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Working for Peace in the World

I have been thinking a lot about peace in the world.  This thought was sparked in my mind as a result of what we seem to witness so frequently on the television about how little peace there is in so many parts of the world.  As I reflected on this subject, my mind went back to December 18, 2011, when I watched the events that were unfolding in that part of the world known as Iraq.  I watched on the television of how the last troops from the United States were leaving Iraq, as reported by certain reporters.  The Iraqi War as we knew it was history.

I knew that as I watched those United States soldiers cross the Iraqi border into the safer confines of Kuwait, as I now reflect back, I could tell that they were happy to be in Kuwait and I am sure that their families were overjoyed by the thought of them being out of the land that was a war zone for so many years.

Obtaining peace is certainly a desire that we should have for this world.  We are thankful to all of those soldiers who have given their lives to defend our nation against attacks from evil and to help defend other nations against attacks from evil forces.  We are thankful to God for what He has done in helping these soldiers.  There are times when our nation has been involved in defending itself in wars.  Our desire should be for right to prevail in just causes and that peace would be gained in the world.  Jesus says in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

There is nothing more comforting than the Word of God.  By listening to the Words of Jesus, our souls find peace.  Peace is not to be found in the world and while I am thankful that the Iraq War has ended, I realize that our country still has troops stationed in various parts of the world.  We should hope and pray for wars to end.  One war will continue to the Judgment Day and that is the war against evil and so we are always in need of fighting the good fight of faith.  Great comfort should be taken from knowing that  our Savior overcame the world and we can too.  Overcoming the world involves us relying on God’s Word and keeping it, which leads to peace (Proverbs 3:12).

Matthew 5:9 says, “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”  Let us work for peace, while never compromising God’s Word.  Let us thank God for the ending of wars in which the United States has been involved in recent years.  Let us remember to pray for the safety of the troops who remain abroad.  Let us work for peace in the world!

-Jason Gann

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      There are two major inter-related environmental problems today. The first is climate change, the second is environmental collapse. The ecosystem is a very complicated web, from single celled organisms on up to apex predators and humans. When you unbalance it; when you take out chunks, the consequences cascade thru the ecosystem, and it is possible […]
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Hegemonic Masculinity

Apparently, this is a thing.

Robin Wright, the journalist at The New Yorker, not the fictional First Lady, wrote about the different diplomatic approaches that we can explore with North Korea. She interviewed James Winnefield, former vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who said:

James Winnefeld, a retired Navy admiral and a former vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, offered a more sanguine prognosis. “Grin and bear it,” he told me. “Let them stew in their own juices.” Negotiations are worth a try, but “we could end up negotiating with ourselves as they cross their arms and stick to their position. The North Koreans will never give up their program. This is an impoverished, authoritarian country, and this is their insurance policy. At same time, they will never use it. They know it will be the end. And they’re not suicidal.”

The United States, he said, can fortify its deterrent capabilities—for instance, by strengthening its missile defenses. It can exert greater economic and diplomatic pressure on the regime, or mobilize allies in joint actions. “But it’s a fool’s errand to expect China to solve this for us,” he noted. If North Korea shows signs of proliferating—that is, trying to export—its nuclear technology, the U.S. should be prepared to impose a blockade, complete with search and seizure of ships, to inspect everything that goes in or out of the country. “We Americans tend to want closure, an endgame,” Winnefeld said. “But it’s not going to happen with North Korea. So you should put yourself in the best possible position—and go on living.”

Sounds rational.

No sooner had I finished reading that piece in the New Yorker when a CNN notification popped up to tell me that Trump want to revise his statement from a couple days ago about raining "fire and fury" on North Korea.

Oh, good, I thought. He's going to say he got a little overwrought. It was undiplomatic and dangerous. He didn't really mean it.

From CNN:

Bridgewater, New Jersey (CNN)President Donald Trump reiterated his bellicose warning to North Korea from earlier in the week, telling reporters at his golf club in New Jersey on Thursday that his threat to bring "fire and fury" if North Korea continued to threaten the United States may not have gone far enough.

"Maybe it wasn't tough enough," Trump said during a lengthy exchange with reporters.

Trump said that past administrations had not done enough to take on North Korea and that it is time a President "stuck up for the country."

Ok, here's what I think is going on. Trump is trying to shore up his base. He's been taking on a lot of issues that his base really wanted, like affirmative action, transgendered people in the military, voting fraud, climate change and healthcare. That last one was a misfire but he promised his base something better than Obamacare.

I'm sure Steve Bannon is behind some of this. He knows what hard core Trump voters want.

Then there are the voters who may have been drifting away from Trump for rational reasons but who are easy to provoke with thoughts of their own mortality to rushing back to Fearless Leader.

Yep, there's nothing like making everyone believe that a small Asian country halfway around the world with a nascent nuclear arms program is a genuine threat to the US. TRUMP is a threat to the US, North Korea is not.

It happened with the run up to the Iraq war too. Remember how George W. Bush was always confusing Saddam Hussein with Osama bin Laden? Yeah, I'm guessing that wasn't a senior moment. He did that on purpose. Because we associate bin Laden with 9/11 and that scares the crap out of people.

So now people are scared silly about North Korea. They're wondering if they'll make it to the next Christmas. They worry about their grandchildren. They're looking for a tough guy to protect them, not that wimp Obama. Hey, I was no Obama fan for completely different reasons but I'm not sure he's the one who made this situation what it is right now. I'm pretty sure that's on Trump's watch.

But the desired effect is to bolster Trump's poll numbers when the fearful come running back to him for his protection. That Russia investigation must be hitting pay dirt.

Anyway, I'm not getting all bent out of shape about North Korea. We and they have always known we can pulverize them in a retaliatory strike. It doesn't need to be said out loud.

This is just a big fat ugly guy swinging his dick around and promising to keep us all safe. Like someone who practices hegemonic masculinity.

Next week, we'll discuss Affinity Fraud.

I'm blowing this pop stand.

Saunter: I love the country

The Ivanka Branded

Last year, the media was all over how Ivanka Trump was her father's secret weapon. He was going to have problems with the women's vote. But he needed to get as many as possible to vote for him anyway. He got around this by pimping his daughter (it's a 2008 David Shuster meme. Go look it up.)

Ivanka was supposed to be the feminist in the family who would stand up for women. It's probably more than that. When we vote for candidates, we vote for what we aspire to be. Many women can't see themselves as a bloated, ugly, stupid, selfish, ignorant, attention deficit disordered guy who's sexiest thing in his pants is his wallet.

But if you're a well off white woman who fancies herself progressive, Ivanka is your girl.
The Daily Show deconstructs the Ivanka Brand:

Stroll: Dreams of barroom girls…

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What are causes of motion sickness?

Motion sickness is caused by the mixed signals sent to the brain by the eyes and the inner ear (semicircular canals). If you cannot see the motion your body’s feeling, or conversely, if you cannot feel the motion your eyes see, then it is likely that the brain will get mixed signals and the person will develop some aspect or symptom of motion sickness

What are the signs and symptoms of motion sickness?

The signs and symptoms of motion sickness usually begin with a feeling of uneasiness followed by cold sweats and dizziness. Some people may exhibit pale skin and increased saliva production along with headache and fatigue. Nausea and vomiting usually occur after these initial symptoms.

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Artistic Dance, Predictable Plot

 So sorry this is late, but let’s face it there shouldn’t be any mystery behind the Step Up genre.  Over the last six years, these dance flicks have continued to pour out into the theaters and with today’s modern television have been eaten up by the public.  While the dancing has always been entertaining on various levels, the producers are still struggling to add diversity and that something new to keep the crowd interested.  Unfortunately for the last two installments, that new edge is 3-D, which may have you wondering, “Is this really needed for a dance movie?”  Well I’m back from a late showing to give you the scoop on Step Up Revolution and hopefully answer your questions of whether this sequel is worth a watch.

As many of you may have noticed, the Step Up series started out balanced in story, character development, and well choreographed dance moves.  However, like so many modern movies these days the story is usually sacrificed for some other movie magic that usually is overused more than the send text command on a cellular phone.  Yet to my surprise this movie managed to keep a slightly better balance than its previous two predecessors that will grab hold of other audience members.  Now I’m not saying it’s the best, but there is some character development and shallow love stories that will make Dirty Dancing fans pine over that classic romanticism.  This doesn’t mean it’s like a dance version of Twilight, no instead it’s presented more as a Romeo and Juliet theme where the girl and guys families don’t see eye to eye.  The lovers decided to hide their identities from their respective elders and instead of killing each other with swords, use their moves to help express the feelings and fight the bad guys.  Despite the nice presentation though, the story is predictable as ever and there really is no surprise about what is going to happen to whom.  I won’t tell you any details, but let’s face it in a movie like this you can pretty much guess the ending with little effort.

Of course if you’re like most fans of this movie you care less about the story and character development.  Instead the focus might shift to other aspects like dancing, music, and yes eye candy for both guys and girls.  Well this movie is definitely all those characteristics wrapped in a colorful, techno/rap wrapper with lots of flashing lights.  Fans of the previous installments will be impressed with the dance numbers this installment has.  Most of the dances have one of the stars leading a well choreographed mob in movements that would give a Michael Jackson music video a run for its money.  However, what impresses me are some of the sick stunts, the extras throw out in between that add that extra edge to the performance.  While some of these moves are rather silly, i.e. a few guys looking like they are going through electroshock therapy, there are a few flips that will make you think, “Hey he’s part Jedi.”  The breakdancing is quite good and when intertwined with the various dance styles in this movie, one can’t help but be impressed with the work and talent of these people.  However don’t jump the gun and think this movie is just a bunch of flips and protest art rebel gestures, no there is some poetic skills involved as well.  As the love story develops, there are various scenes that show off the more graceful side of dancing, i.e. ballerina moves that are elegant and beautiful.  Those who like this artistic style will again be impressed with the fluidity of the actresses involved, especially Kathryn McCormick, who continues to show us she can dance.

However what is dance without music and Step Up Revolution once again picks a soundtrack worthy of their moves.  I haven’t found out if these remixes are original or picked up from another D.J., but regardless they have been selected to help provide not only the beat for the dances, but also the emotion.  The moment Penelope opens up the trunk and hits play, you start to get pulled into the song and feel the emotions of the setting.  Although many of the songs have aggression and rage to their tones, there are a few that are softer and more trance like.  I warn you that if you don’t like Techno, Rap, or a combination of the two, you will definitely hate the music.  The tracks are uncensored and full of cursing, slang, and sometimes loud yelling, which may distract you from the art of the editing.

Finally if you are one who is going for staring at beautiful women or handsome men, well again you’ve picked the right movie.  Unlike some other recent movies, Step Up Revolution does a nice job showing off the bodies of the stars and helps get people howling without stepping over the line.  Most of these people can dance and are okay actors, but they were also chosen to rope in a wider array of audience members.  For me I cannot lie that McCormick is very cute, did a decent acting job, and impressed me with her moves.  Even Ryan Guzman and Misha Gabriel Hamilton did a nice job with their roles, and didn’t just flex their muscles and look sad for the women, as many modern guy stars tend to do.  Girls don’t worry though as there are plenty of shirt off moments to make you happy, and guys well there are plenty of bikini clad women to make you drool.

Overall Step Up Revolution may be one of the better movies of this series.  With awesome moves, fitting soundtrack, and decent acting, it’s definitely refreshing for the audience.  However it is still a dance movie with a lot of skewing towards dancing and less to story, so don’t expect masterpiece.

Here are the scores:

Drama/Music/Romance:  7.5-8.0

Movie Overall:  6.5

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Gatsby I Presume

                Hello all, it’s me Robbie K finally returning after a three month dry spell.  I apologize for my absence but I return once more to attempt to inform you about the latest releases at the theaters.  My first review back is on the book made movie/remake of a literary classic:  The Great Gatsby.  I’m sure if you are like me; you might have big expectations for this movie, or at least were hoping that Hollywood didn’t screw it up.  Well if you’ve got a few minutes keep reading to hear my opinions on this film, if not well hope to catch you next week.

Instead of giving you a summary of the trailer, I’ll jump straight to what I thought about this movie.  Let’s start with my favorite thing about the movie, the soundtrack.  Rather than falling into cliché of using the music of the era, this rendition of Fitzgerald’s literary classic chose the path of blending modern, orchestra, and jazz into their music mix.  Modern rap and hip hop opened up the party often showing the masses conglomerating into the house.  Once inside the party zone, the music transitioned into the jazz to provide the ideal beat to support the various dances the extras performed.  Of course the movie isn’t just about partying, but also has a lot of emotion tied into the film as well.  While jazz and other current hits, the orchestra track provided the extra kick needed to bring out the emotion embedded into the various scenes.  Sure I may be too obsessed with the musical score, but the truth is an epic soundtrack can add an extra edge to make a scene more memorable.

Of course what is a movie without stunning visuals?  Usually not a very good movie, but luckily Gatsby has got some pep in its step.  The parties in particular were what impressed me the most.  All the partygoers were dressed in the 1920’s fab, filling the screen with both chic fat cat swingers, and stunning women in gorgeous dresses.  The setting of Mr. Gatsby’s house was also detailed and dazzling filled to the brim with elegant artwork, beautifully crafted outdoor porches, and of course enough room to provide plenty of angles to capture the party goer’s adventure into wild, alcohol infused fun.  For this reviewer, I applaud the balanced mix of close up dance moves and wide angled shots that showed the masses interacting with Gatsby’s house, especially for those that chose to dance and mingle around the pool.  Now the rest of the movie was pretty well designed as well, but to my eyes it looked like the editing crew had a fair share of input in this movie.  Often many of the car scenes looked fake, with many of the trees, buildings and coal piles looking a little too smooth and polished.  My guess is this artificial environment was created for the 3-D version of the movie.  Unfortunately there also seemed to be a rather fast, glitchy, movement to the actors in certain scenes that was a little odd to see.  It could just be my old eyes, but past this minor glitch and over polished world, the world was well crafted.

By now you might be saying, “You idiot what about the acting?  Did the acting do the characters justice?”  I say yes, especially for that debonair man himself Leonardo DiCaprio who was a shoe in to play Mr. Gatsby himself.  Leo’s charming smile fit perfectly in the billionaire, containing a combination of confidence and arrogance that was offset by the kindness in his eyes.  Over the course of the movie Leo not only added the stereotypical snooty tone of a rich playboy, but evolved to deliver his poetic lines with the emotion of someone who actually wrote those very words.  And when the time finally came to display the last parts of Gatsby’s emotional spectrum, he transitioned flawlessly into the anger and sadness that followed.  Of course Leo isn’t the only actor in this movie is he?  Tobey Maguire, formerly Spiderman, surprised me with his performance in this movie.  The role of Nick Caraway was perfect for him, playing the odd, scared, and rather immature stock boy that tell the audience the story.  I must say I enjoyed this role a lot more than the last few roles I’ve seen, despite his insane rants and depressed writing.  Carey Mulligan was a vision of loveliness as well, her looks dazzling and a pleasure to look at.  As for her acting, I think she did a good job, though I don’t remember the character of Daisy being so annoying.  I don’t know if it was the directing or what, but somehow Ms. Buchanan was a little too clingy, desperate, and annoying to really get attached to her.  Then again I never was able to relate to soap opera drama queens who are stuck on love.  As for the rest of the cast well they did fine too, but I don’t have time, nor do you want to hear me describe every single character.

I did enjoy this remake of Gatsby very much, and thought it was a good movie to continue drawing people back to the movies.  The settings and music went hand and hand, and the acting for most of the cast I think did a nice job bringing the characters to life in the modern age.  How well did it stick to the book?  I can’t answer that question as it has been 5 years since I last turned the pages, though I intend to read it again.  My final comment on the movie is that the pace needed a little tuning up and probably shortened a bit to help keep my attention.  My scores for this film are the following:

Drama/Romance:  8.0

Movie overall: 7.0-7.5

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Plum Village and Thich Nhat Hanh

This category contains 3 posts

Regalim, Pilgrimage, Compassion: A Vision of Sovereignty in Israel

Jerusalem May 25, 2012 5 Sivan Erev shabbat, shavuot, What do you bow down to? Refinement of Sovereignty Dear Ones, Tonight in the Jewish calendar we encounter the highest refinement of our sovereignty. We have the opportunity to finish a week of refining our sovereignty by encountering the essence of sovereignty. The suchness of sovereignty. … Continue reading

Connecting Israel and Plum Village

January 25, 2010 I spent a month at Plum Village (Thich Nhat Hanh’s monastery in Southern France: http://www.plumvillage.org) before I came to Israel. In many ways, that month was my preparation, my inner preparation, to giving me support and capacity to be here in Israel in the way I value – open to what is … Continue reading

After the Rain. Call Me by MyTrue Names

Tuesday January 19, 2010 – Worlds apart in Jerusalem. After yesterday’s rains, the sky was blue with magnificent clouds over the hills.   Picture the huge majestic skies in  “Old Testament” renaissance painting. “Biblical” comes to mind. The air was fresh and clear, the pink stone paths and alleys shining, as I walked from my room … Continue reading


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Thursday, 27 July 2017

ISIS in the Pacific - hidden by western MSM

PHILIPPINES: Western Media is Distorting Reality, People and Army Unite to Battle “ISIS”

Andre Vltchek

Andre Vltchek with military leaders in Marawi, Philippines
25 July, 2017

Covering the recent battle for the city of Marawi on Mindanao Island in the Southern Philippines, the Western media has been grossly exaggerating unconfirmed reports and rumors. It has been spreading twisted information and ‘facts’.

At the beginning of July, I visited Mindanao as one of only a few foreigners allowed inside the besieged city of Marawi and to its surrounding area.

General Rey, head of Joint-Task-Force, Ranao (Photo: Andre Vltchek)

I spoke to local people, to the IDPs – those who managed to escape the city taken over by the jihadists. I also managed to discuss the situation with the highest commanders of the military in charge of the combat, including General Ramiro Rey and Lt. Colonel Jo-Ar Herrera. I encountered many soldiers, civil servants, and relief workers.

My contacts in the capital informed me via text messages that I had been “red-flagged,” clearly, by the pro-US faction in the Philippine military. So before my presence was finally cleared from Manila, I was detained and held in a provisional military base in the city of Saguiaran. Here I was “softly” interrogated by military intelligence. A few steps away, a howitzer was firing artillery toward ISIS positions in Marawi, some 10 kilometers distant.

Marawi ground-zero. (Photo: Andre Vltchek)

So you believe the United States is responsible for spreading terrorism all over the world,” I was asked late at night by one of the officers, point blank, while local starlet was imitating old Chuck Berry’s hit “Johnny B. Goode” on TV, sound blasted all over the barracks. It was clear that someone ‘behind the scenes’ was busy studying my published work.

The Western establishment media and various servile NGOs (including those which are “defending human rights” in several rebellious and independent-minded countries) consistently demonize President Duterte, an anti-imperialist, progressive leader who enjoys well over 80 percent approval rating. It is no secret in the Philippines there are two distinct factions inside the military – one supports the president and his drive for independence from the West. The other, which is trained and often corrupted by Washington and other Western capitals, would love to see him go.

The pro-Western fraction obviously wanted me out, detained, perhaps even disappeared. The other one that stands by its president wanted me to see the truth, even to be allowed into Marawi.

A final decision was made late at night in Manila. I was released and granted permission to work in the besieged city. But even when the top commanders personally called the camp, there was, at least for a while, apparent reluctance to let me go.

My first reaction after visiting the Marawi front was one of shock and outrage. What I witnessed was fundamentally different from what has repeatedly been said by most of the Western mass media outlets, as well as pro-Western local news channels broadcasting from Manila.

It is evident, right from the start, that Marawi is not “totally destroyed,” as has been reported. Most of it is standing and standing firm. I would estimate that only between 20 and 30 percent of the houses and buildings, (most of them in the wealthy core center of the city) have sustained heavy damage.

Driving through Marawi ( Photo: Andre Vltchek )

It was explained to me during the presentation by top army commanders that the ISIS-related jihadists began their offensive on May 23rd 2017 and their plan was to take full control of the town by the time Ramadan was to begin (May 26th). The military spoiled their plans; it counter-attacked and managed to contain the terrorists in just one neighborhood, retaining or regaining control of all the other ‘barangays.’

Marawi City and its people ( Photo: Andre Vltchek )

Undoubtedly there were heavy losses, and, because of the palpable sense of fear after tremendous brutality unleashed by the terrorists, a substantial movement of IDPs (Internally Displaced  Persons). But it was never 400,000 people escaping the area, as reported in the West, but approximately 200,000 (the number once peaked at about 300,000 for a short time).

There has been no “indiscriminate bombing” of the civilians. I witnessed both incoming and outgoing howitzer fire and also very limited bombing from the air; it was all targeted and mostly precise, aiming at the position of the terrorists. As in all other war zones where I have been working, I refused any protection, including helmets and bulletproof vests. That allowed me to remain more mobile. I did manage to come ‘very close’ to the front. It was clear the fighting and bombing were strictly contained to one area, no more than one-kilometer square. Even there, the mosques and almost all other buildings and houses were still standing, as is demonstrated on my photographs.

Anti-Duterte NGOs and many Western governments claim that they ‘worry’ about the martial law imposed on Mindanao Island. I was told that in and around Marawi (or anywhere else on the Island), the martial law carried no brutal consequences. Even the curfew (9PM-5AM) is laxly implemented.

Brigadier General Ramiro Rey (head of the Joint Task Force Group, Ranao) explained to me in Marawi City:

The difference between this martial law and those that were imposed during the reign of Ferdinand Marcos is that now the military is mainly doing real fighting while providing assistance to the civilians. I absolutely don’t interfere with the work of local elected government officials. I’m actually encouraging them to do their job as before, asking them to contact me only when my assistance is needed. I never took, and I don’t intend to take, control of the area.”

Local government officials and volunteers working for various relief agencies and NGO’s operating in the area have confirmed what General Rey said.

Old lady in Marawi City. ( Photo: Andre Vltchek )

During my work in the conflict zone, I detected no fear among the residents. The relationship between the army and civilians was clearly friendly and cordial. As the military convoys were moving between the cities of Illigan and Marawi, both children and adults were smiling, waving, some cheering the soldiers.

In the camps housing the IDPs, there was almost unanimous consensus: while many citizens of Mindanao Island in general and the Marawi area in particular would most likely welcome more autonomy from Manila, during this ongoing and brutal conflict almost all local people have been supportive of the military and government efforts.

We hope that both Filipino and foreign jihadi cadres would soon be crushed,” was an almost unanimous statement coming from the local people.

The Military Perspective

Soldiers preparing to head to the front. ( Photo: Andre Vltchek )

In the cities of Illigan and Marawi I was shown detailed maps clearly indicating positions of the ISIS and the military.

Both Lt. Colonel Jun Abad from Ranao Camp and the commanding officer, General Rey, gave me a clear and detailed briefing. As of July 3rd, the Agus River represented the ‘borderline’ between the ISIS-held area and the zone liberated and controlled by the army.

General Rey explained during our meeting in the Municipality of Marawi City (now the complex is also serving as the headquarters of the war theatre):

The ISIS wants to establish their state on the island of Mindanao – an Islamic caliphate – right here in the Province of Lanao del Sur.”

General Rey updating. ( Photo: Andre Vltchek)

But that’s not what the majority of local people want. Before President Duterte came to power little over one year ago, social situation in many parts of Mindanao was desperate and therefore there was at least some support for radical ‘solutions’. Since then, however, things changed dramatically. Healthcare, education and public housing are improving. Indiscriminate mining by multi-national companies has been deterred. People here; as well as in almost all other parts of the Philippines finally feel hopeful and optimistic about their future.

This converts into great support for both the government and the military.

There is no doubt the entire city will be freed, soon, most likely in July or August.

The only reason why it did not happen yet is that the terrorists are using hostages, both Christians and Muslims, as human shields. President Duterte, General Rey, and other civilian and military officials are trying to avoid unnecessary human loses.

Cultural topography’ of the area is also very complex. Near the front line I was told by one of the top commanding army officers:

We could take the city in just one day, but there would be great civilian casualties. The houses in this area are very sturdy; they are 2-3 stories high and fortified, as there are constant and brutal family feuds, called’ rido’, raging here, and have been for centuries.”

But to delay the liberation of Marawi is also very dangerous.

Major Malvin Ligutan. ( Photo: Andre Vltchek )

The terrorists began using captured women as sex slaves,” explained Major Malvin Ligutan, standing in front of a temporary military base in Saguiaran.
Despite all the horrors of the Marawi war, the army refused to use brutal tactics, even after it found out that various local citizens clearly miscalculated and before the conflict began, offered substantial support to the ISIS-related terrorists.
Captain John Mark Silva Onipig clarified:

These people belonging to the ISIS are not only terrorists, but they are also criminals. They were dealing in drugs… And some local people knew that… Actually, locals knew quite a lot; they knew about the presence of the terrorists in the area long before all this started, but they never reported it to the authorities.”
How did the terrorists get hold of so many weapons?” I wanted to know.

In the Philippines, those who have money can buy as many weapons as they want on the black market.”

The situation is extremely sensitive as there is clearly the involvement of foreign fighters. On June 30th, in Saguiaran, Major Malvin Ligutan admitted, hesitantly:
In one of the safe houses, we found passports issued in Indonesia, Malaysia and several Arab countries.”

A month ago I wrote an essay exposing the complex network of Western-sponsored terrorism in Asia (“Washington Jihad Express: Indonesia, Afghanistan, Syria and Philippines”). I argued that in the 1980’s, Indonesian and Malaysian jihadists, indoctrinated by the Southeast Asian brand of extreme anti-Communism, went to fight in Afghanistan against the socialist governments of Karmal, and then Mohammad Najibullah, with the ultimate goal of destroying the Soviet Union.

Hardened and further brainwashed, they returned home to Southeast Asia, participated in several ethnic strives and pogroms (including those in Ambon and Poso), and then, in order to ‘bridge the generational gap’, embarked on the coaching of a young generation of terrorists, who eventually ended up fighting in Syria and recently in the Philippines.

My essay was full of facts, and I put into it various testimonies of Southeast Asian academics, thinkers, and even of one active and prominent ‘jihadi cadre’ who is now living in Jakarta.

Prof. Iman Soleh ( Photo: Andre Vltchek )

In the Indonesian city of Bandung, Prof. Iman Soleh, a professor at the Faculty of Social and Political Science (University of Padjadjaran- UNPAD) offered his take on why the West is now so obsessed with destabilizing and smearing the Philippines and its current rebellious administration:

Since World War Two, the U.S. was afraid of so-called ‘domino effects’. Among other things that are now happening in the Philippines under president Duterte, the government is curbing activities of the multi-national mining conglomerates, and the West cannot accept that. Philippines are putting its environmental concerns above the short-term profits! For the millions of left-wing activists here in Indonesia and all over Southeast Asia, President Duterte is a role model.”

It is no secret that the West punishes such ‘bad paradigms’ brutally and decisively.

Prof. Soleh continued:

I think all that is happening is not just to ‘destabilize’ the Philippines, but also because the country has conflict areas that could be ‘nurtured’. The best example is the predominantly Muslim island of Mindanao, vs. the rest of the Philippines, which is predominantly a Catholic country…”

The West is regularly using ‘jihad,’ directly and indirectly, to destabilize socialist, anti-imperialist, and just patriotic countries and governments. In the past, it managed to ruin countries like Afghanistan, Indonesia (1965) and Syria. Many believe that the Philippines is the latest addition to the ‘hit-list.’

The China & Russia Connection

As Drei Toledo, a prominent Philippine journalist, educator and pro-Duterte activist, originally from Mindanao, explained:

The reason why the West is hostile toward President Duterte is simple: he is working hard to reach a peace agreement with China, a country that is seen by Washington as its arch-enemy. Another ‘adversary of the West,’ Russia, is admired by Duterte and increasingly by his people. Recently, Russia and the Philippines signed a defense agreement. The president is also forging close ties with Cuba, particularly in the area of health… Before Duterte became our President, poverty by design in Philippines was restored and perpetuated by the U.S. and Malaysia-controlled Cojuangco-Aquino can.

Foreign and local entities that have long benefited financially from Philippines being a weak state are now threatened overwhelmingly by President Duterte’s unifying agenda to create a socialist system in the Philippines.”

Ms. Toledo pointed her accusative finger at Malaysia:

Malaysia benefits from Mindanao being in a perpetual state of chaos and conflict because this means we can never reclaim oil-rich Sabah.”

She also doesn’t spare Indonesia and its sinister political (anti-socialist and anti-Communist) as well as economic interests:

As exposed by Rigoberto D. Tiglao, a Filipino diplomat and writer, Indonesian magnate Anthoni Salim, not only does have total control or substantial stakes in local mainstream media papers and networks, his conglomerate in Philippines is also based on telecoms, power, water distribution, and other public utilities.”

Or more precisely: it is based on making sure that ‘public utilities’ will never become truly ‘public’, remaining in private hands. Salim’s ‘empire’ already brought great damage to India, particularly to West Bengal where, some argue, because of allowing it to operate and to implement its brutal feudal-capitalist practices, the CPI (M) (Communist Party of India – Marxist) managed to thoroughly disgust local voters and to lose power.

The Human Cost

Marawi. ( Photo: Andre Vltchek )

Nobody could deny the gravity of the situation.

I witnessed exhausted glances of the people from Marawi, now living in a rescue center built on the land of the town hall of Saguiaran.

Yesterday two infants died,” I’m told by Amer Hassan, a student volunteer from Mindanao State University (MSU).

The reason was “different water, malnutrition, exhaustion…”

I wanted to know more, and Amer continues:

People are still in shock… They can’t believe what is happening. Especially those whose houses were destroyed; those who lost their relatives, everything…”
While the West is constantly criticizing, does it provide help? Amer just shrugs his shoulders:

There is no foreign help coming… Almost all that we have here comes from Manila, either from the government or local agencies. Duterte is working very hard, helping our people.”

She escaped with her two babies. ( Photo: Andre Vltchek )

A family of three, Camal Mimbalawag, his wife Ima and one-month-old baby Mohammad, is squeezed into a tiny space at the center. Their memories are bleak. Ima gives her account almost mechanically:

We were in Marawi during the first stage of the attack. I was pregnant, ready to give birth. We were in the city hall when ISIS attacked… They erected checkpoints; divided people into groups… they pointed guns at us… They asked: ‘Muslim or not?’…and ‘If Muslim, then recite ‘Shahadat.’ If cannot, you get killed or taken as a hostage… We saw corpses of those killed, eaten by dogs under the burning sun…”

The battle for the city of Marawi is raging. I face it from the highest floor of the building, destroyed by ISIS snipers, a place where an Australian reporter was hit just two days earlier.

It is not Aleppo, but it could have been, if not for the heroic counter-attack of the army.

Marawi is just one new chapter in the already long book of horrors of brutal religious terrorist acts, most of them directly or indirectly triggered by Western imperialism. In the first wave of its fight again the secular socialist Muslim governments, the West destabilized Iran, Egypt and Indonesia. Then came the Afghanistan ‘gambit’, followed by the arch-brutal destruction of Iraq and Libya.

Then it was Syria’s turn.

Jihad’ is consistently used against Russia, China as well as the former Central Asian Soviet republics.

All this I described in my 840-page book: “Exposing Lies Of The Empire, but one can never write fast enough and fully catch up with the crimes committed by the West.

It is often easy to pinpoint Western involvement in the religious conflicts, particularly in such places as Afghanistan and Syria. In the Philippines, the link is still indirect, well concealed, but it certainly exists.

To rebel against the Western Empire is always a costly and bloody affair. It often leads to coups sponsored by Washington, London or Paris, and even to direct military conflicts, interventions and full-scale wars.

But by now, the people of the Philippines have had it ‘up to here’. They had enough of being submissive; enough of being plundered while remaining silent.

They are assembling behind their president. Duterte’s popularity is still around 75%. The army is clearly winning the war against the hardened local and foreign jihadists. Relief operations are effective and well organized. Things are just fine.
In only one year, the country has diametrically changed. To break the spirit of the liberated masses, to force people back onto their knees would be difficult, perhaps almost impossible, even if jihadi terror is unleashed brutally.

Almost 100 soldiers already lost their lives. Just one day before I encounter General Rey, six of his men were injured. It is said that 800 or more civilians died. Nobody knows exactly how many terrorists were killed. It is real war: tough and merciless as all wars are, but in this case, the ‘newly independent’ country is clearly winning.

Fillipino soldier wearing second-hand US helmet ( Photo: Andre Vltchek )

It is an incredible sight: some soldiers, patriotic and determined, are still wearing those helmets with the US flags engraved into them, or some old Israeli bulletproof vests. But have no doubts: this is real, new country! Totally different Philippines and Marawi is one of the first and toughest tests it will have to endure.

The war united people and the army. No matter what the West and local corporate media are saying, most Filipinos know: this is their struggle; this is their president and their military fighting against something extremely foreign, violent and dreadful.

An previous version of this story was published on July 18, 2017.

Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. Three of his latest books are revolutionary novel“Aurora” and two bestselling works of political non-fiction: “Exposing Lies Of The Empire” and “Fighting Against Western ImperialismView his other books here. Andre is making films for teleSUR and Al-Mayadeen. Watch Rwanda Gambit, his groundbreaking documentary about Rwanda and DRCongo. After having lived in Latin America, Africa and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides in East Asia and the Middle East, and continues to work around the world. He can be reached through his website and his Twitter.

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Posts Tagged ‘royal mail bikes’

There’s Madness in the Methods

December 5, 2013 27 comments

“A postal duty is, in effect, a four hour intensive workout, and it gets increasingly difficult the older you get. Any further pressure on delivery staff is likely to leave us suicidal.”

Deliveries are now made with trolleys Credit: ITV

According to the Daily Telegraph, “American activist investors” – who are becoming the main buyers into Royal Mail – believe that the company “could execute deeper cost cuts and yield far bigger profits”.

Staff costs are one of the areas being looked at.

“The productivity improvement rate is really pretty low, given the amount of new technology at the company,” said a source. “Now 80% of mail is sorted by technology, yet the productivity costs have only come down marginally in comparison. The company could be far more aggressive on driving the costs savings through.”

We all knew this would happen. The pressure will soon be on to cut staff numbers and to increase workloads in order to improve productivity.

But I can tell you now that this is just not possible, at least where delivery duties are concerned. When Panorama did a programme about the Royal Mail in 2009, it arranged for former Royal Marine and military fitness expert Tony Goddard to test a duty. He was unable to finish it in the allotted time, saying that it was “unreasonable” to expect postal workers to do it five days a week.

A postal duty is, in effect, a four hour intensive workout, and it gets increasingly difficult the older you get. Any further pressure on delivery staff is likely to leave us suicidal.

However, there is some truth in the assessment. The productivity improvement rate is, indeed, pretty low given the amount of technology that has been introduced. There’s a reason for this. It’s called “Methods”.

This is the internal name for the modernisation programme which the company has been undertaking since 2009. It involves the scrapping of bikes and their replacement by trolleys: two postal workers working out of the back of a van using customised golf trolleys, carrying two bags apiece.

The ostensible reason for the new method is so that we can carry more packets: packets being the new growth area within the postal business. However, it is also considerably slower than using a bike. Just to give you a measure of this: my round used to take around three hours and fifteen minutes. Under Methods we are supposed to manage our rounds in four hours. That’s already forty five minutes longer than before. However, there is never a day when we can complete the round even in this time, often going as much as an hour over. In other words, the new method is at least a third slower than the old method.

It is also much more tiring. Using a bike we were constantly changing position: sometimes walking, sometimes scooting, sometimes cycling, sometimes freewheeling down a slope. All we do now is four hours or more of relentless walking, mile after mile: around twelve to fifteen miles a day. My hips and my back ache from the strain and all I can do when I get home these days is to eat my dinner and fall asleep in front of the telly.

Slowing down the work while making it harder: I wonder whose bright idea that was? The reason it’s called “modernisation” and not “a big pile of shit” is that it is being modelled through a computer. We’ve replaced an old technology – bikes – which were very efficient at delivering the mail, with a new technology – computers – which are very efficient at measuring the process. We’ve privileged the needs of the office over the needs of the job. Now you tell me which is more useful in an industry whose sole purpose is the delivery of mail?

It’s a pity they never thought to ask us posties. We would have told them that it wasn’t going to work. TNT – one of the rival mail companies currently experimenting with end-to-end delivery in some parts of London – do so using bikes, while Deutsche Post has recently been testing electric bikes on the streets of Berlin.

The reason the CWU went along with the new method is that it was supposed to take the weight off our shoulders. In fact it has done the opposite: it has put weight onto our shoulders, as in an effort to get the work done on time, many posties are now dispensing with the trolleys.

But the real measure of the insanity of this is that despite the fact that it was extensively trialled, and that it has consistently shown itself to be slower and more costly than the old method, it has nevertheless been rolled out throughout the country.

This is the reason why the productivity improvement rate is so low, despite the amount of new technology being deployed. If “activist investors” really wanted to improve productivity, then they could start by bringing back the bikes. After that, they might consider reducing staff numbers by getting rid of everyone who thought that “Methods” was a good idea in the first place. That includes Moya Greene.

Royal Mail Modernisation: Golf Trolleys Versus Bikes

August 23, 2012 11 comments

Modern workers with modern tools

The Royal Mail is undertaking a major modernisation programme at the moment. Gone are the old, worn-out, Victorian ways of doing things, to be replaced by new, sleek, 21st Century methods.

Gone are the traditional, old fashioned bikes, for example, in use for more than a hundred years, to be replaced by golf-trolleys.

Here are some of the many ways in which golf-trolleys have proved themselves more modern than bikes:

You have to walk with a golf-trolley. You cannot scoot, glide, pedal or push. You cannot relax on a downhill run and allow the bike to take the weight. Obviously this means you are much slower with a golf-trolley than with a bike, making the round that much longer. But it has the advantage that you are expected to walk at a steady four miles an hour, which means that the computer back in the office can calculate exactly where on your round you are supposed to be. See how modern this is? It means that the man on the ground is connected to a computer. And computers are very modern.

A golf-trolley has only two positions. You can push it, or you can pull it. This is unlike the bike, which has numerous positions. You can push a bike and park it. You can push from the right hand side or you can push from the left. You can leave a bike and walk. You can scoot a bike. You can use your left leg to scoot, or your right. You can get on your bike and pedal. You can pedal standing up or you can pedal sitting down. Or you can simply sit on a bike and let it freewheel down a slope. This is obviously wrong. The Royal Mail doesn’t pay its workers to sit on bikes. It pays its workers to work. This is why the golf-trolley is much superior to the bike. The work is much harder with a golf-trolley than it is with a bike. The Royal Mail workers go home much more tired than they used to do. They ache in every bone. See how modern this is? It means the Royal Mail is getting its money’s worth.

In the old days postal workers used to park up their bikes and do a loop. They would take a bundle of letters, walk up one side of the road, and then down the other. Then they would pick up their bike and cycle on to the next loop. The new delivery method is very similar. It is called “Park & Loop”. Except that instead of a bike, the postie now uses a van. This too is much more modern than a bike. Bikes don’t use diesel, whereas vans do. Bikes don’t give off Carbon Dioxide gases, whereas vans do. Bikes are cheap, whereas vans are expensive. Bikes don’t get caught in traffic, whereas vans do. Bikes don’t break down all that often, and when they do they are easy and cheap to fix, whereas when a van breaks down it has to be hauled off to a workshop. And the vans aren’t fixed in-house any more, they are fixed by a sub-contractor attached to the dealer. Meanwhile the Royal Mail has tied itself to the dictators and despots in the oil producing countries, and to a technology with hardly any future. You can’t get more modern than that.

A modern means of transport

Bikes are easy to park, whereas vans are not. Bikes can be parked on the pavement, whereas vans have to be parked on the road. Vans cannot be parked where there are double yellow lines, whereas a bike can. Bikes can be leaned against a tree or on the nearest wall, whereas a van has to spend time looking for a parking place. This is the modern way of going about things. If it isn’t difficult, it isn’t worth doing. It keeps the Royal Mail workers on their toes, having to think. It blocks the rest of the traffic up while the postie parks the van, causing more hold ups and more frustration, the way the modern world was meant to be.

Bikes can be used in a number of different ways: as a road vehicle, or on the pavement, as a trolley, as a scooter, as a work-station, as a place to sort and store your mail. There are several different parts to a bike. There’s the tray on the front for carrying bags, and the panniers on the back for carrying parcels. There’s the rack over the rear wheel which can be used to sort the mail. You can use the panniers for itemising the mail and helping you to remember. One pannier can be used for parcels still to be delivered, and the other for parcels which have to be returned to the office. This too is an advantage that vans and golf-trolleys have over bikes. Bikes are obviously too versatile for the modern world. Versatility is an old-fashioned virtue, like politeness or decency or cheerfulness or being concerned about our customer’s welfare. Such things can be dispensed with in the new, thrusting 21st Century world.

The new delivery method involves parking up the van, getting out the golf-trolley, loading it up with bags, and then doing a loop. There are two posties in the van, doing two loops simultaneously. This has the advantage that the two posties might be travelling at different speeds. One of them might be a slow and steady type who does everything by the book. The other might be a flyer. He might jog along, skipping over walls and obstacles along the way. One postie might be old, the other might be young. One might be worn-out the other might be fit. One might be cautious the other might be carefree. This too is a good thing. Posties love their job because they love working on their own. They like going at their own speed and not being obliged to other people. Who says posties should love their job? They should learn to hate it like everyone else.

The rule with the golf-trolley is that you have to take it everywhere you go. You cannot park it up and leave it, as you can a bike. A bike can be locked, whereas a golf-trolley cannot. What this means is that both hands are full. One hand is carrying the bundle, the other hand is pushing the trolley. You cannot rifle through the bundle as you are walking. You have to stop at the end of every path, sort through your bundle, and then deliver. This slows you up even more. This is a good thing. It means the postal worker is only doing one thing at a time. He is either walking or he is sorting through the mail. Postal workers are notoriously inept. They cannot walk, fart and sort at the same time. There are walking times and sorting times and farting times and each has its proper place. Walking while farting is not allowed either. In order to fart one must stop still until the gaseous emission has been satisfactorily expelled before continuing on one’s way.

Golf-trolleys were originally designed for carrying golf-clubs. So naturally it would have occurred to Royal Mail executives to use them for carrying the mail. The idea must have arrived on a golf-course. One day an executive was playing golf. It was a working day so of course he was playing golf. And he realised just how much weight his golf-trolley could take. A whole heavy golf-bag of full of clubs. He had his caddy with him. It was like a neon light flickering on in his head, a sudden burst of illumination. Of course! Postal workers are just like caddies really. Why not get them to use golf-trolleys instead of bikes? And he swung his six iron and landed straight on the green.

But the main advantage of the new delivery method over the old is that it doesn’t in any way take the worker’s needs into account. It was imposed from above, without consultation with the staff. It was devised in the drawing room, in the office and the boardroom. It was negotiated with the union and then presented as a fait accompli. It was either take it or leave it and take early retirement. No other choice was on offer. It doesn’t matter whether it is more efficient or less. What matters is that it has created a new disincentive for the workforce to care about their job. It has alienated the worker even more. It has reinforced the worker’s view of himself as a replaceable cog in a large and complex machine. It has reminded him of just how meaningless he is. This, of course, is entirely right and proper, because this is all he is, and the sooner he gets used to it, the better.

Welcome to the modern world.

Modernisation has put the snail in Royal Mail

July 21, 2011 Leave a comment

Bikes for postal workers are being phased out by Royal Mail, slowing down delivery. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

The amount of lost or delayed mail is no surprise – ill-conceived new working methods have slowed postal workers down.

It’s been a bad week for the Royal Mail. What am I talking about? It’s always a bad week.

First it comes in the form of a Which? report, stating 72% of its respondents had letters delivered to the wrong address, while 71% received their post at a time they considered late in the day. Only one in four received their letters before 10am, it says.

This doesn’t surprise me. In fact, what does surprise me is that anyone reports receiving any letters before 10am. It’s very rare for us to leave our office before 10am these days. Very often it’s more like 10.30am.

For those of you who are puzzled by this, the explanation is very simple. It is called “modernisation”. Modernisation for the Royal Mail means spending millions of pounds on a large number of high-tech “walk-sequencing machines“, which actually slow down the process of delivery. They do, however, remove any vestige of skill from the job; so while they are considerably less efficient at getting the mail out on time, they nevertheless have the distinct advantage that they undermine the workforce, allowing the company to hire more and more casual workers.

The same survey also reports that 51% of their respondents received a “Sorry you were out” card even though they were in – 6% said they actually saw the card arrive through the door without the postal worker stopping to knock. Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph reports that 120,884 complaints about lost mail were made in the first three months of the year: up 37% on the same period last year. The Royal Mail blamed the increase on disruption caused by severe weather conditions. A Royal Mail spokesman said: “This resulted in significant delays to mail services in some areas, and many customers logged complaints for ‘lost’ mail which were subsequently delivered.”

Thank God for those severe weather conditions, that’s all I can say. It has allowed the Royal Mail to cover up one of the most gigantic cock-ups in its entire history. I’m talking about a wholesale revision in working methods that was begun in a number of offices in the weeks leading up to Christmas. In fact I suspect that, if you could break down the figures into individual offices, you’d find that the vast bulk of lost or delayed mail in this period occurred in offices that were going through their revision at the time. The snow was a secondary issue in many cases.

To name some offices: Dundee, Kenilworth, Warwick, Formby, Herne Bay and Stratford upon Avon. The rest of the country is undertaking their revisions now. Most will have been completed by the end of the year. So if you are noticing a marked deterioration in the quality of your service, at least you know why it’s probably happening.

To be clear: the new working methods involve the scrapping of bikes, the restructuring and reassignment of rounds, the sharing of vans and a massive increase in the workload, all at the same time. Instead of cycling, posties are now expected to walk, pushing golf trolleys in front of them. Walking, of course, is slower than cycling, and pushing golf trolleys means you can’t walk and sort through the mail at the same time, which means you have to stop at every gate and look at your bundle before selecting out the mail for that address and then delivering it. In effect, they have slowed us down while expecting us to do more work.

And they wonder why things are going wrong? You can tell these new methods have been designed by people who have never delivered a letter in their lives.

And it is here, too, that we find the answer to the earlier question: why are posties leaving more and more of those “Sorry you were out” cards than they used to?

It’s down to the revisions again. The new methods demand adherence to a strict set of timings. Every step and every manoeuvre is timed and logged and processed through a computer. So an “attendance delivery” – when a postal worker has to knock on the door and wait for a response – was allowed exactly 57 seconds, no more, no less; and with more and more packages to deliver – up to 100 a day in some cases – many posties are feeling the pressure to cut corners and get everything done in as short a time as possible. Hence writing “Sorry you were out” cards before leaving the office.

The attendance delivery timings have been increased since the revisions were first introduced, by the way – along with most of the other timings – for the simple reason that during the first few months almost every revision turned into a complete disaster, with backlogs amounting to hundreds of thousands of items building up in many offices. Hence increased complaints about lost and delayed mail.

There is one positive note in all of this, however. According to the Which? report: while they received more than 500 items of correspondence about people’s experiences with the Royal Mail, the majority of them critical, many of the correspondents took time to praise their own postmen and women. The management may be incompetent, but at least us posties are still appreciated.

From the Guardian Comment is free. Read more here.

Royal Mail is not delivering

June 21, 2011 3 comments

‘Millions more have been spent on a fleet of new vans to replace the bikes the Royal Mail intends to scrap.’ Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

As profits dive, it’s clear this management isn’t modernising, it’s running the company into the ground – but why?

Royal Mail’s profits fell from £180m in 2009 to £39m in 2010, a drop of around 78%. That sounds pretty disastrous, and is one of the reasons given for the impending privatisation of the company.

However, when you start to look more closely at the figures you begin to realise that all is not what it seems. For a start, the company did still make a profit, which is unique among public services. We don’t expect the police to make a profit, or the fire service or the NHS, do we? And I suspect that most of the British public aren’t at all worried if the Royal Mail makes a profit or not, as long as they get their letters delivered on time.

Historically the Royal Mail’s profits were used to subsidise the Post Office which is also an important public service. All of that will change, of course, when the Royal Mail is privatised and the link between the Royal Mail and the Post Office is broken. Once the Royal Mail is privatised, the Post Office will have to go its own way, and don’t be at all surprised when more and more rural post offices start to close, and the post office counter service becomes a small adjunct of Tesco, squeezed between the deli, the electrical counter and the pharmacy.

This shows you the mechanism by which the privatisation agenda operates. It splits a unified service into its constituent parts, hiving off the profitable bits, while keeping the unprofitable bits in the public domain. This is in effect a form of public subsidy. That which can make a profit is given over to the spivs and profiteers of the private sector, while the rest of us carry the can for the bits of the economy that can’t make a profit, thus threatening not only the particular services involved, but also the cohesion and unity of society as a whole.

Many blame the breakdown in Royal Mail profits on the incursion of new technology into the communications market. Or, as the Daily Mirror put it: “Royal Mail profits smashed by competition and Facebook.

This is simply not true. Most of the letters that people sent are still being sent. We might send birthday greetings to people we don’t know very well via Facebook, but how many of you have replaced the Christmas card list with a Facebook list in the last few years? Very few, I would suggest; none but the very young.

When you look at the real reason why profits are down it has virtually nothing to do with Facebook. It has everything to do with the Royal Mail spending vast amounts of money on a so-called modernisationprogramme that simply doesn’t work. £400m was spent on new machinery that actually slows down delivery.

We have two mail deliveries these days, instead of one. One is first thing in the morning, the way it used to be. The second is at about 9.20am in our office, which means full-time workers are now forced to take a break to wait for the lorry. So how is this “modernisation” exactly? By what process is it decided that a new machine which is slower than an old machine is actually more modern, just because you bought it more recently, or that having workers sitting around eating sandwiches is more efficient than having them delivering mail?

Millions more have been spent on a fleet of new vans to replace the bikes the Royal Mail intends to scrap. How crazy is that? To replace the world’s most energy-efficient machine, bar none with the polluting, inefficient internal combustion engine dependent on oil from the war-torn Middle East. To replace a tried and tested method of delivery in use for over 100 years, with an untried and untested method, that, everywhere it has been brought in, has been disastrous, as I’m sure people in a number of towns will testify.

Something very strange is happening here. It takes a radical redefinition of the English language to describe any of this as “modernisation”.

Also we have brand new uniforms. Who on Earth thought of that? Every single postal worker in the UK is being issued with a brand new set of clothes. New shirts, new trousers, new jackets, new caps, new waterproofs. And how much, exactly, did this cost, the refitting of an entire workforce? In this time of austerity and cutbacks, it seems, the Royal Mail judges fashion sense a more important issue than getting the mail delivered on time.

Finally, it is closing down hundreds of local delivery offices all over the country and relocating them to major city centre sites.

All of this is being done in the name of savings. It will cost less to maintain a single centralised office than a number of smaller offices. That’s the theory at least. But is it actually true? I’ve had my calculator out again and I’ve been working it out.

There are 50 workers each in the two offices in our area that are due to close – 100 altogether. It will take about half an hour each way to drive to and from the city. All of this has to be done in work time of course. We’re not counting the journeys each postal worker has to make to get to work and back. So that’s an hour of Royal Mail time spent getting us to and from the start of our rounds. We earn £8.86 an hour, so it will cost the company £886 a day, which is £5,316 a week, or £276,432 a year. Knock off days off and holidays, and the figure still comes in at around £250,000 a year. That’s a quarter of a million pounds spent on just getting the workforce to the start of the round every day.

How is that a “saving” exactly?

What kind of accountant adds a quarter of a million pounds to your wages bill and then describes it as a saving?

This is not to speak of the extra pollution of having hundreds of vans spluttering about during the rush hour or the cost in maintenance, petrol, tax and insurance, of running a fleet of vans. It’s not to speak of the traffic chaos in the city or parking problems around the new joint delivery office. It’s not to speak of the inconvenience for customers of having to travel eight miles to pick up their undelivered mail. According to the Royal Mail’s own figures this will be in the region of 100 a day in each of the two offices. I will leave it up to you to work out the figures on that.

All of this can only lead to one of two conclusions: either Royal Mail management is grossly incompetent, or it is running down the company on purpose, for some end that the rest of us have yet to be informed about.

Read more here.

Model of a Modern Royal Mail

January 19, 2011 Leave a comment

Last week all the new walk-sequencing machines in our area broke down. This meant that only about a third of the letters arrived at our delivery office on Wednesday. So on Thursday we had two days’ post to deliver, and everyone’s mail was late.

From the LRB blog.

Read more here.

The not so jolly postman

December 19, 2010 5 comments

‘Kids love us. We’re like Father Christmas bringing presents to your door’

Postal worker Roy Mayall loves his job – the fresh air, the early starts, even the Christmas rush. But this year it’s not quite so much fun. The service is being ‘modernised’, resulting in backlogs and delays. So will your cards get through?

From the Guardian.

Read more here.

Park and Loop

December 18, 2010 5 comments

New delivery methods threaten the integrity of the mail

Royal Mail will be spending £20m on speeding up Christmas mail before the next cold snap arrives. Photograph: Hartshead Services

It hardly needs saying, but Christmas is the busiest time of the year for postal workers. There’s a veritable assault of mail bearing down on us: more so this year than any year, as so many more people are buying on-line these days.

In previous years we took it in our stride. It was hard work, but we enjoyed it. We got on with the job and we got it done, to the best of our ability.

This year, however, things are different. This is due to the introduction of new working methods in a large number of delivery offices around the country. Quite why the Royal Mail decided to undertake a wholesale restructuring of our job just before the Christmas rush is anybody’s guess. It’s only one of a series of increasingly insane decisions we’ve been subjected to this year.

The process is called “revision”. First of all they got rid of our bikes and replaced them with vans: two posties to a van doing two extended rounds between them.

This is called “park & loop”. We park up the van, fill up our trolleys, head off in two different directions, spend 40 minutes or so completing the loop, then come back to the van to drive off to the next parking spot.

Now this would be fair enough if it actually worked, but it doesn’t. Someone somewhere has made a serious error in their calculations. The company has spent millions of pounds buying a brand new fleet of vans, but they are actually too small for the job. We have to carry our trolleys in the back, plus up to twenty-four ten kilo pouches, and then all the packets, both large and small.

And therein lies the problem. There’s not enough room for the packets, and, having dispensed with the dedicated packets delivery rounds which were part of the old method, there are serious backlogs building up in the offices as we struggle to get them out. The backlogs were already there before the Christmas rush started. I suspect that many people around the country won’t be getting their presents this year.

The next problem lies in the figures they’ve used to calculate the rounds. They took a sample week in June, a notoriously light month, and have extrapolated from that. On that basis they’ve estimated that we have around 26,000 items of mail passing through our office in any one day, when we all know it is more like 42,000.

What this means is that the sorting process takes a lot longer than their calculations allow for. We are allowed one hour to sort the mail into the individual rounds (known as “Internal Preparatory Sorting”) and then another hour to “prep” our frames: that is to slot the letters into the frame, into the sequence they will be taken out in. I never have time to complete this task, which means that most days there are at least six boxes of mail left unsorted under my frame, which are then “prepped” by managers or office staff while I am out on my round. So every day I come in to an already half-full frame of mail left over from the day before.

In this time we are also supposed to have prepped the door-to-door leaflets – usually referred to as “junk mail” by you, the customer – which we take out at the rate of 1/6th a day, and which can amount to anything up to six items per household. We are given six minutes to do this in when it actually takes more like 15 minutes. We are not allowed to leave the junk mail behind, which means that these days junk mail is given precedence over the normal mail, which quite often does get left behind.

That’s the measure of the Royal Mail’s priorities these days.

When the planners first came to the office to discuss the revision they made it quite clear that their aim was to reduce the workforce and therefore the number of man-hours in the office. When the revision was implemented it amounted to eight full time jobs lost. But so huge is the backlog of mail that’s been building up – at one time there were up to 26,000 items of mail, backed into a corner and filling up half of the office – that they’ve had to re-employ the eight full-time employees who had previously taken voluntary redundancy, just to clear it.

They’ve now agreed that the office actually needs five more full-time staff. But, here’s the trick: the new staff will be working on much less favourable contracts than the guys they are replacing.

Which, you might suggest, is the entire purpose of the exercise.

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Your salonniere nominated for a Sundress Prize

Your salonniere is honored and humbled to have her short story, “Like Fish to Ginger” nominated for a Sundress Best of the Net Prize by The Coachella Review, who published the piece in Fall 2010. What a wonderful way to close the year!

Check out The Coachella Review’s full list of nominations from their blog post:

Award Season

Written By: Lindsey – Dec• 01•11

Our Best of the Net nominations are:

Elephant” by Perrin Carrell

What He Did with the Moon Tonight” by Lindsay Illich

Hubcaps” by Carol Ellis

I Loved Saying My Father’s Name” by John McKernan

This is This” by Jaydn DeWald

Contemp Rural” by Benjamin Evans

Zoo” by Corey Campbell

Like Fish to Ginger” by Rashaan Meneses

Masha” by Marcia DeSanctis

And, if you haven’t read the piece, here’s a taste:

Like Fish to Ginger

By Rashaan Meneses
Before I set out to make my mark in Los Angeles, I chased Sunee. We met in a steamy noodle house in the Dusit District of Bangkok where I elbowed my way from dishwasher to sous chef. Sunee worked as hostess. Both seventeen, she knew exactly what she wanted, and it wasn’t me. Like with a delicate soup, I had to know when to stir and when to let the ingredients meld on their own. For seven months I coaxed her to me, savoring every minute of it, the taste of falling in love. This was all ages ago when cooking was like breathing.

Read the entire story here.

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Industry Outreach: Keeping our Finger on the Pulse

By Christopher A. Hart

The transportation of goods and people almost always succeeds without anything going wrong. In those rare cases where something does go wrong, however, the NTSB steps in to investigate. We make recommendations aimed at preventing a similar recurrence and we promote—or advocate—for the implementation of our recommendations.

To inform our investigations and make thoughtful recommendations, it is critical for us to understand how it all works at the operator level. We are trying to spend more time learning from those who manage the business of transportation without mishaps so that we won’t have to spend as much time investigating crashes that could have been prevented.

Chairman Hart with NTSB Colorado Regional staffLast week, NTSB staff and I visited seven transportation organizations in Kansas and my native Colorado to promote NTSB views on safety and, perhaps most importantly, to learn about how they implement safety into their day-to-day operations.

I was pleased to discover many safety processes in place that were recommended by NTSB. We had informative discussions about how to approach safety proactively in order to prevent the kind of catastrophic accidents we investigate. Fortunately, most that we talk to in the industry, it seems, are taking crash prevention seriously.

For more than 80 years, Jeppesen has been helping aviation professionals worldwide reach their destinations safely and efficiently. They offer an array of informational products, services, and software—not only to their air transportation partners, but also to a growing line-up of sea and land transportation partners.

I was given an overview of their digital technology products, toured their customer support center, and learned about their electronic data-driven charting applications.

The NTSB has seen how bringing new technology to bear to enhance transportation safety can yield great benefits. Jeppesen takes pride in safety, and that was apparent during my visit.

Sierra Nevada Corporation works in the commercial space sector, an area of keen interest for the NTSB, and the next frontier for transportation safety. As the commercial space sector grows, we continue to grow in our knowledge of the industry.

I received an overview of the corporation and of Sierra Nevada’s view of the space systems business, small satellite manufacturing, and space technologies manufacturing. Our hosts also shared information on their new spacecraft, its Engineering Test Article, Flight Simulator, Vehicle Avionics Integration Laboratory, and Flight Integration Control Lab.

It was an eye-opening look at one of the many companies working in the commercial space sector, and I was impressed by this industry’s willingness to collaborate. Commercial space operators are now learning, as did their aviation counterparts before them, that when it comes to safety, companies must share and collaborate on new safety approaches — even as they compete in other aspects of their business.

Chairman Hart at Air Methods CorporationWe have issued several recent recommendations over the years regarding emergency medical service operations, so I was excited to tour Air Methods Corporation, one of the nation’s largest operators of air medical transport.

I learned about its Helicopter Air Ambulance program, and toured the Completion Center, Operational Control Center, Technical Services, and United Rotorcraft, Operations, Maintenance and Clinical facility — all play a critical role in the safety of their helicopter operations.

As I spoke to future helicopter pilots and medical trainees at Air Methods, I took the opportunity to help encourage their culture of safety, as they face the many challenges that are inherent in their business, by sharing with them our passion for transportation safety.

I grew up in a Denver with few mass transit options, so it was a pleasure to see the expansion of rail, light rail, and bus operations in my hometown through the Denver RTD FasTracks program. As I toured the east rail line and the 225 rail line, it occurred to me how important it was for Denver’s FasTracks to pursue a proactive approach to make Mass Transit Safer –an NTSB Most Wanted List issue area this year – which I was pleased to see them emphasize.

Chairman Hart at UPS in ColoradoI also visited with leaders from the Colorado Motor Carriers Association (CMCA), a non-profit organization that has provided support for Colorado’s trucking industry for more than 75 years, and with multimodal shipping giant UPS, in Denver, CO.

Both groups were eager to discuss ways to Strengthen Commercial Trucking Safety, another item on NTSB’s Most Wanted List of critical safety improvements this year.

I learned about the distinctive features of the new UPS 2015 Kenworth truck-tractor. The truck is equipped with some of the most advanced safety systems for heavy-duty trucks, which include the latest in collision avoidance, collision mitigation, and stability-control technologies. Making collision avoidance systems standard in commercial vehicles is a recent NTSB recommendation, the result of a special investigation report released in May.

I was impressed by the extent of driver training that many commercial drivers undergo; however, the large size of commercial trucks — and, consequently, the damage they can cause in any crash — makes it imperative to continuously look for ways to improve commercial trucking.

All of these transportation giants share a common goal: continually look for ways to improve safety. To succeed, they must continue to take a proactive approach to safety, and, like all those organizations committed to safety and protecting lives, they must be both bold and humble.

Humble — because even an organization with the best safety record can have a major accident tomorrow—and bold — because anticipating and preventing accidents are the best ways to move safety forward.

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#134 (back to reality)

It’s hard getting back in work mode after being on vacation for a week. Luckily my Monday was crazy and filled from 8 through 5 with only two 30 minute breaks. My 8am was an early morning call (well early for me and my team at work) and a meeting through my lunch hour. The only morning break was a half hour at 10 and my afternoon was half hour at 2pm.

Monday was also the day I had decided to get back to my smaller meal and 30 minute exercise regimen. So Monday was busy. “Good!” I said to myself. “Challenge accepted!”

The next day I was scheduled for an offsite in downtown Portland. The event started at 8am. This meant I had to be on the max line at 6:30am, which meant I needed to leave my house by 6:10am (since I’ll have to walk a few blocks to the max station). This in turn meant I had to be up around 4:30am.

The early morning awakening was fine with me as I’m typically up by 5am normally. However, I’m not one of those guys that can just wake up and be out the house ten minutes later. I putz around and drink my coffee while watching the news before I actually get ready. Tomorrow would have to be different – no putzing around.

All in all its a good thing that my first two days were jammed packed with work as it helped me stay on my more important goals of my personal eating and workout schedule.

Life is not about only thinking about work…it’s about being healthy and having great amounts of fun and experiences.

Try not to let work get in the way of life…

#singleasianmale #life #worklifebalance #menshealth #healthyliving

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text:
Ten Ways to help Create (and maintain) Pace in a Story…

Ten Ways to Help Create (and maintain) Pace

Pace isn’t only about action. Pace is something that all books need to have so that the story doesn’t get too slow or stall altogether. Pace is tough to get balanced. Too fast can be as bad as too slow. And it can be hard to keep things moving all the way to the end.

I struggled with how to get it right, and I still don’t fully understand it. But I learned a few things from other authors, and ten of those things are below…

Sentence structure

This is probably my favourite way of boosting the pace of a story. I used to write long sentences, until I read Lee Child’s Reacher books and realised that playing around with sentence structure could speed things up. It doesn’t work for all sentences, but many can be broken up into two, or three, maybe even more if you look closely enough. Shorter, sharper sentences pack more impact and generate a sense of movement.

Dialogue (and avoiding adverbs)

Dialogue/conversations can move the pace along if it starts to flag. Rather than explaining what characters have planned or presenting exposition in info dumps, characters can be used to explain things through dialogue. And if it’s an argument or a witty conversation, pace can be built through dialogue too. Removing ‘he said’ ‘she said’ and ‘he said loudly, quietly, angrily’ also help to speed things up. As long as you identify the two or more speakers and their order of speaking, the he/she said’s aren’t necessary.

Chapter cliff-hangers

This doesn’t always work, and it can get annoying. But it can also work well. Ending a chapter in a way that makes the reader want to read on to find out what happens next is a solid way of generating pace and momentum in the story—it also helps the chapters feel less disjointed, and more like they’re following into each other.

Thin out description

I used to describe everything—weather, clouds, cars, eyes until I realised it was (most of the time) pretty pointless. Stephen King has some good advice on description. (Paraphrasing) He says that description starts in the writer’s imagination but finishes in the readers’. Just give hints of things here and there and let the reader do the rest. Sparser description frees up sentences, makes them less awkward and smoother to read—thus generating more pace.

Have a clear structure

In some of the earlier stories I wrote, I had character moving back and forth all over the place. It doesn’t work for everyone, but having a clear structure/plot for the reader to follow will keep pace maintained. If characters are going forward, only to go back, the story can sometimes feel like it’s going nowhere.

Use set-pieces

giphy (25)

Like an action movie, books need set-pieces to add bursts of interest and sometimes to set off another strand in the plot. Fight sequences, car chases, or just an intense argument between two characters can be classed as a set-piece and most of the time they keep things moving. Set-pieces, particularly action and battles ones are one of my favourite things to write, and read. They offer interest and excitement and both of those things keep a reader turning the pages.

Active voice not passive

I used to use ‘was’ a lot, mostly without realising I was, and how much it took away from the momentum of a sentence. Bond was pulling out his gun doesn’t have the same impact or movement as Bond pulled out his gun. Was slows a sentence down, makes it passive, rather than active. Removing was isn’t always possible, but where you can it helps speed things up a lot.

Chapter length

James Patterson is famous (or infamous, depending on how much you like Patterson) for short chapters. But whatever anyone says about him, nobody can deny that his books have pace, and maintain it all the way to the climax of the story. Short chapters keep things moving, make sure a reader doesn’t get too stuck in the story, or bored with it. This isn’t always the case. A lot of high fantasy novels have long chapters—the Potter books have some of the longest chapters I’ve read, but Rowling still maintains pace. But shorter chapters can help speed things up if that’s what you want.

Use events

giphy (11)

The Percy Jackson books are probably the best example of this. Rick Riordan uses the ‘quest’ plotline. He takes his characters from one event to the next, hunting down objects or characters or places. It might get a bit formulaic at times, but using events to move characters from one place to the next helps to create pace—reading the Percy Jackson books is proof enough that it works.

In some cases, paragraphs can be broken down. I used to write long-winded paragraphs because I didn’t know where to split them apart. But going with what feels right, gut-instinct, usually works. Avoid paragraphs (if it’s possible) that take up entire pages. Breaking them down can create momentum while squashing them together can make them read as heavy and slow.

Some of these ways to create pace will work in one story, but might not work in another. There’s probably no definite way, and I know I’ve still not fully grasped how to keep the pace moving. But the ways above have helped me better understand pacing a story.

Does anyone else have a way to maintain pace? Do you agree or disagree with any of the methods above? Or do you know of a book that gets pace down pat?

About Sam Whitehouse

Sam spends most of his time in a different world to other people. If it isn’t one he’s created himself, it’s one he’s reading about. In the rare moments when this isn’t the case, Sam can either be found addicted to a sci-fi or crime show, re-watching Marvel movies, finishing up an assignment for his final year of studying Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University, or trying to get the dozens of ideas for stories in his head under some kind of control. Sam has lived in the same small village in Yorkshire, surrounded by countryside on all sides ever since he could remember. His childhood saw him get into plenty of scrapes climbing trees and crossing rivers and generally believing he was Indiana Jones. Sam gives credit to his Grandad for him wanting to be a writer, and his bedtime stories for keeping Sam’s imagination stoked. But credit must also go to Steven Spielberg, J K Rowling and Stephen King, who have provided plenty of inspiration over the years, too. Sam writes what he reads, and that is pretty much anything—save romance. Fantasy, thrillers, or crime: once an idea takes root, he can’t stop until the world, characters, and plot are on paper. A huge Marvel fan, Sam one day hopes to pen a screenplay for one of their movies, or direct one, or do anything at all related to one. Until then, he’ll stick to his own fantasy worlds and wait for Marvel’s phone call.

Posted on 04/28/2015, in books, reading, top ten tuesday, writing and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.

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Following the Money – New Information & a Correction

Following the Money – New Information & a Correction

By Robert Haugh

We like breaking news and calling out people in power for doing the wrong thing. But sometimes we make mistakes that we have to correct. Just like when a pro wrestling referee accidentally counts to three. wrote a story that raised questions about Santa Clara Weekly associate editor and city hall reporter Carolyn Schuk’s questionable journalistic ethics. They highlighted the Weekly’s low standards.

We then reported that Carolyn’s “non-profit received a substantial grant from the City of Santa Clara without going through a formal request for proposal (RFP) process that all other non-profit groups must do. It was a essentially a $12,000 gift to Carolyn’s organization from then City Manager Julio Fuentes according to an informed source.”
We had some of the reporting wrong. The Santa Clara Performing Arts Foundation did not receive the money directly. We regret our error.

But, we’ve learned some new information. The city manager’s discretionary fund apparently moved $12,000 to the cultural commission. Those funds were used to pay performers in the “Triton Free Friday” events. Those were events that Carolyn helped organize, but could not get funded through the regular cultural commission budget process.

This story is still developing and we’ll report more when we know how and who decided to fund the events outside of the cultural commission’s normal budget decision process.

While the events may have been good for the community, this is still a good story about how funds from city hall flowed to an event that a city commission did not fund in its regular budget.
Stay tuned.

Editor’s Note: an attorney helping Carolyn Schuk “pro bono” has written to us that only $9,800 was spent on “Triton Free Friday” events and none of that money was distributed to Carolyn or her organization. We will try and confirm that information.

  1. Mr. Haugh: You did not merely “get some of the reporting wrong.” You got ALL of it wrong when you reported that Carolyn’s non-profit “received a substantial grant from the City of Santa Clara .” That statement was FALSE. Now you claim to have “corrected” that false statement by saying that the SCPAF “did not receive the money directly.” This suggests that the SCPAF got the money “indirectly,” which is also FALSE. Why don’t you just admit that you made a huge error, print a proper retraction and take down the original defamatory post?

  2. Robert, maybe Carolyn’s lawyer will represent you against Miles, pro bono.
    Something about when pigs fly.

  3. Good job, Robert. Follow the money is always a great way to report. It uncovered Watergate. Maybe you’ll find something that someone at city hall is trying to hide.

    • As a reader & community member, I appreciate the retraction & correction. I can’t understand why San Jose Inside’s “Fly” was going after this in the manner it had. Seems something personal. Of all things to attack; someone for providing a community service on a volunteer basis. (I’ve been told that “the Fly” is a surrogate used by Josh Koehn, a named defendant in the lawsuit. Makes you wonder why he’d publish this opinion anonymously.)

      • Mike, not sure what lawsuit you are referring too. There’s no mention of Josh in the complaint against by the santa Clara weekly. I don’t know much but the Fly clearly Says its opinion by San Jose inside/metro staff.

      • Robert, when you say it’s “clearly” the opinion of the San Jose inside/metro staff, I would say that’s not a very clear identification.
        As to lawsuit, I guess they are just letters threatening lawsuit. it was linked in a Facebook post that included the letter to the Santa Clara News. It is a letter to Dan Plucrano (Metro) and Josh Koehn (San Jose Inside). It may just be attributing responsibility to Koehn in his position at SJI. I’m not sure what that is.

        Not sure how to attach that as a link, but here’s the address:

      • Thanks Mike. There’s no lawsuit. Just threatening letters from an attorney. I’m not defending anyone, but “The Fly” is written by Metro/SJI staff. It’s been that way for some time.
        Really it’s no different than the editorials in the Mercury that are staff opinions/editorials.

        I published a correction to what I published that was incorrect. There’s more information forthcoming as well.

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