Category Archives: News

The Polls, Tactical Voting and Plan B

PollsWell the polls have closed in the UK. Yes, we have been through another election. Isn’t it amazing how no one can talk about the elections in the news during election time?

This election has brought about greater awareness on the tactical voting that goes on. I know someone in a Liberal area and if they vote Conservative (which is what they want) then they might let a Labour Candidate in. So they will vote Liberal. Then there are other friends in other wards which will also be doing this and let the less disliked candidate in.

I was thinking – if this applies to elections. Does this also apply to other areas of our lives? Do we try to take the lesser of two or three evils? The least despised option? Do we have tactical decisions because we feel we will not get what we want so therefore make a series of Plan B, C, D and more? Not ever taking Plan A seriously? For example, when a couple find their marriage is going down the sink. suddenly one of them (usually the woman) decides a baby is the answer. Well, that is a very poor tactic. Often this ends in the couple breaking up anyway, but now with an additional heart to break. Other plan B’s are getting married with someone you don’t really want to because you feel there is no one else or because there is heavy family pressure to do so. I know of so many people who got married even though they were gay. It was their Plan B and found that marriage may have made their parents happy but off course they were not. It eases the pressure temporarily but Plan B is not a good thing for long-term health and happiness.

©2015 Yasmin

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Plebgate: going past our own personal plebgates……

Plebgate and the edge

Plebgate and the edge

I don’t know about you but have you noticed how it is very hard to sue and win in an action for libel or slander? And if you win you also lose too? and then costs that are awarded can be so paltry it would have been best to ignore it.

Why do you think that is?

It seems an unwinnable thing really. Today the former government chief whip Andrew Mitchell lost his High Court libel action over the “Plebgate” incident.

What is a pleb? A Pleb (from the Oxford English Dictionary) is a mid 17th century word: originally as plural plebs, from the Latin plebs ‘the common people’.

Whether he called the policemen “plebs” or not in the long run is not the real issue I am looking at here. Why has it been taken further? Do you remember taking something beyond the edge – when it really was time to stop? I think we all have done that. Just in this case all the lawyers won and now it really looks like he did say that. If Andrew Mitchell had not taken it further it could be ascribed to a misunderstanding – now though…..Giving his ruling, Mr Justice Mitting said: “For the reasons given I am satisfied at least on the balance of probabilities that Mr Mitchell did speak the words alleged or something so close to them as to amount to the same including the politically toxic word pleb.”

Sometimes don’t we all wish we could turn back time…..this must be one of them…..and make sure we don’t have our own costly “plebgate” errors in future. …..

©2014 Yasmin

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Typhoons in Life

Sunday Morning Post

Sunday Morning Post

At the moment I am in Hong Kong and everything I see is a world of incredible organization. Public toilets are cleaned every hour.  Staff seem very well trained. A typhoon is expected. In the early afternoon it was a level 3. It is interesting to see the reactions and behaviours of people around me. When asked at the hotel lobby about the typhoon, I was told not to worry and that sometimes people like to go to the harbour and put their arms wide and sing like Michael Jackson. The staff and people I talk to appear very calm about matters, and so, myself am calm too.

The hotel has advisories not to go out and by 8pm I receive a message from the hotel ‘kindly be informed that the Hong Kong Observatory has hoisted a Typhoon Signal No.8’  In order to protect yourself from any personal injury, please do not leave the hotel under these severe weather conditions’. What do I do? I go outside off course at 8.30 pm and walk outside the hotel and life seems to go on as normal.

Outside, the shops were busy with people stocking water and food. I bought a few bananas, water, some snacks, breakfast cereal. It seems banal, irrelevant but at another level something I must do, just in case the hotel is affected. There are far fewer cars. People are still going about their business. Even now, a few different people approach me to sell authentic ‘genuine copies’ of Rolexes, some others asked if I wanted a tailor. It is ironic, I can still buy watches and have a suit made in the midst of a level 8 typhoon warning. The hotel is not far from the harbour. The leaves of the trees are moving a little. It is raining a little too. It seems the quiet before the storm. Sometimes, is life a little like this? There is the madness of the outside world. The reality of what each of us is experiencing and then the reality that does or does not happen? When I return to the entrance of the hotel they seem to want me to wrap my umbrella in plastic so that it does not drain onto the floor of the hotel. It seems odd, worrying about water and the rain messing up the floor when a typhoon is due, but life goes on doesn’t it?

©2013 Yasmin

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NEW YEARS reSOLUTIONS

Funny thing resolutions; they often get forgotten and then seem to be recycled and used again and again, year after year.  It is almost as if resolutions are eco-friendly and have a “Do not dispose of “ sticker on them.  What I am going to suggest is that we have not a resolution but to have a “solution”.  It is about time to have some changes set in place in our lives.  After all, the human race is meant to be an intelligent people.  IQ scores have risen over the last two decades.  People are meant to be smarter but a new years resolution does not seem to have much staying power.  Here therefore is what I propose for your New Years Solutions.

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Why did the Riots occur in the UK? Attachment theory, thoughts and Perceptions

Riots occurred only 500 yards away from where I live. Just behind my home crowds of youths ran into a dead end road and burnt a car. Nearby more cars were burnt. Ealing is usually a very quiet leafy green surburban area and I decided to explore as to why riots may have happened here. It seems there are many possibilities open as to why the riots occurred.

In the New York Times in the photograph opposite various reasons for the present riots were put forward. In an article in the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14483149

Ten competing arguments on the BBC site are used to explain why the riots occurred. The reasons given have ranged from welfare dependence, social exclusion, lack of fathers, spending cuts, racism, weak policing, gangsta rap and culture, consumerism, opportunitism and technology and social networking. Are there more reasons? I heard of entitlement being a possible reason or even astrology and mercury being retrograde. Maybe more will come to your mind. The point is though, we all choose our reasons and what we choose is also based on our beliefs and perceptions we can take. Looking at things from a statistical perspective, research from the Guardian newspaper has a different perspective and showed that of around 1,000 cases going through the magistrates courts, just 8.6% of defendants have jobs or are students. This then would lead to different opinions and thoughts on the matter.

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Columbo and ‘one more thing’ about Disability and Strength

It was with sadness I read as to how Columbo died this week. Peter Falk was often known as the actor who played Columbo and the catch-phrase ‘one more thing’ came up often in his series.He was by now 83 years old and had lived a long and eventful life. I suppose I was sad I never got to meet him. Was there a Columbo fan club? Why had I never set out to meet him? I realised it was because I had at some level assumed he would live forever. TV characters often seem to do that. Continue reading

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Dominique-Strauss Kahn, The IMF ; Does Sex Addiction come into it?

It damages and affects more then we realiseDominique Strauss-Kahn was the managing director of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and was reputed to have attacked a chambermaid at the Sofitel Hotel in New York. He was due to return to Europe to work on the monetary problems in the European Union but was instead arrested whilst waiting for the plane to take off. I am not sure what the trial will bring up but what has not been mentioned is that Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) could possibly be a sex-addict. The need to have sex with so many people and in different situations is one of the signs. It has not been a recent habit and he has a history of  being referred to as a ‘great seducer’. Continue reading

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How thinking can be in our genes – 5-HTT gene, depression and anxiety

Whether people become depressed after stressful or traumatic experiences can be influenced by their genes. Genetics plays its part in our lives from day one. The 5-HTT gene helps to control levels of serotonin, a brain chemical which passes messages between brain cells and affects mood . The 5-HTT gene comes in the short and the long form and everyone has the two versions. Those who have the two copies of short version and who have also mistreated as children, bullied, and in people who have certain medical conditions are more likely to suffer from depression. Continue reading

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Eastenders; soap and its cleansing qualities for therapy and the soul.

Eastenders is a ‘soap’ drama and is weekly viewing for many millions of viewers in the UK. It has been going on for over 20 years and is based on characters in the East-end of London. I even know people in the USA who also watch it on their own networks too. In America, it is around two years behind the series in the UK and by the time it arrives in the US,  a character in the UK may have been wounded, raped, murdered, fathered a child he never knew about 20 years ago or become the mayor of London.

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NAACP and racism inside and out

The NAACP(National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) in the US has recently accepted the resignation of the head of the Department of Agriculture’s rural development office in Georgia. It has been on the basis of her public racist comments.  It seems there is more to the comments then what the youtube edits show and the woman does talk later on about how she also had to overcome her own racism. It is interesting how the slur of racism can quickly draw blood. Continue reading

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