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 |
| Jetty at private cabin. Lake side Ojutjärvi. |
Sunday, 29 April 2012
A day at lake Ojutjärvi.
29th April 2012
More photographs here. Select full-screen viewing mode.
More photographs here. Select full-screen viewing mode.
Saturday, 28 April 2012
Money motivation
28th April 2012
Saturday
I have never been very good with money and to be honest can't get very excited by it.
I once read that it is in the nature of modern man to always want 17% more money than he has. This economics of want has, in many people's opinion, led to a breakdown in our civilisation which increased dramatically with the advent of the industrial revolution.
The desire to want more inevitably leads us to filling our lives with the pursuit of money and the means of acquiring more. Ironically, this invariably means we have to work more and end up with less time for ourselves; the more we have, the more we want; the more we want, the more we have to work; the more we work, the less time we have to spend enjoying the so-called fruits of our labour.
This has led to the creation of a society in which people plan their lives around once-a-year holidays during which time they hope to be able to relax and enjoy themselves.
What a sad state of affairs.
Ultimately, this results in a total alienation between a person and his work and the world with which he now has little real contact.
The only cure for this lack of satisfaction with life while remaining part of the present widely accepted society, is through the getting and consumption of things.
By leading this kind of life, we are unable to truly fulfill ourselves and we become mere hollow and empty shells trying to seek enjoyment from the material products of other people's efforts.
One gains a momentary sense of happiness through spending money and acquiring another new dress or a slightly bigger iPhone or iPod, or iPad. The happiness doesn't last for long and we find ourselves in a continuous cycle of wanting and getting and discarding and wanting and getting.
In recent years, there has been a boom in the number of people professing to be able to give motivation, encouragement and guidance on how to live a more fulfilling existence. The internet is overflowing with various motivational gurus offering services on self-discovery and self-help. One thing they mostly have in common though, unfortunately, is that they give advice on how to get rich.
Through my approach of universal application, this would be unsustainable and unfair until such time as we were to able to arrive at the inevitable endgame of such a pursuit.
The planet has limited resources and money is also limited. By encouraging some people to get more, we are limiting the amount other people can have; we can't all get rich. The only way to be able to justify the pursuit of money as a guiding philosophy would result in a state whereby everybody were as motivated as anyone else and we all ended up with the same amount. We would all then have enough to be able to live and there would be little incentive to want to pursue more. We would end up in a situation whereby the world's wealth were fairly and evenly distributed.
This is not what the life-style gurus are advocating. They are playing to our innate sense of greed and are hoping that we are all as greedy as they are and that we will give them our money for telling us how we can get rich like them. All they will tell you is to follow their lead and set up a website like theirs and hope to squeeze money out of people who are not as clever as themselves.
This is because for most of them, they are just normal folk trying to satisfy their own material desires and there isn't any money in telling people that they would find the greatest pleasure and fulfillment by giving up their worldly possessions. Although... but no; you couldn't persuade people that the only way to enlightenment was for them to give you their money - that would be too transparently hypocritical surely. Through disguising their greed by hiding it amongst other people's own greed, they hope to part fools from their money.
I liked Bob Proctor's ideas surrounding The Law of Attraction. It partly ties in with my beliefs on positive thinking and the body being unable to go where the mind hasn't already been. I can see Bob Proctor's and many other life-style gurus extension of this from, what was for me, a quite pure belief into a means of attracting more material gains for themselves. Positive thinking is extended into thinking about wealth and the mind leading the physical body into situations that attract money or luck or means of getting rich or rich people who help you get rich.
When I actually met Bob Proctor in London, I felt nauseous - he came across to me like some kind of Evangelist lining his path to heaven with gold and his followers were like people possessed speaking in tongues.
Burt Goldman professes to be able to help you communicate with your doppelgangers in parallel universes. His website on Quantum Jumping states that whenever we are faced with choices in life, a new parallel universe is created in which another self lives out the alternative life to the one that was created as a result of the choice that was made. We have all heard of this kind of fanciful explanation of the universe and while it is quite interesting, we don't really believe that it actually happens. His students do, though, and have written about their experiences. At a cost of US$100 his students receive tuition on how to switch universes and gain knowledge and help from our other selves. What I can't understand though is how you are able to ensure that you do not end up in a parallel universe where it has all gone wrong - I know there must be a lot of those where my doppelgangers live, poor things. I am going to give the free course a go and although I have received discounts on the full course so that I could now do it for US$29, I shan't be parting with my money.
I can't help but feel disgust at people who take money from those less fortunate and obviously disturbed, especially when, if you do the math, the website owner must be doing pretty well. So well in fact that if he really believed he was helping humanity, he would offer his services for free. The lame excuses that he needs to cover the costs of running and hosting the website don't really hold much water. After a lifetime spent setting this up and with 300,000 students already, even if they all paid the discount rate he would still have earned around US$9 million. If they have paid the full rate it would be closer to US$30 million. Why would he need your money?
There are some honest and more believable life-style gurus and one of those is Steve Pavlina. His free website has a lot of very practical advice on how to live a better life from when to end a long-term relationship to how to cook brown rice, how to be a man, why you shouldn't have a religion, why you shouldn't have a job, the meaning of life and how to be an early riser. He has over 400 blog posts and they are all divided into easily searchable sections. Yes, there does seem to be a lot on how to attract money and get rich without having to do much work but this is what modern man wants to hear.
Steve Pavlina's website earned him US$53 in the first month he decided to monetise it and this was five months after he set it up. He now has over 2 million visitors a month and people donate money depending on whether they feel they benefited from his advice and how generous they are. His website now earns him more than US$1000 a day.
If we take the beginning of the present recession as starting from the time of the collapse of worldwide stock markets in 2007, we are in the midst of one of the longest recessions we have known. Stock prices took more than 20 years to recover from the famous stock market crash of 1929 and Japan's stock market will probably never recover to pre-crash levels. The Nikkei stock market index has had trouble breaking the 10,000 mark and maintaining its position above this psychological barrier for a long time now and this is an index that stood at close to 38,000 in 1989. With an aging population and increased overseas competition especially from places like India but more so, China, Japan will never be the monster economy it once was.
The lesson we need to learn as human beings is how to live in harmony with our world before it is too late. With a population of 7 billion now and predicted to increase to 10 billion over the next 40 years or so, we are pushing to the limits the planet's ability to sustain life on earth. Especially so when we consider that 5 of the 7 billion people alive today are aspiring to become middle class consumers who will all want more houses, more TVs and more cars; a frightening prospect indeed.
While it may be impossible to persuade the old world en masse to give up its wealth and luxuries, more and more people may be happy to do so and live a life of simplicity and purity like the Man Who Quit Money and went to live in a cave in Utah, or Mark Boyle, the Moneyless Man and founder of the Freeconomy Community.
This summer on my way back to England to see the kids, I am going to work at Earthway Experience in Sweden for a short time. This is a permaculture centre where I shall be helping to plant a food forest which will become a destination for people who want to experience a more holistic approach to life as lived by our paleolithic ancestors. It is situated near Lake Siljan, the most beautiful lake in Europe which was created 370 million years ago by a meteor crashing into the earth. People will be able to stay on the site, bath in the lake and eat from the forest during their stay while learning life supporting skills such as foraging, hunting and preserving food.
Now that, rather than living a life surrounded by the latest gadgets, is the kind of life I would like to live.
Saturday
I have never been very good with money and to be honest can't get very excited by it.
I once read that it is in the nature of modern man to always want 17% more money than he has. This economics of want has, in many people's opinion, led to a breakdown in our civilisation which increased dramatically with the advent of the industrial revolution.
The desire to want more inevitably leads us to filling our lives with the pursuit of money and the means of acquiring more. Ironically, this invariably means we have to work more and end up with less time for ourselves; the more we have, the more we want; the more we want, the more we have to work; the more we work, the less time we have to spend enjoying the so-called fruits of our labour.
This has led to the creation of a society in which people plan their lives around once-a-year holidays during which time they hope to be able to relax and enjoy themselves.
What a sad state of affairs.
Ultimately, this results in a total alienation between a person and his work and the world with which he now has little real contact.
The only cure for this lack of satisfaction with life while remaining part of the present widely accepted society, is through the getting and consumption of things.
By leading this kind of life, we are unable to truly fulfill ourselves and we become mere hollow and empty shells trying to seek enjoyment from the material products of other people's efforts.
One gains a momentary sense of happiness through spending money and acquiring another new dress or a slightly bigger iPhone or iPod, or iPad. The happiness doesn't last for long and we find ourselves in a continuous cycle of wanting and getting and discarding and wanting and getting.
In recent years, there has been a boom in the number of people professing to be able to give motivation, encouragement and guidance on how to live a more fulfilling existence. The internet is overflowing with various motivational gurus offering services on self-discovery and self-help. One thing they mostly have in common though, unfortunately, is that they give advice on how to get rich.
Through my approach of universal application, this would be unsustainable and unfair until such time as we were to able to arrive at the inevitable endgame of such a pursuit.
The planet has limited resources and money is also limited. By encouraging some people to get more, we are limiting the amount other people can have; we can't all get rich. The only way to be able to justify the pursuit of money as a guiding philosophy would result in a state whereby everybody were as motivated as anyone else and we all ended up with the same amount. We would all then have enough to be able to live and there would be little incentive to want to pursue more. We would end up in a situation whereby the world's wealth were fairly and evenly distributed.
This is not what the life-style gurus are advocating. They are playing to our innate sense of greed and are hoping that we are all as greedy as they are and that we will give them our money for telling us how we can get rich like them. All they will tell you is to follow their lead and set up a website like theirs and hope to squeeze money out of people who are not as clever as themselves.
This is because for most of them, they are just normal folk trying to satisfy their own material desires and there isn't any money in telling people that they would find the greatest pleasure and fulfillment by giving up their worldly possessions. Although... but no; you couldn't persuade people that the only way to enlightenment was for them to give you their money - that would be too transparently hypocritical surely. Through disguising their greed by hiding it amongst other people's own greed, they hope to part fools from their money.
I liked Bob Proctor's ideas surrounding The Law of Attraction. It partly ties in with my beliefs on positive thinking and the body being unable to go where the mind hasn't already been. I can see Bob Proctor's and many other life-style gurus extension of this from, what was for me, a quite pure belief into a means of attracting more material gains for themselves. Positive thinking is extended into thinking about wealth and the mind leading the physical body into situations that attract money or luck or means of getting rich or rich people who help you get rich.
When I actually met Bob Proctor in London, I felt nauseous - he came across to me like some kind of Evangelist lining his path to heaven with gold and his followers were like people possessed speaking in tongues.
Burt Goldman professes to be able to help you communicate with your doppelgangers in parallel universes. His website on Quantum Jumping states that whenever we are faced with choices in life, a new parallel universe is created in which another self lives out the alternative life to the one that was created as a result of the choice that was made. We have all heard of this kind of fanciful explanation of the universe and while it is quite interesting, we don't really believe that it actually happens. His students do, though, and have written about their experiences. At a cost of US$100 his students receive tuition on how to switch universes and gain knowledge and help from our other selves. What I can't understand though is how you are able to ensure that you do not end up in a parallel universe where it has all gone wrong - I know there must be a lot of those where my doppelgangers live, poor things. I am going to give the free course a go and although I have received discounts on the full course so that I could now do it for US$29, I shan't be parting with my money.
I can't help but feel disgust at people who take money from those less fortunate and obviously disturbed, especially when, if you do the math, the website owner must be doing pretty well. So well in fact that if he really believed he was helping humanity, he would offer his services for free. The lame excuses that he needs to cover the costs of running and hosting the website don't really hold much water. After a lifetime spent setting this up and with 300,000 students already, even if they all paid the discount rate he would still have earned around US$9 million. If they have paid the full rate it would be closer to US$30 million. Why would he need your money?
There are some honest and more believable life-style gurus and one of those is Steve Pavlina. His free website has a lot of very practical advice on how to live a better life from when to end a long-term relationship to how to cook brown rice, how to be a man, why you shouldn't have a religion, why you shouldn't have a job, the meaning of life and how to be an early riser. He has over 400 blog posts and they are all divided into easily searchable sections. Yes, there does seem to be a lot on how to attract money and get rich without having to do much work but this is what modern man wants to hear.
Steve Pavlina's website earned him US$53 in the first month he decided to monetise it and this was five months after he set it up. He now has over 2 million visitors a month and people donate money depending on whether they feel they benefited from his advice and how generous they are. His website now earns him more than US$1000 a day.
If we take the beginning of the present recession as starting from the time of the collapse of worldwide stock markets in 2007, we are in the midst of one of the longest recessions we have known. Stock prices took more than 20 years to recover from the famous stock market crash of 1929 and Japan's stock market will probably never recover to pre-crash levels. The Nikkei stock market index has had trouble breaking the 10,000 mark and maintaining its position above this psychological barrier for a long time now and this is an index that stood at close to 38,000 in 1989. With an aging population and increased overseas competition especially from places like India but more so, China, Japan will never be the monster economy it once was.
The lesson we need to learn as human beings is how to live in harmony with our world before it is too late. With a population of 7 billion now and predicted to increase to 10 billion over the next 40 years or so, we are pushing to the limits the planet's ability to sustain life on earth. Especially so when we consider that 5 of the 7 billion people alive today are aspiring to become middle class consumers who will all want more houses, more TVs and more cars; a frightening prospect indeed.
While it may be impossible to persuade the old world en masse to give up its wealth and luxuries, more and more people may be happy to do so and live a life of simplicity and purity like the Man Who Quit Money and went to live in a cave in Utah, or Mark Boyle, the Moneyless Man and founder of the Freeconomy Community.
This summer on my way back to England to see the kids, I am going to work at Earthway Experience in Sweden for a short time. This is a permaculture centre where I shall be helping to plant a food forest which will become a destination for people who want to experience a more holistic approach to life as lived by our paleolithic ancestors. It is situated near Lake Siljan, the most beautiful lake in Europe which was created 370 million years ago by a meteor crashing into the earth. People will be able to stay on the site, bath in the lake and eat from the forest during their stay while learning life supporting skills such as foraging, hunting and preserving food.
Now that, rather than living a life surrounded by the latest gadgets, is the kind of life I would like to live.
Beady eyes
28th April 2012
Saturday
I saw the dustbin-piped Ford Orion yesterday blaring out its exhaust note as it cut up doughnuts in the mud car park at the recycling bins at the end of my road. He did a few circuits, exited at full reverse lock and pulled up next to a mate in his car, I presume to compare notes.
Being in a secluded spot behind some trees, this particular car park has been used as a rendezvous for young teenage lovers. These night-time excursions appear to be quite innocent and are over quite quickly and one shouldn't imagine scenes that happen in some parts of England. I'm not sure these still occur but there were suburban myths of sordid goings-on a few years ago.
One night a few weeks ago, I was on my way up the exterior stairs when I was distracted by the very load sound of a tractor entering the recycling area. I stopped on my communal landing and looked out across the tennis courts and trees beyond. The ground was still quite deep in snow and the tractor is the preferred mode of winter transport for school kids. The driver maneuvered into position and cut the ignition; the darkness was plunged back into silence for a while. A few minutes later, I heard the sound of a small capacity micro car, the other favoured set of wheels for teenagers, usually girls. The sound is almost like a two-stroke engine but perhaps it is because it is a twin cylinder The micro car pulled up alongside the tractor and also cut its engine.
...
Now the snow has all but disappeared, the tractors seem to have been left back at the farms and the local school boys have taken their dirt bikes out of winter storage and are blaring around on these. They look fun and are the sensible choice around here given the high proportion of unmade roads.
...
I have seen my neighbour, the keeper of Ginger the cat, on a number of occasions and have shared not much more than a 'Hei'. He avoids eye contact and comes across as shifty and apologetic. He has beady eyes and a goatee beard.
The long goatee is quite popular here among the more manly type of men, it's a viking-cum-biker look and often has a kink in it just below the chin as if it's been tied in a knot.
...
There have been instances where I have been awoken in the middle of the night by a deep throbbing sound of music. The thumping bass notes carry a long distance and lifting my bedroom blind I have found the sound to be emanating from a passing car.
At other times when I have been disturbed from my sleep by the throbbing bass notes of music, I have stood outside my door on the landing trying to determine the source of the sound.
Following the news of a murder in town recently, I am not about to venture out in the middle of the night and bang on someone's door even if this was very much a one-off case. The murderer was a known problem case and in fact both Outi and Annika who I work with had heard of him before. The crime was actually committed in Annika's previous apartment block. The accused had been round at his girlfriend's place drinking when they had run out of booze. They didn't have any money, so they decided to go to her parents' place who occupied an apartment at the end of their row and who owned the block where they lived. When the money or booze they demanded wasn't forthcoming, they battered both the mother and father to death.
Criminal sentences are very liberal in Finland as one would expect and the emphasis is placed on care in the community rather than incarceration. This guy had been placed in prison a number of times so he must have been a special case.
There is a strong feeling among a lot of Finns I have spoken to that the state has got it wrong when it comes to law and order. Sentencing for fraud and other money crimes is harsher than it is for rape and murder and this apparent prioritizing of money over life disturbs people.
...
There are a couple of apartments at the closest end of the adjoining building that are occupied by college-type students who I presume attend the local business school. They have regular get-togethers with their mates and the ground all around in front of their place is covered in fag butts. There is no pattern to their weekly celebrations, as it is as likely to happen on a Tuesday night as it is on a Saturday night.
I'm not angry and I don't feel frustrated for having my sleep disturbed. I haven't gone to knock on anyone's door yet; the mere discovery of where the sound is coming from seems to set my senses at ease. However, a few times I have been unable to discover the source of the music and after a reconnaissance of my surroundings, as usual I have gone back to bed but on these occasions have been unable to get back to sleep.
It's more of a case of being unable to come up with an explanation for the disturbance that wrangles me and this happened again last night. This time though I tried harder to uncover where the culprit was and on finding the truth, I kicked myself when I discovered how stupid I have been.
When standing outside my door in the cold night in my pyjamas at 2 O'clock in the morning, I have presumed that the sound has come from the nearest source of light, which has invariably been the students' digs across the way and while I might have been right, the times when I was unable to verify the source has been when their rooms have been in darkness and I have gone back to bed frustrated.
Last night, the students were quiet so I returned to my bed only to be unable to get back to sleep. I went outside again and this time walked along the outside landing in front of Ginger's place. The lights were on but as they were at my side I had not noticed them before. I can't believe I hadn't checked the most obvious place before - my neighbour. Sure enough as I approached his front door, I could hear the music.
I went back inside and put my ear to the wall and the thumping continued. I picked up my wooden bench and like a battering ram smashed it into the concrete partition wall three times. Almost immediately, the sound stopped and I got back into bed at 2.45 in the morning. Over the next hour or so, the music would come back on but so briefly, it wasn't worth getting out of bed again.
I know why now he has beady eyes and also why he carries this look of guilt and apology on his shifty face. I should have suspected it was him earlier and I realise now that I saw him carrying a crate of beer in through his front door yesterday evening. I feel sorry for him though as there didn't seem to be any evidence that he was sharing his drink and music.
He was on his own drowning out something that he didn't want to remember or deal with. Or perhaps he was just enjoying himself in a way he knew how to. Either way I will have to tell him to find a way of doing this that doesn't infringe on others' liberties and rights and I shall chose to do this in the broad light of day hopefully when he is sober.
Saturday
I saw the dustbin-piped Ford Orion yesterday blaring out its exhaust note as it cut up doughnuts in the mud car park at the recycling bins at the end of my road. He did a few circuits, exited at full reverse lock and pulled up next to a mate in his car, I presume to compare notes.
Being in a secluded spot behind some trees, this particular car park has been used as a rendezvous for young teenage lovers. These night-time excursions appear to be quite innocent and are over quite quickly and one shouldn't imagine scenes that happen in some parts of England. I'm not sure these still occur but there were suburban myths of sordid goings-on a few years ago.
One night a few weeks ago, I was on my way up the exterior stairs when I was distracted by the very load sound of a tractor entering the recycling area. I stopped on my communal landing and looked out across the tennis courts and trees beyond. The ground was still quite deep in snow and the tractor is the preferred mode of winter transport for school kids. The driver maneuvered into position and cut the ignition; the darkness was plunged back into silence for a while. A few minutes later, I heard the sound of a small capacity micro car, the other favoured set of wheels for teenagers, usually girls. The sound is almost like a two-stroke engine but perhaps it is because it is a twin cylinder The micro car pulled up alongside the tractor and also cut its engine.
...
Now the snow has all but disappeared, the tractors seem to have been left back at the farms and the local school boys have taken their dirt bikes out of winter storage and are blaring around on these. They look fun and are the sensible choice around here given the high proportion of unmade roads.
...
I have seen my neighbour, the keeper of Ginger the cat, on a number of occasions and have shared not much more than a 'Hei'. He avoids eye contact and comes across as shifty and apologetic. He has beady eyes and a goatee beard.
The long goatee is quite popular here among the more manly type of men, it's a viking-cum-biker look and often has a kink in it just below the chin as if it's been tied in a knot.
...
There have been instances where I have been awoken in the middle of the night by a deep throbbing sound of music. The thumping bass notes carry a long distance and lifting my bedroom blind I have found the sound to be emanating from a passing car.
At other times when I have been disturbed from my sleep by the throbbing bass notes of music, I have stood outside my door on the landing trying to determine the source of the sound.
Following the news of a murder in town recently, I am not about to venture out in the middle of the night and bang on someone's door even if this was very much a one-off case. The murderer was a known problem case and in fact both Outi and Annika who I work with had heard of him before. The crime was actually committed in Annika's previous apartment block. The accused had been round at his girlfriend's place drinking when they had run out of booze. They didn't have any money, so they decided to go to her parents' place who occupied an apartment at the end of their row and who owned the block where they lived. When the money or booze they demanded wasn't forthcoming, they battered both the mother and father to death.
Criminal sentences are very liberal in Finland as one would expect and the emphasis is placed on care in the community rather than incarceration. This guy had been placed in prison a number of times so he must have been a special case.
There is a strong feeling among a lot of Finns I have spoken to that the state has got it wrong when it comes to law and order. Sentencing for fraud and other money crimes is harsher than it is for rape and murder and this apparent prioritizing of money over life disturbs people.
...
There are a couple of apartments at the closest end of the adjoining building that are occupied by college-type students who I presume attend the local business school. They have regular get-togethers with their mates and the ground all around in front of their place is covered in fag butts. There is no pattern to their weekly celebrations, as it is as likely to happen on a Tuesday night as it is on a Saturday night.
I'm not angry and I don't feel frustrated for having my sleep disturbed. I haven't gone to knock on anyone's door yet; the mere discovery of where the sound is coming from seems to set my senses at ease. However, a few times I have been unable to discover the source of the music and after a reconnaissance of my surroundings, as usual I have gone back to bed but on these occasions have been unable to get back to sleep.
It's more of a case of being unable to come up with an explanation for the disturbance that wrangles me and this happened again last night. This time though I tried harder to uncover where the culprit was and on finding the truth, I kicked myself when I discovered how stupid I have been.
When standing outside my door in the cold night in my pyjamas at 2 O'clock in the morning, I have presumed that the sound has come from the nearest source of light, which has invariably been the students' digs across the way and while I might have been right, the times when I was unable to verify the source has been when their rooms have been in darkness and I have gone back to bed frustrated.
Last night, the students were quiet so I returned to my bed only to be unable to get back to sleep. I went outside again and this time walked along the outside landing in front of Ginger's place. The lights were on but as they were at my side I had not noticed them before. I can't believe I hadn't checked the most obvious place before - my neighbour. Sure enough as I approached his front door, I could hear the music.
I went back inside and put my ear to the wall and the thumping continued. I picked up my wooden bench and like a battering ram smashed it into the concrete partition wall three times. Almost immediately, the sound stopped and I got back into bed at 2.45 in the morning. Over the next hour or so, the music would come back on but so briefly, it wasn't worth getting out of bed again.
I know why now he has beady eyes and also why he carries this look of guilt and apology on his shifty face. I should have suspected it was him earlier and I realise now that I saw him carrying a crate of beer in through his front door yesterday evening. I feel sorry for him though as there didn't seem to be any evidence that he was sharing his drink and music.
He was on his own drowning out something that he didn't want to remember or deal with. Or perhaps he was just enjoying himself in a way he knew how to. Either way I will have to tell him to find a way of doing this that doesn't infringe on others' liberties and rights and I shall chose to do this in the broad light of day hopefully when he is sober.
Friday, 27 April 2012
Spring
27th April 2012
Friday
It's been a week since the last snowfall and around three weeks since the beginning of the thaw.
Looking from my room, the only remaining snow are patches left at the edges of car parks by snowplows and the remnants that slid from the roof on the north side of the adjoining building. The once long mound reminiscent of the winter beach defences at Viking Bay in Broadstairs, has now dwindled, leaving the garden a sodden marsh. Walking on the ground is like stepping onto a sponge; little geysers of water spout up around my boots and the mud around my foot shifts like a lump of rubber. The kids are barred from this area until it dries up but children and mud and puddles are difficult to keep separated for long.
...
On a bike ride on Wednesday, I noticed most of the rivers and streams are now ice free but the deeper dykes that are still in shadow remain frozen.
More buds are appearing on the trees and green shoots are sprouting through the ground and the place is alive with birds.
The farmland in front of Chris and Tiina's house is easy to differentiate from a lake now as I had once thought it to be.
...
What I had presumed to be a kind of jay are in fact fieldfares attracted to the wet fields in search of bugs and my rooks, on closer inspection, are in fact jackdaws. Like a small crow with a dark grey waistcoat, jackdaws are easy to distinguish from rooks and the like due to their white eyes with black centres. I wasn't close enough before to see their eyes but I managed to creep up on a few grazing like cows in a field.
...
The sunsets have been amazing and on clearer nights dusk continues for another two hours.
Two hours after sunset looking north, the sky near the horizon is lit up by the sun as it continues on its passage.
...
A pheasant is pecking around in the tall dry weeds under my window as the sun attempts to peek through the clouds. It's around +10 but it's windy.
I have been looking at some maps and I'm hoping the weather is good this weekend so that I can take my bike out. Otherwise I shall check ExRx for their muscle and exercise chart, plan a weight training programme and pay a visit to the gym.
Friday
It's been a week since the last snowfall and around three weeks since the beginning of the thaw.
Looking from my room, the only remaining snow are patches left at the edges of car parks by snowplows and the remnants that slid from the roof on the north side of the adjoining building. The once long mound reminiscent of the winter beach defences at Viking Bay in Broadstairs, has now dwindled, leaving the garden a sodden marsh. Walking on the ground is like stepping onto a sponge; little geysers of water spout up around my boots and the mud around my foot shifts like a lump of rubber. The kids are barred from this area until it dries up but children and mud and puddles are difficult to keep separated for long.
...
On a bike ride on Wednesday, I noticed most of the rivers and streams are now ice free but the deeper dykes that are still in shadow remain frozen.More buds are appearing on the trees and green shoots are sprouting through the ground and the place is alive with birds.
The farmland in front of Chris and Tiina's house is easy to differentiate from a lake now as I had once thought it to be.
...
What I had presumed to be a kind of jay are in fact fieldfares attracted to the wet fields in search of bugs and my rooks, on closer inspection, are in fact jackdaws. Like a small crow with a dark grey waistcoat, jackdaws are easy to distinguish from rooks and the like due to their white eyes with black centres. I wasn't close enough before to see their eyes but I managed to creep up on a few grazing like cows in a field.
...
The sunsets have been amazing and on clearer nights dusk continues for another two hours.
Two hours after sunset looking north, the sky near the horizon is lit up by the sun as it continues on its passage.
...
A pheasant is pecking around in the tall dry weeds under my window as the sun attempts to peek through the clouds. It's around +10 but it's windy.
I have been looking at some maps and I'm hoping the weather is good this weekend so that I can take my bike out. Otherwise I shall check ExRx for their muscle and exercise chart, plan a weight training programme and pay a visit to the gym.
Tuesday, 24 April 2012
The journey of not knowing to knowing
24th April 2012
9.30pm
When trying to turn my life around, I am handicapped by two bad habits; addictions in fact. One is tobacco which I am going to describe and document how to give up over the next few weeks.
The other is caused by the debilitating power of the electrical television box.
Rather than going for a run or going to the gym, how much easier is it to just lay down and turn on the TV?
I would like to have as a guiding motto:
Invest your time in something worthwhile.
It might not be very original and indeed may even be considered a cliche but I hope it isn't.
It is, however, rather grand for how can I justify watching on TV some of the things that I do?
I was brought up in a home where TV was almost considered a guilty pleasure.
Most of my childhood was spent without much TV at all. In the jungles of Borneo we had no television for a while and then only limited stuff like The Waltons and Giant Robot. In The Gambia, I don't think there was even a broadcaster apart from our neighbour Radio Gambia, and while I was at boarding school, I never watched TV although it was available.
When we were back in England as a family, TV was certainly not turned on until after dinner in the evening.
Nowadays, when I do watch it, I feel almost guilty for having done so. However, I try and justify it by telling myself I am allowed the occasional distraction and moment of relaxation.
I am from time to time rewarded for my viewing, this evening being one such case in point.
The documentary, Charles and Ray Eames: The architect and the painter (review), was only released at the end of 2011 but I was lucky enough to be able to watch it on terrestrial TV here in Finland.
I am passionate about good design which I put down to having been blessed with my parents; an architect and a sculptor. As well as exceptional artistic genes, I have also found myself surrounded by beautiful things and have therefore developed an eye for the exquisite.
I hunted out a supplier of the Aeron Chair while I was in Japan and had one my size shipped in from America. Although not an Eames, it is produced by Herman Miller, who Eames designed all his chairs for. It is also on permanent display at the museum of modern art.
The film outlined the collaboration between two of the greatest artistic minds of the 20th century which were responsible for some of the best designs from one of my favourite periods.
9.30pm
When trying to turn my life around, I am handicapped by two bad habits; addictions in fact. One is tobacco which I am going to describe and document how to give up over the next few weeks.
The other is caused by the debilitating power of the electrical television box.
Rather than going for a run or going to the gym, how much easier is it to just lay down and turn on the TV?
I would like to have as a guiding motto:
Invest your time in something worthwhile.
It might not be very original and indeed may even be considered a cliche but I hope it isn't.
It is, however, rather grand for how can I justify watching on TV some of the things that I do?
I was brought up in a home where TV was almost considered a guilty pleasure.
Most of my childhood was spent without much TV at all. In the jungles of Borneo we had no television for a while and then only limited stuff like The Waltons and Giant Robot. In The Gambia, I don't think there was even a broadcaster apart from our neighbour Radio Gambia, and while I was at boarding school, I never watched TV although it was available.
When we were back in England as a family, TV was certainly not turned on until after dinner in the evening.
Nowadays, when I do watch it, I feel almost guilty for having done so. However, I try and justify it by telling myself I am allowed the occasional distraction and moment of relaxation.
I am from time to time rewarded for my viewing, this evening being one such case in point.
The documentary, Charles and Ray Eames: The architect and the painter (review), was only released at the end of 2011 but I was lucky enough to be able to watch it on terrestrial TV here in Finland.
I am passionate about good design which I put down to having been blessed with my parents; an architect and a sculptor. As well as exceptional artistic genes, I have also found myself surrounded by beautiful things and have therefore developed an eye for the exquisite.
I hunted out a supplier of the Aeron Chair while I was in Japan and had one my size shipped in from America. Although not an Eames, it is produced by Herman Miller, who Eames designed all his chairs for. It is also on permanent display at the museum of modern art.
I have known of Eero Saarinen and his famuos Tulip Chair but I had always thought he was Finnish and developed his skills in Finland. What I learnt tonight was that he in fact moved to the US at the age of 13 and became a naturalised American in 1940 and went to college with Charles and Ray. He worked with Charles on The Bridge House which was later to become the Eames House or Case Study House No. 8.
The film included interviews with some of the designers and other staff who worked with Charles and Ray and some memorable lines from the documentary were with reference to working in the office, 901.
It was described as, 'a delicious agony' like 'digging your brains out and kneading it on the worktop.'
Charles was eclectic in his work; he was an architect, a designer, a film maker and many other things. He earned a living from doing things he didn't know about. There is a limit to earning a living from your knowledge whereas one's ignorance is an unlimited commodity; the journey of not knowing to knowing was his work.
How great is that?
If you don't use it, you lose it
24th April 2012
As the Austrian Oak Arnold Schwarzenegger used to say, 'If you don't use it, you lose it.'
OK, he might not have coined the phrase, and perhaps he didn't say it, but it is something he could have said in the documentary Pumping Iron.
I used images from that film and lots of other images as well when I was going to Golds Gym in Tokyo. I got to the point where I had lost most of my excess body fat but I had this loose tyre of skin around my waist where my fat belly had been for the previous 15 years.
I showed it to one of the guys in the gym and asked him what I had to do to get rid of it.
He kind of grimaced and shrugged and recommended an operation.
He was German.
Three months later and a month before my birthday, I lost this sack of flesh and had the six pack I had promised myself for my 40th birthday. It had been a two year journey.
...
On the way to the gym during my lunch break when I was working in London, my mate Shaun used to ask, 'Going to pump Ian?'
...
At the moment, I feel as though I have been taking part in a space agency experiment into the effects of zero gravity on muscular atrophy. I haven't done any real exercise for a long time and my muscles have started to whither away, especially the vastus medialus (internus) quadricep above my left knee.
I ruptured my anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), like Michael Owen did a few years ago.
I was messing about at football when I tried to show off by doing a Marseille Roulette. This is something that French footballer Zinedine Zidane perfected and entails stepping on the ball and spinning round while the free leg protects the ball from an opponent. I got it wrong and as the ball was kicked from under me, my foot shot forward as my knee snapped back like a flamingo. There was a loud snapping sound as I went crashing to the ground clutching my left knee. A flash of black lightening exploded behind my tightly crunched eyelids and my knee started filling up with blood like a balloon.
Because I was dependent on the National Health Service at the time and I was flying back and forth to Japan, I was unable to have the required operation straight away.
I was a runner with goals and targets I wanted to achieve; I wanted to complete the marathon in under three hours and I was well on my way to this.
I was put on a waiting list and had to postpone the operation a couple of times. Eventually the NHS took me off the list entirely and told me to take up swimming instead.
I was able to have the operation two years after the accident thanks to the private insurance I was on through my work.
The operation entails rebuilding the ligament in the knee by shredding a ligament in the hamstring in half along its length. This is then removed from a small hole at the front of the leg just below the knee. The knee is flexed and a hole drilled through the upper part of the tibia, through the knee and through the femur in the thigh. The ligament has a pin attached to one end and it is threaded through the hole and fixed in place in the femur with the lower end grafted onto the tibia.
The rehabilitation process is long and arduous and as it had already been two years since the accident, I had lost a lot of muscle around my knee.
However, I never received any physiotherapy and as it has now been a few years since the operation, my knee has withered quite a lot.
I haven't been walking or cycling as much as I was back in England and the creaking and cracking sounds have increased recently.
It is time I did something about it.
I now have a bicycle and Minna got me an electronic key to the local school which means I can use the gym for free. This is the gym Markus took me to a few weeks ago and now that I have the key, I can start to get fit again.
..
'The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent.' Arnold Schwarzenegger did say that. Lots of people have said something similar and I have found it to be true. I have always been a believer in positive thinking and I remember having a discussion about its benefits with my father before I went to Japan.
There is no possibility of the physical body going anywhere or achieving anything if the mind hasn't already been there. Andre Agassi said he lifted the Wimbledon Trophy a hundred times in his mind and in his dreams before he actually won the tournament for the first time.
The mind is a muscle we are not really taught how to take full advantage of. It is so powerful and yet so underused. Writing down your goals is the first step but repeating these to yourself over and over again like a mantra is the only way to really attain them.
There are different ways of doing this - you can have your goals written down and posted on the wall next to your bed, in the toilet, on your desk. You can have memos in your telephone or on your computer. You can use images of what it is you want to be and collect pictures of these and post them in places you are going to see them.
When it comes to this sort of training, not many people tell you how the mind uses these prompts. The mind always works in the present and therefore you need to reinforce your goals and aspirations in the present. It is no good saying to yourself, 'I want to lose 10 kilograms.' Or 'I wish I were rich.' or even 'I am going to be healthy.' These are just wishes or statements about the future and for the mind the future is always in the future. You have to think in the present.
Everything has to be in the present and reinforced over and over again.
Decide what your goal is and repeat it to yourself, 'I am 90 kilograms of lean body weight. My body fat content is 5%.' This is specific and accurate and you have to repeat this in the present until you become this. Of course you have to make plans for how you are to become your dream, but it is the ultimate goal that you have to keep in your mind. The plans you make to reach your goal are shorter term goals that you can tick off as you reach them.
...
Now to start on my image training. I have decided to do this part of the exercise by collecting pictures of famous athletes and body builders. They will be my motivation.
My mantra is, 'I am fit and healthy and can run like the wind. I can run 15 kilometres in one hour. I weigh 83 kilograms and my body fat content is 5%.'
As the Austrian Oak Arnold Schwarzenegger used to say, 'If you don't use it, you lose it.'
OK, he might not have coined the phrase, and perhaps he didn't say it, but it is something he could have said in the documentary Pumping Iron.
I used images from that film and lots of other images as well when I was going to Golds Gym in Tokyo. I got to the point where I had lost most of my excess body fat but I had this loose tyre of skin around my waist where my fat belly had been for the previous 15 years.
I showed it to one of the guys in the gym and asked him what I had to do to get rid of it.
He kind of grimaced and shrugged and recommended an operation.
He was German.
Three months later and a month before my birthday, I lost this sack of flesh and had the six pack I had promised myself for my 40th birthday. It had been a two year journey.
...
On the way to the gym during my lunch break when I was working in London, my mate Shaun used to ask, 'Going to pump Ian?'
...
At the moment, I feel as though I have been taking part in a space agency experiment into the effects of zero gravity on muscular atrophy. I haven't done any real exercise for a long time and my muscles have started to whither away, especially the vastus medialus (internus) quadricep above my left knee.
I ruptured my anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), like Michael Owen did a few years ago.
I was messing about at football when I tried to show off by doing a Marseille Roulette. This is something that French footballer Zinedine Zidane perfected and entails stepping on the ball and spinning round while the free leg protects the ball from an opponent. I got it wrong and as the ball was kicked from under me, my foot shot forward as my knee snapped back like a flamingo. There was a loud snapping sound as I went crashing to the ground clutching my left knee. A flash of black lightening exploded behind my tightly crunched eyelids and my knee started filling up with blood like a balloon.
Because I was dependent on the National Health Service at the time and I was flying back and forth to Japan, I was unable to have the required operation straight away.
I was a runner with goals and targets I wanted to achieve; I wanted to complete the marathon in under three hours and I was well on my way to this.
I was put on a waiting list and had to postpone the operation a couple of times. Eventually the NHS took me off the list entirely and told me to take up swimming instead.
I was able to have the operation two years after the accident thanks to the private insurance I was on through my work.
The operation entails rebuilding the ligament in the knee by shredding a ligament in the hamstring in half along its length. This is then removed from a small hole at the front of the leg just below the knee. The knee is flexed and a hole drilled through the upper part of the tibia, through the knee and through the femur in the thigh. The ligament has a pin attached to one end and it is threaded through the hole and fixed in place in the femur with the lower end grafted onto the tibia.
The rehabilitation process is long and arduous and as it had already been two years since the accident, I had lost a lot of muscle around my knee.
However, I never received any physiotherapy and as it has now been a few years since the operation, my knee has withered quite a lot.
I haven't been walking or cycling as much as I was back in England and the creaking and cracking sounds have increased recently.
It is time I did something about it.
I now have a bicycle and Minna got me an electronic key to the local school which means I can use the gym for free. This is the gym Markus took me to a few weeks ago and now that I have the key, I can start to get fit again.
..
'The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent.' Arnold Schwarzenegger did say that. Lots of people have said something similar and I have found it to be true. I have always been a believer in positive thinking and I remember having a discussion about its benefits with my father before I went to Japan.
There is no possibility of the physical body going anywhere or achieving anything if the mind hasn't already been there. Andre Agassi said he lifted the Wimbledon Trophy a hundred times in his mind and in his dreams before he actually won the tournament for the first time.
The mind is a muscle we are not really taught how to take full advantage of. It is so powerful and yet so underused. Writing down your goals is the first step but repeating these to yourself over and over again like a mantra is the only way to really attain them.
There are different ways of doing this - you can have your goals written down and posted on the wall next to your bed, in the toilet, on your desk. You can have memos in your telephone or on your computer. You can use images of what it is you want to be and collect pictures of these and post them in places you are going to see them.
When it comes to this sort of training, not many people tell you how the mind uses these prompts. The mind always works in the present and therefore you need to reinforce your goals and aspirations in the present. It is no good saying to yourself, 'I want to lose 10 kilograms.' Or 'I wish I were rich.' or even 'I am going to be healthy.' These are just wishes or statements about the future and for the mind the future is always in the future. You have to think in the present.
Everything has to be in the present and reinforced over and over again.
Decide what your goal is and repeat it to yourself, 'I am 90 kilograms of lean body weight. My body fat content is 5%.' This is specific and accurate and you have to repeat this in the present until you become this. Of course you have to make plans for how you are to become your dream, but it is the ultimate goal that you have to keep in your mind. The plans you make to reach your goal are shorter term goals that you can tick off as you reach them.
...
Now to start on my image training. I have decided to do this part of the exercise by collecting pictures of famous athletes and body builders. They will be my motivation.
My mantra is, 'I am fit and healthy and can run like the wind. I can run 15 kilometres in one hour. I weigh 83 kilograms and my body fat content is 5%.'
Monday, 23 April 2012
The passage of the sun
23 April 2012
11.30pm
The sun set about two hours ago and for the following hour of dusk, the trees were alive with the sound of bird song.
Birds always seem to be most active at dawn and dusk or at least they sound more so than at any other time of day.
My parents' garden in England, while surrounded by other gardens and not cut off from roads or other houses, is fairly secluded. It is surrounded by a high hedge and when sitting in the back garden on the bench looking over the fruit trees and flower beds, one feels quite cut off from the outside world. Dusk has always been beautiful here, with the sound of the resident blackbird getting ready for the night. The combination of the birds singing goodnight to each other together with the comparative quietness of the surroundings focuses the sound.
The occasional passing car still disturbs the evening peace. Having come so far, I would like to experience the real wilderness while I am here so that I can hear the birds undisturbed and appreciate my surroundings as they are meant to be appreciated.
Two hours after sunset, it is still possible to see where the sun is. It is half past 11 and yet the sky to the north is lit up from underneath where the sun has barely dipped beneath the horizon.
11.30pm
The sun set about two hours ago and for the following hour of dusk, the trees were alive with the sound of bird song.
Birds always seem to be most active at dawn and dusk or at least they sound more so than at any other time of day.
My parents' garden in England, while surrounded by other gardens and not cut off from roads or other houses, is fairly secluded. It is surrounded by a high hedge and when sitting in the back garden on the bench looking over the fruit trees and flower beds, one feels quite cut off from the outside world. Dusk has always been beautiful here, with the sound of the resident blackbird getting ready for the night. The combination of the birds singing goodnight to each other together with the comparative quietness of the surroundings focuses the sound.
The occasional passing car still disturbs the evening peace. Having come so far, I would like to experience the real wilderness while I am here so that I can hear the birds undisturbed and appreciate my surroundings as they are meant to be appreciated.
Two hours after sunset, it is still possible to see where the sun is. It is half past 11 and yet the sky to the north is lit up from underneath where the sun has barely dipped beneath the horizon.
Where have all the song birds gone?
22nd April 2012
10.30pm
The sun set at 9.21 this evening but dusk continues for around another hour.
Wednesday this week will already be longer than midsummer's day in southern England.
In one month from now, sunrise will be at 4.01 but it will start to get light two hours before that. The sun will set at 10.50 and dusk will continue for another two hours and 12 minutes. The day will be longer than 23 hours.
Everyday from now until midsummer's day will be the longest I have witnessed.
In five weeks' time I will experience my first full day with no darkness and this will continue for more than 50 days.
...
(All bird photos and sounds below are from www.birdphoto.fi)
It's half past ten at night and on my way upstairs I hear the cooing of birds in the trees. They remind me of of the time I was young in Africa when we used to keep chickens. When closing them up for the evening in their hutches, you could hear the comforting cooing sounds they make before going to sleep.
I have noticed lots of birds in the hedgerows, trees and fields in Finland. I was surprised to find a host of house sparrows in the bare winter hedges in someone's front garden a few weeks ago in the snow.
In recent years in Britain there seems to have been a decline in the numbers of songbirds and while sparrows are still around, it has been a while since I saw such a large host as I saw here.
The most common bird around here appears to be the rook. Large buildings of rooks are often seen, and while tidings of magpies are not so common, they are frequently seen in pairs. These are bigger than the magpies I am used to seeing in England and I see Eurasian jays almost daily but they are always solitary. I saw quite a large nide of Pheasants on my way to the shops just off the main street camouflaged in the recently exposed dry grass at the edge of the snow. A handsome male pheasant is often seen near the school and his squawks are heard in the evenings echoing in the near distance.
The most common bird sound, however, is definitely that of the great tit which are seen in abundance but usually on their own high up in the trees singing at full throat.
Coming back from the library earlier this afternoon, I saw what looked like a thrush. It's been a long time since I saw a song thrush and although this had the distinct mottled spotty chest of the thrushes I used to see when I was younger, this one seemed not quite as colourfull and was bigger than I remember them being. Not a thrush nightingale although I would love to hear one of these - it might have been a dark-throated thrush.
Perhaps I have solved the mystery of England's missing songbirds; they are all here in Finland.
10.30pm
The sun set at 9.21 this evening but dusk continues for around another hour.
Wednesday this week will already be longer than midsummer's day in southern England.
In one month from now, sunrise will be at 4.01 but it will start to get light two hours before that. The sun will set at 10.50 and dusk will continue for another two hours and 12 minutes. The day will be longer than 23 hours.
Everyday from now until midsummer's day will be the longest I have witnessed.
In five weeks' time I will experience my first full day with no darkness and this will continue for more than 50 days.
...
(All bird photos and sounds below are from www.birdphoto.fi)
It's half past ten at night and on my way upstairs I hear the cooing of birds in the trees. They remind me of of the time I was young in Africa when we used to keep chickens. When closing them up for the evening in their hutches, you could hear the comforting cooing sounds they make before going to sleep.
I have noticed lots of birds in the hedgerows, trees and fields in Finland. I was surprised to find a host of house sparrows in the bare winter hedges in someone's front garden a few weeks ago in the snow.
In recent years in Britain there seems to have been a decline in the numbers of songbirds and while sparrows are still around, it has been a while since I saw such a large host as I saw here.
The most common bird around here appears to be the rook. Large buildings of rooks are often seen, and while tidings of magpies are not so common, they are frequently seen in pairs. These are bigger than the magpies I am used to seeing in England and I see Eurasian jays almost daily but they are always solitary. I saw quite a large nide of Pheasants on my way to the shops just off the main street camouflaged in the recently exposed dry grass at the edge of the snow. A handsome male pheasant is often seen near the school and his squawks are heard in the evenings echoing in the near distance.
The most common bird sound, however, is definitely that of the great tit which are seen in abundance but usually on their own high up in the trees singing at full throat.
Coming back from the library earlier this afternoon, I saw what looked like a thrush. It's been a long time since I saw a song thrush and although this had the distinct mottled spotty chest of the thrushes I used to see when I was younger, this one seemed not quite as colourfull and was bigger than I remember them being. Not a thrush nightingale although I would love to hear one of these - it might have been a dark-throated thrush.
Perhaps I have solved the mystery of England's missing songbirds; they are all here in Finland.
Sunday, 22 April 2012
Pro-Capitalist Growth vs Gross Domestic Happiness
Jim Yong Kim, newly appointed head of the World Bank, has clarified his position on economic growth; he has stated that he is not anti-growth and is in fact pro-capitalist growth.
The controversy surrounding his appointment originally arose due to his involvement in editing the book, Dying for Growth. The book had at its core that the pursuit of economic growth impoverished the developing world and kept it in a position of poverty and servitude, and was therefore directly responsible for the deaths of poor and starving people.
Although there is no surprise in the new appointment being an American, the fact that he is neither a politician nor a financier is a first. It has been accepted protocol for the head of the World Bank to be American with a European always heading up the International Monetary Fund. The customer countries, or the countries who are actually on the receiving end of the loans have never had much say in the process.
Kim is a physician and anthropologist and has spent most of his career working in development so there is generally a feeling that things will improve for the developing world. At the time of the announcement of Kim's candidacy, The Kingdom of Bhutan was one of the countries that felt it had reason to feel optimistic. Due to his involvement in Dying for Growth, it had been thought that Kim's approach might be more inclined towards different methods for measuring economic success such as Bhutan's index for Gross National Happiness rather than Gross Domestic Product; the usual measurement favoured by the west.
Coined in 1972 by the then King of Bhutan as an off-hand remark, Gross National Happiness started to take on a more serious note and has led to economists giving increased weight to non-traditional methods for measuring economic success such as health, happiness, spiritual development and overall wellness.
Happiness Economics is now a serious branch of study but is not free from controversy itself due to the subjective nature of measuring such things as happiness.
Unfortunately, for those of us who would like to visit the mountain kingdom of Bhutan, the government of Bhutan demands your tourist dollars in exchange for its peacefulness and tranquility. Apart from nationals of Pakistan, tourists need to hire a guide at US$200 a day in order to be able to enter the kingdom, making it an exclusive destination - indeed, how many people do you know who have been there? While it may seem that this is Nepal for the jet set, one should bear in mind that this is an all-inclusive fee so there are no extra costs for accommodation, travel nor food. Still, two hundred bucks a day does seem a bit steep.
Although there is no surprise in the new appointment being an American, the fact that he is neither a politician nor a financier is a first. It has been accepted protocol for the head of the World Bank to be American with a European always heading up the International Monetary Fund. The customer countries, or the countries who are actually on the receiving end of the loans have never had much say in the process.
Kim is a physician and anthropologist and has spent most of his career working in development so there is generally a feeling that things will improve for the developing world. At the time of the announcement of Kim's candidacy, The Kingdom of Bhutan was one of the countries that felt it had reason to feel optimistic. Due to his involvement in Dying for Growth, it had been thought that Kim's approach might be more inclined towards different methods for measuring economic success such as Bhutan's index for Gross National Happiness rather than Gross Domestic Product; the usual measurement favoured by the west.
Coined in 1972 by the then King of Bhutan as an off-hand remark, Gross National Happiness started to take on a more serious note and has led to economists giving increased weight to non-traditional methods for measuring economic success such as health, happiness, spiritual development and overall wellness.
Happiness Economics is now a serious branch of study but is not free from controversy itself due to the subjective nature of measuring such things as happiness.
Unfortunately, for those of us who would like to visit the mountain kingdom of Bhutan, the government of Bhutan demands your tourist dollars in exchange for its peacefulness and tranquility. Apart from nationals of Pakistan, tourists need to hire a guide at US$200 a day in order to be able to enter the kingdom, making it an exclusive destination - indeed, how many people do you know who have been there? While it may seem that this is Nepal for the jet set, one should bear in mind that this is an all-inclusive fee so there are no extra costs for accommodation, travel nor food. Still, two hundred bucks a day does seem a bit steep.
Nothing in Excess
Below are some of the influences and points of reference in my pursuit of a personal guiding philosophy to life.
These are not guidelines I have necessarily followed but are influences I feel worth further exploration.
Each of these entries will be expanded on in future blog posts.
The Oracle at Delphi
Know Thy Self
Nothing in Excess
Gandhi and Poverty
Speeches and Writings of Mahatma Gandhi, G.A. Natesan, Madras, 1933, p.35
Civilization in the real sense of the term consists not in the multiplication but in the deliberate and voluntary reduction of wants, which promotes real happiness and contentment and increases the capacity for service. One can reduce one’s wants by perseverance, and the reduction of wants make for happiness-a healthy body and a peaceful mind. From Yeravada Mandir, 1945
Gandhi believed in a life of simplicity and self-sufficiency. Simple living is distinct from those living in forced poverty, as it is a lifestyle choice
Be the change you want to see in the world.
What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea.
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever
Whenever you are confronted with an opponent. Conquer him with love.
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
asteya (non-stealing) and aparigraha (non- possession)
DeWelle Ferguson “Skip” Ellsworth
Log Home Builders Association
Skip set up a group in Washington state in 1965 to help people establish a mortgage-free life. The Association he formed still gives two day courses in how to build a log house with tools that can fit in the boot of a car. He also gives tips on acquiring free materials, including wood and land and has also set up some worthwhile charities.
Simon Dale
Low Impact woodland home
A house built with maximum regard for the environment and by reciprocation giving a unique opportunity to live close to nature. Creating and enjoying something which is part of yourself and the land rather than, at worst, a mass produced box designed for maximum profit and convenience of the construction industry. Building from natural materials does away with producers profits and the cocktail of carcinogenic poisons that fill most modern buildings.
The UNABomber
OK, I am not advocating violence but I do think we have a lot to learn from Ted's survival skills and self-sufficiency.
Manifesto
Wikipedia: Ted Kaczynski American mathematician,social critic, anarcho-primitivist, and Neo-Luddite[2] In 1971, he moved to a remote cabin without electricity or running water, in Lincoln, Montana, where he lived as a recluse while learning survival skills in an attempt to become self-sufficient.[3]He decided to start a bombing campaign after watching the wilderness around his home being destroyed by development.
John Zerzan
Earth Liberation Front
Links to Zerzan and Kaczynski through Green Anarchism and neo-luddism.
I have felt an affinity with neo-luddites since my degree days when studying philosophy and sociology. They basically feel that industrialisation has led to alienation in the work place. Together with green anarchy and anarcho-primitivism, the answer lies in a return to a paleolithic life-style of hunter-gathering.
If a Tree Falls
I saw this incredibly moving documentary released in 2011. Absolutely shocking how a group of environmentalists are forced to take the path of violence and the retribution they receive. Think Green Peace x 1000.
Robert Twigger
Robert Twigger
Adventurer, explorer and writer. I met Robert in Tokyo and worked and played together for a few years before going our separate ways. I do however continue occasional contact with him and would like to be involved in his future adventure to circumnavigate the globe in an inflatable catamaran.
Steve Pavlina
Steve Pavlina
Discovering your life purpose and summoning the courage to begin acting on it.
Robert Twigger introduced me to Steve Pavlina when advising me on blog writing. I was to find that there is a close overlap between Robert's and Pavlina's approaches to life, particularly when it comes Lifeshifting.
Steve's advise is all free and very well written. He has articles that can advise you on all aspects of life, from giving up smoking, to improving your sleep patterns and living the life you were born to lead.
While he provides free access to all his articles, he accepts voluntary donations from satisfied customers. With more than 2million hits a month, his blog site is generating him an income of around US$40,000 a month.
Tom Venuto
Tom Venuto Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle
Tom was the first person I trusted enough to guide me through a life-changing experience. I subscribed to his Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle programme and through strong imagery and the power of the mind, I was able to transform myself from unhealthy and overweight to being the peak of physical fitness in the course of just over one year.
Bob Proctor
Bob Proctor Helping People Grow
I came across Bob Proctor through Tom Venuto. I benefited from daily uplifting messages and stories of inspiration and perseverance.
I was, however, put off when I went to see him in London and found he was just another one of those money-grabbing Evangelist types.
He is famous for his The Law of Attraction and is the Teacher in the film The Secret.
Burt Goldman
Quantum Jumping
Personal Development through the power of the mind.
A bit freaky, Burt claims we can learn from our other selves which exist in parallel universe.
Unlike Pavlina, Goldman needs your money. You can go on his six part free introductory course but to benefit form the programme you need to part with your money.
The problem I have with Steve, Tom, Bob and Burt is that they all place a certain amount of importance on material success. They all claim to be able to advise on all aspects of personal development, although Tom is more focused on the body and fitness. However, they also all seem to be advocating that happiness cannot be complete without money.
The man who quit money
BBC: The Man Who Gave up Money and Went to Live in a Cave
Book: The Man Who Quit Money
Andy Pettman drew this to my attention and is something close to our hearts. Both Andy and I spent a year or so foraging and making a meager living from it by selling the products we collected to restaurants. Foraging is a beautiful and sustainable way of feeding yourself and is something I want to continue to pursue.
These are not guidelines I have necessarily followed but are influences I feel worth further exploration.
Each of these entries will be expanded on in future blog posts.
The Oracle at Delphi
Know Thy Self
Nothing in Excess
Gandhi and Poverty
Speeches and Writings of Mahatma Gandhi, G.A. Natesan, Madras, 1933, p.35
Civilization in the real sense of the term consists not in the multiplication but in the deliberate and voluntary reduction of wants, which promotes real happiness and contentment and increases the capacity for service. One can reduce one’s wants by perseverance, and the reduction of wants make for happiness-a healthy body and a peaceful mind. From Yeravada Mandir, 1945
Gandhi believed in a life of simplicity and self-sufficiency. Simple living is distinct from those living in forced poverty, as it is a lifestyle choice
Be the change you want to see in the world.
What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea.
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever
Whenever you are confronted with an opponent. Conquer him with love.
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
asteya (non-stealing) and aparigraha (non- possession)
DeWelle Ferguson “Skip” Ellsworth
Log Home Builders Association
Skip set up a group in Washington state in 1965 to help people establish a mortgage-free life. The Association he formed still gives two day courses in how to build a log house with tools that can fit in the boot of a car. He also gives tips on acquiring free materials, including wood and land and has also set up some worthwhile charities.
Simon Dale
Low Impact woodland home
A house built with maximum regard for the environment and by reciprocation giving a unique opportunity to live close to nature. Creating and enjoying something which is part of yourself and the land rather than, at worst, a mass produced box designed for maximum profit and convenience of the construction industry. Building from natural materials does away with producers profits and the cocktail of carcinogenic poisons that fill most modern buildings.
The UNABomber
OK, I am not advocating violence but I do think we have a lot to learn from Ted's survival skills and self-sufficiency.
Manifesto
Wikipedia: Ted Kaczynski American mathematician,social critic, anarcho-primitivist, and Neo-Luddite[2] In 1971, he moved to a remote cabin without electricity or running water, in Lincoln, Montana, where he lived as a recluse while learning survival skills in an attempt to become self-sufficient.[3]He decided to start a bombing campaign after watching the wilderness around his home being destroyed by development.
John Zerzan
I came across Zerzan when reading around The Unabomber. While John questions Ted's violence, he seems to accept his broader approach to life.
The below is from Wikipedia:
Zerzan is an anarchist, and is broadly associated with the philosophies of anarcho-primitivism, green anarchism, anti-civilisation, post-left anarchy, neo-luddism, and in particular the critique of technology.[3]He rejects not only the state, but all forms of hierarchical and authoritarian relations. "Most simply, anarchy means 'without rule.' This implies not only a rejection of government but of all other forms of domination and power as well."
Zerzan is an anarchist, and is broadly associated with the philosophies of anarcho-primitivism, green anarchism, anti-civilisation, post-left anarchy, neo-luddism, and in particular the critique of technology.[3]He rejects not only the state, but all forms of hierarchical and authoritarian relations. "Most simply, anarchy means 'without rule.' This implies not only a rejection of government but of all other forms of domination and power as well."
Zerzan's work relies heavily on a strong dualism between the "primitive" – viewed as non-alienated, wild, non-hierarchical, ludic, and socially egalitarian – and the "civilised" – viewed as alienated, domesticated, hierarchically organised and socially discriminatory. Hence, "life before domestication/agriculture was in fact largely one of leisure, intimacy with nature, sensual wisdom, sexual equality, and health
Earth Liberation Front
Links to Zerzan and Kaczynski through Green Anarchism and neo-luddism.
I have felt an affinity with neo-luddites since my degree days when studying philosophy and sociology. They basically feel that industrialisation has led to alienation in the work place. Together with green anarchy and anarcho-primitivism, the answer lies in a return to a paleolithic life-style of hunter-gathering.
If a Tree Falls
I saw this incredibly moving documentary released in 2011. Absolutely shocking how a group of environmentalists are forced to take the path of violence and the retribution they receive. Think Green Peace x 1000.
Robert Twigger
Robert Twigger
Adventurer, explorer and writer. I met Robert in Tokyo and worked and played together for a few years before going our separate ways. I do however continue occasional contact with him and would like to be involved in his future adventure to circumnavigate the globe in an inflatable catamaran.
Steve Pavlina
Steve Pavlina
Discovering your life purpose and summoning the courage to begin acting on it.
Robert Twigger introduced me to Steve Pavlina when advising me on blog writing. I was to find that there is a close overlap between Robert's and Pavlina's approaches to life, particularly when it comes Lifeshifting.
Steve's advise is all free and very well written. He has articles that can advise you on all aspects of life, from giving up smoking, to improving your sleep patterns and living the life you were born to lead.
While he provides free access to all his articles, he accepts voluntary donations from satisfied customers. With more than 2million hits a month, his blog site is generating him an income of around US$40,000 a month.
Tom Venuto
Tom Venuto Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle
Tom was the first person I trusted enough to guide me through a life-changing experience. I subscribed to his Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle programme and through strong imagery and the power of the mind, I was able to transform myself from unhealthy and overweight to being the peak of physical fitness in the course of just over one year.
Bob Proctor
Bob Proctor Helping People Grow
I came across Bob Proctor through Tom Venuto. I benefited from daily uplifting messages and stories of inspiration and perseverance.
I was, however, put off when I went to see him in London and found he was just another one of those money-grabbing Evangelist types.
He is famous for his The Law of Attraction and is the Teacher in the film The Secret.
Burt Goldman
Quantum Jumping
Personal Development through the power of the mind.
A bit freaky, Burt claims we can learn from our other selves which exist in parallel universe.
Unlike Pavlina, Goldman needs your money. You can go on his six part free introductory course but to benefit form the programme you need to part with your money.
The problem I have with Steve, Tom, Bob and Burt is that they all place a certain amount of importance on material success. They all claim to be able to advise on all aspects of personal development, although Tom is more focused on the body and fitness. However, they also all seem to be advocating that happiness cannot be complete without money.
The man who quit money
BBC: The Man Who Gave up Money and Went to Live in a Cave
Book: The Man Who Quit Money
Andy Pettman drew this to my attention and is something close to our hearts. Both Andy and I spent a year or so foraging and making a meager living from it by selling the products we collected to restaurants. Foraging is a beautiful and sustainable way of feeding yourself and is something I want to continue to pursue.
Friday, 20 April 2012
Cats
21 April 2012
Saturday
1.00am
The battle between winter and spring wages on; the snow cover of a few hours ago was washed away by rain only to be replaced again two hours later. The temperature is bang on zero but as the snow continues to fall, the gutters and down pipes are alive with running water.
...
Sitting outside the school kitchen with a coffee as the snow was falling earlier on, the ginger cat from next door meowed and ran under the chair next to me. I leaned over and held out my hand while making a clicking sound out of the side of my mouth. The cat, as usual, ran up to me but didn't stop.
I had seen him yesterday in the grass field as I was on my way to the supermarket. He saw me and scarpered.
He's an odd cat.
On one of my first days here, he came in through my open front door. I thought I had a new companion but he seemed to realise that he had made a mistake and turned round and left the way he had come.
He may be an odd cat but he is nothing compared to Gerard. My Finnish ginger is a younger version of Gerard who arrived at my house in Hollicondane Road in Ramsgate together with Ludovic, my French lodger a couple of years ago.
Ludo is an eccentric manager of Ramsgate's only cocktail bar. He's eccentric in a gentle way. A gentle and quiet eccentric cocktail maker with a very special talent for making extremely good cocktails. He has only two problems; his extremely strong French accent which most of the locals of Ramsgate cannot understand, and his very laid back and slow approach to cocktail mixing. He's a lovely guy but his eccentricity has rubbed off on his cat, which he named after Gerard Depardieu.
...
I generally don't like cats; I am a dog person and find cats too arrogant by far. I don't mind arrogance in cases where it is deserved but I see no reason why a cat should be so proud. Their eyes look through you and make no emotional connection; there's just a cold blankness. They don't know their names and only respond when food is on offer.
My sister Katie has a cat which frightens me. I am sure the thing hates me and although I have known this cat for a number of years, I have no recollection of ever having heard its name. If I have heard it, I just haven't registered it. I walk into a room and this thing has a tendency of appearing from nowhere and frightening the living daylights out of me with its hissing and spitting. Why does it do this?
And besides, I am allergic to cats.
A dog, on the other hand, exhibits real emotion through its eyes. A dog doesn't just know its name, it understands many words.
However, I don't have much time for people who talk to dogs; that's taking it just a bit too far.
...
The ginger Finn is the only cat I have seen here in Finland so it is difficult to make a generalisation about the character of Finnish cats. If this cat is a typical Finnish cat, then their personality is between that of English and Japanese cats.
I have often found that cats in England can easily be misled; they come to you when beckoned and even strangers in the street can be persuaded to follow you. I used to see a black cat on my way to the station in the mornings when I was commuting to London. After the first couple of times of noticing this cat, I quite easily tricked it into thinking I like cats and befriended it. It often accompanied me on my morning walk.
Japanese cats are quite different. They have no trust in strangers at all and will run away at the slightest hint of being noticed. I used to wonder whether this was because they were mistreated by little children but I was unable to verify this.
Because of the way the cat is revered in Japan, this would have been strange but would fit in with how I saw a lot of dogs being treated which were often left chained up outside.
Perhaps Japanese people just have a preference for cats over dogs. Cats are quite deeply ingrained in their culture. The good-luck cat seen in Asian, mostly Chinese, restaurants in London, sitting up and beckoning to passers by to come in, is actually Japanese. They are usually white but can be gold.
The foremost Japanese author of the Meiji period (1868-1912), Natsume Soseki, penned the famous satirical novel Wagahai Neko de aru; I am a Cat, about the erosion of Japanese culture through the aping of Western norms. The protagonist is a cat that speaks in the formal language usually expected of the noble classes.
The cat appears in a wide cross section of Japanese culture, including some of the famous Studio Ghibli anime films; The Cat Returns and Kiki's Delivery Service about a black cat and a young broomstick-riding witch who sets up a flying delivery service.
...
Cats that run away from you in a country where cats are placed on a pedestal, to cats that follow you in the streets in a country where man's best friend is the dog.
I wonder where the cat stands in Finnish society. In the flesh, my ginger neighbour is a mixture of the two; he runs up to me but carries running right on by.
Saturday
1.00am
The battle between winter and spring wages on; the snow cover of a few hours ago was washed away by rain only to be replaced again two hours later. The temperature is bang on zero but as the snow continues to fall, the gutters and down pipes are alive with running water.
...
Sitting outside the school kitchen with a coffee as the snow was falling earlier on, the ginger cat from next door meowed and ran under the chair next to me. I leaned over and held out my hand while making a clicking sound out of the side of my mouth. The cat, as usual, ran up to me but didn't stop.
I had seen him yesterday in the grass field as I was on my way to the supermarket. He saw me and scarpered.
He's an odd cat.
On one of my first days here, he came in through my open front door. I thought I had a new companion but he seemed to realise that he had made a mistake and turned round and left the way he had come.
He may be an odd cat but he is nothing compared to Gerard. My Finnish ginger is a younger version of Gerard who arrived at my house in Hollicondane Road in Ramsgate together with Ludovic, my French lodger a couple of years ago.
Ludo is an eccentric manager of Ramsgate's only cocktail bar. He's eccentric in a gentle way. A gentle and quiet eccentric cocktail maker with a very special talent for making extremely good cocktails. He has only two problems; his extremely strong French accent which most of the locals of Ramsgate cannot understand, and his very laid back and slow approach to cocktail mixing. He's a lovely guy but his eccentricity has rubbed off on his cat, which he named after Gerard Depardieu.
...
I generally don't like cats; I am a dog person and find cats too arrogant by far. I don't mind arrogance in cases where it is deserved but I see no reason why a cat should be so proud. Their eyes look through you and make no emotional connection; there's just a cold blankness. They don't know their names and only respond when food is on offer.
My sister Katie has a cat which frightens me. I am sure the thing hates me and although I have known this cat for a number of years, I have no recollection of ever having heard its name. If I have heard it, I just haven't registered it. I walk into a room and this thing has a tendency of appearing from nowhere and frightening the living daylights out of me with its hissing and spitting. Why does it do this?
And besides, I am allergic to cats.
A dog, on the other hand, exhibits real emotion through its eyes. A dog doesn't just know its name, it understands many words.
However, I don't have much time for people who talk to dogs; that's taking it just a bit too far.
...
The ginger Finn is the only cat I have seen here in Finland so it is difficult to make a generalisation about the character of Finnish cats. If this cat is a typical Finnish cat, then their personality is between that of English and Japanese cats.
I have often found that cats in England can easily be misled; they come to you when beckoned and even strangers in the street can be persuaded to follow you. I used to see a black cat on my way to the station in the mornings when I was commuting to London. After the first couple of times of noticing this cat, I quite easily tricked it into thinking I like cats and befriended it. It often accompanied me on my morning walk.
Japanese cats are quite different. They have no trust in strangers at all and will run away at the slightest hint of being noticed. I used to wonder whether this was because they were mistreated by little children but I was unable to verify this.
Because of the way the cat is revered in Japan, this would have been strange but would fit in with how I saw a lot of dogs being treated which were often left chained up outside.
Perhaps Japanese people just have a preference for cats over dogs. Cats are quite deeply ingrained in their culture. The good-luck cat seen in Asian, mostly Chinese, restaurants in London, sitting up and beckoning to passers by to come in, is actually Japanese. They are usually white but can be gold.
The foremost Japanese author of the Meiji period (1868-1912), Natsume Soseki, penned the famous satirical novel Wagahai Neko de aru; I am a Cat, about the erosion of Japanese culture through the aping of Western norms. The protagonist is a cat that speaks in the formal language usually expected of the noble classes.
The cat appears in a wide cross section of Japanese culture, including some of the famous Studio Ghibli anime films; The Cat Returns and Kiki's Delivery Service about a black cat and a young broomstick-riding witch who sets up a flying delivery service.
...
Cats that run away from you in a country where cats are placed on a pedestal, to cats that follow you in the streets in a country where man's best friend is the dog.
I wonder where the cat stands in Finnish society. In the flesh, my ginger neighbour is a mixture of the two; he runs up to me but carries running right on by.
Tokyo districts, designers and Alvar Aalto
20th April 2012
My first couple of years in Tokyo, I spent working in Shibuya.
Tokyo is seemingly made up of many cities within the greater metropolis of 36 million people. Each centre has its own distinct character and each is dominated by different demographics. While the Ginza is an upmarket district for sophisticates, Shibuya is a young persons district. Shinjuku is the Japanese salaryman's drinking area, whereas Roppongi is the watering hole for foreigners. Forget London or New York, Tokyo really is the city that never sleeps.
Shinjuku is further divided into Golden Gai, an old district of quaint ramshackle bars for the older salaryman, Shinjuku 3-Chome, for gay bars and transvetite clubs, 2-Chome for late night dives frequented by younger rockers and further along to Shin Okubo for Columbian and other gangster-run holes for drugs and rows of streets divided by nationality for whores operated by the Yakuza.
...
After two years of helping to set up a new school in Shibuya, I moved onto a well-established school in north Tokyo called International Language Centre. ILC had a reputation among other language teachers for many reasons.
Robert Twigger took over from me in Shibuya and moved into my old flat in the outskirts of Yokohama. Robert was later to become an adventurer and acclaimed author with followers such as Alexy Sayle singing his praises. I was to feature in his first best seller, Angry White Pyjamas.
Jeremy and I had promised each other that we would make our separate ways to Tokyo and it was he who landed on his feet at ILC. Jeremy got me an introduction and urged me to move over to join him. I dragged my feet for a while but soon realised that making the move was the right thing to do.
We had arrived in Tokyo in 1990 three months apart with me landing first. There had been promise of well-paid work - Japan was booming. We got there only to witness the bubble burst but it was interesting nevertheless to observe the contrast between pre- and post-implosion.
One year after I left, the school I had helped to establish folded and had to close down. Robert Twigger managed to make a move over to ILC for a while before settling into supply teacher work for local schools and concentrating on his training in Aikido with the Tokyo Riot Police.
...
When I first arrived in Tokyo, I was sipping cups of tea from fine bone china in hotel lobbies for 1,500 yen and buying take-away crustless steak sandwiches for lunch at 2,000 yen.
A couple of years later, Tokyo witnessed quite a different boom. Eat-and-drink-all-you-can restaurants sprouted up all over the place. We could spend two hours eating the best Sirloin steaks for the price of a bubble period cup of tea. We could go to Korean Barbecues and Shabu-Shabu buffets and fill up for the same price. Prices never recovered to what they had been and even 15 years later, we were eating the most amazing sushi for the equivalent of 50p a plate. Plates always have had and always will have two pieces of sushi on them.
...
ILC was located in Jimbocho which was also known as Book District. The walls on the underground station were decorated in colour tiles in shapes of books stacked up on shelves. The main street, Yasakuni Dori, was dominated by bookshops and towards Yasakuni Shrine, galleries selling Ukiyoe, Japanese woodblock prints and other collectables such as Samurai swords and the like.
Yasakuni Shrine has a checkered reputation for it is here that the Japanese war heroes are enshrined. There is also a war museum. At special ceremonies marking the end of the war, Japanese politicians come to pay their respects to the war dead completely aware of the controversy and anger this stirs up in neighbouring Asian countries.
Right wing pro-Imperial groups crusade up and down this street in convoys of trucks with huge speakers blaring out nationalist wartime tunes and screaming their support for the emperor who they want to be restored to deity.
At the end of World War II Emperor Hirohito made a live radio broadcast announcing Japan's surrender. His voice had never been heard before and people were shocked to hear the voice of God. They were also shocked to learn of their surrender and thousands of people committed ritual suicide.
These demonstrations up and down Yasukuni Dori of Imperialist support may be limited to special ceremonial dates but they seemed to happen all the time.
On the other side of the road opposite the Shrine is the Budokan, where Bob Dylan performed and The Beatles debuted in Japan. I saw Eric Clapton perform here and in the surrounding gardens of Kitonomaru Park and along the banks of the moat we used to have our office Cherry Blossom parties where we would eat our Bento Boxed Lunches under the trees at the end of March. We would avoid the grounds of the Shrine although the trees were beautiful here. Parties in the grounds of the Shrine were usually dominated by drunk Imperialists and although they would not give foreigners much trouble, admiring the beauty of the trees was not worth the embarrassment of being heckled to join their drunken parties.
...
After several years in Jimbocho, I went to work at Honda in Aoyama Itchome just along from Omotesando and Harajuku, the designer district where all the world's designers had their head outlets in Tokyo. Beautiful buildings for Prada vied for street space with Burberry and Loius Vuitton, Chanel and Hermes. I used to spend my lunch breaks gazing longingly at beautiful designer furniture and once a year during Tokyo Design Week, I would wonder from one party to another drinking champagne and viewing the latest chairs, tables, lamps and table wear from world renowned designers. Absolutely brilliant examples of some of the best modern architecture in the world can be seen in this part of Tokyo.
...
Imagine the pleasant surprise I experienced when I discovered that one of the most renowned modern architects of all time was not only born near where I am in Finland but that there are examples of his designs from 1925 to the late 60's all within easy reach. Alvar Aalto was born in Kuortane and had his first design built in Alajärvi. Seinäjoki, the fastest growing city in Finland, is centred around a collection of his buildings. Anyone who knows anything about architecture and furniture design will know of his iconic chairs and three- and four-legged bentwood stacking stools.
While the 80km round trip to Alajärvi might be a bit far right now for a bike trip, Seinäjoki is an easy sub-30-minute train ride away.
Seinäjoki beckons.
My first couple of years in Tokyo, I spent working in Shibuya.
Tokyo is seemingly made up of many cities within the greater metropolis of 36 million people. Each centre has its own distinct character and each is dominated by different demographics. While the Ginza is an upmarket district for sophisticates, Shibuya is a young persons district. Shinjuku is the Japanese salaryman's drinking area, whereas Roppongi is the watering hole for foreigners. Forget London or New York, Tokyo really is the city that never sleeps.
Shinjuku is further divided into Golden Gai, an old district of quaint ramshackle bars for the older salaryman, Shinjuku 3-Chome, for gay bars and transvetite clubs, 2-Chome for late night dives frequented by younger rockers and further along to Shin Okubo for Columbian and other gangster-run holes for drugs and rows of streets divided by nationality for whores operated by the Yakuza.
...
After two years of helping to set up a new school in Shibuya, I moved onto a well-established school in north Tokyo called International Language Centre. ILC had a reputation among other language teachers for many reasons.
Robert Twigger took over from me in Shibuya and moved into my old flat in the outskirts of Yokohama. Robert was later to become an adventurer and acclaimed author with followers such as Alexy Sayle singing his praises. I was to feature in his first best seller, Angry White Pyjamas.
Jeremy and I had promised each other that we would make our separate ways to Tokyo and it was he who landed on his feet at ILC. Jeremy got me an introduction and urged me to move over to join him. I dragged my feet for a while but soon realised that making the move was the right thing to do.
We had arrived in Tokyo in 1990 three months apart with me landing first. There had been promise of well-paid work - Japan was booming. We got there only to witness the bubble burst but it was interesting nevertheless to observe the contrast between pre- and post-implosion.
One year after I left, the school I had helped to establish folded and had to close down. Robert Twigger managed to make a move over to ILC for a while before settling into supply teacher work for local schools and concentrating on his training in Aikido with the Tokyo Riot Police.
...
When I first arrived in Tokyo, I was sipping cups of tea from fine bone china in hotel lobbies for 1,500 yen and buying take-away crustless steak sandwiches for lunch at 2,000 yen.
A couple of years later, Tokyo witnessed quite a different boom. Eat-and-drink-all-you-can restaurants sprouted up all over the place. We could spend two hours eating the best Sirloin steaks for the price of a bubble period cup of tea. We could go to Korean Barbecues and Shabu-Shabu buffets and fill up for the same price. Prices never recovered to what they had been and even 15 years later, we were eating the most amazing sushi for the equivalent of 50p a plate. Plates always have had and always will have two pieces of sushi on them.
...
ILC was located in Jimbocho which was also known as Book District. The walls on the underground station were decorated in colour tiles in shapes of books stacked up on shelves. The main street, Yasakuni Dori, was dominated by bookshops and towards Yasakuni Shrine, galleries selling Ukiyoe, Japanese woodblock prints and other collectables such as Samurai swords and the like.
Yasakuni Shrine has a checkered reputation for it is here that the Japanese war heroes are enshrined. There is also a war museum. At special ceremonies marking the end of the war, Japanese politicians come to pay their respects to the war dead completely aware of the controversy and anger this stirs up in neighbouring Asian countries.
Right wing pro-Imperial groups crusade up and down this street in convoys of trucks with huge speakers blaring out nationalist wartime tunes and screaming their support for the emperor who they want to be restored to deity.
At the end of World War II Emperor Hirohito made a live radio broadcast announcing Japan's surrender. His voice had never been heard before and people were shocked to hear the voice of God. They were also shocked to learn of their surrender and thousands of people committed ritual suicide.
These demonstrations up and down Yasukuni Dori of Imperialist support may be limited to special ceremonial dates but they seemed to happen all the time.
On the other side of the road opposite the Shrine is the Budokan, where Bob Dylan performed and The Beatles debuted in Japan. I saw Eric Clapton perform here and in the surrounding gardens of Kitonomaru Park and along the banks of the moat we used to have our office Cherry Blossom parties where we would eat our Bento Boxed Lunches under the trees at the end of March. We would avoid the grounds of the Shrine although the trees were beautiful here. Parties in the grounds of the Shrine were usually dominated by drunk Imperialists and although they would not give foreigners much trouble, admiring the beauty of the trees was not worth the embarrassment of being heckled to join their drunken parties.
...
After several years in Jimbocho, I went to work at Honda in Aoyama Itchome just along from Omotesando and Harajuku, the designer district where all the world's designers had their head outlets in Tokyo. Beautiful buildings for Prada vied for street space with Burberry and Loius Vuitton, Chanel and Hermes. I used to spend my lunch breaks gazing longingly at beautiful designer furniture and once a year during Tokyo Design Week, I would wonder from one party to another drinking champagne and viewing the latest chairs, tables, lamps and table wear from world renowned designers. Absolutely brilliant examples of some of the best modern architecture in the world can be seen in this part of Tokyo.
...
Imagine the pleasant surprise I experienced when I discovered that one of the most renowned modern architects of all time was not only born near where I am in Finland but that there are examples of his designs from 1925 to the late 60's all within easy reach. Alvar Aalto was born in Kuortane and had his first design built in Alajärvi. Seinäjoki, the fastest growing city in Finland, is centred around a collection of his buildings. Anyone who knows anything about architecture and furniture design will know of his iconic chairs and three- and four-legged bentwood stacking stools.
While the 80km round trip to Alajärvi might be a bit far right now for a bike trip, Seinäjoki is an easy sub-30-minute train ride away.
Seinäjoki beckons.
My first set of Finnish wheels
20th April 2012
Friday
A little over an hour ago, I was outside in wet sleet pushing Samuli and his three year old brother Vili on the swings. The ground was free of snow but very wet.
It is now blanketed in snow once again.
It seems the winter doesn't want to make way for the spring.
...
Last Saturday, English Chris called me to say he could pick me up to go and collect his bicycle. We set off in his car as he explained he was going to take me around the backstreets where the roads are tarmac most of the way.
A lot of the backstreets around here are gravel and tend to be water logged and very muddy in the spring - they are actually more accessible in the winter when they are solid and covered in snow. At least in the winter the cars are prepared for these kind of conditions with their studded tyres.
The final couple of hundred metres to Chris's place is an obstacle course of muddy channels and the car slides around as it tries to follow the gutters left by previous traffic.
He shows me a handsome Finnish made steel framed bicycle. It's a Sunset Boulevard bike in orange sunburst with a curved cross bar, white wall tyres and swept back handlebars. It has a front brake lever and while it is not a fixy, the back brake is operated by pedaling backwards.
It will do.
We have a cup of tea and a brief chat before I set off. It's getting late and I don't want to be caught out in the cold. Chris tells me of how he set off on the bike when it was minus 30 and by the time he got to the end of the track his eyebrows had frozen.
It's not that cold now, but I have on my ski trousers over my jeans, a ski jacket and some decent gloves and a rather clever snood-like tube which I can pull up over my head and create a balaclava over which I wear my beany.
The fat tyres make hard work of the muddy track. I wonder if they are up to pressure. I get onto solid tarmac and it's a bit easier. These are snow tyres so there is a bit of resistance but I'm not going to enter the Tour De France on this bike.
It will have to do.
Traffic proceeds on the right hand side of the roads here, like most of Europe but not England nor Japan where I am used to journeying.
I get to my first junction and although I want to turn left, I pull into the right. Normally, I would lean to the left and support the bike with my left foot on the ground and kick back on the right pedal to get it into position. However, all this does is lock up the rear freewheel. It will take a bit of getting used to but as I cycle along, I start to enjoy myself.
I stop at the bridge and watch the river as a giant iceberg is carried along. The surface of the river is still frozen about a hundred metres downstream and as the water rushes into the ice, part of the flow is forced back creating an eddying current that spins the iceberg around. It starts to go back on its journey towards the bridge again but is bounced off the frozen bank and spun back round again into the main stream. I watch this for a while wondering when the iceberg will ever break free.
I get home and lock the bike up, stand back and admire it. It's a good looking bike and I feel childishly excited.
Now to plan some adventures.
Friday
A little over an hour ago, I was outside in wet sleet pushing Samuli and his three year old brother Vili on the swings. The ground was free of snow but very wet.
It is now blanketed in snow once again.
It seems the winter doesn't want to make way for the spring.
...
Last Saturday, English Chris called me to say he could pick me up to go and collect his bicycle. We set off in his car as he explained he was going to take me around the backstreets where the roads are tarmac most of the way.
A lot of the backstreets around here are gravel and tend to be water logged and very muddy in the spring - they are actually more accessible in the winter when they are solid and covered in snow. At least in the winter the cars are prepared for these kind of conditions with their studded tyres.
The final couple of hundred metres to Chris's place is an obstacle course of muddy channels and the car slides around as it tries to follow the gutters left by previous traffic.
He shows me a handsome Finnish made steel framed bicycle. It's a Sunset Boulevard bike in orange sunburst with a curved cross bar, white wall tyres and swept back handlebars. It has a front brake lever and while it is not a fixy, the back brake is operated by pedaling backwards.
It will do.
We have a cup of tea and a brief chat before I set off. It's getting late and I don't want to be caught out in the cold. Chris tells me of how he set off on the bike when it was minus 30 and by the time he got to the end of the track his eyebrows had frozen.
It's not that cold now, but I have on my ski trousers over my jeans, a ski jacket and some decent gloves and a rather clever snood-like tube which I can pull up over my head and create a balaclava over which I wear my beany.
The fat tyres make hard work of the muddy track. I wonder if they are up to pressure. I get onto solid tarmac and it's a bit easier. These are snow tyres so there is a bit of resistance but I'm not going to enter the Tour De France on this bike.
It will have to do.
Traffic proceeds on the right hand side of the roads here, like most of Europe but not England nor Japan where I am used to journeying.
I get to my first junction and although I want to turn left, I pull into the right. Normally, I would lean to the left and support the bike with my left foot on the ground and kick back on the right pedal to get it into position. However, all this does is lock up the rear freewheel. It will take a bit of getting used to but as I cycle along, I start to enjoy myself.
I stop at the bridge and watch the river as a giant iceberg is carried along. The surface of the river is still frozen about a hundred metres downstream and as the water rushes into the ice, part of the flow is forced back creating an eddying current that spins the iceberg around. It starts to go back on its journey towards the bridge again but is bounced off the frozen bank and spun back round again into the main stream. I watch this for a while wondering when the iceberg will ever break free.
I get home and lock the bike up, stand back and admire it. It's a good looking bike and I feel childishly excited.
Now to plan some adventures.
Images for blog posts
 |
| Micro cars in Seinäjoki (Rattling Cars and tractors) |
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| Abandoned tractor |
 |
| Preserved farmer's store house built on logs and boulders |
 |
| Seinäjoki; Finland's fastest growing city |
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| Lakeuden Risti in Seinäjoki by Alvar Aalto |
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| Farm out house suffering from ground heave |
 |
| Las Vegas canals and islands after the thaw |
 |
| Sheets of snow sliding off the roof. Second thaw. |
 |
| 19th April 9pm in Kauhava |
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| 6th April. Sunset |
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| Sunset with refracted sun to the left |
 |
| Sunset 19th April. On 6th March, the sun set between the two trees on the left |
 |
| First flowers of spring |
Thursday, 19 April 2012
It will be more beautiful in the summer
17th April 2012
I love the natural beauty here in South Ostrobothnia. The skies at dusk are particularly spectacular - they have the tendency to take your breath away while murmuring a quiet curse.
When the British Isles were basking in summer-like temperatures a couple of weeks ago, we had almost two weeks of thaw that partly melted the snow covering most of the ground around here. This was followed by mild weather in Finnish terms of intermittent snowfall during the nights and a little snowfall during the days. Two nights ago, we had a heavy snowfall and I woke up to a white blanket covering all the hard work the sun had put in over the previous fortnight. By late afternoon yesterday, this had mostly melted despite temperatures not getting up to much more than 5 degrees.
At the beginning of the thaw, the fields round about here were like huge lakes. The old barns, abandoned now that they are no longer required to store hay during the winter months, lay like lost boats out at sea. Dilapidated like the Japanese ghost ship washed out to sea and sunk by explosives off the Californian coast a year after the tsunami.
Hay nowadays is cut and rolled up like they are back home but the machines that cut the hay also wrap them in white sheets of plastic which means they can be left out in the snow and remain preserved during the winter months. A shame really as the old barns are prettier than the large white plastic discs that dominate parts of the fields around here.
Our playground had also become waterlogged and the older kids in the pre-school had dug channels in the grit around the swings creating a Las Vegas-like scenery of miniature canals and islands. There doesn't seem to be much drainage but I suppose that would be futile as the ground is permanently frozen for around five months of the year.
I told Outi that I was sad to see the thaw as the countryside and forests are so pretty covered in snow. Like most Fins, she is looking forward to the end of winter and told me it is even more beautiful in the summer. I have had my doubts about this as the gradual thaw has exposed dirty verges and dank rotten vegetation. It's prettier when all this is under cover.
Following a day of light snowfall, this morning we were greeted by a blanket of fog which slowly dissolved during the day. At 5 degrees this afternoon, I was so hot pushing Samuli on the swing, I had to take my hat and coat off. This is no normal swing session. The higher it is, the more Samuli likes it. When most kids would be screaming to stop, Samuli, shouts, "Ei pikku vauhtia; faster". Pikku being the diminutive and vauhtia meaning speed, this translates as, "Not so slow; faster!".
This evening, I moved the bench in front of the school which is always in the shade. I carried it around to the the back under our windows overlooking a grassy field and the setting sun.
The snow has only been gone a few days, but little yellow flowers are already sprouting up through the grass and we have been infested by ants. I left my windows open and a fly appeared with a couple of moths. Life is blossoming all around us.
I sat on my newly positioned bench at half eight with the temperature at 4 degrees in a long sleeved T-shirt drinking a cold coffee and smoking a cigarette while watching the setting sun. The air was perfectly still and a column of smoke from my discarded cigarette rose straight up into the air. The sun sets 45 degrees further along the horizon compared to just over a month ago.
I've started to believe that the summer here could in fact be prettier than the winter and I am looking forward to it. I have a bicycle now and I mean to do some exploring.
I love the natural beauty here in South Ostrobothnia. The skies at dusk are particularly spectacular - they have the tendency to take your breath away while murmuring a quiet curse.
When the British Isles were basking in summer-like temperatures a couple of weeks ago, we had almost two weeks of thaw that partly melted the snow covering most of the ground around here. This was followed by mild weather in Finnish terms of intermittent snowfall during the nights and a little snowfall during the days. Two nights ago, we had a heavy snowfall and I woke up to a white blanket covering all the hard work the sun had put in over the previous fortnight. By late afternoon yesterday, this had mostly melted despite temperatures not getting up to much more than 5 degrees.
At the beginning of the thaw, the fields round about here were like huge lakes. The old barns, abandoned now that they are no longer required to store hay during the winter months, lay like lost boats out at sea. Dilapidated like the Japanese ghost ship washed out to sea and sunk by explosives off the Californian coast a year after the tsunami.
Hay nowadays is cut and rolled up like they are back home but the machines that cut the hay also wrap them in white sheets of plastic which means they can be left out in the snow and remain preserved during the winter months. A shame really as the old barns are prettier than the large white plastic discs that dominate parts of the fields around here.
Our playground had also become waterlogged and the older kids in the pre-school had dug channels in the grit around the swings creating a Las Vegas-like scenery of miniature canals and islands. There doesn't seem to be much drainage but I suppose that would be futile as the ground is permanently frozen for around five months of the year.
I told Outi that I was sad to see the thaw as the countryside and forests are so pretty covered in snow. Like most Fins, she is looking forward to the end of winter and told me it is even more beautiful in the summer. I have had my doubts about this as the gradual thaw has exposed dirty verges and dank rotten vegetation. It's prettier when all this is under cover.
Following a day of light snowfall, this morning we were greeted by a blanket of fog which slowly dissolved during the day. At 5 degrees this afternoon, I was so hot pushing Samuli on the swing, I had to take my hat and coat off. This is no normal swing session. The higher it is, the more Samuli likes it. When most kids would be screaming to stop, Samuli, shouts, "Ei pikku vauhtia; faster". Pikku being the diminutive and vauhtia meaning speed, this translates as, "Not so slow; faster!".
This evening, I moved the bench in front of the school which is always in the shade. I carried it around to the the back under our windows overlooking a grassy field and the setting sun.
The snow has only been gone a few days, but little yellow flowers are already sprouting up through the grass and we have been infested by ants. I left my windows open and a fly appeared with a couple of moths. Life is blossoming all around us.
I sat on my newly positioned bench at half eight with the temperature at 4 degrees in a long sleeved T-shirt drinking a cold coffee and smoking a cigarette while watching the setting sun. The air was perfectly still and a column of smoke from my discarded cigarette rose straight up into the air. The sun sets 45 degrees further along the horizon compared to just over a month ago.
I've started to believe that the summer here could in fact be prettier than the winter and I am looking forward to it. I have a bicycle now and I mean to do some exploring.
Beauty and creativity
19th April 2012
A number of people have complimented me on my writing recently - it's nice to be appreciated.
Michael asked me if my creativity had received a boost due to my location. He asked me whether being surrounded by snow and therefore not receiving any visual stimulus had anything to do with the sharpness of my memory of events long past.
Let me just say that my surroundings are so beautiful it makes my heart bleed.
Creativity is boosted by beauty as evidenced by the places a lot of the greatest artists have lived. The most successful design centres are also located in places of natural beauty such as the great Italian carrozeria (car design studios).
Writing for financial institutions over the last few years has, in the most part, been a chore. It was a job for which I received a salary.
My overwhelming memory of working in London is one of darkness. I find London to be dark and sinister and my work was not as creative as I would have wished.
I didn't enjoy it all of the time at Liverpool Victoria Asset Managers and while Shaun, my creative head of marketing, praised me and stood up for me, most of the investment managers were usually less than complimentary. I think this was due to a combination of my writing how it was and a case of the managers being protective of their babies, their investment portfolios.
It was also because I didn't know what they were talking about and they had rumbled me.
The writing was for marketing purposes but you do not lie when returns lag the benchmark. The purpose of an investment report is to inform investors how their investment is performing while also persuading them to leave their money with us so that we can continue to earn our fee.
Investment managers take your money and invest it in company shares, hopefully benefiting our investors when these companies do well and their share prices go up. The investment companies; asset managers running pensions, investment funds and high net-worth individuals' money, continue earning their fee whether the investment fund creates a positive or negative return. Imagine being told that your investment lost 20% in the last six months and while you are reeling from this news, we deduct our fee. For what? For looking after your hard earned money and losing a fifth of it.
I was working at Schroders, one of the oldest and most successful asset managers in the UK when we got into trouble with the press for our complacency. In one of our monthly or quarterly investment reports, I can't remember which, we stated that the fund had beaten its benchmark by something like 1.53% in very difficult market conditions. We failed to mention, however, that the benchmark had fallen by 16% and therefore the fund had actually lost more than 14% in value over the course of the reporting period.
The funds being managed by Schroders are some of the biggest in the UK but are truly peanuts compared to the funds I was helping to write about at Capital International, part of the Capital Group. A single one of their funds was around US$100billion.
In terms of assets under management, the top three places in the world were usually taken up by Fidelity, Vanguard and Capital. Unlike the other two companies, Capital is privately held and therefore not as much of a household name. The funds it manages are however and most Americans have at least part of their pension tied up in one or other of Capital's American Funds.
As at the end of 2009, Schroders managed US$234billion and ranked 68th in the world*. Capital, one-time regular top-three place holder with assets of around US$1.6trillion, languished down in 10th after its assets lost value leaving it with around US$1.2trillion*. A merger between Black Rock and Barclay Global Investors has meant that the largest asset manager in the world at US$3.3trillion is 75% larger than the second ranked manager*. This amount is equivalent to around twice the wealth produced by all the companies working in the UK over the course of one year.
At this time, the total assets under management of the top 500 managers came to over US$62trillion, 40% held by the top 20 managers*. The total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the world is US$63trillion. That is all the money earned by every working person in the whole world in one year. Putting that into perspective; this is equivalent to giving US$9,000 to every living person in the world. All seven billion of them including all children, unemployed, homeless, retired and starving person.
This money does not belong to these companies, they are just looking after it for other people and charging a fee for doing so.
Apart from some percentages and decimal points and reports, these companies do not produce anything. They do produce a lot of reports though. At one time, and this may still be the case, Capital Group was the largest publisher in the world due to the large number of people who received their regular investment reports.
I felt proud to be part of it, it was a great place to work but at the same time, the whole world of investments and banking was collapsing and it all seemed a tad dishonest. There will always be a place for this kind of work, but I doubt the managers deserve to be paid the large amounts of money most of them receive. There are lots of clever people in the world doing as much if not more work than these guys who earn a lot less.
If money is your thing, then good on you. If you want to work long hours so that you can live in luxury and enjoy yourself for two or three weeks a year when you go on holiday, then carry on.
I, on the other hand, while a great appreciator of beauty and creativity, am happy with a meager living and would prefer to enjoy myself all of the time.
*Reference
A number of people have complimented me on my writing recently - it's nice to be appreciated.
Michael asked me if my creativity had received a boost due to my location. He asked me whether being surrounded by snow and therefore not receiving any visual stimulus had anything to do with the sharpness of my memory of events long past.
Let me just say that my surroundings are so beautiful it makes my heart bleed.
Creativity is boosted by beauty as evidenced by the places a lot of the greatest artists have lived. The most successful design centres are also located in places of natural beauty such as the great Italian carrozeria (car design studios).
Writing for financial institutions over the last few years has, in the most part, been a chore. It was a job for which I received a salary.
My overwhelming memory of working in London is one of darkness. I find London to be dark and sinister and my work was not as creative as I would have wished.
I didn't enjoy it all of the time at Liverpool Victoria Asset Managers and while Shaun, my creative head of marketing, praised me and stood up for me, most of the investment managers were usually less than complimentary. I think this was due to a combination of my writing how it was and a case of the managers being protective of their babies, their investment portfolios.
It was also because I didn't know what they were talking about and they had rumbled me.
The writing was for marketing purposes but you do not lie when returns lag the benchmark. The purpose of an investment report is to inform investors how their investment is performing while also persuading them to leave their money with us so that we can continue to earn our fee.
Investment managers take your money and invest it in company shares, hopefully benefiting our investors when these companies do well and their share prices go up. The investment companies; asset managers running pensions, investment funds and high net-worth individuals' money, continue earning their fee whether the investment fund creates a positive or negative return. Imagine being told that your investment lost 20% in the last six months and while you are reeling from this news, we deduct our fee. For what? For looking after your hard earned money and losing a fifth of it.
I was working at Schroders, one of the oldest and most successful asset managers in the UK when we got into trouble with the press for our complacency. In one of our monthly or quarterly investment reports, I can't remember which, we stated that the fund had beaten its benchmark by something like 1.53% in very difficult market conditions. We failed to mention, however, that the benchmark had fallen by 16% and therefore the fund had actually lost more than 14% in value over the course of the reporting period.
The funds being managed by Schroders are some of the biggest in the UK but are truly peanuts compared to the funds I was helping to write about at Capital International, part of the Capital Group. A single one of their funds was around US$100billion.
In terms of assets under management, the top three places in the world were usually taken up by Fidelity, Vanguard and Capital. Unlike the other two companies, Capital is privately held and therefore not as much of a household name. The funds it manages are however and most Americans have at least part of their pension tied up in one or other of Capital's American Funds.
As at the end of 2009, Schroders managed US$234billion and ranked 68th in the world*. Capital, one-time regular top-three place holder with assets of around US$1.6trillion, languished down in 10th after its assets lost value leaving it with around US$1.2trillion*. A merger between Black Rock and Barclay Global Investors has meant that the largest asset manager in the world at US$3.3trillion is 75% larger than the second ranked manager*. This amount is equivalent to around twice the wealth produced by all the companies working in the UK over the course of one year.
At this time, the total assets under management of the top 500 managers came to over US$62trillion, 40% held by the top 20 managers*. The total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the world is US$63trillion. That is all the money earned by every working person in the whole world in one year. Putting that into perspective; this is equivalent to giving US$9,000 to every living person in the world. All seven billion of them including all children, unemployed, homeless, retired and starving person.
This money does not belong to these companies, they are just looking after it for other people and charging a fee for doing so.
Apart from some percentages and decimal points and reports, these companies do not produce anything. They do produce a lot of reports though. At one time, and this may still be the case, Capital Group was the largest publisher in the world due to the large number of people who received their regular investment reports.
I felt proud to be part of it, it was a great place to work but at the same time, the whole world of investments and banking was collapsing and it all seemed a tad dishonest. There will always be a place for this kind of work, but I doubt the managers deserve to be paid the large amounts of money most of them receive. There are lots of clever people in the world doing as much if not more work than these guys who earn a lot less.
If money is your thing, then good on you. If you want to work long hours so that you can live in luxury and enjoy yourself for two or three weeks a year when you go on holiday, then carry on.
I, on the other hand, while a great appreciator of beauty and creativity, am happy with a meager living and would prefer to enjoy myself all of the time.
*Reference
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