Morts Musings

I asked a similar question just over a year ago, with regards to Bangladesh’s annual floods. Although Bangladesh has flooded this year, as it does most years, and caused hardship and disruption for many thousands of the nation’s poorest citizens it has gotten off relatively lightly compared to the impact that the monsoons have had on Pakistan this year.

Satellite images from last year (left) and earlier this month (right) give an indication of the extent of this year's Pakistan Floods. Terrible though they are, are they just a taste of things to come?

Really, you’d have to be living in a complete news vacuum to have missed the awful disaster which this year’s monsoon floods have caused in Pakistan; The UN has now declared that the scale of the crisis is greater than the combined effects of the Haiti earthquake (Jan ‘10), the Kashmir earthquake (Oct ‘05) & the Asian tsunami (Dec ‘04) and has left over 14,000,000 without food or shelter and at risk of falling victim to the host of diseases which commonly occur in the aftermath of major flooding.
One bright note is that this disaster has seen an unprecedented response from the public, with donations actually increasing as the crisis entered it’s second, then third week; very different from the usual pattern seen in these kinds of cases, where “donor fatigue” tends to kick in after the first week irregardless of how well the effects of the disaster are being dealt with at that stage.
However, for all that the response, both in the UK and internationally, has been amazingly generous so far there is still much work for the aid agencies to do, and many, many flood victims who still need the help of the international community if they’re to have any hope of returning to a normal way of life any time in the foreseeable future!
Unfortunately there are many despicable scammers in this world, and in particular on the internet, who’ll take any chance to profit from the misery of others, so if you’re planning on making a donation it’s best to go through the DEC, or one of their well known, reputable members such as Oxfam who, like most of the major UK charities, now have a page dedicated to the Pakistan Flood appeal.

Anyway, that was all a bit of an aside, an incredibly important aside, but a tangent none the less.
The real question I wanted to ask in this blog post was whether these floods, described as a “once in a century” event, are another sign that Climate Change is indeed a real and pressing problem which should concern the whole global community?

I understand the principle that climate is a long term pattern, and that it can’t judged by single isolated events, no matter how catastrophic, but it seems to me that we’ve been getting more and more of these “once in century” type of weather events over the past decade or so, and I truly wonder how much longer the climate change deniers will be able to keep their heads in the sand and continue to refute that there is a shift occuring in the planet’s weather patterns?
I can accept that there’s still a lot of debate to be had over the extent of anthropogenic climate change, and, in turn, how much humanity can do to mitigate the global climate change, but surely we’re now getting to a stage where denying the existance of a pattern of climate change is a thoroughly asinine position, and one which is only likely to be held by either the woefully gullible or those who are motivated by profound self-interest.

One of my friends said he’d seen an article in the business press about a new banking product called eBAM, which, apparently, may make another banking crisis, like the one we saw in 2008, less likely in future. Actually I’d never heard of it before and, although it sounded interesting (in a geeky kind of way,) it was clear that my mate wasn’t too clear on the specifics himself, so I decided to do some digging.

It turns out that eBAM (electronic Bank Account Management) is indeed a banking product, and one which will certainly make the life’s of banks and big companies’ finance departments easier, although how much difference it will make to us “little people” is debatable; it’s most likely that any benefits which we do experience will be knock-on effects that aren’t exactly likely to revolutionise banking from the perspective of the man in the street.

It appears that eBAM is a new addendum to Corporate Treasury Management Systems (TMS, another acronym I was previously unfamiliar with,) which basically seems to be an impressive sounding name for the software systems which most any decent sized business is likely to be using to look after their finances and banking. However, eBAM apparently gives businesses a greater ability to keep an eye on the current state of their finances and banking facilities. Whereas previously a great deal of important information was transferred around businesses on paper or via emails, both of which can be all too easily misplaced, lost, or forgotten about, eBAM consolidates much of a business’ important banking information into one secure system which allows the information to be retreived electronically, at a moments notice, by anyone with the appropriate access rights.

The big difference with eBAM is that businesses will now have the capability to be far more aware of the exact state of their finances at any given point, which should make it far easier to spot potential financial problems as they emerge, as well as generally allowing a greater awareness of the exact state of their finances.

So, will it make a big difference to the majority of the population? The answer is, that as a product largely aimed at business, not really. However it does sound like this system has the potential to allow financial problems to be spotted easier, & earlier, than was previously the case, and should therefore help companies avoid becoming financially over-exposed to the point where collapse is a real danger, as happened to some very big names during the 2008 economic crash.
Unlike some writers, I wouldn’t go so far as to call any banking product “sexy”, but on the whole eBAM seems like it’s going to reduce the chances of another financial collapse or, if it does happen, at least negate the ignorance excuse on the part of bosses, and if that means there’s less chance of tax payers being forced to bail out the financial sector again that can only be a good thing!

I’m sure that anyone not living in a bubble has heard about the scandels to do with the hidden charges travellers get hit with when using some of the budget airlines, but according to this piece (and the source being The Mirror I’m not going to take it as absolute gospel,) some car hire companies are renting out child car seats at prices which can only be seen as extortionate, when compared to some of their competitors prices.
Maybe I’m just old fashioned, or vaguely principled, but to me charging unnecessarily high prices for a piece of child safety equipment, which any half-thinking parent is going to want to provide for their children, just seems brazenly cynical!

Of course it does vary from company to company and while some are charging little more than a tenner a week others have cranked their car seat hire charge up to nearly £70, almost as much as it costs to hire a car in the first place!
The piece also claims that, not surprisingly, prices vary largely from location to location, with the research pointing to some prices at Majorca’s Palma airport being the highest, while it found the cheapest prices at Nice’s Cote d’Azur airport in France.

Obviously, as with any purchasing decision, the wisest course is to remember the caveat emptor principle, and always do your research thoroughly so you can ensure that you get the car hire deal which best suites your means, and your needs! Apart from anything else it looks as if taking the time to look before you book could save you up to £60 a week, which while not an earth shattering amount is still extra holiday spending money you could have in your pocket!

With a name like “The Corpse Flower” it’s no surprise that Amorphophallus titanium isn’t a big seller for online florists, and that’s before one even considers it’s massive size (they can grow to up to 8m tall) or the bloom’s putrid smell, a trait which evolved to lure insects, responsible for pollination, to the plant.

Flowering only very rarely the Corpse Plant is guarenteed to cause a stink in the botanical world whenever it blooms.

However, amongst botany geeks the Corpse Flower appears to be quite a hit; There aren’t many of them to be found outside the plant’s natural habitat, the rainforests of Indonesia, and they rarely flower in the wild, let alone in cultivation, so maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that whenever one of these bizarre organisms blooms in captivity flora-philes come flocking to see the unusual sight, and “experience” its unique scent.

On this occasion it’s the specimen held at the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) which is due to flower, and such has been the buzz it’s created that not only have the HMNS set up a webcam, & a “Corpse Flower Watch” on their blog, complete with daily updates on the plant’s progress and measurements of its growth, but, with the fragrant flower due to open its petals any time this week, they’re also planning on opening the museum 24hrs a day while it’s in bloom.

The plant, named Lois, has also become a bit of a celebrity on Twitter, so if you’re a would-be botanist, but not based within travelling distance of the HMNS you can still keep up to date with its progress minute to minute.

So we’ve got oursleves this fancy new coalition govt, all fresh-faced and, as yet, unsullied by sleeze. It has to be said that we certainly needed a change, Brown’s over-controlling, civil liberty eroding, regime would have become even more insufferably arrogant if they’d won the election. So now we have a Conservative-Lib Dem coalition, and although in many ways I think they’re odd bed fellows, I’m starting to think that it is probably the least bad outcome we could have realistically had from the election; my big hope is that the Lib Dems will be willing to stick to their principles at least to the extent of forcing the Tories to have a conscience. (Which I guess would make Nick Clegg Jiminy Cricket to Cameroon’s Pinocchio.)

Still, as the lesser partner in the coalition it’s only realistic that the Lib Dems will have to accept a large chunk of compromise, and will have to, no doubt, support policies which they wouldn’t naturally be inclined to put in their own manifestos. At least that’s what my inner pragmatist has to keep telling the part of me which is a little upset about my vote ending up shoring up a party who I didn’t want in power. Ho hum, it’s an imperfect system, although the possibility of electoral reform before the next election is a consolation, and I’m very glad that the Lib Dems (mostly) stuck to their guns on that point.

The other Lib Dem policy which I’m pleased to see survive the horse trading was the increase in the income tax allowances. OK, so it’s likely to be trickled out over several years (& I certainly won’t be holding my breath to wait for the allowance to hit 10k) but I really believe that this is one of the best moves, in terms of relieving poverty, which any govt could make; forget the Tax Credit scheme, that was a dishonest PR scam from the get go, its main purpose seemingly to be that it allowed Mr Brown to crow about how he was helping the poorest in society, while actually making a system of such byzantine complexity that many who were eligible for payments never bothered to try and claim!

I’ll be interested to see how the overall tax burden shifts under this new Govt, and, for anyone else who’s interested, Coutts bank have a pretty useful resource on their site which provides a clear and concise breakdown of the UK’s main tax rates, although their income tax section is probably the most useful for the average person in the street.

Anyway, we’ll have to wait for Osborne’s emergency budget on the 22_nd June to find out exactly how the financial future of this country is likely to look. There’s been a lot of talk about cost cutting, the tightening of belts, and times of austerity, so we’re obviously being prepared for the worst, and the internal governmental cost cutting measures which have already been widely reported are surely more about fostering the Tory campaign mantra of “all being in this together” than actually making any significant dent in the national debt.
Still, govt certainly got pretty bloated under New Labour, so it’s probably a sensible move, even if I’m not convinced by the over-arching Tory strategy of starting to make cuts while our recovery from the recession is still so potentially fragile.

Of course the news, from the Office of National Statistics, that the Govt spent £7bn less last year than predicted might make Osborne’s first budget a little less stark than it would otherwise be, but if, as chancellor, you have to put tough measures in place the best time has surely got to be just after an election, so the electorate will have time to forget, and calm down, before the next election. Guess we’ll find out in about a months time…