Jonathan Spencer's Tales of Ordinary Wisdom » problem

Strictly come dancing, and the celebrity greasy pole

jonathan — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:06:00 +0000

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The problem with strictly is much like “I’m a celebrity, gmooh”, and celebrity big brother, it is a show that allows C – Z list celebrities along with sports men and women to audition or reauditon for media work.

Yet everyone is up in arms because an unfit guy in his mid sicties who cant dance has outwitted them all in their greedy egocentric luvvy world.

Through these shows these perfromers raise their profiles, and their earnings, because of apearing on the show or doing well in it, they, for a short while, become household names again or for some it is for the first time.

This is why they all take it so seriously, to win is a big money game for careers and contracts. All of a sudden your ability to gain work from commentating to advertisements, from better parts to a singing career is vastly increased.

Of course Strictly is a dancing competition, but is many other things beside and to pretend otherwise is to be blind to the way fame and celebrity work. Even the judges are party to this, Len with his: SEVEN, or Craig with his hard streak, Bruno and his expressive face and rolled Rs and Arlene with her penchant for the boys hips, before this show they were back stage people who no one knew, except perhaps for arlene phillips

Before Strictly who could even remember Cherie Lunghi or even new who Lisa Snowden was. John Sergeant has to some extent blown this all wide open.

Why did the BBC put him in in the first place – as a rather unfit looking man in his mid sixties- ? They must have had an inkling that it would have some audience effect, they just didn’t judge how much. Of course this all adds to interest in the show and increased ratings. As to changing the rules why should they, the show is a success whoever wins and even if it turns into a pastiche of itself as the viewing audience votes for John, we will all still watch it.

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Instructions from the rich and famous

jonathan — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 09:44:00 +0000

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I am sick of getting instructions from the rich and famous on how to live my life. As the father of 3 children one of whom is not yet one, I am concerned about the future, about the way we live our lives and treat our world.

BUT, if another bloody celebrity chef tells me what I should be eating, that much of our food is mass produced and then not in a nice way, that if you put horseshit on your lettuce rather than a bag of corporate fertilizer you will have saved yourself as well as the world, I will scream.

Then its onto style and what we should have in your house, the way it should look and feel.

Oh then as Julie Burchill pointed out in todays Guardian, its all these middle and upper middle class people writing about what a hard time they had on drugs and booze and divorce and you shouldn’t do it…..oh please

Why when people get wealthy do they, only then, become so self righteous, what give these mulit millionaires the right to tell the rest of us how its meant to be. Beside the fact they have alot of money and dominate the visual media. Do they not realise their views of the world are subject to their wealth. Its like the joke about the Queen who thinks everywhere else smells of disinfectant.

Now there are also the self righteous Greens who also want to tell us how we ought to live…no plastic bags, no oil based products, no this not that. Yet why does the public face of greendom always seem so upper middle class. Wealth and Social standing buys you alot of space, an electric car and quite a number of expensiive Jute bags.

The point is there is nothing intrinsically bad with much of what these people suggest, much of it is meet and right, as they used to say in the Old Church Service. But just think what this means if you are vaguely short of money….

I was looking at free range organic chickens in Waitrose yesterday for a minimum of £10, but an ordinary chicken was £3, plastic bags were free, yet a jute bag was £3 This is just a small part of the additional cost in so called ethical or gren shopping. Never mind that inflation has increased the cost of fod enormously then you have to spend all this extra money you do not have. Farming became an industry so everyone could have affordable food, I think these media class people have another hidden message when they say that this kind of farming is wrong.

“Change Your Thoughts Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao” (Dr Wayne W Dyer)

The real answer to much of this “what you ought to be buying” thing, is actually you shouldn’t. No really you just shouldn’t buy, at the very least cut down drastically…For example, Its not plastic bags that are the biggest problem in landfill,(though they are a problem) but waste food. We generally buy 1/3 more food than we really need, that excess gets thrown away. We live in a throw away society, we are recycling things that really shouldn’t even be produced. Yet even this has a knock on effect and its ordinary working people that will suffer the knock. Buy less means the need to produce less, means less people employed.

Now we are being informed that eco light bulbs are full of poisoned chemicals and corn starch bags (replacements for plastic bags) add to the problem in landfill because as they rot they increase the methane production

In that instant and looking around at more self righteous millionaires who dont want to leave anything to their children ( I feel another round of sob story books coming on) I had a blinding flash of enlightenment that nothing had really changed at all, the change that was being asked for was really more of the same.

When Fernley Wittingstall or whatever he is called, bad mouthed an estate in Axminster, he appeared to me to really be saying, we dont need your type anymore. The great unwashed can now be phased out as they will never change and anyway, as I have just pointed out, cannot afford the suggested changes.The Upper Classes know whats right, we will decide whats good for you, from ideas sown on the playing fields of Eton. Because of course they must be right musn’t they.

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England, Euro 2008 and the germans had the right idea

jonathan — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 10:04:00 +0000

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I heard it say after their 1966 loss to England the Germans went back and changed things root and branch in the German game and then dominated European and world football for 25+years from the 1970 world cup onward. Players of those times also went on to be good managers too.

We always look for a scapegoat or scapegoats. This is because we are a nation of jobsworth shopkeepers when it comes to this stuff. And now because the FA shop is overflowing with money and all players have pockets full of money because of TV we are stuck.

The last radical thing the FA did was appoint Alf Ramsey….its worth reading his biog on Wikipedia to undertand his ability both as a player and as a manager with Ipswich ( a bit like Mourhino with Porto) I am always repeating the Jack Charlton interview where he said to Ramsey, thanks for picking him, Ramsey replied something on the lines of …your not the best defender Jack but you fit into my system. This seems to me a part of the present problem, we play all the best players but there is no team spirit or team system. The last person to buck this, Hoddle, who dropped the flagging Gazza, was vilified. Our Managers don’t play the best TEAM, they play the best players, my belief is for example, that certain players dont like each other and therefore dont play well together.

“Winning Isn’t Everything: Biography of Sir Alf Ramsey” (Dave Bowler)

Because of the money involved in the UK and to a great extent the Euro game with the buying rather than nurturing of players its virtually impossible to do a Ramsey or a Clough and take an unknown team to the pinnacle of the game. This creates difficulties in judging who should be the best manager for a national side. As all the managers who acheive anything are not English. Without changes in the game its not worth appointing anyone as the whole circus will carry on. It now looks like Sven did his best with a bad situation.

If English football has become such a business its board as much as the manager needs to go. They also lack the drive and understanding of success. Look at the balance of the board, the seem mainly from the south…and I am hard pressed to understand their qualification except they work in football at different levels. We need tough people like Ken Bates and Dave Whelan, we also need outside business people and advisors as members of this board, what about some women too. If we want to attract families why are they only represented by men.

At the bottom we need money filtered through to join football and the education system to local clubs, much as they do in the USA with many sports, why isn’t this happening. We need players with tactical and intellectual intelligence as well as football skills. We need greater fan involvement between fans and player, coaches and management. Why couldn’t the team raise a smile or wave to fans as they got off their coach last night at wembley.

“The Official FA Guide to Psychology for Football (Football Association)” (Andrew Cale)

The way to make this happen is to use crowd power, hit them in the pocket, planned match boycotts is possible next step.

Heather Mills McCartney

jonathan — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 10:57:00 +0000

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I wonder whether the media are preparing to send Heather Mills down the David Icke Road of Sad, Bad and Mad. Yes heather mills who married Paul McCartney and didn’t get on with his kids.
I am not sure if I have the right order there. First they say you are sad, then bad and finally claim you are mad and in this way everything you say and do is discredited. I say this because something about Heather Mills and saying rats milk would solve food problems was in the paper today. And no matter what she does she is being made to look bad and mad, from the photos being printed in the press to the way the Tv coverage is slanted.
I also wonder why it is we love to vilify women who are outspoken and articulate and put over a representation of themeselves that is not subservient. Even in todays climate of a nod at equality or what i would call quasi-equality, successful women still have to appear a little subservient to the male system.
Look at the message sent out in The Devil Wears Prada, in a fine performance by Meryl Streep we learn that tough business women lose their husbands and have to hurt their friends in order to succeed but a women who follows her man and his career finds love and happiness.

“The Devil Wears Prada [2006]” (David Frankel)

I know little about Paul McCartney except he was once one of the lovable liverpudlian fab four and then later married to the vegitarian Linda Eastman (she of Kodak-Eastman..the camera people). and had a band called Wings. He has vast sums of money and has projected a lovable image and produced many, slightly sickly, in my opinion, but very popular songs.
However to me in all this he doesn’t look good and the worse the media paint his wife Heather Mills the more of it sticks to him, and Jonathan Ross and the thing about her being a liar (even about her leg) was just rubbish. I like Ross’s humour but that just was spiteful …I have heard it say he’s seen in McCartney’s company too.
So why am I bothered, i mean its just two highly paid entertainers battling it out, and it sells newspapers. I care because i think people in these powerful positions should set examples, and the need to be good examples, this is the responsibility that money brings. These two people don’t realise this. In this grasping world what exactly is this battle exemplifying….except greed corruption desire spite and also the position of women in our society, shame on you both.

“The Unsinkable Heather Mills: The Unauthorized Biography” (Neil Simpson)

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NHS Mangers and Management

jonathan — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 10:26:00 +0000

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Clinical staff aside, who would take a job in NHS management or administration, especially in the lower and mid reaches of this management structure? You only have to look at recent public consultation exercises to relaise what a difficult job this is.

What targets do these people have, what is the management structure in the NHS what is their pay structure, do people in the NHS ever get the sack? Some difficult questions there but one area where there is no public consultation

Lets take the admin staff, the people that work on the front desks and back offices. What training do they get, what incentives. If their pay is low, what calibre of candidate is attracted to these posts. My experience is mixed, at my local hospital I have been met by some fantastic staff, whilst in London by people that really couldn’t be bothered. Surely these people should be paid more, trained more given acceptable targets and have a simple disciplinary procedure that removes them from post if they can’t do their job properly.

I am a union person through and through, but everyone even union members needs to understand that we all have lines of responsibility and accountability that we must live up to. Standards of politeness of ability to give information and so on.

But what of NHS management…

“The New NHS: A Guide: A Guide to Its Funding, Organisation and Accountability” (Allyson M. Pollock, Alison Talbot-Smith)

Is NHS management in disarray, its often said that most of the money pumped into the NHS by Mr Brown (now the Prime Minister) went on wages and it is true to say that wages are the biggest cost that the NHS has. Yes Nurses have increased their pay perhaps to levels that they should have been years ago and Doctors across the board have increased their pay with no obvious link to targets or productivity. We are often told how many doctors or nurses there now are….but how many managers were there and how many are there now? David Cameron reckons there has been a massive increase in the management tier of the NHS and many people I know who work in the NHs would echo this. But is it really true?

My inside information tells me many of these posts are not well paid compared to the private sector equivalent, so what kinds of candidates are they attracting? Lets hope totally committed professional ones…well there must be some of these and I know some. However very often there are also people who seem to have failed in some other area of health care and be sideways moved into management. I have been told in some instances managers job descriptions specifies certain achievements or qualifications but these are not adhered to.

Now I am not denying there are many committed people working in the Public services, but they in many ways cover for the incompetents. Those that work their day off, or put in hundreds of unpaid extra hours to ensure patients are seen and looked after…these people are feeding the problem. Their committment allows the no hopers not to be found out. And beleive me for the NHS to be leaving dead babies in plastic bags by a mothers bed side there must be a fair amount of no hopers.

Why aren’t these people sacked. They wouldn’t last 5 minutes in a private sector job, are they hiding their inadequacies in the NHS and putting our lives at risk.

My inside information tells me there are often dual lines of management where groups and teams are managed by two different people or where hospitals second people from other areas, they keep their previous manager, so 3 people can manage the same team, one for a secondmenrt, one for clincal work and one for admin (holidays paperwork etc). How inefficient is that?

All of this is anecdotal and perhasp asks more questions that it answers, but before we go blaming nurses and doctors we need to ask about NHs management and administration, who is employed, what they’re paid, what they do, what are their job descriptions and targets, can they be sacked if they aren’t any good. Why are they there in the first place.

“Managing Multi-Disciplinary Teams In The NHS (Health Care Management)” (GORMAN)

The hundredth monkey Principle – what does it mean for us?

jonathan — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 10:11:00 +0000

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(from the book “The Hundredth Monkey” by Ken Keyes, jr.)
The Japanese monkey, Macaca fuscata, had been observed in the wild for a period of over 30 years.

In 1952, on the island of Koshima, scientists were providing monkeys with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkeys liked the taste of the raw sweet potatoes, but they found the dirt unpleasant.

An 18-month-old female named Imo found she could solve the problem by washing the potatoes in a nearby stream. She taught this trick to her mother. Her playmates also learned this new way and they taught their mothers too.

This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys before the eyes of the scientists.

Between 1952 and 1958 all the young monkeys learned to wash the sandy sweet potatoes to make them more palatable.

Only the adults who imitated their children learned this social improvement. Other adults kept eating the dirty sweet potatoes.

Then something startling took place. In the autumn of 1958, a certain number of Koshima monkeys were washing sweet potatoes — the exact number is not known.

Let us suppose that when the sun rose one morning there were 99 monkeys on Koshima Island who had learned to wash their sweet potatoes.

Let’s further suppose that later that morning, the hundredth monkey learned to wash potatoes.

THEN IT HAPPENED!

By that evening almost everyone in the tribe was washing sweet potatoes before eating them.

The added energy of this hundredth monkey somehow created an ideological breakthrough!

But notice.

A most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the habit of washing sweet potatoes then jumped over the sea –

Colonies of monkeys on other islands and the mainland troop of monkeys at Takasakiyama began washing their sweet potatoes.

Thus, when a certain critical number achieves an awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind.

Although the exact number may vary, this Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon means that when only a limited number of people know of a new way, it may remain the conscious property of these people.

But there is a point at which if only one more person tunes-in to a new awareness, a field is strengthened so that this awareness is picked up by almost everyone!

What does this mean for us besides the horrible thought that advertisers would have a field day, it means if we can introduce positive ideas and ideals to enough people everyone will become aware of them. It unfortunately also means that if enough people think war and pestilence is an answer to a problem …everyone does?

Violence on the streets

jonathan — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 10:07:00 +0000

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All this violence on the streets, raises a number of questions that i think we are afraid of, and they are to do with what we do with violent criminals, how we police violence and back to many posts about community…why does this violence continue to happen. Draconian measures against violent crime or zero tolerance do appear in the short term to have an effect but in the long term have proven not to work, in a totalitarian or quasi totalitarian regime, other factors come into play. In Uk society The Rule of Law is implemented by consent, its why you stop at a red traffic light, many people committing street violence are not consenting to the rule of law, community or society, but they are a small part of violent crime. Much of our violent crime is actually domestic violence and goes on behind closed doors. In our complex society part of our problem appears to be that we do not police ourselves as we no longer have a moral framework or organisations such as churches, political parties, community organisations or even familes that can lay claim to a moral highground and exert that pressure, or how to offer the love and inclusion that keeps many of us on the right track. No one knows the right ways to behave, we are insular and often alienated from each other, not just by money and our social fabric but by accents, social mores, age, cultural and ethnic differences and so on. For those reading this ask yourself a question… how well do you know young people, or are they an undiscovered country. Ask any of us over 29 even those with children how well we know young people and i hazard a guess not much….how well did your parents or older people in your community when you were young really know you? In addition I think the Gap between reality and virtual reality has become blurred, our over stimulated multi media world does not really give us a good idea of whats good and bad. Violence breeds violence, this you can see in Iraq but is harder to understand in the street, yet millions have been spent on killing Iraqis, Congolese, Afghans Americans British and so on. If I was young i would want to know why we are upset at one murder in the UK streets compared to our lack of interest in the thousands murdered systematically in war….And the millions spent, what sort of better community could young people have if those millions had gone for constructive projects in the comunity instead of guns and death. Some one once said young people are our future…THEY ARE NOT …They are our Present.

Selection in Schools – Grammar schools

jonathan — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 10:03:00 +0000

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Like David Cameron I am the parent of a child with a disability, one that also gives a mild learning difficulty. I have listened carefully and read much of the arguments of the supporters of selective schools in the public sector. The supporters of grammar schools continue to forget that it is not just the high acheivers we need to look after, but also those who will be low achievers unless they are given the environment and the support to reach their full potential.
At the local secondary school my child has been systematically bullied, has been sexually harassed, finds it hard to make friends and though the staff work hard, there are not the right specialist teachers; to ensure my child’s potential is fulfilled. Surely every child has a success story to live, how will a grammar school system help my child? How will it help anyone, as selection is also isolation, you may create a high achiever but not a rounded personality.

When we have a school system, similar to that we have to day, that is only focussed on targeted academic achievement, an enhanced version of this system; is also used as an argument for grammar schools, we begin to forget the rounded personal development of the individual and then our education system creates vast problems for parents, teachers and pupils alike. We can see those problems in our schools: rampant bullying, producing a culture of violence that has escalated to carrying and killing with knives; a lack of respect for adults and authority, because adults are seen as not practising what they preach (we only have to look to the lies and war mongering of our politicians for that) immense pressure to succeed academically and ultimately unhappiness and alienation. A system that pressures children at school putting them under unnatural stress to achieve from a very early age, does not benefit us. This educational ideology may train children that 12 hour days at work signify success, but the stress and subsequent illness we see in both adults and children these days is the fall out and the cost.
At the beginning of New Labour it was said that Blair stole the Conservative clothes, but what he really did was take the Tory cloth and tailor a new suit that had much Tory styling but always attempted an humane cut. The Conservatives under David Cameron are now left with the idea of a new suit of their own, I hope it is neither the & emperors new clothes nor the old Tory styling whose arrogant, uncaring and inhumane cut has alienated the British people for so long.

Conservatives cannot go back to the days when they lacked an holistic social view or a caring outlook, Conservatives can only look forward. Labour has managed to brand conservatism in the negative, but the positive sense at the root of the word conserve is ‘to keep in safety and protect from harm, decay, loss, or destruction’, this is something that everyone needs and wants, not just a select few.

Technorati Tags: education, Grammar schools, selection

Definition of a human being – by Robert Heinlein

jonathan — Fri, 25 May 2007 09:51:00 +0000

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A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal. fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

Robert A. Heinlein

Technorati Tags: cosmic order, definitions, humanity

Allergy, food intolerance and chickpeas

jonathan — Wed, 23 May 2007 08:04:00 +0000

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In some ways this is a long story and in others short…last year in Greece I had an upset stomach for a few days, mostly feeling incredibly bloated and heavy and need ing to go to the lavatory alot, so nothing unusual there for many travellers (sorry if this is too much detail as they say).

However I noticed these same symptoms, and worse when I got home, and it was always when i ate houmous, the Greek mashed chickpeas, sesame, garlic and lemon juice.

Well I checked on the net for chick pea allergy, but the descriptions of most people reaction as an allergy did not fit my reaction at all. Now I know if you don’t cook dried pulses properly they exude a toxin and this can cause vomitting and diarrhoea, but it couldn’t be every time I ate houmous it was undercooked.

So before this I had always mocked the idea of food intolerance, I understood allergies as I am seriously allergic to Brazil nuts…no other nuts just Brazils. However now I understand it, and I loved houmous! The problem is from time to time houmous is offeredto me and I forget…ahhhh, and I did this on Friday and then I suffer and I can’t sleep…is there anyone else out there with an intolerance to chick peas?
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Jonathan Spencer's Tales of Ordinary Wisdom » problem

Strictly come dancing, and the celebrity greasy pole

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Instructions from the rich and famous

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England, Euro 2008 and the germans had the right idea

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Heather Mills McCartney

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NHS Mangers and Management

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The hundredth monkey Principle – what does it mean for us?

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Violence on the streets

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Selection in Schools – Grammar schools

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Definition of a human being – by Robert Heinlein

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Allergy, food intolerance and chickpeas

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