BlackMan Time

Archive for the ‘Issues’ Category

Religion continues to be one of those things that divide opinion to the point where people wage war over it. Many people kill, die and are prepared to sacrifice their lives in the name of God, some believing in doing so they will somehow have earned their passage to heaven.

I’m not one of them.

A conversation I recently had with a brethren convinced me it’s not always a good thing to discuss religion or politics in certain situations. The reason for this is because it is too emotive and sometimes divisive a subject to discuss without it leaving a bad aftertaste in the air afterwards.

I tried to tell my friend I wasn’t interested in talking about religion but they weren’t having it. Then they accuse me of only talking about the kind of topic that pleases me. This isn’t true, of course, but I just didn’t feel I wanted to talk about religion, God or the bible in the place where we were, especially because we were there to conduct business.

I couldn’t make this understood clearly enough and in the end they decided they’d never talk about religion with me again.

I’m cool with their decision but I truly believe there’s a time, place and mood for everything. This opinion is, apparently, not shared by everyone…

Last week’s G20 conference of world leaders in London had two casualties. The first was a 47 year old man who police said just collapsed and died during a protest in the city’s financial heartland against the leaders. The second was the truth.

As the G20 group, led by US President Barack Obama met to discuss how to resolve the world financial “credit crunch” crisis, Ian Tomlinson, an innocent bystander was walking home, but got caught in the peacefully protesting crowd. Suddenly, a lone policeman sneaks up and appears to push or strike him from behind. He falls to the ground.

A few hours later Ian collapsed and died. The coroner said Ian died of a heart attack. The Police claimed they had been under attack from protesters of which Ian was one. This is a video of the incident…

Since this video (obtained by the Guardian), offers evidence that contradicts the police version of events, we are left to conclude the police are liars.

They may also be murderers too if their action, which is now to be investigated, is proven to have caused the death of this innocent man.

A coconut once fell on my head. It wasn’t funny at the time it made an impact on my head but shortly afterwards we were all laughing about it. My only thought at the time was I hope I could still be laughing about it in 50 years time!

Did the coconut falling on my head knock any sense into me, break anything in my head, improve my mind or otherwise injure me in ways I couldn’t immediately detect? As far as I can tell I’d say no. But then I really didn’t know.

A coconut is a particularly harmless thing. It’s roughly the size of your average soccer ball and the inner hardened shell is covered by an outer casing that darkens over time. It is harmless that is until it falls on your head!

I guess with hindsight I should have had a doctor or some other medical professional look at my head at the time. But, I didn’t. The death of actress Miranda Richardson following a ski fall in Canada made me think about this coconut incident.

Like her I received a sharp blow to the head. Although I can very well imagine the blow she took was many times greater, hurtling down a ski slope at speed. I was stationary. She felt fine afterwards and seem normal but she had no idea of the internal damage done which eventually caused the fatal blood clot in her brain.

The experts say she could have been saved had she had treatment immediately afterward.

The moral of this thought is that if a coconut (in whatever guise) falls on your head, seek help immediately! It could very well save your life.

A few weeks ago a two year old baby belonging to a Caribbean family in North West London crawled onto the window of a 16th floor apartment. It somehow slipped through a gap in the sill and fell to its death below.

Last Saturday another baby of similar age suffered a similar fate a few miles away in Kilburn. This time the boy fell from a balcony in Hereford House. He died shortly afterward in hospital.

The following day a man jumped off the 16th floor of a building also located in North West London. He was a mature man and according to my housing association newsletter the police have confirmed that there are no suspicious circumstances regarding the incident.

These are indeed tragic circumstances but all three coming so closely together in the same area makes one very curious indeed. The infants were innocent deaths but the mature man seems like he took his own life for some reason.

Some people might speculate about the credit crunch, hardships or other calamity befalling the man. But, I guess we never know about some things in this life.

Except that bad things – let’s call it evil – happens, sometimes…

I sympathize with wild animals¹ some people keep as pets. Everywhere you go these days, you see people protesting about animal rights, but what about the rights of an animal to be free?

Restyling the animal as a “pet” and giving them some kind of human name, doesn’t detract from the reality of what this actually is: animal slavery.

Let’s think about this.

Wild animals by their very nature do not willingly go and seek who their next captors will be. On the contrary! They tend to fight tooth and nail to resist becoming another animal’s prey or slave. But, then here comes hunter man to ensnare then take them back home and domesticate them.

Domestication

One can only imagine what the domestication process entails. But since it involves breaking the will of a wild animal it can only be painful, humiliating, inhumane or just generally unpleasant…

Many hundred years later when this practice has become globally acceptable, man and pet wild animal live side by side. Maybe, just like the dog mentioned here, the wild animal will remember its roots and occasionally attack his captor, otherwise known as pet owner.

Sometimes it is regrettable that these animals do not “rebel” more often considering the depressing lives some of them lead. Yet you get some within the animal kingdom who probably grumble about “letting the past take care of itself”, etc.

Even wild animals, it may seem, get the blues when they consider their roots…

1. Picture shows an ape making a protest! [↩]

Baffled by the term Credit Crunch? Don’t worry: you are not alone! Like many you probably went to bed one night and woke the next day with this new buzz term ringing in your ears!

It was probably the media which made you aware that your part of town was experiencing harsh economic times or a credit crunch. Now, this so-called credit crunch has become a one-size fits all phrase to explain away why people, companies and organisations are suddenly collapsing or finding it so hard to cope.

This video explains it in a way even humans can understand!

Why is it that people who publicly insist on honesty being on the top of their list are the very same ones who have trust issues?

The other day I was talking to someone I’m getting to know as a friend. I called to let her know my new mobile phone number. To impress her with something that was also true, I informed her she was the first to have this new number.

Without batting an eye-lid she said she didn’t believe she was the first “to be honest” with you…” I tried in vain to reassure her preconception of me wouldn’tlet her believe anything else. Especially the truth.

In her mind, most probably, was the fact that I am admired by so many females on Facebook so therefore I must be flirting with them all! She is wrong even on that score also but I really can’t be bothered to argue the point.

I won’t even say “trust me on that”. But I hope you get my point…

Every morning between 08:35 and 08:45 a.m. a neighbour leaves her apartment to take her primary school age boy to a nearby school. I know this because regardless how I am feeling or what I am doing, I can always hear them.

Actually, I never hear her unless she has to shout at or tame the boy for something or other. She is usually very quiet. The boy, on the other hand, is always very loud, noisy and excited. You would expect that from a boy that age, of course.

What I admire most about this set up is how punctual they are! As regular as clockwork, give or take 10 minutes. I can actually set my clock by them in the mornings.

When I’m working from out of a client’s office and need to leave my apartment by a certain time, I can tell where in my schedule I am based on when I hear them. They actually are a handy alarm clock or an example of an obsession with time that I welcome!

One obsession with time I dislike is when people stipulate what time to be a certain place when timing is not so relevant or important, give or take an hour. It seems like some people love to bring the business world idea inappropriately into personal situations which sometimes gives personal situations the air of being yet another business meeting.

Isn’t it great just to fly off the seat of your pants, sometimes? Isn’t it liberating to just “go with the flow” and not let time dictate your actions, especially when you are relaxing at the weekend away from the weekday pressures?

Perhaps, I’m just missing the point of time management in situations where time is not a manager…

Oh God. No, seriously; I really mean it! Alas, there are some who actually don’t believe in the existence of any kind of God.

A select few of these, notably members of the Atheist Bus Campaign, have gone so far as taking out ads on London buses to advertise their disbelief.

Their message, which first appeared on Tuesday, reads: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” But this has caused a growing number of people to complain to the regulatory body, the Advertising Standards Agency.

The saga does not end there. For now the ASA is being asked to decide on whether God exist and if so whether such a message is offensive to him.

The sure-fire way to actually settle that predicament would be for God himself to appear and challenge the sleight. Will he actually do that? If he did wouldn’t that really be something?!

Oh God…

Iraqi shoe thrower Muntadhar al-Zeidi has emerged a hero after his attempt at giving outgoing US President George W. Bush the boot on Sunday. His action where he fired his shoes at Bush at a news conference on Sunday has captured the mood of the Arab, anti-war and anti-Bush world.

It has inspired a number of support protest marches around the world.

However al-Zeidi, a local journalist, has since been detained in Iraq and his action could now land him with a lengthy prison sentence. This is a bit unfortunate.

Many of the protesters believe that al-Zeidi in trying to knock out Bush with his shoe should instead be rewarded for committing an act of supreme humanity — not punished.

It must be real weird to be convicted of an attempted crime; a crime that you attempted but only just almost nearly did it but never ever actually quite did it. That is the biggest pity of all…

Showing the sole of our shoe to someone in the Arab world is a sign of extreme disrespect. Throwing your shoes is even worse!

Apparently…