Evan Esar (1899 – 1995)

“These days an income is something you can’t live without–or within.”
Tom Wilson (1931 – )

“What luck for rulers that men do not think.”
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)

How true this is! Look at today, it still happens all the time. In the UK, we actively accept that politicians lie, and do nothing about it.
We accept that the people who we position to make our lives better, actively abuse that power for their own good. Unfortunately, Hitler managed to blind people more than many other leaders have done, and had far greater penalties for those he disliked, however, the crimes caused by today’s leaders are not little white lies – far from it!

Films like ‘V for Vendetta’ show how easily something like this could happen, and how little time thinking about what’s really going on behind the closed doors. I’m no conspiracy theorist but i do believe that we all take a little too much for granted. Billions of pounds spent on armies and billions of people in poverty. For me, the sums just don’t add up.

“There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it.”
Mary Wilson Little

For the past week i’ve been trying to get an essay done…yet i always seen to find lots of other things that are far more important…like passing on my gained wisdom to others! I find myself not having time to do anything because i want to work a lot…then find myself not working alot because i spend all my time doing nothing! A perplexing paradox of paramount proportions.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

This is definately true. If travelling through destitute areas of Burma or Tibet is anything to go by, then most of us are pretty darn lucky! I think we should start a ‘be appreciative day’ here in the UK! A time for us to look around ourselves and realise how much we’ve actually got, instead of spending all our time worrying about what we’ve not got! This leads me to remember a great proverb:

Let not the mistakes of yesterday nor the worries of tomorrow spoil today.

Author unknown.

“What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.”
John Ruskin (new window) (1819-1900).

What has all this got to do with the price of cheese – well not much really…just a good solid thought provoking statement for a fine Sunday morning.

Dave Barry (1947 – )

There was a guy like this in the restaurant i had lunch in yesterday…i think they were a table of teachers. One of them was an American guy who knew everything about all things, and could not stop talking for the entire time i was there (thankfully not to me, so i didn’t have to pretend to listen, while obviously not caring, like the other people at his table!).

Here’s a shot of my table and my desert taken with my new camera. What…did i just say new camera! I think i’ll need a whole post to describe it’s beauty!

Anyway…this did make me giggle…

“The time not to become a father is eighteen years before a war.”

E. B. White (1899 – 1985) (i also thought it was quite funny that they describe this guy as an author and humourist (are they not called comedians anymore!)).

“Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength.”
Eric Hoffer (1902 – 1983)

This theory is evident in ‘The Constant Gardener’ which i watched last night (great film!!). A drug company is testing a drug in Kenya which it knows will kill people, then disposing of the bodies and changing the results…because it is cheaper than conducting new research to make the drug safe. It highlights how often corporations will disregard human life for increased profits – showing how low they value their own species (did you know corporations and people were the same species!). Corporations are actually legally ‘people’. When they were created years ago…some clever lawyers managed to win a lawsuit in the supreme court to give corporations the same legal power as people…and effectively make them people in their own right. This means that they abide by the same laws and regulations as you and me.

There follows numerous ethical and moral problems (new window) with this. Corporations consistently show disregard for human life and pollute the environment if it makes more money. The widespread fight againstly globalisation is just a fashion trend…the real issue is taking power away from corporations. Globalisations represents a smaller world…a world brought together through technology to work more economically and efficiently, this does not include large corporations abusing their global power for their own benefit.

Who, then, should have the responsibility of controlling these beasts? Government? The same Government that has promised to deliver 0.7% of GNP in aid to the developing world for over 20 years…yet has never managed? Signing numerous documents stating that you will donate a certain amount of money to help those in extreme povery…then continually not doing it is untrustworthy. Political parties blatantly lie in their election campaigns…yet no one does anything…because we just accept that they’re talking crap. How can we trust this system? Now, on fear of sounding a bit like an anarchical radical, i would like to mention that i don’t think we should start a revolution and live in a society with no government…but i think we should all realise that the one we have isn’t exactly perfect.

Who should have the power is a difficult question, and not one that i can answer. On searching for quotes on power (new window)…i found loads and loads!! But the general theme is pretty obvious. Power corrupts…the more you have…the more likely you are to be corrupted…and the more damage you will do.

Bill Vaughan (1915-1977)

Today’s quote of the day got me thinking about a passage in State of Fear (check out the looonnngggg comments by Ian and me…). The writer mentions the situation in Yellowstone National Park in the US. It was the first national park in the world, and is pretty big and impressive. However, not long after it was set up, the park officials were worried about the number of wolves in the park and set an order to cull them. Due to the lack of predators, animals like elks became much more abundant in numbers, and hence consumed more food. The plants that they eat are the same that the beavers eat…hence leading to a decline in beavers, and a reduction in the number of ponds because they build less damns.

Less ponds in turn led to less succulent plants, a particular delicacy for a number of other animals including the grizzly bear when it emerges from that lazy time it calls hibernation. But also, the change in the water flow (from standing water to running water) saw a decline in the number of trout and other species that lived or thrived on the ponds.

A decision made in recent years to reintroduce the wolf has seen changes that were unexpected. Beaver numbers increased and elks numbers decreased, but many other animals were also affected. Coyotes numbers have declined due to the presence of a larger predator, and smaller predators have been able to feed off the wolves leftovers giving rising numbers of grizzlies, eagles, magpies and ravens. A decline in coyotes however, saw a huge increase in smaller animals that they feed on such as field mice and other rodents, which in turn provides more food for foxes…who’s numbers are on the increase.

This example does a fine job of pointing out how little we actually know about nature. Man is too quick to jump to conclusions due to his constant belief that he knows best. However, it also points out that there is no harmony in nature. We cannot attempt to preserve the world just the way it is (we can’t even manage our own gardens)…it is constantly changing, what we have to do is adapt. I’m not saying we should try to change it…just that we should let it run it’s course and do our best to fit in with it.

I reckon that our impact on this earth can be likened to pulling a leaf off a 50 foot tree (not a 50 foot tree pictured!). Sure it may not obviously be seen to be in the best interests of the tree (though not necessarily bad for it) but it is a truly minor event for such a large tree. The world is billions of years old…and will be here for quite a while too…we are but a spec on it’s timeline…and we will be washed away like the dinosaurs before us…and everything else that we don’t know about. I’m not saying that we should try and harm the planet…quite the contrary…we should do our best to not leave footprints…but we should spend less time worrying about the ones that we think we might be leaving, as we really have no idea how big the next foot to stand in it will be.

Reference for Yellowstone situation (new window).

Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)

Joseph Stalin (1879 – 1953)

Today’s quote is an interesting one. Although quite widely known…it’s still a good point (however ironic it may be coming from a murdering dictator!).

But, it is very true. I’ve often thought that a film that shows you two sides of a story can easily make the viewer side with either party – just like everyone not wanting Al Pacino to die at the end of Scarface. Although the character is a bad person, because we all like Pacino…we feel for him and want him to do well. This is the same in real life.

When someone you know dies, it’s a tragedy. Even when you hear a story of someone dying, you think of their family and friends and how hard it must be. But when you think of millions people dying – you don’t think of millions of families, or the fact that there is a million more times grief. It simply becomes a statistic.

It’s hard to comprehend that 15,000 people die everyday in Africa alone, largely from diseases that are preventable. 15,000 simply means nothing. This makes me think of a conversation i had recently with Roland about money. My point was that a million is similar to a billion, in the way that they are very large amounts of money…and by the time it hits a certain point – it simply becomes a statistic. How often have i mentioned how much something cost, or how much a company made…and had to remember if it was a million or a billion…simply because either one is way out of my budget and therefore out of my imagination.

Unless we can see, hold or touch something – it’s very hard to imagine quantities and put them in perspective. 15,000 people is like all the kids and teachers at my school…times ten! Imagine everyone in your street, and the next street, and indeed the whole neighbourhood. Imagine half a football stadium, or a pop concert…and then try and imagine all those people dying infront of your eyes…everyday.

He may have been a satanic man, and i hate to congratulate him for saying something worthwhile…but it is a very astute observation on the modern human race.

Nearly got all my packing done, big box of stuff sent home…plane leaves in a few hours – it’s really over and finished now.

This year has gone so quickly…but i guess every year does after it’s gone. However, i don’t regret 1 minute of it…it’s been a truly amazing year and i’ve had a truly amazing time. I’ve met so many really cool people that i won’t forget for a long, long time!, I’ve been places i’d never dreamed of and i’ve done things i never thought i would do.

I’ve learned so much. Not just my studying, but about different people and their societies, about the world through different eyes, about myself, about my friends and about life. There is definately no subsitute to life experience.

Sad? Yes…very. But happy to go on to new things.

“Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.”

Miriam Beard (1901 – )