I was watching the news last night and realised the above statement is true…. And I can prove it.
It will take a few paragraphs…. but, I guarantee it will be worth it!
The current ‘road toll’…..
‘Road Toll’ – a very nice term to describe people who have died unexpectedly in car accidents, usually by getting their delicate human body smashed and torn apart by sharp metal, bitumen and glass…..
So, the road toll in South Australia for this year (2023) is 31, that is 31 people
And ‘they’ took away the markers no doubt because someone was offended?
died as I described above.
Last year (2022) at the same time it was 15.
I wrote the above a few weeks ago and just decided to publish it and trawled the internet for the current totals….
That was difficult as the SAPOL web site had two different results and every where else I searched compared death rate to date, with the total for last year……
I could have gone to the media (the ‘merchants of misery’) reports but decided I couldn’t trust them more than statisticians, politicians or pollsters predicting ‘the Voice’ referendum….
So I will let you be the judge of these ‘accurate statistics’ …..
So, we are dying in horrific circumstances, being crushed and ripped apart; even incinerated, at double the rate.
Our Police (our beloved SAPOL) is full of good people going out their each day risking their lives when we need them to serve and protect us from the fantasy of the road toll and how they are ‘helping’ to reduce it.
They are just going through the PR motions:
More breath tests
More drug tests
Giving out more on the spot fines
Cameras and computers even giving us more on the spot fines
Traffic operations in country towns and ‘black spots’ to do more alcohol and drug testing and hand out more fines.
The fantasy is the glory of protecting us from the ‘fatal five’ killers on the road:
Drink and Drug Driving
Speeding
Distraction
Seat Belts
Dangerous Driving
…. And SAPOL on average hand out …… get ready for this as it doesn’t sound real but, it is recorded on the SAPOL web site at the link below….
Okay I did research…. not my thing….. and found the below statistics.
In the days between 6/7/2022 – 31/3/23, a total of 268 days, there were 425,407 expiation notices issued by person and machine.
That is about 1500 a day!!
That is at total of $119,198,366.00 of fines issued in that period.
I need to write that out in full so you know it isn’t a mistake:
“one hundred and nineteen million, one hundred and ninety eight thousand three hundred and sixty six dollars!!!!!”
(Wait for it…. that is $444,770.022 A DAY!!!)
How about that ‘ramping’ at the hospital emergency departments where all the road accident patients go screaming in the back of an ambulances with bits hanging off them, or bit missing and squirting blood…. and waiting for hours with ambos on double shifts and not break
After all, we just need more beds, more doctors, more nurses….. but, where do we get the money???
Plus,
$26,253,260.00 additional payments on top of those fines for the Victims of Crime Levy. (I bet that makes you feel good as a victim of crime when you have been waiting years for compensation?)
But, the good news the statistics reveal that SAPOL’s vigorous protection of us from the “Fatal Five’ resulted in more deaths and more fines.
The simple truth is that the infringement notices are going up in line with the the road toll – remember that is the crushing and ripping apart of human bodies and the death of someones’ loved ones..
So, this wonderful strategy of protecting us has continued with enforcement, telling people they are selfish pricks (which by the way wins an award in advertising!?) and that 3 out of 5 people killed on country roads live in the country; I just wonder what the statistics are for the number of people who live in the city that are killed on the roads in the city?
Plus as a little side issue (I’m writing a series on this one called ‘Never Pay and On the Spot Fine Again’ – to be published in the next week or so – there will be a link – here – when it is done).
SAPOL continues to increase enforcement, disregarding your presumption of innocence by taking away your license, on the spot, and then taking your car (and charging you to store it)….
And…. having on their web site that you ‘have‘ to pay the fine….
Is this all sounding a little crazy, even insane.
SAPOl is not doing the same thing over and over again….. they are doing more of the same thing, and more, and more…..
That is because by definition SAPOL and their ‘traffic strategies’ are insane as old Albert points out below:
I will tell you how to NEVER pay an on the spot fine given by a Police Officer or a robot (although it is getting pretty hard to tell the difference) EVER again….. in my next blog….
…..or maybe the one after….
I got heaps of other stuff to bitch about, like, crime and mayhem in the CBD of Adelaide!!!!!
I have just ordered a book by Robert D. Lupton called ‘Toxic Charity’.
In doing a bit of research, I found the below graphic based on the book. Always remembering that research is not my forte, as I like to go full blown ‘dunning kruger’ when I can get away with it.
The strange part about ‘toxic charity’ is I have experienced it.
Particularly at the ‘expectation’ and ‘entitlement’ phases. I can attest, that it makes you feel a bit sad, even jaded, that suddenly appreciation has turned to expectation and entitlement.
Then I feel like the ‘baddie’ when I say no….?
Anyway just a little whinge. Let you know more when I’ve read the book.
(Plus, I have to do a post on ‘dunning kruger syndrome’ – because once you know about it, you can never un-know it: it is a greater plague that COVID19!!!!!)
The ‘presumption of innocence’ is the most basic fundamental principle!
But, apparently it is not to the Media, the masses (unless of course you are accused of a crime?) and to just about anyone in a position of power.
I want to really ramble and give all these really cool and pertinent references; but, I know most people won’t read it because it doesn’t involve a cat on a vacuum cleaner, a ‘fail’ video reel or something that requires more than the attention span of a goldfish.
So, without reference to anything other than my memory and of course the most important thing, my personal opinion.
THE RANT!
People are often accused of horrible crimes and actions, sadly some of those are done under parliamentary ‘privilege’ (explanation: you can just about say what you want in parliament so long as you don’t mislead parliament – you are only allowed to mislead the Australian People?).
Notwithstanding the severity or unsavoury nature of any allegation, not matter what ‘evidence’ the media decide to editorially supply to us, the accused is INNOCENT until proven guilty….. this is the LAW!
Of late we have had terrible ‘allegations’ of crimes and behaviour thrown at us from the most disaffected people in our society to the halls of power.
Where the allegations come from are irrelevant, the ‘accused’ is INNOCENT until PROVEN guilty. This fundamental of law is being stealthily taken away from us and we applaud it.
THE EXAMPLE
You are stopped, breath tested and give a positive reading (YOU ARE INNOCENT).
The Police cancel your licence on the spot (YOU ARE INNOCENT).
They impound you car for 28 days at a cost more than undercover parking at the Adelaide Airport for the same period of time (YOU ARE INNOCENT)
If you are caught driving under this licence suspension imposed by the Police you are charged with driving disqualified: even if you are acquitted of the drink driving the drive disqualified charge stands (YOU ARE INNOCENT)
END RANT….. almost
I could go on, and on, and on…. which is my gift.
Yet, we all agree that drink driving is a very bad and reckless thing (I don’t call all drink drivers are Selfish Pricks, some people make mistakes. Perhaps you should call all Police who pull you over Selfish Pricks as apparently it is not ‘offensive language’ as the powers to be are calling a lot of people that?)
But, and there are a lot of BUTs in this, I do not think the Police should be the ‘judge, jury and executioner’ on the side of the road.
And, under no circumstances do I think the public should be ‘randomly’ Policed. What next? Laws to close of streets and randomly search houses just in case someone has drugs and/or stolen property in their house???
So, next time you hear of a call for ‘resignation’ or some other ‘punishment’ because of an allegation – remember that person is presumed innocent.
Next time you hear of the summary seizure of cars and cancellations of drivers licences remember that person is presumed innocent.
Okay… Really the End of My RANT…..
I am scared that the fundamentals of our legal system are being eroded because we are taught to be afraid of the rampant criminals everywhere, the risk to life and limb on the road, etc etc etc
(Noting today, 20/6/2023, the Acting Assistant Commissioner of the South Australia Police Linda Williams, told the media crime in the city of Adelaide was down…. just don’t walk alone, politicians being escorted to their cars….. and I dare any of you to go down North Terrance near Parliament House and the Casino late on a Friday or Saturday night….)
So the crime rates are dropping….. Issuing of Traffic Infringement Notices are up….. Just like the road toll…..???
I don’t know what to do about all this, so I wrote this…..
I am working on my two next Posts which are: (they will be linked when I write them unless I am ‘randomly’ arrested for something I am innocent of…..)
1. The Police (our beloved SAPOL) are insane and I can prove it. 2. Never pay an ‘on the spot fine’ again: ever.
I have been in Canberra for the last few days at the Australian Local Government Association National General Assembly in my capacity as a Councillor for the Berri Barmera Council. (A bit of a mouthful!)
It has been interesting and enlightening. There is a common theme and that is although ‘we’ are all part of Local Government and part of the greater State and Federal Government machine, we all are missing our local communities; some have travelled thousand of kilometres to be here. It is the last day of the conference and the meeting of the Australian Council of Local Government – feeling lost? Welcome to the ‘learning cliff’ I am on in my first term of Council.
I have posted a few things on my Facebook page under my own name at: https://www.facebook.com/ian.schlein. There is a little video of me asking a question at the Assembly and I am looking very ‘clever and informed’. Lucky there is no audio on the clif as my question was ‘Do we have an acronym dictionary because I don’t know what most of them mean?”
So, I come home, I believe better informed, a little better networked and enthused to do the job I was elected to do. Remembering we, the elected members are supported by our “professional staff’ and particularly our Chief Executive Officers who were all selected on merit and the ability to do their job. Whereas, all of us elected members were selected because we were popular.
Remember next time when you go to hospital for an operation that you ask for the most popular surgeon!!??
My point today is not really about all the above except that I think all of the true representatives of our communities just want to be home with our communities, plus our friends and families.
Today, not that long ago, my very best mate rang me with sad news.
He is in that group of mates I call my ‘band of brothers’ some of who are sisters. We say fair well with LYLAB(S), Love You Like a Brother/Sister. They are the people I know will come when I call and I will go when they call and we don’t need to know what the call is for.
My ‘brother’ called me today and told me his old Dad had passed away. I cried. I was at the assembly, conference, meeting, presentations about ‘running the world’ and I cried.
Because community is everything, but family is final. His Dad was like my Dad which is what if is like with my band of Brothers, it is all about family.
It made me think about the real reason I joined Council, which initially I told people was to cause trouble and get some of my rates back; when really it was about family, the families that made up my community.
I will miss you Ron Foenander.
I will be there for my mate, for his family for his community.
I am proud to be on the Berri Barmera Council; I feel greater pride in having good friends and being a good friend.
Doing my evening thing and watching the TV in the background as I try to write something profound. I am always about to go inside, after The Chase, the first half of the News and an episode of American Pickers, when a movie comes on that I’ve seen a thousand times…. but, can’t help but watch it one more time: tonight it was ROBO-COP.
I initially thought it was the original ‘old classic’ with the great line “Dead or alive you’re coming with me….” then I realised it was a modern remake; so, even a better reason to stay up and watch it, in the shed, with a beer.
….. and, I smiled…. and, as the movie started, I thought, wrote and felt the words below:
“I thought of an old mate from the Police, Bill. We walked the beat in the 1980’s, we were in the Police Pistol Club together and each year would go away to the Australian Police and Services National Pistol Titles…. we had a fine time!? He was eventually poached from the Police back into the Airforce where he began his career of service. We all laughed as he was an officer and mostly as young coppers we didn’t have much to do with the officers other than to get yelled at. We kept in touch, as you try to do and had a few catch ups over the years and pretended it was the 1980’s again; Bill could always make us laugh and mostly when he dumped a 318 Valiant motor in a Jaguar!
We laughed a lot at Robo-Cop when it came out; and in fact all the great, now terrible movies of the 80’s, which we stole lines from and used them at work, not unlike the Brooklyn 99 classic comebacks and sayings.
I smiled when the new Robo-Cop came on, I smiled with all the above memories and got a beer from the fridge.
For a moment, I thought of calling Bill and wondered if like me, his mobile number had not changed for 20 years.
Then, in that same instance, as those who know, will know; I remember he died a few years ago from cancer.
So, I stood up, and I wrote his name on my fridge in the shed, with the other names, under the title “Say their names often”…..
He shuffled from this mortal coil this morning after a stroke that hit him like a freight train.
I will miss him: as will our little Riverland bunch of mates, including Lynchy, who I had a chat with yesterday.
Ross was a rare man of character.
He loved life: He loved and adored his family as they did him: Dad, Poppy and mate. He loved his friends: as they loved him because he was always there for them. He loved his wife of many years: and held her in his heart always. He loved Kerry a recent companion of such a short time; who they made each other happy.
….he just loved life Fishing Dancing Working for others…..
Some, even me, can not always remember what Ross did for us: ……. but, we will always remember the way he made us feel.
I don’t know if Ross was a man who believed in a higher power like me, but I know we both thought religion was more hypocritical than us: ……. I also know if he had an appointment at the Pearly Gates for 11:00 am he would reschedule for 11:03 am…..
I don’t know much, but, I do know one thing….
Ross will always be here in our memories, in times, even many years in the future, when we laugh and turn to share it with him; and remember that he is not there anymore; and laugh again, because that is what he would want.
To all of us, to family, life long friend, new friends such as me, and mostly his great loves in life; we know we are lucky.
For, if you have know Ross for a lifetime, or a fleeting friend or work colleague, or just passing him with a helo in the street; we all wish we had met him earlier, so we could have known him longer: – having his counsel – his humour – his friendship, and love – and that one extra beer – that one last laugh – that one last fishing trip – that one last dance – that one last shake of that big strong hand – that one last soft touch that he gave so freely to everyone
And, we did; in that last one time, we did that one last thing with him: I am not sad because I won’t do them again, okay, a little sad, but, I am glad I got to do them at all.
I am a sad, but I am blessed, grateful and humbled that I knew Ross….
…..and, I hear him muttering from heaven “Bullshit” in his quiet tone: and it makes me smile.
Well, I am in Bali for a month where I seem to get a lot of writing done. When I have travelled here with Jo her in the past, she always used to say it was nice to see ‘Bali Ian’ arrive.
So, I am feeling the vibe already after a couple of days and have promised a few posts about Bali drivers etc, but thought I should put ‘The Jab’ series to bed, so to speak – then I wouldn’t like to speak about it at all, ever again.
I am due for my 3rd vaccination injection. So, I thought I’d best be as informed as I can about that. Not that most of the information is contradictory or changing constantly but, through using my own brain and experience and what I thought wasn’t a bad education throughout my life.
An analogy immediately came to mind about having the ‘insurance’ of the multiple vaccinations to protect me – I likened it to car insurance…..
But before that, it is important to know that I got my second vaccination and was lucky to not have any side effects, only one, and thankfully that was not a sore arm.
The only side effect was that four weeks later I got COVID19 – again, lucky, pretty mild and was negative and up an running a week.
The initiatives of the vaccination making companies: I think they are called Big-Pharma is to be admired in connection with the Government strategies and spending to keep us all safe and ensure we are customers for life (see The Jab – Part 2).
The initiative (only an analogy at this time in a design matrix to ensure interoperability and flowing synergy with bipartisant agreements and economic partnership; all in a green washed inclusive way ….) is to sell to the Government and the hardworking battlers of Australia, for the rich to enact, in partnership with our wonderful democratic and capitalist society; and introduce;
Free Car Insurance for All
The government will ensure everyone’s car insurance is for free.
The Government throughout Australia, at Federal and State Level, through a joint courcas, and meeting, and public announcements, and changing mandates, will provide free car insurance for all.
This of course this will not be a compulsory scheme as you will have a choice.
Unfortunately all insurance companies in Australia will not be able to insure you directly. Traditionally they have found it difficult to get timely payment so the Government will take over this job for them, and you won’t have to worry about paying those pesky bills – talk about leadership!
The wonderful state of emergency powers will be invoked until the introduction of legislation that will include all overseas insurance agencies and insurance agencies that have not been peer reviewed or approved by the World Associated National Knowledge (WANK) division of the United Nations (Security Council Members Only – except Russia).
In the event that you choose not to be part of the Commonwealth Only National (CON) scheme you can of course not drive a car; I’m sure you wouldn’t want to put the rest of us a risk.
The Government will of course recoup insurance costs through temporary taxes in line with the Emergency Services Levi.
Finally, should you experience any vehicle collision which may result in minor damage, or on going injury or death the CON has factored in the designated responsibility falling through appropriate legal precedent to the driver and/or their family/community and any such person who may not have insurance.
All compensation, repair, death, injury payouts or another matters associated with the CON will enable all funds to be withdrawn to the respective insurer and redistributed to the general revenue stream of lost Government funds.
The Insured (dare we call the the Aussie-Battler supporting the country) may wish to have repairs conducted by a Government and Insurance company partnered no-fault unauthorised Crash Repair Approved Person (CRAP) at their own expense.
Dead people will be ineligible to re-enter the scheme. Should a person have driven a car, ever, and become a fatality it will be recorded as a CON crash for statistical recording, unaccessible to the public.
So, this is my last word on ‘The Jab’. There will be no part three blog post and there will be part three going into my arm.
If you think I am irresponsible, tell me why we locked down the entire country when we were getting 400ish cases a day and now we are getting thousands and I am writing this sitting by a pool in Bali.
Well here goes…. ….. and this is a long read….. sorry!
I haven’t had my second vaccination yet (I will not use the advertising slogan “The Jab” although I did use it in the heading of this post – hypocrisy is still one of my strong points?), however I am all booking in later this month and will be getting it.
…. someone said to me the other day, all that is happening in the world today seems a bit like a bad plot in a B Grade science fiction movie… ?
As I said in Part 1, I love movies; I also love reality TV; well not in its entirety, okay not at all, I just love ‘Survivor’. But, truely can Reality TV be anything other than real; real people put in real made up situations trying to be real? I blame the Kardashians and Paris Hilton who are real famous for being, well, real famous. And, then there is living in the real world….
In the real world, the weird real world of today, I have spent a lot of time thinking about stuff. I think about stuff I know, and then there is the stuff that I think I know; and what I see. Then I try and put this all in the perspective of my years of deducing conclusions that fit all the facts.
I tell young Detectives do all you can to try and prove the ‘offender’ innocent and when you can’t, well logically, they did it….
So, in my ‘analysis of The Jab’ I first had to get rid of some of the ‘innocent’ or unprovable theories.
… bearing this in mind, I told a ‘flat earther’ friend of mine the other day that I don’t believe the world is flat as there is more evidence that it is a sphere floating in space and a force we can’t explain called gravity keeps us all from falling off (that sounds just as silly when you write it down); But, I listened to them as their arguments were interesting. I did finish our conversation by saying, if a giant spaceship landed tomorrow and the occupants of that ship came out and said ‘Oh, by the way, you have been living on a flat earth under a big dome’ I’d walk out to the fridge in the shed, get a beer, have a sit down and say ‘fair enough’ – this doesn’t seem probable, but….?
So back to my ‘innocent’ and unprovable theories, they all seem to be flawed on two grounds.
Firstly they seem statistically unlikely, and secondly they do not have a logical purpose behind them.
Before I go on (and I believe me I am going on….!) I am going to do my best to not say ‘your should or you shouldn’t’. Religion is so full of people starting sentences with ‘you should’ and/or ‘you shouldn’t and that when for me it is not talk to the hand it is talk to the back of my head as I am walking away. So, I will do my best not to do this to you. Always remember that when religion is working for the rich, it’s fine; but, not for the poor. See, I’m not the only one with a monopoly on hypocrisy.
Back to the Detectives ‘investigationing’ (a great non-word) I started by just letting all the ‘facts’ be a mist of genuine ‘unknownness’. In the end, after asking a few very basic questions of myself, the answer seemed really simple, not sinister, just really, really sad.
I considered two main questions below which led me to the answer (and it is not 42! – that was the question remember!)
Question 1 – The Media
What of the Media (the Merchants of Misery). As said before it is probably the first time they have so obviously been in support of the Government and any of their plans. I also relates to the fact that their job has become easier; we can’t attack them for manipulation because we are all victims who prove so easily and eager to step into the experience they provide; fake, proven or otherwise it is the spectacle, the modern arena for us the slave gladiators willingly taking part; and we are sold the myth that we think we are just sitting in the stands.
Question 2 – The big Question: Why?
Well, it depends on how you are looking at this pandemic; as this view will make the question very simple or very complicated. The greatest question which answers itself about all conspiracy theories in that for most of them to be true, the extent of the conspiracy would have to be so big, what could I do about it anyway… another time to walk to the fridge get a beer, sit down and say ‘fair enough I didn’t expect that?’.
We mostly live in a democratic world, but that doesn’t really matter. Even in a democracy we really can do whatever we wish so long as we do what ‘they’ (the infamous ‘they’!) tell us to do. Remember all our ‘rulers’ democratic or not rely on our consent to rule.
Controlling the consent of ‘robots’ is easy when we have a futile fear of everything and are focused on the superficial joys of consuming, immediate gratification and the Kardashians.
The question as to ‘why’ is simple. Does it help the rich or does it help the general population? From this question you know the ‘why’ straight away and virtually what’s going to happen next.
Well, surprise we are now allowed to have freedoms that we started off with before and thought nothing of. Perhaps we are being giving something called the ‘Privilege of Greatness’ were the ‘powers to be’ rely on the supreme pleasure and gratefulness of the population on receiving small concessions so as the bigger issues are forgotten in the celebration and joy of the insubstantial gift. Viva La ‘Freedom Day’!
…. And through this smokey, misty, fact finding and intuitional detection process, it dawn on me…
The vaccines are probably safe(ish) as much as polio, rubella etc etc were/are safe in their interestingly statistically verified safeness. A sad statistic is that vaccines, even the bad ones have never hurt or killed more people than the countries that have been torn apart, the generations of hurt, guilt, regret, pain and death, that resulted from our smallest wars. So, many wars, our World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf Wars, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan; ….. the war on drugs ….. the war on terror ….. the war on traffic fatalities ….. the war on corruption ….. the war on COVID19
Fun Fact: COVID19 is the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus strain just like AIDS in the disease caused by the HIV Virus. Go figure this silly medical stuff?
After all, our emergency services and defence services personnel are always on the front line of these ‘wars’. It is never the generals, it’s the civilians who authorise and organise these wars who ultimately commit the worst war crimes in history.
All that has happened in this ‘Why’, has ‘political support’. Political support is a wonderful phrase as it almost always means the Governments bipartisan support from the rich and big business. Climate change for example (I think that’s a ‘war’ too) is now big business, so everything is being ‘green washed’ because that’s where the money is.
However, this is just the pilot in a really great apocalypse movie (although low on budget and special effects.
All good apocalypse movies have a sequel in the making when released. If ‘Rick’ can go from trying to steal a mates girlfriend (Love Actually) to being the reason we all hope the Zombie kill him (The Walking Dead), then anything is possible in the sequal.
I believe the why and the solution is not revolution but evolution; I can hardly wait for ‘The Jab Part 3’!!!
Really – this guy is only 0.69 !!!!
(I had actually finished the draft of this post and thought leaving it on the above ‘cliff hanger’ was like watching ‘Highway Patrol’ when the blood alcohol metre is spinning in the corner and then they go for a commercial break – then I realise how much I hated that so I can’t do it to anyone else….)
I finished my draft on the evening of the 12/11/21…. and upon realising the date was a palindrome like ‘race car’ and hannah’ and ‘glenelg’ and my favourite and applicable to this post:
“no sir panic is a basic in prison”
The words of Plato filled my head: “All in all, nothing human is worth taking very seriously, nevertheless…..”
I recommend before the sequel to keep the status quo by:
keep consuming
pay your fines and surrender you right of having ‘your day in court’ – even to just say sorry or give a good reason or to ask for a bit of leniency
watch cats on vacuum cleaners and the Kardashians and their clones
buy on line and never price compare unless it is online
watch the Media (the Merchants of Misery) even though you don’t believe them…. much.
and most of all, be afraid; in the most prosperous, safest, longest life expectancy and peaceful time in human history, ever; you just remain afraid
Remember the above strategies have ‘political support’ which is best statistically summarised by this wonderful survey in the US, which had 98% of the population supporting universal health care – this was not considered ‘political support’ so universal health care was abandoned by government – well they had to, there was no support?. Remember, we are most in danger when we have jumped out of the way of a speeding car, willingly or not, of most likely being run over by another car.
So, we will fight ‘the war on COVID19’ for as a government and us as the willing mob we all live for the sake of combatting an enemy, therefore as that is our purpose, it is in the best interests of everyone to keep the enemy alive to fulfil our purpose.
So, what, best interest?
Best interest is big business, the super rich and the implementation of the ‘three laws of robotics’ as designed by the science fiction writer Issac Asimov (by the way old Issac just came up with three robot laws and a few good books, whereas another science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard came up with an entire religion!):
First Law: A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Second Law: A robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Third Law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Now the Why is revealed.
We have become customers for life, obeying the three laws as all good robots do.
Not truely sinister, but COVID19 (forgot all the conspiracies) has provided the opportunity for the greatest marketing, sales and future binding contracted arrangements with consumers. We, the 80-90% of the population, are now consumers of our COVID19 vaccinations, and boosters for life. We should be proud that we are part of the greatest demonstration of consumer led capitalism in the history of man, ever!
Protests in the streets, even with the best of intentions of the ‘choice argument’ will fail…. Long rambling blogs will fail……. Litigation will fail…….
I, along with 80-90% of the rest of the world have sealed deal and signed the ‘customer for life contract’.
…. and then I thought I had written enough…. and had a sleep and made the mistake of watching the News and not just publishing this post…..
13/11/21 (no palindrome – that day is gone…)
They say a week in politics or the news cycle is a long time. Well, I should have published/posted this the morning and then I wouldn’t have watched the news tonight!?
Countries with similar (or better) vaccination rates to us are going back into locked down – when the Netherlands do something like this I pay attention – they seem like reasonable people and secretly own half the world.
I hit myself in the face in front of the mirror ‘Fight Club’ style, as I again fell for the trap of attempting to use logic to solve and illogical problem.
I remembered even ‘customers for life’ need to be entertained to keep that ‘brand loyalty’…. always waiting for the new and improved models, which will have great new versions and the ever expectation and excitement of impending war.
My brain exploded with an aneurysm a few years ago…. My wife left me…
I worked hard around home, I went to the doctor, I got some pills, I wrote a lot of letters; and I took the pills and drank myself asleep and awake. And, my ‘Band of Brothers’ saved me and sent me to the looney bin.
I had this little stint in Glenside Psychiatric Hospital in the Rural and Remote Ward which is for all us country bumpkins. I learned many lessons in the two weeks there; one was gratefulness and the other humility (historically not my strong point!).
Many visited me there to help me on my way, true friends and true family. An old mate looked after me for awhile and then I came home. We had built it as our home and called it ‘Pelan-Pelan’ which is Indonesian word for ‘slowly’. I came home, sad.
I met an old Riverland mate and he took me to the ‘Peppertree Shack’. You won’t find it on the internet as it was a shack under a peppertree, built by a bloke, for other blokes to come; have a free meal and some fellowship with other good men, some doing it hard, some recovering, and some extending a hand; some Christian, some not; all at home in ‘the shack’, all brothers in the shack. It burned down a few years ago, but buildings don’t make groups like this (It helps, but….?) and it moved to a hall in town.
These old mates, many the friends of my Mum and Dad; 15 years younger than them, and now 15 years older than me. I went to Church with them, and actually went to a lot of churches around town. I liked the singing?!! And, like Dad, I dosed sometimes and smoked out the back.
I met people which reinforced my gratitude. I met a lady called Jackie who was moving to Adelaide and asked me to look out for her son, Lucan.
Lucan came around and we made stuff in the shed. The one wheel bicycle trailer, the kids ‘little red wagons’, we fixed stuff and Lucan came up with an entire ‘course’ about doing nothing, and we told stories. (Click here for: one wheel bicycle trailer video – one of our favourite projects).
So, Lucan and I hung out in the shed; people dropped in and said hello, made stuff and we made stuff for them and other people. We said anyone who makes something in the shed, even just the once is a ‘member’ of ‘Shed Squad’. We had not Committee, we meet on Mondays and Bob joined us, then Alex joined us, then Steve joined us and ‘old mate Sleepy’ occasionally drops in. We still make stuff, for ourselves, each other and other people. We sit around a bit, have coffee and have lunch and sometimes start late and knock off early.
We volunteer, doing stuff for nothing and occasionally making a few bucks to buy more sandpaper, paint, tools and all the supplies you keep using and losing in the shed.
We had some interpersonal challenges but we had NO RULES.
Shed Squad still has no rules, we have values…
We don’t have committees, meetings, agendas, minutes, someone in charge or anyone as our boss…
We have no documentation, unless you count rough plans drawn on recycled cardboard from boxes…
We have values.
We volunteer and we help people out, including, and mostly, each other and ourselves.
I wrote Part 1 on the heading of this post because I am hoping to share some of our latest projects and a few failures – which we never complain about as most materials we use are recycled, repurposed or something free that came our way by generous people. We say if its a failure in wood – it’s firewood; if it a failure in metal – it’s scrap!
Looking forward to Part 2 myself – often we never know what’s going to happen at Shed Squad.
