Cypriots hit with extraordinary one-off tax on savings.
Cypriots hit with extraordinary one-off tax on savings.
I was amazed at this development at the weekend and ordinary Cypriots reacted with shock that turned to panic after a 10% one-off levy on savings was forced on them as part of an extraordinary 10bn euro (£8.7bn) bailout agreed in EU HQ in Brussels.
Folks rushed to banks and queued at cash machines that refused to release cash as resentment quickly set in. The savers, half of whom are thought to be non-resident Russians, will raise almost €6bn thanks to a deal reached by European partners and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It is the first time a bailout has included such a measure and Cyprus is the fifth country after Greece, the Republic of Ireland, Portugal and Spain to turn to the Eurozone for financial help during the region’s debt crisis. The move in the Eurozone’s third smallest economy could have repercussions for financially overstretched bigger economies such as Spain and Italy.
Latest news on this story from UK Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/mar/18/cyprus-bailout-markets
Coalition for Marriage Booed out of Birmingham
Birmingham Town Hall was booked for a Tory Coalition for Marriage rally. The venue was far from full – CfM’s Colin Hart claimed they could have filled it three times over, so the many empty spaces were puzzling. Mr Hart said they had left space for Tory delegates, so the only conclusion is that not as many turned up as they would have hoped.
Ann Widdecombe (somebody nobody will marry under any circumstances) introduced as “Strictly Come Dancing Star and former Cabinet minister”, was the star turn. MPs were thin on the ground.
Apart from David Burrowes, who was on the platform, the only other parliamentarian spotted was Gerald Howarth, who was sitting with Amanda Platell of the Daily Mail.
In any case, all attendees were greeted by a vocal band of protesters, who chanted “Tory scum get out of Brum” and other accusations that the Conservative party is made up of chinless bigots.
NEVER TRUST A TORY
As the Conservatives – AKA The Party of the Rich – prepare for their annual conference in Birmingham, British people are realising in greater number than ever before just how little the elite politicians care about ordinary citizens.
An example of this can be seen in how the Tories are aiming to allow the mainsteam communications media to continue to self-regulate, even as the scandal of phone-hacking is still being investigated, and police are still in the process of questioning and charging possible criminal suspects.
It is exactly the same with the financial crisis: the failed and disgraced bankers and financiers are close friends, colleagues and relatives of members of the Tory Party – that is why there have been no arrests stemming from the actions leading to the world recession.
Those close to the corridors of power suggest this is because the politicians know that it will be easier to sneak this lack of statutory regulation through before any high profile sentences are passed against the Prime Minister’s former media secretary, Andy Coulson, and close friend Rebekah Brooks.
Hacked Off said it was concerned by comments made by Tory ministers.
Appearing before the inquiry, the education secretary, Michael Gove, argued against the statutory regulation of the press and urged Leveson to “consider carefully” his proposals.
Theresa May, home secretary, has given a warning on possible “unintended consequences” if self-regulation were scrapped. Gove, of course, formerly worked for Murdoch’s News International, a subsidary of News Corp.
On 5 July 2011 in partnership with Professor Brian Cathcart and other concerned individuals, the Media Standards Trust formed the “Hacked Off” campaign.
The Media Standards Trust was formed in 2006 to address concerns of a deterioration in journalistic standards at a time when the media were becoming enormously powerful while remaining largely opaque and unaccountable.
WOMANIFESTO – A PLAN TO SAVE HUMANITY
The Womanifesto is the philosophy underpinning the novel
DOG Sharon: The Future is Female
The Womanifesto calls for a positive re-evaluation and adoption of what have traditionally been referred to as Female Values and Perspectives with a corresponding paradigm shift in human affairs.
By this we mean an emphasis on cooperation and community rather than competition and individualism, with society organised to protect its weakest members, namely children and the elderly.
In the present global economic system we are told there is no alternative to production being governed by the Market.
However there can be no production without people and people are created by reproduction.
Therefore whoever controls reproduction controls production and future human society.
This explains why religions and other bastions of male power have worked so hard to regulate and deny female sexuality.
These sad people kill to oppose abortion, fight against birth control and do anything to prevent children getting proper sex education.
The rulers need our children for their wars and as workers, but they don’t want to acknowledge the power of reproduction.
They can’t let the women speak out.
So they denigrate the Feminine and attack women because they’re scared.
When women manage reproduction, the risk posed by overpopulation – probably the biggest challenge facing humanity – will quickly diminish and our species will no longer threaten all other life on the planet.
If women see a future where their children will be working for slave wages or die in wars or starve or die of thirst – if women see this, they will refuse to bring more children into the world.
Why should women give birth to children in a society that abuses most of the people most of the time, a society that lets tens of thousands of kids die each and every day from preventable causes?
Women everywhere are demanding change, and will not be denied. The genie is truly out of the bottle.
The existing order is based on violence or the threat of violence. But as violence creates more violence this is obviously counterproductive.
Women and children suffer most from wars and crime, face sexual assault, domestic violence and constant harassment.
Violence in all its forms must become a thing of the past.
We’ll need new politics for this new society and we’re calling it Lowerarchy.
Everybody knows a hierarchy is a pyramid-like structure with power concentrated at the top. This model worked well for kings, emperors, presidents, prime ministers, warlords and tyrants of every kind, and when allied with military might, has allowed these dictators to dominate the vast majority of people for the last several thousand years.
Hierarchies are part of our heritage, but then so is cannibalism: both have no place in a modern egalitarian society.
Government has developed from the absolute rule of kings and is the means by which the few dominate the many – so is part of the problem not a solution.
Lowerarchy is the opposite of hierarchical organisation.
In the Lowerarchy there will be no need for leaders as there will be no nations to lead. Local people will decide for themselves how to live and manage resources.
Then artificial national boundaries can be dissolved, and with no nation states to defend, armies will become redundant so can safely be disbanded.
Likewise, security services can be dismantled as we would all be on the same side.
The alternative to the above?
Catastrophic overpopulation, continued unfettered competition and the commodification of everything, wholesale destruction of the natural world, mass extinctions, more pollution and greenhouse effects on the climate, a further widening of the gap between the rich and poor, loss of civil liberties, wars over resources, famines and the likely destruction of the species.
It’s time we changed the way we live –
Let’s make the Future Female!
Noam Chomsky Documentary
Great overview of Chomsky’s work over the last five decades
This video shows part of rhe classic Canadian documentary Manufacturing Consent based on the Noam Chomsky/Edward Herman book by the same name. Explores the propaganda model of the media.
By Noam Chomsky, Truthout in the USA:
Noam Chomsky: Issues That Obama and Romney Avoid
Friday, 05 October 2012 09:11
With the quadrennial presidential election extravaganza reaching its peak, it’s useful to ask how the political campaigns are dealing with the most crucial issues we face. The simple answer is: badly, or not at all. If so, some important questions arise: why, and what can we do about it?
There are two issues of overwhelming significance, because the fate of the species is at stake: environmental disaster, and nuclear war.
The former is regularly on the front pages. On Sept. 19, for example, Justin Gillis reported in The New York Times that the melting of Arctic sea…
View original post 558 more words
US ARMY “SPRAYED RADIOACTIVE PARTICLES ON ST. LOUIS”
St. Louis Community College-Meramec sociology professor Lisa Martino-Taylor told The Associated Press that her research showed that the Army may have sprayed radioactive particles with zinc cadmium sulfide while claiming that it was testing a smoke screen that could prevent Russians from observing St. Louis from the air.
digitaljournal.com/article/333710
Those tests were concentrated in predominately-black areas of the city, which Army documents called “a densely populated slum district.”
In 1994, the Army confirmed to Congress that St. Louis was chosen because it resembled Russian cities that the U.S. might have to attack with biological weapons.
“The study was secretive for a reason,” Martino-Taylor explained to KDSK last month. “They didn’t have volunteers stepping up and saying yeah, I’ll breathe zinc cadmium sulfide with radioactive particles.”
Click here for short film report from Press TV
Documents showed that the Army used airplanes to drop the chemicals in Corpus Christi, but sprayers were mounted on station wagons and buildings in St. Louis.
“It was pretty shocking. The level of duplicity and secrecy. Clearly they went to great lengths to deceive people,” Martino-Taylor observed. “This was a violation of all medical ethics, all international codes, and the military’s own policy at that time.”
“There is a lot of evidence that shows people in St. Louis and the city, in particular minority communities, were subjected to military testing that was connected to a larger radiological weapons testing project.”
Last month, both Missouri Sens. Claire McCaskill (D) and Roy Blunt (R) demanded that Army Secretary John McHugh come clean about the testing. For its part, the Army refused to comment on the matter until it had responded to the senators, the AP reported.
Doris Spates was a baby when her father died inexplicably in 1955. She has watched four siblings die of cancer, and she survived cervical cancer.
After learning that the Army conducted secret chemical testing in her impoverished St. Louis neighborhood at the height of the Cold War, she wonders if her own government is to blame.
In the mid-1950s, and again a decade later, the Army used motorized blowers atop a low-income housing high-rise, at schools and from the backs of station wagons to send a potentially dangerous compound into the already-hazy air in predominantly black areas of St. Louis.
Demo for Spanish women’s reproductive rights
This was missed by most media
With all the excitement of the attacks on Occupy Congress and the monster response demos lets not forget Saturday was also the Global Action Day for free abortion, safe and free..
Some cities, such as Madrid and Barcelona, turned violet to demand the decriminalization of abortion.
Feminist platforms throughout Spain have held today, for the first time in the country, the Global Day of Action for Access to Safe and Legal Abortion. The festival, which began in Latin America in the 90s, gained special importance on this side of the pond due to the announcement of the Minister of Justice, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, of the anti abortion legislation.
View original post 372 more words
ZEITGEIST – CULTURE IN DECLINE pt 2
Peter Joseph’s latest film is out and available to watch on my Facebook page.
The movie is entitled
CULTURE IN DECLINE pt 2
Click here to watch
It’s fairly short and enjoyable.
It was on YouTube for a while but now appears to have been taken down.
CREEPY JIMMY SAVILE IN CHILD ABUSE ALLEGATIONS – latest update
After the BBC claimed to be ‘horrified’ at allegations about Jimmy Savile and sex abuse, more women have come forward to add to the controversy.
Yet the media still call this abuser ‘Sir’
According to today’s UK Guardian, two women have come forward with further allegations of sexual abuse by Savile.
The BBC now says it will assist any police investigation.
One alleged victim waived her anonymity to describe how she and a friend were allegedly molested by the Jim’ll Fix It star in the 1970s when they were 14.
Pictures of victim of ‘Sir’ Jimmy Savile with him.
Dee Coles told ITV News that she and her friend were made to perform sex acts on Savile in a camper van when they were on holiday in Jersey.
“He didn’t seem like a stranger. He was on our telly every Saturday night. It was exciting being with someone on TV,” said Coles.
“But I felt immense panic as soon as the door locked. Afterwards, it was shame.”
Unbelievably, Michael Grade told Channel 4 News on Tuesday night that he heard rumours about Savile’s conduct while he was boss of BBC 1, but said any suggestion of a cover-up was ”ludicrous’.
Grade said he had fleetingly heard rumours, claiming: “There were question marks, certainly.” But he added: “I never heard anything that gave me cause to think we should investigate or do anything about it. There were questions, but the entertainment industry is awash on a sea of rumours.”
But as this Savile bloke had access to children and vulnerable people, Grade’s hand-wringing counts for nothing. If he had heard stuff he should have investigated and not stopped his own journalists from doing so properly.
IS YOUTUBE CENSORING VIDEOS OF MASS DEMONSTRATIONS?
Friends on Facebook are reporting that videos of the mass demonstrations taking place across much of the world are being taken down from YouTube after Google agreed to requests from national governments.
To see original post click here
This stands in stark contrast to YouTube refusing to delete the Innocence of Muslims film clips which sparked Islamic protests across much of the Muslim world.
The largest public protests, rallies, and demonstrations that the world has ever seen are happening with almost no media coverage. Not only is there a blackout on these events in the media, but YouTube is frequently removing footage of these mass rallies and events when requested to do so by governments:
‘Google, the owner of YouTube, has complied with the majority of requests from governments, particularly in the United States and the UK, not only to remove You Tube videos, but also specific web search terms and thousands of “data requests,” meaning demands for information that would reveal the true identity of a You Tube user.’ These events are truly inspiring and should be front page news! Yet mainstream media is working with governments to keep people uninformed and dis-empowered.
Walmart Workers Ask For Basic Rights, Walmart Calls Riot Police
I suggest shoppers across the world boycott all Walmart stores and subsidiaries like ASDA in the UK
About 650 people protested a major Walmart distribution center Monday in Elwood, Illinois, the Chicago Tribute reports.
At Walmart contractor Roadlink, workers have been on strike since mid-September, claiming unsafe working conditions and unfair wages. From the movement’s website:
No one should come to work and endure extreme temperatures, inhale dust and chemical residue, and lift thousands of boxes weighing up to 250lbs with no support. Workers never know how long the work day will be- sometimes its two hours, sometimes its 16 hours. Injuries are common, as is discrimination against women and illegal retaliation against workers who speak up for better treatment.
Reports from the protest vary, but photos show riot police restraining some protesters with zip-ties. The rally had apparently been declared an “unlawful assembly.”
Photo by @daneyvilla.
View original post 18 more words
ARE MOST HUMANS PEDOPHILES?
One of my favourite words is NEOTENY
(I’m indebted to my friend at the excellent and highly informative Dear Kitty. Some blog for setting my chain of thoughts in motion for this article)
The word NEOTENY derives from the German word Neotenie, which in turn comes to us from a combination of two Greek words νέος (neos, meaning ‘young’) and τείνειν (teínein, meaning ‘tending to’)
NEOTENY is defined as: the retention, by adults in a species, of traits previously seen only in juveniles and is a subject studied in the field of developmental biology. It is also called pedomorphosis.
Many prominent evolutionary theorists, including Stephen Jay Gould and J.B.S. Haldane argue that neoteny has been a key feature in human evolution. See Wikipedia for more details.
These are the more obvious neotenous traits in humans: flattened face, broadened face, large brain, mostly hairless body, hairless face, small nose, reduction of brow ridge, small teeth, small upper jaw (maxilla), small lower jaw (mandible), thinness of skull bones, limbs proportionately short compared to torso length, longer leg than arm length, larger eyes, and upright stance.
So what are the effects of these neotenous changes?
In a cross-cultural study, more neotenized female faces were found to be the most attractive to men while less neotenized female faces were the least attractive, regardless of the females’ actual age. Michael R. Cunningham found that the Asian, Hispanic and White female faces that tended to be considered most attractive were those that had “neonate large eyes, greater distance between eyes, and small noses”.
This led Cunningham to conclude that “large eyes” were the most “effective” of the “neonate cues”.
Jones, D. Sexual Selection, Physical Attractiveness and Facial Neoteny: Cross-Cultural Evidence and Implications. p.723.
Now if these research findings are true, doesn’t this have profound implications for our society, and especially the way we demonise men, and some women, who are sexually drawn to young people and children?
I’m certainly not condoning pedophilia – I suffered sexual abuse as a kid so I know only too well how destructive of young lives this illness can be.
But I think we need to ask some searching questions of ourselves, both as a society and as a species.
Not surprisingly, one of my least favourite words is
PEDOPHILE
PEDOPHILE is defined as an adult who is sexually attracted to young children. The word derives from two Greek words, paidos meaning a boy or child and phileein meaning to love.
The word PEDOPHILE is a term of abuse for many nowadays, yet much of our culture seems to focus on us looking like children. Has anyone else noticed this contradiction?
Fashion models are notorious for being extremely thin, yet what is this but an attempt to appear as pre-pubescent?
And what about Manga?
The great majority of mature women shave their legs and under their arms, pluck their eyebrows and other parts of their faces, use creams and potions to stave off or reverse the aging process, wear make-up to make the skin appear smoother and younger and try in many other ways to appear young.
What is this all about, if not to appear childlike? And if this is the case, shouldn’t we be talking about it?
So what do YOU think?
Are YOU drawn to younger-looking people? Is this natural, or is it created by marketing and advertising?
Do YOU want to appear younger than you really are?
If so, why?
If not, how do YOU feel about this process?
HOAX, UNSOLVED MYSTERY OR CONSPIRACY – YOU DECIDE
Have you heard about the first female USSR cosmonaut that died on re-entry?
What about the man who supposedly wrote the official USAF book debunking Roswell, then disappeared?
This engaging short film discusses these and other scientific mysteries.
Click here to watch.
WHY WE NEED TO MAKE THE FUTURE FEMALE
The reactionary males are scared.
They’re clever enough to see the curve of history (herstory) points to female empowerment but stupid enough to think they can stop this dynamic.
I’m arguing that it’s crucial for women to manage human society or there will be no human society in the very near future.
And the same goes for the climate, oceans, natural world etc etc
Towards an advanced and mature p2p world civilisation
A map for the future 🙂
Our current civilization is based on the dominancy of capitalist mode of production relations and other social relations that are in large portion outcomes of or strongly determined by the principal relationships of this mode, including ‘foreign’ relations between alienated human societies.
The rising people’s grassroots movement openly and clearly challenges and wants to change these relationships at a global scale.
This conscious ‘demand’ of the peoples is being unsuccessfully undermined by the mainstream media.
The existence of astonishing number of alternative visions for the aftermath of the approaching collapse is the proof of this: the gift economy, solidarity economy, participatory economy, resource based economy, commons based economy, and many more.
View original post 586 more words
DIVIDE AND CONQUER
This cartoon speaks for itself…
Βασική αρχή για να χειραγωγήσεις την κοινωνία είναι η αρχή «διαίρει και βασίλευε». Είναι παλιά αυτή η «συνταγή» και απολύτως αποτελεσματική. Στρέφεις ένα μέρος της κοινωνίας εναντίον του άλλου, «ποδοσφαιροποιείς» κοινωνικές ή επαγγελματικές τάξεις και το πεδίο είναι ελεύθερο να κάνεις ό,τι θέλεις την ώρα που οι άλλοι θα παίζουν το παιγνίδι των «καλών» και των «κακών».View original post 1,246 more words
WHAT REALLY HIT THE PENTAGON ON 9/11?
We’ve just watched a really mind-blowing documentary film about 9/11 – in particular the supposed attack on the Pentagon.
BTW Does anybody know why this building has five sides?
The movie is entitled
National Security Alert
If you only watch one 9/11 film in your life, then I suggest you spend one hour twenty minutes on this movie.
This is what the makers say about the documentary:
In 2006 Citizen Investigation Team launched an independent investigation into the act of terrorism which took place at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
This exhaustive three-year inquest involved multiple trips to the scene of the crime in Arlington, Virginia, close scrutiny of all official and unofficial data related to the event, and, most importantly, first-person interviews with dozens of eyewitnesses, many of which were conducted and filmed in the exact locations from which they witnessed the plane that allegedly struck the building that day.
Be forewarned: Our findings are extraordinarily shocking and frightening. They are also deadly serious, and deserving of your immediate attention. This is not about a conspiracy theory or any theory at all.
This is about independent, verifiable evidence which unfortunately happens to conclusively establish as a historical fact that the violence which took place in Arlington that day was not the result of a surprise attack by suicide hijackers, but rather a false flag “black operation” involving a carefully planned and skillfully executed deception.
(More at citizeninvestigationteam.com)
CREEPY JIMMY SAVILE IN CHILD ABUSE ALLEGATIONS
News broke today that creepy former Radio 1 deejay and television presenter Jimmy Savile was interviewed under caution by Surrey police in 2007 about sexual assault allegations dating back to the 1970s.
However, the force dropped its 2007 investigation after the Crown Prosecution Service advised that there was insufficient evidence for a prosecution, the force said on Monday.
The development came to light after up to 10 women told a documentary they were assaulted by the Jim’ll Fix It frontman, who died last year.
The supposed ‘lack of evidence’ can be read to mean Savile was rich and connected to powerful figures, as a former BBC presenter says she actually caught him abusing a young girl.
Broadcaster Paul Gambaccini has added to the claims that Savile sexually abused schoolchildren, claiming the star used his charity work and ‘imperial personality’ within show business to prevent his private life being exposed.
Speaking ahead of a forthcoming ITV documentary that claims Savile abused schoolgirls during his many years of stardom, Gambaccini said his former Radio 1 colleague played tabloid newspapers “like a Stradivarius” in order to keep the abuse secret.
Now the BBC is under pressure to explain why it stopped an investigation by it’s own journalists.
Late last year the BBC decided to drop a Newsnight item investigating allegations of sexual abuse by Savile, who died last October aged 84, leading to accusations the piece was ‘killed’ to spare the Corporation’s reputation. Instead, two tribute programmes celebrating his BBC career were aired.
However, a BBC spokesman said no evidence of any allegations of misconduct had ever been found in its files, so it was “simply not possible for the Corporation to take any further action”.
NO EVIDENCE OF JESUS
I’ve just watched a short film entitled
This what it’s about…
He was called the King of the Jews, believed to be a Messiah. Just before Passover, the Romans beheaded him and crucified many of his followers outside Jerusalem.
But his name was not Jesus… it was Simon, a self-proclaimed Messiah who died four years before Christ was born.
Now, new analysis of a three-foot-tall stone tablet from the first century B.C., being hailed by scholars as a “Dead Sea Scroll on stone,” speaks of an early Messiah and his resurrection.
Was Simon of Peraea real? Did his life serve as the prototype of a Messiah for Jesus and his followers? And could this tablet shake up the basic premise of Christianity?
Watching this film reminded me of the real Dead Sea Scrolls.
The initial discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, by Bedouin shepherd Muhammed edh-Dhib, his cousins Jum’a Muhammed and Khalil Musa, took place between November 1946 and February 1947.
Eventually a total of a collection of 972 scrolls were recovered, consisting of texts from what is now known as the Hebrew Bible, or the Old Testament, and extra-biblical documents found on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name.
They were specifically located at Khirbet or Qumran in what was then British Mandate Palestine, and since 1947, what has been known as the West Bank.
The texts, and coins found with them, have been dated to the centuries immediately before and after when Jesus was supposed to have lived.
When these discoveries were first made, the Catholic Church thought there may well be evidence of Jesus and his teachings but that wasn’t the case. Some have argued that the church immediately set about suppressing this knowledge.
According to the texts, the men of Qumran fervently believed in a doctrine of last things. They fled to the desert and were readying themselves for the imminent judgment, when their enemies would be vanquished and they, God’s elect, would be given final victory in accordance with the predictions of the prophets.
However, the evidence shows that they actually believed in three messiahs— a prophet, a priest and a king.
Dr. Will Varner – Professor of Old Testament at The Master’s College and Director of IBEX, the college’s campus in Israel.
Yet no mention whatsoever is made of Jesus or John the Baptist in all these texts.
Doesn’t this seem unlikely if Jesus was the person Christianity claims?
The only reference to Jesus at all can be found in the writings of the Roman historian Titus Flavius Josephus (37 – c. 100), and that was written some decades after the period.
And there’s no evidence in Roman archives, yet the Romans were known for their administration.
KNOCK KNOCK – WHO’S THERE?
We’ve lived in this street for a little under two years and it’s a lovely place. The neighbours are friendly, the countryside starts literally just round the corner and the house itself suits us perfectly. Many species of birds congregate in the huge beech trees lining the canal that runs close behind the houses opposite and the Dawn Chorus has to be heard to be believed.
The town itself is clean and pleasant and lies near the centre of the motorway system and the airport, so it’s easy to get to pretty much anywhere quickly. There are some lovely parks within walking distance and the gym and swimming pool complex is less than a mile away. The shopping centre, also fairly close, is perfect for our needs with a good mix of chain stores, supermarkets and small specialist shops.
There’s only one problem: someone keeps slamming their front door at all hours. It usually happens late at night and in the early hours. We can tell it’s the same door by the noise it makes – a rattle of glass, a thump of wood on wood and the after-jangle of the letterbox and knocker reverberating.
And it often happens twice.
I’ve heard it countless times, lying in bed in the dark.
On several occasions we’ve gone to windows and looked and listened but there is nobody about, no vehicles start so we’ve returned to bed none the wise.
But today I thought I’d blog about it and see what others think. What would readers do if they were here, and would they make efforts to track down the nocturnal door-slammer?
And if they found out, what would they do then?
Our road is a short cul-de-sac meaning there are only a few houses close enough to belong to the culprit. The folks on our left don’t have a door with glass and a knocker and I’ve heard their door shut – so it’s not them. The neighbours on the right are quiet people and they have a porch with sliding doors, which means we can exclude them as well.
Further along on the right come two lovely families who both have young kids. The children play out in the road and are very friendly and sociable. Both sets of parents are thoughtful and aware people and would hardly slam their doors at unsocial hours and risk waking their own youngsters up. We can safely discount them as well.
That leaves five possible venues.
Two houses stand at the end of the road and three face us. Let’s begin with those opposite.
Furthest away is a nice bloke in his early 40’s. He’s a gentle person and cycles around the local lanes when not travelling the country selling hi-tech computer security software. He runs the neighbourhood watch and was very friendly when we first moved in. (probably checking us out as my partner was fond of quipping) I’ve seen him shut his door and he’s quite quiet and deliberate, as would be expected from someone who sells security systems. He isn’t the door-banger.
I’d like to digress here for a minute and briefly look at doors and how we use them. I used to work for a globally-known local automotive manufacturer and remember learning how problems with doors were, for a time, a major source of downtime, and causing great irritation to management. Although cars are built on increasingly mechanised production lines, the correct fitting of doors still requires lots of human involvement. Experienced workers bend and thump the fitted doors with mallets to achieve that satisfying ‘clunk’ we all expect when we casually leave a vehicle and swing the door shut behind us. It’s a mix of science, technology and old-fashioned metal-bashing.
Doors in houses likewise have to be hung by experienced people to avoid gaps, draughts and sticking. But all kinds of doors can be damaged by slamming. Whether this lack of care is due to ignorance, or some psychological transference of anger, I cannot say, but I often see folk treat both car and house doors as if they were unbreakable. Doors are designed to be shut thoughtfully, and work much better and for longer if they are used properly. If you’ve been used to taking your bad moods out on the humble door, then this is a plea to be nicer in future.
The people opposite would be easy to blame for this anti-social slamming as they’re considered ‘strange’ and ‘up to no good’ by some in the road. As far as I know, the couple are guilty of nothing more than not being talkative or sociable, and have never done anything wrong or impacted badly on anything or anybody. Yet keeping themselves to themselves, as the old saying goes, appears now to be tantamount to being a career criminal according to the so-called respectable neighbours. I’m naturally talkative and highly sociable but wonder what people would be saying if I had severe agoraphobia?
However, I’ve seen the people opposite leave for work and they don’t shut the door like that. So it’s not them.
The people in the house next to them are perhaps the quietist in the road. Their front door is to the side of the property and they come and go almost imperceptibly. They really respect their doors, so we can scratch them from the list.
That leaves two properties in the frame – apologies readers; I couldn’t resist one pun – the biggest houses in the road.
The property nearest us houses a family with several teen-aged and older kids and a middle-aged mum and dad. There’s always someone arriving or leaving so their door is regularly opening and closing. It’s a quiet door and not the offender.
Which points to…
The final house in the road is inhabited by a single woman in her middle to late 50s. We’ve spoken to her several times and she comes across as nervous and slightly scatty yet warm and gentle. She has a job requiring no little intellectual input, works in her garden and has a very friendly cat. So could she be the phantom slammer?
I woke early this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep, so got up and absentmindedly looked out of the bedroom window. The woman at the end came out of her front door, walked to her car, opened the door, closed it again, then walked back to her front door and slammed it shut. Then while I was watching she performed the whole sequence again.
Exactly.
This was the same sound I heard so many times before. Half an hour later I heard it again and went to the window in time to see her come out and do it again.
So, readers, hopefully you can see why I’m asking for some suggestions. If this was a case of someone doing it either without thinking or deliberately trying to wake the neighbours, there are plenty of avenues open to remedy the situation; I could simply go and tell them to stop, I could send a letter, either straightforward or sarcastic, or I could report them to the local authorities.
But if this woman is acting out some obsessive/compulsive behaviour I don’t want to make her feel worse or threatened, so the above responses are all problematic.
If I talk to her she might deny it and then what do I do? How should one balance the nuisance on the one hand, and the psychological risk on the other?
Is it better to challenge such behaviour, whatever the reason, or should I mind my own business?
I know readers have more experience of this field than me and wonder what they might suggest.
FOOD INC. – Shocking statistics about how a few giants control the US food market.
Shocking statistics about how a few giants control the US food market. The regulators are drawn mainly from the food industry and the huge financial clout of the market leaders ensures their business model triumphs over good sense and healthy eating.
Στo FOOD, Inc, ο σκηνοθέτης Robert Kenner σηκώνει το πέπλο για τη βιομηχανία τροφίμων της Αμερικής, εκθέτοντας την τεράστια εκβιομηχάνιση που έχει κρυφτεί από τον Αμερικανό καταναλωτή και δεν συμβαδίζει με τους ρυθμιστικούς οργανισμούς USDA και FDA.
Ο εφοδιασμός των τροφίμων του έθνους τώρα ελέγχεται από μια χούφτα εταιριών που θέτουν συχνά κέρδος πάνω από την υγεία των καταναλωτών, την ποιότητα ζωής του γεωργού, την ασφάλεια των εργαζομένων και του
View original post 138 more words
DOG Sharon 