Riots - We All Need To Agree On A New Vocabulary

Like everyone else everywhere, I've been watching what's been going on in Britain over the last few days - and in fact is still going on now, in Manchester City Centre.

The thing that has really struck me hasn't been the destruction or the fires or the theft, or the sight of violent hooded and masked people (some of them children!) throwing stones and bottles; it has been the innocent people who felt somehow obliged to apologise for it all - most of whom would have referred to themselves as 'black'.

I've always been very much opposed to the idea of referring to human beings as 'black' or 'white' because it seems to me to be not only racist, but ridiculous.

I have a black cat who is really and truly absolutely black - but I have never seen a person of that colour, and I don't expect that I ever will. Albinoism runs in my family - but whilst I have seen many things that are truly white, I have never seen a person of that colour, and I don't expect I will ever see one of those either.

The fact is that all people are - in that absolutely horrible American phrase - 'people of colour', because if they were not, they wouldn't be people at all. Indeed, the only real difference between all people anywhere is that whilst most of them have an internal moral lodestone, some of them do not.

At the moment, we are seeing people wreaking havoc in Britain who have no internal moral lodestone, no sense of community, and no sense of consequence.

It's important that we don't use the terms 'black' or 'white' to think of or to describe those people because those words are not only inaccurate and inadequate, they divide people in an arbitrary, and dangerously erroneous way.

I think we can all - people of colour as we all are - agree that the words 'dumb', 'immature', 'inconsiderate' and 'greedy' can at least begin to describe the people who wreck buildings and businesses and destroy other peoples lives, and use our social networks to undermine our society.

Emily - http://www.metlissbarfield.com

Stress & Spring and Hair & Nails

All the pharmacies here are suddenly displaying shelves and shelves of expensive pills and potions designed to stop your hair falling out and your nails splitting irreparably in unfortunate places.

And that's quite smart of them, because everyone loses more hair than usual in Spring, and right about now is when it begins to be obvious that quite a bit of ones' crowning glory seems to have gone missing.

There's nothing wrong with the potions; some hair products are better than others, and the difference in price between name-brand products that specifically target a problem and generic products that don't isn't very great.

You should think very carefully before you shell out for the pills, though.

All the pills (no matter which brand) contain the same basic ingredients - and actually they are the correct ingredients. The problem is that they don't contain nearly large enough dosages of hair building vitamins to make any impact - even if used over the long term, which is, of course, exactly what the manufacturer advises.

If you're really having a problem with 'fall out' - particularly if you've been under stress - get a recipe from the internet (try looking at Natural News and use the suggested vitamins and foodstuffs. It's cheaper in the long run, and at least you know exactly what you are getting for your money.

Emily - http://www.therapypartnership.com

Support the 'Get Brtain Trading' Campaign - It Could Get You into a Job

Get Britain Trading is a new campaign which aims to raise awareness of the contribution that SMEs make to the UK economy and improve the conditions under which all SMEs are forced to operate. It calls for changes to be made that would allow SMEs to prosper - and, of course, to grow, and employ and/or train people.

If you're out of a job for any reason at all, this campaign is important to you.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of small or medium sized businesses in Britain that would like to expand, and would like (or need!) to employ more people - and they would, if they could. The campaign aims to create a climate that would make that possible.

In order to make sure that the campaign has the maximum impact and achieves the desired results, the Forum of Private Business, which has launched the campaign, needs as many SMEs as possible to support the campaign and its aims by going to Get Britain Trading , and signing up to the 'Get Britain Trading' pledge.

Signing up costs nothing and takes seconds - actually, signing up, downloading the logo you can see on the right of this blog, and putting it into place took me, an admitted IT idiot, less than a minute. And it will be on our website tomorrow.

If you know anyone who has an SME, please ask them to sign the pledge and display the logo on their website or blog. If you have started up in business yourself - sign up to the campaign today, and get as many other SME people to sign up as you can.

Any SME owner who puts in an e-mail address - and I did - will get a free guide giving practical and expert advice on common small business issues like bank lending, late payment and cost reduction.

We ALL need the changes that this campaign could bring about if it gets the support it deserves. Please do try to make that happen by spreading the word or taking the pledge here .


Geoff - http://www.metlissbarfield.com/