A new post in my occasional series On Writing, discussing goals. Goal setting is popular in pop psychology (along with ‘visualisation’) but I’m not telling you to write down your goals. I feel like I’ve discovered the secret to goal setting, although actually it’s research that’s been around for years. I’ll give you a hint: it does not involve asking the universe for anything.
I could go absolutely crazy writing rants this week but that’s not part of the plan. So I’ll satisfy myself with this short list of things that are making me mad today:
Freeing the Middle East from the tyranny of dictatorship was sooooo important when it came to Iraq that we went to war on a lie, sunk trillions of dollars into the war effort and let hundreds of thousands of innocents die. The people of Egypt have taken to the streets in their thousands to say they WANT democracy and what are we doing about it? Tony Blair is saying what a nice chap Mubarak is and Western leaders are calling for calm and saying NOTHING about the fact that human rights organisations (including Amnesty International) are being shut down and bloggers and journalists are being arrested and beaten. Wouldn’t want to disrupt the arms or oil trade in the name of democracy, now, would we?
The Coalition are pushing ahead with ‘reforms’ to the NHS that are effectively privatisation by stealth despite the fact that just about every learned body in medicine has come out and said they are a Very Bad Idea indeed AND the fact that data show that the NHS is outperforming the health systems in other OECD nations on all but a few measures. And nurses are already losing jobs, despite the fact they promised this would not happen.
The Chechen leader has said women should be forced to cover up because men find them distracting. How the fuck does someone so mentally feeble he loses concentration if a woman in a knee-length skirt is near him get to be near any sort of power?
The Daily Mail is still telling lies to promote fear and loathing but they’ve suck to new lows by picking on people with disabilities so severe they need support to live independently. Nice one. Yet another thing the government wants to cut is the Disability Living Allowance, completely ignoring the inconvenient fact that disabilities don’t just go away when a mean and heartless administration decides it’s more important for bankers to get bonuses and big corporations to get tax breaks than for human beings to live with dignity.
God, I could go on, you know I could. But I have writing to do.
Sam Brown Author 
What a week! The Egypt situation has had me ranting as well. If peaceful protests for democracy interrupted by the violence of Mubarak supporters while the military stands by isn’t enough for the West to enact one of its ‘free the people’ interventions, I don’t know what is.
And here in Sunny Q, people are dealing with the forces of nature on top of the unfairness of people in power.
Living in the world can be a barrage of things to contend with, rail against, recover from.
It’s time like this a vacuous viral YouTube video or a bit of internet shenanigans can really hit the spot …
http://www.viralthis.com/125/how-to-make-a-baby-stop-crying.html
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Works with Lola too, but not just Rick Astley,(she prefers ABC3) I thinks its the movement as well as the sound
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I love the video. Who’d have thought Rick Astley would still be a part of popular culture!
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Pedantically speaking, picking on disabled people isn’t a “new” low for the Mail; they’ve been at it for years.
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Fair point, well made.
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I know exactly how you feel. Capitalism is clearly failing any but the very wealthy, and we are being force fed more of it. The health system would probably be in better shape if the government here did not fund the private health as well. I’m not sure whether it happens it the UK, but it sure does here.
I have heard tell that private hospitals here prefer the small easy stuff, which they still charge the medical insurers $$$$ for, and tell the patients to go public for the hard stuff as it will affect their premiums. Truth be told also; they don’t actually have the equipment necessary in all circumstances. Women likely to have complications are advised by the local private hospital to sign into Cairns Base.
This diminishes resources available to the public hospital while private takes all the cudo’s and most of the cash.
All that privating the health does is create a situation as in the US. Those without insurance are left to die. Is that what we really want in OUR countries.
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What drives me crackers is the fact there is masses of evidence to show privatisation isn’t better!
Thanks so much for taking the time to read and give such thoughtful comments.
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….and don’t get me started on the double standards in the Middle East.
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