Pride in your place of birth.....

Something that I have been thinking about a lot of late is my sense of place. For many years I felt that at best I could say I was an occupant of planet Earth, but that was about it. I felt rootless and adrift, not in any negative way particularly, but simply that nowhere really felt any more special than anywhere else, but that changed about six months ago, and I wanted to share the experience as I feel that it made a positive impact in my life. I was asked, as a leading member of my spiritual community, to contribute to a multi-faith sonic art installation being created by South African artist James Webb, and as part of that process I was recorded carrying out an Earth healing ritual invoking ancestral spirits and deities and giving something of my spirit back to the planet.

In doing this I had a flash of inspiration as I started the ritual. I never prepare for these types of things other than a self cleansing procedure and getting myself into the correct mental state as I have been carrying out rituals of one sort or another for a number of years and have a fairly well defined procedure that I follow. I began the ritual as I usually do, but having invoked the spirits of my personal deities the inspiration was that I should invoke the memories of the pioneering industrialists who founded the city of my birth. I don't know why this felt appropriate, but as I worked through it I felt increasingly connected to the land around me, the space that I occupied and my place within it. After the recording, I walked home and as I did so the feeling of connectedness to my surroundings continued to grow.

I will confess to being a bit of a history bore, and I know a little about the heritage of my home town, the key people in the building of it, the development of it over time. I'm from Birmingham in the United Kingdom and it is, by UK standards a fairly modern city having developed predominantly during the early years of the industrial revolution. Most of the key players within the area are industrialists and, as was common at the time, philanthropists. You can find out more about some of them here but in the main they were a force for good within the region. So, there I am walking along feeling more and more a part of my home towns history and I was walking through a part of the city called Digbeth, past the site of the former Birds Custard factory, an old industrial zone close to the city centre, and I began to think about the city as it currently is, and the wealth of talent and industry that we still have, even when the industrial base in the UK is in steep decline. I thought of the technical innovations that have allowed Birmingham companies to remain successful and to grow and maintain the wealth of the city and I had a moment of quiet pride. The first time that this has happened for me, which is a very pleasant experience. When I think of companies like Stephens Plastic Mouldings I think of quality and innovation and the commercial drive that made my city the great city that it is today.....

Can beauty be taught?

Following on from yesterdays post on beauty, there is a obvious continuation. There is a saying that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but if this is the case, how does it tie in with the current research into perception suggesting that the way we see things is conditional on the way in which our brains are wired, which in turn is conditional on our upbringing and experiences and a whole range of environmental factors. If the ability to perceive something as beautiful is dependent on an individuals ability to understand the concept of beauty in terms of an aesthetic ideal, then it would make sense that it was something that was learned rather than being inherent. However, if we consider Chomsky and his theory of an inherent, universal language ability that is unique to homo sapiens, then could it not be argued that the understanding of beauty could be an inherent cognitive function as wekll. It would certainly seem to make sense that a perception of beauty linked to, lets say, food stuffs that are good for us, or sexual partners who will provide a good chance of genetically vibrant and resiliant offspring.

So, we find ourselves with two disparate arguments with strong contentions on each side. I strongly suspect that what we consider to be the ability to teach what is beauty is actually an ability to teach concepts of aesthetic principle, or concepts of "right and wrong" from a perspective of social convention rather than something as discrete and concrete as fundamental beauty. If we consider the concept of beauty in architecture we see relatively rapidly changing aesthetic tastes in terms of form and changes of stylistic conceptions of function, but if we go beyond this I would suggest that there is at least an element of convention in regard to beauty found throughout the great architectural styles from the Parthenon and Colliseums of Rome and Greece to modern skyscrapers and shopping malls.

The principle is also found in nature, and is sometimes refered to as the "Golden Ratio" or a Fibonachi sequence of numbers. The principle has been at times erroneously employed in a far wider context than is appropriate to attempt to quantify human physiological beauty, which doesn't really work. However it does raise an interesting point. Perhaps it would be better to try to argue for the idea of an ability to teach beauty in terms of purity of concept, whether by an abstract mathematical theorum, or a great work of art, or an architectural masterpiece. Let me know what you think?

What is beauty.....

Back in the distant days of my first spell of University life a friend of mine doing a fine art degree was forced to take a first year additional course in philosophy. This was long enough ago that it was considered important for first years on a very specific degree to keep their options open at least for a while, but what was interesting was that this friend of mine, who was a reasonably bright lad, was able to cope with the whole course but was stumped by one question, the title of this blog...."What is beauty?" You would think that as an artist himself he would have had an insight into what beauty was. as an artist he was tremendously visually aware, and had a strong aesthetic sense but neither of these seemed to help with this question.

I have some pretty clear ideas on beauty, but I'm not sure if my answers would make sense from a philosophical viewpoint. I am very much of the opinion that form should follow function and that beauty is found in a cleanliness and simplicity of the conveying of an idea or concept. Whether that be fine art from the great masters, or industrial design of an interesting product, or a well designed web site but I'm not sure that this is what the question from a philosophical viewpoint is trying to establish. If we consider the question itself, are we looking for an insight into what philosophers consider "Truth"? If so, does a definition move us any closer to that aim? My idea of conflation of form and function works in the sense of defining an aspect of beauty that works for me but it doesn't cover the way beauty makes me feel.

True beauty causes a vast array of emotional and physiological responses that can transport ones mind to an altered state of conciousness and I'm not sure that my simplistic definition does this justice. I guess it is up to you, dear reader, to do better....

A controversial idea of Darwinism.....

Caution, opinion piece, but hey, thats kinda the point of having a blog in the first place....

First a clarification, I am certainly not a proponent of creationism or even intelligent design, I am firmly on-side with evolution and evolutionary principles, and am happy with large portions of Darwinian theory, to a point, that point being the limitations of the scientific developments and advances that were available to him so I have no issues with the lack of understanding on the mechanisms of evolutionary theory that have been developed subsequently. My contention is with regard to the tree of life proposed by Darwin with an ever expanding branching structure as species change and evolve over time, some branches terminating and dying out, other forking and splitting into different groups and, over time, species. I have an alternative proposition, that the tree of life as described by Darwin is fundamentally wrong in the it is upside down.

This may sound a little odd, but I am convinced that early life on this planet began in a vast number of forms making use of a huge number of different ecological niches. The mechanism of the formation of life is not understood, but in general it is considered that life began in single celled form and remained at that stage for several million years. The Darwinian implication is that this single celled life was of a very limited number of types, but this doesn't make sense to me. The early earth as we understand it was full of small highly variable ecosystems, that tended not to be interlinked so it seems far more likely that life would have developed many times in many different niches giving rise to organisms suited to very different environments. I contend that from this widely varigated start point a much broader range of multicellular organisms arose, and that evolution, rather than being a method of changing species to suit an environment, is in fact a process of refining what works, weeding out the least suitable at each stage and slightly modifying the most successful, typically those who are most heterozygous, therefore the most likely to adapt over time through mutation, the counter position being homozygous being far less prone to genetic variation through interbreeding.

As evidence for this conjecture I look to the history that we have so far discovered for mass extinction events, particularly the "Great dying" during the Permian era when it is estimated that 97% of species were eradicated both on land and in the oceans. It is an interesting idea I feel, and as with so many aspects of the ancient history of life on this planet, one which we have limited evidence for either way, but there is still hope of further evidence being discovered.

Thoughts on the death of Amy Winehouse.....

It is always a tragedy when someone dies so young. There has already been a lot of talk about lifestyle and about Ms Winehouse' excess' with drugs and alcohol, and the irony of her breakthrough single being "Rehab". Her parents have been interviewed stressing the efforts that they made to help her, her friends have said the same, and it is unquestionable that every effort was made to prevent this death. Trouble is, it is pretty much impossible without resorting to complete physical restraint, to prevent someone with a self destructive bent from acting on that impulse. This is seen most clearly in people suffering with alcoholism. When in the grip of a deep seated addiction, there is no way to persuade the person to get help until they are ready to receive that help, a position generally referred to as "rock bottom". Having spent time around people with severe alcohol problems I can confirm that rock bottom is a pretty low place, and for many people is synonymous with the line between life and death.

When you add in complicating factors such as illegal drugs, partcularly crack cocaine and heroin the situation only becomes more dangerous. The ease with which a heroin user can overdose is incredible, but it happens all the time. I have no doubt that there will be much hand wringing about the perils of someone so young and vulnerable being exposed to such a lifestyle whilst having the money to indulge it, and calls for knee jerk responses that serve no purpose. Legislation is not the answer. Drugs have been legislated against for long enough to know that it is no real solution. There will always be ways around any legal prohibition. The answer is education, understanding and awareness. People take drugs, they get drunk, they smoke, and they do these things for a variety of reasons, boredom, curiosity, for excitement, for self destructive reasons, and perhaps the one that gets the least amount of coverage, the elephant in the room, because taking drugs can make you feel good. It can be an uplifting and rewarding experience that more than makes up for the negative consequences for many people.

There is a history within the music industry of excess and early death. Throughout the '60's and '70's we lost a tremendous amount of talent early. One only has to think of Hendrix, Bonham and the rest to know that the ethos of life fast, die young was, and still is an integral part of the rock and roll lifestyle. Personally I see no benefit in placing blame for the death of Ms. Winehouse. I don't buy into the idea that it is the fault of the media, or her management, or the industry she was in. We are all, as individuals, responsible for our own actions, and must all, as individuals, accept the consequences of our actions. I shall be thinking of her family and their grief, and wishing her spirit safe journey onwards whatever its destination, but I shall not be thinking about who is to blame, or bemoaning the society that has allowed this to happen. I shall accept the loss and move on.....it is the only way......

Preparation is everything.....

I spent the weekend working with a good friend of mine, helping her to prepare for an interview. As part of the interview process for a graduate trainee role she had to give a three minute presentation on why she would be suitable for the role. We worked together to write the presentation, rehearsed it, timed it, re-wrote, re-timed and over 4 days maintained that practice until we were happy with it. She agve the presentation to the interview panel, on a buzzer timer and ended the presentation with "Thank you for listening, the buzzer will sound in three, two, one.....BUZZ". The audience apparently loved it, collapsing in gales of laughter, commenting that she had obviously been practicing. In fact they loved it so much that they offered her the job within 24 hours and even changed their plans of wanting someone to start immediately to allow her time to hand in her notice and take a holiday.

I like this because it highlights one of the crucial aspects of business that is often overlooked. There is a terribly trite saying, "Fail to prepare, prepare to fail" but as with many trite saying there is some truth in it. Being prepared, knowing what is expected of you and how to deal with it, understanding the situation and the implications of each action or in-action, being clear about your goals and objectives and so on all put you in a stronger position with a better chance of success. There is no such thing as being over-prepared, although as a small caveat, there is such as thing as being over-confident, being cocky and obnoxious. Confidence through preparedness is a positive thing but it must be tempered with humility and a quiet self-assurance.

get it right, and it can be a wonderful thing.....

So farewell then Atlantis.....

After 30 years of service to the American space program and to the International space exploration effort, today sees the final touchdown of the final shuttle in Service. There can be no doubt that the Space Shuttle programme has been a triumph of mans ingenuity and our commitment to progress. There have been errors along the way, as there will always be at the cutting edge of technology, but in terms of providing a low earth orbit delivery system for satellites, people and components for the International Space Station it has achieved. Without the shuttle there would have been no way to get astronauts to the Hubble space telescope to effect the necessary repairs that have kept Hubble working and making new discoveries about the Universe. Without the shuttle, the ISS would not have been built. Sure we can launch satellites into orbit using unmanned rockets favoured by European and Chinese space agencies, and the Russians are still running manned missions to the ISS but there really is nothing to match the shuttle in terms of flexibility and operational efficiency.

The end of the shuttle programme is being blamed on budget cuts, and yes, that is, in large part, the reason for todays final mission and the end of an era, but in reality the shuttle is a 30 year old programme and is due for retirement anyway. Personally, I shall be celebrating this last safe landing. However, what I am not celebrating is that we currently have nothing to replace it. It appears that we are moving into an era where there will be increasing reliance on private companies to provide space services, following the success of the X prize and the late Burt Rutans company Scaled Composites, and that is all well and good, but I do feel that NASA have let themselves down somewhat. I can't get away from the feeling that if NASA had been a little more aggressive in terms of developing the successor to the shuttle programme at an earlier stage and come up with something truly spectacular, and ideally something that was properly reusable, the funding would have been found to replace rather than remove manned space flight.

It would be wonderful to think that America can rediscover their way in terms of extra-terrestrial exploration, they seem a little lost currently, but without real direction and leadership from the very top, this is unlikely. Personally I dont class planing to land on an asteroid by 2015 and Mars by 2025 to be anything like ambitious enough to provide the drive that is needed, but we shall see.

Mans inhumanity to man....further evidence....

Fear is a powerful motivator, and that applies on every level from individual right up to nation state. It causes a range of reactions, from paralysis to paranoia, from aggression to xenophobia, but one of the major problems of a fear response is that it encourages irrationality in terms of decision making. By this I am suggesting that decisions can be made from a fear position that do not match to generally accepted conventions of ethics and morals. An example of this was highlighted in a documentary last night in channel 4's "True stories" series. The program featured the people of a region of Khazakstan who were deliberately exposed to radiation during atomic weapon tests in the 1950's. Post World War II the Americans and Russians engaged in an arms race as a consequence of the American use of atomic weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

There were two aspects of this arms race, the first was the drive to build and test bigger and bigger weapons with higher yields, and the second was to take these bigger weapons and understand the implications in terms of damage in the short, medium and long terms, both in terms of damage to land and property, and also in terms of biological damage. In America bomb tests were carried out in unpopulated regions of New Mexico, particularly at the White Sands Missile Range, but in Russia a decision was taken to carry out tests in areas of Khazakstan with an indigenous population. Research has subsequently been carried out into the effects of radiation and contamination on that population, particularly into the effect on radiation on mutation rates through pregnancy.

The programme featured local people demonstrating with Geiger counters the massive radiation levels still found in an area used for grazing animals and sourcing drinking water. It also showed a local Doctor and gynaecologist espousing genetic passporting, genetic screening and essentially a programme of eugenics and birth control to prevent the mutations entering the gene pool permanently. It was clear that these were people who had been left with a situation about which they had little if any control, and were left to simply try to make the best of an extraordinarily difficult situation. Mothers to be had learned not to inform anyone of their pregnancy until 20 weeks to prevent the possibility of being forced into an abortion, so they are missing out on a significant amount of pre-natal care and putting themselves and their unborn babies at risk as a direct consequence of bomb test carried out 50 years ago.

I don't see that there is a soultion to this situation in the short to medium term, but we have to, as a species, do everything that we can to make sure that our leaders and our communities are not driven by fear. By acting from a position of fear we make the wrong decisions, and pay the price for generations.

I try to avoid a cynical mindset but......

There are so many things to be cynical about. Currently I am questioning the motives of a certain News International senior figure handing herself in to the police to be arrested just before appearing before parliment. As I understand it this would not prevent the parliamentary commission from asking its questions, and receiving answers under parlimentary priveledge, the same system that allows MP's in parliament to discuss superinjunction cases. However, it would prevent the answers being revealed outside parliament and reported in the press. I am quite sure that this was not the reason for the decision to allow herself to be arrested. It could just as easily have been to avoid a knock on the door at 4 O'Clock in the morning for the serving of the arrest warrant.

It will however be interesting to see what the upshot of todays select committee interview is. The culture, media and sport committee is not necessarily the most aggressive, or the most erudite in parliament, and members of said committee are already reported to be suggesting that the public should not expect too much from this afternoon, and that it may all just be a bit of a damp squib. There is very little, in reality, that parliament can do in this case. Ms Brooks has already resigned and been arrested, and the Murdochs, father and son, are American citizens and don't have to answer to the British government if they don't want to.

It seems rather like a lot of hot air to limited effect, but given that this is happening at the same time as I start to enter nicotine withdrawal, I may not be the most rational viewpoint on this interesting issue....

Caution - Apprentice Final Spoiler....

If you haven't watched the final yet, look away now.....

........but if you have.....

.....I can't say I am particularly surprised at the outcome. Tom came into the process as a reasonably successful inventor, having design, manufactured, marketed and sold a product into major retail outlets. His only weaknesses throughout the whole process were his inability to lead and manage, and his lack of focus, both of which Lord Sugar would be providing to the winner. In a normal series of The Apprentice he wouldn't have stood a chance, and Helen would be the obvious winner, despite her shortcomings, but this wasn't a normal series. This process was specifically to find a new startup business for Lord Sugar to partner with, and there was really only one winner from the outset.

What was interesting throughout the process was the disparity between Toms apart lack of ability to manage and control, and his exceptional ability to plan and strategise. These traits are normally considered synonymous or at least closely related, but it appeared, with the use of a notebook and constant referencing of thumbnail sketch business plans and accounts that this attention to detail was a learned response, rather than something that came naturally. It would have been interesting to explore this theory further in the post show interviews since as someone who also has been forced by practical considerations to develop similar strategies I would have benefitted from seeing how he had developed his, if indeed he had.

I would personally love to see a special on how he gets on, as I feel this would be a great insight into developing a new business in difficult economic conditions. The only other thing I would say is that were I Tom, the first thing I would try to do is to headhunt Helen and Jim and bring them on board as sales manager and operations manager. A good series I felt, and some very talented individuals this time once the deadwood was removed.

Thoughts on disability awareness.....

I watched a programme on television last night called "Worlds strictest parents". It isn't a programme I would usually watch, but I had been told about it in advance. The series takes late teenagers who are becoming out of control in their current home environment, and are sent to stay with other families where the parents are more "strict". I tend to find these fly-on-the-wall type programmes rather off-putting, but this particular episode had quite an interesting aside, that wasn't really highlighted as much as it might have been. The show featured two girls in their late teens being sent to stay with a family in Sri Lanka, and as part of their time with the family, one of the girls who was keen on beauty treatments and make up was taken to a home for disabled people to gain some experience of giving back to the less fortunate. This is a fairly common practice within the series, with rather spoilt British children being confronted with something that makes them realise how fortunate they are.

This was very much the case here, but what I was really surprised by was that this girl, who had been through the British education system, and who came from an apparently fairly typical family, had never been exposed to disability. Her reaction to being taken to this home for disabled people was not outrage, or disgust, or even pity, but quite simply fear. She was terrified of the people, none of whom were a threat to her, none of whom were acting in a way that would be considered unusual for someone with a severe disability. She simply had no knowledge about disability whatsoever. The point was brought into even more stark focus by the revelation that the other girl who had gone with her had a 14 year old sister who was severely learning disabled and functioned at a five year old level.

I think what I took away from this programme was that in the early 21st Century, in the Western World, and despite many years of campaigning by a huge range of disability groups, and a ton of disability legislation, it is still possible for a girl of seventeen or eighteen to have a reaction to a disabled person that would have been considered unusually outdated in the 18th Century. It saddens me to think that we are still in a position as a World leading society, where there is anyone approaching adulthood who could still react in this way. I hope that some of the larger disability charities were watching, and that they are aware of how much work is still to be done in terms of raising awareness of the issues around disability.....

Who governs big business?

The story of News International rumbles on, with the British government, the FBI in America and the Australian government all seeking face to face time with Rupert Murdoch. The Murdoch holdings in News International are 20% making them the largest shareholder, but there are other significant corporate investors with money tied up in the group. Rupert Murdoch is an American citizen and as such cannot be forced to appear before the British government to explain the current situation, or indeed any other, so if political forces are not fully able to hold senior figures in global corporations to account, it does rather beg the question who is?

Many large corporations have layers of control in the upper echelons of the company, with a controlling board made up of executive and non-executive directors. The executive directors have a direct responsibility for the operation of the company and for strategy and direction as a whole. The role of the non-executives is rather more nebulous, but in the main their function is to provide the checks and balances of the corporate strategy overseeing decisions from a standpoint of ethical and moral accountability. In this role they often look after the remuneration of executives, the overall direction of the corporation, and how the corporation interacts with the wider world. However, many non-executive board members have multiple boards that they sit on, and are at least to an extent, potentially conflicted by the need for the corporate entity to succeed. Additionally these are often appointed positions arranged by the board themselves and as such do not give the opportunity for input from outside the corporate structure.

This leaves one other source of control of the Worlds biggest companies, and that is the shareholders. By buying shares in a company, one in effect becomes, in a very small way, a part owner of the company, and as such is, in that same small way, personally responsible for the actions of that company. Shareholders can attend the annual general meeting of the company, and is entitled to raise any concerns. Of course, in the real World, an organisation such as News International with a book value in excess of $100bn would not necessarily give much consideration to the input of someone with say $1000 worth of shares, but many of these corporates are in the main owned by intitutional investment companies who own much larger stakes. This gives these institutions, typically finance house much more say in operational matters and in ethical and moral guidance, and these financial institutions also get their money, at root from small investors through aggregation.

In my opinion, given the frequency with which large corporate entities are making headlines for their actions, there is a duty of every single person who invests in the Worlds stock markets, whether that be directly, or through their pension scheme, or through bundled financial investments such as ISA's or any other route, to investigate how and where their money is being invested, and to challenge anything that they, as an individual would be uncomfortable with. It is time for each of us, as individulas to take personal responsibility for our actions, even if we, in the past have abrogated that right and allowed financial institutions far to much freedom with our money. I firmly believe that it is only by understanding that every action we take, or don't take has implications, and accepting personal responsibility for those implications, that we will finally understand that we are, as a species all linked together, and that we must all look after each other.....

Work can be good for you

Depression and the conditions related to it are a subject close to my heart, as, gentle reader, you have probably guessed. I dislike the phrase "suffering with depression" because in my experience with the condition I have found that a lot of people with depression, whilst they undoubtedly suffer the effects of the condition, acyually cope pretty well with care and support, and perhaps more importantly, many don't feel that they suffer, they just acept their condition and find work-around strategies to deal with the tough times. There are all sorts of ways of dealing with depression, from chemical therapy to correct brain chemistry imbalances, through talking therapies, and alternative medicines to physical therapies, and I have tried pretty much all of them, but there is one thing that works, for me, better than anything else.

Even in my darkest days, and some of them are pretty dark, if I can find something to do that makes me feel productive and useful, that is the lifeline that can keep me going. I found myself in a position four years ago, doing reasonably well in a good career, starting to think about significant progression into management when I had to give it all up to look after my terminally ill father. I did this willingly, and looked to the state to help support me through this difficult time, but was quite badly let down both in terms of financial and practical support. As my father passed and I was ready to re-enter the labour market the banking sector collapsed and as my career was based on selling into that market, I found myself redundant. That was a pretty dark time, particularly as once again I was ineligble for unemployment benefit so I went from a six figure income to zero. It was tough. I went through a very bad patch through two years of unemployment.

What has made the difference has been finding something to do. I joined a company through a jobseekers programme just over a year ago and the difference it made has been tremendous. I'm in a slightly odd position that I am still not getting paid yet, but hopefully that will change as the company moves forward, but just for now the mere fact that I am busy and feel productive means that I am coping with the issues of a potential house repossession, pending court action for debt, bankruptcy and general negative situations that a year ago would almost certainly have been very bad indeed for me. It used to be the case that depression was treated in essence by a dismissive statement suggestion that one should just get over it, and whilst this is perhaps a little harsh, as with so many things there may just be a grain of truth in it.......

The story of the last woman hanged in the UK

It may come as a surprise to some that the last woman executed in the UK was hanged just 56 years ago on this day in 1955. Ruth Ellis was a minor celebrity and society hostess in London who was prosecuted for the murder of her lover David Blakely, who she shot five times at point blank range as he left The Magdala public house with a friend. There is no question over her guilt, she was arrested at the scene still holding the murder weapon by an off duty policeman. She was examined by psychologists for both the prosecution and defence councils and was declared to be sane and fit to stand trial, and she made no attempt to deny the act, other than to say that she felt that she was remote from her body at the time, although this is a common psychological position when one commits an act of this type.

So, a clear cut case, ending in the only way it could based on the prevalent law of the time, and yet it was this case, amongst others that led to the abolition of the death penalty in the UK. There were, subsequent to this case, other women sentenced to death before the death penalty was finally abolished, but they all had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. So why was this case, which had no significant controversy at the time, cited as a key reason for abolishion? I suspect that it may have been looked at in terms of the ramifications for the people around the case, particularly the family of Ruth Ellis. Her husband, following her execution descended in alcoholism and committed suicide. Her son entered a chronic depressive episode and also commited suicide having first destroyed his mothers headstone. There was also subsequent debate around the implication that Ruth Ellis was denied a reprieve at least in part because she, as a society hostess, had come into contact with senior society figures and her actions in this case had caused concern about her mental stability and the risk she posed.

The issue of the death penalty is one that is fraught with ethical and moral implications, and it is almost impossible to engage in rational debate with so many radically disparate viewpoints, and so many cases at the extreme ends of the spectrum for and against. I would question if it is possible for a populous to think rationally about such widely seperated cases as say Myra Hindley or Dennis Nielsen on one hand, and Derek Bentley and Timothy Evans on the other. I believe that one can only give ones own opinion, and for me the reason that I oppose the death penalty is the inherent difficulty in defining where the lines are drawn in terms of how the death penalty is applied and for which crimes....

Can Eastern meditation techniques work for a Western mind?

Through the 1950's and '60's there was a movement in the Western World to introduce Eastern mysteries into the philosphies of personal development. This came primarily from two distinct sources, firstly the interest shown by the Thule society in Germany during the Second World War linked to the Nazi ideology of the Aryan as an archetype civilisation. There was research across China, Tibet and Mongolia into the indigenous peoples and traditions, and there was a general looting of historical artefacts, many of which can still be seen in German museums. The second was the development of the "Hippy trail" roughly following the ancient spice routes, through North Africa and on into Asia Minor and China. This later movement in following the spice trail, also followed the drug trail, through Hashish in North Africa through to opioids in the Far East.

The consequence of these two movements, and the linking of Eastern philosophy and practice through the drug trade to hippy culture, as seen in Timothy Learys use of the Tibetan Book of the Dead as a backdrop to his writing on LSD, has been to embed Eastern traditions such as meditation and Feng Shui into the Western psyche, but has this necessarily been a positive thing. I am frequently faced with talking to someone who has practiced buddhist meditation techniques but has found it extraordinarily difficult to achieve the "quiet mind" state required by the practice. Similarly, I have found that Westerners tend to have a great deal of difficulty successfully practicing tantric sex techniques for similar reasons. This has led me to postulate that there are key differences between the development of mind in Western educational systems, and those found in the East, and that these differences make it far more difficult for a Western minds to successfully integrate these mysteries.

I don't suggest for a minute that it is impossible to do so, but simply that in order to achieve success one is required to take an almost immersive principle, engaging fully with Esatern culture at all levels, even to the extent of learning one or more Eastern languages and engaging in Eastern customs in order to fully understand and therefore successfully practice these techniques. I would further argue that if one is going to engage in practices from a tradition outside ones own upbringing, that this immersion technique should be a start point anyway, but I wonder how often that is the case. For me it is similar to the principles of Chaos Magic, popularised slightly later in the later 1970's and '80's whereby there is a requirement to adopt certain paradigms in order to access useful skills inherent to that system, but that this paradigm shifting must be complete and entirely open. It is a strategy that is not without its risks, but one which is worth exploring before trying to integrate what can become a mish-mash of conflicting ideologies and beliefs.

Eclecticism has many things going for it, but only when practiced with rigour and consistency....

The importance of starting the week well

It's Monday, first day of another working week, the weekend is over, and it is five days until the next one, and something like 60 hours of work before that, so how can I make sure that I get the best opssible outcomes from my coming week? Dear reader, you may have come to realise perusing this blog that I have little time for most of the talking therapies, and particularly those that emphasise positivity, or positive mental attidude. However, this is one area of life where I feel that they may have a point. What I do believe is that life is what you make it, and if you can get each week of to a good start, you are more likely to have a good and productive week than if you just drift into yet another working week and just wait for things to happen.

I start my preparations for Monday morning on Sunday night. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't allow my preparations to reduce or inhibit my weekend relaxation, but I simply start to think about what I need to achieve in the coming week and to strategise how I can start to implement those achievements. I find that if I can have a plan in place ready for the week ahead I am far more likely to achieve what I need to, and far more likely to be able to relax next weekend, knowing I have done well. These preparations usually take the form of simple visualisations. I'll start with an image of sitting at my desk, the weeks work laid out around me, and in my visualisation I will order and prioritise my work load, plan out what is to be done and when, and work through each task in outline in my mind, in much the same way that a top level athlete will visualise their next event, planning and mapping exactly what they are going to do in order to win.

This is a process that works for me, and may not be appropruiate or applicable to everyone, but you never know, it might just be worth a try.....

Thoughts on the death of a newspaper

So farewell then News of The World, Britains longest running Sunday paper, once the darling of the News International stable, bought by Rupert Murdoch as a cash cow and now despatched apparently without a second thought as a toxic asset. The last issue will run this Sunday without any advertisments, space being given over to charities, and all monies being given to charities. And so ends a once great British establishment, brought down by the actions of a management structure that was focused solely on selling newspapers with no regard for ethics or morals. Whatever it took to get the story, no questions asked. There are one or two loose ends though....

The management structure that had allowed these nefarious practices had already been dealt with we are told, and the tactics that caused this problem had been stopped, so in essence what has been done is to punish 200 staff for the wrongdoing of an earlier era. Further, it is highly unlikely that the gap left in the marketplace will remain unfilled, how long before we have a Sizzling, Soaraway, Sunday Sun? Then there is the issue of corporate responsibility, has this move been made simply to remove the need to investigate further within the upper echelons of the group? What of the leadership structure that allowed this to happen?

It would be nice to think that this whole situation would have long term implications for the media industry, but one can't help but think that this is a soft option, taken to avoid the worst of the coming storm....we will have to wait and see....

Can consumer protest work?

In the UK we are currently seeing a consumer backlash against News International following a series of allegations of phone hacking, not just against celebrities and people in the media eye, but also against members of the public who would be of no interest to the media were it not for a twist of fate such as being the victim of a serious crime, terrorist attack or casualty of war. This alleged intrusion of privacy has really caught the public attention and has resulted in several major companies pulling advertising from News International publications, particularly The News of The World newspaper. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

Historically, consumer driven protests have been short lived, especially when protesting against a generally popular brand. News of the World is perhaps the widest read Sunday newspaper, and has been for some time. It has a loyal readership who have stayed with the paper despite previous provocation, particularly around the time of Princess Dianas death. This time feels different, and I am hopefully that there will be a forced step change across the media. Previously the closest we have come to this situation was probably the Daily Mirror being caught out publishing doctored or staged photographs, and that blew over in a week or so. The difference here, I think, is that the outrage seems more co-ordinated, more structured, and crucially perhaps, better reported. This may be because it is an opportunity for the BBC to have a real pop at Rupert Murdochs news empire, but perhaps that is being overly cynical.

There certainly seems to be an interesting mix of what appears to be genuine anger from some political and media quarters, alongside the expected hangwringing and pontificating from the usual quarters. We have been promised a full judicial investigation by the Prime Minister and it will be interesting to see firstly if this happens, and secondly how many of those handwringing and pontificating end up tarred with the same brush, because I find it hard to believe that this is limited to just one newspaper, or indeed just one small group of journalists and managers.....watch this space.....

Living without banks

As a child I remember the thrill of being taken to open my first bank account. I must have been about 7 and my parents took me along with my pocket money to open a modest little childrens saving account. It came with a little porcelain piggie bank in the shape of a baby pig, and as the balance of the account increased, further piggie banks would be provided, thus encouraging saving. I maintained this bank account throughout my childhood and into adulthood until just last week in fact, somewhere in the region of 32 years. I no longer have this bank account, which is somewhat upsetting. I had, several years ago, so long ago that I had forgotten about it, upgraded my basic current account to a packaged account, with a monthly fee of £12.99. This fee was taken from my account when there wasn't enough to cover it, causing me to go overdrawn without an overdraft facility. Six weeks later the £6 per day unauthorised borrowing fees and other charges had increased my debt to approaching £600 and a quick visit to my branch later, the debt had been written off, which was nice, but my account had also been closed, which was not so nice as it was of the few things I still had from childhood.

Yes, I am aware that I should have monitored my account more closely, but having some financial issues currently, my thoughts were elsewhere. What grates somewhat is that my particular bank currently has a tag line to its adverts "helpful banking". I guess, to an extent, writing off the debt could be construed as helpful, but ramping up the debt to ridiculous levels and the consequential stress I would argue is not particularly helpful, and neither is leaving me without a bank account. Of course, having a poor credit rating means that I am not considered a good customer, as I am unlikely to take out credit and therefore won't be paying their excessive interest rates. So, the upshot is that I am having to learn to live without a bank account. I have arranged to be paid in cash, I have arranged with creditors and suppliers that I will pay cash into their bank accounts directly, using their own banks to avoid any bank charges, and I now have a much lighter wallet thanks to the removal of all of the debit and credit cards.

My intention is to spend the rest of my life bank free, but for now I am just taking it one day at a time....

Who watches the watchers

There was an old joke during the cold war that the russian secret police patrolled in threes, one to read, one to write and one to watch the two intellectuals, and whilst it was a joke, it had an element of truth to it. The soviet state was riddled with mistrust as a function of the levels of secrecy that were expected. It was impossible to know for certain what your colleagues motives were, so it was standard practice to expect the worst. In the post cold war era we seem to have forgotten this cynicism and are shocked when we are the victims of underhand practices, whether by individuals, corporations or politicians. It seems odd to me that we don't as a matter of course question everything that we experience, and start with an idea that most people have an agenda that does not marry to our own.

We should be questioning our political leaders far more vigorously than we do, looking far harder at the companies that take our money, standing up for our own beliefs and ideals rather than being dictated to. We have a political system that encourages public engagement in the political process yet many of us chose not to vote, leaving those in power with tacit permission to do as they please because their populous "doesn't much care". Take the current talk about the seperation of Scotland from Great Britain. This is a fairly unambiguous decision, given that the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) made a referendum on independence an election pledge and are now in power. Further, the question is one for Scotland only, so why are we discussing at length whether a referendum is the right course of action, and if it is, should England have a referendum too?

These are distractions, and a means to avoid a referendum, simply because the SNP is unsure as to whether they will get the result they want. It is a nonsense, they should just get on with it and see what happens, but who is in place to insist on this? Who watches the watchers?......

Weather prediction in a chaotic system

Ask anyone around the World what the British are preoccupied by and they will almost all say the same thing, the weather. Now, this seems, intuitively, to be a slightly odd situation. In the UK we only rarely experience extreme weather events. Technically we have more tornados than Kansas, but they barely register on the Fujita scale. We get storms, but we don't get any of the tropical storms that develop into hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones. Our seasons are pretty clear and don't vary much year by year. We get a bit of snhow in winter, some storms and winds in spring and autumn, and a fairly hot dry spell in Summer, so for those who experience nature at its most savage there must be a point at which they wonder what we actually find to say about the weather.


I think it probably goes back to at least the development of agriculture in the UK some 6000 years ago. If, as a society, you are reliant on agriculture for your food then a part of that is a reliance of the weather to germinate, grow and ripen the crops successfully. But this can't be the full story, because we do have relatively stable weather, which is one of the reasons that as a nation we have always been pretty good at feeding ourselves, to the extent that it was one of the key reasons for the Roman invasion, and the primary reason that the vast majority of wealth in Roman Britain was centred around the South West, particularly the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire and Hampshire. It even links to one of Britains most famous monuments, Stonehenge. There is a theory that it was built as some kind of astronomical calender, marking the solstices and thereby setting the farming year, but having worked on farms, this doesn't make a lot of sense, since the climate is just variable enough to make calender planting difficult beyond having a rough idea of where you are in the year, which farmers tend to have anyway.

What is interesting, is the way that in spite of incredible advances in technology, we still cling to folk methods of weather prediction which are largely based on observational experience. The development of modern meteorology began in 1922, and has largely progressed hand in hand with computers and computing power. The reason for this is the sheer complexity inherent in the system. 1922 saw the development of mathematical formulae for weather predictions, but the mathematics required 64 mathematicians working flat out to work through the calculations and it still took so long that by the time the calculations were complete the word forecast was no longer appropriate. As computers developed post 1945 and as the speed and capacity of computers grew exponentially it was possible to develop more and more complex equations to take into account a greater range of variables and enhance weather forecasting further.

It is funny though that the most accurate prediction for British weather, in spite of 6000 years of development and the massive amount of computing power now brought to bear is......

.......tomorrow will be pretty much like today

And yet it is the conversation we are most famous for........

Happy 4th of July

To all of my American readers I woud like to extend blessings for your Independence Day celebrations. I truly believe that the freedosm enshrined in the Declaration if Independence are the foundation for the greatest advance that mankind has still to make, the glorious day when those freedoms are experienced by every single man, woman and child on this planet. I know that many of you feel that your freedoms are being and have been eroded by the actions of minoroty groups both within and without your great nation, but I implore every last one of you, stick with it, vote with your hearts and your minds, elect the politicians you deserve who will work on a global stage for the betterment not just of the USA but of the World.

You are, for the moment, the only global superpower. It is a position that carries tremendous responsibility, and it is with great pride in the spirit of humanity that I watch many of you consistently working within that paradigm. I raise my hat to the greatest, most integrated, most passionate, and most compassionate nation on earth, on this your Birthday. I know that there are elements that would try to limit you, restrict you, act with selfish intent and with impure hearts, but I also know that these people are in the minority, and I trust you to manage these elements and continue to create a better World.

Stay true to your beliefs America, be strong, be sure, be a guiding beacon of hope in these dark times, and always remember that no matter what the vocal minoroties around the World say, you are loved and respected as the true home of freedom....

Developing a coherent writing style

So, the purpose of this blog was to encourage myself to return to the creative writing that I love. This far it appears to be working. I'm pretty much blogging five days a week, and the topics that I am writing about are starting to come easier. The next step is to begin to develop my own writing voice. It is a process familiar to all artists I think, even if they might not describe it in the same way, or use the same words. Certainly it is something heard within the theatre world. In order to properly express a role, the actor is required to find their own way of bringing that character to life, in essence bringing their own voice to the role. For me, the process is similar to an artists style, or an authors genre. When an artist has mastered the techniques of his art there is a moment when he stops mimicking the work of others and begins to create his own style. This can be as extreme as creating a new srtistic movement, or as subtle as using the play of light in an innovative way. For the author, it is often found in the way characters are developed, or the way tension is built.


For me, writing these blog posts, I am beginning to become comfortable with the routine of writing. I feel that the ability to generate words on the page is becoming easier, so the next challenge is to begin to explore writing styles to see what feels right for me. There are so many styles out there, and the start of the process is an exploration of how other people are doing it. It can be interesting to see the wide array of styles within even such a small creative format as blogging. My aim is for my blogs to reach the point whereby they could be considered short stories in their own right. An interesting challenge, but one that makes sense. Given the format of a blog, and the requirements of a fairly rigid word limit, the short story could be the ideal format. Now the question is, can I bring the creativity of short story writing, the instant character development, the fast paced action, the concise verbal style, to subjects as diverse as those included in a blog.

I guess we shall have to see....

The weekend is almost here....

There is something wonderful about the feeling that you get on a Friday as the weekend approaches. The ability to start to relax and unwind after a productive week at work is a real treat, particularly when that week has been somewhat hectic. I love my weekends, having time to do the things I love, starting each day with taking time to prepare a proper cooked breakfast, bacon, sausage, eggs, fried bread, mushrooms and beans is a great way to start the day. Then out for a good long walk to blow the dust of the week from my shoulders before coming back in time to spend the afternoon watching whatever sport is on the TV, before starting to work on the evening meal.

There is something about the freedom to set my own agenda and timescales that is perhaps the greatest treat. Not having to worry about deadlines beyond when the food will be cooked, or when the rugby starts, or when the dog needs feeding, and the difference between this and my working week which is a constant series of deadlines, meetings, and time constraints gives me a real sense of joy. I think it is the feeling that I have earned my little break that makes it really special and means that I tend not to feel a need to drive myself to do things on my time off. To me, weekends are really just short holidays, and I am very glad that I seem to have an almost feline ability to relax instantly. Not for me the worries of work when I am not there. When I finish work on a Friday evening thats it for me until I get back to work Monday morning. It is a skill that I think other people would benefit from learning.

So, heres to a wonderful weekend of rest and relaxation, and the simple pleasures that taking some me time can invoke.......