Author: R J Adams

It’s your world now
Use well the time
Be part of something good
Leave something good behind
The curtain falls
I take my bow
That’s how it’s meant to be
It’s your world now.

(Glenn Frey & Jack Tempchin)

Remember the ‘Eagles’, one of the greatest American rock bands of all time? Formed in 1971, their music symbolized that great era when California was the only place to be; the Vietnam War was shortly to come to an end, and by the time it did the ‘Eagles’ were arguably the biggest band in America.

In those days, Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Timothy B Schmit, and Joe Walsh were all kids in their twenties. Their music was aimed at us kids of similar age. We lapped up ‘Hotel California’, ‘Take It Easy’, ‘One Of Those Nights’, and other great tracks secure in the knowledge nothing was wrong with the world, and our elders (once Nixon was removed) were doing mostly everything right. Or, if they weren’t, we were too busy having fun to care.

It’s been one month and a day since my last post on Sparrow Chat. Partly, other priorities have resulted in the lack of posting, but mostly I’ve ceased to care. You see, there comes a point – somewhere around the age of sixty-seven – where what happens on this planet is no longer of concern. I guess it’s part of growing old.

Every day the news becomes worse. It’s not the chaos in Egypt, nor the indoctrinal attempts to bolster the Obama administration by pretending there may be the possibility of a peace settlement between the Palestinians and the Israelis – where obviously none can ever exist in the present climate.

It’s the news much closer to home – in America itself – that is truly disturbing. Americans just don’t seem to notice the meteorological catastrophe that is devastating their nation. The media headlines it every day, but in a way that says, “it’s mundane, nothing to be concerned about, just another ‘weather’ story”.

Is anybody looking back ten, twenty, fifty, years? Only the old people can state with certainty, “It weren’t like that when I were a lad/lass.” No, it wasn’t. Oh, yes, catastrophic floods, wildfires, tornadoes may have existed back then, but in such numbers and magnitude as is happening today? No, definitely not.

But, who the hell listens to old folk anymore? There was a time when the elders of the tribe were revered as wise, hearkened to, their wisdom acted upon. That’s not the way of the world today. Elders are crazy, nutty, their memories warped by age and senility. No-one listens to them anymore. After all, our president is a young man – barely fifty-two and looking ten years younger. Is he not the wisest man in the nation? Otherwise, how could he possibly be president?

The young have their smart phones, Ipads – technological wizardry never dreamed of when the ‘Eagles’ were singing ‘Tequila Sunrise’ – and maybe they’ve become so immersed in this communications revolution that they’ve truly forgotten how to communicate the things that really matter.

If I purchase a tube of toothpaste on Amazon today, I’m invited to declare my new purchase on FaceBook. I can’t believe that anyone of the six and a half billion humans on this planet would be interested to know about my toothpaste, so I never take up Amazon’s offer, but presumably sufficient people use the service to warrant making this function available?

Which all makes one wonder: “Is my toothpaste of more importance to humanity than the catastrophic, man-made, climate change that is already ravaging this nation and this planet?

Certainly, on the surface at least, it may well be. For who, apart from a few well-meaning folk, who bear comparison with anti-hunting campaigners or gun control freaks, even believes in the existence of man-made climate change? After all, it’s not affecting the performance of the Chicago Bears or the Miami Dolphins, so what’s the problem here?

And, hey, you know, at age sixty-seven it’s not my bloody problem anymore. At best, I’ll not manage more than thirty further years on this planet, and likely considerably less. Man-made climate change is not going to have any truly devastating effect on me.

In 2007, the ‘Eagles’ released their last album, “The Long Road Out Of Eden.” The band members were just short of sixty years old. The last track on that superb double album was entitled, “It’s Your World Now.”

It symbolizes exactly how I feel today. I’m not responsible for the state of the planet. I wasn’t running things this past fifty years. So, I have this message for those who are today at that age as were Frey, Walsh, Schmit, and Henley when they wrote and performed, ‘Hotel California’.

If you don’t care enough to save the planet for your future, then fuck you. Consider whether there’s any difference between burying your heads in the sand, or, into your tablets and smart phones.

“It’s Your World Now,” and, frankly, at my age, I no longer give a damn.

I wonder how many Americans, as they pick up their burger and fries from the drive-thru of the local McDonalds, realize they are contributing to poverty in America.

No doubt, many are now suspicious of the “financial sector”, Wall Street, and bankers in general. J P Morgan Chase is not a name to conjure confidence in the heart of the average US citizen.

McDonalds, however, is as American as apple pie, or the burgers it serves up by the million every year. This great name has been supplying cheap, fast food, since Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant in San Bernadino in 1940.

Ask most Americans to find a connection between McDonalds and J P Morgan Chase, they’d look at you mystified. Unsurprisingly, neither company would wish it to become general knowledge that, for all practical purposes, they are one and the same.

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What drew this to my attention was a recent email from Change.Org. The transcript is copied below:

McDonald’s: Stop paying employees with debit cards loaded with fees

By Natalie Gunshannon
Dallas, Pennsylvania

I was looking forward to my new job when I started working at a McDonald’s location in Pennsylvania in April, but I was disappointed to find out that in order to be paid, I would have to activate a JP Morgan Chase debit card with heavy fees attached.

I’m a young single mom. When I started my job at McDonald’s, I knew that I would only be making slightly more than minimum wage. I didn’t expect that the only way I would be paid would be on a debit card that would dock pay that I earned through lots of different fees. When I asked if McDonald’s could pay me through direct deposit to my local credit union, which doesn’t charge withdrawal fees, I was told that the debit card was the only option.

These cards come with a lot of fees: from fees for cash withdrawals to balance inquiries to lost or stolen cards to overdrafts and even inactivity fees. The federal government has helped reduce fees on credit and debit cards that most consumers use, but those protections don’t apply to the kinds of cards companies like McDonald’s are using to pay employees. In the end, I feared that once all of the fees from getting my own hard-earned wages through this card were taken out, my pay would go below minimum wage.

I decided to leave my job at McDonald’s not because I didn’t like the people, but because I think it’s only fair that I get paid for all of my work there. Since I quit, I’ve found out that paying employees through these cards with fees attached is a growing trend among dozens of major employers. The New York Times reported that last year roughly 4.6 million active payroll cards were issued by companies like McDonald’s.

Like millions of other workers, I deserve to get fairly paid for my work. When I stood up and spoke out against the lack of choices for employees, the local franchise in Pennsylvania that I worked for announced that it would offer employees more options for payment. But I’ve seen that employees at other McDonald’s franchises as far away as Milwaukee are still dealing with the same problems and that’s not fair. I think everyone should be given the choice of what they want to do with their hard-earned money.

I think McDonald’s should be a leader nationwide in ensuring that employees get to keep their own wages in full and I’m concerned for other McDonald’s employees who don’t have that option. Will you join me in calling on McDonald’s to ensure that all employees nationwide can keep their wages and chose to say no to fee-heavy cards?^[2]

‘Fees for cash withdrawals’; fees for ‘balance inquiries’; fees for ‘lost or stolen cards’; fees for ‘inactivity’. What a great little money-earner! And a super new way to claw back a percentage of your employee’s wages after they’ve paid any tax on it. Though, given the pittance these people receive, it’s unlikely they’ll come close to entering any tax bracket.

McDonalds is just one of many large corporates heavily into this scam, literally at the expense of the poor and underpaid. Frankly, I consider Natalie’s petition to be aimed in the wrong direction. She should be demanding that the United State’s government outlaw this practice forthwith, demand immediate reimbursement of all monies stolen from employees in this manner, and stiff jail sentences for those corporate CEOs continuing the practice.

Given the vast sums being spent to little effect on the so-called “War on Terrorism”, maybe its about time the US public began to revise their opinion as to who the true enemies of the American people really are?

^{[1] “Chase McDonald’s Finance”}

^{[2] “McDonald’s: Stop paying employees with debit cards loaded with fees”}

The latest headline tonight from the BBC declares that Nelson Mandela is ‘critically ill’ in a Pretoria hospital. Let us hope, this time, he’ll be allowed to die in peace. Mandela has been shuttled back and forth to doctors for months now. Video has shown him glassy-eyed and not in full control, whether from large quantities of drugs, or dementia due to his advanced age.^[1]

While it is possible to understand why South Africans are loathe to let him go, there is now a growing acceptance that his end is near.

This from the Telegraph two weeks ago:

Hundreds attended mass at the Roman Catholic Regina Mundi Church in Soweto, the township where Mr Mandela used to live.
“We wish him speedy recovery, he must get well,” Mlugisi Sekhosana, a local resident, said. “We know what he did for us in South Africa. All the nation, black and white, we wish him well.”
President Jacob Zuma, addressing ANC supporters in Mr Mandela’s ancestral homeland, the Eastern Cape, also urged them to pray for his recovery.
“Please, our president Madiba must make a speedy recovery,” he said. “We wish Madiba can get well soon because we want him to stay with us for a long time.”
Others suggested however that Mr Mandela’s life should not be prolonged unnecessarily.
The front page of South Africa’s Sunday Times bore the headline “It’s time to let him go”.^[2]

Yes, it is to to let him go. So we may all remember him with dignity.

There’s less dignity about the US Congress today as the American media declares the whistleblower, Edward Snowden, a fugitive from justice. They seem to have a strange notion of the justice he would receive by returning to the United States.

Only days ago, Congress suggested Snowden had no need to hide from them. They requested he return and “talk to them”. Now, he’s been branded a traitor by those so keen to “talk”, and faces a long prison term if he’s returned to US soil.

Tonight’s media news coverage was damning of other countries not rushing to extradite this man at America’s behest, the US government resorting to veiled threats against any foreign power offering him asylum. A sour-faced Senator Dianne Feinstein telling CBS News:

I thought China would see this as an opportunity to improve US ties.”^[3]

Could this be translated as, ‘China already has an appalling human rights record, so they could have helped us with ours’?

Meanwhile, it seems the American public are lethargic in their support of Snowden; slow, perhaps, to realize the service he has done for them? They should be roaring their support for this man, who has done no more, it seems, than shed light on the erosion of their freedoms, their constitutional right to privacy ripped apart by security services apparently prepared to go to any extremes under the guise of fighting their ill-named, and ill-conceived, “war on terror”.

Thanks to US President Barack Obama’s private obsession with drone warfare against the people of Pakistan, nine foreign tourists lie dead in a Pakistani mortuary tonight.

With no more wish than to spend their vacations climbing one of the highest mountains on the planet, these nine were spending the night in a hotel at the base camp of Nanga Parbat, before setting out to climb the mountain next day.

Instead, they were shot in cold blood by Taliban gunmen who stormed the hotel. A spokesman for the Taliban said the attack was in retaliation for the killing of a Taliban official by a US drone strike in May. He also affirmed that other foreigners would be targeted in similar future attacks.^[4]

It seems President Obama is killing them over there, to ensure they kill us over there, rather than over here.

On a sweeter note, it’s Wimbledon fortnight in the UK and tennis stars from all over the globe are serving for a chance at those coveted silver platters. The female No 3 seed, however, isn’t relying on a big Wimbledon payout. Maria Sharapova has already launched her own ‘Sugarpova’ brand of ‘fashionable’ candies:^[5]

“A premium candy line that reflects the fun, fashionable, sweet side of international tennis sensation Maria Sharapova.”- according to her website – “sugarpova.com” (what else!)’

Sadly, not all of us have the time and money to keep as superbly fit as Miss Sharapova. She, it seems, can stuff herself with candies and still play eight hours of tennis without raising more than a minor perspiration. The rest of us risk coronary artery disease and obesity from consuming too much of her product. Still, only this week the American Medical Association decided obesity was actually a disease, so it won’t be too long before the US pharmaceutical companies are clamoring for shares in Ms Sharapova’s candy business.

It would seem she can afford to lose at Wimbledon and still remain sweet.

^{[1] “Nelson Mandela critically ill in hospital” BBC, June 23rd 2013}

^{[2] “South Africa urged to ‘let Nelson Mandela go'” Telegraph, June 9th 2013}

^{[3] “Fugitive Edward Snowden asks Ecuador for asylum” BBC, June 23rd 2013}

^{[4] “Tourists killed at north Pakistan mountain camp” BBC, June 23rd 2013}

^{[5] “Sharapova looks for sweet taste of business success” BBC, June 23rd 2013}