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Treating Children as Grown-ups
From a very early age, right through their development, children have to learn certain behaviours. It may be for their own safety and well-being or for the safety of others; it may be in terms of how they respect and behave in relation to other people; it may be with regard to the rules of…
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Death – It’s a Matter of Timing
There’s a natural order to life, rules which we expect to follow, principles which are generally accepted: Older people should die before younger ones. Healthy people should live longer than those who have lived an unhealthy life. Children should not die before their parents. Unfortunately, these rules do not always apply. There are no guarantees…
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Defining an Exploitative Relationship
If I have something and you need that something then is it wrong for me to take advantage of that situation by seeking to achieve personal gain? If that something is a rare commodity and I am one of the few people in possession of that something, is it wrong for me to take even…
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A Thin Blue Line – The Difficulty of Policing
When there’s a clear distinction between the good guys and the baddies it’s not too difficult to enforce the law. But unfortunately it’s not always like that! You’re a police officer; you’re clad in full riot gear; you’re on the front line facing a large, noisy protest. The situation is confrontational. The order comes through…
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Too Scared To Say Anything At All
As Thumper says in Bambi, “If you can’t say something nice, then don’t say anything at all.” Wise words from the young rabbit! But in this age of correctness and sensitivity we even need to be wary of saying something nice. Too often our words can be misconstrued, overly dissected or considered inappropriate. Even compliments…
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Old and Left Behind
Over the last few weeks I have spent some time with my elderly parents and one of the most noticeable aspects of their lives that became apparent to me is how distant and estranged they are from modern life. They just don’t understand it. Now I accept that every generation will, at times, incomprehensively shake…
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Letting Go of your Children
It’s a Saturday afternoon. I am with my daughter browsing the shops in a large shopping centre. We’ve had lunch and as we leave the food court I spot the toilets. I gesture towards the sign. “Do you need to go?” To my surprise I get a piercing “Really!!!” expression back from her. And then…
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Travel Pay for Low Pay
An environmentally positive change to the employment market that would operationally improve the labour force as well as having a beneficial levelling -up effect on incomes with no governmental cost….. too good to be true? Here’s an idea. All employees on minimum wage (or to a specific amount above this) should be payed “Travel Relief”…
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Marriage – Is It For Better or For Worse?
The idea that marriage is purely a formal, public pledge of love, devotion and commitment is to misunderstand the historical and genealogical purpose of this ceremonial bond. We should abandon any romantic notions we might have, and, instead, recognise marriage for what it really is – a managerial, controlling practice. In our early existence, male…
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We All Have a Story Inside Us
There are some people that you just know they have a story to tell. That aged, weathered face; those wistful, twinkling, perhaps distant eyes; those contemplative moments which suggest that they have had another life; the row of medals that they so proudly wear – they all indicate that there’s a story to be told.…
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Society Takes Care of its Own
There’s an old adage that says you should not throw good money after bad. Does that apply to people as well? If there are people who do not contribute anything to society, if they demand a continuous and insatiable amount of resources, if they show no prospects or ambitions to improve their lives, then should…
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Justice for Society’s Sake
Could somebody please explain to me how the justice system works? I just don’t get it. It seems that we have become too tolerant of crime and too accepting of it. Crimes go unsolved and unpunished. Unsocial behaviour is frowned upon but largely brushed aside. It seems that we have become too fixated with trying…
Thoughtful Thoughts
Oxthink 