The War: an update

Having ignored much of what gone on from late February getting on to near enough sixty odd days of what was seen as likely to been a fairly short conflict it is (if indeed militarily speaking there was one to start with) a case of aims not met.

The attempt to take Kyiv (Kiev) from three sides failed with tanks breaking down, soldiers reduced to looting for food and communications equipment not being able to be used effectively.

All that was achieved was the 90% destruction of good number of towns and cities rather than taking over the territory, and no attempted imposition of a Pro-Russian new President.

Widespread murder in cold blood of non combatants, forced movement to Russia, rape including of children and the use of chemical weapons all added to Pariah State status for Russia as the West united with massive sanctions and some support with weapons for the Ukrainian armed services.

This country, Our country did a lot to mobilize support for Ukraine in pushing for the biggest sanctions in peacetime, raising humanitarian aid badly needed and supplying without hesitation military resources including some training to fight this Russian invasion.

That's something many of us agree with as much as we detest war, vile playground bullies need to be stood up to and Putin's Russia is just that.

Currently Russian is pushing for "quick wins" in the eastern Donbass region chunks of which were in hands of pro-Rrussian separatists since 2014.

 

Things are not looking good for Europes security given recent threats to destroy places western diplomats are based, threaten nuclear strikes on London and New York and attack military bases in the West.

Liz Truss, our Foreign Secretary, has made it plain yesterday we will not just continue to stand with Ukraine but we will redouble support in terms of equipment in the event of any of these threats coupled with the attempt to invade Moldova too is to happen.

I make no apology for backing her all the way because such crass ideas that if acted upon would reap the most awful human consequences for all of us must be deterred and sometimes you have to face them down.

Russia must lose and be seen to lose to ensure the idea of terrorizing a people by war and unspeakable crimes by its soldiers does not go unpunished and territorial aggression is not allowed to prevail.

 

Moving on by looking for the best of what we had

Today is just a day where I feel like talking about  what being together as friends or family can be so much better.

 

Sometimes I really regret the loss of older accepted standards around how we treat each other especially in spaces we cannot easily move out of.

One is recognizing we need spaces away from popular culture and politics to talk to each other about own our ideas and fears in a way we feel most comfortable with without quoting some person or putting it in a political package as if the only reason to talk is submit things to be fixed.

Being a listener is important and many of us feel we need people to listen more to what we are saying and feeling in our lives.

Sometimes we just wish to have our feelings valued as important things to us and on our minds and to receive reassurances that having them is okay.

It almost sounds banal but to actually talk about your "day" matters as it affects how you feel and how those feelings move into other areas of your life.

We also need to have situations were we can talk through differences rather than making accusations and counter accusations with corresponding threats and counter threats looking at how we can find accommodation of differing ideas in practical ways rather than it being about winners and losers.

We badly need to put the goddam mobile phone down, creating the mental space to directly engaging with people be it a conversation with an adult or child who in effect is being ignored for some message or other.

It's a wonderful thing to have a pocket computer but is becoming a barrier to real face to face communication and just  being in peoples lives.

Is your mobile your best buddy???

Can we bring back shared space when stuff like this can happen like a meal together with just us there?

Easter edition

 Given how things have been of late we are continuing with last years "new" tradition.

It's almost Bunny Time as it is Easter which like many of our traditions does go back to pagan times even if the 'shell' is wrapped around the Easter Story and message in the Bible with it's message of enduring hope for the world following the resurrection.

Today going by the Christian Calendar is Good Friday.

For some of you no doubt it's the chocolate you go for as much as I do both and things like Easter Egg Hunts are happening no doubted aided by the need to recover from all we've had in the last two and a bit years and Brownies/Guides are taking part in easter themed activities too which is relief given how much girls have been impacted mentally by this pandemic.

I'm sure many will find some comfort in new old rituals.

HAPPY EASTER!

Minidisc a go-go 2022

Today it must be said hasn't been a great one with much rain and wind and indeed yesterday It even hailed stinging my legs which meant a quick return from the paper shop and brewing a hot cup of tea.

I haven't written much in recent years around MiniDiscs for a number of reasons, one being the demise of my home recorder and issues trying to get a solid reliable working replacement given home decks have been out of production even in Japan since around 2006/7 and lasers don't last long.

Another is because of, the majority of use had been mainly for purely personal headphone based use such as lp records copied to disc which is a faff on computer based systems as the interfaces aren't easy or selections from cd because for whole albums it's easier and quicker to just "rip" to Mp3 or Flac and play from a personal audio player especially as mine have line outputs too.
 

My circa 2004 Sharp MT MD 270H developed issues with the catch holding the disc getting out of alignment so the slightest nudge caused errors so I was able to get a similar era Sharp MT MD 170 that had had next to no use in its original box just needing a new "Gumstick" battery which while not very easy to find can be still bought as new manufactured stock so still capable of holding a full charge.

This works very well with the controls operating the same way with both digital and analogue record levels being able to be set and a button to start charging when the power unit is inserted for mains operation.

Axia made a bunch of Hello Kitty and other Sanriotown banded blank uber kawaii MiniDiscs which are now highly collectable and those go for around £30 per disc unopened

They did so at the time Hello Kitty branded players including a MD Boombox!

Here's some discs together with a Sony portable recorder with inline remote that become common in the very late 90's that you'd clip on your attire for ease of operation.

I will have to say however in my experience Sony's personal recorders outside of the early MZ-R 30/35/50's from the mid 90's had by far the worst ergonomics for the controls of any, indeed those on my HiMD NH600 are an absolute beeping pain to use especially with sub menus that the rotary encoder is erratic at moving through. 

Their home decks were in the main, much much better.

The cost of living crisis

 

We're hearing a lot about of cost of living crisis at the moment which as a former C.A.B. Advisor I wouldn't deny was a very real problem for a good number of people.

There are I feel two elements in this which I feel have come together to creat what in modern vernacular  "the perfect storm".

One is the endemic drop in the real value of wages and especially welfare payments when you compare them to the costs of  those things in the modern world we need to get by such as housing costs, fuel costs for heating and heating, telecomunication costs for telephone and internet services including equipment given so much is now done by Internet and then by phone such as applying for work and dealing with Government.

Housing costs historically has been the bigger one with the ratio between salary and mortgages increasing radically since the nineteen seventies.

Similarly for those who rent, the price of rental accommodation has increased a lot at the same time thanks to the "right to buy" the amount of social housing by Councils and increasingly Housing Associations  has diminished that was typical below market value at the same time very little new stock is being built.

This fed into the Housing Benefit bill causing a storm that resulted in capping the amount paid to that of the lowest third in any one district which meant the pressure on social housing increased and in many case I feel there is evidence to suggest that other benefits money has been used to top up the housing benefit just to get an acceptable property meaning there was less spending money in households.

The concern over escalating Housing Benefit bills was justified but in the situation of few more affordable properties being available to rent  and reliance on the increasing price of private rent this was never really going to help.

A large scale program of social housing  is needed to provide high quality basic accommodation with security that is more affordable to both the tenant and for any assistance as a society we may provide for the least well off in affording one.

That effect I feel feeds into the issue of food poverty as there is now less money to spend on food whatever the merits may be of helping people to prepare their own for less which before the Pandemic and the issues from the Russian invasion of Ukraine come into it.

Ditto the fuel poverty as while as I've said fresh food can be more nutritious for less than highly processed foods which is better for peoples health, nonetheless you need to be able to maintain a cooker and pay for the electricity or gas which is increasingly a problem.

A forgotten aspect of that is the cost of getting to work and school which especially for single parents can easily eat up whatever they may earn from working.

Pandemic has effected our lives many of would not of expected back in March 2020, while Furlough was a godsend to many, some sectors have not got back to where they were due to world-wide issues affecting supply chains and some businesses are just extinct.

This has resulted in more reliant on top up payments whose value is increasing questionable from the state and of course those getting benefits for being out of work or sick due to long covid which as someone with long covid I sympathize with hugely. 

When in this context food prices, fuel and utilities have increased by massive amounts it doesn't surprise me that more are reliant on food banks and ironically less are able to contribute to running of them.

It is possible given changed situations some costs may fall, I feel the whole relationship of working to improving standards to living has broken down and the basis for payments in our benefits system needs completely looking at as they just don't meet reasonable needs anymore.