis of heredity.

The controversy has been fuelled by the way the prince was elected to be a royal fellow. The ballots sent out to ordinary fellows provided only one box to tick, supporting the measure. Those opposed had to write “no” themselves or otherwise mark or spoil the paper. In other words vote ‘yes’ or fall on your sword.

The Royal Society, which was set up in 1660 with the encouragement of Charles II, announced Prince Andrew’s election as a royal fellow last week.

Dissent emerged later, spearheaded by David Colquhoun, professor of pharmacology at University College London and a Royal Society fellow since 1985.

He pointed to the controversies surrounding Rand Andy, such as the deal which saw the son-in-law of Kazakhstan’s president buy the prince’s Surrey mansion for £3m more than its asking price, and the prince’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier jailed for soliciting a minor for prostitution, and the cumulative bad publicity which had forced the prince step down as a UK trade envoy in 2011.

Colquhoun stated that the prince was “an unsavoury character” who should not be associated with the Royal Society.

Can you disagree with him?

I mean… if he is unworthy to be a UK Trade envoy, how on earth can he be worthy to be a member of the Royal Society?

Randy Andy degrades and cheapens centuries of learned British scientific achievement.

I’m afraid that The UK still has a very long way to go in coming to terms with the fact that a bunch of inbred half-wits whose only claim to fame is that they were born into privilege, have no right to exalted public status in the 21^st century.

Certainly none that hasn’t been earned from the sweat of their brow. Nor should they become unqualified and undeserved fellows of one of Britain’s most respected institutions.

 

Click here for this week’s collection of  Mobi-Pics

Mobi-Snaps: Sattahip Beach

For those living in and around Pattaya and are becoming disallusioned with the quality of the local beaches, you could do a lot worse than make a short drive down the coast and check out Sattahip.

Nice sand, much cleaner and not a bad place for a day out with the kids.

 

Mobi-Babble

I have been fighting depression for several weeks and my downward spiral is becoming relentless. 

My depression has been triggered by my dire financial situation.

As with most very bad news I have received in my life, my current predicament has taken a while to sink in. Up until recently, my situation seemed like a bad dream that will surely go away soon.

I now know that it won’t go away, and that the few desperate straws that I was grasping to save me from this disaster, were little more than an illusion.

What remains of my life savings – not a huge amount, but enough to see me through the rest of my life – is frozen. Maybe they’re not gone for good – although I will be lucky to eventually get back more than 50% – but certainly for a year, or two or three. For the foreseeable future I am pretty much broke.

I was clinging to the hope that maybe in few months I would be able to get some cash back out of my savings – even if it was only enough to tide me over for a while, but I now realise that this is impossible and it’s going to be a long haul.

Failing that, I thought I might be able to somehow accelerate the sale of my house, but even in this, my hopes have been dashed. My now ex-wife seems to be using excuse after excuse not to even put the ‘for sale’ sign back up after she inexplicably took it down a few weeks ago. I have no idea what’s going on, but I fear the worst. 

Finally, I confess that I was day-dreaming that some publisher or agent might appear like a fairy Godmother with the news that they liked my novel and that somehow this would become my saviour.

I know this was a ridiculous dream and  even if I do eventually get some positive responses, there will be no meaningful money forthcoming for a very long time – if at all.

Right now, on the book front, I have had two outright rejections, and one lukewarm response from an agent who I have dealt with in the past. They have suggested I do some substantial re-working of the manuscript but with no guarantees that the novel will eventually be taken on.

If I could see some way out of this mess, I think  I would be much more positive.

Indeed when the news first broke I remained quite cheerful as I thought that something would come up. But it hasn’t  and taking into account my age and medical condition I simply cannot see any way out.

I cannot work in Thailand, as I have no work permit and in any case no one would take me on. Even if I went back to the UK, in the current economic climate, there is little or no chance of finding any kind of work. I have no home there and I would have to rely on my family to take care of me which would not be a great state of affairs.

Also, if I were to return and re-establish residency back in the UK, it would create a tax nightmare as I have been non –resident for tax purposes for many years. I think I would have a large tax bill with no money to pay it.

We are economising as much as possible, and I calculate I can last about a year. I could sell one of my vehicles which would keep me going a bit longer but have decided a better plan is to see if I can rent one of them out. The pick-up is still in mint condition and isn’t used very much.

There seems to be a demand for pick-up rentals in Pattaya so I will see what can be done, but even if I am successful, this will only generate around 20,000 Baht per month. This, together with my small UK state pension will still be nowhere near enough to keep me and my family going.

I have another idea for a small business which would almost certainly generate a regular income, but I haven’t got sufficient capital for this. If can I sell the house then I would plough the proceeds into this project, but until- and if – that happens, there’s little I can do.

I have thought and thought about this until I am blue in the face but I cannot come up with any meaningful solutions.

If I fail to sell my house or get anything back from my main savings, then in a year or so the money will run out and I will be destitute. It is not a pretty situation. If could see even a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel, then things might be different, but as it is….

At the moment, things are carrying on more or less as normal and there are few signs of the troubles that lie just down the road…. except a growing depression.

 Mobi-Bytes

Life in Thailand – More of the same?

I’m not too sure whether there has been some particularly noteworthy events hitting the local Thai headlines during this past week, but it did strike me that with all the doom and gloom going on internationally, that I might use the next few paragraphs commenting  at some news a little closer to home, (for me.).

Frankly, I rarely comment on local (Thai) news as although it is always full of ‘quotable items’, they are all pretty much variations on a theme.

The government and opposition are always far more concerned with destroying each other by fair means or foul than running the country; there is the never ending saga of Thaksin’s desperate attempts to be pardoned so that he can return home and resume his nefarious activities in person rather than by proxy ; the cops are up to their usual tricks which has little or nothing to do with protecting the public against crime and criminals, and the endemic corruption in all facets of Thai society simply gets worse and worse.

Here’s just a small sample of stories that have hit the headlines over the past few days in the Land of Smiles?

As ever, our beloved ‘boys in brown’ have been striving to live up to their national motto of ‘Serve and Protect’, when a few days ago, a police motorcade, which included a massive trailer truck, hit a beam holding up a pedestrian bridge on a major road in eastern Bangkok, causing it to drop on a passing pickup truck, instantly killing the driver.

The traffic on the road came to a standstill for up to six hours before four cranes were brought in to remove the 30 ton piece of concrete over to the side of the road.

The 28-wheel truck, carrying a huge oil-rigging machine, was part of a three-truck convoy led by a police cruiser. Mercifully, two of the trailers behind managed to stop in time.

Amazingly, we learn from eyewitnesses that the police cruiser leading the convoy, did not stop to help and when the accident occurred, they sped away.

The driver of the truck has been charged with causing death through carelessness.

However, the Police Divison Chief said he was looking to see if the policemen in the police cruiser should also be held liable for the accident…..

Really?

*

Also on the subject of the BIB, I am pleased to report that the superiors of a police officer who took bribes from drivers on the road underneath a sky train station in Bangkok have been transferred away from Bang Na station.

The Metropolitan Police chief said he decided on the transfer after not one, but two video clips spread online showing traffic police officers from Bang Na station taking bribes.

The two supervisory traffic police officers at Bang Na station are being given the same positions at their new workplaces, and the traffic policeman that appeared on the video clips posted on Youtube, has been slapped with a ‘non-final expulsion’ order, pending an investigation into his bribe-taking.

The poor BIB – shall we have a whip round?

*

What has our beloved government been up to lately?

For starters, the education minister is planning to propose to the Cabinet that students be allowed to have longer hairstyles. According to the new regulations, all students will be allowed to get  layered haircuts.

The Education Minister has approved the new regulations and will be proposing them to the Cabinet next Tuesday.

Once the regulation gets Cabinet approval, it will be published in the Royal Gazette and be implemented during the 2013 academic year.

This will remove the ban on students getting layered hairstyles as well as take away the schools’ authority to insist on their students having a specific hairstyle.

Isn’t it nice that our government for the people can spend so much time on matters that affect the rights and liberties of the common folk?

*

What else?

Oh, it seems that not all cabinet members are as keen as the education minister when it comes to civil liberties and human dignity for the common folk.

Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop recently accused law abiding protesters who were planning to protest at the second Asia-Pacific Water Summit as “ garbage”.

Despite a public outcry, he has refused to withdraw his remarks or apologise.

He is quoted as saying: “If the protesters come, they will be arrested. What will you protest against? Don’t come. If you violate laws, I will order your arrest. Chiang Mai people should not allow such garbage to be around.”

The protest is being arranged by the ‘Living River Network’, the ‘Foundation for Ecological Recovery’ and people adversely affected by the government’s policies on water management.

A number of NGOs who are against the government’s water-management plans are expected to show up

You know… all the ‘garbage….

Oh… I almost forgot…

Mr ‘Plod’ is the chairman of the Water and Flood Management Commission, and part of his brief is to oversee the bidding, (i.e. head up the ‘kick back’ committee), by four private firms on the massive 350 million Baht water-management and flood-prevention scheme.

Need I say more?

 

Suffer little girls….

Much has been written about the reprehensible behaviour of the deceased and disgraced UK celebrity, Jimmy Savile.

Without doubt he was an evil sex monster and it beggars belief that he was able to prey on under-age girls for decades and go to his grave without ever facing the full force of the law. The public is outraged and is rightfully demanding explanations.

Yet when we learn of Saudi men, some more that 70 years old, ‘buying’ child brides from families of Syrian refugees, abusing them and returning them to their families, before buying another one to satisfy their paedophile cravings, the world is silent.

For some desperate Syrian families, their daughters are their only asset – the younger the better – as they fetch good prices in the Muslim bride market.

Ageing Saudi men, residents of one of the world’s most religious nations, are among the most eager shoppers for the youngest Syrian girls. They can afford to buy multiple girls and it’s legal because Islam allows for multiple wives.

Many of these young girls are bought and sold several times because these patriarchs of Islamic piety only need a child bride for a few weeks. Then the girl can be returned and sold off by her family again – though at a reduced price. Islam doesn’t permit the charging of interest, but it permits standard depreciation rates for ‘used’ female bodies.

The legal age of marriage in Jordan is 18 but some religious clerics will marry underage girls for a small fee. This puts the girls at even greater risk for exploitation because many of the Saudi men only want a temporary union lasting a few weeks or months after which the girl is returned to her parents.

In other words, it is religiously sanctioned, forced prostitution. Human trafficking….

There are reports of one bride who has been married four times and she is only 15.

Our hypocritical world cries and gnashes its teeth when the likes of Savile, or the Cleveland abductions are uncovered, but say or do little or nothing when we read of what is happening in Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

Back in the UK we hear about the terrible cases of the grooming and rape of underage girls by Muslim residents in Rochdale and Derby.

The Muslim Council of Britain has vowed action to stop children being groomed for sex.They would, wouldn’t they?

They did however speak very honestly when they said: “They, (these gangs), think that white teenage girls are worthless and can be abused without a second thought; it is this sort of behaviour that is bringing shame on our community.”

Yet, amazingly, the police said grooming was “not a racial issue”, with the Assistant Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, saying that the case was about “adults preying on vulnerable young children”.

“It just happens that in this particular area and time, the demographics were that these were Asian men,” he said.

What a load of old balls!

The Muslim community puts their hands up and says, ‘sorry it was us’ and the cops, out of political correctness say, ‘No…no… no… it’s not you guys….!!!’

WTF!!!

I just wonder how many of the male Muslim citizens living in the UK, with ethnic South Asian or Middle Eastern backgrounds, are really outraged about what these grooming gangs did?

I bet you that a vast majority of them are secretly wishing that they too had had such an opportunity and the only thing stopping them was the fear of getting caught.

I’m sorry, but there is little doubt that Islamic law is totally misogynist in nature and that women are regarded as subservient, second class citizens and are only there to serve and for the sexual gratification of the dominant males.

If you have any doubt, just look what has happened in the Afghan parliament where attempts to strengthen the existing law to protect women’s rights have been thrown out.

Or if you want to go nearer to home – check out the ‘fly on the wall’ documentaries that have been made in Sharia courts in Leytonstone – yes… Leytonstone, East London. Ask the women what happened when they went to the court for help after being physically abused by their brutal husbands.

Not very much I’m afraid and what is more, the advice they received was in direct contravention of British Law.

Frankly, what the criminal behaviour of Savile and his other ‘entertainment cohorts’ did – bad though it was – pales into insignificance when compared to what goes on in many Muslim communities, both overseas and here, our own country .

What is this world we are living in?

 Click here for this week’s collection of  Mobi-Pics

Sorry folks, Mobi is taking a week off.

Hopefully normal service will be resumed next Sunday – look for news of my blog updates on twitter, at @mobithailand

Mobi-Snaps: Yet another walk on the Darkside

Scenes from an evening walk around and near Lake Mabprachan.

 

Mobi-Babble

Not too much of note has happened in the life of Mobi during the past week.

Noo has finally got her  UK tourist visa so its all systems go for our three week trip in July.

I have no idea what my brother, two daughters, and quite possibly my sister, (if she makes it from South Africa), will make of the third Thai woman (after my two wives, Noi and Dang), that I have brought to meet and stay with them.

I guess the truth is that they are all well used to my predilection for beautiful young Thai ladies, and they will no doubt take it all in their stride. I think they are  very tolerant of this alcoholic, ‘black sheep’ in their family.

As I have grown older, I have learned to appreciate just how tolerant, kind and understanding they all are.

If nothing else it will provide them with endless hours of conversation, and in any event, I am quite sure that Noo will charm them and bowl them off their feet – she is such a good hearted little gem of a woman.

*

I am very pleased to report that I am making good progress on my efforts to raise my level of fitness and reduce the circumference of my stomach prior to my UK trip, if for no other reason that none of my jeans fit me any more.

As I wrote last week, my arduous trek to a waterfall in Koh Chang was an eye opener to my precarious state of physical well- being.

Since returning I have taken to having a short, sharp swimming session in the mornings when I get up, which has the effect of getting my heart pumping and hopefully strengthening my heart muscles.

Then at sunset, we go for a longer, brisker and more testing walk than  previoiusly. We either take in a good ten minutes march up a nearby hill, or alternatively, we climb the dozens of steps up to a Buddha image perched on a high hill, just above the Wat near to my home. (see Mobi-Snaps, above)

These days, even at sunset, the temperatures are still in the mid-thirties and the humidity is still very high so I can’t pretend my walks are particularly pleasant at the moment, but I do believe they are beneficial. as I certainly feel a bit  fitter.  

I’m probably dreaming, but I am sure my stomach line has receded a few centimetres.

When we return from our trek, sweating and worn out, we then spend another ten minutes taking the dogs for their walk in near darkness and fin ally  I wrap things up back in the pool and swim a few widths to cool off.

Life could be worse.

 

Mobi-Bytes

François Hollande’s “annus horribilis”

Say what you like about Nicolas Sarkozy and his corrupt administration and his nationalistic anti-British prattling, but the poor Frenchies have  come to realise that he was a thousand times more preferable than his successor – the unrepentant Marxist, Monsieur François Hollande, – who has now held the froggy reins of power for exactly one year.

OK, the Sarkozy clique indulged in the usual French sport of ‘Ros-bif’  baiting, even trying to deflect news of  the downgrading of their country’s credit rating by trying to claim that the UK economy was in much worse shape and if any country should be degraded, it should be us.

Well it was, in due course, but how much the French had to do with it nobody will ever know.

But we hardy Brits are used to our Gallic cousins across the English Channel trying to put the knife in, and with the help of the Sun, we take it all in good spirit, with an Anglo Saxon shrug of our magnanimous shoulders.

It is all good sport and frankly means very little in the grand scheme of things. It’s just the way we – and they – are.

(We understand and appreciate that their inferiority complex stems from the fact that they are still licking the emotional wounds we inflicted by whipping their beloved Bonaparte not once but twice, and by being saved by the Brits  - with a little held from the Yanks…- in two world wars.)

But dear little Francois Holland went one better. He decided to go in for a little Kraut bashing. This wasn’t too smart, considering that Germany hold the keys of the Euro-kingdom.

At last year’s European summit, instead of sitting down with Mrs Merkel to hammer out a viable compromise on  austerity measures, he tried to rustle up an alliance with Spain and Italy behind her back, thinking this would be enough to counter the German position.

This enraged the Germans and ironically brought Mrs Merkel and David Cameron in closer alliance than they’d ever been. Not quite what La Presidente had in mind.

Hollande’s henchmen then started making increasingly belligerent statements about “German-imposed austerity”, accusing Mrs Merkel of “egotistical intransigence” and calling for “a democratic confrontation with Germany”.

Merkel was incensed with Hollande, not least because the French president and his froggie spin doctors had allowed the German-bashing because they wanted to deflect  the domestic dissatisfaction with Hollande  away from him and onto  problems with Germany.

The Germans then countered with comments that France was “Europe’s biggest problem child”, with a stalled economy and a “meandering” reform programme.

Sound familiar? Now where have we heard all this cross-border nationalistic bashing before?

Do the krauts have a point?

Well let’s see.

French public debt: 94% of GDP (UK: 87%)

French public spending: 57% of GDP (UK 45%)

French unemployment: at end of 2012 it was 10.2%, but, unlike the rest of the developed world, the French government have stubbornly refused to release any unemployment rates in 2013.

But we do know that unemployment in France has increased to 3.2 million, (an 11.5% increase since Hollande came to power), which is its highest ever.

By now, the French rate may well be hovering at 11%, as compared to 7.9% in UK in April, 2013. (Yes, like the rest of the world, except La France, we do publish the rates…)

It gets worse.

The internet giant, Yahoo, had agreed to acquire 75 per cent of Dailymotion, a successful French internet video site, valuing it at $300 million.

But the belligerent, anti-American minister for industrial recovery scuppered the deal by stating in an interview: “Yahoo wants to devour Dailymotion, but we told them no and that it had to be a 50:50 split”. Whereupon Yahoo called the whole thing off.

Similar grandstanding by the self-same minister had already driven the Indian tycoon Lakshmi Mittal from the Florange steelworks in Lorraine, and the American company Titan International from a floundering Goodyear tyre plant in northern France.

Then France’s budget minister, the man in charge of fighting tax fraud, was revealed to have a secret bank account in Switzerland – and in all likelihood another in Singapore – and to have lied to the president and parliament about it.

Sorry folks, but the bad news goes on and on, but I am feeling weary of the research…

Don’t I feel a little sorry for my little Gallic cousins?

Well in a way, I guess I do, in the same way as I might feel sorry for a pit bull terrier that had to be put down for attacking a child.

Just in case you think I’m just France-hater let me assure you that in my younger days I spent quite a while in that country; as a tourist, as a business visitor and latterly running a Paris office out of the Place Vendôme. So I do have a few French credentials.

The French can be rude, spiteful, disingenuous in business and in their work practises and unhelpful and deliberately perverse on a personal level.

In the rural areas of France, particularly Brittany and Normandy, of which I have some knowledge, I generally found the French to be friendly. Even in Paris, which is notoriously anti-Anglo Saxon, I did meet some very nice people.

But in the main, the citizens of Paris and other major French provincial cites are distinctly ill-disposed to foreigners and do not want them working or living amongst them.

There is still a huge anti-Semitic sentiment in the country, which from time to time reveals itself in the form of outrages of one kind or another.

It is not only the Brits, Yanks, Germans and Jews who are the targets of French anti-foreigner sentiment.

It turns out that every year, a number of  Japanese tourists  have to be repatriated from the French capital, after falling prey to what’s become known as “Paris syndrome”.

Paris syndrome is what some polite Japanese tourists suffer when they discover that Parisians can be rude or the city does not meet their expectations.

The experience can apparently be too stressful for some and they suffer a psychiatric breakdown.

Around a million Japanese travel to France every year, and many come with a deeply romantic vision of Paris – the cobbled streets, as seen in films, the beauty of French women or the high culture and art at the Louvre.

The reality can come as a shock.

An encounter with a rude taxi driver, or a Parisian waiter who shouts at customers who cannot speak fluent French, might be laughed off by those from other Western cultures.

But for the Japanese – used to a more polite and helpful society in which voices are rarely raised in anger – the experience of their dream city turning into a nightmare can simply be too much.

This year alone, the Japanese embassy in Paris has had to repatriate four people with a doctor or nurse on board the plane to help them get over the shock. The only permanent cure is to go back to Japan – never to return to Paris.

But I have little doubt that the loveable little froggies will rise above their present predicaments – as they have done before after two devastating world wars.

I am sure that things will carry on as though nothing has ever happened.

Paris will continue to empty itself of its entire working population during July and August, the work police will continue to ensure that no one is allowed to work more than 30 hours a week, and that  they will continue to put every conceivable obstacle in the way of foreigners who try to do business in their God-given country.

 

The American gun debate….onwards and upwards

A five-year-old boy in the US state of Kentucky shot dead his two-year-old sister using a gun which was marketed for children. The gun, a .22-calibre rifle was called a Crickett and was given to the boy as a gift.

The death has been ruled as accidental. The girl was shot in the chest as her mother went outside to feed their dogs and the gun was apparently stored in a corner of the family’s mobile home.

Officials and residents in the rural Kentucky county said it was common for children to begin shooting guns at a young age.

The Cumberland County Judge said, “It’s a normal way of life, and it’s not just rural Kentucky, it’s rural America – hunting and shooting and sport fishing. There’s probably not a household in this county that doesn’t have a gun.”

The rifle was manufactured by Keystone Sporting Arms, which has a “kids’ corner” on its website featuring images of children at shooting ranges and on bird and deer hunts. The guns are sold in pink, blue and other colours and designs.

The 17-year-old company states its mission is to nurture gun safety among young shooters and displays testimonials from parents who say they are grateful to be able to go shooting with their children.

In the past three days at least three young boys have shot their sisters in the US.

In addition to the Kentucky shooting case, a five-year-old girl was shot and killed by her eight-year-old brother in western Alaska on Tuesday, while a seven-year-old boy shot his sister, nine, in the leg in Auburn, Washington state, on Thursday.

A Democratic Kentucky state lawmaker said: “Why single out firearms? Why not talk about all the other things that endanger children, too?”

 

This is a ‘menu link’ on the home page of ‘Keystone Sporting Arms’ website. There are three other options to click on and they all work except the ‘Cricket’ link which seems to be “either experiencing problems, or is undergoing routine maintenance”.

Or, following the shooting publicity, maybe it has been overloaded with enquiries…

I’ll let you be the judge…

I wonder… is there another country in this wide world of ours where five year old kids are encouraged to take up arms and where guns are specifically marketed for their pleasure.

You just couldn’t make this up.

We all like to bash the brutal and misogynous treatment of women under the Islam culture, yet in the heartlands in ‘The land of the Free’, they teach five year old kids how to kill each other with guns.

Why is it that  the Americans themselves are the only ones who can’t see the total madness in all this?

Because generations of Americans have been brain-washed by the powerful, money-hungry gun lobby into believing that it is their God-given right to bear arms, and that the ‘seconded amendment’  was especially enacted by their founding fathers for this purpose – which it patently wasn’t.

But I am sad to say that nothing will change in my life time.

 

Broadchurch and Lightfields

For the benefit of my non UK readers, the above title refers to two British TV dramas that were recently aired on ITV.

I am not going to do an in depth review of these two mini-series, but having seen both, I do have a few observations.

‘Broadchurch’ – a ‘whodunit’ in eight parts, set in the fictional English seaside town, was a veritable ‘tour de force’.

It was brilliantly written, directed and acted and was eminently watch-able, as was testified by the ten million or so viewers who tuned in, proving it to be ITV’s most successful drama of the year by a long way.

Unlike most crime series, there was a single crime and a single plot line running through all eight episodes, much along the lines of the highly successful Scandinavian police series such as ‘The Killing and ‘The Bridge.’

It would certainly appear that the Scandinavians have shown us the way on how to develop the characters properly and to keep the audience enthralled and on tenterhooks throughout the length of an entire story, without resorting to having a new crime to solve every week.

If I was being picky, both the Scandinavians and the Broadchurch writers were obliged to use a few ‘red-herring devices’ to keep our interest going. Having been a huge fan of the Swedish and Danish offerings, I knew that any likely suspect that emerged in earlier episodes, never mind how damning the evidence, was highly unlikely to be the ultimate killer.

But don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with formulaic drama, as long as it is new and fresh and isn’t overdone. That is why we all loved Broadchurch – because it was different, and didn’t have the case solved after one or two episodes which was then followed by new cases new characters and new story-lines.

This may sound silly, but one of the main reasons that I loved Broadchurch so much was because it was the first series I have watched in years that didn’t have a ‘Next’ section at the end.

You know, the part where within a few seconds of an episode concluding, they tell you exactly what is going to happen in the next episode.

I don’t know about you, but I absolute detest these appalling and dumbed-down efforts to ensure we tune in next week by showing us all the juicy parts of next week’s story. It absolutely drives me crazy, and every time a ‘next’ starts, it’s a race against time for me to shut it off before all is revealed.

I suppose if you are the kind of person who reads the last chapter of a book before you start reading the remainder, then fair enough – but my gut feeling that few of us ever do that. If we like a good story, be it a book or a TV drama, we like it to read or watch it in chronological sequence, and not be continually titillated, by what’s coming next.

Can you imagine coming to the end of a chapter in a novel and then reading:

‘Next! Tom dumps his girlfriend! Jimmy is caught stealing from work, and Jennie’s cat is poisoned….’

Why don’t the producers have sufficient belief in their work to feel that the sheer enjoyment of watching will ensure the viewers will tune in again next week, or the next day? It beats the hell out of me, and is one of my massive gripes with today’s television.

Then there was ‘Lightfields’ – an ambitious, well-crafted, supernatural ‘whodunit’ drama spanning three separate generations in the Nineteen forties, seventies and 2,000’s.

I say well- crafted, as it was superbly filmed, acted and directed, and by rights should have been every bit as successful as Broadchurch.

It was interesting to compare the two. In many ways, both were similarly constructed – a running whodunit with an in depth, ‘soul-searching’ examination of the principal characters.

Yet one succeeded and one failed. Broadchurch attracted over 10 million viewers, whereas Lightfields slumped to under 3 million on its second episode.

Why?

Well, I think it was purely down to the script. It wasn’t even that the dialogue was bad – it was just that the underlying plot simply could not hold our attention in the same way that Broadchurch had managed to do

The denouement in the final episode of Lightfields, where we finally learned who did it and why they did it and why the ghost had been haunting certain people through the years was a total let down.

It lacked credibility, (even accepting the existence of ghosts), and gave us a soppy, cheesy, happy ending, that no one was expecting or wanted. But by that time most of the viewers had already deserted the sinking ship…

There was also something else.

Clearly the producers of Broadchurch were so confident of keeping their audience that they saw no need to slap on a ‘next’ at the end of each episode.

In contrast, Lightfields was so brazen in its approach to this device that before you even realised the current episode was over you were watching ‘key’ excerpts  from the next episode. You watched for several seconds before you realised what was happening and before the producer had the good manners to plaster ‘next’ across the screen.

Frankly I was livid!!

But you know that already.

 

 Click here for this week’s collection of  Mobi-Pics

Mobi-Babble

Trip to Koh Chang

The past week was dominated by our little mini-break to Koh Chang, as you can see from the photos.

In  days past when I owned a saloon car (sedan to you Americans), any time I went away somewhere with my wife and/or family for more than one night, it would always be a battle to cram all our things in the boot,(trunk).

In spite of our best efforts, we always ended up with a load of excess stuff that just wouldn’t fit in the boot  and the poor  back-seat passengers had to nurse it all the way  to our destination.

But it seems that there is a rule that the amount of luggage and junk you take with you on a journey up-country will be directly proportional to the space available.

So we set off last Tuesday, at 8 a.m. with so much stuff in the back of our pick-up that anyone would have thought we were going on a three month safari. Or maybe we were going to a Thai car boot….

It is a nice, easy, 3 hour journey from Pattaya, down the 36 highway to Rayong and then join the ubiquitous Sukhumvit Road, (apparently the longest road in the world) , designated route 3, down through Chanthaburi to Trat province where the car ferry awaits visitors to Koh Chang.

I drive quite a bit slower these days, partly because I am getting older and understand the need to be more careful, partly because I no longer drive a BMW , (although the Triton has a surprising turn of speed, if I so wish to put my foot down), but mainly because I have a ‘back seat driver’ sitting next to me who continually scolds me whenever I drive too fast.

Despite all my, (and Noo’s efforts), to keep my driving within legal limits, I still managed to attract the attention of a lone cop standing in the middle of the road, somewhere near Chanthaburi, who unilaterally decided that I was speeding.

How he determined this I have no idea as there was no evidence of speed cameras or radars and he didn’t even have an accomplice situated back down the road to warn him of my coming.

It transpired that the main plank of his evidence rested on the fact that I was driving in the outside lane and that anyone in the outside lane, must, by default, be speeding.

Anyway, he was friendly young soul, who asked me if I spoke Thai. When I replied in the affirmative he proceeded to demonstrate his impressive knowledge of English with such words as ‘going too fast’ and ‘must pay money’ tending to dominate his conversation.

As luck would have it, he was from the same part of Nong Khai as Noo, and within seconds they were exchanging childhood reminiscences of such wondrous landmarks as Tha Bo food Market.

He asked Noo for 200 Baht, but Noo pleaded poverty and asked if he would accept 100. He pointed to the gold on Noo’s wrist, desperately trying to contradict her assertion of impoverishment, whereupon the gallant Mobi chimed in to remind him that gold had just taken a massive tumble in price.

This argument seemed to win the day, and he happily accepted 100 Baht and even shook my hand as I tried to wai….

We seem to have beaten most of the morning crowd to the ferry harbour but were immediately sent to the back of the line, (not easy in a pick-up truck), for trying to board the ferry without paying – well how was I to know that I was supposed to stop at a large kiosk marked ‘FERRY TICKETS’ in English and Thai.

No matter, we succeeded in securing the last slot on b0ard and parked up for the 30 odd minute journey across the Gulf of Thailand to Thailand’s second largest island, (after Phuket).

It was one of those roll-on roll-off ferries , similar to the ones they use across the English Channel to France, except about a 100 times smaller, and watching from the bow, I could see how easy it would be for a slightly swelly sea to wash over the open ends and upturn the ancient, rusty craft.

But it was a calm day and the seas was a flat as a mill pond – so no worries and we arrived at the banks of Koh Chang unscathed.

We were heading for Penny’s resort, a lower end hotel-resort, about half way around the island. I had previously experienced a lot of trouble finding this place on my Garmin sat nav and after endless searching, I eventually found it, quite by luck under the most bizarre spelling of ‘Phennies’ resort! I mean, I ask you….

Anyway, the trusty Garmin directed us to Penny’s doors – well almost. After turning off the main highway and following the signs that Penny had thoughtfully placed at strategic intervals along the road, we came to a sign that said Penny’s resort with a narrow pointing sharp left – straight at a building covered with washing lines and laundry.

Surely not! I know I booked a cheap place, but not that cheap.

Determined that this couldn’t possibly be our destination, despite the sign, we drove on a few more meters towards the coast and came to a T-junction. Noo jumped out and asked a woman sitting in a nearby restaurant and returned to inform me that Penny’s was just along on the left and that the woman had been very abrupt and rude in her reply.

Thankfully we finally found the real ‘Penny’s’. I wasn’t surprised that the woman had been a bit rude. I wonder how many travellers had been confused by the sign and had stopped to ask her the way. But then again… maybe it was just me…

Phennie’s – sorry I mean Penny’s – was nice and our room was quite exceptional. Very clean, modern, a good size, with fridge, TV, functioning aircon and loads of tables, hooks and electric outlets – all the things I look for in a room for all my junk. Noo’s son was provided with a separate mattress and there was still loads of room for the three of us to swing our cats.

Noo had brought a whole load of stuff so that we could cook our own breakfasts as I had quite forgotten to tell her that the room rate included  free breakfast! Ah well, I still enjoyed the early morning coffees.

The resort had a quaint bar and restaurant and a small swimming pool which was just in front of a scenic, but rocky coast line.

All in all, very pleasant.

After stuffing ourselves silly with sea food at a nearby restaurant we drove to the nearest sandy beach which had public access and Noo and Dom took a brief little dip.

There followed a slow drive southwards around the island, stopping whenever we found access to a beach or a sea view. We drove almost as far south as possible and then retraced our steps to Penny’s, where we collapsed, semi-exhausted on our beds.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the temperatures on Koh Chang were several degrees below those in Pattaya and as such, a lot more tolerable, which made our afternoon treks even more pleasurable.

Leaving Dom in the room to watch a load of cartoon-type rubbish on TV, Noo and I went out in search of a steak dinner. Driving northwards, we soon came across a brightly lit strip of bars and restaurants. After a brief stroll we settled on a place which was unusually named ‘Monkeys Bar and Restaurant’.

It was an elegant establishment and boasted and extensive international menu, including a steak section – the most expensive items on the menu. Never mind, we rarely spoil ourselves on such luxuries, so we both opted for the rib eye steaks with usual trimmings.

The steaks were quite possibly the worst steaks I have ever had the misfortune  to eat anywhere in Thailand, and believe me I have had some ‘turkeys’ through the years. The steaks were almost inedible – full of fat and gristle and even the meat that did exist was  barely chewable. They were absolutely atrocious.

Now I know that in years gone by, we may have been chancing our arm a little by ordering steak in a Thai restaurant, but in more recent times in Pattaya, we have had steaks in local restaurants on numerous occasions, and the meat has always been there or there about – quite palatable and often very good.

So I had no reason to suspect that as  the steaks held pride of place in the menu, that I was about to be served one of the worst meals of my life.

The thing I just don’t get, is why would a supposedly decent looking restaurant, run by two Brits with their Thai wives, obviously catering to foreign tourists, not try to do their best to provide the punters with acceptable fayre?

Why would they dare to serve up such terrible food?

Greed?

Ignorance? Nah! There is no way that the proprietors weren’t aware that they were serving up sub-standard meat.

Do they not care what their customers think? OK, it’s a passing trade so maybe they don’t care. If they really cared about their  reputation, and if  they couldn’t get hold of decent meat at a decent price, then why didn’t they just remove the items from the menu?

It never ceases to amaze me how many hundreds upon hundreds of farangs who have had no previous experience of running a business, much less a restaurant or a bar, come to Thailand and think they are God’s gift to the food and beverage business.

Ah well, after spending more time trying to dig the gristle out of our teeth with tooth picks than we spent trying to eat it, we made a hasty retreat and stopped by a nearby 7/11 to pick up some food for Noo’s son.

I must say I was jealous of his distinctly unhealthy feast and even five days later, I am still suffering from sore teeth!

Day two dawned to greet another sun-filled sky and we enjoyed our hotel buffet breakfast before setting out to drive and then walk to Khlong Phlu Waterfall.

The waterfall was a good half a kilometre trek from the parking area, and  I initially thought would this would be no problem for an ageing but hopefully semi-fit Mobi.

Boy was I wrong!

It might have only been 500 metres, but the route was ever upwards, through dense jungle  terrain , up rocky,  narrow paths, over rickety bridges and undergrowth, climbing higher and higher to the base of the waterfall.

The humidity must have been close to 100% and before I had walked a 100 meters I was totally exhausted and dripping with sweat.

About 11 years ago, I went on a mini-break to Khao Yai National Park with my then-wife, Dang and spent two days traversing similar paths to hidden, distant  waterfalls. On that occasion, I took it all in my stride. In fact, I well recall Dang telling me how pleased she was that I was ‘up to’ all the strenuous exercise – she was most impressed.

How the mighty Mobis have have fallen. I am clearly a mere shadow of my former self and have a long, long way to go before I can consider myself even halfway fit.

But I refused to be defeated and slowly but surely I struggled along the ever climbing path and eventually made it to the view point – totally spent, but still in one piece.

Frankly it was an eye opener, as I had dared to think I was much fitter. I have been taking a walk every evening for quite a while now, and including the time I also spend walking the dogs, I’m probably exercising almost an hour a day.

But I now realise that it has probably been a bit too easy, and I’m not really pushing myself at all. It has just been a gentle daily stroll along more or less flat countryside. As for the rest of my day – well I hardly move from my computer desk at all, which is clearly no good for me.

So I am resolved to change my fitness regime. I have some hard days a-coming – and I need to be much fitter if I am to take on the challenges of trying to make a living in my old age.

After we, (well Mobi anyway), had recovered from our waterfall adventure, we decided to drive northwards to the far tip of the island and then take a long drive down the eastern side, past the ferry harbour, to the south eastern end.

It was much further than I had thought and about three quarters of the way there, we became ridiculously hungry. As luck would have it, we came across a very picturesque Thai/Vietnamese restaurant, nestled alongside the coast, with a beautiful view of the ocean beyond. Lovely food and great service.

Koh Chang cuisine had redeemed itself after the horrific monkey steaks of the night before.

Back at Penny’s room, I was all in, and Noo and Dom took off to buy some junk food for me to eat later. No more Monkey Steaks.

On Thursday we woke in time to enjoy our free breakfast and then set off for the long journey home.

It wouldn’t have been that long except that we had to wait over an hour at the ferry crossing and once having successfully navigated the Gulf of Thailand yet again, we had to drive extra slowly for quite a while as Noo sussed out the best place to stop and purchase a small stock of durians – which are very much in season right now.

Noo is totally obsessed with durians, those wonderful, spiky, tasty fruits, (or so I am told!), with a smell so bad they are banned from all the top Thai hotels…

(She was allowed to buy three of these sweet tasting, foul smelling ‘objects’ with strict instructions that they must be consumed outdoors.)

Once the offending fruits were duly purchased, treble-wrapped and stacked  in the rear of the pick-up, we made up for lost time and were back indoors by 3.30 p.m.

Our four dogs gave us a tumultuous welcome and  behaved as though we had been away for a year.

 

Mobi-Bytes

Hey Hansum man! – Where you go?

Any visitors to the bar scene in Thailand will be very familiar with the timeless phrase that has been shouted out by bar girls to punters who stroll past their places of employment, since the dawn of time – well since the beginning of bars anyway.

It matters little whether the man being inveigled is indeed a genuine masculine hunk of ‘Adam-like’ proportions, or some dirty, ancient, pot-bellied, tattooed, bald freak of a specimen.

They are all ‘hansum men’ in the eyes of the hookers and provided they have the price of a drink in their pockets, they are all worthy of their undivided attention.

It struck me the other day that the Saudi Arabian government might like to utilise the services of these Thai ‘experts’ on the male form to hunt out those young Arab men with such overwhelming aesthetic qualities that they present a clear and present danger to all womanhood.

Crazy?

Yes… maybe, but clearly there is a serious problem in this most conservative of republics.

Three men were recently forcibly removed from an annual culture festival in Saudi Arabia and subsequently sent back to the UAE after it was deemed that women would find them irresistible.

The delegates from the United Arab Emirates were in attendance at a heritage & culture festival in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, when religious police officers stormed the stand and evicted the men because they were too handsome.

The three Emiratis were taken out on the grounds they were too handsome and that the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices feared female visitors might fall in love with them.

You think I’m joking?

Afraid not, it’s 100% true.

However, I do have some doubts as to official the reason as to why these exceptionally ‘handsome men’ were deported.

After all, even if the Saudi women were attracted to them, it is inconceivable in a country where the women are only allowed out in the company of their husbands, and then in a totally subjugated role, that anyone would have the opportunity, let alone the sheer balls, (excuse the expression), to become acquainted with temporary male visitors to their country.

I’d say nigh on impossible.

So what was the real reason?

Well, having spent the best part of three years in Emirates many years ago, it did not escape my attention that a vast percentage of the local population were in fact homosexuals.

Women were kept at home to procreate, and the young men hung around with their boyfriends in coffee shops and restaurants and it was a common sight to see them all kissing and holding hands with each other almost anywhere.

I also saw it when I lived at a camp out in the desert, where it seemed that the entire male Indian and Arab population of the entire area were having it off with each other. It was all accepted as the norm.

So I wouldn’t mind a small wager that the real reason these hansum young men were deported had a lot more to do with their homosexual tendencies and their effects on the local male population than anything to do with corrupting the shackled and burqua’d female population.

Why else would the UAE release an official statement indicating that the religious police were anxious over the unexpected presence of an unnamed female artist in the pavilion. Apparently, her visit to the UAE stand was a coincidence as it was not included in the programme which had been provided to the festival’s management.

Sounds like load of old balls to me…..

 

Drunk, but legally in charge…

Strange but true.

A plan has been approved by councillors in Kerry, South western Ireland which will empower police to issue permits to allow the holders to override the legal alcohol limit, when driving home from pubs after an evening’s tipple. 

The motion was passed by five votes to three, with seven abstentions – though 12 councillors were absent for the vote which took place towards the end of a long meeting.

Rumours have it that the missing councillors had adjourned to a nearby pub.

A number of the councillors who approved the measure are reportedly themselves pub owners – but the councillor who proposed the motion denied that this had influenced the vote….

He maintained that  people could apply for the permits who lived  in isolated rural areas where there’s no public transport of any kind, and they ended up at home looking at the four walls, night in and night out, because they can’t risk losing their licence.

He agreed that there was merit in having a stricter rule of law when there’s a massive volume of traffic and busy roads with high speed. But on the rural roads he was talking about, you couldn’t do any more than 20 or 30 miles per hour and it’s not a big deal.

The current drink-driving rules were forcing an older generation to stay at home. All the wisdom and all the wit and all the culture that they had, the music and the singing, that’s all being lost to the younger generation.

These older people might as well be living in Japan and Jerusalem because the younger generation don’t see them at all any more.

He might have a point….

Or, how about the local pubs forking out for a ‘door to pub’ bus service?

 

My God! Aluminium existed 7500 years ago?

Not only did aluminium exist in the stone age, but apparently it came in fully extendible ladders.

Well it did according to the BBC, and if it was on the BBC , then it must be so.

The other night I was BBC World News when they had an item on Stone Henge, informing us that archaeologists have now established that there were settlement in the a region of Stone Henge some 7,500 years ago – 5,000 years earlier than previously thought.

On top of this, the folks at Stone Henge are now seeking to hire a General Manager for a salary of £65,000, whose duties will include ‘liaising with druid leaders and overseeing arrangements for summer and winter solstices.’

English Heritage’s spokesman said it was “important to ensure we keep the dignity of the stones”.

Sounds easy, I reckon I could do that. Shall I apply?

However, the real bombshell arrived near the end of the news segment when BBC showed us volunteers building stone age dwellings by hand, using only local materials that were available 7,500 years ago. We were reliably informed that the dwellings were being built in exactly the same way as they would have been constructed all those thousands of years ago.

So imagine my shock when the camera panned over to the roof of a half -finished house and zoomed in on a worker climbing an aluminium ladder that had been placed against it. Sure enough, there was a gallant volunteer, doing his thatching from atop the ladder.

I wonder what other present-day accoutrements that we previously thought belonged to the 20^th/21^st Century, were actually around in primordial history?

 

 

Bahrain– again… and again… and again…

That veritable pearl in the Arabian gulf, home to prestigious Grand Prixs and home to the American fifth Fleet, just can’t stay out of the news.

So what’s happened now?

Nothing much, really…

On the day of the race, protesters blocked several roads and police fired tear gas at a school in Bahrain.

Scores of police cars and a couple of armoured vehicles stood along the highway from the capital Manama to the race circuit. The number of security in some areas was more than the number of protesters, according to a spokesman for the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights.

Immediately after the infamous race, during which dozens more protesters were arrested, permission was denied for the UN special rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez, to visit the country.

The previously planned trip, (previous to the 2013 Grand Prix), has been postponed indefinitely by the Bahraini government and Mendez stated that it was effectively a cancellation.

“Let me be clear,” he said, “this was a unilateral decision by the authorities. Unfortunately, it is not the first time the Government has tried to avoid responsibility for the postponement of my visit, which was originally supposed to take place over a year ago.”

The special rapporteur called on the Bahraini government to “honour its commitments” and spoke of his “compassion with the people of Bahrain who were expecting my visit, and in particular, victims of torture and ill-treatment and their families”.

And just what did that self-appointed, human rights champion, the billionaire spokesman Bernie ‘knucklehead’ Eccleston have to say about his precious Bharain Grand Prix

“The government here are stupid to put this race on. It is a platform for people to use protesting,” he said.

“MPs are good, we see them once a year, we never see them otherwise. They suddenly pop up, which is good because no-one knows who they are and suddenly get their name in the paper so it does good for everybody.

“At least the groups who are there are talking with each other and trying to sort things out. I’m speaking to the leader of the opposition after qualifying.”

I mean how disingenuous can you get?  Doesn’t it make you want to vomit?

There’s only one thing this power hungry megalomaniac is interested in, and that is to make more and more filthy lucre from his obscenely expensive Grand Prixs.

Nothing else matters, and he will say anything to anybody to try and justify the continuation of  races, regardless of  the death, suffering, torture and blatant human rights abuses in the host country.

 

Uzbekistan

While we are on the subject of states who imprison their citizens without trial, who routinely commit unspeakable acts of torture, and are guilty of widespread abuse human rights – AND ARE ALSO CLOSE MATES WITH THE AMERICANS – let’s take a quick look at the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan.

This enlightened country  locks up opposition activists without trial for years, it’s  prison authorities routinely beat prisoners and use electric shocks, asphyxiation and sexual humiliation to extract information and confessions.

Participants in unregistered religious services are beaten, fined, threatened and intimidated, and religious literature which is not state-approved, including the Bible, is often confiscated and destroyed.

The authorities routinely carry out forced abortions on their women before brutally sterilizing them – locally known as the government ‘reproductive health’ program.

Uzbekistan is a lightly populated country of some 21 million where the only recognised religions are orthodox Christianity and Judaism, but where the majority of the population are of the Muslim faith.

These barbaric sterilization measures are nothing short of ‘ethnic cleansing’ and everyone knows it.

Certainly the freedom loving, human rights promoting Americans do. Even they ain’t that stupid.

Uzbekistan is included in Freedom House’s list of “The Worst of the Worst: The World’s Most Repressive Societies”

Yet apart from making some muted noises of protest, (as they also do in the case of Bahrain), the Yanks let nothing disturb from their main purpose.

Following the cock-up with Pakistan, when an American attack killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, and Pakistan  cut off NATO’s access to the border with Afghanistan, some 75% of America’s supply traffic to Afghanistan now passes through the sleepy, dusty streets of Termez in Uzbekistan and over the Friendship Bridge to the Afgan border.

Apart from giving the barbarous Uzbekistan over $12 million dollars in annual aid, our  allies across the pond  have largely turned their backs on the wanton human rights violations, torture and killing that goes on in the country.

Why? Because it is in the best interests of America to keep on the right side of the criminal Karimov who has despotically ruled Uzbekistan since the Soviet era, back in the early 90’s.

 

 

 Click here for this week’s collection of  Mobi-Pics

Mobi-Snaps: Phuket Honeymoon

Back in March, 2004, I married my fourth wife, Dang, and the following month, we went on a delayed, two week  honeymoon in Phuket.

We stayed at the Royal Phuket Yacht Club, a very beautiful, upmarket hotel located on Nai Harn Beach, and all things considered, has a pretty good time. It was very quiet, as it was only 4 months since the tsunami had devastated parts of this beautiful  island paradise.

Here is a small selection of some snaps that I took during my stay.

Mobi-Babble

Mid-April in Pattaya brings the madness that is Songkran – Thai New Year – where everyone gets drunk, hundreds are killed on the roads and the whole population decides it is great sport to throw water at each other.

The official day of Songkran is April 13^th and for most of the country there is a 2-3 day period when the Thais ‘play’ Songkran; but here in Pattaya, it goes on for the best part of  3 weeks and is only just winding down as I write this piece.

I fully expect that over the next few years, the Sonkran water festival will slowly extend its tentacles throughout the entire month of April in tourist spots like Pattaya, as it brings in so much luverly- jubberly money from all the water- throwing obsessed tourists and Thais alike.

For senior citizens such as Mobi, it is a time of year when we hunker down in our humble abodes and wait patiently for the annual madness to pass.

For Pattaya’s young and not quite so young and spirited citizens, like the loverly Noo, it is an opportunity to go and play with water for nigh on 10 days on the trot without being accused of reverting back into their second childhood.

Every day she drove off around mid-day, sometime meeting up with friends, sometimes going alone and joined the melee in Pattaya, returning home around 6 p.m., soaking wet and exhausted, still with a cheeky Thai look of fun  all over her lovely face. It will probably take her about a week to recover.

The advent of Sonkran has also brought with it some much needed rain and thunderstorms, with a consequent drop in the soaring temperatures that have been gripping Pattaya for many weeks.

However, the last couple of days have seen a return to bright sunshine and climbing temperatures, but I note from the Weather Channel on my trusty smart phone that  storms are due to return soon, so fingers crossed.

*

In any case, on Tuesday, the three of us are off on a little mini break to Koh Chang, which was booked prior to Mobi’s financial collapse. We are staying at a small, quiet resort (I hope) at the end of White Sands beach for a couple of nights and I’m hoping it will be a nice change – a chance to re-charge our batteries and plan for a much poorer future than I had ever imagined  in store for me, barely a few weeks back.

I was last on Koh Change almost 10 years ago, when I drove down with my then- wife, Dang, for a couple of nights. It will be interesting to see how much the island has changed during the intervening period. Quite a lot I would imagine.

My abiding memory of that trip was the distinctly low quality of  bar girls who adorned the small clutches of beach bars that operated in those days and the audible expressions of envy from the leering male tourists when I waltzed into the bars with the delectable Dang on my arm.

She was in her mid-twenties and at her most dazzling. In those days she favoured micro-mini skirts which showed off her gorgeous legs and thighs to the full. She was by far and away the most beautiful girl on the island.

She knew it, I knew it and so did the poor muts sitting there with their distinctly third grade ladies of the night.

‘Eat you hearts out’, I used to think to myself, but in the end, it was Mobi who ate his heart out – much more than those ‘poor muts’ at the bars could ever dream of.

Maybe I can repeat the trick with Noo…. hardly likely, with a 12 year old kid in tow…

*

On Monday, it will be 4 weeks since I sent my manuscript of ‘A Lust for Life’ to the publisher and as yet, not a word. I have no idea how long these things take, and whether indeed I will ever receive an acknowledgement – one way or another.

How long do I wait before I explore other avenues?

The simple answer is that I should be trying other avenues while awaiting a reply, but knowing how difficult it is to get anyone’s attention, I think I’ll wait a little longer.

After all, I don’t want to waste my time if the eventual response is positive. I think my next step will be to start to look at the idea of self-publishing on Amazon.

There have been thousands of hits to the blog ‘pages’ containing my novel, although it is difficult to know exactly how many hits, as anyone who accesses the novel through my home page is not included in the ‘hit count’ to the novel pages.

I have no idea how many of you made it through to end of Part 4, and I am the first to admit that it’s not everybody’s ‘cup of tea’. Frankly, even within my own family and friends, there are few who would go out of their way to read this kind of novel.

However, I do believe there is a potential readership out there and I have received some very kind and gratifying comments. That alone has convinced me that my efforts weren’t a complete waste of time.

So many thanks to all of you who have taken the trouble to read it, especially to those who took the trouble to write some nice comments.

During the past week, I published “The Remarkable Adventures of Terry the Tom-Cat”, a children’s’ story that can also work for adults. All I can say is that if “A Lust for Life” didn’t do much for you, then may I suggest you try ‘Terry’.

The story is only 20,000 odd words as compared to 218,000 for ‘Lust’, and whereas there is little humour in ‘Lust’, I like to think that ‘Terry’ is full of humour.

It’ll only take you half an hour or so to read the whole lot – so give it a go and see what you think….

 

Mobi-Bytes

 

Bang! Bang! You’re dead!

No, this isn’t about Boston.

Sorry folks, I cannot let my weekly blog pass without commenting yet again on the almost incomprehensible failure of the US Senate to pass some extremely modest gun control legislation, which would have expanded background checks to people purchasing weapons at gun shows and on-line sales,

This was in the face of of numerous polls which established that 0ver 90% of the American population supports such measures!

Yes, I know, it really beggars belief, doesn’t it?

So why did it happen?

Well if you had tuned into Fox news and other American TV channels, (and even BBC World news), over the past few weeks since the terrible events of Newtown, you would have gleaned at least a suspicion that such a defeat may be inevitable.

Most of you probably know by now that I have strong conservative leanings and have much sympathy for the Republican Party’s views on the US economy and a host of related issues such as Obama-Care and the ever expanding overblown welfare state where a mind-boggling 46 million US citizens are currently receiving food stamps.

I also have much sympathy for some of their views on ‘pro-life’ although I wouldn’t go as far as some of the extreme elements who wish to ban abortions in almost all circumstances.

In matters of abortion and related issues such as providing under-age girls with free contraception and letting them deal with matters of sex without reference to their parents is,I believe, totally wrong.

In all these and many other Republican–espoused issues, I tend to generally agree with what they have to say, and quite often I have been shocked and appalled by some of the extremist, extreme socialistic views of the left wing Democrats, of which, I regret, Obama seems to be one.

But it is as if I am in a different world whenever the subject of gun control comes up.

It is almost as though these rationally minded people, who generally talk such sense on a wide variety of topics, (including some on which I disagree, but nevertheless respect their views), have suddenly had their brains hi-jacked by some alien force.

Against their better judgement and will, they seem forced to vomit out so much utter clap trap that they hardly seem to be in possession of their sanity. Here is a small sample of their ravings:

• The solution to preventing Newtown and other similar massacres is to arm yet more people, including the teachers in classrooms
• The banning of assault weapons and multiple ammunition clips is the beginning of the end, and before the American public know it, all guns will be banned.
• The introduction of background checks is the start of a ‘Big Brother’ plan to keep watch and control on the population at large. The banning of assault weapons is the start of a devious plan to dis-arm the entire populace.
• Background checks would prevent an innocent citizen in buying a first time weapon on the spot, while checks were being made. This would put people in danger if they needed the gun to protect themselves in an emergency.
• The high death rate from guns in America isn’t due to the easy availability of guns, but totally due to the mental instability of its citizenry. So the solution is to build more mental hospitals rather than restrict gun ownership.

And so it goes… on and on and on…I mean, honestly, you really couldn’t make this stuff up. Dozens upon dozens of apparently intelligent, highly educated people uttered such crap that even they must be embarrassed when they view back what they have been saying.

To be fair to the arrogant Bill O’Reilly, while hedging his bets a little, to his credit, he couldn’t see much wrong with the proposed legislation.

We all know why so many Republicans and not a few Democrats speak such garbage on the subject of gun control.

(For my non- American readers, let me just inform you that the bill in the Senate would not have been defeated if it hadn’t been for some prominent Senate Democrats who also voted against it!).

They do it because they are in the grip of the all-powerful, all pervasive, monstrously rich, insidious gun lobby headed up by the National Rifle Association (NRA).

For generations they have convinced Americans, -right up to the learned justices in the Supreme Court – that legislation which was enacted over two hundred years ago to ensure that local militias, comprised of ordinary citizens, could be readily armed when necessary, meant that it was an inalienable right in the 21^st century  for all people to own arms of whatever size and power; and to acquire them at will, without fear or hindrance.

And today, such is the control they hold over politicians of all political hues, that they can demand obedience to their cause, even though 90% of the electorate are in favour of the extremely modest legislation.

The senators made their decision based on political fear and on cold calculations about the money of special interests like the National Rifle Association, which during the last election, spent around $25 million on contributions and  lobbying.

The NRA, with its membership of three to four million, lobbied hard and effectively against the bill. It spent $500,000 last Wednesday alone, on an advertising campaign criticizing “Obama’s gun ban”.

It had already said that it would award a negative mark to senators who voted for the bill to be debated. Four Democrats, all from predominantly conservative states, joined Republicans in voting against.

The pattern of spreading untruths about the proposed legislation served its purpose. The lies upset an intense minority of gun owners and that in turn intimidated a lot of senators.

The passion of gun owners can never be underestimated. Either they are convinced, or the lobby groups have convinced them, that any form of control would soon lead to draconian bans, despite repeated assurances from Democrats, including President Obama, that they will respect Second Amendment rights.

Every time restrictions are proposed, the gun lobby argues they will make no difference to the number of massacres. Newtown may have been tragic, the argument goes, but the lone gunman would have committed his heinous crime anyway.

This logic rests on the supposition that it is not the gun that kills but the person. It is pointed out that gun ownership is high in Finland and Switzerland (though still half the rate of the US), which have lower crime rates.

This ignores the point that a person with a high calibre weapon with a 30-round magazine can kill many more people than someone armed with a revolver, a hunting rifle, or a knife.

The point they omit is that you don’t know if restrictions work until they are tried, for a long period of time. The case against control is hypothetical because it has never been properly tried.

It may be that the constraints that were defeated on Wednesday wouldn’t have made much difference. But we just don’t know. America won’t know the effect of even moderate controls until it tries. And this was an occasion when most Americans wanted that effort to be made.

After all, who would have believed that the events of 1866 would eventually lead to full equality for black Americans. It may have taken 100 years or more to get there, but you have to start somewhere or nothing will ever happen.

So it is, I believe, with gun control.

Obama was furious, and his bleeding heart liberal mate, Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York and a national champion of gun control, called the vote “A damning indictment of the stranglehold that special interests have on Washington”.

For once I don’t blame them and I am 100% on their side.

But where was Obama over the past six years on the subject of gun control? If he felt so passionate about it why did he remain totally silent on the subject for so long?

Was it – dare I suggest – that he knew full well that it wasn’t a vote winner? That by making his views known; it may have hurt his election chances?

Nah… never….

Is Barack Obama already a lame-duck president?

Doesn’t anybody listen to what he says anymore?

Maybe, nobody is interested in winning his approval and maybe few care if he thinks they have “let the country down”.

Is he a second-term president who has lost all his leverage because he’s no longer running for office and everybody is patiently waiting for the day when he quits the White House?

Maybe Obama’s difficult personality has made matters worse. Gloating in victory, adolescent in defeat – he doesn’t make it easy for folks with different views to work with him.

Why should conservative senators give him a legislative victory after he has spent four years painting them as knuckle-dragging rednecks who hate women and the poor and want to push ageing, sick grannies off the cliff?

These ‘gun control’ events may turn out to be a damning indictment of Obama’s presidency – loads of style, lots of  inspirational, tele-prompted rhetoric and, when the votes are finally counted, not too much to show for any of it.

America has four more years of this lame-duck president telling them all that they have let him down. If only he could tear up the Constitution and rule by decree he might save himself a little disappointment.

Fortunately, American democracy doesn’t quite work that way, despite the efforts from the socialist left and the extremist gun lobby to make it so.

*

The Shame of Bahrain

I can’t believe how many times I have put fingers to keyboard to write yet again  about the unbelievably sickening decision to stage Formula One Grand Prixs in the repressive Arab state of Bahrain.

This decision is based purely on commercial greed.

Ecclestone and his cohorts know full well about the repressive and undemocratic conditions that continue to prevail in this tiny, US-backed state – probably better than you and I do – but their propagation of lies, evasions, and distortions of the facts to justify the holding of this globally watched event, frankly beggar belief.

Some of my previous articles on this subject can be found:-

2012 Here,  and Here  2012, and Here 2012 and Also Here

I have no particular desire to go over old ground, so I will confine my comments to a few salient bullet points.

• A group of British MPs have called for the Bahrain Grand Prix to be cancelled amid unrest in the Gulf state. In a letter to Ecclestone, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Democracy in Bahrain said: “We request you cancel the Grand Prix. Since April 2012, many more people including children have lost their lives and the whole country exists in fear and intimidation,”

• Last year’s race was held under conditions of martial law and three hundred protesters were arrested, some spending months in jail.

• Most democratic-minded people, including many motor racing fans, are appalled by the staging of  the Bahrain leg of the Formula 1 championship, amidst the most atrocious human rights violations

• The FIA president said the Bahrain Grand Prix can have a ‘healing effect’ (WTF!!!!) on a country struggling with civil unrest. Sport and F1 can have a positive and healing effect in situations where conflict, social unrest and tensions cause distress.” 

            (So the FIA President is also a leading expert on international relations, civil unrest and national tensions is   he????)

• Ecclestone told the AFP news agency: “There’s no reason why the race shouldn’t be a success. What’s happened? They’re demonstrating now? I didn’t know that. There’s nobody demonstrating.”

• A week of protests to coincide with this weekend’s race began last Friday, organised by the opposition to the ruling royal family.

• There have been daily protests and more than one hundred have reportedly been arrested in connection with the race. Many in the opposition oppose the race arguing that the government has failed to deliver on promises of reform.

• A blast occurred late on Sunday night in the Financial Harbour district of the city. An opposition group calling itself the February 14 movement has claimed it was behind the blast.

• There is a massive poster depicting the Grand Prix on the wall of a home in the Bahraini village, with a circle around the phrase F1 crossed out in red spray paint.

• For the most part, the opposition feels the West and friendly Sunni-ruled Arab states are ignoring their plight, as more horrific headlines from the civil war in Syria and Egypt’s major economic problems dominate media coverage.

             People are being killed daily, but the government wants the world to    believe that there’s nothing wrong in  Bahrain. At a protest in Shi’ite Al-Aali, thousands called for greater freedoms and for the downfall of the king.

• Home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, Bahrain has faced unrest since pro-democracy protests broke out in February 2011, pitting a Shi’ite-dominated opposition against the minority Sunni-led government. The protest was crushed when dozens of people were killed and authorities razed Pearl Square, in central Manama, where mostly Shi’ite demonstrators camped out

Enjoy your blood money… Bernie, Sebastian, Lewis, Fernando, Jenson, Kimi and the rest of the billionaire gang… may your  untold riches never suffer from the loss of your beloved Bahrain Grand Prix revenues.

 

 Click here for this week’s collection of  Mobi-Pics