I’ve noticed the blog has turned into pretty much a review-fest over the last few weeks (when I’ve posted), but hopefully I’ll change this shortly. With being “stuck” in Myanmar, I’ve not been able to update so often and my brain-drainings haven’t made their way as far as a keyboard.
However, I’m sat in Kuala Lumpur LCCT (the budget terminal, basically) awaiting a flight to Oz. Hopefully while I’m there I’ll have a little spare time to whack some crap up on here as well as keep the Travel Blog updated.
Do keep the comments coming. Regulars will know I always do my best to reply! Even if you’re talking ****…
Oh, and as an aside I do with the guy opposite me eating his McD‘s would do it with his ******* mouth shut. ****, what do Asian mothers teach their children? None of the children I worked with at Blue Dragon chewed with their mouths open. Yuck.
I tried to register with the local doctor’s today. I spend so much of my British rest-time up in Dundee courtesy of the gorgeous Leah, that is made sense to register up here, and transfer all my records up from Bradford.
Proving my identity wasn’t a problem. The well-travelled passport did that for me. But they also asked for something with my address on. This was a problem. And still is. And will be for some time.
I’m staying at Leah’s place. Her name is on the mortgage, the utilities and the tax bills. I don’t get any paperwork through from banks – I do all that online. My driving license hasn’t been updated since I left Bradford as the instructions on there insist that I must give a residential address and I’m not resident in the UK in any one place long enough to make that worthwhile.
This is just me. But given that even those ridiculous new ID cards the government seem hell bent on inflicting on us don’t have to have an address on, how do you prove where you live?
If you rent and pay cash then you may not have any utility bills in your name. Council tax is based on the property so the property owner will get that bill, not the tenant. Online banking – should you opt to have a bank account or credit card – means no paperwork with your address on. Nobody says you have to have a driving license and you could shove any old address on there anyway. Passports have no address. As for phones, how often do you give out your landline rather than your mobile as a primary contact number?
Thing is, people move all the time. I’m an extreme example, but in one period my parents shifted address four times in less than a year as my father chased work. Keeping on top of all the address changes could be a nightmare if you do update everyone, but unless you need to get communications from them what’s the point?
Do we need to give people an address any more? They’re nigh-on impossible to prove anyway and with the way the internet makes us address-anonymous, it’s becoming almost an outdated concept. Even when I was working, I would get most packages delivered to that address rather than my home one as I was more likely to be in the office during delivery hours.
If you went for online billing/banking and therefore didn’t get any paper mail from such places, how many things would you now get “through the door”? And without these, assuming you also don’t have a driving license, how would you prove where you lived?
Yeah, one of those posts again. My mind had time to wander the other day and I reckoned in recent history the best place I’ve farted was in the shower just after I’d soaped up the old back passage for supreme cleanliness.
The reason this wins is the awesome Donald Duck-esque *QUACK* that erupts with little or no effort required as far as muscle control goes. Oh, and if you follow through you’re in just the right place to clean up.
I do think a small elevator full of nuns would be a superb place to release an SBD though.
I just heard about Blog Action Day and I’m just going to make it with a post before the end of the 15th. This year’s topic is poverty, though I don’t know why we need a whole blog thing to draw attention to it.
No, let me rephrase that. I don’t know why we should need a whole blog thing to draw attention to it. It’s everywhere. From beggars on the streets in London to the poor being fed by the better off in Bangladesh I’ve seen a lot of it.
The thing with poverty is that in some cases we don’t seem to want to do anything about it. We don’t trust those who need it. To a large extent it’s not their fault as so many people use a pretense of poverty to wangle cash out of decent people, thus tainting the truly needy.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t help. It simply means you have to be careful how you do. Choose a charity or a cause where you know the maximum money will filter down in a useful way to those who both need and deserve it. Don’t go doling it out in the street, especially somewhere like India where you’ll just get mobbed by “you gave to her, you have to give to me” hordes.
The best way to cure poverty is to get the people in need in a position where they can do something about it. The old “give a man a fish and he’ll have enough to eat for a week; give him a rod and teach him to fish and he’ll have enough to eat for a lifetime” solution. Throwing money at poverty is a great way to make people rely on handouts. There are a gazillion charities which will help people break the poverty cycle. Dig around, find one you like and give them some support.
My personal recommendation? The Blue Dragons Children’s Foundation in Vietnam. Don’t forget that poverty is a worldwide issue. Although there’s likely to be enough on your doorstep to open your eyes.
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