Waiting for the dawn - Day 19

Day 19 (Tuesday 19th December 2017)

19 years ago Cuba lifted its 30-year ban on Christmas.
Fidel Castro declared the government atheist after the coup in 1952 and 
abolished the paid Christmas Day public holiday in 1969 because, he said,
he needed everyone to work on the sugar harvest. Being a Christian festival, 
it should come as no surprise that Christmas is not recognised predominantly in parts 
of the Middle East and Asia. Countries in which Christmas is not a formal public holiday 
include Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bhutan, Cambodia, China (excepting 
Hong Kong and Macao), Comoros, Iran, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Laos, Libya, Maldives, 
Mauritania, Mongolia, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, 
Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, 
United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Yemen.

We have our office Christmas Party this evening. Many firms, due to the diverse nature of the workforce now have "Winterval" parties or a "seasonal event", we however, being a long-established UK business, remain traditional. We are off to celebrate in the vaults of Old Billingsgate Market.

Today's piece was a challenging piece to write and some may find it a challenging read. It has been written in the form of "Wild Writing", similar to Free Writing, which, as Wikipedia states, is a "technique in which a person writes continuously for a set period of time without regard to spelling, grammar, or topic. It produces raw, often unusable material, but helps writers overcome blocks of apathy and self-criticism." Clearly, this piece is usable, but I am sorry to say that the author, despite being determined to write a piece for the series, was unable to produce anything without resorting to this method, as they either rejected or over-stressed about and edited until the piece lost its authenticity. They have asked to present anonymously, although they are aware that people who know them well will recognise them from what they have written.

For reasons that will be obvious after you have read it, I have not interrupted the flow of the words with any illustrations, other than at the start and the end.

*************************

This is the third time I have written my contribution for the Advent blog and this is also the third style I have written it in as there is something that I want to write but I don’t want to write because it is going to mean saying things that I don’t want to say which sounds very confusing as I write it ummmm I’d like to say that it is because I don’t want to say them to the world but that is bollocks the reality is that I don’t want to say it to myself *lets out a massive sigh* this is the darkest year I have experienced in living memory I had a fairly dark one 4 years ago because I made some choices that seemed right but were very wrong and so I made some changes gave sincere apologies and there was quickly a new dawn but this year has felt relentless relentlessly dark I want to call bullshit on myself as there have been wonderful moments elements or aspects of joy but I have had to fight for them and fight really hard at times to find those moments when I feel content when I feel happy............. fighting to be happy that is a whole new thing for me and I’ve had to do it as I have been fighting for most of this year against myself in a way I’ve struggled as I’ve not been able to be me or at least the me that I want to be I have been physically unable to do the things that bring me joy that I enjoy to do things where I can help out and be with others when I can be alone with my 8 count where I can be active and still where I can challenge and be at ease oh I have missed it so so much and now when it is dark I feel the most alone in the darkness fighting for the joy for the dawn but knowing it is only for a fleeting moment before the darkness takes hold again I want to swear A LOT but am choosing not to as as as as as as as I don’t want to be that person that gets shouty angry I know that anger helps me fuels me will get me to a place where the dawn endures I want to use that anger to drive me on not drive me down there is enough doing that already without me adding to it myself I look around and I can see how the darkness that surrounds me is affecting other people too they are having to fight to get some dawn for themselves to get me and try to keep me in the dawn I hate that it affects them too I know why it does and conceptually I get all that but I hate it I hate the way things are I want to be me again please just let me be me again I crave the day I can be me *sigh* when I can be me and so I will sit here in the darkness and I will fight for those moments of joy and I will sit here in the darkness and I will cry for the loss of the moments I treasure and I will sit here in the darkness calling for help and welcoming those people that pull me into the light and I will sit here in the darkness as I know that the darkness will end and I will sit here in the darkness waiting for the dawn waiting for the time when the fighting will ease when I can once again be me

A penny saved is a penny earned

Day 19 (Monday 19th December 2016)

19 August 2016 - the day that London Underground (the world's

Oldest subway system) commenced keeping some of its busiest

tube lines running all night at the weekends. It is estimated that 

these Night Tubes will reduce journey times by 20 minutes, on 

average, for the anticipated 200,000 users.

Mark Husband, the Managing Director of Cogence Search and Head of the Commercial Litigation and International Arbitration practice (with a flair for lateral partner moves), is the author of today's post. Mark is a former lawyer (a successful litigator) and hence he has a genuine understanding of the people in and the area in which specialises. 

Mark is based in London but has operations overseas. He is a great guy to sit and have a chat with - not just about the Law, but about the world in general (as perhaps you can tell from his post below). By his own admission, he "loves a good rant"; I like his wry cynicism and down-to-earth attitude. Mark first contributed to the Advent Blog series in 2015 and it is delightful to have him with us for a second year. You can chat with Mark in person on Twitter (his handle is @MarkHusband). As you will surmise from his post, Mark cares about people and society - a responsible and concerned citizen with a sense of humour.

***********************************

A penny saved is a penny earned

Well…maybe.

In this festive period we are encouraged to think of others. So, I thought I would write a note for Kate’s excellent Advent blog on the consequences of taking the title concept too far.

Height of umbrage

There was a small feature on the news this morning that mentioned that many of us will experience problems with parcel delivery services this month. Having just had my own issues with UPS claiming to have attempted delivery on a number of occasions when they had made no such attempt; falsifying tracking data to record the fake attempt; and recording the reason for failure as “problems with recipient”, I recognised the issue. After a number of strongly worded emails the item was eventually delivered.

I felt justified in expressing my dissatisfaction with the service and probably was in many respects, but my problems with this service and those many of us will experience in the next few weeks start with the iffy aphorism at the top!

The company from which I ordered this present (not Amazon in this instance) will have taken up a tender from the lowest bidding delivery company. Built into the tender will have been an SLA (Service Level Agreement) that both parties understood would be more honoured in its breach than observance, but would be available to wave around if required in the event of adverse press attention.

That delivery company in turn will employ drivers on terms which contain KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) which are factually impossible to adhere to forcing drivers to take short cuts or, as the excerpt clipped from the BBC website below suggests, risks:

“A BBC investigation has revealed some agency drivers delivering for Amazon drive dangerously because of pressure to finish their rounds on time. An undercover reporter worked long hours for one of the many agencies supplying Amazon with drivers and earned an amount equivalent to less than the minimum wage.”

Heart’s not in it….

I am as responsible for the state of affairs I describe as the organisations concerned - and so are you! We all want bargains. We are participants in market competition that forces companies to trade at margins that do not permit levels of service we or they would consider adequate. We are electing to pay for a poor service that inconveniences us and costs us time, energy and money to remedy. We do this because we think we are saving money!

We use and order things from websites and coffee companies that we know do not pay UK taxes. We know this – we logically know that if these companies do not pay their tax we will have to make up the shortfall out of our own pockets, but it does not stop us!

Hollow words

Admission time: almost all of my presents for friends and family this year were ordered from Amazon. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. What am I thinking? The shops I did not attend did not receive my money to pay the staff who did not serve me; and neither UK corporate tax nor income taxes were generated by my shopping.

In 1st 6 months of 2015 14 shops closed per day in the UK

Ultimately my habits and yours’ mean that people are not employed or are under-employed and rely on tax-funded benefits to survive. We work astronomically hard in the UK, mostly to earn enough after tax to live a decent life. Our individual tax burden is huge – there is almost no such thing as after tax because nearly everything we spend our net income on is taxed further.

Why do we cheerfully volunteer to subsidise the profits of Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, etc. by paying their taxes for them? 

Clearly we believe we are saving ourselves some money. These little self-deceptions we allow ourselves are not little they are vast, they affect us; our families; our neighbours; and our society. 

I am not about to don a red beret and join the march against globalisation, but having allowed myself to be a part of the problem for a very long time I resolve to think harder about where I spend my money and worry less about whether I am saving a penny and more about the effect of my spending on others.

Source: Office for National Statistics

Now, off to Starbucks….