grumpygeorge.co.uk

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Today, 2021, i am now 70 year old and with plenty time to reflect upon my journey to retirement. I have worked seven day weeks most of my life. I left school at fifteen years old. A very good friend (HP) suggested that i should write a coffee table book because of the way i think. I am slightly on the dyslexic  spectrum, so i have never managed to read books for fun. I do read a lot of short stories and i like my friends idea because i have always liked to blether my thoughts, So to share my thoughts, this is grumpygeorges coffee table book.

 

It is unavoidably influenced by my pet subject for the past forty years, global warming. Politicians changed the usage of these words to climate change before it pushed its way into mainstream news. They thought that this subtle change was slightly easier to deal with.  🤦‍♂️

I am mixing short stories with a bit of rhyme and i start off as me, a five year old setting out to school from the farm.
On that long road my little 5 year old legs wandered their way to school. A mile and a bit it wasn’t quick the short steps took a horrible forever in bad weather.
I remember best my happy summer days, having a great time with lots and lots of butterflies fluttering around all over the place. The thistle flowers were covered with them. The world was so different to todays one, we had a huge volume of insects back then. I had to walk along a track separating two fields and there were always a few brightly coloured yellow hammer birds sitting on the fence posts watching me pass them by. But most of all i remember the skylarks hovering high while singing away up there in the sky. I loved listening to their everlasting songs as i passed them on my way to school. I still smile when i think back to them bygone early years.
Child contemplating…
I look back and remember some of the things i thought when i was a child. My short legs had to take many steps to get anywhere. Half up the village street on the way to school were the three huge steps i had to get up. They were very big granite stone steps. On the way home i had to go down them again and that was not any easier. I longed to be able to jump them like the older ones could.
I remember the walks home from school on warm summer days in the 1950s.
I had a great time amongst the abundance of grasshoppers chattering in the sunny grassy banks by the side of the road. I had such fun catching them. There were so many that i sometimes filled a jam jar of the little chatterers and took them home. Another clear memory was seeing all the dung flies. They were a rusty yellow colour and there were so many of them that they smothered the dung heaps the cattle dumped. It was fun getting a large stone and chucking it over the dung heap, splatter, got a whole heap of the flies. Well i was a child and that was just childish behaviour. But more importantly i want any young reader to note, there really were a lot of insects back then and it was the same in the house during summertime. No wonder we wanted to spray the bleeping pests.
I remember the smell of the tar on the road after a shower of rain and standing on the tar bubbles caused by the warm summer sun. The seasonal changes were abrupt and well defined. When October came, so did the cold wet hail showers from the North. I would get a few days off school before Xmas because of proper blizzards  and the same again after the new year. We had a tree in the garden about 10/15 yards from the kitchen window. It was my special tree because i used it as a weather guide when it was snowing. It was not a blizzard till i could not see it. I remember the outside toilet and rattling slates on the bedroom roof during the howling winter gales. We went to bed with a hot water bottle and mums thick knitted bed socks were essential. We needed them because the bedroom single glazed windows were often frosted over. The poorly sealed window frames rattled and the curtains shook. Of course, there was no central heating back then. We froze, we shivered and teeth chattered a while till we warmed up a bit. This was normal for our generations childhood. Guess what? We all survived no problem! Gosh, we then got an indoor bathroom, our very first ever phone line installed and our very first tv!  Technology was now beginning to show its presence to us. Yes, it was a very different world in the 1950s.
As time went by the steps i had to daily go up and down grew smaller and by the time i reached the end of primary school i could jump down all three of them in one huge leap without any bother. I was now ready for secondary school. Gosh, time flies by.
Teenage contemplating…
In my early teens, i remember the dark winter nights walking to the village a mile away. The best nights were the pitch black moonless ones with the stars shining clear and bright. I walked as i gazed upwards at these tiny lights above. There are only a few visible stars closer than 50 light years away, but all are vast distances from us. Some stars are actually galaxies full of their own stars and their light is from millions of light years ago. That got me thinking in my mind games back then because i had a little book on astronomy which i loved to study. I imagined me with a huge telescope, so powerful that it has not been invented. I could then look at a planet beside a star 65 million light years away. What if someone on that planet is right now doing the same and looking back at me at the same moment. Then i thought, “ah-ha” they cannot see me cos it will take 65 million years for the light of me to reach them. All they can see is the Jurassic era and they will think our world is full of horrible monsters. That sort of stuff was what i thought about as i walked to the village on a clear dark winters night.
Another thing i remember well is when i played pool in my local pub. I always played better pool when playing someone better than me. It made me realise that it is good to live amongst smarter people.
During the winter, most days we harvested cartloads of turnips. That was horribly cold work. Father always said, we don't need gloves, so it was bare hands handling frosted turnip leaves. Hands were permanently numb with the cold and the work had to be done. All us farmer sons of that age have our scars on our hand where we sometimes missed the turnip leaves and walloped our hand. Sometimes it was quite a mess and you just pealed off the skin and worked away. Your hand was numb with the cold anyway. Turnip harvester machinery was yet to be invented for doing this job. When i left school the summer harvest was still being done with a binder making sheaves of oats for stooking. They were full of thistles and of course we didn't need gloves for handling them either. Fathers encouraging words were, never mind the thistles, get on with the work! There was little time for creature comforts back then. The next year was our first year of the combine harvester, so we were constantly getting the very first one of new technology!

My adult journey to retirement…
In my later years on the farm, tractors started of get anti-roll safety frames and guards for the power drive shafts to the machinery behind them. So these were also the early days of safety first. I left farming when four-wheel drive tractors were starting to come on the market. Gosh what a journey we all had witnessing history in the creating.
I then had a business career in the garden centre world, which was in its infancy as well when i started. During the early days, everything that moved was sprayed till we started to realise that the chemicals were affecting our nervous systems (chronic fatigue) as well. Some of the more potent stuff like Organophosphates suddenly disappeared off the shelves, all very hush hush style and replaced with different chemicals in very similar packaging. All done without media attention. It was quite remarkable.
Later i changed career and learned photography, photo editing, printing and framing. I spent the next decade and a bit having fun with tourists in our wee shop till i retired in 2019. I was privileged on the grumpygeorge stage meeting all these tourists as they passed through Skye. They were from all over the world. I had some wonderful conversations and silly rants with them all. I have very fond memories with them and kept contact with quite a few as Facebook friends. All that was made possible by my lovely wife Serena. She put me on that stage and she looked after the shop business,  stock and display while i just played. I was always just a blethering salesman!

However while i was on my life's journey, lots of very important historic events were played out. It was a most remarkable journey and because of technology, it has been most educational. The world was recovering from the war. Everyone had pride, all were happy to do a good days work and there was plenty work around. The world then was full of exciting golden opportunities. The national health system was new. Our politics was a simple two sided red or blue equation, so there were big battles between trade unions and industry. Politicians and union leaders were all more accountable straight talkers back then. There was a consequence to the bitter battles. A lot of our large industry left the country for easier opportunities. That was a big blow to traditional employment and the start of a poverty cancer that has grown steadily ever since.
Then the microchip was invented and our generation got to play with the very first gadgets of the new world of digital technology, which has led us all the way to the high-tech gadgets that we have today. There has been a huge three fold growth in human population in my time and much exploitation on behalf of all this new consumer demand. Sadly, there has been blatant disregard to consequences of no restraint. The creation of AI and its usage has now allowed a few businesses to evolve to become so powerful that they singularly dominate worldwide consumer markets. Along with this, there has been very smart usage of technology to create misinformation (false news) which is constantly filling mainstream media. This is the backstage activity of todays big business and powerful politicians, both with selfish agendas waging media and cyber war upon their opponents. Of course, this has destroyed any trust of authenticity to anything on media today.
It has penetrated the low tech consumer world, as in people reacting to all this media bombardments of very plausible fake news. Their mobile phones have turned people into gullible hungry verbal piranhas, frenzying venomously on anything and everything with their freedom of speech, on woke, multiculturalism, on political correctness, personal rights, on sexual definitions and whatever. It seems like everyone is now running around ranting insanely to the world with their mobiles. Truth news, fake news and politics today, the whole thing has become a sitcom of stupidity. We also have global warming with climate change to consider and the burden seems endless. To summarise, it is all turning into a kind of a surreal, almost dystopian world, where greed and stupidity is now a really big cancer, and its worldwide! Oops, that turned into a wee rant!

Retired and contemplating…
Well if you live long enough you get old and that’s where us survivors all end up and no money in the world can buy your way out of this one.
Them steps when I was a child are again a problem because my old bones are now too slow and stiff. As for the stars glowing up there in the sky my eyes don’t focus too well anymore.
In summer, i now look at the wild flowers and the thistle flowers and all i see is a few flies and the odd butterfly, but nothing much. There are hardly any insects around today. I used to often cough up a fly or get one in the eye because they were in abundance in my early years. I could never fill a jar with grasshoppers today because they are silent and rarely seen. Sadly, gone are most of the bird songs i loved to hear. As with everything else, they did not fare well from the decades of poisonous chemical spraying on the fields. I have come to realise that i am watching the human race hurriedly pursuing a suicidal journey. I do hope sanity wins us over before it is too late.
It has been quite a journey for me and i think todays youngsters world is such a complicated one to understand, i wouldn’t want their journey. But hey-ho, they will just plod their way through it all, just the same as every previous generation has had to. Its always been in a bit of an upheaval. I was just lucky to have lived during a relatively nice entertaining day.

So here i am, retired and sitting on my seat with my iPad doodling away making words to thoughts. With the above in mind, you the reader will appreciate my generation has seen a lot, worn a lot of experiences, and got a lot to contemplate.

Grinding bones of success…
My life is behind me as I walk into the unavoidable bone grinding years ahead.
My body has served me well and the state i am in now only reflects success, yea!
Ive worn a lot of T-shirts and the mess on them often well out of my control.
I am amazed i survived this long its been a really good run for my money, I smile.
If you live long enough you will get to sit on this seat I see before me today.
Many have sat here says the wear on the wood and trampled soil.
I wonder what they all said. I think life used to be wonderfully uncomplicated.
Now i just see the soul of our earth dying from our toxic presence.
I believe we have behaved disgracefully. Our gluttonous behaviour just a disgusting moronic party. I see a new age of derangement blowing in its fog and we have become lost.
I sense nature is in a foul mood and just about to sneeze us back into reality
Scientists have shouted, derangement wont listen, so change is a formality.
I have had quite a journey to this seat, so I might as well just sit down and relax
Cos there’s sod all i can do about all this mess as our world heads into uncharted chaos.

Nature’s rules…
Life’s rules of survival in the natural world are rigid and inflexible. All life must endure a permanent battle in a struggle to survive long enough to reproduce before death. That means very brutal no rules that favour only the fittest with an early end for the weak and old. Thats natures way of not loosing her beautiful healthy shining coat. Only healthy fresh life is required, all else is quickly cast aside.
But mankind has no respect for that. Mankind’s presence on the Planet has suddenly expanded by using technology to win big battles against natures bugs to reach where we are today. We have taken on nature as our foe. We are not supposed to have this level of presence on the Planet.
The only thing mankind really has in common with each other is our addiction to money. Money rules us, regardless of our other varied differences. A small percentage of people are well over empowered and they severely lack empathy to any consequences on their control of power. We have not been smart enough to have any unified concern for a sustainable future. We are far too competitive against each other for that. So we continue our uncontrolled competitive trashing the Planet till nature hits us with its brutal back to basics rules. Nature is the only eventual winner in any war against it. We are not that capable. Our species may survive to to try again, or it may not.
Meantime, enjoy your wee bit of technology you are using to read this. It is after all, a little example of your selfish interest, and stop right there on that thought, and be honest. Is there any real possibility that the human race could unite. That would mean everyone loving their neighbours regardless of race, colour religion, political views, etc. Also, getting rid of selfish greed and replacing it with empathy. Doing this while at the same time disassemble and reassemble the way our systems function to create a sustainable human civilisation. To do this, so to be in harmony with each other and the rest of the Planets organic system, all 7,600,000,000 of us just mucking in like busy bees. I know, that is a really really pretty big ask.

Black and white with shades of grey we fight amongst ourselves every day
Plunder and rape, we love and hate, the potent mix we will never a fix, this our strife in daily life.

Empathy is gone, its only news and views and a boring song.
I can do what i like i know i am right because i read it somewhere!😵‍💫 “Hmmm?”

Childish!
If you do not keep a little childish in heart then i feel sorry for you because......
It is “mind medicine” that keeps your heart young and it delays growing old.
Childish is where all of your joyous fun and play and laughter comes from.
It is where you make time to allow for spontaneous silly moments.
It is where your burdened shoulders gets breathing space to laugh and sing.
Without childish the scent of roses wont stop you long enough to appreciate nature
Or see day turning to night with its glowing aura of colour as the sun sets
Without that child still in your heart your life is in waste, blind to the joy of living
So it is ok to be childish and to join in on silly moments. Stay young in heart!

Children laughing…
Enjoy playing with your little children, the mess, the noise, the screams and squabbles, the experience, because in a few years it will all be in the history book.
These early times is like holding water in your hands, it slips through your fingers so quick.

Custodians of our children’s future…
I have two households of grandchildren that i adore and it is for me an absolute treasure of an ongoing experience. I have had the pleasure from time to time to go with them to their schools. The noise in their outdoor playgrounds is loud and for many, thats all it is. For me it is not noise, it is pure music from their little souls. This is a most beautiful world of innocent little children, an orchestra in a playground making the most joyous symphony nature could ever make, and i get a little emotional and hide a few leaking tears. This beautiful young energy, the value of it is speechless as we cannot say a price on the most valuable asset we have. Then that warm joyous symphony changes tone and turns to one of tragedy as i turn and walk back to the reality of our adults world to witness what is in charge of their future. My heart breaks.

Dare i mention climate change? There is a huge today’s problem if we are to expand on that thought. I watch everyone encouraging their little children, praising them for being the smartest child in the world, and rightly so! Everything is wonderful for these little souls as they live in their temporary Utopia. So here am i in their home and i sit with that thought, climate change, global warming! …….. Speak about scrooge, grumpy old git, party pooper, miserable old sod, moan and groan, doom and gloom horrible person, well i burry myself in shame to even think about it. Shame on meee! 😱💩🤐
But they will soon be past that young children stage of life and begin to ask questions in a more structured way. The words “climate change” is mainstream conversation nowadays and they will be getting concerned, anxious even, as its their future that is being discussed.
So what is their platform for learning? They will all have media devices and all will be superglued to them. These devises will be marketing to them all sorts of goods, politics, truth, lies, etc! So they start making decisions, decisions like being a Pescatarian. And what the? XXXcuse me! I don’t even know what that means! … My, we have come a long way from the days that we were told to eat whats on the plate, and be thankful. Semi-joking aside, they will also have read so much misinformation (fake news) that they must be really confused, and their parents are as well because some of this fake news is so sophisticated. Their young child Utopia is now falling apart and the real world is starting to unfold its complicated structure. Today, mid October 2021, i am sitting in my house discussing who is going to go and get a frozen turkey for xmas, today! That is if there are any left to get. Well this is an example on what we are reading and seeing on the media! We are killing the planet with too much CO2, yet we are running out of it for manufacturing all sorts of things. Fuel for our homes is doubling in cost overnight because its not windy enough to get the supposedly green fuel driven wind turbines going. Supermarket shelves are empty today and there may not be any xmas presents this year because we have suddenly lost nearly all of the lory drivers in the world. Yes, they mysteriously disappeared and the youngsters today must be very confused about all this, so are we! But life has always been full of surprises, good and bad, and the children are just growing up in their period in the real world. It wont be the same as my world has been, or anybody else in the generations before me. Everything keeps changing, there is no secure future, there never has been, thats life, and life is a very unpredictable lottery! Everyone is in the lottery of life, like a deal of cards on the table, you are dealt your cards and you have to just make the most of your hand.

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March 2022 insert…

Today in Ukraine. These youngsters being forced to take up weapons and go butcher each other. They would all far better their day sitting down with each other and discuss the lies their opposing leaders are spinning.  That would be a sound decision because truth is a  most bastardised subject today. 

I hope our well informed  media savvy young generation  all unite to bring a worthy new change to their world! It is their future and they can take charge and do just that!

They need to stop repeating our history of going to war on command by billionaires in the interests of Billionaires. It is never in their interest!!!

There is a very important book coming out soon that the young generation should all get. 30th July 2022 information is HERE.

 

Bones of history…

Under the earthly sod of history lie dark shadowy times of human pain and misery.

The horrors buried with the souls taken in wars and injustice over the centuries.

Money rules a stiff rod and has done so since it came to be and is a curse on everything of our human world.

The few of great power who take special care to stay distanced, they have and always will call the shots.

Well if todays youngsters unite worldwide through their social media, they can be  

ALL BE ON THE SAME SIDE

They can stop doing their rulers warmongering by a simple united, NO! 

(I suspect nobody is listening😢)

 

Back to grumpys story…..
We get emotional at times when thinking about that long journey ahead for you all because we don’t get to see how it works out. For me, i get sad because although i see a world full of love, that love has not been strong enough to stop mankind’s shortsighted greed turning our beautiful world into a dystopia for the sake of stuffing a few more banknotes into already fat wallets. It is a wicked selfish madness that makes no sense.
So, the only thing us oldies can do today is to share our little bits of wisdom and experiences when we can.

The dangers of the world that todays youngsters inherit from us may not be any worse than what most generations youngsters have all had to survive in. 

 

The end of the road…..
We all must return to from where we came, in that respect we are all the same
I am tired and retired, the body is battling and the bones are all rattling
The end of the road, it comes to us all, to lord or pauper all get that call
All are put firmly under the sod with a prayer or two to some god

The Apple tree…
We were given the light to see and an apple on the tree
We knew the rules and the price to pay if we were to eat that apple some day
But greed was blinding and we’ve been finding temptation too strong to care
So the apple was taken from Gods creation and stupidity chopped down the tree.
Oh, deary me! There will be hell to pay, for thats as stupid as stupid can get.

A tree
A tree is tied with nowhere to go. Its simple life is to keep a moist toe
And for us we also are tied, if we wreck our world then we are fried

Bust…
Our civilisation functions like a balloon being blown up. If you don’t stop blowing growth into it, it will burst. It has been fully blown up now, and today, it wont take much of a poke to bust it! Unfortunately, our economy balloon thrives on growth.

Todays wind…
Todays wind blows everything into tomorrow and today we are feeding a storm.
Should we be teaching our children the skills required for todays world or preparing them for a horribly dysfunctional future one. Well, we refuse to speak about it all because it would only install a destructive fear and worry! We know only too well that we cannot undo the past and we have little or no say or power to change whats ahead, and we don’t know for sure exactly whats ahead anyway.

Walking down the street …
When walking down the street, looking at all the houses, think of them as like looking at people. When you walked past me, what you saw was my house, the place that i live in. We are all like houses with walls round ourselves to keep our thoughts safe inside. You don’t see me inside my house no more than you see what’s in the cupboards of the houses you pass by on the street. So the only bit of me you really see is my face as i wave to you from the windows of my eyes.
This is the reality of people. Nobody knows much about you and me because we all stay safely hidden behind our windows. We are all actors!
The windows of poverty are washed regularly every day. Money, the root of most of the evil in our world, the desire to own your home, then own a bigger home, own a car, a bigger car, etc. But this does not change you because you are still living in your house inside yourself. Far better is to clean your windows and look at that world, all of it, and be thankful. Stop admiring monied wealth because it is a poison.
Put more love on your table and share it.

Smiles hide a lot…
Burdened shoulders with no voice, hopelessly trapped, not living, smiles hide tears, suffering in silence. So many people are trapped in this way of life today.
I know we don’t live in a perfect world, but there are too many people skating on thin ice and far too many going under it. The climate is warming and the ice is thinning and deep down, we know when the ice melts we all go under.

Thin ice…
Thin ice on a river hides the troubled currents below.
Death under there is for sure and yet we still skate just for show.
We skate on thin ice every day and tread without care for our future
We see below this ice those who have crashed through what they dared tread.
The river below takes them away their deathly eyes all stare up in dread
We know only too well whats in store down there, yet though we can see, we without care still skate on thin ice.

Life on Earth and how fragile its existence is…
We think a bullet is fast. A basic pistol bullet travels from about 100mph and a rifle, for example an AK-47 at 1,500 mph. However there are more interesting speeds to discover? As Earth rotates our days and nights we are moving at 460 mtrs per second, that is about 1,000 mph. So we are travelling near as fast as a rifle bullet while we rotate day and night, but....
The Earth whizzes around our sun at over 65,000 mph. Wow, thats our whole world with the moon and our wobbly oceans. We survive on the surface within a very thin layer of atmosphere that we call air. It is also our weather, and somehow it all manages to stay very stable over us!  Travelling round the sun at 65,000 mph and the very worst category 5 hurricanes do not even reach 200mph sustained winds. Wow, there is plenty room for raking up that number! If you don’t see the precariousness of this then you are 🤭!
If a child persistently refuses to pay attention to mum saying, stop or else, then, or else will happen! We may not like mother natures rules, but we must respect them, or else! Its not rocket science, so get ready to be slapped.

The luck of life...
We all know that the early bird gets the worm
But it is the second mouse that gets the cheese
So there is a lot of luck in life’s journey. And, trivial events and deeds can have big impact on people, as in the butterfly effect.

Three very trivial stories that had a big impact on me on my journey.

Young teenager day.
One day long time ago i was a teenager walking up a steep farm road with some pals and their dad when he said to me, “straighten yer back min!” I cannot quote exactly the rest he said but basically speaking, i was young and walking up that hill with my back bent forward and my shoulders bent forward. He explained that it was important to keep good body posture, a straight back, square shoulders and breath with your chest, not your belly. He was J.Mc. and i never forgot these simple kind few words.
A very ordinary day.
Long ago one very ordinary day, I was then, a scruffy road-man with a gaffer/foreman called D. N. fae Inverurie. He was up on a scaffolding and dropped a big screw. He very crudely shouted down to me to pick it up. I very crudely shouted back to do it himself. I didnae like him! 😂 All our words were well flavoured! He said ok!, and went down for it himself. He, doing that, changed my life. I was instantly moved by that action and changed my view of him. He was a man in charge of a lot of working men. He swore a lot, drove his workforce hard, he kept a tight grip of things and was absolutely fair. He did not need to go down that ladder. But he did, and he picked me up. From that day on, i never looked back. A most trivial event that certainly had a big effect on my future.
Another very ordinary day a long time ago, i was well overburdened and wearing a very tired T-shirt. A very kind and observant lady whispered into my ear that she had been where i was and wished to pass on a little advice to me that she got. That lady was C. H. She said, harden your head but keep a soft heart. I will never forget her kindly concern that day. I understood exactly what she meant. A most trivial little moment of kindness, but it had a big effect on my future.
For me these three apparently very trivial events in my life were butterfly wing beats. The wing beats seemed without event, but what happened because of these wing beats had a great impact on my life's journey. Sharing, putting love on your table, a little empathy and kindness, it is the best medicine in the world.

History!… generally speaking, just think about history's track record and summarise it! We are permanently at war, even passively in peacetime we propagate the seeds of war. Referendums, Nationalism, Racism, Religions, wealth, poverty, devision, all sorts of extremisms, all rejecting peace. Thats why horrible wars keep coming back. We believe in picking sides and always poking and provoking each other in sport, in politics, in war aftermath. We are never

all on the same side.

Borders…
Changing country’s borders do not create peace. It is just a place of competitive politics wherever they are. Poverty and inequality never go away regardless of where and when people stick up borders. Borders, be it your garden boundary or your country’s boundary, are negative places and permanently primed for conflict. They require permanent diplomacy and respect for neighbours to avoid sliding quickly into conflict.
The problem with winning wars is that winning a war is just having new rulers. It creates spoils and financial opportunities (the hidden agendas) for winners and retains subdued hate within losers. History’s never ending trail of wars blatantly proves that they do not solve anything for the general people. So while we wage hostility upon opposing opinions, there will be no peace.
The sad bit is, mainstream people throughout the world basically hold the same values and want to live an honest life with family love in peace. People are very tolerant of rules, restrictions and regulations so long as they are seen as reasonable and fair. But leaders do abuse privilege. They do not play fair and rules are not fairly applied. Some people see a world full of conspiracies and everybody is out to get them. Many others believe technology will keep us safely future proof. Its now trendy to think green and participate on some trivial level. Its all very well thinking green or being a climate change advocate and waving flags and walking the streets shouting stop fossil fuel. But there is no clear path to this journey, what to do about the consequences of closing down fossil fuel reliance. Its not that simple. You cannot simply shut it down. But equally noted, it must be. So we do have a big problem.
With all the genius of mankind and AI technology i ask myself, why, oh why? Where then is the inspiration for directing us all away from troubles ahead and make a path to overcome our obstacles and ensure a future for our grandchildren. But AI churns out Amazons and lithium Tesla's instead. Todays billionaires are even jaunting into outer space!  It is unfortunately still all about people making money and increasing their wealth.

The irony of money...
No Country will sacrifice their peoples lifestyle to lower global carbon consumption.
Nobody in poverty will willingly stay in poverty if they get the option to get out.
People who have money have a lifestyle and lifestyle affords a level of indulgence.
A rare individual may self sacrifice for the greater good, but whole families do not! So everyone will cling to what they have to the bitter end. Thats survival.
But...
I see an irony in our money driven lifestyle and its effect on the planet. The more you defend your lifestyle the sooner you will loose it all, yes, all of it!

Save a donkey
We are more interested in saving a donkey and giving it a better future than saving our grandchildren’s future.
Well thats what it looks like today as we are swamped with tv adverts pleading to us to give money to save a donkey, save a tiger or possibly even adopt a bleeping leopard, and of course, get a cuddly toy for doing so. Yes, it seems we are saving everything except our grandchildren’s future.
So i guess our current adult world has more in common with a donkey than we are prepared to admit!

A simplistic view of the politics…
We are all constantly bombarded with misinformation and so easily persuaded to follow a cause by promises of something better than what we presently have. We are so gullible to temptations and promises!
Politics is the place where words hide true agendas. It is a really dirty world constantly predating on the emotions of people. It starts from the "real power" of money. The power from controlling huge wealth has armed a few individuals an ability to manipulate politicians through a web of hidden donations and all sorts of favours, leaving little room for good people with uncontaminated honesty. Of course there are some good politicians, but they get party whipped and suppressed. Truth in politics and honest opinions in politics is far too toxic a career ending place for them to tread.
For me, i detest the way politicians talk today and avoid any direct responsibility for decisions. I am also pragmatic, i understand that we have little choice in the matter and that we have to just make the most of a bad job.