The World goes Backwards !

"When I was young, everything was better." says my grandfather Rudolph The-Very-Old-Reindeer. Old people are like that, living in the past and refusing to see today's world. He also suffers from arthritis and that makes him grumpy.

When I - Rudolph The-Current-Reindeer – was young, I looked at the world around me and marvelled: Everything I saw was better, newer, greater and the outlook was for many more improvements. I thought - naively - the world was rapidly becoming a better place. As I got older my enthusiasm diminished and by now its definitely gone. On the contrary, today I’m looking at each new 'improvement' with doubt, suspicion, cynicism. And I don't even have arthritis. The gloss has come off. Promises weren’t kept, new things had bad side-effects, or they were of benefit only to a small - often the wrong - minority. Or good things have been withdrawn from the market and replaced with more profitable 'innovations'.

Let me give some examples:- *)

• TV had this great promise – everyone would get a free education, enlightenment, more democracy. The opposite has happened – kids are learning less, democracy seems to be losing ground, people don’t understand the present, let alone learn from the past. What we get instead is a sticky soup of infotainment, advertising and mayhem masquerading as entertainment.
• We thought we had defeated most diseases. But today tuberculosis is coming back, polio, meningitis; plus new ones - HIV, bird flu, super bugs - *) . Why: Misuse of medication, falling immunisation rates, excruciating poverty for many and lack of support from wealthy nations *).
• There are homes in the western world that don’t have a dining table any more. Thats because people are eating in front of the TV. They are eating junk food. And they are eating with their fingers. They are 'too busy' to cook for themselves. Instead, they are getting fat and so do the junk food firms. This has been going on for almost two generations now, so many young people no longer know how to cook. Basic human knowledge that was passed on to every new generation for the last 10,000 years is being lost. And nobody cares.
• We all thought that society would become more and more science-based, technologically advanced, knowledge-embracing, giving humanity a boost like freedom from illness, long life, less work *). Instead, we are seeing growing illiteracy and the emergence of religious fundamentalists (not just Muslims) and their dogmatism. The 'flat-earthers' have decided that not Darwin, but God was right, offering as proof his 'Intelligent Design'. I don’t know why God would need their assertion that he is intelligent.

See, what I mean by 'going backwards'? And remember, I’m just giving a few examples from a very long list. We thought we were contributing to a better world. Not the case. On the contrary, things are getting worse. What kind of world are we leaving behind for our children ?

The World is going Backwards. Please tell me I am wrong. Give me some examples.

Lets try and stop the world going backwards.
Lets try and improve it. Click here for some suggestions.

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*) These are just a couple of examples from a very long list

Legal Matters with this Site

For those Innocent Souls who just want to see what I am talking about: Please feel free to browse, comment, copy stuff and send to it to whoever. While most of it is my intellectual property (apart from the bits I’ve ‘borrowed’ from some greater minds), I will not exercise my "Copyright and International Law". So, please feel free. Just be kind - when you copy things - and tell recipients where you got it from.

For those curious about the Copyright to "Rudolph The Reindeer": Robert L. May, an employee of Montgomery Wards Department Stores invented me in 1939. So, they owned my name. But then Robert needed money to pay the medical bills for his wife, so he asked his bosses to transfer the copyright from Montgomery Ward to him. AND THEY DID. Isn't that a nice story ? I'm proud to be associated with it. And I hope Robert or his estate will be proud of my website.

For those Agressive Attorneys who are looking for an angle to prosecute and throw me in jail, confiscate my assets and burn my website, because I may have offended one of their clients:-

• Do not dare to copy anything in this website or I will crush and bury you with my "Copyright and International Law". My counter-claim will be five times bigger than yours (size does matter).
• Most of my facts are properly researched (my wife – Ranunkela Raindeer, better known as The-Pretty-Reindeer – is doing this in her spare time). All other items are based on hear-say. And that is a very acceptable, strong basis. You see, warnings about impending terror acts are always based on what the secret service calls "credible sources" . I can tell you my credible sources are much more credible than theirs (more credibility does matter).
• Any similarity with existing names, persons, companies, or products is not just purely coincidental, it is explicitly and absolutely, deliberately, unintentional. You see, when I mention Popa-Pola, I mean a sickly sweet brownish softdrink produced by a company called ..eehr .. CepsiCo .. (I think). When I talk about George W Push, I do not actually mean the man (never met the guy), I mean the administration behind him, you know, the oil industry and the military-industrial complex. So, with this under my belt, you haven’t got a legal leg to stand on.
• If this still doesn’t discourage you from litigating, I’ve got two more cards up my sleeve:
  -> Most articles in this website haven’t actually been written by me, but by my father-in-law. His name happens to be Rudolph, too, and since he is a reindeer his last name is also Reindeer. You know he was my predecessor at Santa’s until he got early retirement. He is better known as Rudolph The-Retired-Reindeer. He has retired to a warmer climate - on the Cayman Islands. I can give you his Post Office box number, if you like.
  -> Finally, before you drag me to court, I should tell you I've got no money. This will probably be the biggest turn-off for you. Because you guys get paid for results - getting a share of the loot -, you won’t start anything unless there is a prospect of some financial reward. Now, Santa is not paying me any cash for my services. All I get is board and some extra hay every Sunday. You can have a share of that hay.

There.

Why improve The World ?

Does the world need improving ? Definitely. Click here to see what's wrong with it .

Why do I - Rudolph Reindeer - bother ? A long time ago I used to climb up a hill after a hard day’s work and talk to God. We would argue at length, but in the end the Lord would say ‘Stop complaining and get on with it’ – basically that meant ‘Shut up’ – and He would always add ‘Your reward will be in heaven’. Not very satisfying.

So, I decided to put my thoughts about the world onto paper. Some of the younger reindeer said paper was sooo un-cool. So I opted to start a web log (known as ‘blog’ amongst insiders). Initially I got my antlers in a twist with all the technicalities, but now at least I know what HTML means. Well, I think I know.

You may be muttering: ‘These bloggers are all weirdos, or dreamers at best.’ You’re right. And when you say ‘His blog will just be another load of drivel’, you may be right again. But the good news is you can stop reading it any time.

Working for Santa Claus means I’m getting around a fair bit, seeing many different countries, ways of life, and people. Believe me, there are strange things happening out there. Its a wild world - Cat Stevens is right. And its not getting any better. People don’t seem to learn from history.

Some of the rules and principles I believe in do have the potential to improve things a little. You may say 'Help, not another one of these Do-Gooders'. Well, you are free to say what you like. But cyniscism shouldn't stop us from trying. You will see things differently at times and we may agree to disagree. Those of us who have been around for a while have had a chance to make a lot of mistakes – and may have learned from them, occasionally.

This leads into How I am planning to improve the world. Basically I will be offering a list of topics which I feel strongly about, presenting them with facts, considered opinion and frank questions. I hope you will be able to see common threads, differences, and reinventions. You will be as angry as I am about the state of the world. I believe we are not condemned to endlessly repeating the mistakes of the past.

Just to reassure you:

• I’m not religious - the term agnostic would fit,
• I am not a member of any political party or government body,
• I don’t receive any funding from lobbyists, corporations, or criminal organisations. Not even from the CIA.
  Nor the KGB.
• My legal circumstances are described Here

All articles will be concise – no longer than one page – and I will try and use clear and simple Language.

How will Rudolph improve The World ?

By exposing unsatisfactory situations and people. By voicing unpleasant opinions. By asking naive, sometimes outrageous, and often uncomfortable questions. Finally by pushing a few buttons.

Trust me, I'm an old dog – sorry, reindeer – and I know how to put the pressure on (myself). There will be no let-up. We've gotta face the problems. Either we bow out - or we do something. Thats the general idea.

Here are some immediate problems:-

- The World goes Backwards
- About America
- Money ? Money !
- Where to launder your Money
- Do you actually WORK for a living ?
- Live well without Working
- Economist Clowns
- The Pope and His Church

There will be more topics later:-

- Economist Pimps ----> Due out in Dec '05
- Free Trade ? You're joking -----> Due out in Jan '06
- Globalisation ------> Due out in Dec '05
- We call it Democracy ----------- > Due out in Mar '06
- Its all 'Defense' - Yeah Right. ---> Due out in Feb '06
- Diana and the Arms Trade -----> Due out in Apr'06

As things develop, this list is bound to grow. Unfortunately.

So far we’ve just looked at a list of problems. This won’t change anything, let alone improve the world. For this, we need to actually do something. But what ?

The world is so full of problems and they are so big that I don’t know where to start and in the end I could resign myself to doing nothing. I could go to the pub, have a drink and cry into my empty glass . . . .
No, no. Thats the cheap way out. Not for me. But then what ?
We could pray. But this isn’t very effective either. After all, there are thousands of priests - PrayProfs (short for Prayer Professionals) - out there who are getting paid for praying day in day out. And what happens. Nothing. In fact things get worse.

Well, here is my idea: If we do a few small, but measurable steps to improve things, and if we do them often enough, regularly and sustained, we create a series of small changes for the better. For instance, we could make sure that a hungry child somewhere in the world gets a meal. Click Food to make this happen. Or we could reduce injustice in the world by helping to get a political prisoner released. Click Freedom to make that happen. There are many other buttons that one could press. By pressing just a few of them, I will make a small difference. Sure, its ridiculously small compared to the monumental problems around us. But, if I do it and my friends do it (all my fellow reindeer in Santa's team do it), and if you do it and your friends do it, then – together – we will make a noticeable difference.

So, lets just do it. Click a few buttons.

Language

What language is to be used in this website ? Surely, no swear words or shouting - Santa Claus would call me into his office and give me a performance review !

In this site honesty will be valued highly. In its simplest form it requires that "thou shalt not lie" - which means telling the truth. But for some people there are shades of truth. There is the ‘simple’ truth, the ‘absolute’ truth, the statistic. You’ve heard it before.

I think there is only one truth. Not simple, not elaborate, not absolute. Just truth. What someone says is either true or not true. How can anyone argue with that ? But its not that simple. There are various forms of "intellectual dishonesty" which muddy the waters. One is called "Omissions", the other "Political Correctness".

Omissions work by telling only part of a story, thereby creating an impression that is a far cry from the truth (trouble is these people don’t lie outright, but of course in their heart they know they do). Example: ‘In a fun race between top international politicians our president, our beloved leader, Vladimir Butin, achieved an honourable second placing in a field of very strong competitors.’ What this news item doesn't say is that there were only two competitors. And that the winner was a war veteran with a wooden leg.

Political Correctness calls things by different names. For instance ...
- a doctor’s operation leading to a death is called "adverse outcome" ,
- "collateral damage" means that troops have killed women and children,
- "advanced interrogation protocol" is another name for torture.
I’d rather call a spade a shovel . Of course, spin is the same thing. So, no spin doctors here.

I won’t be talking euphuism (no, its not misspelled for euphemism - it means "precious" language, affected, artificial). If it can be said in a simpler way, I will. Occasionally, however, I’ll use a rare word like the one above to put some diversity into proceedings; this may annoy some readers – they’ll have to look it up in the dictionary. I'll do that to reduce by a little this well-known trend:
-> Shakespeare used around 40,000 different words,
---> the modern Englishman uses about 1000 words,
-----> the average American about 100.
This is predicted to decline further. We don’t know what the last surviving words will be, but I’m sure ‘Coke’ will be one of them.

We also need balance. If I mention atrocities in country X, you will probably remind me that country Y has also committed some. I’ll try and say that up front and straight away, to save time and avoid arguments.

We also need balance in numbers: Security forces will always say ‘there were 50 demonstrators’, while organisers will say there were 500. The truth is somewhere in the middle. Aren’t these games stupid ? After all, if there were 50 people killed, does it really matter if the other side says they were ‘only’ 40 ? What matters is that a lot of people were killed.

There is a lot more about language. But I'll save that for later.