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.

The Biden - Putin Swiss Roll Show

 

Well, how does one even begin to sum up the meeting with these two numpties today? The wee man, all 5 feet 6 inches, has been in power for 22 years. On the other side of the height/power scale, we have the tall man, all 6 feet 3 inches, who has been in power for seven months.

Physically, mentally and power-wise, the two couldn't be different. The wee man was, for the want of a better word, a spy, a KGB leader, about as trustworthy as the late Oliver Hardy going on a diet. With the 78-year-old White House internee, we have a man who has been in politics for around 50 years. Over recent months, in certain websites and alternative journals, I have heard both men being described as wankers (nothing new there, then), arseholes (assholes if you are an American), jackasses, pricks, mother (you know what’s), and the one I liked most: dolt-schmucks. What the woke and millennial generations think of these two nationalist rulers, who knows. Maybe we older schmucks take a more gladiatorial view. Vladimir Putin, although he maybe isn't that self-aware yet, is a little dictatorial oligarch and, as I understand, has a personal wealth of £160 billion. What the fuck? £160 billion? Where in Hell's nation did that money come from? 

Then the White House oldie - having used that word, I wonder if he’s actually appeared in The Oldie magazine? Must check. Anyway, he’s worth a measly $9 million according to Forbes magazine. You could say he’s actually poor in comparison with his antagonist. Do these two numpties have anything in common? After about a half-hour I finally came up with my answer - bugger all. These two will meet in Geneva today, have a coffee (the wee man will probably down several large vodkas), and explore each other’s territories. Will they find any common ground? Answer? Nope!

Can’t wait to read tomorrow's newspapers! Watch this space!

Why Are So Many Idiots Getting Duped by 'Make Money Fast' Scammers on YouTube?

 

I ask this question for this reason. An ex-colleague of mine went through a bad patch financially last year due to Covid-19 and lost his job. So he took to the Internet to try and find 'work from home' jobs on YouTube. He told me he was spending anything up to eight hours a day constantly visiting these websites - more of that in a minute - absorbing all the promises and assertions that things like, 'Make $1,000 a day doing nothing!' So, I questioned him further; did you actually get anywhere with it? Nope! Why? He said that in many cases most of those YouTube videos and the accompanying websites left him dazed and confused, baffled even.

I decided to start checking out these videos myself and man did I learn something; in fact many things. You see you have all these guys (and girls) - numpties as we would call them here in Scotland - who are like sheep. They view other peoples' (numpties) YouTube videos and copy them. I mean when I was doing my research I lost count of the number of times I came across the following:

·         Make $500/day watching YouTube videos.

·         Automatic $5.00 by clicking adverts.

·         $6,590 on Google in 48 minutes.

·         Earn $300 a day typing names.

The list goes on . . .

So did I learn any lessons by exploring this online tripe? Well, yes and no. Yes, in that I learned yet again why these scammers take advantage of the dumb and the vulnerable. They are savvy enough to know and lure idiots to their websites so they can sell them stuff. And no? In terms of the negative - no - I got chatting to my ex-colleague again and I explained that I still could not believe that these scammers have got nothing else to do in life but to deceive and hoax their way to a living.

I could perhaps offer you the names of these people but for legal reasons I shall not. I, as a perpetrator, in naming and shaming these schmucks can in effect, here in the UK, be classified as a criminal offence. So better be safe than sorry!

Christian Eriksen - It’s Not All About Winning

 

I just thought I'd write this piece about the near-tragic death of the Danish footballer, Christian Eriksen. He was playing in the Euro match between his home national team Denmark against their neighbour Finland. I was watching the match live when all of a sudden he, with no players around him, just fell to the ground. Within seconds it was obvious there was something seriously wrong. Anyway, to cut a longish story short, they applied CPR, restored his breathing, and was taken out of the stadium and to hospital. It is now Sunday and I gather he is up and recuperating. Great news!

So, I have been a big football fan all of my life. I can go all the way back to when, as a schoolboy, I played for Larbert Primary School football team as a striker. Over the years maybe many of us became supporters of our local team - maybe not. Because it is a competitive sport, you're going to have winners and losers. The competitiveness can lead to tribal clashes, ructions and of course violence. We only need to reflect on the many examples: Rangers v Celtic, Manchester United v Manchester City, AC Milan v Inter Milan, Barcelona v Real Madrid; I could go on.

But this takes me back to yesterday and Christian. Here was a man who spent seven successful years with Tottenham Hotspur and last year moved to Inter Milan where, last month, they won the Italian Serie A title. Again, it is all about winning no matter the mental and physical costs. This wonderful football player may never play at the highest levels again. He has realised the hard way that putting one’s life on the line to win a cup or league medal, with all the prestige that goes with it, might have an impact on just how serious we must take the sport. Life is too short when the mentality is winning no matter the outcome!

I do keep reminding myself - and others - that treading the middle way is always a positive, an alternative even. Why? Think about the millionaire businessman whose recent yearly profits show £55 million. Is he happy? Not really because next year he wants to achieve £70 million, £80 million, maybe £100 million. Greed takes over. Suddenly, Covid-19 comes along and, within 12 months, his business is almost over. I’m not saying it’s negative not to aspire to higher things - of course not - but just keep things in perspective.

No doubt Christian Eriksen’s outlook on life will have changed overnight!

Greed, Hatred and Delusion - Social Media and Ego Infatuation

 In this short piece, I want to tackle the plight of the upsurge of modern social media from a Buddhist point of view. I call it a plight because, nowadays, there is an across-the-board intoxication or reliance on social media to express our thoughts, feelings, emotions and beliefs. Had the Buddha been walking our streets today I can only wonder how he would react to this modern-day, self-obsessed phenomena. It seems like every other day I read in the newspapers about yet another ‘celebrity’ being ‘fat-shamed’, trolled, harassed and having to deal with inflammatory long-windedness.

I think much of what I said in the previous paragraph I might equate to the Buddha’s teaching of the Three Poisons that constitute much of what we would call an ordinary human being. He offered this teaching to cover greed, hatred and delusion and how to handle them in everyday life.

With greed, he refers to our selfishness, our misplaced desires, attachments, and grasping for happiness and satisfaction outside of ourselves. He talks about hatred, this seemingly innate spirit of anger, our aversion and repulsion toward unpleasant people, circumstances, and even towards our own uncomfortable feelings. And thirdly there is delusion that refers to our dullness, bafflement, and fallacies, our wrong views of what constitutes Reality.

These three 'poisons' have been with us from time immemorial. I personally, who has studied Buddhism over a period of 45 years, have lived with them, analysed them from one year to the next, decade after another. So how does one connect the three poisons to current social media trends? Well, let's start off with selfies. Back in the 60s and 70s there wasn't such a thing; you got someone else to take your photo; it could be a holiday snap, maybe in a pub or club, on the beach, at a wedding. That was the way it was. But with the invention and technological advances in mobile phones, we now have people across the world seemingly intoxicated with taking photos of their faces - I would call it delusion. Because are we identifying our 'self' with our face? Delusion, because is my face the real me when I smile, or is it the 'real' me when I frown?

Such is the recent evolution of Internet media and the infatuation with ‘superstars’, celebrities, media heavyweights and narcissists. Just think of Kim Kardashian, Madonna, Kanye West, Donald Trump, and Julian Clary . . . the list goes on. If Kim or Kanye can take selfies, then why can’t I? As for the two KKs just mentioned, they both exemplify the three poisons but especially greed. Why? Because they are divorcing and it’s said that both parties will be filing for a share of their joint worth: $2.7 billion.

So we can see in this pair an excellent example of the three poisons: greed, well that’s obvious; hatred - where there was only deep sympathetic love for each other then, now exists pure, unadulterated hatred. Delusion? Just add the two previous traits - that’s delusion!