Social Experiment Gone Wrong?

Over the last decade the British government have placed an incentive on all the wrong things and the result is a disaster of giant proportion. It’s as if they have intentionally used our society as a giant social experiment. When Tony Blair’s New Labour party was elected they opened the doors to mass immigration, whether intentionally or otherwise. This has resulted in a vastly increased population but, because the government was determined to obfuscate this fact, there isn’t the infrastructure to deal with this greater number of people. As a result our schools in certain parts of the country are grossly overcrowded, and there simply aren’t the resources for the kids to be looked after properly. This is just one example of the general lack of forward planning.

One of the most cohesive elements in any society is the nuclear family. For some reason our leaders decided to cause this to unravel and the result is disastrous.

The government removed the tax incentives on being married and the result is that we have more divorces, separations and people deciding to live alone than ever before.

The government also took the step of putting single mothers at the top of the public housing list, giving these young women a very good reason to get pregnant but not to have a partner. As a direct consequence we have one of the highest rates of single motherhood in the world, and too many children who will be disadvantaged for the rest of their lives.

Following this disaster these young mothers generally have a series of different fathers for their different children as it doesn’t pay the mother to ever allow any of these men to move in to their homes and make their relationships permanent. In fact the government has also removed the tax incentives that marriage used to give as a benefit. This, in turn will result in an entire generation of these women never returning to full time work as they have little, if any educational qualifications and therefore cannot gain meaningful employment. They receive more by staying home and not working, plus they get the equivalent of free housing.

Britain now has three generations of some families who have never worked, permanently living on state benefits. Their argument is that they can’t afford to go out and get a job, which equals the benefits they receive. The answer is simple and tough; stop giving anything to those that can and should work. This group has lower educational standards, higher crime statistics and consequently less potential to break this vicious circle. The children of these families are a future crime wave, waiting to break upon the shores of our society.

Although our country plays lip service to having an equivalent to the freedom of information enjoyed in America we don’t really know anything they don’t want us to. The British establishment still believes they know what’s best for the rest of us. Therefore, our historians generally discover what happened fifty years after the event when the official government diaries and papers are released. I wouldn’t be at all surprised in the year 2050 that this series of disasters was part of a plan to secretly and totally socially engineer change to the fundamental nature of this country, and it has gone horribly wrong.

Tired of London - Tired of Life

Something very special happens to England in general, London in particular when the sun comes out. It is simply glorious. The grass looks greener, the smell of it, newly mown, conveys the sweet smell of summer to our senses. Young woman, looking fresh, smelling delectable, demonstrate the success of all those diets and exercise programs, as they dress with the confidence only the young, beautiful and self possessed can rent during their younger years. How many of these young beauties listen to love songs on their MP3 players, as they sigh and sip from their endless bottles of branded water.

Men are more purposeful when the day puts on such a show, a swagger to their step. Marching off to do commercial battle, scoring a deal, making more money, all whilst pretending not to smile too broadly as they think of the BBQ to prepare, the beer and wine to drink.

Happy children scamper and gambol, properly not aware of the problems that later life might burden them with. Careful not to stray too far from mum, but far enough away to keep a careful eye on their every move.

There’s something about the comfortably off I see walking by. They might have the same problems as everyone else, but they have more choices. Their smiles are a little more self-assured. Everything in their lives seems to have the bumps ironed out of their path. Even their faces are a bit too smooth.

Even the buildings seem brighter and cleaner, their frontage winking a broad greeting to each passer by. The doormen’s surly scowls modified to broad grins behind their dark sunglasses.

Yes, this old town might be one of the most expensive on the planet, and perhaps there’s still too much traffic for us to breathe as freely as we’d prefer, but there isn’t a better city for art, museums, galleries, culture or food. They might boast of these things elsewhere, but they all secretly share the knowledge that here, in this place, at this time, they come second. How long this might last, none of us can know, but for this blink of our historical eye, let’s enjoy this magic Isle.

Such is London today; maybe the best place to be in the World.

Then, because it’s England, and I was enjoying myself all too much, waxing just a bit too lyrical, down came the rain. Big soft globs of water made their way direct from heaven onto my head, splish, splosh, splash, no pitter patter here, determined to make their presence felt. But however much the deluge wanted to blemish my day I had the imprint of its previous glory seared behind my eyelids, safe in my memory, ready to be reviewed whenever the wetness marginalized the memory. I don’t care about your rain, I have your sunshine all stored up.

The Enemy Within

Some of the things happening in the UK presently beggar belief. I shall give you a couple of examples to think about.

First in the theatre of shame is the claim by British Members of Parliament to increase their base salaries from £62,000 ($120,000) per year to more than £100,000 (approximately $200,000). This doesn’t include the various allowances and expenses for each MP that adds up to an average of a further £135,850 ($270,000). Who gets to decide these increases? The MP’s do.

The single biggest pig at this trough is the Speaker of the House of Commons, whose name is Michael Martin. The Speaker is the guy who acts impartially to organize the running of the Mother of Parliaments, the House of Commons. This gentleman seemingly has a pension pot of £1.4 million (approximately $2.8 million) a salary of £138,724 plus expenses last year of £82,106. This package all ignores the fact that this puffed up, self-important windbag is hopeless, totally rubbish at his job.

If there were not enough reasons why this type of behavior is wrong, try putting it into the context of the present credit crunch where Joe Average is really beginning to suffer economic distress. I offer this little bit of advice to our elected representatives, we are watching you, and unless you show some self restraint when this is voted on people like me will be recording how you vote and passing this information on to your electors when the next election takes place within the next two years.

At the same time as the price of gasoline for us has gone over £5 per gallon our Government has promised us a more than 10 pence rise per gallon by way of additional tax. Don’t forget that something like three quarters of the price of gas per gallon in the UK is already tax and you begin to see why the truckers started blocking some arterial roads in London and Cardiff yesterday by way of a warning shot across the bows. How could our Government be so dumb? One of the increasingly common phrases you hear about our Prime Minister is, he knows the value of a barrel of oil but not for a gallon of petrol. This guy is totally absorbed by the strategic and macro that he has totally lost sight of the tactical and the micro.

Another paradox in the UK is that our leaders tell us that the crime statistics are reducing. We are constantly told they have been successful in their battle against crime. I have to report that I’m not alone in simply not believing their self-serving propaganda. The other part of this paradox is that we now have more people in prison than ever before, the number topped 83,000 yesterday, which is also the highest number as a proportion of our population for any country outside dictatorships and, strangely, the USA.

Jail guards were quoted as saying that the police are now intentionally going as slowly as possible with processing convicted criminals since there are simply no spaces left in jail. It goes further, with some convicts already in jail, being released after serving only half of their sentence, rather than the usual two thirds. The remainder of the sentence the convict is “under supervision”. How about the idea of building more jails quickly or, alternatively, stop equating crimes against people with crimes against institutions? We have a long British history of jailing people for money crimes more harshly than we do for crimes against other individuals.

I agree with the Bishop of Rochester, the Pakistani born Doctor Right Reverend Michael Nazir-Ali who was quoted as saying that the country was mired in a doctrine of “endless self indulgence” and blames the politicians and their failed experiments of multi culturalism and in turn quotes others who cite “the loss of faith and piety among women” for the steep decline in Christian worship. This has led, in the Bishop’s opinion, to a breakdown in our society’s set of core values with inevitably awful consequences. He also faces up to the inherent conflicts with some brands of Islam that shows no respect for Western values. There is no accident that it took a Churchman born in a Muslim country to state the obvious. Our society has many enemies, but the worst enemy of all is to be found within us.

Manners Maketh Man

Yesterday I went to the centre of London on the underground train system. I am happy to report that it arrived on time, seats were available on the inbound journey, and there were no irksome delays. However today’s story concerns manners and how much they matter.

As it is a half term break for school children there were quite a few ankle biters traveling to town with their parents and grand parents. One small boy, about five or six years old was with both his grand parents, he looked like a blonde angel. The only problem was that he had his feet on the chair. Of course, you all know that’s wrong, because who knows what mud or other mess he might have on his shoes that he would now transfer onto that seat ready to damage or stain some unsuspecting and unprotected posterior. His grandma noticed his wondering feet and quietly whispered something into his young ear. The boy immediately sat up and didn’t repeat his error. Handled simply, painlessly and without a fuss the boy now understood not to put his feet on chairs in future.

If you don’t tell the child he will grow up behaving in an anti social manner. I know this for a fact having lectured to many classrooms and lecture halls full of teenagers who simply have no idea how to behave. This was further evidenced at the restaurant in which I had lunch. There a group of youngish middle-aged businessmen, apparently from the advertising industry, were eating. One of them pointed to the other’s watch and said it was very desirable; he had one exactly the same but with a blue face on it. He then went on to ask, “How much did you have to pay for it? If you paid more than £1,600 you were robbed.” I didn’t listen as the other guy responded, but again, they had no idea of manners. It’s impolite to ask the cost, fine if you want to admire something beautiful, but tacky if you demand the price.

I thought I was fairly desensitized until I was sitting at a theatre and the two men behind me decided to talk, quite loudly, throughout the show. This was a show that they were apparently enjoying, but saw no reason not to talk through. This included a conversation about how they were going to take their wives to a local sex shop and saying how much they would all enjoy it. Clearly the men were drunk, and from their demeanor it was clear they were looking for trouble.

Such public expressions of ignorance by grown up thugs is, unhappily, becoming more common in our country. This was a country famous for its courtesy. We ignore this general falling of our most basic standards of civility at our peril because it will spread and degenerate our society and all who live in it.

There was a small, brief ray of sunshine, when, back in the now over crowded train, on the return journey, I noted one young man who stood aside for a pregnant young woman, and made sure two older people were seated. It was good to see the three recipients of his simple act of courtesy smile, and the small smile of recognition from the young man. Maybe, just maybe, courtesy is as contagious as rudeness; let’s hope so.

Strange Economics

Like most of you I read that our ex-Prime Minister, Tony Blair, made some unusual financial arrangements during his time as our leader. He managed to arrange a mortgage for twice the value of the house he purchased. This, if you or I tried to do it, would probably get you in very big trouble. Apparently not, if you are a very important person.

Then there's our current Prime Minister. Also keen to lead us prudently in all things economic he managed to arrange expenses for himself and his family which included the movie and sports package on his pay satellite TV service. Glad we could be of service Gordon! He certainly is prudent isn't he. I would add that he appears to be cheap and like his ex boss, another liberty taker.

Of course, neither of these paragons of virtue would do anything at all illegal, and would be very careful not to do so. But just because it's not illegal doesn't mean it's moral or the right thing to do.

These are just two more examples of shoddy behavior by those who are supposed to lead the rest of us. The recently released accounts of our Members of Parliament demonstrate a multitude of similarly awful examples by many of our elected representatives. Those that behave in this manner need to be shown up for what they are, crooks and charlatans. How dare these villains judge the rest of us, and how much longer can they continue to get away with such rank hypocracy?

Sydney J. Pollack - A Tribute

Sydney Pollack, the Academy Award-winning director of "Out of Africa" who achieved acclaim making popular, mainstream movies with A-list stars, including "The Way We Were" and "Tootsie," died Monday. He was 73.Pollack, who also was a producer and actor, died of cancer at his home in Pacific Palisades.

I only sat down to talk with him at length once, and that was quite some time ago. He was a dignified, humorous and helpful man, and I was astounded he took the time to be helpful to me, then just a young man trying to make his way. He treated me with old world courtesy and grace, and I shall always treasure that afternoon and his wisdom and kindness.

I also want to pay tribute to him as a filmmaker. Sydney could direct, act or produce with equal dexterity, and always with wit, taste and excellence. If you glance at the wonderful list of his films you will see why he shall be sadly missed.

Sydney Pollack was an Academy Award-winning director who collaborated with a long list of elite actors on films such as "Out of Africa," "Tootsie," "The Way We Were" and "Absence of Malice."

Unlike many other top directors of his era, Pollack was also a film and television actor himself, and he used this unique position to forge a relationship with Hollywood's elite stars and create some of the most successful films of the 1970s and '80s.

In 1970, "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" about Great Depression marathon dancers, received nine Oscar nominations, including one for Pollack's direction. He was nominated again for best director for 1982's "Tootsie," starring Dustin Hoffman as a cross-dressing actor and Pollack as his exasperated agent. As director and producer, he won Academy Awards for the 1986 romantic epic "Out of Africa," starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep, which captured seven Oscars in all.

Last autumn, Pollack played law firm boss Marty Bach opposite George Clooney in "Michael Clayton," which he also co-produced and received seven Oscar nominations.

Sydney, farewell, you were an immense talent but above all, you were a mensch.

Service With A Smile - Please

Today I went to see the new Indiana Jones movie. I call it a movie because that’s what the big American studios make, we, the Brits, make films, and in mainland Europe, they make cinema. One day, when we’re all in the mood I shall explain the subtle differences to the uninitiated.

First things first, the movie is a terrific fun. Old time B movie escapism. As a small kid said as he was coming out of the film and his mum asked him what he thought about the film, he responded, “It was terrific!” For those of you who have heard wise-ass critics scoring easy points against this film let me say they have no idea what they’re talking about. This is, of course, escapist nonsense, but it is supposed to be escapism writ large. Harrison Ford is still well able to swash his buckle and the action is smashing. No doubt the big time games designers and ride manufacturers are hard at work readying these for an expectant world.

The place chosen for the cinema visit was the Enfield Cineworld, the nearest movie theatre to Klinger Towers. The most important thing to think of here is that there was a probability that there would be a big audience for this particular movie. There were, after all, seven screens at this complex showing this film simultaneously which would appear to indicate that the cinema management were expecting a crowd.

It was therefore more than a little surprising that the door from the car park to the cinema complex was locked and the only means of entrance to remaining was the elevator. This was more than a little crowded as a consequence. Arriving in the lobby it was further surprising to discover a Disneyland type line waiting impatiently for someone to sell tickets. There was a single guy at one machine and the other four were unmanned. People were soon becoming very agitated. Being impatient myself I went to locate the manager who was having a chat with another member of staff at the far end of the very large foyer.

“Did you notice there are a couple of hundred people waiting and only one person selling tickets?” I asked him, “Yes,” he responded, “We have more people coming along very soon.” I suggested that he took some staff and himself away from where there were no customers and put them all on selling tickets, but by then his attention was elsewhere.

I rejoined the line, which hadn’t moved forward. Rather than trying to achieve this obvious ambition the manager sent another member of staff onto the ticket sales counter and he asked for anyone collecting advance booking or credit card transactions. Some of the crowd surged forward and others in the line quickly and volubly demonstrated their resentment. It was all getting worse. Just as it seemed there would be a much worse problem if the manager didn’t take action several new staff arrived at the ticket area.

Most of these staff were painfully slow but for one young lady who was about five times quicker than her colleagues. Within a couple of minutes this young lady had basically cleared the backlog of customers and I found myself purchasing my tickets from her, I told her that she was terrific, and not only that, unlike her surly colleagues she was friendly, smiling and accurate in her work. Her name is Sara, and no doubt she is going to be a very valuable employee.
I don’t understand why it would be so hard for this cinema to hire and manage their staff, but clearly it is. I don’t understand why it’s so difficult for this cinema to keep their lift working between their car park and their foyer, but it is usually inoperative. I don’t know why this cinema should find it difficult to keep the door between their car park and their cinema unlocked but clearly they do. It should not be very hard to place staff at ticket machines for one of the busiest days of the year but they clearly do. I still don’t understand why it should cost more than £11 ($20) for two small (kids) popcorns and two drinks, but it does, but I understand why, its because the cinema wants to rip their customers off.

For the record I have an annual ticket to this cinema chain because I like to go to the cinema, but it would be great if they had any clue how to run their cinemas. They have a total management failure. They should beg that young woman, Sara, to take over. They are the Fawlty Towers of movie theatre management.

In the UK we are generally pretty bad at service, although this is still a radical improvement since I was a boy. Then the service was more or less non-existent. I remember being in the Midlands town of Derby when I was a boy and I couldn’t find a decent meal during a whole week’s stay, now you would probably find something edible every day. The service improved with the immigration of people who want to live in this country, mainly from Eastern Europe. Clearly the lesson is that you can have better service if you are prepared to increase your population by a few million people. Unless you visit the Cineworld in Enfield, where they still manage to provide the lousiest, rudest and most inefficient old-fashioned lack of service possible. It reminds me of the good old days!

British Insanity

You couldn’t make up madness on the level of the current British Government. This is a group of losers on a heroic scale. Led by the hapless and hopeless George Brown, the once feared Chancellor of the Exchequer has proved to be one of the most inept and unlucky Prime Minister’s this country has experienced in the modern era. This is exacerbated by some of the most ridiculous legislative ideas we have ever seen.

The latest manifestation of this ineptitude is the serious proposal whereby the Government will electronically collect every phone call, e-mail and Internet visit made in the country. They will then use any of this information subject to an individual coming under investigation.

Remember this is the same Government that has lost and mislaid most of our Health and Tax information during the last year. On the bright side they did apologize, so that’s OK then.

Why does the Government think they might need this mountain of information? No one could answer that question logically because if they really did need this why not collect every single snail mail letter, what about recording every meeting while we’re at it? Perhaps because the whole idea is totally mad.

Before the counter argument is produced like a tired fig leaf, let me state that you don’t necessarily have anything to hide because you want to protect a citizen’s right to privacy. It should be an inalienable right. Remember also that the Draconian counter terrorism laws we already have in place have not proven effective. The enormous weight of counter terrorism economic compliance legislation has been in force for quite a while in this country, and is a very good example for us to look at. These rules, including having to prove your identity for almost every financial transaction, producing your passport even for opening a bank account, have so far not resulted in a single arrest.

What it all does mean is that our security services have almost limitless access to all of our information and that there’s nothing we can do about it. Even in an avuncular, moderate and paternalistic democracy such as our own, I am very worried by these powers. Imagine, once these laws were in place and our Government, or the situation in which we found ourselves, more extreme, how these laws could be used against any of us.

If you don’t like these proposals let your friends know. Each of us is responsible for informing our media outlets and Members of Parliament.

American Elections - Help Anyone?

American friends, help please. I have been closely observing the Democrat primary selection process and I am hopelessly confused. I had thought that the candidates would stand against one another in all the States and the winner of the most states won, and would be selected as the Democrat Presidential candidate.

OK, then it was explained to me that each of the States had a different size and importance so, for example, if you won California it was worth a whole lot more than West Virginia. The way this works is that you evaluate each State by its electoral importance and gain delegates proportionate to this.

By this measurement Barak Obama is just about crossing the finishing line, sufficiently ahead of Hillary Clinton to mean that she cannot win. Aha, I thought, then that’s it, he’s won and she has lost, it’s all over! But no, it is still possible for her to win because of the Super Delegates. Who are the bloody Super Delegates, where did they come from and who selected them and why are they there in the first place? Answers anyone? By the way, it is distinctly possible that Hillary will win the popular vote, and win a greater number of States yet still lose the race to be selected as the Democrat Presidential candidate.

Apparently Hillary was ahead in the Super Delegate count at one stage but not now. Even these Delegates with apparently super powers, are now edging towards Barak. Don’t ask me how or why, I don’t even know where they came from or what special powers they possess.

I was recently in America and some of the Super Delegates appeared on TV. There was an impossibly powerful and glamorous black woman who explained why she wasn’t for Barak and a geeky little blonde guy who, with equal conviction told the audience why he loved him and hated Hillary, although, of course, being a Super Delegate, also telling us why he loved and respected her.

What no one explained was what were these Super Delegates and how did you go about being selected to be one and for how long, and do you get paid, and if so, by who and how much? Or are the Super Delegates like Mayflies just appearing for a few mysterious days for reasons only other Mayflies would understand?

Another American anachronism is the Washington political lobbyists. In this week’s Time magazine, Joel Stein quotes the Presidential candidates who state that the lobbyists are so powerful they are ruining democracy. You can make matters even more confusing if you add the layers to this democratic cake. There are also consultants, who are paid to advise the lobbyists, who guide them how to lobby. Then there are the registered lobbyists who are what all lobbyists should be, if they want to be a kosher lobbyist, because if you’re not a registered lobbyist you are just an advocate. The other difference is that a lobbyist gets paid, whereas an advocate doesn’t.

Add to this the continuing American mystery regarding their spooky Electoral College. This shadowy body is a hangover from the country’s post-colonial genesis, I think. These people seem to come into play after the general electorate have voted and can, if they so desire, turn over the result. Apparently, there are circumstances where this unelected and unknown group can become the most important voters in the world, without anyone knowing much about them or what they stand for, or even, how they were selected. Please, American friends, can you explain all of this to me and how you can reconcile any of it with your being the most powerful democracy on the planet.

I guess I need a beginner’s class on American politics, anyone care to join me, or do you all understand their system? I was stupid enough to think all you had to do was vote, someone would count the votes up, and whoever got more was the winner. How dumb could I get?

Honesty

There is a concept I shall call keeping your word. Making a commitment to someone and keeping it, come what may. This doesn’t seem to apply in many aspects of our lives and this dishonesty is becoming progressively more acceptable to society.

One glaring example is in football. Soccer stars, like other sports super stars, sign contracts that tie them to a club for an agreed period of time, usually about five years, in return for which they receive a great deal of money. This is no longer the case. Now, if a player does well, or another club comes sniffing after their services, their agent will seek increased terms or they will make noise until they force a rupture with their original club. Imagine if the situation were reversed, and the player had a bad spell, and the club tried to get rid of them or reduce their terms. There would be righteous indignation.

Agents and players take ruthless advantage of this situation. It used to be the case that the clubs exploited the players, who had little or no power. Now the situation is reversed, and it is just as dishonest when the players and their representatives behave appallingly. Why sign a contract you have no obligation or wish to maintain? What makes this situation even more unappealing is the cod loyalty players publicly express when they literally bang their fists on their hearts where their club insignia is to be found on their shirts when they do something positive in a match. They do this to demonstrate to their fellow players, the fans and their TV viewers, that they adore their club. What dishonesty, the only thing they want to be a part of is that club’s money.

What makes this situation even sadder is that no one seems to be surprised by this lack of morality. Kids growing up, who love their clubs, learn to live with this lack of scruples. What are the implications for their behavior when they grow up if these examples are seen as the norm?

Happy Birthday Israel!

This month Israel celebrated its 60th. birthday. This remarkable little country has achieved much in that short piece of time. Its population has gone from just over a million Arabs and Jews to more than seven million in that time. Although officially a Jewish state its population includes about 20% Arab Israelis.

We know that many people, rich and poor, educated or not, from every class in every country, hate Israel with unreasoning passion. As a Jewish person, I have learned how to live with this. But I don’t have to like it. I don’t have to accept it either. I was at a dinner party overseas a couple of years back with a low level British diplomat and his family. Clearly the man didn’t know I was Jewish, and this was a private function, so he felt free to voice the often concealed opinion that all the problems in the Middle East would cease if only shitty little Israel simply ceased to exist. I told him of my heritage and why he was wrong, and, to give the devil his due, he listened carefully and then gave me a fulsome and well meant apology. His original contentions were clearly not true, and demonstrated a total lack of understanding and knowledge of the region. Notwithstanding a million such calumnies, Israel does exist, and grows, despite all its enemies.

One of the latest, fashionable canards thrown in Israel’s direction is that it is an apartheid state although its Arab citizens willingly tell anyone interested that this is not true. Is there any truth in the counter accusation that the Israel haters are closet anti-Semites? Obviously not everyone who hates Israel is anti-Semitic, but there is a depressing correlation. Enough of their number give such unreasoning and unreasonable views on Israel that such conclusions become inevitable. In their publicly aired opinions Israel has become the bully and the entire Arab word the oppressed. This is such a distortion it would be funny if it were not so ridiculous. Just look at a map, and check out the numbers. Israel is a tiny country, the size of Wales, and is surrounded by enemies on all sides, occupying many countries, and more like the size of Europe. Israel’s population faces enemies numbering about fifty times their number.

Israel is still the only democratic state in the Middle East and this means that anyone can vote, without threat or pressure, for anyone they like. This has resulted in some volatility, but despite the wishful thinking of Israel’s enemies, it has survived and prospered.

This prosperity is evidence of Israel’s ingenuity, hard work and innovation. The country has virtually no raw materials, gas, oil or resources given to them by the grace of fate. Everything the country prospers from is derived from brains and brawn employed with unflagging energy.

When the country’s independence was voted for by the United Nations in 1948 all its neighboring Arab countries refused to accept the decision. Instead of welcoming the new state they instantly declared war and attempted to invade it from every direction. Israel, after tremendous losses, despite huge odds, managed to be victorious. This pattern of Arab denial, Israeli victory and continued, sometimes escalating intransigence, became the norm.

There were major wars following the War of Independence known as The Suez War, The Six Day War, The Yom Kippur War and The War of Attrition. To which you could add two Intifada’s and two Lebanon Wars and unending terrorist incursions and attacks.

Israel can never seem to do right since they started winning these wars. When it appeared inevitable that the fledgling state was going to be extinguished there were many admirers to be found around the world. They applauded its then socialist moral compass. The image of its people was miraculously transformed from downtrodden victims of the world’s ghettos to straight backed, handsome warriors.

Like every country on the planet Israel has made mistakes, but not noticeably more than others, and somewhat less than its many enemy neighbors. The difference is that every mistake Israel makes is magnified and those of others, particularly its enemies, are always excused as the result of Israel’s actions. It is this twisted logic that turned Israel’s building of a defensive wall to keep terrorists out into an act of aggression. This constant attack on this construction is despite the fact that it did succeed in reducing the number of terrorist bombings in Israel by more than 97%. By the way we didn’t hear similar criticism of the building of a similar defensive wall in Belfast by the British to keep the warring Catholics and Protestants apart. That wall still exists and has apparently been maintained in good order.

The aspirations from the world of Israel are far greater than for any other new country. Israel is achieving continuing breakthroughs in technology, agriculture, design, medicine and all the other elements of a modern society and has done so despite constant attacks and embargoes.

People in other countries have such a distorted view of Israel that their perception is of an ugly country, with war on every corner, populated by lying, ugly bigots who arbitrarily attack their downtrodden neighbors. The country and its people are extremely attractive at its best, and like everywhere else at its worst. The average is average. What’s exceptional is that everyone, friends and enemies alike expect and demand more from her than any other country. Perhaps it’s this unrealistic expectation that cannot to be met, that means Israel is bound to disappoint. But in reaching for the stars Israel can, and I hope and believe, will achieve greatness. Happy birthday Israel.

Editing

There is something mysterious happening with the news on our televisions in Britain. I have worked in and taught about the media, so I know a little about how it’s organized. We all realize that the running order and inclusion of stories is in the hands of the editors. They select from a multitude of sources what they want to show, and where in the running order it will be featured.

Recently one has to question whether this is being done for professional or political reasons. I don’t know the answer, but I have my suspicions. Last week, for instance, was the celebration of the 60th. Anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel. There were virtually no upbeat stories on this subject to be found on the BBC, and it was very rare elsewhere. What’s wrong guys, don’t you want to see Israeli’s celebrating in the street, doesn’t it fit your depressing picture of that country?

Instead we were presented with the doleful face of Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s Middle East Editor, looking glum somewhere in Israel, and talking about the event from an almost entirely negative, Palestinian perspective. He talked about the tragedy of the Palestinian people as if there had not been a vote in the United Nations calling for the establishment of a Jewish state in 1948. I thought that Jeremy’s job was to report the news, and the news was that Israel was celebrating its birthday.

After all, for every story of displaced Palestinians one could point to a similar story of displaced Jews from Arab countries. Somehow those stories are never told. Come to think of it, why in this story of displacement is it only Palestinians that get mentioned when you could add the aboriginals of Australia, the Indian and Pakistanis, Maoris, Hottentots, Red Indians, Anglo-Saxons and so on throughout history.

This politically correct tendency appeared to be in evidence again when it came to reporting the recent terrible events in South Africa. There, mobs of South Africans, mostly in the Johannesburg area, have rampaged against the immigrant populations, primarily their Zimbabwean neighbors. There are reports of several hundred murders, rapes and burnings. This is a Cossack pogrom writ large in the African sun.

I don’t know what has motivated this lack of attention on British television. Is it because the story simply doesn’t reflect the left leaning liberal bias of the editors who don’t want such stories to be seen?

Don't Assume

You know the saying, don’t ASSUME, as it can make an ASS out of U and ME! This is very clearly true when we measure our reaction to other cultures and civilizations. We believe we have the ultimate system in democracy, and assume that this paragon must be what every other country really desires. This is not even nearly true.

I agree with the great Winston Churchill when he said, “democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

I vividly recall the shock I received when working in various countries in the African continent. Their attitudes were extremely localized. Sometimes narrowed beyond the tribe to the village their extended family occupied. Most of the conflicts in Africa have their roots within these parameters. The genesis of such conflict is impenetrable to the liberal Westerner as our societies are totally different. Not better or worse, but incompatible.

This difference was demonstrated to me when my driver murdered the husband of a woman he was having an affair with. He felt no remorse for the killing but did feel he let me down; as he was being arrested he apologized. The man he had murdered was from a different tribe and his life didn’t matter to him.

Another example transpired when one of our trucks had a terrible accident and ran over a small boy in one of the country villages. The boy was about seven or eight years old and we were all saddened and upset. We were summoned to meet with the village elder to straighten the matter out. We went to apologize and do anything we could for the boy’s family. It was soon made clear to us that we had to pay a certain sum of money and that would be an end to the matter. We did so and there was no further discussion.

I want to make clear that I don’t think any particular society is superior but just a simple statement of historical fact. We see things differently. This reflection was sparked by a question I was asked yesterday. That was did I imagine that China would one day evolve into a democracy. That’s a bit like asking whether a bear will grow up to be a monkey. They’re both animals, and have fur and power, but there the similarities end.

China has a history of generals, hard work, cleverness, and feudal, provincial barons, which we’d now call big local businessmen. Nothing has changed and nothing will change, just the names by which this same power elite is known.

In Russia there has been a Tsar for many hundreds of years, and there still is, but now his name is Mister Putin, and he was the President and now he’s the Prime Minister. As my mother used to say when watching a cowboy film, same man, different hats. The Russians seem partial to a strong man at the centre of power.

Every society has its own way of doing things, and it may well be that it’s a sign of affluence that we can afford democracy. How free and democratic was Britain during World War Two, when total war dictated a strict limit on personal freedom in order to win.

We now face the War on Terror and again our freedom is being limited, with progressively more laws being enacted so that we might win. Yesterday it was suggested in Britain that all phone calls, e-mails and entire electronic footprint be retained automatically on an annual basis. If the authorities then believe you were suspicious they could then appeal to a judge for permission to delve into that record. Big Brother has truly arrived. If you believe, for one moment, that this will not be abused then you are entirely too trusting and naïve.

Other countries will continue to evolve along their own lines. Therefore Russia will always seek a Tsar, and the Chinese might politically implode against the Communist system but will still have some feudal, regional warlord at its core. Each to their own. Aberrations like the German’s Nazi tyranny will, unfortunately come along every so often, in different parts of the world, but will be a reaction to, or an exploitation of economic catastrophe.

America, the World’s number one country over the last one hundred years will have to re-adjust to not being its pre-eminent power. Its economy is sliding down the league table and it just isn’t tenable or supportable to run an economy long-term with debts in the trillions of dollars. That self re-evaluation could be very painful to the States and could well be defined by whomever the country elects in the upcoming battle.

In Britain it will be whether or not we are prosperous plus defining the balance between our personal liberty and our self-protection that will decide just how democratic our society is going to be over the next century. Hang on tight everyone; it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Lord Malloch-Brown, Prat?

Have you ever watched someone from your government recently and thought, “you define a new level of stupidity, pomposity, ignorance, arrogance and plain incompetence, you are an idiot!” Just such a person appeared this week, his name shall shortly be revealed in this blog. Like most of you I have long despaired regarding the levels of nonsense generated by most governments, but this man, wanting to do good, could have exactly the reverse effect just because he’s so vain, self-seeking and stupid.

Two things collided in my consciousness over the last few days. The first was the worsening crisis in Burma following the terrible tragedy brought about by the cyclone of May 2 that destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives in that benighted country. There are estimates suggesting as many as 225,000 dead or missing.

That tragedy has been made much worse by the Burmese regime’s blinkered, stupid and misguided refusal to allow international aid into the country. This is clearly brought about by the paranoia of a dictatorship. There are indications that this stonewall defiance of the world’s wish to help is breaking down. The Burmese authorities are now saying that if the aid comes through the funnel of neighboring Asian countries it will be allowed into the country. So, just when that difficult regime might have been convinced to do the right thing along comes the British diplomat who is anything but diplomatic.

The British diplomatic connection to this terrible story is a man called Lord Malloch-Brown who represents my country as a Minister of State for the Foreign Office as its Asia Minister. He is, therefore, by definition, a diplomat. After listening to his Lordship on BBC’s Radio 4 the word diplomat is clearly not applicable to the Lord.

Malloch-Brown is an old human rights activist. Personally I might share many of his views, but then again I am not a diplomat sent to calm troubled waters, he is. Brown spent this interview purportedly about the Burmese disaster, and many others on the TV news on the previous day, lambasting the Burmese regime. He did this after stating that the situation with the Burmese Government was extremely delicate.

Surely even this diplomatic dimwit can understand that the last thing he should be doing is to try and score cheap human rights brownie points against the regime when his job is to diplomatically enable the aid the world can unleash to save lives via that same regime.

Does this public relations disaster of a man really not understand that the Burmese authorities also have televisions and radios and can and do monitor what is being said about them?

Perhaps Lord Malloch-Brown believes that his voicing his opinions about the odious government’s terrible track record of human rights abuses is more important than saving human lives?

Lord Malloch-Brown, is he a diplomat or a new definition of the word, prat?

Family and Friends Come First

Family and friends should come first for all of us, and now, for me, they do. There was a time, when I was very young, driven and ambitious, that this might not have been true for me. Now, with the passing of time, it has become my credo.

When I was eight years old I knew what I wanted to be, but not how to achieve this goal. When I was sixteen I thought I knew it all. When I was in my twenties I was sure I knew all the answers, and now, in my fifties I am sure I don't.

When I was about eighteen I drew up a list of things to achieve in my lifetime, and by the time I was twenty one I had ticked almost all of the boxes. Some would say I have had the perfect career, but mostly in reverse!

The truth is that when I had climbed to the top of my first, self imposed, career mountain I quickly realized that I was just in the foothills of the Himalayas, and that there would always be another peak to climb.

It's the same with life. Sadly many of us don't understand we're in a more important race until the whole thing has gone hurtling past us. I began to find this was the case when my family started to grow. Perhaps I lost some of my compulsive drive with the birth of the first of my children, and it reduced more with the next two. But I think I gained more with my love for them than it cost me by reducing my drive for my career. I do believe there is a work / family balance, and if there is a choice to be made you are a fool if you don't choose the latter every time.

This is, I guess, a long winded way of saying I have a family day today, and therefore will not be posting a "proper" blog about a serious issue of the day, but perhaps I shouldn't be apologizing, because I just may have posted the most important blog of all.

More Hot Water

We all live very close to the edge of a big hole. This hole should be labeled the unknown. It is a scary, dark place, full of boogey men, and other things that go bump in the dark. We can fall into that hole very easily if we are not lucky.

When I was a young boy my father wanted me to understand his past, where he came from, and how far we had all traveled. He had been born poor, his father a tailor’s presser, living in a small house in London’s Soho district. This was then more like something Damon Runyon might have imagined than the place it is today. Soho was then very heavily populated by two main constituent parts, the Jewish and Irish immigrant populations who had arrived in the 1890’s through to the 1910’s. They lived in hard working poverty.

What set apart my early childhood in Hackney, and later in West Acton from my father’s in Soho, was running hot water. Dad would delight in telling me the tales of his family having to travel to the communal baths, once a week. The tiny houses they inhabited had outside toilets and no bathrooms with running water. I was never aware of such deprivation, as I had been born into a world of limitless hot water on demand. Dad remembered, and told me with relish, his tales of visits to these communal baths. This was a big building in which there were literally rows of baths in separate cubicles for privacy. Each customer would visit each cubicle, and he recalled that there was always some old man who would call out in a middle European accent, “More hot water, number twenty two!”

Today I have my own children and grand children and these passed on memories are even more distant and foreign to them. However, very recently I had reason to recollect them. We have a form of home insurance that covers all our utility provisions. It guarantees that, in the event of their malfunction, they will be immediately fixed. To prevent problems the contractors make annual visits to maintain all the systems in good order. We just had the last such inspection. All went well until the guy inspected our previously lovely boiler. He found a fault, although I still don’t understand it’s exact nature, and he turned it off, for three weeks whilst we have to wait for the necessary part. He further informed us that the boiler could not be turned back on until it had been fixed.

The result is that there will be no heating or hot water via the boiler in Klinger Towers for nearly a month. Luckily we have other, back up heating and hot water systems, and it’s warming up weather wise. However it did make me realize how close we all are to that black hole we’re all so scared of.

This is a wonderful metaphor for how close our economies are to the edge of an abyss. Everyone is tightening their financial belts, and cutting down on their spending on big and small ticket items. What we need to see is more direct, visible help from our governments and banks to the same end.

An obvious suggestion is that it is essential that we keep people unable to meet their mortgage commitments in their homes through this crisis. The banks should be instructed to provide “shared ownership” schemes as an alternative to foreclosure. This would have the effect of reducing monthly payments and stopping the doughnut effect already happening to some American city districts, where entire streets are now unoccupied due to foreclosures. That is going to do no one any good except for the greedy speculators already licking their lips at the prospect of easy money born on the backs of other’s misfortune.

We need to see positive steps by our leaders in the opposite direction, away from the big hole, After all, if we fall into the big hole, we will all fall into it together, as we are all linked. We don’t want a future in a communal bath where we hear the words, “More hot water, number twenty two.” Do we?

Blog or Article?

Sometimes I'm not too sure whether this is more of an article than a blog. This is one of those times. I have tried to analyze the difference between the formats because I write both. However, there are times, many of them, when something I have written for the one format finds its way, comfortably, to the other.

It seems to me that the main differentiator that other writers impose is that blogs are written more from a personal perspective, based on the small scraps of everyday life, whereas an article is, perhaps, written about the issues of the day. The latter with less use of the perpendicular pronoun, I.

As I use I in both formats, without fear or trepidation, and write of the universal from my scrappy and personal perspective, I don't see much difference. Perhaps the only real separation that exists is that which exists between where you read these blogs or articles. If you read them on a screen they become a blog, and if you read a printed version they magically morph into an article.

Does the different title, article or blog matter? Yes, in a way it does, to the reader, not the writer. A blog betokens to many readers a certain immediacy that is not implied by the word, article. The latter word suggests more sober reflection, more time spent in composition. Sorry to disappoint, but for this writer, the same time is spent on both formats. As with all forms of writing, and I try my hand at most, the methods used by different writers are dependent on our ways of thinking and working and not the end use of what we write.

A question I often get asked is how do I make the time to write most days? This is a bit like asking many of you how do you make time for eating or breathing. Writing is what I do, it makes me what I am. Everything else flows from that source. I don't find it any harder than anything else I do, it's an entirely natural process. Sometimes it works out better or worse. As for the time it takes there is no simple answer. Our brains are like a sponge, and are constantly taking in information and mulling over issues, my mother used to call my dad and me, scrambled egg brains. Whether we like it or not we are mentally masticating our world view constantly. My way of dealing with the results is to write down my conclusions and to share them with you, whether it's in this format, or a screenplay or in prose.

I also get asked how I make money out of this and my answer is that this is nothing to do with anyone but me. What I found, in blog and article writing, as with my writing in all other formats, is that you don't write to make money, but if you write reasonably you can and do make some money, sometimes.

Today's offering has taken me about the same to write as it has taken you to read. Someone who bought a screenplay from my then agent said he was shocked he had to pay so much when he had discovered that this particular script had only taken me two weeks to write. My agent, a very wise man, responded, "yes, it took Tony two weeks, two weeks and thirty years before that to learn how to do it in two weeks."

For the next couple of days, here's the more classically blog section, I shall be out of sight as I work out of town taking part in a validation process for a large group of degrees at an English education establishment. I'm confident that will give me new writing opportunities.

Learning in England

When I was in charge of a film degree programme at an English university I was once confronted by the parents of a student. My first question was, why are the parents of a 20-year-old student confronting me, when it should be the student talking to me? The student had failed the year, and the parents would not accept the situation. Their questions betrayed everything about current British social attitudes. The attitude of these concerned parents was aggressive and ill informed. They felt that they could legitimately demand that their child’s grades be reconsidered on the basis that, as they were paying something towards his education, they were customers or consumers, and therefore the fault must be with the suppliers, not their child. As we had “failed” to provide the student with sufficiently good teaching to pass the year we should be penalized, rather than the kid.

I had the unhappy task of informing the parents that their offspring had missed many classes, failed to deliver course work on time, failed tests and exams, missed lectures and been disruptive. Their response astonished me. Despite all this evidence of their child’s failings, they didn’t think we were entitled to have failed him. This was not a one off instance. These are the consequence of a society where people have been educated to believe there should be no winners or losers, just participants.

For those of you living in Britain today is another day of national educational testing for our children. In this country there are such tests for all children and all educational establishments all the time. I should declare an interest here, other than having been an academic myself. I am also part of the testing establishment as I have worked as an External Examiner at various UK universities, and still validate degree programs at others. In addition I have marked student papers both for universities and evaluation boards. I know that our systems are rigorous, fair and as good as anything to be found internationally, and better than most. I do not question that we need such a systematic approach to evaluation. The questions I am raising are about how these systems are being employed.

There is a perception in other countries that the English are arrogant. It might have been true in the past, but now, I think the truth is the opposite. The English tend to undervalue some of their finest accomplishments, such as its university system, and this has led to over scrutiny of their institutions. As a consequence the country does more than it needs by way of constant checking and double-checking. This is certainly true in education where it is becoming very difficult to deliver normal teaching.

I shall give you one example of this. When I was teaching at Further Education level recently it has become standard practice to break down lectures into twenty minutes sections, and each of these mini sections had to be planned, within the length of the whole lecture or class. This could mean, in a three-hour lecture, that there were, in fact, nine mini classes to prepare. In addition the lecturer has to prepare a lesson plan for each class, each student, and this all had to fit within the course curriculum and the annualized plan for the subject. I could continue but your heads would spin with this huge paper over indulgence. I was teaching, face to face, on a part time basis for twenty hours per week, and it took almost another twenty hours to prepare and assess the results of our labors. This is both disproportionate and wasteful. We would have been much better employed working more effectively with the students, but this is the result of being more worried about box ticking than it is about teaching and learning.

What undoubtedly started as a method to make sure everything was fair and appropriate has degenerated into an effort to evaluate everyone and everything as if it were meeting an almost mythical target composed by a bureaucrat who knows nothing about the teaching process but a great deal about how you best tick a box. Believe this or not, it is very possible to tick all the right boxes in education and still not deliver what you should, and the opposite is equally possible.

Yesterday it was reported that there are schools and colleges in Britain who conduct their classes in eight-minute sections. After each eight minute section the class is distracted intentionally by being told to get up, play some basketball and then, after fifteen minutes, return to the next eight minute section of study. They do this because a study told them this would be a more effective method for students to retain information. The results, apparently, support this finding. I frankly want proof that this is so, and even then, would argue against this method. Having worked with a twenty-minute version of this system I can report that it does work with some students, sometimes, depending on what you’re trying to do, the subject matter, and the part of the curriculum you’re trying to teach or learn. It is both foolish and destructive to adopt a one size fits all mentality.

Clearly the teaching process and its evaluation is a question of balance, and for the present I am compelled to report that we are still seeking to achieve something approximating this. The aim remains right, but the methods employed are, on occasion in England, too intrusive, change too often and are inappropriately harsh in many instances.

Oh Happy Day!

This is a very happy day, one on which the sun seems to shine brighter, and the world glows with a special warmth. Of course, to those of you who know me well, the reason will be obvious. My team, Manchester United, the best football team on the planet, has won the Premier League in England. It was a glorious season, made all the better for our having won out over three of the best teams in Europe, all of whom play in the same English League. Well done to Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool for staying so close, and making such a fight of it.

The club has played exceptionally over the season, scoring more goals and letting in fewer than any other team. They won the league by going out for each game with total self belief, knowing that they would score. They were exciting, entrancing and better than all the rest. Not easy in the best league in the world. The same league that supplied four (each country in Europe is entitled to a maximum of its four highest placed teams into the European Champions League) of the quarter finalists and three of the semi finalists of the Champions League.

Now, with an allowable party period of a day or two to get over, the mighty Manchester United will fix their eyes on trying to win the European Champions League Final in Moscow against Chelsea in a little more than a week. It will be a tough game, but it seems appropriate that Man U are in the final fifty years after the Munich air crash decimated the club. That team will be watching over the progress of their successors, and they will be smiling.

This, Our Fascist Future?

The Fascists in pre-War Italy and Germany took away liberties whilst re-directing the attention of their populations. It was the same kind of cheap trick that a magician might use, the trick of sleight of hand, misdirection. In the UK and the USA this is again becoming fashionable, indeed politically correct in the UK.

On British television the Government’s department, DVLA, the motor vehicle licensing authority are running an advertisement that graphically shows a couple’s car being crushed because they had not paid their annual car tax. I can understand a fine, even a very large fine, but why crush their car? This is beyond an acceptable charge allowing people to use their cars, this is Draconian.

In the States the actor, Wesley Snipes, didn’t pay his tax. The Internal Revenue Service prosecuted him for this. He is undoubtedly wrong, and surely he’s a fool. Snipes offered to pay the court all the money that was due, and he offered fines and penalties. His offer to pay was accepted and, in addition he has been sentenced to 3 years imprisonment. Why, what does this achieve except to demonstrate to the rest of us what could happen to us all in other words they are making an example of the very stupid Mr. Snipes. Making examples of idiots is not the intention or design of the law.

The British Foreign Minister, David Miliband, was on The Politics Show this morning and stated, with a straight face, that “There is less chance of your being affected by crime now that at any time since 1981.” What planet is David on? If the government has statistics to back this claim, then they are fixing the statistics to suit their argument. The first casualty of our diminishing democracy is clearly the truth.

We are witnessing the politics of envy writ large. In the UK there are a new range of car tax charges that escalate with the size of the car’s engine. This is meant to encourage us all toward the use of smaller engine capacity vehicles, which have a lower carbon emission. Added to this we will soon see a similar system of Congestion Charging for cars entering London. For myself, with two cars to pay for, I have no hesitation in stating that I shall have to downsize my cars, not because I want to, but because I am being compelled to do so through these stealth taxes.

There is yet another Government advertising campaign on British television in which the average citizen’s lifestyle is demonstrated as leaving a literal carbon footprint, as each footfall leaves a trail of oil on the floor. The message is that we should all use less energy. This would be laudable if there was evidence attached, telling us in real, forensic terms, the benefits and costs of such a policy. Right now the entire hypothesis is founded on the unproven theory that global warming is man made. Following that argument we should all be compelled to reduce our use of fossil fuels and therefore we could put into reverse global warming. I repeat there is no undeniable proof, just a politically correct argument.

The way we live our lives should be our choice in a democracy. If we want to live a certain way, perhaps eating more vegetables and fruit or being more “green” then that is our right. It should not be allowable for our governments to make such behavior compulsory. That is the clear trend in the UK and it is wrong. We are on a slippery slope of decreasing liberty and increasing compulsion. It is time for everyone to wake up and tell the politicians to back off.

It used to be that what happened first in America was soon followed by us in Britain, and now it feels as if that has reversed itself. So watch out in the States, this "Big Brother" society is something we all need to be aware of and to combat, before it grows too big to resist.

A Wonderful Day

Some days are made to remember for all the right reasons. Today was like that. The sun was shining and our daughter and her husband, Matt, and wonderful son, Archie, 3 and a half years old of blond, beautiful fun were to come over for lunch.

There is no big story here, nothing to shout about, no big message, just a small piece about love.

About mid-day the family arrived, carrying deli food which, if you like that kind of thing, seems to come direct from heaven, via a place called Yummies in Radlett. I don't have shares nor even know the current owners, but I still think they were sent for our pleasure.

I received two phone calls today, just before the family arrived, from my cousins. They had both heard from my sister about the very bad day I I had that I reported to you a couple of weeks back when I was on a cruise ship in Mexico. They both wanted me to know they cared. It gave me a very warm feeling that both my cousins, who know me so well, still do care, just like I was still a little boy in the warm embrace of the family.

My daughter and her family settled in, and we all sat outside in the lovely, warm sunshine. The last couple of days there had been a duck, who we'd named Mrs. Puddleduck, who had taken up residence in our garden. I hoped that she'd come to greet Archie, but she decided to be elsewhere. So we inflated the puddling pool and watched everyone have fun. Georgia, my daughter, is pregnant with her second child, due in July, and its wonderful to see her in bloom at the same time as the rest of the world.

I felt a desperate need for confectionary so I asked Archie and Matt if they wanted to accompany me. Archie was ready in an instant, and Matt soon thereafter. We walked to the sweet shop and Archie soon found the penny sweets, which now cost two pennies. He made his selections that he handed to the proprieter, a middle aged lady from the Indian sub-continent. When she had finished and handed Archie his bag of sweets, I paid for them. Archie then said, "Now Poppa can spend some of his money on himself." We laughed, as I did so, purchasing some stuff for the rest of the family.

After buying some quickly melting ice cream on the way back we soon walked back to consume our purchases and relax in each other's company. At the end of the day, with the warmth still in the air, the kids went home. Later there was a phone call from Georgia. She told me that, when Matt was putting Archie to bed, my grandson said, "Poppa's a very nice man isn't he." He could give me no bigger gift.

What a great day.

Is This What You Want?

What do we value more than life itself? Freedom. I write this with some certainty because many of our fathers and grand fathers died to preserve our freedoms from tyranny and oppression. Like many of you I think these freedoms, soaked in the blood of our forefathers, are being stripped from us in the UK, one by one.

This might appear alarmist, but it is, nevertheless, a common theme of many conversations in our country. The stripping away of freedom doesn’t happen with suddenness or crudity, it might not even be intentional, but the results are nevertheless deeply worrying and to be opposed. Read The Diary of Anne Frank, the story of the young Jewish girl growing up in war torn Holland during the Nazi occupation and you can witness a perfect example of how freedoms can be stripped away from the individual in almost acceptable, imperceptible increments. This happened in Holland where the Jews were forced to wear a star to set them apart, then not allowed to ride their bicycle, then not allowed onto the trams, then to own businesses, then to educate, then to be educated, be doctors and so on without end.

In today’s UK we don’t have oppressive racial laws, quite the opposite. Here we have the beginnings of a cross between the seminal books, Animal Farm and 1984, both by the late, great British author, George Orwell. The state is becoming progressively more all seeing and all knowing and not many are yet resisting. All the measures we will point out were supposedly originated as counter terrorism actions. What we should be doing is evaluating the need for these measures and understanding where these abuses of our personal liberty will inevitably lead.

If you dare to question any of these measures you are always told, “If you’ve done nothing wrong why would you worry about these measures?” The implication is that you must be guilty of something or you would quietly go along with any of these new measures. Well, I’ve done nothing wrong that I know of, and I strongly object. The truth is if this were a right wing government putting such measures in place then the country would be rioting on the streets to fight against them.

As those of you who have read my blogs or articles before will know I have grave reservations about the 4.5 million CCTV cameras we have in place. Do we really need anything like this number, and do we need to be photographed 300 to 400 a times per day? The argument in favor of those that support this level of surveillance is that this amount of cameras has allowed our security forces to quickly capture the perpetrators of some of the terrorist attacks against our society. I believe this argument has some merit, but is the price greater than the result?

Don’t forget that we are being photographed all of the time, whatever we’re doing, and wherever we are. Remember that in the UK many of the local authorities have hidden cameras in hundreds of thousand of our rubbish bins to check whether we are correctly separating our trash as instructed. Is this the kind of society you want to live in?

Educating all the Children

“…If we are to reach real peace in this world and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with children” – M.K. Gandhi

A woman named Jessica Hale, who makes documentary films, made me open my eyes to the fact that the future changes the world will need to undertake will rest heavily or lightly on the shoulders of the world’s youth. How many people know or care what the differences are between an illegal alien, a legal alien, an economic migrant from the newly expanded European Union territories that are allowed entry, or someone from Rumania or Bulgaria, who are not allowed entry to our fair shores. I could go on but you get the picture. We don’t have a true number of the people in the UK, and we’re drowning in our own ignorance.

As Jessica correctly said, if you ask these young people what an asylum seeker is or what organizations like the UNHCR does, and most look at you with blank stares or they would more likely look away to avoid the question. As world crisis spreads it seems more and more important to educate the very age being most effected by social persecution. In thirty years our children will be running the world. If children are sheltered from the wrong doing of today how can they prepare to turn things around for the millions who already suffer?

It is our responsibility to make future generations aware of social and political issues that will directly affect them throughout their lives. Our children must be educated so that we enable them to recognize similarities between themselves and the refugee children, as well as show global concern, social responsibility, empathy and respect for others.

I attended a meeting that was addressed by Ron Lauder, the President of the American Jewish Congress and he said much the same thing. We won’t get anywhere without the kids knowing where they come from and where they’re aiming to go.

In Los Angeles I met with Rabbi David Wolpe, who was recognized by Newsweek magazine as the leading pulpit rabbi in America. We agreed that the future lay in educating the young. However therein is a dichotomy. If we, the liberals of the West, do our best to educate as many of our children as we can, what protects them from the haters in our world’s midst?

How do we get these horsemen of the apocalypse to stop poisoning the minds of their young? I honestly don’t think you can. I believe that there is nothing we can say or do to stop them hating us and wanting us dead. By us I mean the liberals, the West, the Jews, America, Great Britain and Israel, and not necessarily in that order. By them I mean the leadership of Iran and the terrorist organizations such as Hizballah, Hamas, Al Quada and the Taliban plus quite a large number of radical, fundamentalist Muslims. As everyone knows the leadership in Iran has called for the total elimination of the State of Israel and is developing the means to achieve this.

Therefore, and I say this with great reluctance, I feel the time has come to recognize that these are our implacable enemies and to stop trying to appease them and to stop talking with them unless and until they stop their campaigns against the world at large, and everyone I have listed in particular, renounced violence and declared this irrevocable. Then and only then, should we think about talking with them. I would impose a five-year waiting period before we did so, to prove they were serious in their intent.

In the meantime I would hit them time and again wherever they can be found and whenever the opportunity arises. This is a war, and they must be made to understand that they cannot continue to hit us with impunity. If we wait their attacks will proliferate, grow in size and be more spectacularly destructive, as threatened. The consequences of our waiting will be apocalyptic.

What do you think will happen if Iran staged a strategic nuclear attack on Israel?

Iran must be stopped before the clock chimes midnight.

If we can stop this disaster happening then perhaps, we can start to educate all the children, as this is so clearly vital. As John Lennon sang, Imagine?

Travelling

Travel is no longer much fun. The hassle is so immense that it doesn’t feel like it’s worth it, until you arrive somewhere great. Today I am traveling between Los Angeles and London, a trip I have made several hundred times. It isn’t getting any better. Even if you know how to travel, and I do, there is just no easy way of managing all the small indignities they now put you through, all in the name of security.

Luckily I had my trusty BlackBerry with me as this had warned me yesterday that our flight was to be put forward thirty minutes. I was lucky again when they sent me another update just before leaving my daughter’s apartment to say that the flight was now going to be delayed an hour and a half, or one hour from the original time. I am now hopeful that it won’t be changed again. But from experience I expect it’s more about the airline, this time United, which will be consolidating flights that would otherwise be insufficiently full.

Today I had arranged for my hire car to be picked up at between 9 and 9.30. Of course no one showed, I called the number, and, after checking to see whether I had, in fact, sent an e-mail confirming the pick up, they said they would be with me shortly. They were, but of course it was another small aggravation.

The journey to the airport was uneventful, which is just how you want it to be. The baggage check in line was again an event. The idea behind this was supposed to be to liberate us from lining up. In fact what’s happened is that now there are a great many very confused passengers not knowing where to go, what to do and how to do it, and they’re all in my way until I am in the front of the line, similarly suffering from terminal confusion as my blood pressure rises. I had pre-checked in on line the previous night, but it didn’t give the simple message, just drop your bags off at the desk and we’ll take care of you. Well, maybe it did, but not in any way I could understand. I did figure it out but there were a couple of minutes where I wanted to hit the computer as it kept asking me questions I had already dealt with last night.

Once this was accomplished I had to join the big, Disney type, zigzag line wending its way to the customers and immigration officers. This is made much more entertaining by a great many people of various nationalities standing, oblivious to the fact that they’re in the way, as they wait for their friends and relatives to gain access from the access point, which is vigorously policed by another security person checking for boarding passes. Once these people have been carefully avoided I found myself being politely allowed through after being checked.

Yes, you guessed it, another line. This time to security, which is the only time I think there should be some time spent getting it right. The signs told us to remove our shoes, laptops, bum bags, sweaters and coats. This we did, now getting distinctly warmer as the people in the line moved at their various speeds. It is also where I discover I am not as fast as I thought, but much faster than some others. Eventually my stuff is safely loaded onto the plastic container and the conveyor takes it steadily off. As I come to the personal security arch the surly guard demands my boarding pass that I have carefully placed into my bag that is, even now, moving away from me on the conveyor. He shakes his head and looks at me with hate in his baleful stare. I clearly should have known, telepathically, that he would be the third person demanding this vital document within twenty yards. He allowed me, with absolutely no grace, to collect my papers from my bag and return to him. He growled something unintelligible and I was allowed through. Now I was hopping about trying to re-shoe myself as I placed my laptop back into my case plus find my sweater and bum bag. This takes place whilst people of every type and nationality suffer similar indignities all around me.

Deciding that sustenance was desperately required I found my way to the inappropriately named, Food Hall. It is a motley collection of awful places that no one, however hungry, could ever want to eat at. It was now about 11 am and so it seemed that breakfast would be nice. It appeared in large type on the menu. With great expectation I ordered this delightful looking dish. Of course, you know that breakfast was no longer available. The young lady who told me this said it as if this was obvious. I ordered something that approximated the same type of thing, and received a $25 revolting mess. I will never again complain about our British airport food establishments; they are so far superior it doesn’t bear comparison.

Now I am patiently waiting for my delayed plane, but that, and the journey is a story for another day. I just hope United Airlines and Los Angeles International Airport conspire to make it as uneventful and boring and efficient as possible.

Post script. Arrived safe but tired in London. Had the customary and lengthy route march from the plane to the customs, immigration and baggage halls. It is only fair to mention that the cases came through almost immediately; the car park worked well, and from landing to being on the road took less than 25 minutes. Wonderful, now for some sleep!

Remembering

Yesterday, here in Los Angeles, the annual Holocaust Memorial Day, “Yom Hashoah”, took place. In a city that is home to one of the biggest Jewish populations in the world, this is bound to be a big, impressive event. It was more than that.

Held in the Pan Pacific Park adjacent to the Los Angeles Holocaust Monument. It was attended by most of the local and state civic dignitaries and a large crowd, all covered by a huge tent shading them from the bright Spring sunshine. The theme this year was to commemorate 70 years since Kristallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass – Shattered Hopes.

During the speeches Britain got a special mention because it was the only country that allowed Jewish children from Germany into our country on the famous Kindertransport. No one else, including America allowed large Jewish groups, of any age, an escape from the Nazis.

The speeches, particularly those by Jacob Dayan, the Israel Consul General and Rabbi David Wolpe from LA’s Sinai Temple, were spellbinding, powerful and compelling. I had the good fortune to have had a meeting with the Rabbi a couple of days previously and I know him to be an extremely thoughtful and incisive man. Listening to him make a speech we all realized why Newsweek magazine had recently selected him as the top pulpit rabbi in America.

There was a beautiful musical interlude featuring the cellist Barry Gold from the Los Angeles Philharmoic Orchestra. In addition The Tova Concert Singers were excellent. There were so many outstanding speeches and presentations it seems wrong to select just a few. But special mention should be made of the Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who made his understanding and support for this event and Israel, from a Gentile, American perspective, clear and unequivocal.

The Rabbi told his audience that the one thing we must do, as a minimum, if we are not to repeat these horrific mistakes in the future, is remember the name of one person who perished in the Holocaust. I turned to my sister to remember the name Weisberg, the name of my father’s mother’s family who were all lost in the Holocaust, in Warsaw. None of us know their first names, what they looked like, what were their dreams and aspirations, what football team they supported, what music they listened to, or anything else, other than that they were our family. They were killed because they were Jewish. We ended with the words, Never Again.

Doing Deals

Deals are deals, but now it doesn’t mean that they are necessarily that binding. My first two film productions were small. We made them in some ancient age, nearly 40 years ago. We shook hands on the deals and received some finance, and made the films and delivered them, all before the contracts were drawn up and signed. How things have changed.

Now you can have a signed contract and it means nothing. Several times in the recent past the contracts have been longer than the screenplays. Who does this benefit other than the attorneys?

For the last many years there were two main film industries. One, the major studio system, is the one most of you are aware of. These are fundamentally the big money distribution machines that own a big pipeline that demands film product being fed down its voracious maw or it is just a very expensive waste of space.

The alternative method is known as the independent film sector. This makes smaller budget films. Despite convention this sector has always demanded some star names to make their films marketable. Not to the cinema or other audiences, but to the independent film distributors in each country. Historically the way this worked was that these films were pre-sold on a country by country basis and their value and desirability was computed against the cast, director and producer track records and the projected budget of the movie to be produced. This, in turn, relied on the banking sector accepting and underwriting these ascribed values per territory. They would advance discounted cash for the film then to be produced. They made their charges and profits based on the accuracy of these projections. This worked comparatively well for many years. But when credit got tougher, and the banks became more risk averse the whole system seized up.

The result has been other, newer alternatives in which capital funds from other sources were created. These were largely tax incentive schemes originally motivated by governments wishing to create film industries to lead the vital creative sectors in their burgeoning economies. With the recession beginning and spreading its tentacles, banks are getting tighter with their fiscal policy, governments start to panic and cut incentive schemes, just when they should be doing the opposite. The results for the independent film sector are disastrous.

Big time corporate deals will become more difficult to finance, and you’ll see further examples of this like Microsoft’s pulling away from Yahoo’s purchase. A deal that would have gone through a year back. Deals in the entertainment business for the bottom feeders, which is most of us, will become tiny or non-existent. Perhaps we’ve gone full circle. Now we can make tiny, inexpensive productions again, and the means of distribution has been democratized so we can get things done and out there, in front of the world. The trouble is this, so can millions of others. Therefore the big question now is how do you get proper exposure for your product so that it has the oxygen to grow? I think I know the answer, but that’s for another day.

The Klinger's and the Weisberg's

Today in South Pasadena Klinger family members from three continents, myself amongst them, met for the first time since 1915. Cousins, from 5 to 80 something years old met, some for the first time during the get together. We delved into our common past. About 100 years ago my father’s family journeyed from the Russian Tsar’s empire in Poland to England.

Different, exotic and colorful stories abound. We found one picture that was common to our British, American and Australian family branches. It was of four young men, one young woman, two small children and one old lady. They are all staring at the camera very intently. They are dressed in formal attire, the men resplendently displaying fine moustaches. When I first saw the picture I thought it was a joke. How had someone photo shopped me into a picture from nearly a century ago? But it turns out that I share a face with my previously unknown great uncle. Of course he is a particularly fine figure of a man. Actually my grandfather, staring confidently at the camera, is the best looking man in the picture, and I don’t look much like him. I will write more fully about this in the future.

We then started to talk with each other and old family histories were unearthed and old journeys re-trod. There was a fine picture of my uncle Max in the uniform of the Imperial Russian Army. He looks very snappy but there is another truth. I well remember my Poppa Gershon telling me how his brother, the man in the picture, was ruthlessly beaten by his Russian commanders on a regular basis, purely because he was Jewish. It was because of his treatment that his family re-considered where they should live. In those far off days the Imperial army took one brother at a time into the army. When one came back the next had to take his place, unless he was killed earlier. Apparently his tormentors permanently injured my great uncle and the decision was made to leave.

Therefore, in some twisted grand design my great uncle’s maltreatment meant that we could all meet in Pasadena. With more benign treatment I suspect that there was a very good chance the family would have stayed in the Polish part of the Russian Empire. If we had done so about thirty years later the invading Nazis would have decimated my father’s family.

I say this with some certainty because it did happen to my father’s mother’s side of our family, the Weisberg’s (I guess it could be spelt Weissberg) of Warsaw. Sixty-three of them were murdered in the Holocaust. According to our family story my grandmother, Dora, returned to her native Poland with my father, then a small boy, before the war, to try and get her family to leave. She was only able to convince one sister. That sister agreed to make the journey to England with her two children, but their application for papers was refused. They are all lost to us now. That family will never enjoy a sunny reunion anywhere as there are none of them to meet.

Ironically today is Holocaust Memorial Day. Although I am not religious I shall go to the ceremony in the nearby park and offer up a prayer for those that were lost in my family, the Weisberg’s, and millions of other families. I fell I have to do it for my late grandmother as there is no one else to do so.

Economics Made Easy

Today I can be brief because I am borrowing some material from others. First is some computational work from my friend, Roy Wilkinson. He is, by training, employment and education a top flight, British engineer. As my late father was also a British engineer I revere such ability. You should know that anything such men say should be treated as accurate and well considered.

“Governments Gaining From the Misery

You might wish to write about the cuts, as in slice, that governments are getting from the rise in the price of crude oil. I have just done a study of Matthew’s gas bills as he seems to be paying over the odds. Anyway, gas prices have been going up for some time, 47% in a year, but just looking at the January v. April bills is quite interesting.

The unit cost of gas, i.e. cents per therm charged to the consumer, has gone up 30% thru’ Feb, March and April, but interestingly the commodity price paid by the gas company has gone cost up by 40%. That means that the company is absorbing part of the increase. In actual fact their markup has dropped from 37 to 28%, their standing charge has stayed the same as have the state reg. fee and the public surcharge as increased only marginally.
The ‘sinner’ in the woodpile is however the LA city users tax which having stayed at 10% is enjoying a 25% increase in its share of the overall bill.

The same thing is happening across the board in the UK particularly with the 5% vat (value added tax) on domestic energy.

Governments are frightened of inflation yet they are fueling it. Forgive the pun.“

I leave you to draw your own conclusions, mine are that things are, very often, not what they appear to be.

On a lighter note I received the following “laws of economics” by another friend. I don’t know who composed them originally although I am totally convinced that they are accurate and I doff my hat to their anonymous author, obviously a genius!

Economic Models explained with cows- 2008 update


SOCIALISM

You have 2 cows.

You give one to your neighbour.



COMMUNISM

You have 2 cows.

The State takes both and gives you some milk.


FASCISM

You have 2 cows.

The State takes both and sells you some milk.


NAZISM

You have 2 cows.

The State takes both and shoots you.


BUREAUCRATISM

You have 2 cows.

The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the
milk away...


TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM

You have two cows.

You sell one and buy a bull.

Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.

You sell them and retire on the income.


SURREALISM

You have two giraffes.

The government requires you to take harmonica lessons


AN AMERICAN CORPORATION

You have two cows.

You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.

Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.



ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM

You have two cows.

You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of

credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a

debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all

four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.

The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a

Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who

sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.


The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on

one more.

You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving

you with nine cows.

No balance sheet provided with the release.


The public then buys your bull.



THE ANDERSEN MODEL

You have two cows.

You shred them.



A FRENCH CORPORATION

You have two cows.

You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want

three cows.



A JAPANESE CORPORATION

You have two cows.

You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and
produce twenty times the milk.

You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'Cowkimon' and market
it worldwide.


A GERMAN CORPORATION

You have two cows

You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and

milk themselves.


AN ITALIAN CORPORATION

You have two cows, but you don't know where they are.

You decide to have lunch.


A RUSSIAN CORPORATION

You have two cows.

You count them and learn you have five cows.

You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.

You count them again and learn you have 2 cows.

You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.


A SWISS CORPORATION

You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.

You charge the owners for storing them.



A CHINESE CORPORATION

You have two cows.

You have 300 people milking them.

You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.

You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.





AN INDIAN CORPORATION

You have two cows.

You worship them.


A BRITISH CORPORATION

You have two cows.

Both are mad.



AN IRAQI CORPORATION

Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.

You tell them that you have none.

No-one believes you, so they bomb the **** out of you and invade your
country.

You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of a Democracy....



AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION

You have two cows.

Business seems pretty good.

You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.




A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION

You have two cows.

The one on the left looks very attractive.

Coming Soon

Today, in the warm LA sunshine at lunch, I discussed with a senior entertainment company executive what was going to be the next big thing in entertainment. Our conclusion was that it would undoubtedly combine the intuition and design elements of Apple’s sexy looking, but kind of techno chunky i Phone and a cut down, smaller even lighter version of their Mac Air, on which I’m composing this story. Married to this will be increased, enhanced flash memory, and “Tivo”, UK readers will be more familiar with the “Sky Plus” brand, type television adaptability.

Of course there will have to be quicker connectivity and even faster access. There won’t be a need for much hard memory as the years roll forward. The reason for this will probably turn out to be “The Grid” being currently finalized in Switzerland. This was developed to allow the processing of the incredibly large number of computations necessary to translate the huge atom smashing mechanism built into the mountains of Switzerland. This is so huge a computing project that it was necessary for The Grid to be created to free up the Internet. The result is that The Grid will create incredible spare capacity for all our information storage and moving needs. This, in turn will result in little or no need for the average user to store their information on their PC. We will all hold our information on the Grid, calling for it only when we need it. The Internet will be consigned to the dustbin of history as it simply will not have the capacity necessary to adapt to ever increasing demands.

The results will revolutionize the type of devices we use and carry with us. Super fast, super thin and light. They will all be very desirable but the winners will be those that have the best design elements. Content will eventually be freely available to everyone because advertising concerns will pay for you to have it as long as you carry their advertisements. Personally I will be the consumer who prefers the option to pay for what I want. I think many of my age group will choose the same path but it will be a progressively harder position to maintain.

I used to maintain that content is king but I believe that this position is no longer possible to maintain. This changed when the major distribution / production powerhouses in the entertainment factories decided to turn the creative industries into a paperback type industry. The idea used to be to get the maximum revenue from each area of the industry before it passed down the food chain. This kept the values optimized. Now, for reasons of market driven, short-term capitalism the idea is to get the biggest dollar figure as quickly as possible. It is comparable to harvesting all the trees in the forest and not re-planting because you want to move as much wood to the buyers as quickly as you can. Obviously, working this way you’ll bank a lot of money, but next year you won’t have any trees to sell.

As a consequence the strategic planning for and residual values of entertainment libraries are being very rapidly diminished on the questionable alter of this quarter’s figures. Even star driven, major company big pictures are being dumped into the discount bins so what chance do the little projects have in this economic model, none?

In a world in which you can compare shop in the very limited and finite linear shelf space of your supermarket, or surf the net to see what the universe has to offer, there will only be one winner. Everything in retail is migrating to the net because it’s cheaper, less labor intensive and easier to manage. This will result in even less city and town shopping centers turning some of our cities into progressively more shop and industry free places to live.

The question is can knowledge and creativity based economies such as those in the G7 club of the richest, old first world powerhouses, survive their transition from the old economic model to the new sufficiently to prosper enough to continue to consume from the new manufacturing and raw material supplying countries such as China, India and Russia? This is going to be essential to keep the world economy moving.