BlackMan Time

Archive for February, 2006

I feel it for London Mayor Ken Livingston, actually! There’s a man, sitting on one of the UK’s most powerful thrones, as head of London’s 7 million purse strings, who has been suspended from office, yet he has committed no crime!

His misdemeanor was in telling a Jewish reporter working for the right wing, Blacks-hating Evening Standard, that he was asking his questions in the manner of a Nazi concentration camp guard. Mayor Ken refused to apoligsed and things only got worse and went downhill from there.

So all the Jews and their powerful horses and three men of some unknown organisation cobbled together to bring some legally enforceable, “disrepute” charge against Ken. And that’s where it got crazy.

Imagine, there are criminals and other undesirables with more rights than Ken Livingstone right now. But, it’s the hypocrisy, inequality and the wide ranging implications of it that amazes many. It sets some kind of precedent that publicly elected officials could be removed from office by private groups and/or individuals if they have enough power!

Democracratic Mockery

Ken Livingston was right about one thing: such a decision makes a mockery of democracy, he said. Too true! Can you imagine what would happen if someone in a high place had said of an African reporter, “stop acting as if you’re a slave on a banana boat”, do you think such a remark would result in that public official being removed from office?

What makes the Jews so special? Who gives them the right to have this ridiculous grip on so much influence that they can force silly decisions like these to happen? They have not lost as many people in a holocaust as Black people but the way they carry on sometimes you’d think they are the ones with the biggest chip on their shoulder! This is what people are now saying, or words to that effect.

Personally, I fail to see how such a decision can bring about any sympathy for the Jewish cause when it is patently clear that the decision to suspend Ken, does not show any sign of sense or reason. And to think only a few weeks ago people were up in arms, many even being killed over cartoons depicting a Muslim prophet in a deregatory way.

This must obviously be an early “silly season”. Or perhaps it’s the season to be silly…

Sitting at home on our comfy chairs, sipping something cool, or hot, depending on your needs, it is easy to judge the world with our opinions. Nowhere can this best be accommodated than in forums like these!

We blame America for practically all the ills of the world, perhaps, and fuelled by our individual hatred (or love) for its leader George W. Bush, we breathe fire on everything he does, scrutinising his every move.

Sometimes we are aware that our rantings are unjustified but the ends seem to justify the means. And that end is to demonise someone else for the (alleged) problems they are causing!

The real purpose of laying blame is to identify the fact that something is wrong somewhere. Far too many people are prepared to sit back and accept things for what they are because they weren’t around when the original sin was being committed.

For instance, everyone will readily agree that white enslavement of Black people did happen and that this act has left an indelible scar not only on people of African descent, but on the nature of white people too.

But how many would want to attribute blame directly on white for slavery today? For sure the majority of people of African descent would do so, but white people always seem reluctant because to do so would be seen as acknowledging the actions of their forefathers. Or other reasons.

They prefer to say “that’s all in the pass now. Why do you people always want to drag up slavery and things of the pass so much. Why can’t we all get along!”

Actually, I added the last “Why can’t we all get along” bit for humour! But the fact is that it’s not blame we are blaming anyone when the events being discussed is factual, historical and unrefutable.

We are merely stating the facts and the truth, even if it offends. And until white people are happy accepting responsiblity of their actions, then I do not see how that blame game will ever end…

Boy, the peeps in America are so lucky! There are so many opportunities over there than you can shake a stick at.

Take this for instance. I just seen an ad telling me how to get paid between $5 to $75 for doing an online survey by just filling out a form.

Common sense tells me that there must be some cash – ooops, I mean catch! – somewhere in the deal because you don’t usually get something for nothing in this world.

As if to read my mind the ad attempted to satisfy my curiousity by saying “No catch, no gimmick and you don’t need to have any qualifications at all!”

Among the mouth watering offers they dangled before my eyes were:-

• Get paid to take online surveys – $5 to $75 per survey!
• Get paid to participate in online focus groups $50 to $150 per hour!
• Get paid to try new products – keep the products and get paid too!
• Get paid to preview movie trailers $4 to $25 per hour!

In fact they even say they “need everyday people to give their honest opinion for their marketing research” and they are willing to pay you for your time. Hello, that sounds like many many people I know!

Money For Nothing

Against my better judgement I decided to try out this “get paid for doing nothing” type service and popped along to PaidSurveysOnline.com. I read up about their service and although they provided solid answers to questions about if the scheme is a scam, how are people paid, etc. my scepticism did not go away.

I decided to sign up anyway figuring since it didn’t cost anything there was nothing to lose.

I hadn’t got very far when I saw “the catch”. The catch is that they actually do charge you! There is a registration fee of $34.95 and you can only register or pay with a credit card. Ahhh, blast!

“PaidSurveysOnline.com charges a one time only registration fee because we only want serious job applicants filling out our surveys,” is how PaidSurveysOnline justified charging this one time fee. “If we allowed access to the surveys for free we would have ‘curiosity’ applicants filling out survey applications that were not really serious about the surveys, and taking up applications intended for serious job applicants.”

This little info was deeply hidden in the FAQs (frequently asked questions) sections, very easily missed by most folks. Aw well, I came this close to signing up for getting paid for doing (practically) nothing!

But I declined not because I had to pay: but more for the fact that they seemed to deceive by not making it more apparent that you needed to pay some money towards taking up this offer. I reasoned if they could give that impression, then maybe one should think twice about proceeding!

My final conclusion is this: trust me, there is no such thing as a free lunch! If you ever do find such a thing I advise to take a good look at the meal: I am sure you will find a bug in the lettuce or a little miniture camera hidden in some part of the food!

Bon appetite!