Dr Catherine Calderwood, Scotland’s Chief Medical officer has really been and done it, not once, but twice. While this woman has been hailing the cry for self-isolating, she has been doing the very opposite herself. For three weeks now we have been told to go out only if necessary, to buy food, collect prescriptions or a bit exercise. I can honestly say, I am trying my best to adhere to this dystopian culture that is slowly breaking down a society that was once , law abiding, considerate and and engaging. We upheld our laws, we considered our actions, and Scotland was happy to engage with friendship and fairness to the rest of the world. We are a proud little country.
This passed two weeks has seen our pubs, clubs and restaurants closed. The government has shut up its teenagers at a time when they need to blow off steam. They can’t sit with their friends on a Saturday night with their friends even in their own homes. Most adults, when they are not working are at a loss for something to do so have taken to walking with their dogs and children around the houses where they live. Young children aren’t allowed to play in the park with their little friends. They can’t even meet in their friends’ house either. The impact this is having has not surfaced yet, but it will, and when it does, I’ll have to lock myself away for my own safety. I am self-isolating away from home to keep logistics to a minimum, such is my personal life. I don’t want to put anyone at risk. Before we can get into a shop we have to queue two metres apart. The shops work on a one in one out basis. Some of the aisles are closed off as they aren’t considered essentials. To define essentials, you’ll need to ask the government. Being in a shop is an experience you don’t want to have. Everybody is suspicious of everyone else. You look at your feet, not wanting to infect your neighbour, you feel ashamed. You berate yourself for being there in the first place. Your neighbours look at life the same way. Everyone in the village is a leper. Trust no-one. Then, as I say at the top of the page, Catherine Calderwood, heid honcho of Scotland’s Medical Board, can go to Fife, to her holiday home, with her family entowed for a weekend break, not once, but two weekends in a row. I would really love to tell this woman where she can go.
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I have just taken part in the most moving moment that will be for ever suspended in time. I clapped at eight o’clock for the NHS and all those other people who work n the frontline services of our country. I wasn’t sure who would be out, but make no mistake, Wallyford had an impressive cheer.
What has surprised me is the emotion that welled up and produced tears. I’m not a weepy person, but this was different. A band of brothers and sisters united against a common cause, all over the country. It must be something primeval that lives inside us. We shared it with our neighbours and our strangers. It’s a strange time, we are having strange feelings. Let our warriors come out of this and let our sick recover. Stay safe. This is now so much worse than anything I can dream up. I feel we are going to inhabit some weird dystopian world devoid of toilet roll. I’m not so badly off. I only poo about once a week so unless I have a fit of diarrhoea, I should be ok. In the meantime though, restaurants, pubs and any social meeting places have been told to close. No-one in government is making suggestions now to keep us safe, they’re laying it on the line. They at least worked out, a certain age group would be out and about at the weekend. They had to be stopped. This has been such a blow to our culture and way of life. Yet, I keep asking John if this is real, it has an ephemeral feel to it, it won’t really touch us, the worst hit places are where huge numbers of people conglomerate.
Do you remember being afraid of the bogey man when you were bairn? That’s what it feels like for me, the difference being, I had no proof the bogey man really existed. This bogey man is real. He comes with a serial number. I spent a fit-full night wondering about people I hadn’t seen for years, the contact being the odd Christmas and birthday card. People I want to know I still care, who would in my closer social circle be vulnerable, working out ways to have contact with friends from group activities that have now been cancelled for the foreseeable. We’ve just got to play it by ear, we are in uncharted territory. Ok, Corona Virus dominated both the BBC news and Sky when we were on holiday two weeks ago I Fuerteventura. To be truthful, I was being a bit complacent about it. Very often the news on holiday from the BBC is way off that which is broadcast at home. I thought maybe the media was whipping us up into a frenzy. Maybe a bit hysteria is going on. Now, since Monday of this week, I’m getting worried. Crazy things are happening out there. Supermarket shelves are devoid of toilet roll and other paper products. I don’t know why. We couldn’t get baked beans, not that we eat a lot of them, but they seem to be off the menu for a while. Frozen veg, only a lonely pack of brussel sprouts, available. Frozen chips. Tinned tomatoes. Dried foods such as pasta and rice gone. Potatoes, sorry but we had to take the last two packs on display. We genuinely need them.
Large gatherings of people are of the menu too. Community groups all over the country are closing. I met a friend yesterday for lunch, there were no menus on the table. The kitchen had closed, all that was available was scones, egg rolls, salad rolls. The waitress came over to tell us they were closing in the next hour following a directive from the heid honchos. We don’t know what is going to happen in the next few weeks. We have seen nothing like it. Our government is working out strategies to minimise the spread of this virus, but they don’t know what they are dealing with either. Schools and colleges are shut. We need certain key workers to carry on in case we become ill. People need testing kits to keep the hospitals going. If the NHS collapses………. I don’t know. The last time we were in Tenerife it rained for the best part of two weeks. The two airports had to be shut down, for the first time ever, they said. Howling winds as well. There’s only so much scrabble and gin rummy I can pretend to enjoy. When we went to Corfu we experienced a three day thunder storm with accompanying electrical light display over the water. We’ve had a heat wave in Malta where the locals complain about the heat in the same way we do about the cold. The whole island is lethargic. This though, what we have experienced here in Fuerteventura, is something called a Calima. It’s a sand storm picked up in the Sahara Desert and is carried by high winds to the island. Anyone visiting the Canary Islands will know they are dusty, sand hangs in the air from day to day. The locals are forever wiping dust off the surfaces. This recent one though lasted three days. Tenerife was worse affected where you could see the orange clouds. The sky here went grey. Visibility was poor. The street lights were useless. Cars could only edge slowly along. Grit lived in my eyes. Dust was in my throat and chest. My hair was thick with it. By day three I gave in by not going out. Day four brought clear skies. Lots of people were happy again to sit by the pool. The next topic of drama was Corona virus. If you had a cough or a sore throat we were warned to go to the doctor and/or self isolate. Well , pretty much everybody had a cough after the Calima. Sometimes I think I should just stay at home!
Caroline Flack has committed suicide is the big news as we leave home bound for Fuerteventura. It’s devastating for her friends and family. Soul destroying. She assaulted her boyfriend with a glass vase, which resulted in him being checked over by medics. From media reports there was a huge police presence after the attack. Th CPS decided to press charges while her boyfriend said he was happy not charging her at all. Much is being said in the press about the CPS’ decision to charge her. It’s all very unfortunate, I agree, but let’s have a look at ourselves, our culture. The police have a difficult line to tow in domestic violence issues. Most are male on female attacks. They must assess danger and harm to life. It can be an open and shut case. Other instances result in the woman being so controlled by fear, she cannot go ahead with the trial. It collapses long before it gets anywhere near a court. In recent years our eyes have been opened to violence against men. Women are the perpetrators of these crimes too. There was a time when that would have been funny. Men are ashamed to show their cuts and bruises. Real men have control of their women. Now things are different. It took long enough for the law to act in domestic abuse against women. It’s now time to stand up and acknowledge domestic abuse whoever the instigator. If the CPS had ignored this incident, would there be such an outcry? I think not, we wouldn’t have heard about it at all. Vulnerable adults must be protected. The CPS are in between a rock and a hard place but we can’t pick and choose the goodie or baddie. Another angle to this is press and media exposure but that’s for another time. I haven't bee here for a while, the main reason being laziness. Shorter days entice you into hibernation. Christmas exhausts you by the New Year, you're waiting for your next pay cheque in January and the vet needs paying for sewing up the dog's belly after he got hold of a turkey leg that punctured his internals as it were. I wouldn't normally see his poo on Christmas night but he shit up and down the house after having a box of Black Magic for pudding. The vet said he had Tescos finest beef. While you wait for the ever elastic dosh in the bank, there is always the sales to keep you going. Everything will be fine at the end of the month, honest. Not that you get good sales these days but Tesco is selling Christmas paper for 4p. Don't you just get fed up with that sunny utopia we get sold though?
Anyway, it's oor Rab's birthday coming up so I will post a couple of Rab related stories. One is quite recent so I know exactly where it is, the other involves scrutiny of memory sticks. I'm thinking of posting them beside When Rabbie Met Maggie. The black singed witches finger pointing to a grey cloud laden sky is now sheathed in white. The ghost of many lives lost. Now it is time to apportion blame. We all need someone to blame but this particular facet of the enquiry looks at the London Fire Brigade and its failures. It explores the role of the brigade and statements from woman at the top Dany Cotton. This woman has been vilified for words she used when asked if she would do anything different on the night. The only thing she could say under such scrutiny was, “I wouldn’t change anything about that night”. She had to say this to back up her squad of troops on the ground and to validate the brigade and its actions. To say anything different would be to leave them open to the wolves. Her words are difficult to hear, given the tragedy of the circumstances, but she, with her officers, approached the fire with text-book precision. The textbook says, to stay in your apartment, they are housed within blocks of concrete, the fire won’t spread. There is only one stair way. While the fire-fighters are running in to save lives, it’s going to take them a helluva lot longer if the obstruction they encounter on the way up is you. Sorry, but there it is. Now the textbook has been found to be wrong on a massive scale is not to the sole detriment of one woman at the top who has worked from the bottom up from when she was nineteen. One poorly worded statement shouldn’t define her whole career. That’s plain ridiculous. The next part of the enquiry, (looking at the cladding) will not be aired till 2021. I heard a sarky comment from our press saying public outrage will have waned by then, insinuating the true cause of the fire will always lie with London Fire Brigade. I don’t see why Kensington and Chelsea authority should get away with this. The real fall out should be with Kensington and Chelsea, if it were up to me, I would hang them under a corporate murder charge. Let’s see how fast they can run when there’s a fire in the kitchen. FOREIGN HOLIDAYS. I’d like to know how many of those young people protesting in Edinburgh the other week jump on planes with their parents every summer? Flights to foreign shores are financially affordable these days, but to hell with global warming as long as you are able to show off your non eco friendly bikini, drink cola from an all -inclusive PLASTIC cup, lie on your plastic sun lounger, smear anti-environmental sun cream on your bronzing limbs from a plastic bottle that won’t bio degrade in your life time. Don’t give me the argument that you only holiday on cruise ships. The food waste and excrement are spewed into whatever port you are docked. Many of these are small ports not built for such ocean liners.
A fabric called POLYESTER is used widely in the manufacture of clothes. This particular textile emits 3x more carbon dioxide in its life cycle than natural linen. The dye and chemicals used to produce it end up in our oceans. As we are at the top of the food chain, it will affect us in the fish supper we eat on a Friday after a long day protesting. The FAST FASHION culture of today we buy cheap clothing then discard it to landfill. Mountains of textile lying in massive dumps all over our planet are non degradable. We actually buy clothes only to wear a few times. We know these inferior garments will be lucky to survive a wash, yet we keep on buying. We’ve got to stop. We are bombarded with images of fashion dictating what we should be wearing. With the approach of Christmas cheap man-made fabric will be spewing out of our shop doors with the effect of a tsunami. Apart from the environmental argument against it, consider the moral, I know that can be difficult as a teenager to have empathy with anyone but yourself, but is it right that women and children are paid a pittance working in disgusting conditions so you can buy stuff in PRIMARK every weekend. Don’t think budget clothing shops like PRIMARK are the only ones exploiting the poor. All the top brands (Nike, Addidas, Ralph Lauren, etc) are guilty of this AMORAL practice. I am all for school kids to take control of their environment. They should have a say in what goes on in the world, but when you start pointing fingers the facts have to be right and the solutions have to be workable. This is part of a larger piece i hope to have finished very soon.
It seems to be my generation that is being blamed for Global Warming. Icebergs are melting at an alarming rate. The rain forest is being plundered and raped and as a consequence, oxygen levels will fall making it difficult for us to breathe. It really is that simple, according to the information bombarding us from scientists and all those people who know so much more than we do. However, there is so much more at play here. Greta Thunberg, the poster child of the extinction revolution, has been foisted on a social media platform that has dictated to our children that having a day off school to voice their protest will help the planet and make us “grown- ups” sit up and listen to them. The fifteen- year old bunked off school on a Friday to sit outside the Swedish parliament and protest about climate change. A protest group called Fridays for Future was spawned, propelling a young woman on to the world stage. I don’t know who exactly has been working this young woman from behind but they should stand up and be counted for abusing a lonely child with Asperger syndrome. Her emotional speech at the UN conference on climate change highlighted just how vulnerable she really is. This isn’t right. It’s abuse hidden in plain sight. I bunked off school on a Friday and all I got was a thick ear from my Mum. Now the cheeky Friday off has been legitimised and named. I’ve got to (grudgeingly) admire our teenagers for this as I lacked the gumption to turn it into something positive. As a sideline, the protest in Edinburgh cost the local council £23,000 to clean up. |
AuthorI enjoy writing short stories and reading yours. I'm always amazed at where our mind can take us. I think it is therapeutic to let your mind wander off and free itself of personal drudgery. Archives
March 2020
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