Jim Stewart's Blog

I have been sending somebody Garmin tracks tonight of a walk through Turkey. I thought I would also download new maps, but Garmin is down. Rumours are that they have been hit by ransomware. Apparently it has hit the app used by some small aircraft as well.

What would happen if that was along term problem? I see Russia has not tested an anti-satellite weapon (honest guv). I wonder how many people could find their way around the country without GPS. How many ships could navigate without GPS?

I remember just over 20 years ago we were preparing for the millenium disaster. It made me realise how dependent we were on this sort of technology. A lot of modern equipment uses GPS just to get an accurate time signal.

A glitch in the GPS system would mess up our world. And the USA has a switch that makes their GPS system fuzzy for others (it used to be switched on). This is one reason Europe has been putting up the Galileo GPS system – to make sure there is another option, just in case.

I remember looking at the result of the Fukushima nuclear reactor accident. The wind was blowing away from Tokyo. If the wind had blown toward Tokyo there would not have been many more people harmed, but the effect on the economy of Japan and the world economy could easily have broken the worlds financial systems.

I know a lot of people are worried about this virus killing people, but that doesn’t worry me so much. What worries me more is how close to the dark ages we are. In five minutes we could be launched back to the dark ages, it would not take much. The system of feeding the rich world has created a thinly stretched supply system where a small glitch can have such a big effect.

Today is mask day in England. People are talking about it. Shopkeepers are saying they may not enforce it. Police are saying they can only enforce it if shopkeepers ask (because it is private property).

In the USA the use or not of masks seemed to me to be becoming almost a religious belief.

There are a number of “scientific” studies to try to prove things one way or another. I have been less than impressed by some of them. It is true, in a sealed room with 20 people there would be an increased amount of virus in the air after 20 minutes. Personally I don’t often stand in sealed rooms with 20 people – you sort of suffocate.

Truth is there are pros and cons. The biggest problem seems to be the people. Wearing masks needs people to use them properly, and a lot of people have problems with that (just watch F1 and see how many times people touch their masks when being interviewed).

If somebody is in an enclosed space and has the virus the air will normally be 99% cleared within an hour. Rooms are often not as sealed as you might think. On top of that there is the benefit of social distancing.

So do masks work? Well, actually we need more data, and the best way to get that data is to give it a try (because that includes the mask effectiveness and the effectiveness of the person wearing it). But it isn’t as effective as social distancing!

On top of this wearing masks helps people that are nervous to get out and face the world.

But the truth that I have seen coming out is something a lot more painful. There are people that refuse to wear masks. Why? At best they will help save lives, at worst they will hide their face. But there seems that proving a point is more important than trying to help others.

There is a charity in Australia we are linked with. They run a programme called Values for Life. The idea is to provide young people with the ability to put together a values system in their lives that is sustainable.

There are a couple of things recently that have got me thinking about life values. One is the advertising of one TV channel that they will be delivering a month of guilt free “shallow” programming. A sort of “values holiday” month. Do we need values? What harm does it do if we have a month off?

I always used to laugh at the statement of a famous cricketer caught for drug use. He used to say “It doesn’t affect anybody but me”. If that were true he would never get caught. I think it can be hard to live a life that has no impact on others.

Last night we got to watch Liverpool lift the cup. They won. But there are a lot of places that now advocate a “no winner, no loser” version of sports for kids. Two competing values systems. Is one right and one wrong?

I also heard those wonderful words “If you want to hold that opinion that is your choice”. How aggressive is that! But there is a train of thought that says we don’t say people are right or wrong, just different. Many people seem to be adopting a child rearing approach that says “whatever is right for you”.

So how does that fit in with the issues we are dealing with around racism? If somebody is a racist can we say they are welcome to hold that opinion? If we can’t then does it give them the right to say we can’t hold out anti-racist opinion? How do we deal with a clash of values systems?

I believe we need a values system for our lives, and I even go as far as to say I believe we need a values system that we can agree to in society. I like human rights, but I wonder if replacing it with a set of societal values is better, incorporating what we should expect to get from and to give to society?

I also wonder whether a value holiday system is the right way to raise children. The way I saw my upbringing was that I had a values system imposed on me, but I was free to discuss it and challenge it as I grew. It protected me from harm until I built up my own values system.

I once had my youth group put together a list of values they thought should be applied to every person (I then went on to ask if a dog should have the same system applied to them, or an alien from outer space – but that is for another time). I was surprised how close it was to the items in the universal declaration on human rights. Was that something their parents or school had imprinted on their brains, or was it their own idea?

It is interesting that the declaration uses terminology that some would now consider offensive, however I still think it is worth reading – in particular the preamble (the bit we normally skip over).

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
UN General Assembly resolution 217 A
Paris 10 December 1948

Quite interesting paragraph in there “if man is not to be compelled to have recourse … to rebellion against tyranny and oppression”.

I’ve just watched a spoof interview by Obama where he talks about using cat pictures to get followers on Twitter. And that George Galloway cat scene has been on TV a lot recently.

I was watching a drama this week and it came up with an interesting fact that I had to go off and check. the RSPCC gets 20% more money than the NSPCC. Yes, we give more to stop cruelty to animals than we give to prevent cruelty to children. And that is only a fraction of what we spend on pets.

Yes, we are a nation of pet lovers. It makes me feel a bit uneasy that, as a society, we seem to value animals over humans.

I heard about the death of a former colleague today. He was getting on toward 100, so a good lifespan. I remember talking to him about is experience during the war. He was in the Polish resistance. He talked about the futile attempts to fight tanks with Molotov cocktails. I remember one story he told me – he was hiding in a house when a tank barrel broke through the wall and fired at him point blank. He said he never knew how he survived.

It got me to thinking about the amazing people I have had the pleasure of working beside. In my first job there was a sprightly old guy that did all the filing. With time he told me his story, and finally wrote a booklet about it. He was shot down in North East France and walked to South West France through occupied territory. That would be a tough job today even with all of our modern paths and hotels. I remember reading extracts from his diary he kept in the prisoner of war camp after he was captured. I always thought the old films were very stilted in their language, but the diary contained the same language “wizard” and stuff like that.

It got me thinking about the sum of a life. I wandered on to thinking about the old desert island scenario, except I put it in m own house. Just picture this – you are on your own in your own house, survival is no problem, you have enough supplies. But picture no interaction with any other human – ever – till the end of your life. What would your life story be? What would be your goal? Or can we only define our lives through relationships?

I keep thinking about the ideas in the original Star Trek, where money is no longer used.

I see films from the USA where people donate blood to make money. I’m not sure if it still goes on, but it does raise an interesting idea. How much is a pint of blood worth? How much would you pay to buy a pint? How much would you charge for a pint?

One of the figures we used in work was the value of life. You have a dangerous corner on a road and you look at what you can do to make it safer, what that will cost and how many lives (or injuries) you would save. That way you justify things like crash barriers. As an aside I remember one meeting discussing the issue, where the transport department described how they worked out the value of life, only to hear the HSE representative say “we treble that value because we think it works better”.

I saw an advert about PPI plus this week – another round of compensation. It struck me how many different ways we have of getting compensation. One of the systems I see advertised regularly is the medical error compensation. That was why I started thinking about paying for blood donations. So how much is your nose worth?

Over and over we see things translated into a money value. We do it more and more. Maybe because it is a language we all speak? How far do we push this concept? Do we put a monetary value on friendship, or on love?

Looking forward to finding a way to live life without putting a money value on everything.

It has been a film watching day today. Well, in part. It has also been a soup making and risk assessment writing day, with a little bit of work thrown in along with F1 qualifying.

As I write I am watching 3 Billboards. I noticed the use of music (and the lack of it) to communicate emotion in the film. The suicide scene is particularly moving in the film, and the way it transitions into a scene dominated by music is really interesting.

I also watched the wedding today, the first one in the church since lockdown lifted. Different sort of emotion (I think I saw the groom wipe a tear from his eye).

But the most interesting film today was on Talking Pictures channel, I recommend looking the channel up – it does some interesting and odd films – a lot of British B movies. The film was The Terrornauts. There were several scenes where robots would communicate with the captive humans through a series of bleeps. I almost felt I could understand the bleeps.

I’ve always been interested in communication between cultures. Having to write regulations for the world I have realised that the same words can have very different outcomes in practice based on the cultural understanding.

I’ve watched several discussions on things like wearing masks recently, and it struck me that there are very different communication techniques in play by people on different sides of the arguments. It seems to me that we will never reach agreement unless we communicate effectively, and sound seems to have a lot to do with effective communication. Maybe we need to find a way to include robotic bleeps in our social media posts to help avoid misunderstanding, or maybe just being a bit more careful with how we write.

An interesting discussion with a friend today. I had not realized until we talked that there does seem to be a lot of people that are marking time in life during this crisis. I’m glad we have a wedding going on tomorrow. It gives a real sense of moving forward.

And there are two house purchases that have completed today. Another sign of moving forward. But the signs are few and far between.

I was reading the parable of the weeds this week (not the parable of the sower – the other one that doesn’t get a mention much, probably because of the tough message). One way of reading it is a message about avoiding the troubles and getting on with living. Not something that comes easy at times, in fact it can look hard to walk on while things around you are going wrong.

It has another aspect to it that feels a bit harder. A sort of turn the other cheek message, or log in your rye. It can be read as saying “concentrate on doing the right thing in your life rather than trying to correct others that you think are getting it wrong”.

It was a good reminder to me to focus on sorting myself out as a priority.

But this week I think I am going to watch for people moving forward and taking a bit of pleasure in it.

I remember the Maggie Thatcher era and the divisions over politics. Oddly enough it wasn’t the politics that affected me most. I was working with youth groups at the time and I saw a change in attitude, particularly among boys, to a more me centered value system. Politics come and politics go, but that attitude that was instilled in young people was something that I felt would damage a generation.

Now we see Trump and his MAGA attitude. Forget the politics and look at the value system. Here is a man that tells people the value system of success is to drive others down under our heels. I think we can see that in the attitude to things like wearing masks. We all know that wearing a mask will do next to nothing for us – but it will affect others. So why wear them, there is a self cost and no self benefit. “Me” is the most important factor. I regularly hear people in the USA say “Why should I pay for the medical bills of others?”.

Here we have a lot of announcements about Brexit again. I am always surprised that I seem to see an inverse correlation between Brexit supporters and independence supporters. There are a lot of people that were against brexit because we are better together that also argue the devolved nations need independence because they are better apart., and vice-versa. Both groups seem able to argue for their views. But it isn’t the arguments that get me it is that both groups to some extent are supporting a me me attitude.

And now we see this in the groups on the beach, the crowds getting drunk in bars. People demanding normality+ for their pleasure which will have a negative effect on the rest of society. And perhaps even with things like the decision to “do something” as the artist in Bristol decided when he put the statue he thought was best on the plinth.

Next week we are going to see the publication of the Russian report. Watch what it says. My guess is that it will reveal that the tactics were to create societal divisions.

I chose to have a value system that includes others, even if they disagree with me. I choose a value system that works with others to find a way forward. But it isn’t what comes natural to me.