The Hi Jab, in Western Society

There has been a massive influx of Islamic people to Ireland (and to the UK) over the last decade - something I accept with open arms.....it only seems like yesterday when one could count the number of 'non-nationals', living in Dublin, on a single hand. The Muslim community in Ireland is going from strength to strength, and it is great to see Asian restaurants, food stores and other businesses flourish both in the capital and further afield.


I have lived and worked in the UK on and off for approximately 20 years of my life, spread out over 3 decades. In this time, I have met thousands of people from every corner of planet earth, and for the most part, would regard this experience as being an education into multi culturism. During these 2 decades, I have travelled throughout Europe, the USA, the Middle East & (North) Africa, experiencing and embracing many different customs and cultures along the way.

A regular and recent topic of conversation revolves around the wearing of the Hi Jab, (the Islamic head and neck scarf), by young schoolgirls, in educational establishments in Britain & Ireland. The Hi-Jab covers both the hairline and neck, exposing only the face of the wearer. From the outset, one would not expect this to be an issue, nor a bone of contention with Westerners, but, as it transpires, this is not the case at all.

Quite recently, it transpired that the Priciple in a Dublin school suspended a female pupil for wearing the Hi Jab, citing it 'wasn't part of the official uniform'. Fortunately, the parents of said girl decided to take matters further and check out the formal rules and regulations regarding the legalities of the 'formal' dress code within the Department of Education.

It transpired that there were no 'formal' rules and regulations governing the wearing of said clothing, but being typically Irish, the Department of Education stated that is was 'up to the decision of each school principle to decide in each individual case'. Fucking typical. Brush it under the carpet, let someone else take the wrap!!

Anyway, the parents of this girl managed to attain enough media attention that resulted in a change by the Irish Government to effectively 'allow the wearing of headscarves or otherwise' to cater for its (sic) expanded population. I was delighted to read this.

Now, as a resounding result of this complete change of heart by our political leaders, can we get the Irish Government and British Government to ban, from public places, every scumbag that has tatoos depicting or enciting favouritism towards Sinn Fein / IRA / INLA / UVF / UFF or any other republican or loyalist gangs?

The US of A - Instigator of the Oil Crisis.......and more.

I've been doing some research online. The USA has a population of approximately 304,000,000 (304 million) people, representing 4.5% of the total population of the world, which is approx 6,706,000,000 (6.7 billion). It's a very small percentage really. China has a current population of 1,300,000,000 (or 1.3 billion) people. Effectively, 1 in 5 inhabitants of our planet is Chinese.

Anyway, I next researched motor gasoline consumption. In case you are under the impression that my statistics are fictitious, you can check them out for yourselves at http://earthtrends.wri.org/text/energy-resources/variables.html

In 2003, the world's motor gasoline consumption was 1,101,279,000,000 (1.1 trillion) litres. That's a lot of fuel. However, America, or to be more precise, 4.5% of the world's inhabitants, consumed 516,554,000,000 (just over half a trillion) litres. In other words, America consumes 46.9% of the world's gasoline. This is not only terrifying, but completely absurd. I had to check these statistics numerous times, as I was certain they couldn't be correct.

Now, Europe, it seems, only consumes 200,000,000,000 litres of gasoline per annum - less than half of that of America, yet Europe has a population of some 728 million, more than TWICE that of the USA. These statistics are truly terrifying.

How can a developed nation like the USA waste so much oil? Well, if you look closely, they achieve this very easily. Ignore that last sentence, you don't have to look closely at all to realise how much America abuses oil.

The motor car was conceived by Henry Ford, and ALL Americans drive. They drive everywhere. Americans drive big engined cars, unlike Europeans. Most Europeans drive cars with a engine size of between 1 and 2 litre capacity, while our counterparts in America drive huge engined cars. These gas guzzling monsters are completely impractical and unecessary, except for people who drive vast amounts for work purposes. They're completely inefficient, over powered and more importantly, leave a huge carbon footprint in their trail.

I have no issues with the motor car. Let's face it, most of us drive. But Americans drive everywhere. They NEVER walk. I was in Newport, Rhode Island some years ago, and was looking for a nearby village. I knew it was a mile or so away. I stopped a police officer to ask for directions - this is basically the converstion we had:

"Excuse me officer, is this the way to Whereverthefuck?"
"Ah, yes indeed it is.....but....how do you plan to get there?"
"Well, I'm going to walk"
"You sure you want to walk...it's like.....a long way away"
"Oh, how far away is it, officer?"
"It's nearly a mile" (He wished me 'good luck' as if I was initiating a trip up Mount Everest).

Admittedly, I stopped PC Plod as he was walking out of a shop, with a large sack of donuts, and he was at least 300 pounds in weight. It took me 10 minutes to get to Whreverthefuck. I did notice, however, that there were no footpaths (or sidewalks, as they're known over there) along the way. Obviously, there is no need to build them.

On the same trip, I stopped off at a shopping mall to buy something in a Radio Shack. This particular shopping mall was divided between both sides of a road. It transpired that the Radio Shack was on the opposite side of the road, however, there was no way of crossing the road. No underpass, no footbridge. The medium in the centre of the road had a railing, making it impossible to cross the road. I asked someone was there a way to get to the other side of the road, apart from driving. No, I was told. This wasn't a highway, by the way.

People were driving into the car park of this shopping mall, parking outside a store, leaving their engines running, whilst they popped inside. Minutes later, they would reurn to their idling vehicle, and drive 20 yards to their next chosen shop, park outside, leave the engine running, and go inside. I witnessed at least 10 people doing this. So, not only are Americans wasting fuel in this manner, but they are also completely lazy. This shit does not happen anywhere else in the world.

Now, to cap it all, every drop of oil sold in petrol stations (gas stations) in America, comes from the Middle East. America stockpile all of their own oil. At the end of the day, the Arabs don't care who buys their oil, so long as they can shift it as quickly as they drill for it. Gas/petrol, is less than HALF the price it is in Europe, to the consumer. The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the largest stockpile of government-owned emergency crude oil in the world. Currently, this balance is 705 million barrels of oil, (source, Stategic Petroleum Reserve website: http://www.spr.doe.gov/dir/dir.html ). George W Bush wants to double this figure to 1.5 billion barrels of oil by 2027, and yet he has the fucking audacity to claim that high oil prices are not affected by stockpiling. He's a total nutjob.

It would be a very different story altogether if the USA had no choice but to sell ONLY their own oil to consumers. Joe Blow American would buy smaller vehicles, drive less, and ultimately, would become healthier people.

If the Iraq war had never been initiated by Nutjob Bush, the world would not be suffering the current oil crisis. So, America, please, please do me a favour. Get rid of Bush, now. Don't wait until the General Election. He is singlehandedly destroying the world.

The US of A - Petty Crime v Real Crime

When it comes to gun related crime and murder, America excels. Los Angeles has a higher percentage of street gang membership, per head of population, than most (if not any) other cities in the world. The fact that guns are legalised certainly does not help.

Now, it must be stressed that crime in Europe is on the increase too, scarily so. Murder rates in Dublin are nearly doubling on an annual basis. Handguns, although illegal in all European nations can be bought on the streets in minutes (or so I'm informed).

But, what I want to talk about today, in this post, is petty crime in America. Or should I say, the lack of it. As far as I can see, from my experiences, petty crime does not exist in the USA, or if it does, it is at a tiny level.

The first time I visited the USA, I was flying from London, where I lived, to Sacramento, California, via a change of flight in Denver, Colorado. Between the jigs and the reels, we missed our connect flight to Sacramento, requiring a 7 hour wait before we could be accommodated on the next available flight. Owing to this unscheduled delay, I needed to phone my brother in Sacramento, to explain our delay. This was 1987, in the days before mobile phones were widely available, so I had no choice but to use a call box. Realising this was an inter-state call that would cost a few bucks to make from a public phone, I managed to get approximately $10 in quarters (25 cent coins for those of you have never frequented this fascinating country).

Myself and my girlfriend (at the time, let me add), stood in line at a call box. When I picked up the receiver, an automated female voice was asking me to 'select my desired operator'. Now, in 1987, we didn't have a selection of telephone operators to choose from in Britain, or Ireland, whereas this phone had 6 buttons to select from, each one representing a different phone company. I duly selected one of these buttons, thinking to myself that if I had more information readily available, I would know which one offered the cheapest inter-state calls to California. Another sexy, female, automated voice spoke to me, "Thank you for choosing AT&T, where we strive to make your call inaudible", (or some such other bullshit). I was then told by the same automaton to dial my number, which I did. Then I was asked to insert $1.50, which I did.

There was a brief pause, followed by the automaton informing me that my call was being connected, and many more thanks from the AT&T company. By this stage, I felt AT&T must be in some serious financial poop, if it necessitated so much gratitude to me, in relation to a simple phone call. Anyway, I eventually made contact with my brother, and spoke to him for approximately 15 minutes or so. In this time, a line of people was gathering behind me, so I finished off my call.

The moment I hung up the receiver, the phone was ringing - naturally, I answered it. This time, a male (big, big, male, by the sound of it), automated voice told me I owed AT&T $7.50, or some similar amount of cash, as 'arrears of my phone call'. This voice told me to 'insert seven dollars fifty'. I handed the phone to my girlfriend to hear - I thought this was hysterical. Naturally, I hung up, and we walked away, chuckling to ourselves. If the truth be known, we were pissing our pants, imagining if phone companies operated like that in Britain or Ireland. You'd have every phone box constantly ringing, demanding hundreds of pounds of arrears for the missed call.

The next guy in the line to use the phone was a large well suited businessman. He answered the phone, and called after me, "Hey buddy, you owe the phone company $7.50". By this stage, I thought I would need an incontinent bag, my bladder was bursting so much from laughing so hard. A prime example of where trust and honesty in America is obeyed and adhered to, unlike us in Europe.

I don't know if call boxes still operate in a similar function, suffice to say, if they do, then this business model obviously works successfully in the USA.

The other American trust thing that would be blatantly destroyed in Britain and Ireland is, American newspaper vending machines. For those that have never visited the USA, these vending boxes are on every street, in every city and town. They are usually constructed of glass, so that one can see if there are any newspapers available. To purchase a newspaper, one inserts a coin, opens the top opening door, and removes ONE newspaper (there could be up to 100 copies in each vending box), and the closes the lid again.

I love this vending box idea, it's simple and user friendly. Yet, once again, this would simply not work in Europe. If this type of newspaper vending was introduced to Britain or Ireland, one of a few things would happen on day one of its launch, namely:

1. Some lowlife scumbag would put his foot through the glass walls of the vending machine, just for the hell of it, later pleading innocence in court, via his solicitor, on the grounds that he 'was out of his mind on drink'.


2. Some other lowlife would break the entry mechanism, and take a piss on the newspapers, just for the hell of it.
   
3. Another lowlife would break the entry mechanism, steal all of the newspapers, and subsequently sell them to motorists at a nearby set of traffic lights, (whilst his friend would start washing windscreens of the same unfortunate motorist, with a filthy rag, and then demand cash for doing this).

Mailboxes in America, the ones that are at then entrance to houses, usually stuck to a post, are another example of honesty. How much mail is stolen from these? Very little, I guess.

So, petty crime in America is at a very low level, yet serious crime is much higher. Two years after my experience with the Colorado Callbox, (as I like to call this experience), I was in New York, and witnessed the aftermath of a street murder on 3rd Avenue, (in broad daylight). Europe could learn a thing or two from our counterparts. Removing petty crime, and having a zero-tolerant attitude to crime in general, definiely reduces crime rates on an overall basis. Rudolph Giuliani proved this in New York.

The only thing that's still on my mind is this: is that call box in Denver airport still ringing?

The US of A - Introduction

I'm going to make a few blog entries about the United States of America. As a forewarning, many issues I will raise will not be of a positive nature, and may subsequently piss off many people.

However, let me explain a few things. I am not anti-USA, nor do I have any hatred or racist attitudes towards America or Americans. The USA has always been, and always will be, the Land of Opportunity. The cost of living is quite low (in comparison to Europe), living standards are high, and more importantly, it offers all of its citizens the opportunity to succeed. It has a very low population, which results in vast amounts of space, beautiful countryside and scenery. America is clean, polite and inviting. It offers freedom of speech.

My brother and his family, whom I love dearly, live in California. I have visited America on a few occasions, and have been in 12 states, all diverse and quite unique. At some future stage in my life, when I have more time available to travel, I would like to plan a road trip from the east coast to the west coast, in the hope of capturing and nurturing Real America.

The author, Bill Bryson, has written various books about the USA that are quite compelling.

Without the USA, we wouldn't have the iPod. the Big Mac, apple pie, rib eye, Harley Davidson, the hot dog, peanut butter, Cadillac, Pontiac, MTV, surfing, the XBox, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, MSN.

However, there is a flipside. Without the USA, we wouldn't have an international oil crisis, global recession, the 'war on terror', continual unrest between Israel and Palestine, Britney Spears, obesity, over indulgence, trailer trash, shopping malls, Wal-Mart, Chuck E Cheese, financial corruption and political corruption.