Hurray! For the first time in over 3 months I can hear out of both ears. Just before Christmas I suddenly lost most of the hearing in my left hear. I guessed it was blocked with ear wax. I had a similar problem about a year ago and it just eventually cleared itself. This time it didn't happen so last Friday I decided see a doctor in case it was something more serious.
My doctor said my ear was full of wax and booked me in to have my ear syringed the following week. She told me to get some ear drops to soften the wax which would make the wax come out more easily. In fact the drops seemed to work so well that the day before my appointment, the wax suddenly cleared and I was immediately reacquainted with the world in full stereo sound.
Even now, after a few days, I am still amazed how much louder a clearer everything sounds. In fact, it the world almost seems a bit too loud. Now when I'm driving, there are strange noises that I didn't notice before. Anyway, I feel a bit foolish for not getting my ear seen to sooner. There was really no reason for to be living in world of mono sound for so long.
I went to a posh private school. You know, the type that produces a quarterly glossy magazine for “Old Collegians”. I left that school more the 16 years ago, but earlier this week, the Kings Courier arrived again in the post.
As usual, the first section I turned to was the “Old Collegians” section. That’s where people write in and say what they are up to. I scanned the pages quickly to see if there was anyone I remember. This time, there was something from Glenn, a guy who was in same year and house as me (I used to let him copy my English assignments):
“Glenn is a Senior Sales Executive for Roverland North Harbour. He is married to Elaine and they have two children. His main interests are motor sports including Jaguar cars, motorcycles, boating and rugby. He comments that he has regular business contacts with past and present staff and Old Collegians”.
I don’t normally think of myself as being status conscious. I drive an ordinary and aging car which simply gets me to where I want to go. However, reading about Glenn’s Jaguars, did give me a twinge of status anxiety. The images of the fabulously wealthy that fill our TV screens and newspapers leave no impression on me. However, the thought of Glenn driving around town in his Jaguar just bothers me in way that is difficult to explain.
Perhaps I am as status conscious as anyone but my status anxiety is rarely triggered because of where I live, where I work and the people around me. As a Kiwi living in Britain, I am isolated from the expectations of family and friends. As a civil servant I am isolated from people with high status jobs. My friends have simple and unattached lifestyles. Most of them don’t even have cars!
Glenn was a nice enough guy. I had been into motor sports and boating, we might ended up as good mates. I might have settled in Auckland, got married, had two kids and bought a new 4X4 from Roverland North Harbour.
The papers are still full of the Madrid bombings and the political fallout. The conservative commentators (like Andrew Sullivan of The Sunday Times) paint the recent Socialist victory in Spain as a victory for the terrorists.
It is certainly an uncomfortable truth that this horrendous act of mass murder achieved an outcome the terrorists were seeking. It is reasonable to conclude that Al Queda might be encouraged to launch further terrorist acts to drive a wedge between the U.S. and its allies. However, the terrorists did not succeed in creating a climate of fear to which the Spanish electorate succumbed. Many more were motivated by anger at a government who were nakedly (albeit clumsily) manipulating events for political gain.
If the government had simply reported the facts rather than try to prematurely pin the blame on ETA, then they might have won the election. Anti-government sentiment would not have gained traction. They could have then taken the initiative, for example, by focusing on the extremely efficient tracking down of the terrorist suspects. Instead, on the eve of the election they blundered again by accusing the Socialists of staging illegal anti-government demonstrations. The President of Galicia (an ex-associate of Franco's) even advocated bringing in troops to break-up the demonstrations. The reaction was clumsy and heavy handed. The Spanish people were clearly not impressed.
Journalists like Andrew Sullivan should not be giving encouragement to Al Queda by suggesting that the Madrid bombings directly achieved a political objective especially when this may not be true.
But it is governments that have the most to learn from this. People are more likely to respect the difficult decisions you need to make if they know that they are being told the truth. Lie, and they will punish you at the ballot box.
First, let me thank The Horror (TH) for setting up this blog for me with some nice looking skins and so on. Second, if any of you have read TH's blog So long and Thanks for the Fush n Chups then I am known there as Slippery Kitten. However, we have just discovered that there is a porn website called Slippery Kitten. I am now calling myself Sheik Djibouti to avoid any association!
Like TH, I am reluctant to reveal my identity. About six months ago, I used my real name as a contributor to So Long and Thanks ... out of the blue I got an e-mail from an old flame who had done a web search on my name, traced me to that page, got hold of my e-mail address and dropped me a line. I am sure they were just curious to see if I was the person they thought it was, but it was still a bit spooky.
The Jaded Civil Servant was cooked up in a few moments when TH asked what we were going to call this blog. There is often an anxious moment when you've got to try and come up with something witty and clever that you may have to live with indefinitely. In a state of mild panic I consulted a cookery book for inspiration. However, it didn't take long to realise that "Vegetable Moussaka" and indeed anything in that book was going to be quite a stupid name. I am definitely much happier with The Jaded Civil Servant
Although I am indeed a Jaded Civil Servant, it is not my intention for this blog become an outlet for workplace frustrations; Complainers are boring and complainers who complain about boring jobs are especially boring.
I have no real plans for this blog I do not know what form it will take or how long it will keep going. We'll see.
