Tuesday 23 November 2010

1591 Robson Green and the Ascent of Money

After a fortnight of balanced living, sleeping at night, working by day, I am up, upset with myself, restless and with no great enthusiasm about writing, or anything.

I got up again around 2.30am and wrote for a awhile and decided to see if previous episodes of the Ascent of Money were available on the online ITV player and came across instead the X Factor winners programme covering the final’s night, the hectic next couple of days of interviews and record promotions, the back story and the accolades from the four judges. It is all pure hype but wonderful and enjoyable and she is singing one of my all time great songs which I will buy to help make her an international artist. I like making dreams come to true for others as much as for myself. If I only I had the means.

I was ready for bed at a reasonable hour when I discovered a film, ‘Aint misbehaving‘, billed as a comedy, staring Robson Green and Jerome Flynn. I understand this was originally a three part TV series back in 1997 when the two had reached their zenith as a duo with the outstanding single record the Unchained Melody breaking records for the year in 1995/1996.

Robson Green was born Hexham, Northumberland, grew up in a small mining village in what .became North Tyneside and showed talent as a musician, singer and actor in his youth although intended to join the R. A.F and became a draughtsman in one of the local shipyards. He appeared in the long running series Casualty before everything changed after he and Jerome sang the Unchained Melody as part of the Soldier Soldier series and the public clamoured to buy the then non existent record. They had two other hits and three albums, the first of which I bought and continue to play once every year or so.

Robson then formed his own TV production company creating a succession of popular series including the psychologist in Wire in the Blood and together with Mark Benton in Christmas Lights Northern Lights and City Lights, and the Christmas Special Clash of Santas which I viewed only the night before. My interest in Aint Misbehaving was the jazz, traditional and swing with George Melly blown up in a bombing raid and Warren Mitchell as the band leader. The story is common place 1940’s wartime London.

Prior to this I experienced El Alemein an important Italian made film giving an Italian perception of involvement in the North Africa Campaign through the eyes of a volunteer university student who joins seeking chivalry and victory only to find a demoralised army on the verge of defeat. There is no lucky or unlucky death, only death and it smells is one memorable line from a film which is always realistic and yet poetic, confirming that the Italian soul of the last hundred years is not made for fighting, thank God. I have about a quarter Italian blood along with Spanish Maltese and English welded into Mediterranean Gibraltarian. Save as from the Teutonic and Nordic hordes, the Muslim fanatics and Chinese bankers.

I also managed to watch the Last of Professor Niall Fergusson’s The Ascent of money in which he confirmed the extent to which money from China had helped create the 2006 bubble with investment pouring into China with an annual growth of 8% and hundreds of new millionaires including billionaires because of the cheap labour costs and comparative ease to achieve mass production and marketing operations with the consequence that China now has billions to invest in property and financial devices.

The programme explained how two mathematicians had created the model for investing in futures and this had led to the unsustainable level of gearing. It wes in the 1980’s that I learnt all about gearing buying penny shares as a then cheaper and more effective way of gearing than buy into future warrants but it was all guess work then with amateurs like me being able to cash in alongside those in in the stock buying and issuing institutions, although gambling houses a more appropriate description. Then there was the crash on the day I was away watching a Test match at the Oval and the world was never the same again although I balanced the books by the succession of government floating of off the nationalised industries. There theory was would all become part of the share owning democracy and have a bested interested in keeping capitalism going.

While being interested in economic and political matters I paid little attention to the activities of George Zoros and friends or begrudged that they made vast fortunes from their private equity funds as long as governments concentrated on the protection of all its people, on improving the position of the majority and providing support and opportunity got those who were born into poverty or became poor through no fault of their own. In fact some fot eh activities of Mr Zoros are of tremendous importance for the future of human kind, with foundations such as the Open Society Institute and the Centre For Public Integrity.

I had just not realised the extent to which private equity firms had replaced the capital raising to buy out firms where new and better managements could result in making fortunes, cutting staff and operations which could not be made profitable, reselling or bringing private companies to the stock market. However this approach means a flexible and movable work force at all levels. I must study the Ascent of money series alongside the Robert Peston book although hopefully with the i player I will be able to do both over Christmas and New Year moving on to President elect Obama book for the inauguration in January. There is so much to do, learn and think about.

It had been my intention to write very differently when I commenced the day. Who am I is a question with I believe most human being ask of themselves sometime during their lives Those who grow up part of a family with two parents, brothers and sisters, grand parents, uncles and aunts are least likely to ask such a question during childhood and usually for as long as they retain active contact with their family and the community in which there were raised and educated, especially if they are part of a church going or other belief system whether secular or spiritual.

The questioning can still come later when confronted by some challenge, illness, loss of faith or loved one, traumatic incident, relationship problems or late in life when often combinations of challenges accumulate.

For some of us the questioning begins early and never leaves however kind and fortunate our experience. For me it was there from the moment I became aware that my family situation was different. The awareness was early, before I went to school. I use to have a clear and extensive memory of my childhood but now it is mostly feelings, undated snap shots.

Then when I established a life with purpose I ceased to speculate and it was only the onset of my mother’s severe memory loss that I asked the question which led to the discovery of who my father had been and also commenced research into the ancestry of my mother. After finding that there are no medical records of my birth mother and myself for the first ten years of my life I shifted interest from who am it to why did I become as I have?

Between the ages of twenty to forty I was confident I knew why I had felt different and why my educational progress in childhood did not reflect innate academic potential. It was only after undergoing psychometric testing and analysis while attending an international; senior management course that I shifted from a Freudian based analysis of what had happened to me to understanding the value of identifying individuals in terms of their core management abilities and roles, or lack of them and my own unique position as a creative shaper leader with completer finisher and decided to concentrate on doing what i was good at rather than attempting to become a world leading type of activist. However it was not long before the flaws came to the surface once more. It was at this point that I had intended to introduce the reading up of the Asperger’s syndrome and high functioning Autism but the sun is out and I need to join in the crazy world of pre Christmas shopping and see of I can get a ticket for Boxing day football. This may postpone the writing until another day.

The Gas service man arrived around 3pm for the central heating system and the cooker and that task was completed for another year. The Epsom cartridges have arrived but I will continue to use both printers, I found a good lamp at BQ after those available at Lidl were disappointing and more expensive than advertised but I decided to hold off buying until Wednesday to get the 15% discount. I did the last minute cards and over indulged with food extras ie chocolate addiction. There were salmon fish cakes with baked beans for the evening meal and a cooked meat salad to balance all the sugar which contributed to staying up longer and unbalancing my day.

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