Waste and Recycling Collection

Since the start of May 2016 we have a new firm emptying our bins.
Expectations were high: the whole procedure would become more green, there was going to be more recycling and more dividing of the recyclable materials. We were going to get two new bins: one for paper and cardboard and a black bin instead of the black trash bags we were using. These were often ripped open by crows, seagulls and foxes. They were too vulnerable.

Soon it was clear how the changes really were. The paper and cardboard bin was a little insert bin that had to be placed in the recycle bin. The thing was all shiny and new, but delivered a problem. No way it could be fit in our bin. It did not seem to be a big problem; I phoned the county council and the friendly civil servant assured me I would get a new recycle bin before the new service would start.

The next thing that amazed me was the fact that we had to start using the new garbage bin by putting bin bags in the new shiny bin. In these day we try to keep the use of plastic to minimum and here we are packing our garbage double. One thing is certain: no animal will get to the rubbish. Still I can imagine the scene of the dump with thousands and thousands of black bin bags. This is plastic that is not going to dissolve itself.

Today we saw the garbage trucks speeding through our street WITHOUT taking our rubbish. I had been careful: had placed the paper and cardboard out at the last minute, to prevent that it got soaked by the rain that had started earlier that day. I phoned the council to complain about it and after 30 minutes waiting to get connected I was sort of told off by a lady whose voice reminded me strongly of actress Jo Brand. I almost got the feeling this phone call was recorded for a comedy show where stupid people try to phone the authorities. Her story was that the bin man probably were called away.

Stupid me! Of course!

It's now months after my initial phone call to the friendly civil servant: the new recycle bin has not been delivered yet. The man who had to deliver the thing probably was called away too...
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An Empty Gesture?

This year we decided not to send Christmas cards to anyone.
More and more people send their best wishes for a nice Christmas and an even nicer New Year on social media or mention them in a mail.
So no more need to sit together at the table and write the cards out. "How many left to do now?" Pfff.

Every year we would count the cards and there was always less than what we've sent out. What to do? Check lists? A bit like "Who unfollowed me on Twitter?" We never could be bothered to do that. If I'm honest it was more annoying to see people sending the same cards as they did in previous years, realising they probably bought them in bulk at Aldi's or Primark. Some cards would be too tiny or too ugly to hang them on the string. It always led to the discussion that we maybe should not send these people a card any more. In the end nobody would be erased from the list and on the contrary even more would be added, us being in a shame because we were certain we never had sent these people a card.

This morning a car stopped in front of our house and a woman got out. A man, maybe her partner, waited behind the wheel while she walked up to the front door. We waited for the doorbell; it never rang. The woman had gone back to the car and they had driven off.

The card was addressed to Alice and Ken. We know the names, they are the old couple who lived here till around Christmas last year. They were both in their nineties, she was seriously ill and he was her carer. That became impossible after a light stroke that struck him caused him to lose the feeling in his fingertips. The children of the couple decided they were better off living in a nursing home. The old lady died a few months later.

The sender of the card mentioned on the card was just Violet. It was obvious that this Violet never made the effort to visit the old couple in the last year and never tried to phone them. If she had done so, she would not have delivered the card in person. I think it is a bit strange to just put this card in the letter box; she could have tried to visit, but could not be bothered to do such.

The card was a Christmas card on which was added "a happy new year".
Why oh why did you decide to write and deliver this card Violet?
I'm afraid we'll never know.

One year later

A car stops in front of our house and a lady gets out, holding an envelope in her hands. She walks towards our front door and my wife gets to the door, asks her who she wants to give this envelope.
"To my friends Alice and Ken", she answers, "I live around the corner". She points in the direction.

My wife tells her the couple moved two years ago to Kent and that Alice died half a year later.
The lady thanks my wife and takes the envelope back into the car. It takes a few minutes before she drives away.

Maybe we will not get another Christmas card for Alice and Ken...
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A letter from Michael Moore

I normally don't reproduce other people's material, but I think this should be read.
And it doesn't need any picture to brighten it up, that would only conceal the message.

Those Who Say "I Support the Troops" Should Just Stop, Out of Respect for the Troops …a letter from Michael Moore

Thursday, January 3rd, 2013

I don't support the troops, America, and neither do you. I am writing this as I have just learned of the suicides of two more of our active duty reservists who live here in the Traverse City, Michigan area. That brings the total number of soldier suicides (that I know of) in the past year, in this rural area, to four.

I am tired of the ruse we are playing on these brave citizens in our armed forces. And guess what -- a lot of these soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines see right through the bull**** of those words, "I support the troops!," spoken by Americans with such false sincerity -- false because our actions don't match our words. These young men and women sign up to risk their very lives to protect us -- and this is what they get in return:

1. They get sent off to wars that have NOTHING to do with defending America or saving our lives. They are used as pawns so that the military-industrial complex can make billions of dollars and the rich here can expand their empire. By "supporting the troops," that means I'm supposed to shut up, don't ask questions, do nothing to stop the madness, and sit by and watch thousands of them die? Well, I've done an awful lot to try and end this. But the only way you can honestly say you support the troops is to work night and day to get them out of these hell holes they've been sent to. And what have I done this week to bring the troops home? Nothing. So if I say "I support the troops," don't believe me -- I clearly don't support the troops because I've got more important things to do today, like return an iPhone that doesn't work and take my car in for a tune up.

2. While the troops we claim to "support" are serving their country, bankers who say they too "support the troops" foreclose on the actual homes of these soldiers and evict their families while they are overseas! Have I gone and stood in front of the sheriff's deputy as he is throwing a military family out of their home? No. And there's your proof that I don't "support the troops," because if I did, I would organize mass sit-ins to block the doors of these homes. Instead, I'm having Chilean sea bass tonight.

3. How many of you who say you "support the troops" have visited a VA hospital to bring aid and comfort to the sick and wounded? I haven't. How many of you have any clue what it's like to deal with the VA? I don't. Therefore, you would be safe to say that I don't "support the troops," and neither do you.

4. Who amongst you big enthusiastic "supporters of the troops" can tell me the approximate number of service women who have been raped while in the military? Answer:19,000 (mostly) female troops are raped or sexually assaulted every year by fellow American troops. What have you or I done to bring these criminals to justice? What's that you say -- out of sight, out of mind? These women have suffered, and I've done nothing. So don't ever let me get away with telling you I "support the troops" because, sadly, I don't. And neither do you.

5. Help a homeless vet today? How 'bout yesterday? Last week? Last year? Ever? But I thought you "support the troops!"? The number of homeless veterans is staggering -- on any given night, at least 60,000 veterans are sleeping on the streets of the country that proudly "supports the troops." This is disgraceful and shameful, isn't it? And it exposes all those "troop supporters" who always vote against social programs that would help these veterans. Tonight there are at least 12,700 Iraq/Afghanistan veterans homeless and sleeping on the street. I've never lent a helping hand to one of the many vets I've seen sleeping on the street. I can't bear to look, and I walk past them very quickly. That's callednot "supporting the troops," which, I guess, I don't -- and neither do you.

6. And you know, the beautiful thing about all this "support" you and I have been giving the troops -- they feel this love and support so much, a record number of them are killing themselves every single week. In fact, there are now more soldiers killing themselves than soldiers being killed in combat (323 suicides in 2012 through November vs. about 210 combat deaths). Yes, you are more likely to die by your own hand in the United States military than by al Qaeda or the Taliban. And an estimated eighteen veterans kill themselves each day, or one in five of all U.S. suicides -- though no one really knows because we don't bother to keep track. Now, that's what I call support! These troops are really feeling the love, people! Lemme hear you say it again: "I support the troops!" Louder! "I SUPPORT THE TROOPS!!" There, that's better. I'm sure they heard us. Don't forget to fly our flag, wear your flag lapel pin, and never, ever let a service member pass you by without saying, "Thank you for your service!" I'm sure that's all they need to keep from putting a bullet in their heads. Do your best to keep your "support" up for the troops because, God knows, I certainly can't any longer.

I don't "support the troops" or any of those other hollow and hypocritical platitudes uttered by Republicans and frightened Democrats. Here's what I do support: I support them coming home. I support them being treated well. I support peace, and I beg any young person reading this who's thinking of joining the armed forces to please reconsider. Our war department has done little to show you they won't recklessly put your young life in harm's way for a cause that has nothing to do with what you signed up for. They will not help you once they've used you and spit you back into society. If you're a woman, they will not protect you from rapists in their ranks. And because you have a conscience and you know right from wrong, you do not want yourself being used to kill civilians in other countries who never did anything to hurt us. We are currently involved in at least a half-dozen military actions around the world. Don't become the next statistic so that General Electric can post another record profit -- while paying no taxes -- taxes that otherwise would be paying for the artificial leg that they've kept you waiting for months to receive.

I support you, and will try to do more to be there for you. And the best way you can support me -- and the ideals our country says it believes in -- is to get out of the military as soon as you can and never look back.

And please, next time some "supporter of the troops" says to you with that concerned look on their face, "I thank you for your service," you have my permission to punch their lights out (figuratively speaking, of course).

(There is something I've done to support the troops -- other than help lead the effort to stop these senseless wars. At the movie theater I run in Michigan, I became the first person in town to institute an affirmative action plan for hiring returning Iraq/Afghanistan vets. I am working to get more businesses in town to join with me in this effort to find jobs for these returning soldiers. I also let all service members in to the movies for free, every day.)

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@MichaelMoore.com
@MMFlint
MichaelMoore.com 

Exchanging one risk for another

   My attention was drawn towards this article http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/dec/21/britain-deploy-troops-gulf-cameron.
It all sounds very attractive: troops withdrawn faster from dangerous Afghanistan. The Afghan troops can handle things themselves, they will be able to fight off the Taliban/Al Qaida.
   Being a bit older it has a very familiar ring to it: things went like that in Vietnam too. And half a year later the so called very able troops were smashed by the Vietcong.

   Next interesting thing is the 2.5 Billion deal: selling Typhoon jets and stationing more military in the Gulf, the states of the UAE. It sounds very attractive, too good to be true. A nice flow of income and a nice friendship with the UAE.

   The reality is a bit different. The jets and the troops are meant to give protection against a big neighbour. I don't mean Saudi Arabia but Iran. In the states of the UAE is a lot of unrest you hardly hear about in the UK and other western countries. The states are ruled by wealthy and powerful families, their heads - the emirs - are in fact no more than dictators. And the people want more democracy.

                                          

   The problems are enlarged by the fact that the ruling families are sunnis while an overwhelming majority of the people are shiites. The shiites not only want more democracy - like I mentioned before - but even more freedom for celebrating their own holy days and holding their processions like they have done for centuries. The ruling families fear these celebrations because they often lead to riots and more demands for freedom and democracy.

   Because the ruling families lack enough protecting forces often the Saudi army is called for help and they have employed an official militia with arabs from other countries. The militia is very provocative and has caused riots by itself. It has led to bloodshedding and even imprisonment of doctors and nurses who dared to treat the wounded. The story that has been made up is that the medics were hiding criminal looters and telling lies to the international press about was what going on.

                                               5th fleet

   The interests of the western countries here is a bit different than in the cases of the revolutions in Egypt, Lybia, Tunisia and Syria. Because all eyes are on big bad Iran. Everything is about protecting the region against this country. Because of that there is the American 5th Fleet in Bahrain. So it is important to keep the situation stable (like it is).

  I see a big risk in this. The Americans and soon the British will be considered by the people as an occupying force with all the risks involved. As military who help to keep the ruling families in their power. So the people will go to to the streets to have demonstrations and even riots. Knowing that Al Qaida was born in this region (NOT in Afghanistan and certainly not in Iraq) I'm afraid that this will cause reactions from people who are related to Al Qaida too. We have seen what these reactions can be: bombs in western capitals.

So this nice article about a 2.5 Billion deal makes me worried.

Going to the Norwich Playhouse

And yet another experience! Going to see a comedian, to see John Shuttleworth.
It was the first time for me to go the Norwich Playhouse. According to my wife there would be no problem going over there with the wheelchair.

                                           John Shuttleworth

We were a bit early and decided to have a drink in the theatre bar. It was quite a struggle to get in because the entrance was narrow, there wasa threshold and there were people sitting very close to the door.
It was packed so we drank our drinks outside with the smokers. We were lucky it wasn't that cold and it didn't rain.

After the drink we had a bigger struggle to enter the Playhouse from the garden. Another threshold and an automatic door closer that made it almost impossible to enter. My wife had to get out of the wheelchair to be able to get in.  Together we held the door open and took the wheelchair in.

After getting in my wife wanted to go the toilet. It was surprising to see the ladies' toilet down a flight of stairs and no way was she able to get there. We were discussing this situation when a nervous lady walked up to us.  According to her badge she belonged to the staff. But she had no idea how we could get to the toilet or even to the theater... as another stair was involved.  According to her she was new to the staff of the theater.

My wife already decided to forget the toilet. A ticket seller came to join our little gathering. He told us he had a solution for coming in. We had to wait a bit until things were not that busy. He left us and went back to his place behind the counter.
After a while he came back to us and explained to the nervous lady what to do and gave her a small torch . So she helped us to get out of the building and we walked around into a pitch black alley. Her torch didn't help a lot.  A door at the end was openened by the ticket man. The lady jumped up and down a bit while we entered the side entrance of the theater.

Indoors the first thing that caught our eyes were the stairs. Even entering the theater like this meant that we had to climb down a bit to reach our seats. We managed and I was asked to put the wheelchair downstairs at the sideof the path. Later a woman with a zimmer frame was asked to do the same; she had to climb without it even more steps than us.

I looked around and could not help to make a remark about the theater. Only the most needed things have been taken care of. There is a stage, lights, seats and stairs leading to them. The walls have been left like they were after this storage building was changed into a theater. A few windows have been taken out and the opening have been filled with bricks. It was Funny that John Shuttleworth made exactly the same remark which caused a big laugh from the audience.  It was a very enjoyable show and even while I could not grasp everything I had a few good laughs.

                                         Indoor wall in the Playhouse

After the show we had an hour before the pubs would close (11 PM), so we went to the nrely opened Norwich Tap House which is pretty near. We had heard that one of our favorite types of beer is being served over there.

To get in the pub took great effort. There is a threshold of more than a half meter, so my wife again had to leave her wheelchair and we carried the wheelchair in together. The staff watched the scene interested.
While my wife visited the invalid toilet (with a difficult entrance for a wheelchair) I found that they really had Westmalle Double. So I ordered and we enjoyed it. A bit pricy, so we decided to enjoy it double!
And it also had to be the last one too. Taking the last sip my wife ordered a taxi and we struggled to get outside while the staff very interested looked at the scene again.

We were lucky again, no rain and the taxi came quick. The driver asked if we were okay putting the wheelchair in. It was not very easy but I managed while the driver patiently waited behind the steering wheel.
Interesting evening it was!
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Struggling after curfew

We were aware of the way the cutbacks in Norwich work.
After 12 PM no more streetlights in the neighbourhood.
But yesterday we were really surprised.

There is the luxury of the Fat Cat Brewery Tap closing it's doors at 12, so we don't have to gulp down our drinks at 11 PM. But we realise that when we go home after 12 the streetlights will be off in the neighbourhood. So like the law abiding citizens we are, we go home a little after 11 PM.
We didn't realise that the cutbacks were getting worse!
Reaching our neighbourhood at 11:40 PM we saw the street in complete darkness. We were lucky that it was not totally clouded, so the moon gave a little light. It's obvious that the County Council decided to turn off the lights at 11 PM!

We already made the City Council aware of the bad condition of the pavement on lots of the streets we have  to use and the parked cars don't make things better. Things are quite difficult that way when using a wheelchair.
Yesterday we saw a car that had been parked ON THE PAVEMENT. So we were forced to walk on the street and without any lights that's a very risky business. People in cars will notice you only at the last moment. This already has been the cause for deadly accidents.

I keep thinking about the City Council and County Council as an organisation that sells you a product.
You pay tax and in return you get good roads and good lights on the streets.
Like when you go to a bakery and you pay money and you get a loaf for your money.
The City Council and County Council do things differently.
First they demand your money by council tax and then they do a very surprising thing.

Think of your baker asking the mouldy loaf back, opening the package and removing 6 slices.
Complaining about this didn't help, the County Council is not returning our 6 slices to us.
Instead they now decided it will be 7 slices!

What's next?

Serco

My wife was really amazed getting a letter from Serco in behalf of the NHS.
This was completely new! The National Health Service was always fully capable of sending their own letters.
The letter my wife got was sent at a totally wrong moment. It made us think what this was about. Why is Serco sending these letters and what is Serco?

We found out at the website of Serco what this company is doing exactly. That the name is short for Service Company is obvious. (http://www.serco.com/media/pressreleases/index.asp)
And on Wikipedia you can find a wiki about Serco: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serco
You can see that Serco is a division of RCA and RCA has been bought and split up before selling by General Electric. If General Electric still has an interest in Serco is not very clear.

Serco has a remarkable field of interest. They are exploiting nuclear power stations, prisons, electronic tagging devices, border guards, railroads (even involved in Abellio, a joint division with Nederlandse Spoorwegen), buslines, metro lines, traffic monitoring, drivers license bureaus, parking meters, speed camera systems, laboratories, education controls, leisure centers, waste collection services, nuclear weapons, naval bases, air traffic control, health care and so on and so on. Revenue in 2011 was 4,646.4 million pounds.
And they are slowly getting a grip on the health care in the UK (just like Richard Branson's Virgin company).
It's very disturbing to see that health care is seen as a way to make a profit.

And I think it's more than worrying to see how much power Serco has in the world. Imagine a world where Serco merges with for instance Facebook and you would have a controlling system over the people in a way George Orwell (1984!) could never even have dreamed of.
Of course that they are dealing with the health care in the UK and showing that they don't know what they are doing or should be doing is mere irritating. And is bad for the reputation of the NHS.
But what can we do?
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