It’s being suggested that Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un are going to meet up in May 2018. You might assume it’s to discuss peace but then again it might be to compare each other’s military might. This cartoon suggests one view. Who knows what might happen?
Happiness is almost always conditional. How many times have you uttered the sentence in your head ‘I’ll be happy when…’.
You’ll remember the following thoughts that flow through your head on a constant and never-ending basis.
- when I have enough money
- when my parents leave me alone
- when I get the right job
- when my partner stops doing annoying stuff
- when I am my ideal weight
- when my boss stops hassling me
- when my neighbours move away
- when my ex stops controlling me
- when I have the right house/apartment
- when they stop bullying me on social media
And many more variations and examples, which I am sure you can think of.
These constant and never-ending thoughts will guarantee to never make you happy, ever.
A better thought process is to think about the things that already exist in your life that you can be grateful for. A much harder thought process to adopt, because we’re so programmed with those negative thoughts that we’ve hardly got any space to replace those thoughts.
Every habit starts with a tiny little step. I love Leo Babauta a mindfulness blogger who has perfectly captured the art of changing habits in his blog, ebooks and books. You can find his details via:
[embed]https://zenhabits.net[/embed]
Happy thinking!
Carillion is one of the major company failures of 2018. The UK government select committee suggested that the ex FD Zafar Khan was ‘asleep at the wheel’.
Despite warnings from new staff joining Carillion the directors ignored those warnings and they failed spectacularly. Seeing as they are a major supplier to the UK government, it makes you wonder how these massive organisations can get away with it.
This cartoon shows Zafar Khan asleep on one of those driving arcade games and on the screen there’s an actual chart showing their profit declines.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSbLS481Iew[/embed]
I recently watched a documentary named ‘The True Cost’ of course it was on Netflix.
[embed]https://www.netflix.com/watch/80045667[/embed]
It documented the true cost of our incessant desire for the latest fashion, yes men and women of course.
I used to work in the fashion industry for 28 years, I worked in fabric mills, yarn mills and garment mills, never in retail though. But the garment makers were our clients and the retailers were our enemy! How ridiculous to say they were the enemy. Well because they wanted lower prices and higher quality every single year. I’m talking in the main Marks and Spencer here.
They asked us to fund their discounting and made us hold on to stocks in our warehouse when sales didn’t happen as they expected.
The retailers really are the scum that causes all the pollution, the destruction and the mental and physical health issue sin humans in the developing worlds.
But they are not alone, you and I must also take responsibility. We want things cheaper and faster and we are addicted to consumerism. There are young women on YouTube making money from their videos unpacking shopping bags and sharing their excitement and delirious delights on the garments they reveal live on air. Only to get you to buy them.
Little do we know that these young women are being sponsored by the retailers and receive not only a handsome advertising revenue from YouTube they receive money from the retailers to advertise their products too. They’re called influencers. It’s the latest tactic on the web and you are totally oblivious to it.
Watch the documentary and weep. Your shopping habits will change forever.
Happy shopping!
In the UK we heard that two big retailers in the UK have gone pop. They are the US retailer Toys R Us and also the electronics store Maplin.
It’s sad to see a further couple of big retailers go from the UK high street and I’m sure they won’t be the last either. Owing to our appetite for everything Amazon and most things online, the high street and out of town shopping malls will continue their demise. The #Amazon robots are winning the race! More coffee shops please?
This cartoon shows Amazon, the rocking horse, with a robot jockey, crushing the logos of Toys R Us and Maplin. The rocking horse is plugged into the wall, trying to show the fact that Amazon do toys (rocking horse) and electronics (plug and robot) really really well. And of course Amazon employs a lot of robots too!
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2TQ8CC2AAE[/embed]
In one way or another you have or definitely will experience betrayal in your life. Does it mean then that you should stop trusting? Maybe.
Just recently we experienced a betrayal in our lives by a close family member. Now this person is not a blood relative, nevertheless is still a very close member of the family. Well until now that is.
In good faith we had done everything to support this person for over 6 years, during her darkest days of fear, anxiety and ill-health to the point, we are very pleased to say, that she can totally look after herself now and her life is back on track.
I prefer not to reveal the person’s identity and will try and describe the incident.
We offered support and guidance on using new technology, in this case an iPad, which we supplied. It was one of our old ones, so it was fine and in fairness were paid a small amount for it, so happy days.
We cleared the iPad of all old data so it could be set up as new. We also activated family sharing from one of our accounts. And if you are familiar with family sharing, the person that has activated it, in this case us, allows other family members to make purchases through the app store using our credit card. We can also share photos, music and some files.
We are not able to see what the other person is doing, nothing, this is not a screen sharing process.
But…
A bank staff member, a library staff member and a printer supplier all told her that anyone who has installed family sharing can see everything the other person is doing on their iPad. Untrue, not blaming them, but they are untrained, uninformed and negligent in giving that advice. I’ve even spoken to Apple and they confirm what I already knew.
This family member then bought a new iPad to make sure any spying could be avoided.
Happy trusting!
Here in the UK we LOVE the weather, it’s probably the biggest topic of conversation we have as humans in this country. When there’s a shift in weather fortune (usually bad weather) we go into overdrive, we even cancel trains before any weather (in this case snow) has arrived.
Early March 2018 we had a new phenomena, which only shows up every 10 years or so. He’s (or maybe it’s a she) called the Beast from the East, meaning that the weather is arriving from Russia (with love).
In addition we had storm Emma arriving from Spain, which collided with the Beast to deposit unprecedented amounts of snow in the south-west of England. Some people are still cut-off for about 10 days.
This cartoon shows the Beast from the East, a businessman on his sleight going to work being pulled by a gritter lorry and of course the message that the trains are cancelled.
[embed]https://youtu.be/QcqEyGTq1yw[/embed]
I recently attended a TEDx day of talks here in the UK at Warwick University. On of the speakers was Tim Edwards, Executive Trustee of the Bhopal Medical Appeal.
Somewhere in the back of my head I remember the Bhopal disaster but I hadn’t realised it’s scale and long lasting affects over 30 years later.
You can read the full story here,
[embed]http://bhopal.org/what-happened/union-carbides-disaster[/embed]
But I wanted to explain a few headlines to get us all reflecting on what is going on here.
On the night of December 2nd, 1984, a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, began leaking 27 tons of the deadly gas methyl isocyanate. None of the six safety systems designed to contain such a leak were operational, allowing the gas to spread throughout the city of Bhopal. Half a million people were exposed to the gas and 25,000 have died to date as a result of their exposure. More than 150,000 people still suffer from ailments caused by the accident and the subsequent pollution at the plant site.
The company is now owned by Dow Chemical who are the biggest chemical company in the world with a market cap of $163 billion, yes that is billion with a ‘B’. There was a payout to the victims amounting to just $2000 per each death and $500 per victim. The victim numbers are obviously heavily disputed and they continue to rise too. The disaster only hit the company by just $0.49 on the share price at the time.
From what I can see nobody is listening or appearing in any requested court appearances. There have been countless requests, demonstrations and petitions for compensation. Nobody is answering.
You and I are consuming maybe hundreds of products each and every month that are being made by these chemical giants and we have no idea what they are, they are present in what we eat, wear and use. It makes me sick to think that in the supply chain I have supported these criminals who are not being held accountable.
There is a moral responsibility on the Directors of these colossal corporations to do the right thing and look after the victims of Bhopal, where it’s medical, mental or financial.
There is a place where you can add your name to a letter, although I am sad to see not many have actually signed up, it’s called ‘Don’t Bury Bhopal’.
[embed]http://bhopal.org/what-happened/union-carbides-disaster[/embed]
Thank you.
The US rocket enthusiast ‘Mad’ Mike Hughes is looking to blast himself into outer space to check for himself whether the Earth is flat or round.
It’s incredible to believe that in 2018, the 21st century we have people walking on the planet convinced that the earth is flat. ‘Mad’ Mike has spent millions of his own money to build this rocket. Where does he get the money and why is he doing it would be my question!
This cartoon shows ‘Mad’ Mike sitting on his rocket flying over flat earth and proving his point.
[embed]https://youtu.be/bGPXa-jLl88[/embed]
Is the title of a 2014 non-fiction book by Michael Lewis about high-frequency trading (HFT).
The story is told about a trader, Brad Katsuyama who discovers that computer programs on exchanges play dirty when it comes to buying shares.
The computer programs operated by ‘stock scalpers’ allow you to purchase part of the stock, so they know that you’re in the market for buying. Then they race to other exchanges and then buy the stock ahead of you to only sell it on to you at higher prices and make a handsome profit.
In essence this is AI at it’s worst, allowing crooks to manipulate the markets and if trained traders didn’t even know this was happening, the ordinary punter doesn’t stand a chance.
It’s incredible to think that we are living in a world where we are all trying to make money from each other for the benefit of ourselves instead of the greater good.
There are millions, no billions of people on the poverty line on this planet, hundreds of thousands of individuals who are homeless in the Western World and we have traders who are making billions from other traders by manipulating the systems with AI.
Thankfully Brad Katsuyama is doing something about it although he’s getting a rough time and is having to fight against the trading exchanges mafia.
Happy trading!
KFC UK & Ireland recently ran out of chickens. Something to do with transport and changing supplier to DHL. Was wondering if any chickens managed to live longer as a result, which inspired our cartoon. So the question is: ‘Why did the chicken cross the road’?
I saw on the 5th March that supplies are back up to 97% and nearly all stores are back to normal. The chickens nearly got away with it but not quite.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsQyYSlVq4c[/embed]
Elon Musk allegedly has received “early and vague” government approval to start work in a DC parking lot. That’s Washington DC!
Musk has a mission and vision to build an underground ‘hyperloop’ that transports cars underground to avoid the enormous congestion that exists and will only balloon in decades to come.
An incredible and very brave idea for sure.
This cartoon shows that Musk will be able to tunnel through to Donald Trump’s bedroom from a Washington DC car park.
[embed]https://youtu.be/8LXV68rNxIA[/embed]
All of our lives are rooted in fear at some level. We wouldn’t be so obsessed and addicted if we weren’t in fear so much.
Fear is a good thing isn’t? We often don’t think it is but actually if we didn’t have fear we would be jumping of a bridge believing we can fly and that wouldn’t get us very far.
As humans we have an operating system already programmed to keep us alive at every single step of the way. If we didn’t have fear as part of that operating system we’d be at death’s door much more often.
But not all fears are equal.
Sure we have an operating system to keep us alive but we also continue to program that operating system with our thoughts and feelings as soon as we arrive here on planet earth. We also get help from the lovely folks around us. Bless them!
I believe we focus a disproportionate amount of time on just 7 major fears that govern our actions, our emotions and keep our operating system from releasing a new and better version. It’s like being stuck with the first IBM computer and never upgrading the computer chips.
She here they are, fear of;
1. Getting Hurt
2. Not being loved
3. Being abandoned
4. Not being successful
5. What they will think
6. Not having enough money
7. Getting sick
Can you relate to any of those, maybe you can think of a brand new category I missed?
Happy fearing!
Theresa May, UK prime minister announces a year-long review of University Tuition fees. The question on all our minds is why is it taking so long for this review to take place.
In addition why has it taken so long for the government to question whether tuition fees are actually working or not. Landing students in never-ending debts will cripple their freedom to chose what they wish to do.
This cartoon shows that although the UK government has at last found some common sense in challenging or reviewing Tuition fees, the Universities are likely not to want to know and prefer to keep the status quo.
[embed]https://youtu.be/4ntb_ovqsaI[/embed]
We’ve all been exposed to’ The Bully’, and they show up in many places around us. Maybe they were our parents, siblings, teachers, classmates, schoolmates, partners, banks, creditors, bosses, colleagues, governments, local communities, business interest groups, social groups, friends, social media, the internet and maybe you can think of others?
The fact is bullies exist everywhere in society.
Recently a friend of mine told me a story about his boss publicly challenging him, in front of his colleagues, in connection with what he was up to. It doesn’t matter what it was, the issue was he was doing it publicly in full view and earshot of his colleagues and likely on purpose.
I’ve heard similar stories from my stepson from managers in hospitality and in a famous high street brand who sells electrical and computer goods.
The incidents don’t matter and in all the stories I’ve heard I know that workplace bullying is far from over. It may start in the playground and it definitely moves into the workplace.
Managers in the UK are seriously under-skilled in people-management. I remember when I used to be in management, there was a prediction that in 10-years time the biggest issue with skills would be management skills. Well we passed that d-day nearly 20 years ago and still we have not improved.
The trouble in all this is, my stepson never complained about it to his manager’s manager. Neither has my friend complained to HR or higher up. If we do not complain about the bullies, they will continue their bad bad behaviour. We all need to step up and stop the offenders. There never is an excuse or good reason for the behaviour that the bully believes is okay.
Happy reporting!
Donald Trump decided to start a trade war with the rest of the world on steel. The trouble is the nations he’s threatening reacted straight away.
It’s no different with the threats that he sends out to North Korea, he’s doing it to create maximum effect and of course because everyone does react, he’s getting what he wants. He wants people to be on the back foot. That way he can perhaps achieve a compromise and show the American People that he is actually achieving something.
However the The Dow Jones Industrial Average had initially fallen more than 570 points, with heavy losses for manufacturers like Caterpillar and Boeing. The index closed down 420 points and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both dropped on the day as well.
He also decides to make these announcements to get the American People on his side, especially as he’s been losing some popularity lately.
This cartoon shows Donald Trump as Baby Trump and as Superman, the man of steel. He has just landed on Planet Earth and is showing his power and strength.
[embed]https://youtu.be/28f4hdQNAL4[/embed]
In February 2018 there was another sad school shooting in the USA. Gun control has been a major issue for the USA for decades and no president has been able to put in place the kind of controls that stop these kind of shootings.
Donald Trump declared that he wanted teachers to carry guns in schools to prevent these kind of incidents from happening again.
Putting guns into schools will attract more shootings.
Hoping that US citizens see sense and start the road to gun control and recovery.
This cartoon shows Donald Trump on horseback with a gun, depicting the old Wild West as a way to protect American schools.
[embed]https://youtu.be/NOC1bpkXqjw[/embed]
We’ve recently been experiencing a bad snow storm in the whole of the United Kingdom, they even gave it a name, ‘The Beast from the East’. The phenomena was due to the fact that the jet stream, which normally flows from west to east around the UK, had reversed and was flowing from east to west, bringing it with itself huge amount of cold air across Europe and as a consequence huge amounts of big snowfall.
In addition a rain storm with high winds coming up from the south, named Emma, hit the cold air and as a consequence deposited huge amounts of snow as well.
The whole affair was actually short-lived maybe 5 days in total. At the end of the fifth day, all snow has pretty much melted as a consequence of higher temperatures and normal rainfall.
We love talking about the weather in the UK and we love even more creating stress and drama about the weather, which indeed the media did for these storms. Don’t get me wrong there’s always a threat to life when bad weather lands like this and unfortunately 10 people did lose their lives as a result, which is very sad. Note however that on average 32 people die every week on Britains roads and they rarely get reported. The fact that we had a big snow storm made it worthy reporting.
All of it really is not assisted by the media hype and constant bombardment of hysteria, film footage, photographs and other such reports of doom and destruction. Yes it is bad and dangerous but rarely as bad as they make it out to be.
Weather reporting in the UK is massive Clickbait. Clickbait is where you create sensationalist stories in the press and media to get viewers and readers to click through to their publication and reports on the weather. When you are there, you are likely to see adverts, see requests to donate to their online website and see other articles which you will potentially read.
Why does the press need Clickbait? To ensure they can prove to their advertisers that they have millions of viewers/readers coming to their websites and as such their website is a great reason for the advertisers to spend their money with them instead of different media outlets.
In 2017 I looked at headlines every single day and copied them onto a Pinterest board to try and evidence the sensationalism that exists in the press to get us to click through. The headlines on UK weather were by far the worst and of course Donald Trump headlines too. But the weather ones were rarely factual or true and worded in such a way that you would be fooled in believing that the country would come to a standstill. It rarely does.
Happy reading!
We’ve been conditioned from birth that when you behave, when you achieve and when those closest to you approve you will receive a reward. It all starts out with a sugar reward.
Rewards motivate us to do better next time and to strive for the next reward. During those early young years the rewards were handed to us, all we had to do was perform according to the wishes of our parents, our teachers and maybe even society.
As we grow into adulthood and we earn money we totally see that as the reward, after all we’ve been conditioned for a couple of decades and it’s now a habit. Really it’s no different to rewarding your dog.
And when we receive our reward as money, well then that means we can now start buying the rewards that we want. The money is exchanged for rewards like alcohol, food, holidays, houses, cars, jewellery, clothing, presents and stuff we definitely don’t need but still we feel we deserve them.
Knowing that we will receive the funds each month, each year, year in year out means that we feel safe in the knowledge that if we spend now, probably on credit, we will be able to pay off that credit in time. Trouble is we rarely do and we become slaves to the credit system and stay in debt for the rest of our lives.
The banks invented credit as a way of making more money and in doing so created a system of over-consuming or rather over-rewarding, because after all that’s what it is.
Happy spending!
I’m not sure there’s much of it about these days. All of us are pretty much self-obsessed. We just have no space to consider others as much as we used to. I do remember a time when neighbours spoke to each other, looked out for each other and knocked on the door with a cup of sugar when you moved in next door.
Now we don’t even say hello when we pass a neighbour, someone in the community and we glance away when we see a homeless person sitting or standing on the street, begging for pennies or selling the ‘Big Issue’.
I know there are many caring people around and I do know there are many that are selfless, but just think if just 1% of our community stepped up their consideration for others. Might we have a better environment to live in?
Consideration for others means sometimes putting ourselves last and that’s not about being a martyr it’s about considering someone else’s issues above our own. Sure we all have issues, money worries, health issues, work troubles, mental health constraints and so does your neighbour.
A homeless person has all of those issues and more. Maybe time to stop and ask someone if they’re okay.
Happy chatting!