It never really felt right, did it?
Finally, after yesterday's 4-1 drubbing by Germany, English fans must face the reality that our team just wasn't that good.
Sure we had stars, all of whom had a proven pedigree (though never on the game's most important stage).
But that's life ... and that's sport.
Now the biggest problem seems to be how to remove Fabio Capello from his contract without swallowing a multi-million pound pill.
Which shows only too well that when you want something too bad, things never work in your favor. Who in their right mind would negotiate a contract before a world cup ... and not take into account the eventuality of exactly what just happened?
Answer ... a nation whose desperation trumps all common sense.
Anyway, I'm sure we've got a host of talented youngsters coming through to fill the boots of senor Lampard, Gerard et al.
Haven't we?
Well ... er .... no.
While I'm on the subject of the world cup (and spelling it without capitals is deliberate here) ...
Why won't Fifa agree to use replays?
We saw how wrong that was when France cheated their way into the world cup after Henry's handball. Fortunately, karma had its way and the French went home hanging their heads just as sales of Guiness went through the roof.
Yesterday (and this is no excuse, just an observation) we saw an English goal disallowed because of human error). This was not even debateable. And yes, Mr Seth, it does take away from the beautiful game!
I'll also say this ... I liked Germany as a team up until the point their goalkeeper realised that he could pull the wool over the official's eye and pulled an "Henry".
Man, I am so sick of professional athletes cheating. What glory could there possibly be in an advantage gleaned from a technicality?
Come on. We are surely more sophisticated than that? Aren't we ...?
Maybe not.
And then there was Argentina's obvious offsides.
Again, they surely would have won regardless.
OK, so Brazil and Spain are still in ... and I can't be mad at Argentina because offsides is not as blatantly intentional as pretending that a ball has not crossed a line when it has. See ... even my morality is getting screwed up here now!
Why can't we just have replays. It works for rugby. How 'bout it Sir?
Go Messi. Go Villa. Go Kaka!
And sorry England ... but you'll just have to look in the mirror on this one.
Monday, 28 June 2010
Friday, 11 June 2010
Why are We all Still Milling Around In a Coma?
No question ... the saga in the Gulf just keeps getting more sordid by the day.
First (but in no particular order of "ouch!"), the BP share price has fallen to a point where the oil giant has lost about 53 billion of value. This affects the pensions of about 17 million people in the UK, though the effect is relatively tiny at this point.
Now we hear that the rate of oil loss is actually more like 40,000 barrels a day, twice the previous estimate and far more than the guesses made at the inception of the disaster.
This of course begs the question ... does anybody actually have a clue, or is it all just "educated" guesswork? I think you know my answer on that one.
President Obama has "invited" the Chairman of BP to discuss who pays the cleanup bill. The media likes to call it "summoned" and keeps referring to President Obama "kicking ass". This has led to prominent business people in Britain now saying that this is all very uncool and getting dangerously close to anti-British sentiment.
Bet that goes down like a lead balloon in the US ... I can almost hear the collective yowling!
Of course, the face of BP operations, Tony Hayward, has hardly endeared himself to the US public by declaring that he just wants his life back ... this after 9 of his staff lost their's on the day of the catastrophe. Oh yeah, that was unfortunate.
Of course, BP is the whipping boy in the whole mess, which is convenient as the company is foreign. Allegations of corner-cutting have been bandied around as part of the cause ... and the other companies making vast profits in the Gulf don't cut corners now, do they? They're all just there for the good of mankind.
Where would civilization be without them?
Then there's the issue of the chemicals dumped in the gulf in an attempt to disperse the oil. "Corexit" has now been revealed as being highly toxic ... no surprises there. What is surprising is that the EPA permitted its chemical makeup to be veiled in secrecy up until this point.
Why?
Good question ... I guess there were no other gentler alternatives that were cost effective and there always had to be some sort of plan just in case something like this happened. Duh. Expedience.
With fuel costing GBP 1.20 a liter in my neck of the woods, I'm not sympathetic to the economic woes of any oil company. The fact that people even discuss this in economic terms pretty much turns my stomach.
Lives were lost and a giant tract of ocean will be (has been) turned into a cesspool of death and suffering because of our insatiable appetites for stuff we only think we need is the far bigger picture.
With no sign of the spill being contained any time soon, I can't help feeling that eventually at least some people will get that no-one, no matter how powerful they are, can be given a licence to take risks anything like this.
Until we stop seeing every problem from a human-centric perspective, we will continue to miss that disrupting the natural order will actually have a far greater impact on our species than anything we currently can predict.
And no, I am not being some hokey profit-of-doom bearded wierdo. Anyone who fails to see the gravity of what's going on right now needs a reality check ... one for which no superlatives can possibly do justice!
People ... think! Stop! Act! Show that you deserve the intelligence you have been gifted with. The world is at a point where we are creaking at the seams with "only" 7 billion inhabitants. How do you think things will be when there are 9 billion?
Does anyone have a clue?
I sure don't. I'm just a peon. Our only hope for a better world is a collective sentiment.
Why are we all still milling around in a coma?
First (but in no particular order of "ouch!"), the BP share price has fallen to a point where the oil giant has lost about 53 billion of value. This affects the pensions of about 17 million people in the UK, though the effect is relatively tiny at this point.
Now we hear that the rate of oil loss is actually more like 40,000 barrels a day, twice the previous estimate and far more than the guesses made at the inception of the disaster.
This of course begs the question ... does anybody actually have a clue, or is it all just "educated" guesswork? I think you know my answer on that one.
President Obama has "invited" the Chairman of BP to discuss who pays the cleanup bill. The media likes to call it "summoned" and keeps referring to President Obama "kicking ass". This has led to prominent business people in Britain now saying that this is all very uncool and getting dangerously close to anti-British sentiment.
Bet that goes down like a lead balloon in the US ... I can almost hear the collective yowling!
Of course, the face of BP operations, Tony Hayward, has hardly endeared himself to the US public by declaring that he just wants his life back ... this after 9 of his staff lost their's on the day of the catastrophe. Oh yeah, that was unfortunate.
Of course, BP is the whipping boy in the whole mess, which is convenient as the company is foreign. Allegations of corner-cutting have been bandied around as part of the cause ... and the other companies making vast profits in the Gulf don't cut corners now, do they? They're all just there for the good of mankind.
Where would civilization be without them?
Then there's the issue of the chemicals dumped in the gulf in an attempt to disperse the oil. "Corexit" has now been revealed as being highly toxic ... no surprises there. What is surprising is that the EPA permitted its chemical makeup to be veiled in secrecy up until this point.
Why?
Good question ... I guess there were no other gentler alternatives that were cost effective and there always had to be some sort of plan just in case something like this happened. Duh. Expedience.
With fuel costing GBP 1.20 a liter in my neck of the woods, I'm not sympathetic to the economic woes of any oil company. The fact that people even discuss this in economic terms pretty much turns my stomach.
Lives were lost and a giant tract of ocean will be (has been) turned into a cesspool of death and suffering because of our insatiable appetites for stuff we only think we need is the far bigger picture.
With no sign of the spill being contained any time soon, I can't help feeling that eventually at least some people will get that no-one, no matter how powerful they are, can be given a licence to take risks anything like this.
Until we stop seeing every problem from a human-centric perspective, we will continue to miss that disrupting the natural order will actually have a far greater impact on our species than anything we currently can predict.
And no, I am not being some hokey profit-of-doom bearded wierdo. Anyone who fails to see the gravity of what's going on right now needs a reality check ... one for which no superlatives can possibly do justice!
People ... think! Stop! Act! Show that you deserve the intelligence you have been gifted with. The world is at a point where we are creaking at the seams with "only" 7 billion inhabitants. How do you think things will be when there are 9 billion?
Does anyone have a clue?
I sure don't. I'm just a peon. Our only hope for a better world is a collective sentiment.
Why are we all still milling around in a coma?
Sunday, 30 May 2010
True Scale Of Oil Spill Not Yet Appreciated
As we enter 40 days plus in the Gulf of Mexico disaster, some people are still framing the BP oil disaster in economic terms.
So Nature is quietly upping the ante!
This link should be required reading for any semi-conscious human being on the planet. It's a post by Health Ranger Mike Adams who is reporting on location.
Yes, he is far more sensational and dramatic than I am generally comfortable with ... but in this case, the severity cannot be over-stated.
Here's the link.
So Nature is quietly upping the ante!
This link should be required reading for any semi-conscious human being on the planet. It's a post by Health Ranger Mike Adams who is reporting on location.
Yes, he is far more sensational and dramatic than I am generally comfortable with ... but in this case, the severity cannot be over-stated.
Here's the link.
Thursday, 13 May 2010
Pig Farmers Rejoice!
I really struggled to come up with a suitable title for this post.
BBC Breakfast this morning ran a report on an NHS trust in Derbyshire that had gotten into bed with local farmers. On the surface it all made infinite sense ... buy local meat instead of importing from South America at a premium.
Millions of pounds would be saved by the NHS and local farmers with their backs against the wall would be given a new lease of life. That sounds like a "win-win" in anybody's book!
Ironically, it also underscores just how lost our health system has become.
Here on national television was an idea so apparently clever that it was perfectly logical to suggest that it be rolled out to NHS trusts across the nation. And yet virtually everyone that viewed the report would have missed the saddest irony of all.
Our "health care" system continues to feed its patients with the very same food that got most of them there in the first place.
Even our intrepid reporter apologised that his report was being filmed against a backdrop of two majestically beautiful cows. As I watched the scenes that followed, I could only shake my head at just how lost we have all become.
First, a pig farm, profitable now for the first time in a decade ... graphic scenes of pigs rooting around in the muck followed by workers slicing ham and tying off pork sausages.
Yum!
From there it was the precictable slow walk through first the abbatoir and then the butchery ... a team of human hyaenas grunting clinically amongst the quivering slabs of gore.
And all I could think about was that most people watching were absolutely unaffected, quietly stroking their panting labradors beside them, content in the knowledge that they could continue to receive the standard of care that was their due.
All was right in the world.
A new government was rising like a phoenix from the ashes of political confusion in the United Kingdom. And when (not if) they got sick, at least they could continue to depend on a hearty menu and a litany of drugs to mask their symptoms and prolong their vacant existence.
If your instincts are screaming at you too, I invite you to consider a cleaner, gentler, purer alternative.
BBC Breakfast this morning ran a report on an NHS trust in Derbyshire that had gotten into bed with local farmers. On the surface it all made infinite sense ... buy local meat instead of importing from South America at a premium.
Millions of pounds would be saved by the NHS and local farmers with their backs against the wall would be given a new lease of life. That sounds like a "win-win" in anybody's book!
Ironically, it also underscores just how lost our health system has become.
Here on national television was an idea so apparently clever that it was perfectly logical to suggest that it be rolled out to NHS trusts across the nation. And yet virtually everyone that viewed the report would have missed the saddest irony of all.
Our "health care" system continues to feed its patients with the very same food that got most of them there in the first place.
Even our intrepid reporter apologised that his report was being filmed against a backdrop of two majestically beautiful cows. As I watched the scenes that followed, I could only shake my head at just how lost we have all become.
First, a pig farm, profitable now for the first time in a decade ... graphic scenes of pigs rooting around in the muck followed by workers slicing ham and tying off pork sausages.
Yum!
From there it was the precictable slow walk through first the abbatoir and then the butchery ... a team of human hyaenas grunting clinically amongst the quivering slabs of gore.
And all I could think about was that most people watching were absolutely unaffected, quietly stroking their panting labradors beside them, content in the knowledge that they could continue to receive the standard of care that was their due.
All was right in the world.
A new government was rising like a phoenix from the ashes of political confusion in the United Kingdom. And when (not if) they got sick, at least they could continue to depend on a hearty menu and a litany of drugs to mask their symptoms and prolong their vacant existence.
If your instincts are screaming at you too, I invite you to consider a cleaner, gentler, purer alternative.
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Change?
As the "Big Three" parties do their best to woo last minute undecided voters I am reminded of the word on everyones' lips ... "change".
What will change?
Taxes will go up. Inflation will go up. The rift between the "haves" and the "have-nots" will widen further.
Our health will continue to degrade ... and the NHS will be in a position to pay for less and less. Progressive unsustainability!
As peoples' livelihoods come under increasing threat, so a fringe element will turn to crime, as they have always done. We will have more police officers ... but they will be burdened with red tape and powerless to take decisive action for fear of treading on delicate sensitivities.
In schools, teachers will still have to take abuse from spoilt children "who know no better". They will still have to neuter the outspoken, even as they embrace freedom of speech.
And we will still insist on "one man, one vote" in Africa, when, right here on our own doorstep we have cleverly manipulated invisible borders to divide votes in a system that few actually understand to the degree that would qualify them as responsible custodians of democracy.
People will still pass the buck and shift blame and cover their behinds. People will still revere the savvy entrepreneurial skills of those jokers on "The Apprentice" and admire the roguish spirit of historical legends that killed, stole and plundered with impunity.
And then those that vote will vote for a party because they've been a "life-long" supporter ... or because on TV their man ducked and dived less than the next guy.
Or because they needed a license to complain about the encumbent crew!
But what will really change?
We will still think it's alright to spend beyond our means. We will still think it's alright for someone else to pick up the pieces of our recklessness. We will still think it's right to have children, even as our planet creaks under the load of nearly 7 billion inhabitants.
We will cling to this right in spite of a clear message from Mother Nature telling us some of us are too sick to reproduce ... after all we have IVF! And China has a shocking record on human rights' violations.
Someone else will make it right. And if they horse it up, well at least there'll be someone to blame!
Wouldn't it be nice if we elected a government that actually could effect meaningful change?
For that to happen, we have to first rethink the way we view our own role. Right now a disaster of unprecedented magnitude is unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico. I say that because no-one actually knows the full extent and true cost beyond that which affects humans.
We have no other frame of reference. We are the center of the universe. The environment and other creatures are not our concern. We only care about the economy and the handouts. Those birds covered in oil are someone elses' problem.
Well, they are not!
They are yours and mine ... and until we see that and realize the true severity of the implications, we will get what we deserve.
What will change?
Taxes will go up. Inflation will go up. The rift between the "haves" and the "have-nots" will widen further.
Our health will continue to degrade ... and the NHS will be in a position to pay for less and less. Progressive unsustainability!
As peoples' livelihoods come under increasing threat, so a fringe element will turn to crime, as they have always done. We will have more police officers ... but they will be burdened with red tape and powerless to take decisive action for fear of treading on delicate sensitivities.
In schools, teachers will still have to take abuse from spoilt children "who know no better". They will still have to neuter the outspoken, even as they embrace freedom of speech.
And we will still insist on "one man, one vote" in Africa, when, right here on our own doorstep we have cleverly manipulated invisible borders to divide votes in a system that few actually understand to the degree that would qualify them as responsible custodians of democracy.
People will still pass the buck and shift blame and cover their behinds. People will still revere the savvy entrepreneurial skills of those jokers on "The Apprentice" and admire the roguish spirit of historical legends that killed, stole and plundered with impunity.
And then those that vote will vote for a party because they've been a "life-long" supporter ... or because on TV their man ducked and dived less than the next guy.
Or because they needed a license to complain about the encumbent crew!
But what will really change?
We will still think it's alright to spend beyond our means. We will still think it's alright for someone else to pick up the pieces of our recklessness. We will still think it's right to have children, even as our planet creaks under the load of nearly 7 billion inhabitants.
We will cling to this right in spite of a clear message from Mother Nature telling us some of us are too sick to reproduce ... after all we have IVF! And China has a shocking record on human rights' violations.
Someone else will make it right. And if they horse it up, well at least there'll be someone to blame!
Wouldn't it be nice if we elected a government that actually could effect meaningful change?
For that to happen, we have to first rethink the way we view our own role. Right now a disaster of unprecedented magnitude is unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico. I say that because no-one actually knows the full extent and true cost beyond that which affects humans.
We have no other frame of reference. We are the center of the universe. The environment and other creatures are not our concern. We only care about the economy and the handouts. Those birds covered in oil are someone elses' problem.
Well, they are not!
They are yours and mine ... and until we see that and realize the true severity of the implications, we will get what we deserve.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
