What do the 99% and the Arab spring have in common?

My what short memories we have.  Arab Spring - peaceful sit-in protests in the middle east that led to a lot of changes, people died, some dictators were removed, the sheer will of the people did this.  Now cut to Occupy Wall Street, peaceful (mostly) protests all around the US (Salt Lake has an 'occupy' protest down in Pioneer Park) and in many cities around the world.  Our citizens saying that they've had enough of the culture of corruption that the banks have been getting away with for years.  Even after we bailed them out (remember that - your tax dollars paid for it) they're back to their old ways.  And when we try and do something about it - the police are ordered to break up these camps using force.  Laws are rushed through local government to rid us of this public nuisance.  These 'occupiers' are from every walk of life and they are expressing their discontent in the only public way they can.  They can't bring down these banks or large investment houses only the super rich can dismantle their little eyrie and why would they want to do that?

And what do we give these (mostly) peaceful demonstrators for their trouble?  Violence. Demonstrator Scott Olsen - an Iraq war veteran , 24 years old. He survives fighting for US freedom and he gets a fractured skull courtesy of a smoke grenade from the Oakland police force.  Using excessive force on your citizens here at home makes you look like a bunch of bullies. And unlike middle eastern countries where refusing to obey an order meant you could be shot, if the police refused to take these orders they would only lose their jobs not their lives and that would be a sign that the 1% were losing ground. Taking away the generators the NY protesters are using for warmth because they constitute a 'fire hazzard' also smacks of the 'the man' sticking it to us. Occupy Wall Street is a way for people to express their discontent with everything that's gone wrong in this country.  A safety valve if you will.  And neither negative media coverage, nor dismissive politicians have managed to put this upstart movement to bed - the protesters say they are in it for the long haul.  Six weeks in they've no clear message, they don't have an agenda, they're all ages, all races but they are still occupying.

There are those who read those post and will assume I'm a democrat.  Guess what I don't support any political party, the left is wet, the right is so far right that if we moved them back in time to Berlin in 1933 they'd fit right in.  Moderates are few and far between, if I could find one I would support them.  Oh and speaking of history, you might want to look up that time the French 99% turned on the 1%.  They skipped the peaceful protest - it wasn't pretty.

Why don't we notice small amounts going missing from our bank accounts?

You'd think with all the tools we have at our disposal to monitor our bank accounts that this wouldn't be allowed to happen.  I check my bank accounts regularly and I completely missed the $5.10 withdrawal by Witifile but my bank (thank goodness) didn't.  It's not a huge amount in fact its so small that lumped in with all the other transactions I just assumed it was meant to be there.

Once the bank had alerted me I started to look into Witifile and found I'm not the only one.  Somehow they've gotten hold of a bunch of card numbers and debited that small amount from each one.  If you times $5.10 by millions suddenly its not such a small amount any more.  The moral of this post is, check your bank account and if you don't recognize a transaction call the bank, they will be able to tell you more and dispute the charge if necessary and unlike me keep all your receipts until the bank has put them through which I will be doing from now on.

Now I'm stuck with a dead debit card until my new one arrives.

Since when is it okay to steal?

I know we are in a down economy, I know that people have to make ends meet but I cannot get my head around stealing books.  I mean why? Why would you do that.  Get in the queue at the library, don't come to a small business and steal the inventory.  Of course this person isn't going to steal from a chain, they have cameras everywhere and they prosecute shoplifters.  We are booksellers not store detectives I have no authority to challenge a customer even though I followed said customer to the cash desk and the book was still in evidence and suddenly it wasn't.  I even asked if that customer was ready to buy the book I'd seen in a hand only moments earlier. I was told that the book had already been put back.  Did I say 'liar' of course not.  The thing that gets me is that I can't prove anything was stolen, bookfairs mean our inventory is spread all over the valley at the moment.

Makes me mad.

Also makes me miss our manager at the local newsagents in Storrington.  She watched a kid thieving with such sleight of hand that we two at the counter knew he was taking stuff but couldn't catch him in the act.  She had the security camera footage and she had a temper. She came flying down from the upstairs flat, grabbed the kid by his ankles and shook and you would not believe how much stock fell out.  Then she righted him, told him he was 'barred' and his mother would be seeing the footage along with the local policeman if he dared set foot in the shop again.  He never did.

Of course that wouldn't work for the bookstore because we are welcoming in honest fellow bookworms...

Where are my manners?

You aren't born with manners, as a baby the first words are more likely to be mamma or go goo than 'please' or 'thank you' (If you're first words were please or thank you consider yourself a child prodigy)  Parents teach kids manners, if they don't their kids learn by copying the other kids in the playground.  To be honest I was dragged up pretty well but there was a stage where my manners were sadly lacking.  It is very rude to swear and when I worked for the civil service it was a way for staff to let off steam, I even learned to swear in Dutch - which ticked off my manager no end because she couldn't tell if I was swearing or not.  Since most of my jobs - except that one - involved a degree of interaction with the public I'm sensitive to bad manners and at the moment we're not doing the next generation any favours. 

Take this morning, standing in a queue at the post office.  Mothers on cell-phones ignoring their kids, people pushing into the queue to get forms for various things, in one case the guy was so keen he stood on the foot of the woman in front of me, a woman who was so interested in her cell-phone conversation that she was ignoring the questions of the clerk trying to serve her. With our busy and increasingly isolated lives we get less and less chances to talk to real people.  Good manners cost nothing so the next time you're out and about turn off your cell phone and turn on a smile, you might make someone's day.

(I'm always polite to our customers, I've come to know a lot of the regulars by name.  We do our best to make everyone who walks through the door feel welcome.) 

Are we slaves to our Sat Navs?

For reasons it isn't worth going into I'm about to upgrade my iPod to an iPhone and this brings up an interesting dilemma.  I've been hankering after a GPS in my car for years and now I'm about to get one.  The concept of being able to plug in an address and be directed to it instead of having to reccee places before I go to them or using google streetview really appeals to me.  I hate getting lost, and worse being late for important things because I was driving round in circles unable to find a tiny unmarked side street.  Not that my navigation is terrible, but knowing exactly where you're going is one less thing to have to concentrate on especially in down-town Salt Lake, where lunch time commuters wander around the streets like a flock of lemmings.

Did you know in the UK alone 300,000 crashes were blamed on satellite navigation aids. In a quote from UK tabloid The Daily Mirror

One top academic argued mindless motorists were at fault for perceived problems with satnavs.
Psychology professor Cary Cooper, of Lancaster University, said: "When you see pictures of a lorry being lifted out of ditch with a crane, it's difficult to understand why drivers follow a satnav even when it's clearly wrong.
But some people are easily persuadable and will follow instructions, whether it is their wife or a computer telling them where to go.
Some people like to hand over control and don't want responsibility, even for something as simple as directions.

If you google 'sat nav accidents' there are many, many pages of stuff just like this.  Having read plenty of these articles I have come to the conclusion I will let my GPS offer advice on my route - which I don't have to take if I don't want to- and will always keep a map handy.


www.engadget.com/tag/gps+accident/
http://j-walkblog.com/index.php?/weblog/posts/gps_related_accidents/
http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~johnson/papers/GPS/Johnson_Shea_Holloway_GPS.pdf

Why is doorstep harrasment still legal?

Ever heard the phrase an Englishman's home is his castle.  I used to think that was a really grown-up (ie boring) thing to say.  Now I have a home of my own I can see what it means. I - the co-homeowner - decide who comes in, I don't even have to open the door if I don't want to.  My friend - the wise girl I was discussing this subject with intends to put a notice on her door that basically says, 'if we don't know you we won't be opening the door'  Which throws up all kinds of problems - all those packages you have to sign for that won't get delivered, publishers clearing house cheques, the passer-by who has just spotted your garage is on fire....    My parents have an airlock between them and the front door so they can open the door shake their heads and close it again without a word being exchanged.  Unless its the JH's and then Mum hides under the table until they've gone - I am not making this up!

I tend to take direction well, a sign saying 'NO TRESPASSING' will stop me in my tracks.  So will a sign (like the one on our front door) that tells you to read it before you ring the doorbell.  People who ignore that sign and aren't people we know or a appointment that we have set up, or parcel/pizza delivery are likely to get an earful from hubby (if he's home) or me.  But ignore it they do and then they wonder why  I'm so short with them.  It could be because I was buried inside my washing machine trying to extract the filter, balanced half way up a ladder, had just got my head around a concept and the doorbell sent my thoughts flying to the four corners or the fact that the doorbell scares the hell out of my cat. And when I do open the door they launch straight into their sales pitch.  The words "I'm sorry to bother you," would go a long way in this situation.

If I am in the front garden however, I'm fair game.

Update : Privacy film on the window at the front door, you can see them and they can't see you. People still ring the doorbell they just don't get an answer unless we know them. Simple but effective.