The card that allows me free transport passage in my region but is not valid for the Tube in London, as if my age changes from 60 years to 50 once I go past Reading or when I use the Tube instead of the Bus!
The conductor looked again at me and at the Bus Pass. Fortunately I haven't yet hidden all my greys with my usual red-black hair colour. Some greys still showed so he did let me onto the bus hesitantly.
Great start!
First port of call: my Aunt who is in hospital awaiting coronary by-pass. She was looking better than some of the many stressed-out people I meet in my foray into network marketing! There is something about the UK that saps people's energy. Young-old ones, jobless and all sporting the only disability I can recognise... I smell it from ten miles away. The 'quitter' disability. This was what made me think of buying a book or magazine to read in order to occupy my mind on other more pleasant things.
Enter the 'The Economist' of April 27th - May 3rd 2013' headlined 'Generation jobless' and subtitled 'the global rise of youth unemployment'. It seems to be all down to lack of jobs. The article focused more on describing 'joblessness' and on some select countries' statistics, the financial crises, the banks; businesses not employing (the usual stuff). Why don't we ever call a spade a spade and spell it all out as it is!
We have joblessness as an issue because the vast majority of us failed to move with the times. By this I mean...failure to accept the fact that education and a few other things, including financial management and funds generation etc need to be changed to match the rapidly changing social, technical, economic and industrial process. To my mind, education is the chief culprit!
The 'what' is taught and the 'how' it is taught have lagged behind in all disciplines (My God, all teachers and tutors will now want my scalp!). But hold your peace... I believe that society dictates what is taught and, to a degree, the how! So who to blame really? The system or the clients of the system.
The fact is that we are caught in-between 'the changing of the guards' (transition) period. And this period is characterized by new emerging technologies, driven by the few nature-select, inspired ones who have had the freedom to explore their creativity and open up yet more innovative technologies. On the other side of the divide is the 'old way of doing things' embraced by the rest of us who refuse the changing developments and/or are afraid to venture out of our comfort zone! Not to mention those who, in any case, have always been mere observers of life.
Because of the new situation, we need to engage and nurture creativity, not wanton permissiveness. We need a system that encourages different views and positive experimentation. Not a system that turns a blind eye to experimentation in drugs in all its forms. Not a system that only rewards one for towing the line blindly or a system where the more outrageous one's behaviour, the more of a celebrity one becomes! Not a system that makes it difficult for the corner grocery store to do business and turns a blind eye to harassment of people. I believe that economic depression ultimately results when people have no urge to produce or create incomes or use their creativity.
I tend to accept what my sister always said (bless her): 'if they won't give you work, create work for yourself'. Alternatively, emulate the man described in this anecdote (courtesy of the Rees family): A poor unemployed Chinese, gathering all he had and only able to afford half a melon, bought a half melon, selling slices of it to passers-by for cash. He repeated the process until he could afford to buy a whole melon. Continuing the process, he was able to start a melon business!
