Two zero Two zero

One may apologise to one’s self first, for the following; as this is likely to be a somewhat rambling one sided dialogue (as they are designed to be) of different ‘events’ which strike one as peculiarly discursively pertinent to these times. Such ‘events’, although that they do not on a perfunctory inspection, anticipate any erudite enlightenment that one could build on with any great certainty, to achieve a satisfactorily conclusive view of their overall importance as directive ‘events’ in the affairs of saps, they are little other than just a piece of written  thinking reflections, which of themselves have no directly connecting themed objective but is just a placing together of different items that, to one, appeared to converge to mark a memorable period of human social development in aspect, which probably in the long term will not make the slightest difference in the unfolding reprehensible progress of future to be.

In order to participate in a working environment, the ability to see surroundings and function with mobility and dexterity or manipulate with some deftness the items that are required to be used in that environment, necessitates a certain degree of comprehension in that what is being observed, is, in its totality, relevant to the functions demanded to comply with the level of mobility and manipulation required for achieving a conclusive task.

Seeing (as in having sight) is crucial in operating in any complex environment but it must also be linked to the ability to know what is being seen, place what is observed in some relationship with other things or situations and the observer needs to call on memory experience to place items in their operating reality. This statement of seeing is simple enough, understandably fine for sighted persons but not as satisfactorily explained for those unsighted who also can ‘work’ and function in a object based world with the aid of representational tools and other developed senses. Also in their case, it is probably useful to have a better experiential historic memory of what has gone before in their sensory experiences.

Too many people may be delighted in claiming to have good eyes sight and some will link this to an often used adage, they have ‘Twenty Twenty’ vision, which is assumed to be a fine thing to have. As the holders of such, they see everything with a greater degree of clarity than those that do not have it or who need to rely on spectacles for good ‘corrective’ vision. However this aphorism as a statement of having ‘Twenty Twenty’ vision being a ultimate sign of good visual heath is of limited conceited use compared to those without sight, unless, as any good optometrist might have offered to say it, after having closely examined the eyes of a participating soul. And in doing so knows that with the brain behind the eyes, it is also able to comprehend the complexity of the information that is captured by the eyes and assemble it into a coherently visual comprehension mind map pattern and that it holds an accurate truthful representation of what might be construed understandably as reality. This 'visualisation' of the light of what the eyes sees, is of course created in the mind and depends very much on the experience, conditioning, expectations, adaptations, of the mind of the brain using the eyes.

For the sighted person there is potentially an ephemeral handicap of unknown temporal duration in that what is seen has to be understood / comprehended by the mind but as is known, what the eyes see is not always what the mind understands, or recognises and it can be deceived in what it thinks it sees, or not to see, all that is to be perceived.  Eyes cannot see sound, (in an exact sense) nor see smells, feelings and much of the electromagnetic radiation of the visible spectrum, what is used to see (sight) is limited to 0.0035 of the whole range; so for humans sight is functionally useful but with a limited scope compared to what some animals can do with sight or using other highly adaptive senses.

At this point, in contrast, one might propose that the unsightly person has an advantage. The brain of the sighted does not see comprehensively all that is observable via eyes. Elements of the visual information is missing and what is seen can be narrow forced or selectively filtered by the mind to be created understandably visually real; compared to the ‘handicap’ of an unsighted person. The unsighted person has to constructs individually unique alternative sensory images relevant to personal experiences and adaptations; the mind of the unsighted cannot be fooled by visual manipulations, it cannot un-see / ignore its environs, it has to learn and rely on exploratory interpretive senses that may lack some spatial definition but will be mind mapped as distinguishable sensory image silhouettes attached to one or more of the other seven / eight (+?) functioning senses. This is probably a truer grasp onto to the actuality of pertinent conditions which neither the brain, mind nor the eyes have ability to misconstrue; conditional survival depends on creating and having ingenuous representation: ‘Things’ are as they are (until remapped) and little can be deliberately mind ignored, to be unnoticed.

‘Twenty Twenty’ is not, so far as optometrist might concur, perfect vision. For humans it is more like a score of 20\15 gives better acuity over a range of distance but to keep with the metaphor meme of vision it is assumed that ‘Twenty Twenty’ is best for practical use as some jobs require this level of visual colourful sight to operate proficiently. Never the less the proud holders of ‘Twenty Twenty’ vision might also be likened to having the ability to have a greater scope of observation and understanding than those without and may with derogatory intention or defensive association, it has been used in a context with the phase "in hindsight" (something could have been better) e.g. everyone can be a ‘smart arse’ after events. So comparing the two states with or without vision, the optometrist would need to look into the minds eyes of whatever human to be certain sight is dynamic or not but cannot be absolutely certain that what is seen is processed and understood if some chose to be unsighted to what is going on around them, whereas the naturally unsighted have no option but to attend to all the information they are subjected and influenced with.

Covid 19 is having a fabulous time producing mayhem on one ‘‘Coveted Event’’ that brings into excruciatingly sharp focus the perils of BoJo / ERG / CDUP. All those complicit in the exodus find ‘dying in a ditch’ for the event, with the prolonged hubris of their follies, somewhat discomforting and onto which despite the extraordinary measure enacted to put in place preservation tactics for the populace from the affects of the pandemic and the “lockdown” actions, informed with all the changing three word mnemonics of instructions issues by the government; is doing little to camouflage the underlying pandemonium fermenting in the economic and social structures which the uninformed might now see at their “safe social distance” next to a ditch of choice. Some ditchers are moving in line with those that have been paying attention, and are now being "aware" to the perils of past blind choices even aide with or without ‘Twenty Twenty’.

However as events have unfolded, ‘Twenty Twenty’ vision is not required here, it did seem clear that at the start of the year building on a lot of available evidence of what has occurred over the past 12 years and particularly the fraught years since 2016, that the steady reliability of global economics, that assume there was always going to be growth to fuel the wealth of Nations could continue at a reasonable trajectory rate, is not immutable. The astounding fall in GDP of 20% in April this year with an annual estimated loss of 10% to the UK due to Covid 19 actions and which precipitates a forecasted drop in world trade, with no mitigation due as yet on the little englands ‘Coveted Event’; is not offering any optimism. This also on the acknowledged economic / austerity “drag” of the “Liquidity Crises” (Credit Crisis) softened for financial operations by QE. Yet as proffered by some economist and manikin politicians, a sharp V shaped economic “bounce back” in all things to “normality” is ‘pencilled in’ after the pandemic and restriction are abated; whatever that may be for the new “normality”, with half the years gone already of the transitional exiting phase and no sight of the Great B...... Deal, which exemplifies the repetition of current difficulties previously analysed in 1974 by government department of dismantling the accession agreement of the UK to the EC (1)

Covid19 was hyped to a high anxiety danger level by the government as an effort to ‘reclaim’ the imperative of actions it’s lost in the first weeks of the pandemic. Winding back the threat level and easing lockdown restrictions, will be easier said than done, as many people have taken on their own risk assessment actions after the confusion of elastic ministerial presentations. They are unlikely to believe government pronouncements now knowing that the infections are still in circulation and remains a high risk to certain category of individuals, which is unlikely to change beyond 2021?  All the endeavours to control the contagion vectors boxes in the latitude available to bolster any pleaded upswing in consumer spending and GDP, inevitable this also has extensive ramification for the ‘Coveted Event’ and the financial resources of the proletariat. With the remarkable rise in the UK’s debt and near busting recent deficit which can get worse due the double hit of these two epoch shaping events. It is probably a certainty that such an economy shutdown will not be repeated, the damage is too great unless there is a ‘Big One’, a hi-virulent air borne / contact contagion; instead it might be considered economically (unacceptably) ‘cheaper’ to financially compensate for the loss of life similar to that loss due to Covid19, than break the economy for generations?

But its only June, so not much has happened (pun) that has not had an impact as the events subsequent to the CC which assisted an economic and social fracture that has exposed the fragility of financial stability and the festering weakness of individuals standing compacting with the dangers now; not disregarding these forces, the slow shift in peoples contentment with the established political direction, evident in many countries, has moved down peoples ‘satisfaction rate’ and was a change generally ignored by all established political powers. Their common hope was placed in popularism of personages performing to the times, all of whom have thus far failed completely to fortify transient optimism, so the future still looks likely to be no better than the past. For little england it is more probable that there will be no proffered V shaped “bounce back” from Covid19 or the ‘Coveted Event’ to replace the opportune expansive days of the past previous decades. One has to suggest that any economic social graph one cares to look at shows a slow, long trend, of a drifting decline, downwards on every scale of measurement that supports GDP, the wealth of the nation. Any recovery after Covid19 will be one of a number of bouncing waves with peaks continuing impoverishing downwards, ‘Coveted Event’ event included. Attached to this it is also worth noting, as indeed media are stirring to and one has gone about this is the past; today marks a really historic moment to reflect on, that cannot but point to the direction of travel, for the UK, its economy as a whole and the implication for its people; that as of mid June, UK debt now stands at £1.95trn the highest it has been for 50 years and slightly more than the current economy-GDP after creating £750bn, to fund increased QE (Quantitive Easing) due to acts of CC and Covid19. But as borrowing from the ‘markets’ is “cheap”, it is only affordable for an economy that uses the financial tolerance wisely, has opportunity, resilience and can assess future reliable stability; otherwise a huge economic jeopardy may be unleashed. (2)

There is one interesting element that can be noted which aligns with the pandemic period, it was the remarkable weather from the start which is being taken as the beginning of a good summer that started in March. It was most unusual for the time of the year, clearer blue skies, air pollution much reduced for days, with steady star light nights, all due to the business / people lockdown and state paid furlough to those forced not to work. Of course it cannot last, “normality” has to be resumed subject to the R factor as in replication rate, a notional level used to determine the infection rate of the transmission of Covid19 and how fast it is passed to a given number of other people that may be likely to become infected. The scale in the UK is ranged 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest and as of June reputedly hovering around 3 (gradual relaxation of restrictions) as used by the scientific advisers and the governments taking heads as if this was based on actual scientific evidence. There are not many people that believe the accuracy or independence of the interpretation attached to the range when there is no such scientific evidence. There is no specific pertinent science, one can find, that supports the R scale, it is purely theory based using empirical examples derived from what is occurring in other parts of the world and modelled onto the UK. It disregards early effective actions taken with more successful preventive measures took up by alerted nations back in December. So as the UK death rate stands at a slowing 44K, which is a reputed underreported tally, that one thinks can only go higher into next year and whether this current ‘low’ tally will be due to a “world beating” BoJo’s successful handling of the event is declared knowing it is one of the highest in the world, come a royal commission, will not require ‘Twenty Twenty’ vision to offer a pessimistic analysis.

And then alongside this came the start of praises being heaped onto all the “front line workers”, NHS, charities, transport, postal etc. being clapped out for each Thursday night in a show of public support for the jobs they do. This pubic accolade has now stopped as it had run its course, perhaps to be replaced with a solid determination to do more to hold all the “front line workers” in higher esteems than hitherto and apply proper economic and social value to their positions but also for them to start recognising who is responsible for their resources impoverished state of affairs. So one is hoping the relevance of ‘Twenty Twenty’ visions by them has to offer some clarity on who has been batting for them over decades.

Then there is the unforeseen permutation of events, the culmination of which that should have been anticipated as it was always only matter of time for something analogous in developed outrage to them, that would blow up, rather like the imbroglio of the 2006 /17 “me too” movement expanded by the ‘Harvey Weinstein’ sexual abuse scandals (3) but of a considerable more seriousness in outcome. The latest event was: on the night of June 12 in the USA, Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old black American man, was shot and killed by an Atlanta police officer, Garrett Rolfe, following a complaint about a man asleep in a car blocking a fast-food drive-through, on being approached by police it was found his blood alcohol level was above the legal limit. After doing sobriety test and talking to the man for some 45 minutes Brooks was being placed under arrest which he resisted and after a scuffle ran off with a police officer in pursuit who then shot him in the back twice, killing him.(4)

Earlier, on 25th May this year, a black man, George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis Minnesota for alleged passing a fraudulent bank note, on being arrested by police and by kneeling on his neck for 8 minutes while he was handcuffed, facedown. He said repeatedly “I can’t breathe” which was ignored by the four police in attendance and eventually their complicit actions killed him (5). These incident came onto top of an earlier shooting in 2015 on April 4th when Walter Scott an unarmed black man was killed in S. Carolina by police shooting Scott from behind while he running away from arrest for a defective vehicle brake light (6). Police involved were prosecuted for criminal acts.

Within the USA as a result of the latest killing there is very expressive anger and violent demonstrations against police and destruction of property in afflicted states, to the extent that one reads that it is reported in an article by the New York Times, a "Republican Arkansas senator Tom Cotton was urging president Trump that the military be brought in to deal with protests against police brutality. “Send in the troops,” the headline bluntly declared. “The nation must restore order.” Trump, seeking the electoral opportunity, sent troops on standby to ‘retake’ the street from rioters, peaceful, looters or not; though advised cautiously not to do so by the military commanders. This all sounds similar to British troops sent into Northern Ireland during “The troubles” and that worked out well didn't it? But for the USA it would be the making of a disaster for the military, for in the USA it has some wide regard placed upon it from the general populace but for it to be used to fire on disgruntled citizens; well one must remember that the USA is a gun culture. There are more guns in public hands than military and one cannot see them not being used against military escapades on home ground. What crack-heads contemplate the use of lethal to robust force is an indication of the lack of intellect displayed by many Politian’s from both side of the pond operating beyond their capabilities but in politics as in many areas of funded life, in some situations ‘cream’ seldom raise to the top but ‘crap’ often floats and it's hard to flush away.

All these shootings mirror many other suspect police shootings of decades past primarily of black people (mostly males) and the Brooks June shooting has given rise to extensive protest under the banner of “Black lives Matter” and public acts of “Taking a Knee” started in the Martin Luther King days, (by kneeing on one knee in public arenas) in recognition now of the police act killing Brooks but also of a much wider manifestations meshed against black racial suppression and reflecting historical abuses like slavery and the exploitation of it for the creation of wealth by the whites. In the UK this raised (again) the issues of statues erected commemorating individuals who gained their wealth from the process of slavery and them being known more for their subsequent wealth extravagance bestowed onto ‘charitable social deeds, buildings etc’ than the sources of the money. A statue such as, on June 7th a crowd of protesters pulled down the statue of Edward Colston born in Bristol in 1636 and dumped it into the harbour. He made money with the Royal African Company as the company’s deputy governor, which was responsible for shipping tens of thousands enslaved people (85K?) to the Americas, he was not alone in doing this as some 12 million African men, women, children, were taken kidnapped into, (if they were ‘incidentally’ raped or killed in the process), being shipped to the repulsive transatlantic slave business.

As a view on this and the protests flowing from above; now on many public occasion people are ‘asked’ to “Take a Knee” underscoring the “Black lives Matter” and is in some way attempting to develop a modern cultural philosophy to inculcate greater public awareness in the historic abuses perpetrated onto the black race (a too narrow definitive term) as an obligation to acquiesce support for the movement. Not to do so may be seen to be unreceptive to the cause. There is no defending racial and sex’s prejudices’ and abuses so it is well to note that slavery was about economics, the acquisition of a free, or cheap, or disposable labour source that provided benefit to a few power positioned people that controlled the state of administrative 'order'.

Most people in the UK were little more than peasants and had no roll, influence, knowledge or received any enriching benefits from what was going on at the time. One finds it difficult to agree to the expanding activity phase of the ‘PC’ of Black-Washing history (or the modern term redaction) to remove / destroy statues, (like the governors agreement of Oriel college Oxford, in the removal of colonialist Cecil Rhodes statue) renaming building, streets, (debatable icons of their time) also banks and business apologising for historic action of past members, proscribing the playing / use of slave spiritual songs by supposed improper users (as in Rugby?) or anyway of over-writing that eventually relegates these past actions to the dusty pages of unread history.

Where does indiscriminate Black-Washing lead, the denunciation of the roots of Jazz and Soul music etc. and no one mention the ‘Black and White Mistrals’ as an illustration of selective adopted cultural adaptations that takes place in a vibrant unrestrained open civilisation? With Iconoclastic Black-Washing it may be better to retain all physical objects with attested description of proper meanings that they may impinge in peoples’ minds on the horrors of actions made against ‘other’ humans in the name of profitable economics! One would definitely contend that there is ample evidence around the whole world that this is still no different today, the exploitation of people of all races, female, male and children is continued, made use of by the powers of exploitive economics of which the UK, USA and Europe are past to current exponents, still based on the cheapening of disposable labour whether on home ground or positioned into places like India, Pakistan, China etc. And of course raising the issues related to past or modern slavery and having the ability to demonstratively gain acknowledge public attentions, is only successfully open to those protesters in a civilised non corrupted democracy! Conclusively as an opinion; without the coalescing an encompassing persuasive movement to fight all forms of ingrained structural abuses in economic, social, race, gender and religions, the “Take a Knee” or “Black Lives Matter” or Black-Wash overviews will not change anything if all lives do not matter! And it is probable better not to look at all European or African practices, of those past times either, as slavery as been endemic in most of humans history. Again ‘Twenty Twenty’ has not helped.

What should not be a surprise amongst the curses of this year, is the raise of a perennial question which is being heighted due to the forced closure of schools for the past 3 months and the inability of children to continue to obtain education which for some is a crucial period running up to exam time; is, (with some additionality), why do black children / people/ do so badly in education or in the working environment  i.e. not achieving their best compared to those from Chinese and Indian backgrounds? This issue is complex and data attached to findings are multifaceted but has indicative conclusions that are known to be politically controversial due the direction the conclusions forces to inescapable acceptance; something that ‘Twenty Twenty’ vision still refuses to see.

In the 2011 Census, the total population of England and Wales was 56.1 million, and 86.0% of the population was of white British ethnic group made up the largest percentage of the population at 80.5%, followed by other white at 4.4%. People from Asian ethnic groups made up the second largest percentage of the population at 7.5%, followed by Black ethnic groups at 3.3% and Indian at 2.5%. From a number of studies it is consistently found that an unusual percentage of the black ethic group and some white boys do not achieve good results compared to Chinese, Indian and females. In all groups where there is an element of underperformance, leads to the inevitability of the deficit being due to the poverty of the socially resourced background of the children and the families’ supportive capability.(7)

It is not something that one can add a great deal to, but it is, one thinks, abundantly evident, given the limited outstanding examples of black or white individual who have suffered a paucity of sustaining social and educational nurture that do manage to eventually excel, that they are not intrinsically less intelligently capable (assumes usable brain and mind faculties) than any other group. It is inevitably a matter of applied resources but also, is the underachievement because of the adoption of unconstructive cultural stereotype group expectation? Adopting disparaging mores as a counter cultural to pursuing achievable prospect? Actively not wanting to be seen to be participating in broader society by retaining or developing a separate idioms / customs? As barriers to inclusiveness and getting a fairer representation into and from the dominant period conventions, one cannot believe any off this self retained restrictiveness can be of use to gaining better life style choices.

With the benefit of one’s myopic 20/15 vision casting a view onto current events which are peculiar to the UK and wrapping them in some biased past context, it is not surprising that there are recurring parallels that impinge on the future being shaped now. After a slight lift from the 1st WW distressed expenditure, the 1920’s economy of the UK, was at zero growth and for the whole of that decade it bounced along with high unemployment, depression and struggled to try to regain its sovereign dominate trading position. It did not. It took another war to drag growth back into play from 1950’s and from then on its growth  vacillated at 6.5% to 0%, with on four occasion (between 1974 to 2009) dropping into a negative zone. From 1989 the contour trend for GDP growth overall was declining leading to a fifth negative place in June 2020 with a harmful fall of -20% below 0% base.(8) There are three milieu colluding reasons for this detrimental drop in GDP, one thinks (CC, GBD, Covid19) with the latent tendency as above. Currently for the exuberant (miss)users of ‘Twenty Twenty’ it offers little comfort to believe that, discounting constructive unknowns, there is a golden future to be had attempting to ‘correct’ the mistakes of the past, disregard the pressures of present and believe the modelling of “bounce back”. Can it be that those who may be persuaded into using the David (aka) Danny Blanchflower’s “Walk About Test” and look at what is occurring about them in areas they would not normally frequent, do not see nor comprehend what their eyes alight on. Even using both features of ‘Twenty Twenty’ vision seems not to make a critical problem of today clearer. Will it or anything, be any clearer by the end of the year?

To be irritably arcane, from the glory days of ‘world beating’ Industrialisation, the Empire and Sovereignty too zero growth of the 1920’s, then too zero growth in 2020, in just one hundred years, may be an astounding achievement but what will it take in this time to justify retaining the Great in Britain?  

Well take a guess; to add to this significant year of fateful dreams that came to a dead stop, along comes the pointer event, perhaps: there is the shocking rise in temperature in the arctic region of Siberia of 30 degrees when the usual is range -0 to + 5? Just another ‘small’ influential sign of whatever is in store for the next one hundred years, while no one looks!

© Renot

206202020

(1) Brexit: the effects of withdrawal by Richard North

       www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=87645

       filestore.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pdfs/large/cab-129-182.pdf

(2) jubileedebt.org.uk/countries-in-crisis/truth-uks-debt

(3) Harvey Weinstein’  2017/20

(4) Killing of Rayshard Brooks - Wikipedia

(5) Killing of George Floyd - Wikipedia

(6) Shooting of Walter Scott – Wikipedia

(7) news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/uk/2002/race/educational_achievement.stm

(7) www.lambeth.gov.uk/rsu/sites/www.lambeth.gov.uk.rsu/files/mixed_race_pupils_achievement_in_england_2016.pdf

(6) www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-by-ethnicity/national-and-regional-populations/population-of-england-and-wales/latest.

(8) www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp/timeseries/ihyp/pn2

GodAllahTetragrammaton;

In this age of heightened emotive sensitive’s and the obsequious deference being paid to anyone who is unfortunately given unexpected offense too, albeit oftentimes unwittingly due one’s own lack of understanding of the moral, sociological, cultural, religious, gender background etc, etc, of the sensitivities of a recipient or any whom take virulent objections with above issue; one would like to offer ones profuse apologies should anything in this article give such unintentional offence. This too any that has had the misfortune to read it and to those that may never read it; just in case.

Anyway by the time any of this matters, one will have gone home.