Hi, it’s Danny posting on Don’s blog from the UK. I felt that this was important to share this, to raise awareness.
I don’t as yet have anything other than word of mouth, of initial reports coming in via FaceBook. But friends have sadly reported to me a number of Thai men and women have committed suicide in Thailand due to basically running out of money. With curfews and lockdowns, little to no government help, no tourist income (a large part of Thai GDP), many Thai’s operating small/micro-businesses, a drought in Thailand, already an economic downturn and with little or no savings – people who are poor are basically living hand to mouth and have become desperate.
I really don’t know what else to say, other than I’m deeply saddened to hear these reports. Losing a life through suicide is heartbreaking, and needless. My deepest condolences to those who’ve lost loved ones.
If this isn’t resolved swiftly, I’m worried things will descend into civil unrest, which would obviously lead to violence and more deaths.
I don’t know how this can be achieved – But it’s time we got the world economy going again, so more lives aren’t lost, and we don’t have more tragedy on top of the tragedy we’ve already suffered.
Hope you are safe and stays that way.
Cheers
Danny
If you’re affected by this, then it’s possible to contact the Samaritans :
“Whatever you’re going through, a Samaritan will face it with you.” – The Samaritans UK
Thankfully Boris made it through, in-spite of the slew of DISGUSTING obviously partisan comments, on social media, even on my own blog. I debated outing the “troll”, but that’s probably what they wanted, attention via any means. I can’t imagine there was any rational argument or reason for wishing a sick person to die – so I just put it down to probable mental health issues. I’m no expert in that field, so I’ll leave it at that.
Anyway – Boris Johnson, seemingly in good spirits, from about 1 hour ago @ 12-Apr-2020 17:30 UK time.
A friend who lives in the states sent me this, it’s from a few days ago. It’s counter to the current mainstream narrative, so, was an interesting watch for me – as I like to get the story from more than one perspective.
I’m not “on the ground” in US, don’t know Cuomo personally. etc, etc. – So, as for the truth, either way, I don’t know. As per my disclaimer, that’s for you to decide.
How did we get to this dire point; not all at once, I suppose, but bit by bit, being too busy with life; drunk with regrets of the past and manipulated into worrying about the future. I don’t know what stand to take today. I tried writing this post so many times, stopped, and started, and stopped, and then back to the keyboard – and all I accomplished was to exhaust myself; you’d think it were a love letter, where I struggle to find the perfect words to make it work; while hiding the gore of bodies piling up without end as we speak –
Going back to the beginning of this virus, I started gathering information, believing it would help me and my loved ones. I watched and read everything about this novel virus. I even had an opinion about how governments of countries are handling it, and responding to it, and soon enough it began to take me hostage; it had become an addiction; collecting all the news this virus was creating. The stories I came across were endless; the mistakes and delays of the world health organization, the secret agendas of governments, Bill Gates and the Rockefellers involved in promoting it, conspiracy theories, a novel supposedly written in 1981 predicting it; and then I put my two-cents in too… what if just maybe, E.M. Forster predicted our restricted lives due to this virus, in his short story, The Machine Stops, (1909), and just maybe, the Titanic had also been predicted in Morgan Robertson’s novella The Wreck of the Titan (1898). And was it the iceberg that took 1500 lives, or was it the delayed response, and ignorance to the iceberg? But, does any of this solve the problem?
I listened to people complaining about having to stay home. Could they not see the devastating alternative; images around the world of hospitals in chaos, doctors forced to decide who lives and who dies. Dead bodies in New York, stacked up in 18 wheeler-truck-fridges. A nurse in Italy, calling it the lonely flu; people dying all over the world without any hope for recovery; isolated without their loved ones to hold their hand in their final moment; to be reminded that THEY WERE LOVED! This virus has exposed the weaknesses in our system, our weakness to prepare, our weakness to prevent and to prevail – I think about our response to this virus; our delayed actions, and ignorance; the crack in our health system due to the governments we voted for; or didn’t even bother voting; too busy that day; giving away our greatest power of voice.
I listened to President Trump telling the American people that it was going to go away like a miracle, I heard Boris Johnson claiming that there was no need for restrictions; business as usual; we’d eventually become immune to it; Turkmenistan’s government claiming it doesn’t exist and, making it illegal to utter the word “coronavirus” or you’ll be arrested. The world health organization not only took too long to declare it a Pandemic, but they also informed us that there was no true evidence of human to human transmission, on January 14th – And China kept too quiet about the information that would have saved lives.
“Ceidefields” by (c) Barrie Maguire
But I will not search for more to blame. I closed my door to the fear this virus has been spreading; the kind of fear that makes us weaker. I began to feel the stillness I was forced to bear and noticed the voice inside my head; words not mine, but nevertheless, coming from me; regurgitations of the outside world telling me, all the things I should believe and should be doing and should be wanting. And I stopped! I was not going to waste any more time –
These stay-at-home restrictions haven’t been taking time away from us; they’ve been giving it back to us. Having to live hour-to-hour, I realize that all I have in this world is that hour; that moment to moment that flows through me, and what I choose to do with that moment, determines everything. . . “God give me the wisdom to know the difference.” –
So, I wonder about the universal values of today – how do we make choices; on the basis of what? Yes, 95% of the information out there is a lie, so what is the truth? The truth might be that it will go away and that we will continue our lives regardless of how it has affected each and every one of us. We will gather the data and analyze the outcome – and there will be much talk and more blame but the crime will never be solved; and then soon after, we may forget.
Or we can decide to wrap our arms around the only thing that truly belongs to us – the present moment in time – not the past – not the future – only that precious moment; the one thing no one can take away from us; the most precious commodity we give away, in exchange for a deception; a promise for a “better” future waiting to be obtained. Aren’t the past and the future merely labels to define illusions; an anchor holding us back and, a promise of a holy grail at the end of the tunnel, in exchange for our lives?
Having to give up my freedom for a brief moment in time ended up saving me from an empty life filled with goals but no essence. This stillness made me aware of how numb I had become, and how I completely took my existence for granted; using myself to make ends meet, instead of experiencing life as a means to an end. So do I want to go back to that life, when the restrictions have been lifted; do we go back to the life this virus momentarily took away from us, or, when this is all over, do we make it better?
The Nature of Time by (c) Maria Fokas April 5/2020 (Thankyou Maria)
Artwork – “Ceidefields” by (c) Barrie Maguire, (published with permission of the Artist, Thankyou Barrie)
Maria has also written a poem, which is kind of a “companion” to this writing, you can find it here –
Thanks to Maria Fokas, for this guest blog, which I’m EXTREMELY proud to publish. She’s lovely person and would highly recommend visiting her at her blog.
He’s a doctor from Madrid, and a nurse speaking from Spain. It’s quite intense and distressing, so be forewarned before watching. They don’t have enough respirators and are being forced turning them off for people over 65. Family can’t be present, so these people are dying sedated ALONE.
They need your help to get this message out, *URGENTLY* so please reblog, share etc wherever you can, however you can. No need to give credit to me, just share the video, by whatever means you can.
As you can see above – YouTube deleted the video, it can still be watched at :
Just a short blog, saying a massive thanks to “Ursula” at British Airways, for allowing me to change my flight dates, waiving normal change fees, “bending” the rules for me. I think there will only be a small fare change fee, if any. Very polite and helpful on the phone today, and she want the extra mile for me – I’m grateful.
This is the second time (recently) I’ve had helpful customer service from British Airways and they’ve bent over backwards to help me. The other time was during the crew strike last year, and they were able to get me an alternative flight with Qatar airways, and very helpful on the phone.
99% of the time BA have treated me exceptionally well, over the years, and I’m happy to fly with them. I was even once, many many years ago, upgraded (for free) from club to first, by a very kind woman at JFK New York. It’s the first time I’d been in first, and will probably be the last, as no way I can afford to fly first or even club these days.
As a relatively frequent flyer (in economy) – My only (critical) suggestions for BA are :
Be a little more lenient on slightly overweight bags – most of us don’t have professionally calibrated scales at home, and do our best to follow the rules (like weighing bags at home as best we can). Occasionally we may be a kilo or two overweight. In the scheme of things this shouldn’t cause the flight a problem, as other passengers after often underweight. It’s pretty off to have a fare paying passenger on their hands and knees at check-in desk repacking suitcases, and having to throw things away – that should be an absolute last resort.
Do something about the rude, and unhelpful staff at check-in at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, and this relates to 1. above. I hasten to add that most of the check-in staff in Bangkok have usually been very polite and helpful, but there are definitely some bad eggs.
Get rid of the ghastly check-in machines at terminal 5 (London Heathrow), and put some real people back on check-in desks. It’s quite the disappointment to arrive at the airport, and not speak to a real human being, I do feel robbed of something valuable. Aside from after having a million things to organise, to then have to work out how to put a luggage label on a bag, and work out an unfamiliar computer system – especially for older people. Automating and mechanising things isn’t always progress, especially for those check-in ladies and gents who will have lost their jobs.
I make these criticisms with a positive intent, as I think it would improve BA’s service, to a higher standard – these small things make the difference between loyal customers, and customers who eventually will fly with someone else.
Sincerely I wish BA the very best of luck financially, over the coming weeks and months, as this will be a very challenging time for them because of the pandemic. Qatar airways have a 25% shareholding in BA, so might be they may be able to help.
Thank you once again BA, and Ursula who works for BA customer services.
I’ve been doing my best to pass on useful information regarding Coronavirus, as it’s the right thing to do (especially as fakestream media et al continues to lie). Also the situation is now obviously a pandemic, and a very serious situation.
I will try and keep up updates as and when I have time, but I do have a busy period ahead, that may prevent me from posting and answering comments etc, for a few weeks.
I have already shared many links for information sources, you can view all my Coronavirus posts here :
After some hours of trying to make a still photo slideshow with ffmpeg, I gave up. Some of the features are missing on the Windows version, would probably have been easier using Linux.
So I used the inbuilt video editor in Windows 10 to take a bunch of still photos, add music courtesy Steppenwolf. Then finally added my watermark of DonCharisma.org with ffmpeg.
So, long story short – it’s some photos I took, with music 🙂 Experimenting with a different format for presenting my photos – rather than a long page of photos.
Sorry it’s a bit late, I only just thought of it, I’m terrible with dates …
No idea if this is the best or even the right photo for this, but I like the bohemian thing going on with the guys just chillaxin’ playing games on their smartphones.
So for a “diversity is our strength” valentines day, I made this :
I just heard about this. My condolences and deepest sympathy for the victims.
Reports suggest the shooter was a soldier who was having a land dispute with his CO. The CO was the first to be killed. The shooter then went on a killing spree, on the streets, then at a shopping mall. The shooter was eventually killed by the Thai security forces.
Thailand is now in mourning for the deceased. May the rest in peace.
Something a bit more upbeat for … because … I like it, dunno why, but I do …
The dog seemed to want to get photographed, even smiled for me 🙂 Could be a juxtapose or could be exactly the right photo, dunno. Suppose it’s subjective, beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder.
I really like this photo, even though it has some technical imperfections. I was totally unprepared for this shot to enter my viewfinder. Any photographer knows this – but it was one of those moments, no time for focusing or … Continue reading Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down
This is a cover version, I like this one too. I made the video with ffmpeg, m4a music file and photo I took of a Thai doll that a friend gave me at Songkran a few years ago. I blogged … Continue reading The Commitments – Try A Little Tenderness
This one’s for Leslie. She knows who she is, she’s been a good friend to me. I hope she likes the song, it’s one of my favourite ballads, which has been covered by other artists. RIP Otis Redding, we miss … Continue reading Otis Redding – Try A Little Tenderness
(Reuploading my old videos to YouTube) Sometimes a photo just won’t do for capturing a sunset or any other moment for that matter, so I’m experimenting with video 🙂 I shot this video of the sunset the other evening (the … Continue reading Repost – Beach Sunset Video
(Reuploading my old videos to YouTube) Not going to say any more than that about the video … Taken on my iPhone 4S today. Music added and video flipped horizontally with Avidemux … Music fits nicely with the video, it … Continue reading Repost – Diving Faces Hopscotch
It’s Kite Surfing at sunset this time, with Bill Withers 🙂 Certainly a lot of fun playing with video editing in Photoshop. Slowly getting my head around all of the possibilities, which are endless … (Re-Uploading my old videos on … Continue reading Kite Surfing VS Bill Withers
I was aiming to take a short video, showing just how quickly the sun moves at sunset. Within a couple of minutes the sun has gone from being fully circular to completely gone behind the clouds. (Re-uploading my old videos … Continue reading Beach Sunset Video With Random Family
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