Old age and wisdom

Youth and inexperience will be defeated by old age and wisdom they say. I wish it were so. Unfortunately its a bit of a double edged sword. Yes the more mature still hold the hand of power in many ways and the wisdom of the elderly is valued, particularly the further east you travel, but in this country sadly not so much anymore.

Here one is classified as old by 50 and over the hill at 60, by 70 one is on the last adventure prior to dementia and 80 you are viewed simply as a hazard to navigation. Its a great shame because inside many of our elderly their lives experience, skill, wisdom and compassion sadly lacking in those of more tender years.

Here is a case in point, a couple of days ago I took a local elderly lady to hospital, she is 89 now and not in the best of health.. Her body is frail, but her mind is as sharp as a razor.. We were engaged in conversation about her time in Rhodesia when her husband taught young pilots how to fly when into the cafe, we were recuperating in, came a young couple who had just been to see the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight based at RAF Conningsby.. Not a million miles from the cafe.

They had two children about 6 and 8 and one had a red arrows blow up and the other a spitfire. Naturally they were playing with these toys and in the end their mother pulled the reigns in and sat them down. Dad spoke up, "if you want to be a red arrow or fly a spitfire you'll have to eat your carrots". I laughed quietly to myself and the lady opposite me smiled. I said "My mum used to say Cats Eyes Cunningham was a night fighter pilot in the war and ate carrots and I ate ruddy hundreds of them". The lady opposite said "must of done my husband some good". She said this because her husband was Pilot in the war and flew spitfires.

I looked at the kids with the spitfire and then at the lady in front of me and thought how brief life is and how sad it is that we do not make the most of people and particularly the elderly who have amassed so much experience. They really could teach us so much and yet are listened to hardly at all by the young. I think it is generational. I remember venerating the old and listening actively to what they said and what they had done. We had role models and our hero's really were very heroic. There was many to choose from and probably you had one or two in your own immediate family.. Not that they spoke much, bug you knew by their bearing and often dignity that they had experienced life.

Not so much now with instant fame simply earned by being a total dick or a youtube hero. There are many examples of this and none really edifies.

They say the hardest part of growing old is the loneliness. I am just getting to realise this, as I have no family of my own near by. I do not view myself as anything special, but some elderly folk I have met have lived lives that you would not believe if they made a film of it and yet they die every day, neither missed nor will they be remembered. A very great pity indeed for to die unloved and unwanted is a very great condemnation of a country that holds its elderly with such disdain. A woman recently died who had been a spy during the war and had received both foreign and British awards for her courage. She had no family and if it had not been for the local British Legion she would have had a poor person unmarked grave. This happens virtually every day as the generation that fought world war two thin out taken by old age. A lonely death and no one to morn or to say farewell. Sad.

But, it is not just the elderly but those of middle age we throw to the scrap heap just when they have amassed a wealth of experience and skill. Indeed, we face a mounting skill shortage as these chaps with once well practiced skills retire. Light and heavy engineers, for years under valued, are now in desperately short supply and for example our local saddler has retired unable to find an apprentice capable of taking on the skills it took him many years to acquire.

Examples of this are now sadly common. Kids do not want the labor involved in learning how to be a black smith or heavy engineer. Its a shame for the rewards are many when you can earn a crust with the sweat of your brow and the labor of your hands.

At more cerebral altitudes "ageism" in not so marked. The Consultant Surgeon, Senior Partner, those of the professions are not so marked for early retirement. Here wisdom is valued more for the steady hand it can give to more conservative and cautious fields of endeavor, such as commerce and trade. Perhaps there are good reasons for a classical education, so loved by the bar, medical and foreign office. One learns much from the elderly of Greece and the philosophers Rome. Indeed, much of value from History in general that if noted by the student stops one repeating its errors.. Well, it does if you know it. There by hangs the rub.. The young do not learn from history and so they learn the hard way.. Pity and frustrating for those of us now on the sidelines who could help avoid the pain of learning that way.... But we are not... !

Yesterday I popped over with another ex RAF chum to see a chap of some 90 odd summers who had been a guest of the Japanese during the war. He told of a time when after capture in Java in 1942. He was chopping wood when a Guard came around the corner and started looking for a bit of wood. Eventually he found one and then set about beating up this chap for no good reason. There first job was to level a mountain with hand picks and shovels to build an airstrip. His friend lost his eyes in the light of the first A bomb dropped on Japan and when he eventually returned to UK after four years of captivity he was given a new suite and sent on his way. His pay book simply says:
Rank on enlistment AC1
Rank on Discharge AC1

Medals and honor -  Burma Star
Comments. AC1  Smith (anon) has shown interest in becoming a Teacher.

and thats it. No mention of the fact that of the 350 members of his original unit only 50 were still standing at the end of the war. 300 of the others were basically starved and worked to death.

He now sits in his house alone most of the time following the death of his wife and goodness knows what thoughts go through his mind of his life and the times he lived through. Wisdom, if it is born of age, he must have in buckets full.

Our Prime Minister is a total dick!

What do you make of a country that can elect such a twit as David Cameron. His latest outburst about Britain being the "best place to be" and why its understandable that all those poor unfortunates in Calais would wish to live here because "its got jobs and incredible place to live". God help us. We will have no NHS, no welfare and no homes soon. Already some towns in Britain are swamped by migrants. "Sorry we are full" should have been the message coming out of his mouth, we cannot absorbed the amount of people fleeing conflicts and what will we do once the new arrivals all start breeding? We have schools with 18 different languages spoken in them already for goodness sake and a health service creaking at the seems.

Enough Cameron you idiot shut the doors and your stupid mouth, secure the ports and make it plain that migrants coming across Europe to get here are voting with their feet and its an election they are not entitled to participate in. Its sad that these people have to come here I know only too well the plight of these people. But the world needs to solve the conflicts that cause exodus not ignore it. Once again the UN needs to given the resources and mandate to stop this madness and stop it now. We need to stop the reason for them coming here, make them go home and effect the country they come from. Even if this means military intervention. If we do not stop the rot in the middle east soon and north africa then we are going to end up in a similar situation within a generation as the migrants bring to us the causes of the civil wars in their former homes. It is always so.. History proves it. Already we have inner city areas where sharia law is imposed and those not versed in Islam fear to tread. I kid you not things get scary in some parts of Aylesbury, Luton and High Wycombe to name but a few..

That statement may upset the liberal intergrationists but its a fact that we cannot be the refuge for the world and absorb all its refugees. What makes it worse is the EU have agreed to absorb these people and do.. 170,000 have settled in Germany alone and 70,000 in Sweden and thats just from Syria. Goodness knows what will happen if this goes on. The longer it does the worse it will get for those attempting to get here (three have died this month) and the greater the impact on this country and europe. No good will come of this until those we have elected to take tough decisions start to take them and enact some common sense solutions.

People Watching

Today I stood in for our village taxi driver, due to a recent delivery of 7 Old English Sheepdog pups.. The lady is in need of lots of newspaper and sleep apparently due to the pups regular movements! Thus engaged she could not take Barbara (89 with poor eyesight) for her check up to the local hospital. Barbs was going to be at least two hours and that gave me an opportunity to have a good nose at the folks who inhabit these places by doing a bit of people watching. Now people watching is an art and has to be thought out first...... and so where to go is obviously crucial.

Of course the entrance would be a good place being as it is a natural choke point but...the people are too mobile and one cannot earwig conversation..I could go with Barbs to the opthalmickery department?.. No, just a lot of folks bumping into walls and saying "excuse me". Then it jumped out at me "the staff canteen" So, bold as brass I wondered in, got myself a brew, a daily Telegraph to hide behind (still thankfully broadsheet), found a corner table and prepared to view/earwig.

The first four were Nurses of equal rank who proceeded to demolish four baked potatoes with gusto and various toppings while working their IPhones. This was a share experience it seemed and they showed each other their internet surfing results while chewing rapidly.. Such comments as "ohh that looks nice is it on offer?" and "So, I said thats no way to treat a domestic Goddess is it" Wafted over between moutfulls of Tater and Prawn or cheese topping. One girl vindictively stabbed her potato as she described the latest antics of her husband/Boyfriends Mother. "She is a total cow and she knows it" said the stabber. All very predictable including the exploding rice pot that covered one of them.  I bored quickly, but happily just as three doctors, one American (very) one of African and an Asian sat down with salad, steak pie and chilly avec rice respectively. The American (female of the species) of rotund and short stature then started a none stop nasal chatter that soon had her compatriots and myself slightly stunned. I swear she never stopped talking and the amazing thing was she managed to eat her lunch before anyone else and with no discernible reduction in verbal output. I swear she must have been breathing with her ears.  After ten minutes, and with some desperation I tried to tune her out, as indeed did her unfortunate table companions..Wow she could talk.. but I had gleaned such gems as:

"My Mother enjoys the peace now that Ive left", "I may be vertically challenged but I make up for it in other areas".. She did indeed! I moved my gaze and attention as at last three, at a guess, physio therapists types plonked down on the opposite table. Two of them looked like mother and daughter and they all had packed lunches from home. One in a British Heart Foundation bag and the others not!
However it was the youngest daughter who fascinated me. She was very tall, had a striking nose and huge brown eyes with a mop of blonde hair.

 She kind of looked like an African wading bird...... as if to emphasis this she displayed rather similar eating habits. First she ate an apple with rotating gnawing movements at some rate of knots while her head bobbed in a rather alarming fashion and when her moth was full and her cheeks puffed out she masticated furiously and then swallowed the pulp in one mighty gulp. She then ate a small yoghurt with a huge soup spoon  using short jabbing scoopy motions while eyeing the contents with one huge eye the other being shut. For all the world it looked like she was taking aim with the spoon prior to harpooning her prey. No conversation took place at any point and mother like daughter was notable for her grazing bird technique. In her case she ate a sandwich simply by biting it twice and then splooshing it down with a probably home filled bottle of evian. Obviously frugal types and not to be allowed to the front of any cavery or buffet cue.

But the best ones were probably two consultants. Who brought a couple of posh sandwiches (probably smocked goat cheese and mango) and then filled their table up with paper work, coffee cups and computers. One was female and in a skirt too short by several meters for the public good and the other a gentlemen who had the look of one trying very hard to get into the garments beneath said short skirt. "A Player" we can safely say. It took but ten minutes for our hero to go for gold. The boy really did try hard and some of his chat up patter was bordering on criminal.
"Its nice to be able to speak openly to a fellow professional on such matters". As a opening line was a bit limp, but "Maybe we could exchange notes on this one" made me smile.. Yeah I bet!

She on the other hand was doing the duck swimming thing.. On top she was filling out notes, smiling and making junior doctor noises while under the table she was stamping her foot, scratching her arse and behind her knee to the point of making herself raw. Either body lice or she doesnt like you mate I thought. But professional to the last she kept her smile. I noted as she walked away from the carnage that had been their table he kept a respectful viewing distance behind her and couldnt have missed the self inflected wounds on the back of her legs.

And then when I thought it couldnt get much better two cleaners of very substantial girth sat directly behind me with the obligatory fat person lunch of salad, water and musli bar. You just knew it was pie and chips tonight. But not withstanding the delight of watching them daintily tucking into the grass verge on their plates I nearly lost it when I tuned into the conversation in time to hear "Well you know me and although I am not a doctor I have worked in this hospital long enough to know when someone is putting it on and that lad was putting it on.. Broken back my arse"

I noted the time and with regret left just as three Bangladeshi Specialists sat down with the most exotic plates of rice, fruit and chilly mounded on it in Himalayan proportions. They nattered away in their native tongue as one chopped a banana onto the top of K2 thus rendering scaffolding probably necessary for its consumption..

The commonwealth in action I thought as I wondered off to pick up Barbara who was not happy when I found her. Apparently the Doctor was not nice and rather rude to her. I brought her a cuppa and a slab of chocolate cake in the Cafe by the entrance to make up for it and watched the people coming and going as she nattered away about the decline of the NHS since her day.

If it walks like a duck

Well, As predicted Turkey has bombed the Northern Kurds. Any excuse will do. Naturally the PKK will defend themselves and thats the end of that cease fire. Makes you wonder if Turkey really is on the side of ISIS or just used the excuse to take a pop at ISIS in order to get at the PKK, who they really hate and its mutual. . Naturally Turkey will deny it and blame it on the PKK and we should always take Turkeys word for it.. After all they didnt walk a million Armenians into the desert and leave them to die in 1915 did they? Hell no!
That old religious divide is a big thing in Turkey and cost millions of lives over the years. The Ottoman empire had a big area and spent a lot of time sorting out religious problems. Usually at the end of a sword.  Hence the problems of the Balkans and a few other areas of the middle east that now are fractured along the usual tribal, ethnic and religious lines and in flames.

There by hangs the rub!

For it beggars belief that in 2015 in a supposed multi cultural society we are still so tribal, but we are. Ive seen it all over the world. Folk from different tribal, ethnic or religious beliefs in the main do not get on well. Im afraid, these divides have amply demonstrated that intergration and multi-culturalism  does not stand a chance to succeed. This has been and is being amply demonstrated not only in the middle east but eastern Europe.

For 60 years the peace was kept by two powerful counter forces America and Russia. Before that and particularly in Europe the Russians kept peace between many differing tribal and ethnic groups by being tough on dissenters and breakers of the peace. They were also far from backward in getting the Cossacks in to sort out any group requiring further assistance in leading a less obtrusive life style. For example the Jews of Eastern Europe well remember the pogroms that particularly in Poland were such a feature. Now that empire has collapsed the old fractures have come to the surface, long forgotten disputes and tensions have flared into wars and ethnic based terrorism. If you link it with the the same problems in Africa and the  Middle East these murderous disputes would fill the page. Indeed, there is little of the globe that is not feeling ethnic, tribal or religious tensions.

What to do about it. Well, those tensions have been evident since the dawn of time and no doubt as long as I draw breath they will continue. Unfortunately history proves there are only two resolutions that last; War and fear. We hope the UN will sort it, but it will not the UN is the sum of its parts and thus riddled with the same tensions it is supposed to sort.It is open to the same problems its member states complain of and so might is right will prevail no matter what the UN says.. It has not the will or tools to do the job. Indeed, I often wonder, having seen so much tribal, ethnic and religious based conflict in my life, if it is better to let it burn itself out. In Bosnia our (the UN) efforts to stop the war added two years and thousands more to the death list in that sorry state. It has likewise done more harm than good in a few other conflicts.. In fact it seems the UN is not more now than a talking shop. Sad to see such a superb idea brought to nowt for wont of will power by its member states.

Perhaps the answer lies, as so often, in the past and in this case we could learn something from Clausterwitz who says that war is politics by other means and that to wage it requires the state to give all to win it. For not to commit to total war means more cost in lives and treasure because it lasts longer.. He has a point. Quick sharp war followed by committed peace seems to be the only war we prosper as a race. To do it half arsed, as in Vietnam or with no exit strategy as in Iraq just prolongs the agony, leaves massive power vacuum which then releases repressed ethnic, religious or cultural differences to run riot as the state collapses and is replaced by hundreds of folk with a repressed grudges against their neighbor. Simplistic you may think. But im afraid people are...very simplistic and no amount of liberal hopeful multi cultural oxbridge educated intellectual clap trap spouted in the hollowed halls of learning concerning the law and rights of man mean a damn when your stuck in the middle of a prime evil war between Sunni and Shia chasing you around with a bloody big sword or Hutu and Tutsi or Georgian and Russian, or Turk and Kurd or Millwall and Chelsea Supporter. The thing you need then is a bloody big tank.

So, the world needs a policeman again and it needs to go back to sending people who walk softly and carry a very big stick able to chastise separate the fools, get the tribal elders and religious nutters back in their box and smack the legs of the people till they learn to get on again. Well, what else do you do with a bunch of intolerant people who will not take the first move and put the brick down?

If you know then please tell the UN because they sure as hell dont know!

Huray for Jeremy Corbyn

At last a barn storming real socialist in the mold of Wedgy "Up the workers" Benn and a conviction politician. You may not like what he says, but at least you know he believes it. If only he could win the election to become leader of the Labor Party... Wow.... real opposition on the benches facing the bloody Tories..

Perhaps we could stop the austerity rot and begin to actually look after the poor, disposed, elderly and sick. Put the banks back in their place, put the railways back into public ownership, save the NHS and stop this mad dash of the selfish right towards complete ownership of all the wealth by the top one percent at the cost of the other 99% of the population.

It would be something to watch Corbyn take Cameron apart at PMQ's and have that chinless Eatonian Gobshite subjected to some withering fire from a real working class lad with coal in his veins.. For too long the working class have aspired to be little home owners and sod everyone else. For too long they have had no one talking their talk.. Since that turd Blair moved Labor to the middle ground and tried to out Toried the Tories things have been baron on the left of Politics with predictable results.

Its well passed time we had some Marxist Socialism shaking up the money lenders and blood sucking capitalist bosses. You never know it might just be the very thing to get the Tories back on the right, The Liberals back in the middle and Labor saving Scotland from the SNP.

Rock on Jeremy!

Thud me Gripkims

I just spent a very pleasurable half and hour in the company of the Goons. Its on radio I player and BBC Four Extra every week. No matter how fed up one gets, Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Ned of Wales cannot be beat for putting a smile back on your face. If you are the generation without memory of Radio Comedy what better introduction could one have than these three wonderful idiots. All you need is a imagination and your there.

It has been an interesting week. The demise of my marriage goes on with the pair of us becoming more estranged by the week and I can only say that the estrangement is being accomplished with the greatest of good will and good manners on both sides. Just a general sense of sadness that the good things we had could not of offset some of the bad. However, it takes two to make a relationship and only one to break it and so I am outnumbered.

On the international scene; I see Turkey has waded in and decided to bomb ISIS. No doubt the Turks will wage this war as they waged the peace. They will bomb the Kurds and Isis equally so as not to offend. I think it is well passed time that there was an independent Kurdistan.. They have been a feature in the region for thousands of years and the only reason they are not doing there own thing is because of the total first class abortion the allied powers made of drawing the borders of Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria after the first world war. Kurdistan just happens to straddle all these countries and they have been appalling treated along with the Armenians for generations.

The Kurds also deserve far greater recognition for the way they stood up and were severely beaten by Saddam Hussein back in the 90s. They rose up and stood up to Hussein because President Bush told them to following the first Gulf War and then they were left without our support and suffered his retribution. If it had not been for the British Prime Minister John Major declaring a no fly zone over them in the mountains they had taken refuge in it could have been another genocide.

Now of course the Kurds are the only effective army fighting ISIS and they do so with total commitment. The are valiant fighters and give no quarter or expect any.  The women fighters of the YPG are particulalry fierce and much feared by ISIS and for obvious reasons will fight to the death rather than surrender to ISIS and probably a fate far worse than death.

We should remember them when we sit here behind the security they provide for us.. Because, believe me if ISIS win in North Africa we would be next. How would you like your daughter to have to take up arms against them.

Slang

I was talking to a fellow vet the other day and we laughed over the choice slang we used and are still used in the forces. It originates from every continent the British Armed Forces served in and some of it is hysterical. Here are some of the phrases we could recall. This is in no way an exhaustive list:

Food:
Scran generic term for anything edible (army)
Munguz believed Malay term for food (RAF)
Machan - ditto- RAF
Schnellie - German quick food outlet "Schnell Imbiss" (Army/'RAF) were they sell Bratties and poms. "Bratwurst and Pom Frites"
Scoff or Yaffle (Royal navy)
Lumps (army)
Lumps Brown (stew)
Lumps Green (salad)
Lumps Yellow (pudding)
GEB  Greasy early breakfast
Growlers - Sausage (RN)
Yaffle Spanners - Knife fork and spoon (RN)
Diner manglers - Ditto - Army
Fitters and Turners - Cook (army) "Turn good food into shit and fit it into a tin"
Cabbage Mechanic - Cook (RAF)
Brew (tea)
Nutty - chocolate bar (RN)
Banjo - Fried egg sandwich (army)
Wad - Cake various - (Army)
Mystery Stew - just put everything in and see what happens - All three services.
Not to be confused with Nuclear Stew. This is made by cooks in time of war or stress:
Corned beef
tinned veg
tinned toms
oxo cubes many
brown sauce enough to dull the senses
any fresh veg knocking about and I mean any.. I once found a red peper!!!
Stew the crap out of it and wallah Nuclear stew.. Nice if your freeze your arse off in minus 40 Norway. If your in the desert empty a tin of curry powder in it.
Babies heads - steak and kidney pudding (Army)
Pom - Dried mashed potato - Excellent for thickening anything from stew to custard.. Anything!
Hexi - Small cooker that uses solid blocks of heximine tablets to make a brew, dinner, six course banquet and make your mess tins go black.
Bacon Burgers - Tin of flavored lard with animal residue in suspension. Best discarded or you will be burping it back all day.
Bacon Grill - To die for  - eat from the tin or miss with beans for that true gastonomique experience. Bacon grill is also divine on biscuits dog. Best kit in the compo range. My ex wife loved it too.
Chocolate powder drink.. Good if thickened with Pom. To make Navy Coco empty a good few Chocolate powder packets into a pot simmer with milk powder, water, custard powder (to thicken) or pom and a couple of chocolate bars or Mars bar. Then add a good measure of Navy Rum. Can save a life in cold weather.
Herrings in - Sardines in tomato sauce - (Navy
Herrings not - Sardines in oil - (Navy)
Ghandi's Revenge - Any curry - (RAF)
Desert Chicken - Corned beef - (Army)
Chi - tea - Probably Chinese.
cheese possessed -  processed cheese (Army/RAF)
Dog biscuits or hard tack - very hard biscuits that defy any amount of gnawing and can lead to dental failure.
Chinese wedding cake - Rice pudding with raisins (RN)
Vin rouge - Tomato Sauce (RAF)
Vin Brun - Brown Sauce
Nose bag - Packed lunch (Army)
Horror bag - Packed Lunch (RAF) usually 2 sandwiches (cheese and mustard or ham, cheap crisps, penguin or similar cheap chocolate bar and bottle of panda cola. I was once told off for telling the cabbage mechanic off for giving our position away by discarded half eaten cheese and mustard sandwiches.
Screech - lemon powder (Army) Not to be left in the sun can self-combust in direct sunlight.
Screech Challenge - Mix a packet into your water bottle, allow to stand in sunlight all afternoon, then put on your respirator and attach drinking tube to the top of your  water bottle. Result usually is yellow explosion in you face mask and your eye pieces turn yellow.. Hysterical to watch from the outside.

Note;
All Service Chefs are without doubt the best chefs in the world. They can make the best food under conditions that would make civilians faint. I once saw a cook in Central America produce sunday roast with yorkshire pudding and apple pie and custard for 400 troops in 100% humidity and I have no idea what the temperature inside his tent was... I have seen them produce full English breakfast in Norway in temperature so low the trees were bursting. They are simply Gods and I have been very happy to have them with me.

On the other hand without a cook and on compo rations things could get interesting and it is surprising what you can knock up with a 24 hour ration pack.

More some other time.