Pistorius And The Men Who Pity Him

Odd how we view Oscar Pistorius. Weird how we try to defend him. Strange how men seem to have  pitied him. Before the murder charge that is. When we all watched Blade Runner storm to the finish and gold last summer.
Women saw a fit bloke and fancied the snug shorts off him. Men saw an athlete,  yes, but also a man with no legs. Not really competition.
It must have galled so many to see him with his gorgeous girlfriend and Reeva was not the first. They couldn't understand it. How could a cripple pull a bird like that? Oscar's flammable side was well known. He always had a temper. Men have said that when he got nasty they would feel like punching him but, "You can't hit a man with no legs can you?"
We all thought Oscar had won a victory for disability, competing alongside the able-bodied, but all the while the guys were deeply conscious that he wasn't in the running at all. Even the podgiest counch potato felt superior. Perhaps if someone had smacked Pistorius sooner, put him in his place good and proper, he might have learned to control his anger better. Too late now.

India's Deep Shame

Three little sisters were grabbed as the walked home from school, raped, brutally killed then dumped down a well. If this had happened in Europe there would be a colossal outcry, marchers in the streets and candle-lit vigils. Questions would be asked in Parliament.
But the little girls, aged seven. nine and eleven, lived in Maharashtra in India. The same India PM David Cameron has been flirting with all week. The same India that he rightly  apologised to for the massacre at Amritsar. The modern India that sees itself as a new world power.
That India has a very long way to go. It seems they see Britain as a spent force, they are bemused by the way we seek to ingratiate ourselves. That is their right. We can look at them and wonder. Why did the Indian police do nothing? Why did villagers have to force shops to close, block roads and burn tyres before these so called "accidental deaths" were investigated and post mortems revealed the true horror?
Take a look at a seven year old girl, or even an eleven-year-old. Does she look as though she deserves the protection of her society? She won't get that in India.

Brain Dead Jury Give Justice A Bad Name

So were they asleep, stupid or just plain skivving?  Questions on a postcard to the judge please! The jury in the Vicky Pryce trial has cost the country a fortune because they couldn't be bothered to pay attention.
Court cases do not come cheap. The job of a jury is a serious one, but this lot have given the whole system a bad name. Their total inability or reluctance to follow a simple case will lead to questions about the need for a jury at all.
Surely they can see that only the evidence they have been given is relevant, that they cannot second guess what the defendant was thinking and that they've had all the facts,  they cannot get the whole lot told to them again?
Was there a prat on the panel who so enjoyed feeling important he - almost certainly a he - decided to drag the whole thing out with a lot of pointless questions? The list they gave the judge, with its attempt at legal speak, suggests that. The shameful result is that this total shambles must be gone through again. Dim-wittedness or dereliction of duty? Both.

Pistorius Must Pay

How does it feel to take your legs off at night? Do you put them by the bed and strap them on if you need a pee? If you have a row with the girlfriend does she put them out of reach, so that you have to crawl on your belly to get them? What if she picks them up and moves them again? Where does that leave you?
I only ask because this is out of my experience. It is for most of us. Perhaps it was never experienced by Oscar Pistorius either. I hope so. I would not wish that on anyone. That feeling of helplessness though. He knows all about that.
Huge frustration and rage at the world, he felt that, as a toddler, a child, a young man.  Hard to imagine it ever really goes away. Without those legs within reach, this superb Olympic athlete is as helpless as a baby.
They say he shot his beautiful girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp through the bathroom door. That he never meant to hurt her. His trial will bring all the evidence to be weighed.  Hopefully we will get the truth and Reeva"s family will get justice. They deserve no less. They have paid a huge price. Only Pistorius will keep on paying.

Pope, Politics and Divine Revelation

So, being Pope is like any other job - you can jack it in when you've had enough. That's a shocker. For any Catholic that is. We were taught that the Pope was infallible and chosen by God. No shirking that one.
Yet here he is, off to the sunshine, while the flock wonders what went wrong. Quite a lot as it happens. Benedict is healthier than his predecessor John Paul, but he has decided to go. Has the past caught up with him? Some say he had more to do with the child sex scandal than he let on. He may even have been behind the decision to pay off victims. Who knows? Not us, not now.
Back in the day at convent school we had to accept the Pope's teachings on everything, because clearly, he could do no wrong. Ever. Infallible. Some people still believe that. They think the cardinals are guided by God when they make their choice, rather than the usual politics and skulduggery that surround every position of power.
The Pope has shown how human he is. No shame there, but for those who believed he was God's right hand on earth it's a bit of a come down.  Now the eyes have been opened maybe people will see the church for what it is.

Save Them From These Hearts Of Stone

It's the patients who are the problem in our hospitals. Weak, ill, desperate, they lie there helpless. Relatives get upset, they get angry, they complain, but all the while they have their eyes on the major issue, their sick loved one. So they have no clout. No one listens.
Nurses ignore them, are  arrogant and rude and there is nothing they can do, because raging against the cruelty that exists in our hospitals does nothing for the person in the bed.
So relatives cajole, they buy food, water, they  ask for bedpans, take them to the sluice, they steal water from anywhere they can when none is available. If they can, they get their loved one out, to take their chances at home.
How do I know all this? because I've been there, at Northwick Park Hospital, in London,  where surly staff ignored my desperately ill son. He discharged himself after five hours, without having the saline drip he so badly needed. He was looking at kidney failure, on top of many other problems, but they did nothing. That's one hospital, but relatives have the same problem everywhere. If the staff don't care you and your loved ones are stuffed. It's that simple.

Ten Thousand Thankyous!

Got to hand it to you all, 10,000 page views! brilliant! Thank you so much !  

Brian IS God

Brian Cox is such a klutz! Last week he couldn't spit into a test-tube, this time he kept dropping tiny ear bones. Got a brain bigger than a banker's bonus yet he still messes up.
Nobody cares. What a marvel! Somehow he gets through the fog and shows how life started on this planet. So complex, yet to him, so simple. God knows how you live with a brain like that. Probably why he travels such a lot. Have to feel as stupid as a slug, married to him.
He was a bit slow to suss that alligator though. You've got teeth Brian, but his are bigger. Nearly had you there lad! It's just what we all think very brainy people are like. Brilliant at the clever stuff, head high in the clouds while the backside's on fire. They could edit out the clumsy bits but they don't, because it makes him look human. Otherwise we'd all guess the truth - he IS god.