FUTURE IMPERFECT: the eroding effects on the mind of the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

Picture courtesy of The Guardian

Here I sit on a cold and wet winter's day during a global pandemic and wonder what life holds next.  I may no longer be in my prime but I wasn't planning to be dead any time soon.  I used to feel that I had up to twenty good years left in me based on my family history; okay, those family who haven't turned their toes up young.  In fact, I was setting myself the goal of doing better than my forebears.

When I wake in the morning these days, however, I am finding it increasingly difficult to feel any sense of hope or optimism.  At night as I attempt sleep, I chide myself for this and think of those people around the world who have worse things to contend with as well as a pandemic, which sits like a cherry atop their other miseries.  I think of the refugees from Myanmar, the children starving in Yemen and the refugees from Mozambique and so on.  All of this suffering comes from the actions of lunatics pushing their own vicious or greedy political agendas without care about the families caught in the middle.  So many of the perpetrators of these little wars are young, fanatical or opportunistic young men who are guided by older, slyer and more jaded ones.  Women are probably involved in there somewhere too but mostly they are being violated in some way or watching their children suffer.

I really shake my head and wonder how fanatics can carry out their agendas during a pandemic?  I guess the point is that they are fanatics and all else pales to their vision of utopia.  God forbid what that might be after they've made life a hell on earth.

Do these thoughts about the suffering of others make me feel better about my own situation?  Well how could such thoughts make one feel better about anything?  In answer to this question, no they don't.  It does though, help me put my feelings in perspective but someone else's suffering doesn't reduce one's own unless one is a sociopath or sadist.

Before I lost my job to Covid, I retained hope.  I long ago ran out of money due to divorce, having Chronic Fatigue and other factors but I live comfortably enough.  When I got over Chronic Fatigue I found a job that provided me with a living and, when I reached pension age and worked part time, what my job gave me was the possibility of affording a vacation or something to look forward to.  It also kept me busy.  That is now something completely off the table.  I don't own my own home and am enormously grateful to this country for its social security that gives me a pension.  It's not where I envisaged being at this age, having come from a reasonably privileged background, but I've taken some pride in being able to take it on the chin but I'm not taking things on the chin as well anymore, which rather surprises me.  I thought I was made of stronger stuff.

It may have to do with the way this last year and a half has panned out for me on a personal level.  If you, reader, have read any of my other blogs, you may know I took a year to come off an antidepressant I'd been on for thirty years.  I also caught pneumonia.  When I first caught it the clinic that I visit to see a doctor wouldn't let me in as I had a fever so I went off for a Covid test.  At that time I wasn't particularly worried and, when the test showed negative I just stayed in bed and waited to get well assuming it was 'flu.  It was my son who eventually called an ambulance.

Since then I've had two viruses and had to have a Covid test each time.  Both times I have been very nervous and upset that the results would be positive.  Neither were but I sure didn't feel good and the wait for a result each time played havoc with my nerves.  I don't even know how I got the last virus given the precautions I take and that is a worry in itself.

That's one of the big problems about this pandemic, it's shredding our nerves.  There are some people out there who don't worry or simply don't believe there is a pandemic and that it's all a conspiracy.  In a way I envy them.  If I'm going to get Covid, I'd rather just not worry about it first but I think this year has taken its toll on me and I can no longer stop worrying.  My mood sometimes improves but, with any new concern, it plummets to new depths and this is becoming a concern to the point I am considering going on another antidepressant.

I am, of course, I suspect not the only person whose mental state is deteriorating.  When I told my general practitioner doctor that I was feeling more optimistic a few weeks ago after having my first vaccine shot, she said a lot of her older patients were too.  The virus has obviously been preying on the minds of those of us who were anticipating a couple of more decades of life.  After my last virus, post the vaccine, I began to lose that hope again.  If it was only a rhinovirus, it was a beauty.  I didn't have a fever, blocked nose or cough.  My lungs were fine too.  I had a mighty sore throat and just felt as if I had the 'flu.  The thing is, I've had a 'flu shot.  If the virus made me feel this bad, how capable am I, even vaccinated, of dealing with Covid?

Perhaps I am being a wuss but I'm rather tired of being sick or feeling unwell.  I am really wondering how other people are feeling mentally at this time.  It isn't easy on any of us but I also wonder how many people are keeping their fears to themselves.  I have sometimes, when wearing a mask to the shops, had people come right up to me and talk to my face.  I figure that these types are not big worriers.  They also can't take a hint.  I remain pleasant but wonder where their heads are.

The old saying that ignorance is bliss is true.  It's become so that I really don't want to listen to the news on television at night and hear one more thing about Covid or vaccinations.  I see it on the internet but can skim past.  I take in the rudiments and the latest local figures and move on.  The television news, however, just won't let it go.  For the last sixteen months we've been fed a diet of Covid related news.

I yearn for the day when I never hear another mention of Covid and I'm sure you do too.  I yearn for the day I can shop or got to a cafe or restaurant without worrying and for the time I can travel again, even though I really no longer have the funds.  I'll just take a road trip to anywhere and enjoy the scenery.  I long for the day I can look forward to thinking I may see my grandchildren reach adulthood.  I just long for another day.

END
 

 

 

 

COMPUTER SCAMS or STUPID ME.

 

I thought twice about writing this post because I feel like such an idiot.  Do you remember Sylvester Pussycat's nephew who would put a paper bag over his head when his uncle embarrassed him and then say: "I'm so ashamed"?  Well that's me right now.

I'm a pretty intelligent person and thought I wouldn't fall for a scam but I did.  Well I'm 99% sure, no make that 100%, that it was.  Happily I twigged to the situation at the end of the phone call and immediately changed my banking password, rang my bank and had my card blocked.  Oh, the shame.

Here's what happened.  I was on my laptop, a morning routine, and had to use a different Internet browser because Firefox wasn't loading and hadn't been the previous night either.  Firefox is a great browser for avoiding pop-ups and I love it.  It also has an accessible Ad blocker feature you can turn on and off as you wish.  Some sites won't load with an Ad blocker so this is handy.  I now think that the scammers may have been jamming Firefox for that reason so I'd use another browser that was less secure

I opened Google Chrome instead.  Almost immediately all these windows pop up with warnings.  As soon as I went to close one, another would open until there were four.  I couldn't close any of them.  A Microsoft logo appeared on the bottom right of the screen with a toll free number to call for support.  My earphone volume was up from the previous night and, although I wasn't wearing the earpiece, I could hear a voice alerting me to a problem.  The warnings on the screen alerted to me having a computer virus and that Microsoft would block my Internet until I phoned them to fix the problem so my computer, or something I can't remember, would be damaged/corrupted or whatever.

I then did what any sensible person would do after pressing numerous control keys and control, alt, delete keys that did nothing, I turned the computer off at its power button.  I decided it was a virus or scam and I might make it go away.  I should state that I had previously had something like this happen a few years ago.  I can't remember the details or where I obtained the phone number to attempt to fix the problem but it must have been from the site.  When I phoned the man sounded reasonable and helpful but, after fifteen to twenty minutes of explaining to me what had happened and how he would fix it, as he could see my computer screen from his, he said it would cost me a sum of money.  Again I forget how much and it wasn't a huge amount, but it was money.  At this point I smelled a rat and hung up.  Somehow I then managed to fix the problem myself.  This experience made me very wary.  The blighters always sound so professional and know their computer stuff.

Back to now.   I let the laptop have a little rest and went off and did other things.  I then turned it back on.  I have a little routine in the morning on my computer and it goes like this: first Facebook as friends' news is often more interesting than other news and I just like to see what everyone is up to.  Some of them also put up great jokes or memes that I enjoy.  I also like to make the occasional comment.  It's lovely to talk to friends near and far to stay connected.  I've become rather fond of FB for its good points.  I don't do other social network sites, just that one.  Then its onto emails, then news from various outlets and then a quiz site that has a new set of questions every day.  I very occasionally shop online and sometimes do banking but that's not my morning routine.

It took me years to be happy not having a print newspaper every morning and to feel my way around the Internet and find things that would replace it.  Having done so I'm now better off as there's even more to interest me.  Thus, when my routine was blocked yesterday I was not happy.  I no longer work and need my routines throughout the rest of the day as boredom skulks around every corner.  I also am not so financially flush that I can afford to call a computer expert if something goes wrong that can be fixed some other way, or free.

My laptop has had a nice little rest and is booted up.  I try Firefox again just in case it works this time.  It doesn't load, or rather, a blank white page with grey bars loads and stays that way.  I close it.  I open Chrome and, lo, the lousy error windows pop up again as well as the annoying voice from the earpieces.  If I have a problem I normally Google who to phone to sort it out but I can't because I can't make the pop-ups disappear to get to anything else.  The Microsoft logo leers at me temptingly on the bottom right of the screen.  I'm a bit lost without my computer these days since my job finished last year and since Covid has so restricted life.  I give in and phone the number.

I can't remember how the conversation started, if he said, 'Microsoft support' or just 'How can I help you' or something.  He sounded reasonable and, although Indian, easy to understand.  Unfortunately I wasn't my usual polite self.  I simply said, "Are you a scam?"  and probably a few other words to suggest I'd had someone attempt to try scamming me before who'd asked me for money.  He sounded offended by this and when I told him that I would not be paying money he assured me they would not ask for any and that when I bought the computer I was entitled to free help from Microsoft from then on so, for a while I decided to trust him.

My thoughts now are that  he and the next man I spoke to had previous experience on real help lines.  Their computer knowledge was very good, their English not too accented and they had the patience of Job in talking me through the problem, first one and then the other in 'technical support'.  They talked me through things on the computer that opened various internal windows in DOS and opened bars on the bottom menu that said 'setup.exe' and the like.  They knew the ropes of how to make it look like they knew what they were doing.

I was told how to get rid of the error pop-up windows so I could access other functions on the computer.  This, for your information, was to press the CTRL key and the letter 't' at the same time.  Of course it may have worked only in this situation.  CTRL and 'r' brought up another box and when I typed 'cdm' into that box it opened another screen that was a big blue screen.  I can't remember what was on it, it looked official, but eventually, having filled in boxes, a screen came up in DOS programming language with a list of files, some headed 'local' and some headed 'foreign'.  Apparently those under foreign were other accounts who had access to my computer and could send viruses.  It was the second man I was talking to at this point and I was told to look to the right of the 'foreign' list for a number.  I couldn't see one.  He said he could see the number 11 and just now I realize, that this meant he could see my computer screen.  That's a very important point even though I couldn't see the number eleven, he knew what else was on the screen.  Anyway, he said I had eleven viruses.

I had been told at the start of the conversation by the first man that I would have to get rid of any viruses and go through all the apps I used on my laptop, from email, to Facebook, Internet and so on.  I had asked if this would take long and he said no more than thirty minutes.  To cut a long story short, once in the DOS screen and under the first files I was told what I needed to type to clean up my applications.  This started with network and then to my email, which I typed in.  After this the fellow told me to type in the name of my bank, but not to tell him the name.  I asked if the shortened version of the name the bank used was okay.  He said yes.  I typed it in.

At some stage without filling out more application names, the screen ended up back at the normal Chrome screen and the man asked me to log into my bank account and this would secure it.  I had to use my account identification and password.  This didn't include my account numbers but I was now forty minutes into the call and began to smell a rat.  I asked the man if he could see my screen.  Stupid question and I didn't really believe him but for some idiot reason I logged in after which he said I could close it again.  Do I have another bank account?  Yes, I said, a small one I use to only pay one bill.  I'd forgotten how to log in and he said if the other account was the main one, not to worry, but at this stage I was.

'What about Facebook and other accounts?' I asked.  "Oh, you can do those later," he said.  How I wondered?  At this point he told me we were finished now.  I then suggested again that he was a scammer and he seemed offended.  I hung up and, after a few minutes of self flagellation, opened my bank account online and changed my password.  I didn't panic but I really felt compromised.

I tried to ring my bank but got a recorded voice asking me which option I wanted and there were none to do with security.  I rang another number and they wanted my phone banking log in identification.  I'd forgotten the number.  Now, I'm in a hurry at this point and why can't I just yell 'emergency' into the bloody phone and have a human answer?  I finally remembered my password and got through and told them my shameful story and they told me I'd done well to change my password immediately.  They then changed my card numbers but not before I'd asked Jan to run down the street and withdraw all the money from my everyday account.  I knew the scammers couldn't withdraw from the credit card as it's in debit.  They could have used its numbers to buy something, however, they don't have the expiry date or security numbers.  I've changed the card but I'm still not happy.  When my new credit card arrives I'll change my everyday account as well.

I really thought I was smarter than this.  These guys are so smooth.  One even wanted my blog address and said he liked to write too.  I asked for his address but 'it's not published yet'.  So many little, fishy clues that should have made me twig.  I have no idea what he wants with my blog but I don't make money from it so that won't help him.  Once I was online again I looked up Microsoft's real support number under which was a piece on how to recognize scams.  The fourth example was exactly what happened to me, the pop-up error messages with the toll free helpline phone number.

You see why I'm ashamed to put this up but it's a warning.  Even if you think you're a smart cookie like me with some computer knowledge, there are smooth operators out there with absolutely no conscience.  When they rip off the people who have little money, that's vile.  I wish I could report the toll number but it will probably change.  Next time your computer is blocked, use your mobile for a real helpline number.  I don't know why I didn't but I swear something happens in our brains when our computers play up.  They're complicated things to fix when they don't work, the computers that is, and I think we feel out of our depth, but better out of our depth than out of money.

END

 

 

ON GROWING UP A BABY BOOMER: what Millenials need to know.

 

A while back I was watching a quiz show and a contestant in his twenties missed answering a multiple choice question correctly about something in the 1940's because he wasn't sure if people had running water in their homes back then.

I was pretty stupefied and it made me realize how little youth, even grown up ones, know about the not so distant past.  At first I thought 'Is this kid real'?  Then I wondered if history teachers weren't doing their jobs properly since I'd left school.  I mean, surely, his parents and grandparents would have talked about their past but, in his case, apparently they had not.

One thing that I have noticed about some younger adults these days is that they think they are mentally superior older adults.  Perhaps they think that being knowledgeable about computers and technology is a sign of intellect.  Certainly I and many other people, both younger and my age, are not so skilled in that area, but we are far more knowledgeable about many diverse categories as we have had decades to accumulate more knowledge and experience.

I can only hope that the youth who feel so superior now will one day find their children think less of them because they can't operate the latest gadget.  I suspect they also think they are clever because they have access to all the answers they require on the Internet as well as being adept at all the new gadgetry.  Has it occurred to them that some people don't want the new gadgetry because they've managed without it all their productive lives?  I do enjoy a lot of the new advances but not all.  At a certain age you just get more selective about what technology you find useful but I can see how kids love it all.  My seventeen month old grandson loves iPhones as did his sister and brother before him; they're like magic after all.

Kids grasp new technology quickly because their young minds are like blank pages.  It's the same with language.  If you learn a second language before you are about twelve you will speak it without your mother tongue's accent.  This is a fact.  If we learn a new language after that age we will speak it with an accent.  There may be linguistic savants who don't, but they'd be pretty rare.

We have accelerated learning ability as children because our brains are growing.  Once our brains mature and we have had myriad experiences and have absorbed huge amounts of information, naturally our absorption rate won't compare to our earliest learning ability.  Another thing that people who have grown up since the year two thousand don't take into account is that some of us have been dealing with computers since their earliest days and that constantly adapting to the changes becomes less amusing and more annoying.

I started my working life as a computer programmer after dropping out of a science degree.  I programmed, what were then termed, mini computers.  I wrote programs in COBOL on a paper form, sent them off to a compiler that translated them into ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Exchange) punched onto paper tape that I then fed into the mini computer to program it.

What I would have given for a VDU and a keyboard to program directly into a computer, even in DOS.  I lasted one year doing the job and decided it wasn't living.  I did go back and study Computer Science a few years later thinking I should try again but, by then there were teenagers fresh from school who could spend all day at University on the VDU's, which existed by then, while I had a baby to care for and couldn't spare the time or baby sitting money.  To be honest, I really wasn't interested enough.  I think, today, I'd enjoy it a lot more as the results of what I'd do would be more immediate.

Computers are a lot more interesting since they've become part of our lives, not just part of the corporate, commercial and scientific world.  The Internet arrived like a supernova but when I started out, I was programming accounting packages and that was it.  There was no Internet .  Had I seen the future I may have stayed, but I doubt it.  I just enjoy the benefits now.

Forty years have passed since I worked as a programmer.  Computers, or I.T. if you will, haven't ceased developing.  Now try to put yourself in my shoes.  If you were me would you keep up to date with every single new advance after forty years?  Frankly, it gets a bit ho hum.  You just know the next new thing is going to be superseded within the year.  If you learn something new, you'll have to learn the new version next year.  Okay, if you're under thirty, you probably still get a kick out of every new release, whether it be an iPhone, an operating system or whatever.  What you don't realize is that it's just not going to stop and it becomes overwhelming and, frankly, tedious.

I'll give you an example of something that just recently annoyed me.  I have a new second hand car.  It's new to me but ten years old.  One thing I love about it is the reverse camera and, because I am so smitten with this gadget, it has taken me six months to realize the car has no CD player.  You're laughing aren't you?  Fine, I'm not very musical but my old car's CD player had broken and it occurred to me that now I could play CD's in the car.  Next time I went for a drive I looked below the reverse camera display for the CD slot.  To my amazement there wasn't one.  Later I asked my partner if he had one in his car.  He said, "Of course not, people use iPods now and download everything or use their phones that they play through the car radio."  Well I don't want an iPod, I have perfectly good CD's and my iPhone is a late model and won't communicate with the car so that's out.

As an example of obsolescence let's look at videos.  There aren't any these days.  In the eighties I lived in Hong Kong.  My then husband and I bought a video player that took Beta tapes.  We chose that over VCR's as it seemed that Beta was the way to go but back in Australia VCR's had taken off.  Out went the Beta player.  Next up DVD's came in.  Much lighter and smaller but video hire shops could still survive.  Somewhere along the way Blueray came in.  I really have no idea what Blueray is because I probably lost interest.  As soon as televisions could be attached to the Internet we began to stream, to download shows straight from the Internet.

Now I'm certainly not complaining about that, it's great, but my grandchildren still have Blueray discs so that when one comes to stay and wants to watch one, I'm meant to boot up the DVD player.  I recently tried and couldn't so we settled for streaming.  I'm from a generation that has gone from floppy discs to CD's to USB's.  I have also gone from vinyl to tapes and Walkmans to CD's.  I have not moved on to iPods.  As I have said, I'm not musical.  I have also loathed all music produced since the year 2000 so why bother?

Let me take you through one other area of advancement: cameras.  When we moved from film to digital it was great, except for poor Kodak and its film processing facilities of course.  There is one thing film still has over pixels however.  You can blow up pictures taken with film a lot before you lose detail and some professionals still use it for that reason.  When I first bought a digital camera it was 3 megapixels and I was told 5 megapixels was for professionals.  I should have known, and did suspect, that 5 megapixels would soon be outmoded based on my initial purchase of a personal computer when I was advised to get a 256 Kilobyte rather than a 386 Kilobyte.  Well you know how that went.  Soon my 3 megapixel camera was left for dead by 12 Megapixels and onward but then Smartphones came along and you could send a photo from it directly to anyone or to the Internet without uploading to a computer as you did with a camera.

I only gave in and got a Smartphone for the camera capability or would have fought the purchase for years.  Generations of Smartphones have superseded my phone but, by now, I'm sure you can see I've seen enough things outmoded not to care.  It will have to die before I give in and get a new one but, by then, another generation will have come along and I'll be really up to date, until a year later when I'm not.

Baby boomers like me have seen more change in their lifetimes than any generation before them, even their parents.  Fifty years before I was born, women were still in long skirts and unable to vote, the airplane had just been invented and electricity was really just coming into mass use.  My parents saw huge changes but I have seen more, many of them good.

If we can just get the world's population stabilized and climate change under control, following generations may see more than I have, but change for the sake of change is not the best idea.  I've seen wonderful things but crammed together in too short a space of time.  It wouldn't hurt to slow down a bit.  There's no rush if we play our cards right.

END

 

HUMANS: DESPICABLE US.

 

Humans are a pretty terrifying species and one reason for this is that most of them don't question what motivates them to do the things that they do.  In pondering why this is the case I started by thinking two very different kinds of people in the history of the world.  My examples are drawn from amongst men rather than women because until recently, and through no fault of their own, women have not figured greatly in positions that gave rise to them being noted in earlier human history.

The two types of people I have considered are the doers and the thinkers.  I was going to call the doers, achievers, but mostly that is not the case.  In fact their desire to do has mostly come with a great deal of death and destruction while, in the case of the thinkers, their inquiry has often been met with punishment and even death.  When I say 'doer', I am not including inventors or those who have created devices that have improved our lives.  These types are, by their natures, thinkers.  The type of 'doer' this article addresses are those who command power.

Species that are not self aware, or should I say as self aware as humans, direct their energy into finding food and procreation; in other words towards survival and the survival of the species.  When they are not active they are usually resting.  They can be terribly busy when they are active, just look at insects, but their activity is directed to a purpose.  They don't take up hobbies to fill their leisure time or become wantonly destructive, as humans do.

It is worth noting that animals can also be bored.  One only has to observe dogs to see that.  They may lie around and look like they're sleeping, but just rattle their leash and you'll see they've only just been waiting for a bit of amusement.  Dogs are pretty intelligent and I believe that boredom is a result of intellect but in humans boredom is both a motivator and our worst enemy.

The biographies of doers get complicated.  Take, for example, Napoleon Bonaparte.  He didn't just decide one day to go and conquer the world out of boredom.  He was a product of his time.  When he arrived on the scene, France was already engaged in numerous territorial disputes and it's own revolution.  Napoleon first entered a military academy before going on to be a very successful soldier involved in France's territorial campaigns.  It was, basically, his job.  Eventually, after he made himself Emperor, he just overstepped himself.  That's where the doer's drive comes in.  They tend to not be able to stop once they've achieved optimum success.  While Napoleon is credited with many positive reforms, such as the Napoleonic Code and those in banking and education, a great many people died as a result of his ambition both in the territories he conquered as well as a huge number of his own troops when he really over reached himself and marched into Russia.

Genghis Khan, another doer, started out by uniting the disparate tribes of Mongolia, which was in many ways, beneficial to the people of that land.  That done, he spread outwards so that his empire encompassed areas that included parts of modern day Poland, Georgia and China.  Whatever good these doers eventually do comes at the cost of the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people, a huge proportion of whom were non-combatants.  At the same time as he was effectively reducing the world's population, he was also working at manifestly increasing it.  He had numerous wives and concubines and innumerable children, however, only the sons of his first wife, Borte, would be considered his heirs.

Napoleon and Genghis Khan are both extreme examples of people born with way too much drive for their own, and everybody else's, good.  They are like tsunamis that, once in motion, cannot be stopped until maximum devastation has been achieved.

The interesting point to note about thinkers is that although they don't have armies or physically threaten anyone, they have been considered as dangerous to society as those who do.  Take Galileo and Copernicus for instance.  Both these men threatened the status quo, which in their times was the Church and its teachings.  The Church, at that time, held enormous political power and wealth.  The thinker's thoughts alone made them as dangerous to the stability of the entrenched powers as any army.  All these two men were attempting to do was to understand the nature of the Universe but their theories went against Church teachings that were based on the Bible and the theory of creation.

The Church wielded immense power in those times, not only because of its immense wealth, but because people from peasants to kings, believed it had the power to pave the way to Heaven through confession and plenary indulgences.  Plenary indulgences reduced punishment in the afterlife for their recipients who had to perform certain good works or recite certain prayers many times to receive them.  Reforms to the Church in the twentieth century have largely abolished these indulgences but, in a time where people were very religious, you can imagine the power this afforded the Church, placing them above rulers who believed the clergy had the power to smooth their way to the afterlife.

While Copernicus escaped punishment for his theories, Galileo did not when he added evidence to support Copernicus's ideas with the help of the newly invented telescope.  For his trouble he spent thirty years until the end of his life under house arrest.

In modern times the way to exert power is through controlling mass communication and technology.  It is interesting to note that the more technologically, scientifically and medically advanced we have become, the less dependent on religion we have become.  Of course billions of people are still devoutly religious but in earlier times people's ignorance as to how the universe worked as well as lack of medical knowledge to prevent an early death necessitated religion to both explain life and to be prepared for the afterlife.

Now we are in the are in the information age and, throughout history, one of the greatest ways to hold power has been to control the flow of information or to suppress it.  In the age of the Internet it has become harder for those in authority to suppress information and so they must have access to the means of transmitting it.

China has its own internet and its population can only gain information through it.  Most information from the west is suppressed.  Don't think, however, that western or free nations are beneath manipulating content.  Just recently when farmers were protesting in India about their rights and protection of their income in a peaceful and orderly fashion, the Indian government cut off their access to the Internet, which amounted to a diabolical misuse of power by a democratic nation.

Let us also look at the case of Julian Assange who hacked his way into the USA government's secret files and then let the world read them all in the name of freedom of information.  Governments suppress information they consider not in the public interest or that will threaten the nation's defenses but the files also showed that the government had undertaken questionable activities it really didn't want the public to know about.  Assange now sits waiting in a British jail trying not to be extradited to the USA where he may be sentenced to over one hundred years in jail for treason.  Governments may have valid reasons for suppressing some information that may make them vulnerable to other governments or show weaknesses in their defence, however, sometimes they're just covering up incompetency or abuse of power and that is why Assange has many supporters who feel that a government's dirty secrets should be exposed.  Unfortunately, when you let one secret out of the bag, the others come with it and these may well make a nation vulnerable to attack.

Privately owned Internet companies can also use suppression tactics.  Take the social network site Twitter, which banned former President of the USA, Donald Trump from using its site because of his inflammatory tweets.  Let us remember that they are a private company and can make their own rules, however, an extraordinary amount of garbage ends up of Twitter and isn't banned.  Freedom of speech allows people to make their own decisions about a communication but Twitter made the call on Trump for them.

On the other hand certain social network sites have not stopped terrorist organizations from using their sites to recruit followers and even to post how to make a bomb, so where does freedom of information become dangerous and then who gets to police it?  There are arguments for and against totally open communication now that the world is truly global and anything may ignite the powder keg of public opinion, which may, in turn, lead to violence and war.

As you can see, I've moved away from my original subject of doers and thinkers.  The world may once have been molded by the actions and thoughts of just a few or a number of governments, but that was once.  While governments and individuals can still get away with a lot they now have a harder time doing it because we are all watching them and having our say.  The population of the world has become Big Brother and this may well be why there are now theories, some call them conspiracy theories, that talk of an elite and wealthy few who are trying to take over the control of the planet and people's thoughts and opinions.

If such a group exists and has some evil plan to inject us all with computer chips or whatever, using, for instance, a vaccine against a pandemic, I think they have Buckley's chance of succeeding.  When you get enough people who don't agree with something or are unwilling to be pushed around there is always a revolution.  Computer chips in the blood stream, if possible, won't stop this.  For one thing no one yet knows how our brains work and for another, the chips would have to be teeny, teeny weensy and be able to fit through a needle attached to a syringe.  If the idea is to terminate people using their micro chips, well, they're not going to have too many people left to follow them like zombies after most people are terminated.  All in all, it's a madman's plan but, as I said at the beginning of this post, humans are a pretty terrifying species.

END

 

 

 

 

DIGESTING PRETENTIOUS RESTAURANT MENUS.

 

I have a beef and I don't mean Wagyu, Angus or corn fed.  I really don't care what kind of poor cow I'm eating as long as it is tender.  I also don't want to know if caramel is salted, I just want caramel.  I don't want rice that is koshihikari, I just want rice.  I don't know what Ponzu is so I don't want it on something.  I don't want Hiramasha Kingfish, I just want fish nor do I want charred Burrata, which is apparently a cheese similar to Mozzarella, with my roti.

What I'm trying to say is that I don't want to have to take a culinary dictionary to a restaurant in order to decipher what I'm eating.  I go out to eat so that I don't have to slave away in the kitchen but now I work up a sweat trying to understand a menu.  What is going on?  If chefs want to try out exotic dishes on diners, or to ramp up the names of non-exotic dishes with befuddling descriptions to make them seem tastier, why can't they put simple explanations alongside them?  Does it have to do with the price they charge for the dish or is it a competitive thing among chefs?

Last year before Covid hit, my friend and I went to a new restaurant precinct in Brisbane.  It was situated right on Brisbane River, a real plus, and there were about ten restaurants to choose from, all owned by the one seafood group.  Now, I have a yen for Garlic Prawns and we walked past every restaurant perusing the menus looking for some but there were none to be found.  There were plenty of cold, cooked prawns at one venue but that is all.  There was a ton of swordfish on offer done many ways, but no Garlic Prawns.  There were restaurants that were of the pub variety, Greek, Italian and even burger variety but, if I'd fired a gun, I had no hope of hitting one that served what I desired.  I also don't remember when Swordfish became a thing.  Snapper, Barramundi and Trout were once 'the thing', so when did Swordfish rear it's curiously adorned head?

There was a time when practically every restaurant offered Garlic Prawns on the menu and perhaps this is what has happened.  Perhaps it just became too de rigeur.  I now long for 'de rigeur'.  This morning I decided to search restaurant menus online in the hope of finding a decipherable one without success.  Following my search I'm giving two examples of menu items that are indicative of the type of dishes I ran across.

The first item: Hervey Bay scallop, burnt peanut cream, nam jim, crystallised peanut.  The second item: Grilled ox tongue, sticky date hoisin glaze, furikake.  Well I know what a scallop is and where Hervey Bay is although I don't care much what part of Australia the scallop comes from.  As for burnt peanut cream, I presume that it is burnt peanut butter or possibly sate.  Nam Jim I've had to look up and it's a dressing made of chillies, cloves, lime juice and such  while crystallised peanut is self explanatory.  Basically I'd guess that what would be served up to me would be a spicy scallop sate with crushed peanuts on top.

As for the grilled ox tongue, I know what hoisin sauce is, but made from sticky dates?  Furikake I had to look up and it is a Japanese seasoning based on sesame seeds and nori, or seaweed.  The dish might be delicious but as I've never tried furikake, am I willing to spend good money to find out?  Also the idea of ox tongue in Hoisin sauce, sorry, glaze, may be a bit experimental for my tastes.

I appreciate experimentation and Australia's cuisine has benefited enormously from it as we have absorbed immigrants from different cultures from around the world for over five decades now.  Chinese and Indian cuisine terms have become as familiar to us as English language ones as have the seasonings and condiments.  Japanese terms are catching up but have a way to go.  It is, however, a certain pretentiousness that is causing some terminology to muddle up menus.  I'm sure many of the seasonings and dishes that the chefs use are real but new to Australia and still obscure.  If there are too many of them on one menu, it does not make for a relaxing or enjoyable way to have to choose your meal.

Another two items that also appeared on the earlier menu, although separately as ingredients in different dishes, were Boquerones and Yuzu kosho.  If I'd had to decipher the menu of this very well reviewed restaurant, I would have kept the waitperson a very long time requesting descriptions.  It is so much nicer to peruse the menu at leisure and with comprehension without requiring your waiter to translate it.  By the way, in case you didn't know, Boquerones are white anchovies and Yuzu kosho is a Japanese condiment based on chilies.

When I was young, from the age of about seven, my parents would take me to restaurants with them as we were reasonably well off.  I don't imagine that in the 1950's and '60's there were many children who had this privilege.  In those days, in cosmopolitan Sydney, restaurants had good quality western style meals along with some French and Italian influenced dishes.   Some entrees I remember were prawns in a seafood cocktail sauce and also French Onion soup.  For some reason I can't remember other entrees.  For mains there was always a roast meat meal on offer of either beef, pork, lamb or chicken, a fish dish either battered or meuniere, Chicken Maryland, which was crumbed, fried and served with a crumbed, fried banana and pineapple ring on the side.  That was a favourite of mine.  There was also Steak Diane in its rich dark garlic sauce.  If we went to a seafood restaurant, there was often Lobster, which was also a favourite of mine.  What a lucky child I was.

There weren't Chinese dishes on the menus then and only the occasional Australian version of an Indian curry.  Good Chinese restaurants started to appear when I was in my early teens but it wasn't until some decades later that supermarkets began to stock the ingredients and condiments that would allow us to attempt to cook Chinese food at home.

I'm telling you about my early restaurant experiences to let you know that I'm no stranger to eating out and so the present problem I have with menu descriptions is not because of my lack of restaurant savoir faire but because menus have changed.  The principle of simpler is better has been forgotten.  I would happily try any of these new dishes if I didn't feel I was hacking my way through thick jungle with a scythe when I was trying to decipher the menu.  I go out to relax not to work.

Some of my favourite Brisbane restaurants either closed, were upgraded with new menus I don't care for and, in one case took off down the river in the 2011 flood.  That really was a tragic loss.  With Covid ruining so many restaurants' business, I am grateful any survive at all and perhaps that's where this competitive obfuscation comes in.  Perhaps they are trying to impress, however, I now don't venture to eat out without perusing menus online to make sure that there is a place to eat that will serve something I like and, more importantly, so I don't have to take over half an hour to understand the menu.  If it took that long I would have drunk my way through a whole glass of wine and be tiddly before the food arrived.

Maybe restaurants should bring back a few of the old staples and, as we sit and eat them, we can spy on surrounding tables to see what the more adventurous diners are eating so we can try it the next time we visit.  Of course my friend thinks it's rude when I slyly look around to view other diner's meals but then lately he has taken to only ordering garlic bread for his meal and nothing else.  And he thinks I'm embarrassing.

END

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

THE INTERMINABLE HARD SELL VIDEO.

 

We've probably all clicked on a story on an internet news site that's classed as a 'Sponsored Ad' and, then, don't we regret it?

It usually starts with something like: Low cost pain relief the big pharmaceutical companies don't want you to know about', or, 'Anti-ageing formula with secret ingredient used by doctors to the stars'.  You know the type of thing, but woe betide you if you open the site because on it, always, is a video you have to watch.  It's not just any video, it's one that doesn't have a length bar at the bottom that shows how long it is and that's always a sign that you're in for the HARD SELL.

These videos always have one essential component; the person who makes them is a qualified medical doctor.  Not only that, they have appeared on various talk shows, their articles have been published on well known medical internet sites and they rave on and on about the fact at the beginning of their self-aggrandizing talk fests.

I once started to watch one of these.  It was by a 'cosmetic surgeon to the stars' whose cream, containing hyaluronic acid in his own special formula, marketed and sold only by his company, was the reason that his celebrity clients looked twenty years younger than the average woman or man without the benefit of surgery.  Yeah, right.  I only watched it almost to the end because I simply couldn't believe anyone could deliver so much bullshit before actually getting to the point of naming the product or expect someone to continue to watch the promotion all the way to the end.

Perhaps the idea of these videos is to somehow hypnotize viewers into a vegetative state where they are left so bereft of mental acuity that they buy the product at the end of the presentation.  I cannot otherwise believe that anyone with a modicum of intelligence would do so after being subjected to such a prolonged insult to their intelligence

One of these presentations that I didn't watch fully to the end concerned a doctor who was looking for a cure for dementia for his wife who, I might add, was at a very advanced stage of the disease.  They had tried everything when the doctor began his search for alternatives and, when he find the magic formula, it took only a couple of weeks for her to regain her faculties.  The odd thing was that it took him a couple of years to find the cure by which time she would have been dead or well beyond hope.  My recollection isn't exact but I do remember there were jarring inaccuracies in his spiel.  Of course he, the doctor, then went on to offer his cure on his own marketing platform, on his own site.

The other thing about these promotions is that they always seem to be made by doctors from the USA and their accents, frankly, drive me nuts.  Sorry, they just do and I think it's because the USA is the home of the hard sell.  In fact the only reason I recently watched a presentation to its end that I clicked on from an advertisement on a news site was because the doctor had an English accent.  I suspect, however, that it was a voice over because, when the doctor introduced himself in person on the video the sound was out of sync.  He also said his findings were shown on the Mayo clinic site (USA) and in some Phytology journal whose name I can't remember but that was also a US publication.

This particular doctor had patients who suffered pain from arthritis and he specifically brought one of his patients to our attention whose name is Frank.  We heard all about Frank who is a veteran with a high pain threshold.  We know this due to his suffering from numerous war related injuries.  Frank had tried every thing for the pain of his arthritis and we heard about every single one of them.  Some had even given him some mild relief but Frank was determined to find relief and happily stumbled upon the doctor who offered him his magic formula that eased his pain.

Firstly it was made abundantly clear that this relief came from a natural 'magic' golden herb found in India although we never actually hear the name of the herb.  We were informed that our doctor found out about it when visiting an Indian restaurant and began chatting to the Indian owner who informed him that practically no one in India suffered from joint pain thanks to this herb.  Meantime we are seeing people on the video picking a herb that looks like coriander.  The doctor then warns us that if we buy this herb, whatever it is, from sites like Amazon or places where it has been processed, we will not get the efficacy of his version of it that is organically produced and to which he has added other herbs and whatever to improve its performance.  If the Indian gentleman said that it worked fine on Indian people in India why add extras?  Well apparently Indian people use so many herbs in their cooking that this naturally adds to its efficacy.

Imagine, a whole nation that didn't need this doctor to improve their magic golden herb, as he refers to it.  Of course he has named his improved herbal product with a catchy name and sells it only on his site at the end of the video.  Naturally I stopped watching at that point but it did continue although I'm not sure for how long.  I only watched for twenty tortuous minutes out of sheer, perverse curiosity to discover how long the doctor possibly thought he could hold our attention.

I then had a thought.  Are people who make these promotions, which often are made using YouTube, making money from the number of people viewing the actual video as well as the time it takes them to watch it?  I frankly don't care enough to look into this to find out.  What is extraordinary is how many doctors use this method to promote their products.  Why, I ask, and again, why?  Are they counting on people's desperation or their stupidity?  Does hammering irrelevant details into viewer's heads before getting to the point make their spiel more credible?  I think not.  I think it must be an attempt to beat people insensible and into submission.

A few minutes into any of these presentations I am ready to find the particular doctor's email and write to them to tell them how much they have annoyed me and insulted my intelligence.  Added to which I would say that, even if the product does what they say it will do, I wouldn't buy it for just those reasons.  In fact that's not true, I might buy it if I thought it would work but, not for one moment do I believe any of them have actually come up with a product so good it would do as they say it would.  If it did, they wouldn't have to sell it so hard.

I am in my sixties now and have been subjected to advertising since I could think.  When I was in my early twenties my husband made a mute button for our television so I didn't have to listen to advertisements.  Happily remotes now all have mute buttons.  I have to say that, probably, only twice in my life has an advertisement inspired me to go out an buy a product and that was because the product was so new, innovative and interesting that I felt I had to try it.

I am not a follower and am not interested in what others consider to be prestige items.  I can see the point of advertising, in fact it keeps free to air television alive these days, but that doesn't mean I have to watch it.  I do, however, appreciate clever, innovative and entertaining advertisements but feel that the people that use the hard sell should either be jailed or put in mental institutions because they are public nuisances.  They should concentrate on trying to heal their patients and not try salesmanship as a quick fix to making them rich.

END

 

The Extraordinary Constant: HM Queen Elizabeth II.

 

I think it is fair to say that the last fifteen months have left us all feeling a little insecure.  The usual checks and balances of life, the things that make us feel safe, have been frayed about the edges.  It has made me think about the things that make us feel anchored and, for me, I realize that one of those things is rather unexpected.  It is not part of my immediate life but has been part of my life for as long as I have existed.  It has prevailed when many things have fallen away.  It is a person and one who stands, in this day and age, for what is good and constant in the world.  It is a she: the Queen of Great Britain and the Commonwealth.

Yes, I know she is mostly now a symbol but she is a beacon of moderation, a set of standards and of a system of democratic government that has been adopted in countries throughout the world: a Parliament elected by the people with a symbolic head of state who has the power of veto in only the most extraordinary situations.

It wasn't always so, of course, but the monarchy, in order to survive, gradually relinquished power to the people.  The citizens of Great Britain, however, remembering their glorious past as an Empire, have retained the monarchy that reminds it of its former greatness and for which it holds great deference.  This is probably because the monarchy has, like an aging parent, stepped into the background and, from there, reminds people of the standards they should uphold and retain.  It is one thing to lose an Empire, but it is another to lose one's sense of  worth and self.  Somehow Great Britain has managed to fade as a world power while retaining its status as a place of culture, history and comme il faut.

Do the people of India, for instance, love cricket because it is a great game?  Somehow I think not.  I think that it is because the British colonists of the time, with their sense of superiority, arrogance and military know how, simply impressed the people of India so much that they adopted this sport of its upper classes.  India may have wanted the British to leave but they wanted to keep some of the trimmings of this superbly self centered people.  Give the British their due, however, they learn, in recent history especially.  As their power faded they had to adapt and become more accepting

There is also something to be said about having an upper class that won't let people in.  It makes people want in and, to achieve this, they must raise their standards and emulate the behavior and manners of the status to which they aspire.  This is where the Queen comes in.  She maintains the standard.  It must be a hell of a job being perfect all the time: perfectly groomed, perfectly mannered, unable to make a single contentious remark and attend hundreds of public engagements every year.  People think: Oh but she's got so many people to help her.  No, she's the one who has to remain standing, healthy and I admire her ability.  My toilet habits would never allow me to maintain her poise and unflappability.  The woman is as healthy as a horse.  She is also stoic.  It can't have been an easy life, no matter the perks, and it has been one of service.

Elizabeth was Queen when I was born and she is still the Queen.  She is now ninety four and looks more at ease and comfortable in her role than she ever has.  I believe it is because she knows that she has done the duty that was expected of her.  Some wayward members of the family have let the team down, albeit adding a little colour to keep the public amused.  If the Queen hadn't been at the helm, the monarchy may not have survived them, but she has not wavered.  The Queen is now an institution.  In fact she practically doesn't need a country.  She is, in and of herself, what matters.

While this last year has ground me down, along with everyone else, I tell myself that I am, relative to the Queen's age, moderately young.  She has lasted this long and so I must not give up hope.  I don't even dress properly to leave the house anymore but the other day the Queen stepped out in a delightful lime coloured ensemble to celebrate one hundred years of the Australian Air Force at a memorial in Britain.  It was her first outing in all these months and made me realize that I must pull up my socks, even if I don't have a chauffeur driven Bentley to take me where I need to go.  It's about maintaining standards.  It's about keeping our chins up.  It's about hope.  If people wonder why the Queen is there, let them remember that it's to set an example of what civilization expects of us.

There are refugees pouring out of Ethiopia, out of Syria and now out of Mozambique.  There are refugees trying to get into the USA through Mexico.  Everyone is hoping for something better.  Covid is decimating us, little wars are destroying lives in various places throughout the world and we need to imagine a world where things still run smoothly and life isn't tattered around the edges.  We all need to see that world still exists somewhere, even if it's a bit out of reach.  It's like the cinema.  Sometimes we need to live vicariously through other people's lives.  That may seem petty to some, but without hope, there is nothing.

The Queen won't get to take her wealth with her when she goes and I know many people denigrate the monarchy, but it's what she will leave behind that matters and that is an ideal.  She represents the civilization that I was born into and that appears to be falling apart at the seams.  I will be sad to see her go because she has been part of the more stable world that followed the two world wars.  Climate change, Covid and a very unsettled world is our next era and we need to keep our hands very steady on the helm and hope in our hearts, no matter how hard that proves to be.

END