‘Increasingly, environmental non-government organisations, (NGOs) around the world, with the complicity of some governments, are embedding themselves in policy and regulatory frameworks in which they have commercial interests, and they do so with no mandate from the people and with no accountability.
The problem that we have today is that the un-elected NGO Groups have so much influence upon the Politicians, (both EU and National) that they are able to influence Legislation without ever being elected. Today WWF has a turnover of $400 Million,is a major investor in some Banks and finacial Institutions which them invest in environmentally destructive companies, whereas these groups were badly needed ,especially within the environmental conservation battle of the 60s/70s/80s and 90s, they have now gone down the political route. Many countries have expelled the larger NGOs, (known as Bingos-big Internationsal NGOs) for political interference. How does this relate to the smoking ban in pubs and restaurants?, it was simple, the anti.smoking lobby groups got together with a raft of NGOs and threatened MPs with mass lobbying etc, it worked so well that they brought it into the EU MPs and got it passed there too. since smoking is quite legal and the taxes taken are very substantial, how is it that a blanket ban on smoking Inside a pub or restaurant can be banned?, surely the owner is entitled to decide what his clients want?, if the staff are dying from secondhand smoke, (the biggest con of all) then employ smokers!, if the owner wants an entirely no smoking pub or restaurant then ,great, gives everyone a choice, however with the NGOs it is not a matter of reality or democratic choice, it is a matter of what these highly life experienced 20 year olds want to happen and they dont want to wait around for any democratic process.
Very good advice, Narcotics Anonymous is filled with people "who have been there", even if you do not have a drug problem a chat with them will be useful in terms of understanding where you could go if you make the wrong choices.People in NA just like AA are not judgemental and as many will tell you, most of them made some bad choices when they were young. Just go on-line and find their wenbsites and your local group, even reading a little about their work will start giving you some positive choices.
Try to keep things simple, dont make long term plans, as the AA Mantra says, "just for today", and a very helpful one is ,HALT, Hungry,Angry,Lonely and Tired, time to stop and think, good luck to you,
Muldoon lived alone in the Irish countryside with only a pet dog for company.. One day the dog died, and Muldoon went to the parish priest and asked, 'Father, my dog is dead... Could ya' be saying' a mass for the poor creature?'
Father Patrick replied, 'I'm afraid not; we cannot have services for an animal in the church.... But there are some Baptists down the lane, and there's no tellin' what they believe. Maybe they'll do something for the creature.'
Muldoon said, 'I'll go right away Father. Do ya' think $5,000 is enough to donate to them for the service?'
Father Patrick exclaimed, 'Sweet Mary, Mother of Jesus! Why didn't ya tell me the dog was Catholic?
I'm with you!, the British are well known for their sarcastic wit, along with very dry humour, Churhill during the War was an artist at it,however when you live in differing countries you learn to modify the sarcasm,on a Forum, you cant see the facial expressions which tell you that the person being "funny" really is being just that and not unkind or serious. When you add in the whole issue of having to be "politically correct", it kills spontanaity.
It is not an issue of men versus women, it is perhaps an explanation from a man of how he thinks this situation has arisen. From my experience chatting with male friends, there is a great deal of truth in what he is saying, (from a male perspective), with the world recession older men are worried about having a job, the male pride is such that he cannot face not providing for his family or keeping his house payments up. (even divorced he has to afford the maintainance) If the man has already lost his wife and family, (for whatever reason) he may not be coping on the inside as well as he wants to. The last thirty years has changed the male role dramatically, ( I am not saying that this is exclusively happening to males) we were conditioned by our parents to be providers and head of the household, then the rules changed, younger guys grew up with the change, older guys have had to learn to deal with it. Spending many years in a marriage and probably not too worried about looking smart, (yes, I know you should not lose sight of the fact that you should keep up )and then you find yourself back to being 20 and needing to smarten up and start all over again. Women are naturally more fashion conscious even at 90 years old, it is far more an every day part of their lives than men.
All the above is particul;arly true of men who have not had to look smart for work, when that is the case a man is more aware of how he looks but for those who perhaps have been more used to Blue Collar work, it is a new experience.
1) This is a scam 2) This is a scam and the guy knows he will likely get responses which ensures he gets more contacts than most men.
The larger coporations always use Modelling Agencies and never advertise direct, these agencies never name the client untill they have reduced the applicants down to the final 5 or so. Most of this work is handled by the appointed corporate Advertising Agency who work with the Modelling Agency.
If you are tempted to respond ,ask for the Model agencies name and contact details, if he says he is the Agency, ask for detail and check it out. Otherwise you can contact Coca cola via their corporate website (probably customer relations) and check this out. My advice would be to not get involved.
In 2005 I moved to a mountain village, a City Guy, 55, lived and worked all over the world and just wanted some peace and quiet for a while. Through some volunteer work I came to know a nice local girl of 28, nothing was further from my mind than a relationship with a girl that age. After some few months she was asked to pick me up at the nearest train station which was an hours drive away, it was late and we stopped on the way back for something to eat. She was very intelligent and had an innocnce which I had not seen in a woman for many years. It was months later that I finally gave in and took her out, I explained the problems and difficulties etc,what people would say in a small mountain village, however she was determined. For my part I knew that this relationship had a limited life and decided that however long it would last to make it as good and positive as possible.One thing that I made sure of was that she would not only learn about the outside world but she would have a career to fall back on.We went and got her a Passport and from then on we travelled and laughed and just had fun, she grew in confidence and soon was travelling to China to a Conference on her own.It was the best three years of my life but as expected as she grew in confidence and found a very good job, my time was over, it was time to let the butterfly go. No love was ever greater than we had and no two people enjoyed every moment more than we did. to have experienced three years of perfect serenity in a relationship was reward enough,for her,hopefully she will still love good music enjoy good restaurants and know she has great value. so if you are happy and realistic, better to do what makes you and your man happy, all the rest can take care of themselves.
Perhaps it is a matter of synchronisity, allowing what can happen to happen, a la the movie Sliding Doors. sometimes the harder we look the less we see.
Perhaps you have given us the answer, if you are dressed up for Ballroom dancing and singing Karaoke while doing the Salsa before you start the day, I think I would not be keen to come back!, this poor guy is worn out!
As a single guy I cook every day when home,having lived in several countries I have learned some local recipes from Africa,China, Europe and beyond, mostly easy simple things except on a sunday when I like to have a good brunch, (learned in USA).When married and living with somebody, it was me who mainly did the cooking, I enjoy it and it is a great way to relax.
Lately I have been having theme weeks, a different meal from a region for a week, this week it has been India, next week is Brazilian, very easy, I just go online and ask for "recipe" and then name the country.
In summer it is light food, Tapas or Dim Sum, good cold wine and usually a few of the neighbours (singles) over for early evening sundowners. Good food, good company and a nice glass of wine, makes life worth living.
You could well be right, buyer beware!, however, I really do not want to go through life checking and re checking everything that I do, that would drive me bonkers, (if I am not already). Dating sites such as this one provide a valuable well run service, that's why we are all here. The cynical, crooked and criminal are always going to be amongst us, it just makes life a little easier when you can relax and enjoy something without having to watch for scams all the time.
Hi, again, re; my last post,perhaps I should have added that there is a risning tide of class action lawsuits in the USA, (where else?) against these scam dating sites, often worth Googaling, site name and words, law suit. some of these scam sites are having to repay money scammed.
As an old man, I am not very IT litterate but he thought occured to me that with face recognition technolgy in use at airport security, perhaps a central data base where you can quickly check the person purporting to be interested against a database consisting of all enquiries.
Another idea perhaps would be to have an independent facility whereby you can submit your details,, (an available automated process)have them verified, and be given a code number which enables genuine people to check if their "contact2 is genuine. Maybe a small charge for the facility but perhaps well worth the peace of mind.
Connected with my profession, myself and some other researchers were asked to research the surge in dating websites, the results are far too long to go into on a blog but here's some of the facts we found.
1) Actually, you are more likely to be scammed by the site owners than the scammers who use the site to commit fraud.Dating websites are now doing what is called "agregating", that is speading by buying foreign websites, thus they have the ability to scam on a large scale but are unlikely to be caught because of the difference in laws and jurisdictions.
2) The most popular dating site scam is re occuring billing, either they do not tell you that their "introductory offer" is then re billed long after the offer period or they "accidently" bill you after you have resigned from the site.
3) The nubers involved are incredible, one site we estimate to be taking at least $29 off 200.000 "members" per rmonth
4) anumber of these sites are controlled from the Ukraine, one of the most corrupt countries in the world and mostly run by the Russian Mafia, where your credit card details are used nobody knows
5) Of the 7.000 reported cases of phoney women (and men) contacting existing website members, 82% were estimated to be phoney people placed by the site owners to attract upgrades in membership and increased revenues plus the "accidental" scam revenues. These 2people" will be present on a number of dating websites all with differing profiles
6) By keeping the individual fraudulent transaction amount under $100 per month the sites avoid triggering the International Anti Moneylaundering trackers
7) Currently the top International scam dating websites are Be Naughty.com, cupid.com and the seven other sites they own in USA, Africa,America and other places
8) Credit Card processors are awre of these scams but they take up to 5% of the transaction, therefore have a massive cut from the scam on a global basis, also a majority of people do not report most "small scale transaction" scams.
Just by way of an update, just after making my last post.the young couple opposite my apartment asked me to dinner, just a local restaurant, I was tired but since they were nice enough to ask, I said, yes, good meal and nice company, "excuse me" said I, went to the loo and decided to have a cigarette outside. Outside was a lovely lady doing the same thing, we chatted for a while and she stayed behind from her friends when they left and joined us,great night and good few laughs at my awfull Portuguese, so next week we are all going back to the same restaurant and this time this ladies friends will join us, it should be a good night.
The point is, synchronisity, go with the flow and make the effort, I was tired and not in the mood to go out but made the effort and met someone new and fun.
As far as age statements on dating sites, these are surely guides not Bibles, within reason a few years either way doesn't matter, what matters is attitude and approach, reading some of the responses to this thread, it occured to me that all of them are proof that there's plenty of fun, nice mature people around.
Having read all these posts it has made me feel much better!, I had begun to think it was just me who had gone through all this with a female.(actually, two).
They make statements and accusations which they then deny ever saying, they start rumours and untruths circulating,they bring in the Family,anyone who will without question take their side.
One asked me for a cheque to "help her mother out with the rent", gave her a cheque for $1.200, she added a 0 and cashed it for $12.000, when I asked her about it, she said, "well you said if I needed a bit more to let you know,I didn't want to bother you", she carried on like nothing she had done should be a problem and when I got somewhat annoyed, she said. " typical!, you offer something then take it back!".
To guys I offer this tip, next time she starts all the nonsense, when she finishes, make a note of what she said and time and date it, next time she denies saying anything, read it back to her, I did this and she said, "rubbish, you made all that up!".
A very interesting debate, in the 70's when I lived and worked in London, In Oxford Street,I was outside when the IRA blew up a Wimpey Bar full of mothers feeding their children lunch, the small arms and legs and heads and blood travelled far,all religions and all colours of people,big brave Freedom fighters?.
The only reason that the IRA came to the peace table was that after 9/11 the Millions of Dollars that the Americans sent to the IRA dried up as (for the first time), the Americans got a good taste of "Freedom Fighters".
We just never learn, nobody has tamed the Afghans in a thousand years, Britain conquered 75% of the known world but not The Khyber Pass, Russia has had a go and now troops from many countries are trying, it s an absolute waste of time and innocent lives ....
Actually, Taliban Airlines would be the safest airline in the world, no need for any security checks and would always be on time due to nobody's going to mess with them ....
When you pass a certain age dating takes on a new dimension,its more relaxed and less hurried, at 60 (my age)you have been throgh quite a bit in emotional terms and have pretty much decided what you want and how you want to use the "golden years".
If you are comfortable financialy,there is less stress, no houses to pay for or kids to educate, maybe if you haven't already, you have the chance to travel and meet new people and places.
Quite a few older daters are looking more for companionship, somebaody to have fun with and maybe do some travelling with. In my case there are no children to worry about but those that have children can at last make decisions without having to ensure that the kids are taken care of.
All in all, once I hit 50 a new world opened up, I have been enjoying it for quite a while now!.
Having lived and worked in several countries over 40 years, the first rule is respect the culture and laws of your host country, you know when moving there what the rules are and you have choice not to go there if you object on whatever grounds to that situation. With the benefits of life in a country comes responsibility, integrate and respect the culture or leave. Where the children of immigrants who are now considered natives of the chosen country wish to make change in the face of an embeded culture, they do not have to stay in that country but can emmigrate back to their "homeland".
As always, I can only speak for myself,at the age of 60 I have had a good life and have lived and worked in many countries, while there I have had a fair amount of relationships, some good and some bad. Having been single for a while I ventured into the "market" again,what I have found is 50+ women thinking that they have the allure of much younger women, often more interested in what you can provide for them rather than establishing if you are even interested. A good lady friend once told me that she didn't know exactly when she became invisible ie, after a certain age the men just stopped looking, very true!. After many years of playing the game, men just give up playing and will take it if it is there but they are not going to go out of their way to accomodate some elderly females foibles.
The absolute expected answer!, if you comment in this way then you must have unresolved issues or past baggage, actually, I haven't at all, quite the reverse, I just comment upon what some years of experience have highlighted.
A thought ocurrs!, the execution of this scum bag in China has been in all the major news programmes worldwide, this blog has gone on for two days,is not the point made?, ie, bring drugs into China and you die, regardless of anyones opinion.
If it takes one person to die to make the point and potentially save many people long term,then it has certainly been worthwhile.
Hi, Magid, I have been watching the discontent on Algazeera today, it is a very brave thing that you people are doing but we have seen what one voice can do, (Poland) and what many can do if they believe in their cause. Good Luck to you and the other people who are in grave danger in their struggle, you have a tyranical government but you can change this.
Ah!, yes I do, alcoholism takes many forms, the accepted wisdom is that once off the booze you can never go back without going the same way as brought you to AA in the first place, I would generally agree with that.
However, inmy particular case, I dealt with the issues which caused the problem and learned to lead a different life without alcohol as the centre piece, today I can drink socially and enjoy it.
Ah!, the activists, the PC brigade and liberlists,all dealing with the theory of the issue, how many have lived the issue?. there is always much to improve in our society, however,a sense of proportion and ballance is often forgotten in the rush to be viewed as "enlightened".
Chrisys Forum Posts (102)
RE: The EU is coming to get YOU!
‘Increasingly, environmental non-government organisations,(NGOs) around the world, with the complicity of some governments, are embedding themselves in policy and regulatory frameworks in which they have commercial interests, and they do so with no mandate from the people and with no accountability.
The problem that we have today is that the un-elected NGO Groups have so much influence upon the Politicians, (both EU and National) that they are able to influence Legislation without ever being elected. Today WWF has a turnover of $400 Million,is a major investor in some Banks and finacial Institutions which them invest in environmentally destructive companies, whereas these groups were badly needed ,especially within the environmental conservation battle of the 60s/70s/80s and 90s, they have now gone down the political route. Many countries have expelled the larger NGOs, (known as Bingos-big Internationsal NGOs) for political interference.
How does this relate to the smoking ban in pubs and restaurants?, it was simple, the anti.smoking lobby groups got together with a raft of NGOs and threatened MPs with mass lobbying etc, it worked so well that they brought it into the EU MPs and got it passed there too. since smoking is quite legal and the taxes taken are very substantial, how is it that a blanket ban on smoking Inside a pub or restaurant can be banned?, surely the owner is entitled to decide what his clients want?, if the staff are dying from secondhand smoke, (the biggest con of all) then employ smokers!, if the owner wants an entirely no smoking pub or restaurant then ,great, gives everyone a choice, however with the NGOs it is not a matter of reality or democratic choice, it is a matter of what these highly life experienced 20 year olds want to happen and they dont want to wait around for any democratic process.