Falling sperm counts....noooo, count again, please

Some interesting reports I read were about the falling sperm count of human males. Interesting? Well yes, perhaps because it throws open some possible futures. One of which is the demise of the human race. In that case it wouldn’t be sudden like a thunderclap from heaven. One day there are 8 billion humans and the following day there are none. No, it wouldn’t be like that. It would be more like a slow dance towards oblivion taking two or three or even more generations. Less and less babies being born and those that are would suffer a greater number of degenerative conditions. Frankly, come to think of it, it is already happening! There is no need to ask why – it is simply the way we live, the things we manufacture. People generally are not aware what the plastics industry has and still is, doing to us. Not just us either, all species suffer from our indiscriminate use of chemicals. Manufacturers like Ineos, which is a global chemical company. INEOS products are essential in the modern world. As the ads say: 

Petrochemicals are used in a wide range of end-market applications to save lives, improve health and enhance standards of living. 

You note the double speak and use of grammar? They do not just say they produce petro-chemicals that are used in plastics manufacture; no, they say ‘improve health'. Well, I have news, the products are used to improve health but the constituents are making us ill. I am not a chemical graduate or technician but I do think that there is enough evidence on the Internet and in written reports that show our indiscriminate use of chemicals in any industry is harmful to life. 

As we are not likely to change our attitudes, or even our will to lead a better existence, things will develop as they do already. Every action, whatever it is, has a result and an outcome. You throw a ball up in the air and it will not land on the moon because it will fall down to the ground . It might even fall on your head. You produce a chemical and that will do its job for which it was designed. But it also can and mostly will interfere with whatever else is around. Human cells consist of few special chemicals, there is water obviously, sodium, potassium, calcium and more. So, a complex thing finely balanced. If this finely balanced cell comes into touch with say a compound which is a constituent of plastic, it might react or even gets out of kilter and gets destroyed. 

It is not my intention to write a treatise on cancers but you, I hope, see my drift. Can we stop this? Can we stop the proliferation of compounds harmful to life? Yes, of course we can but do we really want to? These are the questions I would like to see addressed by our very intelligent species that sits on the hallowed green benches in Parliament. Rather than shouting at each other and addressing issues like did so-and-so have a drink before Christmas whilst the pandemic raged? Well, all they are concerned with is whether they will get an increase in stipend this year. And INEOS will have the green light to carry on because they spend a lot of their money on supporting sport. Nice. Anyone for a bit of Tupperware? By the way, what happened to them? Couldn’t find more people to have a party? No, really?

Money and gender, the two questions today...

We have many times talked about money, in particular the money that is government’s responsibility. Meaning borrowing, quantitative easing and taxation levels. This morning reports on the media are stating something that I have never heard before. That probably is a worrying thing. It is that the amount of borrowing the government carries out has increased. Not just because it needs money for projects, something like HS2 I suppose, no it is the cost of interest payments! Meaning that they have to borrow more to pay interest! How silly does it get before we all go down with our heads under water waving the Union Jack? Borrowing to pay interest? That sounds like a quick way down into the abyss! I just wonder when the last time was when we balanced the books? That is when taxation completely covered expenditure? Probably the last time was before I was born. Ever since WW2 we have been living in cloud cuckoo land. Apparently our national debt now stands at £2.5 trillion. Just work out the interest payments on that! At 1% it is still a staggering amount. We probably pay a lesser percentage but I have not looked what the interest level of government gilts are today. More than 1% I think. Even so, we are on a steep slope, in fact the whole of the western world. We do need to be more careful about our ways and means. It goes all over the nation, not just the government. As citizens we also bear a great responsibility. We need to adjust our wants, desires to the available resources. To not spend beyond our means. It sounds so simple but with humans nothing is simple. It is the reason why authoritarianism seems so popular in certain countries and more worrying seems to gain grounds in western countries as well. The behaviour of sections of the population shows authoritarian ideas take easy root. What’s even more worrying is the so-called great silent majority acquiesce with the excesses of the vociferous minorities. Just meaning, a few people who shout the loudest are getting their way with most of the great majority staying completely silent. Probably just murmuring under their breath something like ‘Silly idiots, get a life’. But forgetting by staying silent things will just get worse.

Take this idiocy called gender, when we are born we are either classified as male or female. Just by looking at the genitals I suppose. That is the biology of the genus. All mammals are like this. It is named ‘Our sex is male or female’. Today it is different from the meaning of gender. No need to go into that here as you will be able to read or hear plenty on social media. But we do need to stop to sack people from work (as teachers or such) who call a girl ‘She’ and not ‘It’ or something else entirely as I read in the news today. It tends to be forgotten that if we are talking about rights, rights to be called an ‘It’ or ‘Non-binary’, then another has rights to not be called such. Besides there are also rights as imposed by one’s religion. As a Christian I disregard gender but understand the wish of someone or other to be called ‘It’. As a matter of fact it is also OK by me if they want to be called ‘Dog’, or ‘Snowflake’. Yep, it’s a fine world we live in. Actually come to think of it, it is called ‘World’? It hasn’t changed gender, has it?

Money, money, it's just so funny....Not

Just in case you thought everything was great then you have not heard the latest wonderful news from the US? Their debt ceiling might have to be £30+ trillion dollars? Eh? That is thirty million million million dollars. Excuse me, who is running that show? $30,000,000,000,000,000,000 debt. Well, that puts my own debt with the bank in some perspective. Just wondering what the US banks charge for all of that? It’s just mind boggling. What is more worrying is this – when such a ceiling will collapse, as it will, then what? We are always talking about how wonderful it is to live in a free world but is it really free when we are shackled by such debt? It is not just the US, Europe is just the same, in fact all countries seem to be burdened with debt. So, a good question to ask is who pays for all of that? Well, in a way it is you and me. We might save some money in some sort of a savings account (if we are lucky!) and the savings banks and others will invest that in government bonds hoovering up some interest. For now it makes sense but as we see it can just get to be a type of self-destruct button. Governments just cannot seem to be able to control their budgets. Obviously not everyone is a financial wizard but you would have thought that those who put themselves forward for government know at least the rudimentary rules of money. The way it moves. If we look back at 1929 when people just lost all sense, borrowed money to buy stocks in the hope of making a quick profit and then it just takes one player or so to issue a warning and when people then lose their courage all hell will break loose. 

Similarly today, to finance all the governmental borrowing, stocks like bonds have been issued, billions or even trillions of them. Obviously, these earn interest but investors can sell them. See the correlation? On top of all that the economic outlook also is not too bright. When you read reports that BT (British Telecoms) is planning to shed 55,000 jobs by the end of this decade, one needs to start worrying! All due it said, to AI (Artificial Intelligence). OK, if that is the case they will not be the only industry who will shed jobs. The point is this – are our elected nimbys (MPs) actually aware of these impending disasters? Probably not, they are too busy trying to figure out what a woman is. 

When ordinary secondary schools are forced to have unisex toilets that must not show ‘male’ or ‘female’ indications then I want to check the availability of a one way ticket to the Mars colony – when it is built. It is no wonder that the suicide rate of young people is increasing. In my own backyard in the Rhondda Valley we have heard recently of three, all happening without known reasons. This sort of thing was unheard of in past times. I would say to parents generally, ensure your children will be of a good standard of education. Be aware of what is actually happening in the world. Don’t listen to the inane ramblings of politicians or even take the news reports too seriously. There is just too much fake stuff around as well as propaganda. So be careful, the crocodiles and tigers are circling. It is the Wild West out there.

To be a MP or not to be, that is another question...

 A lot is being talked about Labour winning the next election, That is with or without the Liberal Democrats. Well, Keir’s efforts, if you can call it that, do point to a possible coalition. Now, on it’s own that is not always a bad idea. One party tempering the other’s excesses and vice versa. In the meantime Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party has to cope with the demise of it’s leader. You may ask why? No one really knows, beyond him having said he felt he was not being supported by his colleagues. But apparently a report said that the party suffered from misogyny, harassment and bullying. No, really? Well, strike me down with a feather. Are we now becoming so entrenched with the views of a smallish minority whose views are so rabid and that includes the BBC, that politicians are basically having to watch their words? That cannot be good. Similar to what happened to the deputy prime-minister Dominic Raab. Bullying and that with a big question mark hanging over it. Was it or was it not. As he has said before, as a top politician you sometimes have to be hard. Our civil servants for the most seem to feel they are untouchable and do not have to work hard. But may I also say something that has been said before – THEY are NOT elected! They are supposed to serve the policies to be put in place. As that great comedy called “Yes, Minister” showed, civil servants do believe they know better than the elected people’s representatives. I have to add here that indeed the quality of the aforementioned public representatives can leave a lot to be desired. It has been said that most MPs are not worth the salary or stipend. Only turning up for Prime Minister’s Question Time. It is true most MPs and there are 650 of them could easily stay home and drink coffee all day, and the country would not be worse off. In fact as I think I have said before, for those who are elected and do not have the necessary acumen or knowledge, they would need a period of familiarisation inclusive of the ways of Parliament and how it works. Or should work. The other thing that ought to be looked at by the respective parties is the quality of the persons who want to stand. Their educational attainments and public standing. Also and here I just cannot believe political parties do this, is the idea of women only lists. The Labour party seems to do this quite often, in the name of gender balance. But there could be much better qualified male contenders. I must say though if there is a woman who stands out, certainly such a person needs to be selected. It ought to be the best person for the job whether female or male. No donkeys, please, just to be politically correct. We have had enough of the woke attitudes now so pervading society.