TONY ON THEFT, HEALTH & MORE

Including Sunday Scribblings, Rockin’ Chair Writers, Matinee Muse and Friday 5.
Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my Friday Magazine post.
A report has advised that the decline in theft in the UK could be a temporary situation. And I think this could apply throughout the west. Basically, theft has declined because people have had more wealth.

Now, I do not accept that poverty and crime are linked.

At least, not in a stereotypical way. The vast majority of poor people are just as law abiding as the rest. But the reality is, a minority of people will steal to raise their wealth.
The upshot of such thinking is that, now we are in an economic downturn, a minority of people could well return to theft. And the moral of the story is this: wealth does not moralise. Rather, it simply takes away the need for the urge.

Doctors in the UK have been told off.

They have been told to reduce the numbers of prescriptions they issue, particularly with antibiotics. The idea is to save the health service millions of pounds a year. And I couldn’t agree more.
Taking a tablet seems to have become a placebo effect all its own. Only by swallowing the pill do we feel we can be made better. Yet I suspect this attitude has been manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry with the same gusto as the pills they pop.
This legalized form of drug abuse is not only unnecessary in so many instances, but the overuse of antibiotics – not only in medicine, but also in healthcare of animals – seems to advance evolution in the viral world, causing a constant battle between illness and the power of pharmaceuticals to beat new strains.
Guess who profits most from that!
Next Magazine post Monday. Have a great weekend.

© Anthony North, July 2008

THE IMPORTANCE OF BOOKS

Sit me down, give me a book,
let it take me to an intellectual nook,
set the plot, characters aplenty,
dialogue, end, never sedentary;
A mind to exercise, that’s the key,
the thoughts that pass from author to me,
at once entertaining, but much, much, more,
reading a book is education galore!
Nothing delights me more than this,
reading offfers such unimaginable bliss;
Shame that they’re becoming increasingly rare,
without them, minds just lose their flair

(c) Anthony North, July 2008

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THE APPEARANCE OF THINGS – Fiction

A good action movie needed its shadowy villain. The director knew that. And he also knew the best ideas were taken from the every day things he observed.
His mind’s eye drifted back to that very morning. He was exciteable. It was the last day of filming, and it always had an effect on him. Indeed, he was lucky to have got to this stage. Powers high up in the movie business did not want this film made. And okay, there was editing, marketing, and much more yet to do, but he felt good it would be a success.
But all these thoughts had affected him that morning. And he was becoming increasingly paranoid as he saw the car following him, and later, the shadow.
He sat there, thinking what to do, ideas flashing through his mind …

The shadowy figure in the car knew he had a job to do. And as the car he was following pulled up outside the parking lot, he acted quickly but stealthily. His target had to be stopped. This he knew. And he was being paid big money to do it.
The target was walking, now. There were people around, a youngster playing by the road, a couple talking outside the laundry, and as the target walked passed the trellis at the side of the gate, he knew it was time to act …

The Director saw it all before him. The shadowy figure, the appearance of normality, but knowing this was defective. Intention showed on the man’s face as he walked from behind the trellis, smiled and raised the gun.
A moment’s silence and then the two shots rang out.
The director’s eyes bulged. Everyone around him waited, silenced by the scene. Until finally, he said: ‘Cut! Okay, that’s a wrap.’

The Director felt good as he left the party after the end of filming. He had had the idea for the sudden appearance of the gunman when he saw a shadowy figure behind the trellis by the gate that morning. And as he passed through the gate once more, he had just a second to notice it again before the gunman appeared. And as the gun fired, he liked the irony that he’d just filmed his own death.

© Anthony North, July 2008