Nature is Getting its Own Back!

 Okay I shall get straight to the point, our planet is basically f*cked up. And the causes? Climate change. The main cause of climate change is the wide world burning of fossil fuels such as oil, gas, and coal. When burnt, fossil fuels release carbon dioxide into the air, causing the planet to heat up. Another obvious reason? Car exhaust fumes, in other words, carbon monoxide. The amount of CO2 created in cities all around the world is incalculable. But you've just got to walk down a busy London street in the middle of summer and the smell penetrates your nasal cavities and eyes. And of course, there is the exhaust from airplanes. Airplane exhaust, like car exhaust, contains a variety of air pollutants, including sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides which add to planetary pollution.

Then there are coal-fired power stations. The world has approximately 1,800 of these pollutant installations and China tops the list with 1,082. It's no wonder then that China is the most polluted country on the planet. The fact is our planet cannot handle the man-made deterioration and defilement any longer which is causing climatic chaos around the world.

We've all observed footage from around the world: flash flooding with rivers bursting their banks, people’s houses collapsing, cars, caravans and lorries all floating in the stormy weather. Heatwaves abound with the highest temperatures ever recorded in many countries of the world. This has led to bush and forest fires around the world and volcano eruptions. There's been earthquakes in China, India, Iran, the Philippines, Russia, Turkey and the Caribbean. The list goes on . . .

What does all this mean to us, the human race? Sorry, but the future does not look good. So, we've had extreme weather, human environmental damage, infectious diseases, natural resource crises, infrastructure breakdown. And all of this caused by humanity. And lastly, Covid-19 has arrived, a fatal virus issuing from a laboratory in China that has created the worst humanitarian crisis in 300 years.

I wish I could be a bit more positive about climatic change and the future of the planet but I think we maybe have just gone too far. I think all countries in the world need to take immediate action to cut climate pollution or else!!

And a famous quote from Albert Einstein: 'The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.'

Cyclists, Bloody Cyclists

 

Yes folks, it's that time of the year again. Summer has eventually arrived in these islands but it's been a bit like waiting on a 70-year-old attempting to complete the final mile of a marathon - it may or may not happen - or will it? I mean, when we get to around October, Autumn never seems to have existed and the onset of winter beckons with freezing mornings, midday chills, and possibly a touch of snow (especially in the Highlands). This year Spring doesn't seem to have happened; instead it's been week after week of wind, rain, the odd sunny day, uninvited hail showers, stormy weather, but then a heatwave that originated in the Sahara. And then the cyclists . . .

I was in Surrey recently on a weekend business trip. For four days the sun shone, there were no signs of Spring or the onset of Autumn and it was HOT, bloody HOT . . . but those two-wheeled nutters were out in force on the busy highways and byways of central Surrey. We were driving between Dorking and Leatherhead on the A24. Now on both sides of this very busy dual carriageway there are cycle tracks especially designed to satisfy the needs of these saddle tramps. It's bad enough when one has to zigzag in and out between these cycle-heads in a busy town centre but when they are NOT using the cycle path then one has to conclude that these people are bicycling on another planet – beware Martians!

So, what is the mentality of these handlebar bums? One, it's an addiction. They are addicted to dressing up in that lycra, ultra-skin-tight clothing that shows off all their bits, and don the most outrageous-looking sunglasses, the latter of which they wear even when they're cycling through downpours. Excuse me, why? There's the imbecilic so-called bike helmets. But it's when checking out these head protectors on-line that I discovered some examples and was drawn particularly to their names; here are some: Gamechanger helmet, an S-Cension helmet, then there is the Moventor helmet, and then the Ridge Furnace helmet. Hang on, is this the real world?

But it's the attitude of these traffic hoodlums that gets to all of us car drivers. As we entered Leatherhead, the town centre was quite busy with traffic, but it was when these tyre-trolls zigzagged in-between parked vehicles at traffic lights that made the blood boil. They just didn't give a shit about us, we car owners, who have to fork out hundreds of pounds per year in car tax, insurance, MOTs, etc. And yet these lycralouts pay absolutely not one single penny to use and abuse the roads. If anything else they potentially cause accidents between motor vehicles because we are constantly having to pay attention to their doltish attitude to all and sundry.

So, I shall end this rant by highlighting an article that appeared on the front page of The Mail newspaper on the 17th August, 2017. A person caught the shocking scenes on her mobile camera when more than 40 cyclists swarmed around cars on a busy main road in a dangerous new youth craze. The group of cycle-yobs caused havoc on Chester Road in Birmingham during rush hour. They rode in the middle of the road at 5mph, slowing down traffic and banging on car windows. The huge pack of mobile-mutts were seen risking their lives by blocking off vehicles at slow speed, forcing drivers to swerve around them. It's believed that the cyclists were following in the 'Bikestormz' phenomenon, which sees bikers flood roads in large groups.

So there you have it, these cycle-addicted monsters who are not only just a threat to their own obsessed personalities but to us normal, down-to-earth human beings, who just want to reach their destinations safely instead of having to confront such sordid thickness on two wheels.

Media Life As We Know It

Recently I was working in Epsom, Surrey. I was renting a flat in the small town of Leatherhead during this time. It was when I was working in Epsom and living in Leatherhead, I had to get a train that took about eight minutes to my destination. Here is an abiding memory.

So, as usual, I sauntered onto a train at Leatherhead (it was an hour late) that hopefully would get me to my destination in one piece. And, as usual, the carriage was strewn with crushed-up copies of a free, daily tabloid newspaper, The Metro. So I sat down, managed to get a copy that wasn't crumpled and wrinkled like Ena Sharples’ face, and scanned the front page. There was the momentous disaster that was Notre-Dame. The front page also covered a bloody stabbing that took place in London the previous night. Still in London, on the front page, there was a column covering demonstrations relating to climate change that had resulted in widespread violence with 767 arrests for drunkenness, breach of the peace and other 'sordid behaviours.' And just as I was about to turn to page two, there was the horrific report of a ten vehicle pile-up on the M6 close to Salford resulting in the deaths of 24 people.

I had had a pretty awful day at the office and was looking forward to either a stiff G&T or a couple of large glasses of wine to ease the twitchiness that had gripped my nerve endings like a blacksmith’s vice! But these front page disclosures: misery, doom and gloom, despair, cans of rotten worms, catastrophe-en-contretemps. And as I eventually did get to page two, there was the story about an OAP in Manchester being arrested for defecating in the Arndale Shopping Centre - hellish!

Later, I sat back with what turned out to be my third glass of Chianti Classico Riserva and was aware of my mind drifting. It was a hazy shade of red, just like the Chianti. I started to reflect and uttered to myself, ‘Life as we know it?’ Depends which side of the fence you sit on, doesn’t it? So what am I saying here? Well, it has been a life-long conundrum for me. It is this. Why, during my life, have I been spoon-fed by the media: newspapers, television, radio, Internet newscasts, you name it, daily bucketfuls of unreserved crap? Why this obnoxious obsession with feeding the public with endless headlines covering death, hatred, Islamic terrorism, suffering and starvation, stabbings and murder? I mean it is fed to us by the media moguls as if our very existence depended on it.

As I poured myself another very large glass of Chianti, I decided to switch on the telly. Unfortunately, Sky News was on, and before I could switch channels I caught the last few seconds of a news item: seemingly the Chao Phraya River in Thailand had burst its banks resulting in the deaths of scores of people . . . deary, dear, some things never change. Or, the media and life as we know it (from the media).

 

Chinese Control of Tibet and Its People 2021 - the Latest

 

Sorry people but I am going to swear. The fucking Chinese are once more having a go at the Tibetans. This time it's a report where four Tibetan Buddhist monks were sentenced up to 200 years in jail in secret trials with no apparent evidence of wrong-doing. This was highlighted in a report from the Human Rights Watch that said that one monk, Choegyal Wangpo, back in 2019, had accidentally left his mobile phone in a cafe where he lived. It contained WeChat messages to friends in Nepal and about a donation he had given to the earthquake relief fund. Seemingly, Tibetans exchanging messages with Tibetans overseas is now regarded as a crime! I mean just what in Hell’s nation are the Chinese up to? Here is yet another example of the Chinese Government's ruthless policing of Tibetan ethnic communities together with Uighurs and Turkic Muslims.

Sonika Gupta, an associate professor at IIT Madras and convener of Tibetan studies group, Tibetscapes, said the Chinese government had criminalised “integral aspects of the Tibetan identity”, including revering the Dalai Lama, in an effort to elevate the Communist party above religious faith. Well, I’ve got a message for the Communist Government - you will never destroy religion. And the Dalai Lama remains free and the great leader of Tibet in exile.

“The CCP has a repressive hold on religious training, practice and worship in monasteries … In everyday life, Tibetan religious and cultural practice is routinely debased.” I mean this has been going on for about 70 years, the control of every aspect of Tibetan life. Because of their status as community leaders and their experience of persecution by China, Buddhist monks and nuns have consistently been at the forefront of resistance to China’s rule, defending Tibetan language and culture, planning and leading protests, educating Tibetans about the social and environmental impacts of the Communist occupation and in sending information about Tibet to the outside world. You can Google search just what atrocities the Chinese carried out in Tibet over these 70 years. Ever since the 1950s monks, nuns and other religious figures have been continual targets for surveillance, persecution, violence and propaganda. But as a Buddhist myself, I can state quite clearly now, this evil and abhorrent attitude towards Tibet, the Tibetan people and Buddhism, will not go unanswered. Karma, sooner or later, will come to the fore and the good people of China and Tibet will eventually rise up, get rid of its communist authoritarian dictatorship and win freedom.