The Truth About Cancer, Free For You... Well Not Quite

As I was browsing my social media-book page when I came across a "sponsored link" -- i.e. an advertisement -- offering to reveal to me "the truth about cancer". No less! For free.

Disappointingly, the free offer to watch the truth is not very simple.

The advertisement suggests that there are issues that mainstream medical practice (does that refer to Bob - an MD I know and Bob's medico colleagues or something else?) does not address. Aha! So there is intrigue somewhere along the way. To incite us to click on a link leading to a teaser, we are told that 131 doctors and many survivors etc unite to tell us "the truth".

It is unclear what that truth refers to. I clicked.

Clicking on the link leads to a +4 min video with sentimental moments and a bit of crying. The video is actually well made, and the sentimental sentimental moments are worthy of a morning TV show. On the other hand, there is little informational interest -- bar the assertion that you can beat cancer; you are not told how. So you can safely skip the video without losing anything of consequence. If anything, skipping it will save you 5 mins of your time (4+for the vid + the time to click, etc).

If you wish to discover the truth from the united efforts of these 131 + many survivors and learn how to beat cancer, you have to register, give your name and e-mail ("no spam, we guarantee that").

This is the kind of shenanigan that I dislike: if you have something to share, of supreme consequence and importance -- and fighting cancer is one such matter, share it openly with the world.

Or, if you are out for something else, share that something else too; honesty may lead you places you never dreamed of!

The Odds are Stacked

Walking down the street outside my office recently, I caught the expression "...what else can go wrong...?" in a discussion between two bystanders. This got me thinking.

The most plausible answer to the question "what else can go wrong" is, everything.

Think about it: when you wish for something to go in a specific way and have prepared things so that it goes in that way, even then, there is only ONE way it can go right: your way. It follows that all other ways are wrong.

So, the answer to the question "what else can go wrong" is really everything but one!

It would seems that the odds are stacked against us all of the time !

Comforting thought: things do go right, sometimes. So, stay positive, it can work!

Greece Reaches Agreement in Principle With Its Lenders (no surprise there)

The continuing saga of Greece's plight, its governments' aversion to any and all reforms and the lenders' insistence on some reform, are the founding bricks of the now eight (8) year saga of Greece, grexit, heroic resistance to pressure, etc, (yawn).

The truth of the matter is, Greece desperately needs the lenders' presence to curb - at least somewhat - her governments' long and trusty history of cronyism, catering to self-serving unions (de facto 30 hr week at government owned entities anyone?), and generally preserving the status quo by using cooked statistics to allay lenders' inquisitiveness.

Lately, in an effort to show an over target positive balance of payments, the Greek government put a hold on all internal payments (running an overdue bill to the tune of euro ¬3.6 bill) and EU sponsored programmes. Of course, the money in pocket also serves as a fall-back plan B just in case the discussions with the lenders droned beyond July when a multi billion repayment tranche is due.  "bargaining chip"
 
It would be horrifying to think of Greece without the reform pressure of its lenders; while self-serving in of itself, this pressure for reform has brought about some flexibility in labour law, flexibility in opening hours for commercial entities, and some small improvement in the state corruption level. In many ways, media reported comments by IMF's regional chief P Thomsen are more favourable to Greece, the country, than most of its own government's prionunciamentos.

In exchange, the current government has made real estate acquisition a bureaucratic nightmare (the best must be the notarized declaration from the buyer that they are not owners of the real estate they wish to acquire and hence have never declared it!!!), business operation is a hazard for fines (how about 10k euro because there is an unemployed person at your office when labour inspectors visit...). It has also slashed pensions across the board, which means that granddad trying to survive on 600 euro a month can no longer, while state owned PPC execs with monthly payments of 6000 euro can probably still survive on 4800.

Also, there has been no curtailing of the Public Sector at large in Greece; attrition helped bu the present government  filled the gap with new recruits of what it hopes are its (syriza) voters.

In all fairness, Greece's present authoritarian government has passed some useful changes that other governments could not do, mostly because this government's quasi-terrorist cohorts would have created havoc, and have done so in the past.

So, for that, one cheer for Greece's governing Goebbels' in a Stalinist dress!

The Impact of Brexit on the Future of the EU

My take: not much.

Britain will probably lose financially and the rest of us will probably lose culturally.
I believe that Brits have style, literature and humour, and the alchemy of belonging to the same team or system is what we will miss the most, I think.

Brits also have a heightened cultural interest and offer welcoming grounds for artistic innovation and musical events, and those will be probably missed as well; in the very least, they will not be as accessible as now.

Unless Britain finds a way of making the Kingdom as accessible to EU citizens as it is now.

Hopefully it will not suffer much from the aftermath of political expediency and the dark ages of the brexit/ bremain political campaign which must be one the most idiotic in UK history at least in as far as slogans and the dramatis personae are concerned.

Generally speaking, however, the EU is better off with Britain in it rather than outside it.
Too bad for the Brexit, then.

Present Day Use of Nazi Era Communication Tactics

The population of Greece has been systematically mislead to believe that the austerity measures under which it has been suffering for well nigh 8 years is the direct result of strict and forbidding creditors, a hostile IMF, and inflexible Germans, all hell-bent on punishing spendthrift Greeks.

The media report on pressure for more austerity (the contrary is true)and whenever agreement is close, politicians never fail to propagate their personal success and the end of austerity.

In the wake of fresh austerity and danger of Grexit, for example, the present Prime Minister messages: "the spring of growth is here, our efforts are now rewarded". A few days later, pensions are cut and employers cost increases sending a new wave of people to unemployment.

Remind of you of Dr Goebbels?


The difference with Goebbels is not in the language but in the morass of financial support; Goebbels and his pack of merry cutthroats didn't have the euro-backing.

On the other hand, Goebbels and his pack used laws, regulations, and the courts to expropriate money from chosen parts of the population.

This is another lesson the Greek government seems to have assimilated. The present Greek government is doing likewise: high taxes as of middle incomes ("our voters don't earn that much"), tripling of medical costs for contractors, freezing bank accounts at whim, fines imposed with lip service paid to due course... administrative courts rulings miraculously in favour of the Greek state in 97.5% of cases!

So, misinformation is rampant and it has been around for so long that people, naturally, believe it. It is the others who are hell-bent on eradicating us from the planet! It is, a plot!


Presently, this same siren song is being touted as the Greek government negotiates with reps from the creditors (known as "troika" or "institutions") on how FEW reforms it can get away with this time, before the creditors release another dose of cash. All will be well when the greenbacks hit the deep pockets of the Greek governmental money-eating abyss.

And then, things will be OK for a while, until the next episode of series 8 of "Greece Crisis".

Coming 🔜

Greece is lucky in a way; the creditors are pressing for reform which means that their agenda happily coincides with the country's collective well-being to a certain extent.
Greece is unlucky in that its governments prefer to impose heavy austerity and avoid reforming the Public Sector, monopolies, the dysfunctional justice system; or to improve the educational system - just to cite one example.

The creditors press for labour law reform, allowing more flexibility in recruiting and redundancies; the creditors suggest lowering taxes levels for a more just distribution.
The Greek government responds with increased taxes, a cut in pensions, lowering medical cover for its citizens.
 
Inhabitants of Greece are unlucky, in that Greece's governments have proven impervious to pressure to help their country as a whole. Instead Greece's governments prefer to focus on protecting pressure group interests; their voters' vested interests, cronies, party friends and, presumably, in prolonging as much as possible their stay in power and their hands in the till.

For example, Greek governments are ferociously opposed to savings by reducing the Public Sector and public spending; instead, they have created savings by increasing the tax burden to the extent that they have crippled the economy. Inequality rises high in Greece: 10% of taxpayers in Greece account for 65% of total.




It is a pity that no-one seems capable of explaining this to the people. 💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩

Today's Fascists and Extremists Aren't All Extreme Right Wing...

...At least not in Greece.

The mayor of Maroussi (an Athenian suburb), a man called Patoulis, proceeded to freeze the bank accounts of 30,000 persons for not paying their parking tickets in Marousi!

No doubt, Stalin would had approved. Patoulis is his sort of guy: freeze accounts for a parking ticket, shoot the bast*s for not using their toothbrush! (Had he thought that his constituents had bank accounts or cars, for that matter).

Way to go!

On the other hand, I bet Hitler hadn't thought of that. (Maybe, if you were jewish?)

Anyway, it seems that the prize of chief dunce politician goes to George Patoulis. May his constituents enjoy him for ever more!

Other than the jest, one cannot help but shudder at what he does to people who owe him money personally... Should we fear baseball bats and recall scenes from "the Godfather"? Or, would it be something creative coming out of a Guy Richie movie.

Great Conductors: Strange People?

I just watched John Freeman's interview of the great Otto Klemperer, for the nth time. While the interview is mostly shallow and the questions sometimes downright silly (are you happy? Do you like American comfort...") it got me thinking.

Can a great conductor be a "normal" person in the conventional sense of the word - i.e. following a 9-5 or 6 job, going out with the kids, attending family lunches on Sundays, watching television and a movie at night, and reading (that's already stretching conventionality) a thriller or two?

Or is it that conductor like Klemperer or his mentor, Mahler, are something of a misfit in the conventional sense and losing much of the rites of conventionality gain that much more in energy, resilience, and brilliance to devote to their talent?

I think it is the latter, at least with many of the great conductors of the early and mid 20th century. There are the superstars of course: the pioneering maestro v Karajan springs to mind as does the younger and equally ubiquitous, Dudamel. The stardom -- which in and of itself is most welcome for having boosted the music and made it and its interpreters far more globally popular than ever before, is one thing,. But is there much more to it than that -- i.e. genius is an infinite capacity for hard work and a little extra.

And great conductors are great because they bring out that little extra extra, they exemplify what it is to take a work of genius and take it further.

That must be it, I think.

Or I wish to think...